Sam Staas Physarum Polycephalum is an organism, commoly known as Slime Mold. It is infact not a mold at all, but a single-celled organism that joins together with other cells to form a mass super-cell maximize its resources. Within one slime mold, one might find thousands to millions of nuclei, working as one. Slime mold is found in the woods, eating rotten greenery. Heather Barnett is one of the many artists along with scientists who have chosen to create artwork and study study slime mold. When Barnett was fist gifted slime mold, the only instructions she was given was that it liked it dark and damp, and its favorite food is oats. A living organisms like this mold was nothing uncommon to Barnett, who is an artist who has worked with many other plants and bacteria. Barnett would grow the mold in her studio on a black paper to bring out its gorgeous yellow colors, which would show its trail it left behind very vividly. She began with experimenting with its diet and observing how it grows and networks. She observed the chain it made between food sources, and the trails it would leave behind, showing where it had been. The slime acted as thought it had a brain and would move on from one petri dish when all its resourced were depleted. Below you can see the mold on its food source, and the white areas being the trails its leaving behind. Now slime mold only grows about one centimeter and hour, but with a time lapse, its movement can be easily observed. Barnett was interested in how once the slime mold would finish eating a pile of oats, it would go off to map its surrounding territory, as if it moved with intention. A team of scientists at Hokkaido University in Japan studied the mold by filling a maze with the slime. The slime mold worked together by forming one mass cell, filling up the maze completely. They then introduced oats at two points in the maze, and the mold proceeded to form a commotion between the food, solving the maze. There were four possibly solutions through the maze, yet every time they performed this experiment the slime mold would find the sourest and most efficient route. After this and a couple other experiments, they deduced that slime mold was able to learn and grow. One last experiment was performed: the slime mold was placed on a empty substrate covered in oats. The slime mold begins with expanding out in a branching pattern. As the slime mold grows, it finds the food, and forms a connection with itself and keeps searching for food. Twenty Six hours later, the mold had formed a strong network between the oats. Infact the oats were representative of the city of Tokyo and its surrounding railway stations. The slime mold had re-created the Tokyo transportation network. A system that too 100 of years for humans to develop, took the slime mold 26 hours. This organism is much more than thousands of nuclei working together, it is a complex system that is living, breathing, and learning. It can understand its environment and use that to map out systems that would take humans years to accomplish. The hopes are that it will be implemented into urban planning to create more efficient transportation systems. It can also be used to create beautiful artwork. Here is a piece done by an artist using glow-in-the-dark slime mold. Bibliography:
Barnett, H. (2014). What humans can learn from semi-intelligent slime. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_barnett_what_humans_can_learn_from_semi_intelligent_slime_1/transcript#t-435001 Heather Barnett's Page. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2018, from http://slimoco.ning.com/profile/HeatherBarnett The Physarum Experiments. (2017, April 08). Retrieved February 13, 2018, from http://heatherbarnett.co.uk/work/the-physarum-experiments/ Some imaged from Google. Museum as Medium by Tessa Mae Rippenhagen The careful display of art objects and the museum culture of the western world, was revolutionized during the sixties by two people an ocean apart. Carlo Scarpa and Lina Bo Bardi, brought radical ideas about the curatorial arts to the modern world. Lina was born in Italy but moved to Brazil very early in life, while Carlo has become synonymous with modern Italian architectural style. Both were responsible for giving the art audience a new way of ‘looking’ and an entirely new gallery experience to behold. In Verona, a thirty year project came to conclusion in 1973, with ‘Museo di Castelvecchio’. Meaning ‘old’ castle’ in italian, the audience is already made aware of its historic significance, and considering its heritage. a short thirty years to prepare it for the public, is quite appropriate for a building that began its life in the 12th century. What once was a prominent military fortification of the middle ages, and survived countless political upheavals, has come through it all and is now exhibiting its finest aspects thanks to the careful curation of Carlo Scarpa. This museum houses one of the many examples of Scarpa’s ‘offering of the art’ to the viewer, where he places the object on a brace or shelf adjacent to a wall, that has been painted a contrasting color, directing our focus to a single moment, as if to say, “look, here is a thing the may seem almost common place any where in Italy, but here in this god given light, with that brilliant color support, and this armature of display...well, Voila!!’. There is a very personal interaction with each piece, one is compelled to step closer as in an intimate setting, that seems very orchestrated on a scale of ‘one-on-one’. These spaces would not work, if they were jammed packed like the Louve during summer vacation, where hundreds are crowded into large salons filled with gaudy gold frames with security lines surrounding everything. An individual should have space and quiet, upon entering Castelvechio, it is place of contemplation and immersion into a cave of memories of bygone eras. One does not simply enter this as a regular, everyday museum with descriptive fact boards and artifacts pinned beside, here we are invited to experience a piece of the past, with modern improvements for a gallery setting. Scarpa is very thoughtful with his placement of natural light. They are not here to act as windows to the exterior, but only as skylight spotlights, highlighting each piece precisely as he had intended. The whole system of curating is deconstructed against the backdrop of an ancient castle, creating a non-traditional space where the past and present meet, every instance of light and color are collisions of old and new. Where Carlo was given a castle and created a museum, Lina would design her museum from the ground up, literally. Beginning in 1957 and continuing through the ten years that followed, Bo Bardi was undertaking a project of monumental proportions. Bo Bardi was attempting to return the arts to the people, with MASP, the new Museum of Art, for Sao Paulo, which opened in 1968. By allowing the public to enter the physical space of the building, without actually paying admission, access to underneath the suspended structure, almost undermining the authority of the gallery that generally discriminates against non-patrons, and also the massive picture gallery walls of window that allow visual access to the exhibitions above. Reversing the roles, putting those on the inside and privileged enough to pay admission, on display as spectacles of society, as opposed to the exposed masses of the urban ghettos that wonder the streets. The social realms are confronted with each other and balanced on the scales of justice, just as the monolithic concrete beams support the fragile glass prism. The interior was yet another chance to question patriarchal authoritative labels, and layer many viewpoints to create an equal playing field. A break down of both artistic hierarchy and personal perspective of movement within the space. This Picture Gallery was an experimentation of freedom within confines. The complete accessibility and approachable platform of display that Bo Bardi designed, creates a three dimensional approach to a medium that has for centuries been viewed in the same position it was made in. A two dimensions perspective of an art object suspended above the viewer, who can only look into the reality of the painting from a fixed point. Her “cymas” destroyed this traditional social distancing and exposed the artwork to the public on all sides. A concrete block supporting a single pane of glass, which allows for three hundred and sixty degrees of exhibition, turning paintings into sculptures.
