Choices. A crucial point in every life and endeavour. You choose, you take a different path.
A blog (sequences of words evoking concepts, pictures and maybe videos) about decision paths, reality & fiction, the power of stortelling, art & film reviews and everyday poetry.
If you accept to always be inside the tropic of choice, you realize that choices become your story, your life.
DISCLAIMER / WARNING: this blog deals with aesthetic choices in arts, entertainment and everyday life in a personal and opinionated way. It offers (1) no advice; (2) no warranties; (3) no professional assistance; (4) is not limiting your liability; (5) is not limiting your ability to choose, but rather is conceived to expand it. Do not hold the contents of this blog or its creator accountable for your change of mind.
The little selection of articles here is written edited and maintained by a former brain scientist researching the grey zones of fiction and reality. An humble attempt to make sense of our world through observing media artifacts as meaningful disruptors of thought and action, rippling through our society of brains.
Who does not care about decision-making? It is not just a question of analysis, science or practise of aesthetic choices, its a basic human condition which may get cultivated more or less in life and training. We as human beings hit the point of no return – the tropic where a choice is made – every day a thousand times. Artists, writers, filmmakers, painters etc. filter experiences into the seeds of creating art forming them to objects, spectacles, performances, bodies of knowledge and emotion. In all our tropical brains, in the tropical games of life, we form our personal and professional stories with aesthetic decisions every day – or we delay them through neglect and fear.
In terms of interactive narrative, the creative challenges really boil down to how much choice will you give viewers in skipping ahead in a story, what choices to offer that would enrich the story, and the pacing/visibility of these choices. [Zeega]
One creates a sequence of images or writes about a scene, a human feeling. A door opens. A path diverges. The tropic of choice gets fulfilled and is presented to be relished, consumed, analysed. Films, books, photos, science, literature, games, paintings, poems, personal evolution, sex, relationships, all that may be reflected in the science and art of decision-making. Sometimes we refrain from really execute a decision we already “made” – so it might not become a real decision, or it stays negative space in a drawing, giving the scene “breath”. Other times we may have tricked ourselves to make poor choices – or the state, a film, a series or an encounter has.
Indeed, many of the conflicts and barbarities in the world are sustained through the illusion of a unique and choiceless identity. [Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence]
As a former brain scientist turned narrative interaction designer I love, research, consume and ponder a lot about how aesthetic decisions do feel filtered with my own singular body and brain, how they perturbate my system – and if there is any general or peculiar reason to be found. Therefore all this here is far from a scientific and objective process of evaluation. To collect external and internal factors which play a role in the stories presented to us by entertainment, politics or society in our everyday-life may shed a light on transformative moments.
I hope to entertain you in your own journey exploring the artefacts presented to us and I do apologise for any inconvenience arising from where our opinions might not positively interfere and become resonant with mine.
HECK (Herwig Egon Casadoro-Kopp)