You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2008.
Some of my recent research has thrown up an article from the late eighteenth century on how to build an electric spider, and following a rebirth of an obsession with eighteenth century science, I came across this image from the seventeenth century (allegedly) of hearing tubes.
Following Foucault’s use of Bentham’s panopticon prison as a model for the operation of power, there is a focus on vision as the underpinning of the systems of control and discipline. But as this image asks, what about sound?
Penguin run an annual student competition to design a paperback book cover. This year the books were On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and On Beauty by Zadie Smith. The 2008 winner and shortlist is available here, and, although more monochromatic than last year, the list shows how diverse, engaging and talented UK student graphic designers are. I would happily own more copies of the Kerouac and Smith books, just for the cover designs.
A beautiful online magazine.
I had always presumed the phrase ’standing on the shoulders of giants’ had something to do with the ancient gods, pre-Zeus. Or from Archimedes, who is famously quoted as saying give me a place to stand and I will move the earth (known as the Archimedes Lever). But no – it comes from an entirely different myth-making era. The 1960s. And the field of sociology, specifically exploring how knowledge is transferred in the sciences.
Reference: Robert K. Merton, On the Shoulders of Giants, New York: Free Press, 1965.
‘In 1860s and 1870s, male employees at Mutual of New York routinely used the basement vault area for fistfights to settle office disputes.’
(From Engendering Business by Angel Kwolek-Folland, p.124.)
In pouring myself through nineteenth century scientific texts on the position of women within evolutionary theory and recapitulatory physical anthropology, the eminence argument for women’s ‘natural’ subordinate position regularly appears. (Darwin, et al.) This argument is essentially there are no women geniuses, therefore women are not, and can not be, as intelligent as men. The areas of genius which would count include a range of intellectual and professional areas, including politics, law, science and art. As a counter, here is an excerpt from Linda Nochlin’s 1971 Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?.
The Bodleian has announced a new release of medieval and renaissance images online. I particularly like this one of an alphabet based on bodies. [Via BibliOdyssey]
Brighton’s Postgraduate Design History Society’s Material Matters conference, 6 June 2008.
This post is going to be a developing one on steampunk (also known as Neo-Victorianism, or Retro-Futurism), collecting items currently sitting in open tabs and inspired by the inimitable Ms Onion. If there is any coherence to it, it will move from post to page, but let’s see how we go.
Links
- The lost NY Times steampunk feature
- Nineteenth century exercise equipment
- Steampunk mouse, with lots of links at the bottom to other steampunk’d items
- A Steampunk forum
- Steampunk Magazine, with downloads for issues 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Books
- The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
- The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Comics
- The League of Extraordinary Gentleman
- The Five Fists of Science
To be a cultural attache. (Also referred to as an ‘idea curator’) What does it involve? Everything. Job description:
This person would be responsible for keeping Brian abreast of everything that’s going on in the world; politically, culturally, musically. . . . They’re also responsible for finding an interesting person for Brian to meet with every week . . . an astronaut, a journalist, a philosopher, a buddhist monk. . . . There is LOTS of reading for this position! Grazer may ask you to read any book he’s interested in. You’ll probably get to read about 4 or 5 books a week and you may be required to travel with him on his private plane to Hawaii, New York, Europe—teaching him anything he asks you about along the way. . . . You will also be provided with an assistant … . . . Salary is around $150,000 a year. . . . You will be to Grazer what Karl Rove was to Bush. . . .
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