Sunday March 08, 2009 14:19

Jan Mostaert’s “West Indies Landscape” (c. 1545) depicts the artist’s imagination of the New World having never been there before. The image is a fascinating combination of European tropes of both domesticity (the standard complement of European farm animals in the lower right corner) and exoticism (the monkey in the foreground, the strange rock formations). The dress of the human subjects, though difficult to read in this regrettably small reproduction, also provides a similarly intriguing combination of cultural references, from vaguely Mongol helmets to medieval European horns. Benjamin Schmidt uses this painting to brilliant effect in framing his opening chapter of Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination in the New World, 1570-1670 in which he argues for the primacy of domestic, rather than colonial, concerns in shaping Dutch representations of the New World. (via Wikimedia Commons)

Jan Mostaert’s “West Indies Landscape” (c. 1545) depicts the artist’s imagination of the New World having never been there before. The image is a fascinating combination of European tropes of both domesticity (the standard complement of European farm animals in the lower right corner) and exoticism (the monkey in the foreground, the strange rock formations). The dress of the human subjects, though difficult to read in this regrettably small reproduction, also provides a similarly intriguing combination of cultural references, from vaguely Mongol helmets to medieval European horns.

Benjamin Schmidt uses this painting to brilliant effect in framing his opening chapter of Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination in the New World, 1570-1670 in which he argues for the primacy of domestic, rather than colonial, concerns in shaping Dutch representations of the New World.

(via Wikimedia Commons)

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Saturday March 07, 2009 17:40

These folks are making absolutely kickass handmade clothes in the style of workclothes from the Edwardian era. Of particular interest to me are the maritime workclothes, but everything they’re doing is great looking. Old Town Clothing - classic British workwear - Holt, Norfolk, England

These folks are making absolutely kickass handmade clothes in the style of workclothes from the Edwardian era. Of particular interest to me are the maritime workclothes, but everything they’re doing is great looking.

Old Town Clothing - classic British workwear - Holt, Norfolk, England

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9:23

In the Details: Distinguishing Form Labels

designaday:

A question was posed to the IxDA discussion list about whether or not colons should be used between a label and a form field. The answer is no, and the reasoning is very straightforward.

Colons have been used to separate labels from values because there does need to be something to distinguish one from the other. In black and white print, the colon serves this purpose quite well. On screen, there are many ways to separate a label from a value, including text color, background color, weight, space, etc. Only one or two distinctions need be made. So, for example, if I set the label in gray text, the value in black text, and align the labels in one column and the values in another, that is enough differentiation.

When dealing with form fields, there is already a significant visual distinction between labels and values. The values are contained within boxes. Thus, a colon, to use Tufte’s terminology, is unnecessary, non-data ink that just adds visual clutter to the form.

Interesting argument on form layout that contradicts my previous thoughts on the issue, but has probably convinced me to change my mind.

This post was reblogged from DesignAday.

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Tuesday February 17, 2009 20:26

Cool photo of The Beatles’ stage plot. This perspective, in obscuring their faces and highlighting the tools of their trade, is a really nice way of presenting them in the context of the working musician. (via FFFFOUND!)

Cool photo of The Beatles’ stage plot. This perspective, in obscuring their faces and highlighting the tools of their trade, is a really nice way of presenting them in the context of the working musician. (via FFFFOUND!)

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20:16

Construction workers in London just uncovered an enormous 12th century watermill on the banks of the Thames. It’s a very exciting find for the history of science and technology in the medieval period. The most interesting recent revisionist trend in the field has been to challenge the notion of a technological decline after the fall of the Rome - to debunk of the notion of a technological “Dark Age.” Archaeologist Simon Davis said tide mills were probably numerous along the Thames foreshore at this time. Four were mentioned in Greenwich in the Domesday book of 1086. ‘However, little evidence of mills in use in the early medieval period has been found on archaeological sites, so the discovery of a 12th-century tide mill is very significant and exciting,’ he said. The find is similar in design to Roman mills. What has survived is the water trough, carved from a single log, and a carved section of the waterwheel itself with paddles. This mill shows the state of the art of medieval early industrial technology and supports the work of Adam Lucas, among others, in his fascinating Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology on the medieval technological revolution. (via The History Blog)

Construction workers in London just uncovered an enormous 12th century watermill on the banks of the Thames. It’s a very exciting find for the history of science and technology in the medieval period. The most interesting recent revisionist trend in the field has been to challenge the notion of a technological decline after the fall of the Rome - to debunk of the notion of a technological “Dark Age.”

