spatial environments that takes place in and very useful reference index and Frank Lloyd Wright advised in his auto- the medium of television with the intro- gives a comprehensive bibliography. biography that “no home should ever duction of 3D computer graphics. These be on a hill”; instead, it should be “of expansive images, as the book explains, DESIGN BY NUMBERS the hill, belonging to it.” Just as gestalt are first presented in animated logos and theory described the holistic connec- openers. While this part closes with the by John Maeda. MIT Press, Cambridge, tions between figures and backgrounds, critical investigation into disembodi- MA, U.S.A., 1999. ISBN: 0-262-13354-7. Wright emphasized the interdepen- ment, the third and last part of the book dence of architectural structures and explores visualizations of “discursive ex- Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Department of their surroundings. It is said that he al- change” and alternatives to “impersonal Art, Univ. of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, ways decided the site before consider- relations” in recent media arts. IA 50613-0362, U.S.A. E-mail: ing a building’s style, its spatial orienta- While at first the book clearly works
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2000.33.2.148c by guest on 25 September 2021 of us today. One need only to experi- The chapter on Stonehenge is an ex- heliacal rising of the Pleiades was also ence a clear night sky, far from the light cellent overview of the archaeology and common among the Native Americans pollution of city and town, to get a archaeoastronomy of this prehistoric in North America. They probably used sense of what those cultures saw and site, which was built, rebuilt and modi- it, along with other celestial events, as felt; the moon, the stars, the Milky Way, fied from about 2900 to 1800 B.C. The an agricultural calendar; Aveni also a planet, the occasional meteor, all idea of Stonehenge as an astronomical speculates that the Incas used it as evoke a presence close and encompass- observatory began with Norman such, telling them when to plow, plant ing in the canopy of the heavens. Lockyer in the late nineteenth century, and harvest. Alternatively, sit at dawn and watch but went full steam in the 1960s when The last chapter, with the clever the sun rise, as I once did at Chichén Gerald Hawkins plugged the alignments title, “The West vs. the Rest,” brings Itzá in the Yucatán. As the glow in the into a computer to reveal, supposedly, the discussion toward the inevitable eastern sky slowly gave way to the bright that the Stonehenge was a computer. comparison of these cultures with sphere of the sun, I knew why that an- Aveni discusses the initial skepticism ours, a product of ancient Greek cient culture studied the cyclical mo- among some archaeologists, such as Ri- thought. Specifically, Aveni focuses on tions of the sun ever so precisely, and I chard Atkinson, as well as his own doubt a comparison of Greek geometrical had a glimpse of why they worshipped it. of Hawkins’s claim that Stonehenge can and spatial thinking, which gave rise to Anthony Aveni’s latest book is a be used to predict eclipses. Aveni is con- cosmology, with earlier Babylonian as- clearly written and often fascinating in- vinced that it was used as a horizon cal- tronomy. As he correctly points out, troduction to the archaeoastronomy of endar for correlating the solstices and the Babylonian tradition of detailed Stonehenge in Britain, the Maya of lunar standstills. Mention is made, but trackings of the motions of celestial Mesoamerica and the Inca of Peru. Al- not discussed in any depth, of objects is merely another version of though the idea that various prehistoric Alexander Thom’s studies of other precise naked-eye sky-watching as and other structures entailed possible megalithic sites in the British Isles. found in the Americas. But for some celestial alignments is about 100 years Unfortunately, all we can know about untold reason Aveni finds this “resem- old, it was only during the past 3 de- Stonehenge astronomy and other mega- blance” to be surprising (p. 182). Fur- cades or so that systematic studies were lithic sites is what we infer from the thermore, in his attempt to fit the carried out. The result has been the stones. In contrast, Maya civilization, Greeks into the mythical world of the new field of archaeoastronomy, now which flourished between about 200 ancients (pp. 191–192), he overstates complete with societies, conferences and 900 A.D., had a written language his case. True, astrology did not die and journals. Aveni’s book is also a and a place-value mathematical system with the Greeks, yet Aristotle made a brief survey of the history of this disci- with a symbol for zero. But deplorably valiant effort to categorize it as a su- pline, from its early concern mainly and tragically the Spanish destroyed vir- perstition. True, too, Ptolemy wrote with celestial alignments to its present tually all written traces of this “pagan” the classic text on astrology integration with human cultural his- culture; only four surviving fragments (Tetrabiblos), but it was not part of or tory—religion, art, mythology and as- of manuscripts are extant. Although even mentioned in the Almagest; as- trology. There is something here for scholars have been studying these tronomy entailed accuracy, astrology both the novice reader and the scholar. manuscripts for most of this century, was hit and miss. The first chapter introduces the only in the 1970s was the code finally The mention of astrology leads to the reader to sky-watching—naked-eye ob- cracked, so we now may read the Maya important question of the purpose and servations of the motions of the sun, language. These writings supplement meaning of skywatching in these moon, planets and stars. Those knowl- the records in stone, for the Maya also “Three Great Ancient Cultures.” From edgeable about the solstices, lunar produced horizon calendars by aligning the documents, we know that as- standstills, heliacal risings and settings their buildings to key sightings. In addi- tronomy was, as Aveni states, “inextrica- and such, may skip this chapter. What I tion to following the motions of the sun bly linked to religious pursuits” (p. like about this chapter, and what makes and moon, the Maya were obsessed with 145). Following the celestial motions it one of the best introductions to the the planet Venus, measuring its motion was a way of knowing the