Aesthetics of the Invisible World

Beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:13:14 -0500

Beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.

Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi (1994)

"Know yourself and you will know the universe."

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:28:00 -0500

“Know yourself and you will know the universe.”

- Inscription at the entrance of the Temple of Delphi

The Silent King - Louis XVILouis XVI is a king mostly remembered...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:38:00 -0500

The Silent King - Louis XVI

Louis XVI is a king mostly remembered as a coward. As weak. Slow. The tyrant that rolled over. His execution helped abolish absolute monarchy and usher in a new republic of France. It was instrumental in the path towards representational government in the West. In a sense, he’s a martyr for peace. He is not celebrated as such.

This purportedly pious king said upon arriving at the gallows for his execution: “I wish that my blood may be able to cement the happiness of the French.” In a written letter to his son, he him to forgive everyone who caused harm to the family. If true, this is a remarkable sentiment of forgiveness - mostly interpreted as a weakness.

Maybe it is this way because it is not his action but rather his inaction that sealed his fate. Yet he is an essential cog in the machine of human history. Not because of his birthright but due to his character. In reality, anybody we may judge as a poor character is still essential to something. Even those whom embody laziness or ineptitude. They are part of the composite of who we are today as a species. They are also a reflection of what we are not happy with within ourselves.

This is why I make films about ordinary people and ordinary things. They are fascinating. Paradoxically, the most remarkable aspect of Louis XVI’s reign is how ordinary he was. He was no leader, not fit to be king. He was a simple man born into the wrong place at the wrong time.

~ Schmüdde

Midwest Revolution In a previous post I quoted an author who...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:49:53 -0500

Midwest Revolution

In a previous post I quoted an author who thought that there are quintessentially Midwestern tropes of “growth, decay and rebirth through cyclical nature.” Midwesterners, more than other United States citizens, live in cyclical, not linear time. This is mostly due to our unrelenting seasons.

Cyclical living might seem redundant, but it actually leaves more opportunity for revolution. The very word revolution alludes to the necessity of repetition to lay the ground work for true change. Revolution quite literally means to both repeat (the a wheel’s revolutions per minute) and change (the French Revolution).

In the midwest, we are getting close to another revolution. Fall.

~Schmüdde

[Image: Nikolinerlr]

"Why are you so afraid of silence, silence is the root of everything. If you spiral into its void, a..."

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0500

“Why are you so afraid of silence,
silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void,
a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.”

- Rumi

"Women have a greater ability to detect smells than men, and this may be linked to estrogen hormones...."

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:26:37 -0500

“

Women have a greater ability to detect smells than men, and this may be linked to estrogen hormones. The structure of the nose is the same in women as men, and they don’t have any more receptors in the nose, but studies have shown smells activate a greater region in the brain in women than men. In one study, they were able to do better than men in differentiating between odors and picking up faint and slight odors. The study was repeated with younger participants with similar results.

In another unrelated study, men were given clean cotton t-shirts to sleep in for two nights. The t-shirts were subsequently sealed in plastic bags and then sent to women to smell and rate how attractive they thought the t-shirt wearer was. The most striking find of the study was that the women often picked the men who had the strongest immune systems.

”

- Nic Swaner

The perception of odors is conjured up in a part of the brain...

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:06:59 -0500

The perception of odors is conjured up in a part of the brain called the olfactory bulb. The olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system - a set of structures that also form emotions, behaviors and long term memories.

Smell is comprised of fleeting transience. In its very manifestation is mimics memory. Invisible. Powerful. But a subtle wind can carry it away.

Schmüdde

During this brief transit we possess two gifts - consciousness...

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:49:54 -0500

During this brief transit we possess two gifts - consciousness of the gift of life and consciousness of its short loan from party or parties unknown. We owe two gifts in return - a life fully lived, and a life surrendered at the end.

- James Hollis, “Permutations of Desire”, Parabola Magazine (Fall 2010)

[Image: Andreas Levers Path, 2010]

He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct...

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0500

He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging… He must not be afraid to return again and again to the same matter… For the matter itself is only a deposit, a stratum, which yields only to the most meticulous examination what constitutes the real treasure hidden within the earth: the images, severed from all earlier associations, that stand - like precious fragments or torsos in a collector’s gallery - in the prosaic rooms of our later understanding.

Walter Benjamin, “Berlin Chronicle,” in Reflections, 26
via Svetlana Boym

[Image: Remedios Varo, “The Encounter” (1962)]

"A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the..."

