Aesthetic satiation.

I'm feeling random, so I thought I would compile a few photographs / artworks / images that satiate my aesthetic needs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have done. 

Nothing is beautiful, only man: on this piece of naivete rests all aesthetics, it is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add its second: nothing is ugly but degenerate man - the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined. - Nietzsche 

The two photographs of installations below by Brusse at http://www.ilovebrusse.com/ are fantastic and very quirky. I can imagine that you would be very touched if someone did this for you!

It pleases me to see that this girl has a Nintendo Gameboy in her handbag! The Opera Glass is also very cool - I wonder whether she was on her way somewhere, or whether she just has really poor eyesight...

This guy below is at the height of cool.

And, speaking of bikes, I would be over the moon to have a bike with my name on like this one below! I think I would like an olive green frame, however.

And I found this remarkable little cartoon and poem too, which is fairly sad but nonetheless thought-provoking. It suggests that you can only conceive of what you have experienced. Is this true? I'd like to think not - that creativity is alive and well. The little bird's lingering determination makes me think that he'll get to where he wants to be. 

The lighthouse.

The lighthouse is an evocative image that has been used over and over again in art, literature, music, film, theatre, photography and much more. For some unknown reason, I have come across a lot of lighthouse-related imagery over the past week, so I thought I would share some of it. The painting above is by the Romantic painter Turner, who Ruskin described as the sole artist able to "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." The painting does indeed sum up the solitude of the lighthouse surrounded by the vast crashing waters of the sea. I particularly like how the ship to the left is perilously trapped within the storm, and the observer knows not whether the ship will sink or survive. I love the contrast between the sky and the waves - both look threatening, but the sky is awe-inspiring as it cannot harm us, whereas the sea is menacing for its potential to destroy and engulf. 

This song was sung at an acoustic Open Mic night that I attended yesterday evening. The guy that sung injected more emotion into the song and the lyrics than the original, in my opinion, but I still like the Nickel Creek version. 

"And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea. 

And the winds that blow remind me, of what has been, and what can never be."

I first read Woolf's To the Lighthouse when I was about 14, and was enthralled by the Modernist stream of consciousness style of writing. The lighthouse comes to resemble the perceptual difficulty of interpretation, which ultimately leads to contradiction and consternation. James - who we see as both a child and an adult in the novel - comes to the realisation that multiple, conflicting, perceptions can all be true concurrently, and that reality is ultimately defined by one's perceptions and is thus subjective and transient. 

"The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now— James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it? No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too."

City of Dreaming Spires.

I love this city. These are some photos that my friend Kate has taken over the past few weeks - Oxford is such an inspiring place to live and work. 

The Rad Cam. 

The Sheldonian. The stone heads remind me of the Vatican!

Bridge of Sighs (I walked through this a few weeks ago - it was disappointingly bland inside!)

Christ Church meadows. Beautiful and very peaceful. 

This is the route down to the boat house.

And, being students, protests are a given... this one followed the government plans to increase tuition fees: