The architecture of nothingness : an explanation of the objective basis of beauty in architecture and the arts

It Is A Common Enough Assumption That Good Buildings Make Us Feel Good Just As Poor Ones Can Make Us Feel Insecure, Depressed Or Even Threatened. We May Instantly Decide That We 'like' One Building More Than Another, In The Same Way That Without Thinking We Choose One Work Of Art Or Music Over Another. But What Is Going On When We Make These Instant Decisions? The Process Is So Complex That It Remains An Area Rarely Examined, Often Considered Unfathomable, Or For Some Mysterious, Bordering Even On The Spiritual. Frank Lyons Seeks To Unpick The Complex Relationships That Go To Make Up Great Works Of Architecture, To Reveal A Set Of Principles That Are Found To Apply Not Only To Architecture But Also To Art, Music And Culture In General. One Of The Major Complications At The Heart Of Culture Is That Because The Arts Are Generated Subjectively, It Is Assumed That The Finished Cultural Artefact Is Also Subjective. This Is A Myth That This Book Seeks To Dispel. The Arts Are Indeed Created From The Personal Subjective Space Of An Individual But What That Individual Has To Say Will Only Be Shareable If Expressed In Coherent (objective) Form. In A Nutshell, The Book Reverses Two Generally Accepted Positions, That The Arts Are Subjective And That Meaning Is Objective And Therefore Shared. The Reversal Of These Seemingly Common Sense, But Mistaken Positions Enables Two Important Issues To Be Resolved, Firstly It Explains How The Arts Communicate Through Objectivity And Secondly How The Meaning Of An Object Of Art Is Never Shared But Always Remains Private To The Individual. The Combination Of These Two Positions Ultimately Helps Us To Understand That Beauty Is A Subjective Appreciation Of An Objectively Arranged Form. Furthermore, This Understanding Enables The Author To Explain How A Sublimely Arranged Form Can Open Us To The Ineffable; To A Field Of Nothingness, Or To What Some Might Call The Spiritual Realm Of Our Own Being. The ARCHITECTURE of NOTHINGNESS The ARCHITECTURE of NOTHINGNESS Frank Lyons Contents List of Figures Outline Content A PERSONAL JOURNEY Acknowledgements 1 ORDER in NATURE, SCIENCE and the ARTS NATURE NATURE: the ARTS and SCIENCES The SCIENTIFIC VIEW The LAWS of PHYSICS HIGHER LEVELS of GENERALITY BALANCE and SYMMETRY The FORM and CONTENT of MATHEMATICS FORM and PATTERN ENTROPY: the DISORDER of PHYSICS LIFE DNA MEMORY: the HISTORY of LIFE ERROR and the CREATION of VARIETY SEX and VARIETY INTENTION and CONTEXT CHOICE and INTENTIONALITY SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS CULTURE ORDER, UNITY and BEAUTY The DISTINCTIONS between PERSONAL and CULTURAL BEAUTY CULTURAL BEAUTY SENSING the WORLD and SENSING CULTURE CULTURE: GRASPING at IMMORTALITY BEAUTY and the ARTS 2 The ORDER of CONTENT OBJECTIVITY and CULTURE The DISTINCTION between the SCIENCES and the ARTS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION FORM and CONTENT The CONTENT of FORM INTENTION and ATTENTION AWARENESS and HUMAN EVOLUTION QUALITY and CARE ORDINARINESS or EXTRAORDINARINESS ORDINARINESS and VAN GOGH The ORDER of the OBJECT SIMPLICITY and QUALITY The CONVERSION of SUBJECTIVITY into OBJECTIVITY FRESHNESS OBJECTIVITY In ART OPEN ACCESS to HISTORY RE PRESENTATION of the OBJECT The ORDER of FIGURATIVE ART FEELINGS in the OBJECTS of ART OBJECTIVE ART COMMUNICATION RETURNING to the OBJECT ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTS The LITMUS TEST 3 The ORDER of FORM The POWER of FORM FORM in NATURE CONTEXT PHYSICS GIVES RISE to FORM FORM in the NATURAL WORLD MORPHOLOGY and the EVO-DEVO REVOLUTION FORMAL ORGANISATION and GENE SWITCHES DESIGN PRINCIPLES in NATURE ERROR and BALANCE in ARCHITECTURE STAIRCASE at VILLA MAIREA, NOORMARKKU ANIMAL ARCHITECTURE SLOWNESS and EVOLUTION OUTSIDE the GENES CONVERGENCE of FORM The LAWS of FORM The GESTALT SCHOOL An INEXACT DEFINITION