On Skepticism - notes on skepticism as a creative force

Skepticism allows me to take sufficient distance to see things for what they can be. It allows me to see the potential of things as well as the falsehoods in preconceptions and social conventions. In my work I attempt to investigate the aspects of phenomena that somehow are conducive to belief. Some of my work is quasi-didactic and attempts to expose the falsehood like a magician would reveal a trick. Some other times these falsehoods are explored in a more indirect way, through language or physical re-enactments that embody the falsehood in themselves.

What a lofty pretension! How can one present himself as if in possession of an infallible instrument to unmask falsehoods? That I cannot pretend. I am skeptical first and foremost about my capacity to do such a thing and I hope that this is the struggle that will become visible in the work.

Skepticism is also one of the main conceptual tools in the sciences and one that has always served me well over time personally as well. A systematic questioning driven by skepticism is very much a modus operandi for me.

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Type the text for '9 March 2011'

My name is Luis ~Rodil-Fernández. I am a student of Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the ~DOGtime department.

This site is an evolving research on skepticism as a driving force in creativity which is my chosen subject for my graduation thesis. In this page I keep my notes and findings as well as the writing I do on this subject as I work towards graduation. For this thesis I am working under the supervision of [[Q.S. Serafijn|http://www.qsserafijn.nl]].

This website is an evolving document that changes often and without apparent structure. Some sections are still empty and are mere placeholders to remind me of what needs to be done.

If you wish to keep track of the changes that have occured lately check out the timeline in the system menu.

Your feedback is welcome.

No one is an island. Specially a skeptic, one must acknowledge where their ideas, inspiration and support come from as to not fool oneself about who he is.

Even though the words in this work are mostly mine, I am indebted to many people that have helped me in one way or another get to this point.

Thank you Cristina Perinic for giving me the first copy of Richard Feynman's //The Pleasure of Finding Things Out//, from there I learned that a heart that beats harder at the sight of discovery will always find a reason for joy. Thank you.

Thank you Inda Pearlortega. Within this thesis, threaded in many ways, are many of the conversations we have had over the last five years of our friendship. Even though I do no longer know how to spell your surname, I know I owe you some of my moments of reflection.

Thank you Robert Carreño. For asking questions that can make me think about things that I would otherwise have taken for granted. You have the capability to bring people out of the humdrum of ordinary existence.

Thank you Cecilia Dreymuller, for your patient reviews and for introducing me to the work of Inger Christensen. The books that I now own of her are all worn out and annotated and I come back to them when my life needs poetry. Thank you for suggesting that I read Conrad, even though you were mistaken in thinking that it would suit my character, I still learned a lot from being irritated by his work.

Thank you Marieke Warmelink, for the many open ended conversations we have had in your studio, wine in hand. Your spiritual wealth and your tolerance towards my impatient attitude has made me come back home more than once to see myself taking notes about what we just talked about. You are an inspiration.

Laura Schneider, because for all my skepticism you are always there to make me believe and share a song.

Thank you to my thesis advisor Q.S. Serafijn that kept me in check so that I would not digress too far and gave me advice that I can take with me for everything that I will write in the future, not just for this thesis.

Uttam Raktoe, Rosa Menkman, Alex Miller, Juan J. García Vallejo, Verónica Monserrat, Olga Balagué Pons, Jakob, Esther Verhamme, Teresa van Twuijver, Femke Egas, Tina Becker, Juan Martin Ilarregui, Fernanda Pascutti, Sabina Müller, Boukje Cnossen, Sara Campos, Sven Spitzkopft, Silvia Ulloa Márquez, Huib Schwab, Kerstin Heyen, Rik Spanjers.

To Fien Veltman of the Stedelijk Museum Library for the Monastyrski reference. Fien came back to me in less than 24h with the correct reference to an artwork, after I had sent her a really vague (and mistaken) description of the piece.

To Fleurie Kloostra, programmer of Fine Art at the [[Brakke Grond|http://www.brakkegrond.nl/]] for providing me with information about the show of [[Peter de Cupere|http://www.peterdecupere.net/]]. Information that I ended up not using, but that surely will end up in some other writing.

And to all the teachers in the DOGtime team.

To the Honours Program team, specially Jennifer Kanary Nikolova and Cato Cramer.

Thank you all very much.

!!! Conrad's preface to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'

As published in the 1990 edition of The Nigger of The Narcissus, collected from the New Review, December, 1897.

//A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colours, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential -- their one illuminating and convincing quality -- the very truth of their existence. The artist, then, like the thinker or the scientist, seeks the truth and makes his appeal. Impressed by the aspect of the world the thinker plunges into ideas, the scientist into facts -- whence, presently, emerging they make their appeal to those qualities of our being that fit us best for the hazardous enterprise of living. They speak authoritatively to our common-sense, to our intelligence, to our desire of peace or to our desire of unrest; not seldom to our prejudices, sometimes to our fears, often to our egoism -- but always to our credulity. And their words are heard with reverence, for their concern is with weighty matters: with the cultivation of our minds and the proper care of our bodies; with the attainment of our ambitions; with the perfection of the means and the glorification of our precious aims.

It is otherwise with the artist.

Confronted by the same enigmatical spectacle the artist descends within himself, and in that lonely region of stress and strife, if he be deserving and fortunate, he finds the terms of his appeal. His appeal is made to our less obvious capacities: to that part of our nature which, because of the warlike conditions of existence, is necessarily kept out of sight within the more resisting and hard qualities -- like the vulnerable body within the steel armour. His appeal is less loud, more profound, less distinct, more stirring -- and sooner forgotten. Yet its effect endures for ever. The changing wisdom of successive generations discards ideas, questions facts, demolishes theories. But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom: to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition -- and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation -- and to the subtle but invincible, conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity -- the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.

It is only some such train of thought, or rather of feeling, that can in a measure explain the aim of the attempt, made in the tale which follows, to present an unrestful episode in the obscure lives of a few individuals out of all the disregarded multitude of the bewildered, the simple and the voiceless. For, if there is any part of truth in the belief confessed above, it becomes evident that there is not a place of splendour or a dark corner of the earth that does not deserve, if only a passing glance of wonder and pity. The motive, then, may be held to justify the matter of the work; but this preface, which is simply an avowal of endeavour, cannot end here -- for the avowal is not yet complete.

Fiction -- if it at all aspires to be art -- appeals to temperament. And in truth it must be, like painting, like music, like all art, the appeal of one temperament to all the other innumerable temperaments whose subtle and resistless power endows passing events with their true meaning, and creates the moral, the emotional atmosphere of the place and time. Such an appeal, to be effective, must be an impression conveyed through the senses; and, in fact, it cannot be made in any other way, because temperament, whether individual or collective, is not amenable to persuasion. All art, therefore, appeals primarily to the senses, and the artistic aim when expressing itself in written words must also make its appeal through the senses, if its high desire is to reach the secret spring of responsive emotions. It must strenuously aspire to the plasticity of sculpture, to the colour of painting, and to the magic suggestiveness of music -- which is the art of arts. And it is only through complete, unswerving devotion to the perfect blending of form and substance; it is only through an unremitting, never-discouraged care for the shape and ring of sentences that an approach can be made to plasticity, to colour; and the light of magic suggestiveness may be brought to play for an evanescent instant over the commonplace surface of words: of the old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of careless usage.

The sincere endeavour to accomplish that creative task, to go as far on that road as his strength will carry him, to go undeterred by faltering, weariness or reproach, is the only valid justification for the worker in prose. And if his conscience is clear, his answer to those who, in the fulness of a wisdom which looks for immediate profit, demand specifically to be edified, consoled, amused; who demand to be promptly improved, or encouraged, or frightened, or shocked, or charmed, must run thus: -- My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel -- it is, before all, to make you see. That -- and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm -- all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.

To snatch in a moment of courage, from the remorseless rush of time, a sapping phase of life is only the beginning of the task. The task approached in tenderness and faith is to hold up unquestioningly, without choice and without fear, the rescued fragment before all eyes and in the light of a sincere mood. It is to show its vibration, its colour, its form; and through its movement, its form, and its colour, reveal the substance of its truth -- disclose its inspiring secret: the stress and passion within the core of each convincing moment. In a single-minded attempt of that kind, if one be deserving and fortunate, one may perchance attain to such clearness of sincerity that at last the presented vision of regret or pity, of terror or mirth, shall awaken in the hearts of the beholders that feeling of unavoidable solidarity; of the solidarity in mysterious origin, in toil, in joy, in hope, in uncertain fate, which binds men to each other and all mankind to the visible world.

It is evident that he who, rightly or wrongly, holds by the convictions expressed above cannot be faithful to any one of the temporary formulas of his craft. The enduring part of them -- the truth which each only imperfectly veils -- should abide with him as the most precious of his possessions, but they all: Realism, Romanticism, Naturalism, even the unofficial sentimentalism (which, like the poor, is exceedingly difficult to get rid of); all these gods must, after a short period of fellowship, abandon him -- even on the very threshold of the temple -- to the stammerings of his conscience and to the outspoken consciousness of the difficulties of his work. In that uneasy solitude the supreme cry of Art for Art, even, loses the exciting ring of its apparent immorality. It sounds far off. It has ceased to be a cry, and is heard only as a whisper, often incomprehensible, but at times, and faintly, encouraging.

Sometimes, stretched at ease in the shade of a roadside tree, we watch the motions of a labourer in a distant field, and after a time, begin to wonder languidly as to what the fellow may be at. We watch the movements of his body, the waving of his arms, we see him bend down, stand up, hesitate, begin again. It may add to the charm of an idle hour to be told the purpose of his exertions. If we know he is trying to lift a stone, to dig a ditch, to uproot a stump, we look with a more real interest at his efforts; we are disposed to condone the jar of his agitation upon the restfulness of the landscape; and even, if in a brotherly frame of mind, we may bring ourselves to forgive his failure. We understood his object, and, after all, the fellow has tried, and perhaps he had not the strength, and perhaps he had not the knowledge. We forgive, go on our way -- and forget.

And so it is with the workman of art. Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. And thus, doubtful of strength to travel so far, we talk a little about the aim -- the aim of art, which, like life itself, is inspiring, difficult -- obscured by mists. It is not in the clear logic of a triumphant conclusion; it is not in the unveiling of one of those heartless secrets which are called the Laws of Nature. It is not less great, but only more difficult.

To arrest, for the space of a breath, the hands busy about the work of the earth, and compel men entranced by the sight of distant goals to glance for a moment at the surrounding vision of form and colour, of sunshine and shadows; to make them pause for a look, for a sigh, for a smile -- such is the aim, difficult and evanescent, and reserved only for a very few to achieve. But sometimes, by the deserving and the fortunate, even that task is accomplished. And when it is accomplished -- behold! -- all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile -- and the return to an eternal rest.//

Just learned that sculptor James Leroy Acord died on the 8th of January at the age of sixty seven. He left no spouse or children, but many friends that mourn for him. James was most notorious for being the only private individual in the world granted license to handle nuclear material. A license that he earned through arduous training and persistent compliance with bureaucracy. The paper proceedings of his application for the license were enough to cover sheet by sheet the walls of the metal shed he used as his workshop. He publicly exhibited these proceedings in one occasion. When he finally obtained his license he tattooed the license number on the back of his neck.

[img[http://blog.spinningkid.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/james_l_acord_license_number.jpg]]

His license was subsequently relinquished as he could no longer afford to pay for the costs of maintaining it, as authorities kept raising the bar to maintain such licenses. Nuclear authorities did everything within their power to prevent this man from working with the material he so prized. Including the confiscation of one tonne of Uranium that he had legitimately obtained as a gift from a german nuclear physicist friendly to the artist's cause. James Acord contributed as well as he could to the understanding between art and science by holding joint conferences between scientists and artists and speaking to nuclear physicists and engineers at numerous industry conferences. He was widely respected in the scientific community even though he didn't hold a PhD like many of his peers did. Ultimately despite his life-long compliance with the bureaucratic processes that guard the materials that he worked with, he was revoked his right to work legally. Seeing no other option he continued to work by other means, subverting the very bureaucracy that he had complied with for so long.

He came to his fascination with nuclear materials and processes when he learned that granite, the material he was most used to work with as a sculptor contained small amounts of Uranium and could be mined for the purpose of producing nuclear energy. He became enchanted by the possibilities opened by the nuclear era of transmuting one fundamental element onto another, which is, as he said, fundamentally what every sculptor does.

In the nineties he presented a project in which he attempted to transmute radioactive element [[Technetium 99|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium]] into safe [[Ruthenium 100|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthenium]], this last element is a metal of the family of Platinum, suitable for the creation of sculpture. This transmutation was to be done following processes of the atomic age, processes that he understood as a kind of modern-day alchemy. His proposal and a friendly scientist granted him a residency at the London Imperial College during 1998-99, where he was told he could use the small-scale experimental nuclear reactor there to produce the Ruthenium he needed for his sculpture. Administrators of the Imperial College ultimately backed off the offer fearing the potential bad publicity this could create for the institution, and so Acord's efforts had again been thwarted by authorities.

When asked about the dangerous materials he worked with he once replied: "Sculpture can be a risky undertaking. I breathe in toxic fumes when I weld and I risk silicosis when I work in stone. My desire to utilise the fine art of sculpture to rectify the radioactive dilemma we're caught in is worth any small risk I take."

Shortly before his death he announced in an event in Barcelona, [[The Influencers|http://theinfluencers.org/]] 2010, that he had completed his latest sculpture made out of Plutonium, a material that is illegal to posses anywhere in the world and that he had manufactured through years of obtaining tiny samples of Americium-241 contained in household fire alarms and producing a nuclear reaction in a makeshift lab he had created in his workshop.

James Acord demonstrated more than a touch of resignation when talking about the destiny of his work, he did however not abrogate in his quest for his right to make it. Immediately after publicly declaring the completion of his Plutonium sculpture, and explaining in great detail how he could show it safely to the public, he stated humorously that it didn't matter so much as the sculpture would likely be confiscated immediately after first shown in public. This work, he declared, was more about the process of making it, rather than the end product. This is a common phrase heard in the arts, but it is rarely as salient as it is in this case.

Watch the [[video material in the archives of The Influencers |http://theinfluencers.org/james-acord/video/1]] to learn more about the work of James L. Acord from what is perhaps his last recorded public speech.

[img[http://blog.spinningkid.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/James_L_Acord_in_front_of_FFTF_Hanford_WA_USA.png]]

[[This is a heartfelt piece by Fred Moody|http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/0114/cover.html]] on the work of the sculptor.

Here's the only [[other obituary|http://my.firedoglake.com/edwardteller/2011/01/29/art-saturday-james-l-acord-nuclear-sculptor-1943-2011/]] I could find by his friend Edward Teller.

The New Yorker published a //[[post scriptum|http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2011/01/postscript-james-acord.html]]// about the two-part article they had originally published in 1991 about the artist, announcing his death. (see the New Yorker archives for the original two part piece: [[link to part 1|http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1991/10/14/1991_10_14_059_TNY_CARDS_000356911]], [[link to part 2|http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1991/10/21/1991_10_21_062_TNY_CARDS_000359576]])

“The base man who desired only for wealth would always fail. The higher adepts, the true alchemists, knew that what they were really transforming was themselves. The real lead was in their own hearts and only through purity of motivation could they transform that lead into gold.” –James L. Acord

Not all is virtue in the skeptic. In this thesis I have perhaps advanced with too much impetus the aspects of the skeptic that make that attitude desirable. But doubting the very grips one has with reality can take even strong characters into the abyss.

Hans Sluga once said of Wittgenstein "his was a self-doubting Judaism, which had always the possibility of collapsing into a destructive self-hatred [...] but which also held an immense promise of innovation and genius."^^[[1|#FootnotesConclusions]]^^ Skepticism can go both ways, from the glorious heights of achievement to the deepest lows of self-doubt and intellectual immolation. It is all too possible to see things for what they are and start loosing hope, energy and become cynical about the world.

The skeptic, needs that //suspension of disbelief// of fiction, more than those who dwell in belief. The skeptic attitude needs that //poetic faith// of which I spoke in previous chapters as a means to keep skepticism in check and balance it out.

In the archetypes I present of The Faker and The Believer I lay out what I think is an important point in my thesis. That the skeptic takes a moral stand when confronted by new knowledge, the distinction I make between both archetypes is almost only based on this principled morality.

I believe that the exercising of the //creative muscle// is an activity that is useful for any skeptic. In that exercise the skeptic will find the distance that exists from what is truth to what is possible, that mysterious space from which all aesthetic experience comes from. It is important to clarify at this point that the //creative muscle// can also be exercised within the confines of the scientific lab. There's very little difference between the creative might required to discover PCR^^[[2|#FootnotesConclusions]]^^ techniques or that which one gets when a great painting finally //works// and it is rare for good ideas to stay in one field alone, good creative ideas have the habit of cross-pollinating across fields.

I hope to have showed in this thesis how I think a skeptical attitude can fuel creativity. I might have failed at getting some of the points across, but I hope that the basic ideas have been well established.

I have consciously not gone into any of the in-between fields, such as design and engineering, to find illustrations of creative skepticism. I was tempted more often than I would like to admit, as it is in these fields that major revolutions have occurred in the last decades thanks to the fundamental questioning of their role in knowledge production. I have limited myself to show examples from disciplines that are sometimes pitted in an infertile antagonism, the sciences and the arts. This antagonism is of particular interest to me and so to clarify my own ideas I have kept to it.

In this chapter I lay out what I call //creative investigations//. In the spirit of the skeptic, many artists have produced works inspired by what is often taken for granted, from language itself to the act of looking. 

Explorations of the senses and human perception abound in the arts. In this selection, disciplines as diverse as literature, interactive art and performance are used as carriers for these investigations. 

!! Looking into the infraordinary
What happens when nothing happens? How do we do the most basic things that we do such as hearing, speaking, looking at something? It is the hallmark of the skeptic to make an effort to investigate the things that are often taken for granted. These investigations can be empirical but outside of the sciences, any methodology can be used as long as the investigator finds it suitable.

A remarkable example of this attitude taken to an extreme is a short book written by Georges Perec in 1970, titled //"An Attempt at Exhausting a Place In Paris"//. In this work the author sits in different cafes around a square in Paris for three days and records everything he sees during these sessions. We read short superficial observations that the author records as they happen, seen through a window he sits in front of. The author seldom emits judgement or analysis and limits himself to enumerations and descriptions. Everything he perceives is recorded, from the number on the bus that just passed and how crowded it was, to the letters on the bag of the lady that is walking the dog. Perec's somewhat empirical approach in this piece might seem to border on the clinical. But his narrative skill shines through the text. The rhythm marked by the frequency of the buses, the patterns behind the daily repetitions, infuse a kind of poetic meaning to the author's registrations. By being openly curious without making assumptions, he finds a dim poetic humdrum in the //infraordinary// of every day life.

!! Formalist explorations
Georges Perec took part in a loose Paris collective that formed in the sixties called Oulipo (//Ouvroir de littérature potentielle//), along with other writers and mathematicians. The Oulipos experimented with techniques in //constrained writing//. These techniques consisted on writing within a set of rules that might involve structure, vocabulary or any other arbitrary selection of parameters, such as not using a word or a letter, or any punctuation. Once the set of contraints is decided upon, it is then maintained and the writer set to write a piece within these constraints. Such is the case of Perec's celebrated work //A Void//, a novel in French language in which the letter //'e'// is absent. In a little less than three hundred pages the letter does not appear in the text at all. A feat that takes more than a clever wordsmith to achieve.

In this type of writing it is the act of writing itself and the use of language that are investigated, not all these investigations however use constrained techniques. Rule based systems for generating phrases: permutations, chance, recursion and some other concepts borrowed from mathematics have been used to produce works of literature. From Lewis Carroll and Raymond Roussel to Inger Christensen the twentieth century has seen many writers take all kinds of formal approaches to writing. Perhaps as a consequence of language becoming //self-aware// at the beginning of the century, as we saw in a previous chapter. These writers didn't take language for granted, they investigated the possibilites of a symbolic system, language, that they helped understand. It was a collective effort to come to grips with the very structure of language, as well as explore its relationship with reality. In this light the contribution of these writers isn't only producing works of art, but to do a genuine effort of understanding that would ultimately aid scientific research as well.

Formalists are sometimes criticised for the lack of rigour when it came to subject matter. Some appear to not have a subject matter at all. Some like in the novel //A Void// make their very constraint play a role in their subject matter. In Perec's novel the absence of the letter //'e'// becomes part of the mystery of the disappearance that concerns the main character. Layering different narratives, while at the same time keeping true to the constraint that the author set out for himself.

Beckett's theater is often described as minimalistic because under his artistic direction his librettos would be represented without decor or other elements that he deemed unnecessary. In his obsession to eliminate the unnecessary in theatrical representation, he made a series of experiments in which he tried to do away with what seemed to him at the time the most insidious element in theatre: //language//. His work //Quad// was an attempt at this new concept of //theatre without language//.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/beckett_quad.png]]
<html><small>Samuel Beckett, Quad.</small></html>

In this play, actors are given a set of rules to move around and across the stage. When they meet the rules break down, and so they need a new rule to avoid each other and continue the play so they are all instructed to turn left. The performance is a few minutes long and is done to the beat of some african sounding drums and in total absence of words. 

<html><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p0MAQMvpGtw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></html>

!! Formalism and Aesthetics
An example of an author that refined formalism to produce outstanding works of literature is Inger Christensen. Each of her works is produced within a set of rules. Knowing these rules is unnecessary to enjoy the work. But there's a system behind everything she writes. Her work //Butterfly Valley: A Requiem// is fifteen sonnets long. A sonnet is a classic form of poetic composition that is fourteen verses long (4:4:3:3). So there is one more sonnet in the poem, than verses there are in a single sonnet. The last sonnet of the poem is made out of the last verse of every one of the preceding fourteen sonnets. It's a poem of sublime beauty that must be read to fully appreciate it, no amount of explanation of her writing systems is a substitute for reading Christensen's actual work.

<html>
<div style="background:#ddd; font-size:0.85em;">
<h3>BUTTERFLY VALLEY: A REQUIEM</h3>

<h5>Susanna Nied’s translation from Inger Christensen’s Danish original.</h5>

<pre>
I

Up they soar, the planet’s butterflies,
pigments from the warm body of the earth,
cinnabar, ochre, phosphor yellow, gold
a swarm of basic elements aloft.

Is this flickering of wings only a shoal
of light particles, a quirk of perception?
Is it the dreamed summer hour of my childhood
shattered as by lightning lost in time?

No, this is the angel of light, who can paint
himself as dark mnemosyne Apollo,
as copper, hawk moth, tiger swallowtail.

I see them with my blurred understanding
as feathers in the coverlet of haze
in Brajcino Valley’s noon-hot air.

II

In Brajcino Valley’s noon-hot air
where recollection crumbles, and all things
in the melding of plant segments and light
transform themselves from scentless to scent,

there I move backward, go from leaf to leaf
set them on nettles from my childhood’s land,
the most divine of all nature’s snares
to capture what once flew away as days.

Here in its cocoon the admiral
once a spring-green, glutted caterpillar,
transforms itself to what we call a mind

so that, like other summers’ butterflies,
it can bring the dense crimson hue of life
up from acrid caverns underground.

III

Up from acrid caverns underground
where first dream-creepers of the cellar darkness
and all the cruelty we would rather hide
from the foundation under the mind’s depths,

up soar the Morpheus, the dead-head, all
that turn their night-moth aspect outermost,
showing me how soft it is to fall
into ash-grayness and resemble god.

The cabbage butterfly from Vejle meadows,
that white soul on whose wing-mirror is drawn
the evanescent nature of all things,

what is it doing in this gloomy air?
Is it the grief my life has overtaken,
concealed by the perfume of mountain brush?

IV

Concealed by the perfume of mountain brush,
all blossoming is rooted in decay,
in tangle, shadow, and decomposition,
a labyrinthine, wild insanity,

just as the butterfly in flight conceals
the insect body to which it is bound -
we see it as a flower flying up
not as the rank iconoclasm it is -

as when an owl moth, sphinx moth, underwing,
whirling the characters of color past,
casts us a riddle to conceal the fact

that all the soul possesses for its hope,
beyond all, is the symmetry of sorrow, seen
as admirals, as blues, as mourning cloaks.

V

As admirals, as blues, as mourning cloaks
in the colors’ periodic table scheme
assisted by the smallest nectar drop
can raise the earth up like a diadem,

as they, in color’s clear lightheartedness,
in lavender, in crimson, lignite brown,
neatly encompass sorrow’s hiding places,
although their life of joy is too soon done,

with butterfly proboscis they are able
to breathe the world as an image-fable
light as the gliding flight of a caress,

till every spark of love is used, and just
beauty’s and terror’s vying sparks remain,
as peacock butterflies are fluttering.

VI

As peacock butterflies are fluttering
I think myself in Eden’s garden now,
but soon the garden sinks to nothingness
and even words, which once could be spelled out,

begin dissolving into the false eyespots
of checker, scarce copper, Harlequin,
whose magic words of silica-white nights
transform the light of day into moonlight.

Here gooseberry and blackthorn bushes grow;
whichever of the words you eat, they make
your life butterfly-easy to recall.

Perhaps I will cocoon myself and stare
at the white Harlequin, its sleights of hand
delusion for the universe’s fool.

VII

Delusion for the universe’s fool
is the belief that other worlds exist
that there are gods who bellow and roar
and call us random tosses of the dice;

but remind me of a summer day in Skagen
when in their mating flight the arctic blues
fluttered about all day like bits of sky
with echoes of the blue from Jammer Bay,

while we, who lay lost in hills of sand,
as numerous as only two can be,
allowed our bodies’ elements to blend

with earth as fusion of the sky and sea,
two people who bequeathed to one another
a life that does not die like anything.

VIII

A life that does not die like anything?
How so, if in all our creation,
in nature’s last, self-absorbed leaps, we see
ourselves in what is lost from the beginning,

we see the smallest particle of love,
of happiness, in a pointless process
enter the image of humanity
as grass, the very grass upon a grave.

What do we want with the great atlas moth
whose wingspan spreads a map of all the earth
resembling the brain-web of memories

that we kiss as our icons of the dead?
We taste death’s kiss that carried them away.
And who has conjured this encounter forth?

IX

And who has conjured this encounter forth?
Is it my own brain, which is pale and gray?
Can it infuse light’s colors with a glow
beyond that of the butterfly I saw?

I saw Aurora, its paprika splashes,
its pale sheen of savannah, pepper gray,
the painted lady’s African migration,
direct route to the winterlands of earth.

I saw the buff-tipped moth’s fine outline sketch,
black edges of its tiny half-moon shapes,
there at the wingpoint of the universe.

And what I saw was not just the far-fetched
imaginings a brain itself concocts
with peace of mind and fragments of sweet lies.

X

With peace of mind and fragments of sweet lies,
with downy sheen of emerald and jade,
the iris butterfly’s bare caterpillars
can camouflage themselves as willow leaves.

I saw them eating their own images
which then were folded into chrysalis
hanging at last like what they simulated,
a leaf among the other clustered leaves.

When with their image-language, butterflies
can use dishonesty and so survive,
then why should I be any less wise,

if it will soothe my terror of the void
to characterize butterflies as souls
and summer visions of the vanished dead.

XI

And summer visions of the vanished dead -
that hawthorne butterfly that hovers like
a white cloud, splashed with deep pink traces
of flowers interwoven by the light;

my grandmother, enfolded in the garden’s
thousands fathoms, stock, wallflower, baby’s-breath;
my father, who taught me first names of all
the creatures that must creep before they die -

walk with me into the butterfly valley
where everything exists only apart,
where even the dead hear the nightingale.

Its songs glide with an oddly mournful lilt
from lack of suffering to suffering;
my ear gives answer with its deafened ringing.

XII

My ear gives answer with its deafened ringing,
my eye with its inward-turning gaze,
my heart is sure that I am more than no one,
but answers with the well-known little pain.

I see myself in winter moth, in umber
one evening in November’s stand of oaks,
as they reflect the radiance of moonlight
and play the role of sunshine in dark night.

I am reflected in their pupal slumber,
their ruthless liberation when the need
is greatest in the mirrored rooms of cold,

and what I see for myself, the bereft,
bare mirror-gaze, is not just death -
this is a death that looks through its own eyes.

XIII

This is a death that looks through its own eyes
will see itself in me, for I’m naive,
a native who is bonded to the stark
self-insight in what we call life.

And so I play the role of black-veined white
fuse words with phenomena; I play
the fritillary caterpillar, gather
all the world’s life forms into one.

Then I can answer death when it arrives:
I’m playing the brown wood nymph; dare I hope
that I’m an image of eternal summer?

I hear you well; you say that I am no one,
but I’m the one wrapped in an emperor’s cloak
regarding you from wings of butterflies.

XIV

Regarding you from wings of butterflies
is just a little butterfly-wing dust
as fine as any nothing made by no one,
in answer to the leaves of distant stars.

Like light it swirls up in the summer breeze
like spark of pearl, like spark of fire and frost,
and all that exists in its vanishing
remains itself and never will be lost;

as copper, purple emperor, arctic blue
it turns the rainbow to earth’s butterfly
within the earth’s own visionary sphere,

a poem lesser tortoise-shells can bear.
I see a bit of dust begin to rise -
up they soar, the planet’s butterflies.

XV

Up they soar, the planet’s butterflies
in Brajcino Valley’s noon-hot air,
up from acrid caverns underground
concealed by the perfume of mountain brush

as admirals, as blues, as mourning cloaks
as peacock butterflies are fluttering
delusion for the universe’s fool:
a life that does not die like anything.

And who has conjured this encounter forth
with peace of mind and fragments of sweet lies
and summer visions of the vanished dead?

My ear gives answer with its deafened ringing:
This is a death that looks through its own eyes
regarding you from wings of butterflies.</div>
</pre>
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Another work of this affable Danish poet that never ceases to amaze me is her poem //Alphabet//. The work is divided again in fourteen sections. Each section has a letter of the alphabet as subject, so the first section is devoted to the letter //'a'//, the second to the letter //'b'// and so on until letter //'n'//. Sections are ordered alphabetically. The number of verses in each section is determined by its corresponding cardinal in the Fibonacci Sequence^^[[1|#ReferencesChapterCreativeInvestigations]]^^. So the first chapter has one verse, the second has two, the fifth section has eight and the last section, letter //'n'//, has 633 verses. The following illustration shows a break-down of the length of the different sections in verses.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/christensen-alphabet.png]]
<html><small>Sections of the poem, Alphabet by Inger Christensen.<br/> In red the number of verses in each section<br/> following a Fibonacci progression.</small></html>

Not only does she keep to this system throughout the entire poem, but she makes every section //sound// like the letter it is devoted to, the musicality of the composition has a surprising consistency. It's a poem to language itself that deals with many subjects, from trees to death, love and the nuclear bomb. Language as a subject matter is only perceived in a more analytic reading and it is irrelevant to the enjoyment of the poem.

The work of Inger Christensen uses structural concepts borrowed from mathematics such as //recursion// and //permutation// to bring structure. Both concepts produce self-similarity. This is when something is similar to itself at many different scales, so we find phrases in some sonnets that we had read before in other sonnets. Words that get repeated in different constructions and so on. These systems of production are particularly well suited to poetry as they produce a rhythmic pace that give the poem musicality.

The understanding of these systems does not automatically make the work of Christensen deterministic or predictable in any way. Her works abide by a new rule system in each of them and the system is an arbitrary choice, as much as any of the words she uses in her poem can be said to be an arbitrary choice. Little about these systems can be discussed other than the fact that they are there and are part of the work, they do not give us any leads as to how to interpret it. Instead these systems add to the aesthetic experience of the poem in a way that isn't obvious. I am, at this point, reminded of what legendary //explainer// and theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, said on the beauty of a flower.

<html><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zSZNsIFID28" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></html>
<html><small>Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, BBC Horizon, 1981.</small></html>

There is beauty in the system as well.

!! Deconstructing the Act of Looking
Along the lines of not taking what might otherwise seem mundane for granted, the act of looking itself has been investigated in many disciplines of knowledge. This particular investigation is interesting for this thesis as there is a lot of visual artwork that can be seen as explorations or deconstructions of the everyday act of looking at something.

[img[Las Meninas|http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WEjiCu_RNAA/TGWVhpHGVjI/AAAAAAAAJNk/-CZ6doERzzE/s1600/velazquez-las-meninas.jpg]]
<html><small>Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656.</small></html>

Las Meninas by Velázquez is a remarkable painting for many reasons, perhaps the most durable quality of this work is its unusual critical standpoint. At a time in which court painters were supposed to paint their patrons and little more. Diego Velázquez steps out of convention and questions the placement of the subject with respect to the viewer, in a masterpiece of painting. His work is classical in technique but modern in spirit, as it is clearly self-referential. This rare precocious example of criticism in painting, is perhaps what has made this otherwise portrait of court life, retain its art historical value, resisting all classification.

Another //creative investigation// in the correlation between looking at something and the perception of motion, was carried out by photographer Eadweard Muybridge, 1830-1904. Muybridge used his photographic techniques to provide an answer to a question posed by governor Leland Stanford about whether a horse had, at any moment during a race, all its hooves off the ground, being thus momentarily airborne^^[[2|#ReferencesChapterCreativeInvestigations]]^^. Muybridge showed through his photographs that it was indeed so, that the horse was indeed airborne at some point while galloping. Throughout his career Muybridge devoted substantial effort at carefully documenting different types of motions in serial photographs that improved our understanding of how we perceive motion through the eye.

[img[http://www.hartmanfineart.net/_img/art/muybridge_plate163_pop.jpg]]

To this day, the work of Muybridge continues to be an invaluable universal reference to animators and study material to artists. It is known that both Duchamp and Francis Bacon used Muybridge's work as inspiration and reference within their own.

!!! Looking at the Other
[img[http://blog.spinningkid.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/4422517148_7484749fd1.jpg]]

In her performance piece //[[The Artist is Present|http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/marinaabramovic/]]// at the MoMA in 2010. Artist Marina Abramović performed in the Atrium every day the Museum was open between March 14 and May 31, 2010. Visitors were encouraged to sit silently across from the artist for a duration of their choosing, becoming participants in the artwork ^^[[3|#ReferencesChapterCreativeInvestigations]]^^.

In this work the artist does not so much create an artifact but a situation for direct emotional contact. Artist stares at viewer and viewer stares back at artist, in a very intense yet simple everyday interaction. The photographic documentation of the performance shows a varied range of facial responses that speak to us about the humanity of the viewers.

!!! The mechanics of looking
Golan Levin investigates the mechanics of how we look at something. With //Opto-Isolator//, 2007. He created a wall piece that stares back at the viewer and blinks in synchrony, making the viewer aware of the act of looking. The work doesn't so much offer an image as a candid experience of self-awareness.

<html>
<object width="400" height="290"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3796361&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3796361&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="290"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/3796361">Opto-Isolator (2007), Interactive Eye Robot</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/golanlevin">Golan Levin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
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In a similar spirit, the Russian conceptual artist Andrei Monastyrski, made a series of works in the seventies called //action objects// that instigated in the viewer the performance of an action, action that was then rendered absurd by the object. The viewer becomes self-aware doing what the object requires.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Andrei_Monastyrski_Finger_1978.jpg]]

In the piece of the illustration above //Finger, 1978//. The viewer is instructed to introduce her hand inside an object, turn it towards herself and then poke a finger out of an aperture on the upper part of the object. The viewer then finds herself staring at her own finger. The action in itself is the artwork, the wall-mounted object is a designed artifact in the execution of this action.

!!! Mediating the act of looking
Artist Jonathan Schipper takes a mediated approach in his piece //215 Points of View//. The artist built a sphere out of video cameras and tv monitors, opposing each other and wired as closed cctv loops. The sphere shows a view fractalized by the many view points represented by the closed video system in a futuristic-looking sculptural object.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/workinsphere1.jpg]]
<html><small>Jonathan Schipper, 215 Points of View.</small></html>

The work could be read as a critique to televised media and surveillance.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/boxedEgo_b1.jpg]]
<html><small>Alvaro Cassinelli, boxedEgo, 2008.</small></html>

Alvaro Cassinelli writes about his work //boxedEgo//, 2008. //boxedEgo// //[...] is a double trap for the Self. A peep-show box waiting in a corner of the exhibition space first captures the curiosity of the observer - and then the observer himself.// [...] //effectively transforming the observer into its own object of observation//.

