1,720,958 research outputs found
Prosthetic Godhood and Lacan’s Alethosphere: The Psychoanalytic Significance of the Interplay of Randomness and Structure in Generative Art
No full textPsychoanalysis, particularly as articulated by figures like Freud and Lacan, highlights the inherent division within the human subject—a schism between the conscious and unconscious mind. It could be said that this suggests that such an internal division becomes amplified in the context of generative art, where technology and algorithms are used to generate artistic expressions that are meant to emerge from the depths of the unconscious. Here, we encounter the tension between the conscious artist and the generative process itself, which may yield unexpected, even uncontrollable results.
This paper, therefore, seeks to address this division within the modern subject and its relationship to technology, wherein the division within the living body is revealed through the presence of prosthetic elements, which mirrors the division brought about by the incorporation of language as a signifier. I argue that the amplification of this internal schism does not necessarily lead to a more fractured subject. Instead, generative art, bolstered by advancements in AI and machine learning, offers a unique opportunity for individuals to externalize and explore their minds in novel ways.
By examining contemporary works such as Hal Foster’s Prosthetic Gods, which stands as a pivotal exploration of the convergence between modernist art and psychoanalytic theory and Isabel Millar’s Psychoanalysis of Artificial Intelligence, this paper elucidates the profound implications of Freud’s vision of modern
subjectivity as Prothesengott (Prosthetic God) and address the questions concerning this technological imbrication of the human mind and body through the Lacanian framework. Although for Freud, Man does not become a real God, rather, the potential to transcend one’s limitations ascribes us to God-like qualities by seeking to generate new forms of life that go beyond merely reproducing nature — a transcention of the natural. Millar emphasizes that Freud observes that this is evidenced by the fact that these additional organs remain distinct from the organism and can never assimilate into it. One continually falls short of realizing the fantasy he envisions, opting instead to use his supplementary artificial organs to endlessly revolve around the objects of the drive.
This evolving relationship that the drive has with its technological objects, resounds in Lacan’s conception of “lathouse” which allows extimate objects to convert interiority (unconscious) into exteriority (conscious) and exteriority into interiority. The thesis of this paper seeks to employ this underutilized concept to understand the nature of human subjectivity and its bodily and structural relationship to generative art. Therefore, this paper emphasizes what really happens when we enter into this relationship with the lathouse, whereby this artificial object has effects in the "real of jouissance", where these Lathouses create a network, namely the Alethosphere. My goal is to argue that generative art as a technological development, can be seen as an extension to the development of the drive. Conclusively, I make the claim for generative art's potential to externalize the human creative drive by emphasizing the interplay between randomness and structure, and how it offers a means to surpass our inherent limitations by presenting an avenue for self-expression that transcends traditional modes of art
Logos Reconstructed: On the Ideal of Adam’s Originally Perfect Language and Recovering its Semiotic Realism
Get PDFUmberto Eco in The Search for the Perfect Language explores the ‘dream of a
perfect language’ that has sought to recapitulate the lost perfection of Adam's
original language. Humanity is seen as forgetful of the preternatural knowledge
once contained in a transparent language that perfectly identified essences. Eco's
historical narrative of this pursuit, labeled “a series of failures,” is examined first.
Then, Leibniz’s Adamicism is explored, which asserts that a language can be
Adamic if it mirrors the natural and non-arbitrary qualities of Adam's language.
Cross-culturally, Sanskrit realism and Plato’s natural-name thesis support this,
emphasizing the connection between words and meanings. Following this, the
criteria for linguistic perfection (◊P) are established, relying on five necessary
assumptions (A) concerning ontology, epistemology, accessibility, translatability,
and intersubjectivity. This paper defends reconstructing an ideal language without
seeking to return to the forever lost mother tongue. Instead, it assesses the
potential for our current system-of-signs to regain semiotic realism and represent
reality accurately. A thought experiment justifies returning to semiotic realism,
examining the potential of revealing the hidden phenomenology of logos – the
universal reason underlying all languages. Conclusively, this project rejects
empirical nominalism and explores accessing the preternatural knowledge of
necessary and immutable ideas, lost after the fall and Babel’s catastrophe.
