definitions

architecture is more than
an art,
design,
or construction of shelter.

art is more than expression.
it is communication.
communication requires two parties,
one gives and the other recieves.

according to leo tolstoy, art is the human expression of feeling with the desire by the one expressing the feelings to have the one who recieves the expression to experience those same feelings.

design is an intellectual exercise
involving the arrangment of thing and nothing.
to arrange is to create order out of chaos.

design can be based upon an theory of aesthetics, a concept of beauty. thus, a system of order based upon a concept of good and bad, beauty and ugliness.

there can be artists and designers who could care less about aesthetics and creating beauty. there can be designers who are not artists, could care less about comunicating their feelings, whose only goal is to arrange things and nothings. and there can be artists who are not designers, who could care less about arranging things and nothings, whose only goal is to express their feelings.

but there can be artists who use design to create beauty. an architect is an artist who creates designs for the construction of human habitations. the reciever of the architects art is the one who will inhabit the architecture. and if the inhabitant expreiences the feelings that the architect wanted to express, then it can be judged to be successful.

but an architectural design can also be an instrument for creating beauty in our built environment. architecture can be more then just constructing shelter to protect humans from the elements. an artistic architectural design, a rationale used to determine the arrangement of solid and void to create forms and spaces that evoke specific feelings, can also be based on aesthetics, a notion of what will make our society more beautiful. better as opposed to worse. good as opposed to bad.

this leads me to ask...
how do i see myself?
i am an artist and a designer.
i have a notion of beauty.
i have training to be an architect.

so... i guess i would be an artist who wants to design beautiful places that humans find comfortable and able accomodate their activities.

of course i still need to define what i mean by beautiful and comfortable.

imam ali

if we approach the first civil war in islam with the idea that no blame shall be placed on any companion of the prophet for wrongdoing, that none of them are bad and all are good, then how do we make sense of the murder of hazrat usman? because murder is bad. isn't it?



i've read the works of other sunnis who are much more knowledgable then i. but i have to try for myself. if i want to understand what happened.



we know muhammad ibn abubakr was one of those who broke into the house armed with intent to kill, but apparently backed out at the last second. we know the rebel mob elected hazrat ali after the murder. muhammad ibn abubakr was very close to hazrat ali. and several of the rebel leaders became his generals after hazrat ali moved the capitol to kufa in iraq.

the art of communication / needs vs. wants

recently i had an interesting internet chat with my wife. i wish i had copy and pasted the entire conversation, my memory is not very reliable. some very important issues came up.


she said she should accept me for who i am rather then wanting me to change my ways. and that she should be able to distinguish between what she wants and what she needs. and not confuse the two things. she wants to be able to open her email and find a nice message from her husband, she expects it. it makes her happy when it happens. but she doesn't need it.

i think that psychologists refer to specific list of things as real needs, like power, safety, survival, belonging, etc., and everything else is basically something that helps fullfill these fundamental needs, it can be considered a want. you can change your want but you can't change your needs. for example my wife needs power, so she wants me to change something about me. it will fulfill her need for power.

so i guess i should help her to find something else that helps fullfill her need for power.