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Again in Golan Levin's work we find another piece in which the act of looking becomes central. In his work //Eyecode//, 2007. The viewer looks at the eyes of people that have looked at the work before her, when the viewer blinks, her eyes are added to the composition. The work is an archive of the eyes of everyone who has looked at it. This is an archetypal form of interactive art, in which the work doesn't exist without the participation of the viewer.

<html>
<object width="400" height="270"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5280244&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5280244&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="270"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5280244">Eyecode (Interactive Eye-Tracking Installation)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/golanlevin">Golan Levin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
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!! Conclusion
What I hope comes across clearly in this chapter, are the many ways in which a skeptical attitude is a fertile ground for inspiration in the arts. 

Some of these so called //creative investigations// are works with some poetic closure whereas others function as milestones in an ongoing research.

What they all have in common is that they constitute genuine efforts of casting new light into that which otherwise could be lost to the dark recesses of the //infraordinary//.

[[Introduction]]
[[About]]

# [[The Amazing Technology of the 1910s|http://www.livescience.com/technology/100101-technology-1910.html]], Heather Whipps, 2010
# [[The Bolshevik October Revolution|http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1681193_1481209,00.html]], Photo Essays, TIME Magazine.
# [[The 1920s satnav ... and other weird and wonderful gadgets that never quite took off|http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1045114/The-1920s-satnav---weird-wonderful-gadgets-quite-took-off.html#ixzz1CYw0Lx8V]] Daily Mail, 15th August, 2008.
# John Searle Interview on The Philosophy of Language,
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# [[M.C.Escher Biography|http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggescher/ggescher-main1.html]], National Gallery of Art.
# For further insight into how the work of Escher and Gödel relate that are more profound than mere appearance read the book-length essay //Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid//, 1979, Douglas Hofstadter.

# Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., foreword to the Dalai Lama's book //How to See Yourself As You Really Are//
# Homo Ludens, 1955, Johan Huizinga 
# Authors@Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0eyNkNpL0, September 12, 2008. Tour of book "On Violence". The quotation is taken directly from the transcript, that's why it's rather colloquial in style.
# //Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking//, 2005, Malcolm Gladwell, ISBN 0-316-01066-9
# [[Statue of a Kouros|http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=12908]], The J. Paul Getty Museum online catalog.
# [[Suspension of Disbelief|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief]], Wikipedia.
# This passage is often quoted out of context, the original quote of D. H. Lawrence appears to have been: "Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."

# Hans D. Sluga, The Cambridge companion to Wittgenstein, (Cambridge, 1996) page 2. Reference from [[Wikipedia article on Wittgenstein|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein]].
# The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA. PCR is now a common and often indispensable technique used in medical and biological research labs for a variety of applications, from DNA sequencing to Phylogeny. It was conceived by Kary Mullis, who famously claims to have come up with the technique while tripping on LSD.

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"Doubt everything. Find your own light." 
Siddhārtha Gautama


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When I first took upon the idea of writing about //skepticism//, I was quickly overwhelmed by the scope of the undertaking. The more I learned about it, the more I realized that making a dent in the subject at all was too lofty a goal. Should I tackle the subject from a philosophical perspective? Perhaps from a more scientific one? Shall one go into its many different manifestations? Perhaps looking into social behaviours? Or maybe the moral implications of skepticism? Psychological? Religious perspective? The points of view on the subject of skepticism are many and come from a wide variety of angles. I could not hope to cover the subject comprehensively, a reader that approaches this thesis hoping to get such a coverage will be very disappointed indeed. My attempt however, covers concepts that provide the reader with tools that will hopefully help her do her own analysis autonomously.

I was not interested in a historical coverage of the subject, as much as a structural one. This is an important distinction in my exercise, as I am trying to evaluate skepticism as a practical ethos rather than a practice to be analyzed through historical research. I have sometimes encountered certain hostility towards skeptical attitudes from individuals within the arts. Criticism of this kind is often based on logical extrapolations. I have encountered somewhat simplistic arguments such as skepticism leading to nihilism, inaction, depression or cynicism as well as self-destructive behaviours. I think these extrapolations are based on the active mistaking of skepticism with a kind of hyper-rationality or logical recklessness. The problem I see with these extrapolations is that they often gloss over the role that intuition plays in skeptical thinking. I think that the approach I have chosen in this thesis is more successful at elucidating these subtleties and reinstating intuition to its rightful place as a substantial component in skeptical thinking.

I have used works from various disciplines ranging from literature to media art, science to painting. Though one could take this line of analysis much farther and perhaps review an entire art history from the perspective of the skeptic, I think that the works mentioned illustrate the points with sufficient clarity. The reader will doubtless find more works in their personal memory that fit the criteria exposed in this thesis.

I have also tried to abstain from interpreting the works I have referenced. Instead I have tried to explain "how" they achieve what they do, instead of "what meaning" they might have associated. In my approach to writing about the works I have tried to keep to Susan Sontag's maxims, as laid out in her essay //[[Against Interpretation|http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretation.html]]//. If I have proposed any interpretation of meaning on any of the works discussed, I apologize, as it was never my intention. Like any skeptic I always find attempts at interpretation dubious, I encourage the reader to do the same with any interpretation I might have left dangling.

In writing this thesis I have chosen to use the American English spelling of //skepticism//, instead of the British //scepticism//. Since it was the central subject, I wanted the word to be distinct and I preferred the American spelling for that reason, I found that in the title it stood out more with a //k// than a //c//, so I only tried to be consistent from there on. Some of my early reviewers have considered this a spelling mistake and although I am sure I have left many spelling mistakes in the text, the //k// in skepticism is not one of them. I consciously chose this form.

As far as the way the text is organized, I can say that this work is composed of four separate essays, to be read in any order the reader might fancy. The order designated in the left-hand menu is just my personal choice. Each chapter however is a self-contained unit, a //minithesis// in itself so to speak. Let me suggest a reading trail and explain what you will find as you go along.

Instead of spending much effort in trying to ascertain precise definitions of skepticism, I wrote the chapter [[The Faker and The Believer]] to describe two archetypal characters around belief and skepticism, so that the reader would better understand what I mean when I want to mean skeptic.

The chapter [[Manufacturing Belief]] is an elaboration leading to the concepts of //poetic faith// and the //wordless nerve//. Both of which play a role in belief as well as the aesthetic experience.

In [[Modern skepticism]] I summarize what I find the most defining cultural characteristic of modernity, as well as a possible analysis of how it came to be and why I find this characteristic to be quintessentially skeptical.

I suggest the reader to go about the chapter named [[Creative Investigations]] last. As it is devoted to a few examples of authors and makers whose work provides artistic flesh to the concepts laid out in other chapters. In my selection I tried to be eclectic rather than pick the important or the better known works, to better illustrate that this approach to //making// is not bound to a singular practice.

After rounding off my [[Conclusions]], it seemed fitting to include two appendixes. One with the full text of Joseph Conrad's preface to his book //The Nigger of The 'Narcissus'//. This is because in my proposal for this thesis, I had suggested to write a full chapter on the literature of Conrad. As my work progressed, I dropped this idea because the notes I had about Conrad's literature were redundant when I started covering the moral aspects of skepticism. However during my research, I found this jewel of a text. This preface struck a chord with me and I decided that I had to make some space for it, with no interpretation or contextualization. You can read the full text in [[Appendix I: Joseph Conrad]].

During the writing of this thesis the artist James L. Acord passed away. I had learned about his work last year and I had taken note of it and his role as a bridge in the understanding between the arts and the sciences. James L. Acord was a rare artist and an even more rare scientist, but a necessary character in both disciplines. I was saddened by his passing away and seeing that there was little material about him on the Internet, I wrote an obituary in my blog as a homage with the little that I knew. I wanted to include the piece in my thesis as an earmark of time and so it became
[[Appendix II: Obituary of James L. Acord (1944-2011)]].

Finally for the curious there is a section in this website that contains some of the [[Notes]] I started with. My approach to note taking is rather chaotic, my notes are scattered in the notebook I always carry with me as well as this website and the margings of book pages I read. It's hard for me to collect all these in a single place.

I hope that having clarified my choices the reader can find something in this thesis that she can take away with her.

[[Introduction]]
[[Acknowledgements]]

!!!!Phase I
[[Notes]]
[["Visit Card"]]
[[Proposal]]

!!!!Thesis
[[The Faker and The Believer]]

[[Manufacturing Belief]]

[[Modern skepticism]]

[[Creative Investigations]]

[[Conclusions]]

[[Appendix I: Joseph Conrad]]

[[Appendix II: Obituary of James L. Acord (1944-2011)]]

"Our tacit acceptance of things as they seem is called ignorance, which is not just a lack of knowledge of things as they actually exist but an active mistaking of their fundamental nature."^^[[1|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^

!! Believe in yourself
We humans are rational beings, or are we? We are told when we are little, that this is what distinguishes us from other animals. Given any situation we act according to the best interest of ourselves and those who we love or those who we want to protect. Given all information we will presumably always make the right choice and act consequently. If we make mistakes is because we didn't know better. Isn't this to some extent how you see yourself?

This view harbors a fundamental misunderstanding of the volatile nature of human belief, because it doesn't at all account for the external forces that curtail our potential.

Many people of my generation from affluent nations across different cultures has been brought up inside the ruthless regime of the rhetorical discourse that "you can be anything you want, you just have to believe in yourself". The culmination of this fundamentalist belief is perhaps best represented by the rise to power of president Barack Obama. A person whose campaign discourse was at times little more than an upbeat "Yes We Can" that resonated as true with everyone young enough to have never lived through the senselessness of two World Wars. Many of us have been brought up not too far from a TV set, where shows like Sesame Street etched the mantra indelibly in our plastic minds.

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<html>Diana Ross and Big Bird sing Believe in Yourself, Sesame Street, 1979</html>

Little by little introducing a whole generation into the doctrine of how great we really are and how boundless our potential. The ideology that underlays propositions of this kind is rooted in the will to acquire power. Belief in yourself is empowering. //Belief in yourself and the world belongs to you and me// as Diana Ross put it. At the end of this clip //Big Bird// appeals to reason and expresses his doubts to Diana Ross: "I feel much better now, except I don't know if I should go and eat breakfast or go to the South Pole". Lucky for us viewers the skeptic was adequately represented in the show, even if it was in the form of an oversized fluffy bird.

A child of five when Sesame Street was first aired in 1969 is now forty-seven years of age, the show is still going on today. Incidentally Barack Obama took office on the 20th of January of 2009, aged forty-eight. We rule the world now. The //Sesame Street generation//, if you allow me this sweeping statement, is the one that now holds positions of power. Even if we think little of ourselves and have no institutional power whatsoever, the money in our pockets and our purchasing decisions give us ruling power of which we are unaware most of the time. One doesn't have to be an Obama to have this power, even if our meager crisis-bound incomes don't stretch until the end of the month, our power is still out of proportion with our awareness of it and this disconnect is the consequence of our blind ideological belief.

The //Belief in Yourself// mantra is the prayer of those who share in this ideology and like all ideologies this one is reinforced by a crowd dynamic, a will to belong. The crowd dynamic of an ideology can, in a way, be likened to the dynamic of a game, certain conventions must be shared by the participants for the collective to be ideologically cohesive. Those who do not adhere to these conventions are considered to be outside the ideology, the archetypal //Other//. In his book-long essay //Homo Ludens//, Johan Huizinga explains the unfortunate fate of the skeptic in a play that reflects these types of dynamics.

//"Rules in their turn are a very important factor in the play-concept. All play has its rules. They determine what "holds" in the temporary world circumscribed by play. The rules of a game are absolutely binding and allow no doubt. Paul Valery once in passing gave expression to a very cogent thought when he said: "No skepticism is possible where the rules of a game are concerned, for the principle underlying them is an unshakable truth..." Indeed as soon as the rules are transgressed the whole play-world collapses. The game is over. The umpire's whistle breaks the spell and sets "real" life going again.

The player who trespasses against the rules or ignores them is a spoil-sport. The spoil-sport is not the same as the false player, the cheat; for the latter pretends to be playing the game and, on the face of it, still acknowledges the magic circle. It is curious to note how much more lenient society is to the cheat than to the spoil-sport. This is because the spoil-sport shatters the play-world itself. By withdrawing from the game he reveals the relativity and fragility of the play-world in which he had temporarily shut himself with others. He robs play of its illusion."//^^[[2|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^

But what is this //belief in ourselves//? What do we believe in when we claim to believe in nothing beyond the self?

!! Know your unknowns
During the time that Donald Rumsfeld was one of the most powerful people on Earth, he delivered some memorable lines of //cowboy wisdom//. Many are remembered as jocose cock-ups or absurd abuses supported by active misinformation. Many of these videos were reproduced tirelessly by critical media and online forums. There is however, one such video that was widely ridiculed even though it hints at a very profound revelation on the nature of belief. This is the clip in question.

Slavoj Žižek offers an interesting analysis of this intervention by Rumsfeld. Saying that any structural cultural analyst would quickly point out that Rumsfeld leaves out one category, the //unknown knowns//: "[...] to think we don't know that we know, that's the unconscious ideology. [...] silent prejudices, which determine how we act, how we react, [...], they're are so much the texture into which we are embedded."^^[[3|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^

!!! Hitting the proverbial wordless nerve
The //unknown knowns// aren't only the domain of ideology and silent prejudice, but also of an equally interesting human quality, that of intuition. Malcom Gladwell tells in his book //Blink//^^[[4|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^ the story of an art dealer, Gianfranco Becchina, that was in possession of a //[[kouros|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kouros]]// marble statue from the sixth century BC. Becchina approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in California with an asking price of ten million dollars for the mentioned statue. The museum took it on loan and started a thorough analysis of the statue including x-rays, mass spectrometry and electron microscopy, after almost two years of research, the statue was deemed by the scientists to be authentic and the museum trustees gave the green light to its acquisition for their collection of Greek sculpture for seven million dollars.

Evelyn Harrison was one of the world's foremost experts on Greek sculpture and was taken to see the work. When she first saw it she declared that something was wrong with it within seconds. She couldn't explain what it was, so it was dismissed as a hunch. Thomas Hoving of the Metropolitan Museum in New York was taken to see the //kouros// as well and the first word that crossed his mind was "fresh". Hardly something one should expect to get from a statue that was supposedly two thousand years old. He had spent much of his youth digging on Greek sites and his experience told him that the statue was a fake. The museum showed the results of the scientific probing the statue had gone through that hinted at its authenticity, yet Hoving remained unimpressed.

The kouros was taken off display and traveled around the world and expert after expert agreed that the //kouros// was unusual. Many declared to have felt a kind of "intuitive repulsion" towards the statue.

The Getty Museum was making great efforts to unveil the authenticity of the piece. Further research on the legal aspects of the acquisition, showed that some of the certificates of provenance that came with the piece were fake. After many months of research, the origins of the statue were traced back to the workshop of a forger in Rome that probably produced it in the 1980s. In the Getty's catalogue there's a picture of the //kouros// with the notation "About 530BC, or modern forgery"^^[[5|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^.

The point of this story is not so much about the origin of the sculpture as it is about the fact that Harrison and Hoving were capable of unveiling it within a few seconds of seeing it. They couldn't explain exactly what was disconcerting them and they couldn't back up their statements of it being a fake with unequivocal evidence. They didn't know why they knew. But their "intuitive repulsion" was ultimately proven to be correct.

These //unknown knowns// are the stuff of which our intuitions, prejudices and superstitions are made of. And they are an essential component in belief. They conform what I like to call the //wordless nerve//, mind you this is not an actual part of our nervous system. But those aspects of our subconscious that don't manifest themselves in cogent thought. We often associate it with the gut, so much so that //gut feeling// is a common phrase used to speak of this sort of emotional response. The expression //gut feeling// is worn thin by use. The concept of the //wordless nerve// is more subtle. It is more closely related to the aesthetic experience than the often derisive //gut feeling//.

One could argue that this //wordless nerve// is where visual art comes from, the fine threading between thought and the //gut feeling//. Anyone that has ever painted for some time, knows that there are certain aspects in a painting that one cannot explain where they come from. Wherever they come from, it is a place where words cease to exist. It is such that it can only be //shown//, it cannot be spoken about.

!! Fake It 'Till You Make It
The master Roman forger that is suspected to have made the Getty //kouros// falls within the archetype of The Faker. Conscious that what he was doing was a forgery, his capability to create belief in others was only supported by his superior skill in the techniques required by the forgery. Art forgers are Fakers within the archetypal paradigm that I am using in this thesis, and so are all artists.

Most fictional story-telling relies on a quality called //suspension of disbelief// to induce an aesthetic experience in the person that experiences it. S.T. Coleridge suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative^^[[6|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^. Coleridge called this "poetic faith" and attributed to it the aesthetic enjoyment of fiction.

The Faker presents the experience in a way that it produces in the person that experiences it, a psychological state conducive of acceptance. By this I do not mean that someone watching a zombie movie accepts that zombies exists, or that an onlooker might accept that the kouros itself is an actual man. But that the watcher accepts that the fiction presented is consistent within itself and as such, is an honest depiction and an attempt at creating the conditions for an aesthetic experience, it is then that the viewer can let go of superficial disbelief and give into //poetic faith//.

“Never trust the teller, trust the tale” - D. H. Lawrence.^^[[7|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^

!! The psychology of confinement
There's an experience that whether we live it in first person or through depictions, seems to play an important role in this concept of //poetic faith//. It is as if enclosed spaces somehow encouraged a suspension of disbelief, isolating what is to be believed from anything outside of it. Confinement is only one elementary artifice in the manufacturing of belief, one that I think is as old as art and has been used consistently throughout history.

