contrastive analysis

Coinciding with the Feast of Saint Jerome, considered the patron of the profession for his version of the Bible in Latin with commentary from the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts, the Vulgate around 382 CE, the United Nations has designated today as International Translation Day to honour interpreters and their role in connecting the world.  Colloquially known as such not for using common (vulgar) Latin as there were few native speakers left as the Empire fell and Romance languages developed, but rather because the gospel was formerly promulgated in Vetus Latina—that is the disglossic (previously here and here) Old Latin texts derived from fourth century Greek sources that were superceded by wide-spread adoption of Jerome’s work over the centuries and becoming the versio vulgata.  Renowned for his scholarship, the priest and confessor—also known as Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, has an extended patronage including archaeologists and librarians.

schwebebahn

With unreserved enthusiasm, Dan Schindel of Hyperallergic recommends us to indulge in this admittedly outstanding restored footage from 1902, another superlative highlight from MoMA’s Film Vault Summer Camp, of Wuppertal’s flying, suspension train (mentioned previously but have yet to make that trip plus see also) shortly after going into service. This clip is two-minutes in length and the entire circuit through the city, which one can still take today, lasts around half-an-hour, calling at ten stops.  Much more to explore at the link up top.

album amicorum

Long before the more modern manifestation of social media, there were friend books (see previously here and here) and as the Guardian reports one of history’s finest exemplars Das Große Stammbuch of Philipp Hainhofer has been acquired for the library of Wolfenbüttel (also home of Jägermeister) nearly four centuries after the institution tried to purchase the celebrated and celebrity-filled volume.
The seventeenth century equivalent of an influencer found in Augsburger merchant and diplomat had acquired many followers whose signatures were illuminated with an elaborate artistic commission, and include autographs from the Holy Roman Emperor, the pope, the Medicis, various kings and many other contemporary luminaries. The duke for whom the library owes its patronage tried to purchase it from the estate of Hainhofer after his death but it was at the time fame and followers were out of his price range.

a man, a plan, a can

Appropriately called out for its stereotypes and gendered biases that do not advance equity in the kitchen—though I do admit that it is often the most help and the least harm I can do is in setting the table and clearing up—we were struck with the illustrations of this vintage Working Couple’s Cookbook—via Weird Universe but curated then culled by our astute librarians (previously), which are strongly suggestive of adversarial graphic generation.
A Nitty Gritty production, written by Peggy Treadwell with artwork by Carl Torlucci—I can see that he specialised in this signature style but can’t find anything outside of this one collaboration unfortunately, with complimenting an author’s words seeming like an especially democratising task that is relatively accepted and well established as gender-neutral.

7x7

flotus: chainsaw sculpture of Melania Trump erected in her hometown torched on US Independence Day

[screaming internally]: assorted news items including thrill ride guidance from Japan

holy wisdom: Turkey reconsecrates Hagia Sophia as a mosque after eight decades as a museum

dining alfresco: the variety of New York’s newly founded streateries

mallrats: a tour of shopping galleries past

strike a pose: professional model An Tiantian shows off her photogenic gestures

swamping the drain: Trump wines and dines wealthy campaign donors while America slides into failed statehood

new accessions and permanent collection

Via Waxy, we are introduced to photographer Barbara Iweins through her project to help her come to terms with and couch in language and statistics accessible to us all of cataloguing the over ten thousand artefacts, items that she has acquired and held on to through nearly a dozen household moves and what their acquisition means. Even devoting fifteen hours a day to categorising and framing each object, the undertaking took nearly two-and-half years to complete. If you embarked on a similar project, how would you exhibit all your stuff—even that which is mostly hidden and tucked away unbidden?

point-of-sale

On this day in 1974 after nearly a decade in development and first conceived as a method for tracking railcars and shipping containers, the first bar coded, marked with a universal product code (redundantly, UPC code) instead of a price tag item (see previously) was sold at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Cashier Sharon Buchanan scanned (we are dismissive of such acts now as routine but Ms. Buchanan was very much from that moment on an engineer wielding the beam of a powerful helium-neon laser that bounced off a rotating mirror and onto the glass-plated register surface so a central computer could match the label against the shop’s programmed inventory—no mean feat that) a value pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum for customer Clyde Dawson (not his only purchase during that visit—just the first one rang up).  Deconstructed, the encoding tables do look a bit like the I Ching, and afterwards the artefact, the (presumably a stand-in unless the purchaser indulged the museum this memento) was acquired by the Smithsonian. I wonder if this first barcode is some sort of talisman, a charm imbued with power over all the scanning to follow.

