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Nesse dia eu acordei com muita vontade de fotografar. Nem tomei café, peguei minha camera e acabei descobrindo essa flor no quintal de minha casa. Ela me lembra um canhão espacial de filmes de ficção científica. Coisas de quem adora Jornada nas Estrelas e Star Wars.
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That day I woke with great determination to shoot. Neither made coffee, I took my camera and I discovered this flower in the backyard of my house. She reminds me of a cannon space science fiction films. In time: I love star trek and star wars.
My favourite place - synthesis of gothic and contenporary architecture - Olomouc Archdiocesan Museum.
The core of the Olomouc Archdiocesan Museum is the former residence of Olomouc capitular deans to which, in the course of the centuries, other buildings were added. The land for the construction of the deanery in the area of the ducal castle was given to the capitular dean Bartholomew in 1267 by King Ottokar II of Bohemia.
The whole museum complex underwent a complex conservation reconstruction from 1998 to 2006. Part of the project of the Prague architectural office HŠH architekti was, besides building offices, depositories, a photo studio and a refinishing workshop, the reconstruction of the building of the capitular deanery and its functional link to the Romanesque episcopal palace. HŠH architekti are the authors of the design of the architectural form of the permanent exhibition of the Archdiocesan Museum.
Nikon FM2 + Nikkor 35 mm 2.0
Rodinal 1:25 (?)
Film 04 JG 2013 Svatba + Olomouc
The Pyramid/Tesla Energy Connection
Nikola Tesla regarded the Earth as one of the plates of a capacitor, the ionosphere forming the other plate. Recent measurements have shown that the voltage gradient between the two is 400,000 volts. With this principle, he said he was able, through his invention, to provide free energy to anyone, inexhaustible in quantity, anywhere on earth. That is why he had built a first prototype, the Wardenclyffe Tower, in which was to apply his famous pyramid effect. What is it exactly?
"The lines of force of the electric charge additioned to the fields from the sun act on the walls of a pyramid.The magnetic equipotentials show a high magnetic density in the summit. The voltage of the electric field increases of 100 V per meter. The terrestrial negative field reaches its maximum value at the summit of the pyramid; at the top of the pyramid of Giza, the voltage is 14,600 V. This pyramid is itself a capacitor, it accumulates an electrical charge. If an excess load is added, a discharge occurs at the top, and, as we know currently, that top was adorned with a solid gold capstone, an excellent conductor."Tesla wanted his tower to be high to increase the voltage at the top. He wanted to create an artificial lightning in the tower. In the discharge tube of a natural flash , the temperature rises to 30 000 ° C. Tesla did not want to manage such high temperatures because it is a waste of energy. Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower would have used a transformer to produce a high voltage, which would have generated, instead of a natural lightning, a "discharge of high energetic ion abundance".To accentuate the pyramid effect, he had imagined to give the tower the octagonal shape of a pyramid topped by a half sphere. Why octogonal? Tesla does not explain, but when we read his memoirs, we understand that he sensed a scientific discipline that did not yet exist, geobiology, and the theory of waves of forms. From the perspective of traditional physics, the fact that the tower is octagonal is insignificant. It could be square or have an infinite number of faces, that is conic. "In all cases the voltage would have been the same, its shape just gave it stability." This raises two objections. The octagonal shape is not a guarantee of stability comparing to the square shape. If he was really looking for stability, a hyperbolic rise, like that of the Eiffel Tower, would have been better suited. The octagonal shape has very special wave characteristics, it is possible that this pure genius sensed it without being able to theorize it.As for the square shape of the pyramids, the engineer Gustave Eiffel has chosen it for his tower, precisely because it is a guarantee of stability, as the four legs and the widening elevation. Built in 1889, our national tower was already fairly well known to be his model. As Wardenclyffe Tower, the Eiffel Tower has a pyramid effect which makes it pick at the top, even without a storm, a DC current. Its lightning rod "makes" thus some electricity that goes down in a cable to be delivered to the earth.This waste is not limited to the Eiffel Tower. All roofs and metal frames make the same production, stupidly given to the earth. The Vril energy is free, it is its biggest flaw in a world of profit. The fact that it is completely environmentally friendly and inexhaustible has no interest for the capital. The fact that it is beneficial for both the human mind and the health of people, animals and plants thanks to the virtues of water of lightning, has even much less interest for profiteers. Unfortunately, Tesla was never able to finish his tower. He did not have the opportunity to carry out the planned experiments on Long Island that sought to bring rain in the deserts. Others before him had managed that. We know that Egypt has not always been desertic. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that "Egypt is a gift of the Nile." But it was in the 5th century BC. Since then, its climate has not changed much, and yet it has not always been so. The predynastic Egypt was rather a gift of the pyramids... "In the pre-dynastic period, the Egyptian climate is much less arid than it is nowadays. Large areas of Egypt are covered with savanna and traversed by herds of ungulates. The foliage and wildlife then are much more prolific and the Nile region is home to large populations of waterfowl. Hunting is a common activity for the Egyptians and it is also during this period that many animals are domesticated for the first time."
www.apparentlyapparel.com/news/the-pyramid-energy-tesla-c...
"....If we could produce electric effects of the required quality, this whole planet and the conditions of existence on it could be transformed. The sun raises the water of the oceans and winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in state of most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when and wherever desired, this mighty life-sustaining stream could be at will controlled. We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes and rivers and provide motive power in unlimited amount. This would be the most efficient way of harnesing the sun to the uses of man......" ( Nikola Tesla, June 1919 )
Nikola Tesla, inventor of alternating current motors, did the basic research for constructing electromagnetic field lift-and-drive aircraft/space craft. From 1891 to 1893, he gave a set of lectures and demonstrations to groups of electrical engineers. As part of each show, Tesla stood in the middle of the stage, using his 6' 6" height, with an assistant on either side, each 7 feet away. All 3 men wore thick cork or rubber shoe soles to avoid being electrically grounded. Each assistant held a wire, part of a high voltage, low current circuit. When Tesla raised his arms to each side, violet colored electricity jumped harmlessly across the gaps between the men. At high voltage and frequency in this arrangement, electricity flows over a surface, even the skin, rather than into it. This is a basic circuit which could be used by aircraft / spacecraft.
The hull is best made double, of thin, machinable, slightly flexible ceramic. This becomes a good electrical insulator, has no fire danger, resists any damaging effects of severe heat and cold, and has the hardness of armor, besides being easy for magnetic fields to pass through.
The inner hull is covered on it's outside by wedge shaped thin metal sheets of copper or aluminum, bonded to the ceramic. Each sheet is 3 to 4 feet wide at the horizontal rim of the hull and tapers to a few inches wide at the top of the hull for the top set of metal sheets, or at the bottom for the bottom set of sheets. Each sheet is separated on either side from the next sheet by 1 or 2 inches of uncovered ceramic hull. The top set of sheets and bottom set of sheets are separated by about 6 inches of uncovered ceramic hull around the horizontal rim of the hull.
The outer hull protects these sheets from being short-circuited by wind blown metal foil (Air Force radar confusing chaff), heavy rain or concentrations of gasoline or kerosene fumes. If unshielded, fuel fumes could be electrostatically attracted to the hull sheets, burn and form carbon deposits across the insulating gaps between the sheets, causing a short-circuit. The space, the outer hull with a slight negative charge, would absorb hits from micrometeorites and cosmic rays (protons moving at near the speed of light). Any danger of this type that doesn't already have a negative electric charge would get a negative charge in hitting the outer hull, and be repelled by the metal sheets before it could hit the inner hull. This wouldn't work well on a very big meteor, I might add.
The hull can be made in a variety of shapes; sphere, football, disc, or streamlined rectangle or triangle, as long as these metal sheets, "are of considerable area and arranged along ideal enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature," p. 85. "My Inventions", by Nikola Tesla.
The power plant for this machine can be a nuclear fission or fusion reactor for long range and long-term use to run a steam engine, which turns the generators. A short range machine can use a hydrogen oxygen fuel cell to run a low-voltage motor to turn the generators, occasionally recharging by hovering next to high voltage power lines and using antennas mounted on the outer hull to take in the electricity. The short-range machine can also have electricity beamed to it from a generating plan on a long-range aircraft / spacecraft or on the ground.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 24, 1987, Vol 109, No. 328, "The Forever Plane" by Geoffrey Rowan, p. D1, D7.)
("Popular Science", Vol 232, No. 1, Jan. 1988, "Secret of Perpetual Flight? Beam Power Plane," by Arthur Fisher, p. 62-65, 106)
One standard for the generators is to have the same number of magnets as field coils. Tesla's preferred design was a thin disc holding 480 magnets with 480 field coils wired in series surrounding it in close tolerance. At 50 revolutions per minute, it produces 19,400 cycles per second.
The electricity is fed into a number of large capacitors, one for each metal sheet. An automatic switch, adjustable in timing by the pilot, closes, and as the electricity jumps across the switch, back and forth, it raises it's own frequency; a switch being used for each capacitor.
The electricity goes into a Tesla transformer; again, one transformer for each capacitor. In an oil tank to insulate the windings and for cooling, and supported internally by wood, or plastic, pipe and fittings, each Tesla transformer looks like a short wider pipe that is moved along a longer, narrower pipe by an insulated non-electric cable handle. The short pipe, the primary, is 6 to 10 windings (loops) of wire connected in series to the long pipe. The secondary is 460 to 600 windings, at the low voltage and frequency end.
The insulated non-electric cable handle is used through a set of automatic controls to move the primary coil to various places on the secondary coil. This is the frequency control. The secondary coil has a low frequency and voltage end and a maximum voltage and frequency end. The greater the frequency the electricity, the more it pushes against the earth's electrostatic and electromagnetic fields.
The electricity comes out of the transformer at the high voltage end and goes by wire through the ceramic hull to the wide end of the metal sheet. The electricity jumps out on and flows over the metal sheet, giving off a very strong electromagnetic field, controlled by the transformer. At the narrow end of the metal sheet, most of the high-voltage push having been given off; the electricity goes back by wire through the hull to a circuit breaker box (emergency shut off), then to the other side of the generators.
In bright sunlight, the aircraft / spacecraft may seem surrounded by hot air, a slight magnetic distortion of the light. In semi-darkness and night, the metal sheets glow, even through the thin ceramic outer hull, with different colors. The visible light is a by-product of the electricity flowing over the metal sheets, according to the frequencies used.
Descending, landing or just starting to lift from the ground, the transformer primaries are near the secondary weak ends and therefore, the bottom set of sheets glow a misty red. Red may also appear at the front of the machine when it is moving forward fast, lessening resistance up front. Orange appears for slow speed. Orange-yellow is for airplane-type speeds. Green and blue are for higher speeds. With a capacitor addition, making it oversized for the circuit, the blue becomes bright white, like a searchlight, with possible risk of damaging the metal sheets involved. The highest visible frequency is violet, like Tesla's stage demonstrations, used for the highest speed along with the bright white. The colors are nearly coherent, of a single frequency, like a laser.
A machine built with a set of super conducting magnets would simplify and reduce electricity needs from a vehicle's transformer circuits to the point of flying along efficiently and hovering with little electricity.