Cave paintings were confined to the most difficult recesses of the caves they were in. This fact often leads the interpretation that these spaces played a role akin to the chapel, a space for retirement that served the purpose of spiritual nourishment.

This artifice of a confined space for contemplation, has been used by artists throughout history to produce self-contained realities that appeal to our sense of //poetic faith//. What follows is a selection of artists that have used this artifice to some success.

!!!! Joseph Cornell
In the boxes of Joseph Cornell the poetic reality of the artwork exists only within the bounds of the boxes he built for that purpose. Many of the objects Cornell used in his compositions were totally ordinary outside of the boxes and he did little to conceal this fact. However, inside of the box the object acquired an aesthetic dimension.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/cornell/cornell5.jpg]]

!!!! Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon often enclosed the central subject of his paintings in a kind of //glass box//. Always very succinctly painted, that box isn't in itself part of the scene, but it plays a very important role for the viewer. The framing of the subject creates in Bacon's pictorial world a very oppressive and constrained atmosphere.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Francis_Bacon/seated_figure_1961.jpg]]
<html>Seated Figure, 1961. Oil on canvas.</html>

!!!! Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois made a series of works contained in cells. The cells themselves are as important as what is contained inside of them. They are the psychological framework of the installation, a kind of exhortation of the constraints in which the work can exist. Because it is possible to walk in and out of some of these cells, I reproduce here views from both vantage points, so that the difference can be appreciated.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Louise_Bourgeois/louise-bourgeois-passage-dangereux-1997.1196626292.jpg]]
<html>Passage Dangereux, 1997.</html>

From the inside the cell is a reality in itself, everything that happens within it can be understood from Coleridge's definition of //poetic faith//.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Louise_Bourgeois/T06899_9.jpg]]

From the outside, the cell is a sculpture, a three dimensional object, with a meaning different than if its contents were exposed without a frame. The cell changes the meaning.

!!!! Job Koelewijn
In Jump 5, Dutch artist Job Koelewijn reproduces a //polder// landscape in a space roughly the size of a walk-in closet. About three by three meters of floor space, are covered by two patches of grass, separated by a tiny waterway. The walls are mirrors so these elements are repeated ad-infinitum creating the impression of being in a grassy flatland with canals separating the different patches. A portable version of the //polder// landscape so characteristic of The Netherlands.

[img[http://www.kunstbeeld.nl/upload/nieuws/kb/10-06/DP%20Paviljoens/IMG_0189.jpg]]
<html>Jump 5, 2005.</html>

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/job_koelewijn_jump5.jpg]]
<html>Jump 5, 2005.</html>

Koelewijn has used confinement in a number of pieces: //The Clockshop, 2003// in which the viewer sees the passing of time as an externality by observing a room full of clocks from the outside. //Pavillion, 1999// in which the viewer is invited to a brief experience of confinement inside a cabin with slowly closing shutters.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/job_koelewijn_pavilion_1999_koels_4_740x640_q80.jpg]]
<html>Pavillion, 1999.</html>

!!!! Georg Schneider
Throughout the eighties Georg Schneider worked obsessively in what is now regarded as his //opera magna//, //Haus U R//. A reconstruction of the house in which he grew up. The artist rebuilt every room with a somewhat disturbing twist. He is a master in hitting that //wordless nerve// of which I spoke earlier.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/gregor_schneider_haus_ur_rheydt_1985_today_c_gregor_schneider_vg_bild_kunst_bonn_gallery.jpg]]
<html>Haus U R, 1985.</html>

Each of his rooms screams with a deafening silence and despite the fact that there is no obvious evidence of it, one is disturbed by the violence and suffering contained within the room. My memory of entering one of his rooms is one of the crudest forms of horror I have ever experienced in a museum.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/gregor-schneider.jpg]]

It is difficult to walk into the work of this german sculptor and leave unaffected. Our wordless nerve beaten into a state of dark hopelessness.

!! Manipulating the sensual experience
If as we have seen our //wordless nerve// tells us we can't trust our rational judgement and we know that ideology can't be trusted either for it blinds reason. What are we left with? In our rationality lives the very weakness of reason. As it turns out the filter of the chaotic perceptions we receive through our senses, is as fallible as our senses.

!!! The mediated image
Since photography has been invented it has become an apt medium to call into question the boundaries of our belief. Photography has brought with it an era in which reality has been manipulated to look in a particular way, one that due to the nature of photography appears to be factual. After all, if something has been captured through the photographic process. It must have, at some point, existed in front of the lens of the camera.

[img[http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fairies/cottin2c.jpg]]

Photography has been used by Believers and Fakers alike to advance their arguments and create realities respectively. Publications like the spanish sensationalist paper //El Caso// or //Noticias del Mundo//, owe much of their entertainment value to the blatant manipulation of images. Photography is at times as factual as caricature, often a caricature of the viewer.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/el_caso.jpg]]
<html>A Baby is Born with the Head of an Adult (Rodolfo is a normal baby), Noticias del Mundo, October 24, 1994.</html>

Film has only made this alteration of reality through the mediated image even more evident. To the extent that as technologies become better at manipulating elements in film, it becomes ever more difficult to discern what is factual from what is created. The following video is the commercial //showreel// from the american post-production house //Stargate Studios//. In it we can see to what extent mediated images can be manipulated with current technology.

Film itself owes it's existence to a characteristic of our vision system called "persistence of vision". In which a sequence of similar static images reproduced quickly give the impression of live action in our brains. Film itself depends on the fallibility of our visual system to perceive the discontinuity of action. Our brain, fills-in the details that are left out by the sequence, producing a perception that is constructed.

This capability of the brain of filling-in the details, in the absence of a complete set of data is an endless source of belief. Do you see a white triangle in the center of this image?

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/optical_illusions/white_triangle.jpg]]

Dutch artist Theo Janssen likes to show the documentary video of a rather poetic practical joke that he perpetrated during his student years in Delft. The artist constructed a large object shaped like a flying dish, using very light materials. After inflating it with Helium he released it with the help of a group of friends onto the skies above the town of Delft.

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Theo_Janssen-UFO_over_Delft.png]]

During his lectures the artist shows newsreel footage from the time. In this footage several citizens of Delft declare that they have seen an alien UFO move around the sky at blazing speeds, accounts sometimes contradict each other on the details but all coincide on the fact that they have seen an unidentified object. Children appear overexcited on camera, telling unlikely tales of alien visitors. Their perceptions tampered with by a master Faker.

!! Conclusion
In this chapter I have laid out a few of the manners in which belief is manufactured, either unconsciously or by design. Ideology, intuition, superstition, suspension of disbelief and illusion all play a role in belief as well as the way we attribute meaning to what surrounds us.

I have also introduced the concept of the //wordless nerve// as that experience which makes us question evidence, while at the same time being the source of //poetic faith//.

I have used confinement as an illustration on how some artists use it to hit that //wordless nerve// to produce self-contained poetic realities.

The manufacturing of belief is of much interest to //The Faker//. It is through honing the skills necessary to manufacture belief that The Faker can create aesthetic experiences providing stimuli to that proverbial //wordless nerve//.

!! Modern Times

[img[Modern Times, 1936|images/chaplin-moderntimes.jpg]]
<html>Carlie Chaplin in Modern Times, 1936.</html>

The second decade of the twentieth century was tumultuous and revolutionary in almost every aspect one can think of. Today we are used to a fast rate of change but even by today's standards the turmoil and innovation occurring in the 1910s is nothing short of astonishing. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggered a series of events that would later lead to World War I, that the USA enters on 1917. In October of that same year, 1917, the Bolsheviks toppled the Tzarist autocracy, resulting in the abdication of Nicholas II in what went down in history as the Russian Revolution.

[img[images/petrograd_4JULY1917.jpg]]
<html>Petrograd, 4 July 1917. Street demonstration on Nevsky Prospekt just after troops of the Provisional Government have opened fire with machine guns.</html>^^[[1|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^

The first twenty years of the century also saw remarkable developments in technology, Henry Ford's Model-T was released in 1908. Civil Zeppelin aviation developed throughout this time. Electric refrigerators, neon lights, Bakelite plastic, escalators, teabags, cellophane, instant coffee and the zipper to name but a few of the innovations that flooded the markets by 1913 ^^[[2|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^.

[img[images/1920s-gps.jpeg]]
<html>A curious route finder, precursor of the now popular GPS navigation systems.</html>^^[[3|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^

It is at this time that thinking people of many disciplines of knowledge were taken by the turmoil brought about by modernity and started questioning things that had thus far been taken for granted. Further investigating the things we take for granted is the quintessential quality of the skeptical mind and as such, I think that I should pay particular attention in this chapter at what was born out of that restlessness.

!! Self-referentiality: a loop is a loop is a loop is a loop
Bertrand Russell described in his work //An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth// (1940) that until the second decade of the twentieth century he had regarded language as a medium he could use without paying particular attention to it^^[[4|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^. With it he meant that he had largely taken it for granted, like water that flows out when one opens a tap, it was such a self-evident part of life that it didn't occur to him that it might need any explanation.

What did happen to Russel in the second decade of the 1900s is that he met a brash young Austrian philosopher named Ludwig Wittgenstein. The young Wittgenstein had approached Russell to study under him in Cambridge. The austrian followed Russell everywhere to the point that the professor began seeing in his new friend "an affliction", but it wasn't long until, Russell began understanding Wittgenstein's genius. "His criticism, 'tho I don't think he realized it at the time, was an event of first-rate importance in my life, and affected everything I have done since. I saw that he was right, and I saw that I could not hope ever again to do fundamental work in philosophy". Wittgenstein was at this time working on elucidating the relationship between language and reality.

During World War I Wittgenstein became a notorious war hero but he also found the time to work on his //Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus//, which he completed in, have a guess... 1917. Uninterested in publication, Wittgenstein's little book remained unpublished for four years. His seventy-five page book went on to become one of the most important texts in modern philosophy. His analysis of language was central to his philosophy.

Language has been a subject of study for much longer than that. Texts on linguistics exist in Sanskrit that are thousands of years old. In the West linguistics predate ancient Greece, however these studies were concerned with little more than the structural features of language, the extraction of patterns, musicality and linguistic curiosities. It is only in the twentieth century that the connection of language and reality as well as the mechanisms for meaning, and what it means to mean something, begin to be studied in the West. Language became self-aware. Language was produced that discussed language in a self-referential loop that would become the norm in many disciplines in subsequent years.

One of my favourite examples of this strange self-referential twist that took over the intellectual life in Modernism are the two Incompleteness Theorems published by Kurt Gödel in 1931. It is a strange and very counter-intuitive work in mathematics that states that for any axiomatic system that describes the arithmetic of natural numbers, there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be derived from the axioms. Let's stop here briefly to take that in. A grossly simplified illustration of this statement brought to another context, say that of language, would be that language constructs cannot be used to explain language fully, as one will always encounter tautologies that cannot be explained away. This kind of statement doesn't make much sense when discussing language, but it does in mathematics, so the reader must be aware that this example is only used for illustration purposes. The implications of these Theorems are at first hard to grasp, but they were incredible feats of creative thinking, so rare, so unusual, so counter-intuitive that can only be attributed to the mind of a rare genius. Amongst the many repercussions of this work, it put the last nail in the coffin on the attempt of Whitehead and Russell to set a logic-based framework for the understading of mathematics. One of mathematics most comprehensive works to date //Principia Mathematica//, which became somewhat of a //papier maché// book after the publication of the devastating work of Gödel. The Incompleteness Theorems sent shockwaves that turned mountains to valleys, changing the landscapes of mathematics and philosophy forever.

It is worth explaining why these Incompleteness Theorems were so radically creative back then. At the time all the research efforts in the mathematics were integrative, that is, they were in one way or another trying to come up with more abstract theories that integrated all mathematical knowledge into a single framework. Russel and Whitehead where at the forefront of this Sisyphean task and countless others pursued efforts in similar directions. Gödel's meticulous research into a proof must have been born out of an intuition that somehow those efforts would ultimately be fruitless. The most remarkable aspect of these theorems is how unexpected they were and how ruthlessly they laid barren entire fields of research. For this remarkable feat of skepticism I frame Gödel as an example of //The Faker// archetype that I laid in previous chapters.

Gödel's work was published some fourteen years after 1917, during those fourteen years, self-referentiality as a mechanism of thought had been brewing in Europe. These were also the formative years of Maurits Cornellis Escher, as he entered the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in 1919^^[[5|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^. One would be hard-pressed to find an artist that could possibly illustrate self-referentiality with the ease and clarity of M.C. Escher. This drawing, I think, captures the most revolutionary idea that was //in the air// during modernity^^[[6|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^.

[img[Drawing Hands, 1948|images/drawing-hands-by-m-c-escher-1948-lithograph.jpg]]
<html>Drawing Hands, 1948.</html>

In my research the year 1917 keeps appearing time and time again. Falling empires, rising stars, pissoirs in New York art galleries, quacks and escapists, leaps in philosophcal thought, the endless list of what would later become essential cultural references to understand the twentieth century happened on that year. It is so much so that I have decided that this year deserves a special distinction, so I shall call it the //anno mirabilis of skepticism//. What was set in motion in 1917 put the wheels of discovery on an ever accelerating motion, the like of which had never been seen before. At the present time we are still very much on that track.

!! Meta-art as a form of skepticism
In this chapter I deal with self-referentiality not as an intellectual exercise in navel-gazing. I do not mean to say that self-referential work is work that deals with itself alone or with its maker. Self-referential is not comparable to selfish in this case. By self-referential, I refer to a more //meta// quality. Self-referential work is work that forms a critical basis for the discipline in which it is conceived. Thus works that deal with the discipline itself.

Coming back to that //anno mirabilis// of 1917 one could say that the seminal piece of self-referential meta-art is without a doubt Duchamp's //Fountain// (1917). A work which had the concept of //l'object d'art// as its most direct subject, and was a devastating critique of the preconceptions of what constituted an art object.

The seeds of this self-referentiality in the arts were perhaps planted by Duchamp, but this critical attitude became apparent in many pieces, in fact, I would go as far as to say that to a large extent it was the defining characteristic of Modern art to be a kind self-referential loop. I believe this to be an inevitable consequence of the reckless pace of innovation that was set as the norm at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Pollock's painting might contain loops that are clearly visible on the canvas but a deeper analysis will reveal just how purely self-referential his painting was. From the loop formed by the gesture and the mark left by the gesture, taking the viewer from the mark to the gesture and back again. The visual loop that extends the painting beyond the canvas, left to right, up to down and back again. The loop between the paint itself and what is painted on the canvas as being literally nothing but the paint, material to subject and back again. Pollock's abstract expressionism can be seen as more than the recording of gesture, everything constitutes a return to itself passing through its origin.

Two quotes extracted from interviews with Jackson Pollock that point to the specific problematics of representation in modernity as well as the looping self-referential and endless nature of his kind of abstraction.

//"New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture."//

[img[images/pollock01.jpg]]

//"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."//

[img[images/pollock02.jpg]]

It might be going a little bit too far to say that Pollock was to painting what Gödel was to mathematics, but if one ignores the devastating consequences of their work and stays only at the analysis of the self-referentiality therein, it is not at all an exaggeration to state such a thing.

In the film //Pollock// (2000), Jackson Pollock is played by director Ed Harris while Jennifer Connelly plays Pollock's wife Lee Krasner. After they had retired to Long Island, Pollock isolates himself in the garden shed of the house where they live. After months of trying to paint, Jackson lets Krasner into the shed to see his canvases. Pollock had been busy and Lee seems impressed, a painter herself she says: "you've cracked it wide open". Referring most probably to the field of painting itself, meaning that Pollock had no longer any master, that he was opening new grounds in painting with this work. The fact that the field of painting is often commented when referring to individual works of Pollock reveals that self-referentiality of which I write in this chapter which is unequivocal in the work of Jackson Pollock.

!! Self-referentiality as an aesthetic dimension
The shift towards self-referentiality as a mechanism of thought is still very much present in our culture, in fact much of today's cultural analysis is principally self-referential. The foundations of this self-referentiality as we have seen, had been laid by people first motivated by skeptical approaches to established forms of thinking and in doing so they opened new ground for others to explore the creative potential of this shift in thought while at the same time setting the intellectual tone of the epoch.

Today this self-referentiality remains very much with us and shapes our cultural landscape in ways that seem unsuspected.

//Glitch art//^^[[7|#FootnotesChapter2]]^^ is a form of expression that first comes into existence when video work became digital. First experimentation with the new set of constraints imposed by digital media, gave birth to unusual imagery that was not possible in older media. This form of expression is strictly self-referential, for in its most basic form it deals with a critique of the medium itself. More recent works in this field are going a little deeper in the exploration of meaning, but the aesthetics themselves are born out of self-referential experimentation.

[img[images/glitch_art/rosa-menkman3.jpg]]
<html>Stairway to Nowhere, digital image, Rosa Menkman</html>

<html>
<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cRDEfiVFrao?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cRDEfiVFrao?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>
</html>
<html>BMP, digital video, Rosa Menkman</html>

It is my contention in this chapter that self-referentiality is a kind of meta-aesthetic born out of skepticism.

"Doubt everything. Find your own light." Siddhārtha Gautama

!! Sensual Illusion
"What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more. Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeeze more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all. The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means. In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.", Susan Sontag ^^[[7|#FootnotesChapter3]]^^

It's not my intention to digress too far into the fallibility of the senses and how that capability of our brain of filling-in the details is the source of a large number of illusions that make our perception of reality questionable. 

However I would like to present here a few examples.

''(@TODO fill some details about these illusions)''

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/optical_illusions/table-illusion.jpg]]

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/optical_illusions/optical_elephant.jpg]]


False perceptions are not only limited to the eye. Our brain reconstructs a a perception of space based on very minute differences in soundwaves, the experience of space can be faked with existing recording equipment, as this popular aural illusion demonstrates. This has to be experienced with headphones for the experience to be convincing.

<html>
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IUDTlvagjJA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IUDTlvagjJA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
</html>

''(@TODO rework, it's too grandiose a statement)''

Not taking the senses for granted is an attitude of the skeptical mind. Exercising this attitude can result, as we shall see in the next chapter, in a tremendous source for creative output. In the next chapter we shall see how a critical cast on the act of looking has driven a lot of visual artwork.


