A lasting crisis

The cuts in education expenses, as a measure against current financial crisis, is a sign that the way out of it is not even near.

The despotism of instrumental rationality is still in charge, I am afraid. In a recent article in El País Paul Krugman explains the idea of the Homo economicus, "whose preferences can be expressed mathematically". The world’s view that has driven our lives in the West for almost the last two centuries is based in the negation of the internal contradiction of human nature. Orient has taken the lead in that sense.

For avant-garde artists art is the solution of human internal contradictions in a satisfactory way: the three coordinates of reason, desire and feeling (Ozenfant). I am convinced of the necessity of understanding artistic way of thinking as a way of re-funding humanism in the 21st century.

Only through education our mentality will evolve. If we do not learn to respect emotions, we will never have a truly model of human behavior and no reliable economic and political planning would be possible. In the webpage of Krugman there are lots of his best articles for free.

Le Corbusier, a young 71 years old

It is worth listening, first hand, what the greatest architect of last century wanted to tell us when he was 71 years old. The images that illustrate the video are not at the level of the speech, I am afraid. Nevertheless, it is interesting to find out the balance he does of his own huge work at the end of his life. Creating ideas, those intellectual constructions that resist time and questioning, is a hard job specially for a "visual man" like Le Corbusier. The sound recording is from an interview at the BBC in 1959. Here is the link

Formalism and reflexivity in Economy, not in Architecture

Krugman, by Alan Cordova, Flickr

Georges Soros, adam kesher2000, Flickr

A good thing of current global financial crisis is that it promotes attention to how the world is ruled. Last century John Maynard Keynes said that "little else" than Economy and Political Philosophy does (General Theory, 1936).

It has always been obvious to me that Art and Aesthetics is lacking in this list. Actually, I find surprising that "formalism" and "reflexivity" are terms of great interest in economical debate. Brand new Nobel Prize Paul Krugman and George Soros defend each concept in that arena.

At the end of his book "The Enlightenment´s Wake", John Gray bases his hopes for the future of "western cultures" in the introduction of "some varieties of poetry and mysticism" in modern modes of thinking. Wouldn´t be easier to re-shape our idea of modernity and to include the third aspect of human constituttion Kant discovered in his third Critique: the aesthetic autonomy againt reason and ethics?

Architecture's Week in Madrid

From 6 to 12 of October dozens of famous buildings will be open to the public, guided by architectural students, lots of conferences, films, visit to the site with the designer, etc. The program has more than 35 pages. It is an incredible opportunity to get closer to one of the best architectures in the world explained first hand by its authors and local critics. Architecture's Week is a real festival.

Ghosts in Segovia

Cockle-pickers at Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, UK

A car trapped by the tides at Morecambe bay, 400 meters from shore

Ai Qin Lin, who survived the Morecambe bay tragedy, and main character of the film

Ghosts is the way illegal Chinese immigrants and local British workers call each other. Ghosts is also the name of the documentary shown in Segovia last Sunday at the Hay Festival.

It is the true story of a group of 23 illegal Chinese workers that were killed in Lancashire, UK, in 2004. Nick Broomfield, the Director , said that there are 20 millions slaves in the world right now. He also has created a foundation to collect the half a million dollars the relatives of the killed worker have to pay the lenders. The film is an excellent example of art and politics interacting without contaminating each other: the suspense sequences are one of the best ever shoot.

I first knew about this tragedy few weeks ago while asking Rod Morgan (author of the Oxford Handbook of Criminology) about the exploitation of immigrants in the UK. Do not miss it, it is in DVD.