View allAll Photos Tagged Stillpoint
Stillpoint, 2009
Oil on Canvas
Artist: Karen Chesterman
For the flickr group 113 pictures in 2013. No. 23 - Just One Color
Emily Chamelin shears Carolann McConaugh’s Leicester Long Wool Sheep at Stillpoint Farm in Mt. Airy, Md,, June 23, 2021. USDA/FPAC photo by Preston Keres
Stills from Stillpoint Theater's production of Assassins, a musical themed around the history of presidential assassination attempts in the United States.
I visualized this and did the art direction - Bryan McFadden did the photography. This is Charlotte Stuart, an acupuncturist and healer.
I found this image of Christ on the door to the chapel at Stillpoint in Albuquerque New Mexico with a sign beneath welcoming all.
Stillpoints Aperture acoustic panels for controlling room acoustic......
Incorporating some separate technologies - Resonance, Perf, Absorption, Diffusion all in each panel, these unique wide-band acoustical panels provide the most effective room treatment I have ever heard and will lens the image in a room.These panels use multiple methods for improving a room's sonic environment......
Dedicated to my friend, Pam.
Pam, is living withALS. She lives her life with humor, courage and perseverance. She does not make ALS the center of her life. I find great inspiration in her optimistic philosophy. I made this piece to honor the love-of-life Pam models for me.
Pam seems to live in that place the poet, TS Elliott called, the "still point of the turning world ... where past and future are gathered ..." the point that, like the center of a turning wheel, remains quiet, meditatively motionless, yet is really the origin of the dance, the beginning of movement. Though she cannot leap up and dance, or go rock climbing, or run a marathon, Pam truly embodies the still point of a turning world .... she is the origin of the dance.
That still point of a turning world ... that place at the very center of being, is also a home, a sanctuary, a place in our hearts we can find solace and clarity when life stops making sense. It is a touchstone; the center of a flower; the burning point in the middle of the sun; the beating pulse of light and air, flame and sea, turning in circles around us.
One can be far from the physical geographic place we call home, yet still be home in that still point. Or one can be confined to the physical home yet find comfort and sanctuary in a more expansive place -- in one's imagination, in expression, in compassion, in reaching out to others, in friendship. Inside the heart. Where physical abilities are irrelevant. I can only hope to create this kind of place for myself someday. Pam lives in both places: the home she shares with her husband, family and friend Barb ... and the home she shares with the rest of us, through her friendship, artistic expressions and poetry.
Pam, may you live long and may your heart prosper.
Emily Chamelin shears Carolann McConaugh’s Leicester Long Wool Sheep at Stillpoint Farm in Mt. Airy, Md,, June 23, 2021. USDA/FPAC photo by Preston Keres
P. 96 in: Scrapnel 14.
Van water tot land: het meer gekarteerd
Polderkaarten en waterschappen zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Zonder nauwkeurige kaarten kon een waterschap niet functioneren. Dat gold helemaal voor de droogmaking van de grote meren aan het begin van de 17e eeuw. Dergelijke ondernemingen werden van A tot Z op kaarten gepland. Voorafgaand aan de eigenlijke droogmaking was er een kaart nodig van het meer.
Welke sloten kwamen er precies in uit? Wat waren de beste plekken om langs de rand van het meer de molens te bouwen? Welke eilanden lagen er precies in het water? Hoe konden de ringdijk- en vaart langs de rand van het meer het beste worden aangelegd? Loonde het de moeite in het meer uitstekende landtongen op te kopen zodat de ringdijk rechtdoor kon lopen? Geen wonder dus dat de rijke Amsterdamse investeerders in de droogmaking van de Beemster in 1607 eerst opdracht gaven een kaart van het Beemstermeer te maken. De betreffende landmeter P.C. Kort uit Alkmaar kreeg opdracht op alle bovengenoemde punten scherp te letten. Indien de gelegenheid zich voordeed werd de metingen bij voorkeur 's winters over het ijs gedaan. De droogmakers van de Schermer lieten een hele grote kaart van het Schermeer maken en gebruikten die jarenlang.
