History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Phenomenon of Life: The Nature of Order, Book 1 An Essay of the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (The Nature of Order, Book 1)

Average customer rating:

Gordon L. Prescott come to life?
Some of these reviews are flawed
Dissapointing
The actual physical book is not up to the ideals of the content
This book changed the way I look at everything...

The Phenomenon of Life: The Nature of Order, Book 1 An Essay of the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (The Nature of Order, Book 1)
Chris Alexander
Manufacturer: Center for Environmental Structure
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0972652914

Amazon.com

Christopher Alexander, the humble messiah of good architectural design, invites readers to get comfortable with their inner judgments in The Nature of Order: The Phenomenon of Life. Best known as principal author of A Pattern Language, Alexander has designed and built countless projects worldwide, all the while thinking deeply about the nature of his work. Frustrated with the 20th century's reluctance to acknowledge human commonality and reliance on Cartesian mechanism, he urges us to rethink our understanding of space itself. With an architect's precision and clarity, he explains his theory of life as the order inhabiting space--an order both variable in degree and apprehensible to human minds. Though the scientifically minded will resist his seeming subjectivity, it will be hard for any to argue that his many examples of good and bad design are equivalent. Alexander's combination of powerful analysis and compelling synthesis makes The Nature of Order essential 21st-century reading. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

What is happening when a place in the world has life? And what is happening when it does not? In Book 1 of this four-volume work, Alexander describes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life, and sets this understanding of living structure as an intellectual basis for a new architecture.

He identifies fifteen geometric properties which tend to accompany the presence of life in nature, and also in the buildings and cities we make. These properties are seen over and over in nature, and in cities and streets of the past, but have all but disappeared in the deadly developments and buildings of the last one hundred years.

The book shows that living structure depends on features which make a close connection with the human self, and that only living structure has the capacity to support human well-being.

The other three volumes of The Nature of Order continue this thesis with three complementary views giving a masterful prescription for the processes which allow us to generate living structure in the world. They show us what such a world must gradually come to look like, and describe the modified cosmology in which "life" as an essential quality, together with our inner connection to the world around us-towns, streets, buildings, and artifacts-are central to a proper understanding of the scientific nature of the universe.

". . . Five hundred years is a long time, and I don't expect many of the people I interview will be known in the year 2500. Christopher Alexander may be an exception."-David Creelman, author, interviewer and editor, HR Magazine, Toronto

Christopher Alexander is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, architect, builder and author of many books and technical papers. He is the winner of the first medal for research ever awarded by the American Institute of Architects, and after 40 years of teaching is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

Customer Reviews:

Gordon L. Prescott come to life?.......2006-09-25

Read 'The Fifteen Properties' excerpted in the 'First Nomination for Book of the Century' customer review, or any other excerpt, and then consider the words of Gordon L. Prescott from 'The Fountainhead':

"The flowing life which comes from the sense of order in chaos, or, if you prefer, from unity in diversity, as well as vice-versa, which is the realization of the contradiction inherent in architecture, is here absolutely absent. I am really trying to express myself as clearly as I can, but it is impossible to present a dialectic state by covering it up with an old fig leaf of logic just for the sake of the mentally lazy layman."

I wish I could give a 'no star' review, but amazon doesn't have that option.

Some of these reviews are flawed.......2005-12-04

Anne Broadbent's review below is completely unjustified. She writes "At the beginning of the first book, Alexander shows a beautiful pagoda - but I still think I wouldn't want to have one near me, in the guise of a shopping centre, school, house, gym, restaurant, bank or whatever: I'd rather see it in its original cultural setting." Alexander agrees completely with this point. His whole theory involves local adaptation following the fundamental properties and transformations that he has outlined in these books. Nowhere does he suggest that we should use the pagoda's form in any other cultural context. If you look at some of the examples he gives from nature you will understand this. He discusses the way sand dunes form following some of the fundamental properties. Does this mean he claims we should create sand dunes in the jungle? Of course not. Examples of buildings, places, and natural phenomena, are used as a means of displaying these fundamental properties and how these properties occur universally in phenomena which the majority of humans, and all other life forms would agree contain the quality of life. Throughout the series of books, Alexander provides hundreds of examples of human creations and natural creations to support his thesis. This may or may not be news to Miss Broadbent, but this is widely acknowledged as good scientific method.

Dissapointing.......2005-11-17

I very much enjoyed 'Pattern Language' and had great hopes for this series, however, after finishing book one, I am not sure I will invest in further volumes. I give the author credit for the time and effort spent in trying to develop his 'unified field theory' of good design, but unlike some of the common sense examples in Pattern language, this book moves to a level of metaphysical abstraction that seems to stretch the ideas past their breaking point. Not-Separateness? The Void? Though he makes a valiant effort, I just couldn't shake the fact that I was reading an after-the-fact justification of the authors pre-conceived tastes. Which essentially boil down to: old = good, new = bad.
Most off-putting also, were the scrawled, barely legible sketches that were meant to illustrate some of the principles. They are so poorly rendered as to be distracting and not very helpful to boot. I would expect more graphic sense from someone purporting to explain the universal secrets of good design. I really wanted to love this book, but I find it simply frustrating.

