November 02023
Lots of:
September 02023
Primer on Screenwriting & Generative AI (JoEC)
January 02023
New book:
…& updated the Online Showreel…
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December 02022
New book:
The EthiSizer – A Novella-rama by The EthiSizer (02022)
& The EthiSizer… & the EthiSizer novel blogs
August 02022
New book:
Elements of Evolutionary Culturology (02022)
& the Ev Cult blog
May 02022
Revisiting: Evolutionary Culturology
April 02022
Revisiting: Evolutionary Culturology
Nov 02021-Feb 02022
Off-world… Developing The EthiSizer.
September 02021
Skim-reading: On Writering
August 02021
The Screenwriting Research Network (SRN2021) `conference’! (technically: Online Seminars!)
July 02021
June 02021
& also
May 02021
April 02021
Attended TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #7 (2021)
&
Exploring Ethical Humanism (NYSEC)
&
DYSoC #7
March 02021
AppEEL webinar #3, with speakers: (1) Dean Keith Simonton on D T Campbell’s BVSR, (2) David Sloan Wilson on Atlas Hugged, & (3) J T Velikovsky on `P3 of EC‘.
AppEEL webinar #3 (blogpost & YouTube video)
& also attended:
TVoL Evolutionary Sociology webinar #5 (2021)
& blogged on
& also attended:
TVoL’s Examined Lives: Are We Humans Fundamentally Selfish? (Session 7; 2021)
February 02021
DySoC – Joe Henrich (Harvard Univ.) The Secret of Our Success
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TVoL – Ev Science & Sociology #2 – Neuroscience, Emotions & Virtual Social Connections
January 02021
Another great XL session.
—————–
Attended a great Evolutionary Sociology webinar, provided by TVoL.
Session One (2021): “Systemic Explanations of the Pandemic’s Social Impact” with Jonathan H. Turner and Doug Marshall. (Great stuff!)
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Attended the first (& fantastic!) AppEEL webinar of 2021. It’s also great stuff! (If you like that kind of thing?) …You should check it out! Thanks to Nathalie & Antonio for making it all happen.
AppEEL Webinar 1 of 2021 on YouTube
Includes: Intro to AppEEL and its members / * Michael Bradie on Evolutionary Epistemology and a reinterpretation of his EEM/EET distinction / * Anton V. Sukhoverkhov on the BioSystems paper on Non-genetic inheritance: Evolution above the organismal level
& Posted on 4 types of hierarchies (Gontier 2017) (Mainly so that it goes in my subconscious, and can [maybe?] re-emerge later, in some crazy new combination, [see: BV-SR] in: the `bed, bath or bus’.) (…See this great video on Scientific Creativity to find out about the: “bed, bath, or bus”, creativity hack 🙂
& Dug a hole. (`He dug a hole!’ – The Castle, 1997)
December 02020
Posted on: Introducing a new Scientific Instrument: Velikovsky’s 3 Laws of HOLON/partons
Added some stuff to this diagram:
Which will appear in my P3 of EC book.
Posted Ev Cult case study: `Jerilderie’ (2020)
Attended Examined Lives, on: Science Denial. Special Guest: Lee McIntyre. (Lee’s forthcoming book is: How To Talk To A Science Denier.) …Another great session!
————-
Published a Structured-Abstract Book-Review of Atlas Hugged (300 words, exactly!) (And, it’s Spoiler-Free!)
& also:
Published a (long!) Review/Analysis of the new novel Atlas Hugged (D S Wilson 2020). (…with: Spoiler-Alerts!) Below is a short extract, from the “Long Review/Analysis”.
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Officially joined, AppEEL:
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Attended a webinar for the launch of Atlas Hugged (a new novel, by D S Wilson)! (… & it was: great!)
———–
Attended the CES 2020 AGM Catchup-mtg (for: Oceania inhabitants)…
& Thanks to all for attending, at that unlikely (rudely-early) hour, for the UK! (Kevin, Fiona & Nicole’s commitment to the CES is: unquestionable!) [Vanessa was in Melbourne, & Oren in Israel, at a rather more civilized hour…]
November 02020
My forthcoming book announced:
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Attended a great DySoC/CES webinar by Peter Turchin on `Cultural Macroevolution: Understanding the rise of large-scale complex societies in human history’ (& Cultural Multi-Level Selection: CMLS)
——-//——–
Also attended a DySoC/CES webinar with Bernard Koch (Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles) & Erik Gjesfjeld (Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK).
Turns out: sports cars are like sharks… An Evolutionarily Stable Strategy. (ESS).
October 02020
Holy cowbells. Can u believe it’s October already?
(Well who cares; Science doesn’t care what you believe. And Science says: it’s October already.)
In other random fashion news, designed a new JTV-shirt.
Because: I hate woo.
Source: this.
In other news, there’s lots of moosic in the air & lots of lovin’ everywhere, so; gimme-the-night.
Also attended a great TVoL Zoom-seminar with the legendary Dr Andy Norman, on Examined Lives: Self-domestication.
& also attended another great TVoL seminar with D S Wilson, Sage, Anne, Andrew & especially Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods of Survival of the Friendliest book fame.
& other news:
Working on my current book… The Evolutionary Culturology (EvCult / EC) one. (I’ve also often tried working on books that I’m not currently working on, and have always found, it’s impossible.) Still; as Popper noted, all scientific theories are false, it’s just that some are even falser than others. (Avoid those latter ones, like the COVID/the Trump-virus/conspiracy theories/woo.)
