The Arts Of Intimacy

"In this way the culture of medieval Spain is relevant to our own world both enriched and anguished by its diversity. The Arts of Intimacy is a vital book, dedicated to telling the story of the complexity of interactions between the three monotheistic religions in medieval Spain - yielding lessons that can be drawn through to our experience today. The volume serves as a souvenir of Spanish history and culture, and an invitation to examine how a complex culture is deeply shaped by both receptivity and conflict."--BOOK JACKET.

To Ellen Dissanayake, the arts are biologically evolved propensities of human nature: their fundamental features helped early humans adapt to their environment and reproduce themselves successfully over generations. In Art and Intimacy she argues for the joint evolutionary origin of art and intimacy, what we commonly call love. It all begins with the human trait of birthing immature and helpless infants. To ensure that mothers find their demanding babies worth caring for, humans evolved to be lovable and to attune themselves to others from the moment of birth. The ways in which mother and infant respond to each other are rhythmically patterned vocalizations and exaggerated face and body movements that Dissanayake calls rhythms and sensory modes. Rhythms and modes also give rise to the arts. Because humans are born predisposed to respond to and use rhythmic-modal signals, societies everywhere have elaborated them further as music, mime, dance, and display, in rituals which instill and reinforce valued cultural beliefs. Just as rhythms and modes coordinate and unify the mother-infant pair, in ceremonies they coordinate and unify members of a group. Today we humans live in environments very different from those of our ancestors. They used ceremonies (the arts) to address matters of serious concern, such as health, prosperity, and fecundity, that affected their survival. Now we tend to dismiss the arts, to see them as superfluous, only for an elite. But if we are biologically predisposed to participate in artlike behavior, then we actually need the arts. Even -- or perhaps especially -- in our fast-paced, sophisticated modern lives, the arts encourage us to show that we care about important things.

Discusses the nature of intimacy, describes how we interact with our spouses, children, and friends, and gives practical advice on how to improve personal relationships

This book reflects a multi disciplinary, integrative approach to the theology and practice of relational intimacy. It combines biblical data on sexuality and relationships with marriage and bonding research. The reader is then guided in applying the research to his or her relationships. In essence, this is a handbook for understanding and deepening the stages involved in bonding or attaching closely to another human being. Marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, is described in Scripture as a "one-flesh mystery" (Eph 5:31-32). This mystery of human bonding is as beautiful as it is complex, particularly in a post-Eden world. Many of us are woefully aware of our relational deficits, yet lack vibrant marriages around us to emulate. Those of us who have not experienced relationships of health, safety, and security particularly find we need roadmaps along the way. Our desire is that in the pages of this book readers will find personal encouragement and direction that is both biblically precise and practical for their relational journeys. Our intimacy model is built upon God's bold promises to heal and redeem. His pathways bring life; he is the one true lover of our souls. Our intimacy with him is foundational to all other relationships.

Every human society displays some form of behavior that can be called “art,” and in most societies other than our own the arts play an integral part in social life. Those who wish to understand art in its broadest sense, as a universal human endowment, need to go beyond modern Western elitist notions that disregard other cultures and ignore the human species’ four-million-year evolutionary history. This book offers a new and unprecedentedly comprehensive theory of the evolutionary significance of art. Art, meaning not only visual art, but music, poetic language, dance, and performance, is for the first time regarded from a biobehavioral or ethical viewpoint. It is shown to be a biological necessity in human existence and fundamental characteristic of the human species. In this provocative study, Ellen Dissanayake examines art along with play and ritual as human behaviors that “make special,” and proposes that making special is an inherited tendency as intrinsic to the human species as speech and toolmaking. She claims that the arts evolved as means of making socially important activities memorable and pleasurable, and thus have been essential to human survival. Avoiding simplism and reductionism, this original synthetic approach permits a fresh look at old questions about the origins, nature, purpose, and value of art. It crosses disciplinary boundaries and integrates a number of divers fields: human ethology; evolutionary biology; the psychology and philosophy of art; physical and cultural anthropology; “primitive” and prehistoric art; Western cultural history; and children’s art. The final chapter, “From Tradition to Aestheticism,” explores some of the ways in which modern Western society has diverged from other societies--particularly the type of society in which human beings evolved--and considers the effects of the aberrance on our art and our attitudes toward art. This book is addressed to readers who have a concerned interest in the arts or in human nature and the state of modern society.

