My theory is that our perception of order evolves. What is considered order in one age of human kind can grow and change until there is a shift or growth in perception and something that was previously seen as chaos becomes a new order. I would go so far as to suggest that only those works of pictorial art that stretch the boundary of our perception of order are seminal works of art. Current technological advances have demonstrated that we can be less sure of what is chaos and what is order. Tiny changes in the initial data can create great fluctuation in the outcome of an event.
Nonlinear equations are like a mathematical version of the twilight zone. Solvers making their way through an apparently normal mathematical landscape can suddenly find themselves in an alternate reality. In a nonlinear equation a small change in one variable can have a disproportional, even catastrophic impact on other variables. Where correlations between the elements of an evolving system remain relatively constant for a large range of values, at some critical point they split up and the equation describing the system rockets into a new behavior.
-- John Briggs & F. David Peat.
A common example of this type of bifurcation is the Mandelbrot Set
It is common to think of order as the ultimate good and disorder as
the inverse of good. In general this leads to host of descriptive
dichotomies: positive/negative, fiction/truth ugly/beautiful. In my
experience, it seems that if we can label an event with a noun we place
it in our minds as having order. If we can not name it with a noun we
become uneasy and consider it disorder. Likewise if we name an event
we give it content and context if we cannot name it we dismiss it as
irrelevant. Could it be that what we perceive as chaos is a state of
higher order that we are as yet unable to sense? Consider the three
pictures below.
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I would expect that most of us can name and contextualize the first picture but it becomes more difficult as we look at the other two. However if I were to tell you that B is a detail of A and that C is a photograph of fossils, then suddenly these picture can also be stored in the mind as having order and content. Unless you are a paleontologist, picture C may still appear chaotic to you. You cannot clearly name those items that are part of the fossil image and those that are not
That moment of not being able to name an 'event order' may well be what gives a work of art that spark of mystery, or intimation of something greater than the sum of what we know. This "mystery" is sensed more than it is understood and stands as that shining light that leads us to continue our work of living. We get a glimpse of the order which has hitherto appeared as disorder in our eyes.
This is a very generalized overview of my thoughts relating to art, science and religion. While working on a painting I become engaged in the process of applying marks, a process that becomes repetitious, almost tedious and frees my mind to play in a unified field.
photo credits: M.E.A.Kotyk, the quote was taken from Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Timeless Wisdom From the Science of Change, by J.Briggs and F. D. Peat.
Hackers do not feel that leisure time is automatically any more meaningful than work time. The desirability of both depends on how they are realized. From the point of a view of a meaningful life, the entire work/leisure duality must be abandoned. As long as we are living our work or our leisure, we are not even truly living. Meaning cannot be found in work or leisure but has to arise out of the nature of the activity itself. Out of passion. Social value. Creativity.Artists, Hackers, anyone who works from an intrinsic desire to learn, make, and create will tend toward a 'hacker's ethic' The key is that the motivation comes from intrinsic need rather then extrinsic need. Even when basic survival needs are barely met, the "hacker" seeks meaning. This search for meaning becomes a reason for being and doing.
-- The Hacker's Ethic by Pekke Himanen
