Rhexia Virginica: Actual 'stuff' one sees at Harbin, besides that which you bring with you, is informed by the counterculture of the 1960s, Nakedness

Harbin ethnography:


... 'Stuff' here refers to actual 'stuff' and virtual 'stuff.'

The actual 'stuff' one sees at Harbin, besides that which you bring with you, is informed by, and emerges from, the counterculture of the 1960s and is significantly visually-oriented around nakedness, which is normalized, as well as the colorful and creative approaches to clothing, nature, abodes and life (politics, revolution, art, drugs, music, indigenous peoples, etc., too) that hippies explored and experimented with, – actual, radical, trippy, far-out, Be-In history - which occurred - and at Harbin, too. But actual Harbin transforms the 'stuff' you see through the milieu of a hot springs' retreat center which is open for visiting 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, and in the Harbin warm pool, for example, which is also open all the time, - by creating a space where people can do nothing, or simply do what they want – all the time – and all the while heading in and out of the pools to soak. So, people's actual 'stuff' – stresses from life in modernity, city-life, family-stuff, attractions, spiritual journeys, emotional ideation and imaginings, etc., are transformed in the context of Harbin. Virtual 'stuff,' here, will be seen in relation to virtual Harbin and the possibility for Harbin creativity and connectivity from anywhere, but in addition to the above, may eventually have to do with creating things easily on devices like brainfingers (see http://brainfingers.com or this “Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves” TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html) and other direct, brain-computer interfaces. This may be particularly interesting to observe in virtual Harbin, for example, when someone is on magic mushrooms (I've only seen one person tripping at Harbin in nearly 20 years, that I know of – I would guess in this instance that it was mushrooms), which such a brain-computer interface, and in virtual Harbin in Second Life, for example, would make fascinating in new ways. What virtual worlds make possible more generally are rich forms of self-centric visuality through the increasingly graphically complex and interactive character of worlds, and these processes gave rise to programming architecture for worlds like Second Life and Open Sim (Boellstorff 2008:48). As these develop vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, the relationship between people's actual and virtual, personal 'stuff' in the context of virtual Harbin Hot Springs, especially via brain-computer-virtual world interfaces, will take on new fascinating qualities, especially vis-a-vis ethnographic observation. And people's actual 'stuff,' at actual Harbin, will continue to interface, and sometimes find ease, sometimes unsettledness, etc., in milieus like the Harbin warm pool, and with people at Harbin – a kind of oneness of virtual 'stuff.'

In many ways both actual, and now virtual, Harbin Hot Springs are great adventures, in the sense of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters' hippy bus “Furthur” (http://www.nofurthur.com/images/furthur_newbus.jpg). ...











(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/rhexia-virginica-actual-stuff-one-sees.html - September 14, 2010)

Baby Rhino: Initial, virtual Harbins may take on multiple kinds of virtual, interactive representations, Furthur, Seeing Own Mental 'Stuff'

Harbin ethnography:


... Such experiences of virtual Harbin place will be notably different from the actual Harbin pool area experience, yet will develop, merge and meld as well.

But the initial, virtual Harbins may take on multiple kinds of virtual, interactive representations, besides in Second Life and Open Sim, that this ethnography will also at least touch on. Some 'furthur' examples of virtual Harbin's emergence that are mind-turning / trippy / fascinating: “Culturally, in my observations of Harbin, people see their own ‘mental stuff’ here, and come to face it, in interesting and sometimes affirmative, and at other times unsettling, ways. In my interest in writing an ethnography about Harbin, I continue to be curious about what of my own 'stuff' I would see, as well of others’ stuff (reflexively-wise and subjectively in anthropological senses 20xx). One prevailing mode of understanding here at Harbin is the New Age or spiritual understanding “I am that” (from something like 'om tat sat' in Sanskrit?) or “I see things from your perspective” – a kind of monism or oneness expressed in the fabric of a kind of hippie or alternative culture. This can lead to a playing down of critical thinking, and to a kind of being in the present, which disaffirms active engagement with ideas about what happens here, for example. Harbin also seems quite sophisticated; Ish has a subtle mind and many interesting people from all over visit here but especially from the S.F. Bay Area as well as Sacramento, and have done so for years. Ish and Harbin have also responded to many unique situations vis-à-vis the outside world. So Harbin's 'all is one' (empathic to a degree) culture, rooted in a New Age understanding of “I am that,” including the divine connotations here, and to a degree in intimacy and receptivity, and personal understanding (I lived here for 4 ½ months in the first half of 2005) can (and often may seem to) lead to people seeing their own stuff (MacLeod, Harbin Field Notes 2007-2008, March 31, 2008). 'Stuff' here refers to actual 'stuff' and virtual 'stuff.'

