Max Zsol On robots, spaceships and dystopian futures

Repetition triggers our “there’s a puzzle here” sense; things accrete in significance as they echo.

Jayson Greene

Somebody finally wrote about what repetition of words (rap, in this case) does to our brain. Via Jayson Greene at Pitchfork:

As humans, we are hardwired to crave this kind of repetition, especially when it varies slightly each time: Technically speaking, we seize upon similar clumps of raw sensory data in a process called feature extraction and then bundle them together in a process called perceptual binding. When we recognize a powerful phrase dancing from place to place in a rapper’s catalog—the same each time but in a different context—we are pleased on a subliminal level, in part because we are recognizing our own hard work. The pattern may have been there already, but we discovered it. When a rapper repeats a phrase for the thousandth time, it stirs all three zones of memory at once: echoic, which is parrot-level memory; short-term; and long-term. This is a profound sensation, and the artist who triggers it for us ends up looking pretty powerful by association.

[…]

Rap music does this to people. Constantly scribbling over itself, scuffing out the marks made before, it is an inherently repetitive art, and thus a Petri dish for cultivating obsession. Repetition and obsession are intricately linked, and when I try to prize them apart I start to feel dizzy.

Jayson Greene, Word Is Bond: Black Hippy and the Power of Repetition

I’ve been following Daniel Eatock work since I can remember. I think I found his work as soon as I started surfing the web looking at what the early creators shared online. He had a tremendous influence in my education into conceptual work (be it in art, design, marketing, etc).

I always found the simplicity and repetition of Eatock’s work very alluring. I particularly like his photographic collections mundane objects (car batteries, inspiring people, etc) and his obsessive repetitive pieces (pen prints, holes punched, dotted paper, pen tests, lists, etc). He is also very strong with his most simple, reductionist ideas (ballpoint removed, stick stuck on ceiling, etc).

Considered Accidents is the one piece that always comes to my mind when I think of Eatock (he’s been finding and photographic this subject for 18 years). Here is Daniel’s description of the work:

Photographs of Fiat cars designed by Pininfarina. The undamaged Fiat has a graphic slash as part of the cars styling located above the wheel arch. Each photograph presents a car that has a second graphic mark as a compliment to the original by result of an accident.

Considered Accidents, April 2000 – Ongoing

I recently wanted to dig back into his work and I was lucky enough to find a recent interview with him at Scratching The Surface. Here is the link the podcast episode: #93: Daniel Eatock.

I hope you enjoy Daniels’ work.

Austin Kleon has definitely help me crystallize what notebooks to work on. This new year I will keep a writing log, a work log and a good ol’ journal.

Austin did a presentation about journaling, that feeds into my notebooking obsession (addiction?)

Rule #1: Carry your notebook with you wherever you go.

Rule #2: Do at least one exercise everyday.

Rule #3: Repeat the first two steps until the pages are full.

Austin Kleon

I’ve been getting into the #everyday “movement” (if we should call it that). I’ve always been interested in the great things that can come or of small but repeated efforts.

Henry Darger is somebody who demonstrates the incredible output possible when one focuses on daily work practice (and without the distractions of external validation).

Henry wrote a 15,000+ words novel (maybe we need a better word for a work like that), drew feet and feet of illustrations, and kept the record of it all inside his apartment. The title of the novel is The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

When I say novel, I mean it in the old-fashioned sense — not graphic novel or illustrated novel or picture book. The mesmerizing paintings for which Darger’s become famous tell a similar, perhaps the same story (no one’s read the whole novel, so it’s not clear), but the book itself consists of page after page, volume after volume of tight, condensed, single-spaced blue type.

https://hyperallergic.com/65318/on-henry-dargers-15000-page-novel/

Besides his novel, Darger had other curious daily habits:

Darger had other unusual habits. He attended Catholic mass three or four times a day at St. Vincent DePaul Church

[…]

Darger began keeping the first of six weather journals on Dec. 31, 1957. Always fascinated by the weather, he reported on it almost daily from first-hand observations until Dec. 31, 1967.

http://officialhenrydarger.com/about/