THE PRIMAL THOUGHT

Many of the observations and theories came together in a Performance Art piece done at the Cleveland Performance Art Festival in April of 1993. For more information on this site go to

http://www.geocities.com/~jackbowman/ndex.html

This performance piece was originally titled "Jack's Theorem and the Primal Thought" but later was shortened to "Jack's Theorem" because the time limitations reduced our ability to emphasize the Primal Thought.

The above illustration is from web site "The Red Queen" http://members.tripod.com/~jackbowman/SuperCode/jqueen.htm

A fellow student (Michael Hardesty) (from the early 70's) of mine (Eastern Kentucky University) made a sculpture in the shape of a toroidal core. (A toroidal core is the shape of a doughnut) He said that an electronic person had told him that if you made a toroidal core and placed it out in the wilderness, desert or anywhere, that it would over a period of time form a magnetic field. (It made no difference what the core was made of) This was the final thought that put together other things I had already discovered. Among them was that two decorative gourds that I hung up to dry (separated by about two inches) in my basement in 1975 or 76. They were there about three or more months. They formed an invisible attachment for each other. I first thought it was a magnetic attachment but now I don't know. When I rotated one the other would rotate the opposite way. I could rotate them a quarter of a turn and the link was there. It seemed if I rotated farther the link broke. I did this two or three times but then it would not work any more and It never occurred again. There was some force that attached them together.

By 1988 and 1989 I was really looking hard for Primal Thoughts. I assumed that if we knew what the primal thoughts were then we would also much better understand the primordial evolutionary man. My work took several directions and I actually did experiments with my students. But the one we are concerned with here is the "inserting a rod into a doughnut shape"

On March 27 of 1989 at Houston Woods State Park Ohio, I saw my Daughter Amanda (age 9) pick up a stick and insert it into a hole. I asked her the sequence of thought that she used. She said she #1,saw mud #2, saw another forked stick inserted in the mud #3. Saw the other forked stick laying on the ground #4, Saw the hole #5. Saw the dried mud on the forked stick laying down. #6. Saw another longer stick that was not forked. #7. She then inserted the muddied forked stick into the empty hole and laid the longer stick across the two forked sticks.

By 1993 I had created a computer algorithm that would allow a computer to create in the same manner as a human. I hinted at it in some of my works and only showed it to close friends. I never made it public and don't intend to now. The computers will control us soon enough without me helping. The most public presentation of it was in this print that I made in 1993.

In the two previous cases the forked stick came into play but in the second case it was later turned into a hole. The forked stick in these two cases (only speculating) could evoke a closure response which would also be a creative response. (Closure is an art phenomenon) Closure and creativity could be the same thing. Like linked to the same formula in our mind.

For a related site "Before Thought" http://users.erinet.com/53378/before.htm

For a related site "Origin of Form" http://jackbowman.home.mindspring.com/origin/

TO BE CONTINUED...........