The Library of Congress keeps bringing the heat of history to Flickr’s Commons.  For the 150th anniversary of the War of Northern Aggression, they’ve loaded up a cannon load of stereographs, analglyphized them and blasted them across the bow of the internet.  So dig up the old red & blue shades and enjoy [...]]]>

The Library of Congress keeps bringing the heat of history to Flickr’s Commons.  For the 150th anniversary of the War of Northern Aggression, they’ve loaded up a cannon load of stereographs, analglyphized them and blasted them across the bow of the internet.  So dig up the old red & blue shades and enjoy the Civil War in 3-D.

I recently came across Gerry Judah’s work on BLDGBLOG, and it’s nuts, totally gonzo hot painting/installation/sculpture.  These bleached and skeletal cityscape derived works arouse so much end time emotion in me, the “empty world/after man” feeling. I want to be near one to see if the dead time smell of abandoned buildings and [...]]]>

I recently came across Gerry Judah’s work on BLDGBLOG, and it’s nuts, totally gonzo hot painting/installation/sculpture.  These bleached and skeletal cityscape derived works arouse so much end time emotion in me, the “empty world/after man” feeling. I want to be near one to see if the dead time smell of abandoned buildings and dry storm drains wafts from them. They make me hear the wind from hydrogen bombs and the nothing sound of unnamed cities half buried in sand.

I’ve been having a number of exciting art moments during “Spring Break in LA 2011!!! Woo!!Woo!!”, including a much anticipated visit to Edith Abeyta’s ongoing installation, Long Beach Garment Manifestation, at The Collaborative in Long Beach.  It’s massive, architectural an an awe inspiring piece of installation art. The image above is a tease, [...]]]>

I’ve been having a number of exciting art moments during “Spring Break in LA 2011!!! Woo!!Woo!!”, including a much anticipated visit to Edith Abeyta’s ongoing installation, Long Beach Garment Manifestation, at The Collaborative in Long Beach.  It’s massive, architectural an an awe inspiring piece of installation art. The image above is a tease, you can reveal the whole enchilada via the magic of this Flickr set.  If you intend on making an in-person visit, contact Edith or the gallery to get inside.  The whole thing is visible from the street, but it’s a totally different experience inside the space.

In addition to her installation at The Collaborative, Edith is opening another installation tonight at the Held and Brody Family Gallery at Windward School over on the Westside. That installation, Transversal Garment Manifestation No. 1, will only be up for a short time. The opening is 5-7 pm tonight, March 24.  Below is a brief video tour of the piece.

I am so gonna steal this “elongated body tiger line drawing” for some future project.  That’s real style, there, just lovely line work.  Hollow Brick with Tigers and Bi Disk, from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-225 CE), from the permanent collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  Side view & label.

When [...]]]>

I am so gonna steal this “elongated body tiger line drawing” for some future project.  That’s real style, there, just lovely line work.  Hollow Brick with Tigers and Bi Disk, from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-225 CE), from the permanent collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  Side view & label.

When we think about funerary culture, We all are trained like seals to think of mummies and pyramids.  But the Chinese devotion to funerary art can give Egypt a run for its money, any day of the week.  Damn near every pre-Han Chinese object, especially anything made of bronze, including whole sets of bells and gongs were for elaborate tombs or rituals related to burial.  Prior to the Han Dynasty, and the emergence of a merchant class, people were pretty much living for death, with the idea that everything would be better when you’re dead, so you better make all this great stuff, never use it and then be buried alongside it.  Even after the Han Dynasty, the trend never stopped, some people just started being rich enough to afford good stuff in life and in death.

Some more pretty random stuff from SBMA in this tiny Flickr set.

Vigilant Citizen, the greatest of all occult/conspiracy/music video review blogs, is in your downtown, analyzing your library. Whether your a card carrying member of P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness and Normalcy, see Dragnet), a subterranean lizard-Angeleno, a believer in the Foursquare Gospel of Aimee Semple McPherson or just a celebrity member of boring old [...]]]>

Vigilant Citizen, the greatest of all occult/conspiracy/music video review blogs, is in your downtown, analyzing your library. Whether your a card carrying member of P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness and Normalcy, see Dragnet), a subterranean lizard-Angeleno, a believer in the Foursquare Gospel of Aimee Semple McPherson or just a celebrity member of boring old Scientology, their latest post, “The Occult Symbolism of the Los Angeles Central Library” is a must-read.  It’s full of sphinxes, stars of Ishtar, references to Lucifer, Egypt, Ayn Rand, Yale secret societies, Freemasonry and everything else that balances the occult breakfast of your choosing.  I can’t wait to be back in LA and do the whole occult library tour.

