art – On the Human https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human a project of the National Humanities Center Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:39:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Can computer models help us to understand human creativity? https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/05/can-computer-models-help-us-to-understand-human-creativity/ https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/05/can-computer-models-help-us-to-understand-human-creativity/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 04:44:06 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=1051 Creativity and computers: what could these possibly have to do with one another? “Nothing!,” many people would say. The two are simply incompatible.”

Well, I disagree. Computers and creativity make interesting partners with respect to two different projects. One, which interests me the most, is understanding human creativity. The other is trying to produce machine

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]]> https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/05/can-computer-models-help-us-to-understand-human-creativity/feed/ 23 Animalia: the Natural World, Art, and Theory https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/ https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:57:33 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=808 Egbé eja leja ?wè tò, egbé eye leye ?wò lé Fish swim in a school of their own kind; Birds fly in a flock of their own kind. Yoruba Proverb

We mention nature and forget ourselves in it. Friedrich Nietzsche

So engrained is the trope of the animal in the West that animal

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]]> https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/feed/ 15 Science and the Humanities https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/01/science-and-the-humanities/ https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/01/science-and-the-humanities/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:27:19 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=776 At odd moments, often when I’m distracted, it occurs to me that a song or a piece of music has been repeatedly running through my head. It’s an experience nearly everyone has. Sometimes it’s invigorating to realize that you have been striding through the day to the chords of Beethoven, but it’s often quite irritating

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]]> https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/01/science-and-the-humanities/feed/ 25 On Reading 300 Works of Electronic Literature: Preliminary Reflections https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/07/on-reading-300-works-of-electronic-literature-preliminary-reflections/ https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/07/on-reading-300-works-of-electronic-literature-preliminary-reflections/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:16:33 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=281 In a panel discussion at the 1998 “Bookends” conference at SUNY Albany, Jacques Derrida spoke of Internet initiatives under way by his younger colleagues in France at the time. The first thing they would do, he said, is set up editorial boards, appoint in-house grant writers, and establish closed review processes – effectively replicating the

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]]> https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/07/on-reading-300-works-of-electronic-literature-preliminary-reflections/feed/ 36 The Adaptive Function of Literature and the Other Arts https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/06/the-adaptive-function-of-literature-and-the-other-arts/ https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/06/the-adaptive-function-of-literature-and-the-other-arts/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:47:46 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=274 Massive Modularity vs. Cognitive Flexibility

Evolutionists insist that genes constrain and direct human behavior. Cultural constructivists counter that culture, embodied in the arts, shapes human experience. Both these claims are true, but some evolutionists and some cultural constructivists have mistakenly regarded them as mutually exclusive (D. S. Wilson, “Evolutionary”). Some evolutionists have either ignored the

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