The Palace of Knossos

Dated about 1900 BC, destroyed and rebuilt around 1450 BC. Discovered by Sir Arthur Evans 1900 AD.

There is little in the book on the world history of architecture that I didn’t know about Knossos, still, it was an enjoyable read.

Knossos, a Minoan ruin, stands in Crete, an island off the coast of Greece. Revered by most Eurocentric historians as the starting civilisation of magnificent Greece, Ponting in his World History is quick to point out that this probably isn’t the case and the Cretan civilisation might have been but a spin-off caused by migrants / indigenous (?) – anyway, people – who emulated the styles of more glorious civilisations of that time: Egypt, Mesopotamia, but gradually came up with their own.

The Palace of Knossos, so dubbed by Evans and the rest that follow him, might not actually be a palace in the real sense of the word. Historical debate has provided an alternative reading for the possible function of this complex, it could have been religious, since there is little to suggest residential use by monarchs but is full of rooms built for ceremonial purposes, like rooms made for storing religious ware. There is a throne room, but it is structured with a lustral-basin (depressed pool) which gives rise to speculation about whether the room could have used for ceremonial functions. In fact the name ‘throne room’ was only given because of an elaborate alabaster seat found there.

The art at Knossos was also more naturalistic than that of contemporary Egypt. It depicted youths in some ritual involving bulls, natural living things like fishes, plants etc. It seemed to emphasize movement, or at any rate gave more free rein to movement than Egyptian art. The bull imagery was probably due to a cult at Knossos that held the bull sacred. To me it sort of links with the bull mania in Spain: is this a possible predecessor? Rather unlikely connection though. It is more likely to have some links with the myth of King Minos and the minotaur.

An interesting thing about Knossos was that the whole complex was not fortified at all, by defensive walls or moats or whatever. So what exactly was the function of the place? The palace was also constructed in a labyrinthine model, which is questionable since who with proper town planning ideas would do that? And knowing that, as the myth goes, the minotaur was kept in a labyrinth, to what end was the complex constructed? Did the complex precede the myth, or vice versa?

Back to what is of architectural interest, the complex at Knossos had very exceptional water supply and drainage standards for those times. Terracotta pipes carried water in to the complex to supply baths, and sanitary sewers carried off waste water from basins and water closets. Although there was one place that had to be emptied by bailing though, a tub in a room called the Queen’s Megaron.

Besides the naturalistic frescoes, Minoan art at Knossos appeals to me as it strikes me as elegantly simple and rather ‘modern’… In particular the columns of the Minoan order. They are ‘downward-tapering shaft(s) with… bulbous torus ring(s) and abacus block capital(s)’.

(From http://www.bsa.ac.uk/knosos/index.htm?vrtour)
I wish to add that the above site, the British School of Athens’ page on Knossos, also offers a very interesting 3D virtual reality tour of Knossos. I found it pretty tiring to navigate the site after a while though, but for the patient, it could be most enjoyable! Also worth a look is http://www.dilos.com/location/13370 which is a Dilos Holiday World introduction to Knossos, Crete. Don’t be deceived – it actually has very extensive and informative write-ups on Knossos and the Minoan Civilisation! I was very amazed.

Studying Law at University

It’s actually a title of a book I picked up whilst browsing the Law section of my local library! By Simon Chesterman and Clare Rhoden. It’s quite interesting to note that these guides actually exist. Was actually looking for a one-volume introduction to Law but I couldn’t find anything! Anyway this was fun to browse through.

It does have a few helpful hints, which I will enumerate below. The only problem is that they are probably writing for Australian law students, who will do a double degree with something else, so sometimes what they say isn’t too applicable in my situation.

Time Management:
– A diary and a timetable. That I know. But a new approach to the diary: write down deadlines and reminders of deadlines! Which was an extremely efficient practice that I used to have, which I think I should take up again in university.

Tips for reading legal texts:
– Long case: look for the headnote (the summary)
– Particular area of law: read up in the legal encyclopedia or a textbook
– Get an overview: Filter. Skim what looks less relevant, since a case might deal with different parts of the Law.
– Keep asking questions: why is this written, how is it important to the conclusion that follows?