When Tesla was developing arc lights to run on alternating current, there was a bothersome high-pitched whine, whistle, or buzz, due to the electrodes rapidly heating and cooling. Tesla put this noise in the ultrasonic range with the special transformer already mentioned. The aircraft / spacecraft gives off such noises when working at low frequencies.
Timing is important in the operation of this machine. For every 3 metal sheets, when the middle one is briefly turned off, the sheet on either side is energized, giving off the magnetic field. The next instant, the middle sheet is energized, while the sheet on either side is briefly turned off. There is a time delay in the capacitors recharging themselves, so at any time, half of all the metal sheets are energized and the other half are recharging, alternating all around the inner hull. This balances the machine, giving it very good stability. This balance is less when fewer of the circuits are in use.
Fairly close, the aircraft / spacecraft produces heating of persons and objects on the ground; but by hovering over an area at low altitude for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, the machine also produces a column of very cold air down to the ground. As air molecules get into the strong magnetic fields that the machine is transmitting out, the air molecules become polarized and from lines, or strings, of air molecules. The normal movement of the air is stopped, and there is suddenly a lot more room for air molecules in this area, so more air pours in. This expansion and the lack of normal air motion make the area intensely cold.
This is also the reason that the aircraft / spacecraft can fly at supersonic speeds without making sonic booms. As air flows over the hull, top and bottom, the air molecules form lines as they go through the magnetic fields of the metal sheet circuits. As the air molecules are left behind, they keep their line arrangements for a short time; long enough to cancel out the sonic boom shock waves.
Outside the earth's magnetic field, another propulsion system must be used, which relies on the first. You may have read of particle accelerators, or cyclotrons, or atomsmashers. A particle accelerator is a circular loop of pipe that, in cross-section, is oval. In a physics laboratory, most of the air in it is pumped out. The pipe loop is given a static electric charge; a small amount of hydrogen or other gas is given the same electric charge so the particles won't stick to the pipe. A set of electromagnets all around the pipe loop turn on and off, one after the other, pushing with one magnetic pole and pulling with the next, until those gas particles are racing around the pipe loop at nearly the speed of light. Centrifugal force makes the particles speed closer to the outside edge of the pipe loop, still within the pipe. The particles break down into electrons, or light and other wavelengths, protons or cosmic rays, and neutrons if more than hydrogen is put in the accelerator.
At least 2 particle accelerators are used to balance each other and counter each other's tendency to make the craft spin. Otherwise, the machine would tend to want to start spinning, following the direction of the force being applied to the particles. The accelerators push in opposite directions.
As the pilot and crew travel in space, outside the magnetic field of a world, water from a tank is electrically separated into oxygen and hydrogen. Waste carbon dioxide that isn't used for the onboard garden, and hydrogen (helium if the machine is using a fusion reactor) is slowly, constantly fed into the inside curves of both accelerators.
The high-speed particles go out through straight lengths of pipe, charged like the loops and in speeding out into space, push the machine along. Doors control which pips the particles leave from. This allows very long-range acceleration and later deceleration at normal (earth) gravity. This avoids the severe problems of weightlessness, including lowered physical abilities of the crew.
It is possible to use straight-line particle accelerators, even as few as one per machine, but these don't seem as able to get the best machine speed for the least amount of particles pushed out.
Using a constant acceleration of 32.2 feet per second per second provides earth normal gravity in deep space and only 2 gravities of stress in leaving the earth's gravity field. It takes, not counting air resistance, 18 minutes, 58.9521636 seconds to reach the 25,000 miles per hour speed to leave the earth's gravity field. It takes about 354 days, 12 hours, 53 minutes and 40 seconds (about) to reach the speed of light - 672,487,072.7 miles per hour. It takes the same distance to decelerate as it does to speed up, but this cuts down the time delay that one would have in conventional chemical rocketry enormously, for a long journey.
A set of super conducting magnets can be charged by metal sheet circuits, within limits, to whatever frequency is needed and will continue to transmit that magnetic field frequency almost indefinitely.
A short-wave radio can be used to find the exact frequencies that an aircraft / spacecraft is using, for each of the colors it may show whole a color television can show the same overall color frequency that the nearby, but not extremely close, craft is using This is limited, as a machine traveling at the speed of a jet airliner may broadcast in a frequency range usually used for radar sets.
The craft circuits override lower frequency, lower voltage electric circuits within and near their electromagnetic fields. One source briefly mentioned a 1941 incident, where a short-wave radio was used to override automobile ignition systems, up to 3 miles away. When the short-wave radio was turned off, the cars could work again. How many UFO encounters have been reported in which automobile ignition systems have suddenly stopped?
I figure that things would not be at all pleasant for drivers of modern cars with computer controlled engine and ignition systems. Computer circuitry is sensitive to small changes in voltage and a temporary wrong-way voltage surge may wipe the computer memory out. It could mean that a number of drivers would suddenly be stranded with their cars not working should such a craft fly low over a busy highway. Only diesel engines, already warmed up, and Stanley Steamer type steam engine cares are able to continue working in a strong electromagnetic field. In May, 1988, it was reported that the U.S. Army had lost 5 Blackhawk helicopters and 22 crewmen in crashes caused by ordinary commercial radio broadcasting overriding the computer control circuits of those helicopters. Certainly, computer circuits for this aircraft / spacecraft can and must be designed to overcome this weakness.
One construction arrangement for this craft to avoid such interference is for the metal sheet circuits to be more sharply tuned. Quartz or other crystals can be used in capacitors; in a very large number of low-powered, single frequency circuits, or as part of a frequency control for the metal sheet circuits.
The aircraft / spacecraft easily overrides lower frequency and lower voltage electric circuits up to a 6 mile wide circle around it, but the effect is usually not tuned for such a drastic show. It can be used for fire fighting: by hovering at a medium-low height at low frequency, it forms a double negative pole magnet of itself and the ground, the sides being a rotation of positive magnetic pole.
It polarizes the column of air in this field. The air becomes icy cold. If it wouldn't put the fire out, it would slow it down.
Tesla went broke in the early 1900's building a combination radio and electric power broadcasting station. The theory and experiments were correct but the financiers didn't want peace and prosperity for all.
The Japanese physicist who developed super conducting material with strong magnetism allows for a simplified construction of the aircraft / spacecraft. Blocks of this material can be used in place of the inner hull metal sheets. By putting electricity in each block, the pilot can control the strength of the magnetic field it gives off and can reduce the field strength by draining some of the electric charge. This allows the same amount of work to be done with vastly less electricity used to do it.
It is surprising that Jonathan Swift, in his "Gulliver's Travels", 1726, third book, "A Voyage to Laputa", described an imagined magnetic flying island that comes close to being what a large super conducting aircraft / spacecraft can be build as, using little or no electric power to hover and mover around.
www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/02files/Tesla_Saucer.html
Before our study group, Summerville, South Carolina #2, made a trip to A.R.E headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va., in April, 2009, Jerry Ingle, set into motion an ideal that generated a monumental synchronicity. For years, Jerry, a long-time member of our group, had been interested in Nikola Tesla. He saw many parallels between his talents and those of Edgar Cayce and hoped to somehow connect them. As a psychic, Edgar Cayce had been consulted by engineers about their inventions. Cayce was willing to help as long as it would ultimately be of service to humanity. While there are suggestions that both Thomas Edison and his former associate, Nikola Tesla, consulted Cayce separately; there is no documentation in the A.R.E. archives.
Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer who invented the alternating current Niagara power system that made Edison's direct current obsolete. He sold Westinghouse 40 patents that broke the General Electric monopoly. In 1893 he demonstrated the use of wireless radio control with a torpedo-like boat. He invented wireless transmission of electricity, an electric car that ran by tapping into the electricity of the Earth, the microwave, and the TV remote control, just to name a few. A court recently ruled that while Marconi had been given credit for the invention of the radio and made a fortune on it, Tesla was the true inventor.
Tesla was concerned with harnessing nature to meet the needs of humankind and foresaw the end of World War I as a synthesis of history, philosophy, and science,. He had the amazing ability to construct a machine in his mind and then, by operating the device in his mind, make improvements to the design. He could develop and perfect his inventions by drawing only upon the creative forces, without actually touching anything material. Just as the Cayce readings suggest, "Mind is the builder, physical is the result."
Another inventor that Edgar Cayce met was a man named Marion L. Stansell. During World War I, while stationed in France, Stansell had a near death experience with a vision. During the experience, a "spirit guide" escorted him to another dimension where he was given a formula for a mechanical device. He was told that this device would save the planet from environmental destruction in the next millennium.
On February 1, 1928, Edgar Cayce gave a reading which confirmed that Stansell was able to see the blueprints for a revolutionary type of motor in his dreams and visions. According to the readings, the motor was designed in the spirit realm by De Witt Clinton, deceased governor of New York, who in his last incarnation was the force behind the development of the Erie Canal.
Stansell needed the assistance of Edgar Cayce to relay precise technical information from Clinton in the spirit realm to Stansell and a team of like-minded entrepreneurs in the material world. The Stansell motor readings were conducted over a two-year period. One could speculate that Mr. Cayce did the same for Nikola Tesla, and that these readings were a continuation of that work, but if so, there is no record of it.
Jerry believed that there was a deep connection between the work of Cayce and Tesla and their interest in the connection between electricity and psychic phenomena. At A.R.E., Jerry found his way to the vault, where the Cayce records are kept, hoping to discover a way to get these plans into the hands of present-day inventors.
There, he and an A.R.E. volunteer named Harry talked excitedly for some time about Tesla. Suddenly, a man came to the door of the vault. "Does anybody know if there was ever a connection between Edgar Cayce and Nikola Tesla?"
"Here is the guy who can tell you," said Harry as he pointed toward Jerry. Jerry turned to face Nikola Lonchar — the President of Nikola Tesla's Inventors Club, a man who was dedicated to locating and preserving Tesla's work. The organization was made up of scientists who wanted to be sure Tesla's work was not lost! This was the first visit to A.R.E. by anyone from the Tesla organization.
Jerry was able to supply the visitor with the information he needed. The two sat in the lobby of the A.R.E. Visitor Center, oblivious to their surroundings, talking about an interest that held them both captive. Jerry was invited to speak at the next Nikola Tesla Inventors conference.
Nikola Lonchar was at A.R.E. for only one day. During this small window of time, he and Jerry had converged at the same place, at the same time, both equipped with a desire to be of service to Cayce, to Tesla, and to humanity. That's synchronicity in motion.
www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-posts/synchronicity...
Resolvi mudar um pouco. Depois eu mostro mais fotos da Karen. Essa é mais uma da minha série Photo Synthesis. Não sei o nome dessa planta, mas me inspirei no filme Wall-E. Adorei essa animação da Pixar.
Sempre gosto de responder aos comentários, mas tem amigos que estão reclamando que coloco o link de uma foto para comentar. Gostaria de saber se vocês não estão gostando disso, ok.
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I decided a little change. Then I show more pictures of Karen. This is another of my series Photo Synthesis. I do not know the name of this plant, but I inspired the movie Wall-E. I loved that the Pixar animation.
