11 fevereiro 2008
Acerca da Estética...
Aesthetics (see also classicism, functionalism, modernism, perception, proportion, quality, romanticism, value)
“Concerned with beauty and the appreciation of beauty… Pleasing to look at; artistic; tasteful” (Oxford English Dictionary)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) drew a distinction between two kinds of beauty: the free and unhampered, and the conditional. The first assumes ignorance of nature of objects perceived – a disinterested way of perceiving and enjoying. The second assumes an understanding of such objects. This makes various points of view possible – for example, the functionalist view that “form follows function” (i.e. that beauty lies in things being just what they are), or moralist view that “beauty lies in goodness” (i.e. that a nuclear power plant looks horrible and a wind turbine is a thing of beauty)
The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek aesthesis, meaning sensory perception, experience as well as feeling. Characteristics of an object or a space that may give one person an experience of beauty do not necessarily produce the same effect in someone else. But while the characteristics of a beautiful horse cannot be transferred to a beautiful woman, both may have something in common with a variety of objects such as a flower, a Ferrari automobile, or a Modrian painting. What they share is a high level of perfection, of completeness, of achievement. These notions underlie a certain purpose, such as reproduction or speed (or both) (Baumeister 1999).
The notion of “Venustas”, as introduced by Vitruvius in the first century, points to the beauty of Venus, eliciting feelings of love and erotics (Wöbse 2004). According to Vitruvius, many a beautiful form points to functionality, where proportion and harmony prevail (Eco 2005). In the Dutch landscape the fertile clay polders in the north of the country have been described as “the wide, rectilinear landscape where I feel so much at home with its wind and its sails, and also the area where farmers so skilfully sow and harvest their beet (sugar) and grain (fodder, beer); the beauty or efficiency, when will alphas learn to see this? Where these two landscapes merge, harmony prevails” (Kok 1979).
While geometric works of art dominate in gardens during the Renaissance period, the Romantic Age considered the beauty of nature and its imitations to be greater than any geometric form. “The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror” (Burke 1753; Olwig 2002). Complexity and elusiveness contribute to the sense of the sublime (Bell 1999), “The place was covered with a wonderful profusion of flowers, which without being disposed into regular borders and parterres, grew promiscuously, and had a greater beauty in their natural luxuriance and disorder than they would have received from the checks and restraints of art” (Hunt 1975).
The Romantic period passed, and during the second half of the 19th century values changed again. At the beginning of the Machine Age, the sublime character of technology, and the geometry of the built environment was again highly valued (Nye 1993). Then, in the 20th century, the “feeling for nature” returned (Biese 1905), beautiful forms in nature – whether they were clouds, mountains, or vegetation patterns – reflecting the way they came into being.
Throughout Western history, the succession of design styles and their reflecting values may have suggested that timeless aesthetic criteria in architecture and design do not exist. However, there is evidently some kind of “eternal beauty” and permanent ugliness.
In the Orient, the aesthetic aspects of famous oriental gardens are extremely complex. In a description by Jusuck Koh (Koh 1984) of the Katsura garden in Kyoto, Japan, conditions of beauty are specified in terms such as this:
· Total harmony between house and garden, combined with inclusive unity, which means there is an ecological and perceptual fitness to the environment.
· Asymmetry, imperfection and contradiction. There is a contradiction between the geometry of the building and the organic of the garden, while the use of rustic natural materials indicates imperfection.
· Sensitivity to change and sequential experience. The garden can be experienced only through movement, through successive revelations.
· Reverence for nature and naturalness. The use of local indigenous materials helps create a sense of place and character.
· Simplicity, restraint and understatement. The simplicity of the Katsura residence contrasts with the rustic quality of the tea huts. Crispness, purity, cleanliness and austerity are evident. Appreciation of the understated, restrained and subtle design invites user-participation.
· Attention to detail. There are endless surprises and charms in the details, from garden fences to stepping stones. All these objects make human creativity, skill and labour significant.
· Multimodal perceptual experience: a sensitivity not merely to visual experience, but also to the effects of tactile, aromatic, kinaesthetic, acoustic and thermal variations.
Through all these conditions may contribute to the appreciation of beauty in gardens anywhere in the world, there is one aspect that may elude the Western eye: the emphasis on the existence of the void. This is not the same as space as it applied in modern architecture. The void is “not tangible but open-ended, awaiting the completion by garden and user before it can live as an art experience… in the aesthetics of the void it is people and their activities that become the focus” (Koh 1984).