Scarpa brought the medieval world into the modern age, and Lina brought modern art to Sao Paulo. Each invented their own unique way of displaying an object that elevated it from the everyday. The museum as a working medium, that breathes and evolves as time goes on, is evident in their work. From single moments of reflection to entire floors of open access, these pioneers of exhibition brought the modern age to meet modern art. The simple curation of pictures on walls and sculptures on pedestals will forever be complicated by their adventurous advancements. May the museum continue to adapt as much as the world around it. Bibliography -Bernardi, Jose. APH 509, Summer 2017. Lecture notes. -Ferraz, Marcelo Carvalho. “Stones Against Diamonds.” AA Files, no. 64, 2012, pp. 78–79. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41762308.Kimmel, Laurence, Anke Tiggemann, and Bruno Santa -CeciÌlia. Architectural Guide. Berlin: DOM, 2014. Print. -Macartney, Hilary, and Zanna Gilbert. “Lina Bo Bardi: Three Essays on Design and the Folk Arts of Brazil.” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, vol. 20, no. 1, 2013, pp. 110–124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670978. -Williams, Richard J. Brazil. London: Reaktion, 2009. Print. -Veikos, Cathrine. “To Enter the Work: Ambient Art.” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), vol. 59, no. 4, 2006, pp. 71–80. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40480633. -Los, Sergio. Carlo Scarpa: 1906-1978 ; A Poet of Architecture. Cologne: Taschen, 2009. Print. -Scarpa, Carlo, and Richard Murphy. Querini Stampalia Foundation. London: Phaidon, 1993. Print. -All Images found on Google Images Paige Pellouchoud La Specola is a natural history museum located in Florence, Italy and is the oldest public museum in Europe. It’s a wonderful resource, intriguing, and overall a unique experience. Not only does it have a huge and exotic taxidermy collection (which even houses some extinct species), it has the largest wax anatomical collection. It started as a personal collection of the wealthy and powerful Medici family, and was then opened later to the public in 1775. I’ve personally had the privilege to visit this museum up close and in person and it was a very unique experience. I believe the museum is completely overlooked by the many tourists who visit Florence. Their anatomical wax collection was what was the most interesting to me. What is unique about these wax interpretations of the human body is that they were based off of real cadavers in an attempt to teach medical students about the inside of the body. This wax collection served a very significant purpose in its time, and now is on display for pretty much anybody who is interested. The anatomical depictions are extremely intricate and in some cases are incredibly realistic. It’s easy to feel light-headed when your surrounded by these bodies and body parts with their impressive details. Parts of the organs were cast, and all was hand painted. The process of making, measuring, painting, and varnishing these bodies was intense. Although my interest lied mostly in the wax collection, the taxidermy collection they have is just as superb. Birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, minerals, plants, just about anything you could come up with, were separated and categorized by 24 different rooms that would very well impress Darwin. There are a variety of species included and I included a picture of one of their most unique pieces of taxidermy, which is of an unprofessionally stuffed hippo. The hippo was actually one of the Medici’s (Cosimo III) pets. The pet used to live in the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace. My personal favorites were either the room full of birds including finches and the reptile room. The variations of finches are impressive and assorted in a neat order all of various sizes, beak sizes and shapes, and of course highly saturated colors. Seeing it all up close and in person is much more spectacular, believe me, than the pictures I attached that I could find. The taxidermy collection actually has pieces from all around the world, so you’re bound to run across various species you are not familiar with. The taxidermy and wax collections are both excellent resources even for a variety of artists. You can find sometimes among the visitors people sketching whatever they find intriguing. Yet even then among Florence’s wide variety of tourist attractions, La Specola would remain one of the most empty, next to the Galileo Exhibit. However, there is some type of charm to that, a treasure that is overlooked, and that reveals its wonderful curiosities to whomever is willing to step inside. The medical oddities are relevant for those who are most morbidly curious.