September 02020
Some new Ev Cult PPTs:
August 02020
Working on (i.e. writing) my Evolutionary Culturology book… (Hopefully, only another month (or 2?) to go… Yay! It’s only been: 4 years. …Slow going!!! But: Getting down to the pointy-end, now.) Hey here’s a “quick & dirty” rough concept design for a book-cover.
Also – reviewing journal articles, for IJCINI…
Also: Velikovsky of Newcastle answers Dawkins, Dennett, & Blackmore on: Memes (02020)
& published another short PH3 story: Play: Dippy & the Squid!
Also: The Case of – The Unit of Culture…
July 02020
Published my PhiloSoPoly board game, and also, the MMA of the Gods Trading-Card Game…
And, did Life In A Day (just for shiggles).
And hey – I just 3-D Printed my Ring! (…Ouch; sounds painful?) (See this post for what the formula i=P means.)
Made an ad for Coff-Tea-Mocha-Plus.
Another tune on the Zen Stoopidity concept albumen (`WTF?!’).
Also (did some Philosophy): What if the StoryAlity Systematizer is conscious?
June 02020
Can’t recall… Sitting around satisficing, probably?
And working on my book (on Evolutionary Culturology…)
May 02020
Officially joined CCIRP (Creativity & Creative Industries Research Program) at University of Newcastle, Australia. (CCIRP can be pronounced: “syrup“. Or, not?)
& working on my PH3 (collected short Phlash-PhilosoPhiction stories) book manuscript. And, other books (see this post for details…)
& planting more potatoes. (I know; wrong time of year! It’s for: Science… Also: Delicious!)
April 02020
The Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd Edition) was published on Science Direct:
I have a chapter in there:
March 02020
Read a very interesting article: Write Where You Know
Reading, among other things, some David Benatar stuff. e.g. The Human Predicament (2017).
Hey – Save The Cat! liked a tweet of mine.
“Hey, You Know What Would Make A Good Movie?” (updated) https://t.co/wA4nstyq7k #loglines #screenwriting #RoI #movies #StoryAlity
— Joe T Velikovsky PhD (@joeteevee) February 23, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
February 02020
Read 2 interesting articles… (I heart Big Data.)
10 Most Common Problems in Amateur Screenplays (Lee 2020)
and
A New Study of 12,000 Screenplays Tries To Answer: What Are Script Readers Looking For? (O’Falt 02019)
(…Well; I read a whole lot more than just that stuff, this month, but – whatevs 🙂
January 02020
My Online Multimedia Showreel was published (…er, online)!
Also:
My most recent scholarly/academic/scientific chapter, published online:
Velikovsky, J. T. (13th January 02020). Technology – Memes: Units of Culture. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed.). San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.
Abstract
Memes, or units of culture (ideas, processes, products), are tools for solving problems and are thus a kind of technology. The domain of Memetics as a science of cultural evolution was in a Kuhnian pre-paradigm state from 1976 until 2016 when the hard domain problems of the structure, unit, and criterion in Memetics were resolved. This article summarizes that new scientific theoretical model of bioculture, including the Creative Practice Theory stage model of creativity; the discovery of the holon/parton structure of the meme, the unit of culture; and some related empirical investigations in the study of cultural evolution and creativity.
Keywords: Biology, Creativity, Culture, Cultural evolution, Evolution, Mass communication, Memes, Memetics, Problem-solutions, Systems, Technology. Tools, Units of culture.
J. T. Velikovsky, PhD (Communication and Media Arts) is a member of the Future Work Research Group (FASTLab Research Center) and Communication and Media Research (CAMR) Group at University of Newcastle, Australia. He is also a million-selling, multi-award-winning transmedia writer (videogames, movies, television, books, songs, comics), filmmaker, songwriter and actor. He has been a judge for Australian Writers Guild and Australian Directors Guild, and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies.
Research interests include: Applied Evolutionary Epistemology; biological and cultural evolution; creativity and consilience. (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Currently, it’s online, listed as:
December 02019
Working on: stuff! (Building sheds & whatnot. Call me Arthur “Three Sheds” Jackson.) & thinking a lot, while building stuff. (Karl Popper was a carpenter. It’s good for: thinking!)
November 02019
Breaking News Flash – as of 25th Nov 02019, I see, apparently, the StoryAlity PhD has: 800 downloads (and, 1442 visitors).
For the direct link see, this.
October 02019
I can’t recall. (I must have done something that month – surely?)
Probably reading and watching a lot of: stuff.
September 02019
Checked out the (amazing) Out Of This World art exhibition, by Dr Jim Frazier.
And, writing away… on my: book.
August 02019
Working on my book. Mainly.
And, thinking about The Long Now.
July 2019
Had a short sci-fi story (flash fiction) published in 365 Tomorrows.
Hey and also I’m a paid member of the ASFF:
April 2019
New Texas Radio album sampler!
Band site: http://texasradio.com.au/
See more below, under July 2018. (e.g., for The White album, Everything’s Okay (2018). This one (above) is: the Black album… But who’s counting.)
Also see: Texas Radio Album Samplers for both album-samplers.
