The Big Pictue and the Risk of Not Seeing It

Had been mulling over some ideas about qualitative evaluations of Attention since I posted a few of the slides from the storyboard I had done with ppt to share with a few people for feedback.

Current dialogues about Attention are mostly superficial - referring to metrics like page views or duration on a page to evaluate qualitative attention. This is connected to other metrics called demographics which reduce people to labels and dollars.

Without questioning these underlying assumptions one is not seeing the whole picture. It like talking about an orange and only referring to the peel. If you don't get beneath that you miss some of the best parts of the fruit.

I was reading the updates to Ron's site having followed an awesome chat with Merik of Morphle earlier today about "Cultural Fusion Happenings". I found this passage and I realized this was a Source:Convergence helping to see a bit more of the answers to questions that led Ron & me to cofound Cultural Fusion.

Let me show you what clicked - as much to share with you who care to pay attention to access it, as to make note of it for myself as something I want to include because it was one of those Ah-Ha moments.

From Ron's site:

Create Attention
What is the origin of attention? How to wake up attention?
By using your imagination - Harry Palmer
I really look forward to this vacation!
By using your fantasy, you create energy. It looks like you touch an inner well, the source of energy. Creativity, in this context, is the gap between thinking (neo-cortex) and feeling (belly brain).

SoulFood is the method or model for this process. And this is key to understanding how to "work" with Attention to address challenges holistically

Soul Food emerges from oral traditions as a soulful tradition not be confused with an intellectual tradition. Rather than rely on known knowledge (intellectual tradition) it relies on the bridge between the intellect and creative intuition (soulful tradition) as am approach to developing new solutions for increasingly complex situations.

Furthermore it provides illumination about how to do this with integrity (purity of ingredients), value for the individual, and appreciation for context.

Starting with the insights from Source:Acceptance

Through this approach one finds balance and peace...here in the context of mixing ingredients, recipes, etc it is akin to "cooked just the way you like with the ingredients available to you".

In the WebAntiphon:Clear_CRM_Strategy scheme of things this approach acknowledges the value of each person served and consulted by helping you find the recipe for the SoulFood:Meal or SoulFood:Dish that best suits your needs and taste:

After noticing Ron's Twitter update I followed the link and these questions caught my Attention:

how do we keep balance between income and spending of attention? you PAY attention.
- what is the full width of an economic transaction? besides money there is also the currency of attention involved. what does the equation look like? VALUE equals a percentage (x) of money PLUS a percentage (100 - x) of attention?
- what happens with attention when we scale the economic transaction to infinitely small?

What I would add to what Ron has said is that it is a matter of quality.
For example, the spice Saffron. At $72.95 an ounce (28.35 grams), you are paying $2.57 per gram (24 servings) or 10 cents per serving it is an expensive spice that requires a good deal of attention. See: http://saffron.com/cons_guide.html Because of its value both culinary and monetary it attracts it invites you to pay attention and it is used sparingly in most recipes.

So as Ron points out with his equation (100-x) of attention...what I see is that although the quantity of attention may be small or reductionist - it is the quality of the Attention that makes all the difference. It doesn't take much saffron to add infuse its essence into a dish and the experience of in the context of a recipe vs a an actual dish or meal are not the same.

Check out this page to dig deeper: http://comfusion.pbworks.com/Attention_and_CRM_in_TransactionEquation

My understanding is that this means we must develop an understanding of really that integrates what we know. If we know objects are not solid but made up of lots of tiny particles, for example, at what point does this understanding get integrated into our general understanding and way of operating?
When do we develop social systems that catch up with our science?

Context for understanding the value of SoulFood



* Historically, much of fundamental physics has been concerned with discovering the fundamental particles of nature and the equations which describe their motions and interactions. It now appears that a different programme may be equally important: to discover the ways that nature allows, and prevents, information to be expressed and manipulated, rather than particles to move. For example, the best way to state exactly what can and cannot travel faster than light is to identify information as the speed-limited entity. In quantum mechanics, it is highly significant that the state vector must not contain, whether explicitly or implicitly, more information than can meaningfully be associated with a given system. Among other things this produces the wavefunction symmetry requirements which lead to Bose Einstein and Fermi Dirac statistics, the periodic structure of atoms, and so on.