References: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-specola http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/06/12/wax_anatomical_figures_at_la_specola_in_florence_italy.html http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1402358/25813646/1420054523733/Specola+museum+3.jpg?token=jcPKnDhoz0PAgrgmg4X8009N7Ps%3D https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/7598517332_ee293fa778.jpg http://himetop.wdfiles.com/local--files/la-specola-museo-di-storia-naturale-delluniversita-degli-stu/La%20Specola%2C%20The%20Natural%20History%20Museum%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Florence%20%2817%29.JPG http://matthewginn.com/lettershome/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140329_MCG0074_Florence.jpg http://www.italoamericano.org/story/2016-12-6/la-specola-florence https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0a/22/d7/7a/taxidermist-central-animals.jpg https://www.tripsavvy.com/morbid-museum-collections-4037509 Fear Not, Want Not Spring 2018 –Erin L. Kuhn -ELK Norman Platnic is an American arachnologist, who curated “Spiders Alive!” in July 2012 at that American Museum of Natural History in New York. The museum’s research collection contains the largest spider collection in the world, with over 1 million spiders. The exhibit go’s into details on educational explorations on how the spider pre date dinosaurs. Although the spiders are still evolving and adapting, giving us endless exploitation on the subject of this species, I am more interested in the person collecting them. How did Norman Platnic happened upon the mindset of collecting spiders in the first place? What is the rhyme or reason behind the presentation of the arachnids being kept in preserved containment? I find it interesting how Platnic lables and displays his collection of spiders with the majority of them being dead when the title of the show clearly states “Spiders Alive!” Here we see spiders being contained in small glass vials and preserved in either alcohol or ethanol. Researchers recommend ethanol, when preserving insects of this nature, because it penetrates cellular membranes and deactivates further DNase (deoxyribonuclease) activity. These are enzymes capable of hydrolyzing phosphodiester bonds that link to the insects nucleotides. Norman Platnic is mainly interested in studying the evolutionary relationships between the different species. His interests in arachnids started when he took a course on arthropods with his wife in their sophomore year in collage. He really enjoyed trying to identify the species of spiders he would collect in his jars. Where his interests were in spiders, hers was in millipedes. Ironically one can not live without the other, as spiders need other insects (such as millipedes) as its main food source. Even though spiders are looked upon as bad omens in many different cultural superstitions, and most of the worlds human instinct is to “kill it!” when we see it in the house, but the fact of the matter is that spiders do a lot of good for us. Spiders control to population of insects. Without them insects would devour our main source of food. This would make it very difficult for Humans to exist. Norman Platnic believes we can learn a lot from evolution of spiders, to their hunting habits, to their webs, and that we shouldn’t be afraid of them. Platnic encourages the human population to interact with what we fear by drawing attention in his public in the shows displays. In similar research, the (SMNS) Staatliches Museum Fur Naturkunde Stuttgart has a collection of over 3 thousand containments of different spiders. The taxonomy project follows alongside Platnic’s The World Spiders Catalog. “Being part of the zoological collection the Environmental Sample Collection of Spiders comprises more than 36,000 data records linked to ecological and habitat data as well as to project metadata. One example is the data package of 16,200 data records from the 6-year investigation of spiders of an alpine meadow in the German alps (www.einoedsberg.de). comprises to date 36,183 more than 36,000 data sets records” http://www.diversityworkbench.de/DatabaseClients/SMNKspiderstudcoll/About.html
After researching the traditional cataloging of the arachnid museum collections, I came across Knight’s Spider Web Farm in Williamstown, Vermont. Will Knight and his wife Terry learned how to collect spider webs without harming the spiders. They would spray the spider free webs with white spray paint to make them easier to see. They would then adhere the webs to a wood plaque. They have collected over 16,000 webs since 1977. Back in the 70’s when Will had seen the over population of spiders on his farm, he didn’t see these spiders as an infestation, but saw them rather as an opportunity. So the story goes, a Girl scouts manual gave them the idea on how to preserve the spider webs. The spider web prints were hung on plaques in featured on display in a red barn building. Unfortunately, on October 25th, 2016 the barn and Will’s workshop were destroyed in a fire. Will passed sometime after and Terry had a new barn built from Will’s plans. Today, It’s full of racks where you could see the spiders work on their webs, and watch the spiders nest eggs and see them hatch…. They don’t sell the webs anymore, but it’s a popular spot to take pictures. Links/ References:
https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/research-posts/the-arachnid-collection-behind-spiders-alive/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/arts/artsspecial/spiders-alive-at-the-natural-history-museum.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWIidriEo0 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-003-0709-x http://www.burkemuseum.org/research-and-collections/arachnology-and-entomology/collections https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/knight-s-spider-web-farm http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/12/23/knight_s_spider_web_farm_in_williamstown_vermont.html by Ellie Weber Jody Alexander uses discarded books, papers, and fabrics to make contemporary and traditionally bound books, altered books, scrolls, and wall pieces. Her installations include a variety of these works combined as collections in mostly domestic environments. Exposed Spines Her books often inspire her scrolls and wall hangings. She explains this connection by stating in the Creativebug Trailer, that in every piece she makes “there’s always a book at the center, it’s kind of the heart and soul.” As a librarian and teacher, she understands the lifespan of paper objects. Rather than discard, she alters the material, continuing the life and story of the object or person. Sediments Her nostalgic installations are curated collections within an environment reminiscent of them. She collects photos and objects in an attempt to give them new life. The tediousness in often stitching together found photos and stories presents a sentimentality or sense of homage to these strangers. She enjoys the mystery in trying to piece together the unknown lives within these found objects, and imagines their past world. At times, she narrates her fictional version through the work. Portrait with Phinnea's World Outdated and familiar associations with the objects allow room for the viewer to invent part of the story. Alexander wants to encourage a collaborative story. In the Trailer she talks about only giving so much information so the viewer