Author: Thomas L. Hankins
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400864119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman investigate an array of instruments from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century that seem at first to be marginal to science--magnetic clocks that were said to operate by the movements of sunflower seeds, magic lanterns, ocular harpsichords (machines that played different colored lights in harmonious mixtures), Aeolian harps (a form of wind chime), and other instruments of "natural magic" designed to produce wondrous effects. By looking at these and the first recording instruments, the stereoscope, and speaking machines, the authors show that "scientific instruments" first made their appearance as devices used to evoke wonder in the beholder, as in works of magic and the theater. The authors also demonstrate that these instruments, even though they were often "tricks," were seen by their inventors as more than trickery. In the view of Athanasius Kircher, for instance, the sunflower clock was not merely a hoax, but an effort to demonstrate, however fraudulently, his truly held belief that the ability of a flower to follow the sun was due to the same cosmic magnetic influence as that which moved the planets and caused the rotation of the earth. The marvels revealed in this work raise and answer questions about the connections between natural science and natural magic, the meaning of demonstration, the role of language and the senses in science, and the connections among art, music, literature, and natural science. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Author: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262026201
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
These essays - written by specialists of different periods and various disciplines - reveal that the division between nature and art has been continually challenged and reassesed in Western thought. Nature and art, the essays suggest, are mutually constructed, defining and redifining themselves.
Author: Fred Carlson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780962644788
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Book Description
A whimsical alphabet book of full-color woodcuts and humorous poems of fantastical musical instruments from the off-beat imagination of musical instrument maker (luthier) and artist Fred Carlson. This is an alphabet book that will inspire and delight children of all ages and anyone who loves musical instruments.
Author: Nicholas Cook
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 9780198163039
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
Musicians imagine music by means of functional models which determine certain aspects of the music while leaving others open. This gap between image and the experience it models offers a source of compositional creativity; different musical cultures embody different ways of imagining sound as music. Drawing on psychological and philosophical materials as well as the analysis of specific musical examples, Cook here defines the difference between music theory and aesthetic criticism, and affirms the importance of the "ordinary listener" in musical culture.
Author: Emanuel Winternitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music in art
Languages : en
Pages : 364
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Book Description
This book first appeared in 1967. In the years since then, it has spawned the new academic sub-discipline of musical iconology, which belongs equally to the histories of art and of music. Emmanuel Winternitz, who was for thirty-one years Curator of Musical Collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the world's leading authorities on the history of musical instruments. He is also an erudite historian of art. Combining these two interests he has for many years studied the innumerable representations of musical instruments in Western art. In this collection of closely related articles, he examines what these pictures tell of the design and construction of instruments, of their performance, practice, and of the often subtle symbolic use to which artists put them. Kithara and cittern, lute and lyre, bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy, and the ubiquitous lira da braccio, all of these figured largely in the art of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, together with a clutch of shwms, zinks, and crumhorns, and a variety of fantastic instruments that existed only in the imagination of the artists. In more than 200 photographs and many drawings, Winternizt illustrates instruments that range from an Egytptian wall-painting of a harp to a musette in a Watteau F te champ tre. He draws from the works of Titian, Raphael, D rer, and Bruegel, and also from medieval manuscripts and sculpture. Winternitz discusses these diverse elements with a combination of formidable learning, wit, and keen insight that makes this book at once a seminal work for scholars and a delight for lovers of art and music.
Author: Marie Noëlle Bourguet
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134482892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
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Book Description
We are now accustomed to conceive of science as an instrumental activity, producing numbers, measurements and graphs by means of sophisticated devices. This book investigates the historical process that gave rise to this instrumental culture. The contributors trace the displacement of instruments across the globe, the spread of practices or precision and the circulation and appropriation of skills and knowledge. Through comparative and contextual approaches, the volume confronts the tension between the local and the global, examining the process of the universalization of science. Bringing together case studies ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, contributors discuss French, German and British initiatives, as well as the knowledge and techniques of travellers in countries such as India, Africa, South East Asia and the Americas. Students and researchers interested in the history of science in both Western and non-Western cultures will find this book a valuable and thought-provoking read.
Author: Thomas H. Cook
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504091590
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 293
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Book Description
Will the truth bring peace—or pain? A “once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece” by the Edgar Award–winning author (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Mystery writer Paul Graves, a man with a painful past, has come to an artists’ retreat in New York’s quiet, picturesque Hudson Valley. But his purpose for being there is not a pleasant escape. He’s been tasked with something more unusual. Long ago, when Riverwood was a private estate, a teenage girl was murdered there—a crime that remains unsolved to this day. Now the victim’s elderly mother is dying, and her final wish is to learn what happened to her daughter. For the sake of this grieving woman, Graves has been asked to craft a story that answers her questions and provides a sense of closure. But he may have to choose between truth and kindness . . . “Eerie suspense . . . Although it’s easy to miss the very real clues that Cook drops so artfully into the story, there’s no ignoring his savage imagery, or escaping the airless chambers of his disturbing imagination.” —The New York Times Book Review “[An] indelibly haunting tale that once again demonstrates that he is among the best in the business.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Hypnotic.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Author: Dennis Waring
Publisher: New York : Sterling Pub.
ISBN:
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
Introduce the kids to some toy instruments they're sure to love--a bleach-bottle banjo, garden-hose bugle, washtub bass, or flowerpot chimes. Or create your own authentic folk instrument: Renaissance psaltery, hammered dulcimer, teardrop fiddle, or Celtic harp. How to make all these projects is fully explained here, along with playing instructions and a fun collection. "Irresistible."-- "Fine Woodworking . "Recommended."-- "LJ . 160 pages, 200 b/w illus., 8 1/2 x 10 3/4.
Author: Jessica Riskin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022630292X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 571
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Book Description
A core principle of modern science holds that a scientific explanation must not attribute will or agency to natural phenomena. "The Restless Clock" examines the origins and history of this, in particular as it applies to the science of living things. This is also the story of a tradition of radicals--dissenters who embraced the opposite view, that agency is an essential and ineradicable part of nature. Beginning with the church and courtly automata of early modern Europe, Jessica Riskin guides us through our thinking about the extent to which animals might be understood as mere machines. We encounter fantastic robots and cyborgs as well as a cast of scientific and philosophical luminaries, including Descartes and Leibnitz, Lamarck and Darwin, whose ideas gain new relevance in Riskin's hands. The book ends with a riveting discussion of how the dialectic continues in genetics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology, where work continues to naturalize different forms of agency. "The Restless Clock "reveals the deeply buried roots of current debates in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and evolutionary biology.
Author: Joe Kember
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822981785
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Victorian culture was characterized by a proliferation of shows and exhibitions. These were encouraged by the development of new sciences and technologies, together with changes in transportation, education and leisure patterns. The essays in this collection look at exhibitions and their influence in terms of location, technology and ideology.
