Stefan Szczelkun

Sense - Think - Act (eBook, ePUB)

200 exercises about basic human ability

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

NB New colour paper edition! See new ISBN 978-1-870736-12-1 eBook still available as listed here.

This practical core of this book is a collection of about 200 exercises to experience basic human ability.

The senses pick up information in various media from outside and inside the body. They monitor what is happening. This sensory information then travels along nerve pathways to the brain where it is compared with past experience, analysed and evaluated. The result of this processing is a decision to do or not do. Doing something inevitably requires movement and muscle action; whether it be writing a poem, taking evasive action in the face of attack or chewing the top of your pencil.

This sequence provides a model for the organisation of the book. The first half is a detailed description of each sense, each mental faulty and a set of basic muscle actions. The second part is a collection of about 200 exercises to allow the reader to experience our most elemental human abilities.

The author has an idea of cultural renewal starting from basic human abilities. This book will also find wide appeal as a retro-styled exercise book, illustrated with pages from the authors research notebooks. There is much to surprise and delight readers.

The idea of collecting exercises to explore our basic abilities arose from previous research into basic human life supports published by Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, and Schocken Books New York, as the trilogy 'Survival Scrapbooks: Shelter, Food and Energy'. Whilst researching 'Survival Scrapbook Energy' I came across a detailed description of standing in Iyengar's classic book 'Light on Yoga'. I then thought of Francis Bacon's 'Idols of the Mind' as similarly describing an elemental ability. I wondered if a collection could be made which covered all the basic human abilities. I was doing body work with the X6 Dance Group near Tower Bridge in London, who were rethinking the relation of dance to the human being. This fed me with many ideas and experiences, especially in the area of muscle action.

The information was made into a Wikimedia website in 2005 with help from webmaster Gordon Joly. Since that time 'Sense-think-act' has become a prime paradigm of the Ai and robotics industry; and 'Brain Training' and physical exercise routines have become big business.

I think my own version of Sense-Think-Act works better as an book than a wiki. It is retro in appearance but in a way that suggests that the reader makes their own selection of exercises to know their abilities. Its radical arguments hark back to Whole Earth Catalogue and John Cage's ideas of 'starting from scratch' but there's a new generation of smartphone book readers that are rediscovering that kind of utopian and anti-corporate thinking.

There will be a POD paperback version as well for those who'd like to see this project materialise on their bookshelves

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stefan Szczelkun
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. Mai 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781870736107
• Artikelnr.: 49946156

Autorenporträt

Born in London post WW2 of displaced working class parents I grew up in the suburb of Shepperton. I studied architecture at Portsmouth before joining the Scratch Orchestra. I had some success as an author in the UK and USA with three books on basic life supports: Survival Scrapbooks: Shelter, Food and Energy. Whilst at college I ran the Portsmouth Arts Workshop after being inspired by the Drury Lane Arts Lab and came in contact with leading experimental artists of the day. I then researched the elements of human ability whilst working with New Dance Collective and wrote for their magazine 'New Dance'. During the Eighties I became a conventional artist moving from Mail art to drawing, printmaking and performance art. I was a founder member of the Brixton Artists Collective and gallery from 1983 -1987. Towards the end of the Eighties my work took a literary and theoretical turn in relation to identity politics. This resulted in: organising 'Working Press: books by and about working class artists' with Graham Harwood and writing three books on class and art; and co-curating a series of exhibitions with 'Bigos: artists of Polish Origin' that were supported by the Arts Council. At the beginning of the Nineties I had the chance to build my own house in Kennington, London, as part of a self-build co-op. I took an MA in Time-based Media to train in digital media skills. This was followed by a doctorate at the RCA 1997 - 2002 in which I attempted to evaluate my experience of artists collectives with a participant study of Exploding Cinema. At the same time I produced a series of DVD video collections on culture and democracy publishing them post 2002. I got a job teaching on an MA Visual Culture at Westminster University and then joined the Mute Magazine editorial team. This led to a variety of articles and blogs including the collaborative Agit Disco project, which became a book in 2012, and is ongoing as a performance. Since my doctoral research I have been activating the archives of my past collective activities. These have now been acquired by major public archives including: BFI Special Collections, National Art Library at the V&A, Tate Archive, University of the Creative Arts in Farnham, MayDay Rooms and the Museum of London. I currently live on the outskirts of South London and am married with a young daughter.