Beyond limits: Zombie theory and the art and science of constraint.

What I term the liminal Zombie (otherwise known as the philosophical or p-Zombie) is a useful construct in consciousness studies and elsewhere. The living dead, as an idea rather than the Hollywood brain-eaters, are deeply ambiguous, being simultaneously dead and alive, yes and no, true and false, 0 and 1. The waveform never collapses, resolves, but the Zombie state can be very rich in its constraint (the Zombie by definition has no feelings or 'qualia') to be on a meta-level, above such considerations. The Zombie is a transgression. One can 'deal with' constraints by breaking free of them, or by accepting and even strengthening them, apparently reducing freedom. The Zombie does, or is, both. One can squeeze a lemon until the pips squeak, but eventually a spurt of juice will escape and hit one in the eye, rendering one simultaneously blind and very aware. Such groups as OuLiPo in literature and OuPeinPo in art, both under the philosophical umbrella of 'Pataphysics, the science of exceptions, singularities and generalised, rigorous absurdity, use constraints to further creativity. I shall argue, with examples and stories, that the necessary open-mindedness of the Zombie, combined with the espousal of constraint-as-freedom, can be a rich source of creativity in the arts and elsewhere. The audience for this paper will be invited and aided to enter the Zombie state, from and into which possibilities to create and consider artworks will be offered, experiments undertaken and some new ideas for art, science and creativity will be presented. In-between black and white, there is always ... red. And out-between: infinity.