11x11 (12. 724)

out damn spot: the attempted erasure of a Banksy mural shows one cannot scrub away complicity in genocide  

free return trajectory: acting NASA administrator faces the space press on getting intriguing rock samples from Mars to Earth for further study 

canonically accurate: Spirit Halloween corrects the spelling on their Betelgeuse prop sign—see previously here and here 

jawsome: the promotional hyping of some thing as “awe dropping” connotes rather the opposite for me     

maternity ward: track new website launches by category in real-time—a lot of click-bait landing sites being cloned badly by AI but some genuine births as well—via Web Curios  

goodbye computer: a sad little send off from April Clucks about a machine she adored until they became unlovable

me＇te.o.ra: ambient music generated by local weather conditions—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, which also features a defence of the em-dash 

midway: the aesthetics of arcade game marquees 

cornutam: Moses’ depiction in art as having horns is a mistranslation from the Vulgate perpetuated by centuries of tradition

an asymmetrical curiosity: physicists construct a tangible demonstration of time-crystals  

what sophistry is this: at the advice of legal counsel, Jezebel pulls an article from early in the week about hiring some Etsy witches to curse a right wing influencers and conservative activist—see previously, see also

peephole (12. 723)

Via It’s Nice That, we enjoyed discovering these lovingly crafted animated vignettes from graphic design duo Plantopia that narrate little stories through shifting and privileged perspectives and fisheye effects. The creative collaboration began a decade ago when Maryka Laudet and Quentin Camus were students at art school in Arles and have since set up studio in Bristol. Unrelated to the image below, much more at the link above the artists’ website, featuring their full portfolio of GIFs, commissioned projects and links to their socials.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronopticæ), nights on Earth, the Ig Nobel prize, prayers vs spells plus Cloud Appreciation Day

fifteen years ago: the US Tea Party and the Social Contract 

collocation (12. 722)

Although it is justified to dismiss artificial intelligence and large language models as exalted extensions of auto-correct and predictive text—autocomplete—there is a danger is dismissing the analogy that a chatbot is a mere calculator of words. Albeit an adding machine has unimpeachable and unbiased output, AI too has by studying frequency a handle rather than an understanding of custom through patterns that even linguists have not been able to precisely pin down, which despite no understanding can through brute force pass the Turing test and even on a rudimentary dataset become convincingly fluent, just enough so as the technology and expectations advance.

motor city agate (12. 721)

Recalling a recent look at the much accelerated process of synthetic geology, we quite enjoyed this introduction to this gem of industrial inefficiency (which illustrates how the push for optimisation comes at a cost, though waste and pollution is to be avoid, the drag and misalignment that meant non-targeted ads for everyone was what enabled journalism and broadcast entertainment in the first place—which are no longer free and still serve commercials and designed obsolescence and the inability to repair and upgrade over replacing) that by dent of its relative scarcity and specific epoch has become one of the most appealing media for jewellery makers. Technically a cabochon, from the French to distinguish a stone that is not cut and faceted but rather shaped and polished, the agate was the byproduct of applying enamel coats to automobiles by hand, with overspray accumulating in paint bays and the layers of slag, ages within epochs, particularly from the late 1960s and early 1970s, when “high impact” colours were in fashion, have become highly sought after. Changes in bodywork by the 1980s saw the adoption of electrostatic painting, basically magnetising the enamel to the chassis, meant the end of this era.

chryons (12. 720)