of GESTALT GESTALT PRINCIPLES within the ANIMAL WORLD GESTALT APPLICATION across SENSORY MODALITIES GESTALT within CULTURAL SYSTEMS The GESTALT LAW of PRACNANZ WERTHEIMER'S ORDERING PRINCIPLES CORRESPONDENCE between the GESTALT of FORM and the GESTALT of USE TWO TOWN HALLS RELAXED GEOMETRIES IMPRECISION or PRECISION and INCLUSIVENESS !»5PSir I INTENTION, QUALITY and HUMAN EVOLUTION The ROOTS of OBJECTIVITY and LOGIC 4 The LOGIC of AESTHETICS DISCURSIVE REASON PRESENTATIONAL THOUGHT The DEVELOPMENT of REASON EQUILIBRATION LOGIC From FORMULATION to PRESENTATIONAL LOGIC LOGIC and the POST-MODERN WORLD How LOGICAL FORMULATIONS STRUCTURE the ARTS LOGICAL ORGANISATION expressed through SIMILARITIES and OPPOSITES SIMILARITIES in SPACE and TIME METAPHOR and NOVELTY LOGICAL RELATIONS in MUSIC METAPHOR in MUSIC REPETITION in ARCHITECTURE: the WINSLOW HOUSE METAPHOR in ARCHITECTURE RELATIONSHIPS of OPPOSITION AMBIGUITY in MUSIC The ROLE of BALANCED OPPOSITE RELATIONSHIPS in CONTEMPORARY CULTURE OPPOSITIONS in ARCHITECTURE The VISUAL LOGIC of RONCHAMP LOGIC or AMBIGUITY: EQUIVALENT or EQUIVOCAL LOGIC is also a JUDGEMENT TEMPORARY OBJECTIVITY: a LOCAL FOCUSSING of ATTENTION The READINGS of CULTURE and the EVOLUTION of CONSCIOUSNESS 5 The AESTHETICS of MEANING The MEANING of MEANING WITTGENSTEIN and MEANING WITTGENSTEIN in the CONTEXT of this WORK 'PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS' within the TRADITION of PHILOSOPHY The OBJECTIVITY of MEANING: within the TRADITION of PHILOSOPHY The 'NEVER-SHARED MEANING' HYPOTHESIS: the SUBJECTIVITY of MEANING The 'NEVER-SHARED MEANING' PARADOX of COMMUNICATION RESOLUTION of the 'NEVER-SHARED MEANING' PARADOX: the AESTHETICS of MEANING COMMON LANGUAGE and DAY-to-DAY BEHAVIOUR COMMUNICATION and the WORLD The LUGGAGE LOCKER METAPHOR The WHAT and HOW of LANGUAGE and MUSIC LEGITIMATE CRITICISM The ROBIE HOUSE _l _J|L —i_ 6 The ORDER of NOTHINGNESS and the PHENOMENAL GAP The OBJECT in PHILOSOPHY KANT and the OBJECT within TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY and some further CONSIDERATIONS of KANT'S TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM The OBJECT in EXPERIENCE: CATEGORISING In terms of SPACE, TIME and CAUSALITY RETURNING to the CORE QUESTION of this BOOK SCHOPENHAUER: from the OBJECT to the UNITY of BEING CONJUNCTION of EASTERN and WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES A RETURN to FORM and the content of form The GROUND of RELATIVITY SOMETHING out of NOTHING REVEALING the NOUMENON The GAP CONFLICT RESOLUTION: the PURPOSE of CULTURE WHERE is the GAP? BEING: The GAP in HUMAN REALITY The QUALITY of FORMAL RELATIONSHIPS and the UNIVERSAL DIMENSION of CULTURE 7 BEAUTY as RECONCILIATION BEAUTY and the ARTS The SUBJECTIVITY of BEAUTY The OBJECTIVITY of BEAUTY BERNSTEIN on BEAUTY The FRESHNESS of BEAUTY BEAUTY in the CREATIVE SEARCH The SYNONYMITY of CREATIVITY in NATURE and CULTURE The RECONCILIATION of CONFLICT RECONCILIATION in CULTURE UNITY in ARCHITECTURE The RECONCILIATION of MASS and SPACE An IDEA of its TIME The AESTHETICS of SCIENCE The PRINCIPLE of LOGIC (or mathematics) The PRINCIPLE of ERROR (or inexactness) The PRINCIPLE of UNIVERSALITY 222 BEAUTY as RECONCILIATION The UNIVERSAL and the PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS as CULTURE The UNITY of BEING and the RELATIVITY of CONSCIOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS is STRUCTURED in KNOWLEDGE and KNOWLEDGE in CONSCIOUSNESS BEING: NOTHINGNESS or EVERYTHING BEING in the MOMENT VIEW from the INSIDE OUT 8 WORKS PRACTICE PHILOSOPHY ACCEPTING the INTUITIVE Appendix The Original Outline Argument: 1978 In this book, Frank Lyons unpicks the complex relationships that go to make up great works of architecture. He reveals a set of principles that clarifies the distinction between the subjective and objective in culture, through which he provides the reader with a more coherent understanding of architecture.