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Glen River

Overview . . . Techno-Age Polymath

A polymath (Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής, "having learned much") is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable.

The term "Renaissance man" is used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. The idea developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72): that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance Humanism which considered man empowered, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.

The idea of a universal education was pivotal to achieving polymath ability, hence the word University was used to describe a seat of learning. At this time Universities did not specialize in specific areas, but rather trained their students in a broad array of science, philosophy and theology. This universal education, as such, gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship to a Master of a specific field.

Since it is extremely difficult to acquire knowledge, and be proficient in several fields at the level of an expert, the word polymath or more often "Renaissance man", may also be used, ironically, with a potentially negative connotation as well. Under this connotation, by sacrificing depth for breadth, the "Renaissance man" becomes a "jack of all trades, master of none". For many specialists, in the context of today's hyperspecialization, the ideal of a Renaissance man is judged to be an anachronism. However a new trend fostered by the need to deal with complexity and the computer environment calls for generalists who can organize a steep learning curve to execute projects. This need for generalists with a broad base of reference in multiple disciplines defines the new "Techno-Age Polymath."

Some people seem to acquire skills easily. Learning to learn seems to be a fundamental in the early stage of this approach to life. Someone who "goes to school" to get a job, does not learn how to learn. They learn how to do a job of work which will make them a desirable employee. The highest rank of the aspiring employee is that of expert. The interdisciplinary expert must be a process annalist as well as expert in many fields. To this end I offer my theory of the Seventh Discipline. The final step to the "way" of the interdisciplinary. As I call it .. Zen Process.

Biography

Infancy and childhood are such active learning periods that the idea of isolating fields of learning, separating them and stopping the process of understanding in most of them is absurd. Yet later in life our society of hyperspecialization expects exactly that. When societies form norms which are self destructive and this condition goes uncorrected systemic faults become part of the fabric. These flaws in the fabric of society combine to disassociate awareness. Progressive states of dysfunctional replication degrade mental abilities.

I felt very fortunate that my mother read extensively to me and answered questions. This was a human google who referred to an encyclopedia, dictionary, Life Magazine, Plutarch's Lives, and books from the library.

The evolution of my work is a spiral orbital path. Each year we experience seasons which occur with regularity. However every season is different and new. Similarly my work travels through periods, themes, and methodologies. The art is always renewed with the seasons. Individuals who only see a few works often assume those few works are the summation of my style. This is to be expected. In the marketplace a signature style is considered very desirable by sales people. My continuing desire for discovery encourages me to embrace change and experimentation. There is consistency in my work. It can be understood when seeing the work over a long period of time. Seeing the spiral orbital path of the work adds depth to understanding the greater concept. The new work is primarily directed toward large installations and performance. These installations combine many stylistic approaches. As with my continuing methods, style follows form. The works are guided by discovery. Each vision of art is inspired by a window to creation. Poetry Cafe, Johnny Rainbow, Zen Process Theater, all are concepts which express my vision of a unified art.

Seeing Arts

What we perceive through our senses is quite different from the physical world around us. We cannot see light in the ultraviolet range, or in the infrared range. Our nervous system reacts only to a selected range of wavelengths, and vibrations. What draws our attention, in many cases, is change. Stationary or unchanging objects become part of the scenery and are mostly unseen.

Hubel and Wiesel worked on establishing a foundation for visual neurophysiology, describing how signals from the eye are processed by the brain to generate edge detectors, motion detectors, stereoscopic depth detectors and color detectors, building blocks of the visual scene. Their understanding of sensory processing in animals served as inspiration for the SIFT descriptor (Lowe, 1999), which is a local feature used in computer vision for tasks such as object recognition and wide-baseline matching, etc. The SIFT descriptor is arguably the most widely used feature type for these tasks.

Learning How To See (for the artist)

Many artists include studying the phenomena of seeing as part of their training. An artist who has "Learned To See" brings a discipline of philosophy, mechanics, history, and their own notes on observations which shape their referencing library. Many people use their vision for the basics of life. To avoid kicking the furniture. To make choices in the grocery store. They often have a specialized set of references in the workplace. The specialized reference for let us say a painter, is understanding; form, volume, object, space, light, color, grayscale, abstraction, pattern, sequential chaining elements, perspective, symbolic representation, realistic representation, local field form function, general fieldform of the picture plane, structural dynamics of the totality, drawing as orchestral blueprint for the painting, paint chemistry in color mixing, optics of glazing, optics of color edge energy exchange, halation, interior/exterior fieldform light patterns, non light dynamics of 2D illusion, a history of art as a Rosetta-stone framing the cultural influences ... (the artist limited to sun and candle light, post electric, neon-influenced, cathode-ray-tube influenced, so on) all of these sub disciplines are part of the "Master" artist's knowing how to see. This is called "the plumbing" and does not involve esthetics. The configuration of all these elements effects whether the art "Works."

