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Amsterdam, Mediamatic Post CS

What would Buddha do?

about the solutions on problems in self representation

Dr. Dorothea Franck tries to seek deeper answers, using a philosophic and Buddhist perspective. In the field of self representation, she deals with the gap between self perception from the outside and from the inside.

On this night she asked which aspects of self representation can be influenced and which cannot - and how to deal with the intrinsic limits of control. Self representation presupposes self-knowledge. But self-knowledge cannot be taken for granted, it is the most precarious kind of knowledge we have. Because of its fickle nature we tend to rely heavily on the feed-back of others, to fill in our blind spot. This dependency can become addictive.

with:

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who is the prettiest one of all?

The best business is being done - and the best art is being created, based on unfulfillable wishes. Such a wish is for instance the control one looks like / that way one wants to be seen by other people. The cosmetic industry profits from this. Self portraits also deal with the question: How do I look? However, the answer in this case is utterly different. In general, (painted) self portraits are non- flattering. Why? What does one want with these?
Where lies the difference in dealing with latter wish?

beauty parlour 09 at Mediamaticbeauty parlour 09 at Mediamaticdorothea franck and katja novitskova

The presentation

Dr. Dorothea Franck, one of the co-initiators of the Buddhist Broadcasting Organization "Boeddhistische omroep", spoke about self representation from the fields of philosophy, art, communication and social and aspects of human emotion.

She spoke before on the ARS electronica festival, about virtual reality and the impact of this on emotions and behavior.

The presenter

Dorothea Frank, Born 1948. 1972 M.A. in theoretical linguistics at the University of Constance. Additional studies: Linguistic philosophy, psycholinguistics, anthropology. 1979 doctor's degree (Dr.phil.) in general linguistics.
Lecturer for stylistics and rhetoric at Amsterdam University since 1977. Research work focuses on: semantics (theory of presupposition), pragmatics/ analysis of interaction and conversation. Lately topics in the bordering areas of linguistic philosophy, science and arts.

beauty parlour 09 at Mediamaticbeauty parlour 09 at Mediamatickatja novitskova

Virtual space

Ideas on the concept "virtual space" are based on the development of a new, non-referential, non-structural approach of grammatics and semantics within my project "Rethinking Language" on the one hand and on experience in virtual space in the virtual space laboratory of NASA (headed by Scott Fisher) in the Ames Research Center (Aerospace Human Factors Research Division), Moffett Field, California, 1989.