Gedrukte kavelkaarten: tussen ambacht en kunst
De inrichting van het nieuwe land werd ook zeer precies op de kaart gepland. Er moest van tevoren heel goed worden nagedacht over de verdeling van het nieuwe land in kavels. Omdat de aandelen van de investeerders in morgens land (een morgen is 0,9 ha) werden uitgedrukt, was het zaak zoveel mogelijk kavels met dezelfde oppervlakte in te plannen. Verder moest iedere kavel over de weg en door de sloot bereikbaar zijn. Afgaande op de bebouwing op het oude land rekenden de droogmakers van de Beemster bovendien op de groei van een hele serie dorpen. Die planden ze ook alvast op de kaart in met ruimte voor marktpleinen. Al voordat het meer droog was, werd er vaak een fraaie kaart van de voltooide droogmakerij met alles erop en eraan verspreid. Daarvoor moest de kaart worden gedrukt. De plaatsnijder etste en graveerde de handgetekende kaart van de landmeter in een koperen plaat. Dit moest spiegelbeeldig gebeuren. De belettering vormde een vak apart. Dit gold eveneens voor het aanbrengen van de kunstige illustraties en versieringen. Ook die moesten allemaal in spiegelbeeld worden aangebracht. Ten slotte werd de kaart gedrukt bij een plaatdrukker. De kaart kon daarna nog met de hand worden ingekleurd door de 'afzetter'.
Koperplaten
De koperen drukplaten waren kostbare objecten. Ze werden niet gelijk vervangen wanneer het topografisch kaartbeeld veranderde, maar eindeloos bijgewerkt aan de veranderde situatie. Nieuw aangezette stukken en uitgehamerde details getuigen daarvan. Behalve om een getrouw beeld te krijgen van de polder, was een kaart ook een statussymbool, een middel om gezag en prestige te benadrukken. Ze werden vaak cadeau gedaan aan relaties. De familiewapens van de leden van het bestuur sierden vaak de kaarten. Natuurlijk wilde een nieuw bestuur graag een bijgewerkte druk met de eigen wapens erop. Soms was hiermee vanaf het begin rekening gehouden. De familiewapens werden vaak op een gemakkelijk te vervangen losse rand gegraveerd.
Uitwaterende Sluizen
In 1660 gaf het toenmalige Hoogheemraadschap van de Uitwaterende Sluizen opdracht een enorme kaart van het werkgebied te maken. Dat besloeg heel Noord-Holland benoorden het IJ. Gelukkig kon de ingehuurde landmeter J.J. Dou uit Leiden soms terugvallen op bestaande kaarten. Maar toch was hij vele jaren bezig. Het hoogheemraadschap liet zijn handgetekende kaart direct in 16 koperen platen graveren die als een legpuzzel aan elkaar pasten. De eerste druk rolde in 1680 van de pers. Deze kaart was voor die tijd een wonder van precisie. Men liet hem tot het einde van de 18e eeuw regelmatig herdrukken waarbij alleen de wapens van de bestuursleden werden aangepast. Natuurlijk was deze grote wandkaart ook een indrukwekkend statussymbool. Een echt hoogheemraadschap kon gewoon niet zonder zo'n kaart!
---
Steven M. Rosen's book - Dimension of Apeiron could only be viewed in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. As a result I did not read it properly. My special interest in 'apeiron' is related to the 'First Quadrant' in the quadralectic philosophy, the invisible invisibility.
