canandanann-pictures

Seen On The Streets Of Montañita - Ecuador

2012-02-24T17:27:00.001+01:00

Seen On The Streets Of Montañita - Ecuador:

More here.

I know you’re tired and your shoes are filled with sand but I’ll take you anywhere you want to go

2012-02-24T17:02:00.001+01:00

I know you’re tired and your shoes are filled with sand but I’ll take you anywhere you want to go: Design work by Kazumasa Nagai
Title: Opal

“If I were not able to relate to society by design, I’d likely be living under a bridge somewhere.”—Nagai
Previous post on this artist
Will 50 Watts

And I see them in the streets, And I see them in the field, And I hear them shouting under my feet. And I know it’s got to be real

2012-02-24T16:43:00.001+01:00

And I see them in the streets, And I see them in the field, And I hear them shouting under my feet. And I know it’s got to be real: Time-lapse photos of fireflies by Tsuneaki Hiramatsu
Title: Led Zeppelin

Via Wired

Folkert

Russische militairen vieren het maslenitsafeest ter afsluiting van de winter, in Okolitsa.

2012-02-22T17:55:00.001+01:00

Russische militairen vieren het maslenitsafeest ter afsluiting van de winter, in Okolitsa.:

Een man bekijkt het aanbod van spiegels in de etalage van een winkel voor auto accessoires in Rawalpindi,Pakistan.

2012-02-22T17:51:00.001+01:00

Een man bekijkt het aanbod van spiegels in de etalage van een winkel voor auto accessoires in Rawalpindi,Pakistan.:

Fresh Stuff From Kenny Random

2012-02-22T17:49:00.001+01:00

Fresh Stuff From Kenny Random:

More from Kenny here.

FIRST LOOK: HANKSY TAKES ON DANSON AND COSBY

2012-02-22T17:48:00.003+01:00

FIRST LOOK: HANKSY TAKES ON DANSON AND COSBY:

The Transparency Grenade

2012-02-22T17:48:00.001+01:00

The Transparency Grenade:

The lack of Corporate and Governmental transparency has been a topic of much controversy in recent years, yet our only tool for encouraging greater openness is the slow, tedious process of policy reform.

Presented in the form of a Soviet F1 Hand Grenade, the Transparency Grenade is an iconic cure for these frustrations, making the process of leaking information from closed meetings as easy as pulling a pin continue

What’s it like to dance onstage at TED? Galen Hooks from The LXD

2012-02-22T17:46:00.001+01:00

What’s it like to dance onstage at TED? Galen Hooks from The LXD:

MoveTVnetwork asked dancer and choreographer Galen Hooks, shown above in rehearsal with The LXD, about her favorite performing moment. In this wonderful 4-minute interview, she talks about what it was like to dance onstage at TED2010 — and to receive the longest standing ovation in TED history:

Watch the full video of The LXD at TED2010 >>

Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED. See more photos of The LXD at TED >>

‘Hard Life with Memory’, by Wisława Szymborska

2012-02-22T17:44:00.001+01:00

‘Hard Life with Memory’, by Wisława Szymborska:

I’m a poor audience for my memory.

She wants me to attend her voice nonstop,

but I fidget, fuss,

listen and don’t,

step out, come back, then leave again.

She wants all my time and attention.

She’s got no problem when I sleep.

The day’s a different matter, which upsets her.

She thrusts old letters, snapshots at me eagerly,

stirs up events both important and un-,

turns my eyes to overlooked views,

peoples them with my dead.

In her stories I’m always younger.

Which is nice, but why always the same story.

Every mirror holds different news for me.

She gets angry when I shrug my shoulders.

And takes revenge by hauling out old errors,

weighty, but easily forgotten.

Looks into my eyes, checks my reaction.

Then comforts me, it could be worse.

She wants me to live only for her and with her.

Ideally in a dark, locked room,

but my plans still feature today’s sun,

clouds in progress, ongoing roads.

At times I get fed up with her.

I suggest a separation. From now to eternity.

Then she smiles at me with pity,

since she knows it would be the end of me too.

[Source: The New York Review of Books; translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak]

Filed under: Poetry

Ecrivain en vers plutôt que poète

2012-02-22T17:41:00.001+01:00

Ecrivain en vers plutôt que poète:
Connaissiez-vous Caproni ? Moi non plus. Il arrive ainsi que l’on découvre dans le même temps la naissance, la vie et la mort d’un poète italien dont l’œuvre suscite une durable admiration ici et là-bas. Pourtant ici, malgré le travail de fidèles traducteurs tels qu'André Frénaud, Bernard Simeone, Philippe Renard, Philippe Di Méo et de non moins fidèles éditeurs tels que Maurice Nadeau, Verdier, Champ Vallon, Fourbis, William Blake, l’écho des poèmes de Caproni ne semble pas avoir dépassé le premier cercle des initiés, malgré sa présence dans l’Anthologie bilingue de la poésie italienne de la Pléiade. Dans ces cas-là, seule une revue permet aux autres de sauter le pas à l’occasion, pourquoi pas, de son centenaire. Ce que Po&sie réussit admirablement dans sa dernière livraison, un numéro double (137-138, 30 euros, Belin) particulièrement riche (ici le sommaire), où les noms de Joseph Brodsky, Walt Whitman et Marcel Détienne notamment, côtoient donc ce dossier consacré au centenaire de Giorgio Caproni, instituteur et poète, ou plus exactement comme il aimait à se présenter « écrivain en vers » né il y a cent ans à Livourne, grand lecteur qui s’éleva dans l’amitié de Saint-Augustin et de Pasolini, traducteur pour Einaudi ou Garzanti du Temps retrouvé, de Mort à crédit, du Journal d’un voleur, des Fleurs du mal, de L’Education sentimentale, de Bel-Ami et mort en 1990 en lisant Le Purgatoire de Dante.

Au sein de ce dossier, on trouvera un document qui est peut-être la meilleure introduction à son univers : un entretien réalisé en 1965 de Giorgio Caproni avec l’écrivain Ferdinando Camon, auteur d’un fameux recueil de conversations avec Primo Levi. On découvre ainsi dans cette dizaine de pages de la revue un auteur qui n’a pas honte de refuser le conformisme de l’anticonformisme, se refuse à jeter le bébé avec l’eau du bain et les vers, les strophes et les rimes, préférant adapter cet héritage à une nouvelle sensibilité. Après tout, on a tant l’habitude d’écouter les exégètes qu’on en oublie parfois de prêter l’oreille à l’analyse que l’auteur fait de son travail, quand bien même, comme Caproni, aurait-il l’humilité d’avouer le plus souvent son ignorance et ses doutes. N’empêche que sa musique intérieure doit beaucoup à son apprentissage du violon : outre une école de patience, l’influence fut sensible dans l’harmonie, la composition, le rythme. Autre influence : celle des villes. Moins Livourne, où il a grandi, que Gênes où il a étudié, mûri, souffert, aimé, jusqu’à reconnaître : « Mes vers tirent leur matériau de Gênes (…) ville de mon âme et que j’aime « soupirer » ». Tout pour Gênes au risque d’être taxé de « poète ligure », dans la lignée de tout un mouvement auquel il paie sa dette, Eugenio Montale au premier chef. On le suit se raconter davantage que s’analyser, observer sa progression vers davantage de clarté et de concision au fur et à mesure qu’il avance en âge, rendre hommage aux choses du quotidien (un verre, un lacet) comme autant de marqueurs d’une poésie ancrée dans le concret qui tienne à distance les jeux rhétoriques trop virtuoses. Et tant pis si sa réputation de néoréaliste en sort renforcée ! Si, parmi les quatre poèmes inédits que publie Po&sie, j’ai choisi « Corde vive », ce n’est pas seulement pour sa résonance, mais aussi pour la difficulté qu’il offre au traducteur ; ce sonnet de 1947 repose essentiellement sur le prénom de sa femme Rina qui en est la dédicataire ; mais comment en rendre les rimes et assonances sans recourir à l’emploi de verbes au passé simple (pluvina, pleuvina, crachina) dont Martin Rueff a finalement jugé que leur usage contredisait « la tension du poème qui veut rendre présente cette scène passée » ? Le traducteur en Giorgio Caproni aurait certainement apprécié le problème…

« L’obscurité, où la pluie est d’argent/ sur ton tendre visage en feu, Rina/ comme elle s’accorde humainement ici,/ à la nuit qui brûle les pavés- comme elle/ se prête à tes notes fragiles ! De cette loge/ fraîche et de souffle et d’espace est proche/ dans les lueurs en éclats, ton seuil/ pur –tu es intacte à ma première/ peur près des charbons où brûle/ mon front dressé. Ou bien ravive/ la ténèbre en frottant ta bouche/ aux amas de braise alors que la pluie/ vibre comme une harpe- alors que l’ongle/ touche au sang la corde la plus vive. »

(« L’oscurità dov’é argento la pioggia/ sul tuo tenero viso in fuoco, Rina/ ah come umanamente ora s’accorda/ al buio ch’arde i selci- come inclina/ alle note tue fragili ! A una loggia/ fresca di fiato e di spazio è vicina/ nelle luci in frantumi la tua soglia/ pulita –tu sei intatta alla mia prima/ ansia presso i carboni dove scotta/ la mia fronte rialzata. Oppure avviva/ la tenebra sfiorandoti la bocca/ i cumuli di brace mentre vibra/ come un’arpa la pioggia- mentre tocca/ l’unghia nel sangue la corda più viva ? »)

Un mystère demeure que les italianistes de la « République des Livres » nous aideront certainement à résoudre : comment un même sonnet peut-il s’achever par un point d’interrogation dans sa version originale et par un point final dans sa traduction ? Cela n’a rien d’exceptionnel. Sauf que dans ce cas précis, on ne voit pas, à moins que la langue…

("Giorgio Caproni" photo D.R.; "Oeuvre" de Cherel)

De matrix in de insectenwereld is begonnen

2012-02-21T08:19:00.001+01:00

De mechanisering van het insect

NRC Wetenschap zat 18 feb 2012

NRC 170212 / FG / Bron: Alper Bozkurt (BoRG)

BIOTECHNOLOGIE

December 2011 bevonden vijf diep donkerbruine kakkerlakken zich ondersteboven vastgeketend aan een petrischaaltje. Ze waren pioniers. Fysisch chemicus Daniel Scherson van de Case Western Reserve University had zojuist ’s werelds allereerste biobrandstofcellen voor insecten geïmplanteerd in hun magen. Een paar uur lang zetten deze brandstofcellen suikers in de kakkerlakkenmagen om in elektriciteit, met enzymen en twee elektrodes. Resultaat: een stroompje van 0,2 volt. Niet veel. Gezien de grootte van de gebruikte elektrodes, betekende dat dat er maar liefst tweehonderd miljoen van dit soort kakkerlakken met biobrandstofcellen nodig waren geweest om een gloeilamp van 20 watt aanhoudend te laten branden.
Ondanks deze minimale energieopbrengst wordt Scherson sinds de publicatie van zijn paper hierover begin dit jaar in het Journal of the American Chemical Society elke dag benaderd door entomologen, biomedisch en elektrotechnisch ingenieurs en pers. Duizenden blogs en nieuwssites vieren of vrezen de schijnbaar niet te stuiten opmars van het cyborginsect aan de hand van Schersons nieuwe brandstofcel. Vanwaar alle heisa?
“Deze biobrandstofcel is bewust ontworpen met als doel te profiteren van de speciale suikers die in insectenbloed zitten”, zegt Scherson. “Ik wil nu dat het ook daadwerkelijk apparaten op een kakkerlak gaat voorzien van energie, zoals radio’s en sensoren. Een batterij is op een gegeven moment op, deze in potentie continue bron van energie biedt een uitkomst.”
Bij een groeiende groep wetenschappers en wetenschapsfinanciers in met name de Verenigde Staten en Japan, heerst een grote interesse in de creatie van zeer kleine, op afstand bestuurbare en liefst ook vliegende ‘dingen’. De insect-cyborg voldoet aan het profiel. Een cyborg of cybernetisch organisme is een samensmelting van levende materie en machine. Behang een insect met radio’s, sensoren en camera’s en de insectmachine is in te zetten om eventuele terroristen te lokaliseren, bespioneren en af te luisteren. Om te polsen hoe radioactief een bepaald gebied nog is na een ramp, of om bedolven mensen te vinden onder het puin van een aardbeving. Om maar wat te noemen.
Het probleem is alleen dat al die elektronica door iets gevoed moeten worden, en een insect maar een beperkt percentage van zijn lichaamsgewicht kan meetorsen. Ook kleine batterijen en accu’s zijn zwaar en gaan slechts uren tot hooguit dagen mee. Dit verklaart de impact van Schersons biobrandstofcel, die de insectvreemde elektronica letterlijk integreert in een insectenlichaam. Alsof het er organen bij heeft.
Steeds meer ingenieurs richten zich op de integratie van machine in insect, meent Scherson, omdat het maken van robots op insectschaal maar matig lukt. De Nederlandse ingenieur David Lentink beaamt dit. In 2008 bedacht hij de DelFly Micro, een vliegend robotje met een camera aan boord, met een spanwijdte van 10 centimeter en een gewicht van drie gram. Momenteel is de groep van Harvard-professor Robert Wood het verst met de constructie van minuscule robotvliegjes, met een spanwijdte van amper drie centimeter, vertelt Lentink. “Maar die halen het qua mogelijkheden en energie-efficiëntie nog lang niet bij echte insecten. Misschien lukt dat wel nooit.”
Zodoende is Schersons biobrandstofcel een belangrijke schakel in de insect-vermechaniseringstrend die sinds 2006 sterk in opkomst is, mede dankzij de sponsoring van het Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – een instituut van het Amerikaanse ministerie van defensie dat militaire technologie ontwikkelt. DARPA begon begin 2007 met het Hybrid Insect Micro Electromechanical Systems programma (HI-MEMS) en richt zich hiermee, naar eigen zeggen, op de ontwikkeling van technieken waarmee de voortbeweging van insecten aan te sturen is, zoals we ook teugels hebben voor de sturing van een paard.

