Via the always insightful friend of the blog Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the Atlas of Everyday Objects from the Observational Practises Laboratory that aims to document changes in perception and self-curation (relatedly) of life under global self-isolating and invites the public to create a three-by-three grid of artefacts that have taken on an amplified meaning in these days of limited—albeit temporarily—horizons. Pro-tip: one does not need to use social media or a collage filter to make these grids, just a screen-shot of the gallery of one’s sequential photos, clipped to size. What’s something you imagine that you’ll never see quite the same way again? One can add a narrative or let the formerly overlooked objects speak for themselves.
Wednesday, 8 April 2020
edc
for some reason, funded largely by the united states, yet very china centric
Employing much the same garbage rhetoric as he used to announce the US withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union, Trump—having ignored or disdained the pandemic outbreak of corona virus for months squandering valuable time—is telling the United Nations’ agency, the World Health Organisation, yesterday on UN World Health Day, that it “really blew it” on the deadly disease and is threatening to withhold funding.
The WHO identified a localised cluster of a novel influenza-like illness back in November and began monitoring the situation, declaring an international health emergency on 30 January prompted countries to act in the ensuing six weeks to include restriction on movement, curfews, lockdowns and social distancing. America however failed to take the matter with any gravity until the past two weeks and the message and mitigating measures implemented have been uneven and sloppy at best. While the WHO and other supranational entities may have to blunt their criticism of their backers (the US contribution to the woefully underfunded yet agile and effective WHO is about fourteen percent of its operating budget—less than a billion dollars biannually), the accusation and threat have nothing to do with the UN’s stance towards China but only in the desperate search for another scapegoat for his own seriously blowing it that will result in tens of thousands of deaths that could have been avoided.
winsor mccay: the famous cartoonist of the ny herald and his moving comic
Better known by its short title, Little Nemo, by the eponymous illustrator (previously here and here) debuted his silent, mixed live-action and animated short—one of the first of its kind and certainly counted as the most influential—based on and extending the story first framed by a full-page Sunday strip in the Herald in October 1905 on this day in New York theatres. Over four thousand drawings on rice-paper were sketched out—notably not cels due to the lack of background, and assigned series numbers for easier collation and a good portion of the film covers the foibles of production and the technical struggles of putting together the cartoon.
Little Nemo
Tuesday, 7 April 2020
flotsam and jetsam
Via Present /&/ Correct, we are introduced to a new form of beachcombing, mudlarking (see also here and here) that’s pivoted for one Cornwall resident from shells and lost treasures to the plastic detritus of modern times in LEGO Lost at Sea, who has nonetheless continued to collect what she can scavenge from the shores and displays them in their dismaying beauty. Learn more at the links above and share your own meticulously arranged collages of castaways.
ghost crash
Via Things Magazine, we are confronted with the creepy, unsettling footage of vehicular collisions with the second car digitally removed. It’s a very simple yet powerful effect that the creator Donato Sansone (previously) experimented with in the summer of 2018, which seems strangely resonant and informed by these days of staying home and social distancing.
fringe theory
Whilst the rollout of Fifth Generation (5G) cellular networks—argued as essential to support the Internet of Things (which seems a bit of an exaggeration and if there are connectivity bottlenecks, a lot of that stems from being bogged down by adware) to include self-driving vehicles—is not free from controversy, for instance its lockstep integration with jurisdictions to enable seamless surveillance and its general portrayal as technology’s be all and end all, it most certainly does not infect people with the novel corona virus nor is COVID19 a front for the ailments that the global pandemic is causing, a false narrative inspiring some to destroy cell phone masts and sow distrust—that the errant strands of RNA that researchers interpret as a new viral strain is actually genetic material expelled from our own cells, taking with it toxins built up by the non-ionising radiation of cell towers.
Jesus wept. The same social media for whom the contagion of such paradigm is their bread-and-butter have agreed wholesale to not amplify such dangerous missives, knowing full well that popularity and endurance of conspiracy theories is not sustained by being mainstreamed but rather sidelined. Recently reading about a reportedly parallel phenomenon that took place during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, I heard that people were fearful of using telephones for fear that the sickness might be transmitted by wire, and while allowing that there might have been one of two attention-seekers raising those alarms, I should think that the aversion was chiefly sourced in the idea that proximity to a shared mouthpiece was not the most hygienic thing to do. Perhaps future generations will look favourably, naively back on this vandalism as an attempt to disrupt Facebook’s stream of disinformation that is the most virulent than any contagion. Misinformed and dangerous as those views maybe, those whom irresponsibly espouse such theories are not stupid and are studied and creative enough to know that governments, businesses and marketers have not been transparent and forthcoming in matters of public and muting those most able to spread these ideas won’t address underlying causes, like a frayed social safety-net that make alternative medicine more appealing for the precarious classes—not to mention charlatans who can speak to and perpetuate these insecurities, attended by industry whose lobby dictates regulation with no regard for consumer protection.
Monday, 6 April 2020
qwerty or ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฟ️๐ฆ๐ข
this little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none and that’s it
Via Memo of the Air and Miss Cellania, we tuned to one of the latest, hilarious nature documentaries from Ze Frank (see previously here, here and here) giving us a thoroughgoing education on one of our favourite even-toed ungulates, the giraffe. Check out the source links above for more things both for your distraction and edification.