The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building! The decoration of buildings was once the noblest function of fine arts, and fine arts were indispensable to great architecture. Today they exist in complacent isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious co-operation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must once again come to know and comprehend the composite character of a building, both as an entity and in terms of its various parts. Then their work will be filled with that true architectonic spirit which, as "salon art", it has lost.
The old art schools were unable to produce this unity; and how, indeed, should they have done so, since art cannot be taught? Schools must return to the workshop. The world of the pattern-designer and applied artist, consisting only of drawing and painting must become once again a world in which things are built. If the young person who rejoices in creative activity now begins his career as in the older days by learning a craft, then the unproductive "artist" will no longer be condemned to inadequate artistry, for his skills will be preserved for the crafts in which he can achieve great things.
Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as "professional art". There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies.
Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists! Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form, and will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith.
WALTER GROPIUS
Bauhaus Manifesto is filed under art (13) design (10) Germany (6) idealism (8) philosophy (6) .
Lucas pointed something out yesterday which has been in my head for a while. You just can't know everything about computers. It's best just to accept this and be happy. I am actually actively engaged in not-knowing huge swaths of information. For instance, I do not know how to recompile the X Windows server to make it run faster. I do not know the difference, other than shape and memory capacity, between SD, CF, and the various small non-volatile memory devices. Don't know. Don't really want to know. Video games - very interesting area. Don't know shit about it.
My willful ignorance gives me satisfaction, though it's likely to bug other people. This thought makes me more acccepting of other people's willful ignorance. I used to work for a very nice accountant anmed Rene Rivera. She pointed out that our jobs were similar. Nobody wants to know what we are doing. They just want the result. She said this also by way of explaining that I did not have to tell her what was wrong with her computer, because she was not going to pay attention. I can dig that.
i don t know is filed under philosophy (6) ideas (14) .
why does bad disco plague me? if i can't have you, i don't want nobody baby! i have a lot of work to do. there is the matter of this thesis i'm supposed to be finishing up. additionally, i have several other interesting projects to work on, like the friendnet, and a spinoff that is a sort of shared playlist of urls. last dance, last chance, for love! i realized this afternoon that this is not the day i will produce a good design for my foaf server software idea. it's important to realize that sometimes the mind does not work creatively. this does not mean that nothing will get done. i simply need to push back designing anything and bang out a few lines of code. this will familiarize me with what i need to do and also will be cut-and-pasteable into some sort of nicely object-oriented framework whenever that should choose to emerge from my brain.
but i have work to do! is filed under work (10) philosophy (6) .
Mumia Abu-Jamal? is filed under politics (29) philosophy (6) .
vinyl vacation is filed under philosophy (6) terminology (9) ideas (14) .
I write very little on paper, almost everything on my computer. My work possesses an informational density, and the computer allows me to enter all manner of matter onto the hard drive and accumulate that density. Theodore Sturgeon once wrote, "Nine-tenths of everything is crap." The computer allows me to dump crap into the hard drive without the sense of permanence that handwriting or type on paper used to signify to me. I'm visual, and shape my sentences and paragraphs most dexterously on a screen. The computer has not only trebled my output. It has made me a more joyful, liberated and better writer.yeah!
praise for the computer is filed under computer (50) philosophy (6) .