Vintage Coin-operated Mortuary-Automaton
Das ist ein Automat einer Leichenhalle von circa 1900. Wenn man ‘ne Münze reinschmeisst, fangen die Angehörigen an zu weinen und die Forensiker beginnen, an den Toten herumzuschnibbeln. Geht für wahrscheinlich 5000 Dollar über den Auktionstisch. Grandios!
Lot 207
“St. Dennistoun Mortuary” Coin-Operated Automaton, attributed to Leonard Lee, c. 1900, the mahogany cabinet and glazed viewing area displays a Greek Revival mortuary building with double doors and grieving mourners out front, when a coin is inserted, doors open and the room is lighted revealing four morticians and four poor souls on embalming tables, the morticians move as if busily at work on their grisly task and mourners standing outside bob their heads as if sobbing in grief, ht. 30 1/2, wd. 24, dp. 17 1/4 in.Estimate $4,000-6,000
Brass coin plate stamped J. Dennison Leeds NO. 80
Cats not giving a Fuck in Amateur-Porn
Indifferent cats in amateur porn: “They’re watching us but they don’t care at all. Furry observers are being collected here.” (NSFW for obvious and furry reasons, via Kate)
Reprisal: Pixelarty Remix-Game of Populous
Reprisal von Jon Caplin ist ein totschicker Pixelart-Remix von Populous, dem ersten Gott-Simulationsgame von Peter Molyneux. Das Game ist im Browser spielbar und kommt inklusive tollem Print, den man auf der Website ordern kann.
Created in homage to Populous, Reprisal lets you take control of a tribe, guiding them, building land and making them grow in number. Using special totem powers you can control nature itself unleashing its full fury on anyone that stands in your way. But be warned, other tribes may not take too kindly to your intentions and will put up a fight!
Reprisal’s universe currently spans over 30 island campaigns pitting you against 3 other tribes – each with their own aggression traits, 15 totem powers, 8 full length chip tunes by Eric Skiff and 4 terrain types.
Reprisal (via Digital Tools)
Phone Hacking Scandal as Cake-Pops
Miss Cakehead hat bei Miss Insomnia Tulip die Protagonisten des englischen Phone Hacking Skandals als Kuchen am Stiel bestellt. Inklusive LOLPhone (David Cameron beendete seine SMS immer mit “LOL” und dachte, es hieße “Lots of Love”) und Gott. (via Boing Boing)
NASAs Space Age-Drawings
Das Smithsonian Air and Space Museum hat die komplette Sammlung der Zeichnungen, die von 1962 bis Mitte der Siebziger während des Space Race von eingeladenen Künstlern angefertigt wurden, online gestellt: Eyewitness to Space. Vieles davon sind “nur” einfache Scribbles, manches davon abstrakte künstlerische Abstraktion und alles mindestens einen Blick wert. Hier ein paar meiner Favorites und ein Snip:
In March 1962, James Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suggested that artists be enlisted to document the historic effort to send the first human beings to the moon. John Walker, director of the National Gallery of Art, was among those who applauded the idea, urging that artists be encouraged “…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race.”
Working together, James Dean, a young artist employed by the NASA Public Affairs office, and Dr. H. Lester Cooke, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art, created a program that dispatched artists to NASA facilities with an invitation to paint whatever interested them. The result was an extraordinary collection of works of art proving, as one observer noted, “that America produced not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company.” Transferred to the National Air and Space Museum in 1975, the NASA art collection remains one of the most important elements of what has become perhaps the world’s finest collection of aerospace themed art.
Eyewitness to Space (via The Verge)
Monkeys vs Synthesizers
Youtube Direktmonkeys, via We Like That
Schicke Aktion für’s Volt Festival in Schweden, die ein paar Affen mit Synthies rumspielen ließen. Hier noch ein schwedisches Making Of-Video. Nach dem Klick noch ein paar Details zu Hardware und Viechern:
JoJo-Motiontracking set to Bjorks “All is full of Love”
Vimeo Direktjojo, via Ronny
Vimeo-User Joey nagelt per Motiontracking ein Jojo in der Bildmitte fest und unterlegt das mit dem Funkstörung-Remix von Björks “All is full of Love”.
The Sanbona Skull-Collection
Vor dem Pool im Sanbona Wildlife Reserve stehen ein paar Pfähle im Wüstensand, auf denen die Skulls einiger heimischer Tiere angebracht sind. Ich musste die selbstverständlich alle fotografieren. Mehr Bilder aus Südafrika hier in meinem Flickr-Set, nach dem Klick der Rest der Skulls:
Magazine-Covers from Bladerunner
Grade machen Magazin-Cover aus Bladerunner auf Tumblr die Runde. Die Dinger stammen aus den Bonusfeatures der DVD und online dürfte ihr Ursprung dieses Flickr-Set sein: “Fictional magazine covers from Blade Runner… as shown in the blade runner bonus feature “Signs of the Times: Graphic Design”. The covers were created by production illustrator Tom Southwell in 1980-1981 and appeared in the background on a magazine stand in the city streets.”
