Maximilian Schich
@schichmax.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2K following 1.7K posts
Professor for #CulturalDataAnalytics at Tallinn University in #Estonia #complexity #netsci #arthistory #aesthetics #culturalanalytics #compsocsci #infovis "My PhD is in Art History" – Dr. Zoidberg (max/max)
![Figure 1: Japanese tree frog calling at the ridge of rice paddies
[Source: Hirano 2017]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreihzm3upwojb2lleutogooh2eg55clv7a2elo464wxn7wpa5345mia)
!["In der Mathematik wie in aller wissenschaftlichen Forschung treffen wir zweierlei Tendenzen an: die Tendenz zur Abstraktion – sie sucht die *logischen* Gesichtspunkte aus dem vielfältigen Material herauszuarbeiten und dieses in systematischen Zusammenhang zu bringen – und die andere Tendenz, die der Anschaulichkeit, die vielmehr auf ein lebendiges Erfassen der Gegenstände und ihre *inhaltlichen* Beziehungen ausgeht. / Was inspesondere die Geometrie betrifft, so hat bei ihr die abstrakte Tendenz zu den großartigen systematischen Lehrgebäuden der algebraischen Geometrie, der RIEMANNschen Geometrie und der Topologie geführt, in denen die Methoden der begrifflichen Überlegung, der Symbolik und des Kalküls in ausgiebigem Maße zur Verwendung gelangen. Dennoch kommt auch heute dem *anschaulichen* Erfassen in der Geometrie eine hervorragende Rolle zu, und zwar nicht nur als einer überlegenen Kraft des Forschens, sondern auch für die Auffassung und Würdigung der Forschungsergebnisse."
Hilbert, D. & S. Cohn-Vossen. Anschauliche Geometrie. Dover, 1944. p. V s.v. "Vorwort." [June 1923]
Source available: https://archive.org/details/anschaulichegeom0000dhil/page/n10/mode/1up](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreidsn4z74keaiw5qscdmn2ttru6cmu457lt2ho44bsjsrnempsnpbe)
![[one star] "Far from great"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreiebhepsyvpn2sdypren7khzlnuellam3xag2uygit4he55ffl6nwa)
![[screenshot from https://intheweights.com/p/maximilian-schich] "Maximilian Schich / Art historian and network scientist / 758 strength · Top 4% / GPT-5.5 says / Art historian and complexity scientist known for work on cultural data analysis and network science."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreidbw3afhpsjgag7bobktnea6cso7tuk6r6zsjcrobqnavcoo4ofom)
!["Fig 137. Superimposition of Dürer's drawing (red), Burkmair's woodcut, and Dürer's [later] woodcut (mirrored in grey)" [of the Indian Rhinoceros unicornus, which arrived in Lisbon in 1515 CE]. (Both Dürer and Burkmair copied their Rhinoceros from a visual depiction in a letter from Lisbon, with Burkmair adding ferocious hair on the neck, and Dürer enlarging the horn). The Dürer drawing and Burkmair woodcut are geometrically congruent, and consistent with the animal species. Burkmair's rope binding the front legs is also documented in another depiction in the prayerbook of Emperor Maximilian I.
Source:
Schich, Maximilian. Rezeption und Tradierung als Komplexes Netzwerk. Der CENSUS und visuelle Dokumente zu den Thermen in Rom. Munich: Verlag Biering & Brinkmann, 2009. open access: https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00000700](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreidpmhifobnztljxcjbj52jtdqjnr4wqvgwnrdoiuyepgdnounm4sm)
!["Seit 1601 nicht lebend gefunden" [picture of a Dodo] "120"
from Heinrich Berghaus: Physikalischer Atlas (1845)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreigqwyv6kvirynwpm6sajzmae63w7qzhx2zpbhiwjlajyicutjbje4)
![[Dodo bird running & dodo bird portrait seen alive] from the Gelderland journal (1601).
cf. Hume, Julian Pender. "The journal of the flagship Gelderland–dodo and other birds on Mauritius 1601." Archives of natural history 30, no. 1 (2003): 13-27.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreigctfdw6cylg2wwoednus2q7ret7sueoytj4mgkixhreabut4p63a)
![Detail from the frontispiece of Hobbes' Leviathan [The sovereign king's body made up of a mass of people]. How it started...