can “bring experiences they’ve had so far in life and fill in the blanks.” The Odd Volumes of Ruby B. give a background story dated Wednesday, July 11, 1979. It says she spent most of her life living in a residency hotel. On her walks to and from work as a secretary, she would collect treasures. Ruby left her family to live a life of near solitude and wrote volumes on the densities of life. This installation tells the mysterious stories of Ruby B. among her one bedroom apartment. Odd Volumes of Ruby B. Alexander's methods of constructing and deconstructing create a sense of tenderness and humor. Although overwhelming at times, there seems to remain a quietness or implied exploration. She uses form and display to build repetition and collections. She thinks about structure as a container of information, communication, and stories. Both Keep-Modern Library and Bibliomuse are series created using discarded or withdrawn library books. Keep was a discarded library stamp, but the series also includes mostly reclaimed antique linen and Japanese textiles. The pieces are reminiscent of quilts or tapestries, a patchwork of parts. These two series are exploring the ways in which we hold onto things and emotions, while questioning when to keep and when to release. KEEP-Modern Library Genetics, Paleontology, and Evolution, No. 1 from Bibliomuse series Alexander lives and works in Santa Cruz, California. Her blog Wishi Washi Studio showcases new work, exhibitions, and workshops in person and online. The Odd Volumes of Ruby B. Resources:
Jody Alexander Trailer on Creativebug: https://vimeo.com/43226012 http://wishiwashistudio.blogspot.com http://www.jalexbooks.com/index.html https://www.artsy.net/artist/jody-alexander Victoria Mitchell I just really want to talk about Michaël Borremans. I absolutely love the work he produces and he is such an inspiration for my own work. He is a Belgian painter born in 1963 and his pieces possess such disturbing and visceral content while being the most mundane. He used to be a photographer (and went to school for it) but ended up teaching himself to paint. Probably because he used to be so involved with photography, his paintings are created by meshing and manipulating images from old photos into paintings that he makes his own. He’s still very active and continues to make amazing work, but he never seems to come off as pretentious even with his success and talent. He often claims that he may work in the studio for hours and he does not produce anything of worth. He is humbled. He is able to create his own personal world that seems as if it is such a realized, large world. Borremans seems to pride himself on is ability to avoid labeling with the figurative painting world. He does not paint portraits, but characters and these characters are what define him.For instance, the image below is a perfect example of how his images are so easily able to grab a viewer’s attention. Simply stating the obvious: this painting is weird. It doesn’t make sense, but there is not enough information for one to explain why it doesn’t. It is titled The Angel, but the image does not allude to average connotations of what an expected angel would look like. A blackened face, somber stature, and unknown environment, create a work that is inhabited. Borremans has also made it clear that he is rather ashamed of his subject. In an art world that celebrates figurative painters, he finds himself uncomfortable with the title. This may be because of his hatred of most figurative painters with their trite subject matter and personal technique that tries creating an impossible—and rather ridiculous—illusion. Borremans does not care for maintaining such an egoist form of representation within the painting world. He often chooses to reveal the canvas and paint in a way to elicit emotions, not try and paint something just to look nice in a collector’s house. Again, I can’t help but admire the subtle nuances of his work that truly invoke such complex feelings. This piece, The Devil’s Dress II, is haunting. Even with its modest subject and simple composition, it manages create a series of thoughts: why is she there? What is she wearing? Why is she wearing that? Why is she on the ground? Is she okay? I feel that the numerous questions with no explanation is the real power in Borremans work and why it makes him such an enigmatic painter. I truly feel that his work is made in such a way that he doesn’t need to do much else. He can just make the work he wants and enjoy hating when others call him a “figurative painter”.
Sources: https://www.artsy.net/artist/michael-borremans https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-modern-mysteries-of-michael-borremans/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhhUmwmlMtc P.S. I have no idea why the fonts are different?? I tried everything I could think of? Was it because I copied and pasted it from a word doc? Junjie Gao Movable type printing is one of the four great inventions in China and symbolizes the great technological revolution in printing history. In the Song dynasty, Bi Sheng invented the clay movable type, which marks the birth of movable type printing. Almost 250 years old later, Wang Zhen successful created wooded type and revolving table typecase. According to the historical records, Bi Sheng was a craftsman for woodblock printing in North Song Dynasty. Since his longtime working experience, he found that the drawback of the woodblock printing is that it requires to re-engraved every time for each book. It not only wastes a lot of time but also increase the cost. But if change it to the movable type, it only needs to crave one movable type once and use repeatedly. By this revelation, Bi Sheng invented the clay movable type. Bi Sheng tested wooden type printing. Due to the uneven density of wood texture, difficulty engraving, easily deformed after wetting water and easily stick with agent layer and other reason. He failed. After repeated experiments, clay was chosen as main material to make same specification cube. And each cube only was engraved each inverted word on one side surface and only one coin thickness. Then using the hard fire roasted. In order to meet the needs for the type words, some high-frequency use words usually are prepared with dozens just in case it will appear multiple times in the same article. But for those rarely use words, if not prepare in advance, the craftsman can make a new one and use it immediately. Priority to typesetting, it needs an iron board full of the grid as the base, then applies the layer with the turpentine, wax and paper dust at the top. When printing, putting the iron frame on the iron plate, and arrange the font closely. Each plate will be a single plate and then hold it close to the fire. When rosin and other objects begin to melt, taking a tablet to flatten its surface and waiting for agent cooled and solidified. As a result, the pattern on the board is flat as a whetstone. This invention is especially quickly when printing dozens or even thousands of books. Usually, the craftsman will prepare two iron plate. Two iron plates are alternating use: one is being printed and the other is already typeset. The printing method is also easy. As long as brush the ink and covered with paper and add a certain amount of pressure. The printing is finished. After finishing printing roasted the agent layer and gently shaking the hand, the movable type can easily fall from the iron