17 May, 2007

Genesis

I love cities; they are concentrations of people, their ideas, their plans and accomplishments. The city is a distillery of society and history, a place where flavors of time and space commingle and ferment. The connections to the past in a city are so much more potent due to the public nature of the space. Some people feel inundated by what appears to be an overabundance of stimuli particularly during excursions from the suburb. I argue that these visual elements run parallel to more familiar elements of the suburb or country neighborhood. When approached as normative elements, to be appreciated like a reclusive transcendentalist, this alteration of perception brings about a new way of approaching order, decoration and decorum in the city. In short, given time and an honest interaction with the space, an awareness of the urban aesthetic begins to appear. It is this aesthetic, its germinations, experiences and manifestations that primarily concern me in this virtual space.

Or, how do nature-lovers learn to appreciate the charms and beauty of the city?
What lessons does the urban aesthetic have to teach the world?
From whence does this pattern of beauty originate?
Why does this connect with the deepest roots of the Christian Life?

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