The Architectonics of Nature

Seminar Readings

Unit 1: The origins of the physical sciences and the foundations of art history

  1. Panofsky, Erwin. Galileo as a Critic of the Arts. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1954.
  2. Ederton, S.Y. Jr. "Geometrization of Astonomical Space: Galiileo, Florentine Disegno, and the 'Strange Spottednesse' of the Moon," in The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry: Art and Science on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. pp223-253.
  3. Holly, M.A. "Panofsky and Cassirer," in Phillip P. Wiener, Charles S. Pierce: Selected Writings. New York: Doubleday, 1958. pp142-159.
  4. Murphey, Murray G. The Development of Peirce's Philosophy, introduction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. pp1-5.

Unit 2: The discovery of form

  1. Whyte, Lancelot L. "Atomism: Structure and Form," in Gyorgy Kepes, ed., Structure in Art and in Science. New York: George Braziller, 1965. pp20-28.
  2. Bronowski, Jacob, "The Discovery of Form," in Gyorgy Kepes, ed., Structure in Art and in Science. New York: George Braziller, 1965. pp55-65.
  3. Edelman, Gerald M. "The Wordless Metaphor: Visual Art and the Brain," in Klaus Kertess, 1995 Biennial Exhibition. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995. pp33-47.

Unit 3: Physical connections in the brain

  1. Cantor and Schimmel, Biophysical Chemistry: The Conformation of Biological Macromolecules. New York: Freeman, 1980. pp69, 91-93.
  2. Shapiro, L., et al. "Structural Basis of Cell-Cell Adhesion by Cadherins." Nature, vol. 374, 327-337 (1995).
  3. Edelman, Gerald M. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1992. pp81-98.
  4. Herwitz, Daniel. Making Theory/Constructing Art: On the Authority of the Avant-Garde. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. pp33-59.

Unit 4: Visual perception in art

  1. Arnheim, Rudolf. "A Review of Proportion," in Gyorgy Kepes, ed., Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm. New York: George Braziller, 1996. pp218-230.
  2. Gombrich, E.H. The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorating Art. New York: Phaidon, 1984. pp1-16.
  3. Gombrich, E.H. The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorating Art. New York: Phaidon, 1984. pp95-116.

Unit 5: Vision and creativity

  1. Marr, David. Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information. New York: Freeman, 1982. pp29-61.
  2. Ehrenzeig, Anton. "Conscious Planning and Unconscious Scanning," in Gyorgy Kepes, ed., Education of Vision. New York: George Braziller, 1965. pp27-49.

Unit 6: The parallelism of model art and cognitive science

  1. Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. pp203-214.
  2. Haftmann, Werner. Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York: Praeger, 1965. pp17-40.
  3. Vitz, Paul, and Arnold B. Glimcher. Modern Art and Modern Science: The Parallel Analysis of Vision. New York: Praeger, 1984. pp2-40 and 72-87.

Unit 7: Plasticity in mind and art

  1. Singer, Wolf. "Development and Plasticity of Cortical Processing Architectures." Science, vol. 270, 758-764 (1995).
  2. Lindsay, Kenneth C., and Peter Vergo, ed. Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art. New York: De Capo, 1994. pp342-391.