Always like to respond to the comments, but has friends who are complaining that put the link of a photo to comment. I wonder if you are not enjoying it, okay
Don't use this image on websites,blogs or other media, without my explicit permission.
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1. ... Calm & Move ..., 2. ... Synthesis ..., 3. ... Calm & Move ..., 4. Collage Series: Calm & Move
HDR synthesis.
Because because we want to reproduce the color of the street appearance.
It is the most famous one cherry tree in my hometown Nanto.
Also that the spectators many photographers visit is famous.
Since the age of 100 years or more of the cherry tree, it is worried about the future.
Synthesis of CsPbBr3 perovskite cubes are arranged side by side through out the wire like a buildings
Courtesy of Mr. Durga Prasad Muvva , UGC-Networking Resource Centre, School of Chemistry and The Centre for Nanotechnology, University of Hyderabad
Image Details
Instrument used: Tecnai
Magnification: 19.5 kx
Voltage: 200 kV
Spot: 1
Working Distance: 3
The face of the artist is nothing but his mask, since his real "I" remains invisible. According to Steiner, the head having become a kind of hologram of the body, then all the effort of spiritualization of the human being by the artist, will have to relate to the shape of the human head. This is what will happen with the design of the Goetheanum. Once more, we are faced with an objectification of the supersensible domain. The model of Gnostic art for Rudolf Steiner is of course as a work of art the Goetheanum in which he will give substance to his thought. 1965 The model of artistic gnosis for Raymond Abellio is of course a cabalistic diagram: the Universal Senaire Sphere which achieves the synthesis and the program of all his thought. Same. Through these images, we can grasp the artistic project of the first Goetheanum whose architectural elements, such as the columns, the capitals and the windows, owed nothing to chance, neither taste nor even less to functionality, but had to obey requirements particular esoteric and spiritual. The entire Goetheanum was to illustrate the foundations and 16 teachings of Anthroposophy, just as the art of Gothic cathedrals illustrated the foundations and various passages of the sacred history of Christianity. The scene of the Goetheanum was of course the apogee of his artistic project, with the column-seats where the twelve "apostrophes" should sit, next to the carved wooden ensemble, "The Representative of Humanity". which returns as a colored figure under the cupola.
In the rented hall of the Munich State Theatre, the Mystery Plays of Rudolf Steiner were performed each year between 1910 and 1913. The wish arose within the circle around Rudolf Steiner to build an appropriately designed building for these and for performances of eurhythmy. As there were many obstacles from the side of the authorities in Munich, it was decided to redesign the building to be erected on donated land in Dornach near Basel/Switzerland.
Construction began in 1913, meeting with delays during the First World War. Still incomplete, the building burnt down on New Year’s Eve of 1922/23.
The central element, already present in the project in Munich was the ground plan: 2 domes of different sizes resting on 2 large rotundas and interlinked with one another. Because of their particular proportions, they gave the impression both of a single, sculpted space, or also one consisting of 2 separate portions. The pillars along the interior of the building connected with earlier epochs in the development of architecture. Yet each pillar was sculpted individually with a base and a capital whose motifs were carved in such a manner that each new one derived its forms from elements of the previous one. It was Steiner’s attempt to incorporate into the design the laws underlying all development from one form to another in the living world, as in Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis, and to give to these new forms of artistic expression.
Architecture thereby departs from the static, “dead” state and begins to take on elements of a path of animated development. The arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and stained glass windows were united to create a space for the other arts – music, drama and eurhythmy. The building represents an effort to assist what slumbers in each human being as a higher element into full fruition
The First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture
John Paull*
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia *Corresponding Author: j.paull@utas.edu.au, john.paull@mail.com
ABSTRACT
A century has elapsed since the inauguration (on 26 September, 1920) of a remarkable piece of architecture, Rudolf Steiner‟s Goetheanum, headquarters of the Anthroposophy movement, on a verdant hilltop on the outskirts of the Swiss village of Dornach, near Basel. The Goetheanum was an all timber structure, sitting on concrete footings and roofed with Norwegian slate. The building was begun in 1913, and construction progressed through the First World War. Rudolf Steiner‟s intention was to take architecture in a new and organic direction. On New Year‟s Eve, 31 December 1922, the Goetheanum hosted a Eurythmy performance followed by a lecture by Rudolf Steiner for members of the Anthroposophy Society. In the hours that followed, despite the fire-fighting efforts of the Anthroposophists and the local fire brigades, the building burned to the ground. The popular narrative is that the fire was arson but that was never proved. A local watchmaker and anthroposophist, Jakob Ott, was the only person to perish in the fire. He was falsely accused (in death) as „the arsonist‟ but the evidence is rather that he perished in his brave efforts at saving the Goetheanum. Rudolf Steiner saw the “calamity” as an opportunity “to change the sorrowful event into a blessing”. He promptly embarked on plans for a new building, Goetheanum II. This time there was to be “no wood”. The short-lived Goetheanum I had served as a placeholder for Goetheanum II. This new Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner‟s finest work of organic architecture, is of steel reinforced concrete and today stands on the Dornach hill right on the site of the old Goetheanum.
Keywords: Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy, Goethe, Edith Maryon, Jakob Ott, Marie Steiner, fire, arson, disability, Dornach, Switzerland.
INTRODUCTION
The present Goetheanum building, located at Dornach, Switzerland, is one of the great buildings of the twentieth century (). The world has this building, Goetheanum II, because of three strokes of good luck (karma if you prefer), although they did not appear in that guise at the time. First, was a frustrating bureaucratic denial [1], second, was a catastrophic fire that Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) described as a “calamity” [2], and third was the arrival of a talented English sculptor who became one of Rudolf Steiner‟s closest colleagues [3].
The original Goetheanum was opened on 26 September, 1920. It was designed by the New Age philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. The first plan was to build a centre for Rudolf Steiner‟s Anthroposophy movement in Munich, but the city authorities denied building approval [1, 4]. It was a source of frustration and disappointment at the time, although it was really a stroke of great good fortune. As the Nazi ideology took root in Germany, Rudolf Steiner was unwelcome and threatened in Germany. After two decades of
living in Berlin, Rudolf Steiner relinquished his Berlin apartment in 1923 and never revisited Germany [5].
Alfred Hummel, who served as a member of the Building Office for the Goetheanum, explains of the denial of building approval: “this could be seen as good providence because the building would have run into great difficulties after the outbreak of World War 1. Munich would have been a place of great danger after 1933” [4: 2]. If the Goetheanum had been raised in Munich, it would have stood a good chance of destruction during World War II since the city was carpet bombed, including with magnesium incendiary bombs, in Allied raids. Such an alternative reality was never tested because shortly after the Munich denial, Dr Emil Grossheintz offered a site for the Goetheanum in Switzerland and Rudolf Steiner took up the offer [1].
The first Goetheanum was a building of very short life. Opened in 1920, it was burned to the ground at the end of 1922. This was a blow to the aspirations of the Anthroposophists and the multinational contingent of dedicated workers
Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I2 ● 2020
1
The First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture
who had laboured through the war, many as volunteers, to create this unique building. Rudolf Steiner described it as a “calamity” [1]. But, the destruction proved to be a blessing in disguise because it allowed a rethink of the design. In place of the original rather quaint structure of Goetheanum I, there is now Goetheanum II, which is a truly remarkable and timeless masterpiece.
The English sculptor, Edith Maryon (1872- 1924), arrived in Dornach a few months before the outbreak of war in 1914, to devote her talents to the service of Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy movement. Here she found her spiritual home and she devoted herself forthwith to „the cause‟. Goetheanum I was already designed and under construction by the time Edith Maryon arrived in Dornach, but she was the sculptor on hand, and by then established as one of Rudolf Steiner‟s close collaborators when Goetheanum II was conceived.
On the occasion of the centenary of the opening of Goetheanum I, the present paper, considers the dharma of the building, its reception, and its passing
Methods
Goetheanum I is, a century on from the opening, beyond living memory. The present account draws on contemporary documents of the time, to throw light on the building, its reception, and its calamitous demise. Documents drawn on include eye witness accounts, personal published and manuscript accounts, newspaper accounts, correspondence, and Rudolf Steiner‟s own comments, explanations and lectures. The original sources are quoted where appropriate.
Results
The Goetheanum with which this paper is concerned is the first Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner referred to it as the “old Goetheanum”[6], the present paper will refer to it generally as „Goetheanum I‟. When building approval was denied in Munich [4], a devotee of Rudolf Steiner‟s Anthroposophy, the Zürich dentist Dr Emil Grosheintz, offered a site on the outskirts of the Swiss village of Dornach, the site of a famous Swiss battle of 1499 where Swabian invaders were repulsed [7]. Dornach is a brief commute (train or tram, about 15 km) to the city of Basel, which sits in the north west of Switzerland near the junction of three country borders (France, Germany and Switzerland).
The Goetheanum was a project of the New Age philosopher and mystic Rudolf Steiner. He had honed his skills as an orator and lecturer as
leader of the German section of the Theosophy Society [8]. Emerging differences between the Theosophists and Rudolf Steiner led to the establishment of a breakaway movement, the Anthroposophy Society. The Goetheanum was to be the home of the new Society, an administrative centre, and a performance space for Steiner‟s Mystery plays.
Rudolf Steiner went on to design various buildings in the growing enclave of Anthroposophists at Dornach [9], but the monumental Goetheanum I was the first venture into Anthroposophical architectural design on a grand scale, and the Goetheanum II was the apogee of Rudolf Steiner‟s architectural manifestations .
THE GREAT WAR
An Australian soldier, arriving in Europe in 1916, sent a postcard home: “Dear Dave, We have seen a lot of ruined towns & villages since we have been in France. This must have been a nice building once, now ruins, Keith” [10].
In the Europe of the time, destruction on an industrial scale was the order of the day. However, Switzerland remained neutral throughout, and her neutrality was honoured by all the belligerents for the duration.
Construction of the Goetheanum at Dornach began in 1913. Construction carried on through the years of World War I (1914-1918). The Russian artist, Assya Turgeniev, recalled: “Already at the beginning of hostilities Dr Steiner tried to speak to us about the background to the events of the war ... The stirred up chauvinistic moods of his listeners thrown together from all quarters of the globe (we were from about 17 different nations) that did not allow him to continue” [11: 99].
Marie Steiner wrote that, as the war stretched on, the work force was depleted by call-up notices: “one after another our artists were called away to the scene of the war. With very few exceptions, there remained only those men who belonged to neutral countries, and the women” [in 12: vii].
The Goetheanum was built during the Great War using volunteer and paid labour. They came and went. Amongst the privations and avalanche of news of death and destruction of the war: “the work went on as best it could and as far as our strength allowed” [11: 136]. “From all quarters of the globe people gathered in Dornach to help with the building. It was a motley, many-sided, multilingual company”[11: 57]. “Our carving group grew to about 70 in number, not counting those who put in a short appearance ... All financial affairs were
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attended to by Miss Stinde. For those who needed it she arranged a modest remuneration” [11: 58].
The artist Assya Turgeniev remembered: “we were only a bunch of dilettantes ... Only the knowledge that we were working together on a great future task and Dr Steiner‟s helping guidance brought order into this chaos. It remains a wonder that the work progresses without any kind of organisation” [11: 59].
With the outbreak of war, “A heavy gloom settled over Dornach ... a European war, was now on our very doorstep [11: 68]. Goetheanum volunteers were called up to return to their respective countries: “Many friends had been recruited and had to depart” [11: 69]. “Our group of wood- carvers grew less and less as further friends were called up” [11: 79].
Figure 1. View of the Goetheanum with blossom trees [source: 13].
A NEW STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE
Rudolf Steiner spoke of the Goetheanum, “The Dornach Building”, in a lecture to Anthro- posophists at The Hague in February 1921: “I have said that the style of this Goetheanum has arisen out of the same sources that gave birth to spiritual science. The endeavour to create a new style of imperfections which must accompany such architecture is accompanied by inevitable risks, by all the a first attempt” [14: 150]. Steiner elaborated: “there is not a single symbol, not a single allegory, but rather we have attempted to give everything a truly artistic form [14: 151].
Organic Architecture
Rudolf Steiner explained his Goetheanum as a manifestation of a new organic architecture: “Concrete and wood are both employed to give rise to an architectural style that may perhaps be described as the transition from previous geometrical, symmetrical, mechanical, static- dynamic architectural styles into an organic style” [14: 153]. The plinth was concrete and the superstructure was timber.
The Goetheanum was organic but not imitative of nature: “Not that some sort of organic form has been imitated in the Dornach building. That is not the case” [14: 154]. Rudolf Steiner informed his audience that: “The least and the greatest in an organic whole has its place in the organism, its absolutely right form. All this has passed over into the architectural conception of the Dornach building” [14: 154]
Rudolf Steiner acknowledged the German writer and polymath, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 -1832): “it has been my aim, in accordance with Goethe‟s theory of metamorphosis, to steep myself in nature‟s creation of organic forms, and from these to obtain organic forms that, when metamorphosed, might make a single whole of the Dornach building. In other words, organic forms of such a kind that each single form must be in precisely the place it is” [14: 154].
Windows, as all the elements of the Goetheanum, were conceived of as part of an organic whole: “we are handing over this auxiliary building [the Glass House, Glashaus] ... in order that they
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may create something that in the fairest sense may be a living member in the whole organism of our building” [12: 15].
Rudolf Steiner was aware already that not all would be won over to his organic architecture: "I well know how much may be said against this organic principle of building from the point of view of older architectural styles. This organic style, however, has been attempted in the architectural conception of the building at Dornach ... You will therefore find in the Dornach building certain organic forms... carved out of wood, as embodied in the capitals of the columns at the entrance” [14: 154-6]
THE OPENING
The Italian artist Ernesto Genoni, who later spent a year with Rudolf Steiner at Dornach (in 1924) [15, 16] and was a member of Rudolf Steiner‟s First Class, wrote two (somewhat cryptic) accounts of his first visit to the Goetheanum on the occasion of the inauguration (26 September, 1920).
In one account Ernesto Genoni relates: “In Milan I came in touch with the Anthroposophical Society where I took part for a whole year in the study of Anthroposophy. Then my sister Mrs [Rosa] Podreider, for certain business reasons, sent me to Lausanne and said „While you are there you can go as far as the Goetheanum‟. Eventually I arrived in Dornach at the inauguration of the first Goetheanum. There Mrs [Charlotte] Ferreri introduced me to Dr Steiner and I was received by him with great warmth. Unfortunately he was speaking in German which I did not know, but by his long handshake
and smiling expression of the face I could feel his sincere welcome. Here I would like to add this - That was the only time among all the people I met at the Goetheanum that anyone gave me a feeling that I was truly welcome ... So much did I feel this isolation that I decided to return to Italy” [17: 7].
In another account of his Goetheanum inauguration visit, Ernesto Genoni writes: “In autumn 1920 Rosa sent me to Lausanne for selling some opossum skins and then I went to Dornach. What a strange impression I received from the first view of the Goetheanum building ... The short conversation with Fräulein Vreede ... chilly! Frau Ferreri ... the meeting with the Doctor ... the bewildering impression of the interior of the Goetheanum. I could not enter in such saturated life of the spirit and after a few days I left ... the reproach from Miss Maryon. In the following years it was a painful search to find my way in life” [18: 19] (author‟s note: ellipses are in the original handwritten manuscript).
ART OF THE TOUR
Rudolf Steiner wanted the art of the Goetheanum to speak directly to the viewer without intermediary explanations: “Sometimes I had occasion to show visitors the Goetheanum personally. Then I used to say that all „explanation‟ of the forms and colours was in fact distasteful to me. Art does not want to be brought home to us through thoughts, but should rather be received in the immediate sight and feeling of it” [1: 3]. The photographs in the present paper offer an insight into the experience of Steiner‟s visitors (Figs. 1, 2 & 3).
Figure 2. Rear view of the Goetheanum with Heizhaus to the right (postcard)
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NEWS IN THE ANTIPODES
The Register newspaper in Adelaide, Australia‟s city of churches, informed its readers in 1925 about Rudolf Steiner and the Goetheanum: “a man who built a building large enough to contain an audience of a thousand people, roofed by intersecting domes, the larger of them slightly greater span than St Peter‟s, earned a title of serious consideration from all who profess the art of architecture. The building owed nothing to traditional styles. No effect was made by its designer to present an intellectual conception of what the temples of ancient Greece could contribute to the art of modern Europe, nor were the forms of medieval Gothic borrowed and adjusted. In no sense was it a drawing board design.” [19].
The Register continued: “It was conceived and designed, as architecture should be and must be, in three dimensions, and it had to be seen in three dimensions to be understood ... as a first effort in a new presentation of architecture it has probably no rival in the history of art” [19].
Readers in South Australia were informed that the Goetheanum: “was built on the summit of one of the foothills of the Jura mountains, near the village of Dornach, standing out against a background of rugged hills and rocky cliffs ... He deliberately discards the limitations of squares, and one feels that his construction is organic rather than static” [19].
Figure 3. Interior of the Goetheanum [source: 13]. Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I2 ● 2020
The Name
Even the name of the Goetheanum apparently drew offence. „Wokeness' is not such a twenty- first century phenomenon as some might suppose. Rudolf Steiner explained: “Many people were scandalised at the very name, „Goetheanum‟, because they failed to consider the fundamental reason for this name, and how it is connected with all that is cultivated there as Anthroposophy ... this Anthroposophy is the spontaneous result of my devotion for more than four decades to Goethe‟s world-conception” [2: 1].
Of the name, Rudolf Steiner explained: “this Goetheanum was first called „Johannesbau‟ by those friends of the anthroposophical world- conception who made it possible to erect such a building ... for me this building is a Goetheanum, for I derived my world-view in a living way from Goethe ... I have always regarded this as a sort of token of gratitude for what can be gained from Goethe, an act of homage to the towering personality of Goethe ... the anthroposophical world-view feels the deepest gratitude for what has come into the world through Goethe” [2: 2].
Second Thoughts
Less than a year after the opening of the Goetheanum, and even while the building remained incomplete (it was never entirely completed), Rudolf Steiner revealed that he was thinking of a Goetheanum Mark 2.
At a lecture in Berne on 29 June 1921 titled „The Architectural Conception of the Goetheanum‟ Rudolf Steiner told his audience that: “Naturally one can criticise in every possible way this architectural style which has been formed out of spiritual science. But nothing that makes its first appearance is perfect, and I can assure you that I know all its flaws and that I would be the first to say: If I had to put up this building a second time, it would be out of the same background and out of the same laws, but in most of its details, and perhaps even totally, it would be different” [20: 42]. As events played out just eighteen months later, it proved to be a remarkably prescient statement.
Bad Timing
For sheer bad timing (and perhaps prolixity), a fund raising letter dated 25 December 1922 by the British Anthroposophical Society in London would be hard to beat. The letter explained that: “the Goetheanum expresses in a language of line, form and colour those thoughts and ideas which a knowledge of higher spiritual worlds
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produces in the artist. As a work of art the Goetheanum can only be compared, in its tendency to the supreme artistic achievements of humanity, for it produces in the onlooker the perception of that interpenetration of object and idea of which the true world of art is the outcome, while it raises him to that point within his inner being where an ideal spiritual world is felt to be born into physical reality”.
Then the fund raising letter gets to the point: “The Goetheanum still remains to be completed. The funds at Dr Steiner‟s disposal are drawing to an end. Money is urgently needed to carry on the work. The work MUST NOT STOP ... Let each give what he or she can. In the old days ladies sold their jewellery to enable the foundation stone to be laid” [21].
Just six days after the date of the London fund raiser letter, the Goetheanum burned to the ground (on the night of 31 December 1922). Rudolf Steiner described the occurrence as a “dreadful calamity”. He reminded his audience of “The terrible catastrophe of last New Year‟s Eve, the destruction by fire of the Goetheanum, which will remain a painful memory” [2: 1].
Rudolf Steiner explained that the Anthroposophical Society was misunderstood and that there was calumny afoot: “That dreadful calamity was just the occasion to bring to light what fantastic notions there are in the world linked with all that this Goetheanum in Dornach intended to do and all that was done in it. It was said that the most frightful superstitions were disseminated there, that all sorts of things inimical to religion were being practiced; and there is even talk of all kinds of spiritualistic seances, of nebulous mystic performances, and so on” [2: 1].
The Fire
A local newspaper, the Basler Nachricten reported the news of the New Year fire at the Goetheanum: “The Goetheanum in Dornach-Arlesheim is on fire, was the terrible alarm message that flew like wildfire ... just before the bells sounded in solemn ringing ... On New Year‟s Eve ... at 7 pm , the Goetheanum had a presentation of Eurythmy and a lecture by Rudolf Steiner ... The last audience had left the lecture hall by 9.45 pm ... immediately after the seriousness of the situation was clear, the calls for help were despatched to the surrounding villages and to Basel ... The Dornachers were the first to arrive at 11:45 pm, followed by the Arlesheimers a quarter of an hour later ... Because of repair work, there was scaffolding where the fire was first seen” [22].
Rudolf Steiner put the fire as starting between 5:15 pm and 6:20 pm [23].
Rudolf Steiner related that: “one hour after the last word had been spoken, I was summoned to the fire at the Goetheanum. At the fire of the Goetheanum we passed the whole of that New Year night”. He stated that it was “exactly at the moment in its evolution when the Goetheanum was ready to become the bearer of the renewal of spiritual life”[6].
A newspaper gave an account of the events: “When the double cupolas fell in, there shot up heavenwards a giant sheaf of fire, and a torrent of sparks threatened the whole neighbor-hood so that fire-men had to be sent in all directions to prevent the spread of disaster” [24]. Later, on New Year‟s Day “The sky was veiled in clouds as if to check the great outpouring of people which took place from Basel and its neighbor- hood. For nearly the whole population there was one urge: Off to Dornach! Hour after hour unbroken streams of people climbed the muddy roads and slippery fields, whilst other streams, equally unbroken, flowed down again” [24].
