Mechanical Arts

Conceived as a word/image essay, Reasons to Kill a Poet takes a critical look at how creativity and its derivatives are being mobilized as key concepts of neoliberalism, functioning to repress forms of oppositional creativity through structures of discursive, and embodied, policing and punishment. At the same time, counter-hegemonic “creativity” persists, and the essay foregrounds particular exemplary works by writers, including Chilean musician and poet Victor Jara, Estadio Chile (1973); US-based Black journalist, writer and activist Mumia Abu Jamal, Teetering on the Brink: Between Life and Death (1991); and Ugandan queer activist, researcher, and poet Stella Nyanzi, No Roses from My Mouth (2020) These writings are juxtaposed with visual images to create a third space between word and image, and elicit historical resonances on such questions as What is the relationship between social and artistic critique and experimentation? How are their creativities conceived, posited and enacted as anti-capitalist and anti-governmental formations? What threat does radical creative work pose to the common sense of any period, but particularly to the forms of authoritarian impunity that characterize the neo-liberal present?

The Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, represents a cornerstone of Enlightenment intellectual achievement. Beyond its role as a vast compendium of knowledge, it was an innovative project aimed at transforming the way human understanding—particularly in technical and artisanal domains—was acquired, shared, and appreciated.
A key feature of this monumental enterprise was the strategic incorporation of engravings. These visual elements transcended mere illustration; they often conveyed and complemented complex information, sometimes even surpassing the text in clarity. Central to this visual revolution was Louis-Jacques Goussier, the project's most prolific draughtsman. His more than 900 engravings, including detailed depictions of hydraulic and water-raising machines, exemplify the unique capacity of images to communicate intricate technical and scientific concepts.
We argue that Goussier’s images, especially those depicting water-raising technologies, reveal the essential role of visual media in transmitting practical, mechanical, and scientific understanding. His illustrations demonstrate the limitations of relying solely on textual explanation and underscore the didactic independence and effectiveness of visual communication.

Em 1856 foi fundado o Liceu de Artes e Ofícios do Rio de Janeiro. Seu objetivo era criar um mercado de trabalho voltado a um projeto de industrialização do país com base no ensino do desenho eclético. O ensino do desenho, valorizando as artes mecânicas, deveria tornar a cidade uma obra de arte. Rui Barbosa participou desse projeto utilizando-se das idéias do crítico de arte inglês John Ruskin.

This paper is a study concerning the eclogues of Francisco Rodrigues Lobo (1580-1622), focusing on his preambular Discourse on the life and style of shepherds, which affirms the basis, historical background and aim of the genre: preaching of honest truths, praise of virtues and customs, disillusionment and complaints about the reputed lack of idoneity in city habits. The paper then presents a brief analysis of the ten eclogues, focusing on the terms relating to the bucolic and pastoral genres.

The contribution explores the valorisation of human labour in the Didascalicon by Hugh of Saint Victor. Following a brief outline of Hugh’s life and main works, one underlines the principal points of interest of his classification of philosophy. 1. For the first time the mechanical arts are part of philosophy, albeit considered in their theoretical aspect. 2. Hugh proposes a parallel between liberal and mechanical arts, according to which the external sphere of the trivium and the internal one of the quadrivium correspond to the seven mechanical arts. 3. The organic nature of the division depends from the idea that humanity lost its perfect condition with original sin, hence the need to repair both the spiritual and the bodily part of man with the liberal and mechanical arts.

Resumen Este texto indaga sobre las características compartidas entre las praxis artística y arquitectónica de Andy Warhol y Robert Venturi durante el periodo 1962-1973. Más allá de aspectos biográficos que relacionen ambas figuras, se trata de establecer la posible influencia de la obra del artista de Pittsburgh en los trabajos iniciales del arquitecto. En este caso, frente a los aspectos visuales y temáticos más evidentes —del cliché como motivo a la estilización de los elementos arquitectónicos, mencionados brevemente en el escrito—, el foco de trabajo se centra de manera casi exclusiva en el análisis conceptual de la repetición de motivos en el plano. Si en el artista esta forma de operar resulta una contradictoria vía de expresión de lo manual en su ejercicio pictórico, en el arquitecto de Filadelfia la reiteración constituye una puesta al día de un recurso disciplinar orillado por la modernidad: el ornamento.This article examines the characteristics shared by Andy Warhol and R...