7x7

but vaderbase? only you would be so bold: the Rebellion Republic names its military bases

cause célèbre: documenting Russia’s historic gay cultural icons and personalities

false-flag: Trump crafts propaganda from stock photos, labelling random protesters as agents of Antifa

undisclosed location: a tour of the White House bunker, from nineteen-year-old documentary photos provided by the US National Archives

vote hillary: an artist’s prophetic 2016 appeal in the spirit of Andy Warhol’s “Vote McGovern” campaign screen-print

crimes against humanity: Belgium comes to terms with its genocidal colonial past with the help of toppling statues

karens’ personal racism valet: a bevvy of resources on defunding the police and reforming law enforcement

9x9

the incalculable loss: New York Times again dedicates its pages to giving voice to overlooked obituaries

ruputer: Seiko’s 1998 smart watch proves the adage plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (see also)

air bridges and air gaps: COVID-19 curtails international travel

invisible woman: incredible, augmented reality fashion show—via Things Magazine

privatising profits, socialising losses: the grifting companies receiving and retaining millions from economic recovery stimulus programmes in the US—via JWZ

metadata and memory hole: the internet’s repository is under assault

peaceful transition of power: the nightmare scenario if Trump refuses to leave office—via Cynical-C

chaotic good: DJ Cummerbund presents Weird Betty—nearly as good as Play that Funky Rammstein

and may those who lament their loss find better heroes: Egyptologist usefully share instructions on how to topple monumental structures

bridal registry

Courtesy of the Everlasting Blört, we find ourselves quite taken with the endless galleries of deep dives and long tails that comprise the Museum of Ridiculous Interesting Things. Renaissance sexuality and women’s roles is not the most enlightened exhibition to explore, assuredly, but their curation of the sexy symbolism of the weasel and related varmints is indeed edifying and comprehensive.
Branching off from and bringing it all back around to the era’s most iconic depiction from Leonardo in the 1490 portrait Lady with an Ermine (Dama con l'ermellino) of Cecilia Gallerani, mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, we discover what sort of associations were laden on this poor creature as a companion and signifier of status and hope and generally commissions for marriages. Da Vinci himself would later remark in his own bestiary that the ermine represents moderation, deigning only to eat once a day, and the purity of character to surrender herself to the huntsman rather than sully her fine coat. Speaking of which, the keeping of a pelt from weasel, mink or stoat was referred to as a zibellini, a luxuriant fur flea to drape over ones neck as a charm for getting pregnant, reflecting the rather nonsensical and non sequitur belief that weasels conceived through their ears and gave birth through their mouths, following the Marian tradition of the messenger angle whispering in her ear and Mary proclaiming the news—an homage that does not seem quite ideal in terms of fatherhood and legacy. Much more to discover at the links above.

döstädning or duolingo

Revisiting an endearing collective of librarians sharing the best of the worst from their best housekeeping practises, we also are finding ourselves re-acquainted with another morbid-sounding term (like culling) that’s really practical, affirming and necessary as part of a personal and professional project in Swedish Death Cleaning.
Taking decluttering to the next level and not just its inevitable conclusion, the exercise—the foresight not just for those who need to clean up behind you but also for one’s own piece of mind—translates literally as death-standing and signifies over and above the tidying up that is to be assayed on a regular, unending bias (sorry, dying’s not even a release from those chores) but rather a more permanent and reward type of organisation. Working from home, our librarian is unburdening from their stacks of two copies of a workbook that touts learning German in ten-minutes a day, which in hindsight probably was not the most effective approach to that undertaking.

a book by its cover

Appreciating the inherent, joyful weirdness that can adorn paperback novels—especially the of the science fiction and fantasy genre—the Seattle Public Library system has challenged readers to stage recreations of their favourites (see also) using items that they can find around the house. Check out the full thread and get inspired to stage your own.

unnamed

Synonymous with anonymous and from the Greek ἀδέσποτος—that is, without a master or owner, adespota is used in classical scholarship as a collective term to cover writings that were not attributed to any particular author, especially epigrams taken from plaques and monuments whose provenance and history was lost when they were anthologised.
The related German borrowing for use primarily in the context of art history rather than written work is Notname—not a not-name a bit confusingly like a Notausgang on an exterior door isn’t No Exit but rather Emergency Exit—is a contingency or convenience name given to the portfolio of an artist or their school whose true identity is unknown—such as the Master of the Embroidered Foliage or the Berliner Maler.

