Gryphon 1962 - Adm.monash.edu.au

-se lective capacity without harm to h imself antiothers. The result would be sharpening his minda nd aest hetic se nsi bi lities in a high ly desirablemanne r. I venture to sa y that a rt expe rience forall men in th eir ea rl y ed ucative years will be th eone safe m ea ns lef t to preser ve the sani rv andin tell ectual integi ity of the species. This doesnot mean that all me n wi ll be professiona l a rtis ts.Profession al ism is an obsessive drive towards per ·Iection, bu t it means man will find power to thi nka nd ju dge th rough h is own creative ex p lora tio nand be cri tical of the res ul t.T here are many ways and me ans, or. if )'OUlik e, techniques to this end - music, dancing ,pain ti ng, sc ulp ture. If allowed free exploratio n,it is all basic thinkin g w ha teve r t he tech niq ue.H owever , of these tech n iques, th ree -dimension alexperience - such as sculp ture or modelling is ofpara moun t impo rt an ce, of even grea ter importan cethan the two -dim en sional ex perience o f painting- the world of op tical illusion. According toMontessor, roost of ou r conc epts before we arefour are formed by our tacti le experience. All ou radj ustments to life a re pe rfec ted by o ur se nseof touch - op tics a re illusion a ry and imperfect ­heat, cold, balance. proxim ity and di st an ce. soft ­ness, hard ness, volume and a myriad of othernecessary adjustm ents to real it y are effected byou r sense of touch . The " whole" th ing, its re a lcontent, volume, shape and dimen sion , its truenature, is known on ly by OllT sen se of touch. Wecan be blind and com pe nsa te, we ca n be d umban d compensat e. but if we lose our sense oftou ch we feel neither pain nor re ali ty a nd aredoomed (Q m ove in m or tal d an ger.Today th ro ug h ea rly lite racy, co ncep ts fo rm edo n a two-di m ensio nal p la ne with illusion byabs trac t signs and te rms - wr it ing symbols a ndfigures. o ur young are havin g th eir true co nce p lsspoilt or left im perfect before th ey are full yformed . P rim itive man lea rnt measu re a nd arithmerle th ro ug h his hands in to uching ac tua l o bjectsand mak in g actual ad ju stment. Not so today. Soserious a re these mauers that new techniques oflea rn in g. e.g. Cuise na ire mock System . a re beingstudied to improve imper fect concepts in ma rhe ­ma ries.Try th is experi m ent . D raw what you t hink tobe an animal or insect, the n try to model it incla y - how b ig is it . -- how man y legs has it andwhe re do they come from - w here does head endand bod y begin? You wi ll soo n find t ha t if youhave not been a llowed to "mode l" in clay as achi ld you have a very imperfect know ledge ofreal it y of th e "who le" th in g. Also importan t areou r tact ile se nses-all children love " to to uch "th ings. More to uc h ing and less smo ki ng willsoot he the nerves of man a nd wom a n in a moresa tisfactory m anner.T he aes the tic li fe of man ha s a lways resp ondedto beautiful sh apes; h is beautiful boats, h is gracefulspears, hi s fine scu lp tures, god s and irnplements have sho wn that m an is happy wh en makingshapes th at pl ease h is sensibili ties. The best ofen gineering looks good; it h as eco no m y and gr ace,as in Ma illart's bridge. There is som et hing povertystricken in a country lacking in sculpture or inconscio us ness of good shapes.T hese fine pe rcep t ions and rich d eli ghts of man- his sense of beauty and wond er are alertedearly in life by hi s artistic cre a l iveness, In laterlife and maturity these perception s now sharpenedand sensitive mak e him a better and wiser judgeo f situ a tions and pe op le - a mo re perceptive andsensitive leader, less of a machin e, less o f abewilde red foo l. more reso urcef ul , with co urageto th ink, act an d be resp on sibl e for h is o wnj ud gem en ts - a full h uman being, that is, a n" ed uca ted " rat he r than a lea rn ed man . T here hasbe en too much learning and too little educativethin king. T o all m en -leI every craftsman be anartist a nd every a rtis t a craftsma n .THE SECOND RENAISSANCER oom ] 4 of our great Co llege is th e p ro udpossessor of pl aster casts as fine as any to befound in Melb ourne. H owe ver, the fact that th eywer e permitted to rem ain on th eir lofty perch eshad a lways been a m a tt er of gre a t wonder to me- for had not Miss Aa ro ns o fte n sa id . " T heRen ai ssance . . . ah , pooh!",T he reason behind th ese eloq ue nt o u tburstswas undoubtedl v the fact that in her own stude ntda ys she h ad been force d to cop y sim ilar cas ts.H e r d isapprova l fu rt he r man ifested itself in thecom plete emo t iona l freedom which we wer e per·mi tted - " You ma y d o anythi ng yo u like. as lon gas it's good". We had all tak en advantage of th isand each happily went h is ow n way wi th o nly oneou tstanding in cid ent - th e tim e Miss Aarons askedfor someth ing evocative, one boy thoug h t she sa idprovocative, and set to work with an exceeding lyevil grin on h is face . T he end result of h is endeavours was proudl y displayed in th e P rincip al 'soffice until it was d iscover ed tha t the fo rm wasnot quite as a bst ra ct as i t seemed .But at the start of th is yea r we observed certa inom inous portents, Suc h th ings as " Ye Olde Illus ­t rat ed Anatomy Book" a nd "What every a rtst ud ent sho uld know", mad e th eir appeara nce inth e office, and the pl aste r casts were re moved fromth eir hi gh ped esta ls and pl aced a t a mo re con ­venie n t height for measuremcn t a nd close observation . Eve n th e old skeleto n was brought out ofits case and, grin ning from ea r to ca r, was set u pso th at its d ime ns ions could be sturlied, and ag ra nd to tal of a bo ut 100 wi re replicas coveredwith p lasti cin e flesh could be m anufactured .I becam e a lillie su spi ciou s. What o f th e oldteach in gs - th e powe r of self-ex pression, the grea t­ness of the Bauhau s' Had she forgotten ? " O fcourse not," she h ad repl ied . "This study ofanatomy will ena ble th eir work to hold morecon vic tio n , eve n in its most a bstract form ".Very rel ieved to find th at Mi ss Aarons had notso ld her so ul to th e publishe rs of " Ye O ldeAn atom y Book" , ] deci de d to visit "A nita's Studio"again. T he room had returned a lmos t to norm al ,the p laster casts ha d been re placed and th e skeleton, not .q uite as happy now owing to the lossof an a rm as well as his toe. was rep lace d in th ecase. T he roo m looks as befo re , and ye t I wo nde r.cou ld there possibl y have bee n a second R en ai s­sance?T under.24