!! Confined spaces

!!!! Job Koelewijn
Jump 5, installation: room with parallel mirrors, 2005

[img[http://www.tubelight.nl/img/Article/460_illustratie_1.jpg]]
[img[http://www.kunstbeeld.nl/upload/nieuws/kb/10-06/DP%20Paviljoens/IMG_0189.jpg]]

!!!! Louise Bourgeois
[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Louise_Bourgeois/T06899_9.jpg]]

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Louise_Bourgeois/louise-bourgeois-passage-dangereux-1997.1196626292.jpg]]

!!!! Francis Bacon
[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Francis_Bacon/Head_(1948).jpg]]

[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/Francis_Bacon/Painting_1946.jpg]]

!! Desconstructing the act of looking
!!!! Edward Muybridge

[img[http://www.bideford.devon.sch.uk/art/gcse07/time/Muybridge.jpg]]

[img[http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/muybridge/muybridge_headspring.jpg]]

[img[http://drnorth.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/muybridge-getting-into-bed.jpg]]

[img[http://www.hartmanfineart.net/_img/art/muybridge_plate163_pop.jpg]]

!Homo Ludens

"Rules in their turn are a very important factor in the play-concept. All play has its rules. They determine what "holds" in the temporary world circumscribed by play. The rules of a game are absolutely binding and allow no doubt. Paul Valery once in passing gave expression to a very cogent thought when he said: "No skepticism is possible where the rules of a game are concerned, for the principle underlying them is an unshakeable truth..." Indeed as soon as the rules are transgressed the whole play-world collapses. The game is over. The umpire's whistle breaks the spell and sets "real" file going again.

The player who trespasses against the rules or ignores them is a  //spoil-sport//. The //spoil-sport// is not the same as the false player, //the cheat//; for the latter pretends to be playing the game and, on the face of it, still acknowledges the //magic circle//. It is curious to note how much more lenient society is to //the cheat// than to the //spoil-sport//. This is because the //spoil-sport// shatters the play-world itself. By withdrawing from the game he reveals the the relativity and fragility of the play-world in which he had temporarily shut himself with others. He robs play of its //illusion//." -- Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga, Nature and Signification of Play (pag. 11)

!Dan Paluska
!!! The Jesus Toaster Insert

[img[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/250/456124655_3bd54db0c4_o.jpg]]

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!!! Theo Jansen, UFO over Delft

[[UFO over Delft|http://www.strandbeest.com/theo_ufo.php]]

!Beyond Belief

!!!Self-awareness of language

“Known knowns, we know what we know. Known unknowns, we know what we don't know, or then, unknown unknowns, the totally other, like, we don't even know what we don't know. Something is missing the most interesting category, not the unknown, not the known unknowns, but the un-unknown knowns, not think we know that we don't know, but think we don't know that we know, that's the unconscious ideology. Although silent prejudices, which determine how we act, how we react, and we, in a way, there are so much the texture in to which we are embedded. ”4

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!!!! Philosophy of language seminal works
It was in 1916 that the work of Ferdinand de Saussure was published posthumously under the title //Cours de Linguistique Générale// a compendium of his last lectures in Geneva, which is regarded as a seminal work on the Philosophy of Language in Western philosophy. Since then the nature of meaning, language usage, the cognition of language and it's relationship with reality has been studied vigorously in disciplines ranging from Philosophy to the relatively recent field of Cognitive Science.

"The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown." ~ Albert Einstein

<html>
<font face="Verdana" size="1" color="#999999"><br/><a href="http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/245449" style="font: Verdana">Windows</a><br/><object width="425px" height="360px" ><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=245449,t=1,mt=video"/><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=245449,t=1,mt=video" width="425" height="360" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br/><a href="http://www.myspace.com/66549374" style="font: Verdana">Peter Greenaway</a> | <a href="http://www.myspace.com/video" style="font: Verdana">Myspace Video</a></font>
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“Never trust the teller, trust the tale” said Lawrence.

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"What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more. Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeeze more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all. The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means. In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.", Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, parf. #9

“But it should be noted that interpretation is not simply the compliment that mediocrity pays to genius. It is, indeed, the modern way of understanding something, and is applied to works of every quality.” Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, paraf. #5

           
"It is... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague." ~ C.S. Pierce (1839 - 1914)

!!! Deconstructing the act of looking

[img[Las Meninas|http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WEjiCu_RNAA/TGWVhpHGVjI/AAAAAAAAJNk/-CZ6doERzzE/s1600/velazquez-las-meninas.jpg]]

[[Golan Levin's opto-isolator|http://www.flong.com/projects/optoisolator/]]

<html>
<object width="400" height="290"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3796361&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3796361&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="290"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/3796361">Opto-Isolator (2007), Interactive Eye Robot</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/golanlevin">Golan Levin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
</html>

[[Golan Levin's eyecode |http://www.flong.com/projects/eyecode/]]

<html>
<object width="400" height="270"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5280244&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5280244&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=1&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;autoplay=0&amp;loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="270"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5280244">Eyecode (Interactive Eye-Tracking Installation)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/golanlevin">Golan Levin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
</html>

!!! Marina Abramovich "The Artist Is Present"

[img[http://blog.spinningkid.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/4422517148_7484749fd1.jpg]]

!!! Jonathan Schipper and Eelco Wagenaar

[img[http://oppositionart.com/images/sphere/workin'sphere1.jpg]]

!!! William Kentdridge in Stereoscopy
[[Interview with William Kentdrige|http://artarchives.net/artarchives/liliantone/tonekentridge.html]]

!!! Alvaro Cassinelli (boxed Ego)
[[boxedEgo|http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/alvaro/boxedEgo/]]

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* Authors@Google: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0eyNkNpL0|Slajov Zizek]], September 12, 2008. Tour of book "On Violence". The quotation is taken directly from the transcript, that's why it's rather quoloquial in style.

"Our tacit acceptance of things as they seem is called ignorance, which is not just a lack of knowledge and things actually exist but an active mistaking of their fundamental nature." -- Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D. in the foreword to Dalai Lama's //How to See Yourself As You Really Are//

"Despite systematic attempts to replace spiritual values with political ideology and commercialism, the vast majority of humanity continues to believe in one religion or another. The tenacity of faith, even in the face of repressive political regimes, clearly demonstrates the potency of religion" -- Dalai Lama, //How to See Yourself As You Really Are//


! The search for truth and the search for beautify are in fact the same pursuit.

!! Dime Museums
[[Dime Museum @ Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_museum]]

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!!!! Illusions

[[Diana Deustch's Scale Aural Illusion|http://philomel.com/musical_illusions/scale.php]]

[[Five Great Auditory Illusions, New Scientist|http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13355-music-special-five-great-auditory-illusions-.html]]
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Job Koelewijn, 2010, Nursery Piece
[img[http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images/114920/578243.jpg]]

[img[http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fairies/cottin2c.jpg]]

"We can no longer sustain the illusion of the great divide. Each new hybrid that arrives on the scene test-tube babies, Prozac, the sequencing of the Human Genome, space stations, global-warming pushes us into that no-mans land between nature and culture" - Erik Davis, TechGnosis, 1998

At some point in history the different peoples that persued the truth somehow became divided in several major groups. How this happened and why it happened is a subject that perhaps is worthy of another thesis, but it is besides the point for this one. The fact remains that they were disengaged from one another and organized themselves in intellectual an arrangement of intellectual //apartheid//. The sciences and the arts became distinct intellectual activities, a wall was built between culture and nature and the great fractalization of culture through specialization made the gaps ever wider, the walls ever taller. Industralization has contributed greatly to this specialization and modernity has widened the cultural gap between disciplines to the extent that there's now a severe misunderstanding of the arts from the scientists and a no less greater misunderstanding of the sciences from the artists. 

This divide is an illusion.

Specialization and the huge spread of knowledge now makes it difficult to imagine that a single person can become throughly experienced in both the sciences and the humanitites. What does a Reinaissance human look like in the twenty first century? Is the dream of the Romantics dead, the aspirations of //total knowledge// of Novalis. Do these grandiose visions make any sense in our current cultural landscape? Or are we from now on doomed to the fractalization of knowledge?

This last proposition is perhaps closer to the truth but the fact that knowledge is throroughly compartimentalized doesn't mean that the barriers for entry to these fields must keep raising. Perhaps in-depth understanding is unattainable, but enough can be learned from multiple disciplines to at least understand in which ways they need each other and find mutual grounds for respect.

It is very sad to see the kinds of arguments that are put forward in many European countries to defend cuts to the arts and the sciences. They demonstrate a profound disconnect between common people and the specialists.

The skeptic is in a advantageous position in this dilemma, for he can move in the interstitial areas between disciplines. Doubt of absolute belonging.


[img[Previous Planning|thesis_mindmap.png]]

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!! Introduction

Prior to the Enlightenment it was not uncommon for an artist to carry out scientific research or for a scientist to be an accomplished artist. Inventors often had backgrounds in practical applications of their favoured disciplines and were thoroughly knowlegeable of both the technical and humanistic implications of their inventions.

Since the Enlightenment the sciences and the arts have been considered as separate intellectual activities. Cartesian dualism has permeated our thinking since then and with it it has also affected the arts and sciences as they are separately categorized and often pitted in opposition in many arguments.

The arts are often characterised as sensual, bodily and Dyonisian, whereas the sciences are supposed to pertain to the realm of the mind and Apollinarean virtue.

The later half of the last century has seen phenomenal advances in the fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and language philosophy that call into question the dualistic view that has permeated culture since the Enlightenment. Also there can be said that the arts have spawned new fields of research and have provided fresh looks on existing gaps in scientific knowledge. The rise of //Artistic Research// as a post-conceptual framework of understanding the arts owes part of its merit to the formalization of artistic practice as a method for knowledge acquisition. Although discussion of Artistic Research is beyond the scope of my research, I will use this concept sparingly in my writing.

The last decades have seen a rise of transdisciplinary practice in many fields of human knowledge. Perhaps as a way of counterbalancing the extreme speciallization that educational systems impose on industrialized nations. However specialization continues to be the general tendency in educational systems.

The mind is now understood as a biochemical machine of sorts that performs abstract processes, the neural support and the conscious outcome being inseparable from each other. The //homunculus// theories are no longer based on our empirical understanding of the mind. There is no clear distinction between the mind of the dancer and the body of the dancer, body and mind coalesce in a complex system.

The dualist vision is now very clearly aged, but somehow it persists in popular culture. It is my personal experience, that a person that studies engineering and art is often questioned with curiosity by interlocutors. With music though there seems to be an exception. An engineer that plays in a jazz band isn't questioned in the same way as an engineer that designs machines that make paintings, for example.

These distinctions are culturally conditioned and there is nothing inherent to the arts or the sciences that should maintain this artificial separation.

!! Research Question

I propose that skepticism is a driving force in the arts as much as it is in the sciences. It is one of the qualities that many significant works incorporate in their precepts.

My research will consist on finding ways in which authors have used skeptical thinking to inspire, inform or drive their work.

!! Methodology

Skepticism is too big a subject to try and cover using a single approach. It is not my intention to cover all aspects of skepticism, from the philosophical, theological or scientific. I will only use arguments of these fields of knowledge if I see it fitting to my argument, which is stricly focused on //inspiration//.

For this I will gather documentation materials from artists, spanning from the visual arts, music and literature that I think transpire certain skepticism. That I choose certain works and place them in the context of a chapter in my thesis inevitably reveals my own interpretation. However I will try to abstain from formulating this interpretation unless strictly necessary.

!! Outline

The thesis will be divided in three major blocks, that comprise the subjects of //belief and skepticism// and will explain the archetypal roles. The //manufacturing of belief// as the job of the skeptic. A third major block will be the investigations into the metaphysics of modernism and how skepticism as been brought to play a major roll in the arts perhaps unwittingly. A //fourth block// would be an investigation on the work of known skeptics, but as the writing evolves these works will likely be interspersed in other relevant chapters.

* The Faker / The Believer
** Archetypes of skepticism
** How modernity makes the skeptic believe in Snake Oil
** The Rise of The Faker
** The subjectification of The Believer

* Manufacturing Belief
** The psychology of confined spaces (Bacon and Bourgeois)
** Making things with language on the convergence of words and actions
** Interpretation is belief
** Exposing the evidence
** Artificial Intelligence

* Modernism as an open door to skeptics
** Meta-art that questions art itself
** The birth of language philosophy and how language starts questioning itself
** Deconstructing the act of looking (Muybridge)
** Minimalism against interpretation
** Arte Povera as muted action

* The art of skeptics and believers
** Duchamp, Manzoni, Velazquez, Dan Paluska, Jan Dibbets, Scott Snibbe, Mona Hatoum, Conrad, Perec, Arvo Part, Hans Haacke, Jonathan Schipper, Nathaniel Mellors.

!! Format

I have decided that paper is an inadecuate support for this thesis as well as unsuitable for my way of working and researching this subject. So I have chosen a website instead. Websites are more dynamic, allow for quicker changes, instant publication and allow to include more types of media than print does.

Because of the dynamic nature of my subject it would be a large presumption to think that a printed thesis in its final form will cover the subject. I am skeptical of the capability of a printed publication to cover a subject that is effectively a moving target.

I have been inspired by Umberto Eco's book //On Ugliness//, to follow a similar format, in which I will write an introductory essay for each chapter and then curate a selection of materials to illustrate the points of the essay, these materials can be video, audio, code, quotations from literary works, photographs and other representations of works of art.

!! Schedule

This is a proposed schedule for the review of the individual blocks of this thesis.

Nov. Joseph Conrad & Perec - reading and writing essays about their texts.

Dec. Cover Modernism, the birth of Meta-Art and Language Philosophy and seek the correlations.

Jan. Minimalism and Arte Povera.

Feb. Write the artists chapter and seek uncovered areas in the other chapters.

March. Chapter on Manufacturing Belief.

!! Significance

Some brave universities the world over are beginning to open their Labs to art students as well as giving liberal arts programmes to their science undergraduates in the hope of cultivating an atmosphere of cross-disciplinary thinking. The impact of specialization in industriallized society has done away with the figure of the //thinker// and has constrained the realities of many professionals to a narrow field of action.

Understanding what binds disciplines of knowledge together and how the approach of one discipline can enrich another without overriding existing methods is essential to dissipate some of the fears associated with loosing "focus" in specialization.

!! Scope and limitations

The subject of my choice is much too broad to cover in significance. I have consciously left out an indepth discussion of the terms "skepticism" and "belief", which are essential for my thesis. Instead I will point out my specific use when necessary, so if it were necessary I will refer to "philosophical skepticism" or "religious belief" when I take a particular angle on those concepts. This way I hope to avoid the overarching exercise of defining them abstractly in a concise way.

I have also decided to drop a historical review of these concepts as well as a historiography of skepticism, which is besides the point for the purpose of this thesis.

!! Reading list

* “Homo Ludens” (1938), Huizinga
* “The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' ” (1897), Joseph Conrad
* “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad
* “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, (1621), Robert Burton
* “The Devil's Chaplain”, R. Dawkins
* “The Blind Watchmaker”, R. Dawkins
* “Philosophy: Who Needs It”, Ayn Rand
* “Conversations on Science Culture and Time”, Michel Serres y Bruno Latour
* “Art as Experience”, John Dewey
* “Essays on the blurring of Art and Life”, Allan Kaprow
* “All Life is Problem Solving”, Karl Popper
* “Life of Galileo”, Berthold Brecht
* “Behind The Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge”, Konrad Lorenz
* “The Origins of Virtue”, Matt Ridley
* “The Brutality of Fact: Interviews With Francis Bacon”, David Sylvester
* “A Void”, George Perec
* “Notes on Camp”, “Against Interpretation”, “The Artist as Exemplary Sufferer”, Susan Sontag

# The Fibonacci Sequence is a numeric progression defined by the following relatioship:
[img[http://thesis.spinningkid.info/images/fibonacci_relation.png]]
This Sequence has several interesting qualities that are often applied to the study of natural phenomena, there's also a direct relationship between this sequence and the Golden Mean which is a measurement technique used in arquitecture. The following table shows the first fifty figures of the Fibonacci Sequence. 
<html>
<table class="wikitable" style="text-align:right">
<tbody><tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>0</sub>=</td>
<td>0</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>1</sub>=</td>
<td>1</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>2</sub>=</td>
<td>1</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>3</sub>=</td>
<td>2</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>4</sub>=</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>5</sub>=</td>
<td>5</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>6</sub>=</td>
<td>8</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>7</sub>=</td>
<td>13</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>8</sub>=</td>
<td>21</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>9</sub>=</td>
<td>34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>10</sub>=</td>
<td>55</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>11</sub>=</td>
<td>89</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>12</sub>=</td>
<td>144</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>13</sub>=</td>
<td>233</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>14</sub>=</td>
<td>377</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>15</sub>=</td>
<td>610</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>16</sub>=</td>
<td>987</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>17</sub>=</td>
<td>1,597</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>18</sub>=</td>
<td>2,584</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>19</sub>=</td>
<td>4,181</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>20</sub>=</td>
<td>6,765</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>21</sub>=</td>
<td>10,946</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>22</sub>=</td>
<td>17,711</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>23</sub>=</td>
<td>28,657</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>24</sub>=</td>
<td>46,368</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>25</sub>=</td>
<td>75,025</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>26</sub>=</td>
<td>121,393</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>27</sub>=</td>
<td>196,418</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>28</sub>=</td>
<td>317,811</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>29</sub>=</td>
<td>514,229</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>30</sub>=</td>
<td>832,040</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>31</sub>=</td>
<td>1,346,269</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>32</sub>=</td>
<td>2,178,309</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>33</sub>=</td>
<td>3,524,578</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>34</sub>=</td>
<td>5,702,887</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>35</sub>=</td>
<td>9,227,465</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>36</sub>=</td>
<td>14,930,352</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>37</sub>=</td>
<td>24,157,817</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>38</sub>=</td>
<td>39,088,169</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>39</sub>=</td>
<td>63,245,986</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>40</sub>=</td>
<td>102,334,155</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>41</sub>=</td>
<td>165,580,141</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>42</sub>=</td>
<td>267,914,296</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>43</sub>=</td>
<td>433,494,437</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>44</sub>=</td>
<td>701,408,733</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><i>F</i><sub>45</sub>=</td>
<td>1,134,903,170</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>46</sub>=</td>
<td>1,836,311,903</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>47</sub>=</td>
<td>2,971,215,073</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>48</sub>=</td>
<td>4,807,526,976</td>
<td><i>F</i><sub>49</sub>=</td>
<td>7,778,742,049</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<small><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number">Source Wikipedia</a></small>
</html>
# [[The Man Who Stopped Time|http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2001/mayjun/features/muybridge.html]], Mitchell Leslie, Stanford Magazine, July 2010.
# The Artist Is Present, Marina Abramovic, MoMA 2010. [[Exhibit website|http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/marinaabramovic/]]

# //The Anatomy of Melancholy//, 1621, Robert Burton.
# //[[The Goat Gland Doctor: The Story of John R. Brinkley| http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/brinkley.html]]//, 2002, Joe Schwarcz, Ph.D.
# //Violence//, 2008, Slavoj Žižek. Allegro, pag. 156.

notes on skepticism as a creative force

On Skepticism

!!! Conrad's preface to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'

As published in the 1990 edition of The Nigger of The Narcissus, collected from the New Review, December, 1897.

