Pointillism and Curiosity

When it comes to people reading, or whatever you want to call it, there is the continuous march towards some kind of classification, an all encompassing system that will help any would be learner develop some kind of competency with speed. It reminds me of the struggles Einstein faced with his attempts to unify gravity under one theory. There were general relativity limitations that could not account for black holes, dark matter and dark energy. It is, in that way, a little like the problems we have with observation of humans.

Let me preface the following by saying, this is simply an opinion. Nothing more. I might mention where the inspiration took route but nothing more than that. So measure any expectations accordingly.

Superforecasting is something that was bought to my attention a little while ago and like all things that sound niche, quirky and interesting, I threw myself at it with as much gusto as I could muster. I wouldn't be so bold as to try and sum up the practices of this branch of critical thinking in a single post but merely mention that Superforecasters are the people tasked with projecting answers to massive questions such as who will invade who in the next 6-8 months or what the economy is going to be like in some 3rd world country in 2 years time. Questions where the volume of information to manage would be gargantuan to say the least. Yet within the pages of books on this topic, I stumbled across an analogy regarding Pointillism and then that lead me to find Pencilism and the methods it uses to create pictures. 

Look up the work of Georges Seurat whenever you get to chance in order to see the beautifully detailed images that are made simply of thousands of dots and nothing more. These have all been collected in specific ways for us to step back from and appreciate the grander context of its creation. You see where I am going with this right?

The humble dot to dot puzzle. I presume most of us will be aware of things like this from our childhood. 60 dots and a few lines create an image that we can step back and see. However at this stage, looking at just the dots, we may be able to see some fundamental properties of what it appears to be. You may see the face of someone or an animal of sorts, even a ball and surmise that some situation with an owner and a pet of some kind are playing together. This alone may stop you from even beginning to join the dots, or wonder what other images could be there as well. Heaven forbid you think that just because this situation is demanding a total of 60 dots/lines that you should look no further.

The dots could not hope to show whether this is inside or outside, if the owner of the animal is happy or sad, or even if the animal is theirs to begin with. It may not be animal at all. It could not show their pains, hopes, dreams, jobs, family, hobbies and yet this is the same attitude that many take towards the observation of people.

The image seems to be that you can spot a few simple things and make some concrete image out of it that is immutable and certain. Art of this nature is still, humans are not. They are trails of information that existed before you observed them and will exist long after so it is up to you to be an expert Pointillist and see how many dots of detail you can observe from every picture that comes your way. This way you can make images that are built on much more solid foundations. Only with you as the artist, will you be able to notice and track the changes that exist within these dots and look to confirm the details of the new image as it takes shape.

It is a consistent and ever changing canvas of interactions and approaching these as a pointillist will, I feel, keep you curious enough to keep searching for the image that best suits what you can see. In conclusion, we might enjoy the confines of a step by step how to guide but the vastness of the information that one person can communicate to us, whether this be verbally or nonverbally is enough to challenge this premise. Continue your growth, learning and discomfort with everything that is there. The comfort will come.

Be a pointillist and leave the dot to dots behind

:)