The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being morbid as “an attitude, quality, or state of mind marked by excessive gloom”. It’s beyond doubt that most of us have, into different degrees, some fascination for some morbid aspects of our existence. I know people who’re fascinated by cemeteries, all the way up to people who’re dedicating their life … Continue reading Morbidity as a Fashionable Lifestyle.
Carnival at the Franklin Institute.
From an anthropological point of view, carnival is a reversal ritual, in which social roles are reversed and norms about desired behavior are suspended, but cannot interrupt my never-ending quest to combine entertainment and learning. An interesting upcoming event is the science carnival organized by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (April 20 - 28, 2019), … Continue reading Carnival at the Franklin Institute.
Magicians, Artists and Scientists.
Magic and the supernatural have been declared nonexistent, artists are called illusionists and scientists are deemed to be incomprehensible monomaniacs who know a lot about little but little about a lot. Where does this leave us? Maybe it’s time to take a break and resume it. This small essay is a personal cosmology. I brought … Continue reading Magicians, Artists and Scientists.
Life is about adding value to your existence.
Intelligent behavior is sometimes defined as the behavior that is adaptable variable during the span of lifetime of an individual and has three fundamental characteristics; The capacity to react in an unusual way towards the stimulus-situation. The ability to remember learned lessons. Having the capacity for generalization. The individual can only develop itself by laying … Continue reading Life is about adding value to your existence.
Inspired by Lovecraft
Lots of contemporary artists have found their inspiration in Lovecraft’s literature. Although the foundations of my own writing project, The Maharajagar, are loosely rooted in the structure of the Mahabharata, some of the window dressing is inspired by Lovecraft’s Universe. Continuing my research of this newly found cave, I discovered nightmarish creatures resting in a … Continue reading Inspired by Lovecraft
World Literature and Fractals
As far as many bookworms are concerned, advanced equations and graphs are the last things which would hold their interest, but there's no escape from the math. Physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, Poland, performed a detailed statistical analysis of more than one hundred famous works … Continue reading World Literature and Fractals
The Illusions of Art and Science.
As far as I’m concerned, the title of this post could as well have been The Illusions of the Art and Science of Plumbing, Cooking, Cleaning or …why not….Living. There really are no such things as Art or Science. There are only artists and scientists. Take as an example all those discussions about Leonardo; his … Continue reading The Illusions of Art and Science.
About The Canon of the World Literature.
Three years ago, I took it upon me to read the top 100 of the Canon of the world literature and have recently accomplished this challenge. The least I can say about this task is that I’ve learned something of this experience. Nevertheless there were a couple of unexpected hurdles along the road that I … Continue reading About The Canon of the World Literature.
The Poly-semantic Paintings of Alexander Rodin.
I stumbled upon the works of Alexander Rodin in 2011 during an exposition called East Meets West in Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany. Rodin currently lives and works in Berlin, because (as he describes it himself in an interview with website n-europe.eu) 'Berlin is a place interested in art. [...] I am an artist and exhibitions … Continue reading The Poly-semantic Paintings of Alexander Rodin.
SILON
In my search for artistically projects that are inspired by the same themes as my writing project, I stumbled upon THE SECRET AND IMPOSSIBLE LEAGUE OF THE NOOSPHERE. This theater production is the result of conversations between director Meghan Arnette and playwright Darian Lindle about theater, science fiction, identity, the female voice, and the power … Continue reading SILON
The Artist as an Einzelgänger
In this post I would like to explore some artistically personality traits as inspired by the compositions of Giorgio Morode. The album Einzelgänger was first produced in Germany in 1975 and contained some electronic experimental soundtracks that at the time of its release attracted almost zero attention. The Englishman Bellotte was in charge of the … Continue reading The Artist as an Einzelgänger
HUMANHOOD
The title of this post refers to a dance company that that takes inspiration from very similar sources as I do as a writer. The research behind their art is rooted in physics and astrophysics, as well as in their personal insight into Eastern mysticism, fascinated by the connections that lie between these seemingly different … Continue reading HUMANHOOD
The Teacher’s Obligation to Entertain vs. the Entertainer’s Obligation to Teach.
Teachers and professors don't need to be clowns. However, they do need to engage their students. If you have more than 20 minutes of rigorous teaching, the student cannot anymore pay attention to the teacher. So the teacher has to change the adult mood to the child mood by humor, and that is why you … Continue reading The Teacher’s Obligation to Entertain vs. the Entertainer’s Obligation to Teach.
So you want to be Rich and Famous. Seriously?
This post 's aim is to make it easier to understand why fame & fortune is not easy to manage.
The Modern Nomad
It seems to become trendy among travelers to label yourself as a nomad. Strangely enough, those who’re really living the nomad life style don’t seem to bother about labeling themselves as such, but rather state what defines them as a person, with the frequent change of venue as a side effect of this. Examples are; … Continue reading The Modern Nomad
The Inevitable Future
The forces shaping our future are not inevitable in the sense that they are ‘preordained’ or irrefutable. Rather, they are inevitable because: They’re already happening, have been ‘happening’ for more than thirty years, and will keep happening;They are fundamentally driven by the underlying dynamics of technology itself, determined by mathematics and physics. While Kelly in … Continue reading The Inevitable Future
The Now
You are reading the word “now” right now. But what does that mean? What makes the ephemeral moment “now” so special? Its enigmatic character has bedeviled philosophers, priests, and modern-day physicists from Augustine to Einstein and beyond. Einstein showed that the flow of time is affected by both velocity and gravity, yet he despaired at … Continue reading The Now
The Man-Machine Relation in Art and Science.
Illustration; When man merges with machine by Bob Eggleton The machine, over the course of the 20th century, progressively integrated itself into all fields of human activity. At first machines were conceived to alleviate the hard and mind killing facets of human labor. In Babylonian times, a day’s hard work would produce enough to light a room … Continue reading The Man-Machine Relation in Art and Science.
Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestically Product
Throughout modern history, societal progress has been measured in terms of GDP. The higher the GDP, the more developed a country, so goes the general belief. There is, thus a mad rush for increasing GDP. Hence, over time, GDP came to be seen as a surrogate for societal wellbeing – something it was never designed … Continue reading Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestically Product
Buddhism and the internet
What is it about this faith of smiling Buddha, orange robes and golden temples that I see thriving in the little corner of the internet where I dwell, while the rest of the world is thought to have become increasingly secular? Widespread musical and artistic experimentation; the emergence of 'youth culture' as a powerful economic … Continue reading Buddhism and the internet
The Maharajagar 