അശാന്തിയുടെ അനന്തലോകങ്ങൾ ഇവിടെ തുടങ്ങുന്നു!

ഇന്ന് നമ്മൾ ഏറെ കേൾക്കുന്ന ഒരു പദമാണ് ലോക ക്രമം. എന്താണ് ലോക ക്രമം? എന്തിനാണ് ലോകക്രമം? ലോകമാകെ മരണദൂതന്മാർ പാറിപറക്കുമ്പോൾ, ലോകമാകെ കാൽപ്പന്തു കളിയിൽ അഭിരമിക്കുമ്പോൾ ആരുടെ പര്യായമാണ് ഈ ലോകക്രമം? ആരുടെ പദാവലി ആണ് ഈ ലോകക്രമം? ആരുടെ ആവശ്യമാണ് ഒരു പുതിയ ലോകക്രമം?

ഒന്ന് തീർച്ച, ലോകക്രമം എന്ന സങ്കൽപം തന്നെ മാറിയിരിക്കുന്നു. അരാജകത്വത്തിന്റെ പന്ഥാവിലൂടെ സഞ്ചരിക്കുന്ന അന്ധരും മൂകരും ബധിരരും ആയ ദേശരാഷ്ട്രങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു സംഘാതമായി നമ്മുടെ ആഗോള സംഘടനകൾ മാറിയിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇവിടെ നിയമങ്ങൾ ഇല്ല, നീതി ഇല്ലേ ഇല്ല, നിയതമായ യുക്തി ആകട്ടെ, പരിപൂർണമായി അസ്തമിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. ഈ ലോകക്രമം രണ്ടു പതിറ്റാണ്ടിലെ സുഷുപ്തിയുടെ ഒരു സംഭാവനയാണ് എന്ന് തോന്നാം. ഇവിടെ പലതും ചുരുളഴിയേണ്ടതുണ്ട്. ഇന്ന് കാണുന്ന മഹായുദ്ധത്തിന്റെ സന്നാഹങ്ങൾ ഒരു വലിയ പദ്ധതിയുടെ ദീർഘമായ പര്യവസാനമായി കാണുന്നവരുമുണ്ട്.

ഇത് തീർച്ചയായും പുതിയ ചരിത്രത്തിന്റെ അപനിർമ്മിതി തന്നെ ആണ്. നമ്മൾ തന്നെ ആശ്ലേഷിച്ച വിപണി മുതലാളിത്തം നമുക്ക് നൽകിയ ഒരു സമ്മാനമാണ് പുതിയ ഈ ലോക ക്രമം. ഈ ലോക ക്രമം, പുതിയ തരം ഭീതിയും, ശാന്തതയും അശാന്തതയും നിറഞ്ഞു നിൽക്കുന്ന ഒരു അന്തരീക്ഷം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നു. ഇവിടെ യുദ്ധത്തിന്റെ ഉന്മാദവവും കൊലവിളിയുടെ ഉത്സുകതയും നിറഞ്ഞ ഒരു അന്തരീക്ഷം നമുക്ക് കാണാവുന്നതാണ്. ഓർമ്മകൾക്കും വികാരങ്ങൾക്കും ഹൃസ്വമായ ദൈർഖ്യം ഉള്ള ഒരു കാലമാണിത്. ഈ സ്ഥലകാല ബോധം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നതിൽ വിവര സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യയും മാധ്യമ സിദ്ധാന്തങ്ങളും വഹിച്ച പങ്കു ചെറുതല്ല.

ഇവിടെ ദേശരാഷ്ട്രങ്ങൾക്കു അതിർവരമ്പുകൾ നഷ്ടപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇത് പുതു ലോകക്രമം തന്നെ ആണ്. അശാന്തിയുടെ അനന്തമായ ലോകക്രമം. ഇവിടെ അനന്തമായ അരാജകത്വവും, അതിരില്ലാത്ത അധിനിവേശവും, അനന്യമായ അനാഥത്വവും നമുക്ക് കാണാൻ കഴിയും. നമ്മളിതുവരെ കണ്ടതും, കേട്ടതും, അറിഞ്ഞതും ആയ കഥകൾ പുതിയ യാഥാർഥ്യങ്ങൾക്കു വഴിമാറുന്നു. നമ്മളേറെ അപസർപ്പക കഥകളും, ഗൂഢമായ സിദ്ധാന്തങ്ങളും ഒക്കെ കേട്ടു. അതൊക്കെ വഴിതെളിച്ചത് ഈ പുതിയ ലോക ക്രമത്തിനായുള്ള വരവേൽപ്പായിരുന്നു. ഇത് മുൻപുള്ള ലോക മഹായുദ്ധങ്ങളെക്കാളും വളരെ സവിശേഷപ്പെട്ടതായി മാറുന്നത് ഇങ്ങനെ ആണ്.

ഒന്നാം ലോകമഹായുദ്ധം, ഓട്ടോമൻ സാമ്രാജ്യത്വത്തിന്റെയും, രണ്ടാം ലോകമഹായുദ്ധം, ബ്രിട്ടീഷ് സാമ്രാജ്യത്വത്തിന്റെയും അസ്തമയത്തിനു കാരണമായപ്പോൾ ഇനി വരാൻ പോകുന്ന അനന്തമായ ഹൃസ്വയുദ്ധങ്ങൾ, ലോകമെമ്പാടുമുള്ള ദേശരാഷ്ട്രങ്ങളുടെ ഉന്മൂലനത്തിനോ, അസ്തമയത്തിനോ കാരണം ആയേക്കാം. ഇവിടെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ പക്ഷങ്ങൾ ഇല്ല. എല്ലാ ഉല്പാദന, വിപണന, വിപുലീകരണ മേഖലകളിലും യാന്ത്രിക ബുദ്ധിയുടെ സഹായത്തോടെ വലിയ തോതിൽ എകികരണങ്ങൾ സാധ്യമായിരിക്കുന്നു. അതിനാൽ, ഇവിടെ നടക്കുന്ന പുതുലോക നിർമിതിയിൽ, പുത്തൻ മുതലാളിത്തത്തിന് ആശങ്ക പെടാൻ വളരെ ഒന്നും തന്നെ ഇല്ല.