Cyborg nachtvlinder
Elektrisch ingenieur Amit Lal van Cornell University gaf in 2006 de aanzet voor deze ontwikkeling, nadat hij het sciencefictionboek Sparrowhawk (1990) las door Thomas A. Easton, hoogleraar natuurwetenschappen aan het Thomas College. In dit boek vliegen genetisch gemanipuleerde insecten en vogels rond, uitgerust met geïmplanteerde mechanische controlestructuren, die gebruikt worden als lastdieren. Lal vroeg zich af hoe reëel deze fictie zou kunnen zijn. Hij legde zich toe op de nachtvlinder als modeldier, een echte krachtpatser onder insecten. Zelf amper 2 à 3 gram zwaar, kan hij 50 tot 60 procent van zijn lichaamsgewicht meetorsen. Gemiddeld is dat 20 à 30 procent bij insecten.
“Het bleek een hele uitdaging om iets bij volwassen nachtvlinders te implanteren, omdat ze een heel vreemd defensiemechanisme hebben”, zegt biomedisch ingenieur Alper Bozkurt, die betrokken was bij Lals onderzoek met nachtvlinders. Inmiddels heeft hij een eigen cyborginsect-onderzoeksgroep aan de North Carolina State University; Bozkurt Research Group (BoRG), ook met nachtvlinders. “Opereren op insecten is niet zoals het uitvoeren van een operatie bij mensen.” Ze hebben een hard schild, waar je moeilijk doorheen komt, en ze zijn natuurlijk heel klein. “Daarnaast is het lijfje van de nachtvlinder bedekt met haarachtige schubjes, die een soort van semi-vastzitten aan het lichaam.” Bij aanraking laten ze los. Ze dienen onder andere als glijmiddel, waardoor de nachtvlinder eenmaal gevangen door een vogelsnavel nog kan ontsnappen. “Die schubben maken een wanordelijk procedé van je operatie. Het gaat aan de chirurgische instrumenten zitten, aan het open gelegde weefsel. En veel mensen zijn er allergisch voor”, zegt Bozkurt.
Gelukkig las Lal nog een ander boek, volgens Bozkurt een populair-wetenschappelijke verhandeling over insecten voor z’n zoontje. Hierin kwam het onderzoek van fameus entomoloog Carroll Williams in de jaren vijftig aan Harvard University aan bod. Williams sneed poppen van verschillende insecten van dezelfde soort doormidden, en legde ze willekeurig weer tegen elkaar aan. Volledig intacte insecten ontpopten zich. Ook sneed hij poppen doormidden, en plaatste hij tussen beide helften een glazen buisje met een zoutoplossing. Een insectenequivalent van ons ruggenmerg groeide door het buisje zichtbaar weer terug van kop tot staart. Insecten met glazen-buisje-segment overleefden de metamorfose – al was het niet voor lang.
Zo leerde Lal dat tijdens de popfase van een insect 90 procent van het weefsel zich opnieuw vormt. Hij ontwikkelde een nieuwe chirurgische methode om juist in die popfase implantaten aan te brengen in de nachtvlinder. “Implantaten aangebracht in volwassen nachtvlinders wilden nog weleens lostrillen door alle bewegingen die een insect maakt”, zegt Bozkurt. “Maar aangebracht in de popfase, vergroeien ze met het insect.” Opereren op een pop – een halfzacht, onbewegelijk, compact en nattig voorwerp, waarbij de schubjes nog niet in de weg zitten – is daarnaast aanzienlijk makkelijker.
Lal en Bozkurt begonnen met de succesvolle implantering van dummy-apparaten, stukjes silicium die verder niks doen. De bijbehorende publicatie Surgically implanted micro-platforms in Manduca sexta uit 2006 in het blad Solid State Sensor Actuator Workshop bracht die eerder genoemde opwinding teweeg, bij onder andere DARPA. Aldus ontstond het HI-MEMS programma, Lal werd de programmamanager.
Bozkurt ging verder met het implanteren van printplaatjes en elektrodes. “De elektrodes stimuleren neuronengroepen en spieren, aangestuurd door de printplaatjes, waardoor een nachtvlinder bijvoorbeeld naar links of rechts vliegt, begint met vliegen of juist stopt.” Tot voor kort hingen Bozkurts bestuurbare nachtvlinders wel nog vast aan elektrodes (tethered flight) of aan heliumballonnen (pseudo free-flight), omdat het maximale laadvermogen van de nachtvlinder toch overschreden werd. Volgens Bozkurt is dit gewoon een kwestie van de miniaturisering van de gebruikte elektronica en bestaan de technieken daarvoor allang – zie bijvoorbeeld onze iPhones. Dat komt nog, voor de nachtvlinder.

Bladspietkevers
Bij een ander insect is het wel al gelukt om hem volledig ‘vrijelijk’ vliegend op afstand te besturen. Elektrisch ingenieurs Michel Maharbiz en Hirotaka Sato, beiden destijds verbonden aan de University of California, Berkeley, zagen af van de nachtvlinder als modelinsect, en kozen voor een veel grotere Japanse bladsprietkever. Elektronica en batterijen op het schild waren geen punt voor deze 8 gram wegende Mecynorrhina torquata van 6 centimeter lang. Een ander voordeel vond Maharbiz dat de vliegdynamica van de kever gelijk was aan die van de vlieg, een goed bestudeerde vlieger. Deze slaat zijn vleugels een beetje zoals een stemvork oscilleert. Hij stuurt ze niet direct aan met spieren, zoals de nachtvlinder, maar spant afwisselend twee paar spieren aan waardoor zijn thorax vervormt. Als gevolg klappen de vleugeltjes heel snel op en neer.
Sato en Maharbiz wilden deze spieren met stroomstootjes controleren, maar besloten om alleen de vliegrichting te beïnvloeden. “We wilden expliciet niet elk aspect van de vlucht beheersen, omdat de kever zelf veel te goed is in bijvoorbeeld het aanpassen van zijn snelheid en vluchtroute aan wind en obstakels”, zegt Maharbiz.
Ze konden niets implanteren in de popfase, want de cocon van de kever naar keuze bleek zo hard als een kokosnoot. Dus brachten ze slechts zes elektroden aan bij reeds volwassen kevers: op de thorax, in de rechter en linker vliegspieren, in de optische lobben (neuronen die achter de ogen liggen) en centraal in de hersenen. Daarmee waren de kevers van Maharbiz en Sato ruim een dag op afstand bestuurbaar. Daarna was de batterij leeg. In 2009 verkoos Time Magazine deze ‘cyborg beetle’ tot één van de vijftig beste uitvindingen van dat jaar.
Ook Maharbiz hoopt binnenkort een antwoord te hebben op het vraagstuk van de te zware batterijen, in de vorm van een biobrandstofcel. “Radio’s enzo verbruiken tien keer meer aan watt dan wat biobrandstofcellen momenteel produceren, maar die cellen worden erg snel erg goed. Het is een interessant gebied om te volgen de komende paar jaar.” Rond mei dit jaar publiceert Maharbiz een publicatie over zijn nieuwe brandstofcel. Hij wil er nog niks over zeggen. Wel bekend is de volgende stap die Maharbiz’ groep zette tot de mechanisering van het insect. Tijdens de Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) conferentie in Parijs eind januari, presenteerden ze hun onderzoek naar hoe de ogen van insecten zelf te gebruiken zijn als camera’s – waarmee je ze dus niet meer extern met eentje uit hoeft te rusten.

Ethiek
In 2008 zette New Scientist een compilatiefilmpje van cyborginsect-onderzoek op YouTube. Nachtvlinders en kevers vertonen curieuze bewegingen, zichtbaar aangestuurd door derden. Het filmpje heeft anderhalf miljoen hits. “Je zou de commentaren eens moeten lezen”, zegt Bozkurt. “Velen wensen ons hele nare dingen toe.” Zo vinden enkelen dat de betrokken wetenschappers ‘nazi’s’ zijn, ‘nog erger dan pedofielen’, en dat de aansturende elektrodes eerder thuishoren ‘in het achterste van deze mad scientists – misschien dat hun hersenen daar van opknappen’.
Bozkurt: “En dat terwijl we alle ethische richtlijnen volgen. Insecten hebben geen pijnreceptoren zoals wij. Ik weet niet of ze misschien iets anders hebben, dat is een vraag, maar we gaan sowieso heel voorzichtig met ze om.” Maharbiz laat weten discussie rond de ethiek van het cyborg insect te verwelkomen, ook al praat hij er liever niet meer over met pers. “Biokunstenaars zijn welkom in mijn lab.”
Niemand schijnt echt te weten wat alle insectvreemde elektronica met de beestjes doet. Bijvoorbeeld bij de structurele onttrekking van suikers aan een insectenlijf door biobrandstofcellen. Krijgen insecten daar misschien honger van? Is het zoiets als het hebben van parasieten? Bio-ethicus en neurobioloog Ellen ter Gast zegt over de kakkerlak-publicatie van Daniel Scherson: “Hij schrijft dat het dier na de operatie net zo beweegt als andere dieren, die niet geopereerd zijn.” Vrij vreemd, meent ze, want de kakkerlakken zijn dan inmiddels vleugelloos. “Maar Scherson maakt wel een duidelijke verwijzing naar iets wat een moreel relevante categorie is, namelijk diergedrag. Het dier gedraagt zich nog als een normaal organisme. Met andere woorden: dan is er geen probleem – vindt hij.”
Omdat insecten tot de ongewervelden behoren, kun je volgens de Nederlandse Wet op de Dierenproeven alles met ze doen. Toch is het dierenwelzijn hier ernstig in het geding, meent Ter Gast. “Het is natuurlijk fascinerend onderzoek, maar je reduceert een uniek autonoom wezen tot een gebruiksvoorwerp. Tja, wil je dat. Ik geeft mijn studenten altijd de opdracht: teken een verticale lijn. Bovenaan zet je de mens en onderaan een miniscuul wormpje. Ergens daartussenin ligt de grens. Waar? En waarom juist dáár?” Volgens Ter Gast ligt niemand echt wakker van een mogelijke verstoring van insectenwelzijn. “Wat al die mensen op YouTube wezenlijk verontrust, zijn controlevraagstukken. Wat als je deze technologie z’n gang laat gaan? En we er straks als samenleving geen vat op hebben? Het andere angstscenario is juist weer de totale controle die zou kunnen ontstaan door dit soort vondsten. Het aloude Frankenstein versus Brave New World.”

Insectenonderzoek in Nederland

Nederlands insectenonderzoek houdt zich vooral bezig met plaag- en ziektebestrijding, de stabiliteit van ecosystemen, het eten van insecten en de bestuiving van planten. Niet met cybugs. Rond 2008 was entomoloog Bart Knols wel voornemens om zogenaamde Rescue Roaches in het leven te roepen, reddingskakkerlakken, maar het benodigde geld ging destijds naar fundamenteler onderzoek. “Als er ergens een aardbeving is en mensen liggen onder het puin, kun je de kakkerlak binnen vijftien minuten trainen op het opspeuren van menselijke geuren als bloed en urine”, zegt Knols. Hij hoeft daarvoor niets te implanteren of te besturen. Een kleine sensor met een batterijtje op het schild is afdoende. De batterij hoeft immers maar een paar uur mee te gaan. “Stel je voor wanneer een kakkerlak een klein meisje vindt onder de brokstukken, wat dat ook zou doen met de goodwill naar insecten toe!” Knols zoekt een miljonair die ooit lang onder het puin heeft geleden. “Als ik financiering heb, begin ik morgen nog aan.”

