First Semester Final Review

With the winter semester mere days away, take a second to reflect on all of your hard work from this past fall!

Ottawa Love: 808 Somerset

葡國雞 B

牛腩麵 B

乾炒牛河 B

tablecloths A+

~$10 p.p.

so worth it.

PS: You are more than welcome to show your favourite hangouts too. :D

Recently Read: Kathryn Moore - Overlooking the Visual

Moore, K. Overlooking the visual: Demystifying the art of design. (2010). Routledge: New York.

Carleton Library Call #: NK1505 .M66 2010 (Floor 3)

The full title is "Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying the Art of Design".

THE. IRONY. KILLS. ME.

Some excerpts:

The crux of the problem is that an intractable rationalist paradigm dominates our thinking to such a degree we no longer give it much thought. ... Reinforced by a host of beliefs and suppositions it exiles materiality to a metaphysical wilderness where it languishes, separated from intelligence, safely hidden out of sight, out of mind. (p 6)

The fundamental dichotomy between body and mind enshrined in perceptual theories creates an insuperable quandary that endures within any aesthetic experience. Is the resonance of the experience created by the recognition of something perfect, an unchanging truth out there in the world, or by a frisson with innate, archetypal structures in mind, the subconscious, pre-conscious or some kind of universal knowledge embedded in our genes? (p 53)

"Overlooking the Visual" explains design teaching and practice particularly through landscape architecture, although the content applies to all facets of design. Moore posits that Western thought perpetuates several false dichotomies which limit the way we design: thinking vs seeing, intuitive vs rational, theory vs practice. These dualities are interpreted by society as rules to live by, rather than simply a "philosophical construct". Interesting, no? It wasn't quite clear to me how freeing ourselves of these dualities would improve design, so I was rather excited to read the rest of the text.

(More after the jump)