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| Simulated TIME magazine cover designed by Joe Trimboli - cover art is also an original based on discarded brown bag paper with a composition of "Culture of Death" elements that form a cross with the word "STILL" composed of nails emerging from the background. |
My claim as an artist is a little shaky - its not my profession and its not a hobby either. Its more of a talent I had when young, fostered during high school and later chosen as an undergraduate major in college. In college however it became something different - it became a mastery of plastic elements through an external expression. The mastery came through the realization that non-interesting topics such as history could be viewed as the evolution of design, thus creating an interest that was never there.
Have never heard this discussed or described but a feeble attempt would be "Knowledge Domain Transfer." My experience is that the structure of knowledge is consistent over time, irregardless of the domain and it is this structure that allows for cross-domain transfer of knowledge. This would be akin to the concept of "cultural meme's" as coined it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Meme's are described in biological terms only because Dawkins was a biologist while I experienced them as structured plastic elements that transfer between domains.
In one of my elective classes, I took a special topic entitled "Science and Religion". Had always been interested in my own religious faith reading many historical books on the subject and this interested me. It was in this class that I wrote and presented this early idea on the architectonic of thought. This is not my description but while discussing it with a visiting professor this was how he described it. As a wrap up to our "Science and Religion" class, the conflict that is thought to exist between these two knowledge domains was described as "bad science" or "bad religion." In my own words the absence of knowledge domain transfer. This is contrary to writings of early Church Saints who converted entire pagan nations based on an explanation of "The Way" that filled in gaps and replaced many social pagan customs. These Church writings are a historical record of this concept of cross-domain transfer of knowledge.
The concept of "meme's," by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene has been expanded by Susan Blackmore through the the concept that meme's replicate in an evolutionary method through human imitation. She also introduced a special category of memes called temes. Temes are memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind. These meme concepts can be seen in how social media has exploded in our cultures and how media items can become viral. Although our methods of communication have changed the social structures where meme's replicate and evolve do not.
Knowledge and communication are at the essence of our humanity and Pope John Paul II was prolific in multiple languages and wrote many books. The one that influenced the "TIME" cover above was entitled, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." It was a series of questions that John Paul answered from an expected interview with Vittorio Messori, an Italian journalist and writer. However, the interview was cancelled but John Paul answered all of Messori's questions in writing and delivered them to him with a suggested title of "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." So the book actually a collaboration that begins with the question from Messori, do you ever have doubts? The answer from John Paul is what pulled me in and led me to read a number of his writings and publications - "BE NOT AFRAID."