Nu mag ik ook al geen baret meer dragen

2012-02-21T08:01:00.000+01:00

Hassnae Bouazza

pagina 2 - 3 NRC 18 feb 2012 Opinie en debat

Populist na populist diende zich de afgelopen jaren aan op het politieke podium om de Nederlandse waarden te beschermen, om de sluipende islamisering tegen te gaan, om de joods-christelijke traditie te behouden en om vrouwen, die arme, onderdrukte moslimvrouwen, te bevrijden.
Een vrouw met hoofddoek, die kon niet anders dan onderdrukt zijn. En het was – eerlijk waar! – niet uit intolerantie, maar uit pure begaanheid met die zielige vrouwen, dat politici, opiniemakers en fanatieke PVV-aanhangers zo tegen dat kopvodje ageerden. Vaak hebben die laatsten in hun Twitterbio naast ‘PVV’ ook ‘haat vrouwenonderdrukking’ staan, of een variant erop.
Maar, zoals Nietzsche al wist: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Ofwel wie monsters bevecht, moet erop letten dat hij er niet zelf één wordt. In de strijd tegen vermeende islamisering en worstelend met het ‘Paard van Troje’ dat met de moslimmigranten is binnengehaald, zijn de voorvechters van de vrijheid steeds meer gaan lijken op die verfoeide moslimbaarden, inclusief krijsende hypocrisie en schijnheilige verontwaardiging.
Neem de populariteit van de Moslimbroeders in Egypte en de angst voor hen hier te lande. Wat zijn die Moslimbroeders nu helemaal? Een extremistische partij die zich voorstaat op de eigen cultuur en religieuze waarden. Een partij die het vreemde afwijst, slecht met kritiek omgaat en een programma heeft waarvan ze heilig gelooft dat het de eigen identiteit en cultuur zal beschermen. Een partij die vrouwen wil opleggen zich te bedekken, want vrouwen zijn parels die je moet koesteren.
Is de PVV anders? Ook dat is een partij die staat voor het rein houden van de eigen cultuur, die alle kritiek wil tegengaan, die buitenlandse invloeden zo veel mogelijk wil weren, die ‘onderdrukte’ vrouwen wil bevrijden door hun een kopvoddentaks op te leggen en door hoofddoekdraagsters te weigeren in bussen en provinciehuizen. En door hen horizonvervuiling te noemen.
Voor PVV-kiezers moeten we respect hebben, zo is ons steeds opgelegd door menig opiniemaker, we moesten hen serieus nemen, maar waarom dan die paniekerige reactie als het gros van de Egyptenaren voor zijn eigen waarden kiest? Voor de Egyptische variant van de PVV?
In islamitische landen wordt de vrouw constant ingezet als pion om de politiek te bepalen, zogezegd om de zeden te bewaken. In Nederland wordt de vrouw constant ingezet als speelbal, zogenaamd om haar te beschermen of bevrijden. Of het nu de maagdelijkheidstest is in Egypte, het verbod op autorijden in Saoedi-Arabië, of het aanstaande verbod op de boerka in Nederland.
Die verboden en de nobele doelen die ze dienen, zijn slechts excuses om de eigen intolerantie voor wat anders is te maskeren.
Zelf merkte ik dit toen ik een nieuwe foto nam op mijn Twitterpagina. Het is een foto waarop ik een wollen baret draag. Niet eerder zag ik mensen zo massaal de controle verliezen over hun sluitspieren. Meteen stroomden de verontwaardigde reacties binnen – waar ik mee bezig was, of ik aan het provoceren was, waarom ik m’n haar bedekte, wat voor statement ik wilde maken, of het van mijn vriend moest.
Mensen zijn geconditioneerd. Als ze een moslim met iets op het hoofd zien, gaan ze er blind vanuit dat dit een hoofddoek moet zijn en dat deze door de man moet zijn verplicht. De ophef maakte ook duidelijk dat de weerzin tegen de hoofddoek niks te maken heeft met de onderdrukking van de vrouw, maar alles met de eigen intolerantie. Mensen vonden ook dat ik het zelf had uitgelokt door wat op m’n hoofd te zetten. Je kunt als Marokkaan dus niet zomaar iets op je hoofd zetten. Dan ben je aan het provoceren en moet je ter verantwoording worden geroepen. Jezelf beschermen tegen de kou kan alleen na het indienen van een verzoek in viervoud, met uitgebreide motivatie en de belofte dat je er echt, écht niks mee bedoelt en hem weer af zal doen zodra de kou voorbij is.
Dit heeft niks meer met bezorgdheid of veroordeling van onderdrukking te maken, maar alles met het afwijzen van andere ideeën, levenswijzen en overtuigingen. Het is niet minder dwingend of verstikkend dan de donderpreken van extremistische gelovigen.
Hel en verdoemenis schreeuwen vanwege een onbedekt hoofd is niet veel anders dan vrouwen in praatprogramma’s massaal belachelijk maken vanwege hun uiterlijk of vanwege een laag decolleté. Wie de lawine aan seksistische sneren bekijkt, begrijpt subiet dat moslimmannen simpelweg eerlijker zijn over hun gebrek aan zelfcontrole. Het komt op hetzelfde neer – een hardnekkig gebrek aan respect voor de vrouw, pure misogynie.
Dit brengt me bij een andere overeenkomst: het verstikkende groepsgedrag en de sociale controle. Vindt die in de Arabische landen op straat plaats en worden sociale media daar ingezet voor verzet tegen de macht, hier in Nederland worden ze gebruikt om andersdenkenden te intimideren en de mond te snoeren. Geen brandende vlaggen hier, maar wel veel capslockletters en evenzoveel uitroeptekens om mensen aan de schandpaal te nagelen.
Dit is het zichtbaarst op Twitter, een groot virtueel schoolplein waar je, net als op het echte schoolplein, ‘leiders’ hebt en meelopers, en lulletjes rozewater die altijd het slachtoffer zijn, maar die een storm van verontwaardiging oproepen zodra ze ophouden lulletje te zijn en eens keihard terugmeppen. Er worden dossiers bijgehouden over mensen, mensen worden belasterd en er wordt geklikt: geregeld klagen mensen bij werk- en opdrachtgevers vanwege onwelgevallige meningen. Omdat andere meningen verschrikkelijk pijn doen. Omdat het accepteren van andere opvattingen, het aangaan van een vrij debat, toch moeilijk blijkt te zijn voor velen. Omdat de verlichting, die niet zo goed samen schijnt te gaan met de islam, ook hun huis lijkt te hebben overgeslagen.
Het is eigen vrijheid en verontwaardiging eerst, net als bij moslimextremisten. Hun geloof, hun ideeën gaan voor, de rest heeft zich aan te passen. Maar dat is niet waar vrijheid voor staat. Het is geen hol begrip waaraan je je eigen draai kunt geven. Het betekent dat je jezelf kunt uiten, zonder gevaar voor je leven, zonder angst voor laster of intimidatie. En dus ook zonder dat je je baan verliest of voor eeuwig op internet met brandmerk te vinden zult zijn.
De gevreesde islamisering is niet nakende. Die is allang voltooid. Met een Hollands sausje erover. En zo kan het zijn dat omstreden islamgeleerden via een Kamermeerderheid worden geweerd en een blanke, autochtone blogger, Martien Pennings, die op de site van AmsterdamPost oproept tot de executie van onder anderen Femke Halsema en Jolande Sap, wordt genegeerd of zelfs verdedigd door PVV-senatoren. Online lynchplekken als GeenStijl zijn te druk met het verdacht maken van iedere allochtoon die door rood loopt. De gevestigde media denken dat het nog 2005 is. Populistische opiniemakers zijn te druk met scoren. Het monster brult en het gros zwijgt.

Next checkt: ‘Weghalen plastic zakjes scheelt 600 kilo per dag’

2012-02-17T18:39:00.001+01:00

Next checkt: ‘Weghalen plastic zakjes scheelt 600 kilo per dag’:
“Vanaf 1 januari 2012 stopt AH vanwege milieuredenen in al zijn winkels met het actief verstrekken van zogenaamde hemdtasjes (doorzichtige gratis tasjes) bij de kassa. Hiermee bespaart AH samen met klanten naar schatting 600 kilo plastic per dag.”

Dit meldt supermarktketen Albert Heijn op haar site. Lezer Mark Meuleman uit Amsterdam vroeg of next.checkt de bewering kon controleren. Hij vroeg ook of er hierdoor niet juist meer grote plastic draagtassen worden verkocht.

We keken naar het marktaandeel van Albert Heijn, namen de proef op de som en vroegen een verpakkingstechnoloog die de hoeveelheid draagtassen in het Nederlands vuilnis meet om raad. Conclusie: het cijfer is geen onrealistische schatting. Of de verkoop van plastic tassen is toegenomen, weten we echter niet. Zie de laatste paragraaf van deze post voor een antwoord op de vraag hoeveel een besparing van 600 kilo per dag is, op het totaal.

De afvalberg, van industrieel afval tot plastic zakje. Klik voor een vergroting

Mogelijke interpretaties

De hemdtasjes (genoemd naar hun vorm) zijn alleen nog op aanvraag verkrijgbaar, ze hangen niet meer aan een rol bij de kassa. De officiële reden: milieubesparing. Andere denkbare motieven, zoals imago of kostenbesparing, worden niet genoemd.

Overigens staat AH niet alleen. Alle supermarkten, aangesloten bij het Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel (CBL, de brancheorganisatie), spraken vorig jaar af de hemdtasjes niet meer gratis uit te delen. Volgens het CBL scheelt dat in totaal 500.000 kilo aan plastic per jaar, ofwel 1.370 kilo per kalenderdag.

Hoe is er gerekend?

Voorlichter Rianne van der Sar van AH zegt desgevraagd dat er een „pilot” geweest is, waarbij met behulp van „verschillende scenario’s” het boodschappentransport door de klant onder de loep is genomen. Daarbij is een „voorzichtige schatting” gemaakt van 600 kilo. Waar dat getal op gebaseerd is, wil ze niet zeggen, „omdat het niet een initiatief van Albert Heijn alleen is, maar van de hele branche”.

Mogelijk heeft de 500.000 kilo per jaar van de brancheorganisatie er iets mee te maken. Dit cijfer is volgens het CBL afkomstig van een verpakkingstechnoloog van de Universiteit Wageningen. Maar de technoloog in kwestie, Ulphard Thoden van Velzen, vertelt dat hij dit getal twee jaar geleden juist kréég van het CBL, voor het doorrekenen van milieueffecten. Thoden van Velzen had begrepen dat het CBL hiervoor een rondgang had gemaakt bij de leden. De onderzoeker waarschuwt meteen dat getallen als deze nooit wetenschappelijk te onderbouwen zijn. Maar 500.000 kilo is volgens hem geen onredelijk cijfer.

En, klopt het?

Doorgerekend naar marktaandeel (33,6 procent) komt Albert Heijn met een totaal van 500.000 kilo voor de branche uit op een besparing van 460 kilo per kalenderdag. Maar het kan zijn dat de zakjes er bij AH veel sneller of juist minder snel doorheen gaan dan elders. Een steekproef dan. De medewerkster van een niet al te groot AH-filiaal in een stadse wijk van Rotterdam legt een nieuwe rol hemdtasjes op de weegschaal. Die weegt 718 gram, inclusief kartonnen koker van circa 35 gram. Ze vertelt dat er voorheen gemiddeld vier rollen per dag bij de kassa doorheen gingen en sinds er om zakjes gevraagd moet worden nog één rol per vier dagen. Vier rollen per dag: dat komt zonder kartonnen koker neer op 2.732 gram bespaard plastic voor dit filiaal alleen. Daar gaat de kwart rol per dag die nog wel wordt uitgedeeld vanaf. Zo komen we uit op ruim 2,5 kilo bespaard plastic per dag in één filiaal.

