Links for Later 9-11-18

1. The dye from the murex snail was responsible for both Tyrian purple, used in Imperial robes and tekhelet, the "perfect" blue dye of Hebrew prayer shawls.
2. Antitrust legislation rises from the dead, thanks to Lina Khan and others like her.
3. Harvard started paying its workers a living wage. Could other companies do the same?

In Search of Forgotten Colours - Sachio Yoshioka and the Art of Natural Dyeing

A compendium of four short films from the Victoria and Albert Museum:

This is a compendium of four short films with English subtitles. Sachio Yoshioka is the fifth-generation head of the Somenotsukasa Yoshioka dye workshop in Fushimi, southern Kyoto. When he succeeded to the family business in 1988, he abandoned the use of synthetic colours in favour of dyeing solely with plants and other natural materials. 30 years on, the workshop produces an extensive range of extremely beautiful colours. Mr Yoshioka generously made two gifts of naturally dyed textile and paper samples to the V&A in 2016 and 2017. The process of creating these samples was recorded for a documentary broadcast in Japan in May 2017. The programme also explored the background to Mr Yoshioka’s passion for natural dyeing and his long-standing quest to revive historical colours whose methods of making have been forgotten.

(via kottke.org)

Jim Carrey: I Needed Color

Jim Carrey started painting. A lot. He's good.

Jim Carrey: I Needed Color from JC on Vimeo.

EP 034 Jon Taplin on Internet Monopolies and Creative Culture

Jonathan Taplin is Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. he was a Professor at the USC Annenberg School from 2003-2016. Taplin's areas of specialization are in international communication management and the field of digital media entertainment. Taplin began his entertainment career in 1969 as Tour Manager for Bob Dylan and The Band. In 1973 he produced Martin Scorsese's first feature film, Mean Streets, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1996, Taplin produced 26 hours of television documentaries (including The Prize and Cadillac Desert for PBS) and 12 feature films including The Last Waltz, Until The End of the World, Under Fire and To Die For. His films were nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe awards and chosen for The Cannes Film Festival five times. (via jontaplin.com)

Today, Jon talks about his new book, Move Fast and Break Things: How Google, Facebook and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. It tells the story of how the Internet took a wrong turn from its early days as a source for innovation and wealth for individual creators and entrepreneurs, becoming a highly centralized set of monopolies and oligopolies that suck $50 billion a year in income away from content creators. This has hollowed out whole industries, leaving both producers and consumers less well off both economically and artistically. We discuss some of the history of the Net that led to this point, and some of the possible remedies for the problems we face.

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Want to hear more like it?
Pair with Kevin Kelly's interview. Kevin has a much more positive view of technological change now and in the future.

Bruno Borges

A 24 year old Brazilian man named Bruno Borges disappeared on March 27th, leaving behind a room covered in elaborate art and containing a life-sized statue of Giordano Bruno and fourteen numbered notebooks. The name Bruno Borges is a little on the nose, as my friend Ted Hand puts it, since it's a combination of Giordano Bruno, whose statue appears in the room, and Jorge Luis Borges, author of numerous labyrinths and literary games. The whole thing feels like a Borges story, anyway.

Bruno Borges story on reddit.
Daily Mail article on Borges.
El Globo's story on Borges.

An update on the Bruno Borges disappearance, connecting it to Cicada #3301, can be found here.



I have no idea what to make of it all. It's awfully neat handwriting for someone who's experiencing mental problems, which suggests that it's an art project or part of the Cicada scavenger hunt.

Update: It may all have been part of a book marketing scheme.
http://www.surrealista.com.br/2017/05/amigo-de-bruno-o-desaparecido-do-acre-e-preso-e-caso-ja-e-tratado-como-jogada-de-marketing

It seems that the season of the "Boy from Acre" case, Bruno Borges, mysteriously disappeared on March 27, is coming to an end. The Civil Police made two operations at the home of two friends of Bruno and found, among other things, two contracts signed giving friends part of the income from the sale of the 14 books he left in his room, along with scrawled walls and the statue of 2 meters. Bruno's cousin, Eduardo Borges, could also be involved in the case.

One of Bruno's friends, Marcelo Ferreira, was arrested, reports the G1 , for omitting information about the case, which would constitute false testimony. In the house of another friend, Mario Gaiote, the bed and the rack of Bruno's room were found, set aside for the setting of the scene found after his disappearance. Both Marcelo and Mario had signed contracts at home to distribute the proceeds of the sale of the books, drawn up in a notary's office on the very day Bruno disappeared.

"On the day Bruno left, he went to the notary's office and recorded the contract. So, for us, it is very conclusive that it was not a disappearance whatsoever, it was in fact a conscious plan of remoteness, and the contract shows that there is a deadline for disclosure of these books, deadline for publication, percentage allocation for those who helped him, in the case , These three people who helped him right away. For us, this is very clear, "said Alcino Júnior, the delegate of the case, to the G1 .

Update 6/11/17: More from the police investigation here.

Drawing Technique: Foreshortening

Using the "coil technique" to do foreshortening during the sketching phase. This method is so good that you'll think, "Why didn't I know this already?"

Paul Laffoley has Merged with the Infinite

Paul Laffoley, one of our favorite artists here at Bottlerocketscience, has died today. He will be sorely missed.

