moon dust...

these images were taken by the russian spacecraft lunik III in october of 1959 and reproduced in flying saucers magazine in 1962.

i have to say i have a lot of love for images that are full of artifacts of a less than perfect translation process... it gives them atmosphere, and a sense of abstraction that feels like some kind of inner voice is also being captured by the process. the photos we see here have an even grittier presence due to the fact that they were reproduced very poorly in a cheap magazine, and printed on newsprint. in this case, something might be lost in terms of scientific details (and indeed the article questions if there is any value in such "poor quality" photos), but much beauty is certainly gained in the process... their ethereal presence is like a hybrid of of 19th century spirit photos and a fax machine.

speaking of process... according to ray palmer, who wrote the article, "the vagueness of the photos is due to the fact that development had to take place in space using a very unique method of chemical development because of the weightless factor and the heat that existed inside the capsule that would have ruined ordinary negatives, and transmission had to be by radio wave, subject to enormous interference from static and conflicting signals".

natural selection part two...

the counterpoint to the colorful surrealist models below were the circa 1900 artifacts of nature also dwelling the plant life section of the bergen natural history museum, pictured above. unfortunately between the low light, wavy old glass cases, and the depth of the shelves i wasn't able to get great images; but these early photos, hand written or hand typed scraps of paper labels, and fragments of real nature forms mounted on wood or paper, were like little poem objects.

they weren't like seeing joseph cornell's work as much as they were like peeking into one or two of his boxes of stuff. all were fragile, many were broken, discolored, and/or simply odd in terms of their display forms.

i just kept thinking that between the stuffed animals, the giant sculpted life size whale heart, the birds, the room of skeletons, etc. these little twigs and seeds felt totally quiet and alone.

if you like looking at things like this you should also regularly check out the wonderful woolgathersome blog...

natural selection part one...

some images of models related to trees from the natural history museum in bergen norway. the museum still has many areas that feel like 1900, and the rooms filled with animals in display cases felt like a real sideshow spectacle - complete with a stuffed duck billed platypus! unlike the queasy punch of this great hall filled with a horde of dead animals, a small section on the ground floor related to plant life contained some quieter cabinets of curiosities.

in these slightly gloomy and haphazard displays, there were many things to grab the attention of a sensitive eye; but the objects that stood out as the oddest were a series of plaster and painted models of seeds, spores, stems, etc. related to the biology of trees.

these strange and wonderfuly surrealist and martian-like structures verged on abstraction and felt like visual companions to the paintings of artists like arthur dove and georgia o'keefe - where the spiritual in abstraction and science have collided. i have to say, they were a lot more inspiring than most of the contemporary art i saw on the journey... i will post some other things from the museum soon.

(p.s. for those of you who asked about ant sounds, they've now added my recording to the sleppet site, see link a few posts below).

soap bubbles...

images from soap bubbles by c.v.boys, 1911...

in 1997, i made a small film called "astronomy" - filming a series of 1950's kid's astronomy experiments with a super 8 camera i had received for my 13th birthday. when i spotted this book at a used bookstore around the same time; my plan was to use it as a script for another film. unfortunately, i never got around to filming it; but the idea of both films (the one made and the one imagined) seem to go against c.v. boys' introductory text to this book:

"an experiment is not a conjuring trick, something simply to make you wonder, nor is it simply shown because it is beautiful... their chief object is to enable you to see for yourselves what the true answers are to the questions that i shall ask."

boys' answers, of course, carry weight and interest; but i have always found a different kind of truth in the experience of wonder and the exploration of beauty...

i love these images for their mystery and their ability to evoke things beyond illustration and understanding. taken out of context, they have the ability to be traveresed with eyes, fingers, and minds towards some greater unknown (plus how else do you arrive at a place connecting victorian soap bubble imagery with duchamp's rotoreliefs!). there's a whitman poem about astronomy that contradicts boys' introductory text beautifully:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

of course, i'd take it a step further and hope that one could look down in perfect silence at the charts, diagrams, and numbers in their mystical air as well!

lastly, take a peek at the wonderful new woolgathersome blog... to see another printing of the same book here ....

the fulcrum & the haystack...

a few more from ropp's... two more riddles solved through math and visual poetry... how a lever works, and how to gage the contents of a hay stack. click to see them larger...

the hight of a tree

another from ropp's... how to gage the "hight" of a tree.

considering most of the people i know with MFAs couldn't figure out much of the simple tasks in this book in terms of equations, i'm thinking folks understood math a lot better then than most of us do now.

the "hight" of a tree, is one of a number of little beautiful images and activities. you'll have to click on it to be able to read it; but i love the idea of someone laying down a pole next to a tree and then laying down oneself to get one's eye in line with the top of the pole and the tree, rather than getting a ladder and some trained birds and monkeys and a really long tape measure.

in case you were wondering...

this is the first of several journeys the archive will make into ropp's calculator for the pocket, published in 1912, and rescued from obscurity a few sundays ago at the long beach flea market.

you'll have to click on the image to be able to read it, but it's a beautiful chart of "the specific gravity of well known substances" (including aluminum, gum arabic, castor oil and human blood).

ropp's little book features an insane amount of information including "time and labor saving tables, also the rules, principles, and short cuts for arithmatic, mechanics, and mensuration; concisely and clearly stated for practical use, handy review, and ready reference for the use of farmers, mechanics, business men, bankers, miners, laborers, and dealers in grain, stock, cotton, hay, feed, coal, lumber, etc."

light forms...

images from lewis wright's light, published in 1882.

"as the physicist nears the confines of his kingdom... he finds himself compelled to speculate on invisible presences, if only to find a rational explanation for undoubted physical phenomena, and insensibly he slips over the boundary, and is, although he does not yet realize it, contacting the astral plane."

although seemingly connected to these images, this text is not from wright's book of science experiments; but written several years later in the introduction to annie besant and c.w. leadbetter's book thought forms. i wonder if besant and leadbetter were familiar with wright's images, and had them in mind when they wrote about a scientist moving beyond the rational.

wright's images are so compelling one wants to give them mystical connotations - and yet what could be more mystical than their rational explanations. the images transcend their rationality to exist as beautiful things, with visual poetic power greater than their intended meanings. where besant and leadbetter tend to rationalize the mystical to give proof of its existence; wright simply shows natural phenomenon in all its mystical and provocative beauty.

the long and wavy line...

this image was part of an article from an old radio and tv magazine. i believe it was related to television transmission and reception... the letters are keys to the illustrations and their meanings, which i mistakenly cut away. i think i like them better as the shapes of the sounds of the letters they are connected to.

it would be nice to see images of all the words one could make with the letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, j, k, l.

i wonder what these words would look like:

add ace ache age aged aced addage ale all able affable allege babble back bad baggage baffle bag bade badge bale bake bagel bead beef beech beach bed be bee beg bell behead beheaded blab blah black bleach bleed bleak bled beak black blade chafe chad cheek cab cabbage cage caged cake caked cede ceded dab dabble decade dad deed deeded deaf deface defaced dead deal each ebb edge egg eagle efface flack flake flaked flag flab fable face faced fad fade faded fake faked fleece feel feed fed gab gaffe gag gage gaged gale geek glad glade...

and i wonder how long that beautiful wavy line of 11 interchangeable parts, in endless combinations, would be...