M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (/ˈɛʃər/, Dutch: [ˈmʌurɪts kɔrˈneːlɪs ˈɛʃər] ( );[1] 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Early life[edit] Maurits Cornelis,[2] was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland, in a house that forms part of the Princessehof Ceramics Museum today. He was a sickly child, and was placed in a special school at the age of seven and failed the second grade.[3] Although he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. Later life[edit] In 1922, an important year of his life, Escher traveled through Italy (Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena, Ravello) and Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Granada). In Italy, Escher met Jetta Umiker, whom he married in 1924. In 1935, the political climate in Italy (under Mussolini) became unacceptable to Escher. Works[edit] In his early years, Escher sketched landscapes and nature. Circle Limit III, 1959
Joseph Ducreux Joseph, Baron Ducreux (June 26, 1735 – July 24, 1802) was a French portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist, and engraver, who was a successful portraitist at the court of Louis XVI of France, and resumed his career after the French Revolution. His less formal portraits show an interest in expanding the range of facial expressions beyond those of official portraiture. Life and career[edit] Born in Nancy, France, Ducreux may have trained with his father, who was also a painter. In 1769, Ducreux was sent to Vienna in order to paint a miniature of Marie-Antoinette (shown left) before she left the city in 1770 and married Louis XVI of France. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Ducreux traveled to London. Ducreux had several children. Work[edit] Ducreux specialized in portrait painting, and his early portraits were done in pastel, and include those done of the connoisseurs Pierre-Jean Mariette, the Comte de Caylus and Ange-Laurent de la Live de July. Internet meme[edit] Gallery[edit]
Les Paul Les Paul, de nombre real Lester William Polsfuss (Waukesha, Wisconsin, Estados Unidos, 9 de junio de 1915 - Nueva York, Estado de Nueva York, 13 de agosto de 2009), fue un guitarrista de jazz estadounidense y una de las más importantes figuras en el desarrollo de instrumentos musicales eléctricos y técnicas de grabación. Les Paul fue pionero en el desarrollo de las guitarras de cuerpo macizo con el diseño de los modelos Gibson Les Paul, que adoptaron su nombre, y en la grabación multipista. Su destreza en el manejo de la guitarra y las innovaciones técnicas que introdujo en el instrumento le hicieron ser conocido como «El mago de Waukesha».[1] Biografía[editar] En los años 1930, Les Paul trabajó en Chicago, Illinois en la radio, tocando música jazz. En enero de 1948 Les Paul sufrió un accidente automovilístico, donde voló 50 metros, en el que se lesionó su brazo y codo derechos. Innovaciones de la guitarra eléctrica: "The Log"[editar] El Trío Les Paul[editar] Top 40 con Mary Ford[editar]
Luigi Russolo Biography[edit] Luigi Russolo was perhaps the first noise artist.[3][4] His 1913 manifesto, L'Arte dei Rumori, translated as The Art of Noises, stated that the industrial revolution had given modern men a greater capacity to appreciate more complex sounds. Russolo found traditional melodic music confining and envisioned noise music as its future replacement. He designed and constructed a number of noise-generating devices called Intonarumori and assembled a noise orchestra to perform with them. A performance of his Gran Concerto Futuristico (1917) was met with strong disapproval and violence from the audience, as Russolo himself had predicted. At first the art of music sought purity, limpidity and sweetness of sound. Russolo and Marinetti gave the first concert of Futurist music, complete with intonarumori, in April 1914 (causing a riot).[9] The program comprised four "networks of noises" with the following titles: Intonarumori reconstruction[edit] See also[edit] Further reading[edit] [edit]
Raymond Robinson (Green Man) Raymond "Ray" Robinson (October 29, 1910 – June 11, 1985) was a severely disfigured man whose years of nighttime walks made him into a figure of urban legend in western Pennsylvania. Robinson was so badly injured in a childhood electrical accident that he could not go out in public without fear of creating a panic, so he went for long walks at night. Local residents, who would drive along his road in hopes of meeting him, called him The Green Man or Charlie No-Face. They passed on tales about him to their children and grandchildren, and people raised on these tales are sometimes surprised to discover that he was a real person who was liked by his family and neighbors.[1] Robinson was eight years old when he was injured by an electrical line on the Morado Bridge, outside of Beaver Falls, while attempting to view a bird's nest. Robinson became a local myth in the Pittsburgh area, and his real story was obscured by urban legend.
Genie (feral child) Genie (born 1957) is the pseudonym of a feral child who was the victim of extraordinarily severe abuse, neglect and social isolation. Her circumstances are recorded prominently in the annals of abnormal child psychology.[2] Born in Arcadia, California, United States, Genie's father kept her locked alone in a room from the age of 20 months to 13 years, 7 months, almost always strapped to a child's toilet or bound in a crib with her arms and legs completely immobilized. During this time she was never exposed to any significant amount of speech, and as a result she did not acquire a first language during childhood. Her abuse came to the attention of Los Angeles child welfare authorities on November 4, 1970.[3][4] In the first several years after Genie's life and circumstances came to light, psychologists, linguists and other scientists focused a great deal of attention on Genie's case, seeing in her near-total isolation an opportunity to study many aspects of human development.
