Das Geviert - Anselm Kiefer (1997)
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015) - Das Geviert, 1997 - emulsion, acrylic, shellac, burnt clay, clay, wire, and sand on three panels of stretched linen or linen and cotton canvas.
The architectural structure in this monumental painting was likely inspired by a brickworks that Kiefer saw while traveling in India. That building was in a perpetual state of construction and destruction: newly made bricks were stacked on top of it and then replaced as they were sold. Plumes of smoke suggest the fires within. Taken out of its socio-historical context, this building becomes an allegory of ephemerality. The stepped pyramidal form recalls the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, Babylonian ziggurats, and Meso-American teocalli, all remnants of ancient cultures. The words in the corners translate to earth (upper right), sky (upper left), divinity (lower right), and mortals (lower left), which are the fundamental elements of German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) concept of “das Geviert” (the square), a hymn to dwelling on the earth articulated in “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” (1954).
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quadralectics.wordpress.com/5-essentials/5-3-consciousnes...
Quadralectic Architecture - Marten Kuilman (2011) p. 994/995:
The consciousness of seeing is, in many aspects, a philosophical subject. Questions of ‘consciousness’ reach deep into the heart of any scientific investigation and the valuation of architecture is no exception. The act of understanding the phenomena known to the human nature implies the knowledge of the valuation process of an observer.
The German philosopher Martin HEIDEGGER (1889 – 1976) is possibly the most recent of the thinkers, who came close to a ‘quadralectic’ outlook. His books – like his main work ‘Sein und Zeit’ (1927) – are virtually unreadable for any layman, due to a self-created German terminology to catch the fundamental essence of Heidegger’s understanding. His message and the destination of his exploratory thoughts are, nevertheless, directly relevant.
Vincent VYCINAS (1961) gave a comprehensive introduction into the thoughts of Martin Heidegger and his application of phenomenology to ontology. He did not criticize Heidegger, nor indicated any shortcomings in his thought. He just offered a path to explore the territory of his findings. Vycinas pointed to three distinct phases in Heidegger’s development, which brought him in close proximity to the doors of quadralectics (without actually opening them):
1. The exploratory search for man in his ultimate essence resulted in an understanding of Dasein (being-there). His main work ‘Sein und Zeit’ (Being and Time) defines the human existence as an active participation in the world, or a ‘to-be-in-the-world’. This position of unification (togetherness) implies the presence of a nothingness to make a distinction possible. The quadralectic philosophy supports the view of man-in-the-world making its existence feel in a self-chosen definition of division thinking and respecting the boundaries derived from this choice. Human presence (in a quadralectic view) only materializes after the realization of two points of recognition (POR) on a universal graph, which is derived from the shift between two four-divisions (the CF-graph).
2. After he found the definition of Dasein, Heidegger reached further to develop the concept of ‘Being’, the way in which man reveals itself. This second phase was, in contrast with his first work, riddled with historical references. Heidegger felt sympathy for the early Greek (Ionian) philosophers – like Anaximander, Parmenides and Heraclites – with their inductive way of thinking. ‘Being began to shine’ when these thinkers chose a single element (of nature or physis) to explain the world.
Heidegger liked the Parmenidian concept of Moira (the generator of fate or destiny and/or the initiator of a mission), which acts as a source of revelation. ‘Revelation is the disclosure and the coming-forward from concealment’. This change (in visibility) can be compared in the quadralectic philosophy with a transitional move from the invisible invisibility (of the First Quadrant) into the invisible visibility (of the Second Quadrant) – which includes a choice in division thinking. Being comes into the open, but why Being breaks into openness, we do not know.
This ‘Ionian’ treatment of Being led Heidegger to such conclusions that ‘not the thinker but Being determines the way of thinking’ and ‘Man is not the true author of his thought any longer, but only a missionary carrying out the words of Being in his thought-responses’. ‘Being’ (and its cross marked version, as a hint to nothingness) is placed – unfortunately without the specific mentioning of this mental act – outside the bonds of lower (oppositional) division thinking. The result is a position beyond subjectivism and objectivism. Being becomes synonymous with the (quadralectic) understanding of the term V (the length of a communication cycle – which is the result of an interaction between the observer and the observed in a chosen type of division).
3. The third and last phase of Heidegger’s thought is the establishment of an ontological stratification by four fundamental powers of Being: earth and sky, gods and mortals. Heidegger used ‘das Geviert’ (fourfold) in his later work (Vorträge und Aufsätze, 1954) as four domains, which form together the plurality and openness of the world. It is rather unfortunate that the choices of Heidegger’s Geviert consist of two opposing dualities, i.e. gods versus mortals and the sky versus the earth. Furthermore, the cyclic setting of the foursome is not accentuated, making the interplay of the foursome a cryptic event. Measurability, which is the very hallmark of conscious Being (or non-Being), is not applicable in Heidegger’s order. However, what is the meaning of plurality, openness and participation, if their extent cannot be measured?