Photo at top by Flickr user Angel Raudales-Zúniga.

I’ve heard terrible, terrible things about how brutal the staff cuts at the Getty were for the hard working folks at the Getty Research Institute.  But you can’t keep the resourceful staff of the GRI down.  They’ve begun to contribute to The Flickr Commons, with two sets Postcards of Algiers, a Virtual Tour [...]]]>

I’ve heard terrible, terrible things about how brutal the staff cuts at the Getty were for the hard working folks at the Getty Research Institute.  But you can’t keep the resourceful staff of the GRI down.  They’ve begun to contribute to The Flickr Commons, with two sets Postcards of Algiers, a Virtual Tour and Algiers Building Types, both great public resources to accompany Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the City, which opens on May 19 (press release here).  All of the individual images in each set are really well labeled, and tagged, to boot.

At top: The Djemaa-Djedid Mosque Illuminated.  Photo by Rollet, July 14, 1907.  Part of the Cities and Sites Postcard collection.

Technorati Tags: GRI, Getty, Getty Research Institute, Flickr Commons, Walls of Algiers, Flickr, postcards, Algiers, mosque, 1907, Rollet

I’ve been processing some of the non-exhibition photos from my trip to Thailand this year.  Yesterday I put up a series of photos of cargo barges and ships taken in Sriracha Harbour, a largely breakbulk operation.  I took these pictures while accompanying S. Ian Song to the island of Ko Si Chang, which [...]]]>

I’ve been processing some of the non-exhibition photos from my trip to Thailand this year.  Yesterday I put up a series of photos of cargo barges and ships taken in Sriracha Harbour, a largely breakbulk operation.  I took these pictures while accompanying S. Ian Song to the island of Ko Si Chang, which is famous for its multiple temples and meditation sea caves.

Anyone who’s been on the river in Bangkok would recognize these barges, which constantly move through the city, carrying a variety of tarp-covered goods and materials.  What’s most interesting about them isn’t the alternate system for moving goods (the Eastern United States, and in many ways the political evolution of the whole country, was once defined by rivers-as-superhighways), but the little houses at the back of each barge.

Above – It’s my understanding that throughout Southeast Asia there’s a tradition of whole communities, either floating or elevated above the waterline on stilts, thriving for generations, up and down the coast.  Laundry hanging, these barges are not just the homes of their operators, they’re home to whole families who live a waterborne life.  I’ve seen children playing on the barges, women cooking, men drinking and gambling as the time passes – the whole spectrum of totally ordinary, everyday Thai life.  It’s worth noticing that the housing on the barges is pretty standardized – having evolved to a point of effiency and practicality.

One of the things that’s most interesting about Thailand, that’s different from the States is the way that the movement of goods occurs on a much more human scale.  Objects are rarely moved around by forklifts or cranes, but they are hauled about by gangs of workers, their faces covered (often with ski masks) to protect them both from the sun and the dust.  You don’t see 40-foot shipping containers in Thailand, but you see 20-footers.  Even more than that, you see specific goods strapped to everything from motorcycles to rainbow painted, 30-year old Hino trucks, to barges like the one above.

Above – Several barges at work, unloading cargo from the Thai Dawn.  While Sriracha Harbour has one great long pier where cargo is unloaded to trucks, most of the action seems to be done at sea.  I saw coal being unloaded from one ship, being dumped right onto the deck of a barge, accompanied by massive clouds of black dust – at first, at a distance, I thought the ship was on fire, the dust was rising so high into the sky.