Trump admin clearly think they are a 'sovereign' in the sense of Hobbes:
"The sovereign has twelve principal rights:
1. Because a successive covenant cannot override a prior one, the subjects cannot (lawfully) change the form of government.
2. Because the covenant forming the commonwealth results from subjects giving to the sovereign the right to act for them, the sovereign cannot possibly breach the covenant; and therefore the subjects can never argue to be freed from the covenant because of the actions of the sovereign.
3. The sovereign exists because the majority has consented to his rule; the minority have agreed to abide by this arrangement and must then assent to the sovereign's actions.
4. Every subject is author of the acts of the sovereign: hence the sovereign cannot injure any of his subjects and cannot be accused of injustice.
5. Following this, the sovereign cannot justly be put to death by the subjects.
6. The purpose of the commonwealth is peace, and the sovereign has the right to do whatever he thinks necessary for the preserving of peace and security and prevention of discord. Therefore, the sovereign may judge what opinions and doctrines are averse, who shall be allowed to speak to multitudes, and who shall examine the doctrines of all books before they are published.
7. To prescribe the rules of civil law and property.
8. To be judge in all cases.
9. To make war and peace as he sees fit and to command the army.
10. To choose counsellors, ministers, magistrates and officers.
11. To reward with riches and honour or to punish with corporal or pecuniary punishment or ignominy.
12. To establish laws about honour and a scale of worth."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreihmb5r37hmelmzuocy6n7qg4fstca5wrg2n6yazpgujg2wblhlf5e)
![Literal "grotesque horror vacui" in the 2025 Oval Office wall decoration at the White House in Washington, DC. Gold ornament, as available via a Chinese mail order retailer, fills all wall space between gold-framed paintings and around a crammed niche where even the crowning conch is decorated with an additional vase. The gold ornament is clearly cut in arbitrary places and recombined without sense for symmetric composition or even asymmetric organic harmony. Green, magenta, and blue box annotations indicate the arbitrary repetitions. Note that the overall grotesque style of wall decoration seems to be inspired by Emperor Nero's original "Domus Aurea" (literally "Golden House"), which was found resembling a vast grotto under the Baths of Trajan besides the Colosseum in Rome, covered by the latter to officially forget Nero the tyrant, who let Rome burn down to the ground. All that said, even Nero would not need additional food or feather to vomit in the face of such a rampant molestation of classical architecture. [PS: Yeah, nobody needs to follow the rules of classical architecture, unless you're a tyrant who literally demand classical style in public buildings].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreihvm5zdllp5lnmenmqo3cxicauniirnxm2p3xhvgygpeaalhrtg6m)
![Image "100. Woman with microscope." in
Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977).
[Woman of color in lab coat, headscarf using a microscope, prominently wearing a big golden earring].
Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/100.png](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreibrvfc3reuqyw5at42wjkyg3xllunfyfo74tcliyd3ocrb6kdvva4)
![Image "60. Jane Goodall with chimps." in
Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977).
[A group of chimps grooming each other in the foreground, observed by Jane Goodall and an assistant operating a camera on a tripod in the background, all within a scene of forest vegetation].
Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/060.png](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreibpwvv7ognfauoc7bhcczeylmwejgq23apvdwrgomgxv3bzatfdsq)
![Image "52. Diagram of Vertebrate Evolution." in
Carl Sagan et al. Voyager Golden Record (1977).
[from bottom to top: a shark, a fish, an amphibian, a frog, a reptile, and in top row from left to right: an eagle, a prey gazelle, a man and a woman, the latter two similar to the Pioneer plaque, but now the women greeting); all figures are given in black outline with sketchy light grey pencil filling].
Source: https://goldenrecord.org/png/052.png](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreibniia24ckbakmbo3ofhl3marv453aqysn5mpopeqp4bodjtxylqi)
!["Times New Roman is narrow-minded" [Always has been]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mjfngciy3l5es4c6bzsovlpl/bafkreida7xmisamdt7okm67tpaszr5tf5hwkchw5iscxvsefptydgvkngy)