* Pasted from




The understanding of our operating and management systems must evolve within the larger context of what we know about quarks and leptons.



There are six different types of quarks, known as flavors: up (symbol: u), down (d), charm (c), strange (s), top (t) and bottom (b).


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There are six flavours of leptons, forming three generations.


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Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy is about creating more than what is created and SoulFood is the framework for this paradigm.

Since the rate at which challenges when resisted, will present themselves and so any solution that can not see the big picture.....

If I am one of the drops of water at the crest of a wave - How to warn or help the people beneath?

A connection must be made between the drop of water, which is connected by context of the tidal wave/ocean to all the other drops of water, and the people on land in the path of the impending wave.

That is the potential of Cultural Fusion that is great than the sum of its parts (the artwork projects) but also imbues it with significant added value distinguishing it from previous work in the tradition of installation art.





So now I am considering that I will share the whitepaper with a few people and this blog helps with the conclusion I wanted to revise. Excellent!

Art Based Research in Community Intervention & Mental Health

With the dismantling of community mental health system and the erosion of personal support networks new alternatives must be devised. Currently I am working cf House of Cards series with that forming a recurring imagery/concept to be confronted. In contrast to the typical approach of assuming only bureaucratic systems can explore and solve these challenges, Cultural Fusion is interested in addressing them in the context of self organization, freedom, personalization, social media/technology, ecology, economics and social evolution via art based research.

The results are multilateral solutions, an art series, that combine visual art (performance, media/software, recycled materials, installations, sculpture, paintings) as well as music and audio. That while operating as art, and community intervention – are also operating as business solutions that promote innovation in economic development.

This is an excerpt explaining our collaborative Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy series as a demonstration of the SoulFood model I have been developing as a Source Artist.

While it advances the idea of “Self Referencing Creativity” it has been inspired by key scholarship in the areas of community mental health. As art imbued with this layered integration it seeks to pioneer new approaches to project/product development and management that promote a culture of peace. While at the business or economic level this is best understood from the perspective meaningful marketing, CRM Strategy and Global Social Responsibility; at the personal - community level it is chiefly as an expressive therapy approach to community intervention/prevention strategy.

This work is distinguished by its policy of Radical Inclusion - integrating mental health, arts and culture, history, economic development, and personal development that goes to the roots of several issues including: domestic violence, poverty, crime, depression, a host of “at risk behaviors”, etc. Rather than seeking to exclude needs, each person is allowed the time to identify and distinguish real needs from perceived ones. Resources and “intangible assets” are valued above lacks or deficits.

One of the primary benefits of this approach is its attention to integrity – starting with the integrity and transparency of the SoulFood:Ingredients included in any given project recipe. Here in this paper attention is on the community mental health model and theories that were the basis of the early inquiry into this work.

In beginning to approach community economic renewal my instinct was to go to the weakest links first – homeless, those needing mental health services, neglected seniors, those living in economic poverty, and the disenfranchised (included the previously incarcerated). The point of Radical Inclusion is that the needs of all sides seeking inclusive expression need to be brought to the table and integrated into the Recipe.

Client engagement is critical, and this is the basis of using interactive high art concepts with multiple components that also operate on the level of a project-based expressive therapy approach as opposed to traditional cognitive therapy to deliver community mental health intervention/prevention programs.

Primary experience, which exists apart from language, is described by language (a representation, or secondary experience). Language is that secondary experience created by verbalizing primary experiences. Verbal psychotherapy, then, is a procedure for the verbal processing of verbal descriptions of events. According to discourse theory, language constructs its own reality rather than corresponding to it.

Among those practitioners who use them for the purpose of representation, action methods generally are regarded as more vivid and memorable and having more impact than verbal methods. Action methods simultaneously engage cognition, affect, and behavior and better engage those clients who process information predominantly in visual and kinesthetic modes. When used as interventions, action methods provide novel ways of altering habitual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

According to some psychological theories, formative experiences that occurred at a preverbal stage of development can be accessed only by nonverbal methods. Also, there is evidence that traumatic experiences are stored or encoded differently from non-traumatic ones, suggesting that experiential therapies may have the potential to shift traumatic experience in cases in which verbal ones cannot.

