Blog discoveries for July

Art History, Old Books, Vintage Style:

My pet arts

Science, Humanities, Culture:

MadSilence
The Popular Uncanny

Design, Tech, Advertising:

2experts Design

Nude & Erotic Art:

Au carrefour étrange

Characters:

Romantoes

A little says a lot

A stunning collection of minimalist wallpapers at 2experts Design.

Via intenta via Portafolio.

At the Hotel Paradise

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Ghost of Stephen Foster.

From the album "Perennial Favorites" (Mammoth Records). Winner of "Best Animated Music Video" at the 1999 Vancouver Animation Festival. Directed by Raymond Persi and Matthew Nastuk.

Getting hyped up for the SNZ show tomorrow. I can't wait!

Flickr raid: Wondrous things

Strange Vintage Fictions photopool.








Wunderkammer photopool.








think over something photoset.








Imaginary Encyclopedia photopool.

Ink and glass

Quill Skill, traditional and experimental calligraphy by Denis Brown.

The Blue Beanie

The Blue Beanie is a new game by digital artist Daphne Lim, a student at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, with music by Mark Holdaway. Inspired by Samorost, it's lovely new addition to the genre, a brief but beautifully executed piece with a gentle atmosphere of whimsy and woodland fantasy.

Thanks to Monalena for the tip.

Gin and jazz on the Bowery

Wit's End is a monthly 1920's jazz club held the last Saturday of every month from 7-11 at Antik, a cozy little spot on the Bowery perfect for sipping classic cocktails and dancing to hot jazz.

This month's event, this Saturday, features live music by Brooklyn band The Red Hook Ramblers, and a free Charleston lesson with Akemi Kinukawa of the Sandra Cameron Dance Center. As an extra treat, there will also be a special drawing to give away five pairs of tickets to the Squirrel Nut Zippers show on Sunday.





Wit's End is a great chance to don your vintage finery and be transported to the elegance and glamor of the Jazz Age nightlife. It's always a blast, so come on out, or check out Wit's End on Facebook and watch for upcoming events.

Simple sketches

Oh My Cavalier!, art by Julianna Swaney.

Via eluvium.

Roads to nowhere

The Map Realm is a collection of maps of fictional countries created by professed "avid map collector and roadgeek" Adrian Leskiw. There are even multiple iterations of the same territories mapped through time, from the seventies into the mid-21st century. Meticulous and absorbing.

The birds and the trees

The earth moves in this message from Greenpeace exhorting passion for the environment.

Via Next Nature.

More sizzle than steak

More art project than genuine cookery, Fancy Fast Food is a collection of recipes for turning fast food items into attractive facsimiles of gourmet meals, like this "Spicy Chicken Sushi" made out of Popeye's chicken.

Via Consumerist.

Walls of text

A nice roundup of typography wallpapers at Speckyboy Design Magazine. (This one's from design company Parachute.)

Via Portafolio.

Sexy curves

Eros ex Mathematica is a series of fractal images by digital artist and composer Peter Miller. He hastens to assure us that they "are created entirely from mathematical algorithms."

July Observatory events

This week:

Antique Science

Date: Friday, July 10
Time: 7:30
Admission: $3.00

An evening of unexpected and obscure nature films. Each short film will be introduced by Jessica Oreck, director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, a beautiful documentary on insect collecting in Japan.

The evening will feature the trailer for Oreck’s fascinating film, as well as short films by Jean Painleve, the great french nature documentarian of early avant-garde documentaries on everything from crystals to seahorses to vampire bats.

Then we’ll have a look at The Cameraman’s Revenge, a silent stop-motion film from 1912 by the Polish animator, Wladyslaw Starewicz (1882-1965). The leading players of this short animation are real insects.

Antique Science will also introduce you to a behind-the-scenes film documenting the techniques of Disney’s vintage nature films. The films of insect-life and plant time lapses are beautiful, the early filming techniques awe-inspiring, and the 1950s naturalist couples who made them adorable.

We’ll round the evening off with a outtake reel from one of our favorite nature hosts, plus a few other surprises, time warranting.





Next week:

Layered Orders: Crowley's Thoth Deck and the Tarot

Jesse Bransford

Date: Friday, July 17
Time: 7:30
Admission: Free

UPDATE: The lecture will also be repeated at 9:00 to accommodate demand.

