Courtesy of Waxy, we are directed to the flashy showroom of Terminal Text Effects, a collection of customisable coding scripts to apply to one’s website to create looping pages to assemble, decrypt and crumble content. There are quite a few to choose from and can be configured to match one’s themes and schemes. We especially liked the Burn, Black Hole and Rain routines and will one day learn how incorporate such pre-installs ourself although right now a bit too intermediate for us.
Sunday 9 June 2024
stack overflow (11. 616)
Friday 24 May 2024
internal audit (11. 580)
Our trusty AI wrangler, Janelle Shane (previously) vents her frustration over a shared lament that many artists, marketers and prompters—to the point where close enough is good enough—are experiencing with generated images. Often times tantalised with results that are preternaturally approaching the desired outcome, asking for an edit with a minor detail results, yields instead a completely different picture, ruining the assignment over a small and clearly articulated revision. I suppose AI doesn’t have object permanence despite the fact it clearly remembers, and this limitation is a strong argument for engaging a human artist who can understand one’s notes. More at the links above.
airfoil (11. 579)
Via Super Punch, we get this chance to revisit renowned industrial and commercial designer Lutz “Luigi” Colani with his Polymorph Space Shuttle concept model showcased at the 1984 Expo held in Otaru, Hokkaido (awarded with top honours however during the show for his designs for Canon cameras, including the prototype for the T90). The aerodynamic proposal failed to take off at the time but is perennially revisited by companies in the orbital freight business and included a new stylised logo for the US Space Agency.
Thursday 16 May 2024
scope of practise (11. 563)
Via Kottke, we that the inaugural World Umarlling Championship has been announced and is taking submissions, giving us a chance to revisit the gentle stereotype, classically a male pensioner who pauses to observe and inspect construction works in progress. Self-appointed foremen, the interest that umari take in infrastructure and built-environments is a model that we could all take a lesson from in terms of civic engagement without being a busybody or a backseat driver, especially under the terms of the competition. Learn ore at the links above.
Thursday 9 May 2024
the (other) line (11. 548)
As much as the projected NEOM (previously) professed to be a technological utopia with minimal—or negating impact—on the environment, promises which are looking less and less deliverable, this AI-generated cityscape extending out in all directions but centred on a main traffic artery isn’t quite so much antithetical (at least behind the veneer) as regressive and a reminder that the technocrati over-promise and cannot offer a real escape from the crowded, dirty, decaying and hierarchical framework of capitalism that created and enabled them. The oasis in the desert is a mirage. More from AI-DA at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a political cartoon attributed to Benjamin Franklin plus assorted links worth revisiting
two years ago: Dianetics Day, all the .horse websites plus the musical origins of the seven-day week
three years ago: another MST3K classic, parahawking, Europe Week, television and the public interest, recycled sets, the skyscrapers of NYC, more text-based computer games plus early generative artwork
four years ago: a Roman festival to appease the restive dead, BBC backdrops, a planned alternative UN headquarters plus the Treaty of Winsor (1373)
five years ago: form+zweck, a US plan to bomb the Moon (1958), Watergate hearings commence (1974) plus a fire-chasing beetle
Wednesday 1 May 2024
7x7 (11. 527)
the function of colour: more scans from a beautiful 1930 volume on design in schools and workshops
wck: resuming their mission of feeding people in Palestine, Josรฉ Andrรฉs’ cookbook is nominated for a prestigious gastronomical award
aim high in creation: a survey of North Korea’s popular culture
barnard 33: JWST captures a sharp image of the iconic Horsehead Nebula of Orion
dead reckoning: the history of the Etak Navigator and other cartographical innovations
architectural renderings: the Art Deco illustrations of Charles Perry Weimer—via Messy Nessy Chic
Friday 19 April 2024
9x9 (11. 499)
pumping iron: Technogym invites forty artists to reinterpret its exercise bench for Milan Design Week
wikipedia rectangles: a collage of images sourced from the Commons subdivides one’s screen in increasing smaller sections of disparate pictures—via Web Curios
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RY7Ves_SkNtXwec8a3HTY7PaBpHPwlR1sS4Ewl61dJ8B0lXlh8AEpA4NSrgVvaiQOqiHcafoLK6uVwCuKdH4lwJTAl2uQm7g8R6LBCedyjRw4w5m2U56y9q_b87qtJ3HIeg-btaLbM2ZDvaHfwoY__oSZw_ifZd50Lw3w8MqPHHNM0mk_Qqv3kgxYR0/s320/j-bartuska.jpg)
