From: "michelle phil lewis-king" <king.lewis-AT-easynet.co.uk>
Subject: RE: proposal : Construction of Transversal Knowledge Systems
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 23:11:45 -0000



I thought God was a lobster.. but no it's an unleash!

p.

> Proposal:
>
> Investigation of Belief-Systems
> 		    To
>     Construct An
> Integrated Human Knowledge
>
> The project involves the bricolage of jargons,
> Belief-systems,  behavioral and social experiments,
> Deterritorializing them to make them available for
> Detournement.
>
> It begins with a thought-experiment. Imagine that you
> Are an alien coming down to study Earth Knowledge.
> To do so, you must investigate every group and come
> To see how they view their world.
>
> Now, from the beginning, you have no criteria from which to rate
> or rank one
> knowledge-set or belief-
> System from another. You are allowed to note how many people
> believe in each
> system, but this provides
> You with no criteria for valueing one over the other.
>
> Thusly, you begin with different assumptions than are ordinary in
> our society,
> where it is expected that there are certain hegemonic belief-systems or
> knowledge-sets
> Whose presumptions and styles you are expected to use if you are
> to be taken
> seriously.
>
> However, in the thought-experiment, you have been assigned by
> your home planet
> to Collect All Earth Knowledges , Collate them, and Synthesize
> them into one
> integrated knowledge system, to enrich your people. Your planet is not
> particularly interested in earth per se. However, it has found that every
> knowledge system can be useful, for your planet believes that every
> perspective shows some valid truth about the way of things. In fact, your
> planet's slogan is "Multiply Eyes", meaning learn, grow, and add more
> viewpoints.
>
> Well, what you find immediately is that there is a certain set of
> groups who
> devote themselves to the study of knowledge itself, who already collect
> knowledge-systems. These are the intelligentsia of any nation. A
> subgroup of
> the intelligentsia is the Academy,
> The set of universities, colleges, and other official learning
> institutions
> which have developed particular ways of classifying knowledge and
> therefore
> seeing the world. There is a general "academic" style that pervades this
> milieu and which is required for any knowledge to be considered valid.
>
> However, clearly these people make up a minority of those
> creating, creatively
> participating in, or even studying belief-systems. Despite this,
> the Academy
> tends to promote itself as the "official" knowledge-system. By
> making people
> think within its forms, it
> Monopolizes discourse and orthodoxizes style.
>
> You will come to notice that there are All Sorts of groups with
> all sorts of
> worldviews, and many of them have alternative interpretations of
> the others.
> Some are aware of the academy and have their own perspective on
> the academy.
>
> What you are in essence doing is a XenoSociology of Knowledge, an
> Anthropology
> of Knowledge. Because of this, however, you cannot be loyal to
> any one belief-
> system, including the Academy.
>
> Let us further stipulate that your planet has a rather
> interesting methodology
> for doing research, a methodology called "Active Serendipity",
> involving an
> open, creative, active search to what may come along. Rather than
> predesigning
> a rubric for how to collect knowledge, your planet encourages each
> investigator to be open to modelizations which come along and strike the
> researcher, who then uses that modelization or rubric for as long as it is
> useful, only to move on to the next rubric.  Thus, knowledge on
> your planet is
> constantly morphing, changing shape-style, and resembles a
> kaleidoscope. It is
> constantly being reclassified, reformatted, retaxonomized, and this is
> considered a creative, necessary part of the art of knowledge, or
> "multiplying
> eyes".
>
> One of the pasttimes on your homeworlds is the creation of new ways of
> thinking about things, just for the sake of generation
> innovation. There is a
> sort of "temple" or institution to which anyone may submit a
> proposal, receive
> a grant, and find volunteers to explore various social
> experiments to Live Out
> new knowledge systems.
>
> Others explore the galaxy to engage in Temporary Immersion Experiments,
> whereby they live with others to experience their experience, to
> Taste Their
> World. "Taste My World" is a general greeting of good cheer on
> your planetThe return saying is "And May More Worlds Grace Your Palatte."
>
> The most curious thing about your investigation on earth is
> establishing how
> any one knowledge systems gains hegemony over other knowledge
> systems. Is this
> hegemony established through reasoning, appeals to authority,
> what? Perhaps
> you will find that the foundational axioms themselves are based
> upon choices,
> lifestyle choices even.
>
> In learning how Earthers divide their world, you will want to pay especial
> attention to the different ways of dividing Time, Space, and Activity. You
> will need to study different calendars, clocks, language systems,
> measuring
> systems, how people distinguish various activities from each other. Most
> importantly, you will want to study the Intricacy, Distribution, and
> Proliferation of STYLES, FORMATS, and Ways of Configuring
> Perception ; this of
> course includes art, design, and pattern. You will undoubtedly
> find the earth
> philosopher Marshal McLuhan'' statement "the medium is the
> message" helpful in
> this regard.
>
> In constructing your Synthesis to report back to the homeworld,
> you will want
> to Experiment With Styles, translating knowledges back and forth from one
> style, one format, one jargon, one dialect, one classification system to
> another and back again. This sort of juggling or what is known on your
> homeworld as Style Lottery will end up creating Strange Hybrids
> of Knowledge
> and Belief Systems that will be pleasing to the Multiplayers of
> Eyes on your
> homeworld. Indeed, the slogan of your world might be better translated
> "Multipl(a)y Eyes".
>
> What are the various oral and graphic ways that people configure their
> divisions of the world? How do they tell stories? How do they talk to each
> other in everyday life? How do they sing to each other? How are
> their musical
> instruments and musical notation configured? How do they write?
> Draw? How do
> they farm the land? What are the various marks that are used?
>
> For example, from your point of view, gameboard layouts,
> agricultural grids,
> embroidery patterns, wallpaper, books, tattoos, calendars, and
> architecture
> might all be considered graphs. After all, on your home world,
> Knowledge and
> Game are integrated in what earthers call the "workplace" or the various
> places of production, with mobile centers of creating that are
> reconfigured as
> styles change and morph… Food is grown on grids or patterns which are
> themselves gameboards so that planting and tending the food also
> constitutes a
> sport between players. Marks sewn into clothing constitute "books".
>
> Obviously what you end up with will be much different than any
> one system of
> knowledge that presently exists on earth, official or unofficial, because
> there have seldom been attempts to integrate knowledge.
>
> Once you have integrated this thought-experiment into your daily
> life, it can
> be a way of playing with the belief-systems you encounter. You
> can then expand
> to discover others who are willing to engage the
> thought-experiment, compare
> notes, and possibly engage in Lifestyle Experimentation based on Creative
> Exchange of Styles and the Art of Living the Day. We can imagine
> new groups
>
>
>
>