Descartes isolated himself in a cabin, set a ball of wax in front of himself, and set about determining what he could know. Martin Heidegger, some 300 years later, saw this thought experiment as all wrong: Descartes should have picked up the wax, used it, molded it. For Heidegger, the truth is reveal

Contemplative, Deconstruction, Ecstatic, Illusive, Phenomenology, Repetition, Spectral, Spiritual

Ali Farka Toure has been called the "John Lee Hooker of Africa": if it's often said that the blues are a reworking of African tribal rhythms to fit the African-American experience, then Toure has aligned the blues back to African life. Since he was born into nobility, a musical career was strongly d

Ebullient, Modern pop/dance, Rhythmic, Spiritual, Tranquil

Some artists march to the beat of a different drummer, but Erik Satie wrote the melody to accompany that different beat, and then gave the whole piece a crazy name. Dismissed by many critics during his lifetime as an eccentric bohemian whose absurdist humor disguised a lack of talent, Satie is now cr

Ambient, Fantastic, Kaleidoscopic, Parody, Spiritual, Surreal

During the 1970s, love-ins and anti-war demonstrations were raising public consciousness about broad-based societal problems. And with the publication of his book 'Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change,' Victor Papanek not only posed questions but also offered solutions. Papanek

Eclectic, Political, Sensual, Spiritual