The poetry of coffeemaking: the importance of Fluency in Design

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you 
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

(Elton John, Candle in the wind – on the right a 1961 portrait of Marylin Monroe by Henry Cartier Bresson)

You may have recognized from these few verses the famous song that Elton John dedicated to Marylin Monroe’s memory. Assuming you know the song, let’s do an experiment.

Battlefield Aesthetics

What is striking about Napoleon’s strategic genius is his ability to visualize troops in battle not as separate entities, but as connected nodes in a network of tensions. Tensions that push, pull, support, threaten, and protect elements connected in a network of relationships. Likewise, the quality and effectiveness of a design depends on the designer’s ability to identify this invisible network of tensions and pull the right strings to achieve the desired ending.

Napoleon crossing the Alps, Jacques-Louis David (1801)
kb.dk pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1478444

The Elegance of mathematics: a lesson by Dante Alighieri

The relationship between the expressive richness of natural language and the rigor of mathematics has been explored by poets and writers over the centuries with surprising results. Mathematics has been used by artists to define strict Boundaries within which to express their creativity as well as to build bold metaphors. Among the many, we remember Borges, who in numerous works is seduced by the vertigo of mathematical thought. An example is the Aleph point of infinite dimensions: “An Aleph is one of the points of space that contain all the points […] the place where they are found without confusion, all the places of the earth, seen from all angles”.

Domenico di Michelino – Dante and the three worlds, 1465

Guggenheim museum – NYC

The Guggenheim museum, an iconic New York City attraction, is one of the most impressive buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. While you can go there to admire Vassily Kandisky’s works belonging to the permanent collection or to attend the latest temporary exhibition by some well-known or emerging star in the firmament of contemporary art, the building deserves a visit just to get to know more about its innovative design.