“The map is not the territory.” Action methods get clients to venture into the territory of experience, enriching those clients who have come to rely solely on the maps of verbalization. Experiencing these methods provides both a way of discovery in terms other than verbal ones and material that can be juxtaposed with verbally encoded representations. In sum, action methods put verbalizations to the test of experience.

Although psychotherapy will continue to be a verbally mediated process, the inclusion of action methods appears to promote significant clinical change in relatively short periods of time, making them particularly valuable in brief therapy and with populations not very responsive to talk-only therapy.

Why use an empowerment-based model? Empowerment may be defined as a process through which people become strong enough to participate within, share in the control of, and influence events and institutions affecting their lives; in part, empowerment implies that people gain particular skills, knowledge, and sufficient power to influence their lives and the lives of those they care about (Torre, 1985). The process of empowerment is ongoing and involves changes in three dimensions of one’s self: personal, interpersonal, and sociopolitical participation.

The personal (self-perception) dimension involves attitudes, values, and beliefs about self-awareness, self-acceptance, belief in self, self-esteem, and the feeling that one has rights. The interpersonal dimension involves acquisition of knowledge and skills, assertiveness, setting limits on giving, asking for help, problem solving, accessing resources, critical thinking to participate and work with others in networks and systems of mutual aid and education in order to enhance the world they live in. The political dimension involves participation by joining appropriate social organizations, giving back by helping others, making a contribution, voting, writing letters, teach others what is learned, and taking control in generalized areas of one’s life are specific skills that will be cultivated during participation in this fully implemented program.

The underlying assumption of empowerment practice is that clients are generally disempowered through membership in devalued and oppressed groups; that the system of governmental policies and services is a barrier to achieving desired goals; and that learned powerlessness is an attribute of many clients (Albert and Green, 2002). Therefore, practical empowerment attends to power issues and promotes the creation and discovery of personal and group empowerment among clients.

Affirmational Psychology a later model I learned of that contributed to the work and let to a few major project collaborations.


It is my hope that in sharing this document that others who have similar interests....working in related areas will contact me. I have finally had a breakthrough in visually connecting this series as it evolves and organizing the huge amount of content I have already generated. In conclusion a few links to key pages in the Development Workspace:
Cultural Fusion Futurist
This is one of the primary projects - an installation called cf House of Cards Installation i
Defining Installation for SoulFood context

Stuck with new piece, working on others

The cf House of Cards has continued to evolve. I finally got the sketch of the installation modified and put online as a conceptual drawing. At first I was fussing over details before remembering the concept would be modified for the space it is install in.....as part of the virtual counterpart I am working on a digital piece - my reason for finally learning Flash.

Unfortunately, it is not going quite as I intended. The image above is the overlay layer, the original diagram is being modified to go underneath with the top layer parting, so to speak, to see the diagram text associated with the original cf House of Cards. One of the problems is the rippling water effect I was doing for half of the top layer seems to conflict with the script being used to provide the interactive component for the viewer. Since trying to fix it has finally given me a headache I have taken a break from it.

The on site installation requires a few things I still haven't completely ironed out so I am considering possible collaborations to help address that...namely the augmented reality, software art and 3D VR integration.

One of the things I am really excited about is that the piece integrates information that has value/merit in practical terms but it is transformed by its inclusion in the piece. I am hoping the discussions with potential tech partners will deliver the tools to make the information and content being included usable for the audience.

The installation needs a home so I have wondered about what the smallest size space could be....still not quite sure about that.

Reaching Out for OutReach

Vote No on Prop 8: Yes vs. No - watch more funny videos

Since finishing the first play and starting the next couple - one of which could be Act 2 for the first one....I have been pondering positioning the piece when it is performed.

Since Proposition 8 took the scene I have thought about how my play goes beyond the standard excuse given for supporting a policy of discrimination. That excuse is usually religious in nature (See Proposition 8:The Musical)but what has gotten far less attention is what is really driving church fueled homophobia - I suggest it is rooted in denial, self hatred, and self rejection. I guess that would be a key theme in the play.

I was struck by reports about support for the ban which indicated that:

Proposition 8 draws its heaviest support in Republican strongholds such as the Central Valley and Inland Empire of Southern California, according to recent polls. Its biggest opposition is coming from Democratic bastions such as San Francisco and Los Angeles along the coast.