Albert Heijn heeft circa 830 wijkwinkels en 24 XL’s. Als er in deze 854 filialen tot dit jaar gemiddeld 2,5 kilo hemdtasjes meer doorheen ging dan nu, komt dat neer op een besparing van 2.188 kilo plastic bij AH per dag. Waren de tasjes in deze Rotterdamse wijk de hemdtasjes bovenmatig populair? Misschien. Anderzijds is dit geen groot filiaal. Rest de vraag of klanten nu niet vaker een draagtas van blauw plastic kopen. Albert Heijn geeft geen verkoopcijfers. Het CBL weet het ook niet. En de caissière? „Dat weet ik niet. Ik zie wel dat mensen de spullen nu gewoon in hun armen meenemen.”

Conclusie

De schatting dat de Albert Heijn dagelijks 600 kilo bespaart door niet langer gratis hemdtasjes te verstrekken, lijkt niet overdreven. Een steekproef komt hoger uit (2.188 kilo), een verdeling naar marktaandeel lager (460 kilo). Een verpakkingstechnoloog van de Universiteit Wageningen die berekeningen maakte over de hemdtasjes en onderzoek deed naar draagtassen in het Nederlands vuilnis, vindt een totaalschatting van 500.000 kilo per jaar voor de hele branche redelijk.

De vraag is of er nu niet meer plastic tassen worden gekocht. Albert Heijn zwijgt hierover. Het bedrijf maakt zijn eigen bewering daardoor moeilijk te staven. De bewering dat het weghalen van de zakjes 600 kilo aan milieubesparing per dag oplevert, wordt op basis van wat we nu weten waar bevonden, althans: niet overdreven. Trendcijfers over de verkoop van plastic tassen zijn welkom en kunnen het definitieve oordeel beïnvloeden.

Zeshonderd kilo per dag klinkt veel. Is het dat ook?

Albert Heijn zegt 600 kilo plastic per dag te besparen door geen gratis tasjes meer uit te delen. Maar hoeveel is dat – vergeleken met het totaal aan draagtassen die we in Nederland verbruiken?

De Universiteit Wageningen deed vorig jaar een analyse naar Rotterdams gemengd huishoudelijk restafval. Draagtassen bleken 0,9 procent van het gewicht te vormen. Hemdtasjes (lichte gratis tasjes) tellen mee als draagtassen als ze nog als zodanig herkenbaar zijn. Omdat Rotterdams huisvuil niet representatief is voor het hele land, houdt onderzoeker Ulphard Thoden van Velzen een foutmarge aan van +/- 0,2 procent – om bij de cijfers hieronder in gedachten te houden.

Doorgerekend naar het totaal zou zo’n 35 miljoen kilo van het afval van vorig jaar afkomstig zijn van draagtassen. Die zijn dan nog in natte en vieze staat. ‘Droog en schoon’ gaat er een kwart vanaf en kom je op grofweg 26 miljoen kilo. Daar komt nog een beetje bij: de draagtasjes uit het gescheiden ingezamelde plastic afval in Nederland. Uit steekproeven van vier gemeenten bleek dat het gehalte aan draagtassen hierin 3 tot 5 procent bedraagt: zo’n 2,6 miljoen kilo ‘droge en schone’ draagtassen. Opgeteld gooiden Nederlanders vorig jaar tussen de 26 en 32 miljoen kilo draagtasjes weg. Ofwel tussen de 71.000 en 87.000 kilo per dag.

Thoden van Velzen: „Als de supermarktenbranche stelt dat er 500.000 kilo hemdtasjes werd gebruikt in Nederland, dan is dat ongeveer zestig maal zo weinig als de hoeveelheid draagtassen.” Geen onrealistisch getal: „Immers draagtassen worden veel breder verspreid en gebruikt dan hemdtasjes.”

Met een besparing van 600 kilo per dag zorgt AH dat er grofweg 0,75 procent minder plastic zakjes worden weggegooid. De moeite, vindt Thoden van Velzen: „Wellicht een klein stapje, maar er zijn vele kleine stapjes nodig om onze samenleving toekomstbestendig te maken.”

Mark Reigelman’s Manifest Destiny

2012-02-17T18:38:00.001+01:00

Mark Reigelman’s Manifest Destiny:

Concept:

Manifest Destiny! is about our God-given imperative as modern explorers, to seek out parcels of unclaimed territory and boldly establish a new home front in the remaining urban voids of San Francisco.

Overview:

Manifest Destiny! is a temporary rustic cabin occupying one of the last remaining unclaimed spaces of downtown San Francisco—above and between other properties. The cabin is affixed to the side of the Hotel des Arts, floating above the restaurant Le Central like an anomalous outgrowth of the contemporary streetscape. Using a 19th-century architectural style and vintage building materials, the structure is both homage to the romantic spirit of the Western Myth and a commentary on the arrogance of Westward expansion. The interior space of the tiny house can be seen day and night through the curtained windows, a lonely beacon in the city’s dense landscape, and an incongruous, haunting vision from below. The installation will remain in place and be slowly transformed by the elements through October 2012.

The cabin is a temporary site specific installation in San Francisco, California. The project was commissioned by Southern Exposure and funded by the Graue Family Foundation.

The project will be on view through October 28th 2012

Artist:

Brooklyn based artist Mark Reigelman in collaboration with architect Jenny Chapman and engineer Paul Endres.

www.markreigelman.com

www.unofficialoffice.com

www.endresware.com

Details:

The cabin is approximately 7' wide x 8' deep x 11' tall and sits approximately 40' in the air. The cabin frame is made of welded aluminum while the exterior is finished with 100 year-old reclaimed barn board from Ohio. The rear roof has a 3'x4' solar panel which charges during the day and lights the cabin interior at night. The cabin weights over 1,000 lbs.

Dance Anywhere - An Introduction

2012-02-17T18:37:00.001+01:00

Dance Anywhere - An Introduction:

Dance Anywhere March 30, 2012 from Dance Anywhere on Vimeo.

You can learn more about Dance Anywhere by clicking here.

The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

2012-02-17T18:29:00.001+01:00

The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies:

Bittersweet nostalgia; and/or my attic and basement…

[Via Dave Gibbons]

The Rape of Proserpina

2012-02-17T18:28:00.001+01:00

The Rape of Proserpina:
Il Ratto di Proserpina (The Rape of Proserpina) is an amazing sculpture by Bernini. It depicts Pluto abducting Proserpina to take her to the underworld. The overall composition is great but the devil (ahem) is in the details. For example, check out how Pluto's hands grip into the marble flesh:

Wonderful. Bernini completed this piece in 1622 when he was just 23 years old. (via stable transit)
Tags: art Bernini sculpture

The mechanical mind has a passion for control — of everything except itself

2012-02-17T18:21:00.001+01:00

The mechanical mind has a passion for control — of everything except itself: Photography by Pery Burge
Title: L.P. Jacks

Atley

Produce crate labels

2012-02-14T09:09:00.001+01:00

Produce crate labels:

Before the austerity imposed by World War II, produce in the US was shipped in wooden crates with colorful, carefully designed and illustrated labels, meant to set each producer apart from the others.

The relatively sudden advent of cheaper cardboard boxes left many of the crate labels unused and they have become collectors items.

A recent post on MetaFilter has pointed out several sources for images of some of the labels, and other sources of information about the market for them as collectables.

The Boston Public Library’s Flickr set has the best and largest images, along with the Los Angeles Public Library.

There are more, with smaller images, on BlueSkySearch. The Crate Label Museum is most extensive, though the images are unfortunately small (note the dropdown at lower right to select categories, and note that many categories go on for several numbered pages).

Winter Tales at Kunsthaus Zürich

2012-02-14T09:08:00.001+01:00

Winter Tales at Kunsthaus Zürich:

Those of us on the East Coast of the U.S. have so far been experiencing an unusually mild winter; not so for most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. In Europe it must seem as though the North Pole has shifted into your back yard.

For those who need to be reminded of winter’s beauty — for one reason or another, Kunsthaus Zürich has mounted an exhibition titled Winter Tales: Winter in art from the Renaissance to Impressionism.

The exhibition not only collects an interesting assortment of paintings and art objects from various times and places, but goes beyond winter landscapes to subjects as diverse as Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow and Dutch still life paintings that focus on food specific to the season and permitted during a time of abstinence.

The exhibition features Brueghel’s Winter Landscape with Bird Trap, (images above, top), credited was the first independent landscape in European art (i.e. not as a background for religious, mythological or other subjects).

Also featured is Monet’s iconic ode to winter, The Magppie (above, third from bottom).

There is a website devoted to the exhibition that features a slideshow of featured works. The images are linked to larger versions. There is also a catalog of the exhibition, with text in German (more here).

Winter Tales: Winter in art from the Renaissance to Impressionism is on view until 29 April, 2012.

(Images above: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Asselijn, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Gysbrecht Lytens, Joseph Ferdinand Boissard de Boisdenier, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Akseli Gallen-Kallela)

[Via ArtDaily]

And still I wonder whether it is possible to go any farther...

2012-02-14T08:56:00.001+01:00

And still I wonder whether it is possible to go any farther...: Paintings by Jens Lausen
Title: Frigyes Karinthy

via Panther Club and Freaky Fauna

"Here I am, at the Thirteenth Latitude of Desolation,
the Hundredth Longitude of Shame,
the utmost Altitude of teeth-gnashing Defiance,
somewhere far out, at the point of the Ultimate,
and still I wonder whether it is possible
to go any farther..."
—The message found in the bottle in Karinthy's poem "The Message in the Bottle"
Will 50 Watts

Map Ornamentation

2012-02-14T08:54:00.001+01:00

Map Ornamentation: The images below come from a Harvard Library exhibition from last year called: 'Going for Baroque - The Iconography of the Ornamental Map' [LINK]

"The ornamental features that may now seem little more than decorative embellishments once acted as richly nuanced symbols, analogies, and coded commentaries. This exhibit explores how decorative cartographic devices - cartouches, vignettes, figural borders, title pages, and frontispieces—could provide narrative underpinnings for the geospatial content of maps."

Note: the captions below are excerpted and you will find more information by visiting the exhibition site. Also, the names immediately below the images are the map publishers.

'Carte von Ertzgebürgischen Creysse in

Churfurstenthum Sachssen' by Peter Schenk, 1758

"Schenk’s map of Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), situated on the border of Saxony and Bohemia, offers a graphic tribute to a region whose economic livelihood relied on the extraction of tin, silver, cobalt, lead, and other metals. [..]

The instruments at the top of the sheet provide reassurance about the accuracy of the cartographic content."

'Imperium Japonicum' by Adriaan Reelant, 1740

"Adriaan Reelant (Reland), professor of oriental languages at the University of Utrecht, created this map of Japan’s 66 provinces from a variety of sources [..]

In Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868), contact with Europeans was strictly limited to trade with the Dutch East India Company—and only through the port of Nagasaki. [..]

The cultural uniqueness of Japan is emphasized by the Sino-Japanese characters identifying the provinces, the noble crests (including the triple hollyhock flowers of the Tokugawa clan), and the images of the samurai, palanquin, and pagoda."

'Going for Baroque - Japan Map' [from Harvard College Library channel]

"In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands was actively engaged in exploration, colonization, and trade throughout all regions of the globe, and Dutch publishers were busy keeping up with a growing internal demand for travel accounts, illustrations, and maps. This map of Japan, published for the first time in 1715, shows one of Holland's newest commercial partners."

'Topographische Vorstellung der neuen russischen Haupt-Residenz

und See-Stadt St. Petersburg' by Johann Baptist Homann, 1718

"When Homann published his map of St. Petersburg, this city on the shores of the Gulf of Finland was a work-in-progress, founded in 1703 by Tsar Peter I to open Russian access to Western Europe via the Baltic Sea. [..]

The cartouche represents a graphic apotheosis of Tsar Peter, whose portrait is surrounded by allegorical figures representing a broad range of the arts and sciences promoted during his reign - including geography, astronomy, history, mathematics, navigation, poetry, geometry, and engineering."

"This is one of the first published maps of St. Petersburg. The hexagonal Peter-Paul fortress is depicted at the center; the similarly fortified Admiralty is across and downriver from it. Vasilevskii Island (left), only just being settled at the time, shows the plan for its “regular” development drawn up for Peter the Great by the Swiss-Italian Domenico Trezzini (ca. 1670–1734), the first architect of St. Petersburg."

'Novissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula' by Nicholas Visscher, 1690

"A double hemisphere world map invites graphic embellishments that take advantage of the sheet’s marginal curved spaces. Designers often responded to this challenge by including celestial charts or polar projections in the central sections. The other margins could serve as the arena for illustrating religious, cosmological, or astrological themes. [..]

The two figures at the intersection of the hemispheres represent the triumph of Christianity over pagan idolatry."

