A Visual Image of New Science

In 2016 Carlijn Kingman wrote her master thesis ‘The Institute of Utopianism’ on the faculty ‘Architecture and The Built Environment’ in Delft, The Netherlands. Thesis: here.

Her conclusion:
“This elaboration into the rotten structure of the waver ivory tower of science, the science paradigm of positive rationalism, has led to a proposal for a new paradigm shift: the science of complexity.
Finally, in order to communicate and elaborate on newly born outlines of this new paradigm of science, I have translated its goals and elements into a metaphorical program of requirements: cartography chambers, the agora for debate, stairs and bridges to connect it all, and more. With this metaphorical program of requirements, together with the manifesto which describes a set of guidelines to create valuable architectural utopias for tomorrow, I will set off to create my own utopian design: the institute of utopianism, a new of science to stimulate the emerge of plural utopianism, a utopia which aims to become its own parent.”

A proposal for a paradigm shift into a science of complexity. Metaphorical requirements: cartography chambers, the agora for debate, stairs and bridges to connect it all, and more. A call for plural utopianism. Her four utopian project attributes:

Resulting in this 'Vertical Section of New Science':

Who did she consult for her utopia's? She has taken into consideration the following 29 utopias (I have added the division into centuries):

[-5th century]

• Plato (427 BC - 347 BC). The Republic.

[5th century]

• Augustine, Saint (426). The City of God.

[16th century]

• More, Sir Thomas (1516). Utopia.
• Bruegel den Elder, Pieter (1567). Luilekkerland.

[17th century]

• Andreae, Johann Valentin (1619). Christianopolis.
• Bacon, Francis (1627). The New Atlantis.
• Campanella, Tomasso (1637). The City of the Sun.

 [18th century]

•  Mercier, Louis Sebastien (1772). Memoirs of the Year 2500.
• Ledoux, Claude Nicolas (1775). The town of Chaux, the royal saltworks.
• Spence, Thomas (1795). Description of Spensonia.

[19th century]

• Fourier, Charles Francois Marie (1822). Traite de l’Association domestique agricole.
• Buckingham, James Silk (1848). National Evils and Practical Remedies.
• Bellamy, Edward (1897). Looking Backward.
• Hertzka, Theodor (1888). Freeland: A Social Anticipation.
• Morris, William (1890). News from Nowhere.

[20th century]

• Wells, H. G. (1905). A Modern Utopia.
• Corbusier (1924). Ville Radieuse.
• Lang, Fritz (1926) Metropolis
• Hilberseimer, Ludwig (1927). Groszstadt Architektur.
• Huxley, Aldous (1931). Brave New World.
• Zamyatin, Yevgeny (1937). We.
• Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• Friedman, Yona (1958). Mobile Architecture.
• Situationists International (1958). Situationist City.
• Nieuwenhuys, Constant (1959). New Babylon.
• Archizoom (1970). No-Stop City.
• Le Guin, Ursula K. (1974). The Dispossessed.
• Koolhaas, Rem (1978). Delirious New York: A Retrospective Manifesto for Manhattan.
• The Wachowski Brothers (1999). The Matrix.

What strikes me is that her writers are mainly dating from the 19th and 20th century and that all of them are from Europe (including North-America). My visualisation of the numbers:

Are there no writters of utopias in Africa, China, Oceania and South-America? Is it possible that science, positive rationalism and utopias have the same root constraint? Are we solving the right constraints by embracing more complexity and plurality?

Strange Fruit

Mostly we think of kings and knights in castles when we think about the Middle Ages (between 500-1500 in Western Europe). A society that was deeply religious and where woman were treated with courtly love. No sex? But the real medieval world was less black and white and more naughty than we might presuppose. 

What to think about the phallus tree in the ‘fertility fresco’ (Massa Marittima, Italy circa 1265)?

 

What to think about the phalli harvested as fruit from trees in ‘Roman de la Rose’ manuscript Francais 25526 (Paris, France 1325-1350)?

 

 

What to think about this pilgrim badge displaying three phalli bearing a crowned vulva in a procession (Brugge, Belgium around 1375-1450)?

 

According to Reiss, these badges - many of them have been found - were sold at religious places and at the end of the pilgrimage thrown into the water. Reiss: "Thus, by buying a phallic badge at a shrine, a pilgrim might have been purchasing a particularly potent symbol of fertility. By depositing it in water (another symbol of fertility), the pilgrim would be magnifying the power of the badge.”

These humorous, sexual objects were certainly not purely religious. Sexual body-parts must be viewed as having multiple layers of meaning: religious, fertility/ sex, humor/ satire/ rude and protection (Reiss page 167 and 176).

What to think about watercolor 'Beauty Revealed' from 1828? Sarah Goodridge sent a selfportrait of her breasts to Daniel Webster when he was a new widower and it was likely intended for his eyes alone.

P.S. Fertility fresco pictures: here.

P.P.S. Whole ‘Roman de la Rose’ manuscript 'Francais 25526' can be found: here. Scans with phalli: 106v, 135v and 160r. It was great fun for me to scroll through a complete Roman de la Rose manuscript. Wondering about the colors, the images and the creativity. Mark, that the picture on the left and right are related to each other just like the harvesting and threshing of grain. Scan 131r:

In that case the picture on top of the three Roman de la Rose pics must be: harvest fertility and ... cut the crap (not literally) ... choose a fertile man among the potential fathers ... stop messing around and let's make love ... when the rose can finally be picked.

P.P.P.S. Reiss, Ben. "Pious Phalluses and Holy Vulvas: The religious Importance of Some Sexual Body-Part Badges in Late-Medieval Europe (1200-1550)." Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 6, 1 (2017): 151-176. Copy: here.

Eirene

Look how beautiful. A Fayum portret from a young woman with the name Eirene from 40 AD (around). The text under her head is in demotic and reads: "Eirene, daughter of Silvanus, her mother is Senpnoutis. May her soul live before Osiris-Sokar, the great god, lord of Abydos". Almost 2,000 years old!

 

P.S. Source wiki commons: here. 

P.P.S. More details. For Borg it is: "the most beautiful sight in the world" (German: der zierlichste Anblick der Welt).

Sociological Equivalent Splitting Atom

 Wade Davis in 'Rolling Stone' August 6, 2020 (here):

"More than any other country, the United States in the post-war [after 1945] era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family. It was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose."

Of splitting the atom! Individual gain first, second and third and the rest ... externalities (my words). Let me repeat, according to me we should learn more about externalities. At universities, at schools, in offices, in factories, in the military, at churches and at home.

P.S. I wrote before on 'History of Dealing with Externalities' (10-2018).

P.P.S. Source picture: here.

Bless You Darling

 After World War 2 Balasa wrote to Paddy on January 27th, 1946:

"I forget nothing of the past, and all you gave is, and will always be a great treasure - I hope that you think of me in the same way. Do write. Love."

P.S. I wrote about this love couple before in  'Among Lemon Groves' (3-2020) and 'Living History' (3-2020).