beauty amidst the rubble?

a while back i had a project dropped in my lap which called for the design of a group of military style embroidered insignias. tonight i was looking through my art archives on the old computer here and came across a bunch of the reference materials i used. i’ve gotta say, these little pieces of latter day heraldry always get my design juices flowing. there is something so gritty and gorgeous about them. (it’s a small irony that the rich history of military imagery lost out to a cheap yellow ribbon when it came to “supporting the troops.”) anyhow, see below for a small selection.

posted by jmorrison on 06/30 | lost & found | | permalink
utisz

some time back while searching for information on anamorphosis (with generally crumby results) i came upon the homepage of hungarian artist and designer istvan orotz. some of his work does indeed incorporate anamorphosis which is why google dutifully deposited me on his doorstep. beyond that though there are many etchings, illustrations, posters, and even some very cool animations to soak up. most of his work incorporates illusion and visual trickery of some kind, like his book of “hidden skulls.” the wonderful thing, from my point of view, is the style he chooses to work in, not letting the shadows of escher and dali keep him from doing what he digs. pretty cool.

posted by jmorrison on 06/28 | sights & sounds - art | | permalink
the u.n. isn’t in new york by accident, y’know

I found a great page a couple weeks ago via mefi called the hidden history of the united nations, which is a real public service. The United Nations didn’t start after the war: “The “United Nations” had been the official name for the coalition fighting the axis powers since January 1942, when Roosevelt and Churchill had led twenty-six nations, including the Soviet Union and China, in a ‘Declaration by United Nations’. ” So what do you think eisenhower would have said to the chickenhawks who denigrate the U.N. whose color he wore on his very shoulder while he fought the nazis for the soul of the west? This page is a must-read, and strong riposte anytime you find yourself talking to someone who wants to be rid of the U.N. And if they say, well, it’s not the u.n. it should be, or used to be, or some such mush: fix them with a gimlet eye and ask “whose fault is that?” repeat, louder and louder, until they flee to the Führerbunker.

posted by tbuckner on 06/27 | news & views - op ed | | permalink
conversations on the plurality of worlds

been wanting to post about this fellow for a long while but the internet is oddly lacking in english translations of his works and i only recently received a copy of his best known title Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, or conversations of the plurality of worlds. his name was bernard le bovier de fontenelle and his book, published in 1686, is remarkable, in retrospect perhaps less for its content than its function upon publication. this book holds the admirable distinction of being one of the first books of popularized science ever published, which is to say, a book of scientific ideas aimed directly at “the average reader” rather than “natural philosophers” written in a language and manner they could easily understand.

posted by jmorrison on 06/25 | sights & sounds - books | | permalink
the home of lost, forgotten, and lonely sentences

considering how popular tom buckner’s “six word novel” post seemed to be (norway, finland, i’m looking at you) i thought i’d share a site with you all i’ve been keeping to myself. it’s called scrine. it’s run by Keith from wordshadows and it’s a community weblog on which anyone is invited to post, only thing is, you must agree to post no more than a single sentence at a time. at its best the result can be a page full of obtuse aphorisms and acute observations. i’ve posted a few sentences and it’s refreshing. give it a look.

posted by jmorrison on 06/25 | sights & sounds | | permalink
my artistic blind spot

cause 1- art is utterly subjective. that is a nail i hammer at endlessly. i’ve built my house with it in some respects; a house that will stand or crumble on its strength or weakness. cause 2- i am an artist. as such i view art as any craftsman must view the trade he has chosen with a critical albeit biased eye. where as an audience member may be transported and delighted by a performance of a play, a playwright watching that same performance might take only the slightest notice of the scenery and indeed the actors, being too busy analyzing the language, the pacing, and the technical aspects of the staging. i think it’s this way for everyone within their own professions. combine these two points and the effect-

posted by jmorrison on 06/24 | sights & sounds - art | | permalink
new worlds atlas

came across (via presurfer) this nifty bit of nasa data noodling called the new worlds atlas. it’s a continuously updated database of all planets that have been discovered around stars other than the sun. you can zoom and rotate and move about the 3d map seeing where all of these extrasolar planets are in relation to us and each other in a heliocentric model with little ol’ sol in the center. good fun. they also offer a cool planet finding roadmap pdf among other goodies. check out the the extrasolar planets encyclopaedia for further info.

posted by jmorrison on 06/24 | tech & science - space | | permalink
the foxtrot!

dancing, anywhere other than in your own livingroom at 2am with an empty bottle of peach schnapps, can be a difficult proposition for people. for some folks (mainly folks with one of those pesky y chromosomes) the very thought of dancing can induce sweating, excuseus lameus, and ulcers. there are occasions, however, when a bit of rug cutting is all but mandatory- say you’re on a hot date with ginger rogers, at your own wedding, or out at night in europe! what do you do then? fear not left footed clods and stone faced stoics! we care about you here at the nonist and as such we now offer you tutelage in that hippest most cutting edge of all modern dances, the foxtrot.

