Dinosaurs and Robots

Pour One Out For Johannes Hevelius's Telescopes

2009-11-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

Maybe you're different, but I don't expect to be struck by sudden pangs of sadness when I browse the US Naval Oceanography Portal's small rare book selection.

Johannes Hevelius was a 17th century Polish master brewer and astronomer. He built a giant viewing platform across the roofs of his three adjoining houses in Gdansk to hold his awesome array of astronomical instruments, including a giant 45m focal length Keplerian telescope and massive sextants of his own design and fabrication. It was considered the best-equipped observatory in the world, and Hevelius and his wife/collaborator Elisabeth received successive kings and queens of Poland, as well as international colleagues like Edward Halley.

Anyway, here is LSM's catalogue description of Helevius's Machinae coelestis pars prior [published in 1673] and pars posterior [1679]:

The first volume, lavishly illustrated, describes his instruments. Some plates show his wife, assisting him with the observations. The second volume, which gives his observations from 1630 to 1679, had just been returned to him by the printer, when a fire burned down Hevelius' house, destroying his instruments, library, and almost the whole edition of this work. Only a few copies survived, which had previously been sent to personal friends.

Wikipedia uses the phrase "maliciously destroyed," but offers no details. Perhaps someday a novelist will tell us what happened.

Hevelius later named the equatorial constellation Sextans after his lost instruments.

The Naval Oceanography Portal has several large images of Hevelius's set-up. [usno.navy.mil, via a bibliodyssey tangent]
A full scan of Machinae coelestis pars prior at Carnegie-Mellon's Posner Center looks like the 1969 facsimile edition. [cmu.edu]
Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, New York, lists a 1st. ed. of Machinae coelestis pars prior on Abebooks for $85,000 [jonathanahill.com]

The Pepsi Pavilion, Expo 70, Osaka

2009-10-31T04:42:00.000-07:00

Giant, mirrored spheres of unusual artistic significance turn up in the most unlikely places, but a World Expo in the 70's is as good a place as any to look. Oh, there's one, the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka!

Truth be told, the Pepsi Pavilion was a failure, a cobbled-together colabo of artists, engineers, and marketing executives who had only the vaguest notion of what they were creating. In that borrowed origami dome, on the other side of the world, for a couple hundred thousand dollars, with those lasers, synthesizers, and smoke machines. And that 90-ft, inflated mylar balloon ceiling. They thought they were inventing The Future, but all they ended up with was the planetarium laser light show.

Life Magazine's Larry Burrows tried to capture the spirit of the Pepsi Pavilion in his photograph above, but you really had to feel it, man.

Cmielow Porcelain Dogs

2009-10-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Whippet

I'd love to have every one of these figural dogs created in the '50s and '60s at the Cmielow Porcelain Factory in Poland.

Scottie

Collie

Inspired by Picasso and Henry Moore, the Cmielow animals are simplified down to basic shapes and forms, but still retain the personality of the real deal.

Fox Terrier

Pekinese

Cmielow Porcelain Animals at Blue Poppy Art, England

Emile Gallé - Pottery Dog in a Harlequin Costume

2009-10-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

A pottery figure of a Dog, circa 1900 painted in a Harlequin costume in red, yellow, green and black - 31cm high, signed 'E. Galle, Nancy' (nicks) - Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000

Harlequin Dog at Bonhams Auction

Creston Lea's Bandsaw Painted by Sarah Ryan

2009-10-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Creston Lea writes:

Having read of your affection for the hand-lettered and various tools of industry, and feeling a compulsion to show it to everyone who might be receptive, I thought you might like to take a gander at this, my bandsaw recently painted by my friend and guitar collaborator, Sarah Ryan.

An impressive piece of machinery, to be sure. But that is not the end of the story. As the weather changed, the snake emblazoned saw attracted a small snake! Curled up right next to it - cute as a kitten. Awww. As you can see below, a heroic sort saved Creston from the horror.

Sarah Ryan x Creston Electric Instruments

Curious Lockheed Viewing Platform

2009-10-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Found in an old Lockheed toolbox, I have no idea what these photographs are depicting. Well, I have some idea, just as D+R readers have some idea - a model of a jig holding an airplane with a viewing platform. I hope they actually built this and had a hell of a barbecue on the platform.

