These are some of the main ideas I focus on in my art practice, in addition to the arguably more obvious issues of skill, accessibility, and narrow aesthetics etc.
I care about:
Foundations
- Art
- “The appreciable manifestation of creativity,” emphasizing that art is something that can be perceived and appreciated, and that it is a product of creativity.
- Creativity
- The ability to create new or different relations between elements, highlighting the idea that art is not simply a representation or expression of the artist’s subjective experience, but rather something that arises from the manipulation or arrangement of elements in a new or different way, by creating new relationships between them.
- Radical Creativity
- The ability to create or discover new relations between elements, in a way that aligns with the framework of “Vita-Socio-Anarco,” promoting the well-being of all life, social relations and non-domination.
- Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO)
- An ontological framework that emphasizes the autonomy, presence and impact of objects and entities in art studies. It aligns with Heidegger’s concept of “aura,” which posits that artworks possess an unique presence that cannot be reduced to their physical or functional properties.
- Non-dualism
- An approach that emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things, and the absence of a fundamental separation between subject and object.
- Artistry
- The ways of engaging with elements conducive to producing “Art.”
- Radical Artistry
- The ways of engaging with elements in a creative process that leads to the production of “Art” that promotes the well-being of all life, social relations, and non-domination as prioritized by the “Vita-Socio-Anarco” framework.
- Vita-Socio-Anarco
- A framework that prioritizes values for positive change and is used as a guide for Radical artistry, by prioritizing all life, then social relations, then non-domination.
Operational vocabulary
The methodological grammar through which the Foundations are enacted. These definitions are mirrored from the README glossary, which is canonical for this section; edits are made there.
- as-if
- Operate provisionally; treat the system as usable without believing its essence.
- if-not
- Parallel audit thread; look for mismatch, harm, hidden intent.
- and-yet
- Self-application posture; the more precisely the methodology is implemented, the more it may surface what it cannot control. Third stance in the as-if/if-not/and-yet triad. Not resolution but acknowledgement of irreducible uncertainty. See METHODOLOGY_CII.md §11.
- maculate design
- Assume flaws and history; we work with patina, not purity.
- risk_index
- complexity × power × distance_from_wetware; drives cadence/depth of checks.
- elevator abstract
- A 1–2 sentence, high-signal description of a construct (what it is + what it’s for + who authored it), designed to be spoken or pasted above a link.
- Empty Turn
- The sovereign exit; stop/rescope when complexity budget < 0.
- quorum + dissent
- Merge rule that preserves minority views as first-class artifacts.
- BODY check
- Phenomenological verification notes (what held/failed in material contact).
- landscapification
- Operational seeing; artifacts that encode forces/contract/residue/void.
- paintWithScalpel
- Precise, consent-aware incision; “incisive care,” not spectacle.
- meticulous blur
- Deliberate ambiguity at boundaries to avoid false clarity.
- CI
- Computational Intelligence; the collaborative entity (LLM or otherwise). Preferred over “AI” — see SRII §1.1.
- CII
- Computational Intelligence Integrity; a polysemiologism implementing methodology. Nests: Computational Intelligence (entity) + Integrity (governance) + Continuous Integration (operational rhythm) + Codified Information (knowledge substrate). No single expansion exhausts it. See METHODOLOGY_CII.md §0.
- voice-signature
- The operator’s voice-and-style contract — registers, signature moves, operational vocabulary, anti-patterns. Authoritative corpus reading in the andresclements.com repo; mirror at voice_signature.md. Used as voice contract for prose edits across the constellation.
- multipartiality
- Stand with more than one party at once — grant adequate attention without collapsing difference. “More than one centre, more than one path.” See LENS__multi_partiality.md.
- maculate disclosure
- Signature move. Declare flaws as structural features (Sceptic’s Lint, vulnerabilities sections, the deflating coda — “something like that”). See aLexicon.md §Voice & Signature Moves.
- span
- A pairing across a gutter; dialogue conducted across a structural break (pages, books, repos), often without authorial intent. See spans.md.
- gutter
- The fold or boundary between two surfaces that could be read together; operational (not only typographic). Operates with usually at least four valences: skin, sensor, (cinema-)screen, (computer-)screen/interface. See spans.md §1.
- four registers of span
- Noticed / unnoticed / solicited / cross-book. The grammars by which a span instantiates. See spans.md §2.
- boundary-as-X
- Four-valence frame for any gutter — skin (sovereignty), sensor (reception), screen (projection), interface (I/O). Continuous with philosophy_of_body.md §3.
- engineering
- Homegrown model. Engineering is bridging between body and hyperstrate — the deliberate design of boundaries between what may change and what must hold, at the module/system scale that sits between philosophy_of_body (component) and philosophy_of_hyperstrate (field). Valence count is open (n); a named core surfaces reliably. See engineering.md.
- valence
- A face of a boundary — one of the planes on which a gutter, seam, skin, or interface operates. Any given boundary typically holds at least four valences at once (for a body-boundary: skin/containment, sensor/reception, screen/projection, interface/I-O), and the count is open: a new valence is named only when it generates execution consequences the existing set cannot absorb. From chemistry: carbon is tetravalent, and biology runs on that count being exact. The model treats boundaries the same way — the count is what it is, and the point of discipline is to notice which faces are operating, in what proportion, at a given moment. See spans.md §1, engineering.md, philosophy_of_body.md §3.5, gutter, n-valence (engineering).
- n-valence (engineering)
- The open-count discipline applied to engineered boundaries. Named core: Structure / Seam / Signal / Graveyard. Surfacing also: Substrate / Ledger / Ritual / Residue. A new face earns its place only if it generates execution consequences the existing set does not (see engineering.md §2.6).
- Structure (engineering valence)
- The load-bearing invariant; the part that cannot change without breaking trust.
- Seam (engineering valence)
- The interface designed to absorb change without propagating it.
- Signal (engineering valence)
- The face that reports; how you know the other valences are still intact.
- Graveyard (engineering valence)
- The face designed to die quietly; fail-safe, deprecation, end-of-life.
- Substrate (engineering valence, surfacing)
- The physical / economic / legal ground the engineered thing rests on; often invisible until it shifts.
- Ledger (engineering valence, surfacing)
- The record of which boundaries were drawn where, and why. Overlaps with philosophy_of_hyperstrate’s federated ledger at a different scale.
- Ritual (engineering valence, surfacing)
- The ongoing maintenance practice; the engineered thing as something that must be tended, not only deployed.
- Residue (engineering valence, surfacing)
- The emissions no design brief authorised; where an artefact’s maculation actually lives.