Scale of the Universe

This is beyond cool: the Homunculus Nebula and Quantum Foam together again. Scale of the Universe created by Cary and Michael Huang. Open it when you've got some time to kill.

Wain Cats

Weird and compelling short article in Scientific American about artist and psychiatric patient Louis Wain, who lived and painted in England between 1860 and 1939.

Wain was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1924. Though the diagnosis is still debated, what's fascinating is that Wain retained his interest in cats as his subject of choice, and his skill as a draftsman remained obvious. As his condition worsened his pictures of cats became more abstract until, towards the end of his life, they were barely recognisable as cats at all, instead becoming intricately detailed, fractal shapes full of bright colours. The foreknowledge that they are images of kitties allows the viewer to pick up on certain shapes – the pointy ears and some features – but without it, you would be hard-pressed to realise these are cats.

The story ends somewhat happily with Wain in a London hospital surrounded by a colony of cats. Check out his early cute and relatively realistic work here and his spectacular and terrifying later work here.

Haymarket

Hard to believe that the timing is a coincidence. Today, November 11th, marks the 123rd anniversary of the execution of the Haymarket Martyrs - eight anarchists and labor organizers who took part in the struggle for the 8 hour work day and the May Day uprising in Chicago in 1886.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (Now the AFL) began loudly calling for a great movement to win a national 8-hour workday. The plan was to spend two years urging all American employers to adopt a standard 8-hour day, instead of the 10- to 16-hour days that were then prevalent. Beginning May 1886, all workers not yet on an 8-hour schedule were to cease work in a nation-wide strike until their employers met the demand.

Accordingly, on May 1 of that year great demonstrations erupted across the country. The largest was in Chicago, where 80,000 people marched, much to the alarm of Chicago's business leaders who saw it as a foreshadowing of "revolution," and demanded a police crackdown.

A mass meeting was called for the night of May 4, 1886 in the city haymarket. A large force of police arrived to demand that the meeting disperse, and someone, unknown to this day, threw a bomb. In their confusion, the police began firing their weapons in the dark, killing at least four in the crowd and wounding many more.

In the aftermath of the event, unions were raided all across the country. The Eight-Hour Movement was derailed and it was not until passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1935 that the 8-hour workday became the national standard, as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal.

Albert Parsons and seven others associated with radical organizations were prosecuted in a show trial. None were linked to the bomb thrower, and some were not even present at the time, but the charges against them alleged that their public criticism of corporate America, the political structure, and the use of police power against the working people, inspired the bomber.

Governor John Peter Altgeld subsequently found the trial to be grossly unfair. On June 26, 1894, Altgeld pardoned those defendants still alive and in prison; but five of the martyrs had already been hanged, on November 11, 1887, and one was dead of an apparent suicide.

In July 1889, a delegate from the AFL attending an international labor conference in Paris, urged that May 1 of each year be celebrated as a day of labor solidarity. With the notable exception of the United States, workers throughout the world now celebrate May 1 as "Labor Day."

YooouuuTuuube

I've been hooked on this simple but devilishly addictive YouTube toy that is better experienced than explained. It does amazing things with videos like this classic performance by Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street, makes these great Norman Maclaren films even trippier, and also somehow manages to improve upon the already hypnotizing video for Beyonce’s Countdown. Do check it out. And be sure to hit the "flux" button.

Hobo Nickels

Since at least the 18th century unknown and uncelebrated artists have carved miniature bas relief sculptures into the surfaces of coins. In the early 20th century the Buffalo nickel was introduced in the U.S., and this particular coin, which featured the portrait of an Indian with bold features, was minted using soft metal making it easier to deface and transform. With the flood of idle hands and unemployed artists resulting from the depression, the phenomenon of the Hobo Nickels was born. Here's a great series of images of nickels carved to reveal skulls - a particular sub genre of the art form. Hobo nickel carving remains a popular hobby today and it even has its own society.

Via Colossal Art & design.

Frankfurt El Farofillio

Now THIS is a taco truck!

Pepita, Baby Nico & I were in San Feliu de Guixols for the "Festas Majores," the biggest party of the year during which the entire little city takes a week off of work to play on the beach and party in the streets. It´s a wonderful Spanish concept, and like all things Spanish, food takes pride of place. This incredible food truck - aka Frankfurt el Farolillo rolls up fully contained within a trailer and unfolds to reveal dozens of seats, a well stocked grill, and a bar decked out in leather and chrome that would be the envy of most fully licensed pubs in the U.S. It´s one hell of a party.