Victor of Aveyron Victor of Aveyron (c. 1788 – 1828) was a French feral child who was found in 1800 after apparently spending the majority of his childhood alone in the woods. Upon his discovery, his case was taken up by a young physician, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who worked with the boy for five years and gave him his name, Victor. Itard was interested in determining what Victor could learn. He devised procedures to teach the boy words and recorded his progress. Early life[edit] Victor is estimated to have been born around 1788. Study[edit] Victor of Aveyron Shortly after Victor was found, a local abbot and biology professor, Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, examined him. Influence of the Enlightenment[edit] The Enlightenment caused many thinkers, including naturalists and philosophers, to believe human nature was a subject that needed to be redefined and looked at from a completely different angle. Influence of colonialism[edit] Education[edit] Jean Marc Gaspard Itard[edit] Language[edit] Dramatization[edit] [edit]
El Arte de los Ruidos - Luigi Russolo La Machina di Luigi Russolo febrero 20, 2009 on 5:07 pm | In arte sonoro, futurismo | No Comments Adolfo García | Hace ahora 100 años, en febrero de 1909, se publicó en Le Figaro el primer manifiesto futurista. Su autor, el poeta italiano Filippo Tomaso Marinetti, fundaba así el primer “istmo” o vanguardia artística del siglo pasado. La importancia que tuvo el Futurismo, más allá de sus méritos artísticos, consistió en crear una estética desde cero, posibilitando así una profunda renovación de las técnicas y principios artísticos, cuyas repercusiones aún se sienten. Aprovechando tan destacado aniversario, creemos oportuno rescatar de nuestros archivos un proyecto que se publicó en Ccäpitalia hace unos años. [Visita La Macchina di Luigi Russolo] Proclama futurista a los españoles octubre 25, 2007 on 8:06 pm | In futurismo | No Comments F. ¡Futurismo! La Macchina de Luigi Russolo julio 14, 2005 on 9:16 pm | In arte sonoro, futurismo | No Comments No hubo un gran músico futurista.
Best of all possible worlds The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil). The claim that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds is the central argument in Leibniz's theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil. The problem of evil[edit] Among his many philosophical interests and concerns, Leibniz took on this question of theodicy: If God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient, how do we account for the suffering and injustice that exist in the world? Historically, attempts to answer the question have been made using various arguments, for example, by explaining away evil or reconciling evil with good. Free will versus determinism[edit] Criticism[edit] In other philosophy[edit]
Gottfried Leibniz German mathematician and philosopher (1646–1716) Gottfried Wilhelm (von)[a] Leibniz[b] (1 July 1646 [O.S. 21 June] – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. Leibniz is also called, "The Last Universal Genius" due to his knowledge and skills in different fields and because such people became less common during the Industrial Revolution and spread of specialized labor after his lifetime.[17] He is a prominent figure in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. As a philosopher, he was a leading representative of 17th-century rationalism and idealism. In the 20th century, Leibniz's notions of the law of continuity and transcendental law of homogeneity found a consistent mathematical formulation by means of non-standard analysis. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646, toward the end of the Thirty Years' War, in Leipzig, Saxony, to Friedrich Leibniz and Catharina Schmuck.
Utah teapot History[edit] Newell needed a moderately simple mathematical model of a familiar object for his work. His wife Sandra Newell suggested modelling their tea service since they were sitting down to tea at the time. He got some graph paper and a pencil, and sketched the entire teapot by eye.[citation needed] Then he went back to the lab and edited bézier control points on a Tektronix storage tube, again by hand. Newell made the mathematical data that described the teapot's geometry (a set of three-dimensional coordinates) publicly available, and soon other researchers began to use the same data for their computer graphics experiments. Over the following decades, editions of computer graphics journals (such as the ACM SIGGRAPH's quarterly) regularly featured versions of the teapot: faceted or smooth-shaded, wireframe, bumpy, translucent, refractive, even leopard-skin and furry teapots were created. Teapot scenes are commonly used for renderer self-tests and benchmarks.[5][6] Appearances[edit]
John Law (economist) Scottish economist Money and trade considered, with a proposal for supplying the Nation with money, 1934 French translation of 1712 English edition Portrait of John Law by Alexis Simon Belle He spent ten years moving between France and the Netherlands, dealing in financial speculations. Problems with the French economy presented the opportunity to put his system into practice. From this new banking platform, Law was able to pursue the monopoly companies he envisioned by having France bankroll the endeavour with 100 million livres in the form of company stock. In this context the regent, Philippe d'Orléans, appointed Law as Controller General of Finances in 1720, effectively giving him control over external and internal commerce. Paper money endorsed by John Law, 1718. Contemporary political cartoon of Law from Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid (1720); text reads "Law loquitur. Assignat, a bank note system of the French Revolution
Anaximander Anaximander (/əˌnæksɨˈmændər/; Greek: Ἀναξίμανδρος Anaximandros; c. 610 – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus,[1] a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and arguably, Pythagoras amongst his pupils. Little of his life and work is known today. According to available historical documents, he is the first philosopher known to have written down his studies,[2] although only one fragment of his work remains. Anaximander claimed that an "indefinite" (apeiron) principle gives rise to all natural phenomena. Biography[edit] Establishing a timeline of his work is now impossible, since no document provides chronological references. Theories[edit] Apeiron[edit] Anaximander maintains that all dying things are returning to the element from which they came (apeiron). Cosmology[edit]