gods, a link subject that I know of, is that Aveni pre- to the accuracy of 1 day in 500 years! between the gods and humans in a “re- sents it totally from a geocentric view- (Of course, this is no match for the ciprocal contract” so that, together, point; indeed, the whole book is such, overzealous guide at Chichén Itzá who they would “keep the universe in equi- so that Copernicus’s name is not men- told me that all the planets, even Pluto, librium” (p. 121). The same was prob- tioned until the last page! This avoids are found in the Maya fragments.) ably true for the prehistoric people of what I see as a pitfall with most discus- Aveni is convinced that the accuracy of Stonehenge. They not only witnessed sions of celestial motions: by beginning the Maya calendar was such that it (un- sunrises and sunsets but also helped to with the heliocentric solar system, they like Stonehenge) could be and was used make them happen. As Aveni writes: “I must resort to showing how the “illu- to predict eclipses. am convinced that if Stonehenge had sion” of various motions of the sun, Similarly the Incas in Peru aligned anything to do with sun and moon as- moon and so forth appear along and their buildings toward horizon tronomy, the association between its ar- around the ecliptic. Of course we know sightings. Here Aveni focuses on the ar- chitecture and the sky was more closely the earth revolves around the sun; yet chaeoastronomy of the Temple of the allied with theater than with exact sci- this is entirely irrelevant to sky-watch- Ancestors (Coricancha) in the valley of ence” (p. 85). And thus: “If we insist on ing, past or present, which is based on Cuzco in the Andes Mountains, where calling Stonehenge an observatory, the appearances of things. Every day in alignments are oriented toward key ho- then we must label it a sacred observa- the everyday world the sun rises and rizon events of the Sun, Moon, Venus tory” (p. 91). Few scholars, I suspect, sets, even though Copernicus was right. and the Pleiades. Actually, tracking the would disagree.
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2000.33.2.148c by guest on 25 September 2021 This brings me to a final question replaced by a golden dot. When compos- much knowledge of neuroscience, a that disturbs me but to which I have no ing the string-quartet, Mossenmark re- thorough understanding of the nervous answer. The evidence from the writings produced the 27 pages of the diary lay- system is very helpful at times. The among the Maya and Inca cultures re- out, only keeping the golden dots. On book is a collection of five essays pub- veals that, despite years of accurate pre- every page, he then projected the struc- lished elsewhere for an audience of dictions of celestial events, they contin- ture of an ordinary score, thus convert- neuroscientists and others who read ued the ritual of animal and human ing the golden dots into golden notes of the neuroscience literature. This ac- sacrifice to appease the gods—or in as- certain pitches. The string-quartet was counts for the level of technical knowl- tronomical terms, to make sure that, composed by “filling in the gaps” be- edge that is sometimes assumed. say, the sun would return on its north- tween these notes. The performance of The first essay is an overview of the erly journey after reaching the winter the string-quartet by the Swedish group field from the early Egyptian concep- solstice. But why was not a hue and cry Flux is presented on one of the enclosed tions to contemporary European and raised, say, among some ancient Mayan CDs. On the two other CDs the diary is North American ideas. The other four “Einstein,” pointing to the ever-faithful recited by the actor Christer Fant. essays treat particular events and heavenly returns and the possibility The project oscillates between the people in more detail. Specifically they that they might continue independent “ordinary gossip” of the diary and the are essays on Leonardo da Vinci’s un- of the people’s actions, so that, in time, refined, modernistic abstraction of the derstanding of anatomy; on Emanuel sacrificial rituals would be needless. music. Visually, the golden dots and Swedenborg’s remarkable insights into Was it not worth a test, in order to save their random orientation on the pages the nature of neural function; on the a child’s life? In a sense, is not this is a picture of the random events within nineteenth-century conflict between worldview one of the treasured gifts every well-defined and logical structure, Thomas Huxley and Richard Owen on from the ancient Greeks? I ask this un- be it the structures of life, art or society. evolution and neuroanatomy and on answerable question knowing full well The single individuals—“we”—are re- the more recent developments in un- that even asking such questions is not duced to equal and anonymous parts of derstanding how visual function is pro- “correct” in this postmodern world. the social/textual/musical structure. In cessed in the brain. retrospect and with some distance, There is little discussion of the spe- “our” trivial everyday life may seem cific relationships between the arts and VI: EN DOKUMENTATION more universal. sciences. This is not a criticism, but a OM KULTURRÅDGIVERI (WE: The photographs, which are printed statement of information for the read- A DOCUMENTATION OF in a separate section in the end of the ers of Leonardo. The author probably book, are taken with an ordinary comes closest in the chapter on CULTURAL AFFAIRS) pocket-camera in order to avoid the “ar- Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical draw- by Staffan Mossenmark and Jörgen tistic” approach. But in the book, these ings. These drawings are a manifesta- Svensson. National Swedish Radio, photographs have been transformed. tion of the need to understand reality Stockholm, 1997. Book and three CDs, The bright colors of the cheap color that generally drove Renaissance artists. 65 pp., illus. Trade, $60. ISBN: 91-630- print have been converted into black A main theme of the chapter is to show 5917-7. and white, and the edges of the photo- how Leonardo let go of preconceived graphs have been faded. The effect is notions of anatomy and embraced an Reviewed by Fred Andersson, Ulvsbygatan highly un-naturalistic. Behind the sur- anatomy more closely based on direct 29, 6 tr., 654 64 Karlstad, Sweden. E-mail: face of everyday life there appears to be observation. To understand Leonardo’s
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