The actual 'stuff' one sees at Harbin, besides that which you bring with you, is informed by, and emerges from, the counterculture of the 1960s and is significantly visually-oriented around nakedness, which is normalized, as well as the colorful and creative approaches to clothing, nature, abodes and life (politics, revolution, art, drugs, music, indigenous peoples, etc., too) that hippies explored and experimented with, – actual, radical, trippy, far-out, Be-In history - which occurred - and at Harbin, too. ...
















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/cabra-kid-initial-virtual-harbins-may.html - September 13, 2010)

Skunk Cabbage: MIND-TURNING solar innovations, Singing Walking Bass Lines - Want to teach?, Wisest Children's Lit?, Country-Singing Economics

I added Heliotrope (solar building) to World University and School's editable 'Solar Energy' subject page.

The Solar Car and Solar Roadway here are also pretty cool:)

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Energy

What other MIND-TURNING solar innovations would you add?


And what might you teach about solar (for example, to your web camera or other ways)?



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Singing Walking Bass Lines - Want to teach how to do this?

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/ has this subject

(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Singing_Walking_Bass_Lines) ...

Innovate on how to teach or learn this ...

Singing bass lines - harmony of all kinds - is wonderful.

Let's make this easy by teaching & learning about it (to your web cam, or in a virtual world:) at World Univ & Sch :)


These are in the buds of World University's Music School :)

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School


and to sing from home with others all over the world will be fun :)


as will be singing with creative computing developments ...

Check out, too, the Virtual Choir subject at World Univ & Sch:

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Virtual_Choir




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What are your favorite, WISEST, Kid's books? Add them + to World Univ & Sch's Children's Literature & Wisdom subject - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Children%27s_Literature_and_Wisdom

Join the conversation -

Teach, for example, by reading a story to your web camera ...

and finding the pleasure in wise kid's stories :)


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Vis-a-vis The New Yorker audiocast & WUaS below, check out economist Merle Hazard's " Double Dippin' " (2 mins.) - he country sings economics :) - at the open, free, editable World Univ & Sch's Economics' subject http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Economics. WUaS is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, Berkeley Webcast, facilitating people-to-people teaching. There's so much at WUaS already.













(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/skunk-cabbage-mind-turning-solar.html - September 13, 2010)

Bidens cernua: Breathing World Univ & Sch - Anthropology in, Relaxation response out, Economics in, Med Sch out, Loving Bliss out, INFINITE Subjects

Breathing World University & School http://worlduniversity.wikia.com -


anthropology in,

relaxation response out,

economics in,

Med Sch (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Medical_School) out,


loving bliss eliciting in ...

INFINITE subjects out,


wiki (editable web pages) in,

teaching & learning {ideas} conversation out ...



check out these subjects,

'edit this page,'

teach or take a course ...



potentially in ALL 3000-8000 languages

where each language becomes its own school ...



WUAS is looking for collaborators ...



Enjoy
























(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/bidens-cernua-breathing-world-univ-sch.html - September 12, 2010)

Geyser Rainbow: Contact improv connects ... people, bodies ... it's different from much of life/modernity

Contact improv connects ... people, bodies ...


it's different from much of life/modernity I know these days


The communication in the room is intuitive and associative ...

sweetness and happiness producing (salutary neurophysiology)


and the movement (exercise, too) is health promoting - beneficial for bodyminds - and creative :)


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Making Contact: Atlanta Contact Improv Jam 2006:

youtube.com/watch?v=GUNfM-n_Soo













(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/geyser-rainbow-contact-improv-connects.html - September 11, 2010)

Paradise Bird: How to normalize bliss practices in the same way that seeing a medical doctor, listening to chamber music, or singing, is normalized?

How to normalize bliss practices in the same way, say, that going to see a medical doctor in the Kaiser Health Care system (in California), is normalized, singing, or going to a chamber music concert, or to hear the Grateful Dead, or to school or university, or to Harbin Hot Springs, or to unprogrammed Quaker Meeting?

All have been societally normalized, accepted, legitimized, and can be financially successful.


How to innovate practices, especially in a secular sense, is part of the question. Chamber music, and the Dead, are both innovations, by way of comparison.


Here's one beginning:

http://scottmacleod.com/links.htm

:)

And here's World University and School's 'Loving Bliss Eliciting' subject page, for open idea exchange:

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_%28eliciting_this_neurophysiology%29


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And here's the Loving Bliss category in this blog:
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/loving%20bliss





























(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/paradise-of-paradise-how-to-normalize.html - September 8, 2010)

Sierra Wilderness: Place, and the idea of place, as distinct from the actual, The Physical, Actual and Virtual, ethnographically

Harbin ethnography:


... It thus focuses the idea of 'place' in word - , and representation-, form, which is an expression of the heart-idea, - here in the form of the heart-shaped pool.

