Posts tagged Aesthetic

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.

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.

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

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

Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)

Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)

Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513)

Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513)

Symmetry in Narrative

Piero di Cosimo’s Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)

Depictions in narrative order:

  1. The drunken Silenus falling off his horse (center)
  2. Unsuccessfully helping Silenus to his feet by his band of satyrs (half man, half horse) and lustful women (right)
  3. Boys rubbing mud on his forehead (left)

The same narrative relationship can be seen in Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513).

The spark of the story, not the climax, is depicted in dramatic fashion as the centerpiece of the visual narrative.  Although analogies to time-based media like film are dubious because the viewer is shackled to the movie’s flow of time, a similar structure could be Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007).  The climatic centerpiece (the explosion of Michael Clayton’s car) is also the first thing you see in the film and an event you come back to later as the film resets to a point before it.

Paul Rand’s logo for Morningstar.

Paul Rand’s logo for Morningstar.

22 West Washington Before

22 West Washington Before

22 West Washington After

22 West Washington After

Lynn Becker wrote a piece on Tuesday that echoed some of my long-held thoughts on contemporary architecture.  One angle: sometimes acts of destruction can break up the monotony.  22 West met that fate earlier in the week due to a massive storm that rolled through Chicago.  It blew out two windows in the former Sears (now Willis) Tower.  More significantly, it added a little texture to the mind-numbingly ubiquitous glass skyscraper seen above.  It’s worth noting that 22 West Washington is the brand-new headquarters of the investment research firm Morningstar, Inc.

This would seem to be something of a fortuitous breath of fresh air - especially for a company as image-conscious as Morningstar.  Their founder, Joe Mansueto, has been quoted as saying that their logo is one of their most valuable assets.  It is unique, contemporary and thematically decisive.  I wish the same could be said about the architecture of the building they now reside in.  A lot could be done with the texture and rhythm of this structure - something that I’m sure was overlooked in countless designs and mock-ups.  What a great opportunity we have now…

Images taked by Bob Johnson from ARCHITECTURECHICAGO PLUS.

Narrative is transcultural.  Specific thought patterns of another culture may be difficult to understand but it is often simple to comprehend their stories.

Narrative might well be considered a solution to a problem of general human concern, namely, the problem of how to translate knowing into telling.   — Hayden White

My favorite recent Chicago Skyscraper: 300 North LaSalle

My favorite recent Chicago Skyscraper: 300 North LaSalle

Simple list: 2, 1, 0. Division into quarters: 25/25/50. A sense of order, space and perspective.  What is missing when we are most troubled photo credit: don’t forget us by Ebru Sİdar

Simple list: 2, 1, 0.

Division into quarters: 25/25/50.

A sense of order, space and perspective. 

What is missing when we are most troubled

photo credit: don’t forget us by Ebru Sİdar

About Being an Artist

It isn’t like a cookbook.  I listen to a lot of music.  I take note.  I watch movies.  I take note.  I look at paintings.  I take note.  I study literature.  I take note.  Here is the caveat of being an artist: you can’t just throw these things together and expect them to amount to anything.  That’s what makes being an artist difficult.  Most likely you’ll end up with a muddled mess.  The editing and clarification takes years before the net work comes out with any precision.  Even then, it often takes collaboration, feedback and reflection to take this to the next level.  What is the “next level”?  It’s a level where the work reflects something in the human experience larger than yourself.

On Listening and Music In a speech delivered by Benjamin Britten in 1964 he astutely pointed out that going to listen to music before the invention of the wax cylinder required a special level of investment:It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework on the programme perhaps, some clarification of the ears and sharpening of the instincts. It demands as much effort on the listener’s part as the other two corners of the triangle, this holy triangle of composer, performer and listener. Listeners would have to invest themselves in a composition nearly to the level of a composer or a performer.  Of course the old adage applies as well: the greater the level of investment, the greater the level of return.  Furthermore, Bob Shingleton, from whom much of the inspiration of this post was drawn, proposes that listening, like meditation and learning, are even more fulfilling when experienced as a group.  Listening cannot happen casually.  Unfortunately, the majority of music listening does.  The simple accessibility of it makes this the case.  Compressed music, portable music systems, digital music libraries, satellite radios, streaming web-based music; this amounts not to a condemnation but a simple statement of fact that we listen differently now than we did roughly 100 years ago.  At that time, if you wanted to hear music in your home, someone would have to play it.  There simply was no personal music listening unless you were also the performer - again another level of investment. I’m not sure what the end result of this is.  I do know that music is more often played like sonic wall-paper rather than something we’d normally think of as music.  Just as we don’t think of manufactured linoleum as art, much of what exists merely for ubiquitous aural mood-setting might not be thought of as music.  In the very least, it is perhaps less-so than John Cage’s 4’33”, a famous composition of “silence”.It’s much less of an academic discussion than it seems.  If aesthetics are important then we need another word for this so as to never confuse the two.  These words are also the first step towards listening with intention.  For example, it’s not the existence of Muzak that is the problem - it is the listener’s acceptance of it as music that is at the root of our everyday negligence.

On Listening and Music

In a speech delivered by Benjamin Britten in 1964 he astutely pointed out that going to listen to music before the invention of the wax cylinder required a special level of investment:

It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework on the programme perhaps, some clarification of the ears and sharpening of the instincts. It demands as much effort on the listener’s part as the other two corners of the triangle, this holy triangle of composer, performer and listener.

Listeners would have to invest themselves in a composition nearly to the level of a composer or a performer.  Of course the old adage applies as well: the greater the level of investment, the greater the level of return. 

Furthermore, Bob Shingleton, from whom much of the inspiration of this post was drawn, proposes that listening, like meditation and learning, are even more fulfilling when experienced as a group.  Listening cannot happen casually.  Unfortunately, the majority of music listening does.  The simple accessibility of it makes this the case.  Compressed music, portable music systems, digital music libraries, satellite radios, streaming web-based music; this amounts not to a condemnation but a simple statement of fact that we listen differently now than we did roughly 100 years ago.  At that time, if you wanted to hear music in your home, someone would have to play it.  There simply was no personal music listening unless you were also the performer - again another level of investment.

I’m not sure what the end result of this is.  I do know that music is more often played like sonic wall-paper rather than something we’d normally think of as music.  Just as we don’t think of manufactured linoleum as art, much of what exists merely for ubiquitous aural mood-setting might not be thought of as music.  In the very least, it is perhaps less-so than John Cage’s 4’33”, a famous composition of “silence”.

It’s much less of an academic discussion than it seems.  If aesthetics are important then we need another word for this so as to never confuse the two.  These words are also the first step towards listening with intention.  For example, it’s not the existence of Muzak that is the problem - it is the listener’s acceptance of it as music that is at the root of our everyday negligence.