What is Your Fashion O/S?

Photos by Laura O'Brien

I have always admired my friend Laura's fashion sense. Her look is whimsical, eclectic, quirky and always chic. Recently she confessed that her clothes selection is almost always based on nostalgia. In all her clothes purchases, there is a wistful desire to return to her childhood.

On the evening of our discussion she was sporting an 80's dress with drawsting waist and cuffs. Black with thin stripes in primary colours, she could not resist the purchase because of its visual reference to the LightBrite© she loved as a child.

I had been wondering about the knowledge issues implicit in fashion purchases prior to our conversation.

When I attack a thrift store bin, I clear a three foot space at the far right end and pull items one by one from the pile I have created. If bins are too full to accommodate my method, I curse the over-zealous bin stockers and move on.

As a general rule, other shoppers tend to give me sole custody of the bin during the procedure. I do, however, have occasional visitors.

What I note about these shoppers is that they seem guided by a more intuitive approach and inspect only garments of interest to them. I do an initial screen based largely on colour and many items are simply "moved" to the right, but I do feel compelled to touch and sometimes even hold to my cheek (no wonder my son finds me embarrassing at times) items of interest.

In a chapter titled "The Burning House", in the 1994 publication by the same name, Jay Ingram writes about the implications of decisions made by patients suffering from neglect. He makes reference to experiments conducted in the 70s by Timothy De Camp Wilson and Richard Nisbet which demonstrated that in everyday life most people are unaware of the influences that prompt their decisions. When asked to list possible factors influencing their choices in word-association experiments the carefully engineered word cues which had an "obvious and potent influence on the answers these subjects gave" where seldom mentioned as reasons for the decisions.

What was interesting about the experiments was that, "not only (were) most people unaware of the factors that are truly influencing their decisions -- they just don't know -- but they are also more than willing to identify a set of bogus factors --they tell more than they know.

Texture, as the cheek rubbing attests, plays a role in the decisions I make in the thrift store. Laura seems to have a more global and nostalgic connection with her purchases. What I wonder now, however, is the influence the LightBright© dress conversation has had on me. I do think about it when I clear the end of the bin and I will, no doubt, one day make such a purchase. When I do, I am certain I will recognize the influence which prompted the decision, but I wonder how many garments in my closet are mine now without my knowing why.

The Art in Paper Cups and “Other” Insecurities

My fifteen year old son loves to torment me by mentioning, with respect to my work, a comment which was made during the opening of “The Box Projects” in July of 2005. In parting, a woman refered to my pieces as “clever” and my son thought this was hilarious.

It struck a cord with me as well which seems ironic since I do consider my work more akin to parlour magic than high art.

When a fellow artist recently visited my work space and saw what I was working on, she asked, “What's this?” My heart sank as I replied, “It's just a paper cup I'm making.”

I had spent the previous week very excited about the possibilities inherent in my paper “test” and to hear myself describe it in these terms reduced it to what I, no doubt, secretly feared could be the perception of “others”.

In my work , I strive to be true to the process. I honestly don't give a lot of thought to what others will think of individual pieces. What is of interest to me, is the process inherent in story making, the revisiting of my own assumptions, the maliability of "truth" in the things I remember.

This brings criticism (from both within and without). Technique aside – all my “paintings” have more to do with cutting in and filling, for example, because of what I learned while painting door jams – the content of my work may very well just be a re-hashing of things best forgotten.

I really don't believe that, but I often think that. And I often, both in my head and in crowds of people I love, I say so.

My brain is often a blur with questions about art, and I guess what it really boils down to is a question about what it really is. Why is it important? Is it? What is its relationship to knowledge? Is it possible for it to be a way of knowing? Is making paper cups important?

Perhaps only a clever person would know for sure.

Brave New World

I am re-reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Last night I finished Chapter XVI which has many interesting things to say about both Art and Science. I will, no doubt, have more to say about this novel and will update this post in due course. What I wish to share, at this time, is something perhaps far less important on any literary level.

I absolutely adore the smell of this book.

I am reading a copy which was purchased when I was about your age. I bought it in a musty secondhand bookstore following my first year of IB, and it has been stored in equally dank surroundings pretty much ever since. It's smell is intoxicating to me and, had my nose left a mark each time I leaned in to indulge, very few chapters would remain unsullied.

For now then, my reaction to the novel is limited to a few scattered thoughts and connections about olfactory senses:

-What role do olfactory senses play in "sense perception"?
-As a way of knowing, why is its connection with memory so strong?
-Phantoms in the Brain by V.S Ramachandran was my favourite Christmas read of 2007.
-Vilayanur Ramachandran speaks about synesthesia
in his Ted Talk, A journey to the center of your mind.

Your ToK Journal

You are responsible for maintaining a journal in Theory of Knowledge. The goal is to reflect on the material covered in class and examine your own experience as a knower.

Amy Scott, a ToK teacher at Corral Reef High School in Miami, describes the objective of the Tok Journal as the creation of "a dialogue with yourself where you can question the world and propose your own insights into the how and why of things."

She outlines the following topics as suitable for journal discussion:

· Pay attention to instances of logical or informal fallacies
occurring around you.
· Describe instances in which your sense perceptions influenced your reactions to your environment.
· Describe arguments that occurred because people defined their terms differently. What were the different definitions and did the people involved finally realize their fallacies?
· Think of current events from a ToK framework ... Find related newspaper clippings on both sides of an issue.
· Take your journal to other classes (science, history, math, etc.) and jot down ToK related issues. Look for connections or discrepancies between or among disciplines.
· If you have visited an historical or art museum, what caught your eye? Aesthetically what did you find pleasing and why? What, to you, is good art, literature, music, architecture, dance, poetry, etc. ?

Amy Scott ToK