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The artful universe expanded / John D. Barrow.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Barrow, John D., 1952-2020, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Art--History.
- Art.
- Nature (Aesthetics).
- Art and science.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (336 p. ) ill.
- Edition:
- 2nd ed.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- John Barrow looks at the relationship between the way our understanding of the universe reflects the ways in which evolution has shaped our brains, and our expression of that understanding in science, maths and art.
- In The Artful Universe (OUP, 1995) John D. Barrow explored the close ties between our aesthetic appreciation and the basic nature of the Universe, challenging the commonly held view that our sense of beauty is entirely free and unfettered. It looked at some of the unexpected ways in which the structure of the Universe, its laws, its environments, and above all its underlying mathematical structure imprints itself on our thoughts, our aesthetic preferences, and our views about the nature of things. The exploration embraced topics such as perspective; the size of things and the origins of aesthetics; computer art (posing the question: is it art?); and the origins of our susceptibility to music. Life sales of the hardback totalled just over 25,000 copies. The study of the evolutionary and mathematical underpinnings of our aesthetic sense, and our understanding of the nature and scale of the universe has grown over the past decade, with developments in evolutionary psychology, and in cosmology. This paperback of the revised edition (OUP, 2005) contains eight new sections covering the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets, fashionable postmodernist rejection of science as uncovering objective reality, growing understanding of key ratios appearing in biological relationships, and studies of the underlying mathematical structure of a Pollock painting.
- Contents:
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Preface
- Preface to new edition
- Contents
- 1. Tales of the unexpected
- 2. The impact of evolution
- A room with a view: matters of perspective
- The mind-benders: distortions of thought and space
- The inheritors: adaptation and evolution
- After Babel: a linguistic digression
- A sense of reality: the evolution of mental pictures
- The care and maintenance of a small planet: cosmic environmentalism
- Gravity's rainbow: the fabric of the world
- Chronicle of a death foretold: of death and immortality
- The human factor: light in the darkness
- The world is not enough: the grand illusion
- 3. Size, life, and landscape
- A delicate balance: equilibria in the Universe
- Of mice and men: life on Earth
- The jagged edge: living fractals
- Bilateral agreements: appreciating curves
- Fractal expressionism: the strange case of Jack the Dripper
- War and peace: size and culture
- Far from the madding crowd: the size of populations
- Les liaisons dangereuses: complexity, mobility, and cultural evolution
- Network news: branching out
- The Go-Betweenies: messing with Mister In-Between
- The rivals: the evolution of cooperation
- The secret garden: the art of landscape
- Figures in a landscape: the dilemma of computer art
- Midnight's children: a first glimpse of the stars
- 4. The heavens and the Earth
- The remains of the day: rhythms of life
- Empire of the Sun: the reasons for the seasons
- Extrasolar planets: a case of spatial prejudice
- A handful of dust: the Earth below
- Pebble in the sky: the Moon above
- Darkness at noon: eclipses
- Hamlet's mill: the wandering Pole Star
- Paper moon: controlling chaotic planets
- Mars in your eyes: they came from outer space
- The man who was Thursday: the origins of the week.
- Long day's journey into night: the origin of the constellations
- Study in scarlet: the sources of colour vision
- Outward bound: the way of the world
- 5. The natural history of noise
- The club of queer trades: soundscapes
- Sense and sensibility: a matter of timing
- Incidental music: a harmless by-product?
- The glass bead game: the music of the spheres
- Player piano: hearing by numbers
- The sound of silence: decomposing music
- The imitation game: listlessness
- The sound of music: hearing and listening
- Adventures of Roderick Random: white noise, pink noise, and black noise
- 6. All's well that ends well
- Bibliography
- Illustration acknowledgements
- Index
- Footnotes
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- Notes:
- Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 0-19-153955-4
- 0-19-161583-8
- OCLC:
- 778338911
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