Wabi-sabi
A Japanese tea house which reflects the wabi-sabi aesthetic in Kenroku-en (兼六園) Garden Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".[1] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印, sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常, mujō?), the other two being suffering (苦, ku?) Description[edit] "Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West".[1] "If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily. Western use[edit]
The story of the Gömböc
September 2009 Play this movie to see the Gömböc wriggle. This article is also available as a podcast. A Gömböc is a strange thing. Balancing act The defining feature of a Gömböc is the fact that it's got just two points of equilibrium: one is stable and the other is unstable. A Gömböc made from plexiglass. "It's a bit like putting a ball on a hilly landscape," says Domokos, "if you put the ball down at a generic point, it will always roll off in the same direction, down into the valley. To give it its full mathematical description, a Gömböc is a three-dimensional, convex and homogeneous object with exactly one stable point of equilibrium and one unstable point of equilibrium. Doubtful existence An ellipse has two stable and two unstable points of equilibrium. The reason why many people thought that Gömböcs didn't exist is that in two dimensions there is no convex shape with only two points of equilibrium. A geometric stem cell "This is intuitively clear," says Domokos. Mathematical field work
Yijing Dao - Annotated links to other Yijing sites
(Last updated April 2014) See also: The I Ching on YouTube. If you find any of these sites down or gone try plugging the URL into the waybackmachine. Some academic institutions seem to love changing the URLs of PDFs, as if they haven't heard the web is made of linkages, so now I'm just uploading them here. This page is ongoing, new links and site reviews are usually fed in at the bottom. Yi Jing: Oracle of the Sun LiSe Heyboer is one of the few whose interest in the Yijing has inspired her to research the original etymology of the Chinese characters. This is an excellent site, and encouraging to any who delve into the Chinese characters themselves. LiSe is one of the wives of the Dutch artist Anton Heyboer, who has a website here too put together by LiSe. I Ching with Clarity The I Ching on the Net Greg Whincup's site of Yijing links. Yijing Bagua Yijing Matrices I think this is a very interesting site, a lot of material on structural matters by Pieng-Lam Kho. I Ching Cosmos Yijing Algebra
CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER
CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER "The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land?
Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers - Leonard Koren
This is an updated version of the enduring classic that first introduced the concept of “imperfect beauty” to the West. Text, images, and book design seamlessly meld into a wabi-sabi-like experience. Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete . . . . . . wabi-sabi could even be called the “Zen of things,” as it exemplifies many of Zen’s core spiritual-philosophical tenets . . . Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty. It occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West . . . Wabi-sabi, in its purest, most idealized form, is precisely about the delicate traces, the faint evidence, at the borders of nothingness . . .
Optical Illusions in Art, Part 3
"QUANTUM SHOT" #334(rev) Link - article by Avi Abrams We love it when pictures play with our minds Careful! Don't hurt your brain looking at these images. Better yet, warp your brain into another dimension. To achieve different angle, illusion or an unusual effect with only two-dimensional picture is a challenge many photographers and artists can't seem to pass by. "The House, that Swift Built" (image credit: Anna Gunter) (image credit: Josh Sommers) (image credit: Istvan Orosz) Did you know that some illusions can actually be constructed in real life? (image credit: Shigeo Fukuda.html) Aldo Cavini Benedetti made the working model of M. (image credit: Aldo Cavini Benedetti) This video is almost out-of-this-world: The "Impossible Triangle" is also possible to make, see the instructions here - with a printable template from that site, anybody can make it! (images credit: Scott Henderson, Simon Scott) Almost Real: Illusions in Art (images credit: Sandro del Prete) Transformations & hidden figures!
Katsushika Hokusai - The complete works
13 Most Bizarre Mushrooms
These 13 crazy mushrooms will blow your mind. You probably won’t find them on your dinner plate, but you will find them entertaining. Travis S/CC BY-NC 3.0 Lion’s Mane Mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) This strange mushroom goes by many names, including Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Hedgehog Mushroom, Satyr’s Beard, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom, pom pom mushroom, or Bearded Tooth Fungus. candiru/CC BY 3.0 randumtruth/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 alumroot/CC BY-NC 3.0 peppergrass/CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ishyam79/CC BY-NC 3.0 V. Puffball Mushrooms There are quite a few varieties of puffball mushroom, all of which belong in the division Basidiomycota, and all of which have their own unique characteristics. alfred.crabtree/CC BY-ND 3.0 cotinis/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Indigo Milkcap (Lactarius indigo) This purple beauty can be found in the coniferous and deciduous forests of eastern North America, East Asia, and Central America. Latticed Stinkhorn (Clathrus ruber) Bleeding Tooth (Hydnellum peckii) emmapatsie/CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
