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Showing posts from February, 2016

States of Mind: Tracing the edges of consciousness | Wellcome Collection - Wellcome Trust

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I was disappointed.  To me,  it was a typical 'Essay Exhibition' The creators of the Exhibition  must have thought this is a good idea Start with the Soul, Descartes  take that to Neuroscience. Then explore Consciousness: So Sleep & Awake Childhood - becoming an individual Death and brain damage The art works did not communicate strongly and the text really did not give  a compelling discussion of consciousness. Intellectually, it seemed something I could have put together after looking at a Horizon programme or two, with a few book reviews and Radio 4 programmes.  You leave about as informed as you came in and not inspired. What I took out was Descartes Dualism, Blake's illustration of the female soul leaving the male body. A brain scan that shows a clever way of communicating with brain damaged, but this was most certainly not an interesting exploration of consciousness. In fact I think it is a failure as an Exhibition States of Min

London’s Big Dig Reveals Amazing Layers of History - National Geographic Magazine

Colourful, great pictures but a bit uninformative London’s Big Dig Reveals Amazing Layers of History - National Geographic Magazine

Performing for the Camera | Tate - failed essay exhibition

The Performing for the Camera | Tate is what I would call an Essay Exhibition. it is about the relationship of Photography and Performance, but it is far too wide a subject to do justice to intellectually. Artistically, I just found the subject matter not interesting enough. As an essay its not very interesting, as an exhibition its not very interesting. The title can emcompass anything where a photograph has a performative element OR where it documents a performance, that encompasses the whole history of Theatre, Cinema, Dance not to mention every other art and craft.  So it has no intellectual coherence. As such it has not much to teach us. And the choice of objects is not that exciting- I think they know that,  because there are a large number of pictures of naked women in the Exhibition. Looking at it you would think that 25% of all performances entail a woman taking her clothes off.  So there are far too many naked women unless naked women is one of the main themes - which i

Roman Fresco Discovered next to Leadenhall Market

Archaeologists have discovered a 100AD Fresco in a building destroyed to make way for the 2nd Forum at the centre of London. The finds were in 21 Lime Street. http://www.mola.org.uk/blog/discovery-ornate-roman-fresco-revealed Roman Fresco Discovered next to Leadenhall Market – IanVisits

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8th, 1741. - viewcontent.cgi

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Here, courtesy of Andrew, my footballing Vicar friend is his answer to my request for a proper Hell and Damnation sermon. I discover that, we sinners, are all precarious over the pit of hell, kept out of it only by an angry god's whim. The Wrath of God burns against them, their Damnation don’t slumber, the Pit is prepared, the Fire is made ready, the Furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the Flames do now rage and glow. The glittering Sword is whet, and held over them, and the Pit hath opened her Mouth under them. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=etas