amazing Max, You are getting right in there
These links are interesting - thanks, Botticelli’s drawings - wow S On 11 Aug 2021, at 18:04, Max Herman via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote: > > Hi Simon, > > I like how these crafts are part of the sea and sky, intermixed. Webs can > catch and tangle but sails are webs too! > > The boat I'm most often reminded of these days is predictably that in > Leonardo's dog and eagle allegory: > > https://www.rct.uk/collection/912496/an-allegory-with-a-dog-and-an-eagle > > Who is the dog? Leonardo, a tiller-wielding Fortune as kybernetes? What is > the tree and where is it going? Who is the French-crowned eagle guiding the > compass and perched atop the world? Why do the boat and eagle look so > similar to Botticelli's illustrations of Purgatorio 9 and 3? > > https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cybernetics > > It is widely accepted that Leonardo was referencing Botticelli's illustration > of Matelda, the vita activa, from Purgatorio 28 in his drawing Woman Standing > in a Landscape, changing the viewer's person from third to second. Is he > using a language that blends word and image into both, and neither? Is > Leonardo's boat escaping Purgatorio, arriving there as drawn by Botticelli, > or something totally unrelated? > > <image.png> > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sandro_Botticelli%27s_illustrations_to_the_Divine_Comedy#/media/File:Botticelli,_Purgatorio_28.jpg > > https://www.rct.uk/collection/912581/a-woman-in-a-landscape > > > Dante's blocking is remarkably specific in Purgatorio 28-33, and the metaphor > of dance is immediately invoked: > > "As, when she turns, a woman, dancing, keeps > her soles close to the ground and to each other > and scarcely lets one foot precede the other, > so did she turn" > > Matelda and Dante face each other from opposite sides of Lethe, and while > conversing walk along their respective banks to Dante's right, so he sees her > on his left. She sees him to her right, as in Leonardo's drawing. When > Beatrice, the vita contemplativa, appears shortly thereafter, she is by the > left wheel of the chariot which approaches from Dante's right. She turns to > her left, to face Dante across the river, as the ML turns to face the viewer. > In the ML as with Woman Standing in a Landscape, the viewer is in the > seconda persona. This creates something perhaps comparable to Cassie > Thornton's Hologram of three: Leonardo, the depicted viewer, and the live > viewer. > > +++ > > The non sequitur "time crystal" reference I made previously was supposed to > have been explained by this inexplicable link, which I forgot to include in > the Notes. I don't quite understand how you can discover a crystal in a > computer but apparently you can! > > https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-time-crystal-built-using-googles-quantum-computer-20210730/ > > +++ > > Regarding that other way of crossing rivers, bridges, we know that Leonardo > was familiar with Islamic knot patterns from Venezia (akin to the Mona Lisa's > neckline embroidery) and with Islamic optical, astronomical, and anatomical > treatises. Was he aware of the Bifrost, Brig o' Dread, Chinvat, or As-Sirat > bridges between worlds? Possibly not, but more research would clarify. We > do know he proposed to build a bridge -- the largest in the world had it been > built -- across the Bosphorus for Sultan Bayezid II in 1502, one year before > he started painting the Mona Lisa. (The Brig o' Dread is a "wake" song, and > of course Finnegans Wake, which has absolutely no apostrophe, alludes to the > ship between worlds in the afterlife.) > > https://artsfile.ca/constantinople-is-building-bridges-with-leonardo-da-vinci/ > > The Milanese courtier Niccolo da Correggio gave Leonardo, before he returned > to Firenze to start work on the ML among other things, this advice with a > hint of Icarian caution: > > “If Zeuxis, Lysippus, Pyrgoteles or Apelles > Had to paint this lady on ‘paper’ [in carte], > Having to gaze at each of her features > And at the grace with which they are then infused, > > Like when one looks at the sun or counts the stars, > His eyes and his art would fail him, > Because nature does not grant to the eye > The powers in what nature herself excels. > > So my dear LEONARDO, if you want > To be true to your name, and conquer [vince] and surpass everyone, > Cover her face and begin with her hair, > > Because if you happen to see all her beauties at once > You will be the portrait, not her, since > They are not for the mortal eye, do trust me.” > > What Correggio meant is that no single Daedalus, poet or painter, should try > to portray all of Philosophy, that is, all science and all art, because the > project belongs to many (or even all) including past and future generations, > and for various other reasons. Did Leonardo make his bridge too narrow, too > wide, or just right? Have enough people been virtuous enough to get enough > across in time? Did he paint in Esperienza not his own face, but yours and > mine, escaping the curse of both Narcissus and history? > > Dante didn't see time as too much of a constraint beyond its changing things, > and being something not to waste. But he wrote in Paradiso 1: > > 70 Trasumanar significar per verba > 71 non si poria; però l’essemplo basti > 72 a cui esperïenza grazia serba. > > My translation is that of an amateur or guesser and needs more research: > > 70 Transhumanization’s signification in words > 71 isn't possible; however example suffices > 72 to whom experience grace provides. > > And Dante does see Beatrice's face unveiled, in Purgatorio 31, there is no > question about that: > > "O splendor of eternal living light, > who’s ever grown so pale beneath Parnassus’ > shade or has drunk so deeply from its fountain, > > that