But two Democratic constituencies -- African-Americans and Latinos -- are leaning toward the ban. Among likely black voters, 58% supported Proposition 8 compared with 38% who opposed it in the most recent Survey USA poll. Among Latinos, 47% supported the proposition while 41% opposed it; white voters were nearly evenly split. The reason, "Yes" officials say, is that church attendance is strong in many minority communities. WSJ.com

In the Huffington Post I found a piece on Rev. Al Sharpton's response that resonated with my own views.

"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you," Sharpton said bluntly. He made the remarks as the keynote speaker of the Human Rights Ecumenical Service

"It amazes me," he said, "when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

This has all inspired me to look at partnering the Human Rights Campaign or a similar organization to make the play part of an educational outreach that moves beyond PR.

If anyone reading this is interested please contact me to discuss further.

In the same time it takes to be bored you could....

I don't understand people who complain of boredom. I can't recall the last time I was bored but I can tell you it was before I discovered I was an artist. That means prior to 1987 which was around the time I did my first painting "Portrait of a Soul".

I have always believed that only boring people get bored. There is so much to do and so little time that I just don't understand the tendency. If you are sitting doing nothing, then enjoy doing that. There is so much to be inspired by, so much to create that I don't know where there is a place for boredom. With the stuff in life that we "have to do" that the time to do what we want is precious beyond measure. Create more of that and enjoy it more.

The main reason I have several projects in the pipeline at any time is that I try to find a balance between projects that need to get done, and the ones I want to do. Also, if there is a delay with one it's not a problem because I have others to pay attention to until the first situation is sorted. Each at different phases rather than push through them, I move between them as I consider the next step. Because I do keep working on them they do come to completion and I get to check them off the list of works in progress.

At last after three years in the making I have finished writing my first play. I have shared it with a few friends for feedback and will continue to tighten up the dialog. And having completed it I feel that at some point I will write more of them.

I have the start of what will be Act Two of the first play or perhaps a related One Act play on its own. In fact, I have another manuscript from a short story developed for another project that I think would work well adapted into a stage play...there were several angles I was interested in exploring in that piece so this could be one path to do that.

One thing with the first play is that I wish I had found more humor in it so that is something I am looking for on the next read through. It was a piece conceived with malice and birthed through acceptance, rather than forgiveness. After all was said in done what was there to forgive really? Who was I to ask someone to apologize for being who they are or assume I need to forgive them for the same? It wasn't going to change anything and what transpired had provided the inspiration, as well as the initial anger that fueled my start writing the play.

I guess the time is drawing near when I need to be able to tell people what the play is about. Not as easy as it would seem since there is what the play is about (the action carried out by the characters) and what the play is REALLY about (what the characters do, why and what it represents). Those are the kind of details probably only of interest to me :-)

Recipe for a New Paradigm

Excerpt from our evolving concept paper

I hope to have this finished soon but in the meantime I will post parts of it to my blogs.


This document emerges from the realization that there is a recipe for capitalizing on the potential of a given situation. Much like cooking there are a lot of consistencies in the process, but what may seem like small differences are actually quite significant in the results produced.

While this is not to debate whether to continue investing in existing system, but to suggest that alternatives get attention. Consider that many of our old systems are based on the needs and thinking of the industrial age. Even in attempting to adapt to the information age, changes were largely superficial and do not reflect the depth of our current knowledge of information or organic systems.

Rather than a debate, this paper invites discussion on and consideration for how to develop structures that integrate more of what we have learned about freedom (creative expression), information and natural systems. This is a strong basis for developing strategies for working with rather than against the flow.

An analysis of seven tropical forests around the world has found that nature encourages species diversity by selecting for less common trees as the trees mature. The landmark study, which was conducted by 33 ecologists from 12 countries and published in the journal Science, conclusively demonstrates that diversity matters and has ecological importance

Pasted from NSF news summary

As an art based approach, the process for creating with attention towards multilateral potentiality that cultivates social capital requires a different world view. It is not based on either or, but and. Existing systems which are cracking at best and crumbling at worse, were not designed to enable inclusion. Inclusion supports diversity.

