Introduction
"All manner of thing shall be well/ When the tongues of flame are in-folded/ Into the crowned knot of fire/ And the fire and the rose are one." -- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
The Baroque Style has been popular at certain times in history.
It is characterized by a complex elaboration of features, and a complicated enfolding of the functional space.
It is now typical of much modern technology, which revels in excessive complexity.
At the surface level, this design style can be found in many widely used software products, including Microsoft Office. (See Fake Steve Jobs Regarding our new software programs.)
At a deeper level, this design style is found in emerging software and business architectures.
New Table of Contents
Quotes
- Speech by US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008
- When it comes to procurement, for the better part of five decades, the trend has gone towards lower numbers as technology gains made each system more capable. In recent years these platforms have grown ever more baroque, ever more costly, are taking longer to build, and are being fielded in ever dwindling quantities.
Random Images
Baroque Facade - Pra...
Samson and the lion
Asamkirche
Stew & Ken at Po...
Facade - Prague, Cze...
Aspects of the Baroque
vote here ...
compiled by Philip Mitchell
reproduced by kind permission
Picturesque
A blending of the picturesque (the wild, the unexpected, the fantastic) with Renaissance formalism.0 points
Discord
Discord and suspension is set within a heightened, rhetorical emphasis0 points
Asymmetry
Its use of asymmetry, rough form, and obscurity could sometimes lead to an emphasis on the grotesque and the contorted0 points
Metaphysical
The practice of the metaphysical conceit, a strong, unexpected analogy between two objects intended to enlighten both the reason and the emotions0 points
Analytical
Tends to focus on the analytical, psychological, and commonplace.0 points
Love and Death
Often absorbed with thoughts of love, death, and religious devotion.0 points
Folding Space
The Baroque View of the World
There is a Baroque view of the world, and the entities and processes it contains. One of the primary sources for this view is Leibniz, whose monads can be compared with objects or components.
This leads to a topological way of understanding a variety of business and system questions.
This also links to a view of Internet as Labyrinth.
Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque
A rich and difficult work, using Leibniz theory of forms to illuminate contemporary and modern arts and manners.
Amazon Price: $17.10 (as of 11/16/2009) 
Under the Sign of Saturn
Read the title essay on Walter Benjamin ...
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Allwissen und Absturz: Der Ursprung des Computers (German Edition)
This is the nearest I can find on Amazon from these guys - the one I was looking for was "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Barock-Projekte, Machinenwelt und Netzwerk im 17. Jahrhundert", Berlin 1990.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/16/2009)
Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology (Philosophical Classics)
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 11/16/2009)
The Social Logic of Space
"The term space syntax encompasses a set of theories and techniques for the analysis of spatial configurations. Originally it was conceived by Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson and colleagues at The Bartlett, University College London in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a tool to help architects simulate the likely social effects of their designs." From Wikipedia on "Space Syntax".
Amazon Price: $49.50 (as of 11/16/2009)
Unfolding Space
- Chapter 6: What is an Event?
- Extract from Deleuze "The Fold"
- TIME, QUESTION, FOLD
- Book review of Deleuze "The Fold" by Andrew Benjamin
- The Archeology of the Computer Assemblage
- Review of Künzel by Geert Lovink.
- And if the Global Were Small and Non-Coherent?
- Article on Method, Complexity and the Baroque by John Law, Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University (pdf 2003)
- An Interview with Fernando del Paso
- There are, according to Eugenio d'Ors, more than twenty different kinds of baroque style. The simplest definition of baroque is a style that tries to saturate space by abusing curves to the point of hyperbole, and you will agree with me that Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess, is indeed baroque. As for my own "barroquismo," it's influenced by Rabelais and Joyce (who, by the way, isn't exactly a baroque writer, but at the time isn't far from one), and by more contemporary figures like Gunter Grass, Lezama Lima, and Carpentier.
- A Meaning of Baroque in terms of Space Syntax
- Subtitle: Finding a "Bridge" between Cosmology and Practicality in Cities. By Tsuyoshi Kigawa1, Kyung W. Seo and Masao Furuyama. JAABE : Vol. 5 (2006) , No. 2 pp.269-276 (abstract only)
- Kyoto: A morphological cycle between a city of rituals and a city of games
- The purpose of this paper is to investigate a city of grid and search for a definition of a compact city in a point of a view of Space Syntax Methodology. By Tsuyoshi Kigawa and Masao Furuyama (pdf 2005)
- The Baroque as Infinite Sets
- While the baroque is a particular historical period or world which demonstrates some of these characteristics, it is also a recurring period in cyclical process which manifests such a creative destruction woven of infinite play.
- The World is Bound With Secret Knots
- The Life and Works of Athanasius Kircher
- Readings on the Baroque
- compiled by William Egginton
Baroque and Neo-Baroque Music
Boulez: Pli selon Pli
The longest piece of music by Boulez was based on a poem by Mallarmé - fold upon fold.
Amazon Price: $19.98 (as of 11/16/2009)
Gordian Knot
Amazon Price: $16.98 (as of 11/16/2009)
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Music for "The Gordian Knot Unty'd"
Amazon Price: $21.98 (as of 11/16/2009)
Athanasius Kircher on Amazon
The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome
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Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything
Amazon Price: $30.55 (as of 11/16/2009)
Athanasius Kircher: A Renaissance Man and the Quest for Lost Knowledge
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The Great Art of Knowing: The Baroque Encyclopedia of Athanasius Kircher
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Lewis Mumford on Baroque Planners
'In The City in History (1961), Mumford calls the Plan [of Chicago] the fullest example of twentieth-century "baroque planning," a set of ideas with "no concern for the neighborhood as an integral unit, no regard for family housing, no sufficient conception of the ordering of business and industry themselves as a necessary part of any larger achievement of urban order".' Encyclopedia of Chicago: Heritage
'Baroque planners tacitly assumed that their order was eternal. They not merely regimented space but they sought to congeal time. Their ruthlessness in clearing out the old was equalled only by their stubbornness in opposing the new: for only one order could harmonize with their kind of plan - namely more of their own.' Lewis Mumford, City in History.
The Gordian Knot
... a popular book title ...
The Gordian Knot: Political Gridlock on the Information Highway
Amazon Price: $22.00 (as of 11/16/2009)
Political Trials: Gordian Knots in the Law
Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 11/16/2009)
Orderly Tangles: Cloverleafs, Gordian Knots and Regular Polylinks
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Cutting the Gordian Knot: Understanding Investing in Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds
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The Gordian Knot
Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 11/16/2009)
Argument from Design
The Book of God: Secularization and Design in the Romantic Era
Amazon Price: $59.95 (as of 11/16/2009)
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