Friday, August 28, 2009

deliquescence

i love words.
i have for as long as i can remember.
when there isn't a word for something,
i create it and let the world figure it out,
catch on to it,
whatever it takes.

some words i like because they describe something specialized.

for example, the word

deliquesce.

its usual context is science.
but i like to apply it to ideas.
a melting,
a dissolution,
a disappearance from one context
and a reemergence in another.


i recall an article in a magazine in which musician brian eno
described his excitement at living in new york city for a while.

he described the cultural tone as being
similar to that of a medieval crossroads.
all sorts of cultural assumptions,
experiences
and expressions
were colliding and reforming
into new and unexpected combinations
that allowed for him to see familiar music
in a new light . . .

and unfamiliar music with an open ear.

i love circumstances that lend themselves to the notion of "planned accidents",
or circumstances that are generative of newness
through the incidental juxtaposition of disparate states or qualities.

this sometimes happens with people.

it sometimes happens with my photographs
(like the ones i've used to ilustrate this little piece!).

del·i·quesce (dl-kws)
intr.v. del·i·quesced, del·i·quesc·ing, del·i·quesc·es
1. a. to melt away.
b. to disappear as if by melting.
2. chemistry:
a. to dissolve and become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air.


42 comments:

Dan Gurney said...

I love words, too. I love creating them. My brother created the word, Dinotopia, and I created the word, Soundabet. It's fun to hear people use words you've coined.

deliquescence is a word that is new to me. It is a lovely word that has an onomatopoeic quality to it. Thank you!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

came across via Nanu site. I too am a teacher, and in New Zealand, we use the same method, encourage the kids to sound out the word and right it according to what you think.

Where abouts are you in Canada?

I was in Windsor Uni many many years ago.

Loon said...

delightfuliquescence, i think. Interesting to juxtapose these to the photos of red-escence you posted a few days ago. In some ways, they have deliquesced into each other, each informing the other. More, please :)

Delwyn said...

Hello word lover and wordsmith -

isn't that a lovely expression - wordsmith...

your photos illustrate delinquency very well...it sounds a bit like alchemy...that merging and becoming something new...

Happy days

Bee said...

Beautiful word . . . and the melting colors in your pictures are seductive, too.

NanU said...

an interesting juxtaposition of ideas and moods! especially since deliquescence in biology is so often associated with rotting bodies. thus i started reading from a strange place...

steven said...

hi dan! i think as teachers it's fun for our students to know that while there's a sacred quality to language, there's also a playful quality about it. make it work for you. i see evidence of that in their writing all the time - intended or not!!!!! have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hello ann, i'm east of windsor by a few hundred miles. follow the 401 east to toronto and then look to the northeast and you'll see peterborough. that's my home. i'm glad you visited and i hope you'll find time to drop by again. steven

steven said...

hey loon - what a great comment!!! these picture were "planned accidents". when i took them i set up the conditions to allow for the movement and colours but i wasn't sure what i would get. i have lots more but they're for another time. there is movement from the red pictures - especially the last two which were my faves. thanks for this. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hello bee, thankyou for that. i find that because these kinds of pictures have lost their "edge" and moved into the smoky sinewy forms that are closer to the female body that they do carry a stronger sense of sensuality. perhaps that's the seductive quality you express. thanks for visiting. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hello nanu - so do you see how the "decay" moves into something for non-biologists that is about a melting of forms and ideas?!! i knew the original context for the word but adjusted it to suit my needs!!! have a lovely day nanu. steven

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Steven:

What you have done here demonstrates the power of playfulness. Taking words and/or images and tweeking them to produce something new or giving them a new application. This is the essence of creativity. Love the word - adore your images.

steven said...

hi bonnie - some of the very best moments are the most playful - the moments where there are no rules as such - just letting go!!!! thanks for your kind comments. have a lovely day. steven

Anonymous said...

Medieval crossroads in New York City struck me like a stone from a sling -- right between the eyes. I can just picture that but will not be able to experience it.

There is a word for the disappearance of ice on a roadway or on a sidewalk. I remember years ago I met with a group of teachers in the lounge and talked to them about how the ice was melting on way below zero days and the only work I thought of them was "melting" but that to me means a stream of water or liquid. This has no stream of water. It just disappears. They all thought and then at another break, we met again and one of them came up with the word which I remembered for years and then forgot again.