പലസ്‌തീൻ വംശഹത്യകൾ മായാത്ത കനലുകളും, കണ്ണുനീരുകളും, കബന്ധങ്ങളും കൊണ്ട് നിറഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ നമ്മൾ പലതും സംശയിച്ചു. ഉക്രൈൻ തകർത്തെറിയപ്പെട്ടപ്പോൾ പല ചോദ്യങ്ങൾ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. നേപ്പാൾ കത്തി എരിഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ പലതും ഓർമ്മപെടുത്തലായി . ഇന്ന്, ഇറാൻ ചാമ്പലാകുമ്പോൾ നമ്മുടെ മുൻപിൽ നെടുവീർപ്പുകളും, നീണ്ട നിഴലുകളും മാത്രം. ലോക മനസാക്ഷി എന്ന ഒന്നില്ല എന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവ്. ലോകം പുതിയ ലോകമാണ്. പുതിയ ക്രമം ആണ്. ഇവിടെ ഇടതു പക്ഷം ഇല്ല. ന്യൂന പക്ഷം ഇല്ല. ഇവിടെ പ്രതിരോധം ഇല്ല. ഇവിടെ ഉള്ളത് ഭയപ്പാടും, ഭീകരതയും, ഭ്രാന്തും, ഭീഭത്സവും ആയ രക്ത ദാഹികളുടെ മാമാങ്കം മാത്രം.

The Glossy world around 21st century Intellectual fashion parade

Stomach full of ideas and mouthful of lies: 

They come in thick lens and frames, shabby face with hair spread all over, distant gaze at the foreign lands.
They have one thing in common: a sort of contentment, air of passivity and blooming fragrance of satisfaction of their intellectual prowess.

Do we need intellectuals to guide us in these moments of paid subservience to the orders of various kind?

Across nations, seminars, conferences we are seeing intellectuals of various kind. Some busy selling their days of diaspora, some venting their anger across.

Our society is largely unguided now. We tread in crowds and commit unforced errors and heinous crimes motivated by urges of carnal self and no remorse. At the same time, I could listen to a bunch of intellectuals who deliver wisdom from the heights.

This post is prompted by hearing a few intellectuals the other day speaking about Indian nation state, the challenges of sovereignty, the fundamentalist Gandhi, the possible resurgence of Asia in the world stage, the problems in Kashmir valley, lack of critical attitude in the society etc.

Undoubtedly, their is a market out there for these intellectuals. World all over, intellectuals bred from Asia will be sold like hot cakes in the international intelligentsia and academic space. Their genuine dissents with the native regimes will be a good brand for them to sell.

A few of these themes are relevant indeed. No disagreement whatsoever. The point is when these intellectuals occupy our public space and speak about these numerous issues, I am not sensing an iota of integrity in their words or deeds. It may be a personal prejudice of mine. But I am not able to suppress this feeling. Do

Our nation needs genuineness and integrity more than any intellectual play of words or any kind of deft maneuvering over the world of ideas. Developed nations and the wealthy nations will have the luxury to breed and feed this kind of fashioned intellectuals. We need real blood people who can think beyond their personal reflections and turmoils.

'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' : മുക്കുവന്റെ പ്രണയ കാവ്യവും ചില ചോദ്യങ്ങളും

'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' കണ്ടു. അജിത്‌ പിള്ളയുടെ ആദ്യത്തെ സംവിധാന ,സംരഭം. ലക്ഷദ്വീപിന്റെ ദൃശ്യ ഭംഗി നന്നായി പ്രമേയവുമായി സമ്ന്വയിപിചിരിക്കുന്നു.  കഥയിലെ വിവിധങ്ങളായ സ്ഥലകാലങ്ങൾ യുക്തിപൂർവമായി ഭാവങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു തുടര്ച്ച സൃഷ്ടിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.

എന്നാലും ചില വസ്തുതകൾ പറയേണ്ടതുണ്ട്. കുതിര മീനുകള എന്ന സങ്കല്പത്തെ അതിന്റെ പൂര്ണമായ ശക്തിയിൽ പ്രയോഗിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ല. കഥയിലെ നായക കഥപാത്രങ്ങളുടെ സ്വഭാവ വിശേഷങ്ങളായി കുതിര മീനുകൾ  അവശേഷിക്കുന്നു. അത് പോലെ തിമിഗല  വേട്ടയുടെ ചിത്രീകരണവും അതിന്റെ സജീവതയോടെ ഉപയോഗിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ടില്ല.

കാല്പനികതയുടെ ഒരു വ്യഗ്രത ചിത്ര  സന്നിവേശത്തിൽ തെളിഞ്ഞു കാണാം. എന്നാൽ വ്യഗ്രതയോടെ പ്രണയത്തിന്റെയും സമാഗമത്തിന്റെയും പരിസമാപ്തി സൃഷ്ടിച്ചു കഴിയുമ്പോൾ പിന്നെ ഒന്നും പറയാനില്ലാത്ത ശൂന്യത നമുക്കനുഭവപെദുന്നു.

ഇതു പുത്തൻ സിനിമകളുടെ ഒരു  പാരിമിതി ആയിത്തീരുന്നു.പുത്തൻ സാമൂഹ്യ അന്തരീക്ഷം ഉള്ളപോഴും പുതിയ സങ്കേതങ്ങൾ ഉള്ളപോഴും പഴയ ചോദ്യങ്ങളും പഴയ ഉത്തരങ്ങളും ഒട്ടുമിക്ക ഉദ്യമങ്ങളിലും പ്രതിഫലിക്കുന്നു.

അങ്ങനെ 'മൂസയിലെ കുതിര മീനുകൾ' മൂസ എവിടെയാണെന്നോ കുതിര മീനുകൾ കണ്ടാൽ എങ്ങനെ ഉണ്ടെന്നോ പറയാതെ, ചൂണ്ടി കാണിക്കാതെ ഒരു മുക്കുവന്റെ പ്രണയ കാവ്യം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നു. 

Why digital physical design unity is not skeuomorphism

Unity in design praxis, blending the needs of digital and physical worlds is aspiration of many. It is at times a hot topic of discussion as well. Many design theorists look at skeuomorphism as the obvious choice and the approach to arrive at a unified design for digital and physical worlds. As we know skeuomorphism attempts to translate the physical features explicitly into digital realm. This is subject to criticism from various corners.


