Amy Ione ...
I have read the article from the New Yorker. I am neither an artist nor an
art historian but a landscape architect who is teaching environmental
design. It was of particular interest to me because of a 1st year design
studio project that we have just completed. The students - who have varied
backgrounds - were asked to find a painting or an etching that had three
walls, forming a room. They were then asked to enlarge these images to 11 x
17. Next they had to find 'the' vanishing point of the 'seemingly one point
perspective', in order to re-interpret the painting, now know as the 'room'
into plans and elevations. It was very interesting to watch their discovery
that these painting that very clearly seemed to be one point perspectives
most often had three to eight vanishing points. Their final interpretation
of the work was to 'design' the fourth wall. The projects are being
presented this week ... I think that it is time to introduce the article to
them! We have discussed the notion of how perspective has changed and
whether one is 'more correct' than the other ... is it not simply abit of a
waste of time to fuss and labor over constructing a 'proper, architectural'
perspective when the looser approach that many of these artists took seems
to produce results that we 'see' as being correct ... a good question for
1st year students to ponder!
Though our aim is to begin to teach the students 'spatial design', the
project has been a wonderful illustration to them of how deceptive the
eye/brain/seeing relationship can be. Or perhaps more accurately - how
quickly we trust our 'assumptions'.
Marcella Eaton
>Hi all.
>
>Any one see the Lawrence Wechsler's article "The Looking Glass" (_New
>Yorker_ 1/31/00) on David Hockney's theory that the Old Masters (Holbein,
>Caravaggio, Bellini, etc.) used lenses or viewing devices to produce their
>paintings? From what I understand the ideas may be much like Arthur
>Wheelock's work in this area, so they are neither new nor novel. Still,
>from what I hear, Hockney discusses the difference between the way artists
>look at paintings and the way non-artists (e.g., art historians) do -- so
>Hockney's ideas might be a useful when compared with those of someone like
>Wheelock, who is an art historian.
>
>I have not read the article, but plan to soon. Thought I'd mention it here
>because we have been quiet and because I, personally, am particularly
>interested in how the brain interprets what the eyes see. How viewing
>devices and lenses change what the eyes see fascinate me as well. If anyone
>has read the piece, feedback would be welcome.
>
>Also, this synopsis of an interview with John Searle might be of general
>interest. There is a web address at the bottom for anyone who might want to
>see the entire piece. By the way, the synopsis is from The Chronical of
>Higher Education.
>
>All the best,
>Amy
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>From the February issue of "Reason":
>Philosophy and reality as seen by John Searle
>
>The Enlightenment's quest to displace superstition with "the
>attainment of scientific truth and the advance of human rights
>and democratic government" remains incomplete and worth
>continuing, and postmodernism unreasonably disparages that
>quest. So says the eminent philosopher John R. Searle, who
>teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, in an
>interview. Mr. Searle says his contribution to continuing the
>Enlightenment's goals has been to explore how consciousness and
>intentionality are structured and operate in the brain. He says:
>"We want a unified account of our knowledge, and I think we can
>get it." The "postmodern movement" has not particularly helped,
>because it has sought to "advance the view that what we think of
>as reality is largely a social construct" -- often, an
>oppressive one. Of course, he says, "all knowledge is our
>knowledge," but it doesn't follow that "therefore you can never
>have objectively valid knowledge of how things really are." Mr.
>Searle wonders why socialism, a carefully intellectualized
>system, is "dead," even though in the 1950's it was thought
>certain to supersede capitalism, a more haphazard system.
>
>He praises Friedrich Hayek's 1944 "The Road to Serfdom" as
>"certainly among the books of the century," because it
>prophetically argued "that there wasn't any halfway point of
>democratic socialism, that it would naturally collapse into
>various forms of oppression." That leads him to recall his own
>role in the free-speech movement of the 1960's, as one of the
>first activist Berkeley professors. He later became disenchanted
>with student radicals who, he believes, "only wanted free speech
>for views that they agreed with" and wanted "to revolutionize
>society and overthrow capitalism."
>
>He also criticizes affirmative action, arguing that at first it meant
>"that people who would never have tried to get into the university
>before would be encouraged and trained so that they could get
>admission. I was all for that." But then, with "catastrophic
>effect," he argues, "race and ethnicity became criteria not for
>encouraging people to enter the competition, but for judging the
>competition." Fortunately, he says, "we've given up on that."
>The interview is available online at
>http://www.reasonmag.com/0002/fe.ef.reality.html
>___________________________________________
>
>Amy Ione
>PO Box 12748
>Berkeley, CA 94748-3748 USA
>Phone: 1 (510) 548-2052
>Fax: 1 (510) 548-2054
>email: ione@lmi.net
>URL: http://users.lmi.net/ione
>
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