Notetaking in Lectures:
– Topic and date on the top of lecture notes!
– LOTS OF SPACE
– Colours / highlighting that will help recall when notes are skimmed over within the next 24 hours
– Distinguish between facts and the Law, for most of the time the facts are less important that the legal significance of the case. ‘It is the larger legal context that you are studying – the principles and the judgments – not the case itself’.

Notetaking from reading:
– If you must highlight, always have comments and questions in the margin
– Notes in one’s own words demonstrate understanding and form the basis of an essay

Unfamiliar words:
– jot them down and check them collectively in a half hour slot when you don’t feel like doing anything more taxing
– however if there is only one word between you and the total meaning, check it up!

What are you learning this for?
– Apply knowledge in the appropriate way
– Practice writing short essays on specific issues for open book exams / write lists if one needs to delineate points of law / write long essays on legal concepts when studying for history of law

The different levels of understanding:
– Level 1: ‘I think I’ve seen this before’
– Level 2: ‘I understand the beginning and the middle, but I can’t see why the judgment follows’
– Level 3: ‘Let me explain this to you’
– Level 4: ‘I think that this concept applies in this case, too’

Active learning strategies:
– Flow chart for case facts: help to determine causation, especially helpful in torts
– Diagram of events of a case – useful for visualising, esp for motor vehicle accident cases
– Debate with friends!
– act out the case haha.
– rewrite complex material in everyday language – interesting perspective on the ‘reasonable person’ idea
– think like the examiner: what shall I be tested on?
– summarise complicated cases into a newspaper article form
– 10 minute analytical brainstorm: list all the advantages of one legal theory, then another…

Greek Art 4th century BC – 1st century AD

Greek art, though already being less rigid and natural compared to the structured rigidity of Egyptian art, continued to perfect its fluid style and its accurate portrayal of the human body.

The transition from the Doric to the Ionic order in architecture showed a shift from the more imposing but simple columns of the Parthenon to something that was slimmer, taller and thus gave the illusion of height and grace.

Similarly in sculpture, Greek art reached new heights with works like the Goddess of Victory, Praxiteles’ Hermes with the young Dionysus, Venus of Milo. Much rigidity has gone, and what is portrayed looks like idealised human forms. Relaxed poses, fluid portrayal of folds in drapery etc.

What is amazing about these statues is that, well, a lot of people thought that Greek artists took many human models, studied them, sculpted them but minused off their deficiencies and perfected them. But if one has really tried to do something like that before one will realise that in the end, what results is a ‘pale and insipid ghost’. Which is why these life-like statues are incredible.

What they did, Gombrich postulates, is exactly the opposite: they followed Egyptian methods of structuring the human body, but asked the question: how do I breathe in life to these structures? Well I guess they succeeded pretty well!

Another development was the transfer of these skills of ‘humanizing’ sculptures from the general model to a particular portrait of reality. Creating a bust of a real figure in history was seldom done in a life-like way (in fact I wonder whether it was commonplace to even immortalise them in stone), but the tactic was soon employed in this manner. Alexander the Great got his court sculptor to portray him with expression. Previous sculptures of real-life people seldom got this treatment, Gombrich attributes it to the difficulty of imprinting an expression on a work of art – he cited the difficulty we all have when we try to add an expression to a face, say, whilst doodling on paper. So this was another development – expression.

With the rise of Alexander and his well-known conquests, art took another new direction. Art from that period on (around 3rd century BC) became dynamic, powerful, expressive, ornate, as though to reflect the growing strength of a unified empire and the wealth and diversity of multi-culturalism. As it was, art ceased to be the concern of a minor Greek city but was ‘the pictorial language of almost half the world’.

Gombrich refers us to the Corinthian order, which to me is primarily recognisable by the graceful spiral volutes of the Ionic being changed into stylised foliage that furnished the top of Corinthian columns. Also to the altar of Zeus from Pergamon, which was more concerned with the portrayal of vibrant movement than in stylised grace.

Laocoon was another work of art that he referred us to, which I personally find rather memorable:

It’s rather dramatic isn’t it. It tells the story of Laocoon, a Trojan priest who had forewarned his fellow citizens to beware the Greek horse, and was punished by the gods who sent two large serpents to suffocate him and his two sons in their coils as they were afraid he would thwart their plans. The story’s from Virgil’s Aeneid.

