Thought Process: An Interview with Joshua Mosley

The Pensées

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The Pensées (literally, "thoughts") represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. Artist Joshua Mosley based the dialogue in his mixed-media installation, dread (2007), on his reading of Pascal’s Pensées and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile to articulate the intellectual and emotional effect of direct observation of nature’s overarching complexity and seemingly aleatory order.

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dread
0:00:00
View a video clip and installation photos of Joshua Mosley's dread (2007).

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Blaise Pascal
0:00:14
In his mixed-media installation, dread (2007), Joshua Mosley created a short animated film and five bronze sculptures to philosophically explore the human necessity to confront and apprehend nature. In the film, an animated photographic forest is the background against which two characters -- modeled on French philosophers Jean Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal -- hold a conversation on the relationship between God-given natural order, free will, and the human and animal conditions.

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The Pensées
0:00:16
The Pensées (literally, "thoughts") represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. Artist Joshua Mosley based the dialogue in his mixed-media installation, dread (2007), on his reading of Pascal’s Pensées and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile to articulate the intellectual and emotional effect of direct observation of nature’s overarching complexity and seemingly aleatory order.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
0:00:20
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712–July 2, 1778) was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought. His novel, Emile: or, On Education, is a seminal treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship, and is referenced in Joshua Mosley's mixed-media installation, dread (2007).

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Emile, Or On Education
0:00:30
As its title implies, Emile is a treatise on the nature of education but also on the nature of man. It tackles fundamental political and philosophical questions about the relationship between the individual and society — how, in particular, the individual might retain what Rousseau saw as innate human goodness while remaining part of a corrupting collectivity.

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Looking Closely at Nature
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Nature and wildlife information from eNature.com, America's wildlife resource.

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Knowledge
0:01:48
Aristotle's very influential three-fold classification of disciplines as theoretical, productive or practical remains an excellent starting point for exploring different forms of knowledge. Read this article from the encyclopedia of informal education, which discusses the concept of “knowledge”.

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3D Scanning
0:02:15
This objects in this image were created using 3D scanning technology. Learn more about the process on Wikipedia.

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SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival Trailer
0:02:25
The SIGGRAPH (short for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques) Computer Animation Festival is an internationally renowned forum for the presentation of the world's most innovative and stimulating computer-generated animated films.

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Persuasion
0:03:17
This Persuasion Map, from www.readwritethink.org, is an interactive graphic organizer that enables individuals to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

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PennDesign
0:04:02
Joshua Mosley is Associate Professor, Animation & Digital Media at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design

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Joshua Mosley: A Quick Q&A
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This Q&A appeared in F Newsmagazine, a publication of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), in October 2008.

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Channels: AnimationContemporary ArtSculptureVideo Art
Artists: Joshua Mosley
Themes: InspirationMaterials and ProcessNature

This teen-produced interview with Joshua Mosley focuses on the artist's mixed-media installation, dread (2007), which consists of a short animated film and five bronze sculptures that philosophically explores the human necessity to confront and apprehend nature. Mosley's labor-intensive practice combines computer animation, stop-motion animation, digital sound, sculpture, as well as his own music and dialogue. In the film, an animated photographic forest is the background against which two characters--modeled on French philosophers Jean Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal--hold a conversation on the relationship between God-given natural order, free will, and the human and animal conditions.

The work was acquired by MCASD in 2009 and was featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's exhibition, Cerca Series: Joshua Mosley (May 3, 2008 - July 6, 2008).

VIDEO | Director and Editor: Andres Navarrete. Producer: Ross Cummings. Interview: Andres Navarrete. Cinematographer: Erin Bell.

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