Dan Wilson on fri 11 jul 97
On the basis of what has been said so far, beauty is either an extreme
position on a continuium or it is the average. The Greek notion of "The
Golden Mean" tends to support the later position. To achieve the condition
of beauty, the employment of porportional relationships among the elements
of beauty to establish balance is required. This can be achieved through
the use of the formula: 1.618 to 1. What does this have to do with the
beautiful pot? The pot, I have just recently learned, is sometimes thought
of as a metaphor for the body. If this is so, then the elements of the
beautiful pot should reflect the porportional relationships described above.
So, what are the elements of the beautiful? Especially since it is
commonly accepted that "everything is beautiful in its own way.". This is
the point at which subjectivity enters the equation. Subjectivity is the
fulcrum upon which the condition of beauty is balanced. But what exactly;
is subjectivity?
Dan Wilson
Hluch - Kevin A. on sun 13 jul 97
The pottery apprentice could not understand why he had been sent to the
the workshop of the sculptor. Certainly the Argive master Polykleitos
knew nothing of pottery. How, with his reknown, could his ideas help him,
a lowly potter. Certainly his "Doryphorous" was an expression that
contained the purest sense of aesthetic balance ever to reside in mere
stone. And certainly his numerical formulations in three dimensions were
such that he was considered to have embodied art itself in a work of art.
No wonder that even though his Doryphorous did not posses any of the
specific attributes of a particular person it , indeed, engendered the
aesthetic ideal. In his introductions to the sculpture studio Adeimantus
was the one who retold the story of Plato who said ,late in the life of
Polykleitos, "We must seek out those craftsmen whose instinct guides them
to whatsoever is lovely and gracious: so that our young men, dwelling in a
wholesome climate, may drink in good from every quarter, whence, like a
breeeze bearing health from happy regions, some influence from noble works
constantly falls upon eye and ear from childhood upward, and imperceptibly
draws them into sympathy and harmony with the beauty of reason, whose
impress they take." So this is why he must study with such an artist
who has been so touched by the divine! "To be a slave of such a master
was to be not a slave at all", he concluded. But there was a quiet
stillness harboring in his mind. "How can reason be reason and beauty
beauty and reason be born of beauty too?"
Kevin A. Hluch
102 E. 8th St.
Frederick, MD 21701
USA
e-mail: kahluch@umd5.umd.edu
On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Dan Wilson wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>
> On the basis of what has been said so far, beauty is either an extreme
> position on a continuium or it is the average. The Greek notion of "The
> Golden Mean" tends to support the later position. To achieve the condition
> of beauty, the employment of porportional relationships among the elements
> of beauty to establish balance is required. This can be achieved through
> the use of the formula: 1.618 to 1. What does this have to do with the
> beautiful pot? The pot, I have just recently learned, is sometimes thought
> of as a metaphor for the body. If this is so, then the elements of the
> beautiful pot should reflect the porportional relationships described above.
>
> So, what are the elements of the beautiful? Especially since it is
> commonly accepted that "everything is beautiful in its own way.". This is
> the point at which subjectivity enters the equation. Subjectivity is the
> fulcrum upon which the condition of beauty is balanced. But what exactly;
> is subjectivity?
>
> Dan Wilson
>
Dan Wilson on wed 16 jul 97
C. Greenberg once stated that evaluating a work of art is essentially an
evaluation of the experience of the work of art. Certainly a subjective
view which dominates today. In fact, this view will prevail until forces
begin to oppose it. But what forces? It could be said with confidence that
all works of art are subjective translations of objective reality,
externalized. The result is that these translations because of their
subjective grounding are virtual representations of experience. This
process has created a system in which the forms of experience become
virtual and their models grounded in memory. The same can be said about
beauty.
Dan Wilson
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