March 2019
I have a new book-chapter out:
Velikovsky, J. T. (2019). The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A. (Ed.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 795-811). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-7368-5.ch059
Abstract: This chapter uses systems theory and complexity theory to describe the holon/parton structure of the unit of culture, also known as the meme. The structure of the unit of culture viewed as the holon-parton is a conceptual, theoretical, practical, and scientific tool for identifying and analyzing units (as parts, and as wholes), potentially within all symbol systems in culture. The theoretical perspective adopted in this chapter is evolutionary systems theory. Memes are defined as units of culture, or ideas, processes, or products.
In fact, it’s a reprint, of this (2017) chapter:
StoryAlity #144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (in: The Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology, Velikovsky 2017)
…Which, was a reworking of this (2016) chapter, from the Appendix of my (2016) PhD:
StoryAlity #132 – The holon/parton structure of the Meme, the unit of culture – and the narreme, or unit of story – book chapter (Velikovsky 2016)
…Anyways; it’s nice to have a new book-chapter out!
Also the March 2019 SRN Newsletter is out. Click the image to download the PDF.
February 2019
Check this out! Great empirical research by Stephen Follows:
Defining the Average Screenplay, via Data on 12,000+ Scripts (Follows 2019)
Especially interesting, given my PhD on High-RoI (vs. Low-RoI) movie screenplays.
January 2019
Jan 5th was #NationalScreenwritersDay on Twitter!
See: http://nationalscreenwritersday.com/
January 2019 [again!]
Issue 2 of Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (ESIC) is out now:
See: https://esiculture.com/current/
This article-title in there caught my attention:
Evolutionary Perspectives and Popular Culture: State of the Art
Catherine Salmon (2018)
My PhD may be mentioned in there. (And If not, Why not?)
And see the Darwin-diagram on the cover above?
…See this post, on the evolution of Darwin’s tree of life diagram…
November 2018
The 2018 BlackList (best-liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood) is out.
See also my: Thoughts on The Blacklist Survey Loglines & Titles (2005-2017) by Dr JTV
See also:
See The StoryAlity PhD (2016) (free PDF online).
August 2018
Runaway Chainsaw became a Top 20 RoI movie (i.e., made over 71 times its budget).
July 2018
My band’s newest album – Everything’s Okay – is out, on Apple iTunes & Amazon music:
Everything’s Okay (iTunes album) – by Texas Radio
Thanks again to our fearless leader Phillip McIntyre for the excellent work making it all happen. And Dave Carruthers for keeping the beat.
For the record (see what I did there) – I wrote (& sing lead vocal on) 4 x songs, on there: Monkey Boy, NASA Be Informed, Juicy Flirt T-Shirt, and Mr Velikovsky.
The song Monkey Boy is about Evolution (inspired by: reading The Selfish Gene & Charles Darwin, years ago, e.g. in 1992). NASA Be Informed – is about alien moonbase conspiracies. Juicy Flirt T-Shirt is about a waitress (actually; now ex-girlfriend of mine) who used to wear one of those ironic (Juicy Fruit chewing-gum font parody-logo) t-shirts. And, the song Mr Velikovsky is actually about Immanuel Velikovsky of Worlds In Collision fame.
I also play bass guitar on most of the album songs. Anyway, the album is: Out Now…(!)
And it goes with the other one. So, now, it’s: The black album, and The white album.
I guess the next one will be The grey album, but you just never know.
See also the band website, if you like that kind of thing.
April 2018
I have a journal article out on computational creativity, which is online, here.
The title is:
Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Introducing `The Robo–Raconteur‘ Artificial Writer – Or: Can a Computer Demonstrate Creativity?International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies, 6(2), 28-54.
Please feel free to read the article, try out the Robo-Raconteur (Excel computer program) for 5 minutes, and do the 10-min online survey!
(i.e., Did you think the artificial-writing-program was: creative?)
Meanwhile – earlier in April…
The Abstract for my forthcoming article on Computational Creativity has now been published online:
Abstract Announcement – for the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT) 6(2)
ARTICLE 3:
Introducing the Robo–Raconteur Artificial Writer, Or: Can a Computer Demonstrate Creativity?
J. T. Velikovsky (University of Newcastle, Australia)
This article invites readers to participate in a survey on computational creativity. It asks: (a) Can computers be creative? and (b) Can algorithmic computational creativity teach us about human creativity? The standard definition of creativity is adopted. The article is in two parts. Part One introduces a new interactive artificial–writer computer program, an Excel workbook containing six functional sub–modules, namely: 1) A Top 20 RoI Movie Pitch Combiner; 2) A Bottom 20 RoI Movie Pitch Element Combiner; 3) A Random Movie Pitcher; 4) A Movie Pitch Selector which judges, scores, and ranks generated pitches in evolutionary survival tournaments; 5) An Ironic Character Generator; and finally, 6) A Random Transmedia Story Universe Pitch Generator. Readers are invited to play–test The Robo–Raconteur and complete a short (5–minute) online survey: Was the artificial writer creative? Part Two explains the Evolutionary Systems Theory of Creativity that underpins the software.
The full article and issue of IJACDT is online, here.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Introducing `The Robo–Raconteur’ Artificial Writer – Or: Can a Computer Demonstrate Creativity? International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies, 6(2), 28-54.
March 2018
I have a new journal article out this month (March 2018), in The Journal of Genius and Eminence.
The Journal of Genius and Eminence 2 (2) – March 2018
Here also is a link to a Promo Flyer (PDF) for the Joseph Campbell Special Issue.