It´s been a great 4 weeks in Spain, but all things must come to an end. We head back to the U.S. tomorrow morning, a little less rich, a little more tan, and somewhat ready to get back to the real world. But first - Camarero! One more for the road!

Que me voy

I'm off to my annual sojourn in Barcelona and the Costa Brava. As always, I've got lots of plans to make minimal plans. I will certainly eat much seafood, spend many hours in the sea, and hope to catch up on many pages of neglected reading. Other than that, it's anyone's guess. I will check in from time to time with news and photos, but will hardly make blogging a priority. On behalf of the entire staff, thanks for another year reading Gurldoggie.

This image, of the stunning Antoñita La Singla in Barcelona, is from a 2009 exhibition at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo of Seville dedicated to flamenco. I found it at the redoubtable Poemas de Rio Wang, where it is one of several stunning images. See it. Ciao!

Light Fuse

You've still got about a week to get your fireworks. If you're around Seattle that means heading out to the Muckleshoot Reservation just south of Auburn. For a few weeks before July 4th, tribe members make a significant portion of their annual income from the parking lot full of fireworks stands. Of course the very best bargains are to be had in the 2-3 days following the holiday. Keep in mind that it's illegal to leave the reservation with explosives.

And I've linked to this website before, but it's well worth a second visit. Crackerpacks is a compendium of artwork from hundreds of firecracker labels from around the world, from the 1950's through today. Fun for hours and clicking won't burn your fingers. Ka-BOOM!

Thank you Grg Kimball for the photo above!

10,000 Year Clock

A team of Seattle-based builders, designers and engineers is currently constructing a 200-foot tall clock some 500-feet deep into a mountain in the Sierra Diablos of remote West Texas. The massive timepiece is designed to chime every day for the next 10,000 years.

The huge undertaking is the brainchild of the Long Now Foundation and is being funded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

The father-and-son stone cutting team Stuart and James Kendall of Seattle Solstice stoneworks have created a custom robotic saw that will cut a massive spiral staircase into the mountain, and gargantuan gears 5 to 8 feet tall and weighing 1,000 pounds each are being built at Seattle's Machinists Incorporated with the help of another Seattle company, The Gear Works.

Six dials on the clock's face will represent the year, century, horizons, sun position, lunar phase, and the stars of the night sky over a 10,000-year period. Large plates which run down the center of the clock will generate a different bell ringing order for each day of the next 10,000 years. The clock will be "self-winding" through a combination of thermal power and 20,000 pound weights.

After many years of work, the final design and engineering of the Clock is nearly complete, and fabrication of the full-size Clock parts has begun. Stuart Kendall expects to start work on the staircase in the fall, and preparatory work is already underway in West Texas where a mining company is boring the entry tunnel.

The project website is here, and Wired Magazine has a long and detailed article on the technical aspects of the project.

Dingbat, Baby!

Got some empty space to fill? Spend some quality time browsing around Dingbat, baby! The dingbat inhabits the border between typography and clip art. Once reserved for serious print-related tasks like pointing, filling spaces, and exclamation, the dingbat now commands a higher level of respect and is useful for all manner of purposes. The cute and clever Dingbat, Baby sheds light on a different specimen daily. Click on the featured Dingbat to view and download its entire family. Just about all of the fonts shown are freeware or shareware and are eager to be adopted.

New Camera

I've been obsessing about a new camera. I would like a good one that fits in my pocket, and that I can use easily while riding my bike. Maybe you have an idea?

To save a few bucks I supposed I could try to make a camera out of an egg. Francesco Capponi did exactly that, converting an egg into a single-use pinhole camera. Capponi shared his photos in the MAKE Flickr pool and posted full instructions on how to make one, but it’s not an easy process. In order to create four good photographs, Francesco destroyed fifty eggs.

If I want the thing to last, perhaps I should build one out of Legos? After more than a year of experimentation, Alabama-based photographer Cary Norton recently completed the Legotron, Mark I a working camera made entirely from Lego bricks. The lens is a 127mm ƒ4.7 he got on ebay for 40 bucks, and it's focused by sliding a box-inside-a-box forward and backward.

I'm open to all ideas.