The actual physical book is not up to the ideals of the content.......2005-08-02

I haven't finshed reading the content of this book - this is more a comment on the delivery medium...

The 'hardcover' book more closely resembles a cardboard cover book. Mine is easily bent and permanently warped in multiple dimensions - makng it much more like your typical large paperback book than a $75 hardback book. It seems harder and harder for publishers to strike that balance between quantity and quality of pictorial content on the one hand, and quality and flashiness of the cover on the other.

This book changed the way I look at everything..........2005-07-10

As a total amateur, I have no design training. I am fascinated by architecture and design, but really only "know what I like". I read "A Pattern Language" when working on object oriented computer systems and find it fascinating - I still re-read it. So, when I saw this book, I was hoping that it would be interesting.

It is way beyond interesting. It completely changed the way I look at the world. It deserves to be read carefully, slowly, savored. Alexander makes his work accessible to both architects and lay people alike.

Bravo.

Even with two kids in college, I am going to spring for book 2. Higher praise could not be given.

Average customer rating:

Excellent and Insightful
Shows how mathematics intertwines with the arts and biology
Lacking depth in analysis
A good book focused on Phi
Accessible and Fascinating

The Geometry of Art and Life
Matila Ghyka
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486235424

Book Description

This classic study probes the geometric interrelationships between art and life in discussions that range from Plato, Pythagoras, and Archimedes to modern architecture and art. Other topics include the Golden Section, geometrical shapes on the plane, geometrical shapes in space, crystal lattices, and many other fascinating subjects. Includes 80 plates and 64 figures.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent and Insightful.......2007-05-08

This short paperback is a hidden gem. It contains so many insightful pithy clues about life, along with easy to understand mathematical paradigms. Every item will have you saying is this math, is it philosophy, is it religion, or is just true in many, many ways.

Shows how mathematics intertwines with the arts and biology.......2006-12-23

This book is a unique one that combines mathematics with art and somewhat quantifies that which we call beauty. The mathematical concepts presented are not difficult. If you've been exposed to algebra and geometry you should have no trouble. What will definitely help is having studied art, and in particular, art appreciation. With no real feeling for symmetry or form you might not appreciate this book as much as you could.

The book's central focus is to show that patterns, themes of symmetry, and spirals discovered in living forms and living growth are the same themes of proportion that were used by Greek and Gothic architects. It also shows that the proportion known as "The Golden Section" appears to be the principle invariant. The Golden Section's algebraic and geometric properties are discussed, as are its role in biology and in aesthetics.

This book is very accessible, but it is not something you will want to read quickly cover to cover. Instead, the best way to read this book is to read a short section, make sure you understand the underlying mathematics, and then think about what that particular section of the book says about the application of that mathematics to the arts or biology before returning to the book for further reading.

Lacking depth in analysis.......2006-06-15

Ghyka attempts to show the objects in nature are not randomly formed; he begins the with the concept of ratio and proportion in the plane; the golden section; and then to the regular polygons and geometric shapes in 3 dimensions. Then he rambles onto hypothesizing why an architecture design may seem striking. In doing so he makes gross assumptions which are to the point of being forced to fit his theories. The basic concepts that he delves; one can familiarize oneself with by a quick reference on the internet. Hence I do not recommend spending the time and money to read this book.

A good book focused on Phi.......2003-04-22

I'm not a mathematician, but I still found this book to be readable. It is largely focused on the Golden Section (Phi) and related proportions, including Fibonacci numbers, sqrt(Phi), etc. The explanation of how to derive this number is clearly explained in the first few chapters. The following chapters show how Phi is related to most things we see everyday, including architecture, 5-point animals, crystal latticies, art, and music. This book is quite old, so the illustrations seem rather antiquated. Nonetheless, the quantity and clarity of these illustrations are impressive.

The writing was clear, but the concepts were occasionally difficult to understand. The author made mention of "gnomic" growth a number of times without really giving a single clear definition. Also, I felt that a number of the tie-ins between Phi and architecture were a bit of a stretch. Most likely you could overlay any graph over a blueprint and see any proportion you'd want to see. At any rate, this book has gotten me interested in this subject, and I will be looking for more books on Phi.

