Transcendent New Vision of Nature, Order and Beauty

Christopher Alexander's four volume Opus, Nature of Order, is an absolutely stunning achievement of the highest caliber! I agree with a quote that appears on the inner flap of each of the volumes, to the effect that while very few (if any) philosophical/conceptual works (and their authors) are likely to be remembered 500 years hence, there is a strong possibility that Alexander's Opus will be remembered as a precursor to what our present day (only partially overlapping fields of) "science" & "art" will have evolved to in 500 years (a unified, wholistic body of "Sci-Art" in which the schism between objective & subjective / inner & outer no longer exists).

What Alexander presents in these books is a tentative first stab at a magnificent new concept; not a mathematical or physical theory (though rudiments of what might go into a more formal description are also discussed). Although many of Alexander's ideas are quite subtle and require thoughtful reflection to fully comprehend and integrate into (ironically) a whole (new worldview), the basic thesis is original and profound: everything that exists contains life, and the degree (lesser or greater) to which life is manifest in "X" can be objectively determined by probing one's subjective (inner) world. Nature is seen, in this view, simply as the totality of life, continually unfolding; and beauty (as generated by local life-forms such as humans), as a resonance between outwardly objective forms and (the very deepest) subjective inner feelings.

Western science's longstanding divide between "what's out there in the world" and "what is in here, in our hearts and souls" is exchanged for a new worldview in which our understanding of the cosmos is predicated on an active unity between objectivity and subjectivity; between dispassionate form and intensely personal beauty; between "eye" and "I"; between the deepest inner feeling and continually unfolding outer life. If this sounds radical (and perhaps even a bit strange), that is because it is radical; Alexander is proposing a sweeping idea that is both revolutionary and (only in hindsight, after having read his extraordinary Opus) obvious! For it really cannot be any other way! Every thinking -- no, every feeling -- creature who wants to know our cosmos and his/her unique role in it needs to read these books. They are truly remarkable! The next great strides in art and science will be made (simultaneously) when, one day, an Einstein-Alexander appears and uses the ideas expressed in these books to develop (using a mathematics not yet created) a rigorous new theory of "Sci-Art-Beauty-Life". These are ostensibly books on "architecture"; but they far -- far -- transcend that field; they speak, collectively, about everything that exists.

Other links: Amazon, Notes (by Nikos Salingaros), and a landmark (semi-technical and deeply philosophical) paper called Harmony Seeking Computation (about which Alexander writes: "In this paper, I am trying to lay out a new form of computation, which focuses on the harmony reached in a system. This type of computation in some way resembles certain recent results in chaos theory and complexity theory. However, the orientation of harmony-seeking computation is toward a kind of computation which finds harmonious configurations, and so helps to create things, above all, in real world situations: buildings, towns, agriculture, and ecology."). This paper may just contain the essential ingredients for how "complexity science" as it is currently understood may itself evolve into a deeper understanding of nature's patterns and rhythms.

Entropic Melodies in B&W Magazine

I am thilled to have several images from my Entropic Melodies series appear in the Feb 2006 issue of the internationally distributed B&W Magazine (pages 98-101, Issue #41). Since this particular issue features photos of such master photographers as Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer (among others from the archives of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ), it is a double treat to be included in the same publication with them!

Richard Feynman Videos

The Vega Science Trust has posted a set of four archival recordings from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) of lectures by Richard Feynman, arguably one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Feynman's lectures on audio tape are wonderful, and every aspiring physicist owes it to him/her-self to listen to a selection of those available, but these videos are truly something special! They give a real flavor of what it must have been like to be in Feynman's class.

Cartier-Bresson's "Decisive Moment"

Henri Cartier-Bresson was arguably one of the most gifted photographers (in photojournalism) that has ever used a camera. One of his earliest books, a mini masterpiece of exposition on the art and craft of photography as well as timeless images, was called the "Decisive Moment" (and is now a catch phrase for which he is justly famous). It is also notoriously difficult to obtain; Amazon, for example, lists a used copy for $1600! Here is a site, however, that has lovingly reproduced the entire opus on-line, one page at a time. It is an incredible gift to the photography community. Read, and enjoy!

Fractals and art

Here is an interesting NY Times article about how fractal analysis may (or may not) help determine the "artist" behind a specific work of art. The artist in question here is Jackson Pollock, and the artwork is a particular piece that many believe are created by him, but Pollock's unique fractal pattern doesn't quite match...read on. Here are a few other references, (1) a short paper by Ivars Peterson, (2) a technical article from Physics World, (3) an article from the journal Nature, and (4) Richard Taylor's homepage.

Great book on the "art" of photography

>Here is a great book on the art of photography by Nicholas Hlobeczy, called A Presence Behind the Lens: Photography And Reflections. The book is part memoir (including stories of Hlobeczy's friend and mentor Minor White), part meditation on photography, and part philosophy of art and the art of finding oneself through art. It also contains a wonderful selection of quiet, Zen-like B&W photos that simultaneously instill a sense of calm and wonder.

While there are millions of "photographers" in the world (both amateur and professional), and thousands of books on and/or "about" photography, few - very few - actually say anything deeply lasting about the fine art of photography as a meditation on life and meaning. Hlobeczy's book stands apart from the far more conventional offerings by not only sharing his quiet soulful view of the world, but allowing us to glimpse, however briefly, the process by which his soulful vision came to be.

It is truly a small treasure of a book, one to be cherished and reflected upon again and again by all aspiring photographers. Hlobeczy's website contains numerous other samples of his work.

Global Consciousness Project

Here is a recent article about the "Global Consciousness Project" at Princeton. This work (if true) suggests, remarkably, that statistical deviations from randomness (and correlations) among the behaviors of a widely separated network of random number generators are strongly correlated with (and often predate!) major world events. The first stunning "correlation" occured four hours prior to the 9/11 attacks; since then the project has carefully documented and studied hundreds more. I have not looked at the details of the work yet, but -- again, if the results are real, and undoctored -- the implications are staggering and deep indeed.

Here are the links to the article and project homepage.