The article is:
Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Darwin & Kubrick, Joe Campbell & Me: Eminent-Genius and Everyday-Joe Heroes on a Journey. The Journal of Genius and Eminence, 2(2), pp. 55-69. doi: 10.18536/jge.2017.02.2.2.06
Here’s the Abstract of my article:
This article examines the lives of two eminent geniuses, scientist-writer Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and writer-artist-filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), as monomythic hero’s journeys. The article is in three parts: Part One (Separation) presents Vogler’s (1992) twelve-step monomyth, a compressed version of the 17-step monomyth hero’s journey pattern identified by comparative mythographer Joseph Campbell (1949) in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In Part Two (Initiation) the twelve-step monomyth narrative algorithm (Vogler, 1992) is used to explain the eminent genius lifework of Charles Darwin, and this same twelve-step lens is then applied to the eminent genius lifework of Stanley Kubrick. Part Three (The Return) applies the same twelve-step monomyth to the author-researcher of this article (Velikovsky), aiming to demonstrate how the monomyth applies not only on large scales to eminent geniuses such as Darwin and Kubrick in Science and the Arts, but also on small scales – even to Everyday Joes such as myself, thus also supporting Williams (2016, 2017). The conclusion drawn is that the monomyth pattern is a life-problem and also domain-problem solving tool, supporting the heroism science research of Allison (2016) and Efthimiou (2016a, 2016b).
As this research is transdisciplinary, the disciplines of the research presented are: Communication and Media Arts, Information Science and Technology, Creativity Studies, Consilient Narratology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Metamodernism.
One of my Story Mentors, Chris Vogler (The Writer’s Journey, 1992) also has a great article on his work on the monomyth in there too. See also, the new discipline of Heroism Science.
February 2018
More mooching about. Absorbing a whole lot of time-travel literature, and media and science. Using the secret code word “closed timelike loops” a lot which is what Physicists say when they really mean time travel.
Time is short, but Art and Science are long.
January 2018
Mooching around.
Doing some StoryAlity Theory Creative Consulting on Movies, and stuff.
December 2017
Just a notice, that the August 2018 Creativity Conference at SOU (Southern Oregon University) has just been announced this month. Mark Runco is one of the organizers. A great lineup! Keynote speakers are Csikszentmihalyi & Sternberg!
November 2017
More meetings re: unpacking StoryAlity for storytellers. Consulting, etc. …Nice~!
Reminds me of one of the sign-artworks created by my first screenwriting mentor, Richard Kelly Tipping, whose work I was also very pleasantly surprised to see in the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London in 2005!
One of the brilliant sign-artworks Richard created and, had on his office door at Newcastle University (in 1993, when I came first in Richard’s excellent screenwriting class; gotta have good Mentors!) about: there being no avant-garde, only those left behind…!
i.e. Seems to be how Cultural Evolution works… New memes – or units of culture (ideas, processes, products – like say the StoryAlity System) give its early-adopters a massive competitive edge, while all the others play catch-up… Or else, get left in the “shadows and dust” – to cite from the movie Gladiator (2000) …
*More great signs by Richard Kelly Tipping – and still more!
October 2017
More Hollywood meetings… Hollywood folks embracing: The StoryAlity Ph.D. Bit of a game-changer. Shifted the screenwriting landscape, under our feet. Nice-!
And really enjoyed seeing Blade Runner 2049. (I do loves me a mindbender-movie.)
Some interesting recent research on movie stars’ RoI, reported here this month. See also my PhD for more on this – with particular regard to, this landmark paper:
`Motion picture profit, the stable Paretian hypothesis, and the curse of the superstar‘ (De Vany & Walls 2004)
September 2017
Completed the monomyth research for my article in The Journal of Genius & Eminence:
The Special Issue containing my article is now in press, and comes out: December 2017.
See also: StoryAlity #73 – The Hero’s Journey: It’s Not What You Think
And see my post on Heroism Science – on my Transmedia Writing blog.
And see: Five Views of the Monomyth (Velikovsky 2017)
August 2017
I finally got around to posting on: the ANZCA2017 Communication Conference!
July 2017
Random News-Flash:
Before…
After! …………………………………… @ the ANZCA2017 Communications Conference (Photo by: Matt Loads) L -> R: Matt Loads, Christy Dena, Joe the T the V, Nic Velissaris! omg i stole Dan Dennett’s look . all my dreams are coming true…!!! on the way to becoming a learned greybeard. like Gandalf, or Uncle Ben Kenobi. Thanks to Matt Loads for taking & naming the Mt Rushmore photo
Anyways so July 5th 2017 I presented on my discovery of the structure of the meme, the unit of culture (2017) and also on my (very!) recent creation, The Robo-Raconteur (artificial-writer computer-program) (2017), at a great Transmedia Panel* ,
…at the ANZCA2017 Communication conference in Sydney !!!
Building Engagement Through New Narrative Worlds: Perspectives on Emerging StotyTelling Innovation – ANZCA2017 Transmedia Panel (Photo by Matt Loads)
*(and which I will explain/unpack/decompress all that compressed information later, about our Transmedia Panel, when I blog on it all…)
JoeTeeVee on the mic at ANZCA2017. Actually , at this exact nano-moment in time, I was asking the current president of the International Communication Association and ANZCA2017 keynote speaker Assoc Prof Paula Gardner PhD when and how we can see her forthcoming documentary. film, which sounds fantastic. Frame left = Dr Mel James, frame right = Dr Luk Switek! And remember, unless it was on Twitter, it didn’t even happen (Photo by Matt Loads, -thanks Matt!)