Napoleon's Conversation Piece

2009-10-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I made a point of going back to the Museum of the History of Medicine for a second time here in Paris because the first time I went, I didn't have my camera with me. I had found the museum completely by accident, while poking around the medical school, trying to find the Musée Dupuytren (which I eventually found, but they don't allow photos). But, this is a beautiful little museum, largely unknown even to Parisians, that houses what must be the most singularly fantastic, bizarre and grotesque object I have ever seen in my life. Read on (unless you're squeamish). First, you have to walk past the cases of shining scalpels, knives, saws and things that hurt just to look at.

A prosthetic arm from the 16th century.

As I was about to take the stairs up to the mezzanine, I nearly passed by this little table, positioned without importance in the corner, by the fire extinguisher. What is that? Is that a...a foot?

(click to enlarge - if you want)

The table-top looked like some sort of messy mosaic. Then I noticed the ears. The description (offered only in French) reads:

Made by Efisio Marini, Italian naturalist doctor, and offered to Napoléon III. This table is formed of petrified brains, blood, bile, liver, lungs and glands upon which rests a foot, four ears and sections of vertebrae, which are also petrified.

The top of the foot is capped in engraved silver bearing the date 1866. I have been unable to find any other information or images online of this table, and simply had to go back and photograph it for D+R readers.

Link
Link to a translated entry in Italian on Efisio Marini
ETA: I found this blog entry with more photos!

Enzo Mari-an Lamp By Kueng-Caputo

2009-10-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

I am a fervent, if slack, fan of Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazione (1974), a critique of both the design world's preoccupation with elitist luxuries and global industry's dastardly disassociation of making and consumption, which takes the form of a sheaf of furniture designs you can make yourself with some 1-by pine boards and a hammer.

I am such a fan, in fact, that I have been making my own Autoprogettazione dining room table--using Ikea bookshelf components. It's taken me over a year of revisiting, lacquering, sanding, drying, procrastinating, &c.

And now the completion of my table will be delayed yet again as I build me one of these sweet-looking, Enzo Mari-inspired floor lamps designed by the New Yorko-Helvetian design duo Kueng-Caputo.

It was created for "Autoprogettazione Revisited," an exhibition of reinterpretations and new designs inspired by Mari's original self-made vision, which is on view at the Architecture Association's School of Architecture Gallery in London through October 27. Uh-whoops.

Fortunately, the plans for the pieces in the show are available online. [pdf]

L'Enfer - lost French film

2009-10-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

One of the more heartbreaking things about leaving Paris is the never-ending wonderful events coming up that you're going to miss. I'm especially sad to not see the theatrical release of the restored remains of L'Enfer (1964). An experimental film by Henri-Georges Clouzot, it's been called a cursed project that never saw the light of day. Just a few weeks into filming, the principle actor, Serge Reggiani walked out, Clouzot suffered a heart attack and filming stopped completely. But there was talk of the daring lighting and effects he used, staging Romy Schneider with colored lights, blue lipstick and glitter. (Her creatively amorous gyrations with a Slinky in the teaser clip above are pretty remarkable.) Maybe I could "miss" my flight home and stay until its release.

Victorian Corbel Restoration

2009-10-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

Recently Jody Daily and I lent a hand to the restoration of a Victorian farmhouse in Anaheim, California, built in the late 1800s. As the two-story structure had been lifted off its foundation and relocated to a new street, some original plaster corbels were destroyed in the move. Only one, broken into four pieces, was remotely salvageable.

After gluing the pieces back together, we removed a century of paint, filled the cracks and resculpted some details that had chipped off. New replacements have been cast for the ones that had been destroyed, and I can't wait to see them all back where they belong. Stay tuned!

Set of Samurai's Horse Armor with Creepily Awesome Mask

2009-10-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

A Set of Horse armor (Bagai) with Mask (Bamen) Including
Four Red-dyed Straw Sandals (Umawarage) and Tail Wrap (Abukura)
Price realized: $68,500

Christies - Art of the Samurai Auction

Have You Seen Me? Me, The Mailbox-Shaped NYC Post Office Of Yore?

2009-10-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

And here I thought all the thematically shaped buildings were down some 2-lane highway somewhere or in Los Angeles. I collaged this full image of a mailbox-shaped post office in New York City from a slow, time-lapse pan in Hilary Harris's 1975 documentary short, Organism.

While I was visiting New York City in that era, no one apparently saw fit to take me to the post office, so I have no idea where it was, when it went up, or when it came down. Though I'm pretty sure there's a Gap or a Starbucks on the site now.

update: Thanks to D+R reader Tim, who tracked down the 1979 Times obituary for John R. Strachan, New York City's postmaster from 1967 until his death. And it turns out Harris shot Organism over the course of 15 years, from 1959-1974, so there's a 7-year window.