๐: the massive Quilt for Palestine unveiled at the Met
rundown royale: a look at the family tree of Charlemagne, the Father of Europe—via Miss Cellania
ulnar nerve: the etymology of the expression funny bone and variants—including the Swedish terms enkelstรถt/รคnkestรถt
dua lipa stuns as congressional gerrymander: that and other headlines from Super Punch
from our correspondents: World Press Photo contest captures destruction and devastation
the revolution will not be biennalised: the withdrawal of the Israeli pavilion in Venice was performative and opportunistic
catagories: ๐ฎ๐น, ๐, ๐, ๐จ, ๐♀️, ๐, ๐ท, ๐️, libraries and museums, Middle East, networking and blogging, ⓦ
Tuesday 16 April 2024
web elements (11. 491)
Via Waxy, we discover a unique time of digital time capsule in this tribute and trove of early 1990s clip art collections (see previously), capturing a snapshot of the decade frozen in time, like contemporary advertising ephemera—which were also informed by the graphic templates in the era before computers when designers had libraries of pre-printed icons at their disposal—showcasing obsolete technologies, vintage fashions and monoculture. More from Benj Edwards’ Vintage Computing and Gaming at the link up top, plus search for yourself, rummaging through the DiscMaster archives.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Shrug Guy from Wikipedia plus a new notional system
two years ago: a moveable feast
three years ago: assorted links to revisit
four years ago: more found art, St Drogo, hug a tree plus flag mashups
five years ago: AI gives us the answers we want to hear plus Notre Dame in flames
Sunday 7 April 2024
neocities (11. 473)
Via the Verge, we are directed toward a fine little interior decorating pastime for iPads in the form of Rooms—inviting players to cultivate and share their cozy cubbyholes—in the tradition of the old school web and good old fashioned building-blocks or paper-dolls putting together a pixellated diorama put together with modular elements voxel by voxel—see previously. It’s like dressing up and perfecting one’s avatar within predefined but expansive parameters and features a social aspect to meet one’s virtual neighbours and follow their home improvements.
macchine da caffรฉ (11. 472)
Via Present /&/ Correct, we thoroughly enjoyed inspecting the various models and designs of coffee and espresso makers collected over three decades by curator and connoisseur Enrico Maltoni celebrating a century of Italian cafe culture with an expansive exhibit to visit virtually. Styles and innovations are presented chronologically and an accompanying coffee-table book tells more about the manufacturers and small businesses that inform this cornerstone of society.
one year ago: pollutants as disease vectors plus Roxanne (1978)
two years ago: Putin apologists plus a sheet-like organism
three years ago: assorted links to revisit plus South Pacific (1949)
four years ago: cell towers and COVID, ghost crashes plus more mudlarking
five years ago: a Finnish term for resilience plus a logograph for the new imperial era
Wednesday 3 April 2024
9x9 (11. 464)
avis de rรฉception: Gertrude Stein first draft of her manuscript for The Making of Americans returned by a publisher
greener pastures: ranchers embrace the benefits of virtual fencing
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jaTYhkCGH8Q/Vz__-6N7Q0I/AAAAAAAAXRQ/w_M-nfP4ErMYpm4Lddr63MvXz3RfZcmDACLcB/s1600/homer_shoulder_angel-devil.jpg)
classroom setting: The Function of Colour in Schools and Hospitals (1930)
haute couture: McDonald’s fashion in France
heliopause: a NASA-endorsed app designed to photograph the North American total eclipse
rhapsody in green: warm earth music for plants… and the people who love them
could’ve been a contender: for what would be his hundredth birthday, some screen highlights of Marlon Brando
peer review: the Journal of Universal Rejection
one year ago: assorted links to revisit
two years ago: Planet of the Apes (1968)
three years ago: musical hypercards, more links to enjoy, missionary cats plus Blue Moon (1961)
four years ago: vintage railway memorabilia plus drawing elephants sight unseen
five years ago: the Marshall Plan (1948), more links worth revisiting plus conserving Soviet Almaty
Tuesday 19 March 2024
bascรญlica i temple expaitori de sagrada famรญlia (11. 436)
For the anniversary of the laying of the ground stone for the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world (see also) initially under the direction of architect Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano in 1882, whom resigned his commission from the Spiritual Association of Devotees of St Joseph over creative differences and was subsequently awarded to Antoni Gaudรญ (previously) who transformed the project into his magnum opus.