Hearing Arts

It's music to my ears. When we hear a certain pitch, a corresponding part of the tonotopically organized basilar membrane in the inner ear responds, and sends the signal to the auditory cortex. Studies suggest that once the signal arrives, there are specific regions for each band of pitch such that the area is organized into sections of cells that are responsive to certain frequencies which range from very low to very high in pitches.

Musicians have been shown to have significantly more developed left planum temporales, and have also shown to have a greater word memory. Corpus callosum fibers join together the left and right hemispheres and indicate an increased relaying between both sides of the brain in musicians. This suggests the merging between the spatial- emotiono-tonal processing of the right brains and the linguistical processing of the left brain.

Touch

Good hands cross all disciplines. The experience of touch is intimate in that it is a direct contact. The act of creation is depicted by Michelangelo as the touch of God. "We are "touched" indicates contact and understanding in a meaningful way. Shaman may heal with a touch. The experience of touch seems closely connected to a kinesthetic group of associations.

Smell

Smell also seems closely connected to a kinesthetic group of associations. Often we connect feelings to the experience. Aroma therapy is based on this principal. Combined with Touch and taste I use this direct type of contact to define part of "The intimate sphere".

Taste

Taste is connected with identity in that our library of preferences becomes very specific. "Is this to your taste?" is a common usage identifying your personal preferences as part of your persona. Taste guides the culinary arts. The "Master" chef reaches a personal "Taste" which resonates with their audience. To gain a profound footing the chef must be an interdisciplinary in that they must orchestrate sub disciplines. From the knowledge of vegetables, wines, meats, fish, foul, seasonings, processing, chopping, marinades, baking, broiling, frying, grilling, brazing, scalding, simmering, blanching, combining flavors, cataloguing recopies, learning cultural traditions, presentation, and much more.

The point to referring to the senses is to show that being alive is an interdisciplinary process. We become more than these experiences. Our identity is the Zen Process. That is a unified multiplex of information converging to a self aware intelligence. The Harmony of self and world fills out our perspective.

Thinking Arts

The cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain. It is a large, deeply wrinkled sheet of neurons, or nerve cells, on the surface of the two hemispheres. It governs all our sensations, movements, and thoughts.The receptor neurons in each sensory system deal with different kinds of energy. Weather electromagnetic, mechanical, or chemical they all convert a stimulus from the environment into an electrochemical nerve impulse, which is the common language of the brain.

Influences: René Descartes Galileo Galilei Nicolaus Copernicus Pythagoras Zhang Heng Omar Khayyám Goethe Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Albert Schweitzer Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Albert Einstein Richard Alpert Franz Mesmer José Silva Rudolf Steiner Edgar Casey Andreas Lommel

The literature of mind is a history of our organization of thought. Periods, trends, altering perceptions and cultural influences all shape this library.

Concepts I Refer To:

Unified Field
In music, unified field is often used to refer to the "unity of musical space" created by the free use of melodic as harmonic and harmonic as melodic material.

The technique is most associated with the twelve-tone technique, created by its "total thematicism" where a tone-row (melody) generates all (harmonic) material. It was also used by Alexander Scriabin, though from a diametrically opposed direction, created by his use of extremely slow harmonic rhythm which eventually led to his use of unordered pitch-class sets, usually hexachords (of six pitches) as harmony from which melody may also be created.

In physics, a unified field theory is a type of field theory that allows all of the fundamental forces between elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory yet, and this remains an open line of research. The term was coined by Albert Einstein who attempted to unify the general theory of relativity with electromagnetism. A Theory of Everything is closely related to unified field theory, but differs by not requiring the basis of nature to be fields, and also attempts to explain all physical constants of nature.

The ideas of unity in art also seek to reconcile questions raised by science. As art imitates nature, it seeks to define the human scale in proportion to the known world. As the known world changes with great strides such as the Hubble telescope, we seek concepts to organize our relative attitude. This resonates in art as a philosophical approach which may be applied as method. The concept of a unified field, asks us to accept chaos as momentary discords to be reconciled by a greater picture.

