JJ Naas>
I hope I don't make the impression of being ignorant and close-minded
. I see what you mean. Your idea about imitating others and then interpreting their reaction is really the way life works. I read an article a week or so ago (can't find it again, so no source, sorry) where they proofed, that imitation is a real important factor to get accepted and successful in the society. One test in england was, that they had waiters and one group tried to imitate the guest (repeating everything they said, imitating their gesture...) whereas the others didn't try to match the guest. The result was, that the imitating waiters got about 60% more tip than the others. Other experiments with apes showed, that they are able to imitate other fellows. That's important to learn and get accepted in their community. It looks like this natural behavior is one factor of a functional society. Loosing this ability may result in a "you're ignorant" impression.
I don't try to imitate my surroundings, at least not intentional. I try to being aware, don't judging my surroundings but accepting. Not good or bad, nor right or false, just being. So when somebody asks me, if I like something, sometimes I don't answer or I ask the a counter-question. Other times I say I don't know or I don't mind. Thus my fellows call me sometimes "ignorant". But being liberated from (or currently: trying to) such thoughts or behavior can that be called ignorant? I mean, I don't mind. But wouldn't be their behavior (from their point of view) called ignorant?
Helm>
I know that you don't have (or like) to judge if I put love into my work or not. But I believe when you see something artificial (meaning created by humans) there perhaps you can see something sub-concious. A force or tension which surpasses logic. That's what I meant lacks my comic and I thought this can be read out of your critique. I'm sorry if I interpreted your critique wrong. But of course I know what you said (literally) and I try to adress what you critiqued next time!
About the feeling-stuff. I think I see what you mean. But maybe I'm unclear to myself what I mean with feelings. Above I wrote something about not judging or trying to be just aware of your surroundings. Of course, when the time comes, I have to make decisions. Now, how do I "judge" how to act? My whole life I tried to surpass feelings through using logic (being pragmatic). Over the years I really put the judging-tool "feelings" into a drawer and just used logic to determine what to do. Now, years later, I can't easily tell if I like something or not. I use logics to determine if it makes sense (and therefore I "like" it) or not.
Now, more time passed and more thoughts be thought. I found out, that logic which I used was something artificial. It's human made and therefore limited. Limited by the system we created our self, limited by language and limited by passed on experiences. I wanted to get rid of it, being liberated from it and being free... to create true art (not that lifeless stuff). At the same time I found out about eastern believes like buddhism and taoism. I saw parallels in thoughts and the "way".
Now trying to adapt this new approach to my old way it's not easy. I'm easily distracted, often don't know what to do. All I know is that I want to create art which other people inspires to create art and those inspire other people again to do so and so on. That's where I'm aiming at.
I'm not sure if I'm at the right track. I don't know if I can accomplish that. I'm not even sure if that's a good thing or not. But a further step is done by going through my mind and posting this. If you (all of you) d'like to answer something I really appreciate it. But if you think I'm just confused just ignore me. If it's too off-topic please move or delete it.
walk on...