Passing away in 1926 when the structure was only an estimated fifteen percent completed and leaving future builders to finish his vision, Gaudรญ reported answered to the slow progress of construction with “My client is not in a hurry.” Impediments to progress arose during World War I, the Spanish Civil War and World War II but the cathedral is open to the public, with regular masses held since 2017. Executed in Gaudรญ’s unique fusion of Cubism and Art Nouveau and rich withsymbolism, one can take a virtual tour courtesy of Open Culture at the link above.
one year ago: the history of paper shredding, more FOIA follies, the excavation of Knossos, Germany’s biggest union plus the Second Iraqi War (2003)
two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Plagiarism Today
three years ago: more links to enjoy
four years ago: Spring is coming
five years ago: C-SPAN, Hitler’s orders to destroy infrastructure in Germany (1945), more links worth revisiting plus music for cheese
Monday 18 March 2024
eternal ascent (11. 434)
Via the Awesomer, we are directed to the latest 3D rendering challenge from computer-graphics designer Clinton Jones (see previously) soliciting from artists around the world to create a background and protagonist facing a seemingly endless climb. Working from the same template, it is amazing how each seconds-long clip in the montage, selected from the hundred best submissions, can do the heavy-lifting of world-building and stimulates the imagination to learn the character’s backstory and join this quest.
Saturday 16 March 2024
auto sportive (11. 426)
Renowned Italian car designer associated with Gruppo Bertone, producing a number of iconic models for Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, Marcello Gandini has passed away, aged 85. His signature Stile Bertone developed chiefly in a studio outside of Turin, created many prototypes and concept cars, innovative wedge formats, like the pictured mid-engine mounted Miura, the futuristic flagship of the company in production from 1966 to 1973, scissor doors for the two-seaters, also lending his talents to Volkswagen with the first Polo, Lancia’s rally car and BWM’s 1970 Garmisch—as well as venturing into architecture and interior design. More from designboom at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Florida tries to outlaw cabaret shows
two years ago: bicolour
three years ago: your daily demon: Andromalius, global stock markets crash, the bombing of Wรผrzburg (1945) plus proposed repurposing submarines as oil tankers
four years ago: St Urho, a portentous sea monster plus pandemic restrictions and air quality
five years ago: Sushi Singularity, more Olympic pictograms, hydrogen-power plus the Vessel
Saturday 9 March 2024
8x8 (11. 411)
๐ซ: the origins of the circle-and-slash prohibition symbol, its adoption as an ISO standard coinciding with 1984’s Ghost Busters
return to sender: as part of the Prize Papers Project, a pristine Faroese hand-knitted sweater was discovered in an impounded parcel from 1807
snowdrops: Robert Marsham’s Indications of Spring (1789)
clairaudient: more on Rosemary Brown with other classical compositions from beyond the grave
if it doesn’t exist on the internet, it doesn’t exist: as of the beginning of the year, the venerable repository, the Ubuweb whose founder Kenneth Goldsmith is famous for the axiom, of the avant-garde has gone into archive-mode—via Web Curios
sella rotalis: Paul de Livron crafts beautiful wooden wheelchairs, including one for the Pope
belinda new: exploring the typography of Oscar nominated films
Thursday 7 March 2024
synchronise (11. 405)
Via Miss Cellania, we are directed towards the latest project from GMUNK (see previously, artist and director Bradley G Munkowitz) in the form of a music video produced for the Folktronica duo Milky Chance hailing from Kassel. Harnessing cutting edge technical developments in the digital arts for decades, GMUNK and team have created a rather brilliant rendered, dynamic landscape to accompany the song. Learn more about the human-AI collaboration to create effects not possible just a short while ago at Colossal at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Gone with the Wind’s Rainbow Script
two years ago: the Comet of the Century plus more odonymy
three years ago: Seven Nation Army (2003), Die Sendung mit der Maus (1971) plus wandering words