plate, and then put back to the wooded grid storage for restoring and ready for next reuse. After Bi Sheng died, movable type printing has been popularized in the whole country. After 250 years later, Wang Zhen invented wooden movable type printing. Wang Zhen is a great inventor in Yuan dynasty. The wooden movable type printing is a technical improvement which is based on Bi Sheng’s clay movable printing. In order to publish his book Nong Shu earlier, Wang Zhen improved Bi Sheng’s invention and successfully invent the wooden type printing technology. Also, he invented the revolving table typecase for craftsman easily to pick words instead of keeping walking around. It can be a summarize in seven steps: write the rhyme and engrave the words, hollow up the words and changing the mistake, make revolving table typecase, check words, typeset, brush ink and print and classification. In the 1980s, archaeologists found Buddhist scriptures and amanuensis in wooden movable type printing in Xixia period in Gansu province. It indicates that 100 years after published movable type printing, this technique has spread to the remote minority area. At the end of the 14th century, movable type printing was transmitted to Korea, as well as to Japan and Southeast Asian countries, and then to the Middle East and Europe through the Silk Road. And it was four hundred years earlier when German Johannes Gutenberg uses mental type to print Bible in the mid-15th century. There is a short video about movable type printing below. Work cited: “CCTV.com.” Unofficial position Bi Sheng, 30 May 2015, tv.cntv.cn/video/C39295/de6accb535404282a48e12d395e3f255. Shen, Kuo. Meng xi bi tan: Publisher not identified. “WangZhen.” Wang Zhen-Research- China Printing Museum, www.printingmuseum.cn/Wap/Collection/Details/7ce616dc-97d4-42c8-b5c3-9b0e4d78af32. “Wooden movable type printing.” China Printing Museum, China Printing Museum, www.printingmuseum.cn/News/Details/db94375f-8c35-4a58-a3e5-6bc90266ff28#comehere. Daniella Ozair I’ve had a passion for music since I was a young child. The first CD I ever personally owned was Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, at the age of 9. I’ve been obsessed with Jazz, the trumpet, and music in general for as long as I can remember. Recently, I have been on a quest to search out artists who combine elements from both the visual and auditory arts. Unfortunately, there aren’t many book artists who also believe the above art forms are not mutually exclusive. Despite this, there are still several stunning pieces that perfectly display a marriage of the two arts. One fantastic example is the playful History of the Accordion piece by book artist duo Donna and Peter Thomas, also known as the Wandering Book Artists. Instead of just making books that resemble accordions, they created the book using an actual accordion “as the housing of a series of images” about accordion players and handwritten text on each of the panels. It’s a very tongue-in-cheek take on the book structure that comes off as witty, charming, and very whimsical. The book was made by “slitting the bellows” of a vintage Hohner child’s accordion to create the book structure. The images and text panels were then placed into the bellows to create the pages. The content of the book is a history of the accordion instrument and the history of the accordion book structure. The images are from Peter’s collection of accordion players that have been digitally printed on Peter’s handmade paper and colored by Donna. The duo also claims that, “the accordion can still be played, but only sort of.” Another History of the Accordion Book. (2017) by Peter Thomas And the pair doesn’t stop at accordions; they also have a series of ukulele books enclosed in actual ukuleles! The books are made by sawing a ukulele in half and then re-connecting the two halves with a hinge and lock. Both halves of the ukulele have chambers made in them to house the book content. The text for Ukulele Series Book number 23 “was originally made for a miniature book in 1999,” but has been enlarged and reprinted for this edition. It also included a new title page and colophon, printed on Peter’s handmade paper, sewn to the text. A Brief History of the Ukulele. Ukulele Series Book number 23. (2003) Peter and Donna Thomas Possibly one of the greatest examples of the intersection between the visual and auditory arts is Ursula Block’s Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks. It is an extensive exhibition catalogue published accompanied with a show that was held in 1992 at the Daagalerie in Berlin. It is the “most complete discography of recordings by visual artists and experimental audioworks available.” Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks lists works of visual artists created with and for the medium of the record: records, record-covers, record-objects, record-installations. As one of the leading authorities on the subject, Block mentions in the introduction that, “in contrast to the composer or musician who perceives the record first and foremost as a vehicle translating his musical ideas, the visual artist is especially interested in the optical as well as acoustical presence.” Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks is a stunning visual homage to the recording arts that speaks volumes about her passion for the subject. While these works are remarkable, I had a hard time searching for these types of creations, and I felt is was a shame that there were not many pieces on the subject. However, it has definitely heightened my vigor to keep exploring the intersection and experiment for myself! By Timothea Haider In the U.S. the requirements for a miniature book is that it must be under three inches in width, height and thickness. Aside from this one requirement, a miniature book can come in any form. In the library of Queen Mary's dollhouse are roughly 200 perfect miniature replicas of all the most popular literature of the time all bound by the company Sangorski & Sutcliffe. All these books are perfectly rendered and functional, but were never made to be read by a real human. It is quite the undertaking for such a futile purpose. A tiny copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'How Watson Learned The Trick' sits on a minuscule desk next to a remarkably diminutive tin of tobacco, all painstaking made for a resident who can't read, sit or smoke. One of these rare books is especially unique. 'J. Smith' by Fougasse is a fairy tale written specially for the dollhouse and exists only in miniature. It's the story of a fairy who falls into London and has many adventures before returning home to fairyland. This fish out of water story suits the format well as it is a real book in a fake room. The tradition of making tiny books continues today through places like Pequeno Press in Arizona and The Creative Zone in Washington. These independent studios create work covering topics as diverse as the royal barges of Thailand to the life of Galileo. They all have different approaches to what a miniature book should be and what stories they'd like them to tell. Crane designs, operated by Marian Crane of Arizona creates particularly interesting works as most of them are not made with paper or bookboard. They tend to be embroidered and embellished with beaded tassels. Her book "Twilight Arc" is written in embroidery on turquoise cotton and illustrated with scrimshaw on mother of pearl disks, giving it a magical, whimsical feeling that is very different from what you might get from the standard hardcover. The title of the book refers to the shadow cast on the atmosphere during sunset or sunrise, but it's contents don't explain to us the scientific details of how this happens or give us a diagram, but suggests a feeling through the colors, materials and the mysterious poetry inside. Where the books in Queen Mary's dollhouse aren't meant to be read, the books made by Marian Crane are not just meant to be read. Their fabric pages are meant to be felt, the tassels are meant to be dangled and toyed with, the size compels you to keep it in your pocket and show people. Crane Designs makes books meant to be experienced fully. Over the years, miniature bookmaking has become more than simply making existing books really small. It's growing into a way for bookmakers to innovate and try new ideas
