book pickings

a visual way to explore the brain pickings book archive :: otlet's shelf theme :: back to brain pickings

CREATIVITY :: DESIGN :: SCIENCE :: HISTORY :: PSYCHOLOGY :: ART

biography

  1. Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self Jessica Grogan “Abraham Maslow … once asked himself in his journal how he would define the [humanistic psychology] movement in one sentence. … It is, he wrote, ‘a move away from knowledge of things and lifeless objects as basis for all philosophy, economics, science, politics, etc. (because this has failed to help with the basic human problem) toward a centering upon human needs & fulfillment & aspirations as the fundamental basis from which to derive all social institutions, philosophy, ethics, etc. I might use also for more sophisticated & hep people that it is a resacralizing of science, society, the person, etc.” How Abraham Maslow and his humanistic psychology shaped the modern self.

    Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self

    Jessica Grogan

    “Abraham Maslow … once asked himself in his journal how he would define the [humanistic psychology] movement in one sentence. … It is, he wrote, ‘a move away from knowledge of things and lifeless objects as basis for all philosophy, economics, science, politics, etc. (because this has failed to help with the basic human problem) toward a centering upon human needs & fulfillment & aspirations as the fundamental basis from which to derive all social institutions, philosophy, ethics, etc. I might use also for more sophisticated & hep people that it is a resacralizing of science, society, the person, etc.”

    How Abraham Maslow and his humanistic psychology shaped the modern self.
  2. Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age Jack Copeland “He might ask you … whether you think a computer could ever enjoy strawberries and cream or could make you fall in love with it.” An uncommon portrait of Alan Turing, godfather of modern computing.

    Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age

    Jack Copeland

    “He might ask you … whether you think a computer could ever enjoy strawberries and cream or could make you fall in love with it.”

    An uncommon portrait of Alan Turing, godfather of modern computing.
  3. Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson Will Bingley Fear and loathing in six panels.

    Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson

    Will Bingley

    Fear and loathing in six panels.
  4. Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult Luciano Chessa Italian Futurist painter and composer Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), best-known for authoring the 1913 manifesto The Art of Noises (public library) and regarded as the first noise artist, is the father of the first systematic poetics of noise. He Russolo played a crucial role in the evolution of 20th-century musical aesthetics and influenced such music icons as Edgar Varese, Pierre Schaeffer, and John Cage. He was also one of the first theorists of electronic music and is even considered by some the inventor of the synthesizer. Yet despite enormous interest in his work, Russolo’s life remained largely unexamined — until now. Here, composer and San Francisco Conservatory music history professor Luciano Chessa reconstructs Russolo’s life through ambitious archival research, uncovering and digesting esoteric and obscure texts to reverse-engineer how the artist’s eccentric interests influenced his creative output — namely an interest in the supernatural and, more specifically, in the occult.

    Luigi Russolo, Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult

    Luciano Chessa

    Italian Futurist painter and composer Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), best-known for authoring the 1913 manifesto The Art of Noises (public library) and regarded as the first noise artist, is the father of the first systematic poetics of noise. He Russolo played a crucial role in the evolution of 20th-century musical aesthetics and influenced such music icons as Edgar Varese, Pierre Schaeffer, and John Cage. He was also one of the first theorists of electronic music and is even considered by some the inventor of the synthesizer. Yet despite enormous interest in his work, Russolo’s life remained largely unexamined — until now.

    Here, composer and San Francisco Conservatory music history professor Luciano Chessa reconstructs Russolo’s life through ambitious archival research, uncovering and digesting esoteric and obscure texts to reverse-engineer how the artist’s eccentric interests influenced his creative output — namely an interest in the supernatural and, more specifically, in the occult.