“Concerned with beauty and the appreciation of beauty… Pleasing to look at; artistic; tasteful” (Oxford English Dictionary)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) drew a distinction between two kinds of beauty: the free and unhampered, and the conditional. The first assumes ignorance of nature of objects perceived – a disinterested way of perceiving and enjoying. The second assumes an understanding of such objects. This makes various points of view possible – for example, the functionalist view that “form follows function” (i.e. that beauty lies in things being just what they are), or moralist view that “beauty lies in goodness” (i.e. that a nuclear power plant looks horrible and a wind turbine is a thing of beauty)
The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek aesthesis, meaning sensory perception, experience as well as feeling. Characteristics of an object or a space that may give one person an experience of beauty do not necessarily produce the same effect in someone else. But while the characteristics of a beautiful horse cannot be transferred to a beautiful woman, both may have something in common with a variety of objects such as a flower, a Ferrari automobile, or a Modrian painting. What they share is a high level of perfection, of completeness, of achievement. These notions underlie a certain purpose, such as reproduction or speed (or both) (Baumeister 1999).
The notion of “Venustas”, as introduced by Vitruvius in the first century, points to the beauty of Venus, eliciting feelings of love and erotics (Wöbse 2004). According to Vitruvius, many a beautiful form points to functionality, where proportion and harmony prevail (Eco 2005). In the Dutch landscape the fertile clay polders in the north of the country have been described as “the wide, rectilinear landscape where I feel so much at home with its wind and its sails, and also the area where farmers so skilfully sow and harvest their beet (sugar) and grain (fodder, beer); the beauty or efficiency, when will alphas learn to see this? Where these two landscapes merge, harmony prevails” (Kok 1979).
While geometric works of art dominate in gardens during the Renaissance period, the Romantic Age considered the beauty of nature and its imitations to be greater than any geometric form. “The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror” (Burke 1753; Olwig 2002). Complexity and elusiveness contribute to the sense of the sublime (Bell 1999), “The place was covered with a wonderful profusion of flowers, which without being disposed into regular borders and parterres, grew promiscuously, and had a greater beauty in their natural luxuriance and disorder than they would have received from the checks and restraints of art” (Hunt 1975).
The Romantic period passed, and during the second half of the 19th century values changed again. At the beginning of the Machine Age, the sublime character of technology, and the geometry of the built environment was again highly valued (Nye 1993). Then, in the 20th century, the “feeling for nature” returned (Biese 1905), beautiful forms in nature – whether they were clouds, mountains, or vegetation patterns – reflecting the way they came into being.
Throughout Western history, the succession of design styles and their reflecting values may have suggested that timeless aesthetic criteria in architecture and design do not exist. However, there is evidently some kind of “eternal beauty” and permanent ugliness.
In the Orient, the aesthetic aspects of famous oriental gardens are extremely complex. In a description by Jusuck Koh (Koh 1984) of the Katsura garden in Kyoto, Japan, conditions of beauty are specified in terms such as this:
· Total harmony between house and garden, combined with inclusive unity, which means there is an ecological and perceptual fitness to the environment.
· Asymmetry, imperfection and contradiction. There is a contradiction between the geometry of the building and the organic of the garden, while the use of rustic natural materials indicates imperfection.
· Sensitivity to change and sequential experience. The garden can be experienced only through movement, through successive revelations.
· Reverence for nature and naturalness. The use of local indigenous materials helps create a sense of place and character.
· Simplicity, restraint and understatement. The simplicity of the Katsura residence contrasts with the rustic quality of the tea huts. Crispness, purity, cleanliness and austerity are evident. Appreciation of the understated, restrained and subtle design invites user-participation.
· Attention to detail. There are endless surprises and charms in the details, from garden fences to stepping stones. All these objects make human creativity, skill and labour significant.
· Multimodal perceptual experience: a sensitivity not merely to visual experience, but also to the effects of tactile, aromatic, kinaesthetic, acoustic and thermal variations.
Through all these conditions may contribute to the appreciation of beauty in gardens anywhere in the world, there is one aspect that may elude the Western eye: the emphasis on the existence of the void. This is not the same as space as it applied in modern architecture. The void is “not tangible but open-ended, awaiting the completion by garden and user before it can live as an art experience… in the aesthetics of the void it is people and their activities that become the focus” (Koh 1984).
10 fevereiro 2008
landscape architects
"There clearly is a desperate need for professionals who are conservationists by instinct, but who care not only to preserve but to create and manage. These persons cannot be impeccable scientists for such purity would immobilize them. They must be workmen who are instinctively interested in the physical and biological sciences, and who seek this information so that they may obtain the license to interpose their creative skills upon the land. The landscape architect meets these requirements." -Ian McHarg, FASLA
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