The Anthropological Manifesto

The full accounts of my Being

anthropologus — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:58:52 +0000

Atheist, Francophile, part-time Victorian gentleman, Freemason, Artist, Writer, Bonsai maker, Blogger, Classics reader, Opera aficionado, Moleskine addicted, Capitalist, Evolutionist, Global warming denier, Psychologist, Gaucho, Jazz man, Playwriter, Brazilian, Art Deco, Neoclassical, Social thinker, Biomechanics being, aspiring lighthouse keeper, future tugboat owner, Belle Époque revivalist, Dreamer, Absinthe connoisseur, African descendant, Surrealist, Guinness club member, Bohemian, Hedonist, Smithsonian, Avante-garde, Auckland War Museum member, Cat nemesis, Conservative, Harlequin suspicious, Lexicon fantastic, Absolutist, Sketching master, Candottiere, Ex-Libris, Theorist, Caffeine junk, Rational animal, Caravaggio admirer, Individualist, Alpha male, Steampunk, Gargoyle hunter, French cinema critic, Mastermind, National party voter, Living History, Flamboyant, Grimm brothers’ reader, Platigio, Revolutionary, Symbolist, Pirate, Alchemist, Zeitgeist, Royal mint collector, Web designer, Ecologist, Insightful, Chess player, Enemy of state, Cyber merchant, Elitist, Social philosopher, Strategist, Lover, Pinot Noir drinker, Barista, Geopolitics, Museophile, Noveau Realisme, Missionary, Oxbridge enthusiast, Explorer, Caissa worshiper, Agnostic, Visionary, Il carbonario, Untergunther, Cataphile, Virtuoso, Crayola buyer, Imperialist, Rocketeer, Moat’s buider, Muse, Zealot, Decorator, Artisan, Painter, Educator, Carpenter, Roman a clef and Chivas Rigal seal of approval.

Random notes from my Moleskine

anthropologus — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:36:26 +0000

“At the end, willingness of individual change rather than opportunity is required to advance society low levels of Human interaction to equal standard.”

Fogg Art Museum
Edgar degas
The adventures of lady Sarah Harris
Stanton pieces

“Green is the new black!”

Man, Lion, Ox and Eagle.
Matthaus Merian
Taw

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; When I became a man, I did away with childish things.” – Corinthians 13:11

Pillar boxes
King Edward VII
Messalina
English telephone booths

“Without legacy, life itself becomes mean less.”

Gustave Dore

The sharp eyes of a bargain wonderer

anthropologus — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:16:23 +0000

Found and purchased yesterday. …Somewhere in Auckland, New Zealand… Going to auction at trade me website this Friday.

Ready to invade...

No man is an island

anthropologus — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:56:04 +0000

No man is an island,
entire of itself.
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.

if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,

as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends
or of thine own were.

any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send
to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.

‘No Man Is An Island’ John Donne (1624)

Critical Analysis:
Meaning
Human beings do not thrive when isolated from others. Donne was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism.

Origin
This is a quotation from John Donne (1572-1631). It appears in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII:

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Albrecht’s Rhinoceros

anthropologus — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:34:23 +0000

This celebrated woodcut records the arrival in Lisbon of an Indian rhinoceros on 20 May 1515. The ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar II (1511-26) had presented it to Alfonso d’Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India. Albuquerque passed the gift on to Dom Manuel I, the king of Portugal.

The rhinoceros travelled in a ship full of spices. On its arrival in Lisbon, Dom Manuel arranged for the rhinoceros to fight one of his elephants (according to Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis (‘Natural History’) (AD 77), the elephant and rhinoceros are bitter enemies). The elephant apparently turned and fled.

A description of the rhinoceros soon reached Nuremberg, presumably with sketches, from which Dürer prepared this drawing and woodcut.

No rhinoceros had been seen in Europe for over 1000 years, so Dürer had to work solely from these reports. He has covered the creature’s legs with scales and the body with hard, patterned plates. Perhaps these features interpret lost sketches, or even the text, which states, ‘[The rhinoceros] has the colour of a speckled tortoise and it is covered with thick scales’.

So convincing was Dürer’s fanciful creation that for the next 300 years European illustrators borrowed from his woodcut, even after they had seen living rhinoceroses without plates and scales.

Dom Manuel sent the rhinoceros to Pope Leo X in Rome, who had much admired ‘Hanno’, the elephant the king had sent him the year before. Sadly, the ship carrying the new gift sank before it reached Rome.

A psychological analysis of Rembrandt’s sketches

anthropologus — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:52:04 +0000

It is said that the genius of Rembrandt Van Rijn meant nothing when facing a blank piece of paper, and perhaps he was one of the few artists of the XVII century period that was afraid of facing the empty. Rembrandt didn’t have the luxury of Absinthe and green fairies or the incentive of financial packages provided by powerful Cardinals. With broken pockets, Van Rijt was the first of the free thinking artists of his time.

His style wasn’t different from any Dutch artist of his time, but his mind was. It made the remarkable difference that brought attention to his talent. He idealised full grace and beauty but was incapable (at least to my knowledge) of portraying his images in sketches. It puzzles me since his paintings were amazingly precise in every details and style.

A canvas has never been more difficult to deal with than paper. The movements of free arms, contours and motions allow humans to dance while creating. Sketching instead requires firm grips, fair lines, restriction and visual inspiration ahead. It requires some precision…

The fear is related to unrecoverable mistakes on paper. Canvas can be fixed to a certain extent. Sketches, re-started from nothing…

Back to emptiness again. Rembrandt just knew it.

Natural Conceptions

anthropologus — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:22:48 +0000

Ten Stone by Brian Despain

Moleskines & Coffee Shops

anthropologus — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:20:18 +0000

“At the Closerie des Lilas I sat in a corner with the afternoon light coming in over my shoulder and wrote in my notebook. The waiter brought me a café crème.” – A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

I decided to initiate this blog as an expression of my daily writing and readings were basically, it reflects some of the contents of my dearest Moleskine notebook which include sketches, notes, stories and ideas.

In times of laptops, Palms and Blackberries, I want to stay faithful to write in a simple notebook. It has given me a valuable increase of artistical expression and creativity and add a certain charm to it. As a coventional guy who enjoy simple and basic things in life, a Moleskine yellowish page and my trusted black 0,1 Staedtler pigment liner pen is all I require to create.