Stereo photography

Have you ever seen one of those 3D photographs? Well, anybody who's ever looked through a view-master, definitely has. It adds a certain something to a picture to have a bit of a three dimensional effect to it. I've always thought that it was a long, boring process to achieve those images, including a lot of specific machinery and a lot of hard work...

Well, it's actually a lot easier. All you need is:
- Two disposable cameras
- Duct tape
- Scissors (optional)

How it works? photojojo explains you how to do it, in a quick tutorial.

Dotted and etched

Partially, the attention on Marc, tattoo artist of Swastika Freakshop, a tattoo parlour in the south of Germany, has to do with the "Swastika" in the name of the shop. It has to do with the argument for (or against) the use of swastikas: an argument that typically devolves into one side claiming that the symbol is offensive and should be abolished, with the other naming historical precedents of the swastika being used as a sign of peace, and that this current usage is indeed a means of reclaiming a valuable piece of history from the tyranny of the Nazis. (quoted from BME zine).

Even though there are arguments for both sides, I want to leave the entire controverse aside. Simply because I want to focus on his work. I like the originality of the tattoos he produces. It looks like he produces actual sketches on skin. Some bigger pieces of one colour appear to be consisting out of a collection of lines (like the way people hatch hand sketches), and other gray patches are made up of dots. It's definitely something different and it's probably very time consuming. But it looks really spectacular to me...



BME Zine


Since the website of Swastika Freakshop has been under construction for a long time, Some other places to see the work by Marc:
BME Zine
BME Ink

Oh, and for the architecture freaks that are thinking this post doesn't have too much to do with architecture: that guy in the last picture has a golden ratio tattoo on his arm...

Pareidolia

In psychology, it's a common phenomenon: Pareidolia. It describes the instance in which a random stimulus is perceived as significant. For instance in hearing a hidden message (that's not really there) in a record played backwards (even though I am still really convinced that K3 sings about "grote massamoord - godverdomme leuk" if their song "Oma's aan the top" is played backwards - but that's a whole different story.)
The term could also signify interpreting clouds as animals or seeing faces in the moon. Even the famous Rorschach-test bases it's phychological analysis of someone's state of mind on Pareidolia.

Lately, I've come across two very distinct online-cases that are both working with the matter of Pareidolia.

The first one is the strange maps blog. I've already posted something about this blog earlier, but now they've coined the term "cartocacoethes" - which means as much as "the convulsion to see maps everywhere". And they have a small, but nice collection of just that: sh\tains shaped like the USA, a Milanesa in the shape of Africa, clouds shaped like Britain. And this remarkable puddle in the shape of Australia.


The second one is slightly less serious, but all the more hilarious. It's called "inanimate faces", if I'm correct. It's a term for objects that have a face - if you look at it the right way. Like with the one at the top of this post...

There's a nice collection up at boreme.com, and flickr.com has a huge collection of inanimate faces.
Thanks to this website, I've been eyeing my TV for the last couple of minutes, since it really resembles a face with a big smile...

Can I pay with architecture, please?

To celebrate all the archievements of Dutch architecture, the Dutch government came up with the idea to launch a commemorative coin. In true architecture style, they launched a competition, for which a number of architects, designers and artists were selected. The competition was won by Stani Michiels.

At first glance, the coin depicts the obvious image of Queen Beatrix, as is common on the Dutch version of the Euro. But, when you look closer, it's made up out of text: names of various of the more (or less) famous Dutch architects of past and present. These names aren't in chronological order, but in order of the number of hits they generate on the internet. Some parts are put in to bold print, to create the picture of the Queen.

The other side shows a different (and important) ingredient of Dutch architecture: book culture. Books about (and from) Dutch architects. The are grouped around the edge of the coin, in such an order that the interior of the coin becomes a rough outline of the contours of the Netherlands.



How Stani Michiels made money (by means of open source software) is shown on his weblog.

Now matter how cool the design might be, there still is something strange about a coin commemorating "architecture". I mean, what's next? A coin commemorating French cuisine? British Humor on the Pound Sterling? Pop-music on the Swedish Krona? It's just a strange concept for a coin to make a "memorial" out of architecture, since it's ever changing and developing, and it still remains rather abstract to depict "dutch architecture as a whole". But still, it looks much better than the standard Euro-coins from the Netherlands...