It is otherwise with the artist.

A friend of mine once recommended that I read Joseph Conrad's //"Heart of Darkness"// as she thought that I would find there keys that call into question certain philosophical precepts weaved in the text of the novel.

Not being a big fan of the adventure genre in literature I approached the text with some reservations. I was further taken aback by the occassional overt racism and Conrad's overexhaustive descriptive style that made some passages longwinded, although not tedious. However as the story progressed and I managed to dispel my preconceptions Conrad's story haunted my thoughts for a while.

In //"Heart of Darkness"// Conrad tells the story of a young merchant seaman, Marlow who pilots a steamship on a mission to navigate an African river, largely assumed to be the Congo. The novel delves into the many ways in which white colonists scramble for profiting from the land with little regard for wildlife and fellow men.

!!!The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'

In one of the subplots of the novel a crew member of the Narcissus is in the throes of death, everybody in the boats knows that the man will die. Conrad develops the plot into a division of the crew on two sides, each side defined by a moral stand towards the inminent death of Jimmy Wait.

One the one hand there are those that feel that the situation is pulling back from the teamwork necessary to survive at sea and making life in the boat a lot more difficult. On the other hand there are those that lead the mutiny, more sensitive to the death of a colleague, more sympathetic to the suffering of Jimmy and less attentive of the tasks in the Narcissus.In Jimmy’s inminent death they see perhaps a motive for fear for their own and become defiant of authority. A mutiny ensues as they move Jimmy to another part of the Narcissus that is under their control. A crease develops along the crew of the boat separating them in moral grounds.

There’s something quintessetially macho about Conrad’s depiction of life at sea. Defiance and bravado from both sides are used to drive the action while the motives take root on moral principles. This is perhaps why I am somewhat bothered as I read, to see myself taking positions in the different dilemmas that the crew faces. Even when the captain says to Jimmy Wait to “get on with your death”, I can find myself struggling to take sides as the.

En un pasaje del libro del Narciso uno de los tripulantes del barco está al borde de la muerte, todos en el bote saben que vá a morir. Pero Conrad forma “dos grupos” de caracteres en la novela, que se distinguen por su postura moral ante el dilema de esta muerte inminente. Por un lado están aquellos que favorecen el colectivo del grupo, el trabajo arduo del marinero, sin distracciones y por el otro están los amotinados, más vagos y más sensibles a la muerte de un compañero que está claramente cagadito ante el prospecto de su propia muerte. Los ánimos de sus compañeros decaen a la vez que la solidez del amotinamiento crece, la energía cambia de propósito. Quizás haya algo muy de machote en la literatura de Conrad, pero no puedo evitar sentirme algo molesto por verme una y otra vez del lado del capitan del barco cuando le dice a Jimmy Wait con una dureza casi inhumana “get on with your death” para poder sacar adelante la expedición y por el otro me veo alineado con los amotinados en su resistencia ante la durísima autoridad y la ética de trabajo del marino. Lo constructivo del colectivismo de corazón duro y lo destructivo del remoloneo en la compasión y las sensibilidades revolucionarias.
Conrad no habla de heroes en el mar si no que expone la cobardía tras la rectitud moral que todo hombre lleva dentro. Lo que esconde cada hombre tras su inflexible adherencia a unos principios morales. Conrad habla directamente a mis contradicciones, pero no me da consuelo. Me resulta bastante angustioso leerlo la verdad. Le doy vueltas a sus planteamientos y me deprime su retrato del ser humano. Pero me tiene enganchado su narrativa con espíritu psico-filosófico. A la vez que repudio y hasta me irrita su racismo, el suprematismo de corte Imperialista de presencia constante en el texto. Me cansa bastante este cabrón. Después de unas páginas estoy exhausto de hayarme en desacuerdo y alucinando ante la brillantez de sus planteamientos filosóficos por partes iguales.
Creo que veo el escepticismo en el propio Conrad, pero no entiendo muy bien para que le sirve, salvo como motor para generar dilemas y quizás impulsor de su creatividad literaria. Por eso no me consuela, quizás lo que yo busco no exista. Pero lo que estoy viendo de momento encaja con el encuadre de mi tesis, así que me sirve aunque me deja un sabor amargo en la boca. Pues me hace ver el escepticismo como una condena al dilema existencial permanente; sin descanso, sin consuelo, sin resolución. Es desolador, me dan ganas de llorar solo de pensarlo.

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“I count no man as a Philosopher who hath not, be it before the court of his Conscience or at the assizes of his intellect, accused himself of a scurrilous Invention, and stood condemned by his own Judgement a brazen Charlatan” Robert Burton^^[[1|#ReferencesChapterFaker]]^^.

!! I am not a doctor but I play one on TV

I have often asked myself what good it is to be a skeptic when it comes to practical matters in daily life. If one takes an unassuming attitude of doubt in the face of new knowledge, how can one choose between new varieties of Golden or Gala apples at the supermarket?

This can sometimes lead to a kind of mental paralysis, caused by overwhelming doubt, ahead of making a decision that I do not feel fully informed to make. I normally overcome this state by placing trust in my own experience and intuition, but there's always a time-lapse between the feeling of doubt and the reassessment of confidence. Lacking evidence that the course of action I choose might be a progress or a hindrance, I let my mind rest by assuming responsibility for the consequences of my decisions. Still the mental paralysis I described happens from time to time. So what good is it to be skeptical? Where does the determination come from in the skeptic when riddled by doubt?

The effects of this way of thinking are not clearly visible if analyzed at the level of every individual circumstance in which the skeptic encounters doubt. Whether it is a small decision in a given project at work or a life-changing one. Looking at these individual slices of time in the skeptic's life, will not help in understanding the ways in which skepticism might help make good choices in these circumstances. Rather, the exercise of a skeptical attitude, I think, helps in developing moral discernment and finding subtleties in propositions. Which I think is useful beyond any particular circumstance and can contribute to the growth and happiness of those that try what I like to call the //mental gymnastics// of skepticism.

To better understand the role of skepticism in my thesis, I will introduce two archetypes, each embodying an aspect of belief that is modulated by skeptical thinking. These archetypes are those of //The Faker// and //The Believer//.

!!! Dr. Brinkley or is it Mr. Brinkley?
In 1917, Dr. John Brinkley was employed as a house doctor at the Swift meatpacking company, located in Kansas. He was dazzled by the vigorous mating activities of the goats destined for the slaughterhouse. A couple of years later, after Brinkley had gone into private practice in Milford, Kansas, a farmer named Stittsworth came to see him. Stittsworth complained of a sagging libido. Recalling the frantic sexual antics of the goats, the patient said, "Too bad I don't have a billy goat’s glands." “Doctor, I want you to transplant them into me.”^^[[2|#ReferencesChapterFaker]]^^.

Brinkley took the proposition seriously and developed a procedure to surgically insert fragments of a goat's gonad into male scrota. After apparent success and media sensation, Dr. Brinkley went on to build what would become a textbook career in quackery. This remarkable career included his taking control of the media, more particularly radio, and building a network of pharmaceutical companies that directly benefited from his medical advice. John Brinkley built a fortune that would later be totally eroded under pressure from legal actions against him, as his patients fell seriously ill of complications after the interventions.

[img[http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01185/arts-graphics-2008_1185415a.jpg]]

A charlatan explains, in front of an audience, the supernatural effects of some magical potion or miraculous procedure. Builds the promise of an act of healing through forces known only to a privileged few, perhaps to himself alone. For just a few coins, the ailing spectator can find the end of his suffering in this ultimate remedy. What do you have to loose? It's but a few coins! And what if it works?

Be this ultimate remedy a hair growing formula, a direct contact with spirits, a magnetic bracelet, the latest diet, or //[[Power Balance|http://www.powerbalance.com/]]//. An obscure rationalization is offered, often calling upon ancient Eastern philosophies, wonders of biochemestry, phenomena in nature or bedazzling leaps in technology. Snake oil takes many guises.

Brinkley's particular brand of snake oil is a Vitalistic idea, which even at the time was a dubious medical philosophy and is now known to be the source of much quackery. These ideas are borne out of the belief that living organisms contain a vital essence that makes them what they are and that this vital essence is contained in specific parts of their body that appear superficially to be related with the quality in question. So one can become more feisty by assuming the goat's glands, or improve their swimming by eating fish.

[img[images/marcel-duchamp-fontaine-1917.jpg]]

It is a casual coincidence worth remarking, that the year Dr. Brinkley launched his career in quackery, 1917. Is the same year that Marcel Duchamp entered a urinal in a call for works from a New York gallery that stated that all works would be accepted. Naming it //Fountain// and signing it as R. Mutt. In what is still told as one of the most important //coups// in modern art; opening the floodgates of the //ready made//, still wide open today.

!!! The Master of Mystery
At about the same time in 1917, in Santa Ana, California. Harry Houdini performed his //Buried Alive// stunt. A difficult escape that almost cost the already famous escapologist his life. He declared "the weight of the earth is killing" after his assistants had to pull him out in the last inches of his escape as he fell unconscious.

[img[Buried Alive poster|images/houdini-buried_alive.jpeg]]
[img[images/houdini_3.jpg]]

Houdini had by then gained a reputation as a master in the art of uncanny escapes. Sometimes attributed by his patrons as having supernatural powers, Houdini always denied any intervention of the supernatural in his act. A staunch skeptic, Houdini set out to expose frauds purporting to be supernatural phenomena throughout his career. He published works in which he describes his techniques and debunked myths of magical illusionism.

Houdini represents the archetype of what I call The Faker. Let go off any negative connotations you might associate with the word Faker. In this context, I mean Faker the same way an actor is a Faker. Houdini's act was a formidable confluence of showmanship, misdirection and technical skill and he always described it as such. Painting himself as a mere actor he perhaps helped reinforce the believe in punters that his abilities were even more unbelievable, for at least some supernatural power would offer an explanation to the astounded audiences.

With no supernatural power to call upon, Houdini's feats were simply unbelievable. If a jewel is stolen form a locked container, the solution is not telekinesis but the use of a strong magnet or some sleight of hand; if a person vanishes before our eyes, there must be a secret tunnel. It is often the case that Naturalist explanations are //more magical// than a resort to supernatural intervention. The detective's explanation of a tricky deceit by means of which the criminal accomplished the murder in a locked room, is far more //magical// that the claim that he possessed the supernatural ability to move through walls.^^[[3|#ReferencesChapterFaker]]^^

[img[Harry Houdini slips out of a straitjacket while hanging upside down over Broadway, New York, 1917| images/houdini.jpg]]

!!! Cheating Death
Both Houdini and John Brinkley depended on the belief of their followers to carry out their activities. In presenting these two characters as illustrations for the archetypes of //The Faker and The Believer//, I want to make a distinction in the ways in which they generate belief. One that I think is strictly moral in nature.

Mr. Brinkley probably never empirically tested his procedure to find out whether it actually had the benefits on his patients that he purported and if he did, he kept his results to himself and promoted his practice irrespective of these results. Whether he was gullible enough to believe in his own practice or an outright liar that knew about the dangers and uselessness of his procedure, we probably will never know. But the net result is the same, he fought in court to protect what he couldn't back up with evidence. In my archetypal portrayal or these characters, this is a typical response from The Believer.

Every stunt that Houdini enacted involved a series of ancient practices as well as developments in his craft that no person had ever done before. The staging was methodical and consequential and he could reproduce every stunt time and time again, his success or failure was reliant on his skill and the circumstances of his live act alone. He risked his life in every stunt and was introspective when a stunt didn't go the way it was expected. Additionally he took on a role of educator, spreading knowledge about his stunts and teaching others, leaving a legacy of reproducible knowledge. A testament of his own skepticism.

The psychologies of The Believer and that of The Faker are very different on many grounds, some of these differences, I think, can be explained in the way these archetypal characters approach new knowledge. Whereas Houdini wouldn't take a new development for granted and was systematic and creative in his research for new stunts, Mr Brinkley, developed his practice from an untested assumption, achieved a degree of success that he then defended in court when his practice was questioned. The believe of Mr Brinkley's followers depended on his hiding the true nature of his practice. In aligning himself with the belief of his patients that they will get better. Whereas Houdini created that space for belief in his audience by humbly admitting that the supernatural had nothing to do with it, and so they had to place their believe in his remarkable skill.

!!! Belief and the Canon
Extrapolating the archetypes I just illustrated to the arts, I find that some artists delineate their practices along the same moral lines as The Believer and The Faker.

So the afore mentioned Marcel Duchamp would, in light of this view, be a staunch Faker. A character whose //stunts// seek believable results by exposing the true nature of the context in which they were made. His work questioned the conception of how artworks had been made until that point. Introducing the //readymade// he declared that the artist didn't need to define the form of every object created, changing it's context was enough to give it meaning. Duchamp emphasized the role of the artist as a giver of meaning. His work also had the effect of questioning the ability of the institutions to be truly open as well as the art historical canon, whether or not this was intended in his work is not a matter I will argue. He transpired his skepticism in later interviews. Skepticism of institutions and the role of art as it was understood by the canonical view at the time.

On the side of The Believer I am reminded of Matt Mullican's performance at the Tate Modern in 2007^^[[2|#Footnotes]]^^.

In this performance, he claimed to be put under hypnosis throughout the entire duration, in a state of “hyperconsciousness” as he described it. The setting was a safe-looking improvised living room. During the performance one has the impression of snooping into somebody else's therapy session. It is strangely intimate, although the setting is clearly theatrical. After a while of disconnected talk, some drawing on the walls and crawling on the floor, the artist broke out in an emotional outburst that caused me to feel strangely sympathetic towards him. He then went down on the floor and in a whiny voice started pouring out what seemed like the confession of an honest charlatan. He cried out "You know what!? You are a fucking fake cunt! You are a fake cunt! You are not even fucking real! You don't know what you are doing! You are just there pretending! You are a fake! You are not even a funny fake! You are a saaaaad, saaaaaad fake!".

This strange confession of charlatanry takes place within one of the establishment's great institutions and it is in fact somewhat defused by it. However it has the effect of creating belief in the following way; a person that has central stage at an institution of such caliber, must surely have done something of relevance, he can't just be the faker he claims to be! Onlookers are tricked into believing that this person must indeed be transfixed in a mental state beyond mere consciousness, for such confession couldn't otherwise have taken place in such a context and so Mullican's act becomes possible.

One could perhaps draw a parallel between Mullican's confession of charlatanry and Houdini's humble admission of his plain humanity. But Mullican's call of effect as a Faker turns him in fact into a Believer, for his statement helps to consolidate the institutional power that allows him to behave as Faker, it is the only way for such statement to make the performance believable, for it to take place in such institution. The Tate in Mullican's case is a little bit like the courts are in Mr. Brinkely's dispute, a way to safeguard his practice. In being complacent of institutional power, Mullican's performance can resort to shock tactics to cause in the spectator any degree of uneasiness.

Duchamp's pissoir still creates uneasiness some ninety years on since its first public display and is far more subtle than any psychotherapeutical tantrum. Duchamp was a Faker because his //artistic transvestites// in the form of readymades undress the canon and leave it shivering with nothing on and there's nothing for the spectator to hold onto but the harsh reality he exposed.

The Faker and The Believer

“I count no man is a Philosopher who hath not, be it before the court of his Conscience or at the assizes of his intellect, accused himself of a scurrilous Invention, and stood condemned by his own Judgement a brazen Charlatan” Robert Burton^^[[1|#Footnotes]]^^.

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I once saw a recording of a performance by Matt Mullican^^[[2|#Footnotes]]^^ at the Tate Modern on January 2007, he claimed to be put under hypnosis throughout the entire performance, in a state of “hyperconsciousness” as he described it. The setting was a safe-looking improvised living room. The performance was too long to retell in its entirety, but one had the impression of snooping into somebody else's psychotherapy session. It was strangely intimate, although the setting could not be more theatrical. After a while of disconnected talk, a little drawing on the walls and crawling on the floor, the artist broke out in an emotional outburst that caused me to feel strangely sympathetic towards him. I was rather taken aback though, when he went down on the floor and in a whiny voice started pouring out what seemed like the confession of an honest charlatan. He cried out “You know what!? You are a fucking fake cunt! You are a fake cunt! You are not even fucking real! You don't know what you are doing! You are just there pretending! You are a fake! You are not even a funny fake! You are a saaaaad, saaaaaad fake!”.

Then there's the figure of the charlatan, the archenemies of the skeptic. There's the type of charlatan that believes that the snake oil that he sells has indeed unparalleled healing properties, faced with this person the skeptic will not have a moment of recognition. When a charlatan knows all too well that his snake oil has none of the effects he advertises but will still fake it, perhaps to make a living, perhaps for a less prosaic reason; this charlatan is a “faker”. Unlike the foolish charlatan we saw before the faker has a mind not too different from that of the skeptic. Fakers know the factual realities of their magical ointments, as much as skeptics do. The difference between them is the moral stand they take with respect to that factual reality, one chooses to take advantage of it by making a profit, the other decides to unmask these factual realities in the hope of demolishing the power invested in the charlatan by those who believe what they are told.