Rudolf Steiner later referred to “the pain for which there are no words” [1: 7]. However, on the day, as Albert Steffen relates, Rudolf Steiner kept his nerve and declared the continuance of the New Year‟s programme: “In the morning Dr Steiner ... was still there ... „We will go on with our lectures as notified‟, he said, and gave instructions that the pools of water in the „Schreinerei‟ (the temporary shed used for lectures) and the dirt carried in by muddied shoes should be removed” [25: 13].
Seat of the Fire
Albert Steffen (1884-1963), Anthroposophist, writer and editor, wrote of the seat of the fire: “Unfortunately a scaffolding, necessary for certain work, had been put up just in the place where the fire was first noticed” [25: 12]. A local Basel newspaper had reported likewise: “Because of repair work, there was scaffolding where the fire was first seen” [22].
Ninety nine years later, accounts of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire of 2019 are reminiscent of accounts of the Goetheanum fire. “The fire began at about 18:43 local time on Monday (15 April). Pictures show flames shooting up around the spire, shortly after the doors were shut to visitors for the day. The blaze spread rapidly along the wooden roof as onlookers gathered on the ground below” [26]. Another account states
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that: “Flames that began in the early evening burst through the roof of the centuries-old cathedral and engulfed the spire, which collapsed, quickly followed by the roof” [27]. Builder‟s scaffolding for repair work are also a part of the Notre Dame story: “Much of the roof was covered in scaffolding as part of a big renovation programme, which is being investigated as a possible cause of the blaze” [26]. Two leading candidates for the cause of the Notre Dame fire are identified: “The catastrophic fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral could have been caused by a burning cigarette or an electrical malfunction, French prosecutors said ... Prosecutors are now looking at the possibility of negligence” [28].
Of the Goetheanum fire, a Basel newspaper reported: “Dr Steiner ... According to him,, who will probably know his way around the construction of the building, the fire must have started between 5:00 and 7:00 in the evening .... The smoke was noticed a little after 10 pm in the so-called „white room‟ on the third floor” [23]. The room, the apparent seat of the fire, was used by one or some Eurythmists as a change room [23]. It was reported that “there were no electrical systems at the fire site”[22].A discarded cigarette butt, a neglected candle or a portable camp stove or heater (the outside temperature would have been hovering around 0o C), or a flimsy Eurythmy costume draped carelessly on a hot light bulb are candidates as potential ignition sources.
The Goetheanum was insured for CHF 3,800,000 and with a further CHF 500,000 for furniture and equipment [22]. A proof of contributory negligence would have voided or severely prejudiced an insurance claim. This, combined with the prevailing persecution complex of the Anthroposophists, was a great motivation for fuelling suspicions of arson. To this day, the cause of the Goetheanum blaze remains an open question [29]. The timely payout of the insurance facilitated the rebuild of the Goetheanum, and the local Building Insurance Act was revised “to protect the state institution against such disasters” [30].
Jakob Ott
One person lost their life in the fire. That was Jakob Ott, a watchmaker from nearby Arlesheim, and a member of the Anthroposophy Society.
Assya Tergeniev recorded that: “When the glowing ashes had cooled, some days later, a human skeleton with a deformed spine was found therein. This deformity was the same as
that of a watchmaker who had disappeared at the time of the fire. It was officially announced that he had come to grief while helping with the rescue work” [11: 129].
A Basel newspaper reported that “Human remains were found in the rubble of the burned- down Goetheanum on Wednesday [10 January]. It is not yet certain whether it is the missing watchmaker Ott ... These are the bones of a single person, who presumably fell from the floor of the dome into the depth of the basement. The skull was smashed ... no one apart from the watchmaker Ott has been missing since that fateful night ... the bone remains were almost completely covered with slate residue from the roof of the dome. The casualty must have plunged into the stage basement below the collapsing dome at 12 midnight. Although all fire-fighting teams had withdrawn at 11:30 pm in view of the building, which was at risk and could no longer be saved, it is easily possible that, due to the thick smoke, a person who might already have been stunned had not been noticed” [31].
Conspiracy theorists of the day, and later commentators, have attributed the fire to arson, but that is not proven, and even named the supposed arsonist as Jakob Ott, and that is proven false. Research of Günther Aschoff has established: “the 28-year-old watchmaker Jakob Ott from Neu-Arlesheim had died in the fire. But he could not have been the arsonist, because he was home all New Year's Eve, then in the evening at a choir rehearsal and at the year-end service in the Reformed Church. (He was a member of the Reformed Church and of the Anthroposophical Society, he procured many advertisements for the magazine "Das Goetheanum" and had also collected signatures for the naturalization of Rudolf Steiner). At about 22.30 he was on the tram on the way home. When he saw the clouds of smoke at the Goetheanum in the moonlit night, he ran up the mountain, to help, which he used to do whenever he was needed. He was present when the fire was extinguished in the small dome at the top of the building, but when the others had already retreated because of all the smoke”. Jakob Ott failed to evacuate likely because he was overcome by smoke or that he lost his footing [32].
Jakob Ott was reportedly just 1.5 metres tall, and a hunchback with “a backbone curvature due to an accident” [31]. Another account simply sated: “Ott had a hump” [30]. He was a man of modest means and lacking influential friends. As a disabled figure, Jakob Ott was a
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ready candidate for „othering‟ and he made a convenient scapegoat for the smug. A Basel newspaper reported: “Dr Steiner, whom we also interviewed regarding Ott ... He himself has no suspicion of Ott” [23]. Rudolf Steiner subsequently attended Jakob Ott‟s funeral [33].
It appears that Rudolf Steiner never referred to the fire as „arson‟. Albert Steffen wrote of „The destruction of the Goetheanum by fire”, he did not write of „by arson‟ [25]. Arson does not rate in the top ten causes of house fires [34]. Arson does not rate as one of the nominated “leading causes of warehouse structure fires” [35]. If the arson conspiracy theory fails, then the quest for „the arsonist‟ is extinguished.
The demonising of Jakob Ott has been an unworthy episode propagated by some who should have known better. One hysterical account about Jakob Ott appears to be mere flights of fancy, ungrounded in fact, and owes more to a fertile imagination than sound research [e.g. 36]. It appears that Marie Steiner has fuelled conspiracy theories: “One of the suspects was the watchmaker Jakob Ott from Allesheim , whose skeleton was found ten days after the fire in the ashes of the Goetheanum which had burned down. It was identified by a spinal defect. Later Marie Steiner wrote „From a skeleton that was discovered, it can be established that the arsonist was burned‟‟ [quoted in 33: 904].
Jakob Ott (1895-1923) died a miserable death by incineration, in a worthy cause of trying to save the Goetheanum. Whether he was overcome by smoke and/or lost his footing, the action of entering a burning building is the act of a brave man.
A Blessing
Exactly a year on from the fire, Rudolf Steiner reflected on the events of New Year‟s Eve, 1922, at the Goetheanum. The venue for the lectures was now the much less salubrious (and cold) Schreinerei, the carpentry workshop, adjacent to the site of the remnants of the fire [37].
Rudolf Steiner referred to the “painful memory” of the final lecture that he had delivered at the Goetheanum, what he now called “our old Goetheanum” [6]. Remembering the night, Rudolf Steiner reminded his listeners that; “the flames bust from our beloved Goetheanum ... but out of the very pain we pledge ourselves to remain loyal to the Spirit to which we erected the Goetheanum, building it up through ten years of work” [6].
Changing tack, Rudolf Steiner urged his audience to move on from the “tragedy” and offered them the recipe for doing just that: “if we are able to change the pain and grief into the impulses to action then we shall also change the sorrowful event into a blessing. The pain cannot thereby be made less, but it rests with us to find in the pain the urge to action ... Let us carry over the soul of the Goetheanum into the Cosmic New Year, lets try to erect in the new Goetheanum a worth memorial to the old!” [6: 4].
Beyond Wood
Goetheanum I was an all-timber construct. One of the building officers related that: “our first director had implored us not to use any iron nail, coach screw or sheet metal in the main wooden structure. These artificial building materials were not to be brought in connection with the noble organic timber” [4: 15]
A few months after the fire, Rudolf Steiner, writing in the April 1923 issue of the periodical „Anthroposophy‟, was quick to rule in a rebuild, that was never in doubt in his mind, while at the same time he ruled out rebuilding in timber: “In rebuilding the Goetheanum we shall probably need to think on different lines ... There can, of course, be no question of a second Building in wood” [38: 38].
In 1923 Rudolf Steiner wrote to the Central Administration of the local Swiss Canton Solothurn: “The new building will stand directly on the site of the old. With regard to the construction of the building as a whole, we bring to your attention that it is to be executed as a solid structure and that all its structural parts, all floors and bearing walls, as well as the roof trusses will be carried out in reinforced concrete. We plan to employ a purely steel construction for the support of the floor of the main stage alone. Timber will be used nowhere as a constructional element in the new building, but exclusively for doors, windows, flooring and floor construction over solid slab floors, for rafters and for fixtures and cladding. As roof material the same Norwegian slate as was used on the old Goetheanum is to be employed. ... We are convinced that the entire building, when completed in this type of construction, will be able to meet all requirements as to fire safety to an unusual degree” [39: 52].
Concrete
By the time of Goetheanum II, Rudolf Steiner already had some experience of reinforced
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concrete as a building medium. The rather fanciful Heizhaus (Boiler House) of 1914 [9], located nearby the Goetheanum, and still standing today, is a creative exercise in concrete. Rudolf Steiner described it as “a remarkable structure” and so it is [14] (Fig.2).
Rudolf Steiner was well aware of criticism of his first adventure in concrete, the Boiler House. He proffered this rejoinder: “This is what is subject to the most severe criticism from some quarters ... I undertook to create ... a shell of concrete - a material which is extremely difficult to mould artistically. Those who criticise this structure today do not pause to reflect what would stand there if no endeavour had been made to mould something out of concrete - a material so difficult to mould. There could be nothing but a brick chimney. I wonder if that would be more beautiful than this, which of course is only a first attempt to give a certain style to something made of concrete. It has many defects, for it is only a first attempt to mould something artistic out of materials such as concrete” [14: 157].
Edith Maryon, Sculptor
Edith Maryon (1872-1924) stepped into Rudolf Steiner‟s life in 1914. It was just before the outbreak of World War I and she quickly became one of his closest confidants. Edith Maryon was an English sculptor trained at the Royal College of Arts in London.
As a trained and skilled sculptor, Edith Maryon brought new skills into the inner sanctum of Rudolf Steiner‟s bevy of talented women, which included the mathematician Elizabeth Vreede and medical doctor Ita Wegman. Goetheanum I was already under construction when Edith Maryon arrived at Dornach. Edith Maryon however quickly proved her skills in collaborative architectural design not just of sculptural elements within Goetheanum I. Together they created the Eurythmy Houses I, II and III (Eurythmiehäuser), a little way down the Dornach hill from the Goetheanum [9].
