I am a storyteller. I am a teacher. So let me tell you a story about Laksmi Giha and Myth Guyot (mostly about Myth) and the current interactive art installation that they have on Adelebsen Isle in Second Life. The story will also have some teaching in it. My nature demands it, the art demands it. You will see why.
We Met
When I first met Myth in Second Life 2.5 years ago, he was wearing a tag that rotated around and around his head like a banner that circles a football stadium when it is pulled by a blimp. Yes, the tag was quite large. The banner said: "find the truth". It seems Myth was out and about and bumped into my art gallery (long gone) and I just happened to be inside. We talked, of course. A Lot. He took me to see his art installation. I IM'd Nazz Lane. Nazz wrote about it as his first article for SL-Newspaper. (also, long gone. I had hoped to find a link.)
They Moved In
Time came and went and Laksmi and Myth have had many obligations and art installations and science experiments in RL. I did not get to talk to Myth often. Then one day Myth came to me in SL and said, "I need a place. A place that we can dependably link our 431art.org web site to for our info about our art that we did in Second Life. I cannot constantly be worried that the landlord will evict us or close the sim." By then Mitch and I owned our own sim. We gladly made a space for him.
By Myth's standards it only needed to be a simple space and dependable, basically an office. Since we were unsure about some plans for the "land" around the space, we all agreed that a skybox would work beautifully.
Art Happened
Evidently stability suits Myth. First, he hosted an art showing for his friend Christoph Wilhelm Aigner. Now, Myth has created a smaller version of "find the truth" which they also call "I'll be your substitute whenever you want me." Now, some of 431art's work, Plato's cave, is on the ground on Adelebsen Isle.
More People are Involved
At the DRHA 2010 Conference, at Brunel University in London, on Tuesday, September 7th at 2pm, Myth will present the machinima "Walk to Elea!" (showcasing the original installation) and then, if all goes well, log into SL to demonstrate the cave and the maze.
The Conversation
Understanding the purpose and message behind the "find the truth" art presentation by Laksmi and Myth Guyot is complicated on many levels. First, I managed to skip learning about the Ancient Philosophers and, amazingly, the art of philosophy in general. Second, Myth is German and I am Texan (US). Third, the original SL installation was destroyed. Fourth, time is not a friend of my memory so all I had understood before is now vague.
Myth can communicate pretty well in English--a thousand blessings on all of his teachers. My version of English is sometimes confusing. My German is non-existent. Myth and I love to speak with each other, sometimes in SL voice, usually with Skype --a thousand blessings on Skype (with video). The conversation usually holds together fine until we start trying to define nebulous areas of various concepts.
So, when Myth reconstructed "find the truth" in the 431art Gallery on Adelebsen Isle, I sat with Myth and we talked via Skype about the installation.
The tour of the art installation begins in "Plato's cave." Instead of shadows, Myth confronts us with quoted text from Parmenides on revolving forms which, for me, seem as easily understood as shadows.
Myth explained that in Plato's Cave the captives are chained and can only face a specific wall. Shadows are produced on the wall by a fire that is beyond the cave entrance as people who are outside the cave carry objects past the cave entrance. It is impossible for the captives to discern the real truth about the objects but they begin to create ideas and beliefs about the shadows. One person leaves the cave and comes to see the truth about the objects. He then returns to tell the others but they ridicule him and want to kill him.
Including You!
The Allegory is a story. It is easy to listen to. In Myth's original installation, it was possible to listen to the "Allegory of the Cave" while in the cave. I have found a recording. You can listen to it at Librivox.com. It is in Book 7 of The Republic.
The tie between the quotes by Parmenides and Plato's cave is that Parmenides was a teacher about truth to Plato.
In the center of the cave, there circles the "find the truth" banner above a teleporter. The teleporter takes us to an amazing maze. I hate giving away spoilers to movies and stories. To say more about the maze right here seems like a spoiler.
The Fun Part!
Maybe you should stop reading here and go visit first. Start with Plato's cave: Adelebsen Isle 249/11/21 From the cave, teleport to the maze.
Afterwards, go visit the 431art Gallery where you can view the machinima, "Walk to Alea" and enjoy the beautiful image collection, "Living in Prims." They based in images captured in the first installment of "find the truth" aka "I'll be your substitute whenever you need me."
The Teacher Arrives
In the mean time, I will tell you more about Parmenides and Plato.
Because Myth and I hit the language barrier after we discussed the installation in general terms, I went on my own journey.
She's Confused
For me, this means going back to the roots. I discovered the roots are deep and massively intertwined and complicated. I will not come to understand Parmenides nor Plato in a few casual explorations. (I do now suspect C. S. Lewis of being under their influence.)
So, I began to look for summaries about the two main writings which inspired Laksmi and Myth: "On Nature" by Parmenides (the teacher) and "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato (the student). Goodness! In general, the people who like to write the summaries, seem to enjoy writing with vocabulary words & sentence structures that require a dictionary and a flow chart to map out an understanding.
Not Completely Confused
I did glean that Parmenides believed it unwise to lean on the physical senses for understanding. He also seemed to think it is a foolish waste of time and energy to search for truth by discussing what something is not. Obviously, when something is defined by what it is, automatically it defines a plethora of attributes that the subject is not. (Since water is a liquid, it automatically is not dry nor solid.)
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is somewhat easier to grasp. The context that prompted the allegory revolves around a long and complicated discussion about the creation of laws and society in a work called "The Republic."
The "Allegory of the Cave" teaches several ideas for one goal: To encourage those who have received knowledge of the truth to return to "the cave" and teach those who have been fooled, by their own senses, into believing a lie. The impact of this teaching is beyond an easy comprehension.
Oops Homework!
On my favorite days, I long to understand a subject at least three levels more deeply than what it takes to simply explain it to the mildly interested. Why? Because on those days, the mildly interested will become more deeply interested and want more information. On my intensely euphoric days, the mildly interested becomes deeply interested and then becomes a fellow researcher and wants to know my resources.
You are welcome to my resources:
~~A Summary of Parmenides' teachings from Sparknotes.com (fairly easy to read)
~~Parmenides of Elea: Audio recording at Librivox
It is section 6 of Ancient Greek Philosopher-Scientists.
~~Text of Parmenides by Plato
~~Summary of The Allegory of the Cave from S. Marc Cohen a faculty member of Washington University. It includes a diagram of the cave.
~~Allegory of the Cave from Wikipedia provides a summary and additional resources.
~~Book 7 of The Republic by Plato.
~~All Librivox.org catalog pages also include links to text resources (including ebooks) at Gutenberg.org and Wikipedia.
Afterthoughts
In (ancient) philosophy, ideas are called forms. I find it amusing that Parmenides ideas are displayed on forms in the cave and the visitor is constantly allowed to proceed or is impeded by forms in the maze.
I suspect there is another allusion toward Parmenides in the use of floating text (speech) but my head started to hurt trying to understand Parmenides ideas about speech and thought and I'm not sure if Myth meant an allusion or not. So, I stopped pondering that.
I forgot to ask Myth one thing. I wonder why they are now calling the installation, "I'll be your substitute whenever you need me" or ... maybe they always did.
A clue
Near the end of our conversation Myth stated that he believed that humans are as unaware of their own DNA as avatars are unaware of their own coding.
Have much fun exploring 431art's "find the truth" and the 431art Gallery ... including info on botanoadopt, another very fun project.
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