Scraps

My virtual commonplace book & cabinet of curiosities.

Or, if you prefer, a microblog.

You can follow via RSS or Bluesky.

Vintage bar border with curved detail at the center
  • Continued reading indicated this area of research may have originated with Dr. Barry Prizant and then abandoned by his peers (along with Gestalt Language Processing.)

    Here is an early study of his (bear in mind this was written a long time ago and is more deficit based than his current work.)

    Finally, a gestalt mode of cognitive processing is one in which events are remembered or retained with relatively little analysis. Linguistic utterances may or may not be part of such events. A gestalt mode must be viewed in contrast to an analytic mode in which experiences or events are analyzed and segmented into meaningful components based upon prior experience. In an analytic mode, irrelevancies or redundancies are given little attention while new or significant information is abstracted.

...considered analogous to the distinction between the concepts of episodic memory and semantic memory processing cited often in the literature on memory in normal children and adults.

"in episodic memory an item is remembered as a whole, with little analysis of its component parts and structure"

Retrieval of information from episodic memory involves retrieval of events themselves, as experienced within specific contexts, or knowledge about highly repetitive or routinized activity.

semantic memory involves information abstracted from experiences which is organized conceptually for long-term retention.
    autistic persons demonstrate much greater success in nonlanguage tasks that can be accomplished by a wholistic or gestalt processing approach.
    episodic and semantic memory do not represent a clear-cut dichotomy. A continuum is suggested, ranging from the internal representation of context-specific events (i.e., gestalt, episodic representation) to decontex-tualized generalized knowledge (i.e., abstract symbolic
    Cognitive Processing and Learning Patterns in
Autism
The literature on autism is replete with descriptions of wholistic or gestalt learning

excellent rote memory for both visual and auditory information and proficiencies in tasks demanding visu-al-spatial judgment and visual-spatial pattern

    PDF (Source)

    Read more: untitled post 156077632
  • Over the last decade, my energies have settled, through desire paths and tributaries, into software, sound, and ceramics. I would characterize my approach to these disciplines to be sculptural in a broad sense, in which the resulting object (experience) is dependent on the accretion of smaller, more intuitive decisions, as opposed to starting from a dogmatic schema and working backwards.

    Reuben Son

    Weaving Music

    Read more: untitled post 156077273
  • Archiving Eden: Exchange by Dornith Doherty
    https://www.dornithdoherty.com/exchange

    Dornith Doherty is an American artist working primarily with photography, video, animations, works on paper, and scientific imaging. In projects that interweave the evidentiary and metaphoric powers of photographic images, Doherty illuminates ecological and philosophical issues that are often neglected when considering human entanglements in the environment.

    TED Talk

    Read more: untitled post 156077264
  • What is GCP?

    Gestalt cognitive processing is when experiences are held as primarily episodic memories. Gestalt cognitive processors process events as a “whole” that is made up of very specific parts. They are whole-to-part thinkers. They have a hyper-awareness of specifics and details in events that make up the entirety of the event, episode, or “whole” for them. … If something within that whole changes, it can be very distressing for a gestalt cognitive processor.

    Source, Meaningful Speech

    Alexandria Zachos, MS, CCC-SLP/L

    Read more: untitled post 156077626
  • Understanding Perfectionism
    by Austin Kleon

    Morgan Schafler says that perfectionists are people who “consistently notice the difference between an ideal and a reality,” and more often than not, have “a compulsion to bridge the gulf between reality and an ideal.” In her view, the perfectionist holds a kind of creative tension that contains an energy capable of creation or destruction.

    Read more: untitled post 156077643
  • What does gestalt mean?

    The word Gestalt is used in modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed,” or “put together.” There is no exact equivalent in English. “Form” and “shape” are the usual translations; in psychology the word is often interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration.”

    via Brittanica

    ADHD autism gestalt cognitive processing neurodivergence rejection sensitivity

    Read more: untitled post 156077628
  • “The act of taking notes in public is a powerful discipline: rather than jotting cryptic notes to myself in a commonplace book, I publish those notes for strangers. This imposes a rigor on the note-taking that makes those notes far more useful to me in years to come.”

    “Better still: public note-taking is powerfully mnemonic. The things I’ve taken notes on form a kind of supersaturated solution of story ideas, essay ideas, speech ideas, and more, and periodically two or more of these fragments will glom together, nucleate, and a fully-formed work will crystallize out of the solution.”

    Cory Dotorow on Blogging

    Read more: untitled post 156077616
  • Electric Paint is electrically conductive, water-based, and non-toxic paint, and air-dries at room temperature. It is great for fast prototyping with printed electronics, fixing small repairs in circuits, or painting large interactive murals.

    Read more: untitled post 156077276
  • I love this imagery of celestial phenomena (including northern lights, meteor showers, etc.) in relation to the recent eclipse and aurora borealis. I’ve been thinking about how people in medieval times would have experienced this. According to these broadsheets they were interpreted as signs of the end times (some things never change) and an act of God.

    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of moon and rays of pink in the sky
    Northern lights observed over Ausburg on March 6, 1582, interpreted as an omen of disaster.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of red sky above a city
    Report of a northern lights phenomenon observed over Nuremberg on December 28, 1560. The text interprets the natural phenomenon as a warning sign from God.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of literal flames in a sky above a village
    Report including a pictorial representation of a northern lights phenomenon (“a great broad long flame”) over Eggolsheim near Forchheim on December 28, 1560.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of men looking at lightning bolts in clouds
    Report of northern lights over Nuremberg on January 17, 1572, in the evening from eight o’clock until around midnight. The author of the text compares the northern lights with the heavenly glow above the Temple of Jerusalem and interprets the event as a divine sign of the end-time fire of the impending Last Judgement.

    Other Celestial Phenomena

    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of dragon in the sky
    Depiction of a star that was seen in Calabria, with a fire-breathing dragon and the zodiac sign Aquarius. The text includes a prognostication for the years 1585 to 1587, which announces numerous catastrophes and political upheavals.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of star paths
    Halo or secondary sun apparition over the Elbe on March 21, 1551 with the silhouette of Wittenberg below.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of city near the stars and crescent moon
    “The terrible miracle of two earthquakes which happened in Rossanna and Constantinople in 1556”, interpreted as a sign of the Last Judgement, foretold by comets. Note the damage to the Hagia Sophia.
    16th century woodcut broadsheet illustration of three suns in linking circular orbits
    Report and depiction of a halo and secondary sun apparition on January 16, 1561 over Rottenburg ob der Tauber, which is interpreted as an end-time warning sign.
    "An extraordinary face appeared as the sun." Report of a halo around the sun on May 12, 1556 over Nuremberg. The celestial apparition was interpreted as a warning from God to mankind.
    “An extraordinary face appeared as the sun.” Report of a halo around the sun on May 12, 1556 over Nuremberg. The celestial apparition was interpreted as a warning from God to mankind.
    The comet that appeared over Augsburg in November, 1577.
    The comet that appeared over Augsburg in November, 1577.
    Report on an ominous apparition in the sky of Lonnerstadt near Erlangen, 1558. The weather phenomenon depicted is related to the dragon of the Apocalypse as a sign of the end times in Revelation 12.
    Report on an ominous apparition in the sky of Lonnerstadt near Erlangen, 1558. The weather phenomenon depicted is related to the dragon of the Apocalypse as a sign of the end times in Revelation 12.
    Report of the apparition on March 2, 1561 in Nuremberg. The broadsheet claims that the divine signs should be taken seriously in view of the Last Day and will lead to a penitential life on earth.
    Report of the apparition on March 2, 1561 in Nuremberg. The broadsheet claims that the divine signs should be taken seriously in view of the Last Day and will lead to a penitential life on earth.

    Most of these come from Einblattdruck, a form of broadsheet that consisted of a title, woodcut, and an account of wonder. These sheets could be created rapidly, disseminated widely, and purchased cheaply. News and current events were thus being printed with greater speed and reach than ever before.

    I’m fascinated by the fact these broadsheets have been painted!

    I now want to research the process of early woodcut broadsheets.

    Browse even more at Zurich’s Zentralbibliothek.

    via Public Domain Review


    Observations from Solar Eclipse 2024

    We experienced a partial eclipse. There was only the tiniest sliver of sun showing. Looking through the glasses at a bright yellow orange cookie with a larger and larger bite missing feels removed. Like it’s hard to believe it’s really happening.

    Meanwhile the environmental effect is very real. The light ever so slowly dimming and becoming less contrasted. Like a Supernatural filter descending on the world. (The SPN TV show – not the genre.)

    Black and white photograph of a child looking up through eclipse glasses slotted through a paper plate

    The shadows (when viewed from a longer distance – like tree branches or a colander raised in the air) dance with crescents.

    I tried many artsy shots, but the best one seems to be this.

    Crescent moon shaped shadows on eclipse glasses

    The eclipse challenges our sense of normalcy in a way that feels inspiring re fiction writing. What other small things (the shape of a shadow) can make the world feel magic?


    Observations from Aurora Borealis 2024

    I can’t believe we could actually see this in Arkansas. To be fair, the effect to the naked eye was very dull (like a mauve smudge on the sky), but the camera was like a portal into another dimension.

    Brick house with long exposure pink, purple and teal in the sky above
    Looking up into tree canopy long exposure shows pink and purple sky above

    Read more: untitled post 156077320