Embodying complexity through aesthetics of multivocal sung rhetoric

Evoking Castalia as Envisaged, Entoned and Embodied (Part #12)

As noted above, in Castalia particular emphasis is given to poetizing the quest for "con". It is therefore appropriate to embody this focus in a conclusion and the concentration of attention that focus implies. This can be usefully done through a threefold configuration.

Configuring conceptualization of cognitive processes: This preoccupation drew upon the correlation between the following:

cognitive insights into the human capacity to conceive order, as notably explored by George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez (Where Mathematics Comes From: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being, 2000).
the work on how the brain engages and encodes music, as explored by Dmitri Tymoczko (A Geometry of Music, 2011; The Geometry of Musical Chords. Science, 2006).
the findings of neurophysiology (how neurons produce subjective feeling), neuropsychology (how the human cerebral hemispheres undertake complementary information-processing), intonation studies (how the emotions are encoded in the tone of voice), and music perception (how human beings hear and feel harmony), notably as synthesized by Norman D. Cook (Tone of Voice and Mind: the connections between intonation, emotion, cognition and consciousness, 2002)
the work arising from recognition by Rene Thom of 16 archetypal interaction morphologies distinguished by Rene Thom, most notably in relation to his focus on semiophysics (Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: an outline of a general theory of models, 1972; Esquisse d'une Sémiophysique, 1988).
insights from the extensive explorations of creativity, exemplified by those of Daniel Dervin (Creativity and Culture: a psychoanalytic study of the creative process in the arts, sciences, and culture, 1990)
emerging understandings of synaesthesia

Configuring consonance in rhetoric: As implied by the references above to use of figures of speech in versification in relation to tone, rhyme and rhythm, their cognitive interplay is of particular concern in Castalia. Central to this was how the various possibilities of change and transformation could be "sung".

Partly inspired by the order implied by the periodic table of chemical element, a sense is given to the articulation and comprehension of this periodicity versification and musical terms. More generally, the process of classification of all features of the environment is explored in terms of melodic structure -- giving rise to "melodies of classification", of considerable value to mnemonic engagement with complexity (Periodic Pattern of Human Knowing: implication of the Periodic Table as metaphor of elementary order, 2009).

The interplay implied necessarily requires that the dynamics be embodied rather than simply presented in static terms -- hence a focus on play consistent with the game-playing arguments for homo ludens (Johan Huizinga, 1938), understood as consistent with the arguments for homo undulans (Dervin, 1990). Game-playing, whether through wordplay or otherwise, is seen as fundamentally related to the role of humour, as variously recognized (Humour and Play-Fullness: essential integrative processes in governance, religion and transdisciplinarity, 2005; Enacting Transformative Integral Thinking through Playful Elegance, 2010)

Configuring concentration on patterning of complexity: In Castalia a complex argument is recognized to be like a long length of string. As such it is essentially unmemorable (and instantly foregettable) unless transformed into a Celtic knot (or some equivalent). The challenge in Castalia is thus to engage with ever more complex knots. As indicated above, understanding of the fundamental challenges of governance within Castalia then invites exploration in terms of higher dimensional knots and their comprehension, both in mathematical and psychosocial terms (Andrew Ranicki, High-dimensional Knot Theory, 1998; R. D. Laing, Knots, 1972).

Of particular relevance is recognition of the mathematical correspondence between the alternation characteristic of Celtic knots (as noted above) and the spherically symmetrical tensegrity structures in three dimensions explored in terms of management cybernetics by Stafford Beer (Beyond Dispute: the invention of team syntegrity, 1994).

Celtic knot configurations (animation)	Spherical tensegrity (animation)

Such configurations are then further explored in terms of the legendary Gordian knot which continues to be framed as a challenge for global governance, as discussed separately, notably in relation to Borromean rings. This suggests a degree of relevance to the cybernetics of governance as a system of control, dependent on feedback loops, variously subject to failure, as discussed separately (Variety of System Failures Engendered by Negligent Distinctions, 2016).

Concordian mandala: In a period of remarkable discord, attention has been controversially given to the provocative Principia Discordia elaborated by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell. As its focal symbol, this contains a Discordian Mandala to which reference is made in the Wikipedia entry on Borromean rings. It can be understood as depicting cycles that are moving not in union; but in resonance, such that even in the discord, there is balance and equilibrium.

As discussed separately with respect to the form of the mandala presented below (Cognitive Cycles Vital to Sustainable Self-Governance, 2009), it is made of five interlaced irregular nonagons, fitted within an overall pentagon. No two nonagons are directly interlinked, but any three adjacent nonagons (for example, yellow, green and blue) are in a Borromean rings configuration. The structure is sufficiently complex to be suggestive of a pattern that might be used to hold the complete set of Polti's 36 plots characteristic of human drama (as mentioned above). These are presumably exemplified by the problematic dynamics of global governance -- effectively the pattern of narrative tunnels through which globality is variously imagined. The extent to which it achieves this may be indicative of its power as an attractor.

