Networks and complex systems: a self-organised learning environment
SM5323 (Jan-April 2016)
I.M. Pei
Miho Museum, Kyoto, Japan
The path leading up to the MIHO MUSEUM is based on a Chinese poem called “Peach Blossom Valley”, about a fisherman who finds a mysterious cave that leads to paradise.
He enters the cave… (note that the tunnel is curved so you cannot see the way out, and the walls absorb sound, so there are no echoes)
…finally, he sees a light…
In “Peach Blossom Valley”, the fisherman spends a few days in the village, feasting and enjoying paradise before returning home through the cave. However, when he attempts to return another day, he cannot. The path has disappeared. At the MIHO MUSEUM, we saw ancient treasures from around the world, ate delicious food, and experienced “another world”, away from civilization. Lucky for us, the cave never closes, and we can go back anytime.
…at Babel
This event sent by God was the ultimate cause of the early separation of mankind, their dispersal throughout the Earth, and their division into races and nations.
After the Flood, as the human population quickly grew, some descendants of Noah built a tower to prevent their dispersion; but God “confounded their language” (Gen. 11:1-8), and they were scattered over the whole Earth. Up until this time “the whole Earth was of one language and of one speech.”
http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/blank_missives/