From Kent Fine Art's email:

NEW YORK PAUL LAFFOLEY (b. Cambridge, August 14, 1935 - d. Boston, November 16, 2015) The visionary artist and luminary, Paul Laffoley, has died today after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He had an extraordinary grasp of multiple fields of knowledge compulsively pursing interests that often lead him into uncharted territory. His complex theoretical constructs were uniquely presented in highly detailed mandala-like canvases largely scaled to Fibonacci's golden ratio. While an active participant in numerous speculative organizations including his own Boston Visionary Cell since the early 70s, his work began to attract an increasing following in his late career with shows at the Palais de Tokyo (2009), Hamburger Bahnhoff (2011), Hayward Gallery, London, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2013). The first book on Laffoley's oeuvre was The Phenomenology of Revelation published by Kent Fine Art in 1989, followed by several subsequent publications beginning with his first retrospective organized by the Austin Museum of Art (1999). Forthcoming in March of 2016, the University of Chicago Press will be releasing the long awaited book entitled The Essential Paul Laffoley. He was a kind and generous giant, and he will be sorely missed by all of us. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be . . . Henry David Thoreau CLICK VIMEO TO SEE PAUL LAFFOLEY ON VISIONARY ART 210 ELEVENTH AVENUE (between 24th and 25th Streets) 2ND FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10001 212-365-9500 WWW.KENTFINEART.NET For all further inquiries contact Douglas Walla at dkw@kentfineart.net

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 011: Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is a master storyteller with over twenty years experience producing amazing stories as serials, singles, graphic novels, books and films. He is also a very funny man, in all the best senses of the word.

From his website:

Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN. The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name.

Today, we talk politics, life in the Thames Delta, managing the creative pipeline, quiet technology, glamorless utilities and cunning folk. His new and forthcoming work includes TREES and the new James Bond graphic novels.

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Show Links and Notes

Links for Later 7-3-15

1. The new tech entrepreneurs and culture of Iran. I am not sure who is more representative of Iran, them or the hardliners, than I am sure who is more representative of America, us or our hardliners.
2. "Everything is Yours, Everything is Not Yours."
3. How the Greek bailout deal fell apart, or, Finance ministers acting like children. Also, EU politicians campaigning in Greece.
4. How productivity affects demand for manufacturing labor.
5. Faberge fractals by Tom Beddard
6. This bodes ill for the quality of Matt Damon's next movie.
7. Fazal Sheikh's Erasure. Photographs.

Tatiana Plakhova - Globe

complexitygraphics.com

Links for Later 6-9-14

1. China's economy has some big challenges ahead (capacity utilization is at 60%, lots of bad credit on the market, etc.) (via Marginal Revolution)
2. Syllabus for Lynda Barry's drawing class.
3. "Really, Edwin..."
4. Bishop Synesius On Dreams (De Insomniis)
5. Academics getting fed up with the highly profitable academic publishing industry.

Frank Quitely - What Do Artists Do All Day?

BBC Documentary

Roentgen Furniture

Exquistely made furniture from the father and son furniture makers Abraham and David Roentgen was displayed recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The pieces were built with intricate mechanisms for opening and closing drawers, compartments and components.

More info over at BLDG BLOG.

Tintypes

I'm a sucker for alternative and historical photographic processes, so Victoria Will's photographs of celebrities at Sundance are visual catnip. I have a tintype of my great grandfather where he looked like Flea in the picture above. Same piercing blue eyes. The process itself is unretouched and the photographs taken in harsh lighting conditions, so you end up with a very detailed and unforgiving photograph.

(via Esquire and kottke)

Box

(via Jay Lake)

Annals of Notable Baby Names

Artist and polymath Natalie Jeremijenko likes to name her children in unique ways:

Jeremijenko’s experimental streak extended to the naming of her kids. Her oldest daughter is Mister Jamba-Djang Vladimir Ulysses Hope (Jamba for short); her daughter with Conley is E (what “E” stands for is up to E, but so far she has decided to stick with the initial); and their son is Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser Knuckles. “I had wanted to give our boy an ethnically ambiguous name to challenge assumptions about race and assimilation,” Conley wrote in a 2010 essay. “For all the Asian-American Howards out there, shouldn’t there be a light-haired, blue-eyed white kid named Yo Xing?”

Previously: Dash Snow's child's name

Links for Later 6-5-13

First, three from The Browser:
1. Notes on war and return from a soldier's wife.
2. Patrick Leigh Fermor makes fun of W. Somerset Maugham's stammer, and other stories. Third in a series.
3. What it's like to be gay in Moscow at the moment.

Next, one from Jonathan Coulthart:
4. Shoryu Hatoba, modern kamon (crest) artist.

5. Nikola Tesla's productivity hacks.
6. "Erick Erickson is derpy."
7. Dutch postal art.

Paul Laffoley on Alchemy

(via boingboing)

Marcin Ryczek - Swans

Marcin Ryczek found the crucial moment in this scene of a man feeding swans on a snowy day.

(via Colossal)

Links for Later 2-3-13

1. How to debate Paul Krugman (like an idiot)
2. How to write your PhD Thesis in three months
3. Ex-votos
4. Bill Gates' annual letter
5. The history of the Liberal Arts
6. Visualizing neural activity in the brain of a zebrafish in real time
7. The Lost Labyrinth of Versailles