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/about/news-and-features/queen-marys-dolls-house#/ https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/windsorcastle/what-to-see-and-do/queen-marys-dolls-house http://vampandtramp.com/miniature/c/cranedesignsminiature.html
Roadkill, 2001Total Fucking Idiots, 2002Monica Wapaha
Today many of the things we read about can be found through new technology and though social media outlets. This new technology has allowed everyone to be able to communicate and read from anywhere. Although we have new technology we still communicate in the oldest form of books. The ancient art of book making has intrigue many artists into taking the book form and creating new purposes and concepts for books. Artists have been taking these books off the shelf and questioning the content contained in them. Native Americans have often questioned books since being introduced to them in the early 1900s. Historical and anthropological books have contributed to several notions of the Indigenous people in America being only and always primitive. Artist Nicohlas Galanin, believes this to be false and is dismantling the history of false narratives or misleading themes of the identity of Indigenous Peoples of America. Nicholas Galanin, Tlingit artist from Sitka Alaska, comes from a long line of artists. His art discusses the balance between his origins and the course of his practice through different topics within Indigenous community to bring them into discussion. He is a multi-disciplinary artist who earned his BFA at London Guildhall University in England and his MFA from Massey University in New Zealand. His work has been in shown all over the world. Galanin series titled, What Have We Become 2006 was inspired by and experience he had while being interviewed for his first exhibition in 2004 Totems to Turquoise. This interaction made him question and think about the expectations that non-Natives have over Native American Art. “He is interested in where information about indigenous peoples comes from, the legitimacy of their portrayal in scholarly literature, and the validity of interpretations from people who are not from the culture” (Feeney, 2006 ) What Have We Become 2006, consists of blank sheets and pages from nineteenth-century anthropological books. He understands the importance of literature and the documentation of such books but his sculptures address the politics of cultural representation and contemporary Indigenous identity (Swan, 2007). Many books about Native Americans and history inform the reader that these people lived in the past and were also written from a foreign concept. In these forms they become bias and one-sided, which holds restrictions and sets up stereotypes. “I have found myself reading Western literature, often written from a foreign perspective, in which my culture has been digested and recycled back to me,” Galanin states in an interview (Swan, 2007). These sculptural books of the What Have We Become series have been carved into, hand cut and laser engraved. This series of exploring book binding and his foundational skills in traditional Tlingit art I find very intriguing. Nicholas Galanin’s art was recently part of the broken box pod cast show in Santa Fe, NM. He is a very important artist in Contemporary Native American Art. References Beat Nation: Hip hop as Indigenous Culture. http://www.beatnation.org/nicholas-galanin.html Broken Boxes. Episode 22. Interview with Nicholas Galanin. Dec. 21, 2014. Feeney, Stephanie. FOCUS- Nicholas Galanin: Multi-disciplinary Artist and Musician. Native American Art Council https://portlandartmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/NAAC-FOCUS-June-2016.pdf Swan, Kristin. Recent Acquisitions: Nicholas Galanin What, Have We Become? Vol3 & 5A http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/explore/news/recent-acquisitions-nicholas-galanin-what-have-we-become-vol-3-5a-2007 Michael Leeder For over four decades, Joel Radcliffe has been binding books in the Pacific Northwest. Currently situated in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, his bindery, Ars Obscura, has been operating since 1991. I had the opportunity to visit with Joel in July, 2017, where I learned a bit about the history of bookbinding and printmaking in the region, and specifically about Joel’s methods of work. But it was a complicated dance to track Joel down on this trip, as his workshop is as obscured in location as it is in name. Upon arriving in Seattle, I began to track down print shops that I could visit, but due to the July 4th holiday, most were closed for business. The one that was open and readily accessible to the tourist masses was at Pike Place Market, the Pike Street Press. It was a letterpress shop that produced close to 100% of its merchandise on two Old Heidelberg windmill presses at the base of the Market by the ocean. Upon inquiring, I discovered that no one that worked there held a degree in printmaking. So I asked, “Are there other print shops located around town?” Sadly nothing. The best I could find was the possibility of someone knowing more than they did at a bookstore on the other side of the city, which by happenstance they didn’t know the name of. The game was afoot... The next day, back at the Market, I ventured into a storefront that sold old magazines and movie posters: Old Seattle Paperworks. There, the owner told me that there used to be a lot of print shops in town, but over the years they had lost out to the technological advancement known as offset printing. But then he mentioned that he knew of a bookbinder that had handled manuscripts and books for the Vatican, and that he did repairs in his workshop with goatskin, rabbit glue, and real vellum. He then told me that they were going to close soon, and that he didn’t know the name of the bindery. Wishing me good luck, he pointed me in the direction of Pioneer Square on Google Maps and told me to hurry. Pioneer Square is one of the oldest parts of the city, with beautiful late 1800’s Romanesque Revival buildings lining the streets. With minutes to go before the stores shut down, I ran around the buildings looking for anything that might intimate that I was in the right spot. Nearly giving up, upon rounding one of the buildings in Occidental Square, I noticed that there was a bookstore called Arundel Books. The proprietor of the store told me he was closing, but I let him know that I had traveled hundreds of miles by air and numerous miles by foot and I wanted to know if he knew of a rumored book binder nearby.
