A collection of feature graphics from President Obama’s campaign website.
From Designing Obama by Scott Thomas, which is available to read online for free (as well as on iPad and in print). (via Kottke)
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Auerglass by Tauba Auerbach
Meredith Monk and Theo Bleckmann perform “Hocket” from “Facing North” live at the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts, Santa Fe, NM 2004
More on Hocket from Wikipedia.
(via John)
Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.Diane Arbus (via Hey, Hot Shot!)
What we call our Train of Thought is more like a Tornado of Thought—a huge, swirling mass capable of picking up cows, fenceposts, salsa, and talcum powder with no single purpose, yet moving in one general direction at any given moment…and much of the best modernist work presents us with a simulated storm of information and experience.Peter Turchi, Maps of the Imagination, p. 140
Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi, 1459, from Maps of the Imagination by Peter Turchi
Historically significant because:
Mauro’s map, oriented with south at the top, and dense with drawings and text, represents the transition from medieval mapping, which presented as much Christian dogma as geography, to the scientific mapping of the age of discovery.
But on a more personal level:
In the novel A Mapmaker’s Dream, James Cowan imagines the attempt of Fra Mauro, an actual fifteenth-century cartographer, to draw what he hopes will be a definitive map of the word, based not only on existing maps but on the stories of travelers from around the world. He learns that there are an infinite number of ways to depict reality. As the magnitude of this realization settles in, he writes, “My map absorbs me with what it does not reveal.” Later, despite or because of his efforts to be comprehensive, he tells us, “I am left with a sense of existing in an unfathomable void, surrounded by blankness.”
Visited Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s studio today and got to walk around inside (in funny foam slippers). Lee painted on the walls and Jackson worked on the floor.
Like all blanks, associative leaps through space need to be created. We must understand what makes electricity arc through the air. A conscientious reader confronted with a string of unrelated passages separated by blanks will, for a while, dutifully attempt to form bridges from one passage to the next, to discover the writer’s logic or pattern, the work’s intended accumulation. If no such thing is discernible, however, the reader will eventually, understandably, move on to something else. Such is the risk of communicating through silence. The rewards include the powerful bolt of understanding a leap can create, an understanding that reaches the reader beyond words, beyond rational explanation, and so is more intensely felt.Peter Turchi, Maps of the Imagination: the Writer as Cartographer, p. 55
Writing on Hey, Hot Shot!
Yesterday I woke up thinking about how much I like Mondays, but I actually like Tuesdays even more. Every Tuesday since April I’ve had the opportunity to pick and write about an interesting entrant to Hey, Hot Shot! (a.k.a. Contender) over on the HHS! blog. While the entries have no bearing on the actual judging process, I relish writing them (alongside Youngna, Stacy, and several awesome interns, who post on every other weekday). Collectively, the posts are a kind of snapshot of what photographers are out there making these days.
I’ve posted a few before, but here’s a list of all the interesting photographers I’ve written about so far: Ryan Boatright, Maya Økland, Tim J. Veling, Alexander Segreti, Candace Feit, Joao Margalha, Miti Ruangkritya, Kevin C. Moore, Joshua Dudley Greer, Alan Thomas, Mark Lyon, Alex Arzt, Marion Belanger, Ozant Kamaci, Kate Stone, Luis Belmonte Díaz, Sarah Sudhoff, Bruce Cunningham, and Robert Forlini
Some seriously exciting work! Even though the competition closes in just 5 days, we’ll be blogging about a different Contender every weekday until September, when the five Hot Shots are announced. I’m off to write my next post, look for it later today.