“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” The great Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) –timeless artist, engineer, architect, mathematician, and scientist, with profound knowledge in everything from anatomy and optics to physics to light –is commemorated at the Louvre Museum for the fifth centenary of his death. In his quest to understand the relation between the physical and the metaphysical, he spent a lifetime studying the human being and its place in the universe. His brave creativity, endless genius, and artistic talents arching far beyond the perceptual and scientific realities of …
Category: Art
It is an extraordinary exhibition where there is no museum, there are no solid paintings and yet it is a feast for all the senses and for the soul. Vincent Van Gogh’s (1853-1890) genius brushworks become alive in a mesmerizing movement of images, colors, light and sound. The irises, sunflowers, olive groves, haystacks, his self-portrait and more, are all projected for 30 minutes on a surface of 3300m², covering all over from the floor across the walls and up to the ceiling 10 meters high. It is an exhilarating experience. The “multisensory” digital art exhibition plunges one into a world …
Siri Hustvedt, the prizewinning writer and scholar, describes the meaning of life in her vigor for work, the joy she finds in the creative impulse and the urgency to write driven by it. She recounts her life being a woman writer in men’s world, married to the well-known writer Paul Auster and describes her remedies to overcome the challenges of the “writing self”. Her deep knowledge of psychoanalysis, art and neuroscience is woven in her stories where the human condition is playing up real and tangible. She insightfully draws answers to the question “what are we ?” Here …
Victor Hugo, the irreplaceable writer reflects on his life and works “ For half a century I have been writing thoughts in prose, verse, history, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode and song…but I feel I have not said a thousandth part of that which is within me. “ And that renders the abundant creative power of the writer as reflected in the invaluable and timeless works of Victor Hugo. His insightful saying “ a writer is a world trapped in a person ” is beautifully captured in Auguste Rodin’s sculpture. From writing, sculpture, and painting to the enchantment of …
In the dance, one finds the cinema, the comic strips, the Olympic hundred meters and swimming, and what’s more: poetry, love and tenderness, said Maurice Bejart, the exceptional choreographer, opera director and dancer. Long before neuroscience confirmed that our brains are wired to move along with music, dancing was there. Babies, children, and adults, all instinctively move to the rhythm of the music. Based on recent cognitive research, it seems like human beings are universally synchronized with the chords of music. Moreover, the rhythmic movement lifts our mood, regulates the mental and emotional fluctuations, and we become happier. Such …
“ Certain sounds boost attention and facilitate remembering at deeper levels of consciousness.” Music, bringing a unique pleasure to humans for ages continues to engage us with its captivating power in ways which remain unknown. When we listen to a piece we like, we are affectively engaged to it and its melody may cause us to have chills, or fire a dopamine rush leading to an emotional peak. Another piece may be calming and attuning one to a desired state of well-being. Depending on the context, the musician, the psyche of the listener and possibly other factors not …
Inner dialogue with oneself is an essential human condition states psychologist and anthropologist Victor Rosenthal, in his recent book Somebody is Talking. Murmuring, noisy, intuitive, singing, liberating, the conversation made with oneself is the characteristic of all human beings. From an early age on, one speaks to himself without any external trigger, relentlessly accommodates and comforts himself … in the form of talking aloud either through objects or directly with oneself… It allows us to reflect, to come back to our self while distinguishing us from our environment, and helps us to develop our sense of discernment for …
How the Medicinal Herbs Grew in the Temple of Solomon — the Farther Mosque which Solomon visited daily for devotion and to guide the devotees During his prophecy, David received a Divine order which ordained that his son, Solomon should build a temple. Set out to fulfill this order, Solomon began constructing the temple which would be renowned as the Temple of Solomon. Also later known as the Farther Mosque, it would preserve its unprecedented standing in history. Rumi recounts the blissful story of Solomon’s Temple in his Mathnawi, and says that plentiful stones needed in the construction were fetched …
The most acclaimed drawing of the cosmos and how the discovery of the magical Higgs particle – also called the God particle transformed the physicists’ view of the beginning of the universe Musician Pablo Carlos Budassi has decided to make a simple drawing of the cosmos for his son’s birthday. In doing so, he used the logarithmic maps of the physicists, the photographs taken by Nasa and his photoshop application. The contemporary physicists, having acclaimed this picture, marked it as the simplest up-to-date illustration of the cosmos. In the center lies the sun and the solar system surrounded by …
A wonderful story told by Rumi on the art of pure reflection and mystical beauty in the sufi way of being. The Prophet said, “There are some who see me by the same light in which I’m seeing them. Our natures are one. Without reference to any strands of lineage, without reference to text or traditions, we drink the life-water together.” Here’s a story about the hidden mystery : The Chinese and the Greeks were arguing as to who were the better artists. The king said, “We’ll settle the matter with a debate.” The Chinese began talking, but the Greeks …
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