Edith Maryon brought a feminine influence and a sculptor's panache. Under the collaborative influence of Edith Maryon, Rudolf Steiner was liberated from the overt Freudian features of his earlier creations with his phallic Boiler House and the double-breasted Glass House (Glashaus) and Goetheanum I.
The clay models for Goetheanum II were constructed during 1923, the year of closest
collaboration between Rudolf Steiner and Edith Maryon. At the end of the year, at the Christmas Conference of 1923 Rudolf Steiner appointed Edith Maryon as the head of the Sculpture Section (plastic arts) of the School of Spiritual Science of the Goetheanum [40]. Sadly, by then her health was deteriorating and she passed away four months later. Rudolf Steiner‟s own health took a blow at the close of the Christmas Conference on 31 December 1923. He struggled on through nine months of 1924, before retreating to his sick bed in September, and he passed away six months later.
It could be regarded as fortuitous that Goetheanum I was destroyed during Rudolf Steiner‟s own lifetime and that he and Edith Maryon had developed a close collaborative working embrace that could bring the clay sculptural models of Goetheanum II quickly to fruition. Goetheanum II is Rudolf Steiner‟s final contribution to his portfolio of Anthroposophic buildings and to organic architecture, and more than any of his prior works, it is a monumental and masterful work of sculpture.
CONCLUSION
The first Goetheanum was both success and failure. It was a bold experiment in organic design, a proof of concept that such a vision could be translated into reality, that despite the disruption of war, work could proceed, funds could be raised, a distinctive building could be manifested, and the enthusiasm and talent of a multitude of volunteers could be harnessed. However, an all timber building is a conflagration waiting to happen, it is just the timing of the conflagration that is the uncertainty. In the case of Goetheanum I, the conflagration came quickly, before even the building was completed, before a Mystery Play was ever performed in the space, remembering that a dedicated performance space for such plays had been a large part of the rationale for the building.
The dharma of Goetheanum I was to serve as a placeholder for Goetheanum II. The new Goetheanum took the money from the insurance of the demise of the old Goetheanum, and embraced the lesson that an all-timber construction is not a recipe for longevity. Goetheanum II harnessed the sculptural skills by then on hand, and brought them to the fore to create what is not only a magnificent sculpture in concrete, but is also a functioning building and a delight to work in. Flushed away is the quaintness of Goetheanum I. The new Goetheanum is a bold twentieth
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century building worthy of the twenty first century and beyond.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thank you to to members of the Goetheanum Archive (Dokumentation am Goetheanum Bibliothek Kunstsammlung Archiv) for kind
assistance in navigating the collection and to DeepL.com/Translator and Google Translate for assistance with various translations.
REFERENCES
[1] Steiner, R., The Goetheanum in the ten years of its life, I. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2): p. 2-10.
[2] Steiner, R., What was the purpose of the Goetheanum and what is the task of Anthroposophy, A lecture at Basel, 9 April, 1923. 1923, Fremont, IL: Rudolf Steiner Archive, .
[3] Paull, J., A portrait of Edith Maryon: Artist and Anthroposophist. Journal of Fine Arts, 2018. 1(2): p. 8-15.
[4] Hummel, A., A Diary: Life and Work During the Building of the First Goetheanum. 2003, (Trans. Friedwart Bock from c.1955 German original), Aberdeen: Camphill Architects.
[5] Paull, J., Rudolf Steiner: At Home in Berlin. Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania, 2019. 132: p. 26-29.
[6] Steiner, R., World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, A lecture at Dornach, 31 December 1923. 1923, Fremont, IL: Rudolf Steiner Archive, .
[7] Fahrni, D., An Outline History of Switzerland From the Origins to the Present Day. 1997, Zürich: Pro Helvetia Arts, Council of Switzerland.
[8] Steiner, R., The Story of My Life. 1928, London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co.
[9] Kugler, J., ed. Architekturführer Goetheanumhügel die Dornacher Anthroposophen-Kolonie. 2011, Verlag Niggli: Zurich.
[10] Keith, Postcard (with handwritten message on rear): Ypres - La Salle Pauwels (Halles d'Ypres) avant et après le Bombardment. The Pauwels Gallery (Halles of Ypres) before the Bombard- ment and after. 1916, Paris: Visé Paris (private collection).
[11] Turgeniev, A., Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner and Work on the First Goetheanum. 2003, Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
[12] Steiner, R., Ways to A New Style in Architecture: Five lectures by Rudolf Steiner given during the building of the First Goetheanum, 1914. 1927, London: Anthroposophical Publishing Company.
[13] Uehli, E., Rudolf Steiner als Künstler. 1921, Stuttgart: Der Kommnede Tag.
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Paull, J., Ernesto Genoni: Australia's pioneer of biodynamic agriculture. Journal of Organics, 2014. 1(1): p. 57-81.
Paull, J., The Anthroposophic Art of Ernesto Genoni, Goetheanum, 1924. Journal of Organics, 2016. 3(2): p. 1-24.
Genoni, E., Personal memoir. c.1970, 9 pp., typewritten manuscript, last date mentioned is 1966, A4. Private collection.
Genoni, E., Personal memoir. c.1955, 26 pp., handwritten manuscript, last date mentioned is 1952, school exercise book. Private collection.
The Register, Modernity in Art - New Architectural Forms. The Register (Adelaide, Australia), 1925. 31 December: p. 5.
Biesantz, H. and A. Klingborg, The Goetheanum: Rudolf Steiner's Architectural Impulse. 1979, London: Rudolf Steiner Press.
Metaxa, G., Typed letter, Dear Friends and fellow members. 2 pages. 25 December. Anthroposophical Society. 1922, 46 Gloucester Place, London.
Basler Nachrichten, Das Goetheanum niedergebrannt. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 2 January.
Basler Nachrichten, Zum Brand im Goetheanum - Ott in Verdacht als Brandstifter oder Mitwisser. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 5 January.
National Zeitung, The account of the burning of the Goetheanum from the National Zeitung. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2, January- February): p. 18-19.
Steffen, A., The destruction of the Goetheanum by fire. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2): p. 10-13.
BBC News, Notre-Dame: The story of the fire in graphics and images. BBC News, 2019. 16 April.
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Vandoorne, S., A. Crouin, and B. Britton, Notre Dame fire could have been started by a cigarette or an electrical fault, prosecutors say. CNN, 2019. 26 June.
Balzer, M., The unsolved Goetheanum case: A play is devoted to the fire of New Year'ds Eve 1922. Aargauer Zeitung, 2019. 2 May.
Basler Nachrichten, Zur Untersuchung über den Goetheanum-Brand. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 11 January.
Neue Zürcher Nachrichten, Ein wichtiger Fund bei den Aufräumungsarbeiten am Goetheanum. Neue Zürcher Nachrichten, 1923. 13 January.
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[32] Aschoff, G., Neues vom Goetheanum-Brand. Das Goetheanum, 2007. 1-2.
[33] Prokofieff, S.O., May Human Beings Hear It!: The Mystery of the Christmas Conference. 2014, Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.
[34] Real Insurance, The most common causes of house fires. 2013, Sydney: Real Insurance.
[35] Campbell, R., Structure Fires in Warehouse Properties. 2016, Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association.
[36] Ravenscroft, T., The Spear of Destiny: The Occult Power Behind the Spear Which Pierced the Side of Christ and how Hitler inverted the Force in a bid to conquer the World. 1982, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser Inc.
[37] Paull, J., Dr Rudolf Steiner's Shed: The Schreinerei at Dornach. Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania, 2018. 127(September): p. 14-19.
[38] Steiner, R., The Goetheanum in the ten years of its life, VI. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(4): p. 37-41.
[39] Raab, R., A. Klingborg, and A. Fant, Eloquent Concrete: How Rudolf Steiner Employed Reinforced Concrete. 1979, London: Rudolf Steiner Press.
[40] Steiner, M., Proceedings of the Founding Conference of the General Anthroposophical Society. 1944, Roneoed publication. "As edited and published by Marie Steiner in 1944. Translated by Frances E Dawson": "For Members of the General Anthroposophical Society".
Artist: Ample Projects. Experience the science and magic behind a heritage listed Moreton Bay Fig Tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Celebrating these magnificent organisms, and the role they play in ecosystems around our world, this intricately 3D mapped projection show will explore the beauty and function of these ancient wonders.
The wonderful heritage listed Moreton Bay Fig tree used as a canvas for Vivid Botanical Gardens
Synthesis by Artist Ample Projects
Kazan Kremlin, Kazan, Russia.
The Kazan Kremlin is not only unique on account of its distinctive fortifications, buildings and temples. It is also without parallel because, historically and architecturally, the complex bears witness to the continuity of its history, to the lasting result of the centuries-long synthesis and matchless interchange of values between different cultures and civilizations.
Although the Kremlin is not the only ancient urban citadel on the banks of the Volga river, it is only in Kazan that one is able to find such a unique monument to the all but lost culture of the Kazan Khanate - the only surviving Tatar fortress which clearly bears all the hallmarks of its original urban function.
Synthesis is a blend of dark sour ale fermented in red wine barrels and stainless-aged farmhouse ales Dark Brown in Colour From Oxbow Brewing in Newcastle Maine
This one could be a bit controversial. Aimed to show the fusion of religion and technology to create technoreligions or the worship of incredibly advanced technology. Another of my bleak outlooks on the future. Don't pay this one much attention.
Created with cold cathode stick and LED brush. Lighting by Alex Heath and myself, model is Tom Bridge.
The Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido di Venezia is the main headquarters for the Venice International Film Festival. Built in record time in the Modernist style of the time, it was inaugurated on August 10th 1937 for the fifth edition of the Festival. Compared to the rhetorical monumentality of the nearby Casino building, the Palazzo del Cinema, which features a Hall and a 1032-seat screening theatre, is a synthesis of Rationalist models. What remains today of the original building are the two rounded sides and the lateral façades.
With the growing popularity of the Venice Film Festival, which in the early 1950s counted more than one hundred thousand spectators, it became necessary to expand the building. The project was entrusted to the engineer Luigi Quagliata who developed an ambitious design for a five-story building with theatres that could seat 5000. The Sala Grande was expanded to seat 2300 spectators; the project also included an open-air Arena, office space and services, and a roof garden with a panoramic view of Venice and the Lido. This ambitious project was never completed for lack of funds: all that was built was the outdoor Arena in 1952 and a small annex on the main façade of the 1937 building known as the Avancorpo, which served to expand the Foyer of the Sala Grande and create an area for offices and services. The Foyer was later reduced to fit the new Sala Volpi screening room and provide both office space and a ticket office.
ADDITIONS
Between 2012 and 2015 the Palazzo del Cinema was renovated, restoring the Foyer of the Avancorpo to its original size with the demolition of Sala Volpi; large new entrances were created on the sides of the Avancorpo to create a better relationship between the spaces of the Venice Film Festival (Palazzo del Cinema, Avancorpo and Sala Darsena), the surrounding urban area, and the former Casinò building. The outdoor areas are used during the International Venice Film Festival to set up the Cittadella del Cinema, which offers structures and reception services for the public. During this phase, the Zorzi and Pasinetti screening rooms as well as the service spaces on the basement floor of the historic section of the 1937 building underwent renovation, and an independent entrance was created from the Foyer of the Avancorpo.
