Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba
Yesterday evening I had the chance to install the Fishfly Weathervane I built a few weeks back… it’s now swiveling atop the Fishfly Gallery (where Ev exhibits some of her ceramic works). About two meters in overall length, the assemblage piece incorporates a variety of found junk and old objects—the body is a piece of driftwood decorated with brass strips from a hideous old wall clock, the large wing is cut from an old steel snow shovel, the two smaller wings are halves of a hammered brass plate, the head is a copper bowl (with drilled looney-coin eyes), antennae are the ends of two fishing rods, legs consist of old bits of rusted pliers and a rod handle, the hollow aluminum tail strands are from Ev’s old TV antennae (she tossed her set out years ago). The gleaming beast straddles an old railing banister tipped with a wood-fired ceramic arrowhead, and the swivel mount re-purposes an old roller-skate wheel (with nice friction-free bearings).
A number of people have already expressed interest in other commissioned weathervanes… time will tell where this may lead.
Austin, Texas
DJ Stout and his team at Pentagram Austin recently threw a fundraising party to help the homeless and to celebrate the release of Pentagram Papers 39: Signs. Designed by Stout, Signs is a collaboration with legendary Texas musician Joe Ely and renowned photographers Michael O’Brien and Randal Ford that focuses on the issue of homelessness. Donations received during the event went to the benefit of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a 501(c)(3) social outreach ministry for the homeless and indigent working poor. A good idea and nicely executed…
A great little video clip here (2:19 on YouTube) regarding the “vendor/client relationship” that comes frighteningly close to the service/value conversation that we designers often find ourselves in… well worth watching.
(thanks to Cameron Cavers for the link)
A premonition I had in my twenties that I wouldn’t
live beyond forty obviously didn’t pan out…
(message to self—don’t bank on your intuition, OK?)
Thanks to the many friends from far and near
who have sent their regards…
What it is depends largely on the value one imbues it with (think memetics), often comes down to where you find it (context counts a lot), and how you choose to define its transitory relevance…
ephemera
1398, originally a medical term, from M.L. ephemera (febris) “(fever) lasting a day,” from fem. of ephemerus, from Gk. ephemeros “lasting only one day,” from epi “on” + hemerai, dat. of hemera “day…” Sense extended to short-lived insects and flowers; general sense of “transitory” is first attested c.1639. Ephemeral is from 1576. Ephemeris “table of astronomical calculations” is from 1551. (from Online Etymology Dictionary)
Images: a few bits of ephemera from a nice Flickr collection here.
Freiburg, Germany
From my friend Silvie (who knows more about Tamiflu than you want to know), an apt allegory regarding the mainstream media’s hype du jour…
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Drei Tiere treffen sich….
Sagt der Bär: Wenn ich brülle, zittert der ganze Wald.
Der Löwe: Wenn ich brülle, zittert die ganze Wüste.
Und das Schwein: Wenn ich nur huste, zittert die ganze Welt…
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Three animals meet…
The bear says: When I roar, the whole forest shivers.
The lion quips: When I roar, the plains tremble.
And the pig retorts: All I have to do is sneeze, and the whole world quakes with fear.
(Image of unknown source, received from brother Phil.)
San Francisco, California
“This is a relentless age we’re living in, a time when innovative solutions—or any solutions, for that matter—to our seemingly infinite problems seem in short supply… so how do we come up with new ideas? How do we learn to think outside of normal parameters? Are the processes in place for doing so flawed? Do we rely too much on computer models? On consultants? On big-idea gurus lauding the merits of tribes and crowds or of starfish and spiders? On Twitter?”
In today’s New York Times, Allison Arief suggests that “…we’re all so mired in it that we’ve forgotten how to get out of it—how to daydream, invent, engage with the absurd;” this is why she is so enamored with the work of inventor, author, cartoonist, and former urban planner Steven M. Johnson, “a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller. Johnson is a former urban planner, and his work tends toward the nodes where social issues intersect with design and urban planning issues.”
Worth a read, here.
Melbourne, Australia
Rhett Dashwood has spent his spare time over several months searching Google Maps and discovering land formations or buildings resembling letter forms. These are the results of his findings limited to the state of Victoria, Australia.
