1887: Harry Soref is born. The inventor will miniaturize the security of a bank vault into the everyday padlock.
Read about him here.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
March 2, 1887: Birth of the Master Locksmith
1887: Harry Soref is born. The inventor will miniaturize the security of a bank vault into the everyday padlock.
Read about him here.
Oliver Sacks: Prosopagnosia
via world science festival
The Story of the Living, Breathing Mirror
Living with the perceptual disorder known as prosopagnosia—the inability to recognize even the faces of people you know—can be difficult. But it can also be awkwardly funny, as the legendary author and neurologist Oliver Sacks recounts from his life experiences of living face blind.
Can I Catch Face Blindness?
Coping with Face Blindness
More on Oliver Sacks’ most recent book, The Mind’s Eye, can be found here. Watch short videos featuring Chuck Close here. I remember first seeing a painting by Close at the Carnegie Museum of Art in the early ’80s. It was fascinating seeing a large painting of his from across a massive room, and being constantly amazed as I walked up to within inches of it.
The Story of the Living, Breathing Mirror
Living with the perceptual disorder known as prosopagnosia—the inability to recognize even the faces of people you know—can be difficult. But it can also be awkwardly funny, as the legendary author and neurologist Oliver Sacks recounts from his life experiences of living face blind.
Can I Catch Face Blindness?
Coping with Face Blindness
More on Oliver Sacks’ most recent book, The Mind’s Eye, can be found here. Watch short videos featuring Chuck Close here. I remember first seeing a painting by Close at the Carnegie Museum of Art in the early ’80s. It was fascinating seeing a large painting of his from across a massive room, and being constantly amazed as I walked up to within inches of it.
Becky Blanton: Secrets of Black & White
via colourlovers“There really is no such thing as color. Color is just the reflection of light, which is why at night things are shades of grey, or black — there is no light to reflect. During the day, or with a flashlight, different substances or objects absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light, making us believe we are seeing color when we’re not.
The power of color then is its ability to alter our consciousness, our thoughts, our emotions, our perceptions. White is the presence of ALL color and the absence of all color. Black is the absence of all color and the presence of all color. If you mix all the primary colors — you get black. Yet you cannot mix any pigments to get white, although through additive and subtractive mixing of light you can. Where does the color go? And where does it come from?”
Read the rest of the post here, go to TRiiiBES’ Color & Form PDF here.
Marko Costanzo: Foley Artist
via wired“If you want a film to really have visceral impact, the sound maketh the movie—and the foley artist maketh the sound. During a shoot, mic placement is optimized for dialog, and the quality of background sounds can suffer. That’s where the foley artist steps in, re-creating and recording those other noises, from footsteps to crackling fires, as discrete layers that can be edited into the scene. The practice goes back to Jack Foley, part of the team that transformed the 1929 silent movie Show Boat into an ear-tickling musical hit. Some say great foley is the stuff that goes unnoticed: the soft swirl of a waltzing dress. . . ”
Read the rest here.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Tekhelet, Snails, and the Midnight Sky
via nytimes“One of the mysteries that scholars have puzzled over for centuries is the exact shade of blue represented by ‘tekhelet,’ which the Bible mentions as the color of ceremonial robes donned by high priests and ritual prayer tassels worn by the common Israelite.
Though scientists and scholars are still debating the exact shade of the ritual blue, the dye used is modeled after a 2,000-year-old textile, above, and is produced from sea snails found in Israeli waters.
What was known about tekhelet (pronounced t-CHELL-et) was that the Talmud said it was produced from the secretion of the sea snail, which is still found on Israeli beaches. Traditional interpretations have characterized tekhelet as a pure blue, symbolic of the heavens so that Jews would remember God. Not so, according to an Israeli scholar who has a new analysis: tekhelet appears to have been closer to a bluish purple.
The scholar, Zvi C. Koren, a professor specializing in the analytical chemistry of ancient colorants, says he has identified the first known physical sample of tekhelet in a tiny, 2,000-year-old patch of dyed fabric recovered from Masada, King Herod’s Judean Desert fortress, later the site of a mass suicide by Jewish zealots after a long standoff against the Romans.