My critic is not from the angle of any pristine principles, rather from the perspective of a student of nature. And I don't make any loud claims that design is always the manifestation of truth and honesty. Design is as artificial as any form of art and exploration of truth as any kinds of science. Machine design will be largely driven by the forces of human machine interaction and reciprocal evolution. And I must say it is a misconception that the design is an explicit visual centered paradigm. Yes, it is true that visual features can quickly communicate design elements however there is a larger set of implicit design elements in every object, whether digital or physical. When you design a product or a service or an interactive experience for a commodity in a utilitarian relationship, explicit and consumer specific features are highlighted.

However this is not always true in the case of causal and natural relationships. When relationships evolve through a self organized network or a biological system, they abstract a lot of design aspects. Let us take the example of birds and their wings. Can we say that the evolution of wings in a bird is always driven by the use value alone. Of course not. Ecology also plays a role. Let us take the case of social signs and syntax in language. Can we have single design variable for describing the evolution of all the language symbols. Again it is not possible. Hence the analysis and investigation into the wide spectrum of natural and social relationships require multivariate analysis that goes beyond explicit forms.

Constructivism and the world of art: Beyond the noise

Investigations on the major milestones of Russian formalism took me to the foundations of constructivism. I found the following books informative on the historic role of constructivism in shaping a social aesthetics of art and literature in the modern times. However my pursuit to find the critical role of constructivism in shaping up a materialist consciousness in the emerging literary groups of Soviet Union needs further references.

In the book: Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in A Digital World, I came across an interesting article by Mayakovsky here: How are Verses Made?. Quite thoughtful indeed. This book mentions that environment design and artifact design need to be worked upon separately.

The same book says about another conjecture that the markets are inherently reflexive when the author is speaking about the ‘open textured’ nature of designs. The rationale is that whenever the interpretations of human action can change the course of subsequent action and interpretation, it is said to be reflexive. While searching online, I could see that constructivism is almost used synonymous with the category ‘social constructionism’ and many authors perceive Marxism itself as a philosophy centered on social constructionism.

Going through one such book, Building Knowledge Cultures, we can see that there is a recent attempt to create mystery around the concept of constructivism. This book presents an argument that constructionism and constructivism are entirely different schools of thought. I will need to examine the authenticity of this laughable proposition.

On going further, the book Unfolding Social Constructionism speaks about a critical approach to cognitive psychology and its representational paradigms. It says that memories, perceptions, motives etc are not psychological entities, rather constructed in conversation.

The book, The Russian Experiment in Art, 1863-1922 says that constructivism achieved its most complete realization in the early films of Sergei Eisenstein. Another book, Realist Constructivism says that a constructivist will take a clearer position on the ontological role between individual and society than on the questions surrounding the power.

Constructivism in Film: The Man with the Movie Camera : a Cinematic Analysis has finally landed me on the history of the movement in Russia at least. According to this book, constructivism was famously defined in the ‘Realist Manifesto’ issued by the brothers Naum Gabo and Antonin Pevsner. They wrote that ‘art is the realization of our spatial perception of the world’. The rhythms of the working men and the machines play an important role in the constructivist theater. Constructivist photo-montage is based on the principle of self reference and it precedes the emergence of the self referential cinema.

Like other constructivists, Alexander Rodchenko emphasized the self referential aspect of the photograph achieved through the dualistic relationship between the images content and the means by which the image is constructed. He suggested that the photographer should find the most expressive view point that would alert the viewer of the potential use of the medium. Implicit in this approach is the formalist’s method of ‘defamilarization’. This is an interesting development that constructivism becomes a tool to break the false consciousness.

Digital consciousness: Emergence of new state of mind

Consciousness is an expression of experience, an expression of your higher grasping and control over life and reality. We say that someone is unconscious in their actions or thoughts, when we cannot find a rational or unreal reference to some of their expressions or natural responses. It can be termed as a complex result derived from the history of experiences, neural behaviors of memory and deep rooted social symbols from racial memory. 

Without a real reason or material connection, new forms of consciousness or unconscious will emerge in the society or individuals. Hence the collection of imprints of digital technology and modes of commodity production are very much reasons for this new forms of consciousness. Consciousness is never complete in a single human being. It is in between people and their social reflections. I am conscious about what people think about myself equally as what I think of myself. Thus our thought processes meet inside each one of us. Will this happen in digital experience as well?

Creative Commons: Fotopedia -  Making of Harry Porter

Digital consciousness is a nice term for this age of digital devices and digitization of experiences. Before you are digitally consciousness, you are naturally digitally unconscious. You will be exhibiting certain unique unconscious responses to digital surroundings and ecosystem. Like any ecosystem, digital realm also will have layers of experiences. digital art, digital signs, digital science, digital philosophy, digital religions, digital fetishism, digital ideology, digital pathology all will be part of this way of life that reflects in this new way of thinking. How is digitization coming to our life in such a big way? It is part of our professional and personal life alike. Workplace intimacy and expertise with digital technologies follow at home. The more we use them in our economic transactions and money making moments, it becomes closer to us. This is quite natural.

Digitization introduces a lot of layers and hierarchies of experiences. We bank on technology to pierce through these layers to reach out to more people virtually. Then these layers will become natural parts of our digital persona and virtual life. These virtual networks offer huge amount of 'life casting' to attract our interests. Digitization has huge capability to create a virtual layer that imitates you and amplify your like and dislikes. This reflexive capacity of digital medium can induces a hyper level of narcissism in our ego. It can override your balanced state of mind in great scales. 

CreativeCommons: Fotopedia: MessagePad

When we deal with digital experience, their is a certain amount of abstraction and condensation in this mode as opposed to analog expediences. It is always in beta. Data is never in final form. It continuously evolves with the digital interfaces. Thus human mind fails to a certain extent to generate a final reasoning or conclusion about digital moments. When we experience anything our mind works on both reality principle and pleasure principle. Digital experiences provides a digital layer that directly interact with human to create a satisfaction in both real terms and pleasure. Thus human mind continues to explore digital experience. 

