Another year
About this time last year, I stepped out of Fiumicino airport into the mild winter of Rome. The ride home was lined with statues, buildings, and piazzas straight out of an art history book. It was dreamy, foreign, like my first time listening to Sigur Rós. In the coming months, I began to note the differences and similarities in my lifestyle here and at home. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that everything is more or less the same, wherever you go. You eat, sleep, and shit. Work on weekdays, go out on the weekends. Eat a little healthier, maybe get some more exercise. Read more. Care more. Try more. And don’t drink so much. The unavoidable rituals, motherly advice, and half-hearted goals that make up the bulk of a life—the constant, I guess.
Successfully updated to expressionengine 2.0
I’ve updated and bought a Freelancer’s license for expressionengine 2.0. Unfortunately there is no free core version anymore, but since I’ve invested so much time into learning ee, I figured that I might as well pay to upgrade.
The art of the mixtape
I’ve been listening to a lot of mixtapes in the past year, ever since leaving home last December. It probably has to do with not having access to the internet 24/7 like I did before, but even now that I can be online whenever I want, I find that not too much has changed in my listening preferences. It makes me wonder how I got my audio fix in the past. I mean, I know how—I would just download a ton of albums and filter through them each day, but I don’t have the desire or patience to do that anymore. I basically used to listen to music with my finger on the next button with a liberal use of repeat. In hindsight, doing it this way, I managed to play out even the best of songs quickly, and I don’t think I was getting the full album experience intended by the artist. Even now, I find that there are few albums worth listening from the front to back, but a good mixtape can find a place even for filler tracks.
A blessing and a curse
I work in an institution sponsored by the Vatican, so a lot of my correspondence end with some sort of blessing. There’s a lot of “God bless you,” and “May the Lord be with you,” which are the typical ones I guess. Personally I go with, “Peace & love.” I like to keep it rock and roll. Anyway, I’ve noticed a lot of variety in my international encounters. More or less, it all means the same thing, but the delivery is interesting, especially in face to face conversations. There’s a French priest that likes to tell me simply, “God loves you.”
On action
I have a lot of respect for artists that do things. Wow, deep, I know. What I mean is, I don’t care if the work is good or bad, but just the fact that it has been created, is enough to justify its existence, for me. So I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to feel the same way about my own work. Anything I do, I immediately think about the big picture. Who does this affect? How will it be received? Am I proud of this? I think it cripples me with fear and I end up either trashing and starting over, or anxiously wringing my hands as it is exposed. It’s not even that that I think that my work is precious. Because I know, that whatever I do, I will have a different opinion of it in one week.
Mamihlapinatapai
Mamihlapinatapai (sometimes spelled mamihlapinatapei) is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”, and is considered one of the hardest words to translate. It describes “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.”
When you look at the word mamihlapinatapai, it kind of leaves something to be desired from the English language. I’ve realized that it’s pretty straightforward to translate a word from English into another language, but to do the opposite requires a lot more work. I think by having a single word to describe something like mamihlapinatapai, you are more prone to recognizing it when it happens. There are a lot of Korean words that I wouldn’t know how to being to explain, and I feel like this is why ancient Chinese proverbs sound so ridiculous in English.
Ares I-X Launch
NASA’s Ares I-X test rocket lifted off Oct. 28, 2009, at 11:30 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a two-minute powered flight. The flight test lasted about six minutes from its launch from the newly modified Launch Complex 39B until splashdown of the rocket’s booster stage nearly 150 miles downrange.
These are photos taken of the Ares I-X test rocket from a few days ago, and there are more after the source link below. There’s some controversy surrounding the nasa budget, especially with the Constellation Program, but I can’t help but enjoy moments like this when such an enormous project is realized. I can’t think of any other team effort requiring as much specialized knowledge and trained professionals. Can you imagine what the launch party must have been like? And then the after-party—so many nerd babies will be born in July 2010.
Work & Play
In a little under two weeks, what began as ‘research’ for my next big project at work turned into this. I began testing layouts for a new website to be made for the organization I’m volunteering at, and I’m not sure at what point exactly I stopped sleeping and shaving. It definitely wasn’t on my list of things to do, and I actually thought I was done with the web for a while. Regardless, it’s here now, hopefully unchanged for a long long time.
Vincent Fournier’s Space Project
nasa must say good night moon, but at least we have this beautiful project to carry on the sentiment.
Design Versus Innovation: The Cranbrook / IIT Debate
Twenty years ago a seminal article appeared in ID magazine that contrasted two approaches to design and design education: the methods-driven and scientific approach described by Chuck Owen of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and the experimental and semantic approach advocated by Mike McCoy of Cranbrook.
WTF♯?
Chopin writes “enforced” listening moments into the piece–strangely arresting moments, like that F♯ held, alone, then heard against an astringent dissonance, then heard alone again, then heard against the “correct” dissonance…
It’s becoming harder to find time to check my ever growing list of bookmarks, but Bobulate is one of the blogs I actually set aside time for. Each post is thoughtful, well written, and never feels as though it’s longer than it should be. One of the recent posts I’ve found interesting links back to the blog of a concert pianist, who goes on to describe the music of Chopin. I found the quote above relevant for a few different reasons, but I thought Liz Danico brought up an interesting consideration regarding design.
