Hello Jerry, Keith, Chuck and others
I have a different take on this.
I have been exploring the biological basis of beauty or the core
principle from which 'art' manifests. I distinguish art and beauty in
the following manner. Art is mental construct where as beauty is a
biological fact just like hunger is the cause for making food.
I had noticed among non literate artisans that they produce beautiful
things as if it was very natural. Which looks like what ever they
did, just turned out to be beautiful. This seemed like an ordering
principle in our biology it self and not an after thought. As i was
living with non literate people I noticed that this happens not only
while doing 'craft' but also in every action they performed. From
activities in kitchen- cutting, kneading, making etc- and various
actions to the way body is held. The need to keep kitchen clean and
ordered stems from this. There was no thought- how to make things
beautiful as beauty is an integral aspect of action or beauty is part
and parcel of the Being.
Knowing and being are not fragmented. Being knows! This is the integral nature.
What I mentioned is common to all cultures that are sense based (non
literate) and also in children irrespective of where they are born.
I have been trying to address this in the foundation programs in
design and architectural education. Please see the blogs
http://rethinkingfoundation.weebly.com/ and
http://existentialknowledgefoundation.weebly.com/
I am trying to initiate re thinking in the way basic design courses
are being held. It seems to me that one has to attempt to integrate
and also to awaken the inner beauty.
The way i am looking at Composition is in the following manner. When a
person is composed, beauty is in his centre of being. so beauty is
that enables him to act in an APT manner. Aptness seems to me the word
that needs to be used in this context. In the context of rural
communities i had noticed the following. As they do not use furniture
they sit on the floor. When someone comes to meet them the two of them
re compose and settles in to the best position possible. And when
third person joins them their body postures are re adjusted to
accommodate the new need. This continues when more people meet. i
would suggest that beauty is that enabled this to happen. This
'composition' or natural ordering principle is evident in all aspects
of nature- how two leaves, three leaves etc is in the right place.
When there are fixed furniture human beings adjust to the furniture.
Ergonomics in strict sense is to fit the person to furniture where as
natural ergonomics is the way body respond to find its apt position.
I am keen to further explore NATURAL ERGONOMICS which i feel could
point to the biological roots of beauty.
Pre occupation with the manifested hides the root which is what makes
all this happen. For a person who has not been fragmented by modernity
what he does is in line with this natural beauty. In fact I am
exploring the integral nature of the aesthetic cognitive structures.
I am aware that i have not been able to articulate well. The reason is
that English not my language and more than that there is lack of
clarity in my own exploration. So hope what i mentioned are to be held
lightly.
I have a paper on my academy page. see link
https://www.academia.edu/7467149/BIOLOGICAL_ROOTS_OF_BEAUTY
Exploring the biological roots of art is like exploring the biological
roots of bread.
One can explore the biological roots of hunger but can one explore the
biological root of bread. Like food art is what is produced to satisfy
a biological need. What is this biological need? What is the
unmanifested element in us that probably is the operational principle
of life!
Jinan
On 07/10/2015, Jerry Diethelm <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Keith, Ken, Chuck, Terry and artful lurkers,
>
> Thanks for your insightful observations and reflections on Alva Noe¹s
> stimulating article:
>
> I thought Noe¹s conclusion that, ³Art is itself a research practice, a way
> of investigating the world and ourselves,² seemed to contradict his earlier
> ³art isn¹t a phenomenon to be explained.² And I wonder why we continue to
> assume that what science is looking for and the way it goes about that
> looking needs to be the same for art - that it can all be gathered into one
> big happy ontology. Why the need to be so tidy? Isn¹t there just
> something
> fundamentally different between such things as traffic statistics and being
> hit by a car?
>
> Re: neuroscience¹s probing of human nature from the inside and art from the
> behavioral outside. The inside view for me can be both neuroscience and
> also the lyric voice of fiction and poetry.
>
> I liked his word unveil, the capacity of art to pull back at least some of
> the curtain on the grand opera of being human (oh so human) to reveal
> hidden
> aspects of our artifacts and culture. Paul Klee said something similar in
> his notebooks, ³Art doesn¹t render the visible. It makes visible.² But Noe
> goes much further when he says, ³Art, in contrast, [to design] makes things
> strange.²
>
> I think he differentiates much too strictly between design and art with,
> ³Design, the work of technology, stops, and art begins, when we are unable
> to take the background of our familiar technologies and activities for
> granted, and when we can no longer take for granted what is, in fact, a
> precondition of the very natural-seeming intelligibility of such things as
> doorknobs and pictures, words and sounds.²
>
> Yes, Human beings....are designers by nature," but their art reaches down
> into "The Design of Everyday Things." I continue to think of designing and
> art as overlapping, open concepts with evolving cultural agendas.
>
> Re: the concept of a ³human nature.² If there is ³a human nature² to
> discover, I think it will be found in the sealed box along with
> Schrödinger's cat.
>
> Warm regards to all,
>
> Jerry
>
> --
> Jerry Diethelm
> Architect - Landscape Architect
> Planning & Urban Design Consultant
>
> Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
> and Community Service € University of Oregon
> 2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
> € e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> € web: http://pages.uoregon.edu/diethelm/
> € https://oregon.academia.edu/JerryDiethelm
>
> € 541-686-0585 home/work 541-346-1441 UO
> € 541-206-2947 work/cell
>
>
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--
Jinan,
'DIGITAL MEDIUM IS A TOOL.DIGITALLY MEDIATED KNOWLEDGE DESTROYS THE BEING'
http://sadhanavillageschool.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sadhanavillagepune
https://www.youtube.com/user/jinansvideos
www.re-cognition.org
www.kumbham.org
reimaginingschools.wordpress.com
http://designeducationasia.blogspot.com/
http://awakeningaestheticawareness.wordpress.com/
http://awakeningaestheticawareness.blogspot.in/
09447121544
0487 2386723
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