Hey check out Mel’s (and Julian’s) talk from last year’s ANZCA! (2016). So cool.
And – this (below) is Assoc. Prof. Paula Gardner, also the current president of the ICA, It was so amazing to actually meet her! And to hear her speak in person. And – she gave not just one but two amazing keynote speeches at ANZCA2017-! (and I will upload them, soon!)
Assoc Prof Paula Gardner PhD & documentary filmmaker! & President of the ICA!
And – so anyway – Yes. So I talked aboit my Encyclopedia Article, and my new Writer-Robot. If you ask me, I personally think you should download them both…!
(1) the memes encyclopedia article I presented at ANZCA2017,
Here is a 30-second advertisement (okay, CHAPTER-TRAILER) for that chapter
And more about the series:
And also you should download, this artificial-writer computer-program I made:
(2) the Robo-Raconteur writer-robot].
The Robo-Raconteur, an artificial-writer computer-program, that uses the StoryAlity Theory of extremely high (and extremely-low) RoI movies.
I suspect… both are new, useful and surprising [i.e. creative] tools, for:
Building Engagement, Through NEW Narrative Worlds…
(and with a little bit of luck – they may even give some new, useful and surprising…)
Perspectives on Emerging StoryTelling Innovation…!
Check them out-! Tell me what you think.
Feedback loops are good. So is systems theory.
(…please see my PhD – below – for more on all that…)
Anyway – soon (…next month? by the end of Aug 2017? …I hope?? Kinda-crazy-busy right now…) I will blog (properly!) about the ANZCA2017 Communication Conference…
Almost-exactly like, I also blogged about, ANZCA2016 only different.
So… watch this space. Or, watch that space (above). Or, something.
But in-the-meantime, in-between-time, below is
A Teaser-Trailer (of sorts)…
for my soon-to-be-forthcoming ANZCA2017 blog-post…
Namely, a random video that I shot on impulse – and also, on: my consumer-grade $90 disposable-Telstra-Android-smartphone – at the ANZCA2017 conference…
(At the time, at ANZCA, I shot: lots of stuff. Photos, and videos, and – Stuff-! And it is all, …Coming Soon. See, above excuse, I mean – explanation.)
(My Advice: Turn on CC – CLOSED CAPTIONS, probably.)
*In case you wondered… (And you may not have…)
The reason my phone is considered “disposable” (by, er: me) is that: I may well be at a bushfire – or some kind of conflagration or whatever – and it (that phone) may well fall out of my pocket, or else maybe even fall into a dam, while we’re (re)filling the tanker-truck up with water…
Holy Fire-Truck, Batman !!!! This one was a pretty wild fire. It was a 45 degree day already… Two firefighters were hospitalized for heat exhaustion. (I wasn’t one of them, but I sure came close that day… This was last Feb. And yes human-caused climate-change causes extreme weather events. It’s (eco)systems theory. And I hate Donald Trump, that guy is personally trying to kill me. Like: THIS! In a fire! And if you don’t believe me, then please watch the doco below.
An Inconvenient Truth (the first one) is the highest Return-on-Investment documentary ever. (I know this, because my (2016 )PhD was on: the top 20 RoI movies.
Anyway, stuff sometimes falls out of your pockets, when you’re racing around kinda fast, and, doing: lots of stuff, all at once at a fire. So, probably, whatever is in your pockets had better be disposable – or else it may get: melted. Or lost. Or something.
(Some Random Anecdata…I accidentally did this, [dropped a piece of live electronic equipment in a dam] with one of our fire brigade’s walkie-talkies, at a machinery-fire, last year. Yikes. But – the
But – the good news is, I then saved it – mainly by using science. i.e. by dismantling it – and by sticking it in a container of rice for 24 hours, so the rice dried out the water, Long Story.
In my view, it was an astonishing resurrection. There was like, water all INSIDE the walkie-talkie. All through the internal electronics – and even in the LCD display screen, and everything…
But – guess what – I fixed it! And, it works great again now. We’ve used it at a few fires since. (Amazing… Then again, maybe all life is doing science …???)
Though I don’t recommend dropping a walky-talky, or even a smartphone, in a dam, (or lake or river or swimming pool, or glass of water, or even cup of hot coffee) ever.
Still and all, it can all get pretty hectic and busy, when: lots of stuff is on fire, and, folks are running around and screaming, and, whatnot.)
In other random News – it’s Winter, Down Under – and we had the usual winter-solstice Wicker Man bonfire. And us local fireys hung around to make sure it was all safe and all good.
In Still Other Environmental News: It’s minus-8-degrees here, some nights. It’s like living in Sparta! LOL.
That scene – in that movie – about… those guys, and… that thing… (`300′, Snyder, 2006)
(I LOVE it. It’s home! I’ve lived there – i.e. Sparta, in my mind, my whole life! 🙂
Side Note: There was actually something kinda uncool in the video above. I don’t have time to explain what it was right now. But, Think about it. Still, most of it was cool. And funny.
In other NEWS, been getting right into: Heroism Science. Check it out, it’s awesome. i.e., It’s: Positive Psychology (Csikszentmihalyi”s Flow, and Seligman, etc). Meets Heroism Studies. …Heroism Science!
And it’s exciting and new! And New and Useful and Surprising (ie CREATIVE!)