You can watch Organism and several other of Hilary Harris's films in their entirety at the incomparable UbuWeb. [ubu.com]

Machine Project Benefit! Colab with Mister Jalopy x Machine Project

2009-10-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

On November 7th, Mister Jalopy's personal 4000 square foot studio will be host to the first Machine Project benefit.

Proceeds from this once-a-year event will enable Machine Project to continue welcoming any and all to free Machine public events in 2010. Tickets start at $75 for members, or $100 for non-members, with a Benefactor level ticket available for $250, which includes entry to a special pre-event reception and more. 90% of the cost of all tickets is tax deductible.

Have you been curious about the Los Angeles heroes that call themselves Machine Project? With over 20 participating artists, technologists and musicians, the 2009 Benefit will pack a month's worth of events into a single intimate evening. What to expect? Opportunities to steal art from a laser-protected, action movie-style set, wager on microscopic slime mold races, try your hand at gold panning to prospect for real gold nuggets, stay late to huddle around the firepit to make 'smores, partake from the amply stocked wine and beer bar, have a wood-fired pizza from an on-site brick pizza oven, enjoy music from four different acts, replace your old Getty Museum fake ID, participate in head-to-head speed soldering contests and eat noodles supplied by Kwong Dynasty Noodle Cart.

A rare opportunity to enter the secret workshop of Mister Jalopy. This is a very uncommon event.

Tickets can be purchased at Machine Project, in person at Machine Project or Coco’s Variety at 2427 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. Alternatively, mail a check to Machine Project at 1200D North Alvarado, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

Don't Drink The Feher

2009-10-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

ArtInfo reported on a recent Yale University panel discussion of the particular conservation challenges of contemporary art:

As Tony Feher — who uses objects like bottles, glass jars, and sticky-notes in his work — admitted, the most commonplace objects are sometimes the most difficult to maintain. “Nothing but disaster follows me around,” he joked, before regaling the crowd with horrific tales of artwork annihilation. He recalled how visitors repeatedly damaged an installation of Fanta bottles hanging on trees in a public park. “I call it the piñata effect,” he said. “If you have something that’s hanging in front of you, and it starts swaying, men just have to hit that.” Feher reported that one man even walked through, popped open a bottle, and enjoyed a refreshing beverage.

The Best of Intentions, by Andrew Rassmuth [artinfo.com, image: detail of Miami Device, 2002, Tony Feher via d'amelio terras, etc.]

Smile

2009-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

via Jillian Tamaki Sketchblog

Power x Architecture, ch. 2

2009-10-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Electrical substation architecture. It's like learning a new word; suddenly you start hearing it everywhere.

"Transformatie Huijse/Transformer House" was unveiled Saturday in Rotterdam. Roeland Otten won a community-run design competition to make the "neighborhood curse"--a giant transformer box installed in 2006 in the middle of a historic plaza--disappear. His solution: wrapping the structure in four trompe l'oeil photos to restore residents' placid views.

Sure enough, there's the offending box on Google.

I can't wait for this kind of photographic camo to start showing up all over StreetView. Some people will reskin their house for privacy, of course, make it look like a shack or a vacant lot. But I have a feeling that StreetView-optimized chateaufronts will be much more popular. Virtual curb appeal. [via hundertmarkblog.de via ajnotebook]

Architecture x Power

2009-10-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I guess it says something about the state and history of modernist architecture in the Washington DC area that two of the best buildings are electrical substations that no one seems to have ever mentioned before.

There's an ominous-looking, gridded steel&glass box thing tucked in between the railroad tracks and NASA's Headquarters just south of the National Mall.

And then there's the Crystal Substation [above], owned by Dominion, which is south of the Pentagon in Crystal City. [Which, put that way, sounds like the poorly translated setting for a 3rd-wave Akira knockoff.]

When I first stumbled past the Crystal Substation on our way out of Costco, I immediately thought of the futurtopian paradise that was Expo 67 in Montreal. The tubular space-frame roof resonated with the Expo's giant, perfect, and pointless structures like the Gyrotron, an ur-Space Mountain by Kenny & Auger, and the Netherlands Pavilion by Eijkelenboom and Middelhoek.

Eh, no. Up close the substation is ghetto busted, neglected and as uninviting...uh, as a conglomeration of deadly electrical equipment should be, I suppose. At least it looks good in drive-by.

That's Hot! Highlights From The LAPD Art Theft Detail Wanted Gallery

2009-10-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

I admit it, I've been too focused on producing and distributing big, wall-sized versions of the LAPD's awesome wanted poster [above] for the eleven Andy Warhol paintings which were reported stolen last month from a collector's Westside home, and I never went to the Art Theft Detail's actual website. IT IS FANTASTIC.

The galleries contain information on the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of art have been stolen in LA over the years--and a few that have been recovered. The images barely hint at the stories behind the thefts. When I see dozens of works by an artist I've never heard of, I can imagine a portfolio being taken from a car. But then there's the dozen-plus major, early 20th century paintings which were cleaned out of a room in just a couple of minutes while the collectors were in another part of the house. And the little Isamu Noguchi bronze lawn ornament some knuckleheaded neighborhood kid might've chucked into the LA River as a prank.

Anyway, here are my choices for LA's twelve greatest stolen artworks [that aren't Warhol Athletes.] If you have any information on their whereabouts, contact the LAPD!

Oh, It Is A Glorious Time To Be A Shelf Collector

2009-10-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

Maybe a year after everyone dumped their thimble and shot glass collections, the shelves are the only things people have left to sell? No idea. Alls I know is that Rago Arts' Oct. 24-5 auction in Lambertville, New Jersey sure seems like design-y shelf nirvana:

Lot 29A: that Wharton Esherick corner bookshelf in walnut & chartreuse is coming around again, this time with an estimate of $15,000-25,000 [down from $25,000-45,000 six months ago!]

Lot 366: three free-edge walnut shelves by George Nakashima, est. $2,000-4,000.

Lot 606: three-panel wall unit in Brazilian rosewood by Osvaldo Borsani, est. $8,000-12,000.

Lot 770: a hanging bookshelf in oak and leather by Jacques Adnet, est. $6,000-9,000.

Will Burtin's Giant Cell Models

2009-10-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Will Burtin's Cell Models

Figural Juice Boxes

2009-10-14T06:37:00.001-07:00

Muji and IDEO alum Naoto Fukasawa designed these inspired juice boxes that convey their contents better than any label ever could.

More at laughingsquid and toxel (Thanks, Paolo)

Hey, did I show you these boots I like?

2009-10-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

My boot insanity continues. And not only that- it just so happens there was an entire discussion thread devoted to boots on a board I frequent (I will protect the innocent) which led me to these boots called "Funtasma". Pleaser is not a brand known for restrained and tasteful footwear, but these are worth looking at in detail (exposed nailheads with fleur-de-lys straps and gold brocade edging). How can you make something that's gaudy and tacky but restrained and gorgeous all at once? Or, have I just plumb lost my mind? I'm not saying I'm going to wear them...but I do admire what's been achieved here.

Link

Previously on D+R:
Bocage Ad Campaign
Vialis Boots
Wine, Shoes and Sandmännchen

Rescuing Pottery with Toilet Bowl Cleaner

2009-10-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

With its hydrochloric acid warning label, I have a lot of respect for the toxicity of toilet bowl cleaner. To rescue this old flower pot, I set it outside on a piece of cardboard, sprayed it down and forgot about it for an hour. Then, with rubber gloves and a green scrubby pad, the rust and scale came off pretty easily. Though the pot is not perfect, it is certainly respectable enough to fill with dirt.

Wood Inlaid Fenders On An Austro-Daimler

2009-10-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

Look, I know I don't know anything about vintage or custom bicycles. So if these inlaid wood fenders on a vintage Austro-Daimler Olympia are like Falco t-shirts at a Zeppelin concert, I'm sure I'll hear about it.

My randonneur brother-in-law mentioned spotting them last summer at the Cirque du Cyclisme in Leesburg, VA and said they looked much better than the rest of the wooden fenders he'd seen. [Flickr user extraFunky, who took this picture, apparently agreed.]

Meanwhile, come to find out there's a guy named Ben who makes curved [i.e., "finally useful"] wooden fenders, who's walking the earth like Caine in Kung Fu, meeting people and getting in adventures.

Bocage Ad Campaign by Vania Zouravliov

2009-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderfully playful and sexy ad campaign for Bocage by Russian-born artist Vania Zouravliov that depicts Native American Indians binding up pioneer women so they can steal their beautiful button-up boots.

I have to admit that I've become a little obsessed with boots while here in Paris. I've bought, uh, three pairs. No woman here is without them, they are impossible to find in such a wide array in the States, and they are three times the cost back home. Justified. So, I am stocking up (and I'm not done yet). But, I am glad that my addiction to boots led to me research who did this ad campaign for Bocage. Zouraliov's work outside of the commercial art realm is sublime and much more to be admired than my folly for boots.

Link (via LifeLounge)