Yet Gombrich did insert a bit of a personal sentiment here when he describes how he couldn’t help but feel that this could have been art that would appeal to those bloodthirsty for a gladiatorial spectacle. Perhaps this signified a switch in art direction from a period where art was primarily concerned with magic and religion to one where the artist is concerned with the problems of his craft for their own sake: how to sculpt something that would appear most expressive, that would allow the artist to show off his talents? Gombrich ends the paragraph on a rather sad note that perhaps, the fate of Laocoon and his two sons never really occured to the sculptor when he was shaping the stone.

With the empire grew wealth, and wealthy merchants soon began to have the luxury of having a bit of art brought to their villas and what not. Pompeii, an ancient equivalent of a modern luxury resort town, was well-preserved in volcanic ash when Vesuvius, an active volcano nearby, erupted in 79 AD, thus most art pieces are still kept in pretty good condition. Whilst not all works were breathtaking, a few certainly caught the eye, and Gombrich extends this by asking us to imagine how real high quality art of the period would have been if such wonderful portraits were created in a rather unknown little town like Pompeii. I can only imagine.

Another interesting thing about Pompeii was the landscapes that were found there. It may sound rather insignificant but it was a breakthrough, for in previous eras no one really bothered with landscape and when depicted, was only a background for military exploits, which took up the foreground. I guess wealth of a nation really does play a part in art. When poets in the Hellenistic period like Theocritus discovered the simple joys of country folk like shepherds, much attempt to recreate their idyllic lifestyles was done in art. Landscape of this period is interesting for the fact that, at first glance, they look rather normal, like a reflection of reality. However, closer examination would soon inform the viewer that this cannot be, as the laws of perspective are not applied. In fact, Gombrich thinks that the Greek artists of this period still hung on to ancient beliefs that important things are drawn nearer and less important details, in the background. This created illusory depth I suppose.

To round up Gombrich used his favourite philosophy on how the Greeks started off emulating Egyptian (Oriental) art, but added on to it through their own innovative explorations, shaking off the ‘awkward limitations’ of Egyptian structural order.

Terra Nostra: the 1st Chapter

Terra Nostra is a novel by the South American writer Carlos Fuentes.

South American writing of the 20th century tends to fall into a genre known as magic realism, where elements of fantasy find themselves interwoven into what is otherwise a rather normal, believeable storyline. Thus readers are asked at times to temporarily suspend their rational faculties. It’s not full-blown fantasy, and thus can produce rather interesting effects. To me, it feels rather surreal sometimes.

Carlos Fuentes, when writing Terra Nostra, was reputedly supposed to have a lofty ambition – he wanted to write all novels. Interesting, isn’t it. A bit like Milton with his Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. So much so that the introduction to the book actually had another author saying that Fuentes could probably be Legion himself, attempting a diabolic, hubris-ridden reconstruction of history in its entirety, openly challenging the notion that only God can fully comprehend and perceive the world in all its different quarters in all ages.

This fact is immediately noticeable in one thing: the length of the book. It’s extremely thick.
I read only the first chapter. It’s interesting. It is Paris, current (modern) times. Yet Paris is full of the smell of rotting flesh, sweltering summer heat. Something feels like it’s dying, decaying.

Our main character (at least in this part of the narrative) does the following in sequence: dreamt a dream that states how incredible it is the first animal that dreamt of another (and similar things besides), watched his aged landlady (?) give birth to a son, receives a letter wherein some weird couple tells him what to name the son and how, in another time, this was his son, walks about the street carrying a signboard promoting food from the store which he works for (that’s his main duty), sees the women of Paris, young and old, giving birth, bumps into a peculiar girl, who turns out to be the lady in the couple pair who wrote to him. As she speaks to him a parrot (or some sound-emitting feathered creature) shrieks, ‘listen to my story, I want to tell my story’.

Then there’s the bit of chapter two that I read. Presumably this is the story. Philip II of Spain (I presume, since the book’s title list of characters introduces him as Felipe, El Senor, heir to Felipe, the Fair) is on a hunting trip and has some complications regarding the hart that he wants to chase but might not be able to catch, as it was apparently hunted for, then the narrative shifts to interior monologue where we catch a glimpse of his mental state in which the importance of a hunt to boost prestige and confidence in the royal family amongst his men is stressed, and something about his mastiff accidentally scratching him with the spikes on its collar and how Felipe is really worried about bleeding to death (maybe his blood cells can’t clot up fast enough).