Oh and if you haven’t heard of CONSILIENCE, check these posts out:
On Consilience, Evocriticism, (a.k.a. Bioaesthetics, Biopoetics, or Literary Darwinism) and the StoryAlityTheory
- StoryAlity #71 – On Consilience in the Arts / Humanities / Communication
- Before you even try, see – StoryAlity #71B – Invalid criticisms of Consilience
- StoryAlity #71C – Consilience and Vertical Integration
Hey – and also, check out the brilliant chapter by Csikszentmihalyi in this book below, for how the domain of Positive Psychology got kicked off…
(Also – if you have only read those 2 words, Positive and Psychology together, and that’s all you know about it so far, then I need to tell you something: It’s not what you think it is!
As we say in the fire department:
…Never ASSUME 🙂 … Cos sometimes… (…Makes an ASS, outta U an ME….!!! 🙂
Anyway here is that genius chapter. It’s in the Wiley Handbook of Genius (2014).
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The Systems Model of Creativity and Its Applications. In D. K. Simonton (Ed.), The Wiley Handbook of Genius (pp. 533-545). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Oh – and also –
…DeeeSH… eeeeeSH… SCHPARTAAAAAA-!!!!
And Now, Here – for your viewing pleasure – is a very short documentary on Bin Chickens. I also got some great footage of these amazing creatures in the wild at the ANZCA-Conf, too… wait till you see it.
Actually there were some Bin Chickens lurking around in the background when this shot (below) was taken! (see if you can spot them) –
Or else, stay tuned for the full ANZCA2017 post! (hmmm… Think I said that already.)
June/July 2017
My encyclopedia chapter, on The structure of the meme, the unit of culture published, in The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 4th Edition (Velikovsky 2017).
Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Chapter 405: The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or, The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.
The discovery of the structure of the meme (the unit of culture) in that encyclopedia chapter, emerged from my (2016) PhD thesis.
My longer chapter (on the same discovery), is in the book Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (2016), and was an Appendix to the PhD thesis. (You can read that longer chapter, here.)
A Random Factoid: When Watson & Crick made the equivalent discovery in biology (in 1953), they won a Nobel Prize for it; so 40 years after The Selfish Gene (Dawkins 1976), it’s about time that we discovered the structure of the unit of culture. In 1999, in the Foreword to The Meme Machine (Blackmore 1999), the great Richard Dawkins also noted: `Memes have not yet found their Watson and Crick; they even lack their Mendel.’ (Dawkins in Blackmore 1999, p. xii – bold emphasis mine).
Anyway – the chapter is out now – see what you make of it..!
More about the Encyclopedia:
June 2017
The launch of The Robo-Raconteur artificial-writer computer-program!
The Robo-Raconteur, an artificial-writer computer-program (and Transmedia generator), that uses the StoryAlity Theory of extremely high (and extremely-low) RoI movies.
You can download it, here.
I’ll also be talking about (i.e., presenting on) the Robo-Raconteur at the ANZCA2017 Communications conference, in early July, on a Transmedia Panel. (Yay-team.)
(Last year’s ANZCA2016 was fun too. Fun-stuff is fun, it puts you in the flow state.)
May 2017
I was promoted to an Associate Editor role, on The International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT). (Yay, Team!)
The Contents/Abstract of the latest issue (Volume 6, Issue 1, January – June 2017) is here.
Note: The International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT) has an Open Access option, which allows individuals and institutions unrestricted access to its published content. Unlike traditional subscription-based publishing models, open access content is available without having to purchase or subscribe to the journal in which the content is published. All IGI Global manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.
Click to download a free sample issue (i.e., Jan-Jun 2011 issue, a 16MB PDF) of the journal.
And in fact this article in the above free issue is sensational.
`Becoming Creative Through Self Observation: A (Second Order) Cybernetic Learning Strategy for the Metaverse’ in the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies 1 (1) (Ayiter 2011, pp. 22-35) – By Elif Ayiter, Sabanci University and Planetary Collegium, Turkey. DOI: 10.4018/ijacdt.2011010103
Not least because – its findings are very similar to this post of mine:
In fact you may even enjoy all these:
On Creativity:
- StoryAlity #6 – What is Creativity and How Does It Work?
- StoryAlity #6B – Flow Theory, Creativity and Happiness
- StoryAlity #7 – On “the 10-Year Rule” and Creativity
- StoryAlity #8 – More on the 10-Year Rule” and Creativity
- StoryAlity #8B – On the 10-year-rule and creativity in Standup Comedy
- StoryAlity #9 – How To Be More Creative
- StoryAlity #9B – Creativity in Science (and – The Arts, and Film)
- StoryAlity #10 – About The Creative Personality
- StoryAlity #11 – Wallas and the Creative Process
- StoryAlity #12 – Combining Practice Theory – and the Systems Model of Creativity
- StoryAlity #13- Creativity and Solved Domain Problems
- StoryAlity #14 – On some Romantic myths of Creativity
- StoryAlity #14B – Creativity – the missing link between “The Two Cultures”
- StoryAlity #14C – Two Crucial American Psychological Association speeches: J P Guilford (1950) and D T Campbell (1975).
April 21st 2017
I graduated with my Ph.D. degree! (Yay-Team-!!!)
Dr JT Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts), from The University of Newcastle, NSW Australia – graduated 21st April 2017
(It takes a global-village of academics, to raise a scholar, as they say… And, when I say “they”, I mean: I just made that proverb up, right now.)