As noted above, with respect to the challenge in Castalia of poetizing usage of "con" -- in its reframing of the "con-quest" -- part of the game involves attributing to segments of the image words with "con" as a prefix. The goal is to engender meaning from the global systemic configuration through ensuring that words in parallels rhyme in some way, and that the labyrinthine journey tells a memorable tale that can be sung in the quest for the mysteriously elusive "con". Rhyming conquer with concur is one indication of possibilities.

Concordian Mandala
indication of a stage in the iterative adaptation
of the Discordian Mandala in the periodic Castalian con-quests

In the quest for memorable aesthetics, con-testants in the Castalian con-quest are free to use any word-roots prefixed with "con-", as identified separately (Exploration of Prefixes of Global Discourse: implications for sustainable confidelity, 2011)

Global brain or Global brane? For Castalia, the aesthetics of comprehension and engagement with even higher orders of complexity is remarkably illustrated by the Mandelbrot set as mentioned above (Psycho-social Significance of the Mandelbrot Set: a sustainable boundary between chaos and order, 2005; Sustainability through the Dynamics of Strategic Dilemmas -- in the light of the coherence and visual form of the Mandelbrot set, 2005). The ultimate challeng is fruitfully framed in terms of the so-called Monster group, as separately discussed (Potential Psychosocial Significance of Monstrous Moonshine: an exceptional form of symmetry as a Rosetta stone for cognitive frameworks, 2007).

The challenge of complexity to any comprehension of a "global brain" -- or by one -- is essential to the consciouness of a collective of any scale, whether of Castalia as a community or of its context. This has implications for the global understanding of any of its contestants. The argument above with respect to a non-binary relationship between rhyme and reason is then fruitfully related to that of hemispheric integration -- understood metaphorically or otherwise (Engendering Viable Global Futures through Hemispheric Integration: a radical challenge to individual imagination, 2014; Corpus Callosum of the Global Brain? Locating the integrative function within the world wide web, 2014).

In Castalia it is only natural to associate these concerns imaginatively with insight into the nature of a global brane (Global Brane Comprehension Enabling a Higher Dimensional Big Tent? Strategic implication in encompassing nothing and coming to naught, 2011).

Embodiment in rhythm and tone? Any such possibility lends itself to exploration in aesthetic terms, as discussed separately (Anticipating When Blackbirds Sing Chinese: conversion from tweets to songbites to ensure integrity of communication, 2014; Embodying Global Hegemony through a Sustaining Pattern of Discourse: cognitive challenge of dominion over all one surveys, 2015; Envisaging the Art of Navigating Conceptual Complexity -- in search of software combining artistic and conceptual insights, 1995).

For Derek H. Whitehead (Poiesis and Art-Making: a way of letting-be, Contemporary Aesthetics, 2003):

I have argued that poiesis is something 'in process' contemporaneously, that it remains a subjacent influence striving toward realization. As such it is likely to surface in forms wherein the artist's intuitive faculty appears paramount. A corresponding feature of a poiesis 'in process' is its relationship with praxis. Rather than seeing praxis as the exercise of an intentional will alone, we may see its relation to poiesis as bringing about a transforming encounter between the artist and his or her work in the unfolding conditions of art-making, which itself communicates a poietic world-view to art's recipients.

Finally, I have said that we need to re-engage the poietic act in a contemporary way as something that finds its own unforeseen passage into those kinds of artistic production, in the labors of the eye, hand and head, that remain poised and receptive to its moods. And I have suggested that poiesis will be sensed in those undercurrents of artistic activity that impel us toward a place of 'unitary multiplicity,' wherein the artist, the artwork, and the receiver enact themselves in the full complementarity of their self-abandonment. I venture to hope that the space that poiesis opens up to our sense of questioning encounter with the diverse forms of art-making today will yield new and surprising discoveries, and harness the rich potential available to us in our experience of art and in aesthetic reflection.

One approach to understanding the "lost language" of pattern-shifting in the process reality characteristic of Castalia can be obtained from insights into the 4,000 year-old chanted hymns of the Rg Veda of the Indian tradition (as discussed elsewhere). A very powerful exploration of this work by a philosopher, Antonio de Nicolas, using the non-Boolean logic of quantum mechanics, opens up valuable approaches to integration. The unique feature of the approach is that it is grounded in tone and the shifting relationships between tone. It is through the pattern of musical tones that the significance of the Rg Veda is to be found:

Therefore, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, we have to be aware that we are dealing with a language where tonal and arithmetical relations establish the epistemological invariances... Language grounded in music is grounded thereby on context dependency; any tone can have any possible relation to other tones, and the shift from one tone to another, which alone makes melody possible, is a shift in perspective which the singer himself embodies. Any perspective (tone) must be "sacrificed" for a new one to come into being; the song is a radical activity which requires innovation while maintaining continuity, and the "world" is the creation of the singer, who shares its dimensions with the song. (Meditations through the Rg Veda, 1978, p. 57)