THE IMAGINATIVE DEVICE Towards a Methodology of Possibility

1st Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hubertus von Amelunxen (ISNM)

2nd Supervisor: Prof. George Legrady (University of California Santa Barbara)

3rd Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Andreas Schrader (ISNM)

Since Descartes, analysis of phenomena equaled their division into constituent parts. His reductionist method of analysis and synthesis determined how we constructed the digital medium and its computation devices, but its outcome was also the ambiguity of our data concept, defined by a determinative relation expressed in a formal system that is inapt to guarantee exactly this determination. Following Aristotelean statement that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, this work derives a cognitive method for complex data systems aimed at an understanding through knowing how a system behaves, instead of knowing its parts. An experimental implementation is planned to develop the design principles for this cognitive approach, that brings together scientific modeling and semiotic interpretation.