Accessible and Fascinating.......2001-12-28

This excellent book, written in 1946, still remains in print, and for good reason. Ghyka shows mathematically that objects in nature are not randomly formed, but all have regularity and harmony.
Beginning with the concepts of ratio and proportion in the plane, the Golden Section, and then to regular polygons and geometric shapes in 3 dimensions, Ghyka demonstrates these patterns with simple algebra and geometry, and plenty of diagrams.
He explains the logarithmic spiral and its role in harmonious growth in nature, with photographs and diagrams. He shows how ancient builders used the Golden Section in their architecture and in their art. This book is a wonderful weaving of philosophy, mathematics and science, covering a lot of ground, and is very well-written. It is nothing like trying to wade through H.M.S. Coxeter! This book would be a fine companion to Cook's "The Curves of Life," fleshing out the concepts presented there.
This little book is a gem -- there is a tremendous amount of information packed into its 174 pages, yet it is understandable to the layperson. And it is aptly titled. It truly is about "The Geometry of Art and Life."
If you are one of those observant persons who is looking for a more detailed understanding of the underlying patterns in nature, art and architecture, and you don't mind spending a little time going through some simple algebra and geometry, this is the book for you.

The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church

Average customer rating:

More Church, Less Sermon, Please
Very nice, but not really a book on architecture...
Some great insights, if you have the patience.
St. Agnes and an altared world
Religion: A*Live* Imagining

The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church
Margaret Visser
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0865476403

Book Description

Margaret Visser's desire to find answers to her own questions -- as a traveler, a believer, and an insatiable "anthropologist of everyday life" -- led her to undertake this unique and revelatory book. Guiding the reader through a church outside Rome, Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, she draws upon history, theology, anthropology, and folklore to illuminate the spiritual meanings embedded in its architecture.

Customer Reviews:

More Church, Less Sermon, Please.......2006-03-13

This could have been a terrific guide to absolutely everything in the fine old Roman church of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, but instead it bogs down in mystical meanderings and fifth-rate philosophizing. These aspects of the book might be of interest to those who actually believe such things, but for me it just produced eye-rolling. I found myself skimming page after page and saying impatiently to the author, "Will you please just get on with it!" There's a great guidebook to Sant' Agnese in there somewhere, but the information is buried among all the other pious maundering that bloats the book to over 250 pages. There are enough footnotes and a long enough bibliography that this could almost be a PhD dissertation! The only way it would be of any use as a guide book would be to go through it with a highlighter, and mark the passages of relevance to the church itself, while ignoring the interminable sermonizing.

Very nice, but not really a book on architecture..........2006-01-30

I agree with with the other reviewers about the lack of diagrams and pictures. Since the text is supposed to address the architecture of churches, it needs graphics. Moreover, it lacks rigor in defining how the programmatic elements of a church influence the form of the architecture, and instead focuses on religious history. This book should be in the religious studies section, not architecture.

Some great insights, if you have the patience........2005-10-27

This book is an in-depth discussion of the meaning of church architecture from a laymans (lay woman's, in this case)perspective. As Visser points out, someone on the "inside" of a faith--in her case, Christianity-- does tend to have insights into the meaning of its traditions that an outside observer might not. This book is full of little insights that are just astounding at times. However, Visser tends to wax poetic on the glories of Christianity every third sentence or so, which makes reading this book for the purpose of studying architecture more of a crapshoot and less of a solid learning experience. By all means, if you need a reinforcement of why your Christian faith is so amazing, get this book. If you want a good in-depth discussion of Christian architecture without having to sit through a sermon, this is probably not the book for you.

St. Agnes and an altared world.......2004-10-22

The book's subtitle is oddly inappropriate: Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura in Rome is hardly an "ordinary" chuch, but rather one of Christianity's most historic. It was built in late antiquity over the burial site of St. Agnes, reputedly a 12-year-old martyr executed for refusing to renounce her faith -- ironically, only a few years before Christianity was adopted by the emperor Constantine as the official religion. Among the items of interest are the mosaic in the apse, columns from ancient Roman buildings, statuary, the altar, fragments of wall inscriptions, the crypt holding the remains of Agnes and Emerentiana (a similarly martyred girl), and catacombs.

Margaret Visser has a worthy mission in writing the book. She wants to help us see the objects in Sant'Agnese not in purely artistic or archeological terms, but as aspects of a religious faith that once turned the western world completely around and, she trusts, is a living force today. As she takes us on a guided "tour" through the building and its surroundings, she muses on the philosophical and spiritual implications that they have embodied down through the centuries.

There is no doubt that Visser is both knowledgeable about the history of Christianity and has meditated long over the palimpsest of meanings reflected by practically every surface in the church. For readers (like me) with many gaps in their understanding of traditional Christian iconography, her observations can be striking. It had never occurred to me, for example, that Christianity took over the idea of an altar from earlier religions, with one remarkably humane difference. Before, an altar was always a place where living beings were sacrificed. Christianity abolished that distasteful practice, but kept the altar as a reminder of another kind of sacrifice, that which its founder had made for the sake of humanity. As Visser discusses this momentous change, it is easy to be swept along with her in admiration for one of early Christianity's practices that suggests a deep and powerful love for God's creatures.

