notebook/daybook
SPIRIT EMULSION on MUBI.
Made in 1987 a long time after the studio’s heyday this is an affectionate look at the golden years of Hammer Film Productions – the later TV work is ignored.
Gazing across a river at the human world from which she came, Chihiro turns translucent and almost disappears altogether: as if by losing one’s sense of place, one also loses any sense of self.
For some reason, an old record I owned called Psychedelicatessen popped into my head today, so I went to look for a piece of it on YT, and, of course…. good morning, computer.
On the Films of Wojciech Has:
Has’s understanding of cinema as an oneiric canvas is apparent from the very beginning, and his sense that its narratives were meant to trip over themselves through elisions, reversals, and collapses reinforced itself throughout his career. His films are frequently in a state of mutation and his characters always on introspective journeys; objects are the only constant, as their material weight exhibits more solidity than his stories’ whims or his characters’ souls. All the while, Has’s camera acts like an accordion, playing in its own time, starting wide and pushing in to follow his characters’ reveries deep into the frame.
“Don’t touch it, it’s a very important work of art”: The story of Rocking Machine – the phallic sculpture in A Clockwork Orange:
There are many sexual references in the film and perhaps these set decoration pieces were chosen to represent breasts or bulbous phalluses. In fact there are many film props used in a Clockwork Orange that protrude or extrude: Alex’s mask, the droogs’ cod pieces, the bulb lamps, Alex’s pointy bedspread, and so on. The largest and most obvious bulbous object however, is the Rocking Machine sculpture by Herman Makkink, which sits proudly on Catlady’s antique wooden console.
Wonderful John Harris piece found by 70s Sci Fi Art.
I love this Henry Gunderson piece – in the gallery he uses many other old Nokia phones in the same way.
As the lines between art and craft have become more liminal, so too a new generation has arisen that appears to walk a blurred creative line. Are they craftspeople, makers, artists – or a different creative hybrid? Our spring design issue is dedicated to just some of the proponents of this “future craft”.
Antonia Kuo has developed a technique for photochemical paintings where she manipulates light-sensitive paper and photo chemicals to create intricate abstractions while still using traditional drawing and painting methods.
That being said, it’s understandable that coming across striking photos like Tomas Mayer’s “Handmade Miniature Library” can send you into a spiral of questioning how—and who— brought it into existence. Luckily, we have insight.
Working out of his Stockholm studio, Mayer expertly constructs miniatures and dioramas. The “Handmade Miniature Library” is an incredibly detailed scene filled with hundreds of books, scrolls, and shelves, all created with the artist’s dextrous skill and dedication to a tedious craft.
Because of its size and location, the henge would have been a prominent place in the region and provided a major site for ceremonial activity. At this time, Crowland would have been a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water and marshes, and the henge was situated on a distinctive and highly visible point projecting out into the Fens.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});The henge seems then to have been deserted, perhaps for many centuries, but the significance already given to the site by the substantial prehistoric earthworks—which would have still been visible into the medieval period—meant it was probably seen by hermits like Guthlac as a unique landscape with a long and sacred past.
Scribbled numbers, wiped-away letters, word-like scrawls: all of these recur in Kikuo Saito’s paintings of the early 1990s, a selection of which form a wonderfully mystifying solo show on view now at James Fuentes gallery in New York.
Nature’s subtle irregularities and variations are fodder for Jon Foreman (previously). Using found leaves, stones, and sand, the Wales-based artist assembles swirling gradients and organic motifs that radiate across forest floors and beaches. He precisely arranges each composition by size and color, relying on basic geometric principles to transform a humble material and unconventional backdrop into stunning artworks. Considering the constructions last just a short time before they’re blown or washed away, head to Foreman’s Instagram to see them in pristine condition.
Yes, it’s spring (sort of), but I read something the other day – didn’t save the link – wherein winter is predicted for the web. This was the nut of it: AI search engines like Perplexity run around the web at your prompt, scrape info out of a bunch of web pages, and present you with a summary to answer your question, and that means you don’t see all the ads crammed into those summarised pages. The tone was: “please, won’t somebody think of the ads?” You know, the ones that pop up all over the web page you wanted to read and covered up all the text and hid the Xs that are supposed to collapse them. The ones that, on desktop, we use ad blockers to hide just so we can read what you — or your own bot – wrote. The ads, of course, are also largely picked and placed by bots. So the upshot is that robots are displaying ads for other robots to look at. And that this is evidently a nightmare scenario for the web.
This probably shouldn’t amuse me as much as it should.
In the evenings, I tend to do research reading on my phone, with my notebook in my lap, sitting in front of the tv. This means I know exactly how bad the mobile web is, and this is why I rely on Wikipanion for Wikipedia and, increasingly, Perplexity AI to get to the information I want. I currently have no ethical issues with using an AI application to gather and process research material, I’m open to evolving my position on that topic, but “won’t somebody think of the ads?” is not the argument that will move me at the moment.
NASA is sending a message plate to Europa:
At the heart of the artifact is an engraving of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” along with a silicon microchip stenciled with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public. The microchip will be the centerpiece of an illustration of a bottle amid the Jovian system—a reference to NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign, which invited the public to send their names with the spacecraft.
Cliodynamics and The Seshat:
Since 2011, my colleagues and I have been compiling an enormous amount of information about the past and storing it a unique collection called the Seshat: Global History Databank. Seshat involves the contribution of over 100 researchers from around the world.
PROUT – the Progressive Utilization Theory – found in this interview here.
The Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) is the basis for an economic system which is an alternative to both capitalism and communism. PROUT was conceived by P.R. Sarkar in 1959 who in the article below outlines some of the basic features of a decentralised, cooperative economic system built upon the principles of PROUT. Guaranteed Minimum Requirements and Purchasing Power PROUT stands to guarantee the minimum requirements of life, that is, food, clothing, accommodation, medical treatment and education, to each and every person. After the minimum requirements have been guaranteed, the surplus wealth is to be distributed amongst people with special qualities and skills, such as physicians, engineers, scientists, etc., because these people play a crucial role in the collective development of society. The quantum of these minimum requirements should be progressively increased so that the standard of living of ordinary people is ever increasing
Kate Mosher Hall Never Odd or Even
Michael Kirkham shows us a tightly modulated urban environment, in which moments of solitude, transaction, and casual encounter are evacuated of the hope and harmony that might otherwise redeem them.
In a recent progression of work, Iranian artist Salman Khoshroo (previously) pushes the boundaries of polymer. Thick globs of the industrial material are mixed into a gummy consistency in hues of tinted primary colors mixed with black and white. In an impressively captivating balance of tousled dabs and methodical dollops, Khoshroo sculpts gestural busts, evoking human essence with a minimal number of strokes.