Diggers

January 29th, 2009 by Steve Curati

I passed the site where the Shard is being built last week. At the moment they’re still clearing the site. It’s a fantastic melting pot of destructive energy, with a team of diggers working in what seems like mechanical harmony to tear down the remaining stubs and corners of structure.

Have a look:

What this shows (other than that the video camera on my phone is shite):
The orange digger in the foreground has the job of crushing the mess of sheet metal and steel gridding in the oversized skip. But it’s been struggling to compact it down. The yellow digger behind it finds a girder and places it within reach of the first digger, which picks it up, swivels, stops, readjusts, pauses and then bludgeons the skip’s contents.

It’s mechanical violence that’s more than just controlled by a human hand. It doesn’t come across in the video how much the cabin of the digger shook with each hammer blow. The driver/pilot physically feels a jolt with each smash, and is one with the machine. It reminds me, quite clumsily, of this. But in reverse, obviously; with a man wearing a bigger, stronger arm.

So it’s great on a man with machine level. Also lovely is the dirty grace that the diggers show in working together. A bit like gorillas picking fleas from each other’s hair. I love the possibility of silent understanding and assistance. That the yellow digger notices the orange digger is struggling to do its job and, unprompted, lays down a girder. And that the orange digger immediately understands why the yellow digger has placed the girder there, picks it up and goes to work. I love that the possibilty exists that that’s what happened.

Tags london · shard · skyscrapers · technology · videoNo Comments

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)