The conclusion has to be that Martin Heidegger entered deep into the phenomenological world and did important discoveries in this newly developed terrain of higher division thinking. The concept of Da-sein as the transcendental representation of man as an assembler (of its own visibility) is breaking fresh ground. The quadralectic observer, within the boundaries of a self-created graphic universe, has a direct bloodline to Heidegger’s assembler.
The consistent development from Da-sein into the openness of Being – as it took shape in the post-Sein und Zeit period after 1927 – is, in the quadralectic philosophy, reflected in a measurable unit of communication (the length of the communication cycle). The graphic representation and its arithmetical genesis (in shifting four-divisions) offer a much clearer view on the character of Being than Heidegger’s vague notions to describe man in his ultimate essence.
Finally, Heidegger came close to the building stones of the quadralectic philosophy with the introduction, in his later work (after 1954), of the double-dialectic of the foursome (Geviert). These domains were supposed to supply, by way of an endless intersecting mirror play, the coordinates wherein the world as a world happens. But how? His stratification had, essentially, a linear character with no hind to any form of a cyclic approach. He missed, therefore, the possibilities in a quadralectic communication of calculation and measurement, which are embedded in the genesis of a universal communication graph.
No doubt Heidegger should get the credit for the above-mentioned advances in philosophical thinking, but it is also fair to mark the limits of his philosophical progress. In the end, Heidegger reached short of entering the exciting world of quadralectic thinking. The notice that ‘man must become the shepherd or guardian of Being’ is further evidence of the inherent static nature of his findings.
His interest in building (Bauen – Wohnen – Denken, 1967) and his definition of dwelling as the ‘ultimate guarding of the foursome of things’ also points to a static situation. Quadralectic architecture, on the other hand, is a dynamic affair, where the (changing) interplay of the foursome has to be monitored all the time. The observer may only find the ‘truth’ in the continuous awareness of changing positions with regards to the observed. The rest is, like the dying Hamlet said, silence.
---
VYCINAS, Vincent (1961). Earth and Gods. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.
Das Geviert - Anselm Kiefer (1997)
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015) - Das Geviert, 1997 - emulsion, acrylic, shellac, burnt clay, clay, wire, and sand on three panels of stretched linen or linen and cotton canvas.
The architectural structure in this monumental painting was likely inspired by a brickworks that Kiefer saw while traveling in India. That building was in a perpetual state of construction and destruction: newly made bricks were stacked on top of it and then replaced as they were sold. Plumes of smoke suggest the fires within. Taken out of its socio-historical context, this building becomes an allegory of ephemerality. The stepped pyramidal form recalls the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, Babylonian ziggurats, and Meso-American teocalli, all remnants of ancient cultures. The words in the corners translate to earth (upper right), sky (upper left), divinity (lower right), and mortals (lower left), which are the fundamental elements of German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) concept of “das Geviert” (the square), a hymn to dwelling on the earth articulated in “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” (1954).
---
quadralectics.wordpress.com/5-essentials/5-3-consciousnes...
Quadralectic Architecture - Marten Kuilman (2011) p. 994/995:
The consciousness of seeing is, in many aspects, a philosophical subject. Questions of ‘consciousness’ reach deep into the heart of any scientific investigation and the valuation of architecture is no exception. The act of understanding the phenomena known to the human nature implies the knowledge of the valuation process of an observer.
The German philosopher Martin HEIDEGGER (1889 – 1976) is possibly the most recent of the thinkers, who came close to a ‘quadralectic’ outlook. His books – like his main work ‘Sein und Zeit’ (1927) – are virtually unreadable for any layman, due to a self-created German terminology to catch the fundamental essence of Heidegger’s understanding. His message and the destination of his exploratory thoughts are, nevertheless, directly relevant.
Vincent VYCINAS (1961) gave a comprehensive introduction into the thoughts of Martin Heidegger and his application of phenomenology to ontology. He did not criticize Heidegger, nor indicated any shortcomings in his thought. He just offered a path to explore the territory of his findings. Vycinas pointed to three distinct phases in Heidegger’s development, which brought him in close proximity to the doors of quadralectics (without actually opening them):
1. The exploratory search for man in his ultimate essence resulted in an understanding of Dasein (being-there). His main work ‘Sein und Zeit’ (Being and Time) defines the human existence as an active participation in the world, or a ‘to-be-in-the-world’. This position of unification (togetherness) implies the presence of a nothingness to make a distinction possible. The quadralectic philosophy supports the view of man-in-the-world making its existence feel in a self-chosen definition of division thinking and respecting the boundaries derived from this choice. Human presence (in a quadralectic view) only materializes after the realization of two points of recognition (POR) on a universal graph, which is derived from the shift between two four-divisions (the CF-graph).
