Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
Chapter 9: The Ideal Spirit of the Future Poetry
The Five Suns of Poetry: Truth, Life, Beauty, Delight, and Spirit
The Sun of Poetic Truth: The Infinite Goddess
The Sun of Life: The Breath of the Spirit
The Sun of Beauty and Delight: The Soul’s Ananda
The Sun of the Spirit: The Unifying Power
Welcome to Auroma
At Auroma Architecture, we're more than just an architect design studio; we're a sustainable architecture firm dedicated to creating eco-friendly and innovative design solutions.
ABOUT
Auroma
Auroma Architecture (AA) is an award-winning sustainable design firm, ranked among the top 10 in India. With over 21 years of experience, we specialise in creating future-ready landmark buildings that prioritise the well-being of people and the planet. Our designs are Net Zero in water, waste, energy, and carbon, ensuring that each project positively impacts the environment. We believe buildings should reflect the needs of their users, the land, and its culture, while also respecting the Earth, sky, and water. Whether it's designing a cutting-edge commercial building, a serene residential retreat, or a public space that fosters community, our goal is to create environments that are in harmony with their surroundings and meet the diverse needs of those who inhabit them.
Our Specialities
At Auroma Architecture, we specialise in designing buildings that aim for Net Zero impact across all critical environmental aspects. Our commitment to sustainability drives us to create spaces that are both innovative and responsible, ensuring a harmonious balance between human needs and the planet's resources.
https://www.auromaarchitecture.com/
From a nation-building perspective, the humanities are just as important as the sciences. Literature, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology & the arts define national identity and shape govt policy for you. Dismissing the importance of the arts is a good indicator of someone being culturally underdeveloped. At the end of the day, science is just an abstract tool in the hands of an arts graduate. The operator is just as important as the tool.
https://x.com/mxtaverse/status/2102219588046118919
• David Hume - ‘Of the Standard of Taste’ (1757)
• Edmund Burke - ‘On Taste’ (1759)
• Immanuel Kant - ‘Critique of Judgement’ (1790)
• GWF Hegel - ‘Lectures on Aesthetics’ (1835)
• John Ruskin - ‘The Lamp of Memory’ (1849)
• John Ruskin - ‘The Nature of Gothic’ (1853)
• Charles Baudelaire - ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ (1863)
• Friedrich Nietzsche - ‘On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life’ (1874)
• William Morris - ‘The Prospects of Architecture in Civilisation’ (1881)
• Filippo Marinetti - ‘The Futurist Manifesto’ (1909)
• Adolf Loos - ‘Ornament and Crime’ (1913)
• Le Corbusier - ‘Toward an Architecture’ (1923) *especially the chapters ‘The Engineer’s Aesthetic and Architecture’ & ‘Eyes Which Do Not See’*
• Walter Gropius - ‘The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus’ (1923)
• Lewis Mumford - ‘Assimilation of the Machine’ in ‘Technics and Civilisation’ (1934)
• Walter Benjamin - ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936) *particularly the final third*
• Clement Greenberg - ‘Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ (1939)
• Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer - ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ (1944)
• Meyer Schapiro - ‘Style’ (1953)
• Martin Heidegger - ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ (1954)
• Reyner Banham - ‘The Machine Aesthetic’ (1955) *also the book ‘Theory and Design in the First Machine Age’ (1960) for broader history of early modernist architecture*
• Reyner Banham - ‘The New Brutalism’ (1955)
• Jane Jacobs - ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ (1961) *haven’t personally read this but canon*
• George Kubler - ‘The Shape of Time’ (1962) *one of my favourites*
• Robert Venturi - ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’ (1966)
• E. H. Gombrich - ‘Style’ (1968)
• Manfredo Tafuri - ‘Architecture and Utopia’ (1973)
• Susan Sontag - ‘Fascinating Fascism’ (1975)
• Pierre Bourdieu - ‘Distinction’ (1979)
• Fredric Jameson - ‘Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’ (1984) *the essay not the book, especially parts on pastiche and nostalgia*
• Marc Auge - ‘Non-Places’ (1992)
• Umberto Eco - ‘Ur-Fascism’ (1995)
• Rem Koolhaas - ‘The Generic City’ (1995)
• Elaine Scarry - ‘On Beauty and Being Just’ (1999)
• Arthur Danto - ‘The Abuse of Beauty’ (2002)
• Rem Koolhaas - ‘Junkspace’ (2001)
• Svetlana Boym - ‘Nostalgia and Its Discontents’ (2007) *also her book ‘The Future of Nostalgia’ (2001)*
• Mark Fisher - ‘The Slow Cancellation of the Future’ (2014)
• Byung-Chul Han - ‘The Saving of Beauty’ (2015)
https://x.com/samspike_/status/2102022161066062275
• Bharata Muni - Nāṭyaśāstra, especially the chapters on rasa (~200 BCE–200 CE)
• Abhinavagupta - selections from the Abhinavabhāratī on rasa (~10th–11th c.)
• Sei Shōnagon - The Pillow Book (~1002)
• Okakura Kakuzō - The Book of Tea (1906)
• Rabindranath Tagore - “What Is Art?” in Personality (1917)
• W.E.B. Du Bois - “Criteria of Negro Art” (1926)
• Jun’ichirō Tanizaki - In Praise of Shadows (1933)
• Zora Neale Hurston - “Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934)
• Ananda Coomaraswamy - The Transformation of Nature in Art (1934)
• Frantz Fanon - “On National Culture” in The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
• Audre Lorde - “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (1977) + “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” (1978)
• Wole Soyinka - Myth, Literature and the African World (1976)
• Alice Walker - “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” (1983)
• Édouard Glissant - Poetics of Relation (1990)
• bell hooks - Art on My Mind: Visual Politics (1995)
• Nkiru Nzegwu - “Art and Community: A Social Conception of Beauty and Individuality” (2000s)
• Yuriko Saito - Everyday Aesthetics (2007)
• Tina M. Campt - Listening to Images (2017)
• Anne Anlin Cheng - Ornamentalism (2019)
• Yuk Hui - Art and Cosmotechnics (2021)
https://x.com/aishdoingthings/status/2102124727380632007
Excellent list. Also probably worth including is work of Sri Aurobindo, who also had a very profundly universal, a very metaphysical view of the Arts and the creative process.
https://incarnateword.in/compilations/toc/sri-aurobindo-on-art
https://x.com/priyankchn/status/2102221869990674848
Distilled Summary
Part I: The Metaphysics and Purpose of Art
A. The Spiritual Function and Essence of Art
B. The Hierarchy of Art’s Value
Part II: The Artist and the Creative Process
A. The Divine as the Supreme Artist
B. The Human Artist: Ego vs. Divine Service
C. The Role of Intuition in Creation
D. Art as Interpretation, Not Imitation of Nature
Part III: The Spirit and Method of Indian Art
A. Foundational Principles: Inner Vision vs. Outer Form
B. Indian Architecture: The Expression of the Infinite
C. Indian Sculpture: Embodying the Spirit in Form
D. Indian Painting: The Revelation of the Psychic and Spiritual
