Today in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general.
The Forecast
Participation is the new consumption.
The News
Amid death threats, Paul the Octopus retires from the oracle business.
Wisdom
"It's been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. A messenger from the Kingdom, arriving at the last moment. But I tell you there is no such message, no such home -- only the millions of last moments . . . nothing more. Our history is an aggregate of last moments." :: Thomas Pynchon
The Monthly Report
...the need for recognition and status is at the heart of every consumer trend.
© 2010 The Layman's Almanac in cooperation with the Click Boom Pow, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Decay & Rebirth of Design Through Reintegration
Sloth
...through the familiarity and understanding of formal and tactile relationships, we acquire an appreciation of the invention of nature and man.
An excerpt from "Towards a Reintegration of the Arts" by Isamu Noguchi (1949) transcribed by the Editor.
The tragic aftermath of two wars is a moral crisis from which there is no succor for the spirit. Where once each man's work found some expression through his hands, through his religion and his temple, now there is only mechanization and the concepts of power. The blight of industrialism has pushed man into a specialized corner, and more and more he is assuming the role of spectator. We may say that the critical area of creativity out of which the individual finds his ethos has become so neglected as to jeopardize his very survival. In the extremity of this spiritual want, there is a renewed search for the meaning of existence, a recreative process which demands the utmost from artist of every kind in order to build an environment equal to our needs. A reintegration of the arts toward some purposeful social end is indicated in order to enlarge the present outlet permitted by our limiting categories of architects, painters, sculptors and landscapists.
Although the above views have been variously expressed, as yet, there has been no clear formulation of what steps are necessary to achieve such an association. Talk of integration becomes confused as a stylistic issue, when in reality the problem is one of human relationship between artist themselves and between artists and society. The claim is also made that unless our economic and social ills are solved, no answer to the problem is available. That no constructive solution has yet emerged is at least partially explainable by the specialization and fragmentation of our crafts and our lives. Cooperation is a lesson yet to be learned by humanity, socially, artistically and internationally.
Our reaction to physical environment may be represented as a series of hazy but continuous aesthetic judgments. Such judgments affect even the control of our emotions, bringing order out of chaos, a myth out of the world, a sense of belonging out of our loneliness. Likewise, through the familiarity and understanding of formal and tactile relationships, we acquire an appreciation of the invention of nature and man. Hence, any change in the emotional climate of our environment becomes a matter of artistic consideration.
I believe this is our responsibility to society which today is in great jeopardy. And I think that though artists are neglected at the moment, we will soon be in great demand to supply the poetic and artistic meaning of our existence.
Past Features
- An Interview with Meri Bourgard
- The Decay & Rebirth of Design Through Reintegration
- Your Epitomic Guide to Understanding the Card Act
- We're So Future :: Albeit Debased, Intricate & Profound.
- Eau de Toilette :: The Austere Strange
- Commencement & the Value of Simple Awareness
Funambules
The Life & Times of E.E. Hale :: She Loves Me Not
The Life & Times of E.E. Hale :: The Finishing Touch
Ask a Layman
Where do my 911 calls go after they've been recorded?
Into a database file of course! However, & keep this close to the chest, sources say that Google stores your frantic & frankly embarrassing 911 call in a maximum security shipping container on a Venezuelan off-shore cargo ship. Watch yourself. Everything you've ever searched for on Google is also stored in said container. Big brother, I mean Google is watching.
Do you have a question?
ask@laymansalmanac.com