Euthanasia Coaster

The “Euthanasia Coaster” is a hypothetical euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster engineered to humanely and elegantly take the life of a human being. Riding the coaster’s track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death. This ‘kinetic sculpture’ is in fact the ultimate roller coaster: John Allen, the former president of the famed roller coaster builders Philadelphia Toboggan Company, once said that “the ultimate roller coaster is built when you send out twenty-four people and they all come back dead. This could be done, you know." From Design Interactions Research. More here.

Blödes Orchester

The Blödes Orchester (or "stupid orchestra) is comprised of more than 200 vacuum cleaners, blenders, washing machines and electric razors arranged like a symphony orchestra. You can't make this shit up. By the Hamburg-based composer and theater director Michael Petermann. You can see the full 35 minute-long performance every hour at the MKG Hamburg until April 30th.

Hurley, Pegaso, Manohara

The unusually experimental bike shop 20/20 Cycle is hosting an otherworldly musical event this week. On a single inspired bill the cult hero and folk music legend Michael Hurley joins Latin psychedelic duo El Pegaso, along with the Vashon Island-based Indonesian folk band Orkes Manohara. A true adventure in global weirdness within the confines of an over friendly neighborhood cycle store. Absolutely not to be missed. On Saturday February 5 at 8:30pm. 2020 Cycle is at 2020 E. Union St. in Seattle.

Tombs

In 2010 Seattle street artists No Touching Ground, NKO and photographer Dan Hawkins, collectively known as the New Mystics, created a a 9,000-square-foot art installation called The Tombs in a former factory south of downtown Seattle. By design the project was hidden from the public in a building that the three artists entered illegally, though it it was decently documented by local writers and photographers.

The New Mystics now want to work together with the King County arts organization 4culture to recreate their installation in a way that is accessible and open to the public. They're looking for $2,000 to install this piece properly and have started a Kickstarter campaign towards that goal. As with all Kickstarter initiatives, any well meaning soul is welcome to go online and give any amount of money for a project that inspires them. The public installation is scheduled to open on April 4th, 2011 at Gallery 4Culture in downtown Seattle, and it will happen on time with our help. More about the Tombs project here.

Spiral Path of a Blindfolded Man

in 1916 the American zoologist Asa Schaeffer observed that an amoeba placed on a cylindrical surface always moved in a spiral path around the cylinder. To further study spiral movement, Schaeffer blindfolded a right-handed friend and instructed him to walk a straight line across a country field. Schaeffer plotted his friend's track, which described a clockwise spiral form until the man happened to stumble on a tree stump.

From the aptly named Endless Forms Most Beautiful.

Art Jam

On Saturday December 11th, as many as 30 Georgetown and South Seattle-based artists will convene on the 9lb Hammer in Georgetown to create art into the wee hours. Everything made will be for sale on the same night, with nothing priced higher than 50 bucks. In addition to the art making, drinks will be flowing all night and a number of DJ's will be spinning jams until closing time. Some fun photos of past events here and here.

In related news, Seattle collective Artifakt are throwing a party at LO-FI which also blends music and art. On Friday December 10th, they’re hosting a show of new stencil work by local artists Wakuda, Grym, 179, and Urban Soule, with sets from DJ's Flave, Hanibal, Jonny Foreskin, and Flat & Furious.

Come out this weekend to have a drink, shake your tail and support Seattle artists!

Tu vuò fà l’americano

Been a long week. Glad it's Friday.

Kitedress

Cocky Eek teaches a unique discipline at the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy in The Hague. Her classes explore lightweight materials and inflatable structures, looking for ways to bring strange sculptural elements into unexpected surroundings.

One recent Eek project is her kitedress, in which Eek is hoisted in the air wearing a 60-foot long dress anchored by a small truck. The artist and her dress become both sculpture and performance, with the wind dictating the height and the duration of the flight. So far the kitedress has chalked up five successful lifts. More here.

Make Your Own Toys

My homegirl Sue Havens has a new book out this week! Make Your Own Toys is a strange and lovely guide to making soft animals from recycled fabrics.

Sue accurately describes herself as a "lifelong crafter," and she could have written a book on any number of crafty subjects - sewing, knitting, painting on porcelain, making beautiful things from found objects and raw materials. The projects in this new book are charming, but just as important, the book is a visual delight - filled with pictures, illustrations and patterns - put together by a skilled designer with a unique eye.

Get it! Read it! Make some toys!