One month left: enter the Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge

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May 31 is the deadline for submitting artworks to the NSF/AAAS Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

2006 winners

Posted in Artists & Art, Photography, Science | Comments Off

Kalamazeitgeist

If the word “Kalamazoo” prompts you to imagine a child’s musical toy, skip this post. But if it makes you hyperventilate and run to double-check obscure citations, the cruel wit of Herr Professor Doktor Boethius P. von Korncrake may divert you as May 10 approaches:

Yes, I am complicit in this enterprise, but to my credit I have taken the honorable route of making my presentations unusually unintelligible. My papers, when read out loud, are nothing more than 20 mintues of unadulterated tosh, a fact which saves me incalcuable amounts of time in the writing, and confounds my audience into utter silence in the hearing.

One would imagine that my listeners would rise up as a body and cast me from the academy as a charlatan, but show me a single academic who is brave enough to say, in front of his colleagues, “I don’t understand,” and I’ll send immediate notice to my friend Diogenes to extinguish his lamp.

If Herr Professor waxes too cynical for you, revive your tarnished idealism with an optimistic medieval pick-up line (“Woldstow haue me shyfte thyne voweles?”) from one of my favorite bloggers, Geoffrey Chaucer. (Where have you been lately, Chaucer? I miss your posts).

Posted in Frivolity, Littademia | Comments Off

Lovely, Dark and Deep

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wild mushroom
mixed media shadowbox
“Lovely Dark and Deep” at doe
Lisa Congdon and Stephanie Barnes, 2007

Mixed media artists/sisters Stephanie Barnes and Lisa Congdon collaborate for “Lovely, Dark and Deep,” a show opening tonight, May 4, at doe in San Francisco.

announcement – from Lisa Congdon’s blog
Flickr set

Lisa’s previous show, “Anatomie”, can still be seen on the opposite coast, at Rare Device in NYC (until May 20).

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dans les caverns du corps
mixed media shadowbox
“Anatomie” at Rare Device
Lisa Congdon

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Antikamnia: memento mori in advertising

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Illustrations for Antikamnia Chemical Company Calendars, 1900 & 1897
Louis Crucius, ~1890

BibliOdyssey turned up this wicked advertising campaign by turn-of-the-century pharmaglomerate Antikamnia Chemical Company. The calenders were targeted at medical professionals, not the average consumer, for whom I presume a baby skeleton in a christening gown would be a slight turn-off.

I like the little pharmoompa-loompas the best. I wish I’d had some in grad school. Or for grading exams. . .

By the way, this is exactly why illustrators need skulls as references. Crucius must have had access to a newborn’s skull as well: note the broad, thin mandible and the diamond-shaped fontanel (soft spot) on top of the head. It’s a fairly accurate drawing.

Posted in Artists & Art, Biology, Frivolity, Museum Lust, Science, Wonder Cabinets | 5 Comments

The gig’s up!

Skulls found in man’s apartment | Chicago Tribune

Uh-oh. I seriously hope the authorities aren’t going to start confiscating skulls, because I have one too. And yes, I boiled mine on my stove. That’s what you do to get a skull clean, respectable and Yorick-esque. If you’re lucky, the ear ossicles will fall out in the process, and you’ll have a delicate little malleus, incus, and stapes – perhaps even two sets.

I suppose law enforcement has to check out a report of a guy boiling skulls on his stove. But between anatomy students, medical illustrators, artists, anatomy professors, doctors, and nostalgic former Hamlets, there must be a LOT of old human skulls in private hands. Is this even news?

It might be news if the skull was studded with diamonds, and worth fifty million pounds. (Apparently Damien Hirst is a bigger joker than Yorick.)

Posted in Artists & Art, Biology, Museum Lust | 2 Comments

It’s the Dumbo of the deep!

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Dumbo Octopus
From The Deep, by Claire Nouvian
www.thedeepbook.org

Collision Detection posted this link to a French film of deep-sea organisms. I don’t know if it’s the hypnotic French narration, or the freaky organisms, or that fact that I went running five miles in a rainstorm and may have pneumonia, but this is trippy.