Work was begun by the City of Venice in 2016, and continues to this day, to regenerate the entire area in front of the Palazzo del Casinò and the Palazzo del Cinema. The work will include renovation of the access area to the Palazzo del Cinema, with the construction of a permanent walkway (it will serve as the red carpet for the actors and film delegations). La Biennale is continuing its programme to regenerate the small square on the side of Via Candia to provide an adequate secondary access for the public and film delegations leaving the Palazzo del Cinema.
SALA GRANDE
The historic Sala Grande – where the main screenings and awards ceremonies of the Festival take place – underwent a series of transformations first in the 1950s, then in 1995, and the final phase in 2011, which entailed a radical restoration of the interiors which were equipped with the latest technology required to support the visual and sound standards of the screenings at the Venice Film Festival. The restyling of the Sala Grande was inspired by the formal elements of the 1937 building, reinterpreted in a contemporary key, including wood paneling along the walls and new seats, increased in number from 1019 to 1032, with the seating inspired by Luigi Quagliata's original design, upholstered in a custom-designed fabric. Great attention was paid to the lighting and especially to improving the acoustics of the Sala, the trapezoid form of which was designed to optimize the acoustics of the sound systems in use at that time, but was inadequate to meet the needs of today's sound systems.
SALA DARSENA
Today's Sala Darsena, once known as the Pala Galileo, was built on the base of the open-air Arena constructed during the expansion in the 1950s adjacent to the Palazzo del Cinema. When it was built, it provided seating for over 1500 people for the evening screenings of the Venice Film Festival. The laminated wood roof was built in less than 3 months in 1999, to a project by architect Enrico Valeriani, and was intended to be a temporary solution before a more radical renovation could begin. In 2014, the Sala Darsena was significantly renovated by the Biennale with the purpose of turning it into a screening room equal to the Sala Grande. The interiors and technology were updated and a foyer was built to receive the public.
The walls of the Sala were redesigned with technical screens in a variety of different shapes, made out of a highly sound-absorbing fabric to guarantee the finest acoustic performance. The existing stepped seating area was expanded to fit new seats sized to provide spectator comfort and to increase the capacity to 1409. The latest screening and audio technology was introduced and the new projection room provided spaces for directing, audio control and simultaneous translation facilities. An entrance Foyer was built on the side towards the Casinò with a wood and glass structure, and a new entrance system was developed with stairs, ramps and green areas integrated into the surrounding urban space.
Information: www.labiennale.org/en/venues/palazzo-del-cinema
Genus Rydonia Salazar & Constantino, 2001 created to separate R. pasibula and R. falcata from the genus Memphis based on differences of wing venation, wing shape, genitalia and labial palps.
Reserva forestal protectora de Planalto, Cenicafé, Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia
www.researchgate.net/publication/263426104_Synthesis_of_t...
Westerbork, Drenthe province of Netherlands.
It is now a site of a powerful radio telescope (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerbork_Synthesis_Radio_Telescope).
In WWII a transit concentration camp lied on this site
Abstract
Alchemy was the synthesis or transmutation of all elements in perfect balance to obtain the philosopher’s stone, the key to health. Just as alchemists sought this, so health practitioners always seek the best possible practice for optimal health outcomes for our patients. Best practice requires full knowledge—a little information can be dangerous. We need to serve our apprenticeship before we master our profession. Our profession is about improving health care. While the journey may start at medical school, the learning never ceases. It is not only about practising medicine, it is about the development of the practitioner. Professional practice requires systematic thinking combined with capacity to deal morally and creatively in areas of complexity and uncertainty appropriate to a specific context. It requires exemplary communication skills to interact with patients to facilitate collaborative decision making resulting in best practice. The synthesis of scientific and contextual evidence is a concept which applies to all disciplines where theoretical knowledge needs to be transferred to action to inform best practice. Decisions need to be made which take into account a complex array of factors, such as social and legal issues and resource constraints. Therefore, journey towards best practice involves transmutation of these three elements: scientific knowledge, the context in which it is applied and phronesis, the practical wisdom of the practitioner. All science has its limitations and we can never know all possible contextual information. Hence, like the philosopher’s stone, best practice is a goal to which we aspire but never quite attain.
Evidence-based practice, lifelong learning, postgraduate education
Issue Section: Editorial
Introduction
Alchemy was the synthesis or transmutation of all elements in perfect balance to obtain the philosopher’s stone. It was about the creation of a ‘panacea’, the elixir of life, a remedy to cure all diseases, the key to health. Just as alchemists sought this, so health practitioners always seek the best possible practice for optimal health outcomes for our patients.
Best practice requires full knowledge—a little information can be dangerous. We need to serve our apprenticeship before we master our profession. Our profession is about improving health care. While the journey may start at medical school, the learning never ceases. It is not only about practising medicinebut also about the development of the practitioner.
Professional practice requires systematic thinking combined with capacity to deal morally and creatively in areas of complexity and uncertainty appropriate to a specific context. It requires exemplary communication skills to interact with patients to facilitate collaborative decision making resulting in best practice. The synthesis of scientific and contextual evidence is a concept applies to all disciplines where theoretical knowledge needs to be transferred to action to inform best practice. Decisions need to be made which take into account complex array of factors, such as social and legal issues and resource constraints. Therefore, journey towards best practice involves transmutation of these three elements: scientific knowledge, the context in which it is applied and phronesis, the practical wisdom of the practitioner.
Clinical practice can be considered to be the sum of scholarship and professionalism. Scholarship is about empirical knowledge, research evidence, science and logic. We need to know how to assess the quality of evidence, judge the relevance and value of new knowledge to our own practice and determine whether this new knowledge is practice confirming or practice changing. Thus, the basis of our practice is scientific scholarship but we also need to learn the art. Professionalism is about the understanding and application of contextual knowledge and professional expertise, it is about artistry and judgement. We need both clinical reasoning and ethical decision making.
Alchemy was about integration across domains. The basic elements of water, fire, air and earth and core processes of decomposition, sublimation, distillation, amalgamation, fermentation and purification needed to be precisely combined and balanced to attain the philosopher’s stone. Similarly, clinical practice involves the domains of both scholarship and professionalism. For best practice, we must consider the prevalence of a condition, its diagnosis and treatment and its likely prognosis. However, in our management of patients, we must also consider the interplay of many other factors—the law, human rights and dignity, issues of equity for all patients, the potential benefits and harms of intervening or not intervening, the role of the professional and the emotional responses of all involved (Fig. 1).
FIGURE 1
Domains of alchemy and domains of clinical practice
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Domains of alchemy and domains of clinical practice
Alchemy involves finding perfect combination of planetary metals (such as silver, copper and mercury) and mundane elements (such as potassium and sulphur) to transmute matter into the elixir of life. The alchemist studied and practised for many years striving to reach this goal. In the same way, to determine best practice, we need to know the scientific evidence. Randomized controlled trials can demonstrate whether intervention is effective. This knowledge may be strengthened if we combine trials in systematic reviews and meta-analyse. We need to know how well a test will pick or miss a diagnosis. Case-controlled studies help us identify factors, which contribute to a particular disease. Qualitative research brings narrative to our numbers, adds the why and how to our results (Fig. 2).
FIGURE 2
Types of matter and types of evidence
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Types of matter and types of evidence
However, in practice, evidence needs to be assessed from perspective of a particular patient. Many things contribute to what decisions are actually made. These include both the patient and the practitioner’s values, numerous attributes of the patient (such as their age and their co-morbidities), their family and the community in which they live, their culture and local policy. Limited resources may mean that the ideal test or treatment is not affordable. For example, evidence indicates that heart failure should be diagnosed on basis of an echocardiogram, but if patient does not have access to this test, then the clinician may rely on symptoms and signs. Best management might include use of beta blockers, but if the patient has asthma, which this drug exacerbates, alternative treatments must be chosen. A child with bacterial pneumonia requires antibiotics, but relatives of elderly demented and chronically ill person with this condition may decline such treatment for their family member.
Best practice is the transmutation or synthesis of knowledge. However, all science has its limitations. What has been found to be true for particular population may not be generalizable to another. Furthermore, we can never know all possible contextual information. For example, we may not be able to predict that a person will have allergic reaction to drug we give them. Hence, like the philosopher’s stone, best practice is a goal to which we aspire but never quite attain.
Scientific knowledge is incomplete. It is always undergoing change and being added to. We need skills to access and critically appraise new knowledge as research progresses. Likewise, the context changes with every patient, and patient’s needs and values change over time. Professional expertise also requires self-reflection and evaluation of the outcomes of our decisions. All this evidence goes back into the mix and contributes to future decision making (Fig. 3). This is the process of lifelong learning—how the apprentice achieves mastery.
FIGURE 3
Synthesis of knowledge into best practice
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Synthesis of knowledge into best practice
The principle of the synthesis of scientific and contextual knowledge, funnelled through the wisdom of the practitioner, applies to health care in the realms of clinical and forensic practice, research, education and dissemination of information.
Clinical practice
Cecil Lewis, the founding Dean of my Medical School, emphasized that most health care takes place in the community not in the hospital and that doctors should treat patients holistically—body, mind and spirit. He believed it important for doctors to be well-rounded people and their education should include both science and humanity. He introduced a 3-month elective in the final year for students to spend 3 months doing whatever they passionate about, something to feed their soul, be it music, art, science or medicine. Combining theoretical knowledge with real life situations begins with clinical practice.
Alchemists were early doctors, in search of potions to promote healing. This is an intent that doctors still seek, applying scientific knowledge within a particular context to assist our patients to heal. My first general practice experience job was as a locum in Blaengwynfi, a mining village in South Wales. I shared the on-call roster with Dr Julian Tudor-Hart, a GP from the neighbouring village Glyncorrwg. I found him to be a truly inspirational GP. Julian was working with his patients to make their lives healthier through systematically checking their blood pressures and helping them to change their lifestyles—getting them to look at their diet, their smoking and exercise or lack of it. These Welsh villages very impoverished and the GPs who worked there did twice as much work for half pay of those working in more affluent areas. Julian taught me that the people most likely to need health care were the least likely to receive it. It was only many years later that I learned that Julian is an icon of general practice in the UK and that his ‘inverse care law’ is famous.1
I worked as a doctor in Jamaica for 2 years, where the health need was great. There I experienced first-hand how best practice has to be tempered by the circumstances and what is available. I ran a health centre just out of Kingston where there had been no doctor for a number of years and ∼20 000 people in the catchment area. However, there was a great team of auxiliary staff whom I trained to deliver health talks to the large group of people who would sit in shade of the mango trees waiting to see the doctor. The staff would also write labels, count pills and put into bottles the drugs I used to wheedle from the Ministry depot in downtown Kingston. After every 20 patients, I would stop consulting and dispense my own prescriptions. Patients were instructed to bring back pill bottles for recycling. I used to estimate patients’ haemoglobin levels by the strength of copper sulphate solution in which a drop of their blood would float. While a public laboratory was available at the downtown hospital, generally this was not an accessible option due to resource constraints (most patients could not afford the bus fare) and the potential associated harms (gun wars in ghettos made travelling there dangerous).
