The colour background that one sees when one closes one’s eyes is called Eigengrau (German for intrinsically gray) and is brighter than what we perceive as the blackest black because there’s no contrast behind our eyelids.
The term was coined by experimental psychologist Gustav Theodor Fechner in the 1860s while working at the University of Leipzig whilst studying the relationship between sensation and perception, famously recognising that not everyone will see the same colours as demonstrated by contemporary and toy-maker Charles Benham with his top. Just as the Eigengrau that people report is hard to measure and is subjective, the subtle arcs of colour (called Fechner colours or flicker colours) are not the same for every observer—and no one can quite say why. The flashing image might make some people dizzy, so click here to view it. What colour are the tracers that you see? Is it the same for this one (caution flashing images) too?
Monday, 21 November 2016
a scanner darkly
umbrage
Via Colossal, we are treated to the serendipitous sketches of Belgian film-maker and illustrator Vincent Bal who has transformed the shadows cast by various objects resting in the sun into creative, artistic Rorschach ink-blot interpretations. We really ought to banish harsh, shadow-dispelling overhead lights in the work-place if a stray item could inspire like this.
Sunday, 20 November 2016
wag the dog
Though there’s already been no shortage of controversy and upset in this presidential campaign and subsequent regime-building—and I hope the world’s karmic balance won’t be tabulated against all the tin-pot dictatorships that US and partners have propped up over the years, government offices and government-controlled industries entrusted to family members—the choice of chief strategist, administration’s mouthpiece and sophist is facing the probably the single greatest amount of scrutiny and derision—that is, aside from the choice of president itself.
Pre- post-truth and foremost, Steven Bannon’s message crafting is what cost the opposition victory, although the conservation is forward-focussed—incredulously—and concerns what his continued presence and counsel might mean. With a career that began as a naval officer, then post-graduate studies at Harvard and a stint as an investment banker, independently wealthy through royalties off a popular television series (one that would needs be heavily bracketed) before taking up the golden-ring of yellow-journalism with the mission of giving an under-represented but not necessarily disenfranchised demographic a perspective. What do you think? If this assessment is true and advisors are capable of channelling rants and raves, Bannon sounds more trumpian than Trump.
pam 21-41
Covering the entire gamut of good manners and etiquette becoming to both an officer and a gentleman, in 1949 the US Army issued a fantastically illustrated Personal Code of Conduct publication for soldiers, not just acclimating those who found themselves newly stationed in strange and exotic locations but also a day to day guide for common courtesies like tact, self-control, respect for women and being ambassadors of good will. I agree that we especially need this sort of civics manual to fall back on in these times.
wookieepedia
Billed to fans as indeed the exhibition that they are looking for, London’s O2 arena is host to a show called Star Wars Identities, the Londonist informs, that features costumes, models and props from the saga as well as extensive biographies and profiles of the different life forms that populate that Universe. There’s even a sciency aspect to the exhibition in collaboration with neurologists, sociologists and exo-biologists to reach an understanding about the cultural cachet of the franchise and find your Star Wars spirit animal—figuratively and not literally a Womp Rat or Nerf-herder.
he asked for a thirteen but they drew a thirty-one
Whether ironically, nostalgically or embarrassingly just catching up, the jury of teens and tweens that pick the German Youth Word of the Year chose Fly sein.
To be fly, that is—as in the Offspring song Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) from 1998. In all fairness, they had other contenders which included Hopfensmoothie (for a beer and one has to be sixteen to drink after all) and Tindergarten but they didn’t want to be seen as endorsing vice and it’s possible with the recent GEMA concessions, a whole new young generation was just now introduced to that year in music.
ios
On this day back in 1985, the Microsoft corporation introduced the graphical interface, DOS-overlay known as Windows 1.0 in order to complete with the popular Macintosh released a year prior—think of that seminal Big Brother, Nineteen Eighty-Four advertisement whose revolt promised to free us from the tyranny of the PC.
I wonder when cultural the geneology of version n-point-o of something became idiomatic. Back then the battle for dominance between Microsoft and Apple struck me as something not very much different than the Cola Wars—one has to wonder if innovation comes because or despite the branding, and it doesn’t strike me as very much different nowadays, excepting who’s Tab and who’s Royal Crown may have flipped.
Saturday, 19 November 2016
ford v carter
The other day I came across this logo for US election night 1976, and was surprised by how contemporary the design seemed. On closer investigation, however, this convention developed by television anchor-men at the time was not the standard adopted by broadcasters universally and was in fact the opposite to the colour-coding in use today.
Until the 1980s, following the European system with red being associated with Communism and the left-leaning politics, the relatively and presently liberal Democratic Party was symbolised with that colour—though not by all media, and the Grand Old Party was represented by blue—harking back, according to some sources, to the blue uniforms of Unionist soldiers during the American Civil War. The colour schemes remained relatively mixed—with some outlets assigning one colour to the incumbent party and the other to the challenger, without respect for affiliation—until the contested outcome of the 2000 that took weeks to resolve and to less than a majority’s satisfaction between Al Gore and George W Bush. When the interpretation of the prevailing votes mattered not only state by state but county by county and precinct by precinct, all networks had to get it right (too much was at stake) and so adopted the same protocols for reporting and calling. The convention of Red States and Blue States for the media has held since.