"Oh, you must be looking for Joel. Let me lock up and I'll take you down to him." Like that, he proceeded to lock up shop and lead me into the depths of this elderly building. Into the basement we went, and then he told me to follow the hallway to the end and take a right and then a left turn. I asked him how I'd know I was there and he merely smiled, saying "You'll figure it out." He was right. After a long walk in a dimly lit hall, the sudden smell of a moldy room encroached on me. There in front of me was a door with the words "ARS OBSCURA" hand lettered on its glass window. I walked in and immediately was transported into a different reality. I had travelled backwards in time. Hanging from the ceiling there were goat skins died in a rainbow of colors, untrimmed vellum, and an odd assortment of tools, paper, furniture, and artwork. I introduced myself and explained that I was an artist interested in books and the history of printmaking. We sat down and had a conversation about what he does, how his wife is far superior at bookbinding than him (during my visit, she was working in the back while we chatted), and a little bit about printmaking in the Pacific Northwest. I asked him where else I might find people in the same trade. Joel jokingly told me that I missed the train by a few decades. His understanding was that as consumer tastes changed in real time, artists adapted and left behind older printmaking techniques that were either too costly or time consuming to remain competitive. He, on the other hand, stuck with it, literally spending six to seven days a week in his bindery. The results are that his business is very successful, as he has a waiting list of customers stretching back months. Joel and I parted ways with him telling me to bring my passport next time so I could visit Ouroboros Press (www.bookarts.org) across the border, and told me to visit him again the next time that I was in Seattle. He then gave me a card with his wife’s blog on it, which leads you down a wonderful rabbit hole about what it’s like to be a professional bookbinder. I recommend that you take the time to visit her blog for further reading on book arts, rare books, and the like. by CeCe Ramey This is my favorite poem and if you hang in there and read, I’ll explain everything. An Intro and Recollection of My Personal History with Poetry My current relationship with poetry is quite distant. I only briefly run into poetry when others mention it in their work. I admire it from afar. Perhaps the first time my ears heard a poem was when my parents taught me the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or maybe it was my father’s voice calling out as he closed my bedroom door close “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite!” The first time my eyes saw a poem in physical form was in the children’s books with gorgeous colors and shapes I would spend hours delving into such as the work of Dr Seuss. In grade school I remember reading poems that rhymed with lines and stanzas. The simple ABAB and ABBA later lead to understanding and memorizing the complex Shakespearean Sonnet rhyme scheme. All this knowledge of the kinds and rules of rhyming just to have my mind blown upon discovering the Haiku, a poem that needs no rhyme at all… But then.. What is a Poem? Here are a few definitions that you may piece together to help form the path of an answer: Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. - poetry.org Poetry can be differentiated most of the time from prose, which is language meant to convey meaning in a more expansive and less condensed way, frequently using more complete logical or narrative structures than poetry does. This does not necessarily imply that poetry is illogical, but rather that poetry is often created from the need to escape the logical, as well as expressing feelings and other expressions in a tight, condensed manner. - poetry.org It is a literary art that takes elements of language, such as aesthetic and rhymics, to mean more than it normally would. A poem doesn’t need to rhyme or contain multiple words. A poem helps the mind play with its well-trod patterns of thought, and can even help reroute those patterns by making us see the familiar anew. - Mark Yakich Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define. - Mark Flanagan Although poetry is hard to define, I find we can rely on what we like and don’t like about poems to help in understanding. We don’t like cheesy poems that follow tropes or lead us exactly were we think they will lead. We enjoy poetry we can read again and again, each time taking in a new rhyme, a new detail, a new emotion, a new memory recalled or even created. Return:
This is my favorite poem by Aram Saroyan. It’s made in a thick slab serif typeface. Like the typefaces used in old typewriters and movie scripts. It looks stretched towards the sky. It’s called the world’s shortest poem by the Guinness Book of Records. It’s “a closeup of an alphabet being born” – Bob Grumman. Maybe it’s a cell in the process of dividing, ‘m’ and the ‘n’, not quit separated. Some see it as a pun on “I am”, implying the formation of consciousness. When I first read it, I hear the “mm” I make when I’m thinking. The “mm” I make before I decide on what to do next. The “mm” I make as the last sound before I fall asleep. Is it a m+n? Or a m+n? Three n’s? Is it a letter at all? The puzzle of it makes me think about our language. The history and evolution of the alphabet. The idea that words are a code that we have developed to describe the world to one another. That the code which our communication relies on is imperfect and thin. The longer I look at it, the less it feels like language. I look at it again and I see an animal. I see an organism moving it’s long lanky limbs and a head. When I stare at it, it becomes form alone. It reminds me of Roman aqueducts moving water along. My eyes love to stay on the boundary between the slab serif and the vertical columns. Despite it’s small size on my screen, I feel as though I can walk under it. This is why it’s my favorite poem. Every time I read it, I see something new. I take my knowledge of the world to question it and it in return questions my knowledge of the world. Sources: http://www.poetry.org/whatis.htm https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/what-is-a-poem/281835/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F7quI-MbzY https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-poetry-851673 http://www.peopleofar.com/2013/07/02/worlds-shortest-poem/ Lingxiang Li ART455 Bamboo and Wooden Slips (Chinese Bamboo Book) About the bamboo book In the history of Asia, there is a kind of book that plays a vital role as a turning point in cultural revolution, which was bamboo and wooden slips. Bamboo and wooden slips were the main media for documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries AD. Early text engraved on the bones of animals or cuprous bells, because of material limitations, it is difficult to spread widely, so until the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1046 