'America Novo Descriptio' by Nicholas Visscher, 1752

"[T]he views and figures are primarily drawn from Theodore de Bry’s illustrations in his collections of travel accounts. De Bry himself never set foot in the Americas, but he had access to numerous accounts by European travelers and explorers, including those acknowledged on the borders of the map: Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and four circumnavigators (Ferdinand Magellan, Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and Olivier van Noort)."

('America Novo Descriptio' is modelled after earlier maps by Willem Blaeu and Pieter van der Keere)

'Carte de la Mer du Sud et de la Mer du Nord..' by Nicolas de Fer, 1713

"De Fer’s map of the Americas offers an iconographic feast of imagery for those trying to grasp the implications of European colonial intrusion into societies whose “otherness” was their most defining feature. The map seems to suggest both economic opportunities (resources to exploit) and cultural clashes (among peoples whose customs, rites, and mores were so vastly different). The decorative vignettes are adapted from illustrations in various accounts of the first European encounters in the New World."

(Herman Moll incorporated the scene with the beavers {the scene in the top left panel above, next to the corner panel} in his 1715 map of North American British colonies)

'Plan tres exact et vüe de la ville, baye, et des nouvelles

fortifications de Gibraltar..' by Albert C Suetter, 1760

"Spain formally recognized British rule of Gibraltar in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) but, throughout the 18th century, periodically sought to reassert its territorial claims. The cartouche presents a graphic argument for an end to hostilities by featuring Mercury with his caduceus (the staff of entwined serpents, which symbolized commerce) and a cornucopia (horn of plenty). Whatever is decided by the human arbiters of destiny, the sea (Neptune) will continue to determine the fate of ships sailing through the Pillars of Hercules."

'Nova et exacta tabula geographica Salae et Castellaniae Iprensis'

by a member of one of the Hondius families of Flanders, 1663

"This carte-à-figures originally appeared in 'Flandria Illustrata' (1641-1644), a work by Antonius Sanderus, a theologian and historian whose descriptions of Flemish cities and towns are enlivened with numerous plans and views, including detailed depictions of monuments, abbeys, convents, and châteaux. [..]

This map of Ieper (Ypres) [..] celebrate[s] the rich architectural heritage of Flanders."

'Cambridgeshire' by John Speed, ~1610

"John Speed admitted that he borrowed liberally from other cartographers (or as he phrased it, “I have put my Sickle into other mens Corne and have laid my Building upon other mens Foundations”)

[F]or the ornamental features, [Speed] employed stylistic features that he particularly admired in Dutch mapmakers (including Jodocus Hondius, who engraved the plates)."

"Cambridgshire deſcribed with the deviſion of the hundreds, the Townes ſituation, with the Armes of the Colleges of that famous Vniuerſiti. And alſo the Armes of all ſuch Princes and noble men as haue heertofore borne the honorable tytles & dignities of the Earldome of Cambridg."

[the Cambridgeshire map above is one that I prepared earlier]

'Amsteldam' by Johannes de Ram, 1690

"When Johannes de Ram designed this map in the late 17th century, Amsterdam was the center of a global trading network and the wealthiest city in the world. De Ram takes great pains to emphasize the magnitude of the city’s achievements. [..]

The vignette of the busy harbor illustrates a city hosting sailing ships from every corner of the world. Accompanied by putti engaged with a plumb line, nautical charts, globe, compass, cross staff, and anchor, Mercury (instantly recognizable by his winged helmet and caduceus) symbolizes the commerce, efficiency, and spirit of adventure that made the Netherlands such a formidable maritime power."

'Le Globe Terrestre Représenté en Deux

Plans-Hémisphères..' by Jean Baptiste Nolin, 1767

"Nolin’s world map [..is presented] in the context of a biblical narrative stretching back to the beginnings of the universe. [..]

The narrative panels conclude with the giving of thanks after the Ark settled atop Mount Ararat (prominently featured on the map southwest of the Black Sea)."

IN: 'Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays' 1987, edited by David Woodward.

Night and Fog Rare Holocaust Footage

2012-02-08T17:44:00.001+01:00

Josef Mengele, la versión definitiva (2-6)

2012-02-08T17:41:00.001+01:00

Auschwitz Alemão em Teritorio Polones - Documentário sobre a II Guerra ...

2012-02-08T17:40:00.001+01:00

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

2012-02-08T17:39:00.001+01:00

levensboom - tree of life

2012-02-08T17:06:00.001+01:00

landschap

2012-02-08T17:05:00.003+01:00

anselm kiefer

2012-02-08T17:05:00.001+01:00

casper david friedrich

2012-02-08T14:21:00.001+01:00

art canandanann

2012-02-08T14:20:00.001+01:00

chinese japanese landscape

2012-02-08T14:19:00.001+01:00

armando

2012-02-08T14:17:00.001+01:00

alfabet zohar

2012-02-08T14:16:00.001+01:00

I am not an animal. I am a human being

2012-02-08T12:36:00.001+01:00

I am not an animal. I am a human being: Photographs by Simen Johan

Title: The Elephant Man by David Lynch. Via Animal Rites by Cary Wolfe.
Via The Animal That Is by Jdcalkins2001

Folkert

The country habit has me by the heart…

2012-02-08T12:35:00.001+01:00

The country habit has me by the heart…: Photographs by Erwan Frotin
Title: Vita Sackville-West

Atley

The artist is by necessity a collector

2012-02-08T12:33:00.001+01:00

The artist is by necessity a collector: Vintage book cover graphics from the collection of Julian Montague
Title: Paul Rand

"The artist is by necessity a collector; he accumulates things with the same ardor and curiosity [with which] a boy stuffs his pockets. He borrows from the sea and from the scrap heap; he takes snapshots, makes mental notes, and records impressions on tablecloths and newspapers—why one particular thing and not another, he may not know at the time, but he is omnivorous. He has a taste for children's wall scrawling as appreciative as that for prehistoric cave painting."—Paul Rand, 1955, via Steven Heller

See the companion post on 50 Watts

Previously: Book covers by Julian Montague

Will 50 Watts

Eric Cahan

2012-02-08T12:30:00.001+01:00

Eric Cahan:

“Sky Series”, photos by Eric Cahan.

Myeongbeom Kim

2012-02-08T12:29:00.001+01:00

Myeongbeom Kim:

Sculptures by Myeongbeom Kim.

Jerry Wayne Downs

2012-02-08T12:27:00.001+01:00

Jerry Wayne Downs:

Paintings by Jerry Wayne Downs, an animator for ten years’ worth of Disney films including one of my favourites, “The Sword in the Stone”.

Calligraphy Letterform Album

2012-02-08T12:25:00.003+01:00

Calligraphy Letterform Album: 'Kalligraphische Schriftvorlagen' (calligraphic writing styles) was produced in the 1620s in Germany by the scribe, Johann Hering.

Johann Hering (?1580-1647) compiled his album of elaborate calligraphic letterforms, innovative type arrangements and traditional alphabets over a ten year period in the 1620s and 1630s in the Kulmbach region of Bavaria. (Or it was produced sometime during this time frame: it's not clear)

I tend to believe - and I may well be wrong - that Hering's album is more along the lines of a practice manuscript for himself rather than being a true copybook or modelbook* for educational purposes. The majority of the writing is in German (with occasional Latin) and many of the written pages are obviously copied from the bible, particularly the Book of Psalms.

[*Modelbooks: see here & here]

There is next to nothing by way of commentary online about either Hering's life or the background to his amazing album. He is simply described as a 'writing master'. A number of published books are attributed to Hering - most or all on the type/font arts - and one of his handwriting manuals was apparently republished in German in 1982 (although I didn't actually find much of a trail online).

Johann Hering's 80-page 'Kalligraphische Schriftvorlagen' is regarded as one of the treasures of the Bamberg State Library (I think it has only recently been uploaded)
Worldcat Identities entry.
CERL Thesaurus entry.
Worldcat entry for 'Das Schrift- und Kunstbüchlein' (1982 republication)
Previously: calligraphy (something of a catch-all phrase, as are most of the thematic bookmarks at Delicious - that include post summaries - relating to the BibliOdyssey blog)
Luc Devroye's giant page of calligraphy & type design resources.

Tractatus de Herbis

2012-02-08T12:25:00.001+01:00

Tractatus de Herbis: Codex Sloane 4016 is a 15th century Italian parchment manuscript belonging to a class of books known as herbals. These medicinal treatises recorded knowledge accumulated in the oral tradition about plants believed to possess therapeutic properties. See: one, two, three.

Miniature of plants and a demon - the herb Ypericon, supposed to repel demons

Miniature of a plant and boys standing in the branches of a fruit tree

picking fruit and throwing down to a woman standing below

Miniature of a tree, a spider web, and an eagle

Miniature of plants, including a mandrake plant with a naked male body as the root

Miniatures of plants, and a cat and mouse

Miniature of a lion, a leopard, a rabbit, and an elephant

Miniatures of plants, a braying donkey, and a map

Miniatures of plants, crabs, and [most likely] a lobster-like animal [versus a scorpion as captioned at the source site] (thanks ogerard)

Miniatures of a tree and a snake

Miniatures of a plant and a bird, holding a horseshoe in its mouth

Miniature of a plant, a cricket, a crane, and a salamander

Miniature of a tree and an animal castrating itself

Produced in Lombardy in Northern Italy in 1440, 'Tractatus de Herbis' consists of over two hundred beautifully illustrated pages accompanied by Latin commentary in a Gothic script.

The whole manuscript (Sloane 4016) is accessible online from the British Library; including enlarged detail images.

A facsimile edition of 'Tractatus de Herbis' is available from the Spanish manuscript reproduction firm of M Moleiro.

VIA: Medieval & Earlier Manuscripts Blog | Miniaturaitaliana.

Previously: flora/medieval.

Helgi Thorgils Fridjónsson

2012-02-04T16:45:00.002+01:00

Helgi Thorgils Fridjónsson:

2009 self-portrait by Icelandic artist Helgi Thorgils Fridjónsson, via a recent Czech exhibit of his works

Pavel Puhov’s Eyeglasses

2012-01-29T17:13:00.001+01:00

Pavel Puhov’s Eyeglasses:

En Masse

2012-01-29T16:58:00.001+01:00

En Masse:

Check out Montreal street artist collective, En Masse.

Since 2009 they’ve been creating intricate collaborative black + white murals on whatever surface they could find around town and now they’re doing international art shows and museum gigs.

Here’s a video of their outdoor contribution to Art Basel in Miami last month.

En Masse @ Miami MMXI - Part Two from Fred Caron on Vimeo.

More videos of their work here.

Without great solitude, no serious work is possible

2012-01-29T16:48:00.001+01:00

Without great solitude, no serious work is possible: Photographs by Eric Cahan
Title: Picasso

Folkert

Gods of the Ancients

2012-01-29T16:46:00.001+01:00

Gods of the Ancients: 'Images Depicting the Gods of the Ancients' by Vincenzo Cartari was first published in 1556. The engravings below are from a 1624 edition (in Italian).

'Le Imagini De gli Dei de gli Antichi' by Vincenzo Cartari (with illustrations based on designs by Bolognino Zaltieri) was recently made available online via Wolfenbütteler Digitale Bibliothek.
[this is the 1664 edition, in the original Italian, with the woodcuts (that first appeared in the 3rd Ed.) replaced by engravings of modest artistic merit perhaps, yet possessing a not insignificant - continuing - contemporary influence].

Misteraitch, at the venerable (and retired) Giornale Nuovo, covered this book some years ago, displaying some woodcut scans from an earlier edition, and including some very useful commentary which is recommended; but I shan't repeat it here. The engravings above seem to be both reversed and modified from the original woodcut layouts.

Instead, as an adjunct, I'll paste in below the (complete and unaltered) translated commentary on Cartari's book from a rare book exhibition at the University of Navarra (in Spain) [LINK]:

"Mythological matter was one of the sources and themes used in literature and art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, both in its more pagan and hedonistic as its symbolic and moralized version. The myths came to the sixteenth century by two ways: the deformed but very influential medieval transmission, and collected by his humanist philological recovery of ancient texts and testimonies.

One of the works that contributed to the systematization and dissemination of this rich heritage throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the work of Italian poet Vincenzo Cartari 'I Imagini Antichi degli degli Dei, nelli cualisono degli Antichi descritte religione him, riti e parrot ceremony with di molto agiunta principalia l'e con l'Imagini Esposizione in epilogue di suo ciascheduna and significance'.

Cartari, of which little else is known other than it was in the service of the house of Este, is known almost exclusively for this work and a versified translation of the Tuscan in meters Fasti of Ovid published in Venice in 1551.

The book is divided into 15 chapters, each of which is one of the main gods and lesser gods and heroes in some way related to it. The subject of each chapter comes from the texts of ancient poets translated by Cartari as Italian poems.

