Marketplace
of ideas ideas
Concept
Early in the 20th century, Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes wrote a minority opinion in a free speech case, in which he used
a metaphoric “marketplace of ideas” to describe what a
society with free speech offers its citizens. Ideas would be available
as products are in a market, with advocates promoting their beliefs as
one sells a commodity. The marketplace image implies that citizens have
the freedom to choose or reject any belief, which allows them to make
meaningful decisions in a democracy.
Democracy was invented in ancient Greece, where most major cities had
an agora, a city center which included the seat of government, the law
court, religious temples, and the marketplace. Citizens would meet and
talk, and some philosophers held classes there. The buildings in the
proposed art installation are reminiscent of the architecture of
typical agora buildings, particularly the “stoas,” which
had one colonnaded wall and one solid wall, with shops along the solid
wall. Today’s strip mall is not much different.
The proposed stoas are open on both sides. Inside, ideas are offered in
the form of educational displays. Outside, there are one or two kiosks
where ideologues can hawk their beliefs. The rest of the area is a
pleasant place to think or talk.
Contents
There are 10 display units, 5 in each stoa. Each display unit has
two panels. The panels are a “unit” of information, about a
particular topic. The topics are the “ideas” offered in the
marketplace. The “ideas” must be important, powerful ideas
that have been widely useful in their respective fields, are
interesting to think about for a long time afterwards, are possible to
explain in an accessible way, and can be illustrated with hands-on
exercises. In some cases “hands-on” means
“minds-on,” as the exercise is done by changing one’s
mode of thought.
Within broad general topics such as philosophy, science, politics, and
art, two or three concepts can be illustrated. To identify the
appropriate concepts, people with expertise in several broad areas will
be recruited to work with me to develop displays. The process is like
editing a little book about the world’s 20 or so most important
ideas. Each chapter is a collaboration between the writer, editor and
illustrator, so that the whole is consistent and of high quality.
In advance of actually selecting ideas and designing the displays, here
are some sample ideas that show it’s possible to populate the
displays with interactive exercises from a variety of subject areas.
Some of these have already been on the playa and will be re-used.
1. General topic: Art. Focus: representation. Photographs attached to
fridge magnets can be stuck to a steel plate or to each other. The
juxtaposition of various types of images is suggested with examples
from collage artists Jess or Winston Smith, and questions asked as to
how the resulting images communicate. This is a quick and clean way to
make an artwork. Similar exercises can be performed with geometric
forms to illustrate Abstraction, a la Kandinski and his geometric
language.
2. General topic: Art. Focus: color. A rectangular frame is segmented
into rectangles in the manner of Mondrian or Josef Albers. These
translucent zones are back-illuminated with LEDs controlled by knobs,
so that each rectangle can be made an arbitrary color. Visitors can
make an instant artwork and then stand back to react, aided by
questions from the display panel, and examples of criticism of similar
works.
3. General topic: Science. Focus: Quantum physics.
An experiment using a laser pointer and some electronics illustrates
the wave and particle characteristics of light. If we consider light to
be a “thing” in the usual sense, these characteristics are
incompatible, leading to paradox. The visitor is confronted by facts
which make no traditional sense, challenging the normal concepts of
existence.
4. General topic: Philosophy. Focus: Theory of knowledge.
Various optical illusions are illustrated, along with interactive ways
to get past them to the Truth. Impenetrable “Black Boxes”
are provided which have buttons and lights, so that the viewer can find
by experience how the buttons and lights are related. The boxes
don’t allow knowing the “thing in itself” but only a
predictive rule as to how it will act. Various explanations are
provided for the black boxes’ behavior, and the viewer is asked
to choose the “best explanation.”
5. General topic: Philosophy. Focus: Ethics.
A moral dilemma is posed in the form of a story about a runaway train,
people and switches, and illustrated with motorized toys. The visitor
must make difficult ethical choices to switch the train to kill
different people, in a variety of scenarios. The implications of each
decision are presented, which may or may not match the visitor’s
prior beliefs.
6. General topic: Science. Focus: Emergence.
The famous Game of Life is played on a computer, showing how
surprising, complex behavior results from interconnected cells and
simple rules. This principle animates complex systems, from molecules
to social communities, creating organization without design. The
visitor can also view crystals growing under a microscope, showing how
order can increase locally, another undesigned-order phenomenon.
7. General topic: Music. Focus: Harmony.
The visitor pushes a button to select the tuning system of various
parts of the world: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, India, China et
cetera. Several notes are sounded as a chord, and their frequencies
displayed, along with their mathematical relationships, following the
insight of Pythagoras that harmonious notes are related by specific
numerical ratios. The chord notes are played sequentially as a melody
automatically or under the control of the visitor, aided with questions
from the display.
8. General topic: Religion. Focus: Attributes of gods.
On a computer screen, visitors are asked to select from a list those
attributes they would want in a god. After pressing
“enter,” a god that has actually been worshipped is
described along with images and modes of worship. A subsequent screen
shows a list of objects, and the visitor selects one or more as
offerings. “Enter” results in acceptance or rejection by
the god, reward or punishment. “A lamb! not a goat, you
fool!” How about a Hummer?
9. General topic: Language. Focus: Poetry. Various poetic forms are
illustrated by pushing buttons to hear short audio examples of poets
reading their work. This “musical” quality is one aspect of
poetry. Another is the surprising meaning emerging from unusual
juxtapositions of words, illustrated by pairs of words on marked
wheels, selected randomly or by the visitor. The visitor is asked to
find meaning in these pairings. The basic haiku form is explained, and
the visitor writes a haiku in a blank book.
10. General topic: Politics. Focus: Forms of Government. Visitors vote
for three initiatives related to Black Rock City. One of them includes
the results of voting so far. The second includes no results. The third
includes results, but with a 50% chance that the reported result is a
lie. In another exercise, the visitor pretends that they are in a
commune which must reach consensus just after their comment on a
contentious issue. They can read the last ten responses and try to
either move the discussion toward their viewpoint, or acquiesce to the
others.