Visser is almost certainly a Roman Catholic, though she never explicitly says so, but she is clearly keen to uncover meanings in the church's furnishings that will resonate with all kinds of Christians and non-Christians. Nevertheless, although she discovers many higher octaves of significance that have universal appeal, some fine doctrinal points she lingers over will tire the patience of readers with no taste for theology.

Visser's ruminations about the interior meanings of concepts such as the circle and certain numbers are occasionally obscure, and in her determination to probe every layer of symbolism in each object she can seem to be almost free associating. Most readers will probably find paragraphs or sections that will invite skimming.

Those reservations aside, I found Visser to be a fine travel companion for visiting Sant'Agnese. She helps us understand what these mementos mean, and how they are reminders that even in a time like that of the late Roman empire, when intolerance and cruelty were standard operating procedure, there were still those who turned toward the light -- and ever since, those who have remembered and honored them.

Religion: A*Live* Imagining.......2004-08-26

One of the reviews on the back of this book states that every reader will be able to pinpoint at the exact point that s/he becomes hooked by the text. For me, this point wasn't until about halfway through the book, in chapter 5, when I realized that a reading of a church building is not like a reading of a book: the imagination presences itself front-and-center, rather than lurking in the background, masked by a self-proclaimed "objectivity". The religious imagination embodies itself in the artwork, architecture and ceremony that *is* the church.

This book is a thick narrative that works on multiple levels: architectural and artistic, theological and socio-historical. The church building itself is far from static; in letting the church speak of what is timeless, it itself enters into time: ancient altars and recent restorations, classical Byzantine mosaics and Baroque-inspired paintings all inhabit the same space of the church. Each generation, each culture has done something to become a part of the history of the church, and therefore a part of the next generation. The church becomes a shared narrative, so to speak: a structural representating of communion.

The book functions as both an introduction to Christianity, and more specifically Roman Catholicism. Visser situates her text within the larger history of the Roman church, a world filled with saints and mystics, ascetics, martyrs and power struggles, sacraments and quasi-magical popular beliefs. It is a world in which the dead still have a presence in the present, and in which heaven and earth meet at particular times and in particular places - and more in the church than anywhere else.

What appears more than anything else in Visser's work is that of the Roman Catholic imagination. Although certain theologians were largely systematic, the wider history of the Roman Catholic church speaks a different story: sacred time and sacred space, and an experience of the mysterium tremendum. It is within this sense of the sacred, embodied temporally and spatially in the liturgy and the sacraments, and continually witnessed to by the church building, which holds the people whose histories give rise to it, its development and change, restoration and remembering over time.

Visser's work is a brialliant book that will be enriched by those who come with prior knowledge, and will enrich those who pursue more knowledge afterwards. One will learn about Christian theology and history, and its socio-historical imaginings throughout time. Visser's text works outside of simplistic - even if rigorous - textual analyses, and looks to history and its representations in space and time. A brialliant work for those with heart, mind and spirit: imagination.

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The Geometry of Art and Life 1946
Matila Ghyka
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1417978325

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Unabridged audiobook in MP3 format.

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The Judgement of the Eye
Jürgen Weber
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 321183768X

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The sculptor, Jürgen Weber, whose work is to be found in many parts of the world – from Washington D.C. to Nuremberg – presents his experience of how forms convey contents. He does not ask the usual questions about perception, but rather he is concerned with how the visual world expresses information over and above its mere existence. Is it experience that allows us to differentiate between a dangerous face and one that inspires trust? Is that the reason why we see that buds will soon open, that leaves will unfurl, that trees have had to grow in all weathers or do we have at our disposal categories which we use to pass judgement? The way that our visual environment conveys its information to us is one of the most important questions for our survival. Up till now it has rarely been investigated in a systematic and scientific way. Weber assumes that the visual areas of our brains have geometrical categories at their disposal with which they compare the visual phenomena of our environment. Conclusions are then drawn from the differences to them. This is the basis upon which he also explains our visual memories. He brings together various disciplines ranging from psychiatry, children’s drawings, comparable archaeological finds and works of art, to the observation of nature, his own experiments as an artist and surveys of thousands of his students and has thus developed a new theory of perception which also considerably extends our knowledge about threedimensional sight. There is no doubt that this book represents a unique, timely contribution to the many disciplines that are concerned with the wonder of perception. It might even influence the development of computer science.

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The Geometry of Art and Life
Matila Ghyka
Manufacturer: Dover Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P1B4P4

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