The cause of the success of the work was in addition to its originality in presentation, the only of its kind available in a vulgar tongue. This success was further increased from the 1571 Venetian edition by Ziletti Giordani, who illustrated with 89 large woodcuts opened by Bolognino Zaltieri dimensions.

Samples of undoubted interest aroused by the book are the successive reprints of the original Italian and translations of it made into Latin and French Verdier in 1581.

The copy owned by the Library of the University of Navarra belongs to the first edition of this Latin translation published in Lyon in July Guichard, Barthelemy Honorat and Michel Etienne. The engravings with which it is illustrated are very similar to those of Zaltieri, but sometimes are smaller and are often printed in mirror."

The University of Mannheim has what appears to be a 1581 Latin edition of the 'Gods of the Ancients' (click 'Titel...' for thumbs) -- these are a more sophisticated digital rendering of the original woodcut illustrations, I'd say. It's also probably a more reliable legend for distinguishing Gods in the images above than I might otherwise fumble to misconfabulate.
Wikipedia has a small entry for Vincenzo Cartari.
But again, I recommend reading the entry at Giornale Nuovo for salient background information.
Follow along at Twitter, if you are so inclined: @BibliOdyssey

Matthew Stone: The Body Beyond

2012-01-29T16:44:00.001+01:00

Matthew Stone: The Body Beyond:

Matthew Stone: The Body Beyond

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Artist Matthew Stone shares these striking monochrome photographs of naked nubile bodies entwined and submerged in water from his collaboration with Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato. Created to celebrate Nakazato's spring/summer 2012 collection, inspired by the perhaps contrary theme of a “utopian nudist colony,” the series was shot over two days while camping in a country house garden and has been released as a limited-edition art book, The Body Beyond, by Vogue Homme Japan's Junsuke Yamasaki. "I was impressed that he was much more interested in communicating his wider idea than necessarily ticking all the boxes of showing the clothes," says Stone of working with Nakazato. “I think that’s a smart way to work as it can expand what the clothes mean.” Since graduating from Camberwell College of Arts in 2004, Stone has shown his photographs and sculptures at galleries and biennials across the world, with his first major US show at Kathy Grayson's The Hole gallery in New York last November. Currently preparing for his contribution to the Marrakech Biennale in late February, here Stone discusses performance and beating apathy through optimism.

To what extent does your photography document choreographed events?
I’ve talked about images being semi-staged before, but it’s not my idea to suggest that photography crates a moment rather than documents it. The camera itself invokes a very specific context where people become aware they’re being photographed, there is this performative element. I’ve always thought of performance as about collaborative, unfolding narratives that have a predetermined trajectory that has my hand in it. I’m not trying to remove my hand, I’m not trying to stand outside of the process as I feel it’s a bit of a dated position to try and maintain.

What do you look for in the people you shoot?
A lot of the people I photograph are creative in some sense—everything from composers to designers and artists. The only thing my work is really about is collaboration and community, and thinking about how we can forge that in an authentic way. Ultimately there’s a community that has been globalized by technology. We’re actualizing what might have been determined in the past by mystics as “interconnected consciousness.” I think that technology is the materialized version of spiritualized desire—whether it’s flying through the air or communicating with people who are long distances away, or creating something that is a metaphor of the vast interconnecting nature of humanity.

What does “optimism” means to you?
The quote which I re-quote of myself is “optimism is the vital force that entangles itself with and then shapes the future.” I think all art is optimistic. Essentially, for me optimism is creativity, it’s the force that enables or motivates people to do something rather than nothing.

Daniel Arsham: True Illusions

2012-01-29T16:43:00.001+01:00

Daniel Arsham: True Illusions:

Daniel Arsham: True Illusions

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Lauded for transforming industrial spheres into Pantone-hued “pixel clouds,” New York-based artist and set designer Daniel Arsham shows photographer Tierney Gearon around the surreal sculptures and fictional cityscapes of his new show at OHWOW, Los Angeles, The Fall, the Ball and the Wall. At only 31 the cross-genre savant has collaborated with the likes of former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane and choreographer Merce Cunningham on projects that upturn accepted notions of space and structure, such as flooding a stage with tens of thousands of ping pong balls, and “eroding” a pristine dressing room using carved foam. “There’s definitely an uncanny quality about this kind of work, and it comes from this idea that you’re seeing something that you know and have an expectation about,” Arsham says of the works at OHWOW. “It’s like a haunted house; something familiar where there’s something’s not quite right with it.” The artist will soon unveil a commemorative public artwork at the new Florida Marlins ballpark in Miami created by Snarkitecture, the architecture practice he runs with partner Alex Mustonen; he is also currently at work on a furniture line for Chicago gallery Volume. Here Arsham talks deconstruction and dreams.
Where does your fascination with deconstructing form come from?
I grew up in Miami and when I was a kid there was a hurricane that completely destroyed the house that I lived in. The ceiling was ripped apart and there was a big hole in it. Seeing the architecture dismembered in that way was my first experience with what’s inside the walls. They’re built to appear to have this solidity so that we feel like buildings will stand up, but in fact there’s all this crap behind them. So my works allow the architecture to be fluid in a less violent way than I experienced.
Your piece “Hiding Figure” depicts a person trapped inside the wall. How did you achieve such a realistic effect?
I test all of these [sculptures] out with fabric in the studio—one of the assistants was definitely stapled to a wall at one point.
What was the inspiration behind your new architectural paintings, which depict banal words as floor plans for city buildings?
Out of all the products that humans make, architecture is the biggest and most lasting and relevant form of cultural expression—it’s the only thing that’s going to last. And this series plays with the weight of that.

There’s a hallucinogenic quality to a lot of your work. What would you say is your favorite high—natural or otherwise?
There are not unnatural highs in my life. Never was. I’m pretty clean cut. But I have pulled things from dreams before. I had this really weird dream last night that I was in the Italian cruise ship that capsized recently [The Costa Concordia]. I knew that it was going to capsize, so I had already figured out how to walk up the stairwell sideways.

National Geographic Photography Contest Winners: 2011

2012-01-25T14:02:00.002+01:00

National Geographic Photography Contest Winners: 2011:

More than 20,000 photographs, from over 130 countries were submitted to the National Geographic Photography contest, with both professional photographers and amateur photo enthusiasts participating. The grand prize winner was chosen from the three category winners: Nature - Shikhei Goh, People - Izabelle Nordfjell, Places - George Tapan. Shikhei Goh, of Indonesia, took the grand prize honors with his amazing photograph of a dragonfly in the rain and will be published in the magazine. The competition was judged on creativity and photographic quality by a panel of experts composed of field biologist and wildlife photojournalist Tim Laman, National Geographic photographer Amy Toensing and National Geographic nature photographer Peter Essick. The winning submissions can be viewed at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/photo-contest/ - Paula Nelson (14 photos total)

Grand Prize Winner and Nature Winner - SPLASHING: This photo was taken when I was taking photos of other insects, as I normally did during macro photo hunting. I wasnâ€™t actually aware of this dragonfly since I was occupied with other objects. When I was about to take a picture of it, it suddenly rained, but the lighting was just superb. I decided to take the shot regardless of the rain. The result caused me to be overjoyed, and I hope it pleases viewers. Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia (Photo and caption by Shikhei Goh)

Adam Sorensen

2012-01-25T13:35:00.001+01:00

Adam Sorensen:

Paintings by Adam Sorensen.

blue yellow

2012-01-24T21:18:00.001+01:00

The invisible mother

2012-01-24T19:58:00.001+01:00

The invisible mother:
Camera shutters used to be verrrry slow so to help young kids stay still during the long exposure, the photographer would have the mother be in the frame but typically covered by a blanket or cloth. Like so:

(via cup of jo)
Tags: photography

Korea: Warten auf die Wende

2012-01-21T11:12:00.001+01:00

Korea: Warten auf die Wende: Entlang der Grenze der beiden Koreas am 38. Breitengrad stehen sich auch nach dem Tod von Kim Jong-il zwei Millionen Soldaten gegenüber...

Mikalojus Vilutis 2

2012-01-21T11:07:00.001+01:00

Mikalojus Vilutis 2: Here's my promised post of earlier work by Lithuanian artist Mikalojus Vilutis (born 1944). I've gathered them from around the net, mostly from an auction house (so some of them are watermarked). Here's the Illustrarium page for Mikalojus Vilutis, who is known as a master of sillkscreen/serigraphy (the method used for most of the works featured here).

See the first post

1973

1971

1973

1978

1990

1984

1995

'Fortune Teller,' 1991

1989

See the first post

In Rusland springt een orthodoxe gelovige, ter viering van het hoogfeest Epifanie, bijna in het ijskoude water van een meer om de doop van Jezus te herdenken.

2012-01-20T17:02:00.002+01:00

In Rusland springt een orthodoxe gelovige, ter viering van het hoogfeest Epifanie, bijna in het ijskoude water van een meer om de doop van Jezus te herdenken.:

»quantum blink«, 2011 by Isabel M. Martinez.

2012-01-20T16:59:00.001+01:00

(titel onbekend):

»quantum blink«, 2011 by Isabel M. Martinez.

Silence / Shapes

2012-01-20T16:49:00.001+01:00

Silence / Shapes: A series of photographs by Filippo Minelli

"I use handmade smoke bombs because I need a lot of smoke in a few seconds"

Will 50 Watts

http://landscape.canandanann.nl/

2012-01-17T10:46:00.001+01:00

http://landscape.canandanann.nl/

schilderijen in wording

2012-01-11T17:59:00.002+01:00

Fresh Stuff From Hyuro in Valencia

2012-01-11T14:43:00.001+01:00

Fresh Stuff From Hyuro in Valencia:

Everything acquires a kind of halo which is not imaginary

2012-01-11T14:33:00.001+01:00

Everything acquires a kind of halo which is not imaginary: Works by Koichi Sato
Title: Clarice Lispector

“In a state of grace, one sometimes perceives the deep beauty, hitherto unattainable, of another person. And everything acquires a kind of halo which is not imaginary: it comes from the splendor of the almost mathematical light emanating from people and things. One starts to feel that everything in existence—whether people or things—breathes and exhales the subtle light of energy. The world’s truth is impalpable.”—Clarice Lispector
Previous post on Koichi Sato

Will 50 Watts

What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities. Because this temporal universe was [always] a paradox and an impossibility...

2012-01-08T12:27:00.001+01:00

What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities. Because this temporal universe was [always] a paradox and an impossibility...: Collages by Cecil Touchon
Title: Sri Aurobindo

Previously on Touchon

Atley

sunset

2012-01-07T11:18:00.001+01:00

zonsondergang maaswaalkanaal

2012-01-07T11:17:00.001+01:00

mountains - paintings canandanann

2012-01-06T17:17:00.001+01:00

joseph beuys revisited

2012-01-06T17:16:00.000+01:00

bergen

2012-01-06T17:11:00.001+01:00

Kawase Hasui (update)

2012-01-01T16:43:00.001+01:00

Kawase Hasui (update):

Like his contemporary, Hiroshi Yoshida, Kawase Hasui was a renowned woodblock print artist of the Shin hanga, or “new prints” movement in early 20th Century Japan.

Also like Yoshida, Hasui traveled extensively and produced images of a variety of locations, though not as much outside of Japan as Yoshida. Instead, Hasui sought out remote landscapes within an increasingly industrialized and populated Japan.

His prints are often of scenes in snow, rain, twilight or darkness, though bright sunlight can also play its part, and he can be wonderfully evocative of different atmospheric and light conditions.

Many of his earliest prints, which are considered by some to be his best work, were lost in an earthquake in 1923. They must have been stunning because those that remain are extraordinarily beautiful.

Since my previous post on Kawase Hsui, some new sources for images have become available on the web. In addition to the web resources listed below, there is a currently in print collection of his work Visions of Japan (Kawase Hasui). You can also find his work in broader collections of Japanese woodblock prints.

Satyr Taxis

2012-01-01T16:37:00.001+01:00

Satyr Taxis:

Fantasy ornament designs (1550s) by Cornelis Bos
- image captions below are translated/edited. A bit.

Chariot of grotesques and scrollwork drawn by two fantasy animals and pushed by a satyr, whose head is trapped in a large shell. A satyr is in the car with a lighted lamp. [I]n print series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures; decorated with trophies, garlands and vines. [1550]

Chariot of grotesques and scrollwork (series title).

