Architectonic

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Lyubov Popova, Painterly Architectonics, Study, 1917

That [science] which treats of those conditions of knowledge which lie in the nature, not of thought itself, but of that which we think about?…?has been called?…?Architectonic, in so far as it treats of the method of building up our observations into system.
—Sir William Hamilton

…?one of which systems is a poem.

via Ed Roberson

i must be careful about such things as these.
the thin-grained oak. the quiet grizzlies scared
into the hills by the constant tracks squeezing
in behind them closer in the snow. the snared
rigidity of the winter lake. deer after deer
crossing on the spines of fish who look up and stare
with their eyes pressed to the ice. in a sleep. hearing
the thin taps leading away to collapse like the bear
in the high quiet. i must be careful not to shake
anything in too wild an elation. not to jar
the fragile mountains against the paper far-
ness. nor avalanche the fog or the eagle from the air.
of the gentle wilderness i must set the precarious
words. like rocks. without one snowcapped mistake.

be careful, Ed Roberson

My heaven deserting for another sphere

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How like a star you rose upon my life, 
   Shedding fair radiance o’er my darkened hour! 
At your uprise swift fled the turbid strife 
   Of grief and fear,—so mighty was your power! 
And I must weep that you now disappear, 
   Casting eclipse upon my cheerless night— 
My heaven deserting for another sphere, 
   Shedding elsewhere your aye-regretted light.

An Hesperus no more to gild my eve, 
   You glad the morning of another heart; 
And my fond soul must mutely learn to grieve, 
   While thus from every joy it swells apart. 
Yet I may worship still those gentle beams, 
   Though not on me they shed their silver rain; 
And thought of you may linger in my dreams, 
   And Memory pour balm upon my pain.

Stanzas [How like a star you rose upon my life,], Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The Gateway concept

The lunar Gateway will be the first international space station around the Moon and will support the most distant human space missions ever attempted. The lunar outpost is being assembled for operation around the Moon, providing a place to live and work in lunar orbit. Whereas the International Space Station orbits Earth, the Gateway will orbit the Moon, acting as a base for scientific research of the deep space environment, a host for technology development and demonstration experiments, as well as a staging post supporting exploration missions to the lunar surface and beyond. 

In addition to payloads that will fly to this new space station, ESA is contributing three key elements to the Gateway: Lunar I-Hab, Lunar View and Lunar Link. Together, these provide a habitable space for astronauts, refuelling, storage and telecommunication capabilities, and windows to view space and the Moon. The Gateway will be assembled this decade, built as part of the Artemis programme in an international collaboration between ESA, NASA and the space agencies of Canada (CSA), Japan (JAXA) and the United Arab Emirates (MBRSC). 

Credits: ESA–A. Brancaccio

What’s just beyond

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Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviewed Toni Morrison, 1987.

Being on the surface of a spherical planet, we find flatness conflates scale, distance, and time. Our relations to what is just beyond are illusionary, continually unfolding, and expansive. The horizon holds the counterpart to our here–real, ongoing, and seemingly determined. From there will emerge all utopian promises for justice, imaginaries for the enrichment of humanity, fully formed structures in the support a life, good fortune, and knowledge, and futures to be written. As we belong there, in equal parts to the here we find ourselves; we move about and maneuver in ways to reach for the enchanted from the complement realm.

Voyage autour de ma chambre

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A Journey around my Room (Voyage autour de ma chambre) by Xavier de Maistre. via

  • French title: Voyage autour de ma chambre
  • Written 1790, first published in 1795
  • The French text of Voyage autour de ma chambre is available online
  • Translated by Stephen Sartarelli
  • Published in Voyage around my Room: Selected Works of Xavier de Maistre, which includes an Introduction by Richard Howard, Joseph de Maistre’s 1811 Preface, as well as two other works by Xavier de Maistre:
    • Nocturnal Expedition around my Room (see our review)
    • The Leper of the City of Aosta (see our review)
  • The new UK edition (Hesperus, 2004) was translated by Andrew Brown
  • The new UK edition has a Foreword by Alain de Botton
<IDENT chambre>
<IDENT_AUTEURS maistrex>
<IDENT_COPISTES mannonij>
<ARCHIVE http://www.abu.org/>
<VERSION 2>
<DROITS 0>
<TITRE Voyage autour de ma chambre (1794)>
<GENRE prose>
<AUTEUR de Maistre, Xavier>
<COPISTE Julien Mannoni (mannoni@worldnet.fr)>
<NOTESPROD>
EDITION 1839, orthographe respectée

http://abu.cnam.fr/

Public Domain Review (2017).

AG2026_1211322a

Vittorio Fortunati, “Du haut de leurs mansardes : le motif de l’isolement chez Baudelaire et Xavier de Maistre”, Revue italienne d’études françaises [Online], 14 | 2024, Online since 15 November 2024, connection on 17 February 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/rief/13188; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/12oyy

Jacques Rancière, Courts Voyages au pays du peuple, 1990.

AG2026_1144841a or let slip the ache

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AG2026_1144841a

In company
we spoke in code,
in inklings
without ink.
Our eyes alone
let slip the ache—
like phantom scribbles on
the heart’s blank page.

[In company], Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, translated from the Arabic by Yasmine Seale

I keep his name
from everyone, but to my soul
I babble on and on
about this crazy passion.
How I long
for some deserted place
where I could shout his name!

[I keep his name], Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, translated from the Arabic by Yasmine Seale