Books & Essays
bioephemera | July 9, 2008"Sonnet: To Science"
words by Edgar Allan Poe
song by Alex Colwell
video by Jeff Burns
From oilcanpress
I love the pairing of Poe's sonnet, which basically accuses Science of destroying the poetic mysteries that make life meaningful, with the techno-optimistic nostalgia of early films glorifying science and technology. Yummy!
Poe had a curious relationship with science. Despite the accusatory tone of his poem, Poe was fairly well-versed in contemporary scientific theory, with a solid grasp of astronomy in particular. Poe even wrote a small book called Eureka (1848) about his early,…
bioephemera | July 2, 2008
Any recent decline in the popularity of reading, especially reading long books, appears to have totally bypassed Ammon Shea. Shea recently spent a year reading the Oxford English Dictionary, and his book about the experience, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, drops today.
When I first heard about Shea's project, I wasn't especially inspired. What is an "expert dictionary reader" anyway? And who wants to read a book about reading a book - especially a dictionary? It's not that I don't love dictionaries. I keep a massive unabridged Funk & Wagnalls flopped open in my…
bioephemera | June 16, 2008
Via Rag & Bone Blog
By Christopher Tovo
Are we falling out of love with books?
I realized a little while ago - when yet another book arrived from Amazon and was thrown on the to-read pile - that I'm no longer the bibliophile I once was. I love the idea of reading books, but I'm not making time to do it. Recent fiction isn't appealing - I don't seem to have the patience or interest. (I feel like Jessica Crispin in that respect). And nonfiction, which I have been reading occasionally, seems too much like a part of my job.
I'm really disturbed by this trend. I self-identify as a devoted…
bioephemera | May 14, 2008
Plate XVIII, 2002
Selena Kimball
From The Dreaming Life of Leonora de la Cruz
More disquieting collage art - this time from Selena Kimball. Her collage illustrations from The Dreaming Life of Leonora de la Cruz by Agniezka Taborska depict the surreal, sinister visions of a fictional 18th century Carmelite nun. I feel like I should make a creepy sound effect of some kind, but the collages are so lovely, it seems disrespectful. . . check out the subtle use of biological imagery throughout.
Plate II, 2000
Selena Kimball
From The Dreaming Life of Leonora de la Cruz
bioephemera | May 6, 2008
Figureight Knot Complement vii/CMI (Clay Mathematics Award)
bronze
Helaman Ferguson
"We are living in a golden age of science and a golden age of art, and I like to celebrate that." -Helaman Ferguson
Back in March, I attended a talk by mathematician/sculptor Helaman Ferguson. He's one of the so-called algorists, artists who create art based on algorithms of their own devising (Ferguson is a co-creator of the PSLQ algorithm, among others). The Clay Mathematics Institute describes the algorithm used to create the sculpture at the top of this post, Figureight Knot Complement vii, thus:
The…
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 13, 2008
Madame 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, 2008
Vanitas, 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 2, 2008
Silvio, 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 | March 28, 2008
histoire(s) naturelle(s)
Petra Werle
Petra Werle's sculptures are fantasy, not science - nevertheless, she pins them in display cases like a butterfly collection. Their faces are molded breadcrumbs, and their bodies are made of feathers, beetles, moths, butterflies, shells, and moss.
histoire(s) naturelle(s)
Petra Werle
Like the work of Tessa Farmer or Brian Froud's Pressed Fairy Book, these are fairies and gnomes as pseudo-scientific specimens, their bodies offered as evidence of a fantastic, unseen world. But unlike Farmer's savage, wolflike packs of fairies, Werle's fairies are…
bioephemera | March 26, 2008
from Darwin's Natural Heir
Directed by David Dugan; produced by Neil Patterson
I am a specialized advocate: an advocate for the rest of life. I hope that doesn't sound pompous, but all of us should be advocates for the rest of life. -E.O. Wilson
Last Tuesday I visited the National Geographic Society for the premiere of "Darwin's Natural Heir," a documentary by Neil Patterson about the career and life of naturalist Edward O. Wilson. It's a nice little film, with some effective graphics and visual metaphors, and a good dose of humor. But I wasn't there to see the film. I was there to meet E.…
bioephemera | March 11, 2008
World Map (detail)
Martin Waldseemuller, 1507
Last week I had to visit the Library of Congress, so I dropped in on the 1507 map by Martin Waldseemuller. The map, which was acquired by the Library in 2003, is tucked in behind an exhibit of mesoamerican artifacts, which seemed arranged specifically to baffle visitors. Both 1507 and 1516 maps by Waldseemuller are kept in large vertical cases at the back of the exhibit hall, invisible from the entrance; during my visit, only tourists shepherded by docents found their way around the other exhibit's margins and into the quiet, dim map room. This…
bioephemera | March 4, 2008
Gary Gygax, who died today at age 69, has a special place in my heart - but not for the obvious reason. I was never a disciple of his famous creation, Dungeons & Dragons. I grew up in a rural, conservative area, and while I'm sure there were a few gaming groups around, they were neither very popular nor co-ed. Perhaps as a result, the gaming bug never bit me - I've never played Magic, Myst, WoW, or any other fantasy game more complex than Castle Risk.
But circa 1983, one of those obscure local fantasy geeks upgraded to the D&D Monster Manual II, abandoning his well-worn Monster…
bioephemera | February 25, 2008Well, this is funny. A new illustrated book about wax anatomical models - long one of my favorite topics - is about to be released. It's called "Ephemeral Bodies." Hey, did I write this book? I don't remember doing it. . . but who knows, it's been a crazy year.
The blurb:
The material history of wax is a history of disappearance--wax melts, liquefies, evaporates, and undergoes innumerable mutations. Wax is tactile, ambiguous, and mesmerizing, confounding viewers and scholars alike. It can approximate flesh with astonishing realism and has been used to create uncanny human simulacra since…