When we take mind and body together and weigh the influence of digitization, it may seem that the mind is the most affected by it. Though mind may be the larger part of this engagement, our senses and active body organs also are part of this experience. When digitization enriches mobile technology, it becomes part of every moment of our conscious life as well. 

When you become digitally conscious, you affinity to devices and miniature details of life continues to increase and your mind will struggle with meta-narratives in every kinds of experience, be it politics or poetic, be it love or distastes. We are getting more details than we can comprehend in the capacity of human cognition for a moment of experience. It also alters the scales of space and time in the digital information communication and experiences. Thus building a perspective in digital experience becomes increasingly difficult. The moment our mind realizes this, it may either go into addiction or aggression. 

If we can treat digital experience as normal as real experience, this layer of hyper reaction and ideological affinity can be controlled. As we know, a mirror is always a mirror, irrespective of how much you like your reflections !

Can cinema be an art of deception?

Film Review: Malayalam movie 'Drishyam'

Not getting into the controversies about the originality of the cinematic theme, let me express some of my thoughts about a movie I watched recently. It is Drishyam directed by Jithu Joseph. Mohan Lal, Asha Sharath, Meena and Siddhik are part of the main cast. It has become a block buster and getting popular review comments and word of mouth publicity. 

The movie begins with the tag line 'Visuals can be deceiving'. At the end of the 150 minutes, one may wonder what is the visual that deceived us. It was the narrative and the entire movie screenplay that deceived us. Moreover it raised a few questions on my mind. 

Can cinema / literature be the art form of deception? The movie goes at length to showcase the efforts of the commonsensical hero to hide a secret. The hero is on a war of survival against the brilliant but morally drained and personally shattered police officer who has lost all sense of humanity to prove a crime.

So on onside we have a villager trying to hide a grave secret and on the other side we have a police officer who goes brutal to unravel the mysteries surrounding her son. Where is a social conflict here? 

There are sexual abuses happening at various parts of our country. Then where should we begin the story? Should we keep the camera on the life a person who commits a crime to protest the abuse and then praise his efforts and brilliance in hiding the secret for eternity? Of course not. 

Despite a decent behavioural acting by Mohan Lal and the other crew, the movie is a pack of spades and strained imagination. Like every other commercial film that boasts about the marvels of editing, this film tries to create a perspective that is just dependent on an actor. The story is dead somewhere in the middle. 

Not only visuals but every art form can be used as a device for deception. It is artist who applies creativity to expose anti social elements and express truth in its highest form of existence, whether it is dream or reality. 

When humans dream of Algebra, nature crafts our Geometry!

A Collection of thoughts on Mathematical Languages:

Natural Reflections on Algebra & Geometry

This post is inspired by an intriguing thought that disturbs me often when I try to relate the beauty of algebraic notions and their syntactical complexities with the physical dimensions and measures of geometric nature. Geometrical shapes of vivid complexity is all over us. Algebraic knowledge becomes richer and deeper day by day. 

At the outset, algebra appears to me as the attempts of human mind to find an order within the physical and its own humane cognitive nature. Hence at times algebra becomes associative and at times abstract. Geometry is mostly occupied with unique physical operators for measuring nature and natural objects. As human mind and its boundless imagination works in both the streams of knowledge, they always explore anew territories and often produce complex functions and abstractions. Humankind crafts nature in their own reflection. 

As we know, our innate tendency to imitate nature has been one of the fundamental driving force in all our scientific, artistic and engineering initiatives. This tendency gets transformed into further advanced forms of knowledge as we apply our reflections of nature into our labor process. This tendency can be seen in the mathematical languages as well. Our mathematical observations about geometry has helped our investigations to find patterns in the field of numbers and algebraic symbols. Is there a difference in the nature of measurement in Algebra and Geometry? Though the approach remains the same the challenges differ widely.

Some metric level contradictions in the nature of Algebra and Geometry

I was always perplexed about the physical differences between various elementary mathematical operators like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. When I add entities of different properties, the sum never accumulates in nature. It occupies a physical space less than or equal to the nature of individual entities. 

Taking an example, if we add one mango and an orange in a physical box they take space as equal to their physical dimensions. In the representational mathematical space also they occupy distinct locations. When we take two mangoes here they occupy same space in the physical box whereas they add on to the same quantity in the representational space. 

The question is whether the mathematical symbolic space is as accurate as the physical geometrical space. For convenience we may denote this representational space as algebraic. The algebraic space is often limited by the limits of our abstractions and the capacity to associate them whereas the geometric space is challenged by the scope of observation and the limits on the minutest quantum that we can reach. 

Numbers are the base constructs of the symbolic space. They become complex when the physical world in the scope becomes wider and deeper. We think of complex numbers and complex plane when we reach a limit to measuring the diagonal of a triangle made of single unit edges. Then the new symbol enters our mathematical vocabulary. This is just an example. Similarly when we think of trigonometric measurements, we find new sinusoidal and cosine patterns emerging in symbolic space. It is a new synthesis of physical and symbolic space.

Next question is can symbolic space travel ahead of the physical space. In other words, can we dream a physical entity before experiencing its real physical nature. I must say that at times yes. It is not magic or miracle. It is because of the intellectual capacities of human cognition and the power of knowledge to expand the horizons of our recognition. Each strides in the cognitive skills of human mind and our social experiences enrich our mathematical languages, whether they reflect our knowledge about symbolic space or physical space. 

Nature of Evolution : A Note on the boundaries of Darwinism

Self Similarity of Cognition

Self Similarity of Cognition

Do we perceive the grand nature as a reflection of our innate self? This question may sound philosophical at large. To make it clear, let me frame the question as: how do I conclude that the society is evolving? Are we comparing the history of life with our present achievements? When we examine the organs, bones, muscles, movement patterns, anatomy, cell structures in context of evolution, we tend to compare them with human specific configurations. Is this model quite subjective? May be it is true that this reflexive element is an inevitable aspect of experiments. My point of view is not towards attributing subjectivity to the methodology of observation-ism in scientific experiments. 