Duchamp, Klein and Manzoni all produced pieces of meta-art 6) at some point in their careers. Works that embody a critical view on Art that have passed to the annals of art history as key pieces in Modernism. This type of critical thinking is familiar to skeptical minds, questioning the grounds covered by existing works. It is no wonder that at certain points in their careers their work was seen as the product of charlatanry. Putting a pissoir in a gallery and challenging existing assumptions of what constitutes a work of art is a kind of proof-testing of formal assumptions. Just like skepticism is a way to proof-test assumptions in science, so it is in the arts as well. One of the many convergences of art and science can be seen in the skeptical practitioners in both fields. This can perhaps be interpreted as a meeting of the artistic and the scientific mind.

Skepticism is what allows me to take distance from the reality I perceive and hold my perceptions in my hands as if they were objects that I look at from outside. The new insights I then gain inform every aspect of my work.

| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |
| 01/12/2010 18:52:37 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 01/12/2010 19:18:24 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 01/12/2010 20:05:09 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 01/12/2010 20:20:31 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 01/12/2010 20:21:18 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 14/12/2010 01:32:47 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups | ok |
| 21/12/2010 01:03:35 | Luis | [[empty.html|file:///Users/zilog/Desktop/thesis_wiki/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] | backups |
| 05/01/2011 11:38:28 | YourName | [[empty.html|file:///Users/lf/Desktop/temp/thesis/empty.html]] | [[store.php|file:///Users/lf/Desktop/temp/thesis/httP;//thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | file:///Users/lf/Desktop/temp/thesis/httP;//thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] |  | failed |
| 05/01/2011 11:38:49 | YourName | [[empty.html|file:///Users/lf/Desktop/temp/thesis/empty.html]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] |  | ok |
| 05/01/2011 12:04:27 | luisf | [[empty.html|file:///Users/lf/Desktop/temp/thesis/empty.html#%5B%5BThe%20Faker%20and%20The%20Believer%5D%5D]] | [[store.php|http://thesis.spinningkid.info/store.php]] | . | [[empty.html | http://thesis.spinningkid.info/empty.html]] |  |

UploadPlugin uses the following sequence for finding parameters :
#''macro'' parameters
#''Options'' saved in cookies
#''Plugin'' default values
!Options used by UploadPlugin
| Option | Value | Default |
|Upload Username: |<<option txtUploadUserName>>| |
|Upload Password: |<<option pasUploadPassword>>| |
|Url of the UploadService script: |<<option txtUploadStoreUrl urlInput>>| store.php |
|Relative Directory where to store the file: |<<option txtUploadDir urlInput>>| . (the script directory) |
|Filename of the uploaded file: |<<option txtUploadFilename urlInput>>| index.html |
|Directory to backup file on webserver^^(1)^^: |<<option txtUploadBackupDir urlInput>>| //null// (none/no backup) |
|Log in UploadLog |<<option chkUploadLog>> Trace Upload| true |
|Maximum of lines in UploadLog |<<option txtUploadLogMaxLine>>| 10 |

^^(1)^^No backup if Backup Directory is empty, the previous file will be overwritten. Use a '.' to backup in the script directory.

<<upload>> with these options.

!Upload Macro parameters
{{{
<<upload [storeUrl [toFilename [backupDir [uploadDir [username]]]]]>>
 Optional positional parameters can be passed to overwrite UploadOptions. 
}}}

!UploadToFile Macro Macro parameters
{{{
<<uploadTofile [filename [tiddlerTitle]]>>
 tiddlerTitle, filename: if omitted the title of the current tiddler
}}}

<<uploadToFile allowedsites.txt allowedsites.txt>>

/***
|''Name:''|UploadPlugin|
|''Description:''|Save to web a TiddlyWiki|
|''Version:''|4.1.4|
|''Date:''|2008-08-11|
|''Source:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin|
|''Documentation:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPluginDoc|
|''Author:''|BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info)|
|''License:''|[[BSD open source license|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#%5B%5BBSD%20open%20source%20license%5D%5D ]]|
|''~CoreVersion:''|2.2.0|
|''Requires:''|PasswordOptionPlugin|
***/
//{{{
version.extensions.UploadPlugin = {
	major: 4, minor: 1, revision: 4,
	date: new Date("2008-08-11"),
	source: 'http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin',
	author: 'BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info',
	coreVersion: '2.2.0'
};

//
// Environment
//

if (!window.bidix) window.bidix = {}; // bidix namespace
bidix.debugMode = false;	// true to activate both in Plugin and UploadService
	
//
// Upload Macro
//

config.macros.upload = {
// default values
	defaultBackupDir: '',	//no backup
	defaultStoreScript: "store.php",
	defaultToFilename: "index.html",
	defaultUploadDir: ".",
	authenticateUser: true	// UploadService Authenticate User
};
	
config.macros.upload.label = {
	promptOption: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki with UploadOptions",
	promptParamMacro: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki in %0",
	saveLabel: "save to web", 
	saveToDisk: "save to disk",
	uploadLabel: "upload"	
};

config.macros.upload.messages = {
	noStoreUrl: "No store URL in parmeters or options",
	usernameOrPasswordMissing: "Username or password missing"
};

config.macros.upload.handler = function(place,macroName,params) {
	if (readOnly)
		return;
	var label;
	if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http") 
		label = this.label.saveLabel;
	else
		label = this.label.uploadLabel;
	var prompt;
	if (params[0]) {
		prompt = this.label.promptParamMacro.toString().format([this.destFile(params[0], 
			(params[1] ? params[1]:bidix.basename(window.location.toString())), params[3])]);
	} else {
		prompt = this.label.promptOption;
	}
	createTiddlyButton(place, label, prompt, function() {config.macros.upload.action(params);}, null, null, this.accessKey);
};

config.macros.upload.action = function(params)
{
		// for missing macro parameter set value from options
		if (!params) params = {};
		var storeUrl = params[0] ? params[0] : config.options.txtUploadStoreUrl;
		var toFilename = params[1] ? params[1] : config.options.txtUploadFilename;
		var backupDir = params[2] ? params[2] : config.options.txtUploadBackupDir;
		var uploadDir = params[3] ? params[3] : config.options.txtUploadDir;
		var username = params[4] ? params[4] : config.options.txtUploadUserName;
		var password = config.options.pasUploadPassword; // for security reason no password as macro parameter	
		// for still missing parameter set default value
		if ((!storeUrl) && (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http")) 
			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString())+'/'+config.macros.upload.defaultStoreScript;
		if (storeUrl.substr(0,4) != "http")
			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString()) +'/'+ storeUrl;
		if (!toFilename)
			toFilename = bidix.basename(window.location.toString());
		if (!toFilename)
			toFilename = config.macros.upload.defaultToFilename;
		if (!uploadDir)
			uploadDir = config.macros.upload.defaultUploadDir;
		if (!backupDir)
			backupDir = config.macros.upload.defaultBackupDir;
		// report error if still missing
		if (!storeUrl) {
			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.noStoreUrl);
			clearMessage();
			return false;
		}
		if (config.macros.upload.authenticateUser && (!username || !password)) {
			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.usernameOrPasswordMissing);
			clearMessage();
			return false;
		}
		bidix.upload.uploadChanges(false,null,storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir, backupDir, username, password); 
		return false; 
};

config.macros.upload.destFile = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir) 
{
	if (!storeUrl)
		return null;
		var dest = bidix.dirname(storeUrl);
		if (uploadDir && uploadDir != '.')
			dest = dest + '/' + uploadDir;
		dest = dest + '/' + toFilename;
	return dest;
};

//
// uploadOptions Macro
//

config.macros.uploadOptions = {
	handler: function(place,macroName,params) {
		var wizard = new Wizard();
		wizard.createWizard(place,this.wizardTitle);
		wizard.addStep(this.step1Title,this.step1Html);
		var markList = wizard.getElement("markList");
		var listWrapper = document.createElement("div");
		markList.parentNode.insertBefore(listWrapper,markList);
		wizard.setValue("listWrapper",listWrapper);
		this.refreshOptions(listWrapper,false);
		var uploadCaption;
		if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http") 
			uploadCaption = config.macros.upload.label.saveLabel;
		else
			uploadCaption = config.macros.upload.label.uploadLabel;
		
		wizard.setButtons([
				{caption: uploadCaption, tooltip: config.macros.upload.label.promptOption, 
					onClick: config.macros.upload.action},
				{caption: this.cancelButton, tooltip: this.cancelButtonPrompt, onClick: this.onCancel}
				
			]);
	},
	options: [
		"txtUploadUserName",
		"pasUploadPassword",
		"txtUploadStoreUrl",
		"txtUploadDir",
		"txtUploadFilename",
		"txtUploadBackupDir",
		"chkUploadLog",
		"txtUploadLogMaxLine"		
	],
	refreshOptions: function(listWrapper) {
		var opts = [];
		for(i=0; i<this.options.length; i++) {
			var opt = {};
			opts.push();
			opt.option = "";
			n = this.options[i];
			opt.name = n;
			opt.lowlight = !config.optionsDesc[n];
			opt.description = opt.lowlight ? this.unknownDescription : config.optionsDesc[n];
			opts.push(opt);
		}
		var listview = ListView.create(listWrapper,opts,this.listViewTemplate);
		for(n=0; n<opts.length; n++) {
			var type = opts[n].name.substr(0,3);
			var h = config.macros.option.types[type];
			if (h && h.create) {
				h.create(opts[n].colElements['option'],type,opts[n].name,opts[n].name,"no");
			}
		}
		
	},
	onCancel: function(e)
	{
		backstage.switchTab(null);
		return false;
	},
	
	wizardTitle: "Upload with options",
	step1Title: "These options are saved in cookies in your browser",
	step1Html: "<input type='hidden' name='markList'></input><br>",
	cancelButton: "Cancel",
	cancelButtonPrompt: "Cancel prompt",
	listViewTemplate: {
		columns: [
			{name: 'Description', field: 'description', title: "Description", type: 'WikiText'},
			{name: 'Option', field: 'option', title: "Option", type: 'String'},
			{name: 'Name', field: 'name', title: "Name", type: 'String'}
			],
		rowClasses: [
			{className: 'lowlight', field: 'lowlight'} 
			]}
};

//
// upload functions
//

if (!bidix.upload) bidix.upload = {};

if (!bidix.upload.messages) bidix.upload.messages = {
	//from saving
	invalidFileError: "The original file '%0' does not appear to be a valid TiddlyWiki",
	backupSaved: "Backup saved",
	backupFailed: "Failed to upload backup file",
	rssSaved: "RSS feed uploaded",
	rssFailed: "Failed to upload RSS feed file",
	emptySaved: "Empty template uploaded",
	emptyFailed: "Failed to upload empty template file",
	mainSaved: "Main TiddlyWiki file uploaded",
	mainFailed: "Failed to upload main TiddlyWiki file. Your changes have not been saved",
	//specific upload
	loadOriginalHttpPostError: "Can't get original file",
	aboutToSaveOnHttpPost: 'About to upload on %0 ...',
	storePhpNotFound: "The store script '%0' was not found."
};

bidix.upload.uploadChanges = function(onlyIfDirty,tiddlers,storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password)
{
	var callback = function(status,uploadParams,original,url,xhr) {
		if (!status) {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.loadOriginalHttpPostError);
			return;
		}
		if (bidix.debugMode) 
			alert(original.substr(0,500)+"\n...");
		// Locate the storeArea div's 
		var posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
		if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
			alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
			return;
		}
		bidix.upload.uploadRss(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	};
	
	if(onlyIfDirty && !store.isDirty())
		return;
	clearMessage();
	// save on localdisk ?
	if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "file") {
		var path = document.location.toString();
		var localPath = getLocalPath(path);
		saveChanges();
	}
	// get original
	var uploadParams = new Array(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password);
	var originalPath = document.location.toString();
	// If url is a directory : add index.html
	if (originalPath.charAt(originalPath.length-1) == "/")
		originalPath = originalPath + "index.html";
	var dest = config.macros.upload.destFile(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir);
	var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
	log.startUpload(storeUrl, dest, uploadDir,  backupDir);
	displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.aboutToSaveOnHttpPost.format([dest]));
	if (bidix.debugMode) 
		alert("about to execute Http - GET on "+originalPath);
	var r = doHttp("GET",originalPath,null,null,username,password,callback,uploadParams,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

bidix.upload.uploadRss = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		if(status) {
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			bidix.upload.uploadMain(params[0],params[1],params[2]);
		} else {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssFailed);			
		}
	};
	// do uploadRss
	if(config.options.chkGenerateAnRssFeed) {
		var rssPath = uploadParams[1].substr(0,uploadParams[1].lastIndexOf(".")) + ".xml";
		var rssUploadParams = new Array(uploadParams[0],rssPath,uploadParams[2],'',uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5]);
		var rssString = generateRss();
		// no UnicodeToUTF8 conversion needed when location is "file" !!!
		if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) != "file")
			rssString = convertUnicodeToUTF8(rssString);	
		bidix.upload.httpUpload(rssUploadParams,rssString,callback,Array(uploadParams,original,posDiv));
	} else {
		bidix.upload.uploadMain(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	}
};

bidix.upload.uploadMain = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
		if(status) {
			// if backupDir specified
			if ((params[3]) && (responseText.indexOf("backupfile:") > -1))  {
				var backupfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")+11,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")));
				displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.backupSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+backupfile);
			}
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			store.setDirty(false);
			log.endUpload("ok");
		} else {
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			log.endUpload("failed");			
		}
	};
	// do uploadMain
	var revised = bidix.upload.updateOriginal(original,posDiv);
	bidix.upload.httpUpload(uploadParams,revised,callback,uploadParams);
};

bidix.upload.httpUpload = function(uploadParams,data,callback,params)
{
	var localCallback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		url = (url.indexOf("nocache=") < 0 ? url : url.substring(0,url.indexOf("nocache=")-1));
		if (xhr.status == 404)
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.storePhpNotFound.format([url]));
		if ((bidix.debugMode) || (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )) {
			alert(responseText);
			if (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )
				responseText = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("\n\n")+2);
		} else if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0') 
			alert(responseText);
		if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0')
			status = null;
		callback(status,params,responseText,url,xhr);
	};
	// do httpUpload
	var boundary = "---------------------------"+"AaB03x";	
	var uploadFormName = "UploadPlugin";
	// compose headers data
	var sheader = "";
	sheader += "--" + boundary + "\r\nContent-disposition: form-data; name=\"";
	sheader += uploadFormName +"\"\r\n\r\n";
	sheader += "backupDir="+uploadParams[3] +
				";user=" + uploadParams[4] +
				";password=" + uploadParams[5] +
				";uploaddir=" + uploadParams[2];
	if (bidix.debugMode)
		sheader += ";debug=1";
	sheader += ";;\r\n"; 
	sheader += "\r\n" + "--" + boundary + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\""+uploadParams[1]+"\"\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8" + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Length: " + data.length + "\r\n\r\n";
	// compose trailer data
	var strailer = new String();
	strailer = "\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n";
	data = sheader + data + strailer;
	if (bidix.debugMode) alert("about to execute Http - POST on "+uploadParams[0]+"\n with \n"+data.substr(0,500)+ " ... ");
	var r = doHttp("POST",uploadParams[0],data,"multipart/form-data; ;charset=UTF-8; boundary="+boundary,uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5],localCallback,params,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

// same as Saving's updateOriginal but without convertUnicodeToUTF8 calls
bidix.upload.updateOriginal = function(original, posDiv)
{
	if (!posDiv)
		posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
	if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
		alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
		return;
	}
	var revised = original.substr(0,posDiv[0] + startSaveArea.length) + "\n" +
				store.allTiddlersAsHtml() + "\n" +
				original.substr(posDiv[1]);
	var newSiteTitle = getPageTitle().htmlEncode();
	revised = revised.replaceChunk("<title"+">","</title"+">"," " + newSiteTitle + " ");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-HEAD","MarkupPreHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-HEAD","MarkupPostHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-BODY","MarkupPreBody");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-SCRIPT","MarkupPostBody");
	return revised;
};

//
// UploadLog
// 
// config.options.chkUploadLog :
//		false : no logging
//		true : logging
// config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine :
//		-1 : no limit
//      0 :  no Log lines but UploadLog is still in place
//		n :  the last n lines are only kept
//		NaN : no limit (-1)

bidix.UploadLog = function() {
	if (!config.options.chkUploadLog) 
		return; // this.tiddler = null
	this.tiddler = store.getTiddler("UploadLog");
	if (!this.tiddler) {
		this.tiddler = new Tiddler();
		this.tiddler.title = "UploadLog";
		this.tiddler.text = "| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |";
		this.tiddler.created = new Date();
		this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
		this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
		store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	}
	return this;
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.addText = function(text) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	// retrieve maxLine when we need it
	var maxLine = parseInt(config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine,10);
	if (isNaN(maxLine))
		maxLine = -1;
	// add text
	if (maxLine != 0) 
		this.tiddler.text = this.tiddler.text + text;
	// Trunck to maxLine
	if (maxLine >= 0) {
		var textArray = this.tiddler.text.split('\n');
		if (textArray.length > maxLine + 1)
			textArray.splice(1,textArray.length-1-maxLine);
			this.tiddler.text = textArray.join('\n');		
	}
	// update tiddler fields
	this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
	this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
	store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	// refresh and notifiy for immediate update
	story.refreshTiddler(this.tiddler.title);
	store.notify(this.tiddler.title, true);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.startUpload = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir,  backupDir) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	var now = new Date();
	var text = "\n| ";
	var filename = bidix.basename(document.location.toString());
	if (!filename) filename = '/';
	text += now.formatString("0DD/0MM/YYYY 0hh:0mm:0ss") +" | ";
	text += config.options.txtUserName + " | ";
	text += "[["+filename+"|"+location + "]] |";
	text += " [[" + bidix.basename(storeUrl) + "|" + storeUrl + "]] | ";
	text += uploadDir + " | ";
	text += "[[" + bidix.basename(toFilename) + " | " +toFilename + "]] | ";
	text += backupDir + " |";
	this.addText(text);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.endUpload = function(status) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	this.addText(" "+status+" |");
};