Keywords: adamic language, semiotic realism, logos, perfect language, linguistic
naturalism, universals, essences, phenomenological metho
Scientific Creativity Enrichment in Education: Concept Combinations, Symbolic Systems and Designing for Transformative Experiences
Get PDFStudents enter science classrooms already familiar with the world around them: they’ve felt the wind, seen lightning, and wondered why the sun sets. These everyday encounters, though intuitively understood (perhaps sometimes misunderstood?), are also entry points into powerful scientific explanations. Such ordinary experiences become extraordinary when reframed through concepts like combustion, refraction, or energy transfer. Scientific concepts do not merely describe phenomena; they seek to explain them by revealing hidden mechanisms and causal patterns. These abstract concepts like energy, or gene are not static facts to be memorized but the outcome of centuries of creative thinking, model-building, and conceptual transformation. Thus, creativity emerges not merely from personal inspiration but from an interaction between individuals, symbolic domains of knowledge, and social fields of recognition (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).
This systems approach of creativity has been emphasized by several scholars (Amabile, 1983, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1996, 1999; Simonton, 1988; Woodman and Schoenfield, 1989). Scientific concepts are embedded within these symbolic systems as domains of shared networks of representations and methods that structure thought and inquiry (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; 1996; 1999). While culturally transmitted, such concepts aim to map onto real causal patterns in the world, reflecting universal cognitive categories and ontological structures. Scientific creativity, then, is a culturally situated yet cognitively grounded process that drives meaningful conceptual change and helps learners move beyond misconceptions (Mason, 2020). To foster this creativity in education, we must treat science not as a static body of knowledge but as a dynamic system of ideas that are continually generated, evaluated, and reimagined. This requires going beyond the transmission of ‘course content’ to cultivating the cognitive, emotional, and cultural conditions that support transformative insight, immersing learners in symbolic domains and helping them develop the habits of thought, modeling practices, and conceptual tools needed to reshape those systems.
In this chapter, I aim to illuminate some of these conditions and propose a framework for enriching scientific creativity in the classroom and beyond—one that emphasizes developing and appropriately constraining student’s scientific imagination; not just teaching about science or how to do it
Scientific Creativity Enrichment in Education: Concept Combinations, Symbolic Systems and Designing for Transformative Experiences
No full textStudents enter science classrooms already familiar with the world around them: they’ve felt the wind, seen lightning, and wondered why the sun sets. These everyday encounters, though intuitively understood (perhaps sometimes misunderstood?), are also entry points into powerful scientific explanations. Such ordinary experiences become extraordinary when reframed through concepts like combustion, refraction, or energy transfer. Scientific concepts do not merely describe phenomena; they seek to explain them by revealing hidden mechanisms and causal patterns. These abstract concepts like energy, or gene are not static facts to be memorized but the outcome of centuries of creative thinking, model-building, and conceptual transformation. Thus, creativity emerges not merely from personal inspiration but from an interaction between individuals, symbolic domains of knowledge, and social fields of recognition (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).
This systems approach of creativity has been emphasized by several scholars (Amabile, 1983, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1996, 1999; Simonton, 1988; Woodman and Schoenfield, 1989). Scientific concepts are embedded within these symbolic systems as domains of shared networks of representations and methods that structure thought and inquiry (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; 1996; 1999). While culturally transmitted, such concepts aim to map onto real causal patterns in the world, reflecting universal cognitive categories and ontological structures. Scientific creativity, then, is a culturally situated yet cognitively grounded process that drives meaningful conceptual change and helps learners move beyond misconceptions (Mason, 2020). To foster this creativity in education, we must treat science not as a static body of knowledge but as a dynamic system of ideas that are continually generated, evaluated, and reimagined. This requires going beyond the transmission of ‘course content’ to cultivating the cognitive, emotional, and cultural conditions that support transformative insight, immersing learners in symbolic domains and helping them develop the habits of thought, modeling practices, and conceptual tools needed to reshape those systems.
In this chapter, I aim to illuminate some of these conditions and propose a framework for enriching scientific creativity in the classroom and beyond—one that emphasizes developing and appropriately constraining student’s scientific imagination; not just teaching about science or how to do it
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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