Another reason to support - explore - invest in Art based research is that Art Embraces Diversity and helps chart unknown terrain about 12:34pm from TweetDeck

To get better results we need to cultivate more original ideas using what is here identified as "self referencing creativity". Again, this is not an either or situation but in addition to what is coming from traditional institutions. Many ideas develop outside of them not by ignorance of the various programs and bureaucratic processes, but because they do not offer the context conducive to their maturation. The very environment they foster is counterproductive in this new paradigm.

It requires less energy to flow with the water moving down stream than to hold that water flow back. This energy expenditure is also expressed in resources required and the efficiency with which they can be applied to the challenge.

Decision makers would be well advised to keep this common sense example in mind when considering why broader and deeper perspectives are needed to make better decisions. For example the self organization phenomena represented by the growth in peer to peer networks gives new insight into the understanding of culture and collaboration. Within these networks there is a wealth of great ideas and the nation/community that benefits will be the one that makes it easiest to advance them. This new approach will actually reduce risk, and this counter intuitive idea needs to be explored because it could actually be the salvation for economic stabilization and renewal.

Stone Soup with SoulFood:Ingredients

How can change come if everyone only keeps doing what has been done, with most attention going to how to manage - aka resist change?

Rupert Sheldrake with his work on Morphic Resonance has suggested that biological evolution is connected to habitual patterns of behavior.

In the hypothesis of formative causation, discussed in detail in my (Rupert Sheldrake's) books A NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE and THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST, I propose that memory is inherent in nature. Most of the so-called laws of nature are more like habits.

My interest in evolutionary habits arose when I was engaged in research in developmental biology, and was reinforced by reading Charles Darwin, for whom the habits of organisms were of central importance. As Francis Huxley has pointed out, Darwin’s most famous book could more appropriately have been entitled The Origin of Habits.

That seems to suggest that growth depends on radical departures from those conditioned patterns and management systems intended to maintain them. However movement in the "right" direction can not be assured, but likelihood might increase if action was taken towards healing-wholeness rather than based on merely defensive reaction. Could this be the key to understanding conscious evolution of humanity in the context of daily existence and its challenges?

Sharing rather than competition....collaboration based on understanding and value of contrast - this is the value of the cooking metaphor. The reason the Stone Soup story reverberates in my psyche like a mantra.

Pieces that seem unconnected, in reality converge and fuse to show new possibilities. This piece was inspired by Tom's post about intellectual property.

SICU Group discussion:Posted by TOM Merilahti on October 1, 2008 at 5:06am at ONLINE: REGISTER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PROVE COPYRIGHT WORLDWIDE!!!

One of SICU's collaboration partners is File-Reg International Ltd. The company presents an online registration service to prove copyright worldwide with registration servers on different continents.

In many cases, and in most countries, you automatically acquire Copyright when you create your work. But how can you prove it existed at that moment?

Register at File-Reg and we can provide that proof!

Victims of Copyright violation or data theft find haven here!

Are you a victim of data theft, Copyright violation or plagiarism - and can prove it? then it may be possible for you to register all your future work free of charge until 2010.

Judicial Proof

Registrations can be used as proof in a court of law. Further registration with a lawyer, solicitor or notary is not necessary. The registration system prevents fraud since it is not possible to change or recreate a registered file or document. Registered files can provide proof of development and strengthen application for a patent.

An example of what you can register

Media: Concepts, Designs, (RTV) Formats, Photo’s, AV...
Science: Data, Logs & Journals, R&D, Calculations...
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2.) DOWNLOAD FREE: Non-Disclosure Agreement and other legal docs
3.) FREE TRIAL: Login now and try free for two weeks

Register online now!

Take a look at the most reasonable prices as well!

From my reply to the above post at SICU Group in SICU ART:

I actually found the philosophy behind the company founder and the service to be inspiring. I have been using it for a few months now and have registered at least a dozen files and concepts so far. I found it easy to use with no learning curve. It started for me a line of inquiry of SoulFood:Ingredient(s) and recipes as intellectual property. I began working on this idea of recipes as the basis of algorithms to be registered and that is what this video is about...and represents documentation of the starting place of this line of inquiry. I would have used the company's logo but I don't have permission for anything like that - but I would love the chance to continue evolving this work in connection with a logo or marketing strategy for file-reg.com. We'll see what happens next because this is only a starting place....



I enjoy the lines of demarcation I find myself compelled to create and then curious about what happens if I selectively wipe them away....