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:23:23 -0500

“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.”

- P. L. Travers

SILENTIUM!

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0500

SILENTIUM!:

Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal
The way you dream, the things you feel.
Deep in your spirit let them rise
akin to stars in crystal skies
that set before the night is blurred:
delight in them and speak no word

How can a heart expression find?
How should another know your mind?
Will he discern what quickens you?
A thought once is untrue.
Dimmed is the fountainhead when stirred:
drink at the source and speak no word.

Live in your inner self alone
within your soul a world has grown,
the magic of veiled thoughts that might
be blinded by the outer light,
drowned in the noise of day, unheard …
take in their song and speak no word.

- Fyodor Tyutchev, translated by Vladimir Nabokov

If this was the cover of a book, it would be called The Spectrum...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0500

If this was the cover of a book, it would be called The Spectrum of Light Reveals Itself, Duality and Other Short Stories of Symmetry and Enlightenment. I’d read it.

~Schmüdde

What we fear most cannot be seen. It is not the dog we fear,...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:02:49 -0500

What we fear most cannot be seen. It is not the dog we fear, but its intention. It is not the present state we fear, it is the future. It is not the light we fear, but the dark.

Fear is an invisible illusion. So we must combat it with invisible faith:

From the Christians:

The LORD is my light and my salvation -
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life -
of whom shall I be afraid?
- Psalm 27:1

From the Buddhists:

Mind is best recognised in daily life through identification with a compassionate Lama who is beyond fear.
- Diamond Way Buddhism

From the secularists:

Confidence.

~ Schmüdde

[Image: Max Klinger, Opus XI, Vom Tode. Erster Teil (1898)]

When Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten was considering the...

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:37:51 -0500

When Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten was considering the philosophy of aesthetics in the 18th century, he thought of it as the science of sensations. Thus aesthetics is not only about what you see but it is also what you hear, taste, smell and, perhaps most importantly, what you feel.

Portrait of a Young Girl, La Penitente - Pietro Antonio Conte...

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:08:00 -0500

Portrait of a Young Girl, La Penitente - Pietro Antonio Conte Rotari (~1750)

The penitent girl. Humble. Introspective. More than just her posture and expression, the golden light exudes a deep spiritual understanding.

The secrets of the universe are almost entirely...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:00:58 -0500

The secrets of the universe are almost entirely invisible.

Dione (pictured in front) is a moon of Saturn and the fifteenth-largest moon in the solar system. Made up almost entirely of water ice, Dione is denser than all the moons smaller than it—combined. It’s shown here as it transits Titan, the second-largest moon in the solar system and the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. It’s also the only other object in the solar system other than Earth that has shown clear evidence for liquid at the surface. Although Titan is composed of rocky material and water ice, the temperatures are too cold there for liquid water to exist. The lakes on Titan are filled with liquid methane.

(via NASA Image of the Day)

"But that’s what the real lie consists of, that’s the crime: lying to oneself, being in disharmony..."

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:11:40 -0500

“But that’s what the real lie consists of, that’s the crime: lying to oneself, being in disharmony with one’s own truth, one’s own innermost knowledge of things, as revealed through one’s consciousness. Objectivity, in fact, means just this: to be in harmony with one’s own subjectivity, not to lie to oneself.”

- Eugene Ionesco, Fragments of a Journal (via invisiblestories) (via crashinglybeautiful)

We lose something when we don’t care for our culture. We...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:00:00 -0500

We lose something when we don’t care for our culture. We lose something more when we create culture that isn’t worth caring for. The current popular export of American creatives is made to be disposed of. We are becoming a nation of mankurts - people that cannot recall their native cultural roots and origin - because growing up admiring the beauty of Wal*Mart is an oxymoron.

Print by Max Klinger ~1919

I am mind. The only known acknowledger of harmony in the...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:00:00 -0500

I am mind. The only known acknowledger of harmony in the universe.

Mind over body. Immaterial over physical. Leonid...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:00 -0500

Mind over body. Immaterial over physical.

Leonid Rogozov

Rogozov was a doctor who took part in the sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1960-1961. He was the only doctor stationed at the Novolazarevskaya Station and, while there, developed peritonitis (an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane which lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera.) That meant that he had to perform an appendectomy on himself.

Using only novocaine for local anaesthesia, Rogozov managed to successfully complete the surgery in about two hours. The signs of peritonitis disappeared and he was back to his regular work in two weeks. This is the most famous case of self-surgery. Rogozov went on to live until he was 66, and passed away in 2000.