BC), there were only hundreds of people who mastered the texts, which greatly limits the spread of culture and ideas , All this until the appearance of bamboo slips just to changed. Narrow strips of wood or bamboo typically carry a single column of brush-written text each, with space for several tens of complex ancient Chinese characters. For longer texts, many slips may be bound together in sequence with thread. Each strip of wood or bamboo is said to be as long as a chopstick and as wide as a pair. The earliest surviving examples of wood or bamboo slips date from the 5th century BC during the States period of China. However, references in earlier texts surviving on other media make it clear that some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was in use as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC). Bamboo or wooden strips were the standard writing material during the Han dynasty and excavated examples have been found in some great numbers. Subsequently, paper began to displace bamboo and wooden strips from mainstream uses, and by the 4th century AD bamboo had been largely abandoned as a medium for writing in China. The custom of interring books made of the durable bamboo strips in royal tombs has preserved many works in their original form through the centuries. An important early find was the Jizhong discovery in 279 AD of a tomb of a king of Wei, though the original recovered strips have since disappeared. Several caches of great importance have been found in recent years. In modern China or modern Asian world, bamboo slips are mostly used for decoration instead of books. Process of Making the book Making a Bamboo book is not simple. First, cut off the green bamboo tube and roast it, let the tube "sweat", which is dehydration, this process is to prevent future deformation and easy to write. Second, use ink to write with brush on each slips. Nowadays people normally don’t use ink to write on slips anymore, replaced by laser engraving or hand crafting. Third, use thread to bind them one by one. There are two types of binding for bamboo slips, one is just tie them by hand without drilling any holes on bamboo slips, the other one is drill holes on two sides of each slips and then use thread insert into it for a stronger hold. Lastly, people roll all the slips together into a round column for an easy carry and store. There are some short videos about this book and the making process of bamboo slips below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRCZ0NiReC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHErKHVlmOM Sources: https://www.google.com/search?q=chinese+bamboo+book&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP0aHa9cPXAhUELmMKHUnTD_MQ_AUICygC&biw=1280&bih=639&dpr=2#imgrc=ADU_AOQLkYNLvM: https://www.aliexpress.com/cheap/cheap-chinese-scroll-book/2.html Kelsey Reiman
It is tempting to situate modern letterpress printing in opposition to digital technology. While printing moveable type was once the most efficient way to print text, today it is much cheaper and easier to print text digitally. However, artists began using letterpress printing in their creative work, to exploit the processes subtle and humanistic qualities. Letterpress connoisseurs are often interested in the embossment that moveable type creates on the paper that it is printed on and the quality of oil based inks. These are unique effects since most people are only used to handling images and text that are printed using planographic processes, or interacting with images on a flat screen. But while in some situations digital technologies have replaced the need for letterpress printing, in other instances digital processes can be used to help reinvent movable type and ensure continued innovation within the field of letterpress printing. For example, many artists and designers have began looking at the possibility of using 3D printing to create moveable type. 3D printing is a process that works by printing two dimensional images using a material such as plastic to give the image thickness. The printer then moves vertically and prints another two dimensional layer onto the layer that was previously created to build up another layer and create vertical depth. The printer continues this process until the whole three dimensional object is built. This process is ideal for creating movable type because it can print letters very precisely and make them exactly type high. Furthermore, there are a variety of materials that can be 3D printed. Therefore, designers can experiment with which materials hold and transfer ink best. Finally, it is possible to control the pattern in which a 3D printer lays down material, which effects the texture of type face, and ultimately the impressions that it leaves. These are all qualities that designers can manipulate to create new typefaces that have different qualities than traditional woodblock type. A23D is a 3D printed font that was created in collaboration by New North Press, A2-type and Chalk Studios. The type was fabricated by using a printer that printed photopolymer plastic and then cured the material with uv light as it was printed. Photopolymer is a material that is familiar to most letterpress printers, and is ideal for creating type because it transfers ink well and stands up to many impressions. The design of the type is reminiscent of a wireframe that it is used to display 3D objects in 3D modeling programs such as Rhino and Maya. Therefore, A23D is a typeface that “merges the newest and oldest forms of printing.” Visually and technically it is a typeface that is unique to the current era, but it is printed onto paper using a centuries old process. Futhermore, Peter Bella, a professor at Purdue University, and Caleb Fairres created the 3D printed typeface Fusion800. The used free Tinkercad software to create their design, and printed with PLA on one of the more inexpensive models of 3D printers in order to use a process that would be more inexpensive and accessible to others and that could be built upon and expanded by others. Bella writes, “This moveable type exploration embraces the 3D printer as a machine to create a typeface never intended to meet the standards of perfection, but to embody the inherent artistic and humanistic aesthetics of the machine by pushing technology to its limits and discovering how human a 3D printed movable typeface can become.” There is a lot excitement around how 3D printing can be used to create new moveable typefaces, and create continued innovation within the centuries old craft of letterpress. Sources: https://www.designboom.com/technology/a23d-3d-printed-letterpress-font-09-17-2014/ https://designincubation.com/publications/abstracts/making-the-machine-human-embracing-printing-technologies-in-crafting-a-present-day-moveable-typeface/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3RzuMzmi-8 By: Erin L. Kuhn Not Just Talking: Identifying Non-Verbal Communication Difficulties- A Life Changing Approach
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