Your using deliquesce reminded me that I forgot the word again. lol

Thanks for your visit to my Pick a Peck of Pixels Blog and for your comment there about the squirrel with one ear stuck flat down on its head. She is sitting in the snow eating a peanut. Pick a Peck of Pixels

Acornmoon said...

I think you have hit the nail on the head with your new word. I love the way children make up words, sometimes by shortening or mispronouncing them.

Titus said...

Beautiful, beautiful post steven. Combining of words and images magical, and just a bit trippy!

Tammie Lee said...

how fun that you create words.this is a wonderful word. I believe I experienced something similar to this word yesterday, but I did not become liquid. more a joining of spirit. your images are wonderful. nice to meet you through your blog.

Tess Kincaid said...

Do you collect words, like I do? I like to jot my faves in a little book of words.

Kay said...

I wish I was smart and could come up with an equally meltingly beautiful word....but I can't!! Love the dreamy photos..

hope said...

So THAT'S why I love it here so much...you're happy playing with words too. :)

The first time I realized that words really caught my ear past the initial pronunciation was the day we learned "cacophony". I think I went around saying it for days.

Maybe it's the colors, but I find the first photo comforting somehow..as if rain and the ocean were somehow mixed into a soothing sound to be appreciated by the eyes.

Have a great weekend!

Jenn Jilks said...

I was pondering photography the other day. The best photos might be planned - at least the ones that get the most attention & money, but we amateurs have so much fun when something delightful happens.

I have some photos of light bouncing off the waves that I must do something with.

Much more sophisticated to plan it, do it and then name it!

Joanna said...

What a great post, Steven. I love the expansion of the meaning of deliquescence into ideas--it's beautiful. As are those photographs. I really like colours in the first one--well in all of them--deliquescing one into another.

Joanna said...

Me again. Just thought you might like to see the photograph on this blog: http://thememoryofrain.blogspot.com/

The Weaver of Grass said...

The colours in that last photograph are just wonderful steven.

Margie said...

Oh, loved your words & images!
Beautiful blog you have!

Margie:)

Unknown said...

I loved Delwyn's observations. I agree that you are a wordsmith, and you are creative and playful with language. Your post and the destructured pictures are restful to peruse and flow through. I needed this
de-stressor today. Thank you Steven and have a lovely weekend.

steven said...

abe - i've seen that word. i saw a show that featured that process - the disappearance of ice on below zero days. i know what you mean but the blasted word has floated way into my left brain? man i wish it was easy to remember like it is for my computer!!!! ahhh you make me laugh abe!!! thanks for your comment here. steven

steven said...

acornmoon is ee words that kids "create" which are more often mispronunciations, or mispellings and i love them because they are usually closer to the point. i should collect them and use them but it's something that happens inside a very quick moment isn't it!!! thanks for visiting. steven

steven said...

hi titus, yes a bit trippy. i catch myself valuing the spaces between things more than the things themselves. so blurry images take on more value for me than the actualy source image. that sort of thing. i misread a passage but it glows in isolation....... thanks for your kind comment. see you soon. steven

steven said...

hi tammielee, i create words and i also take words like deliquescent and fit them into a way of being / seeing. there are spaces in-between the dualities we use to understand/ describe our world that need special words to describe or explain them. so we make them and we illustrate them with paintings, photographs, music, dance whatever it takes!!! thankyou for your kind comment. see you again. steven

Caroline Gill said...

Intriguing post, Steven. Words are extraorinary things - stand alone items and building blocks that link in to a chain in all manner of curious ways.

May I nominate you for a Kreativ Blogger Award? To see what this entails, please see my post here... (you may already have received this, of course...)