Spherical Thinking
The hermeneutic circle refers to the idea that one's understanding of the text as a whole is established by reference to the individual parts and one's understanding of each individual part by reference to the whole. Neither the whole text nor any individual part can be understood without reference to one another, and hence, it is a circle. It stresses that the meaning of a text must be found within its cultural, historical, and literary context.

Heidegger (1927) developed the concept of the Hermeneutic Circle to envision a whole in terms of a reality that was situated in the detailed experience of everyday existence by an individual (the parts). So understanding was developed on the basis of "fore-structures" of understanding, that allow external phenomena to be interpreted or in a preliminary way. Gadamer (1975) developed this concept, leading to what is recognized as a break with previous hermeneutic traditions. But while Heidegger saw the hermeneutic process as cycles of self-reference that situated our understanding in a priori prejudices, Gadamer reconceptualized the hermeneutic circle as an iterative process through which a new understanding of a whole reality is developed by means of exploring the detail of existence.

For other thinkers, the fact of demonstration as a method to define certain words, clearly is evidence of a degree of shared experience among all humans. For example, anyone can point to the sun, as it exists, and then name it any sound, symbol, or word that represents or literally points to that actual being, the sun. There might be some disagreement about what the sun is exactly, but there is agreement that it exists, and that to a human on Earth it looks like the drawings and pictures we see of it. Therefore, some concepts and ideas are universal.

The concept of spherical thinking multiplies the hermeneutic circle by quantum physics and celestial mechanics. The code to the sphere is all around us and within us.

Wave Form
Waveform means the shape and form of a signal such as a wave moving in a solid, liquid or gaseous medium.
In many cases the medium in which the wave is being propagated does not permit a direct visual image of the form. In these cases, the term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a graph of the varying quantity against time or distance. An instrument called an oscilloscope can be used to pictorially represent the wave as a repeating image on a CRT or LCD screen.
By extension of the above, the term 'waveform' is now also sometimes used to describe the shape of the graph of any varying quantity against time.

Transfluence
This is a word I have coined to express the state of free flowing intelligence across boundaries of media, disciplines, states of awareness. This is a metaphorical concept intended to describe states of music, visual art, spherical field, and poetry.

Crosspollination
Cross-pollination occurs when pollen is delivered to a flower from a different plant. Plants adapted to outcross or cross-pollinate often have taller stamens than carpels or use other mechanisms to better ensure the spread of pollen to other plants flowers.

The interdisciplinary cross-pollination imitates nature by delivering fertile material from one discipline into another with the intention of evolving a new strain. An adapted variation which could not be arrived at from self-pollination.

As an example, developing spaghetti in Italy via Marco Polo visiting China.

Process Analyst
Any path, whether electronic, legal, logical, or theoretical, is defined by causal impetus, environmental regulation, and completion of cycle. The insights necessary to create a path, or alter a path, spring from the analytic process. Conceptual organization combined with advanced discipline knowledge and the skills to gather critical application information, are key to successful analysis.

Individual Disciplines

Author ... more
poetry, short stories, novels, memoir, play, non-fiction, movie scripts

The Metaphorical Word:
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

Omar Khayyám

I have seen "The Word" as a meta-physical symbolic representation transitioning across disciplines. In language, in art, music, religion, celestial mechanics, quantum mechanics, brain cemetery, computer code, and virtually any media where intelligence is transmitted.
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Composer ... more
film score, FX electronic, classical forms, blues, rock, folk, jazz

As a child my introduction to music was family singing, imitating birds songs, and imitating recorded singer/songwriters. Drums, trumpet, piano, clarinet, guitar, and electronic keys expanded my outlook. Arranging music for session recording and movie soundtracks organized my vision of composition.

Influences: Beethoven Chopin J.S. Bach Vivaldi Mozart Frank Zappa Mendelssohn
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Singer/Songwriter ... more
Songwriting in multiple genres kept up the philosophy of adventuring and flexibility.