---
STEVEN M. ROSEN is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. During his thirty years of teaching and research (1970–2000), he offered courses in both the Psychology and Philosophy Departments. Dr. Rosen currently resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he is actively pursuing interdisciplinary interests that include phenomenological ontology, the philosophy and poetics of science, Jungian thought, the gender question, ecological change, and cultural transformation. After receiving his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the City University of New York in 1971, Rosen began to explore the foundations and frontiers of science, his work becoming interdisciplinary and philosophical in nature. He has lectured internationally, and his numerous essays have appeared in a variety of journals and books spanning the fields of philosophy, psychology, education, semiotics, ecology, and theoretical science. Rosen is author of Science, Paradox, and the Moebius Principle (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994) and The Moebius Seed (Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint Publications, 1985). Dr. Rosen is presently Research Associate and member of the Board of Directors of the Lifwynn Foundation for Social Research, an organization dedicated to carrying forward the work of the American social psychiatrist Trigant Burrow. Rosen is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mind and Behavior, and has served as editorial consultant for such journals as Foundations of Physics and Man/Environment Systems, and for the State University of New York Press.
---
Apeiron (/əˈpaɪrɒn/; ἄπειρον) is a Greek word meaning "(that which is) unlimited," "boundless", "infinite", or "indefinite" from ἀ- a-, "without" and πεῖραρ peirar, "end, limit", "boundary", the Ionic Greek form of πέρας peras, "end, limit, boundary". It is akin to Persian piramon, meaning "boundary, circumference, surrounding".
Apeiron as an origin
The apeiron is central to the cosmological theory created by Anaximander, a 6th-century BC pre-Socratic Greek philosopher whose work is mostly lost. From the few existing fragments, we learn that he believed the beginning or ultimate reality (arche) is eternal and infinite, or boundless (apeiron), subject to neither old age nor decay, which perpetually yields fresh materials from which everything we can perceive is derived. Apeiron generated the opposites (hot–cold, wet–dry, etc.) which acted on the creation of the world (cf. Heraclitus). Everything is generated from apeiron and then it is destroyed by going back to apeiron, according to necessity. He believed that infinite worlds are generated from apeiron and then they are destroyed there again.
His ideas were influenced by the Greek mythical tradition and by his teacher Thales (7th to 6th century BC). Searching for some universal principle, Anaximander retained the traditional religious assumption that there was a cosmic order and tried to explain it rationally, using the old mythical language which ascribed divine control on various spheres of reality. This language was more suitable for a society which could see gods everywhere; therefore the first glimmerings of laws of nature were themselves derived from divine laws. The Greeks believed that the universal principles could also be applied to human societies. The word nomos (law) may originally have meant natural law and used later to mean man-made law.
Greek philosophy entered a high level of abstraction. It adopted apeiron as the origin of all things, because it is completely indefinite. This is a further transition from the previous existing mythical way of thought to the newer rational way of thought which is the main characteristic of the archaic period (8th to 6th century BC). This shift in thought is correlated with the new political conditions in the Greek city states during the 6th century BC.
Roots
In the mythical Greek cosmogony of Hesiod (8th to 7th century BC) the first primordial god is Chaos, which is a void or gap. Chaos is described as a gap either between Tartarus and the earth's surface (Miller's interpretation) or between earth's surface and the sky (Cornford's interpretation). One can name it also abyss (having no bottom).
Alternately, Greek philosopher Thales believed that the origin or first principle was water. Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC) probably called the water also Chaos and this is not placed at the very beginning.
In the creation stories of Near East the primordial world is described formless and empty. The only existing thing prior to creation was the water abyss. The Babylonian cosmology Enuma Elish describes the earliest stage of the universe as one of watery chaos and something similar is described in Genesis. In the Hindu cosmogony which is similar to the Vedic (Hiranyagarbha) the initial state of the universe was an absolute darkness.
