Science & Art
Joseph Campbell the mythologist explains:
A Mythology is an organisation of images conceived as a rendition of the sense of life, and this sense is to be apprehended in two ways:
1. The way of thought
2. The way of experience
As thought, Mythology approaches or is a primitive prelude to science.
As experience it is precisely art.
The Four Functions
Joseph Campbell the great Mythologist, describes the Four Functions that a complete Myth must serve. These are:
1. The Metaphysical-Mystic Aspect
The first function of a living mythology, the proper religious function is to awaken and maintain in the individual an experience of awe, humility and respect in recognition of that ultimate mystery, transcending names and forms.
2. The Cosmological Aspect
The second function of a mythology is to render a cosmology, an image of the universe. For this, we all turn not to archaic religious texts, but to science. And here even the briefest, most elementary review of the main crises in modern transformation of the image of the universe suffices to remind us of the fact-world that now has to be recognized, appropriated, and assimilated by the mythopoetic imagination.
3. The Social Aspect
The third function of a mythology is the validation and maintenance of an established order.
4. The Psychological Aspect
The fourth function of a mythology is the centering and harmonization of the individual, which in traditional systems was supposed to follow upon the giving of oneself, and even giving up of oneself altogether, to some one or another.
Originally Posted: November 2nd, 2009
Don’t Go There
For sometime now I’ve been thinking bout design and the impact Myth has in it. Wondering how it impacts design and how design can incorporate it.
I’m surfing the web and I land on this page:
and it all comes crashing home to me.
Its an ad for a Ford Kuga. How simple can it get?
Much. In the past I wondered how it was they could not design the cars to look more animal like?
See thats how I see it. Vehicle’s are so bland, no one wants to buy them.
This car not only looks like an animal its more. Much more.
Now it looks like a mask. A tribal mask. A ceremonial mask.
A Mythic form, that comes alive.
And this Mazda MX-2 looks like a fish.
By making cars take on the forms of Nature, we bring the car form to life. By making them take on Mythic forms, the cars activate something deep within man.
Dont take my word for it? Go check it out.
Originally Posted: September 7th, 2009
Posted by Patrick