Philosophy

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Statues of Blinded Men Ascending High into the Sky - My Modern Metropolis








Karma is an intriguing sculptural installation by Korean artist Do Ho Suh that presents countless men sitting atop one another while shielding each other's eyes. Like his Cause & Effect piece, which features a spectacular tornado of figurines, Karma presents figurative sculptures ascending into the sky like a human ladder. However, in addition to being perched on each other's shoulders, they are successively blinding one another which leads one to wonder: Why?
The artist has caught our attention over the years with misplaced houses, a robe made of dog tags, and symbolic floor installations; but it's his use of the human form that is most thought-provoking. His work continually questions one's identity and individuality by using the human body. These stainless steel men, though recognizably different entities, appear to move as one. While the piece is open for interpretation, it makes one question whether the idea behind it is to present the figure of a man blindly following in the path of his ancestors before him, who have risen a step closer to the heavens with each new successor in the lineage.







Images via [Lehmann Maupin, Alan Teo, Eric Harvey Brown, CamWall]
via [L'acte Gratuit]









Source:
Statues of Blinded Men Ascending High into the Sky - My Modern Metropolis



http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/do-ho-suh-karma



Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Clever Animal Illustrations Formed Out of Letters - My Modern Metropolis

 


Clever Animal Illustrations Formed Out of Letters







Melbourne-based graphic designer Dan Fleming combines typography with playful illustrations in this series, entitled Word Animals. Specializing in brand identity and logo design, the half British, half Australian artist uses the actual letters from each creature's name to build all kinds of silhouetted animals, including a crocodile, a platypus, a giraffe, a penguin, a pig, a snail, even an owl.

The word animal logos feature strong and simple color palettes that match, and complement, the color of the creatures. A hot pink flamingo balances on one leg formed from the dip of the 'g', a blue whale swims around with the tip of its tail formed out of the 'w', and a red chicken walks around on feet extending from the descenders of the 'k'. Fleming's typography skills are so strong that viewers will see the animal shapes first before searching for each individual letter that make up the contoured shapes. Fleming is flexible with the character structure, so viewers might have to look closely to identify each letter, but it's a fun game to first identify the adorable animals before then determining the layout of the letter formations. For the project, Fleming developed a full packaging scheme around the designs, including business cards and letterhead, a unique website, prints, and even t-shirts.























Dan Fleming's website
via [Design Taxi]

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 SOURCE:
Clever Animal Illustrations Formed Out of Letters - My Modern Metropolis

 http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/dan-fleming-word-animals



Saturday, February 23, 2013

FBI shares last thoughts of a Murder Addict

 If you ever feel neurotic or a little crazy, read about how this guy thought in his own words.

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Israel Keyes' four-page note was found beneath his body in his Alaska jail cell.
Israel Keyes' four-page note was found beneath his body in his Alaska jail cell.


CNN) -- They are some of the last thoughts of a serial killer, found on blood-soaked, handwritten and often poetic notes in his Alaska jail cell after he took his own life.

"Speak soft in your ear so you know that it's true. You may have been free, you loved living your lie, fate had its own scheme, crushed like a bug you still die," Israel Keyes wrote.

Keyes killed himself in December. He was in custody in the killing of barista Samantha Koenig, 18, whom he abducted from a coffee stand in Anchorage, Alaska, last February. Koenig was one of at least eight people Keyes admitted to killing, but he may have taken other lives, police have said.

Keyes' notes were released by the FBI on Wednesday after they were cleaned up at the bureau's lab in Quantico, Virginia. They were found under his body, written in a combination of pencil and ink on a yellow legal pad, the FBI said in a statement.

The bureau said the notes don't confirm any of his killings, add any new victims to his grisly toll, or offer any other clues that might help their investigation. It said an analysis showed no hidden messages or code in the four pages.

But a read of them does give a glimpse into Keyes' mind, apparently describing how it felt to take a life and the disdain in which he held much of American society.