Hesiod made an abstraction, because his original chaos is a void, something completely indefinite. In his opinion the origin should be indefinite and indeterminate. The indefiniteness is spatial in early usages as in Homer (indefinite sea). A fragment from Xenophanes (6th century BC) shows the transition from chaos to apeiron: "The upper limit of earth borders on air. The lower limit reaches down to the unlimited. (i.e. the Apeiron)". Either apeiron meant the "spatial indefinite" and was implied to be indefinite in kind, or Anaximander intended it primarily 'that which is indefinite in kind' but assumed it also to be of unlimited extent and duration. His ideas may have been influenced by the Pythagoreans:
[...] for they [the Pythagoreans] plainly say that when the one had been constructed, whether out of planes or of surface or of seed or of elements which they cannot express, immediately the nearest part of the unlimited began to be drawn in and limited by the limit.
Greek philosophy entered a high level of abstraction making apeiron the principle of all things and some scholars saw a gap between the existing mythical and the new rational way of thought (rationalism). But if we follow the course, we will see that there is not such an abrupt break with the previous thought. The basic elements of nature, water, air, fire, earth, which the first Greek philosophers believed that composed the world, represent in fact the mythical primordial forces. The collision of these forces produced the cosmic harmony according to the Greek cosmogony (Hesiod). Anaximander noticed the mutual changes between these elements, therefore he chose something else (indefinite in kind) which could generate the others without experiencing any decay.
There is also a fragment attributed to his teacher Thales: "What is divine? What has no origin, nor end." This probably led his student to his final decision for apeiron, because the divinity applied to it implies that it always existed. The notion of the temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of immortality and Anaximander's description was in terms appropriate to this conception. This arche is called "eternal and ageless" (Hippolitus I,6,I;DK B2).
Creation of the world
The apeiron has generally been understood as a sort of primal chaos. It acts as the substratum supporting opposites such as hot and cold, wet and dry, and directed the movement of things, by which there grew up all of the host of shapes and differences which are found in the world. Out of the vague and limitless body there sprang a central mass—this earth of ours—cylindrical in shape. A sphere of fire surrounded the air around the earth and had originally clung to it like the bark round a tree. When it broke, it created the sun, the moon and the stars. The first animals were generated in the water. When they came to earth they were transmuted by the effect of the sun. The human being sprung from some other animal, which originally was similar to a fish. The blazing orbs, which have drawn off from the cold earth and water, are the temporary gods of the world clustering around the earth, which to the ancient thinker is the central figure.
Interpretations
In the commentary of Simplicius on Aristotle's Physics the following fragment is attributed direct to Anaximander:
Whence things have their origin, there their destruction happens as it is ordained [Greek: kata to chreon means "according to the debt"]. For they give justice and compensation to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time.
This fragment remains a mystery because it can be translated in different ways. Simplicius comments that Anaximander noticed the mutual changes between the four elements (earth, air, water, fire), therefore he did not choose one of them as an origin, but something else which generates the opposites without experiencing any decay. He mentions also that Anaximander said all these in poetic terms, meaning that he used the old mythical language. The Goddess Justice (Dike), appears to keep the order. The quotation is close to the original meanings of the relevant Greek words. The word dike (justice) was probably originally derived from the boundaries of a man's land and transmits metaphorically the notion that somebody must remain into his own sphere, respecting the one of his neighbour. The word adikia (injustice) means that someone has operated outside of his own sphere, something that could disturb "law and order" (eunomia). In Homer's Odyssey eunomia is contrasted with hubris (arrogance). Arrogance was considered very dangerous because it could break the balance and lead to political instability and finally to the destruction of a city-state.
Aetius (1st century BC) transmits a different quotation:
Everything is generated from apeiron and there its destruction happens. Infinite worlds are generated and they are destructed there again. And he says (Anaximander) why this is apeiron. Because only then genesis and decay will never stop.
— Aetius I 3,3
Therefore, it seems that Anaximander argued about apeiron and this is also noticed by Aristotle:
The belief that there is something apeiron stems from the idea that only then genesis and decay will never stop, when that from which is taken what is generated is apeiron.
— Aristotle, Physics 203b 18–20
Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that Anaximander was a pessimist and that he viewed all coming to be as an illegitimate emancipation from the eternal being, a wrong for which destruction is the only penance. In accordance to this the world of the individual definite objects should perish into the indefinite since anything definite has to eventually return to the indefinite. His ideas had a great influence on many scholars including Martin Heidegger.
