The Alemannic holiday celebrated generally on this day in Liechtenstein and certain Swiss cantons and strongly associated with Rauhnรคchte traditions has contending etymologies and pedigrees including a late twelfth century abbot, a storied hunting expedition undertaken around the same time by a like-named duke or to the alpine pagan protectoress of wild things called Perchta (*Brehtaz, Bertha) and leader of the entourage of the hunting party. This final candidate is the most interesting and compelling, the figure a cultural continuity from pre-Christian influences and was given the role of upholding totem and taboo, reinforcing ritual fasting and the prohibition of working on the holidays, Sabbaths and monitoring the progress of servants and craftspeople to make sure that they were keeping up with the productivity quotas—later transferred to winnowing the naughty from the nice (see also) like her male counterpart Krampus—with the good and upstanding rewarded with a silver coin the next day in a shoe or pail and the recalcitrant would be eviscerated and have their innards and the contents of their bellies replaced with straw, flax and pebbles.
Saturday 2 January 2021
7x7
3 a.m. eternal: the musical stylings of the KLF are finally available for streaming services—via Things Magazine
paleofutures: the lunar Western Moon Zero Two takes place in 2021
no show: Trump fails to appear at his Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve bash—guests entertained by Rudy Giuliani and Vanilla Icenot disappoint: a recommendation for a good polyglotinous language lover to follow, whose byline does rather suggest a crash blossom
star wars—give me those star wars, nothing but star wars: the saga continues
alla breve or cut for time: big, brute data analysis may finally resolve the controversy over Beethoven’s metronome and how the composer intended his works to be heard—via Strange Company
klanglandschaft: Swiss artist Zimoun engineers ambient soundscapes with everyday materials
Tuesday 8 December 2020
third protocol emblem
The global humanitarian movement comprising nearly a million volunteers and staff worldwide, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, adopted on this day in 2005 the red crystal, officially referred to as the above, as an auxiliary symbol available to use when religious connotations of the previous emblems might be objectionable as an amendment to the Geneva Conventions, known as Protocol III. Neutral and without religious, political or geographic associations, it was meant to make the organisation more inclusive and not a vehicle of hegemony and privileging, allowing more groups to join and deploy this protective banner during times of conflict to render assistance to the wounded.
Tuesday 6 October 2020
51 pegasi b
On this day in 1995 the discovery of the exoplanet by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva was announced in the journal Nature.
Tuesday 29 September 2020
9x9
patim, patam, patum: font specimens of Patufet, a typeface inspired by the Catalonian Tom Thumb
ace of cups: Summer of Love all-female band that played the Avalon Ballroom and appeared with Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead release a new double-album
leaf-peeping: Swiss fall foliage map franking privileges: Finnish studio mints climate change stamps with heat-reactive inkbackyard safari: highly detailed journal documenting encounters with wildlife—via Nag on the Lake
space 1999: scenes from the sets of the iconic British scifi series that ran from 1975 to 1977—via Messy Nessy Chic
pacomobile: a modified VW snail camper—via Things magazine
sฤlaj county: a brilliant assortment of flag redesigns for Romania’s forty-two regions to celebrate the country’s diversity
cannonball aderley: jazz record sleeves from Reagan Ray (see previously) feature the typography of the artists’ names—via Kottke
Thursday 10 September 2020
marianne von werefkin
Born this day (Old Style 29 August) 1860 (†1938) in the then Govenorate of Tula, Mariรกnna Vladรญmirovna Verรซvkina would go on to become an important and influential painter (claimed by every place she lived and worked) in the Expressionist style. Protรฉgรฉ and eventual peer of artists in the movement like Alexj von Jawlensky, Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.
The latter two (whom are a prominent part of the permanent collection of artists of the Wiesbaden Museum) distanced themselves from the collective in Mรผnchen that they all as emigres had joined but with the outbreak of World War I formed Der Blaue Reiter group, prompting the seasoned Werekin and Jawlensky to repair to Geneva—forming their own splinter school Ursa Major—der Groรer Bรคr.
Saturday 5 September 2020
galleria stradale del san gottardo
Holding the title of world’s longest road tunnel for two decades before being overtaken by the Lรฆrdalstunnelen in Vestland, the Gotthard Road Tunnel between the cantons of Ticino and Uri, linking the highlands to southern Switzerland beneath the namesake massif opened to traffic on this day in 1980.
