fan mail from a flounder?

Given the MST3K treatment for the first time on this day in 1999 in their tenth season, the surpassing bad 1971 sci-fi horror film also released under the titles Z_aA_t (the name of the chemical compound), Hydra and Attack of the Swamp Creatures relates the plot of a mad scientist first to transform himself into a catfish-like monster (sort of like the hybrid God-Emperor primate-sandworm) then drug an entire town’s water supply with the same serum to create a community of merpeople. The mad scientist then turns his focus to revenge on his fellow researchers who ridiculed his work.

sama merdo

The group hailing from Kherson and active from 1993 to 2007, Piĉismo is a hard core punk band notable for performing in Esperanto (see below). In July of 1995, they organised and participated in a music festival in Hola Prystan’ called a “Concert of Loud Music in Incomprehensible Languages” and invited other Esperanto- and Volapük-speaking bands. In 2002, the again headlined a fest in Saint Petersburg called “Bored of the Conlangs” (see above). The title of their demo track translates to “Suddenly Crap.”

7x7

chairportrait: thirty iconic designer styles of seating depicted minimally by Federico Babina  

der pate technos: a celebration of the career and legacy of Klaus Schulze (RIP)  

recursive: vending machine gachapon—see previously  

the wretched, bloody and usurping boar: architecture and monumental authoritarianism in places like the Battersea Power Station—via Things Magazine with more on the property 

reverspective: the illusory paintings of Patrick Hughes   

eye-chart: JWST is now fully-focussed and calibrated and primed for new discoveries (previously)  

lookbook: a collection of sculptural furnishings that match their residence

rapunzelstiltskin

Though off-the-shelf as it were an under-nuanced in my hands, we are finding this text-to-image generator inexhaustibly engrossing (previously), especially once we were able to get a better feel of how it operated and could choose an accessible subject and prompt equally familiar thematic variations. We selected a coquetry of “Disney Princesses” with each panel filtered through the style of commercially popular, ideally mononymous, artist. Here is an assortment of some of the better and less nightmare-addled results, and mouse over the images to see the influencing painter. I think Rembrandt is my favourite.  Give Latent Diffusion a try yourself and be sure to share the outcome. 

 

 

 

family federation for world peace and unification

Founded on this day in Seoul in 1954 by controversial entrepreneur and messianic claimant Reverend Sun Myung Moon (†1920 - *2012 and hence the colloquial name “Moonies”), the Unification Church has its origins with the family of 상사리 converting to Presbyterianism whilst under Japanese occupation around 1930 and mostly abandoning traditional Confucianist beliefs (though there is a degree of syncretism with the departure from Nicene teachings) and took up Sunday school education and later instruction. Then visited by Jesus Christ, according to church lore, on Easter 1936, Moon was personally tasked with finishing the work left undone by the crucifixion—a commission Moon accepted after a period of prayer and contemplation, evangelising after the war ended in 1945. Venturing north of the DMZ with his gospel got Moon arrested as a spy for South Korea in 1946 but was released as fighting between the northern and southern factions started in earnest and authored the movement’s scripture and theological basis, Divine Principle, which limned the church’s core beliefs of remission of debts and indemnities to restore balance with God. Though some see its publications, activism, subordinate businesses as a sort of prosperity gospel, the Unification Church’s network and holdings are minuscule in comparison with the Catholic Church or the Church of Latter Day Saints.

illuminated manuscripts

We quite enjoyed reflecting on this survey of the allure of modern medievalism for commercial clients and image-makers through the lens of the portfolio of commissions of Riga-based graphic designer Robert Rurans, who in turn takes his inspiration from source materials like fourteenth century catechisms, almanacs, herbals and alchemical guides. Clientele include fashion house Hermés, Coca-Cola and numerous jobs for the New York Times, who’ve twice nominated Rurans for illustrator of the year. Much more at It’s Nice That at the link up top.

soft construction with boiled beans

Via Super Punch and Web Curios, we are directed to more composite artistic stylings of the next generation of Dall·e (see previously—try your own hand at a version open to the public here) with some incredible machined responses to human prompts: like enthralled forest animals around a campfire, Darth Vader on the cover of Vogue magazine (see also) or this IT-guy laying cable, coded “Hellenistic,” that came out looking like tortured Laocoön under assault by sea serpents. 

Try feeding the title (one of surrealist Salvador Dalí’s paintings, with the parenthetical premonition of civil war) into Latent Diffusion at the link above and see what you get. Results will vary.

 

pangaea

Via Hyperallergic, we are referred to a nifty tool that lets one explore the geography and lifeforms that would have informed one’s hometown over the æons. Developed by engineer and palaeontologist Ian Webster, Ancient Earth ploughs through millions of years of tectonic shifts and rising and receding oceans with insights about fossils found nearby at the time and events defined the particular age and epoch. Despite the until recently relative inhospitability above the waves, one is always hoping that one’s home stays above water—especially in our current Anthropocene. Much more at the link above.