Influences: Joan Hull Turner Burl Ives Leadbelly Woody Guthrie Phil Ochs Bob Dylan Leonard Cohen Willie Nelson Buffy Sainte-Marie
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Musician ... more
Guitar, Bass, Cello, Clarinet, Keys, Synthesizers, MIDI, Samplers, Computer

Influences: Benny Goodman Frank Zappa Ravi Shankar Andrés Segovia Carlos Montoya B. B. King Julian Lloyd Webber Pablo Casals Miles Davis Charles Mingus
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Audio - Engineer
Acoustic Designer, Electronic Systems, Audio Mix Artist

Recordings

1975 Victoria (analogue master), 1979 Hearts (vinal album), 1981 Folk (analogue master), 1984 River Rock (analogue master), 1998 Johnny Rainbow (Ballet with The Bisceglie Ballet), 2000 ETHERA (music CD), 2003 The Big Secret (motion picture), 2003 Retro B1 (music CD), 2004 Raga Guitar (music CD), 2004 Thugs DVD, 2005 Concerto #2 For Guitar (music CD), 2005 Symphony #3 (music CD), 2006 Poetry Cafe (music & poetry-songs CD), 2009 Blue Sun (music CD)

Recording Equipment:

Mini cassette (mono), Uher (4 track), Teack (4 track), Revox B-77, MCI 24 track .. Allen Heath board, Tascam (8 track) w/dbx noise reduction, Tascam DA-88 digital multi track, Rolland 16x48 track digital recorder, Digi Design rack firewire break out box .. Pro Tools Computer Recording

Electronic Instruments:

Rolland Keys, Shadow Guitar MIDI Converter, Arp Avatar, Rolland GR-300, Oberhiem Expander Modules, Yamaha v-15, Proteus 2000, Rolland Syth, Propellerhead Reason, Eventide Clockworks Harmonizer, Echoplex, Fender Stratocaster, Allen Heath Mixer, Macki Mixers, Rolland Mixers, Pro. Studio Multitracks, Cakewalk, Pro Tools, Steinberg, Sonar v3, Soundforge, Song Writer Pro, Hologramaphone Laboratories, theremin, Moog, Analogue & Digital Delays, Keyboard Computer Control Surface, Anvil Studio MIDI program, Music Masterworks program, Jammer Professional, Sample Tank, J L Cooper Digital MIDI Patchbay, Furman power conditioner, Joe Meek Studio channel, Ken Shafer Omnipressor, Phase Shifters, Alisis Air FX, ART guitar multi effects processor, DigiTech GNX-3, Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ, Sonic Foundry, and a multitude of minor effects processors chained in various configurations. Various microphones including; Sennheiser, Samson, Electro-Harmonix, AKG, Audio-Technica, Beyer Dynamic, VHF-UHF Wireless Mics, Shotgun, Lavalier, Neumann, Crown, and various sets populating recording studios. "Sound At The Mountain" was a project building a multiplex voice. I chained off a Fender Stratocaster with a MIDI converter to Arp Avatar, Rolland GR 300, Specter 360, 3 Oberhime expander modules, Minimoog, echoplex, split guitar signals via direct box, to many effects processors and used 4 Rolland 6 channel mixers to sub mix and bus to a master mixer output to active parametric 3 way crossover to BGW Tri-Amping to 2 Cerwin-Vega big speakers. I played with various configurations for a few months. The sound was great in the big barn it was housed. Outside the barn the sound broke up rapidly effecting a surreal thunder.
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Painter ... more
Landscape, Portrait, Mural, Depiction, Abstract, Installations

Artists Worked With: Arnold Thurm, Grossman, Myres, Richard Lightle, Bob Gray, Tanno Kaupi, Rodger Prince, Barca Tartaro, William Woodhouse, Nick Marsicano, Jack Tworkove, Lester Jonson, Alfred Leslie, Charles Daugherty, Lisa Daugherty, Gus Moran, Tom Scippa, Ishmael Rodriguez

Influences: Leonardo da Vinci Giotto Michelangelo Raffaello Rembrandt Théodore Géricault Peter Paul Rubens Diego Velázquez Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pablo Picasso Victor Vasarely Piet Mondrian Hans Hofmann

Notes: There is a mystique about fine art which has set it apart from most other disciplines. While most people have strong preferences, opinions, and identities connected with music, or literature, a vast majority are alienated form owning art. The classic cliché, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." is a fear based class prejudice. The consciousness of elitist privilege is woven into the promotional interests of the gallery industry. Class snobbery and condescending attitudes are similar to the world of fashion. The polarity created by this force is (you are not educated enough, or not smart enough, or not cool enough to appreciate the work of art) vs. (the emperor's new clothes, a complete fake, deception by the artist or sales people.) The greater polarization and disassociation is that (an artist who does not earn a living from their art is unworthy of consideration) vs. (great artists are not recognized in their time) These dualities seem insurmountable. Ironically lip service on all fronts makes everyone a supporter of the arts, but no support for artists. This oddity is evident in the massive grant allocation to organizations as apposed to individual artists. Similarly the fear factor keeps purchasing power concentrated in galleries perpetuating the cycle of disassociation. Blue collar attitudes often expect "unknown" artists should sell works of art at prices well below a minimum working wage. Then the uncompensated artist takes the job away from the blue collar worker to survive. The willingness to disassociation is basic to hyperspecilization furthering strict class separation.
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Print Maker ... more
linoleum block, wood block, silk screen, zinc plate lithography, stone lithography, etching, dot matrix, inkjet

