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2018_2 summer; System Matter[.]

2018 summer MAAT lab Study: 2018.07.11 – 17  (MAAT BOOK 25)

System Matters[.]

Dear my researching comrades,

This summer schedule is also very tight for me, and as we have done last winter, I designed our studying in a short period with enough preparation time.

“God smiles, but never laughs.” I do not know who said, but it came up in my reading of Legendre, and I keep thinking on it these days. I could understand the experiential meaning of it as a graceful gesture vs. hearty behavior. Where the differentiation comes from? Higher and lower? Controlled and dissipated? Intelligent and ignorant? Or, is it a cultural and social attitude? Let’s go on. Are attitudes and behaviors constrained by something? Our pouring outs have to be moderated? It will go on.

System is a problem, and system is also important for us in researching art and technology. The root of consideration might be different in Burnham’s Beyond Modern Sculpture and Ellul’s The Technological System, but these researches are quite intriguing for our current mental attitudes. In 2011 winter, we have studied Burnham’s four chapters, and now we are approaching later four chapters. Ellul is well known for his book, Technological Society, as a philosopher, sociologist and theologian. Discovery of systemic attributes and comparison of different systems are both novel disclosure of our embedded or embodied implicit knowledge. Burnham’s work is closely related to media art, while Ellul’s work is connected to our previous reading of Simondon. Well, everything can be related to and connected to everything, we could say.

In a sense, we are all specialized in our own interests, majors, experiences, tastes, etc. Building bridges and connecting one to the other are called interdisciplinary. Let’s walk on the bridge, and feel the breeze on the bridge. Would not it be refreshing? Would you smile, or else would you laugh?

Best,

Dr. Yoon, June 5, 2018 

Soongsil University, Information Science Building (No.21) room 606

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