Living adjacent to one of the world’s largest port, I’m no stranger to containerized traffic, but seeing these ships unloaded onto family-owned or operated barges at sea was amazing.  Let’s not forget that it’s not just Thai families that live on their boats for years at a time – each of these cargo ships is likely crewed by a small group of men, separated from their nation and family, who likely only step on land every few weeks or even months.  Some of the ships I saw in Sriracha Harbour looked like they might not be capable of moving on their own – perhaps they are used as floating warehouses until their economic value can only be realized by a shipbreaker?  Perhaps they are simply abandoned…

I think it’s part of the re-realization regarding the ongoing population disaster, and in the United States, the housing apocalypse, that so many people are exploring ideas of alternate living spaces.  Also, as the world changes, people have always been forced, or had the opportunity, to live in unexpected and non-traditional places.  There’s been a lot of talk online about upscale hipster yuppies (yupsters?) building expensive green houses and using shipping containers as architectural elements and inspiration, but I think the future of the world looks a lot more like the homes on barges above, or the shacks of the urban poor in Mumbai.

Other interesting housing related posts:

Dinosaurs and Robots’ Mr. Jalopy recently started a post about tar paper, only to find himself exploring and arguing for new homesteading in America, something that a lot of folks feel is way overdue.  Why has America never had a great urban squatter/homesteader movement?  Is now the right time, finally?

Bldgblog recently posted about both an inhabitable wind turbine and Babu Sassi, the crane operator who is rumored to be making his home at the top of the under construction Burj Dubai.

And although it’s not intended as a livable structure, I find some kind of plant-based-housing inspiration in LACMA’s upcoming exhibition of Sigmar Polke’s Potato House Object.

Technorati Tags: Thailand, Sri Racha, Sriracha Harbour, barges, housing, cargo ships, breakbulk, shipping, trade, Tar Paper, Urban Homesteading, Dinosaurs and Robots, Mr. Jalopy, Bldgblog, wind turbine, Burj Dubai, Babu Sassi, LACMA, Sigmar Polke, Potato House Object

I recently stumbled across the BLDG BlOG’s excellent post, Where Cathedrals Go To Die, about breaking container ships. As someone who’s daily life includes the constant, neighborly presence of these post-modern wonders of the world, I’m fascinated by the smallest details regarding their life and use. The post features numerous photos from Edward [...]]]>

I recently stumbled across the BLDG BlOG’s excellent post, Where Cathedrals Go To Die, about breaking container ships. As someone who’s daily life includes the constant, neighborly presence of these post-modern wonders of the world, I’m fascinated by the smallest details regarding their life and use. The post features numerous photos from Edward Burtynsky, a Canadian photographer who also has a staggeringly beautiful body of images of quarries, which have also been featured on BLDG BLOG. Follow links for enjoyment.

Technorati Tags: Edward Burtynsky, BLDG BLOG, container ships, shipbreaking, photography

Japan’s unnatural/natural terapod breakwaters are lovely markers of man’s role as planet manager, and Japan’s various novel concrete intrusions into the fine art of water management through concrete in general are strange, sometimes frightening and always slightly medieval to me. Pink Tentacle has a great sampling of images of these giant concrete beauties. [...]]]>

Japan’s unnatural/natural terapod breakwaters are lovely markers of man’s role as planet manager, and Japan’s various novel concrete intrusions into the fine art of water management through concrete in general are strange, sometimes frightening and always slightly medieval to me. Pink Tentacle has a great sampling of images of these giant concrete beauties. Photo at top by saksak.

Technorati Tags: tetrapod, Japan, erosion, Pink Tentacle, concrete, water management

Sorry about the pun-title. I feel a need to share my fascination with military architecture (largely based upon my desire to live within a heavily armed bunker) with anyone passing by today.

WebUrbanist has a post, Creatively Converted Sea Forts of Great Britain: Strange Adaptive Reuse of Military Architecture, that’s must reading for [...]]]>

Sorry about the pun-title. I feel a need to share my fascination with military architecture (largely based upon my desire to live within a heavily armed bunker) with anyone passing by today.

WebUrbanist has a post, Creatively Converted Sea Forts of Great Britain: Strange Adaptive Reuse of Military Architecture, that’s must reading for bunker fetishists, future micronationalists and survivalist types alike.

Technorati Tags: military architecture, British Sea Forts, forts, military history, WebUrbanist, fort