#smxjanus

We see that the seasons of the year come round by the approaching and receding of the sun, and that certain kinds of things are increased in size or diminished by the waxings and wanings of the moon, such as sea urchins, oysters, and the wonderful tides of the ocean [1]. All around lay a green and well watered meadow, with roses everywhere and an abundance of flowers; all was fragrant, delightful, and lovely [2]. Above all what extravagance in ornaments! [3]

But for nature in its infinite abundance is nevertheless very sparing with its motifs, [4]  arose the belief that they were searching for treasure [3] - for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also [1]. In the land of plenty, even the idea of scarcity has lost its central place [5].

Raphael of Urbino, the great master among those who know, wrote to Castiglione of his Galatea: ‘In order to paint a beauty I would have to see several beauties, but since there is a scarcity of beautiful women, I use a certain Idea that comes to my mind.’ [6] In the same way seashells and mollusks make natural pouring vessels. [4]

And so I have brought back the treasure of a cathedral [7], these north winds which sadden the most beautiful days produce exactly the effect of those puffs of cold air which enter a warm room through the cracks of a badly fitting door or window [7]. This abundance of light had something indescribably reassuring about it. [7] This transition from living entity to corpse to the riches of the sea - pearls and corals - is an anthropocenic moment, dissolving the human into nature, the living into something fossilized [8]. Transition and change: the representation reckons with effects which no longer exist for the hand but only for the eye [9].

Drawing on raw statistics, he proved the opposite was true - we are actually living in a world of increasing abundance, made possible by a cornucopia of innovations [10]. We have not food every day, but we go to the play every evening, if we see good [7].

And I felt the warmth of renewed faith [11].

How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths. [1] Let us dream that sight and hearing give us general information relatively swiftly, somewhat abstract or universal; and shapes: a melodic line, harmonies, morphology, [2] as far as men can raise that nature, so that it shall no longer be interested by trifles, or exhausted by toils, they raise it above play. [3]

First, we made imaginable the possibility of moving images, [4] of seeing like Janus on the back of your head. In the Greek sense of the verb to see, he incarnates theoretical man, an omnidirectional ball of open eyes. [5] Look at the market through the market maker’s eyes! [6] Thus dealing in none but the colours of nature, and catching its most favourable features, men saw a new creation opening before their eyes. [1] “By now my hands see more than your eyes” [7] – “I gave you eyes to see the light and you used them to peer into the darkness!” [7]

Who knows whether these opacities will not become transparent? [5] It is not a common glory, but a transparent sphere, like a bubble, which not only envelopes the angel, but crosses the figure of Moses, throwing the upper part of it into a subdued pale colour, as if it were crossed by a sunbeam, [3] the light which plays between our eyes and the heavenly bodies produce a mediating community [8].

The good news is: you see that beautiful nurse over there? [9] Beautiful, ample, warm and vibrant, she dwindles into her soft name [1]. But above all we may observe with what sweetness and tenderness the Painter has united his colours [10].  Shall we continue to raise our eyes to heaven? [5]

Now, as I walked in the cold, pale sun of that winter morning, surrounded by the fervor of men and animals, I began to remember my experiences in a different way. [7] The design process relies on the designer’s own continuous, critical assessment of the legibility of the design trying to see the design through the eyes of its future audience and users. [11] If such a medium and such a place didn’t exist, we would have to invent them, so urgent is the need to invest the distance separating us from contingency with something material and not metaphysical with something at once factual, which no longer wastes its ‘time’ filling up the gap to contingency with time and possibility. [6]

What is beautiful? [11] The process of constructing stable mental images is an automatic process that renders that which is immediately given to our senses virtually invisible. [11]