Hello
There can be a different take on beauty.
I did the following experiment. I replaced the word beauty with hunger
and re-read some of the earlier emails. I was doing this to address
the question of objectivity. The way hunger is rooted in our biology
which makes us produce food one could see ‘beauty’ as something rooted
in the biology that makes us create beauty all around us. Hunger
itself can be placed in the objective basket and taste etc is
subjective. Similarly what you like is subjective but what makes you
like is objective. But the beauty I am referring to is much deeper. It
is connected with fundamental principles of life. Like hunger, and
cognition beauty is rooted in life’s need to sustain and maintain
life. Not to create art, or for self- expression etc but to live!
I had noticed among non-literate artisans that they produce beautiful
things as if it was very natural for them to create beauty. Which
looks like whatever they did, just turned out to be beautiful. This
seemed like an ordering principle in our biology itself and not an
afterthought unlike what we do in modern society. 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
the kitchen- cutting, kneading, making etc- and various actions to the
way body is held. The need to keep the 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.
Art is a mental construct whereas beauty is part and parcel of our
biological makeup. It is the organizing principle of life that ensures
the economy of energy- aptness in action and in action.
Beauty is a dynamic configuration of appropriateness inherent in
nature. We are born aligned to this configuration and in people in
indigenous communities where there is no ‘teaching’ keep up this
alignment spontaneously and organically as they grow up. So naturally
what they do turns out to be beautiful.
Modernity, due to its mental preoccupation, derails us from this
alignment. Instead of awakening us to our inherent qualities,
education in general and art and aesthetic education in particular
conditions us to the mental construct called art and to its various
theories on aesthetics. Experience is replaced by mental myth-making.
Preoccupation 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 a lack of
clarity in my own exploration. So hope what i mentioned are to be held
lightly.
I have uploaded a paper on my academy page. see link
https://www.academia.edu/7467149/BIOLOGICAL_ROOTS_OF_BEAUTY
I would like to share with you a few videos that show beauty
seamlessly present in the being without becoming 'art'
A girl spontaneously arranging bricks -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF0Tqy9BPc0
(I ran a school for three years and documented what children were
doing spontaneously. I have around 4000 videos and images of children
which I am using to study what and how children learn the real world)
traditional brass artisan- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_2WrXzfAI
More on work and 'Taal' (rhythm).
Building worker hammering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aISPHTsu6Ig
lady pounding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2NVHGnmTyc
A man walking with a load on head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2fx6ClBTv0
My videos on beauty, knowledge
Re-imagining beauty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvbwDVGs4Vw&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciiARi5PXTg&t=183s
http://www.thethird-eye.co.uk/there-is-no-movement-without-rhythm/
Rhythm (Foli) There is no Movement without Rhythm (2010) A FILM BY THE
BROTHERS THOMAS ROEBERS AND FLORIS LEEUWENBERG. Colour, 11mins. Sound
Recording and Sound Design by Bjorn Warning. Translator and Rhythm
Specialist Thomas Bonenkamp. With special thanks to the chief
Djembefola: Mansa Camio.
Jinan
On 12/09/2018, [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Susan and all,
>
> Your summary was very useful. Here are a few notes by way of addition.
>
> I’ve found Erving Goffman’s notion of Framing to be extremely useful in
> discussions of this type. In the case of beauty we can use the idea both
> literally and metaphorically. The distinctions and differences between
> beauty in science, indeed in particular branches of science, and beauty in
> design are then much easier to comprehend.
>
> The confusions and disagreements seem to arise when we talk across or
> between different frames. And I think that the confusion grows when we try
> to transcend all frames and try to define ‘beauty’ in a transcendent
> philosophical sense. The next step, I think, is a form of madness (at least,
> intellectually).
>
> I also think that framing is an important concept in design. When we as
> designers take on a design “problem”, we usually do so either implicitly or
> explicitly within a frame. One of the common experiences we have as
> designers is finding ourselves wanting to shift the boundary of the
> “problem”. That, however, is another thread and a different type of
> discussion.
>
> To summarise, I suggest it might be useful to use the notion of framing to
> give us a much broader and ecumenical sense of beauty: the goddess to whom
> many of us pray.
> (Please pardon my obvious sexism)
> David
> --
>
>
>
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--
Jinan,
TEXT DISTORTS, DIGITAL DESTROYS, WORLD AWAKENS
http://existentialknowledgefoundation.org/
http://rethinkingfoundation.weebly.com/
reimaginingschools.wordpress.com
http://sadhanavillageschool.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sadhanavillagepune
https://www.youtube.com/user/jinansvideos
www.re-cognition.org
http://designeducationasia.blogspot.com/
http://awakeningaestheticawareness.wordpress.com/
https://independent.academia.edu/JinanKodapully
09447121544
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