While this ethnography emphasizes the physical Harbin valley and its pools first as place, and distinguishes between the actual and the virtual, in terms of physicality of place and the software which represents place, virtual Harbin also allows for the possibility to distinguish between place in-world and the actual world, ethnographically. And while virtual worlds persist (Boellstorff 2008: 47) even when specific endusers log out of them or go offline, the physical Harbin pool area and its pools, as place, actually influence people in ways that are incomparable to, say, visiting virtual Harbin from home in your bathtub and interacting immersively with integrating media elements in a hypermedia context to participate in new narrative (formal and aesthetic) production (Packer and Jordan 2000), where at actual, physical Harbin, by way of comparison, your releasing in the place that is the Harbin warm pool with many people around you, some snuggling with their lovers or sharing Watsu, and finding the neurophysiology of loving bliss bubbling up inside of you, and then heading to the hot pool or cold pool, to move from the hot to cold pools multiple times to accentuate and grow this wondrous neurophysiology, isn't as conducive, or as remarkable as virtual place from your bathtub is, - with the bliss that it might provide a milieu for. In examining actual histories of Harbin, vis-a-vis their possibility in virtual Harbin, which (possibility) is both another aspect of ethnographic virtuality, as well as part of the process of virtual building, multiple disjunctions vis-a-vis community will find form. From my field notes, as actual history of Harbin's pool area as place, I wrote in a letter to a friend: “The pools, as one center of this community, and clothing-optionalness, reshape sociality at Harbin. Life is relaxed and easy, even meditative, especially around the pools; people generally have quiet minds there. People are especially attractive when they are relaxed in the pools, and the clothing-optional pool culture accentuates this, especially in such a beautiful place as the Harbin canyon. Openness about the body becomes normalized as part of a transformation process due to a different social psychology. Sexuality is also more present in the ‘air’ – i.e. as part of Harbin culture - than in most places I’ve been, partly as an expression of alternative, hippie culture. I’d like to suggest that all of this together becomes an unique way of knowing and a discourse” (MacLeod, Harbin Field Notes 2007-2008, March 31, 2008). Such experiences of virtual Harbin place will be notably different from the actual Harbin pool area experience, yet will develop, merge and meld as well.

But the initial, virtual Harbins may take on multiple kinds of virtual, interactive representations, besides in Second Life and Open Sim, that this ethnography will also at least touch on. ...

















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/sierra-wilderness-place-and-idea-of.html - September 10, 2010)

Fish: Who are those Harbin artisans - (are they French? - yes, some are) - who keep the Harbin waters clean, Spiritual and Intimate?

Who are those Harbin artisans -
(are they French? - yes, some are) -
who keep the Harbin waters clean
without chlorine, who, like vintners,
watch and wait and test the waters,
for the clearness of cleanliness, -
ongoing moments of good vintage now?

And is the Harbin Temple
a windmill of cosmic,
straw bale, gyrating-roof,
energy-generating beauty?

It's my first visit in the cool
of autumn to Harbin.

The loose prevalence of Vedic / Hindu, and
spiritual language at Harbin -
alternate codes
emerging from the 1960s,
for individuals and groups -
is fascinating and liberating.


Last night a new film about Khajurajo -
the 25 sublime, temples of
erotic sculpture in India
(built from 950-1150) -
was shown in Harbin's theater.
The film maker was there.
I arrived, and found out about it,
only after it had been shown,
but Harbin and Khajuraho share a similar
human-spiritual-India-intimacy-cultural vision.
After the film, there was a crowded, live, Tantric
presentation by Dette, also in the Harbin theater.
San Francisco Bay Area thinkers about the erotic?



Such explorations are natural,
and spiritual, at Harbin.
And the waters are like wine.













(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/fish-who-are-those-harbin-artisans-are.html - September 9, 2010)

Hot Pools in Snow: The warm, Harbin, heart-shaped pool, ethnographically

Harbin ethnography:


... 'Place,' here, is the geothermally heated waters which flow into the Harbin warm pool and the aqueous milieu they create. Place's significance relates to what emerges in this milieu.


