art

“Primitive” knife knapped from fiber optic glass

“Primitive” knife knapped from fiber optic glass

My buddy Mike Cook of Portland, Michican, has been knapping for 30 years. It shows. And while I’d probably never dare to use such a knife for fear of damaging it, I’m still amazed at how inexpensive fine hand-knapped points and blades are compared to handmade steel knives. A traditional custom knifemaker with Mike’s experience would charge several times as much for his skill. I first ran across Mike’s work on FlintKnappers.com, which is a great all-around resource for those interested in the hobby.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Jim’s giant dip pen project

Jim’s giant dip pen project

I’ve been a fan of Jim Woodring and his psychedelic, surrealist art for decades. You always get the distinct impression that Jim is up to something; that he has a whole special universe of weirdness and wonder swimming around inside his head. Now, thanks to a fundraising program set up through USA (United States Artists), […]

Continue Reading Gareth Branwyn
THE ART OF THEO KAMECKE

THE ART OF THEO KAMECKE

For the months of July & August I helped put together “The Big Build – THE ART OF THEO KAMECKE” one of my favorite (living) artists… Theo Kamecke was for many years a film maker of award-winning documentaries whose subjects ranged from astronauts to coal miners, rodeo cowboys to nuclear scientists. He was in mission […]

Continue Reading Phillip Torrone
Switches designed to gross you out

Switches designed to gross you out

Among other delights, there’s a switch that retreats into its enclosure when your finger approaches, a switch that extrudes a stream of snotty goo when pressed (and retracts it when released), and (my personal favorite) a hairy switch with a pilomotor reflex that makes the hairs stand up when you try to touch it. Squick! [via Hack a Day]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan

Crossroads (what to do) by Garvin Nolte

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12748440&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ff0179&fullscreen=1 Crossroads (what not to do) is a video installation with GPS devices by artist Garvin Nolte: The video installation “crossroads (what to do)” deals with the influence of others onto one’s own path of life in an abstract way. [via Core77]

Continue Reading Becky Stern2
Visual structure of a zen rock garden

Visual structure of a zen rock garden

Just ran across this fascinating little paper published in Nature back in 2002 by Gert J. Van Tonder, Michael J. Lyons, and Yoshimichi Ejima. In it, the authors apply a simple shape analysis to the layout of the 15 boulders in Japan’s most famous karesansui (or “Zen garden,” as they are often called in the West) at the Ryōan-ji temple in Kyoto. The technique they use is called “medial axis transformation,” which, by my understanding, basically means that they took the Voronoi diagram of the boulders in the garden as viewed from above. The paper’s authors explain their method with an elegant analogy:

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan4