z—is for zoning that marks off the land, so that homes, schools and factories are properly planned (13. 374)

With an energy and outreach similar to India’s census for the people, via Boing Boing, we are directed towards this rhyming abecedary produced by the Committee on City Planning (in full here) in 1937 under the mayorship of Fiorello La Guardia (previously)seizing an opportunity to educate in youngest residents in the field of civil engineering and instil the concept of considered regulations on maintaining the metropolis. Some of the entries reflect a certain agenda, foreshadowing NIMBYism and getting rid of the elevated trains in favour of expanding the subway and promoting municipal markets over street food vendors.

windows on the world (13. 365)

Opening on this day in 1976 and in operation until destroyed during the September 11th terror attacks in 2001, the complex of dining and entertainment venues developed under the guidance of restauranteur Joe Baum (responsible for renovating the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center and creator of America’s first themed destination dining establishments) and architect Warren Planter (student of Eero Saarinen) whose concept for the interior was that of a grand ocean liner with plush accents and brass railings and a terraced layout that afforded views from every table with logo, dinnerware and lighting designed by Milton Glaser.  Housed in the upper storeys of the North Tower (Building One) of the World Trade Center, all staff present on the day of the attack perished, the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 cutting off all means of escape above the ninety-second floor. Though never conclusively confirmed, it is speculated that the identity of The Falling Man is restaurant audio engineer, Jonathan Briley, brother of Alexander, the soldier and later seaman character from the disco recording act, Village People. The iconic photograph is owned by Elton John and was named after the 1950 oil painting by Max Beckmann that seems to foreshadow the trapped jumpers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return visit to the Störmthaler See (with synchronopticæ)

fourteen years ago: comparmentalising the internet 

fifteen years ago: the life and afterlife of William Shakespeare 

sixteen years ago: around town, a visit to the Kyffhäuserdenkmal plus default browsers

9x9 (13. 350)

reference desk: harness Google’s secret card catalog—via Kottke  

nitrate divas: a remarkable 1928 amateur film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” 

📍: a Scrabble Map commissioned for the word play game’s (previously) international commemoration, celebrated yesterday  

middle powers: Carney’s Liberal Party secures supermajority in parliamentary special elections  

print gallery of an artist: an MC Escherque exploration of recursive spaces—via Waxy 

infallibilità papale: ally Meloni (previously) breaks with Trump over criticism of Pope, cancels security arrangement with Israel  

dutch cartocubism: an overlooked approach to simplify mapping from the early 1930s from the figures behind ISOTYPE—via Quantum of Sollazzo—see also  

connie converse: rediscovering the forgotten folk-music genius 

огас: the 1960s proto-internet that the Soviet Union passed on—see previously

7x7 (13.326)

a look at books: some new highlights from old library archives  

putt, putt to the pizza hut: though Gorbachev’s circumstances were quite different, the empire-ending spokesmen only to be believed in hindsight  

edinburgh of the seven seas: the very busy, remote settlement of Tristan da Cunha—see previously—via Nag on the Lake  

master editor: the inevitable ubiquity of AI writing 

koyaanisquatsi: a new visually stunning music video, Pattern Index, by Max Cooper—reminiscent of the subtitle  

whitey’s on the moon: we want to be excited about the return trip around the lunar surface but are thinking a lot about that poem and sentiment from the late-1970s and how everything’s propaganda and grift layered on heavily to get to the science  

unknown artist: a collection of Mid-Century Modern ephemera from Zara Picken—via Things magazine with much more to click through and enjoy

7x7 (13. 300)

reverse game theory: a novel approach to the housing crisis—via Damn Interesting 

twen: the publications of art director Willy Fleckhaus  

whoami.wiki: a scrapbook and photo album in the form of a personal Wikipedia built with the help of AI  

i’d never lend my name to an inferior product: Trump’s signature to appear on hundred dollar bills, a first for a sitting US president  

return of the king: Stephen Colbert co-authoring a Lord of the Rings movie, possibly featuring the character of Tom Bombadil  

the red book of bath: a unique civil administration almanac—via Strange Company  

laissez-faire: a modest proposal from John Maynard Keynes to solve unemploymentby burying money under landfills

ancient aliens (13. 288)

Half buried in the storied vineyards of Nemea, near the mythic and archaeological sites of the Peloponnesian peninsula, architecture studio 314 has installed a winery that evokes an imaginative narrative that reaches back even further in prehistory with its saucer-like construction that suggests the crash site of a UFO, the extraterrestrial material comprising the hull unweathered by the passing eons but incorporated into the arcadian landscape as a unique visitors’ centre to sample reds made from the area’s renowned Agiorgitiko grape. More images from designboom at the link above.

città dei coralli (13. 259)

Via fellow internet caretaker, Messy Nessy Chic (lots more to discover there), we are introduced to the ancient art of coral-working perfected in the north-western Sicilian coastal city of Trepani. Embellished with jewels and precious metals, this craft was very much en vogue during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries following the rediscovery of reefs off the port in the Mediterranean and masters created vignettes as devotional and decorative items and as tribute for the aristocracy. The tradition continues with jewellery and figural tableaux like Nativity scenes by a new generation that have revived the art using the old tools of the trade for working the coral but with more of an eye towards conservation rather than exploitation of the maritime environment.  Much more to explore at the links above.

8x8 (13. 255)

should make you think: the Ig Noble commitee and ceremony (see previously) moves to Zürich permanently out of fear for its international laureates coming to the US  

multisource authentication: the madding task of logging on to any platform, ostensibly for security reasons, also is unpaid labour to train AI  

ʰ-bomb: a typographical mystery surrounding one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated sacred spaces—via MetaFilter  

asterisms: learn about the night sky by creating one’s own constellations with Neal Agarwal (previously)  

saint-michel d’aiguihe: the chapel of St Michael of the Needle built atop a volcanic plug and has a secret reliquary—via Miss Cellania    

diacritics: kernels, ʻokinas and curly quotes 

short imagined monologues: the void would very much like you to stop screaming into it—see also  

rebel alliance: Minnesota’s badge of resistance to ICE terror

7x7 (13. 235)

back alley: the Canadian (purported) regionalism laneway and its distinctions—see also  

butterfly net: a magnetic mount turns insect encounters into digital entomological specimens  

mctuscan heaven: a spectacular Garage Mahal—see previously  

special envoy for the shield of the americas: Trump reassigns Kristi Noem from DHS secretary in first major personnel shake-up of his second term  

＊: following its refusal to compromise its ethics rules on autonomous weapons with no human involvement, Pentagon declares Anthropic a supply-chain risk—see also  

hypercard: more hypermedia projects from Apple’s development kit that predated the World Wide Web, including an emulation of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies—see previously  

from cork to kingston: politician’s speech is a linguistics lesson in the influences of colonialism

9x9 (13. 226)

strength is not strong: it takes more than might to make right 

right of reply: Palantir sues small Swiss media outlet for accurately reporting of the government’s rejection of their surveillance and analytic services offers  

lifeguard on duty: annual design competition to reimagine Toronto’s beach rescue stations as public art during the winter break  

a tuba to cuba: the travelogue of a jazz band’s trip to Havana to explore their musical roots  

visual variable: a free library of thousands of cartographical icons that can be scaled down to the head of a pin—via the Map Room  

the tamizdat project: a library curating literature smuggled into the Soviet Union as part of US spycraft (“published abroad”) to destablise the Bloc from within 

site specific: a roundup of some of the most garish public art installations in the world—via Miss Cellania   

homily: Pope Leo urges priests to stop using AI to write sermons 

brother fire: reflections on a war of choice and the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring

culcitology (13.214)

Vis-à-vis the prior post, we thoroughly enjoyed this deep-dive from host Alie Ward that serendipitously was next in my feed on the history and craft of quilting—the study from the Latin for pillows and bedding featuring an expert panel discussing all aspects of textile art from familial traditions and pedagogy, therapeutic aspects, documentation, memorial, encoded messages, politics to protest. The overview of the ethnography of the ungated art and transition from a commercial, male dominated activity to domestic labour and women’s work (see also) and the social movements that grew out of quilting-bees and sewing-circles is particularly fascinating. There’s even a bonus bespoke pattern and a tutorial at the website up top.

best in show (13. 213)

Via the always excellent Everlasting Blört, we learn of the Modern Quilt Guild (see also) of Los Angeles, founded in 2009 and inspired several other chapters internationally, through its annual QuiltCon held every February. Not only does MQC sponsor educational resources and workshops for individual and community projects, they also have a competition for the most inventive patterns in several categories, like the pictured over all winner by Carolyn McKibbin of New Jersey entitled “Mom Jeans”—we’d love to be able to repurpose old textiles like that—and patchwork honourable mention, “Building Barriers,” by Jennifer Candon of Harvard, Massachusetts. More at the links above.

je sème à tout vent (13. 212)

We enjoyed perusing this abecedary of desk pads (blotters) promoting the Petit Larousse junior encyclopaedic dictionaries, above motto, “I sow to all the winds,” usually depicted on the cover by a figure blowing dandelion seeds, la dent-de-lion. It’s a bit of a brain teaser to figure out what the words are being depicted in French—like D for douche, dolmen, dinde. Scroll through the whole alphabet and see what for us non-francophiles needs some puzzling out.

synchronoptica

one year ago: microbar banners (with synchronopticæ) plus Napoleon returns from exile (1815)

twelve years ago: a direct connection between Europe and Brazil to bypass US undersea cables 

fourteen years ago: the myth of the eight hour sleep 

fifteen years ago: Germany surpasses France as a European travel destination 

fondation vasarely (13. 182)

Dedicated on this day in 1976 with its inaugural opening, the architectonic museum in Aix en Provence showcases the pioneering Op Art designs of Victor Vasarely (see previously) and promote his vision of making the arts accessible for all and founding a city of tomorrow. Forty two six by eight metre cells constructed in situ house various exhibits. Coming out of the Bauhaus school tradition, the Hungarian-French artists went on to produce abstract paintings, cladding, façades and sculptures that referenced optical illusions as a sort of visual kinetics (plastique cinétique) that relied on the shifting perception of the viewer—a stylistically satisfying middle-ground between the moving artwork of Calder, Duchamp and Man Ray and the disorientating MC Escher.

11x11 (13. 159)

que rico ser latino: staging Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time celebration  

coed darcy village: a building project on the brownfield site of a former Welsh mine abandoned without explanation—via Things Magazine 

printing films: vintage educational and instructional shorts on typesetting and the publishing industry—via Kottke  

as slow as possible: anticipating the next chord change after almost two years for the organ in a church in Haberstadt playing six-hundred year John Cage (see previously) composition  

wseg-10: with nuclear treaties lapsed and the US retrofitting obsolete silos, an interactive map showing areas of the US most likely to be affected by an atomic exchange 

material worlds: revisiting architecture Bruce Goff and his homespun futurism through a new retrospective exhibit—via Nag on the Lake  

lawful neutral: Jeremy Bentham’s 1817 categorical table of human impulse as an early form of alignment chart 

pitchforks: San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march turns out as a bust  

tangible media: a collection of data one can hold 

hagyomány, identitás, történelemthe: mysterious Rohonc Codex that has resisted decipherment—see also  

viva italiano: Winter Games opening ceremony was a celebration of the host country’s cultural icons—including Bialetti’s Moka Express

9x9 (13. 148)

times new resistance: a typeface disguised to appear as the US government endorsed font but furnishes subversive autocorrect suggestions  

there are four lights: Star Trek: TNG episode “Chain of Command” is an allegory for domestic abuse  

prosperity gospel: at the US National Prayer Breakfast (see previously) Trump announces upcoming ceremony to rededicate America to Jesus  

dominotier: the guild of wallpaper makers and the many applications of their craft  

plasticine dream: render yourself in claymation in real time  

🦞: more on the theology created by AI agents—see previously—via Web Curios 

almanac: US Central Intelligence Agency in an act of cultural vandalism is not only sunsetting its World Factbook but also deleting its archives  

ill may day: Sir Ian McKellen masterfully recites from the apocryphal Shakespeare play about a sixteenth century anti-immigrant riot  

blackletter fraktur: on how the Gothic typeface, based on French handwriting, became synonymous with Nazism despite Hitler’s ban on its use—see previously—via Kottke

dérive (13. 135)

Via {feuilleton} we are directed towards this essay by Hari Kunzru whose recent rather disenchanting drift through London gave him pause to reflect on the Situationists and their manifesto of psychogeography and how, under a permanent curfew, not just by law enforcement but also by consumerism and spectacle, were a boxed in by the geometry of our built environments—a situation that the peripatetics of sixty years ago could have imagined and warned us about that makes the spirit of wandering and discovery near impossible in our unconscionable architecture of choice. Albeit while such a lament may be overdue for us idle flâneurs and has been sometime in the making with algorithmic and optimised nudges not allowing us to stray from the well-trodden path, it’s still worthwhile to consider what sort of blinders our routines and deviations are heir to.

model village (13. 126)

Via the Blört Everlasting and Present /&/ Correct, we are directed towards the imaginary town of an “unconscious architect” in the papercraft district made by Peter Fritz, an Austrian insurance clerk reconstructing buildings from his home town from memory, running the range of every typology encountered from the residential to utilitarian as a pastiche of vernacular styles during the 1950s and 1960s. This all but anonymous collection of nearly four hundred structures was found a charity shop and exhibited at the 2013 Venice Biennale by Vienna-based artist Croy Nielsen, fine examples of the venue’s theme of an encyclopaedic palace. Much more at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: deferred resignation programme (with synchronopticæ) plus who goes MAGA?

twelve years ago: crypto and money laundering, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership plus Dr Strangelove 

fourteen years ago: movie posters from a parallel universe plus botanical nomenclature

fifteen years ago: optical effects 

sixteen years ago: smoke-free workplaces 

achivio grafica italiana (13. 123)

 

Via Kottke, we are referred to this remarkable reference source dedicated to the entire rich heritage of Italian typography and graphic design. This growing collection, each specimen and exhibit curated and given context—like the pictured book jacket for Edizioni Politiche covering the fight for equity in pay and labour conditions of African Americans, is the personal project of Nicola-Matteo Munari, partnered with Designculture and has been adding accessions since 2015. There’s a lot of works by Massimo Vignelli and from the Olivetti studio workshop to discover plus countless other artists to adopt and champion, like Italo Lupi with this commission for a chakra calendar, that may have been just under one’s radar. 

 

7x7 (13. 105)

helix nebula: JWST captures amazing images of the planetary incubator 

academy cinema two: the linocut posters for movie classics from Peter Strausfeld  

degrassi high: an appeal for Canada television to bring back its weirdness—via MetaFilter  

deus ex machina: a survey of the long history of technology assisted writing  

the attention economy: cybernetic interface and the tolerance of distraction as told through “pursuit tests” on the last century  

public domain revue: an call for submissions to remix properties like Betty Boop, Nancy Drew, Flip the Frog and more—see previously, see also  

galileo let me go: the most challenging mission in the history of NASA