Chariot pulled by a fantasy beast (?like a goat) -- the chariot has a seated woman and four satyrs, one of the satyrs on the front of the car is holding a mask in his hand, without a name. [1550]

Frieze with chariots of grotesques and roll and fittings work with figures and animals, decorated with garlands and vines (series title)

Car containing a woman, pushed by a man and pulled by a man riding on the back of a bear. A man with a lance sits in the front. Behind the back of the woman is a monkey. Belongs to series of 4 prints. [1552]

Frieze with chariots of grotesques and roll and fittings work with figures and animals, decorated with garlands and vines (series title) [1552]

The car is pulled by two men and a goat, which runs between them. Belongs to series of 4 prints.

Chariot of grotesques and scrollwork (series title)

The car is propelled by three satyrs with saucer-shaped chins. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trophies, garlands and vines. [1550]

The structure rests on a turtle. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trophies, garlands and vines. [1550]

A man and woman are seated in a car pulled by a satyr and pushed by two men, all caught in the frame. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trophies, garlands and vines.

The vehicle is moved through the water by a paddle wheel. Two satyrs pull, two women push. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trophies, garlands and vines.

The woman sits in a loop of scrollwork in a cart pushed by 2 men. A woman riding on a deer leads the way. [1550]

Frieze with chariots of grotesques and roll and fittings work with figures and animals, decorated with garlands and vines (series title)

Behind the turtle is a woman with a stick. Another woman holds a dog's ears in front of her. The car is pushed by a dog and two men. Belongs to series of 4 prints. [1552]

The front satyr runs between two plates. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trofeeëen, garlands and vines.

Three satyrs with heads and hands locked in the rear bogie. A male sits under a trellis in the vehicle. The chariot is pulled by 2 bulls and a satyr. [From a] series of eight chariots of grotesques and scrollwork with satyrs, animals and various other creatures, decorated with trophies, garlands and vines. [1550]

2-part picture. A procession in honor of the god Bacchus who sits in a chariot. And a procession to the temple with his satyrs and putti and others elated with feasting and dancing. Some play on flutes and tambourines, others carrying sticks or jars with grapes and vines with them.

In the absence of a handy academic storyline to explain the hallucinogenic excesses of **mannerist** ornament, I'm choosing to believe that this array of 'transport' is the mid-16th century equivalent of a bloated movie franchise: the one sequel too many inadvertently became a parody of itself.

These designs are essentially riffing on a seminal technological, artistic and mythological motif from throughout recorded history: the chariot, which was first developed in the Middle East in about 2000 to 3000 BC.

"The chariot, driven by a charioteer, was used for ancient warfare during the bronze and the iron ages. Armor was limited to a shield. The vehicle was used for travel and in processions, games, and races after it had been superseded by other vehicles for military purposes." [W]

"One of the culminating battles of chariotry came early in the 13th century B.C., when armies of the Hittites and Egyptians clashed on the plains of northern Syria at Kadesh. Muwatallis II, the Hittite king, deployed a force of 3,500 chariots, and Ramses II is supposed to have countered in kind, but the battle seems to have ended in a stalemate. By the end of that century, as armies learned to blunt the attacks with swarming infantry and later cavalry, the age of the chariot as a weapon drew to a close. The high-speed vehicle was reduced to roles in sport and regal parades." [source]

For the sake of brevity we fast forward to Roman times when the ceremony of the Roman Triumph (sanctification of military honour) involved parading of the celebrated hero through the city streets on a chariot. This would seem to be the true origin for the establishment of the chariot as an important iconographic symbol for elevating/feting/honouring/celebrating either man or God in drama and art (mythological in particular : see the final image, pertaining to Bacchus, above).

The chariot, as a symbolic cultural element, followed various paths down through history, from the pageantry and Joyous Entries associated with the festivals of the 16th/17th centuries to parodies in Fractured Fairytale cartoons in the 1960s, by way of polar examples.

My personal view - apply skepticism as necessary - is that the designs above by Cornelis Bos are much less concerned with adding to the visual language of pageantry (or even ornament) than they are with satirising the Renaissance festival culture itself. Ornament that once adorned the embellished chariots and floats of the festival scene has come alive here not as secondary decoration but as the primary focus. The abstracted grotesque figures and mythological details propel our 'taxis' - the almost irrelevant, bizarre land and water transport frames - forward.

Doubtless, art historians would observe these ornamental fantasies and line up to expand on the projected meanings from analysis of allegorical features and symbology. They are welcome to it. I prefer to see the simple humorous mockery of artistic forebears by the emerging talents of a new movement. Mannerist Fractured Fairytales, if you will.

All of the Cornelis Bos designed fantasy-ornament prints are to be found online (among a wide range of his material) at the Rijksmuseum in Holland.
Remaking the Wheel: Evolution of the Chariot 1994.
British Library - Renaissance Festival Books.
Wikipedia: Cornelis Bos :: Chariot :: Mannerism :: Roman Triumph :: Triumphal Arch.
Other luminary figures from the Dutch/Belgian print scene involved - variously - in producing these suites of ornamental illustrations include Hieronymus Cock, Maarten van Heemskerk and Cornelis Floris (at least).
I am greatly indebted to Will C from San Diego, who kindly pointed out these industrial-grade hallucinations earlier in the year. Thanks mate! A fitting end to the year.

snow winter

2011-12-31T16:58:00.001+01:00

romanesco

2011-12-31T16:56:00.003+01:00

Wat gebeurt er in een minuut op internet?

2011-12-28T16:14:00.001+01:00

Wat gebeurt er in een minuut op internet?:

Foto www.ritholtz.com

Wat gebeurt er allemaal in een minuut op internet? Er verschijnen 695,000 status updates op Facebook, er worden tien nieuwe LinkedIn-accounts aangemaakt, 168 miljoen e-mails verstuurd en 13.000 apps voor de Iphone gedownload. En nog zo wat dingen. Deze infographic van Barry Ritholtz brengt het mooi in beeld. Klikkerdeklik op de foto om te vergroten.

Seen On The Streets Of Warsaw

2011-12-28T15:59:00.001+01:00

Seen On The Streets Of Warsaw:

Artist: Vova Vorotniov

Wat gebeurt er als je alle hij’s en zij’s omdraait?

2011-12-24T17:38:00.001+01:00

Wat gebeurt er als je alle hij’s en zij’s omdraait?:

Taal heeft veel invloed op ons denken. De website Regender experimenteert daarmee. Op die site kun je in willekeurige teksten de seksen omwisselen waardoor de inhoud verandert. Om vast in de kerstsfeer te komen probeerde ik het met de wikipedia site over Jezus:

Jessica of Nazareth (7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE), commonly referred to as Jessica Christ or simply as Jessica or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity. Most Christian denominations venerate her as Goddess the Daughter incarnated and believe that she rose from the dead after being crucified. Etcetera…

De site bestaat al een tijdje en heeft weer de site Fausterella geinspireerd om complete romans te ‘vertalen’. Een voorbeeld daarvan is Sherlock Holmes, eh, Shirley Holmes dus:

“I had seen little of Miss Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the home-centred interests which rise up around the woman who first finds herself mistress of her own establishment, were sufficient to absorb all my attention, while Miss Holmes, who loathed every form of society with her whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among her old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition… “

On Max Ernst’s ‘The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter’ (1926)

2011-12-24T17:34:00.001+01:00

On Max Ernst’s ‘The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter’ (1926):

It appears that to bear the weight of mum’s judgement means not only a sore bum but also a dropped halo. It appears that the Aryan half-pint might have again stolen her favourite manicure set from the middle drawer of the bathroom cabinet while he was supposed to be tidying his sister’s bedroom. It does not yet appear that in this act of descending freedom, of vacating a head that others might gild mockingly with thorns, the embarrassing shape of kenotic love is taking costly form. And it’s not as if

there is chaste indulgence here; this act of discipline reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Sistine Christ, this act of judgement upon cobalt and rubicund outlining her own contorted arm and deepening her own overtaxed gaze. A foretaste of arms bearing sin-gnarled stock and hers, those eyes which again will grieve as arms not her own are brought to bear upon her bare first-born, this unexpected fruit in whom her future and that of all shall find shape. And an open roof. Did it fly off with upswing arm so that one who sees everything could weep?

It has been some time too since Paul and Vincent came over, and now this other Paul, André and Max; seemingly unsedated risk now transformed into dispassion. Was Gala really the benchmark of our friendship, our means of communication, our shared wife? What kind of love did we make to each other in her? And what of love once promised now turned, love now come to assault me? A naked face turned away in a sensuous spell.

© Jason Goroncy

24 December 2011

Filed under: Incarnation, Poetry

The Story of Gardens

2011-12-24T14:55:00.001+01:00

The Story of Gardens: Images from "The Story of Gardens," a mini-comic by Kuba Woynarowski,
published by "kuš!"

About the publisher:
kuš! is the only comics magazine in the Baltics. Every issue contains comics from international and Latvian artists to a certain theme which changes every issue. The aim of "kuš!" is to pupularize comics in a country where comics are practically non-existant and promote Latvian artists abroad. kuš! doesn't only publish comics on paper, but also organizes exhibitions, workshops and takes part in international festivals.

Will 50 Watts

Fuyuko Matsui

2011-12-24T14:54:00.001+01:00

Fuyuko Matsui:

Works by Fuyuko Matsui.

Mt． FUJI 富士山

2011-12-24T14:12:00.001+01:00

The year in volcanoes

2011-12-21T20:59:00.001+01:00

The year in volcanoes:
In Focus collected 30+ photos of 2011's volcanic activity.

Tags: best of best of 2011 photography

First trailer for The Hobbit

2011-12-21T20:55:00.001+01:00

First trailer for The Hobbit:
Apple's got the exclusive first trailer for The Hobbit. I am irrationally excited about this movie!

Update: And here's a YouTube embed...I'm sure this won't last too long though.

(thx, david)
Tags: movies The Hobbit trailers

Increasingly, the individual felt himself to be a single flicker between the teeming gulf of the never-more and the boundless void of the not-yet

2011-12-21T20:54:00.001+01:00

Increasingly, the individual felt himself to be a single flicker between the teeming gulf of the never-more and the boundless void of the not-yet: Photographs of Iceland by hlaus
Title: Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men

More Iceland photos

Folkert

Harry Holland

2011-12-21T20:52:00.001+01:00

Harry Holland:

Paintings by Harry Holland.

Liber Floridus

2011-12-21T20:51:00.001+01:00

Liber Floridus: These images come from the fabled manuscript, 'Liber Floridus' (Book of Flowers), a Medieval encyclopædia produced some 900 years ago by Lambert, Canon of St Omer, in the NE France/Flanders/Belgium region.

"For Lambert the encyclopedia is a heavenly meadow where the “flowers of literature” flourish together to attract faithful readers by their sweetness."

{Some of these page and detail images were spliced together from screenshots, but I didn't go to the trouble, in most instances, of generating very large images; click through to adequately enlarged versions. Mouseover above for approximated image titles}

The 'Liber Floridus' is essentially a compilation of extracts from nearly two hundred late Classical and early Medieval works by authors such as Isidore of Seville, Orosius, Julius Honorius, Pomponius Mela, Solinus, Venerable Bede, Rabanus Maurus, Pseudo-Callisthenes and Martianus Capella. There are, unsurprisingly, biblical dimensions to the manuscript, including a description of the Apocalypse, and the final illustration above depicts Noah's Ark, for instance.

Lambert's manuscript was completed in his own hand by ~1120 and is regarded as the first encyclopædia of the High Middle Ages. It chronicles the history of the world and describes the cosmos and man's place in the greater whole. Lambert's personal contribution to the work was confined to the fields of cosmography, geography and cartography.

The copious illustrations and idiosyncratic maps ensured that the manuscript came to be regarded as a classic, and up to eight extant copies of 'Liber Floridus' may have survived. [Three contemporary manuscripts exist: Ghent {MS 92} is the original {some of the ending is missing}; and mid-12th c. copies are located at Paris and Wolfenbüttel - these later copies weren't produced by Lambert's hand and contain full mappa mundi-type world maps]

"A medieval encyclopedia has little in common with the modern form of encyclopedia that we know. [..]

Instead of an alphabetical order and rational classification, a medieval encyclopedia has an organic structure. Knowledge is embedded in the images showing the world – a so-called ‘world view’. [..]

Many of these encyclopedias were intended to be used as didactic tools in convent and cathedral schools and, later, in universities. The Liber Floridus was probably used for teaching at the chapter school. The few entries in the Liber Floridus which Lambert did not write himself are assumed to have been done by his pupils."

After some modest reading around on the web, I have come to the conclusion that delving into the cartography - the most interesting aspect of the MS, in my view - is beyond the scope of this post. The various commentaries are more ambiguous than enlightening, because it's hard to properly identify the maps and editions under discussion. Nevertheless, I very much recommend examining the maps (and the rest of the MS) in the rather tolerable high resolution zoom frame at the source site. This manuscript - of about 300 folio leaves - is a real treat to look at closely.