After taking more than a decade to construct and given the high monetary cost and the nineteen fatalities of workers, the public balked at the fact there was no supplemental toll for it (the tunnel being covered by the mandatory vignettes for use of Swiss motorways), sighing that “The Italians built it, the Germans use it and the Swiss pay for it.” The inaugural vehicle was a school bus.
Monday 11 May 2020
7x7
great railway journeys: POV footage of Swiss trains racing through the countryside accompanied by techno music
day-o: a family in lockdown recreates dinner party scene from Beetlejuice
starfish and coffee: Prince is the opening act for the latest Link Pack from Swiss Miss
down to gorky park: an in depth investigation into whether the 1990 Scorpions’ power ballad was a US was soft power ploy by the intelligence services
oslo maps the world: visit dozens of global festival venues virtually, via Maps Mania
novas: a mirror universe mixtape of 1982—one of the 1982s, via Kicks Condor
sun dance: a mesmerising percussion set paired with high resolution footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory
catagories: ๐จ๐ญ, ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ณ๐ด, ๐ฌ, ๐ถ, ๐ญ, 1990, networking and blogging, transportation
Thursday 5 March 2020
7x7
goetheanum: a visit to the seat of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach in the canton of Solothurn
0107 – b moll: a brilliant short by filmmaker Hiroshi Kondo on cityscapes, commutes and light—via Waxy
pivot point: we are entering the era of Peak Car—see also
gratuitous diacritics: a peek inside the world of extreme heavy metal logos—via Things Magazine
autoritatto: an artist commissions a neural network to generate her a self-portrait out of thousands of selfies
it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood: documenting the wildlife traffic over this log bridge in Pennsylvania enters its second year
Sunday 1 March 2020
intaglio
Wednesday 12 February 2020
fรผnf augen
Chillingly and now the subject of an official inquiry by the Swiss government (whose own intelligence service is formidable and nothing to underestimate), the Washington Post and the ZDF reveal that for decades the CIA and the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, see previously) in partnership owned and controlled a communications and information security company that manufactured encryption machines and cipher (see also) devices for intelligence agencies and businesses around the world.
While it was known since 2015 that the firm’s founder had been approached by a field operative in 1955 and strongly urged not to sell the technology to governments not aligned with the West, the extent of America and West Germany’s involvement remained a mystery, and from 1970 to 2018 (the BND dropping out in 1988) conducted operations Thesaurus and Rubicon to distribute compromised machines with a backdoor built in to allow US spies to handily intercept and decrypt secret correspondence. Justifiably wary, the Soviets and China did not use the rigged machines but many governments in the Middle East and Central and South America did, informing and fueling American adventurism and proxy warfare in those regions.
Sunday 19 January 2020
lignes gรฉomรฉtriques et ondoyantes
Born on this day in Davos in 1889 (†1943), artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp honed her skills across multiple disciplines including sculpture, dance, interior design and textiles becoming one of the most important and influential forces in concrete and abstract art, and informed the Dadaist movement, a co-signatory of the Zรผricher manifesto.
Her weaving and textile work from 1916 were acknowledged as some of the pioneering constructivist exemplars of the age, along with Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich and brought performative dance and cabaret to the shared philosophical front and was also the first artist to reference polka-dots. Confidants including Joan Mirรณ and Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Sonia and Robert Delauney, Taeuber-Arp exhibited successfully in Strasbourg before founding a Constructivist review and led their recampment of their artists’ freehold to Grasse in Vichy France during Nazi occupation, expiring tragically pre-maturely due to carbon-monoxide poisoning from an ill-fitting stove pipe. Taeuber-Arp has previously been the subject of many retrospectives, appearing on the 50 CHF note from 1995 to 2016 and was honoured with a Google doodle.
Thursday 16 January 2020
interbellum or roaring twenties
Framed during the Paris Peace Conference six days earlier, the League of Nations (Sociรฉtรฉ des Nations, previously) held its first council meeting on this day in 1920. With an executive body comprised of Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan and France (the victors of World War I) and charged with not only maintaining peace but also championing social justice for native inhabitants of colonial holdings, fair labour standards, global health and combatting human trafficking, the organisation lacked the authority and means to enforce its mandate through sanctions or military interventions.
“Let us boldly state that aggression wherever it occurs and however it may be defended, is an international crime, that is the duty of every peace-loving state to resent it and employ whatever force is necessary to crush it, that the machinery if the Charter, no less than the machinery of the Covenant, is sufficient for this purpose if properly used, and that every well-disposed citizen of every state should be ready to undergo any sacrifice in order to maintain peace … I venture to impress upon my hearers that the great work of peace is resting not only on the narrow interests of our own nations, but even more on those great principles of right and wrong which nations, like individuals, depend.
