Tropical Attitudes
Entropical or Ectropical?
Is the redundancy of the bipedal, humanoid (the popular image of Bigfoot) marked with entropy? Is it an example of a predominantly closed system whereby feedback is too predictable and thus a restriction of the Bigfoot's livelihood as cryptozoological creature? Or is this an abundance of evidence as to the Bigfoot's existence as networked social constellation-- an example of "ectropy"? The opposite of entropy, this term was introduced by mathematician/philosopher William V. Quine to signify 'useable' energy. Is the rich information environment in which the popular Bigfoot now resides an open system billowing with ectropic potentialities of signification for the great American monster?
Cultivated memetically for human cultural needs, the domesticated Bigfoot ( as image of bipedal humanoid ) is a potent signifier. Yet, with a menagerie of associations already in tow including T.V. specials and monster trucks, brewfests and tourist attractions, movie and tabloid fodder, the Bigfoot, as "hidden animal," is hardly so. What lies beyond the image, beyond the "art of the footprint," (so to speak)? How does the Bigfoot as mysterious phenomenon, paranormal mechanism, "an apparition walking in the landscape of our minds," as Rod Serling once described it, carry over into the information environment experientially?
"Interestingly, ectropy is also a disease of the eyelid," notes RAQs media collective in their Ectropy Index project description, "...In this disease, the eyelids do not close satisfactorily, leading especially to a slackening of the muscles of the lower eyelid, so that the orbit of the eye comes loose, and portrudes, ectropically, from its socket. Eyes that do not blink, or sleep, or never shut to occasionally 'not see' something, tend towards ectropy. The eye that wants to be all seeing, that wants everything in order, all the time, better beware of ectropy."
Is the redundancy of the bipedal, humanoid (the popular image of Bigfoot) marked with entropy? Is it an example of a predominantly closed system whereby feedback is too predictable and thus a restriction of the Bigfoot's livelihood as cryptozoological creature? Or is this an abundance of evidence as to the Bigfoot's existence as networked social constellation-- an example of "ectropy"? The opposite of entropy, this term was introduced by mathematician/philosopher William V. Quine to signify 'useable' energy. Is the rich information environment in which the popular Bigfoot now resides an open system billowing with ectropic potentialities of signification for the great American monster?
Cultivated memetically for human cultural needs, the domesticated Bigfoot ( as image of bipedal humanoid ) is a potent signifier. Yet, with a menagerie of associations already in tow including T.V. specials and monster trucks, brewfests and tourist attractions, movie and tabloid fodder, the Bigfoot, as "hidden animal," is hardly so. What lies beyond the image, beyond the "art of the footprint," (so to speak)? How does the Bigfoot as mysterious phenomenon, paranormal mechanism, "an apparition walking in the landscape of our minds," as Rod Serling once described it, carry over into the information environment experientially?
"Interestingly, ectropy is also a disease of the eyelid," notes RAQs media collective in their Ectropy Index project description, "...In this disease, the eyelids do not close satisfactorily, leading especially to a slackening of the muscles of the lower eyelid, so that the orbit of the eye comes loose, and portrudes, ectropically, from its socket. Eyes that do not blink, or sleep, or never shut to occasionally 'not see' something, tend towards ectropy. The eye that wants to be all seeing, that wants everything in order, all the time, better beware of ectropy."
posted by cdiehl at 4:29 PM
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