Already I can see the magic realism in the first chapter, and the transition from first to second chapter, the employment of a narrative feature: the story within a story, as in the Arabian Nights.

Whilst typing this out I realised that the first chapter is also sort of concerned with the theme of Life and Death (giving birth, decaying Paris?) and possibly of reincarnation, with the hint of the newborn being his son in a different time and space. It’s a rather end-days scenario: the end of times, strange things (anomalies) happen – I mean, all women giving birth? – the birth of a figure from a past time frame, two mysterious characters claiming to know more than the eye beholds…

And what’s this thing about Felipe suddenly? It’s beginning to feel very much like a meta-narrative: the present, the past, all embodied in two beginning chapters of the novel. The past and the present are interlinked, interwoven, even, probably, existing at the same time. Reminds me very much of Borges and his experiments with the possibility of circular history, or even constantly occuring history.

World History from McNeill

Yay!!!!! Finally I am blogging on world history, one of my favourite topics.

I first started my readings from this book called A World History by McNeill, but I switched later when I bought my own one-volume world history by Clive Ponting.

I skipped the early history on the Earliest Man, as I don’t believe it, on to the earliest civilisations…

Earliest civilisations were not real civilised cities, more often isolated cities incapable of expansion. They needed a broader ecological base, as in Sumer, such as the flat alluvial plain between Tigris and the Euphrates. Sumer’s unique ecological climate ensured the growth of civilisation, as summer rains did not fall on the south of the middle east, therefore the land needed irrigation.

Specialisation created a managerial class. How exactly they arose is not certain, it could have been by:
Conquest and subjection, or
priests – self-made managers, since later Mesopotamian myths explained that the Gods had created men to be slaves so that there was enough food etc in the temples

The management system eventually created civilisation per se: hypothesis by McNeill
This was probably due to heavy taxation such that farmers were enslaved to priests in order to get wages in terms of rice etc. This ensured labour for big scale projects and made specialisation possible.

Regarding the priestly mandate, why were priests so powerful? This was probably because they could predict the seasons through maintaining a calendar that recorded the moon’s waxing and waning and movements of the sun etc., and ordinary farmers probably thought this ability foretold special connections with the gods. Therefore priests wre seen to have the mandate to govern and have a say in managing crops.

Sumerian religion:
Other than sacred songs and texts to please the gods, Sumerians worked out a theological system to explain natural and human phenomena (after all, the civilisation was a theocracy).

Fundamentals of Music, continued

Intervals: The difference between two pitches. The closest interval is a union, where two notes of the same pitch are sounded. Regarding consonance, the most harmonious-sounding interval is the eighth (the octave), the second, the fifth, and the third, the fourth. The third and the sixth are also considered consonant. Generally the second and the seventh are dissonant.

Melodic motion: The spacing of notes in a melody (tune). Most melodies consist of movements between notes in steps (a spacing that’s one full note from the other), half-steps, leaps and repeated notes. Sometimes, in melodies where the melodic motion is primarily shaped by simple steps and half-steps, a sudden leap at a place or two will provide melodic interest.

Melodic sequence occurs when a melodic pattern is repeated at a different pitch level.

Contrast and return is an effective melodic device that is often used in music – in a piece, it means the melody is structured in an A-B-A form, with the middle part being the contrast and the second A the return. Somehow it sounds rather ‘musically satisfying’ and is often used when composers structure their music. A rather interesting variation is the A-B-A’ form, where the return is slightly varied.

Harmony: how accompaniment in music is structured (but I don’t like this definition). The most common consonant chord is the triad, where the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale are played. The first note is the root, sometimes the accompanying notes may not be above the root in pitch, but the root (whether placed at the bottom, middle or top) still remains one, as it is the note on which the triad was originally based. Variations of the triad exist, one of them being the seventh chord, where a flattened seventh is added to the triad. The effect produced is a slightly dissonant chord that signals subsequent movement to a different triad.

A keynote is the note on which a piece is based on. If a piece is based on the keynote C, the piece is said to be written in the key of C.

