[Sigia-l] visual thinking, by rudolf arnheim

[Christopher Fahey [askrom]]

> Seeing in a "cold-blooded way" is a form of detachment 
> required to truly master a craft.

I can think of lots of masters of lots of crafts who could hardly be
described as "cold-blooded" - Thelonius Monk, Peter Breughel, Virginia
Woolf, Richard Feynmann, James Joyce, Jimi Hendrix, Albert Einstein,
Jackson Pollack, Gene Kelly, Aretha Franklin... Beethoven, heck, even
Shakespeare. There are likewise masters who seem pretty cold-blooded
(although I'm a bit hard pressed to name any!). Detachment is extremely
important in research, experimental science, and law, but it ain't
necessarily so in creative arts and theoretical sciences.

Great artists (i.e., masters and innovators within their crafts) come in
*all* blood temperatures: cold-blooded and hot-blooded. While there is a
certain air of authority to assert otherwise, the reality is that
cold-bloodedness is not an absolute requirement for mastering a lot of
crafts. Is IA a cold-blooded craft? Hmmm....

-Cf

[christopher eli fahey]
art: http://www.graphpaper.com
sci: http://www.askrom.com
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com