The warm, Harbin, heart-shaped pool is shaped like the heart symbol (Fig. http://www.harbin.org/assets/p-heartpoolL.jpg), slightly cooler in temperature than the Harbin warm pool, and kids can play in it, in contrast to the warm pool which is too deep for children. In some ways, it emerges from the idea of the nearby Harbin warm pool, perhaps symbolically in the form of a heart, signifying, in my reading, connection between people, intimately, in warm water, out of attraction – so, heart - and as a place-expression of Harbin's vision. The Heart-Shaped Pool's name, itself, as well as the idea, shares a word in Heart Consciousness Church's name (which owns and operates Harbin Hot Springs). Unlike the Harbin warm pool, which was built as early as the 1870s (Klages 1991:97), and since 1972 has only changed significantly with the removal of tiles, the Harbin heart-shaped pool was built by Harbin residents, around 1985. I think, too, that the amount of geothermally-heated water emerging out of the ground can only fill and warm this heart-shaped pool, besides the hot pool and the warm pool. Here's an early haiku-ish (a poetic form, informed by haiku) which I wrote about the Harbin heart pool, as a new form of ethnographic representation.

Snow covers the pools' ridge line
Steam rises from the heart pool
Pool's warmth lingers in my body

(MacLeod, Harbin Field Notes 2007-2008, January 28, 2008).


And here's another note about the heart-shaped pool, an actual history of this place, with Ishvara in the heart pool.

“It’s alligator day (warm pool cleaning day, which can make expectant visitors feel like alligators, when they can't go in the pool), so the warm pool’s water is getting drained, and I sat there with water more than half-gone exploring the relaxation response, and then going to the Heart-Shaped pool, where Ish was. We just nodded hello. I went into padmasana (lotus pose) again with my eye’s shut. After a while Ishvara got out, and picked the mulberries from the earth under the tree, and then went back into the heart-shaped pool. I was doing yoga-twists in lotus pose in the heart pool, and after went to the sauna, where I found someone chanting. This was o.k. with me, and I said to her, I'm happy to join you chanting … ” (MacLeod, Harbin Field Notes 2007-2008, June 3, 2008).

Ethnography as poetry vis-a-vis the Harbin Heart-Shaped Pool is a kind of representation which can highlight the beauty of that which is being represented. It thus focuses the idea of place in a word, and representation, form, which is an expression of the heart-idea, - here in the form of the heart-shaped pool.


Place, and the idea of place, as distinct from the actual world ...


















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/hot-pools-in-snow-warm-harbin-heart.html - September 8, 2010)

Hemiptera: Social History of I.T. Revolution, FREE, online course, for WUaS credit, on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life starts this Saturday

Social History of the I.T. Revolution - a FREE, open, online course - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/ - for WUaS credit, on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life starts this Saturday, Sept. 11 from 11a - 1p PT ... the first for-credit class at World Univ & Sch - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/ Invite a friend ... join the conversation : information technologies' emergence is fascinating :).



What's your Second Life avatar's name? Getting an avatar is free, easy and fun ... come check out this virtual world - http://secondlife.com/ and the IT revolution



*


Greetings! Welcome to "Information Technology & Society" and to World University & School.

Please join these Google (http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48753608141) groups to stay in touch.

WUaS is an open, free, editable world university and school idea, so anyone can teach here, - to their web camera or interactively in a virtual world, like Second Life, and you'll find an enormous amount of material here already.

To teach or learn, after you've joined the Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School), you can schedule when you'd like to teach on the Google wiki-like calendar there, or see what's on the schedule, or simply post a course online to http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses, or to the subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects .

There's a lot! of teaching and learning content here already, including 2000 courses, with syllabi, from MIT Open Course Ware (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings), Berkeley Webcast, and many main pages including "Languages," "Educational Software," "Museums," "Library Resources," "Nation States," and much more so click through WUaS for an overview.

What's your Second Life avatar's name?

See you in-world on Saturday.

Looking forward to talking further soon. :)





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Dear Association of Internet Researchers,

World University & School is incorporated and is offering a free, open class on the I.T. Revolution - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/ - for WUaS credit, on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life starting this Saturday Sept. 11 from 11a - 1p PT. (This course could be a great opportunity for you, or a student of yours, to come into conversation about a paper you are writing, for example).

World University is also planning to video-stream live a free UC Berkeley "Biological Anthropology" undergraduate class beginning in Jan. 2011 (probably on Tuesday and Thursday mornings PT), also for WUaS credit.

Both courses are listed here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses (where other for-credit courses will be listed).

World University & School is planning for matriculating classes for online degree course work primarily through partnering with great universities like UC Berkeley beginning in 2014, with interactivity in virtual worlds.

Resources are growing at the open, free, editable, wiki World University & School, where we all can teach and learn: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University. WUaS is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, Berkeley Webcast, and facilitating people-to-people teaching and learning.

Please contact worlduniversityandschool@gmail.com with further questions, and check out the WUaS wiki. There are already a lot of open, free, wiki teaching and learning resources at World University & School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses.

Sincerely,
Scott











(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/09/hemiptera-social-history-of-it.html - September 8, 2010)