//
// Utilities
// 

bidix.checkPlugin = function(plugin, major, minor, revision) {
	var ext = version.extensions[plugin];
	if (!
		(ext  && 
			((ext.major > major) || 
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor > minor))  ||
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor == minor) && (ext.revision >= revision))))) {
			// write error in PluginManager
			if (pluginInfo)
				pluginInfo.log.push("Requires " + plugin + " " + major + "." + minor + "." + revision);
			eval(plugin); // generate an error : "Error: ReferenceError: xxxx is not defined"
	}
};

bidix.dirname = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	} else {
		return filePath.substring(0, filePath.lastIndexOf("\\"));
	}
};

bidix.basename = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("#")) != -1) 
		filePath = filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(lastpos + 1);
	} else
		return filePath.substring(filePath.lastIndexOf("\\")+1);
};

bidix.initOption = function(name,value) {
	if (!config.options[name])
		config.options[name] = value;
};

//
// Initializations
//

// require PasswordOptionPlugin 1.0.1 or better
bidix.checkPlugin("PasswordOptionPlugin", 1, 0, 1);

// styleSheet
setStylesheet('.txtUploadStoreUrl, .txtUploadBackupDir, .txtUploadDir {width: 22em;}',"uploadPluginStyles");

//optionsDesc
merge(config.optionsDesc,{
	txtUploadStoreUrl: "Url of the UploadService script (default: store.php)",
	txtUploadFilename: "Filename of the uploaded file (default: in index.html)",
	txtUploadDir: "Relative Directory where to store the file (default: . (downloadService directory))",
	txtUploadBackupDir: "Relative Directory where to backup the file. If empty no backup. (default: ''(empty))",
	txtUploadUserName: "Upload Username",
	pasUploadPassword: "Upload Password",
	chkUploadLog: "do Logging in UploadLog (default: true)",
	txtUploadLogMaxLine: "Maximum of lines in UploadLog (default: 10)"
});

// Options Initializations
bidix.initOption('txtUploadStoreUrl','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadFilename','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadDir','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadBackupDir','');
bidix.initOption('txtUploadUserName','');
bidix.initOption('pasUploadPassword','');
bidix.initOption('chkUploadLog',true);
bidix.initOption('txtUploadLogMaxLine','10');


// Backstage
merge(config.tasks,{
	uploadOptions: {text: "upload", tooltip: "Change UploadOptions and Upload", content: '<<uploadOptions>>'}
});
config.backstageTasks.push("uploadOptions");


//}}}

//last update: UploadPlugin v 4.1.3//

!Description
UploadPlugin with <<tag UploadService>> extend TiddlyWiki with @@upload@@ and @@save to web@@ commands. 
UploadPlugin uses Username and Password from UploadOptions stored in cookies to authenticate itself to [[store.php]] or [[store.cgi]].
UploadPlugin requires PasswordOptionPlugin.
French translation available as a separate tiddler UploadPluginMsgFR

!!UploadPlugin
*If the TiddlyWiki is viewed @@from local disk@@ :
**{{{<<upload ...>>}}}
***display as '''upload'''
***after saving to disk, upload to a website.
*If the TiddlyWiki is viewed @@from a website@@ :
**{{{<<upload ...>>}}}
***display as '''save to web'''
***save to the same website.
*If GenerateAnRssFeed in AdvancedOptions is set :
**generate the content of the RSSFeed 
**upload the RssFile
**Caution : use the SiteUrl tiddler to specify the right url of the TiddlyWiki in the generated RssFile
*DisplayMessage
*If a backupDir is specified
**and if a file already exists in the uploadDir withe the same fielname, move it in the backup dir and rename it with a timestamp
*if UploadLog is activated every upload action is logged in UploadLog
**only the last maxLines are stored
**if maxLine = -1 no truncation will occured 
hint : if UploadLog is the first tiddler in the TimelineTab, no tiddler has been changed since last upload.

!![[store.php]]
*UserVariables to set :
//{{{
$AUTHENTICATE_USER = true; // true | false
$USERS = array(
 'UserName1'=>'Password1', 
 'UserName2'=>'Password2', 
 'UserName3'=>'Password3'); // set usernames and strong passwords
$DEBUG = false; // true | false
//}}}
*method GET
**display an information page
*method POST
**if $~AUTHENTICATE_USER is ''true''
***presence and value of user and password are checked with $USER and $PASSWORD 
**if toFilename already exists and backDir parameter specified
***rename toFilename to backupDir/toFilename.AAAAMMDD.HHSS.html
**copy temporaryUploadedFile toFilename
**return status

!![[store.cgi]]
*UserVariables to set :
//{{{
CONFIG = {
 :users => {
 'UserName1'=>'Password1', 
 'UserName2'=>'Password2', 
 'UserName3'=>'Password3')
 },
 :authenticateUser => true,
 :backupExistingFile => true,
 :withUploadDir => true
}
//}}}
*same processing as store.php above

!Usage : 
{{{
<<upload>>
 uses UploadOptions saved in cookies :
 txtUploadUserName: username
 pasUploadPassword : password
 txtUploadStoreUrl : store script
 txtUploadDir : relative path for upload directory
 txtUploadFilename : upload filename
 txtUploadBackupDir : relative path for backup directory

<<upload [storeUrl [toFilename [backupDir [uploadDir [username]]]]]>>
 Optional positional parameters can be passed to overwrite 
 UploadOptions. 
}}}

Suggestion: Install the {{{<<upload ... >>}}} macro in SideBarOptions just below {{{<<saveChanges>>}}} macro.


!User manual
See HowToUpload

!Installation :
*Install the UploadPlugin as usual
*[[Upload]] the [[store.php]] file on your php aware webserver in your TiddlyWiki directory
*Protect your server against malicious upload. Two approaches :
**set $~AUTHENTICATE_USER to true in the [[store.php]] script
***configure $USER and $PASSWORD in the [[store.php]] script on your webserver
***set UploadOptions in conformity with [[store.php]]
**Use server protection :
***for Apache web server ([[for detail see Apache documentation|http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html]]) : 
****configure and upload the [[.htaccess]] [[.passwd]]
***for other web servers see the appropriate documentation
*Configure an upload button, for example in the SideBarOptions
!Suppported Browser
*Firefox and Gecko based browser: tested Ok
*Internet Explorer : tested Ok
*Safari : tested ok on OS X
*Others : Not tested, please report status.

!Revision history
<<tiddler UploadPluginRevisionHistory>>

<!--{{{-->
<div class='toolbar' macro='toolbar [[ToolbarCommands::ViewToolbar]]'></div>
<h1 macro='view title'></h1>
<div class='subtitle'>
<small><span macro='view modifier link'></span>, <span macro='view modified date'></span> (<span macro='message views.wikified.createdPrompt'></span> <span macro='view created date'></span>)</small></div>
<div class='viewer' macro='view text wikified'></div>
<div class='tagging' macro='tagging'></div>
<div class='tagged' macro='tags'></div>
<div class='tagClear'></div>
<!--}}}-->

<?php
/***
! User settings
Edit these lines according to your need
***/
//{{{
$AUTHENTICATE_USER = true;	// true | false
$USERS = array(
	'UserName1'=>'Password1', 
	'UserName2'=>'Password2', 
	'UserName3'=>'Password3'); // set usernames and strong passwords
$DEBUG = false;				// true | false
$CLEAN_BACKUP = true; 		// during backuping a file, remove overmuch backups
$FOLD_JS = true; 			// if javascript files have been expanded during download the fold them
error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);
//}}}
/***
!Code
No change needed under
***/
//{{{

/***
 * store.php - upload a file in this directory
 * version :1.6.1 - 2007/08/01 - BidiX@BidiX.info
 * 
 * see : 
 *	http://tiddlywiki.bidi.info/#UploadPlugin for usage
 *	http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.file-upload.php 
 *		for details on uploading files
 * usage : 
 *	POST  
 *		UploadPlugin[backupDir=<backupdir>;user=<user>;password=<password>;uploadir=<uploaddir>;[debug=1];;]
 *		userfile <file>
 *	GET
 *
 * each external javascript file included by download.php is change by a reference (src=...)
 *
 * Revision history
 * V1.6.1 - 2007/08/01
 * Enhancement: Add javascript folding
 * V1.6.0 - 2007/05/17
 * Enhancement: Add backup management
 * V1.5.2 - 2007/02/13
 * Enhancement: Add optional debug option in client parameters
 * V1.5.1 - 2007/02/01
 * Enhancement: Check value of file_uploads in php.ini. Thanks to Didier Corbière
 * V1.5.0 - 2007/01/15
 * Correct: a bug in moving uploadFile in uploadDir thanks to DaniGutiérrez for reporting
 * Refactoring
 * V 1.4.3 - 2006/10/17 
 * Test if $filename.lock exists for GroupAuthoring compatibility
 * return mtime, destfile and backupfile after the message line
 * V 1.4.2 - 2006/10/12
 *  add error_reporting(E_PARSE);
 * v 1.4.1 - 2006/03/15
 *	add chmo 0664 on the uploadedFile
 * v 1.4 - 2006/02/23
 * 	add uploaddir option :  a path for the uploaded file relative to the current directory
 *	backupdir is a relative path
 *	make recusively directories if necessary for backupDir and uploadDir
 * v 1.3 - 2006/02/17
 *	presence and value of user are checked with $USERS Array (thanks to PauloSoares)
 * v 1.2 - 2006/02/12 
  *	POST  
 *		UploadPlugin[backupDir=<backupdir>;user=<user>;password=<password>;]
 *		userfile <file>
*	if $AUTHENTICATE_USER
 *		presence and value of user and password are checked with 
 *		$USER and $PASSWORD
 * v 1.1 - 2005/12/23 
 *	POST  UploadPlugin[backupDir=<backupdir>]  userfile <file>
 * v 1.0 - 2005/12/12 
 *	POST userfile <file>
 *
 * Copyright (c) BidiX@BidiX.info 2005-2007
 ***/
//}}}

//{{{

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'GET') {
	/*
	 * GET Request
	 */
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" >
		<title>BidiX.info - TiddlyWiki UploadPlugin - Store script</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>
		<p>store.php V 1.6.1
		<p>BidiX@BidiX.info
		<p>&nbsp;</p>
		<p>&nbsp;</p>
		<p>&nbsp;</p>
		<p align="center">This page is designed to upload a <a href="http://www.tiddlywiki.com/">TiddlyWiki<a>.</p>
		<p align="center">for details see : <a href="http://TiddlyWiki.bidix.info/#HowToUpload">TiddlyWiki.bidix.info/#HowToUpload<a>.</p>	
	</body>
</html>
<?php
exit;
}

/*
 * POST Request
 */
	 
// Recursive mkdir
function mkdirs($dir) {
	if( is_null($dir) || $dir === "" ){
		return false;
	}
	if( is_dir($dir) || $dir === "/" ){
		return true;
	}
	if( mkdirs(dirname($dir)) ){
		return mkdir($dir);
	}
	return false;
}

function toExit() {
	global $DEBUG, $filename, $backupFilename, $options;
	if ($DEBUG) {
		echo ("\nHere is some debugging info : \n");
		echo("\$filename : $filename \n");
		echo("\$backupFilename : $backupFilename \n");
		print ("\$_FILES : \n");
		print_r($_FILES);
		print ("\$options : \n");
		print_r($options);
}
exit;
}

function ParseTWFileDate($s) {
	// parse date element
	preg_match ( '/^(\d\d\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)\.(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)/', $s , $m );
	// make a date object
	$d = mktime($m[4], $m[5], $m[6], $m[2], $m[3], $m[1]);
	// get the week number
	$w = date("W",$d);

	return array(
		'year' => $m[1], 
		'mon' => $m[2], 
		'mday' => $m[3], 
		'hours' => $m[4], 
		'minutes' => $m[5], 
		'seconds' => $m[6], 
		'week' => $w);
}

function cleanFiles($dirname, $prefix) {
	$now = getdate();
	$now['week'] = date("W");

	$hours = Array();
	$mday = Array();
	$year = Array();
	
	$toDelete = Array();

	// need files recent first
	$files = Array();
	($dir = opendir($dirname)) || die ("can't open dir '$dirname'");
	while (false !== ($file = readdir($dir))) {
		if (preg_match("/^$prefix/", $file))
        array_push($files, $file);
    }
	$files = array_reverse($files);
	
	// decides for each file
	foreach ($files as $file) {
		$fileTime = ParseTWFileDate(substr($file,strpos($file, '.')+1,strrpos($file,'.') - strpos($file, '.') -1));
		if (($now['year'] == $fileTime['year']) &&
			($now['mon'] == $fileTime['mon']) &&
			($now['mday'] == $fileTime['mday']) &&
			($now['hours'] == $fileTime['hours']))
				continue;
		elseif (($now['year'] == $fileTime['year']) &&
			($now['mon'] == $fileTime['mon']) &&
			($now['mday'] == $fileTime['mday'])) {
				if (isset($hours[$fileTime['hours']]))
					array_push($toDelete, $file);
				else 
					$hours[$fileTime['hours']] = true;
			}
		elseif 	(($now['year'] == $fileTime['year']) &&
			($now['mon'] == $fileTime['mon'])) {
				if (isset($mday[$fileTime['mday']]))
					array_push($toDelete, $file);
				else
					$mday[$fileTime['mday']] = true;
			}
		else {
			if (isset($year[$fileTime['year']][$fileTime['mon']]))
				array_push($toDelete, $file);
			else
				$year[$fileTime['year']][$fileTime['mon']] = true;
		}
	}
	return $toDelete;
}

function replaceJSContentIn($content) {
	if (preg_match ("/(.*?)<!--DOWNLOAD-INSERT-FILE:\"(.*?)\"--><script\s+type=\"text\/javascript\">(.*)/ms", $content,$matches)) {
		$front = $matches[1];
		$js = $matches[2];
		$tail = $matches[3];
		if (preg_match ("/<\/script>(.*)/ms", $tail,$matches2)) {		
			$tail = $matches2[1];
		}
		$jsContent = "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"$js\"></script>";
		$tail = replaceJSContentIn($tail);
		return($front.$jsContent.$tail);
	}
	else
		return $content;
}

// Check if file_uploads is active in php config
if (ini_get('file_uploads') != '1') {
   echo "Error : File upload is not active in php.ini\n";
   toExit();
}

// var definitions
$uploadDir = './';
$uploadDirError = false;
$backupError = false;
$optionStr = $_POST['UploadPlugin'];
$optionArr=explode(';',$optionStr);
$options = array();
$backupFilename = '';
$filename = $_FILES['userfile']['name'];
$destfile = $filename;

// get options
foreach($optionArr as $o) {
	list($key, $value) = split('=', $o);
	$options[$key] = $value;
}

// debug activated by client
if ($options['debug'] == 1) {
	$DEBUG = true;
}

// authenticate User
if (($AUTHENTICATE_USER)
	&& ((!$options['user']) || (!$options['password']) || ($USERS[$options['user']] != $options['password']))) {
	echo "Error : UserName or Password do not match \n";
	echo "UserName : [".$options['user']. "] Password : [". $options['password'] . "]\n";
	toExit();
}



// make uploadDir
if ($options['uploaddir']) {
	$uploadDir = $options['uploaddir'];
	// path control for uploadDir   
    if (!(strpos($uploadDir, "../") === false)) {
        echo "Error: directory to upload specifies a parent folder";
        toExit();
	}
	if (! is_dir($uploadDir)) {
		mkdirs($uploadDir);
	}
	if (! is_dir($uploadDir)) {
		echo "UploadDirError : $uploadDirError - File NOT uploaded !\n";
		toExit();
	}
	if ($uploadDir{strlen($uploadDir)-1} != '/') {
		$uploadDir = $uploadDir . '/';
	}
}
$destfile = $uploadDir . $filename;

// backup existing file
if (file_exists($destfile) && ($options['backupDir'])) {
	if (! is_dir($options['backupDir'])) {
		mkdirs($options['backupDir']);
		if (! is_dir($options['backupDir'])) {
			$backupError = "backup mkdir error";
		}
	}
	$backupFilename = $options['backupDir'].'/'.substr($filename, 0, strrpos($filename, '.'))
				.date('.Ymd.His').substr($filename,strrpos($filename,'.'));
	rename($destfile, $backupFilename) or ($backupError = "rename error");
	// remove overmuch backup
	if ($CLEAN_BACKUP) {
		$toDelete = cleanFiles($options['backupDir'], substr($filename, 0, strrpos($filename, '.')));
		foreach ($toDelete as $file) {
			$f = $options['backupDir'].'/'.$file;
			if($DEBUG) {
				echo "delete : ".$options['backupDir'].'/'.$file."\n";
			}
			unlink($options['backupDir'].'/'.$file);
		}
	}
}

// move uploaded file to uploadDir
if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'], $destfile)) {
	if ($FOLD_JS) {
		// rewrite the file to replace JS content
		$fileContent = file_get_contents ($destfile);
		$fileContent = replaceJSContentIn($fileContent);
		if (!$handle = fopen($destfile, 'w')) {
	         echo "Cannot open file ($destfile)";
	         exit;
	    }
	    if (fwrite($handle, $fileContent) === FALSE) {
	        echo "Cannot write to file ($destfile)";
	        exit;
	    }
	    fclose($handle);
	}
    
	chmod($destfile, 0644);
	if($DEBUG) {
		echo "Debug mode \n\n";
	}
	if (!$backupError) {
		echo "0 - File successfully loaded in " .$destfile. "\n";
	} else {
		echo "BackupError : $backupError - File successfully loaded in " .$destfile. "\n";
	}
	echo("destfile:$destfile \n");
	if (($backupFilename) && (!$backupError)) {
		echo "backupfile:$backupFilename\n";
	}
	$mtime = filemtime($destfile);
	echo("mtime:$mtime");
} 
else {
	echo "Error : " . $_FILES['error']." - File NOT uploaded !\n";

}
toExit();
//}}}
?>