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"Social Elements"

Interactions among individuals and groups. Interactions between individuals and groups, and physical environments.

Social Elements: Miami MetroZoo

Uriel Levi & Michael Foley in collaboration with students of the New World School of the Arts

Photo by ...

Work Supported by a Grant to The New World School for the Arts from The SURDNA Foundation

Social Elements: Rising Stars

Uriel Levi in collaboration with students of the New World School of the Arts

Photos by Luis Garcia

aesthetic
noun
1 plural but singular or plural in construction : a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste
and with the creation and appreciation of beauty
2 : a particular theory or conception of beauty or art : a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses
3 plural : a pleasing appearance or effect : BEAUTY

truth
noun
1 a archaic : FIDELITY, CONSTANCY b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance
2 a (1) : the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often
capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted
as true <truths of thermodynamics> c : the body of true statements and propositions
3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : TRUE 2 c : fidelity to an
original or to a standard

beau·ty
1 : the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the
mind or spirit : LOVELINESS

Consider art and science as two complementary endeavors that engage the human pursuit of truth and beauty. Consider truth and beauty each as embodying some inherent aspect of the other; there is beauty in truth and truth in beauty. Even a difficult truth can express a terrible beauty. Images of the mushroom clouds from nuclear explosions are terrifyingly beautiful. Even repugnant images, if true, are beautiful in the sense that they enlighten us. In that enlightenment, that "whittle[ing] away [at] ignorance" [Brecht] lies some small beauty. Inversely, genuine beauty is inherently true. Our percepts convey a truth of experience to our conscious mind.

define ( Observe() Absorb() Synthesize() Express() ) fuzzy_non_sequenital

DO while resonace() == TRUE
        Observe()    Absorb()    Synthesize()    Express()
else
    if complete() == TRUE
        then
    end DO
        else
            call take_a_break
end DO

Seminar Notes

Concepts

formal study helps frame the questions, doing provides the answers and refines the questions...
plastic arts in relation to writing (symbolic, archival ) and performance ( affective, ephemeral)
environmantal art objects versus environmental art encounter facilitators

Events and contexts: Environmental phenomena as imagery.
Introductory Reference Work: "Koyaanisqatsi"
Exercises: Selective Perception.
Field Trip: audio & video recorders, tripods, notebooks
"Sounds of Silence": Soundscapes
"...and then there was light..."

Environmental constraints on behavior.
Interactions between behavioral and physical ecologies.
Juxtapositions of objects and environments.
Scale.
Calder, Piene, Charles - ( miniature cliff dwellings), Joe Davis (New Wave Ruby Falls), di Suevero
Patterns.
Introductory Reference Work: "The Shape of Things"
Exercises: Discover and develop procedures for expressing fundamental patterns in nature. e.g. fractal algorithms
Field Trip: USGS
References: Mandelbrot, d'Arcy Thomson, Hillier & Hanson, Alexander, Biogeography SocioBiology
Rhythm.
Balance.

Morphology

R.Buckminster Fuller

Processes

History

Climbing trees
Megaliths
Pyramids
Nazca Lines
Observatories
Labyrinths
Parks, Gardens

Bibliography

Arnhiem
Burgess
-Calder
-Christo
-Clauss
Harold Cohen
Richard Dawkins
-diSuevero
Dondis
Goldsworthy
Irwin
Odum
-Oldenburg
-Olmstead
Peine
-Serra
-Snellson
Tufte
-Turrell
Weschler -Irwin
Barbara Westfall
E.O.Wilson

Maintained ( yeah, right) by ualevi@alum.mit.edu