The apartment is quickly turning back to Bushido Dojo, emptying out, growing larger, growing peaceful. I woke up early and spent some time looking around while the coffee brewed and the eggs fried. Big spaces get better wafts of cookery, especially in the winter when it’s warm inside and cold and dreary out. Also I like knowing I can open something really big in the living room. Like if I wanted to make a kite, or a gyrocopter. For when it’s time to officially: 

…apparently by using welding torches.

Before heading out into the cold morning rain,  I reviewed my notes in preparation for Aesthetics tonight. I’m not sure what to expect in a course of this kind. I’m a little anxious about it, but looking forward to seeing what this kind of study is like.

I’ve never taken an art or art history or art philosophy course before. I’ve never really read anything on it, either, a major gap in my education. I had to get special permission to register, and that happened in person with the professor. I just went in and explained I was interested in the “aesthetics of human learning”. I don’t know what I really mean by that, but as I explained the disjoined pieces that might be part of what I mean by that, I could tell he was at least interested in where it could go, once I am able to articulate.  He added me to the course and said: “Just make sure you come to class prepared. We read things very carefully.”

I’m going to put all of the coursework and my essays up here, so follow along if you like. Who knows where it could lead. Here’s one of the pieces we’re reading for tonight.

“The attraction of unself-conscious design stems from more than the hypocritical desire to cloak aesthetic preferences in claims of necessity in order to surreptitiously have one’s way. It is symptomatic of a desire to overcome the limitations of what philosopher Charles Taylor has identified as our culture of authenticity—a culture that so prizes the living of authentically individual lives that the exercise of choice and self-expression are all that are left as ultimate goods.⁶ The apex of such a culture is to live the life of the “artist,” and most architecture students indeed cite the desire to exercise artistic creativity as the primary reason they enter architecture school (the opportunity to make the world a better place runs a distant second.)⁷ (…) Architectural neo-modernism is tailor-made for the culture of authenticity, for not only does it eschew ontologies, in its employ one could never be accused of pandering to popular taste.”

I’ll create a new page for all of this stuff soon. Heck, maybe I can turn this into an online course for you guys.

See you soon.