Towards a New Architecture of Cosmic Experience

The article unfolds an account of several overlapping fields of inquiry contributing to the early modern experience of the cosmos. Traversing scale, scope, and media, from the first recorded meteorite fall to scholastic debates over the materiality of heaven and the practice of architecture as cosmic analogue, I argue in favour of bringing together a broad range of interdisciplinary source material in order to explore the spatiality of the cosmos and how it was encountered and reproduced as a place or cosmic space or non-place on earth. The accompanying examples gesture towards an open-ended model defined not solely by the built environment as much as by the ephemeral and rhetorical structures framing the cosmos for human consumption.

L’igname et le fruit du nôôle. Plantes, animaux, personnes et collectifs dans le système socio-cosmique d’Arama (Kanaky Nouvelle-Calédonie)

The yearly first fruit ceremony for yams has been described in most societies of Kanaky New Caledonia. In the far north of the country, however, Arama society’s special feature is that a few weeks before the yam ceremony a small ceremony is held which revolves around the fruit of a tree, the nôôle. This ceremony concerns ad hoc collectives of people acting together. Classically in Kanaky New Caledonia, the yam ceremony concerns a localized social configuration, here the Great House and its ancestors. It is made up of four hamlets conceptualized as Houses organized by an order of precedence. This ceremony also concerns kinship groups (and relations with the Catholic Church). This article analyses both ceremonies in relation to their environments, to horticulture and to their sequential unfoldings. Its perspective is a dynamic, processual description of aspects of the Kanak world construed as a socio-cosmic space and system.

Editorial: Trends in Optical/Laser Spectroscopy and Applications

Optics and optical spectroscopy are dynamic fields that are developing very fast nowadays, triggered by (i) the need to go deeper in the scientific approach to nature’s processes and phenomena, (ii) the evolution of applications in technological and industrial processes, art conservation, environment protection and cosmic space, and (iii) the sometimes hard to predict evolutions of knowledge in science, life sciences, artistic culture, technology and industrial processes [...]

Bounded resolutions for spaces $$C_{p}(X)$$ and a characterization in terms of X

An internal characterization of the Arkhangel’skiĭ-Calbrix main theorem from [4] is obtained by showing that the space $$C_{p}(X)$$ C p ( X ) of continuous real-valued functions on a Tychonoff space X is K-analytic framed in $$\mathbb {R}^{X}$$ R X if and only if X admits a nice framing. This applies to show that a metrizable (or cosmic) space X is $$\sigma $$ σ -compact if and only if X has a nice framing. We analyse a few concepts which are useful while studying nice framings. For example, a class of Tychonoff spaces X containing strictly Lindelöf Čech-complete spaces is introduced for which a variant of Arkhangel’skiĭ-Calbrix theorem for $$\sigma $$ σ -boundedness of X is shown.

RUSSIAN COSMISM AND ILLUSTRATION OF COSMIC SPACE IN THE RUSSIAN CINEMATOGRAPH OF THE XXI CENTURY

The object of the research is the illustration of cosmic space in Russian cinema of the XXI century as a reflection of the traditions of Russian thinking, as well as a plastic model of the Russian reception of globalism in the new century. Research methods: general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis; a phenomenological method for identifying the intentions of a visual image; semiotic approach, allowing to analyze the structural and semiotic integer of a movie. As a result of the study, the authors conclude that the Russian screen model of cosmic space as organically rational integrity, comprehended in the intellectual and moral traditions of Russian mentality of the 19th – 20th centuries, represents a positive alternative in the spiritual reality of the 21st century.

“Eternal Bodies”: images of archangels in the upper parts of Nubian buildings

Images of archangels and angels, which were painted on the walls, in the upper parts of the buildings and, on their structural elements, were very popular in Christian Nubian painting as attested by the discoveries from Church SWN.BV on the citadel in Old Dongola. These images, which derive from pre-Christian art, depict the eternal nature of the archangels and angels. Presenting this group of representations, the author traces the origins of these images to highlight the role of these spiritual beings as intermediaries between God and humankind. As such, they move freely between the Heavens and the Earth, so the air and cosmic space are their natural surroundings. Moreover, archangels govern the forces of nature, the planets, and the seven skies. Therefore, their sanctuaries were located on hill summits, in the upper chapels, on structural elements of ecclesiastical buildings, etc. The Nubian tradition is therefore part of a broader Mediterranean tradition, the roots of which should be sought in the Near East.