Integrating the psychology of love and creativity, this pioneering book explores both how a couple’s involvement as lovers influences their creative collaboration and how working together affects their relationship. Representing a variety of genres—painting, sculpture, photography, and installation art—the celebrated couples profiled here include, among others, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, and Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel. Intrigued by this process of "intimate creativity," psychologists Irving and Suzanne Sarnoff (themselves partners in love and work) decided to conduct in-depth interviews with partners in visual art because they defy the supremely individualistic tradition of their field. Whatever their age or sexual orientation, these artist-couples combine their talents to form a collective identity as a professional team. Passionately intense about their shared commitment, they communicate endlessly to resolve conflicts and reach consensus. Providing mutual validation and support, they increase their productivity and the quality of their work; they minimize their fear and frustration and enhance their pleasure in being together. The authors also draw on historical and contemporary literature about similar couples, ranging from Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber to Gilbert and George to Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Stimulating and engaging, this book highlights the features of a unique collaborative process, considers the connection between creativity and sexuality, and suggests possibilities for any couple to expand their intimacy.

Compiling the work of 15 international artists, this generously illustrated book provides a multi-faceted lens through which to explore ideas of affect and intimacy. Affect is an essentially indefinable, largely non-conscious quality that correlates to the experience of diverse emotional and physiological states. This exciting book examines the idea of affect in art. Drawing from an international cadre of contemporary artists working in a variety of media, this book addresses the question of how bodies are affected by intimate relationships with and through objects. The book investigates the kinds of intimate relationships we form with art; explores how art acts as a vehicle for affective engagement or transactions of desire; what role gender plays in affect; and how we experience this force in works of art.

�Dissanayake argues that art was central to human evolutionary adaptation and that the aesthetic faculty is a basic psychological component of every human being. In her view, art is intimately linked to the origins of religious practices and to ceremonies of birth, death, transition, and transcendence. Drawing on her years in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Papua New Guinea, she gives examples of painting, song, dance, and drama as behaviors that enable participants to grasp and reinforce what is important to their cognitive world.��Publishers Weekly�Homo Aestheticus offers a wealth of original and critical thinking. It will inform and irritate specialist, student, and lay reader alike.��American AnthropologistA thoughtful, elegant, and provocative analysis of aesthetic behavior in the development of our species�one that acknowledges its roots in the work of prior thinkers while opening new vistas for those yet to come. If you�re reading just one book on art anthropology this year, make it hers.��Anthropology and Humanism

“Simply put, Michael Dorf is a true hustler. When the internet upended the music business, he wasn’t romantic to the way things were done and like any great entrepreneur, focused on what’s happening today. It has been fun for me to watch Michael operate in this ever-changing world. There is a lot that can be learned from this man.”—Gary Vaynerchuk, Founder and CEO, VaynerMedia; and author, Crushing It As founder of the iconic Knitting Factory music venue in New York, Michael Dorf became one of the earliest pioneers of digital music in the 1990s and found himself addicted to the seductive promise of the Internet. But losing everything in the dot-com bust led to a renewed appreciation for the sensory pleasures of life and inspired him to gamble big with his latest crazy idea: Launching a wine-making facility in the middle of Manhattan for patrons who could also have dinner in a cozy three-hundred-seat venue while watching concerts by artists such as Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Suzanne Vega, and Esperanza Spalding. After surviving another economic cataclysm—the Great Recession of 2008—Dorf found that his City Winery concept worked beautifully and he expanded it into a national network of clubs that continues to grow rapidly. Along the way, he realized why his venues are sold out nearly every night, from Boston to Nashville: Trapped in a digital bubble, increasingly separate from the real world, people are eager for the visceral, sensory experiences he offers. In Indulge Your Senses: Scaling Intimacy in a Digital World, Dorf tells riveting tales from his wild ride through three decades of business escapades and dispenses invaluable wisdom for readers—entrepreneurs, executives, students, professionals, lovers of music and wine—who are struggling to balance the virtual and the real in a world awash in technology. “Music, wine, food, and community—not only has Michael Dorf cracked the code on a recipe so many of us crave most in an increasingly disconnected world, he’s also managed to grow a brilliantly successful business while listening to his gut and sticking to his values. It’s a feat that all entrepreneurs would be wise to study closely.” —Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group; Founder, Shake Shack; and author, Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business “The lessons learned in Michael Dorf’s fascinating career make this as much a business book about how to thrive by indulging a customer’s senses in our digital age as it is a gripping tale from an insider in the New York rock and jazz world during a period of massive technological change.”—Steve Case, co-founder of the investment firm Revolution LLC and former CEO of AOL “Sonic Youth, Beck, John Zorn, Cecil Taylor—Michael Dorf showcased them all at his cutting-edge Knitting Factory. Neil Young, Aaron Neville, Macy Gray, Shawn Colvin—those artists and more have graced his upscale City Winery. It’s hard to imagine anyone in New York who has presented more great live music over the past thirty years. This book is the colorful story of how Dorf pulled it off, both before and after the Internet upended the music industry and changed our lives forever. It’s inspiring reading for anybody who cares about music, culture, and wine, and explains how to thrive by offering people a live experience they will always remember.” —Rita Houston, WFUV Program Director

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