posted by jmorrison on 06/23 | sights & sounds - music | | permalink
the tyranny of choice

came across this article over at reason called Consumer Vertigo which mulls over the idea that we as consumers in a capitalist society of the 21st century have too many choices. “americans are facing a crisis of choice. we’re increasingly unhappy, riddled with anxiety and regret, because we have so much freedom to decide what to do with our money and our lives. some choice may be good, but we’ve gone over the limit. choices proliferate beyond our capacity to handle them. abundant choice is not something human beings are biologically evolved to cope with. at this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.”

posted by jmorrison on 06/22 | lost & found - ideas | | permalink
six word novel

Other day, I was reading a new utne reader, and there were (natch) a couple of articles worth mentioning here at the nonist. One article concerned six word novels written by famous scribes. Since that issue is so phresh, google did not return any result for me to link (in fact, one version of my search was bit of a googlewhack {returning only one result} concerning flash fiction, or very short stories). Anyway, Hemingway, as I recall, wrote this six-word novel:

For Sale: baby shoes. never used.

So: do any of you nonists have a six word novel you’ve been slaving over, that you may wish to share with the rest of us? Here’s a few of mine:

posted by tbuckner on 06/20 | sights & sounds - books | | permalink
graphis annual ‘59 part 2

here we present part 2 (part 1 here) of our on going showcase of graphis annuals. here is more from charles rosner’s intro to the graphis annual for 1959: it is felt in creative circles that a great deal of originality and imagination is hampered by the power excercised by the results of research. there is no getting away from the wide-spread use and influence of these methods, but it might be timely to put on record here the apt remark of doyle dane bernbach, the successful advertising agent: ‘advertising isn’t a science, it’s persuasion. and persuasion is an art.’ even then the same complaints! below you will find a second helping of work. enjoy.

posted by jmorrison on 06/19 | sights & sounds - art | | permalink
state machine: the magnetic pull of cash

came across this very well done web app (via futurismic) which helps visualize the way money influences politics, specifically the connections and magnetic force exerted between u.s. senators and their contributors. some interesting patterns emerge and some odd confluences of interest as well.

posted by jmorrison on 06/18 | lost & found - wtf | | permalink
the virtual fossil museum

the fossil museum is a virtual museum in the truest sense, having neither physical building nor specimen drawers. Its mission is to foster interest in science, generally, and in the life sciences and fossil collecting, particularly. the museum provides an ever-expanding resource presenting fossils across geological time in multiple contexts of geological history, the tree of life, paleobiology and evolution.” many beautiful, fascinating, (and some admittedly creepy) images to be seen here. also lots of solid contextualized info for your web digging pleasure. beware! hours can be lost here. (via pharyngula)

posted by jmorrison on 06/17 | tech & science - bio | | permalink
a music man seduced into carpentry

  that’s how harry partch -composer, microtonal theorist, instrument-builder, hobo, man of letters, and iconoclast- once described himself. a newsweek citation puts it this way: “harry partch is an american visionary and stubborn individualist… he has built his own musical world out of microtones, hobo speech, elastic octaves and percussion instruments made from hubcaps and nuclear cloud chambers. his music is also influenced by african polyrhythms, ancient greek modes, bits of babylonia, and the american diesel engine all gathered into a richly erotic, primitive, fresh and stirring drama of sound.”

posted by jmorrison on 06/17 | sights & sounds - music | | permalink
x[n+1]=x[n]^p-c and other experiments in film

i’m not a filmaker and i’m no longer a taker of hallucinogens so more often than not experimental films are not my bag (there are exceptions of course) but i thought some of you out there might be interested in thorsten fleisch’s work.  the thumb is from his film gestalt. explanation- “four-dimensional quaternions are visualized by projecting variables of the formula x[n+1]=x[n]^p-c into three-dimensional space. instead of modeling objects or scenes of human imagination the realm of mathematics is explored.” i believe the sound is also derived from the formula. pretty cool. (see below for more)

posted by jmorrison on 06/16 | sights & sounds - film | | permalink
context for our beloved chaos

new york city has perhaps the most varied skyscraper “family” in the world. All prevailing design styles from the late 19th century to date are represented there - as well as several buildings that have either become cornerstones in skyscraper design, or have been notable for their sheer size, stimulating imagination even more. from the intro over at great gridlock’s new york skyscrapers one hundred years of high-rises. it’s a fantastic site. images and historic detail for each of a few hundred different buildings. browse by era, neighborhood, architect, or particular building. greater context for our beloved chaos, yours for the browsing.

posted by jmorrison on 06/16 | sights & sounds | | permalink
caprices and the disasters of war

saw a documentary last night on francisco goya. i went to art school, i took art history classes, and yet somehow his etchings caught me by surprise. perhaps i was not paying proper attention back then, perhaps i was into some other trendy crap at the time (david carson anyone?), perhaps the goya lessons did not go beyond saturn devouring his son, or perhaps it’s just another example of my awful memory, but i must say goya’s etchings blew me away. you’re all familiar with the sleep of reason produces monsters but if you’ve got the time or are unfamiliar check out the caprices and the disasters of war. the scans are a bit blurry / dark but i think you’ll get the gist.

posted by jmorrison on 06/15 | sights & sounds - art | | permalink
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