Archaeologist Simon Davis said tide mills were probably numerous along the Thames foreshore at this time. Four were mentioned in Greenwich in the Domesday book of 1086.

‘However, little evidence of mills in use in the early medieval period has been found on archaeological sites, so the discovery of a 12th-century tide mill is very significant and exciting,’ he said.

The find is similar in design to Roman mills. What has survived is the water trough, carved from a single log, and a carved section of the waterwheel itself with paddles.

This mill shows the state of the art of medieval early industrial technology and supports the work of Adam Lucas, among others, in his fascinating Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology on the medieval technological revolution. (via The History Blog)

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Thursday February 12, 2009 13:41

David Teniers the Younger (mid-seventeenth century) - Monkeys playing cards and drinking David Teniers the Younger made a series of paintings of this subject highlighting the grotesque animality of vices, particularly tobacco use. Marcy Norton’s Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World uses a different painting in the series to make an interesting argument for the carnivalesque functions of tobacco consumption for seventeenth century Europeans.

David Teniers the Younger (mid-seventeenth century) - Monkeys playing cards and drinking

David Teniers the Younger made a series of paintings of this subject highlighting the grotesque animality of vices, particularly tobacco use. Marcy Norton’s Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World uses a different painting in the series to make an interesting argument for the carnivalesque functions of tobacco consumption for seventeenth century Europeans.

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Tuesday February 10, 2009 21:10

Ad for Helvetica typeface from 1966. What’s old is new again. It’s fascinating how the different elements have aged differently resulting in new contexts and perceptions. This layout looks as current as ever, making the old images and copy appear campy rather than dated. (via AisleOne)

Ad for Helvetica typeface from 1966.

What’s old is new again. It’s fascinating how the different elements have aged differently resulting in new contexts and perceptions. This layout looks as current as ever, making the old images and copy appear campy rather than dated. (via AisleOne)

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Tuesday February 03, 2009 21:26

A fabulous Mark Weaver print (via BOOOOOOOM!)

A fabulous Mark Weaver print (via BOOOOOOOM!)

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14:00

“

Although Linnaeus had many disciples, only one ever located any cochineal. In 1755, young Daniel Rolander found what seems to have been a wild variety of the insect in Surinam, a Dutch colony on the northern coast of South America. Creating his own proto-terrarium by keeping the insect-infested cactus in a glass container, Rolander brought it back to Sweden, taking such exceptional care of it that most of the insects survived. When he sent the cactus to Linnaeus’s greenhouse, however, the great botanist was not there to meet it. Instead the cactus fell into the hands of one of Linnaeus’s gardeners, who knew a grubby and infested plant when he saw one. He decided the cactus must be cleaned immediately.

Only after the gardener had painstakingly removed and killed each insect did Linnaeus arrive on the scene. Realizing at once what had occurred, he was seized by despair; by his own account, the ruin of his hopes gave him a “dreadful fit” of migraine. ”About Coccionella I do not wish to speak, never wish to think or remember,” he later wrote to a colleague.

”

—

This anecdote is one of my new favorite history of science stories. The production of scientific knowledge is always, and always has been, contingent on many unpredictable and uncontrollable variables; however, the engagement with physical specimens and great distances that defined the work of natural historians in the early modern period strikes me as generating much more pathos than fortuitous lab accidents ever could.

The above passage comes from Amy Butler Greenfield’s great and readable history of cochineal entitled A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.

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