When one arranges the notes belonging to a keynote in order, a scale is created. Scales give musical colour to a piece. Divided into two categories, the major and the minor.
A major scale’s sequence is: 1-1-1/2-1-1-1-1/2
where 1 denotes a whole step and 1/2 a half-step. Using any keynote one can form a major scale by this sequence.

A minor scale’s sequence is: 1-1/2-1-1-1/2-1-1

Notes from a major scale tend to have a more brightened and cheerful effect, the minor scale more serious, to some extent, depressive.

There are variations within the minor scale, the aforesaid is the natural minor, a harmonic minor: 1-1/2-1-1-1/2-1/2-1 exists that is normally used when harmonising a minor key. A melodic minor is used when composers write a minor melody, and sounds slightly different in ascending and descending order.

Other scales are sometimes used, such as the pentatonic and the chromatic (moves almost entirely by half-steps).

Music Fundamentals

For someone who only had a brief touch with music theory, this was rather essential.

So what is music? At its simplest level, music is organised sound played for an audience. Although I kind of dislike the definition, it seems to take the beauty out of music. Organised. Sound.

Some basic elements: Sound, Texture, Pitch, Interval, Melody, Harmony, Scales, Keys, Chords, Rhythm, Dynamics.

Sound is pretty obvious, and there’s not much to summarise here.

Texture – I don’t see a clear definition, but that’s okay. The way a piece sounds can be attributed to whether the piece is staged in monophony, homophony, chordal homophony, polyphony and round. What are these? I don’t think he bothered to give them an umbrella term, but…

Monophony: just a single melody line. Can be a solo or group performance, but all are singing the same tune.
Homophony: music that moves by chords. The most simply form of it is song texture, where a solo voice has chordal accompaniment, as in the case of a singer who is accompanied by someone playing chords on the guitar. Chordal homophony is typified by a choir singing in harmony: there are more than 1 line, but all of them move together in harmony,forming chords.
Polyphony is incredibly complex (to me). It occurs when one hears more than 1 distinct musical line sounding at the same time. Much Western classical music is like this, the flute might be playing an entirely different tune from the violins, yet, strangely, they complement each other.
A round occurs when the same line is repeated 3 or 4 times, each time a little after the other, but in a harmonic way, as when one sings ‘Row, row, row your boat’ in succession.

Pitch – in choir I understood this as the note at which you’re singing. Sound is formed by vibrations, and pitch, technically, is the frequency (rate of vibrations) one hears.

Notation: our darling bars and clefs. Clef is the French name for key, and so the clef is the key to which notes are written. Interestingly, the treble clef symbol is actually a stylised G, and the central spiral goes around the line that denotes the G note. Whereas for the bass clef, the top two dots straddle the line representing the note F, and the bass clef is actually a stylised way of writing the letter F.

Music Around the World

This time my text is Understanding Music by Jeremy Yudkin.
In his first chapter he was trying to introduce music worldwide. Music’s purpose, so to speak, isn’t always for entertainment. Culturally, music can be made for other reasons, even economical – in Mandinka for instance, where people employ a professional singer called a Jali to sing their family history out. It’s a pretty shrewd way of advertising one’s lineage, and illustrious ancestors can be helpful with social standing and status in a society.

It is also interesting to note that even in the West, music hasn’t always been about enjoyment. In the Middle Ages, for instance, there was always music in the churches, although no visible audience, for the audience was God – singing was regarded a primary duty of the monks for the Divine Being.

A people’s music is reflective of their culture. To borrow a quote that I like:
‘Culture forms the music, and the music represents the culture.’

Texture is another thing that Yudkin devoted some time towards. This is formed by the style of melody and the rhythm. Music of the west tends to sound complicated in its melody because polyphony is employed – several different strands of music playing altogether at once (mostly in harmony of course). Whereas African music tends to be monophonic – just one melody line – but extremely varied in rhythm! A different texture can also be created when the music played is canonical – one melody played 3 or 4 times, each time a little after the one before has started.