2. After he found the definition of Dasein, Heidegger reached further to develop the concept of ‘Being’, the way in which man reveals itself. This second phase was, in contrast with his first work, riddled with historical references. Heidegger felt sympathy for the early Greek (Ionian) philosophers – like Anaximander, Parmenides and Heraclites – with their inductive way of thinking. ‘Being began to shine’ when these thinkers chose a single element (of nature or physis) to explain the world.
Heidegger liked the Parmenidian concept of Moira (the generator of fate or destiny and/or the initiator of a mission), which acts as a source of revelation. ‘Revelation is the disclosure and the coming-forward from concealment’. This change (in visibility) can be compared in the quadralectic philosophy with a transitional move from the invisible invisibility (of the First Quadrant) into the invisible visibility (of the Second Quadrant) – which includes a choice in division thinking. Being comes into the open, but why Being breaks into openness, we do not know.
This ‘Ionian’ treatment of Being led Heidegger to such conclusions that ‘not the thinker but Being determines the way of thinking’ and ‘Man is not the true author of his thought any longer, but only a missionary carrying out the words of Being in his thought-responses’. ‘Being’ (and its cross marked version, as a hint to nothingness) is placed – unfortunately without the specific mentioning of this mental act – outside the bonds of lower (oppositional) division thinking. The result is a position beyond subjectivism and objectivism. Being becomes synonymous with the (quadralectic) understanding of the term V (the length of a communication cycle – which is the result of an interaction between the observer and the observed in a chosen type of division).
3. The third and last phase of Heidegger’s thought is the establishment of an ontological stratification by four fundamental powers of Being: earth and sky, gods and mortals. Heidegger used ‘das Geviert’ (fourfold) in his later work (Vorträge und Aufsätze, 1954) as four domains, which form together the plurality and openness of the world. It is rather unfortunate that the choices of Heidegger’s Geviert consist of two opposing dualities, i.e. gods versus mortals and the sky versus the earth. Furthermore, the cyclic setting of the foursome is not accentuated, making the interplay of the foursome a cryptic event. Measurability, which is the very hallmark of conscious Being (or non-Being), is not applicable in Heidegger’s order. However, what is the meaning of plurality, openness and participation, if their extent cannot be measured?
The conclusion has to be that Martin Heidegger entered deep into the phenomenological world and did important discoveries in this newly developed terrain of higher division thinking. The concept of Da-sein as the transcendental representation of man as an assembler (of its own visibility) is breaking fresh ground. The quadralectic observer, within the boundaries of a self-created graphic universe, has a direct bloodline to Heidegger’s assembler.
The consistent development from Da-sein into the openness of Being – as it took shape in the post-Sein und Zeit period after 1927 – is, in the quadralectic philosophy, reflected in a measurable unit of communication (the length of the communication cycle). The graphic representation and its arithmetical genesis (in shifting four-divisions) offer a much clearer view on the character of Being than Heidegger’s vague notions to describe man in his ultimate essence.
Finally, Heidegger came close to the building stones of the quadralectic philosophy with the introduction, in his later work (after 1954), of the double-dialectic of the foursome (Geviert). These domains were supposed to supply, by way of an endless intersecting mirror play, the coordinates wherein the world as a world happens. But how? His stratification had, essentially, a linear character with no hind to any form of a cyclic approach. He missed, therefore, the possibilities in a quadralectic communication of calculation and measurement, which are embedded in the genesis of a universal communication graph.
No doubt Heidegger should get the credit for the above-mentioned advances in philosophical thinking, but it is also fair to mark the limits of his philosophical progress. In the end, Heidegger reached short of entering the exciting world of quadralectic thinking. The notice that ‘man must become the shepherd or guardian of Being’ is further evidence of the inherent static nature of his findings.
His interest in building (Bauen – Wohnen – Denken, 1967) and his definition of dwelling as the ‘ultimate guarding of the foursome of things’ also points to a static situation. Quadralectic architecture, on the other hand, is a dynamic affair, where the (changing) interplay of the foursome has to be monitored all the time. The observer may only find the ‘truth’ in the continuous awareness of changing positions with regards to the observed. The rest is, like the dying Hamlet said, silence.
---
VYCINAS, Vincent (1961). Earth and Gods. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.