sip

With all proceeds and exposure redirected back to the original artists and the host studios, a new gallery in Boston—called Shelter in Place—has held no less than fifteen exhibitions in the last month, broadcast to appreciative visitors for a virtual experience though the new assessions are very real acquisitons, with this miniature loft space, like a light-box, created to display maquettes—that is a scale-model or rough draft of a sculpture or other work of art.
Such tiny versions, also called bozzetti are collectable in their own right and speciality of a museum in Pietrasanta and the size of which can be executed from a desk or tabletop, are dropped off with the curatorial team for showing. Local artists are being showcased currently, but in the future they may have a call for submissions via parcel posts and other miniature galleries could also always pop-up. Much more to see at Hyperallergic at the link up top.

i want to wake up in the city that never sleeps

Reminiscent of this application that let one dial up ambient sounds of the workplace, the staff of the New York Public Library (previously) have collaborated with a local creative agency to curate and make available the typical metropolitan soundscape in hopes of restoring some of that familiar cacophony whilst the city is on stand-by. More recordings to fill the unnerving silence at Hyperallergic at the link above.

7x7

meringue: recipes for transparent pies

it happened on the way to cordtland street: how filmmakers distort New York City in the imagination—see also—via Messy Nessy Chic

the great court: the British Museum (previously) makes millions of images of art and artefacts in its collection freely available under a creative-commons license

got your back: more artistic backgrounds for one’s video calls and virtual meetings—via Waxy

slum lord: Woody Guthrie sings a lament about his landlord, Fred Trump—via Everlasting Blört

bleachman: a mascot from the 1980s who encouraged San Franciscan to shoot-up responsibly, absent federal aid and coordinated intervention

à la omurice: fried rice from ramen noodles sound like a scrumptiously easy and malleable survival food—more recipe ideas here

deaccession

Delightfully temporarily shuttered museums are holding a virtual curatorial showdown to reveal the world’s creepiest exhibit or object in their collection. Entrants, all hideous and artefacts to make one’s skin crawl began with a ancient Roman woman’s burial hair bun and include taxidermied mermaids, talismans and torture devices—like this one pictured from the Tower of London, touted as an executioner’s mask but subsequent research suggests it’s purpose is even darker: an iron muzzle called a Scold’s Bridle, meant for public humiliation. See more ghastly, cursed objects at The Guardian article at the link up top.

and the word mini

Via friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards this set of spot the difference games from the museum and gallery consortium Europeana with this works of fine art altered in eight subtle ways for you to puzzle out.

 Each round is fiendishly busy with a lot of details to pour over but we really liked The Merry Family (Het vrolijke huisgezin, 1668) by Jan Havicksz Steen which resides in the Rijksmuseum. This colourful and boisterous scene is typical of the Dutch Golden Age painter’s portfolio—including Peasants before an Inn, Woman at her Toilet, Rhetoricians at a Window, and A Burgomaster of Delft and his Daughter—and the note hanging from the mantle sums up the situation: “As the old sing, so shall the young twitter.” See if you are able to find all eight changes in eight pairs of paintings.

autostadt

Via Things Magazine we discover that adjacent to the flagship Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg there are two museums, ZeitHaus, one dedicated to the brand’s greatest automotive hits with pavilions full of Lamborghini, Škoda, Bentleys as well as their own cars—with the other wing surely worth the visit as well, is filled with prototypes, test models and show cars that never went into production for the driving public. Exhibits include the 1990 Vario, a concept, a transitional buggy test-marketed prior to the introducing of the new Beetle. See more unrealised roadsters at the link above.

garysaurus

His massively popular and curatorially acclaimed colossal sculptures having already attracted quite a following as they were paraded, fully assembled in cross-country processions and on display in-situ became the backdrop of the 1986 sci-fi comedy Howard the Duck, Jim Gary (*1939 – †2006) was the only artist invited to present a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, opening on this day in 1990, and featuring dozens of Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, stegosaurs, triceratops, tyrannosaurs, pterodactyls fashioned out of salvaged automobile parts and brightly lacquered in car paint.
When not touring, the dinosaurs resided in Gary’s garden or were on loan to his favourite cafes and restaurants (hence the appellation for one installation, the dinersaur), sort of like those art cow statues (called CowParade and conceived by Swiss artist Pascal Knapp) of its day. The term above was an encomium to Gary in an obituary by biographer and reporter for The Guardian Andrew Roth, coining the neologism to describe his creations.