9/9/84

The problem of narration is
related to the [arbitrary] problem of
beginning and ending of a story.
All of us alive exist in one objective
current reality which is simultaneous from
the perspective of each individual. It is the
problem of documenting this simultaneity that
Einstein addressed himself to in measuring the
speed of light, and in this way he discovered
the relativity of light's velocity.

It is impossible to completely measure or document
a single present moment, because its
exact duplicate will never take place again. However,
according to the
model of succession, the moment under
discussion may be connected to its
antecedents and successors, a tiny leaf
in the family tree of experience.

But in Freud's view, there is an aspect of
experience which would provide
some documentation. This is the repetition compulsion.
Repeating is an aspect of remembering. [It appears
that what has been incompletely experienced
needs to be repeated] It appears that repetition can supply a
dimension that has been incompletely experienced.
[Is there a birth *pleasure*?]

The issue of evenly-hovering attention
in Spence and Schaefer. Spence against the
idea of evenly-hovering attention- which to
him seems to imply a kind of inattention,
or distracted attention.


9/15

Life itself as a kind of time travel.

9/29

*Thirty days hath September*

*Attention*

*The action of* perception is evolving

Free association, impressionism,
expressionism, abstract expressionism, all
these permutations of perceptual experience
have to do with the action of perception.
Van Gogh's decision to exagerrate his colors
may have in part to do with an optioning
in favor of a kind of psychological
realism. A literal faithfulness to the
actuality of perception itself in favor of an
access code that permits the viewer to
directly identify the site of the experience
historically, thereby doubly ensuring
its historical credibility. It is in the sphere
of the *authentification* of experience
and the classification and ordering
of authenticated identities that has come,
in the Twentieth Century, to be truly
brought into question. Schwitters' collages,
from this standpoint, pay heed to the
ultimate investment of human value in the
actual duration of time in the
sphere of individual identity-the private facts of
personal experience. Thus Van Gogh's
late painting of himself after his slicing
of his own ear shows this event and
its reality being accepted as faithfully as
the actual shapes of the sun's reflections on the
flowing river in "La Roubine du Roi with
Washerwoman."

10-6-84

The evolution of the concept of individual
identity is one of the cornerstones of
human differentiation from his and
her animal origins.
Differentiation is at
the core of evolutionary development.

1) Differentiation at the core of human development

2) sexual differentiation is the
primary differentiation

3) The development of individual identity an
expansive operation because

I) A shift in differentiation is
a shift of scale

II) Opposition affords change,
change affords movement

III) The expansion of individuality
affords a possibility of
change through identification

IV) Sameness and difference affords comparison

4) All entitiies must group together to
obtain strength

I) Strength affords security

II) Strength is a binding agent because
it supports exchange

III) Grouping affords the maximum development
of strength through exchange

5) The grouping of entities together
generates likeness

I) Likeness a source of group
identification

II) Likeness promotes the
smoothness of exchange and connection

6) Perception of likeness and contrast
the basic aesthetic pleasure

7) Aesthetic pleasure a product of
the dynamic interchange of parts
of a whole

I) Interchange of likeness and
contrast generate new
aspects through further differentiation

8) Development of identity affords the
development of further differentiation

9) A balance between differentiation and
likeness necessary to permit continued
identification

10) Development of identity a basis of the
development of individuality

I) Further development of identity
permits further development of the overall
possibility of individual human *experience*

11) Assertion of identity possible only
through group identification

12) Maintenance of the overall expansion of the possibility of
identity only possible through further individual differentiation

13) Expansion of identity through sexual differentiation necessitates
sexual difference

14) Reduction of sexual difference effects the
stability of roles