A Logical Vacation: Julia Nefsky on the curiously strong connections between logic and humour. Intro: "What would you say if I asked you to describe humour? What type of ‘thing’ is it? Perhaps you’d say that humour is a form of entertainment and creativity. Humour is colourful and free, unbounded by rules and norms. Humour is lively. It has personality; in fact, it takes on all kinds of different personalities. Humour is tied with one’s emotions – happiness, delight, hilarity… laughter. Now, describe the nature of logic. What type of ‘thing’ is logic? Perhaps you’d say that logic is a mathematical system. Logic is cold, serious and strict. Logic is bound by rules. Logic is a very intellectual field of study. Logic is a systematic part of reasoning, specifically meant to leave out emotions. These descriptions of humour and logic may be largely true, and may imply something fairly accurate about the degree to which each appeals to the general population. It seems to follow from conceptions like these that logic and humour must be involved with two very different spheres of the mind. After glancing at their apparent nature, logic and humour seem to be totally unrelated. However, despite their opposite images when considered apart, logic has a very real and very important role in humour. Take the following part of a Monty Python skit in which an accountant is addressing the board of a company [...]" Link
monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993. [more]