A deck given to his brother by his mother in 1986 sat in Jesse Bransford’s childhood bedroom from the early 90’s until recently, delivering itself into Bransford’s possession at an opportune moment…

The Tarot in general and Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot in particular represent a miasmic confluence of image and thought into a single structure that is both liberating and overwhelming in its scope. In creating the deck, Crowley (in collaboration with painter Lady Frieda Harris) sought to integrate the mythological structures of the major mystical systems of both Western and Eastern occult traditions and to bring them into line with contemporary scientific thinking. The symbolism of the cards blends Kabbalah, Alchemy, Astrology, Egyptian mythology, quantum physics and even the I-Ching in ways that are at the same time clear and utterly confounding.

In an image-soaked personal narration Bransford, whose research-based artwork has delved into many of the territories Crowley sought to unify, will discuss some of the basic concepts of Tarot symbolism, returning to Crowley’s deck as among the most total example of the cards’ syncretism and as the most controversial.

Jesse Bransford is a Brooklyn/Queens-based artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. He received a B.A. from the New School for Social Research, a B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design, both in 1996, and an M.F.A. from Columbia University in 2000. He is currently a Master Teacher with the post of Undergraduate Director at New York University where he has been teaching since 2001, as well as a member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. His work is represented by Feature Inc. in New York, Kevin Bruk Gallery in Miami, Galerie Schmidt Maczollek in Köln, and Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland. Images of his work, a complete bio and related articles can be seen at www.sevenseven.com/, a website he has continuously maintained since 1997.

Both events are at the Observatory event space between the Proteus Gowanus Gallery and Reading Room, the Cabinet Magazine headquarters, and the Morbid Anatomy Library at 543 Union St. in Brooklyn.

Wisps of color

Delicate, ethereal macro photography by Sophie Thouvenin.

Games on stage

The Brick Theater in Brooklyn is hosting an event all this month called Game Play, a series of performances and game nights that meld video games and theater. There will be machinima mash-ups, Rock Band karaoke, interactive plays, group MMORPG sessions, and a chiptune dance party.





What I'm really excited for is Adventure Quest, a play by Sneaky Snake Productions based on the classic Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games of the 80's, like King's Quest and Monkey Island.

The town of Perilton has been invaded by an evil wizard, and only our hero can save it! Cheer as he fights for the hand of the mayor's daughter! Gasp as he infiltrates the bloodthirsty Octopus Cult! Watch as he meticulously collects inventory items! Shift uncomfortably in your seat as the narrative gradually implodes! Glance around nervously as characters are brutally murdered for no particular reason! Despair as your faith in a meaningful, ordered universe is shaken! Evoking the Golden Age of home computer gaming, Adventure Quest is both a nostalgic treat and a glimpse into the yawning Void.

For a taste of that classic gaming flavor, the creators designed a brief "walkthrough" for Time Out New York to introduce the world of the play. It makes me wish they'd done a real game, even if only a short one.





You are standing before of the Castle of Perpetual Delight. Blocking your path is a gloomy-looking centaur.

You are currently holding: a portable cauldron, a pair of diamond cufflinks, a unicorn femur, an Octopus Cult pamphlet, a waterskin and a magnifying glass.







There's also Thank You But Our Princess Is in Another Castle: Four Live-Action Machinima Theater Pieces.

Utilizing World of Warcraft, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4, Machinima Theater Auteur Eddie Kim presents four classical theater texts, as performed by online video game characters manipulated by gamers live on stage. Video games as digital puppetry! Technicians will use several X-Box 360 consoles and laptops linked to each other and to gamers over the internet to control digital characters in real-time in front of an audience. See the stories of Niobe and the Japanese poet, Ono no Komachi as never before. A digital movement piece, chiptunes interludes and a version of Alvin Lucier's legendary "I am Sitting in a Room" also will be presented.

You had me at the title.

I'll be attending Adventure Quest this Saturday, and I'm tempted to check out some of the other events, too. It looks like a great line-up.

The grass all aglow

Field of Light is a series of outdoor lighting installations by UK artist Bruce Munro. (It reminds me of certain parts of Flower.)

Get your Machinarium now

Machinarium, the highly anticipated new game by Amanita Design (creators of Samorost), is due out in October 2009, and is available for pre-order now. Pre-ordering will get you $3 off the regular price of $20, as well as a "pre-order pack" containing a selection of hi-res images and mp3s from the game.

Hear the colors

Synesthesia, a short film by filmmaking duo Terry Timely.

Via shape+colour.

Real Photoshop

"As real as it gets," a clever mockup of the Photoshop desktop space by Art Snob Solutions.

Via Drawn!.

Rooms of the mind

Paintings by Anette Harboe Flensburg.

Via Tomorrow Museum.