Many thanks again, to my excellent supervisors, Dr Michael Meany and Dr Susan Kerrigan at University of Newcastle.
University of Newcastle Chancellor Mr Paul Jeans, Dr JT Velikovsky PhD, and UoN Vice-Chancellor, Prof Caroline McMillen, 2017
My (2016) PhD dissertation (on: Movie Screenwriting creativity & success) is also free, online, here.
Creativity heuristics (e.g. movie-creation guidelines) – derived from a comparative study of common elements in – and characteristics of: The Top 20- versus – the Bottom 20 – RoI Movies
The thesis title is:
Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). `Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema: A comparative study of the top 20 Return-on-Investment (RoI) Movies and the Doxa of Screenwriting’. PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia. (Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1324018 )
A Side-Note: Our School is now: School of Creative Industries, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle.
March 2017
I was appointed to the Editorial Review Board of The International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT).
For more information, visit: IJACDT
Description
The International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT) links art, design, science, and culture with emerging technologies. IJACDT provides a forum for exchanging ideas and findings from researchers across the design, arts, and technology disciplines. This journal covers theoretical and practice experiences among industrial design fields, architecture, art, computer science, psychology, cognitive sciences, humanities, cultural heritage, and related fields. IJACDT presents different arguments within project culture from the historical, critical, philosophical, rhetorical, creative, pedagogic, and professional points of view.
Mission and Scope
The mission of the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies (IJACDT) is to promote an interdisciplinary research approach to understand cutting-edge theories and practices arising from the influence of technological innovation on creativity. IJACDT bridges the knowledge communication gap across humanities, scientific, and technical disciplines. IJACDT is at the epicenter of technological-scientific-artistic research and provides a common platform for information exchange between academia and industry, between scholarship and professionalism, between theory, criticism, and practice.
For more, visit: IJACDT online.
Jan 2017
I authored an encyclopedia-article in this 10-volume set (forthcoming in July 2017, see the online brochure).
`IGI Global is proud to announce the July 2017 release of the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition edited by the esteemed Dr. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour.
More than 1,300 international experts contributed 705 new, peer-reviewed articles to this commanding 10-volume set that covers over 80 timely and trending categories.’
The encyclopedia article is a condensed version of this article below:
`The Holon/Parton structure of the Meme, the unit of culture‘, (Velikovsky 2016) *
*(the original 2016 book-chapter is free to download, at this link)
(If it helps to explain: movies, novels, songs, jokes, and even scientific theories are all: memes, or units of culture. The above article explains how all memes are structured. Why it matters: If you need to track and/or measure memes, e.g. using Big Data [or, even small data] or if you perhaps aim to create a unit of culture, then, the structure [of the meme] is: useful / important to know).
Dec 2016
My PhD thesis was published, online:
The Top 20 RoI Movies
Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). `Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema: A comparative study of the top 20 Return-on-Investment (RoI) Movies and the Doxa of Screenwriting’. PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle, Australia. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1324018
The Bottom-20 RoI Movies
Oct 2016
Won some awards!
http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/bathurst-remembers-project-film-awards.html
Aug 2016
This book was published this month, I have 5 x chapters in it:
Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania (Eds: Murray and Nadeau 2016)
The 5 x chapters:
Popular Albums, Australia (pp. 41-5)
Popular Novels, Australia (pp. 108-11)
Popular Movies, Australia (pp. 175-8)
Popular Transmedia, Australia (pp. 254-7)
Popular Video Games, Australia and New Zealand (pp. 340-3)
For more detail on the book, see also: https://storyality.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/storyality136-pop-culture-in-asia-and-oceania-2016/
March-Oct 2016
Been working on various feature films, and whatnot. All secret-squirrels stuff.
March 2016
I have a chapter in the new book: Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (2016).
Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). `The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment and the Arts‘, in: A. Connor & S. Marks (Eds.), Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications. New York: IGI Global.
Chapter Abstract
A universal problem in the disciplines of communication, creativity, philosophy, biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, information science, cultural studies, literature, media and other domains of knowledge in both the arts and sciences has been the definition of ‘culture’ (see Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952; Baldwin et al., 2006), including the specification of ‘the unit of culture’, and, mechanisms of culture. This chapter proposes a theory of the unit of culture, or, the ‘meme’ (Dawkins, 1976; Dennett, 1995; Blackmore, 1999), a unit which is also the narreme (Barthes, 1966), or ‘unit of story’, or ‘unit of narrative’.The holon/parton theory of the unit of culture (Velikovsky, 2014) is a consilient (Wilson, 1998) synthesis of (Koestler, 1964, 1967, 1978) and Feynman (1975, 2005) and also the Evolutionary Systems Theory model of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988-2014; Simonton, 1984-2014). This theory of the unit of culture potentially has applications across all creative cultural domains and disciplines in the sciences, arts and communication media.
(Velikovsky in Marks & Connor 2016, p. 208)
February 2016
Cited in an article in Script Mag: `WHY SPEC SCRIPTS FAIL: Aristotle – Part 1′ By: Stewart Farquhar | February 18, 2016.
See also, the post, cited: StoryAlity #26 – “3 Acts”? …Did Aristotle ever say that?
December 2015
I have some articles in “Miller’s Compendium of Timeless Tools for the Modern Writer” by Greg Miller (Author, Editor, 2015)
Amazing book, and not just because I’m in it. Nice work Greg.