The article focuses on the dual meaning communicated by the supporting sculptures, conceived as self-portraits: ideas of humiliation and subordination on the one hand, as opposed to pride and haughtiness on the other. Paradigmatic occurrences are shown in Giovanni Pisano’s oeuvre, as can be seen from the crouching Adam under one of the columns of the pulpit of Pistoia, and from the hypothetical self-portrait embedded into the pulpit of Pisa. Scholars assumed the existence of Giovanni Pisano’s disguised self-portraits by referring, in the first place, to the obvious likeliness of particular facial expressions in his work (such as the keystones in the façade of the Sienese cathedral and the ascribed telamons of Massa Marittima and San Quirico d'Orcia). By analysing the iconography of the anthropomorphic support with the endorsement offered by scriptural sources and the Church Fathers, it is possible to broaden the scope of analysis and to draw lines of identification between the artist, the human being as a sinner, and Christ who, brought before Pilate, carries the cross on his way to Golgotha. Such similarities, together with the idea of Deus artifex who shapes the world, soon became for the artist the cornerstone of a research aimed at the reappraisal of craftsmanship, conceived as the foundation of his artistic identity and dignity. Finally, this significant comparison between God, who made man in his own image, and the craftsman, who made, in turn, the work of art in his own likeness, will be investigated through the study of Phidias’ self-portrait, which is said to have been carved on the shield of Athena Parthenos, and the literary testimonies left by Pseudo-Aristotle.

I would like to thank the University of Cambridge for providing me with the funding to undertake this project via the Cambridge Home and EU Scholarship Scheme. This thesis would also not have been possible without the teaching, inspiration, and support of my supervisor, Paul Binski. Particular thanks are also due to Nicky Zeeman, and Winthrop Wetherbee-both of whom gave generously of their time to read and comment on earlier versions or parts of this thesis. My thanks also to the examiners of my first-year report, Alexander Marr and Richard Oosterhoff, for their invaluable guidance and encouragement at an early stage. I thank Richard especially for his help with Latin; and Neil Wright who took the time to answer questions of translation as I set out with the poets. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the colleagues and friends who helped me along the way, especially Emily

Resumen Este texto indaga sobre las características compartidas entre las praxis artística y arquitectónica de Andy Warhol y Robert Venturi durante el periodo 1962-1973. Más allá de aspectos biográficos que relacionen ambas figuras, se trata de establecer la posible influencia de la obra del artista de Pittsburgh en los trabajos iniciales del arquitecto. En este caso, frente a los aspectos visuales y temáticos más evidentes —del cliché como motivo a la estilización de los elementos arquitectónicos, mencionados brevemente en el escrito—, el foco de trabajo se centra de manera casi exclusiva en el análisis conceptual de la repetición de motivos en el plano. Si en el artista esta forma de operar resulta una contradictoria vía de expresión de lo manual en su ejercicio pictórico, en el arquitecto de Filadelfia la reiteración constituye una puesta al día de un recurso disciplinar orillado por la modernidad: el ornamento.This article examines the characteristics shared by Andy Warhol and R...

The Arts and Crafts School of Rio de Janeiro was founded in 1856. It was established to create a labor market for Brazil's first industrial plan, based on the teaching of design. The idea was that the teaching of drawing, with an emphasis on mechanical arts, would turn the city itself into a work of art. Rui Barbosa took part in this project, inspired by the ideas of British art critic John Ruskin.En 1856 se inauguró el Liceo de Artes y Oficios de Rio de Janeiro. Su objetivo era crear un mercado de trabajo orientado a un proyecto de industrialización del país, con base en la enseñanza del diseño ecléctico. La enseñanza del diseño valorando las artes mecánicas debía hacer de la ciudad una obra de arte. Rui Barbosa ha participado de ese proyecto, utilizando las ideas del crítico de arte inglés John Ruskin.Em 1856 foi fundado o Liceu de Artes e Ofícios do Rio de Janeiro. Seu objetivo era criar um mercado de trabalho voltado a um projeto de industrialização do país com base no ensin...

We may say without exaggeration that the art of sculpture has been dead in England for four centuries; equally without exaggeration I think we may say that it is reborn in the work of Henry Moore'. 1 With these words Herbert Read paid tribute to the young Henry Moore in his review of Moore's solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1931. Read's words unmistakably echo those of the Italian artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari, who almost four hundred years earlier had described in similar terms the artistic achievements of one of the great masters of early Italian art, the Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337). In his Lives of the Artists of 1550/1568, Vasari wrote that Giotto had revived the art of painting after it had been buried for many years, and returned it to such a form that it could be called good. 2 In portraying Moore as a modern day Giotto who single-handedly had taken Britain out of the sculptural darkness, Read may have merely used an old arthistorical cliché to praise the work of his young compatriot. Still, Read's praise alludes to a deeper connection between the British sculptor and the Italian painter. Scholars have acknowledged this connection, as well as Moore's wider fascination with early Italian art, and they have identified moments where this interest can be detected in particular works by Moore. Typically, the more 'human' and more 'natural' forms of Moore's Shelter Drawings from the early 1940s are seen as the first manifestations of this interest. 3 The drawings mark the end of what art historians * I would like to thank Sophie Orpen of the Henry Moore Archive in Perry Green for her assistance during a research visit in July 2019, and the UCR Research Fund for its financial support of this visit. I would also like to thank Ernestine Lahey and Bernhard Ridderbos for their detailed and very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this text. Finally, I thank Victor Schmidt for his careful review of the article.

Resumen Este texto indaga sobre las características compartidas entre las praxis artística y arquitectónica de Andy Warhol y Robert Venturi durante el periodo 1962-1973. Más allá de aspectos biográficos que relacionen ambas figuras, se trata de establecer la posible influencia de la obra del artista de Pittsburgh en los trabajos iniciales del arquitecto. En este caso, frente a los aspectos visuales y temáticos más evidentes —del cliché como motivo a la estilización de los elementos arquitectónicos, mencionados brevemente en el escrito—, el foco de trabajo se centra de manera casi exclusiva en el análisis conceptual de la repetición de motivos en el plano. Si en el artista esta forma de operar resulta una contradictoria vía de expresión de lo manual en su ejercicio pictórico, en el arquitecto de Filadelfia la reiteración constituye una puesta al día de un recurso disciplinar orillado por la modernidad: el ornamento.This article examines the characteristics shared by Andy Warhol and R...

Resumen Este texto indaga sobre las características compartidas entre las praxis artística y arquitectónica de Andy Warhol y Robert Venturi durante el periodo 1962-1973. Más allá de aspectos biográficos que relacionen ambas figuras, se trata de establecer la posible influencia de la obra del artista de Pittsburgh en los trabajos iniciales del arquitecto. En este caso, frente a los aspectos visuales y temáticos más evidentes —del cliché como motivo a la estilización de los elementos arquitectónicos, mencionados brevemente en el escrito—, el foco de trabajo se centra de manera casi exclusiva en el análisis conceptual de la repetición de motivos en el plano. Si en el artista esta forma de operar resulta una contradictoria vía de expresión de lo manual en su ejercicio pictórico, en el arquitecto de Filadelfia la reiteración constituye una puesta al día de un recurso disciplinar orillado por la modernidad: el ornamento.This article examines the characteristics shared by Andy Warhol and R...

Resumo: Este ensaio analisa e contextualiza os sonetos que Botelho de Oliveira e Gregório de Matos escreveram para elogiar o astrolábio que o jesuíta Valentim Estancel descreveu no seu texto Tiphys Lusitano ou Regimento Náutico Novo (Salvador da Bahia, finais do século XVII). O curioso invento de Estancel inspirou-lhes versos engenhosos que louvam um instrumento mecânico e o seu feitor, em consonância com a dignificação da pintura ou da escultura-artes manuais-e a sua consideração como artes liberais, tendência que já começara no Humanismo italiano. O debate a respeito da nobilitação das artes mecânicas ou artesanais esteve presente na produção intelectual e literária da imaginada República das Letras e das Ciências, que, da Itália, passando pela Península Ibérica, chegava até a América Portuguesa. Palavras-chave: Artes liberais e mecânicas; Abstract: This essay analyzes and contextualizes the sonnets by Botelho de Oliveira and Gregorio de Matos which were written in order to praise the astrolabe which the Jesuit Valentim Estancel described in his text Tiphys Lusitano ou Regimento Náutico Novo (Salvador de Bahía, end of the 17th century). Estancel's astonishing invention inspired both poets to write genius (witty) verses that admire a mechanical instrument as well as its inventor, though which they participated in the movement aiming towards establishing painting or sculpting-mechanical arts-as part of the liberal arts, a tendency which had already started in the Italian humanism. The debate concerning the admiration of mechanical arts could be found in intellectual and literary productions of the imagined Republic of Letters and Sciences, which originated in Italy and crossed over the Iberian Peninsula finally arriving in América Portuguesa.

* Agradeço à Fundação Gulbenkian a bolsa de investigação de pós-doutorado que me foi concedida, o que me permitiu trabalhar em Lisboa durante os primeiros meses de 2009.

In Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, the artisan is treated as an object of observation, not unlike the insentient tools he manipulates. Although the publication was committed to recording the mechanical arts, its rhetorical treatment of practitioners hewed to entrenched mind-over-hand hierarchies and ultimately perpetuated the artisan's elision in histories of the Enlightenment. In her pioneering book, Paola

This article examines the characteristics shared by Andy Warhol and Robert Venturi's artistic and architectural praxis during the 1962-1973 period. In addition to the biographical aspects linking the two figures, the article aims to establish the potential influence of the artist from Pittsburgh on the architect's initial works. Here, rather than concentrating on the most evident visual and thematic aspects-from clichés as a motif to stylisation of architectural elements, briefly mentioned in the article-, the study focuses almost exclusively on a conceptual analysis of floor plans and repetition of motifs. While reiteration for the artist results in a contradictory means of expressing what is manual in his pictorial exercises, for the architect from Philadelphia it constitutes a means of bringing up to date a disciplinary recourse hemmed in by modernity, that is, ornamentation.

The exhibition is a fortunate result of the temporary closing of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, which is undergoing a major renovation and expansion. Organized and curated by Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director of the Museo dell'Opera, and Daniel Zolli of Harvard University, the show includes some two dozen works of sculpture, many of which have never before traveled more than a few hundred feet from where they were created six centuries ago. Several objects are monumental in scale, dwarfing anything from their time and place that has ever been available in America.groundbreaking projects underway in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries for the cathedral of Florence and its associated Campanile and Baptistery. At least half a dozen, depending on one's opinion about

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This article discusses the implications of open source culture within new media art practice from a practitioner's perspective of view. This article firstly discusses contemporary scholars' work on the notion of 'computer code as magic incantation'. This interlinks digital media with the pre-modern esoteric experience to provide a research context. This discussion is followed by the description of artists' advantages of working within an open source society which includes the efficient solution of technical and conceptual problems. Further, the thesis focuses on the new challenges the code sharing culture has brought to the artists: while the mysterious cover of techniques were revealed, how do the artists discard the conventional notion of 'skill pioneer' and 'technique creator', and further produce art work with unique qualities? In order to provide a possible solution to these questions, the author would like to introduce the notion of 'Zombie media', an approach of applying media archaeology into artistic methodology advocated by media archaeologist Jussi Parrika. This discussion illustrates contemporary machine prototyping with the reuse, re-exploration and circuit bending of old media. This method proposes a depunctualization of media and the opening, understanding and hacking of concealed or blackboxed systems. It also suggests that media never dies: it decays, rots, reforms, remixes, gets historicized and reinterpreted. Finally, this article illustrates how this method of coded magic merging with zombie media can be applied by individuals to create unique experience, and how art practice corresponds with open source culture.

A chiedere agli artefici dotati d’ingegno e temprati «dallo esercizio dell’arte» di dare corpo per iscritto al loro sapere fu Benedetto Varchi che, nella primavera del 1547, in concomitanza con i suoi interventi accademici dedicati alle arti figurative, aveva promosso fra un gruppo di amici artisti l’inchiesta «del principato e della nobilità [...] della scultura e della pittura». Le loro risposte, e fra queste le lettere dei pittori Pontormo e Bronzino e altri, così come quelle ben note di Giorgio Vasari, in apertura, e di Michelangelo a coronamento conclusivo della «disputa», fecero da corredo all’edizione delle celebri “Due lezzioni” varchiane, edite nel 1550, appena un mese prima delle “Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani” dallo stesso «impressor ducale» Lorenzo Torrentino. Varchi fin dalla premessa generale pose la figura dell’artista al centro della complessa teorizzazione sulle “arti poietiche” (cioè «fattive») di Aristotele. Illustrando l’esser produttivo e, nel contempo, accompagnato dalla «certa e vera ragione» dell’”ars poietica”, il letterato mise in evidenza il fatto che questa si distinguesse dalla semplice tecnica, perché la sua capacità produttiva era possibile quando si verificava il possesso di una “techne”, ottenuta grazie all’esercizio, unitamente ai principi che regolavano una situazione in particolare (come, per esempio, fare la statua unica e originale). Il «proemio generale» e «l’introduzzione» alle tre arti poste da Giorgio Vasari in apertura delle “Vite” traevano l’ispirazione da questa solida esposizione varchiana. L’artista aretino coglieva bene il significato di riconoscimento riservato dal «philosopho» Varchi alle arti «fattive», mostrando per l’appunto nella sua opera il valore produttivo (ossia «fattivo») dell’operato degli artisti.