The star is the Dumbo octopus, Grimpoteuthis, which has actual flapping Dumbo ears. I now have a favorite cephalopod (for all the times I’ve been asked that question at cocktail parties, which is of course many times indeed). The picture above is from this promo for The Deep, a beautiful book of photography by Claire Nouvian. But it doesn’t do the ear-flapping justice, so check out the video too.

Posted in Biology, Cephalopodmania, Film, Video & Music, Science | 2 Comments

On Creativity: “Lost in Portland”‘s Complaint

Is it too late to start a band at 45? (Salon)

You might need to click through the Salon Site Pass rigamarole to get to it, but this letter and response are surprisingly earnest. “Lost in Portland” does lapse into grandiosity, and many of the comments call him on perceived immaturity. But let’s be honest: a bit of ego is intrinsic to the artistic endeavor, and it’s hard to be mature when one is seriously depressed and alienated. Whether or not you relate to “Lost in Portland,” this exchange is relevant to anyone who has contemplated a career in the arts – and anyone familiar with the creakings of the “inner machinery of self-defeat”.

Here’s part.
“Lost in Portland”:

I have worked jobs, such as in retail, the restaurant industry and business offices, that have left me bored, unfulfilled and feeling like my soul has been crushed. On the side, I have done creative things: singing in bands, performing in local theater, putting together and performing with comedy troupes. These things kept me alive and interested in the world, but never paid the rent. I tried studying some of my creative interests in a university setting, but honestly don’t feel I could be happy teaching. . . So my current dilemma? I am tired of being unhappy and not being myself.

Cary Tennis:

How do you and I, with our myriad difficulties and lack of understanding, our lack of connections and affability, our inner machinery of self-defeat, how do we reconcile this? How do we reconcile creativity with the practical requirements of living?

To be blunt: Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. But we start by being honest. We start with a self-correcting catechism of ego deflation: The world doesn’t owe us a living. Instead, we owe the world. We have been entrusted with something.

Posted in Artists & Art | 1 Comment

A word’s worth at least one picture

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eternal
Berkeley, CA, 2003

The Visual Dictionary is a photographic compendium of found words (from signage, advertising, etc). The goal is to eventually represent every English word as at least one image; users can search the database for a word, or contribute a word yourself.

I actually found this site last fall, but for a while, the editors were uploading very slowly. They seem to have caught up now. So for those who share my fascination with typography, here’s an excuse to go word-hunting: there are just under 3K words in the visual dictionary, but over half a million in the 2nd edition of the OED. Take your digital camera and fill some gaps!

Posted in Frivolity, Photography, Words | Comments Off

Duck decoys for science

Proof that biology is so much weirder than anything I could ever make up:

To test her hypothesis, Dr. Brennan plans to team up with a biomechanics expert to build a transparent model of a female duck. She wants to see exactly what a duck phallus does during mating.

Posted in Biology, Frivolity | 1 Comment

Whose fault is fat?

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A few months back, Slate ran a tongue-in-cheek story on caloric restriction, a controversial diet plan which sharply reduces total caloric intake. It was entitled “My Starvation Diet: I’ve cut back to 1,500 calories a day. Will it help me live to 120 years old?”

I was exasperated, and borderline enraged, by this story. First, it implied that 1500 calories a day is a sensational hardship. The journalist can’t stick with this draconian plan, feels light-headed, and binges on sushi. Poor baby. Yes, my sympathy is limited: I rarely go over 1500 calories a day, but I weigh far more than the Slate journalist, and always have. And yeah, I’m starving most of the time. Get over it.

The empirical realities of human metabolism are painfully obvious. One size does not fit all; one caloric “prescription” doesn’t either. Even setting physical activity aside, some of us can eat more, some must eat less. We should learn this in elementary school – didn’t we all have a “string bean” friend who improbably lived off vending machine candy and non-diet soda, and another friend who was chubby, despite sadly eating only half her PB&J? Why do we assume things are different for adults?

Continue reading

Posted in Biology, Books, Science | 3 Comments