Le langage universel de la publicité

Advertising seems to be the universal language of our age: its messages are understood by the recipient regardless of his mother tongue. The idea of an universal language is very old in European culture: Plato, Raymond Lulle, Athanasius Kircher, Leibniz, Descartes and Jonathan Swift explored this subject. Therefore, advertising, as a universal language, could seem to be the culmination of these multi-millennial efforts. However, this is not the case, because the universality of advertising is one-dimensional: its purpose is merely to make you buy. Therefore, advertising is only a partial solution to the problem of universal language.

An Unexpected Ally

In the summer of 1660, a strange phenomenon followed Mount Vesuvius’s eruption: red or black crosses started appearing on people’s linen, clothes, and even limbs. Since the Neapolitan people feared that the crosses were a supernatural occurrence and a terrible omen, the political and ecclesiastical leaders promoted the publication of books providing reasonable and pious explanations of the phenomenon. Among the authors who intervened in the debate over the nature of the crosses were Carlo Calà (who was hoping to gain favor with both the Viceroy and the Pope) and Athanasius Kircher, one of the leading protagonists of early modern Catholic culture. This chapter explains how the common interest in the crosses and Kircher’s scientific curiosity for fossils and giants provided Carlo with the opportunity to approach Kircher and make him aware of the case of his ancestor Giovanni, with the hope that the illustrious Catholic intellectual might support it.

Phantastik und Kontrapunkt: Zur Kompositionsart Frescobaldis

In seiner <Musurgia universalis> (1650) unterscheidet Athanasius Kircher acht Kompositionsstile, darunter den Stylus phantasticus, der als Lehre einer Art des Kontrapunkts definiert ist. Inwieweit diesem Stilbegriff so verschiedene Gattungen wie Fantasia und Toccata zuzuweisen sind, wird anhand von Frescobaldis <Fantasie a quattro> (1608) und seinen beiden Toccatenbüchern (1615/16 und 1627) näher untersucht. Ist die Fantasia als Ansatz konstanter Thematisierung verstehbar, so erscheint die Toccata umgekehrt als Versuch athematischen Komponierens. Beide Genera sind nicht nur abstrakt durch die verborgene Ratio der Harmonie im kontrapunktischen Kontext verbunden. Sie repäsentieren vielmehr konkret den Stylus phantasticus als polare Möglichkeiten einer frei disponierten Instrumentalmusik. bms online (Wagner, Dorothea)

Echo’s Embrace

This chapter seeks to bring together two relationships, the first, between science and art in the West during the period of modernity and the second between the fabric of sound-space and the rendering of Echo. Following the dis-articulation of sound-space pre-empted by Sabine’s equation for reverberation (and its adoption by the acoustic profession) I draw together the various traits of echo as mythic figure, as disembodied voice and as acoustic phenomenon to consider the re-articulation of sound-space through sound-art practice. This chapter offers to artists, acousticians, and architects an alternative mapping of the history of acoustics by drawing the reader’s attention to the work of Athanasius Kircher. I suggest that he is as much the father of the acoustic arts as Mersenne, his contemporary, is the father of the acoustic sciences.

Neotropical mammals in natural history collections and research in Rome, Italy

The occurrence and the history of Neotropical mammal specimens in the collections of naturalistic museums in Rome, Italy, and their scientific utilization is here reviewed. These specimens belong to several scientific expeditions made after the discovery of the new Continent. The oldest specimens date back to the famous Museum of Athanasius Kircher at the Collegio Romano (1651) and to the Museo Zoologico della Università di Roma that was established inside the University of the Pontificial State (Archigymnasium) (1823). Many of these early specimens are now lost due to the complex history of Roman scientific museology, but some specimens are now available mainly in two institutions, the Museo Civico di Zoologia (established in 1932) and the Museo di Anatomia Comparata “Battista Grassi” of “Sapienza” University of Rome (1935). Among the numerous specimens, is noteworthy the presence of a hairy long-nosed armadillo, Dasypus pilosus, the first record in an Italian zoological collection and the 26th known specimen of this species in world museums. More recently, some Roman researchers have maintained a scientific interest for Neotropical mammals, including primates, with collaboration with South American mammalogists. A greater historical knowledge of scientific activities concerning the work of Italians researchers on Neotropical biodiversity should be pursued.

La iconografía de "Ars magna lucis et umbrae" en "Primero sueño" de Sor Juana

En este artículo examino la importancia de Ars magna lucis et umbrae de Athanasius Kircher en Primero sueño de Sor Juana. Propongo que las descripciones técnicas y metafísicas que aparecen en el tratado enciclopédico y sobre todo la iconografía del volumen ejercieron una gran influencia en el poema. Dados los múltiples vínculos que existen entre la iconografía de Kircher y el diseño del paisaje mental que Sor Juana construye, sugiero que Primero sueño puede leerse como un comentario de ciertas imágenes que figuran en el tratado. Considerando los sentidos literales y metafóricos de la luz y la oscuridad en Primero sueño, reafirmo asimismo el legado de Kircher en Sor Juana

Transhistorical Dialogue Concerning Images: Baltrušaitis and Kircher

SummaryThe article explores the works of Jurgis Baltrušaitis on depraved perspectives. In particular, it examines his references to Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher in the books dedicated to anamorphoses, aberrations, Egyptomania and distorting mirror’s reflections. The paper questions what led Baltrušaitis to the dialogue with the German visionary. The close reading of Baltrušaitis works reveals that in Kircher’s pre-modern thinking the art historian found those domains of between-the-two, communalities of art and science, art and nature, art and social imaginary that have become more important in postmodernist period. Kircher’s treatises, previously uninterpreted in the context of art history, encouraged the development of the broader studies of images focused on visual phenomena that remained for a long time outside the autonomous field of art history. Without privileging an aesthetic and evolutionary approach in art history, Baltrušaitis’ works reveal anthropological and ontological dimensions of images. They disclose that the image is always related to visual experience and imagination, which takes us beyond the horizon of reality.

Catoptric Theatres

Alluding to the Theatrum Catoptricum described by Athanasius Kircher in Ars Magna Lucis at Umbrae (1646), this article aims to present glass and mirrors, not as mere objects or materials, but as perceptual and spatial devices, defining a technology of immersion. Imbued with a dazzling energy, mirrors and glass appear to defy both spatial logic and the logic of the eye, triggering new ways of observing, channelling and manipulating light, thus redefining the role played by the immaterial in the production and experience of space. With their framing, amplifying, multiplying or distorting qualities, mirrors and glass also entail a shift of emphasis away from materiality as a merely tectonic or expressive medium, towards matter as an activator and catalyst of effects and experiences. Unravelling the magical force and transformative quality of glass and mirrors requires an inquisitive journey, spanning different disciplines as well as historical, socio-cultural and technological contexts. Reflecting the myriad effects and affects of mirrors and glass, a kaleidoscopic range of examples will establish multidirectional dialogues. Although from different eras, the selected works, each one a ‘catoptric theatre,’ will provide the opportunity, not only to reimagine spatial relationships and boundaries, but also to decode the essence of atmospheric staging, suggesting a material pre-history to contemporary concerns for atmosphere and its production. From the enchanting effects of the Baroque Gallery of (fragmented) Mirrors at Villa Palagonia in Bagheria, via Sir John Soane’s unprecedented use of tinted glass and mirrors in his House-Museum in London, to the twentieth century light modulating machines of László Moholy-Nagy, Adolf Luther’s kaleidoscopic assemblages, and twentieth-century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s belief in the performative nature of glass, the reader will discover multiplicities of meanings and ambiguities of reflections, exploring their atmospheric potentiality.