links for 2007-11-21

November 21st, 2007 by Steve Curati

Design Observer: writings about design & culture

More spam art courtesy of Tom Manning. Could spam become our lingua franca? Could the auto-created snippets that fill our inboxes become a means of communication in themselves?

(tags: spam art comics)
Digital Urban: 3D Printing at Home: Fab@Home

“A fabber can allow you to explore new designs, email physical objects to other fabber owners, and most importantly – set your ideas free. Just as MP3s, iPods and the Internet have freed musical talent, we hope that blueprints and fabbers will democratize

(tags: design 3d democratic_innovation)
Don’t try to reinvent the web | Media | The Guardian

“Magazines can use the internet more effectively if they observe a couple of golden rules: there’s no use trying to control it and don’t expect giant leaps, says David Hepworth”. As I say…

(tags: media guardian magazine Internet)
Magnum Blog / Magnum, Magnum – the photo blog of Magnum Photos

“So finally the book is out and weighing 6.5kg and with 414 photographs it is an epic item. I calculate that at £95 in the UK, this means it works out at £14.62 per kilo, about the same price as cod, so you do get a lot of book for your money.” Amazing

(tags: magnum books i_want_one photojournalism photography)
Magnum Blog / Behind the image: My birthday present from Henri – the photo blog of Magnum Photos

Henri Cartier-Bresson x 3

(tags: photography magnum bresson)

My Tumblr

Briliant!

Dave Brubeck with young Russian violinist

“During a visit to Moscow in the 80’s, Dave Brubeck met the faculty and students in Moscow Conservatory. While he was improvising on a “Ei, uhnem”, a Russian folk song, a young man downstage stood up to play Stéphane Grappelli-style violin jazz with him.”

(by afahsu)

via @openculture

(via Ai Weiwei Piles 1,200 Bikes On Top Of Each Other, For Dazzling Effect | Co.Design)

Infographic: The Changing TV Landscape

(via Iconic Photographs With Their Subjects Removed)

“I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.”

austinkleon:

Ronald Searle, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing ‘to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead’. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication.

When asked about the drawings, Searle said, “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.” Here’s a little more about them:

Prior to the cancer shock the couple had bought a decrepit house in the south of France and, despite her illness, Monica continued to devote her time making this house a home.

Devastated with his wife’s diagnosis Ronald did the only thing he knew how to do to cheer her up. .. draw.

Before every chemotherapy session he gave his wife a painting. Monica was depicted as a mole, a very happy mole celebrating life in their new home. (The Mole idea came after their discovery of a large celler that they made into a cosy room)

‘Everything about them had to be romantic and perfect,’ says Ronald. ‘I drew them originally for no one’s eyes except Mo’s, so she would look at them propped up against her bedside lamp and think: “When I’m better, everything will be beautiful.”

Searle died last week at 91.

(Images via bluedoorbooks)