The first reading by John Berger "The White Bird" addresses some fundamental social and cultural/philosophical aspects of aesthetics that concern both art and architecture. The second one is equally philosophical in nature, but grounded in very precise perceptions of visual phenomena.
The reading by Robert Irwin is an excerpt from a larger text. Before this section he establishes the notion that looking at a painting on a wall is quite different than looking at the environment which contains the painting. He clearly prefers the second option and establishes a sliding scale of how a piece of art might relate to its setting. The parallels to architecture are striking and it is one of the best descriptions of how a building might relate to its context. It's especially useful, because it does not mention style, historic significance and other elements that tend to obscure the issue at stake.
If you get curious, follow the link to the Robert Irwin lecture. About 5 minutes into his talk there is a little anecdote on his relationships with architects. Anyway, if there is some time during the intensive we will watch some parts of a movie about Irwin (The beauty of questions).
If you have some thoughts on the readings, please share them and comment below.
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2 comments:
Hello Enno,
Um, is there a problem with the links to the posted readings? They show up as text and not links on the computers I've used. Is there another place than from your side bar that I am to down load them from?
Thank you.
Peter
Peter,
The readings were attached in PDF format to Saturday's email. Please confirm that you have received them.
Enno
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