Software, hardware, art – a blog of process and findings
In the book “An Anthology of Concrete Poetry” mentioned in the previous post, I found this wonderful little piece by Diter Roth. The title is actually “Some variations on 44” but I can’t figure out how to get that to show up in the title.
I’ve uploaded a full-size scan – click on the image to view it. Detail below:
An unexpected find at the library today while picking up a copy of “An Anthology of Concrete Poetry” edited by Emmett Williams. For some reason concrete poetry is in the fine arts section, and nearby was a book with the enigmatic title “ZERO” written in huge letters across the cover. Turns out this is a collection of the magazine by the same name, released by artists working in a group of the name as well.
About halfway through are some great pieces by an artist I had never heard of named Heinz Mack. They have the mix of abstraction and tracendental surface that I love with a complexity that belies a systematic approach to creating them.
Image via: Google search
There’s talk here in Nebraska of dumping tons of coal ash from crop dusting planes on the Platte River to prevent flooding in the spring (the dark surface will soak up sunlight, melting the ice earlier). I’m certainly not in favor, but if it happens I definitely want to see it. In searching to see if this had been done before I found the above photo. Minimalism.
Lovely. By Constant Dullaart.
The National Science Foundation has issued a RFP for researchers interested in the CubeSat. According to Wikipedia, the CubeSat is “a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly one liter (10 cm cube), weighs no more than one kilogram, and typically uses commercial off-the-shelf electronics components”. The satellites are then ganged onto existing rockets allowing for low-budget space research.
Needless to say, when I first read about the CubeSat a few years ago I thought that conceptual art and data-driven art projects truly need to get launched into space. Anyone have a few spare centimeters?
Image via: Wikipedia
Stenotype machine; I love the all-black keys. Possible controller design?
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Also a Velotype keyboard (don’t know much about this but surprising-looking).
And a braille writer from 1928.
Amazing and unexpected and totally Modernist, I love these ship camouflage patterns from the early 20th century. Thinking about repainting my car like this.
Via: Twisted Sifter
Also a great gallery of original designs on the RISD site.
I generally get several spam comments every day. The text is always weird, but this one was so strange it deserves posting.
I enjoyed the article and thanks because of posting such valuable confabulation in site of of all of us to skim, I generate it both of put and sympathetic and I edge to study it as again as I can.
Wow.
Edit: I’ve decided to leave all comments on this post, including spam. The first comment below was too weird and meta not to keep.
While paying an unexpected visit to the wonderful University of Nebraska State Museum yesterday, there were a few standouts. Not only were there probably a dozen mammoth and mastodon skeletons from Nebraska, but everything there was found in or near the state. It was great to think of the plains filled with mammoths and ancient rhinos, before that covered in water with huge fish and snails.
I’ve always been a sucker for the rocks and minerals section of natural history museums. While the State Museum is fairly small, they had a wonderful piece of petrified wood. These cross-sections seem like abstract paintings, but where instead of brash or nimble brush strokes, the forces of the earth slowly crush and chemically transform the logs into different colors.
All images via: Arizona Skies Meteorites
More after the jump.