Aus dem Buch “Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner“:
Turning down the block and ducking into a futuristic newsstand revealed the most humorous touches of layering, for it was here that this author immediately noticed that a number of faux twenty-first-century magazines had been stuffed into racks mounted on the newsstand’s walls, and that many of them sported decidedly tongue-in-cheek covers.
These publications had been designed by BR art department member Tom Southwell. Periodicals of note include Krotch (going for $29 a copy!), Zord (at $30), Moni, Bash, Creative Evolution, and Droid. Horn, the “skin mag” of the future, had a cover which offered articles such as “The Cosmic Orgasm” and “Hot Lust in Space.” Kill (whose logo was “All the News That’s Fit to Kill”) sported cover stories like “Multiple Murders – Reader’s Own Photos.”
The Woz describes his Apple II, 1977
Anlässlich des 35jährigen Jubiläums des Apple II hat das Byte Mag einen 1977er Artikel online gestellt, in dem Steve Wozniak himself sein Hardware-Design erklärt. Bei der für heutige Verhältnisse ziemlich einfachen Architektur verstehe ich sogar noch ein bisschen was von der Maschinensprache. Nerd Alert!
I designed the Apple-II to come with a set of standard peripherals, in order to fit my concept of a personal computer. In ad dition to the video display, color graphics and high resolution graphics, this design includes a keyboard interface, audio assette interface, four analog game paddle inputs (for user supplied potentiometers which vary a resistance which the processor measures), three switch inputs, four 1 bit annunciator outputs, and even an audio output to a speaker. Also part of the Apple-II design is an 8 slot motherboard for IO which has a fully buffered bus, prioritized interrupts, two prioritized direct memory access (DMA) schemes, and address decoding at the individual slots so that multiple bit address decoders are not required on peripheral boards.
The Apple-II cassette interface is simple, fast, and I think most reliable. The data transfer rate averages over 180 bytes per second, and the recording scheme is compatible with the interface used with the Apple-I. This tape recording method can be used with any inexpensive recorder, but as with any such use of audio media only high quality tapes shou ld be used in order to avoid problems due to dropouts from poor oxide coatings on the tapes. In the Apple audio cassette interface, timing is performed by software which is referenced to the system clock, A zero bit is defined as a full cycle of a 2000 Hz signal (500 μs long), while a one bit is defined as a full cycle of a 1000 Hz signal (1 ms long). While reading data, full cycles are sampled, never half cycles, a method which tends to provide immunity to DC offset and other forms of distortion. All the cassette management routines are avail able to user programs as subroutine calls from asse mbly language directly, or through hooks in the BASIC interpreter.
The Internet Defense League
Alexis Ohanian von Reddit und die Orga Fight for the Future haben die Internet Defense League gegründet, ein “Bat Signal for the Internet”, was nichts anderes als ein halb-automatisierter Online-Protest wird, falls Politiker mal wieder legislativ kreativ werden und Gesetze erlassen wollen, die das Netz zensieren. Die Internet Defense League ist natürlich sehr auf die amerikanische Gesetzgebung spezialisiert, aber ich wollte schon immer mal Mitglied in einer Superhelden-League sein.
Nach der Anmeldung erhält man einen Test-Code (theoretisch, ich hab’ noch keinen bekommen und bin seit gestern angemeldet), mit dem der Mechanismus getestet werden soll, danach wird pro Kampagne HTML-Snips rumgeschickt, die man mit Parametern individualisieren kann und es besteht auch die Möglichkeit eines automatisierten Online-Protests.
Aus der Antwortmail nach der Anmeldung:
The Internet Defense League works like this: organizers and members monitor Congress and industry for threats to internet freedom. When there’s a grave threat or unmissable opportunity, people use their websites, Twitter, Facebook or other social network accounts to display action messages about the threat and tools for taking action. When we rise up together, we’ll be impossible to ignore.
With SOPA and PIPA, internet users found a new ability to take a stand together when our rights are at stake. Our powerful protest surprised everyone, especially the congresspeople and lobbyists who wrote the bills. We made them see the internet in a new light, but they still don’t know what we’re really capable of. The next time internet freedom is threatened, we will be able to use the League to come out even stronger than we did last fall.
The Internet Defense League can be the strongest network in the fight for internet freedom – but it will only work if large numbers of people get on board. It would be great to have you standing with us.
The Rat in the Skull
Schöne Sammlung von HighRes-Scans der Cover vom if-SciFi-Mag auf Golden Age Comicbook Storys. Ich liebe die Ratte im Kopf und “The Pipe Dream” nach dem Klick.
Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way
“This is a Song about People and Sasquatches.”
Vintage Anatomy Drawings remixed with modern Typography
Schönes Projekt von Josip Kelava, der ein Buch um William Cheseldons Anatomie-Illus aus dem 18. Jahrhundert mit moderner Typo remixt hat. Prints gibt’s auf seiner Website.
Anatomy Illustrated is a book designed to showcase the master illustrators of the 16-19th centuries. In particular, it focuses on the illustrator William Cheseldon who was an English surgeon and teacher of anatomy, and who was influential in establishing surgery as a scientific medical profession. His works, along with many other illustrators, have been redesigned to a modern style, incorporating typography as a sense of interaction with the illustrations.