Via Waxy, and perhaps a better way to absorb the shock of breaking headlines that one can otherwise manage to avoid and tune-in voluntarily to the outlet of one’s choice, which presents a roll of live but not scrolling, automatically refreshing and unlinked screen grabs of the lower third of selected news sources (see a sister-project for front pages here), a graphic overlay or ticker that appear in the bottom portion of the screen (not necessarily taking up that much attention real estate), in the title-safe area, the margins of display. The above synonymous title term is a genericised trademark—see previously—of the Chyron Corporation, the company founded in 1966 that pioneered broadcast titling and graphic generators, named after the superlative mythological centaur for the integration of text and pictures on live TV. Whilst on the one hand hand making one chase after what’s next with this format and time-stamp, it also it a nice governor and a meditation on how headlines undergo fossilisation in the media onslaught.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a nineteenth century puppet theatre (with synchronopticæ), New York’s Chelsea Hotel, branding wild horses plus Haile Selassie deposed (1974)

thirteen years ago: corporate welfare, Swiss banking secrecy toppled plus a consortium of European museums goes online

fourteen years ago: reflections on 9/11 plus fiscal discipline and fiduciary disciples 

fifteen years ago: Arianne Huffington on America’s decline 

seventeen years ago: more reflections on 11 September 

calling-card (12. 719)

We enjoyed this introduction to prolific Romantic painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Иван Айвазовский) from Crimea of Armenian extraction, considered a master of the maritime scene and appointed official artist of the Imperial Navy and cemented in the popular culture of Russia in the mid-nineteenth century, and beyond (he is the namesake of an asteroid discovered in 1977, 3787 Aivazovskij RG₇) by the saying worthy of his brush by playwright Anton Chekhov, though this set of souvenir keepsakes presented to guests at his seventieth birthday soiree. Each was a unique miniature seascape inset framed by a studio photograph of the artist at work—continuing the gifting for years the original party. Some contemporaries criticised this flair for self-promotion as indicative of Aivazosky’s sheer volume and pace of output—over six-thousand paintings over a career spanning six decades—and cheapening through machine-like habits his monumental works, namely his 1850 The Ninth Wave (Девятый вал) from an old sailing adage that the biggest swell comes in succession of sea wreck survivors clinging to debris and hoping to be rescued—but these creative favours seem more than a demonstration of automation and rather prefigure collage and mixed-media as well as trading-cards and tokens.

film als magisches ritual (12. 718)

Having been previously exposed to a select body of work from the underground filmmaker whose short pieces experiment of themes of the surreal, the occult and homoeroticism, we appreciated this rare glimpse of Kenneth Anger at work through this 1970 documentary from Reinold E Theil for the German network Westdeutsche Rundfunk, featuring segments of his Magick Lantern series and the filming of cut scenes for Lucifer Rising on location at the Avebury Stones. Although seemingly a recalcitrant and reluctant interviewee, Anger was grateful to WDR and the British Film Institute for grants that made the project possible. Much more from { feuilleton }—including an index of previous posts on the topic—at the link above.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: search engine optimisation (with synchronopticæ), transcribing presidential debates plus tales of Chemical Romance

twelve years ago: a visit to the Sonnenburg 

fourteen years ago: design for houseplants

mannerheim line (12. 717)

Speaking as chair of the Russian Security Council earlier this week, former president Dmitry Medvedev threatened the sovereignty of Finland using provocative language that directly parallels that false arguments circulated before the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine. Medvedev said that the former autonomous principality of the Russian Empire, full independence achieved following World War I had aligned itself with Nazi Germany (as a continuation of the Winter War that saw the eventual repelling and retreat of invading Soviet forces) with alleged ambitions to expand its borders to St Petersburg and the Kola peninsula, with a lingering russophobic hysteria that persists in its current government, determined to eliminate ethnic Slav culture, joining NATO not out of defence but as a way to bolster offensive capabilities and declare war on Russia. Patently false, this narrative of antagonising the western alliance and the EU is now new or unique and part of a continuum of rousing domestic aggression (renewing demands for reparations dating back to World War II, claiming Finnish posture nullifies settled treaties) through disinformation and sets the stage for justifying further incursions. Historical myths make for a convenient target for redirection, especially immediately after surprisingly steadfast response to threats to core members (something that was missing in the international handling of the above conflict that revealed coordination problems all around and how external borders were treated as buffer terrority)—and the rather askance request for more indirect sanctions against Russia by the US to the European Union to tariff remaining trade partners with a one hundred percent tariff.