Rather, I see an aspect and a drive for self-similarity in many of the human cognitive activities. Going further, this self-similarity seems to be driven from an innate instinct of nature itself. Our cognitive mind is essentially seeking self-similarity in all the material objects of life. Even its cognitive processes are affected / influenced by this instinct. Our art works, aesthetics, and our artistic creations are many at times influenced by nature. We see mimicking nature a prelude to many original creations. Even highly original engineering and aesthetic works are inspired and driven by nature. This all suggest an inclination towards self similarity in our cognitive mind. This self similarity at times makes measurement of our experiences highly subjective. Thus a metric for self similarity is worth a mathematical pursuit.

+Gokul Alex 

De-Cognition: Social Media and the Information Architecture

Demystifying the Internet Pragmatism: A Cognitive Approach

Any media ecosystem evolves around the currents of communication. How different is Social Media from the mainstream media and the traditional formats of a communicative medium? The levels and depth of commoditization has liquidated the reach of communicative rationality in the media formats such as Television, Film, etc. Social Media has evolved around the concept of social networking and the inherent non-linear and decentralized nature of Internet. Social Networking as a concept has roots in Sociology and demands a wider narrative. To analyze Internet as a Public Sphere, we need to demystify various abstractions to reach the political economy of the worlds largest producer and consumer of information.

Can Social Media, with its base in Social Networking topology has always offered a potential for becoming the next generation cognitive network. It has even been visualized as the axis for a semantic web where information becomes a self organizing network. Is this technological pragmatism anywhere near real life possibilities? If not, why so? This is the vantage point of this critique. Why do we need this much of information in Social Media. What is the driving force behind the information architecture and the accumulation of information in the social media space. Big Data and the information overloading has becomes the prime movers for the Social Business. Social Business has been predicted as the game changer in the information technology landscape. Thus it is a big business now. 

The question is has the cost of business sacrificed the potentials for developing cognitive networks around Social Media. When it comes to the information architecture, we need to know the basics. Who is the producer of information. It is each of us. How is the Search Engine giants generating wealth of information and the uniform resource locators (URL). The URLs act as the nodes in the information graphs. It is each of us, consumers, who creates various paths around these nodes and make them alive. This is largely forgotten. Thus the real value of information is generated by the end users like us. Information machines are thriving on the cognitive networks created by our information production, consumption, circulation and re-production. Search Engines are only one side of the coin. The present generation content aggregators are also only dynamic nodes of information. 

Cognitive networks created by us becomes commodity in the split of each second. This commodity again circulates among the networks of us. In each turn and twist of this information nodes and network, it generates money, the real money ! Thus we are working for a global system of finance capital virtually not knowing the sweet sweat that we shed in front of the the dumb terminals of computers. It is indeed a great state of hibernation or a glorified state of social pathology. 

+Gokul Alex 

Some Pathological Trends in the Social Media

On the Ideological Apparatus behind the Social Media Measurements

Social Self? This supposed to be 'oxymoron' has been with us for quite some time now. Now we believe that the more we are social in social media, the more we become identity conscious and identity empowered. May be a small leap of faith for the humanity and a giant step for the technology. What is happening in this flurry of affairs? 

Now we have conceded that the Social Media spread across the nation states has generated a huge volume of data about the humanity. May be this is the data store about the people with the access to internet and the world market forces believe that they are going to the the drivers of growth for the decades to come. Hope their predictions and reasons stand the test of time. 

Looking at the state of Social Media, now we can see that every other social media preaches to measure our online presence and to rationalize it. In other words, formalize our social self. But a moment please, what is that we are doing? Are we becoming more social and empathetic towards each other? Are we becoming more conversant in real life. If not, we need to look beyond the social media metrics that projects our presence in scores and dashboards. 

The Social Media is making us more and more eloquent about our thoughts, our connections, the number of friends in our network, the number of different profiles we have, so on and so forth. In other words, this semiotic framework is centered around each of us. Thus each of us becomes the target for different market segments. It is a really intricate mathematics where an end node is being referred by different graphs and each graph generates a different visualization out of the same node based on its diverse semantic potentials. Hence each of us becomes the perpetual sources of information for various networks and they generate insight out of our primary, secondary, tertiary and virtually an infinite set of semantic connections. As my interest is least on this mathematical modelling let me go beyond this abstraction.

I have just stated a problem provoked by my endless nights wandering in different social media systems to create an inflated ego. Now I am working on resolving this illusion and beyond the semiotics of this media ecosystem. Rather than being inflated about the semiotics of this ecosystem  we need to make it as conversant and communicative as possible. Here comes relevant the study of communicative rationality devised by Habermas. Rationality and reason can only decipher the signs and lead us to the real world of affairs. This post by no means is a call to boycott social media instead to understand the ways not to get paranormal by its illusory apparatus. 

Work of Art and Inspirations : A Late Night Argument

Night past 12, I was indulged in a water color, quite unknowing what is next going to happen in my canvas. Colors were shading and fading in my palette and the picture alike. Initially my intention was to use my brushes only in vertical strokes. I succeeded to a greater extent up to the middle. But as the colors began to dominate my senses, I gave my self to the freedom of the stokes. Vertical strokes became rectilinear  curves became horizontal sweeps, horizontals become horizons. And it went on to become a collection of a lot of lines, colors, shapes and shades.

My interest is not on the end product called an art work, but on the process of creating a painting  How are the lines leading the work of art to some specific direction? Is there a sense of beauty that leads and directs lines to take certain shapes or position. Is beauty an end in itself. Why should an art form be so much obsessed with beauty and its nuances. I feel that beauty is just an immediate realization of an artistic process. 

Art and artist transcends the demands of beauty by a necessity and urge to create a logical formation of lines, shades, edges, curves, depths and so on. This in a way leads lines to take more complex forms. When I had a lot of places in paper, lines had a different grammar and syntax. When the colors dominated the canvas, colors were more subtle and nimble. Thus I believe an art and artist is inspired by the totality of the conception than the urge of a pleasing experience of beauty.

+Gokul Alex 

New Languages of Mind : Beyond Philosophy and Fiction

Philosophy and fiction, it began with an attempt to negate the existence of philosophy. 
Is it a dead cat? Will it come up again and again with nine lives ? How will we posit philosophy in the quest for knowledge. Is it always congruent with the inquisitiveness to find what is truth? For sure, this question can never be philosophical in life. It can be ideological but I will have to rational in that attempt. 