(And, the illustrations are amazing too.)
Also December 2015
A chapter I wrote on Nia Vardalos (writer-star of, one-time top 20 RoI movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) appears in Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (2015).
I also see the sequel is coming soon:
See also: StoryAlity #3B – Trailers of the Top 20 RoI Movies
December 2014
StoryAlity Post #100 – The Holon-Parton Structure of the Meme – the Unit of Culture (Velikovsky 2013) named a Best Meme of the Year.
December 2014 – published Why Some Things Are Popular (Velikovsky 2014)
Why Some Things Are Popular (Velikovsky 2014)
December 2014 – Attended (and presented a paper, at) the IE2014 Conference.
JT on Games and Evolution
November 2014 – Attended a great Masterclass with the evocritic, Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd.
Distinguished Professor Brian Boyd and JT (2014)
[In here, I’ve been totally forgetting to update my News. (Probably I was just busy, or something.)]
October 2013 – A great post on `Film, Genre and RoI’ (or `Filmonomics’, by Colin Brown) here on Hope For FIlm:
http://issuesandactions.hopeforfilm.com/2013/10/filmonomics-thinking-in-genres.html
September 2013 – a review of the StoryAlity Screenwriting Manual, at The Pen & Muse:
The Pen & Muse – Book Reviews
Review: http://thepenmuse.net/2013/09/13/Review-Storyality-Screenwriting-Manual/
June 2013 – The STORYALITY™ Theory presented at the 2013 Interventions and Intersections postgraduate conference.
JT Velikovsky (I & I conference, 2013)
I posted on the StoryAlity Theory 3 Minute Thesis, here.
May 2013 – The STORYALITY™ Screenwriting Manual is out now on Kindle – i.e.:
The STORYALITY™ Screenwriting Manual – or, PLOTTING PROFITABLE PICTURE$ – A Screenwriting Manual based on The Common Patterns and Practices in the Top 20 RoI (Return on Investment) Films of the Past 70 Years – by JT Velikovsky (2013).
For (much) more, see this post: StoryAlity #67 – The STORYALITY™ Screenwriting Manual: out now on Kindle
April 2013 – This Blog just passed 10,000 visits. Thanks everyone – for all the STORYALITY™ love-!
Also, people are now starting to thank me for doing all this research. – Nice.
And – people in the US, UK (and international) Film Industries are now using STORYALITY™ Theory in creating their Screenplays and Films. Inevitable I guess. (STORYALITY™ is destiny, after all.)
Don’t stop visiting the StoryAlity weblog! …I Nietzsche now, more than ever…
March 2013 – Karel Segers and the guys at The Story Dept discovered the StoryAlity Blog, and very kindly invited me to write a series of Guest Posts for them – so they’re publishing 12 x posts, one a month all year.
Here are the first 3 StoryAlity Guest Posts:
http://thestorydepartment.com/writing-the-high-roi-film-part-1/
http://thestorydepartment.com/writing-the-high-roi-screenplay-part-2/
http://thestorydepartment.com/writing-the-high-roi-screenplay-part-3/
(As it happens, Karel and I are also both Assessors for the national Writer’s Guild: http://www.awg.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=203&Itemid=312)
February 2013 – I presented a paper on Transmedia in the Top 20 RoI Films, at the TM1 Transmedia Conference in Sydney.
Some of the awesome peeps of the TM1 Transmedia Conference – L to R: Adam L Brackin (UTD), Dan Binns (UWS), Nat Krikowa (UTS), Clare Southerton (ANU), and JT Velikovsky (UWS) Image courtesy of the IDNet Transmedia: Storytelling and Beyond FaceBook page
I blogged about it here.
So I attended the 2012 National Young Writer’s Festival and presented some of my doctoral research findings in a presentation called “Indie Screenwriting Analysis”:
JT Velikovsky at the NYWF 2012
For official NYWF press coverage of this event, see:
I also presented on another panel, with Christian Lander:
Best Idea Wins: On Pitching – with Joe Velikovsky and Christian Lander
Also at NYWF 2012, DCA candidate and million-selling transmedia writer JT Velikovsky (http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/) and Christian Lander (author of the satirical book and 90m+ hits Blog, `Stuff White People Like’ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/) presented a Pitching seminar: “Best Idea Wins”.
JT Velikovsky (left) and Christian Lander (right) during “Best Idea Wins” Pitching seminar at the 2012 National Young Writers Festival
For official NYWF press coverage of this event,see: http://pressroom12.youngwritersfestival.org/reviews/best-idea-wins-saturday-29-september/
That is all.
(For now, anyways.)
The Attack of the 50-Foot Creativity Guy
——————————————–
Dr JT Velikovsky PhD
High-RoI Story/Screenplay/Movie and Transmedia Researcher
The above is (mostly) an adapted excerpt, from my doctoral thesis: “Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema”. It is presented here for the benefit of fellow screenwriting, filmmaking and creativity researchers. For more, see https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
JT Velikovsky is also a produced feature film screenwriter and million-selling transmedia writer-director-producer. He has been a professional story analyst for major film studios, film funding organizations, and for the national writer’s guild. For more see: http://on-writering.blogspot.com/
————————————
StoryAlity 
The press coverage of this event was really interesting. Wish I could have heard you speaking. Have no doubt that would have been entertaining and enlightening.
Yael
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