The League is dead. Long live the United Nations.”
Wednesday 15 January 2020
l’habitat et ร l’infrastructure
Via the always engrossing Maps Mania, we are invited to contemplate land use by the Swiss and take notice how for instance, geography and terrain considered, the dominant percentage for Switzerland is found in managed and untamed forests.
Thursday 5 December 2019
suncave parry arc
Via Kottke, we are given a nice lesson on the atmospheric phenomenon of ice crystal halos and the exacting collusion of conditions that must take place in order to be a privileged witness. I am very much an enthusiast as well for the dazzling Alpine displays of reflection and refraction that are not only confined to colder and am consoled by the seeming penchant of weather formations (and have my camera ready in anticipation) to partake in the Baader-Meinhof syndrome (see also)—the frequency illusion and actually seem to manifest more often once one can name them, which feels very much the case with unusual clouds, sundogs and double-rainbows.
Sunday 20 October 2019
karambolage
From 1942 to 1990, Arnold Odermatt was employed as a forensics photographer for the Swiss canton of Nidwalden whose extensive portfolio documents encroaching modernity into this once isolated area, especially in traffic accidents, taking a second photograph for his own personal collection once the injured had been taken away.
Though his fascination is morbid and inscrutable as his motivation was never stated and the existence of the images were only disclosed by accident (his filmmaker son discovering the trove in a box in the attic one day and published them in a book that garnered attention in the late 1990s at the Frankfurter Buchmesse), there is, one might conjecture, a restorative property in seeing these husks of vehicles in an austere light, unmoving without drivers and passengers. Much more to explore at the link above including several galleries of Odermatt’s compositions, which includes many candid, happy scenes artfully captured as well.
catagories: ⚠️, ๐จ๐ญ, ๐ท, transportation
Thursday 19 September 2019
eisbรฆr
Though only producing four albums and disbanding after ten concerts together, we appreciated the introduction to the short-lived musical collaboration courtesy of Dangerous Minds to the Swiss Neue Welle group Grauzone (grey area) with their standout 1981 single Eisbรคr, their biggest hit charting at number twelve in Germany and number six in Austria.
Drummer and bassist Macro Repetto joined up with vocalist and led guitar Martin Eicher backed up by Eicher’s guitarist brother, Stephen (whom later went on to forge an accomplished solo career as a chanteur), and saxophonist Claudine Chirac and had their first gig at a club in Bern in the spring of 1980, their musical stylings were instantly recognised as something resonant that spoke to the mood of the times. Their songs were remastered in 2010, the accompanying video produced for that release. Much more to explore at the link above.
Sunday 15 September 2019
offset und verlag
Via Present /&/ Correct, we are acquainted with yet another publishing trade magazine this time in the form of the bimonthly then annual anthology editions of Graphis Press, originally founded in Zรผrich in 1944 and moving to New York headquarters in 1986. Featuring innovations in typography, formatting, layout, presentation, branding, logos and letterhead, past contributors include Milton Glaser, Saul Bass, Victor Vasarely and Herb Lubalin. Much more to explore at the links above.
Friday 23 August 2019
pizolgletscher
Following a recent memorial service for a departed glacier in Iceland, a Swiss environmental group in the canton of Sankt Gallen is planning on holding a similar funeral for the small cirque glacier (formed in a bowl-shaped mountain depression) at the foot of the Pizol.
Effectively dead with no longer the ability, albeit at a geologically slow pace, to impact the landscape as it crosses the range and is now regarded as a patch of dirty ice and a massively popular hiking trail through five alpine lakes and moraines is much diminished by the loss of one of its attractions. Learn how you can pay your respects and stop further glacial melting away at the link above.
Thursday 1 August 2019
rรผtlischwur
Inspired by the Federal Charter dated to early August of 1291 when three Alpine cantons committed to a pact of allegiance, the Old Swiss Confederacy, something semi-legendary and romantically depicted in Friedrich Schiller’s William Tell—since 1891 and codified as a public holiday in 1994 Switzerland has set aside this day (Schweizer Bundesfeiertag, Fรชte nationale suisse, Festa nazionale svizzera, Fiasta naziunala svizra) to recognise its founding. The Rheinfall waterfall is illuminated for the observance and the Rรผtli meadow on the shores of Lake Lucerne where the oath is traditionally believed to have been sworn hosts an organised celebration as do municipalities across the land.
catagories: ๐จ๐ญ, ๐ซ, ๐ฌ, holidays and observances