Coining an allegory of a dead cat with philosophy, one of my psycho-analytic encounter is described as below. 

A corridor of myself
A window where I hug and hung my shadows
I am there again
With cats dead and with nine lives

Cat in his selfish tone said ...
I am born again to die
She smiled and murmured
A dead cat is just born again

She saw those words in a dream. Voices that speak themselves. Words into voices, thoughts bleeding themselves. Words into shells and snails of mind. As if they are leaving their ocean and hunting her down.

A dead cat, neither black nor white; it is having a mesh of letters all around its body. Those words look engraved in its body. It smiled her through eyes and cried aloud through its lovely small cheeks.

Again and again, she is seeing dead cats in her dream. She saw them while standing in the long queues, sitting in lone gardens, walking up and down irritating stairs and so on. Dreams that she see awakened. She is not sure what is real and what is not. I would like to omit the expression surreal because it has some tint of real in it. Now she begins to ask how can she see a dead cat and a stream of words together in a dream. She ask herself  is dreaming an act or an act of denying truth or not at all an act in itself? She took a pen and started hunting down the dead cats and paper tigers.

In the nakedness of truth
A lie is born
In the weakness of my genes
My death cells are born
In the hatred of my body
My mind begins to bleed
In the cavities of my heart
My flowers begins to bloom
In the boundaries of my lies

She laughed aloud and smiled at those shadows. She tore those papers into pieces. She wed the thickness of her summer blanket and started her cat race. In the dilating moments of her eyelids, those cats vanished in dream planes. Into their own space times ...

My Belgaum Journey: Absorptions from a Silent city

A journey reflecting imperfections ...

It is this Belgaum journey from 11th November 2012 to 12th November 2012, which made me realize that the beauty of life does not lie in being perfect but in realizing its imperfections each moment and in enjoying it. I may fondly call this aspiration as in an assertion ‘life is beautiful’. It may be the sum of my experience but realised by reading an autobiographical work ‘What I require from life’ by J.B.S.Haldane that triggered this thought in me.

Before delving further into the reflections on this thought, let me not kill the soul of this travelogue. My journey was full of surprises beginning with the punctuality and professionalism of Karnataka State Transport Corporation (KSRTC) service itself. Contray to my previous disastrous Multi-Axle Volvo Bus journeys in private travellers this service had kept its timings well within the schedule, of course giving passengers enough breaks in between. For the first time I slept more than 2 hours in a night journey in a Volvo Bus! When I woke up at 6 AM city outskirts appeared sleepy in fogs and thick mist but by the time I reached the city at 7 AM, it was full of fresh sunny rays and toilers all around.

I was accompanied by my Father in this journey, both of us being ardent followers of all flavours and varieties of teas all around the world. We went to a ‘Tea Bar’ just opposite to the KSRTC Belgaum Bus stand. Quite interestingly the tea was as good as in any top class restaurants. Its Elachi fragrance was very polished and refined. It was enough to compensate for all the lessened hours of sleep last night. With the help of the tea maker itself, we went in search of a lodge to refresh before venturing with the appointment.

We could see plenty of lodges all around. And randomly we picked one, though name was a suggestive. When we came out to the streets again we could see tender coconut sellers all around as in Bengaluru. And I was assigned the task of getting the delicious ‘Kunda’ sweets from Belgaum for my friends in office. I could see plenty of shops selling these sweets all around to my choice.

Before beginning this journey I had apprehensions that whether my Kannada will be an issue in this city. But it was never an issue. Our breakfast was coarse and fine Idli and a kind of sweet Sambar which made a good combination. Through out our commuting in the city we could see roads scarcely crowded and lanes devoid of much traffic. This could be because it was a public holiday here due to Diwali. Quite surprisingly even the Diwali firecrackers were not heard much all around the city. The fully covered Auto rickshaws and very minimal fares were another surprising feature of this city. And I could feel that this city was well managed with the proper man power of police force. May be this is a quite early observation.

Purchasing the ‘Kunda’ and some associated sweets we began our returning journey to Bengaluru. This time, the un-interrupting rain bid farewell to us with its nascent fragrance and soothing presence following us till the middle of our rail pathways. Even the cup of coffee in the railway platform was well beyond the taste of the coffees I had tasted anywhere in India. And the coffee maker was confident about it as well. Perhaps this confidence is the hallmark of this city which I could see in almost all the people from policeman to Auto-rikshaw driver. When I am penning down these words, our train has reached some unknown station. Like the city, the train is also very vacant, adding some more silence to my mind. And I realise this perpetual vein of silence and unpredictable rush of wilderness are all mere reflections of the worldly experiences I receive and reciprocate. Hence now I am cultivating a habit to live with these imperfections and waves of turbulences and exuberances without retreating to the aspirations of eternal tranquility… ‘Life IS beautiful’.

#Gokul

A Critique of Identity Politics

Exposing Identity Politics

Identity politics spells out various meanings. This convenience is used by different movements. It communicates something surreal yet ubiquitous in a society. It is used as a wrapper for many movements from its inception. Some treat it as a counter current for class politics; where as some others use it against nationalist politics. There are some others who consider it as a prelude to the class politics.  Beneath this polymorphic composition and ambiguity there lay vexed questions on the terrains of identity politics.

In the works of Michael Keith and Steven Pile [Politics and Spaces of identity], modernist identity politics have created a sort of essential-ism that rests on the exclusivity of certain norms. They allege that this sort of exclusivity and selectivity of modernist identity politics have made it very divisive. This was not congenial for working toward a multiple, pluralized yet still radical conceptualization of agency and identity.

We can see an array of works on the national identity discourses. It may tempt us to think that identity politics have superseded the national polity. Simon Bekker defines Identity politics as the search of reconciliation between nation building and demands by different citizens for recognition of communal identity. He goes on to say that identity politics has emerged as a primary challenge in many nation states. He accuses the national tendencies to achieve homogeneity as the primary reason for the unrest and ethnic conflicts. This conveniently ignores the external interventions that stir ethnic unrest.

Moreover, homogeneity is an apparent ideology resting on the ethos of cultural nationalism. In that sense, the attempt for a cultural homogeneity itself is an identity politics. Rashtriya Swyayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which preaches a ‘Hindutva India’ is one instant example for this. They are the ones who raise voice for uniform civil code and hegemony of Hinutva ideology.

