Tuesday, May 31

matter and spirit

Nothing illustrates this better than the curious phenomenon called art, which transforms the very nature of our perceptions and opens in us a sense of wonder, even of awe. Certain frequencies of vibrations -- colors, shapes, geometric figures, and above all proportions -- evoke corresponding frequencies in us, each of which has a specific quality or flavor. There is, for instance, a proportion within the rectangle called the Golden Section that will invariably produce a sensation of harmony, and here as in many other geometrical figures the psychological experience is inseparable from its mathematical description. Architecture has always observed and followed this marriage between feeling and proportion, and on a more intuitive level the painter and the sculptor are tirelessly correcting and refining their work so that its coarse outer crust can give way to the true inner feeling.

-- Peter Brook, "The Secret Dimension" from Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching, edited by Jacob Needleman and George Baker