Page 25 - Studio International - June 1971

William Roberts, Helen Saunders and Edward David Bohm and invariant form. That is to say, it is more like
Wadsworth. a pattern of movement than like a solid
Obviously, it is the works that haven't been the Rheomode separate thing that exists autonomously and
exhibited or reproduced anywhere that I am permanently.' Any localizable structure may
interested in tracing, particularly pictures by Technology and art 26 be described as a 'world tube', brought into
Cuthbert Hamilton. existence in space and time from a broader
Richard Cork To rheomodate=to talk, using the conjugation background or context, and eventually
8 Parkland Court of the Rheomode wherever it is appropriate, dissolving back into the background. Einstein,
Upper Addison Gardens while being aware of the ordering involved in attempting to obtain a consistent description
London W14 such a mode of talking of such a world tube, proposed that the
universe must be regarded as an undivided
Baiter bit? Professor David Bohm has made major and unbroken whole, and particles as certain
Since Felipe Ehrenberg arrived at the Tate scientific contributions, I am told, in the kinds of abstraction from the total field.
Gallery with a tape recorder Mate with fate at theory of plasmas and the 'many-body However, in the context of quantum theory
the Tate', March issue), I suspect that he did problem' (the problem of motion when three (Bohm's argument continues) the observed
intend to create a disturbance, in the hopes of or more particles move in each others' fields object can no longer consistently be said to
recording it. In the resulting confrontation he of force). In the McCarthyist period of the exist separately and independently of the
must have enjoyed confounding and early 195os he lost his assistant professorship observing instrument, i.e. be regarded as
• contradicting the guards; one can almost hear at Princeton University, and he is now `having' certain properties whether it interacts
the glee in his shrill threats to prosecute professor of theoretical physics at Birkbeck with anything else (such as the observing
(persecute ?) and punish. College, London. He is regarded as something instrument) or not.
For the safety of a museum's frail of a heretic in physics (for reasons which I `The form of the experimental conditions and the
possessions, guards are instructed to exercise cannot assess) and he finds that many artists meaning of the experimental results have now to
strict attendance regulations. In some cases this are more responsive to his ways of thinking be one whole, in which analysis into
may impinge mildly on civil rights, as in than are his fellow-scientists. A footnote in one autonomously existent elements is not relevant.
Mr Ehrenberg's case. However, if Mr Ehrenberg of his papers acknowledges that it was Charles What is meant here by wholeness could be
• was not aware of the guards' duties when he Biederman, the artist, who first suggested to indicated metaphorically by calling attention to
arrived at the Tate, he was informed of them him the notion, crucial to his recent work, a pattern (e.g. in a carpet). Insofar as what is
• soon after. At which point it was time to stop that the perception of order gives attention to relevant is the pattern, it has no meaning to say
baiting employees bound by rule and take the `similar differences and different similarities'. that different parts of such a pattern (e.g.
case to higher authority. Bohm believes that essentially 'all is art', and various flowers and trees that are to be seen in
I am disturbed to see Studio International art means simply 'fitting together'. (He is the carpet) are separate objects in interaction.
publish this recording and make public the fluent with derivations for key abstract words. Similarly, in the quantum context, one can
• discomfit and embarrassment of blameless Taken individually the derivations leave room regard terms like "observed object", "observing
workers. for doubt about their relevance, since many instrument", "link electron", "experimental
René Gimpel words develop usages accidentally, but results", etc., as aspects of a single overall
1040 Madison Avenue cumulatively they are persuasive.) "pattern" that are in effect abstracted or
New York, N.Y. 10021 At a recent colloquy at the ICA, David "pointed out" by our mode of description. Thus,
Bohm held a large audience for a whole to speak of the interaction of "observing
Linguistics: an eye-witness account Sunday afternoon, with his ideas on language, instrument" and "observed object" has no
Briefly, in reply to E. G. Finlay's appointment thought and reality. I shall try here to give an meaning.
of errors in my article [Correspondence: impression, necessarily inadequate, of what he A centrally relevant change in descriptive
Studio International, April 1971]. is trying to communicate.' This is difficult. order required in the quantum theory is thus the
(i) If you are listening in a conversation, First, because a full understanding would dropping of the notion of analysis of the world
you must be listening to something or someone, require more knowledge of theoretical physics into relatively autonomous parts, separately
amongst possible other things. Speaking is than I can claim. Second, because Bohm's existent but in interaction. Rather, the primary
implicit in both conversation and listening. wider speculations are almost free from those emphasis is now on undivided wholeness, in
(2) This is a clumsy piece of phrasing on my allusions to other people's works which less which the observing instrument is not separable
part. I am guilty of over-familiarity with my demanding thinkers are apt to scatter for our from what is observed.'
subject to the extent that my statement is reassurance. Intelligent perception means, for Bohm,
implicit. The 'sound' referred to is an The apparent commonplace which is the germ the perception of new orders by seeing the
abbreviated form of 'sound shapes'. of Bohm's thinking is that science, human irrelevance of old differences and the relevance
Gareth Jones psychology, politics and all other aspects of our of new differences. 'Such perception begins
4 Redcliffe Close experience are hopelessly fragmented. Such by observing the whole fact in its full
London SW5 fragmentation is built into the very language of individuality, and then by degrees articulates
science, which is the outcomeof the general the order that is proper to the assimilation of
Project 84 language used in society as a whole. this fact. It does not begin with abstract
In your March issue, my article on the The basic mode of classical physics, whose preconceptions as to what the order has to be,
Project 84 arts/science scheme contained a form has generally been taken as a model for which are then adapted to the order that is
printing error in the address : could you please the other sciences, is the mode of analysis into observed ...As relativity and quantum theory
point out that the co-ordinating address is 10, atomic and sub-atomic constituents. However, have shown that it has no meaning to divide
and not II Chalcot Square, London NWI, with modern physics implies that 'building-block' the observing apparatus from what is observed,
apologies to those who may have wondered why concepts such as atoms, particles, bodies, so the considerations discussed here indicate
replies to letters were delayed. points, collision, scattering etc. are no longer that it has no meaning to separate the
David Dickson relevant. These (says Bohm) must be re- observed fact (along with the instruments used
10 Chalcot Square expressed in terms of events and processes. to observe it) from the theoretical notions of
London NWI `The "object" is an abstraction of a relatively order that help to give "shape" to this fact.'

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