four years ago: the Battle of Remagen (1945), broadening the search for extraterrestrial life plus pandemic hoarding
five years ago: Van Life
Tuesday 5 March 2024
7x7 (11. 402)
beyond the edge: the paradox of an infinite Cosmos
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYjWRtrfxYkVpCat-xVQOWkEKjDErmNg-mnPcRVgHOdeV5pJ-bHDsb-ahf5qEDPMLn2U6cu6nDUAzw4JaHf9eCvhiTIogS2pNR0oq4MhGqktMU_fmS5YYNmYpcspDkk8-Z-KT4bTHMGkb6-0s9b53wla_GHQIJO1psHWnlzSudyCFPujjU8v9ejGijv3E/s320/modern-japan.gif)
the complete commercial artist: the graphic design that informed modern Japan
urschleim: primordial ooze as animated putty from 1911
l’urythmics: an anaerobic exercise routine led by jazz dance pioneer Eugene “Luigi 5-6-7-8” Faccuito
auteur: an omnibus collection of the most beautiful shots in cinematic history from the Solomon Society—including Barry Lyndon—sure to elicit lots of movie memories
biosigns: an array of telescopes trained on potentially habitable exoplanets confirm a sample size one in a demonstration of its capability
Saturday 24 February 2024
flag carrier (11. 375)
From 1965 to 1967, JAL—once the jet age was firmly established and the airline had a full schedule of international routes, launched a marketing and public outreach campaign and printed a series of thirty-two pamphlets for passengers on all aspects of Japanese and Asian Pacific culture and industry. Entitled “New Views,” they have absolutely frame-worthy covers. More at Present /&/ Correct at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: an Ibsen premier (1876), more beautiful infographics plus how uu became w
two years ago: a Midnight Moment in Times Square
three years ago: your daily demon: Belial, assorted links to revisit, a Monteverdi premier (1607) plus architectural illustrator Margarethe Frรถhlich
four years ago: common areas of Hong Kong housing, the Battle of Los Angeles (1942) plus revisiting I, Claudis
five years ago: the Icelandic calendar plus a Ukrainian folk band
Friday 23 February 2024
10x10 (11. 374)
walden 7: photographer Sebastian Weiss captures the epic nature of an outstanding apartment block in Barcelona
shootball: January Sixth themed pinball machines and other Republican swag at the Conservative Political Action Conference—see previously
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhX1AJzuEluJXJQ4yq3yKJl_ASAGGJCH4u0A5e-rPAfJRk_4mcBZIhz5zkm02T4nS6p1qprhKA-B7dLhUdSadq62YGq5si_EJAonafXORXjrXkmKyBSD1-0ZskgmM-Xd4480uuP6Oh4Jo/s320/stephan-gladieu_north_koreans_2020.png)
google blobs: the animated emoji character set that ought to be brought back—via Web Curios
38°n: a news source on North Korea rex melly: the riches of Mansa Musa of the Mail Empire—adjusting for inflation and other factors, possibly the wealthiest person in history
shift to socials: Vice Media is folding, laying off hundreds of journalists—via Waxy—see more
pale usher: introducing a blog mini-series on Moby Dick with a curious etymology
every sperm is sacred: following the ruling in Alabama that grants personhood to frozen embryos—and the subsequent suspension of IVF treatment for fear of legal implications—conservative think tank forming Trump’s policy wants to end recreational sex
batpole: homes with alternate stairwells—see previously
welcome to my ted talk (11. 371)
Founded on this day in 1984, the first Technology, Entertainment, Design conference of the US-Canadian non-profit media organisation—freely distributing “ideas worth spreading—featured futurist Mickey Schulhof demonstrating the compact disc, invented some eighteen months prior, and the Apple Macintosh with presentations by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, Nicholas Negroponte (with some rather prescient predictions, see also) and Whole Earth Catalogue’s Steward Brand. Broadening to scientific, cultural, humanitarian and academic topics, the main symposium has been held annually in Vancouver with other events interspersed throughout the year hosted globally and has been available universally under a Creative Commons license online since 2006.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit, Civilisation plus number names
two years ago: more on the Royal Order of Adjectives plus London’s courting of oligarchs
three years ago: Quo Vadis (1951), the names of chess pieces plus Unworter of the Year
four years ago: more links to enjoy, ending NDAs, a superspreader event plus leap days
five years ago: a visit to the Neroberg