As designers, for all the simplicity we intend in our work, for all the intentional moments we craft, what enforced listening moments are we creating? What rhythms are we designing? Where’s the F♯?
Bertelli: Biciclette Assemblate
Two things. First, these bicycles are beautiful. Coming from an Italian shop, I’m not surprised that the craftsmanship and integrity to materials is so respectful to the aesthetic and function of the final product. I’m still not sold on having no brakes, but Bertelli manages to include them in some of his projects without hurting the minimalism. Leather, wood, recycled vintage parts—awesome.
Secondly, where the hell are these shops in Italy? So many famous Italian designers, artists, architects, etc. but none in plain sight. Stupid!
Sonic Fabric Ties
I grew up racing small sailboats, and on sailboats you need indicators to tell the wind direction. These “tell-tails” can be made from feathers or small pieces of string or yarn. On my father’s boat (a 19’ Lightning class sailboat) his tell-tail of choice was made from a small strand of cassette tape because it’s a light, wind-sensitive, and durable material. When I was a kid I used to imagine that I could hear Cat Stevens or Beethoven’s 6th or whatever had been recorded onto the tape wafting out into the air if the wind hit the tell-tail just the right way.
Ties made from 50% audio cassette tape and 50% thread. Apparently if you run a cassette head over the fabric, it’ll play. The creator has a great source of inspiration behind the idea of “sonic fabric” as well.
Spaceman
One of dominant themes in my most recent sketchbook have been astronauts. I’ve been using them as a device to explore the space on the page, and try to achieve a sense of depth, sometimes with only a figure. I stumbled on this guy’s oil paintings and was blown away by how his work visualizes what my sketches merely suggest. I really love it all, and his non-spaceman work is great too. Look at more by visiting the link.
A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families
Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?”
Giles Turnbull writes about his survey conducted to find out what different families call Lego™ pieces. I love the little chart that goes along with it and displays the results of his research. It definetely brings back memories of trying to craft the perfect Lego™ gun. And afterwards, dueling my grandmother and having her fake die. Man, I was horrible.
Bank Notes
Ken Habarta has just written a book about the notes that people use to rob banks. He has been posting daily examples of the notes on the blog Bank Notes. Each note is accompanied by a picture of the robber and an icon indicating if the robbery was successful or not. The website is searchable, in case you are only interested in robberies involving polite notes (search for the word “thanks” and “please”).
The thing that makes this interesting for me is the icon which shows the success or failure of the heist. It seems like the most straightforward notes (with death threat) have a better rate of success. Then again, who knows what the actual circumstances were? (Not me)
Andrew Zuckerman: Bird
He does it again. Creature, Wisdom, and now Bird. I like his work because it reminds me of this giant illustrated book set I used to have as a kid. It went from Volume i—xxiii and each volume was about something interesting. I remember Volume iii was called “The Animal Kingdom” and I would spend hours just studying the illustrations. Zuckerman’s work brings back that childlike curiosity and intense interest. I’m glad he’s doing this work, because it reassures me that future generations will have a beautiful resource for their nature fix too.
Also, the bird above is a Secretary Bird. Looking at these photos reminded me that it was my favorite, growing up. The reason is that it was illustrated in my books in a battle with a snake. I still remember that the reason this bird can kill a snake is because of its tough, crane-like legs which protect it from the snake’s bite. How cool is that? It just looks so bad-ass. God I wish I was a Secretary Bird.
Cercle et suite d’éclats
...in Cercle et suite d’éclats, Varini has taken on the challenge of working at the scale of the village, superimposing perfect circles on the town of Vercorin in the Swiss Alps. From inside the village, the graphic is fragmented and impossible to read, but from a nearby vantage point, the lines come together to form a series of rings.
Felice Varini has taken a town in the Swiss Alps and somehow convinced them to let him paint a giant optical illusion. I love this because everyone has played along. I love this because it is executed so well. I love it for its simplicity. What a great opportunity for everyone to share in a moment together.
View the link below for the full panoramic photo.
Stenciled Buildings
EVOL is an artist who takes his love of stencil art to the streets of Germany and creates the illusion of buildings on electricity boxes and concrete structures dotted around local cities. He has since taken it abroad. The stencilwork is quite something.
This guy doesn’t just stencil, he does paste-ups too; different, but still good. I’m not as big on ‘street art’ anymore, but if there’s even a little thought behind it, I still get excited. He has some really good photos of some work on an abandoned soap factory.
If I saw one of these in the wild, I would do a really big tag on a nearby wall, then a little mini-tag on one of these.
1,001 Rules for my Unborn Son
319. Don’t let the pictures become the event.
Life lessons for a boy delivered in a numbered list format by Walker Lamond. He has an ongoing blog (currently at rule #401), as well as a recently released book on the same subject. One of my favorites is #319.
If my dad wrote this, it would basically be an abridged Bible.
f,l,o,w,e,r,s
Norihiko Terayama made a ruler. It’s nice. The ruler itself is made of acrylic, and each flower is handpicked and embedded at 1cm intervals. This means that each ruler is unique, which helps to (kind of) justify the price tag of US$189.00.