Sci-fi 'gothic' architecture brought to life Swiss architect has built fantastical form using "subdivision algorithm"Column is composed of 16 million faces generated by computerComputational architecture increasingly key to architectural practice London, England (CNN) -- It looks like an architectural fantasy from a world far in the future, but Michael Hansmeyer's complex column design is so real you can touch it. His work is composed of sixteen million faces and made from 2,700 layers of cardboard. It is the result of a cutting-edge computational process and people's responses to it are just as improbable. "Some people say it looks like a reptile, some people think it looks like an underwater creature and other people bring up the Gothic," said Hansmeyer, an architect and computer scientist based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. To make the design reality, laser cutters sliced the design out of 2,700 individual layers of 1mm-thick cardboard sheets. He is busy creating a forest of similar Gothic-style columns.
The 3D Type Book: A One-of-a-Kind Typographic Treasure - Maria Popova - Life The most comprehensive book of three-dimensional letterforms ever helps us understand the expressive power of objects After months of anticipation, The 3D Type Book by London-based design studio FL@33 is finally here. Dubbed "the most comprehensive showcase of three-dimensional letterforms ever written," the book is nothing short of stellar: With more than 1,300 images by over 160 emerging artists and iconic designers alike, it spans an incredible spectrum of eras, styles, and mediums. From icons like Milton Glaser and Alvin Lustig to contemporary Brain Pickings favorites like Stefan Sagmeister, Marian Bantjes, Ji Lee, Stefan G. Bucher, and Marion Bataille, it's a trove of typographic treasures. The 3D Type Book by FL@33 from Tomi Vollauschek on Vimeo. For a fine companion to The 3D Type Book, don't forget David Sacks's excellent Alphabets. This post also appears on Brain Pickings.Images: FL@33
Celebrating Linotype, 125 Years Since Its Debut - John Hendel - Technology Around for a century, Linotype machines were made obsolete in the 1970s by changing technologies -- but they have not been forgotten To embark on Linotype was to embark on greatness. Linotype machines powered newspapers, factories, a whole industry that was as American as any and existed for a century, at least until the tides of technology wiped it out as an occupation in the 1960s and 1970s -- and now, Linotype is nearly extinguished from American memory. Yet Thomas Edison, it's said, called the machine the Eighth Wonder of the World (no faint praise from the man who invented the light bulb). This fabled technology, this wonder, once occupied the imagination of countless people in our nation's past. The summer of 2011 marks 125 years since the Linotype machine's innovation entered the newspaper world -- the New York Tribune first integrated the machine into its operations in July 1886. The Mechanism of the Linotype Full Screen Please use a JavaScript-enabled device to view this slideshow
Visual arts The current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms.[4] Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts. The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. Education and training[edit] Training in the visual arts has generally been through variations of the apprentice and workshop system.
Selection of Animals - Adrik Schmid 57 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed Hello and how are you from Disney World! With most of the Mashable staff in Orlando for Mashable Connect, we've had our hands full. However, that hasn't stopped us from turning out another week of digital media tools and resources. Have a look through this megalist for stories on YouTube alternatives, crowdsourcing and global communities, connected TVs and how social media has changed marketing campaigns. Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time. Editors' Picks Celebrities on Twitter: 30 Famous First TweetsFrom Bieber to O'Brien to Obama, we look back at famous figures' first tweets.Why Online Communities Are Redefining the Concept of LocalWhen we talk about community, we talk about places and spaces. Social Media
Amazing Examples Of Text Art Missing or Broken Files When you get a 404 error be sure to check the URL that you are attempting to use in your browser.This tells the server what resource it should attempt to request. In this example the file must be in public_html/example/Example/ Notice that the CaSe is important in this example. For addon domains, the file must be in public_html/addondomain.com/example/Example/ and the names are case-sensitive. Broken Image When you have a missing image on your site you may see a box on your page with with a red X where the image is missing. This varies by browser, if you do not see a box on your page with a red X try right clicking on the page, then select View Page Info, and goto the Media Tab. In this example the image file must be in public_html/images/ Notice that the CaSe is important in this example.
Instagram Rises as Social Web Embraces Photo Sharing Photographs posted to Instagram by these users, clockwise from top left: alligatorgar, imoments, thatoneguyyoulike, zoelcholid, sourcruncher, tsana, reynhornwood and funky_shin. Peter DaSilva for The New York Times Mike Krieger, left, and Kevin Systrom, the founders of the photo-sharing service Instagram, at their office in San Francisco. The rising star of these is Instagram, a start-up in San Francisco with just four employees. In eight months, the company has attracted close to five million users to its -only service — no doubt earning the envy of its more established rivals. And Instagram is steadily growing, adding about a million users a month. The app emphasizes simplicity. As on Twitter, users can follow others to see what they are posting. Those who study the way people socialize online say cellphone photos are becoming an integral part of sharing and communicating. Mr.
Coal Mining Meets Reality TV Scott McDermott for Spike TVA few of the miners from Cobalt Coal who are featured in Spike’s new series “Coal.” There are two classic American folktales about coal. The first tells of greedy rednecks who blow virgin mountains to smithereens. The second tells of greedy corporations that exploit and endanger stout-hearted workers, making sure their souls are owed to the company store. Jonathan Franzen’s recent novel, “Freedom,” works off this first narrative. “Coal,” a new reality series on the Spike network that started its first 10-episode run on March 30, ignores them both. The absorbing and even revelatory program is the work of Thom Beers, whose company Original Productions creates steroidal cable shows like “The Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers.” On his show, coal mining is a spine-cracking, lung-blackening job that can be gratifying and even expressive — for those who don’t die doing it. The show presents the miners’ bosses as their partners in this venture.
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