ArticlePDF Available

Dia-Logos: Ramon Llull's Method of Thought and Artistic Practice edited by Amador Vega, Peter Weibel and Siegfried Zielinski. ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany; Centre de Cultura Contemporànie de Barcelona—CCCB, Spain; École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne—EPFL, Switzerland. Distributed by University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota, MN, U.S.A., 2018. 300 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 978-1517906092.

Authors:
  • Independent Researcher
Dia-Logos:
Ramon Llull's Method of Thought and Artistic Practice
Amador Vega, Peter Weibel, Siegfried Zielinski (eds.)
2018. ZKM| Center for Art and Media Karlsrule, Germany;
Centre de Cultura Contemporànie de Barcelona - CCCB, Spain;
and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL, Switzerland.
(dist.) University of Minnesota Press
p. 472. soft cover illus. col. and b&w
ISBN: 978-1-5179-0609-2
Reviewed Robert Maddox-Harle, Australia
Every so often a book comes along that stands head and shoulders above most
others, this is one such book. A monumental work of scholarship, which is written in a
highly readable style about an enigmatic, partly obscure genius who has greatly
influenced numerous fields of investigation since the twelfth century!
This book investigates most aspects of the Catalanian philosopher and theologian
Ramon Llull (c. 1232 - 1316). "Llull was a Christian mystic and a Neoplatonist. After
receiving a vision [directly from God] on a mountaintop in which he saw the "Dignities"
of God revealed to him as elements in all creation, Llull devoted himself to developing
a truly eccentric and original combinatorial system of letters and revolving wheels."
(pp. 260 - 261) This system known as Llull's Art was developed by him to prove the
reality of universal Christian truths, he was obsessed with this feature of his Art to
convert Jews and Muslims to this way of thinking, which he believed could be 'proven'
using his "machine", therefore irrefutable? He was a Christian missionary in the literal
sense!
Llull was at odds with the clerical establishment and the Academy of the time, not
interested in writing in Latin but in vernacular Catalanian so all people, even of little
learning, could have access directly to the ‘truth’. Having said that, his Art system
"machine" of alphabet letters and revolving paper wheels, with assorted diagrams, is
extremely complex.
This book itself evolved as part of an arts project, "...it was a special variant of arts-
based research, a formative evaluation that culminated in the exhibition project DIA-
LOGOS: Ramon Llull and the ars combinatoria at the ZKM | Karlsruhe in 2018. In
collaboration with the ZKM project, Amador Vega developed a first version in 2016 for
the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona - CCCB, which bore the
provocative title The Thinking Machine. The project revisited this title in 2018/2019
when the exhibition was realized in a concentrated version at the EPFL ArtLab, the
space for innovation in art, science, and technology at the École polytechnique
fédérale de Lausanne." (p. 10)
Consequently this book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, diagrams, paintings
and drawings of Llull's work, museum pieces, and very little viewed or known artefacts
of the Llullian enterprise. After the Preface there are twenty three chapters which cover
an astonishing amount of investigation.
As mentioned Llull's Art has been enormously influential, the chapters cover all
aspects of Llull's philosophy, obviously its efficacy and influence concerning religion
but also as a forerunner to digital technology and binary logic. The arts, including
poetry are well covered including the inspiration of such artists as Salvador Dali and
John Cage. Other chapters look at the I Ching and Lull's affect on philosophers such
as Leibniz and Jacques Lacan, and lastly the Art's connection with music.
Generative art relies on binary logic and algorithms, Bonner has used the word
"generative" to describe the Lullian system's ability to produce, through its operations,
many different questions and statements, and he argues that the creation of "an Art
that was generative was one of Llull's greatest achievements." (p. 242) Indeed it
seems Bonner is correct, however, that does not mean that Lull totally achieved his
aims especially with the concept of a universal panacea for truth. "In all these
disciplines, Lullists used combinatorial computation of predefined sets of elements
(such as musical notes, letters, words, and numbers) as an encyclopedial device. The
aim was to exhaust the possibilities of permutation and combination and thus create
complete generative systems for a languages lexicon or for musical composition. In
practice, however, none of these systems lived up to this ambition." (p. 87)
From the 'blue pages' of this graphically rich, beautifully produced book I quote from
the editors concerning the exhibition phase of this mammoth project. "To discover new
aspects in old things, and to watch the complex world of ideas of the past unfold within
the contemporary artistic avant-garde, is an important concern of these exhibitions.
Part of this is an intense dialogue between Lull's art of thinking and language and
contemporary visual artists, architects, poets, composers, computer and media artists.
The fascination exerted by Lull's radical ideas and poetics on different art genres still
remains unbroken after more than 700 years.” (p. 313)
I recommend this book to everyone, it will remain one of my treasured possessions. I
could not put it down and will soon re-read it. I do not agree with Llull's Christian
missionary zeal and his misguided approach to subsuming Islam and Judaism under
the ‘truth’ of Christianity but his visions, mathematical brilliance, artistic sensibilities,
and "digital consciousness" in the latter years of the 1200s is a "mind blowing"
inspiration.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.