Best wishes for the w/e,
Caroline

steven said...

hi willow, i love words and try to lock them in my head and then throw them out enough that i get used to them and then they flow out of my mouth like any other word and people puzzle and wonder "hmmm, was that real? was that a word i should know? or they think - this boys wacked!!!!" have a lovely evening at the manor!! steven

steven said...

hi kay - ohh it's nothing to do with "smart", it's all to do with the fortune of finding the word, seeing how it tells about something other than what it's been restricted to and releasing it from it's semantic prison!!!! i love those dreamy photos as well. i should tell what they were taken of but that might colour the impression they give. have a peaceful evening. steven

steven said...

hello hope- cacophony. you know what when i was starting to strecth my legs as a kid and really getting my parent's attention, i listened to a lot of edgy music - i still do - but it was really really out of place in their household - and my dad used that word "it's nothing but cacophony" and i thought "man just say that it's noisy, doesn't make sense to you, you don't like it, it's rubbish . . . anything but a word that make me feel like laughing!!!!"
my fave photo of these three is the rose melting into the flowers around it in the night. have a lovely evening. steven

steven said...

hi jenn, i love the accidents, the thrill of doing something that feels pro (and probably isn't but who really cares?!! not me!!), or just something that cranks us right up and makes us feel proud of capturing something oh so cool that we can share with adoring, family members, tolerant friends, and bemused bloggy chums!!!! thanks for you lovely comment jenn. steven

steven said...

hello joanna, and hello again! i appreciate your supportive comments!! thanks for the link to "the other blog" those pictures are reall clever and lovely!!!! wow!! have a lovely evening. steven

steven said...

yes weaver, it's my favourite of the three. have a lovely evening in the dale. steven

steven said...

hello margie and welcome. i'm so glad you were able to drop by for a visit!!! i love writing and illustrating this blog - i truly do!! it's not just fun but it's also one creative outlet i have that gives me some contact with other people. i'm so glad you dropped by and i hope to see you again. steven

steven said...

hello linda, it's lovely to have you visit here. you understand what i say and do but see it in a way that allows me to step back from it and really get to know it. i hope that that makes sense!! i've always loved words linda, i believe that a good vocabulary, good manners, an appreciation for the blessings that go with simply being alive and a half-decent work ethic will take a person a very long way towards a happy life!!! there's more of course - much more but that's all fine-tuning that comes with age and experience!!!! have a gentle evening and i wish you peacefulness after your stressful day. you and barry so deserve it. steven

steven said...

hello delwyn - i missed your comment this morning and i am terribly sorry. yes, i love words - they're often all we have and certainly as bloggers there's words and pictures and that's it - well there's more but that's harder to define!!!!! so i'd be a word lover and a wordsmith which is such a lovely job title. "wordsmith" . . . i'd love to have that on a polished stone on the ground out front. need a lovely word that only you will know about and understand. then come on in . . . . !!!!
have a lovely late evening by the river delwyn. steven

Margaret Pangert said...

Hi Steven! A very interesting connection of ideas made manifest in different ways. the purple rain dissolving into teal drops and then lime. the blurring of pink and lavender foliage. the softness of a constantly changing flame. And who can't visualize the coming together of very disparate people in Chaucer's Tales? I have another example from something I did as a teacher with my class: We put water in different shaped plastic containers, added different food coloring to each container, and put them outside in the winter to freeze. The next day we built an ice castle from all the frozen water. They would melt-and-freeze, melt-and-freeze throughout the cold spell: the final version a flowing, multi-colored ice fantasy. Deliquescence! Steven, good luck as your new school year begins. Best, Margaret

Delwyn said...

Steven

I have just read your post above and have been wondering over the short period since your followers and comments grew by geometric proportions, just how you will manage that feat of return correspondence.

As you know replying to every visitor has always been a trademark of mine because I really enjoy that sharing time and the way that the comments add to enlargen, deepen and extend the subject matter...

I find that really exciting and enriching. I also feel that it is courteous and forges a greater depth of connection with our readers. If I drop a comment on a post and there is no response as there often isn't, then I wonder if it fell on deaf ears, or am I taking to myself, or even wasting my time.

So I value your feedback and also love to give it my self.

HOWEVER it takes a lot of time. I spent two hours writing yesterday due to the wonderful response to the questions both Bonnie and I posed...and while I loved to do it and have the time at present I can see that you will not.

I find that I can spend another hour or two just reading and commenting on other blogs in the evenings, and their there is all the composition time and photography time too.

I think that my life has become one of blogging but that is Ok...I still do the other things I need to
and have a wonderful time out in Nature...

Do what you can, don't feel you need to respond or you will feel pressured and overtax yourself...and you need your beauty sleep too...

One solution I have thought of is to do the visiting round of blogs every other day ...that may help...

I enjoy your posts, your company and your friendship thanks Steven

Happy days...