‘It really is majestic,’ Dr. Koren said of the shade, which he said remained close to its original hue and appeared to be indigo. . . ”
Read the rest here.
Virtual Letterpress for iPad
via Mark Simonson Studio “LetterMPress is a virtual letterpress app for the iPad—at least that’s the idea. The project is using Kickstarter to raise funds to complete the app and to acquire wood type fonts to include (virtually) in the app.
... Not only will you be able to make compositions on a virtual press bed with virtual wood type, mix and apply virtual ink, and make virtual prints, if all goes according to plan, you will be able to send them your design and have it all done for real, with real wood type, ink, and paper.”
Learn more about the project here.
Earworm: All the Gold in California
Listen to it here.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Image of the Day: Tavern on the Green Man
Earworm of the Day: You’re The Storm
I originally heard this song by The Cardigans on Pandora. I like the sound quality that they create, especially on the refrain.
. . . cause you’re the storm that I've been needing
and all this peace has been deceiving
I need some wind to get me sailing
so it's the storm that I believe in
you fill my heart, you keep me breathing
'cause you're the storm that I believe in
The rest of the lyrics can be found here. Not much into the video, but the music created.
. . . cause you’re the storm that I've been needing
and all this peace has been deceiving
I need some wind to get me sailing
so it's the storm that I believe in
you fill my heart, you keep me breathing
'cause you're the storm that I believe in
The rest of the lyrics can be found here. Not much into the video, but the music created.
Electric Sheep
via electricsheepElectric Sheep is a collaborative abstract artwork founded by Scott Draves. It’s run by thousands of people all over the world, and can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers ‘sleep,’ the Electric Sheep comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as ‘sheep.’ The result is a collective ‘android dream,’ an homage to Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Another post resurrected for my previous blog, I forgot about it until I saw it running on my son’s Mac. Explore, download, and create electric sheep for dreaming androids here.
Business Cards: Page XII
[Top Row] The first card in this row is a sample — the embossed paper with a page curl is a nice treatment. I really like the next two cards artwork -- big and bold. The color “pops” on the Janae Berry card, and I like how the leaves break out of the black box on Susan Alexander’s card, On both of these though, I feel the type below the art is just too close to the bottom edge of the card.
[Middle Row] First colum: I really like the muted colors of the periwinkle and tangerine inks on this sample card; but dislike the overall text placement.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wood Type: 8 line Rugged
via letterpress dailyThe abstract quality of the magenta dimples against the woodgrain is breathtaking. Find more great letters here.
Business Cards: Page XI
[Middle Row] Middle card: Though this card is a sample, it shares the name of a former employer of mine. This card is so 1980s in type and art treatment. And Graphics II in State College will need to be covered in a future post.
[Bottom Row] Third column: Another sample card, clean, crisp, but ultimately a generic design treatment.
Earworm: The Wayouts
Season 6, Episode 11 Summary:
For his costume for the Water Buffalos’ masquerade party, Fred Flintstone picks a spaceman's uniform. Unfortunately, he goes out on a night when a local radio station has launched a publicity stunt about an invasion by space aliens, a stunt that backfires and creates a panic in the city. This episode is a remake of The Honeymooners episode entitled 'The Man from Space' from Dec. 31, 1955.
Lyrics can be found here.
For his costume for the Water Buffalos’ masquerade party, Fred Flintstone picks a spaceman's uniform. Unfortunately, he goes out on a night when a local radio station has launched a publicity stunt about an invasion by space aliens, a stunt that backfires and creates a panic in the city. This episode is a remake of The Honeymooners episode entitled 'The Man from Space' from Dec. 31, 1955.
Lyrics can be found here.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Paul Octavious’ S6 Minutes: Indigo
via swissmiss
A beautiful experimental short by Paul Octavious
S6 Minutes: Indigo from Paul Octavious on Vimeo.
A beautiful experimental short by Paul Octavious
S6 Minutes: Indigo from Paul Octavious on Vimeo.
Earworm: O Fortuna
 |
| The original text of "O Fortuna", from the Carmina Burana |
O Fortuna is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the thirteenth century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate, and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and personification of luck.
The misheard lyrics here make me smile. You can find out more about O Fortuna here, including the actual lyrics and translation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)