Thus any attempt to unify the nation based on culture or religion or language devoid of considerations of productive forces and the social relations will become identity politics in reality. Stanford Encyclopedia highlights that identity politics strive to achieve a political freedom for a specific constituency of marginalized people. But this fails to explain the causes of marginalization. The awareness that only a particular constituency of people is marginalized is because of identity politics. It confines the perspective to specific identity ignoring the totality in exploitation.

In a market economy, if someone says that only tribes are marginalized, it is a cruelty to slum dwellers and the millions in the unorganized sector. The process of marginalization acts as a time warp for all those who labor  Only those outside the dominant mode of production will be in a perpetual state of marginalization. Detaching tribes from the dominant mode of production by way of identity politics will only worsen their plight.

The case of Narmada Bacho Andolan (NBA) is a grim example of identity politics. The apolitical struggle of environmental politics detached the struggling people from the political process and its dynamics. Their voices became unheard in the political ecosystem. What the identity politics has achieved in NBA is creating a perpetual apolitical site. This generates a question: who creates marginalization, NBA or National government?

Capitalism has evolved to become sustainable in ecology of unequal modes of production. It no longer standardizes the economy. As capitalism now thrives on the expanding market economy rather than nation states, it stimulates multiplicity of choices. It is in this focal point where the pluralism of identity politics and the market’s desire for multiple choices converge.

The question of identity rests on the epidemiological currents initiated by modernism. The essence of modernism lies in the characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize itself, not in order to subvert it, but to enrich it more firmly in its area of competence [Modernist Painting, Clement Greenberg]. Thus it inherits a tendency to criticize itself. As self-criticism is the organic element of Marxism, it is easy to draw parallel lines between Modernism and Marxism. The awareness of identity is a dialectical process between objective knowledge and subjective experience. Identity is a subjective knowledge of objective experience as well. It is rooted in both of them. Thus identity is the dialectical product of objectivity and subjectivity. Identity of identity is nothing but the labor process and life process. Hence identity is both reflexive and self critical in nature. With the progress of either objective knowledge or subjective experience identity undergoes transformation in form and content. This means that identity of a child born to a religious family undergoes change if he studies in a national institution and it changes further if goes on to work in a multi-national corporate organization.

Thus if class is the dynamic product of self in labour, identity is the transient process by which self changes. It is this volatility of identity that becomes the instrument of imperialism. It captures one by its fractured identity and tempts to organize based on it. Fractured identity and identity crisis can be rooted in both crisis in knowledge and crisis in experience. It implies a crisis in the criticism itself. It is this fractured identity or identity crisis that is being targeted by the architects of identity politics. These formations of identity groups are not self made always. Imperialism purchases the identity formations through various funding agencies. And using the power of money, imperialism exercises hegemony over the identity groups. And using this funded economy, identity groups will be integrated to the imperial market economy. Collectively, these preys can be named as social capital.

Novel writing and the Historicity beyond

Novel Typology through Historical Lenses

Points: Abstract Synthesis in writing novel.

Dilthey’s method was having traces of Kantian philosophy.

It showed a kind of inclination towards irrational-ism.

Hegelian influence in theory of novel:

1.     Mode of totality in epic and dramatic art. 

2.     One important legacy of Hegel is the historicisation of aesthetic categories. 

3.     Towards a general dialectic of literary genres. 

4.     Question of life & relation to essence in epics 

5.     World of platonic forms and methodological archetypes. 

Frederic Jameson on Georg Lukács:

• As a cultural object, Marxism returns itself against general activity in general to devalue it and lay bare its class privileges and the leisure which it presupposes for its enjoyment. 
• Hegelian Lukács of the Theory of the novel
• The chief conceptual opposition within which all of the examinations of literature have taken place is the famous Hegelian one of the concrete and abstract. 
• Epic, Tragedy and platonic philosophies. 
• Abstract idealism of Novel typology. How Don Quixote differs … Heroes of abstract idealism no longer find their justification in the moment of history, but increasingly to become arbitrary, mere grotesques. Here the external world is merely temporal. 
• Cases in Dickens, Balzac etc – we can see a sort of de-totalized totality. With Balzac novel of abstract idealism has exhausted as a form. 
• Novel of romantic disillusionment. Here the external world achieves temporal qualities. Flaubert’s ‘Education Sentimentale’. Here again novel achieves a sense of unity. 
• Goethe’s Wilhem Meister and in novels of Tolstoy – A third category of Synthesis type.
• Marx dissolved Hegelian series of ideal forms into empirical reality of History. 
• Trajectory from metaphysics to history in Lukacs.
• It is history rather than nature which constitutes the privileged object of human knowledge.
• Class consciousness is not so much an empirical and psychological phenomenon, or those collective manifestations explored by sociology.

Zizek and his constructs: A short annotation

In Zizek's terms, Leninism is a convenient praxis as a revolutionary sign for the contemporary micro-politics  Removing the crux of the scientific socialism posited by Lenin, he is signified as a mere priest with rhetoric merits. In his annotations, 'Revolution at the Gates', Zizek tries to create a contradiction alias wedge in Marxist theory by denoting Marx as a Euro-centrist based on his personal letters, at the same time not criticizing him for it, just like pardoning him off!

Zizek thus becomes a sublime example for the misinterpretations of epistemology for the deconstruction of Marxism. Marx and Freud are deconstructed using Lacanian framework to derive the new thesis of imperialism. Thus , interpolating ideology in the name of epistemology a new thesis of imperialism is born!.

Zizek uses Lacan who formulated psychoanalysis and hypothesized it into three orders :

Imaginary order, Symbolic order and the Order of the real;

Zizek uses the term, little Other and the big Other; This is nothing but an attempt to mystify the contours of subjectivity of modern psyche. Thus it is a post-structuralist attempt to create mechanical formal-isms within the contexts of subjectivity. Zizek goes further from Lacan who divulges in mechanical relativism of language systems and introduces the rhetoric of ambiguity in the linguistic terrains.

Zizek as the philosopher of the real: When all the philosophers tried to theorize the relation between Symbolic and the Imaginary, Zizek tried to find the relationship between the real and the symbolic.

