Sunday, March 18, 2007

Cemetery

I am reminded of Mount Auburn when I read Pruned's Cemeteries as Major Disaster Response Protocol. Mount Auburn was America's first pastoral or rural cemetery, and the cemetery moves from the city to the country. It also becomes a pleasure ground for the common people to pay tribute to memorials, have picnics and get away from the unpleasantness of the city. It actually was the forerunner of America's parks by Olmsted and Vaux. The likes of Central park and Prospect Park. I saw a picture of Polish women in a National Geographic or similar magazine gardening in family plots. It seemed strange, earthy and yet fitting. It seems that the Mid West has plenty of room to sprawl and bury the dead.

I am interested in the connections with the living. The memorial. The celebration. The morning. Community. Place. Cemeteries are interesting.


Transcendentalism
Among their core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individuals intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. This is one of those deep topics that I haven't studied out to well. However, I have an appreciation for some of the work that followed, like that of Louis Sullivan in the Getty Tomb. The Web of American Transcendentalism.
This is an interesting explanation

Moving along to what spurred this whole post. Look at The Igualada Levee and The Hanging Cemetery of Babylon posted by Pruned.

Then look at Box Cemetery close to where I live. I haven't made up my mind if I'm going to be buried in a Getty or a Box.


As usual, random thoughts.