flat-pack

Though probably better remembered for his later career as an industrial designer and architect for his contributions to the Walt Disney Studios compound in Burbank, California and a few neighbourhoods of surrounding Hollywoodland, Kem Weber helped to inform the stylistic sleek and iconic “Streamline” look. Moreover, though not a commercial success despite inclusion in the 1928 International Exposition of Art in Industry due to the Great Depression and outbreak of war, Weber introduced the idea of furniture to be assembled by the consumer, rather than transporting a finished piece from the showroom floor a decade before IKEA grew from a workshop into a single outlet and then going on to become a global brand. Weber’s Airline Chair of 1934 was shipped in a cardboard box that was easily toted away, to be put together (with confidence) at home.
Years ahead of the mid-century whose style he defined, Weber was a pioneer but with the infusion of the talent of fellow creative individuals fleeing totalitarian regimes in Europe (of Berlin-extraction, his adopted first name was composed of the initial letters of Karl Emmanuel Martin, wanting to make a less Germanic new persona for himself) and materials and designs derivative of the war-effort, he was not considered on the cutting edge for very long, supplanted by subsequent generations, indebted to his vision.

aeroplanette

Though popularity and thus signalled acceptance for the concept of heavier than air propulsion as a viable and reliable form of conveyance took some time to cement itself in the minds’ of the public—as told through product tie-ins—was more gradual than, say, the appetite for all things space related. Nonetheless by 1912, there was a parlour game, a version of roulette, which in this variation had a tethered propeller-powered plane that was wound up and stayed aloft for around thirty circuits. The winner of the wager was the player who choose the correct world capital that the craft would touch down in. In the illustration, it looks to me like a dispute is about to ensue with the plane landing exactly on the line between Berlin and Wien.

persistence of vision

Professor and lecturer at the Chinese Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Cao Shu, has produced a visually captivating short animation comprised of a few disposable motions that typify what we do in those moments when we’re waiting for what’s next—taking a sip of a drink, glancing at one’s watch rotoscoped to take in the entire sweeping survey of art history from the Ancient Egyptians to the Post Modern era all in less than a minute. Visit the link up top to learn more about the styles and movements and to watch the entire video.

how to adult

When the Grateful Dead lyricist and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (previously) passed away earlier this week, John Perry Barlow’s legacy came into sharper focus, which aside from his concerns about shifting paradigms for privacy and building the organisational framework to articulate that trend, also included a succinct and circumspect set of mature principles to aspire to live by.

• Be patient. No matter what. • Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him. • Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you. • Expand your sense of the possible. • Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
• Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself. • Tolerate ambiguity. • Laugh at yourself frequently. • Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right. • Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong. • Give up blood sports. • Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously. • Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.) • Learn the needs of those around you and respect them. • Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that. • Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun. • Praise at least as often as you disparage. • Admit your errors freely and soon. • Become less suspicious of joy. • Understand humility. • Remember that love forgives everything. • Foster dignity. • Live memorably. • Love yourself. • Endure.

Does Barlow leave anything out? What else would you add? The reminder is of course important and when Barlow originally complied his guidelines over forty years ago, he included the provision for any of his peers to point out his shortcomings when failing to uphold his ideal deportment.

process of bioremediation

Via the ever estimable Kottke, we learn about the enduring landscaping of ecological Finnish artist Agnes Denes, whose Tree Mountain was dedicated in 1996 atop the gravel pits of Pinziö near Ylöjärvi, Finland.
This monumental earthworks is meant to last for four hundred years at minimum or until its artificial nature is forgot and whose eleven thousand trees are carefully planted along an upwards spiral that follows the Golden Ratio will repair the scars left by human mining and restore the habitat for native species. The article on Kottke at the link up top also explains a rather pleasantly incongruous sight that I can remember seeing in the distance when coming into New York City’s Port Authority by bus from points south, a wheat field in Manhattan that Denes also sewed in 1982 and remains undisturbed.

unmarked white vans

Though not the first time while scavenging for a free-wifi connection I’ve perhaps innocently blundered through a covert operation and not potentially as damaging as the disclosure of seemingly innocuous and anodyne exercise routines, it does nonetheless to me seem rather uncreative to advertise one’s hotspot for all and sundry, even if password protected.

you’re doing fine oklahoma

I’ve been ruminating over an article from The Economist that I first came across on Super Punch but seen it syndicated elsewhere but felt a bit guilty at first for indulging poverty voyeurism, like slum tourism or ogling urban blight in the US Rust Belt, but finally did decide to share my thoughts, realising that this tragedy that has befallen the state of Oklahoma is a foretaste of the Trumpian, de Vosian hellscape that the rest of the nation has in store for it under a regime whose champions are antithetical to those institutions and values that they are charged with upholding. The state has dismantled its environmental regulations and subjugated its taxation scheme to attract fracking outfits that have not only ravaged the ecology but have left the landscape scarred and buildings and infrastructure damaged with public coffers empty and raided and no funds for repairs.
Above and beyond this acquiescence to oil barons, the state legislature is administratively embargoed from imposing new taxes to generate public revenue by falling for a political compact similar to the experiment that Colorado instituted, which left constituents soured on that libertine utopia. As a result of the collusion of these factors over a decade, the state’s education budget has stagnated and the state’s public school students are woefully underserved. Teachers’ starting salaries have remained the same for the past ten years and there’s a marked drain of talent and loyalty, and the only tool that districts have at the disposal to offset these atrocious and unattractive conditions of employment is to increasingly shift to four day academic weeks.  Ostensibly, educators might be willing to forego a living salary in exchange for an extra day off but the case is usually that teachers use the long weekends to take a second or third job at some fast food franchise or retailer who benefit from the corporate welfare of masses who'll subsidize their unnaturally low prices.  Of course, a four-day school week also has knock-on effects for working parents and probably means an extra day-care expense, without even addressing the disadvantage that it means for the students.  For businesses and families thinking of coming to precarious Oklahoma, this is a grave embarrassment and surely a major dissuasive factor.  What do you think?  Elections have consequences.