Pinohuacho, Villarica, Chile
This design of an observation deck is remarkable not only for its elegantly simple design… but also for the story behind it. The region has been shaped by years of slow recovery after a 1971 volcanic eruption. With the land losing its value, villagers have been forced to move to the city. Not wanting to lose his way of life, Miguel Vázquez talks to his father about the possibility of agrotourism, where the land will be carefully cultivated to be enjoyed by villagers and visitors alike. The whole family has begun to take part, as well as the rest of the village. Their intent is to create a landscape that embraces the natural environment, therefore the architectural designs need to reflect the surrounding countryside, as well as the traditional sustainable building materials and methods. It’s really a lovely project, with a lovely story… inspiring.
See more images and English texts describing the initiative at Arch Daily here; read about it as described by the architect (in Spanish, along with full drawings, erection photos, and videos) on Rodrigo Sheward Giordano’s blog here.
Long Island City, New York
…as seen through the eyes of Luba Lukova. More of her strikingly effective work here…
Lecco, Italy
Great little article in The Independent about Ricardo Cassin, the amazing Italian mountaineer who turned 100 last month. Check it out here.
Image: Riccardo Cassin: “I always brought home everyone who came along and never lost a friend on a rope.”
Kyoto, Japan
Although we live in a WYSIWYG world in which “seeing is believing,” as a species, we’re actually quite easily fooled… which I quite enjoy. I’ve posted before (here) about the illusionary work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. (Warning: his site “contains some works of ‘anomalous motion illusion,’ which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick [e.g. epileptic seizures, which can happen if the brain can’t handle conflicting information from your two eyes]). Check out Akiyoshi’s latest visual illusions (along with lucid explanations of the related phenomena) here.
Images: the Rotating Snakes above appear to move in a circular fashion, though this is actually a still image; the Runway on the right appears to tilt from the vertical more than the one on the left, even though both are identical; similarly, the horizontally aligned rows of Chromosomes appear to tilt (though the lines are parallel). So don’t believe everything you see…
Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language. Old words, wise words, hard-working words. Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie abandoned and forgotten.
You can do your part. Help save the words! If not for yourself, then for generations to come. Now, you may ask, “What have future generations done for us lately?” Well, not much. But one day they’ll be grateful. You never know, they may even have a word to say about you…
The above is from Save the Words—if you’re a lover of neglected words, check it out here (where you can adopt a word, spread the word, etc.). Thanks to David Coates for the link.
Along a similar vein (protecting endangered words), below is one of a series of greeting cards for What? Clay Art & Curios that we developed last year (“Giglet” was first used by Will Shakespeare to describe a giddy, frolicsome girl—a word worth saving). More word rescue efforts are underway…
St. Petersburg, Russia
All too often we forget the hardship experienced by generations past, especially during certain wars, yet some people have a profound way of reflecting on times gone by, presenting their take on the world in a new light. These haunting, hybrid images of past and present St. Petersburg—formerly known as Leningrad—are the works of Sergei Larenkov. After studying old images of the city, Larenkov visited the same spots, capturing them on film. He then digitally superimposed the old image over new, producing these eerie and thought-provoking shots.
Like ghosts captured forever on film the scenes depict all too clearly a harshness that can result only from times of war. The 900-day Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade, lasted from 9 September 1941 to 27 January 1944—just over 65 years ago—and was one of the longest and most destructive sieges of major cities in modern history, and second most costly…
“During nine hundred(!) days a few million people in the city of Leningrad suffered from cold and hunger, being deprived of almost all supplies of food and fuel. Many thousands died; those who survived remember this not very willingly. The situation with food was so heavy, no food was sold/distributed among people except a few grams (not even tens or hundred grams) of bread, and not each day, that people had to eat stuff that they would never eat in normal life, like making soups of leather boots (because leather is of animal origin) or boiling the wallpaper because the glue with which they were attached to walls contained a bit of organic stuff. Of course many occasions of cannibalism occurred.”
See more images at English Russia, here. Thanks Adrian for the link.
Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba
Well… it’s been a fun weekend of making art. Ev has been working on some awesome sculptural pieces, and I’ve been enjoying experimenting with a combination of ceramic techniques, illustration, and assemblage. The blizzard-like weather conditions of late January hardly seem to matter… :-)
Photos: Evelin Richter hard at work on her latest sculptural pieces.
Somewhere in Sweden
What goes around comes around, right? Henning Cedmar-Brandstedt kindly drew my attention to a sweet bit of serendiptous trivia today… it seems that in 1933, a mere three years after El Lissitzy designed his famous poster Russische Ausstellung 1929 (a copy of which I have hanging in my home and about which I posted last year here), the Swedish Socialist Party (Women’s League) created a valaffisch (election poster) which borrows directly the ‘merged heads’ (depicting gender equality) first used by El Lissitzky. The kicker? In a 2006 poll of Swedish union members the derivative poster was voted as “the best looking poster in Swedish history”—methinks El Lissitzky would be proud.
Thanks, Henning!
Paris, France
Sometimes you just don’t need captions. René Maltête (1930-2000) was a French “illustrative photographer,” poet, non-conformist, and pacifist who learned his craft in the école de la rue and practiced with a penchant for humor and a keen understanding of “the human condition.”
(Thanks to Guy Schockaert for introducing René to me).