'Liber Floridus' {MS 92} by Lambert, Canon of St Omer, is owned by Ghent University Library and hosted on a trilingual site (choose 'Online' to get to the actual manuscript).
Overview of the maps at the Henry Davis site.
Wikipedia article on 'Liber Floridus'.
Wikimedia images (from other MSS)
Amazon references to 'Liber Floridus'.
Previously: Medieval :: cartography.

The Neighborhood of Infinity

2011-12-17T14:29:00.001+01:00

The Neighborhood of Infinity: Drawings by Paul Noble
Title: The Fall

About this artist: one, two

Will 50 Watts

Japanese Family Crests

2011-12-17T14:27:00.001+01:00

Japanese Family Crests: Kamon are Japanese emblems or crests, corresponding to the European heraldy tradition, that are used to specifically represent and identify a family.

They are a subset of the larger body of motifs (called mon) that are symbols of temples, clans, guilds and similar groups of people. Mon first appeared by the 12th century as patterns on flags and uniforms in battles, but their wider use followed the vagaries of class and social custom.

The quartets of kamon below were selected and spliced together from the symbol categories: animal, plant, flower, furnishing, martialism, natural and pattern crests. {I think there is some crossover}

[animal crest] chicken, phoenix, crane, phoenix

[animal crest] butterfly, tortoise, bamboo grass, rabbit

[plant crest] hollyhock, bracken, cryptomeria, Oxalis corymbosa

[plant crest] grape, rice, date palm, ginkgo

[flower crest] wisteria, wisteria, tree peony, anchor

[flower crest] Morning glory, goldthread, wisteria, chrysanthemum

[furnishing crest] key, gin trap, broom, alarm plate

[furnishing crest] wooden hammer, bag, temari ball, amulet

[martialism crest] arrow, anchor, fan, gem

[martialism crest] arrow, samurai warrior helmet, anchor, arrow

[natural crest] cloud & moon, arrows of lightning, sun, wave

[natural crest] water & moon, arrows of lightning, gem, wave

[pattern crest] comma-shaped, swastika, gem, fusil

[pattern crest] tortoise-shell, Japanese quince, crossed stick, meyui pattern

The (bilingual) Crest Japan site has more than 280 kamon available copyright free for download as .eps files. They convert to jpegs in photoshop (as has been done above) or can be used as scalable vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. [beware the flash show's embedded audio!] I think, from a very brief look, that there might be slightly bigger thumbnail images and maybe even more range of styles available from/via the Japanese homesite.
The wikipedia article on kamon is fairly comprehensive : note all the links to further material.
Pingmag 2007.
Inspired by, and ever so slightly ransacked from, Will's Crest Syndrome post on 50 Watts from Jan, 2009.

Alexander Andreev's Tarot

2011-12-17T14:26:00.001+01:00

Alexander Andreev's Tarot: From a tarot deck by Alexander Andreev

Mikalojus Vilutis

2011-12-15T19:19:00.001+01:00

Mikalojus Vilutis: In two posts at Animalarium, Laura turned me on to Illustrarium, a website for Lithuanian children's book illustrators (Lithuania was the 2011 Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children's Book Fair).
Rooting around on Illustrarium, I found the page for Mikalojus Vilutis (born 1944) and asked him if I could feature his work.

The illustrations in this post come from Fables by Vytautas Landsbergis (Kronta, Vilnius 2011) and A Cake. For many years before illustrating books and working digitally, Vilutis worked in silkscreen/serigraphy and he's known as a master of the method (he's taught at Vilnius Academy of Arts since 1989). I will soon feature some of those earlier works.

(A search reveals that Monster Brains linked to a Russian page on Vilutis way back in 2007.)

Using QR Codes To Restore Murals To Their Original State

2011-12-14T16:55:00.001+01:00

Using QR Codes To Restore Murals To Their Original State:

From Jason:

"I'm not sure when the mural above first appeared in Vancouver, British Columbia. But I recently noticed a QR code painted over an offending tag that had been sprayed on the mural. Remarkably, the QR Code takes you to an image of the mural before it was vandalized.

You can find our more more about the mural from the artist's website but here's what the QR code brings you to..

"AUDREY - approx. 45' x 14' - Located on First Avenue at Nanaimo Street, Van., BC - painted Oct. 2005 This mural was sponsored by the City of Vancouver as a deterrent to graffiti.and as a means of helping to beautify the neighborhood. The subject of this mural is Audrey, my daughter, and the background is in the Vancouver Art Gallery. I was trying to capture a dreamlike setting while keeping the image simple in order not to distract the passing motorists."

on the museum' s ruin

2011-12-14T16:53:00.001+01:00

(titel onbekend):

»On the Museum’s Ruin (Morris-Hunt – Corbusier – Piano)«, 2010 by Liz Glynn.

(Speakerbox)«, 2007 by Jedediah Caesar

2011-12-14T16:52:00.001+01:00

(titel onbekend):

»Untitled«, 2009,

»Untitled (Speakerbox)«, 2007 by Jedediah Caesar.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art

2011-12-14T16:46:00.001+01:00

Tel Aviv Museum of Art:

On our last day in Israel we had a tour of the newly opened Herta and Paul Amir Building at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It was designed by architecture firm Preston Scott Cohen, and it is astonishing.

Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico

2011-12-14T16:45:00.001+01:00

Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico:

Juan Soriano, The Beach, 1943

Juan Soriano, Portrait of Lola Alvarez-Bravo with Juan Soriano as a Child, 1944

Juan Soriano, Still Life with Self-Portrait, 1949

Juan Soriano, The Dead Girl, The Wake, 1946

Juan Soriano, Girl with a Mask, 1945

Juan Soriano, Saint Jerome Mourned by Angels, 1949

Juan Soriano, The Burial, 1942

From a random library find: Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico, 1935 to 1950

Wikipedia says:

Juan Soriano (1920-2006) was a Mexican painter and sculptor.[...]

He became a member of the Mexican School cultural movement also featuring Frida Kahlo and poet Octavio Paz. He also joined the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios.

Machine Power

2011-12-12T18:23:00.001+01:00

Machine Power:

Illustrations by Vittorio Zonca (1607) from

'Novo Teatro di Machine et Edificii'

A perpetual water-raising system

"Zonca shows a large copperplate engraving of a huge pipe for raising water. It had a large, sealed inverted U-tube with larger diameter on one side. The figure shows the larger tube (A) on the left emptying water at a higher level than the water intake on the right. This water then powered a horizontal turbine at the bottom, which drives a millwheel for grinding grain. The sealed port at the top was to facilitate the initial filling of the tube with water.

For want of a better name, I call this a "perverted siphon", though it doesn't work as a siphon*. (It's so hard to name devices that don't work.) Didn't folks in the 17th century know that siphons can only lift water over an elevation if the output tube's opening is lower than the input water level? Perhaps not. Roman engineers had successfully used water tubes or pipes to transport water over hills, but the output was always lower than the input water level. These tubes were a last resort for engineers, for the apex of the tube could not be higher than 10 meters above the water level at the input end. It was difficult to seal the tubes so that air would not seep into the top of the tube and eventually form an air pocket that destroyed the continuity of the water and halted water flow. Perhaps some felt that it was only such practical "engineering difficulties" that prevented the use of siphons to actually deliver water to a higher level.

Remember that the role of atmospheric pressure in these devices wasn't understood. So why did the water stay in the inverted U-tube? This was explained by Aristotle's principle that "nature abhors a vacuum", that is, nature will not allow a vacuum in the top of the tube and will do whatever necessary to prevent it. This explained why a suction pump could lift a column of water (but didn't explain why it could only lift water about 33 feet)." [cont]. {see also}

Schematics of perpetual screw

Mill powered by animals

Gears, ratchets and turning mechanisms for a meat rotisserie

Water-mill (for flour or ..?)

Mitre gates on a navigational river or canal lock

Water raising system (dual power)

A waterwheel stamping mill - for crushing pulp in paper making

Intaglio-plate {illustration} printing press

Book printing press

Perpetual screw for raising heavy weights

Multi-wheel watermill

Cross-section of machine/pumping system to raise water to a "great height"

Human-powered water pumping system

As the few online references to Vittorio Zonca (1568-1602) note, little is known about the Italian architect's life beyond the fact that he lived in Padua and wrote an illustrated technical manual on machines.

His book -- part of the Renaissance/Early Modern genre known as The Theatre of Machines -- wasn't released until four years after Zonca's death, and the illustrations seen above are from the 3rd edition, published in 1656.

In 'Novo Teatro di Machine and Edificii', Zonca presents more than forty engravings that illustrate a wide variety of machines, including presses, grinders, locks, pumps, lathes, weight lifting, load bearing and even water-powered silk throwing systems.

The source for many of Zonca’s designs is believed to be a manuscript by the Sienese painter Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501), which depicts various 15th c. machines.

Zonca's work was nevertheless important and original because it came closest, among contemporaries in the emerging field of technical manuals, to showing how the mechanical systems would function in the real world. Zonca pared down overly elaborate gear/pulley/lever systems (in which friction would hamper machine operation) and he drew the components mostly to scale, as compared to Ramelli for instance. In other words, Zonca's manual was more practical than (merely) theoretical. References in his book infer that working examples of some of Zonca's machines were successfully built during his lifetime.

In the 1620s, a collection of European machine designs by Zonca, Ramelli and Besson was published in China by the Jesuit scholar, Johann Schreck. The illustrations were produced in a Chinese pictorial style and were the first European technological systems seen in the Far East.

'Novo Teatro di Machine et Edificii' by Vittorio Zonca is available via the European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO) portal at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
The book is also available via Cornell University's Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library.
Istituto Internazionale di Storia economica "F. Datini" has titled illustrations from Zonca's book (in Italian) -- the 1621 edition (some of these *might* be different from the series published in 1656 and 1607)
New Technology of 1607 at Princeton's Graphic Arts blog.
Zonca bio: Kmoddl :: Wikipedia.
Perpetual Futility from the Museum of Unworkable Devices.
Mentions of Vittorio Zonca at Amazon and Googlebooks.
Previously on BibliOdyssey: machines (which includes posts on all the main players involved in the Renaissance-era Theatre of Machines; for instance: Early Machine Technology.
BibliOdyssey on Twitter.

Remake / Claire Ball

2011-12-05T16:18:00.001+01:00

Remake / Claire Ball:
“The Two Fridas” beautifully remade by Claire Ball. I’m still uploading your submissions, but I’ll finish them this week. See them all here.

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning

2011-11-28T21:16:00.001+01:00

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning: Contact Lens by Haruka Kojin
Title: Roland Barthes

Folkert

evening altenbrouck

2011-11-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

Blake Illuminations

2011-11-23T21:44:00.001+01:00

Blake Illuminations: Example pages from William Blake's:

Songs of Innocence
Songs of Experience
The Book of Thel
Visions of the Daughters of Albion

"If a method of Printing which combines the Painter and the Poet is a phenomenon worthy of public attention, provided that it exceeds in elegance all former methods, the Author is sure of his reward." WB 1793

"The great advance in Blake's printmaking occurred in 1787, following the untimely death, probably from tuberculosis, of the artist's beloved younger brother Robert [..]. Blake reported discovering his wholly original method of "relief etching" — which creates a single, raised printing surface for both text and image — in a vision of Robert soon after his death.

Relief etching allowed Blake to control all aspects of a book's production: he composed the verses, designed the illustrations (preparing word and image almost simultaneously on the same copper printing plate), printed the plates, colored each sheet by hand (where necessary), and bound the pages together in covers. The resulting "illuminated books" were written in a range of forms — prophecies, emblems, pastoral verses, biblical satire, and children's books — and addressed various timely subjects — poverty, child exploitation, racial inequality, tyranny, religious hypocrisy." [source] [Also see: Illuminated Printing]

"William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757 [d. 1827], to James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions—at four he saw God "put his head to the window"; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels.

Although his parents tried to discourage him from "lying", they did observe that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend conventional school. He learned to read and write at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly. One of Blake's assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career. After his seven-year term ended, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy." [continued]

The William Blake images seen above were sourced from the Houghton Library at Harvard University: Songs of Innocence and Experience :::: The Book of Thel :::: Visions of the Daughters of Albion.
Via Houghton Library blog and John Overholt.
The William Blake Archive.
The Blake Society.
Wikipedia :: Amazon.

clay - klei 2005 - 2011

2011-11-23T19:49:00.001+01:00