Though ultimately denied her alibi to skip out on a visit with Trump’s viceroy but not because liberal-Green prime minister Katrรญn Jakobsdรณttir changed her itinerary and rather the US mission did shift their schedule from today to tomorrow rather than perpetuate another diplomatic gaffe, the Reykjavรญk Grapevine reports, Pence coming to Iceland following additional investment does yet put the country in an awkward position, the understudy being rather antithetical to everything that Iceland has come to embrace and stands for and steals the spotlight and upstages Trump himself regarding some issues. There’s sure to be protests whether the US is successful in making vassals out of Europe’s fringes or not, so stay tuned.
Tuesday 3 September 2019
fire and i.c.e.
Monday 2 September 2019
little matron
Via Nag on the Lake, we are treated to a playful stop-motion short from award-winning Dutch-Canadian filmmaker Jacobus Willem “Co” Hoedeman. “Matrioska” (1970) was one of his first commissions for the National Film Board of Canada—having immigrated there in 1965 on the hope that the esteemed institution might hire him on. After producing several films including a treasury of Inuit folktales, Hoedeman went to Czechoslovakia to study puppetry and currently serves as an advisory member of the board and animation consultant. Explore more of his works at the link above.
l’abbaye de beauport
Hidden away in the woods outside the commune of Paimpol in the village of Kรฉrity, the former abbey founded in 1202 and invested with papal privilege from its inception represents the introduction of Celtic monastic living to Bretagne.
Fallen into neglect and disrepair already by 1790, the ruins (Abati Boporzh in Breton) were purchased by an Irish fisherman named Louis Morand living in Paimpol who began conservation work, which was eventually taken over by the French government (first as a Monument historique then under the auspices of le Conservatoire du littoral, an agency charged with protecting the character of the coast) in 1862.
Renowned French historian and archaeologist Arcisse de Caumont (*1801 – †1873) based his influential and authoritative rudiments (an Abรฉcรฉdaire) of religious architecture from studies on the abbey ruins, offering the structure as prototypical of the period, the layout of the arcade and the transept being of special interest. Noteworthy also is the chronology of styles preserved as the compound was expanded over the centuries, whilst preserving its original core ensemble.
Although presently restored extensively as lush and picturesque gardens in 1992, one can still imagine the practical elements and daily routine of the monks’ lives with areas marked off by their former use, cells, common areas and even a rather ingenious salt-pan installation to reclaim minerals from sea water by evaporation.
intersectionality
Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are invited to explore how one’s content-curators (previously) are driven by the geometry dispensed in Euclid’s Elements, lending a spatial and a quite non-figurative sense to the notion of architecture of choice and the concept of taste divergence.
This illustration of data-modelling and prediction is also a very safe and non-judgmental forum to reacquaint oneself with the maths that we never expected to use again only to find that they’ve been exploiting us through some practical assignments, which are quite assailable despite the fact that they start out like those terribly fraught word problems about trains passing at speed.
cap d’erquy
One of the first we explored this time around was breath-taking for its dramatic vistas but also fort the introduction to the diverse and unique natural landscapes and proof that given time and determination that re-wilding can occur. Click on the images to enlarge and for more detail.
The misty coastal path (in parts elevated on wooden planks) that wound through this point was once farmland but has been rehabilitated as a protected reserve and again hosts uninterrupted hectares of moorland, peatbogs and pinewoods with a thick blanket of gorse (Stechginster, les Ulex) and heather (Weide, la Callune) that gradually changes colour with the seasons.
camp
Having just returned from a caravanning trip across the breadth of France—nearly three thousand kilometres there and back with several diversions—we appreciated, via the venerable and always interesting Things Magazine, the introduction to the aesthetic and repertoire of artist and builder Jay Nelson through his series of projects exploring the spaces, shells, huts and hulls, we inhabit whilst we’re vacationing. Much more to discover at the links above.
Sunday 1 September 2019
mont saint michel au péril de la mer
We began our journey through Bretagne revisiting (for the third time) a spectacular site just on the Norman side of the Atlantic Coast along la Manche (Mor Breizh, the English Channel) with the abbey constructed according to feudal hierarchy (God represented by the church and monastery at the summit, administration and housing in the middle and supported by the farmers and fisherfolk below) on the tidal island of Mont Saint Michel, having acquired the monicker above for the perilous trip it offered for pilgrims that failed to time the rising and falling of the seas correctly.
Established by a pair of contemplative hermits at the beginning of the sixth century, the bishop Aubert having received successive visions from the archangel Michael to build an oratory there in the style of the first shrine dedicated to him at Gargano in the Lombardy, a mission was dispatched to the site in Italy to retrieve some relics—prompting reportedly a great wave to cleave the island from the mainland (discovered to their surprise upon returning). Just prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, the duchy took possession of the peninsula from a weakened and compromised Brittany and the community of monks that had since established themselves there had sided with William I and supported his invasion of England, currying the order considerable favour and autonomy—including a rocky outcropping off the Cornish coast. The Reformation and the later French Revolution (see also) meant that the abbey became more and more inconsequential and even dubbed the “Bastille of the Sea” the compound was used as a prison for ecclesiastics that did not support the Republic or its values. At one point, there were over seven hundred inmates in the employ of making straw hats and an accidental fire did significant damage to the structure—were it not for the intervention and advocacy of celebrities like Victor Hugo (previously) le Mont Saint Michel might have been razed to the ground. Though only fifty permanent residents reside on the island, including a dozen monks and nuns, some three million visit annually.
go set a watchman
Via Boing Boing, we‘re exposed to a rather inverted demonstration project that leans heavily into the susceptibility of neural networks to human prejudice and pareidolia to pluck what could pass as evidence from the grainy though not necessarily sensitive to granularity.
Researchers—the sort that also lean heavily on gimmickry and Security Theatre—are training artificial intelligence on progressive facial resolution and recognition to limn in the incriminating details spared in historical footage. As shown nightmarishly on pixelated emoji, the subroutine wants to attribute greebling characteristics that are not honestly present with the potential of a netting an intruder or interloper whose culpability is boosted by being the unfortunate victim of circumstance and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These applications can potentially turn into digital age witch-trials are rooted in the same mentality that supposes any image could be enhanced indefinitely or that the work of forensics is instantaneous and straightforward, speaking to authorities and actuaries that want a villain without regard to accuracy.