Structural Systems, continued

Post and Lintel (Column and beam):

Perhaps the simplest and most memorable example of post and lintel construction – Stonehenge. Post and lintel means two vertical forms supporting a horizontal on the top. Certain ancient Greek buildings were constructed this way too, think Greek columns with a ‘bar’ (beam?) on top. When loaded, the beams deflect downward, compressing the fibres of the first half of the columns and stretching (or putting in tension) the lower half. The book apparently says that wood, steel and reinforced concrete are most popular for this kind of structure since the materials employed must be equally strong in tension and compression. But stonehenge is made of stone??? Perhaps that’s the astonishing fact of it. Anyway it might also account for why the horizontal stones are not as broad as the vertical ones, since the weight might be too heavy to be supported in this way.

Corbel and Cantilever
Because of stone’s weakness in tension, civilisations past used corbelling to work around it. Corbelling consists of trying to make a stone arch by piling stone blocks projecting a little further than the previous one that it stood on, so that gradually one makes a triangular arch:

(As the pics here are really not my own I think I should acknowledge that this one came from what looks like a very informative site on corbelling – www.stoneshelter.org/stone/construction.htm)

In cantilever construction, where beam(s) protrude over the structure supporting them, the same concept is applied. Think Fallingwater:

Yes that part protruding is cantilevered. Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius…

Arch and Vault!
My favourite! It ‘blows my mind’, to borrow a phrase someone I knew keeps using.
Masonry (stone) arches and vaults were created in a dry stone walling system (without mortar!) in the past. Wedge shaped stones called voussoirs form the arch. The amazing effect of stones appearing to stay in position ‘floating’ in the air is due to forces. The arch exerts, not only a downward thrust, but also a lateral thrust which must be counteracted by other forces if the stones that form it are to stay in place. So during construction a temporary framework, called centering, must be used to support the entire arch, until all the stones are fitted in place and compress each other (all the countermanding forces keeping the stones in place). I think it’s pretty neat.

Barrel Vault, from www.thefreedictionary.com/barrel+vault

The centering is the wooden framework in the middle on which the stones of the would-be arch are placed. From www.uky.edu/Classes/A-H/323/restricted/terms.htm.

Truss and Space Frame
The trussing method of spanning space is found in cases where wooden or metal elements are connected in geometrical configurations (the most popular seem to be triangular). If this definition confuses you, think of bridges like the one below:

In this typical example, the bridge is a space frame that is created through steel bars connected in an equilateral triangle configuration. This equilateral triangle config has been patented and is known as the Warren Truss.

When looking for pictures I came accross wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_frame Looks pretty informative esp on how the trussing method has been used to give very interesting results in architecture.

Tension
Some structures are built largely on tension, and tension features pretty much in modern architecture. I personally think it’s a pretty cool concept – entire bridges can be held up by suspension cords! Which is why bridges hold some fascination for me… Architecture based largely on tension is probably mostly modern because of rapid advancements in these modern times that have brought the birth of iron bars and steel strands turned cable that can hold up massive structures! Whereas what can one do with vines and sisal…

Now let my bit of ‘nationalistic’ pride get in the way as I present the world’s largest span suspension bridge!

Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong.

Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas – Architecture!

The built environment has fascinated me since I was 11 years old.
My blog entries on architecture, for this time, will be from a book entitled A World History of Architecture. The book starts off with a few ‘basic’ concepts.
The above is a quote from the Roman architect Vitruvius, on what he considered the essentials of architecture. Usually translated firmness, commodity and delight.
Firmness: structural stability
Commodity: meeting of functional requirements
Venustas: beauty. which is subjective and hard to define.

On to a very fascinating thing about architecture, materials define architectural character more than I imagined. There are two ‘forces’ apparent in considering materials, as the book puts it, ’structural materials can be classified according to the way they accept loads: in tension or compression, or a combination of the two’. Compression: press ‘em together. Tension: pull them apart. Stone, brick and concrete are strong in compression but not in tension (which is why you’d never see a wire made of stone, what can it hold?), wood is strong in both tension and compression, as is iron, but iron is brittle. Reinforced concrete combines ‘the compressive strength of concrete with the tensile strength of embedded steel’, which is why it is strong in both.

Structural systems can be classified into 5 categories depending on the geometric configuration of their members and the way loads are carried:
– post and lintel (column and beam)
– corbel and cantilever
– arch and vault
– truss and space frame
– tensile