bioephemera | May 5, 2008
One of the benefits (?) of being a biologist is receiving biotech spam in one's inbox, as this screenshot shows. I'm a little disturbed that the subject lines of emails advertising lab reagents are not readily distinguishable from those advertising adult pharmaceuticals.
bioephemera | May 2, 2008
Animal Logic 2007
Richard Barnes
Richard Barnes' Animal Logic collection depicts natural history museums in a state of after-hours undress. Half-installed dioramas, partially wrapped specimens, taxidermy animals in shipping crates. . . each photo has an illicit From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler feeling.
Barnes' work is a reminder that, all our suspension of disbelief aside, there's nothing natural about natural history museums. Context is everything - stick a dinosaur across the firepit from a Neanderthal, and you'll get a generation of kids who think "The Flintstones"…
bioephemera | May 2, 2008This entry originally appeared November 24, 2007 on the old bioephemera. I was inspired to repost & update it after seeing this post over at Morbid Anatomy earlier this month.
Wounds (2007)
Nicole Natri
I ran across this collage by the talented Nicole Natri shortly after attending an interesting lecture, "When Sleeping Beauty Walked Out of the Anatomy Museum," by Kathryn Hoffmann, who is a professor of French at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The connection here is pretty cool, but it's roundabout, so bear with me.
Dr. Hoffmann's talk was my introduction to Pierre Spitzner's…
bioephemera | April 29, 2008
Vollig Weichgestrikt
Sarah Illenberger
Those of you who enjoyed JPolka's crochet cabinet in Sunday's Cabinet of Curiosities carnival may also like these cloudlike knitted sculptures by Sarah Illenberger. I'm impressed with how effectively the yarn captures the delicate translucence of human tissues - particularly the vanishingly small arterioles on the heart's surface.
Via Adam in the World
bioephemera | April 29, 2008Remember that today, Tuesday April 29, is Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day! Regrettably, I will be nowhere near a B&J's. . . sigh.
bioephemera | April 27, 2008
. . . wherein whatsoever the hand of man by exquisite art or engine has made rare in stuff, form or motion; whatsoever singularity, chance, and the shuffle of things hath produced; whatsoever Nature has wrought in things that want life and may be kept; shall be sorted and included. . . [Bacon]
Welcome to the sixth edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities carnival. Whether your taste runs to Wunderkammern or Curiosities, blogs are treasure rooms for modern collectors of the strange and marvelous. Let's start with this perfect miniature cabinet of crochet motifs by JPolka at the oh-so-aptly named…
bioephemera | April 25, 2008Mr. Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life, 1953
Via eliz.avery's flickr stream
Happy DNA Day!
It's been slow here on the blog lately, for a number of reasons - the most salient of which is that I've been on the Hill all week at the Congressional Operations Seminar sponsored by the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown. I highly recommend this course - it was a lot of fun. But unfortunately I didn't have a functional laptop this week, and thus couldn't blog. (At one point, my poor Mac burped up a blue screen of death - I didn't even know such a thing was possible!)
Yesterday, I just missed…
bioephemera | April 25, 2008
This is just plain cool! It's amazing how intuitive data can be when plotted visually. And as of Tax Day, you can plot your own data on a stripped-down version of this software, thanks to Google, which bought Trendalyzer from Gapminder in 2007. I can hardly wait to try this out for myself. . .
bioephemera | April 21, 2008Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction photograph of DNA, 1953
London's Natural History Museum
photo by Mo at Neurophilosophy
bioephemera | April 13, 2008What did Leonardo look like? And why are people so obsessed with this question?
Greg Laden just posted a new video in which Siegfriend Woldhek (illustrator, founder of nabuur.com, and former CEO of Dutch World Wildlife Fund) uses simple logic to "discover" what he claims to be the Renaissance master's face. Basically, he takes all the male faces Leo drew and. . . well, watch it for yourself:
I'm not sure that qualifies as "sophisticated image analysis techniques." It certainly doesn't prove anything, even if it did get BoingBoinged. But it's less of a stretch than seeing Leonardo's face in…
bioephemera | April 13, 2008Madame Ovary , 2008
Collage, 3.5 x 5.5"Richard Russell
Following up neatly on my post about Nicole Natri's anatomical collage, artist Richard Russell mixes beeswax and book art to create provocative, creepily symbolic images like Madame Ovary (above). Russell describes himself as a serious ephemeraholic:
I can become teary-eyed over certain botanical illustrations, wallpaper designs, bird prints, astronomy maps, travel documents, the pattern of handwriting in a letter. I prefer the patina of use and age--smudges, the stain of cellophane tape, a child's doodles in a book, margin notes, mold.…
bioephemera | April 10, 2008Vanitas, 2008
Nicole Natri
My friend Nicole Natri has finished her new website, updating her blog and portfolio of collage art. Nicole has a somewhat dark artistic vision involving sinister medical implements and bizarre anatomical diagrams - which she seems to have no trouble finding in vintage books. I wonder what bookshops she frequents??
