June 30, 2004
Briar Press
One of the most beautiful sites on printing I have ever seen, and a good resource for cuts & caps. Done by a friend, Eric.
Posted by Eider at
05:13 AM
June 29, 2004
Open your mail
Pretty twisted intrige movie that could have been avoided if she could had opened her mail.
Posted by Eider at
02:55 PM
June 23, 2004
Wilbur wants to kill himself
By the director of "Italian for Beginners" this is a pretty sweet comedy about life and wanting to lose it and how everything may change if the right person comes along. Sounds cheesy here, but the movie is worth seeing.
Posted by Eider at
10:27 AM
June 21, 2004
The size of the Earh
Erastosthenes was the director of the great library of Alexandria where one day he read in a papyrus book that in the southern frontier outpost of Syene, near the first cataract of the Nile, at noon on June 21 vertical sticks cast no shadows. On the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, as the hours crept toward midday, the shadows of temple columns grew shorter. At noon, they were gone. A reflection of the Sun could then be seen in the water at the bottom of a deep well. The Sun was directly overhead.
Erastosthenes did an experiment to observe whether in Alexandria vertical sticks cast shadows near noon on June 21. And he discovered that sticks do.
He asked himself how, at the same moment, a stick in Syene could cast no shadow and a stick in Alexandria, far to the north, could cast a pronounced shadow. Consider a map of ancient Egypt with 2 vertical sticks of equal length, one stuck in Alexandria, the other in Syene. Suppose that at a certain moment the two sticks cast shadows of equal length, that would make sense under the consideration of the Earth being flat. But, how could it be that at the same instant there was no shadow in Syene and a big one in Alexandria?
The only possible answer, was that the surface of the Earth is curved. Not only that, the greater the curvature, the greater the difference in the shadow lengths.
For the difference in the shadow lengths, the distance between Alexandria and Syene had to be about 7 degrees along the surface of the Earth. 1/50 of the 360 degrees of the full circumference of the Earth. He knew that the distance between the 2 cities was approx. 800 km, because he hired a man to pace it out. 800 km times 50 is 40.000 km: so he thought that must be the circumference of the Earth. (25.000 miles).
With just sticks he deduced the circumference of the Earth with an error of only a few percent, 2200 years ago.
(From Carl Sagan's "Cosmos")
Posted by Eider at
02:56 PM
June 19, 2004
Gregory Barsamian
Bringing the flip-book technique to sculpture.
I saw his exhibit 5 years ago in Richmond, Virginia. Going through papers today I found the catalogue. Although it's hard to imagine without being there (the website doesn't do it justice) it's enough to get an idea.
Posted by Eider at
02:37 PM
June 15, 2004
Dogville
We finally saw Dogville.
Being a fan of Von Trier's work (Europa, The Idiots, Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, The 5 Obstructions), I can say with the painful but sweet feeling that remains in you after sitting through a 3 hour-long piece of his work, that it was my favorite. It hurts, but you know it's good. Good in the sense that if you want to make a statement, you have to cross some lines, specially you have to cross the line of people's comfort zones.
As an art director I admire the mise en scene, which is truly original. But as an spectator, I admire his braveness for telling a painful story because as the movie says, people can not take truth so easily. It's hard to watch. The same way The Lord of the Flies it's hard to read. Humankind is not as we would like it to be sometimes. But the questions that the movie brings to the table are pretty necessary in a time of high levels of immigration and unfair share of wealth and power.
Posted by Eider at
06:26 AM
June 11, 2004
Mr. Potato Stamps
One of the few gold at this year´s D&Ad.
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06:02 AM
June 10, 2004
Cool artwork
Check out shis french illustrator.
Posted by Eider at
06:19 AM
June 09, 2004
Blog + Brand= A new communications tool
On June 3rd Gawker launched Art of Speed, a contract publishing blog in cooperation with Nike. Nike's Art of Speed project is composed of 15 short films made by up-and-coming filmmakers and artists, commissioned and selected by Nike. The website will run for a month, exploring the films, their creators, and the state of contemporary filmmaking and its technology.
Posted by Eider at
11:31 AM
June 05, 2004
Grady McFerrin
A great illustrator from Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Check out his personal website here.
Posted by Eider at
06:23 AM
June 01, 2004
Elephant
We finally watched yesterday the Gus Van Sant movie. The camera work is amazing. An story told from many angles since the camera follows the main characters through long walks in the high school.
I specially appreciated the lack of intention in trying to analize their minds and justify their actions.
Posted by Eider at
06:47 AM