Forensic practice
Transmutation of scientific and contextual knowledge also applies to forensic practice. This involves examining all available evidence about the circumstances, applying what we know from scientific literature and then assessing whether the evidence may confirm or refute that alleged events occurred or were committed by person accused. Both the presence and the absence of evidence need to be considered. Sometimes evidence points to guilt. The accused may then plead guilty or be found guilty at trial. Sometimes evidence points to innocence. The charges may then be dropped or the accused found not guilty. Other times, it provides an estimate of probability or improbability. Crimes do not have to be proved; only that person is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
The roles of the clinical and forensic practitioner are different, and you cannot serve Hippocrates and Hammurabi at the same time. The clinician serves Hippocrates, the Healer. This role is to relieve suffering, provide treatment and prevent further illness or injury and the duty of care is to the patient. The forensic physician serves Hammurabi, the lawgiver. Here, the role is one of evidence gathering with the basic tenet of impartiality. The role is to provide expert opinion and the duty of care is to the Court. While both roles require the synthesis of scientific and contextual evidence, clinicians called upon as expert witnesses need to make this distinction between their therapeutic and forensic responsibilities. Before a hearing, there is a complainant not a victim and a defendant not an offender. Both clinical and forensic practitioners should treat complainants with compassion and respect, and this treatment should also be afforded to the accused.
Research
The alchemist was researcher, constantly experimenting to find philosopher’s stone. He was looking for the perfect balance not only of ingredients but also of processes. Primary care research needs to study not only the prevalence, diagnosis, management and prognosis of disease but also issues such as how to communicate our knowledge to our patients. Clinical decisions may require the complex weighing up of the potential benefits and harms of each course of action. There are numerous ways to communicate this—as relative or as absolute risk, odds, numbers needed to treat or natural frequencies, positively or negatively framed, as numbers or in pictures.2 Our methods of communication will influence how well our patients understand the possible consequences of a management decision and may also actively encourage or discourage them from making particular choices. Using only relative risk may be manipulative. For example, if we tell a patient that one drug has double the chance of a particular side-effect compared to another, the impact of this information is likely to be very different if the risk changes from 1 in 20 to 1 in 10, than if the risk increases from 1 in 20 000 to 1 in 10 000. There is no single optimal method of communicating information on potential benefits and harms, but research can assist us to find the best way to impart knowledge to ensure truly collaborative decision making.
Education
Because knowledge is always changing, clinicians need to embark on a journey of lifelong learning and those with knowledge need to pass it on to others. A network of schools of alchemy existed for over millennia, starting in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, spreading to India, Persia and the Far East, on through classical Greek and Roman civilizations to the medieval Islamic world and then medieval Europe. The science and art of alchemy were passed down to students by master alchemists.
Postgraduate education needs to follow the same model of combining scholarship and professionalism. In all clinical disciplines, practitioners need the tools to access and critically appraise new knowledge as research progresses to assess the quality of evidence and its relevance to their own practice. This knowledge can then applied in context of individual patients. Professional expertise also requires self-reflection and the assessment of outcomes of decisions. Postgraduate students need to be able to look at research knowledge from populations and ask:
Should this confirm or change my practice?
Are these findings realistic—is this test or intervention available, will it be used and will it be worthwhile?
Is it relevant to this particular patient?
How does it apply to patients with other conditions and preferences?
What are relative gains and risks for my patient?
They can explore their own and other colleagues’ clinical reasoning and decision making in specific scenarios. This enables them to reflect on the weight they give different components, such as exploring and explaining relative benefits and harms of intervening or not intervening and issues relating to the law, equity and human rights and dignity.
Publication
Finally, our ever-growing body of knowledge needs to circulated. The philosophy of alchemy persisted for >2000 years. The findings of alchemists were recorded in texts and scrolls and disseminated in their schools and libraries. The best way to disseminate primary health care knowledge is via our peer-reviewed indexed medical journals. Primarily, this is the publication of original research. However, while scientific evidence can help inform best practice, sometimes there is no evidence available or applicable for a specific patient with his or her own set of conditions, beliefs, expectations and social circumstances. Evidence needs to be placed in context. General practice is art as well as a science. Quality of care lies also with nature of clinical relationship, with communication and truly informed decision-making. We also need to publish editorials, viewpoints, commentaries and reflections that explore areas of uncertainty, ethics, aspects of care for which there is no one right answer.
Conclusions
In the journey from apprentice to master, we gain knowledge and practical wisdom along way. As clinicians, researchers and teachers, we are all on a journey of lifelong learning, constantly adding and re-evaluating knowledge to practice the best that we can.
View from Aker Brygge district, Oslo, Norway
H 10.35 pm, 7'C
Canon Eos 700D, Olympus OM Zuiko 24mm f2.8
Brief synthesis
Bryggen is a historic harbour district in Bergen, one of North Europe’s oldest port cities on the west coast of Norway which was established as a centre for trade by the 12th century. In 1350 the Hanseatic League established a “Hanseatic Office” in Bergen. They gradually acquired ownership of Bryggen and controlled the trade in stockfish from Northern Norway through privileges granted by the Crown. The Hanseatic League established a total of four overseas Hanseatic Offices, Bryggen being the only one preserved today.
Bryggen has been damaged by a number of fires through the centuries and has been rebuilt after every fire, closely following the previous property structure and plan as well as building techniques.
Bryggen’s appearance today stems from the time after the fire in 1702. The buildings are made of wood in keeping with vernacular building traditions. The original compact medieval urban structure is preserved with its long narrow rows of buildings facing the harbour, separated by narrow wooden passages.
Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape and these contain sufficient elements to demonstrate how this colony of bachelor German merchants lived and worked, and illustrate the use of space in the district.
It is characterized by the construction of buildings along the narrow passages running parallel to the docks. The urban units are rows of two- to three-storey buildings signified by the medieval name “gård”. They have gabled facades towards the harbour and lie on either one or both sides of the narrow passages that have the functions of a private courtyard.
The houses are built in a combination of traditional timber log construction, and galleries with column and beam construction with horizontal wooden panel cladding.
The roofs have original brick tiling or sheets, a result of fast repairs after an explosion during World War II. Towards the back of the gård, there are small fireproof warehouses or storerooms (kjellere) built of stone, for protection of special goods and valuables against fire.
This repetitive structure was adapted to the living conditions of the Hanseatic trading post. The German merchants took up winter residence in the small individual wooden houses and the storerooms were used as individual or collective warehouses.
A true colony, Bryggen enjoyed quasi-extraterritoriality which continued beyond the departure of the Hanseatic merchants until the creation of a Norwegian trading post in 1754, on the impetus of fishermen and ship owners of German origin. Today, Bryggen is a significant part of the historic wooden city of Bergen.
Criterion (iii): Bryggen bears the traces of social organization and illustrates the use of space in a quarter of Hanseatic merchants that dates back to the 14th century. It is a type of northern “fondaco”, unequalled in the world, where the structures have remained within the cityscape and perpetuate the memory of one of the oldest large trading ports of Northern Europe.
Integrity
Only around a quarter of the original buildings that existed in Bryggen remained after demolitions at the turn of the 19th century and several fires in the 1950s; the property is comprised of these remaining buildings.
Notwithstanding, the medieval urban structure is maintained and the buildings include all elements necessary to demonstrate how Bryggen functioned: offices and dwellings at the front, warehouses in the midsection and assembly rooms (“Schøtstuer”), kitchen facilities and fireproof stone cellars at the back.
Bryggen can be experienced as an entity within a larger harmonious urban landscape. It is connected more closely to the areas of small wooden dwellings beyond Bryggen and in the medieval city centre than to the larger 20th century buildings in its close proximity.
The risk of fire, excessive numbers of visitors as well as global climate changes with more extreme weather and possibly higher sea levels are some of the potential risks Bryggen faces today.
Authenticity
The Hanseatic period at Bryggen ended long ago, but the Hanseatic heritage is documented through buildings, archives and artefacts which are well preserved for posterity. There are also series of architectural surveys of the buildings from 1900 onwards.
The preservation of the buildings commenced on a larger scale in the 1960s and had made major progress by 1979, the year of inscription on the World Heritage List.
Some buildings at the back were moved in 1965 to create an open area for fire emergencies, but no further changes have been made to the urban structure since.
The solutions and methods chosen have been well documented, and limiting the replacement of original materials has been an objective. Bryggen is built of wood, which is subject to rot, insect attack and ageing. Since 2000, there has been an increased focus on maintaining original methods and building materials in the restoration, with careful consideration given to the choice of material, paint, plugs,nails, etc. and the use of original tools as far as possible.
As the activity at Bryggen decreased after 1900, the buildings became derelict. However, from the 1960s the former trading in stockfish and commodities was gradually replaced by small arts and crafts businesses. An increase in the number of visitors has led to the establishment of restaurants and tourist businesses. This has resulted in inevitable changes in the spirit of the place, particularly along the front facades, whereas the atmosphere of the Hanseatic period can still be sensed in the more secluded area further back.
Protection and management requirements
Bryggen, including its cultural deposits, is listed pursuant to the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Act and is also protected through the Norwegian Planning and Building Act. The adopted protection plan includes an extensive area that functions as a buffer zone.
Bryggen is privately owned and the majority of the buildings are owned by the Bryggen Foundation, which was established in 1962 with the objective of preserving Bryggen. The remaining owners have established a separate association to secure their interests. The stakeholders at Bryggen collaborate in different constellations of owners and authorities.
"The Bryggen Project" was established formally in 2000. This is an extensive and long-term project for monitoring, safeguarding and restoring Bryggen, including both archaeological deposits and standing buildings.
Bryggen is managed according to a management plan that is revised regularly. A fire protection system with detection and suppression has been installed and is continually being improved. Climate conditions are a key issue and measures have been taken to prepare for future changes. Possible impacts resulting from tourism are monitored.
There is ongoing pressure for urban development in the vicinity of Bryggen. Any development which may have visual impact on the World Heritage property is monitored closely by the cultural heritage authorities.
This is an under-aged worker in a lathe machine workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The workshop produces spare parts for automobiles. Young labors, like these work under harsh working conditions without proper protection and are severely underpaid. But, for some this is the only way to support their impoverished families.
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Copyright 2013 Aneek Mustafa Anwar
Contact: labouffon@gmail.com
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Image of a papier-mâché figure, a piece of the exhibition "Silent Witnesses" on violence against women, organized by NaNE in Gödör Klub, Budapest, 2007.
Regretfully I can't remember the artist's name.
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Synthesis of digital and organic. Workflow of my brain. Don't get wet, when binary waterfall breaks loose
Folhas que encontrei caídas no chão.
Fallen leaves that found on the floor. (Google Translate)
A edicao foi feita em menos de 2 minutos e a foto foi feita apenas pra matar a vontade de fotografar. Sabem como é...fotografar é maravilhoso vicio.
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Add Flickr Explore #463 em 9/3/2008