Artists Worked With: Arnold Thurm, Hiram Koppelman, Tom Piper
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Movie Maker ... more
Documentary, Feature, Narrative, Art FX, Music Video
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Photographer ... more
Still-Film, Still-Digital, DP, Cinematographer, Computer-Processor
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Producer/Publisher
Movies, CD, DVD, Books, and Hand Made Books
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Web Artist

Web Art

Web Art is derived form "Parts" created from sections derived from paintings. Re-Birthed in the digital domain, they are organized in groups and called by the program. The program I am using is a Java script display window maxed my code migration. I have re-written the program to a multi-grouped modular complex including variables within the sub groups. The design is similar to a digital colony. (starting from uniformity) this program is a progression of the called picture parts starting from uniformity. This uniformity is repeated through several cycles re-presenting the parts, displaying the field form created by them. The translation of uniformity in the repetition of the single parts dramatically changes the field form though the display system is unchanged. The stager in display is a real time wave form created by memory delay in loading. It is not in the code. However it is played with, and later influences the code. While this program is simple it represents a significant metaphorical model outlining my long standing concerns with field forms, wave forms, code, and experiential translations to the individual persona defined by the abilities and limitations to perceive.
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Computer Artist

As most obviously exemplified by Leonardo Da Vinci, art and science are bound from the core of discovering creation. Methods and materials for the artist are the science in the discipline of painting. Physical applications, intellectual organization, and theory are documented by many authors, including; Ralph Mayer 1957, Sir Charls Lock Eastlake 1869, and Cennino Cennini published in 1400, (The Artist's Handbook) ~ As literature, art enters the domains of documentary, theology, psychology, symbolic studies, and human history. While periodic trends may produce artists specializing in commercial applications, the master artist continues the profound investigation of our existence. The digital domain as new media is another chapter in the science of art. The human scale migrating into a newly defined universe continues the marriage of art and science.
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Equestrian ... more
Hunt seat or forward seat riding was the basic form I studied. Along with Dressage, it is one of the two classic forms of English riding. Competition in North America includes both flat and over fences for show hunters, and equitation classes. My focus was 3 day event. Stadium Jumping, Dressage, Cross Country.

Trainers I worked with: George Tossick, Col. R. Ragoose, Victor Hugo-Vidal, Harry Gillheise
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The Seventh Discipline
The foundation of interdisciplinary studies is arriving at universal dynamics sustained by cross-referencing. The wider the field of reference the greater probability of pattern recognition. A centered awareness moving freely across disciplines is the keystone of the mature interdisciplinary. The ability to zoom into specifics of a unfamiliar discipline and quickly orient an organizational overview is the flower in the interdisciplinary garden.

There is a pattern created by referencing 3 commonalities within a discipline. As an example, if you have 3 figures of a man, each one smaller, they create an appearance of perspective. That is, rather than understanding the figures as being progressively smaller, the mind sees the same size figure receding in space. Similarly with sound, an echo appears to create the illusion of space when there are 3 sounds progressively growing fainter. The presence of 3 elements of information all possibly saying the same thing forms a commonality (the space, or the illusion of space). The mind finds it easy to make these relationships. We use this understanding to build relationships between disciplines. When we have a cross-reference between 3 disciplines we get a sense of what these disciplines are doing which is greater than the 3. When we bring another discipline up to speed, we reference 4 disciplines and a sense model. When we get 6 disciplines fully resolved to an expert level we have 2 full sense models. The theory of the seventh discipline is that with the seventh there is a qualitative change in understanding. The seventh produces a new sense model making 3 models and very strong probabilities for universal patterns to emerge. The learning becomes much easier. Like an expert skier on a big mountain the slopes become fun. The new vision of nature becomes an inspiring source of energy. So goes the myth of the seventh discipline.