he’d not seem to have his mind confounded, > trying to render you as you appeared > where heaven’s harmony was your pale likeness— > > your face, seen through the air, unveiled completely?" > > > All best, > > Max > > > PS -- I finally found a relevant reference to Calvino's Six Memos, in a 2019 > essay by Barbara Fanini titled "The Library of a 'Man Without Letters'" from > the Leonardo and His Books exhibition at the Museo Galileo in Florence that > same year. She refers to the memos very tellingly as "Lezioni Americane" or > "American Lessons," not their published title Six Memos for the Next > Millennium. They are, truly, literature lessons for the USA (as symbolized > by Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street") -- the new > Rome as it were, as Calvino was to have addressed it via the Norton Lectures > at Harvard in 1985. Fanini mentions Leonardo's stated intention to become an > author or "autore," though he changed the spelling for some unknown reason to > "altore." Could this have been a word-splice with "altro," meaning other, or > "alto," meaning high, that is to say a different kind of author, other and > above? That would certainly suit Leonardo's aspiration to combine the visual > and the verbal in all arts and all sciences. Fanini also quotes in full, to > start her essay, Leonardo's prominently labeled "Proemio" or foreword (to > what we can only wonder): "I am fully aware that the fact of my not being a > lettered man may cause certain arrogant persons to think that they may with > reason censure me, alleging that I am a man without letters. Foolish folk! > Do they not know that I may retort by saying, as did Marius to the Roman > patricians: 'They who themselves go adorned in the labour of others [italics > mine] will not permit me my own?' They will say that, because of my lack of > book learning, I cannot properly express what I desire to expound upon. Do > they know that my subjects are based on experience [italics mine] rather than > the words of others? And experience has been the mistress [maestra, as in > maestro] of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will acknowledge her > and, in every case, I will give her as evidence." Who would the ML be a > portrait of, if not Leonardo's own maestra? And who better to illuminate > paths for every art and every science, in complex dynamic systems, throughout > long time durations as far forward as today? > > PPS -- Another essay in the Leonardo and His Books catalog, "Leonardo and his > Books" by Carlo Vecce, argues persuasively: "Leonardo was no passive reader. > He subjected the texts with which he was confronted to a critical and > original revision, and manipulated them with great freedom, without being > intimidated by the illustrious names of the 'altori' [authors]. His > transcriptions were always rewritings, re-elaborations, syntheses, > 'translations.' For Leonardo, textuality was something alive, in motion...." > This of course aligns with how Leonardo conceptualized the earth, nature, > living organisms, human history, etc., and is moreover very modern or even > beyond modern in tune with the revolving turbulent patterns of ancient, > medieval, and modern all in a jumble. > > > > From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-boun...@lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of > Simon Mclennan via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> > Sent: Sunday, August 8, 2021 3:21 PM > To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity > <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> > Cc: Simon Mclennan <mclennanf...@gmail.com> > Subject: [NetBehaviour] creativity net works! Doesn't it? > > The finished drawing in this link - https://www.instagram.com/p/CSUwlAHI9qQ/ > > > - …this is the Turboprop > > You have the turbo prop control > > I have the paddle > > Got it? > > - Yeah - thinks so.. > > B scratched her chin and grimaced. She threw down the bits of honeycomb she > was nibbling and > > regarded the contraption while gingerly poking and prodding at the tangled > mass of string, twigs, > > horse hair and feathery lattices. > > > - When I say go I’ll paddle furiously so the coracle starts to spin, and then > when we are spinning quite fast, you pull that rope, > > and thus kick in with the turboprop. > > > - Jeez, wish I stayed at home today - she muttered and to Leonardo - Fair dos > mate, just give me the signal.. > > > As the little coracle picked up speed in its dizzying twist, L shouted - Fire > - and B yanked > > at the hemp rope. > > - Freak this - B exclaimed as the engine fired up and started to spit out > bits of burning twig and > > coal, the lattice of small propellers began to fizz and tremble then buzzed > and settled into a very > > loud hum. Quickly the craft spun faster and careered across the lake, > dangerously missing a small barque > > and a brig tethered mid-water. > > - Up-we-go shouted L as the boat lifted off and spiralled up and outwards, > defying laws of known physics. > > Faster it span, then crackled and burst into a great plume of blue flame - > cool flames licked at the intrepid > > pair, and then -Flup! - The craft shot straight up accelerating several > gravities compressing the drivers into > > the bottom of the basket work. > > > Next thing they were out of the Earth’s atmosphere and free of gravity, and > luckily a bubble > > seemed to have formed around the boat allowing easy breathing conditions. > > > - Ok, now we are off to that bright dot over there.. > > > L pointed and moved the paddle a bit, so they headed roughly in this > direction. > > > - Thither we go. May as well kick back init… > > > And they zoomed off leaving a trail of tinkling bubbles behind... > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
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