Halloweenhead, 2007
Nicole Natri
Anguish, 2007
Nicole Natri
bioephemera | April 8, 2008S. Watson's American Museum of Living Curiosities
British Library, via Museum of Hoaxes
It will be my pleasure to host the April edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities blog carnival created by Tim at Walking the Berkshires. According to Tim, here's what you're in for:
What I have in mind is show and tell for grown ups. As with the Wunderkammer of old, the curiosities in this virtual cabinet will include oddities and marvels of natural history, cryptozoology, archeology and ethnography, historical or religious relics, artifacts, mementos, talismans, specimens and ephemera: in short, a carnival…
bioephemera | April 8, 2008Hochgekocht, 2008Sarah Illenberger
Vertumnus (portrait of Rudolph II), 1591Giuseppe Arcimboldo
bioephemera | April 7, 2008Untitled (labrador), 1995
Stuffed labrador, polyester
Merijn Bolink
Reader Jan-Maarten kindly directed me to the artwork of Dutch sculptor Merijn Bolink:
In Untitled (labrador) from 1995, a stuffed female dog is followed by a bevy of small plastic dogs -at first glance the host of little ones appears to be puppies, but close inspection reveals each to be a dog-shaped replica of the large dog's internal organs. (Charlene Roth, New Art Examiner)
Untitled (Mondriaan branch), 2005
wood
Merijn Bolink
Bolink also grafts twigs to create branching patterns that combine the organic and the geometric…
bioephemera | April 5, 2008
This week, I'm completely infatuated with the eclectic, macabre vision of young Irish designer Jonathan Anderson. From his fall/winter 07 collection:
A contemporary look at Russian surrealism, J.W. Anderson's autumn/winter 2008 menswear and jewellery collection, The Rattle Bag, delves into the intricate mind of Grigori Rasputin and his relationship with the Romanov family in the early 20th Century. . . a felt coat reminiscent of combat-wear of World War I is enveloped in spinal cords as an image of the hopelessness and barbarism present in a time of war and revolution. Surprising shapes and…
bioephemera | April 4, 2008
It looks like the British Museum has a good chance of keeping this medieval brass astrolabe quadrant on public display in the UK. The export license for the device has been delayed until June, giving the BM a chance to raise its 350,000-pound selling price - which should please retrotechnophiles and Chaucerians alike.
The astrolabe originated with the Greeks, but was popularized by Islamic astronomers and became widely used across Europe. The British Museum already has several, like this pretty one I saw last summer:
Brass astrolabe with silver inlay, 1712
British Museum
So why do they need…
bioephemera | April 2, 2008Silvio, 2005
turtle shell, brass hardware, beads, bone, antique vestment trim, leather, glass eyes Jessica Joslin
I sat down on the Metro this morning and read a most inauspicious horoscope:
"Your interest in things unusual, unexplained, bizarre and at times tasteless is likely to make it difficult for you to find a friend."
Hey! That's not nice!
But then I realized that next up on my blogging to-do list was the new book by artist Jessica Joslin, Strange Nature. Joslin makes incredible sculptures fusing dead animals, scrap metal, and eerie staring glass eyes. And I began to wonder if my…
bioephemera | April 2, 2008
Ok, I'm not sure if I should be pleased or not that my friends automatically send me links to stories about octopus courtship.
Apparently "marine biologists studying wild octopuses have found a kinky and violent society of jealous murders, gender subterfuge and once-in-a-lifetime sex." Whoa! Why isn't this a reality TV show already?
Be sure to watch the video - an amusingly dry account of octopus relationships (at least in some species). These males give new meaning to the word "clingy." In addition,
size does matter - but not how you'd think. "If you're going to spend time guarding a…
bioephemera | April 1, 2008Untitled (Everything at once, or one thing at a time?), 2004
oil, paper, and printed matter on board
Robert Van Vranken
Commissioned by the National Academy of Science
This is my favorite artwork at the National Academy of Science - a trompe l'oeil window of reclaimed architectural elements, peering into a scientist's study. Artist Robert Van Vranken includes books, globe, tools, diagrams, a light bulb, a comfy chair, and a panoramic view - this is a cluttered mind as much as a laboratory/studio, and to think about "everything at once or one thing at a time" is the eternal dilemma of the…