Susan Greenfield: The Quest for Identity

Yesterday, I went to hear Susan Greenfield speak at the State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century. She posed the question: Is individual identity in crisis? In other words, instead of being SOMEONE or ANYONE, could we be heading towards being NO-ONE? In exploring these questions, she differentiated between 'People of the Book' and the 'People of the Screen'. To explain the latter, she listed the effects of screen culture on thinking, identity and risk-taking. She believes that an emphasis on sensory stimulation and sensational fragments leaves little room for a continuous narrative, a characteristic of book culture where cognitive meaning-making develops a conceptual framewok for navigating the world. She sees a focus on creativity as vital for the future...

Two of many reviews of her book and ideas can be found at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/may/31/scienceandnature.society

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3901315.ece

Delia's family

Here is Delia's family, photographed in 1907.

My father is the youngest child,

sitting on his father's knee.

Homage to Delia Bannon

I am back writing letters to Delia Bannon,

my Irish Grandmother.

This fuzzy photo was taken in 1912.

I love it.

The fountain is flowing again

First sign of Spring 2008

I took this photo yesterday,

at the entrance to my upstairs studio.

It is the first leaf on the vine.

Thirst

This is an educational Slideshare presentation made by Jeff Brenman exploring humanity's water use.

THIRST

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design crisis)

Organ Pipes National Park

Mildura sculpture

Russian icon

Many scholars consider Rublev's Trinity

the most perfect of all Russian icons

and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted.

I prefer to call it 'The Three Graces'.

clipped from http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/trinity.html