He takes on Cartesian philosophy and tries to dissect the notion of 'Individual'. This is nothing but an attempt to germinate the thought even at the individual level.

Zizek, and his parallax view is nothing but the blatant negation of the dialectical logic.

Comparing Two Poets: Neruda & Yeats

Comparing Two Poets: Neruda & Yeats

Two greatest artists of 20^th century share a lot of immediate similarities.

It is Neruda (July 12, 1904–September 23, 1973) and Yeats (13 June 1865 - 28 January 1939). Both were recipients of Nobel Prize. Both of them held political positions. But Neruda could only live two more years after receiving the Nobel.

Yeats: A true National Poet

Yeats saw early half of 20^th century only, seeing two world wars and its reverberations on the Irish nationalism. He could see the imperial royal waves and decolonization spree that happened to British imperialism. But he was deeply affected by the drifting conscience of Irish nationalism alike the personal unfulfilled love towards Maud Gonne. He was influenced by all sorts of knowledge and philosophical systems in history. His sensibility was attuned by the intellectual beauty of womanhood and historical legacy of Ireland. His personal agonies accentuated his poetic sensibility towards a greater national consciousness. It stirred a new spirit in the national arena, inspiring contemporary artists and future ones to come. His poetry was the reflection of the Irish psyche eager to see the dawn of nationhood, above the clutches of British Empire.

Yeats drew energy from the pagan folklores and Gaelic myths. His imagery was full of Celtic threads and had a poetic vision in par with any great national poet. He sensed the troublesome future of nationhood. In the twilight of life he was attracted to the ideals of totalitarianism through Ezra Pound, but regained his senses and became attracted to the republican waves in Spain. He interacted with Neruda through letters about the Spanish Civil war and the dangers of fascism.

Though influenced by all sort of religious myths and philosophies when it came to the cause of nationalism, Yeats fought with Catholic Church for interfering with politics and stirring a divide between South and North Ireland regions. Thus Yeats saw a tumourous period of Irish history.

Thus national sovereignty and personal quest for love were two unflinching ends of a poetic beacon named W.B.Yeats.

Neruda: A true Working Class Poet for all the nations

For Neruda everything was lovable even when it is invisible and absent. He loved abundance of nature and sang like the ancient nomadic tribe free to wander the entire earth.  But he was devoid of any sort of wealth and was accompanied by stark wings of poverty. He had to embrace the wings of darkness to feel the depths of real women. But he epitomized women and craved for uniting with female soul, when he was in exile in Rangoon.  So Neruda started from null and void of nature and traveled through the Asian continent. He invented a new style in Spanish poetry with his The Twenty Love Poems. His poetry captured the attention of awakening Chile. He became a cultural diplomat of a continent rich with myths and human harmony with nature. Neruda was a human being his senses were awakened every time seeing the meta-narratives of life, be absence of love, despair for freedom, and greatness of Inca civilizations. His encounters in Spain with Lorca made his views truly revolutionary. 

May be we can say that for Yeats love and nationalism were inspired by the intellectual admiration for womanhood of Maud Gonne and this sense continued with Yeats till the end of his life. But for Neruda, he was more than a national poet who drew abstract energies from concrete beauty of life. He learned the beauty of things which have been shielded from him, yet he never gave up. He continued to see the matter of things from a labourer’s perspective.

If women’s beauty is not my personal asset, let it be a public asset. He praised women’s private body like the fertile and flowering nature. It was a really provocative and innovative approach.

This aesthetic sense is actually driven by the creative energies of modernist art. It made his poetry really surreal. When he wrote about Machu Picchu, he made the achievements of Inca civilization both aesthetic and poetic material. Thus we can say that Neruda used modernist methods of imagery he absorbed from French and African art in poetry with the best use of Spanish verse. He was influenced by the surrealist imagery of Lorca as well. The anarchist threshold of Lorca ignited Neruda to the pinnacles of poetic astuteness.  Neruda became more and more political and became more and more clear and sharp in his poetic approach.

This transition is not much visible in Yeats and but he continued to write in paganistic vein. His pessimistic melancholy has encompassed more and more humanscapes and became true emotive expressions of a national spirit to the Hegelian scales that Germany had seen in the advent of 20^th century.

So to summarise, we can see that Yeats and Neruda scene the deeper landscapes of human history, through different lenses. Yeats ignited poetry to the fiery ranges through conventional style and diction to depict the deplorable fate of imperialism and alienation of a lifelong lover of feminine energy and intellect. Neruda through the regenerating poetic brilliance spanning mythical human history and natural imagery in the surrealist realms draw a world of monumental scales that has universal reverberations.

@Gokul Alex

A Brief Film Review: Blue Angel by Joseph Von Strindberg

A movie shot in the Pre-World War period. This movie is known as the emblematic of Wiemar Germany. Joseph Von Strindberg is the director who was deeply influenced by the Hollywood film ideology and its apparatus.

Blue Angel is the story of an eccentric absent-minded professor marrying a destitute vagrant girl of a local cabaret. This turns his life totally. His life long suppression of his sexual desires manifest as a sort of adoration of her feminine skills. He forgets all his academic life and leaves it in a moment of humiliation by his students. The very students were the reason for his accidental visit to the cabaret. The vagrant girl is the headline of this cabaret. She is named ‘Lola Lola’.

The whole movie is taken in a working class township. From the discipline of the class room and monotony of Professor Rath, story progresses to the anarchist world of cabaret and low art. From an academician ‘Rath’ transforms into a weird clown in the company of destitute and flesh traders.

But ‘Lola Lola’ and her instincts remain the same; always she is attracted to new men. When Professor Rath meets Lola for the first time a clown is found roaming passively all over the cabaret. Fate of Professor turns out to be the same, but he has an societal ego influenced by  his education that resist the subjugation of his ego to her libido. She treats him like a slave.

Many a people find the elements of Jungian analytic psychology in this movie. There are some scenes where Prof: Rath shows gestures of a child in front of the charismatic Lola. It is sometimes denoted as the subjugation of his societal self to the intrinsic anima of his masculine psyche.

The film is a good composition of humor, tragedy and transient states of mind. The film set is full of stairs and narrow streets. Also we can see most of the events in the movie is shot inside various indoor locations.