Werner Heisenberg, noted for the creation of quantum mechanics, arrived at the idea that the elementary particles are to be seen as different manifestations, different quantum states, of one and the same "primordial substance". Because of its similarity to the primordial substance hypothesized by Anaximander, his colleague Max Born called this substance apeiron.
Scholars in other fields, e.g. Bertrand Russell and Maurice Bowra, didn't deny that Anaximander was the first who used the term apeiron, but claimed that the mysterious fragment is dealing with the balance of opposite forces as central to reality being closer to the quotation transmitted by Simplicius.
There are also other interpretations which try to match both the previous aspects. Apeiron is an abstract, void, something that cannot be described according to the Greek pessimistic belief for death. Death indeed meant "nothingless". The dead live like shadows and there is no return to the real world. Everything generated from apeiron must return there according to the principle genesis-decay. There is a polar attraction between the opposites genesis-decay, arrogance-justice. The existence itself carries a guilt.
The idea that the fact of existence by itself carries along an incurable guilt is Greek (Theognis 327) and anybody claims that surpasses it, commits arrogance and therefore he becomes guilty. The first half of the 6th century is a period of great social instability in Miletus, the city state where Anaximander lives. Any attempt of excess leads to exaggerations and each exaggeration must be corrected. All these have to be paid according to the debt. The things give justice to one another with the process of time.
Justice has to destroy everything which is born. There is no external limit that can restrict the activities of men, except the destruction. Arrogance is an expression of the chaotic element of human existence and in a way a part of the rebounding mechanism of order, because pushing it to exertions causes destruction which is also a reestablishment.
Influence on Greek and Western thought
We may assume that the contradiction in the different interpretations is because Anaximander combined two different ways of thought. The first one dealing with apeiron is metaphysical (and can lead to monism), while the second one dealing with mutual changes and the balance of the opposites as central to reality is physical. The same paradox existed in the Greek way of thought. The Greeks believed that each individual had unlimitable potentialities both in brain and in heart, an outlook which called a man to live at the top of his powers. But that there was a limit to his most violent ambitions, that arrogance-injustice (hubris or adikia) could disturb the harmony and balance. In that case justice (dike) would destroy him to reestablish the order. These ideas are obvious in later Greek philosophers. Philolaus (5th century BC) mentions that nature constituted and is organized with the world from unlimitable (Ancient Greek: ἄπειρα apeira, plural of apeiron) and limitable. Everything which exists in the world contains the unlimited (apeiron) and the limited. Something similar is mentioned by Plato: Nothing can exist if it doesn't contain continually and simultaneously the limited and the unlimited, the definite and the indefinite.
Some doctrines existing in Western thought, still transmit some of the original ideas: "God ordained that all men shall die", "Death is a common debt". The Greek word adikia (injustice) transmits the notion that someone has operated outside of his own sphere, without respecting the one of his neighbour. Therefore, he commits hubris. The relative English word arrogance (claim as one's own without justification; Latin: arrogare), is very close to the original meaning of the aphorism: "Nothing in excess."
Other pre-Socratic philosophers' ideas about apeiron
Other pre-Socratic philosophers had different theories of the apeiron. For the Pythagoreans (in particular, Philolaus), the universe had begun as an apeiron, but at some point it inhaled the void from outside, filling the cosmos with vacuous bubbles that split the world into many different parts. For Anaxagoras, the initial apeiron had begun to rotate rapidly under the control of a godlike Nous (Mind), and the great speed of the rotation caused the universe to break up into many fragments. However, since all individual things had originated from the same apeiron, all things must contain parts of all other things—for instance, a tree must also contain tiny pieces of sharks, moons, and grains of sand. This alone explains how one object can be transformed into another, since each thing already contains all other things in germ.