"I looked in your eyes, they were so dark, warm and trusting as though you had not a worry or care. The more guiless (sp) the gaze the better potential to fill up those pools with your fear," Keyes wrote at one point.

"Your wet lips were a promise of a secret unspoke. Nervous laugh it burst like a pulse of blood from your throat. There will be no more laughter here," he wrote later.

"Forget the lady called luck. She does not abide near me for her powers don't extend to those who are deceased," Keyes also wrote.

Shortly after the killer's suicide in December, Anchorage police Detective Monique Doll described Keyes as a murder addict, saying police interviews with him showed he got "an immense amount of enjoyment" from killing.

"Israel Keyes never expressed in any way, shape or form that he was ashamed of or regretted his actions," Doll said in December. "He knew what he was and he was fine with it."

While he held no remorse, his writing indicates that he didn't think people in general cared for each other at all.

"Soon now, you'll join those ranks of dead, or you're ashes the wind will soon blow. Family and friends will shed a few tears, pretend it's off to heaven you go. But the reality is you were just bones and meat, and with your brain died also your soul," Keyes wrote.

Keyes criticizes U.S. society elsewhere in the four pages.

"Consume what you don't need, stars you idolize, pursue what you admit is a dream, then it's American die," he wrote.

And he appears to rip the American worker.

"Punch in the clock and sit on your ass, playing stupid ass games on your phone. Paper on your wall says you got smarts, but you still crawl like the vermin you are once your precious power grids blown," Keyes wrote.

On the last page of the note, Keyes may be referring to his impending suicide or to another of his victims, but his words are disturbing.

"Okay, all is over, words are flaccid and weak. Back it with action or it all comes off as cheap. Watch close while I work now, feel the electric of my touch, open my trembling flower, or your petals I'll crush."




 Source:
FBI shares last thoughts of a murder addict - CNN.com


http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/07/justice/alaska-serial-killer-note/index.html?iref=obnetwork



Friday, February 22, 2013

Gallery: Zoos in the News


 http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/1/31/1359631574999/af820ee5-688d-4ba6-8d80-86e4a80db6c3-620.jpeg

   Catepillar



Tasik, a male pigtail macaque, sips red wine from a bottle at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk February 7, 2011. Zoo keepers at Royev Ruchey Zoo believe that adding red wine, onion and garlic into the monkeys' diet will reduce risk of H1N1 infection from visitors.
A pair of husky dogs play during a gathering of dog owners during a protest in North Vancouver, British Columbia February 6, 2011. Hundreds of dogs and owners gathered in an event called "Barking Mad" to protest the slaughter of a 100 husky sled dogs in the ski resort of Whistler that came to light last week.

 
Little Amur leopard "Paulchen" sits next to rabbit "Lisa" at the breeding station of the Serengeti-Park animal park in Hodenhagen, central Germany, on February 3, 2011. "Paulchen" has to be bottle-fed by keepers, as his sister thrust him aside from their mother. The keepers offered him a friend, "Lisa", so that he has not to spend the first months of his life all alone.
 Little Amur leopard "Paulchen" sits next to rabbit "Lisa" at the breeding station of the Serengeti-Park animal park in Hodenhagen, central Germany, on February 3, 2011. "Paulchen" has to be bottle-fed by keepers, as his sister thrust him aside from their mother. The keepers offered him a friend, "Lisa", so that he has not to spend the first months of his life all alone.











Source:   http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Lyme+disease+diagnosis+elusive+task/3179323/Gallery+Zoos+News/4249430/story.html





Varaiety of Images



 The 'Lion Man' – a 32,000-year-old lion-headed man, carved from a mammoth tusk, from Hohlenstein-Stadel in Germany - http://gu.com/p/3daht/tw


From antler batons to mammoth pendants, a new exhibition in London boasts a mind-blowing display of the world's oldest known sculptures, drawings and portraits, crafted by the hands of Homo sapiens as long as 40,000 years ago. Ice Age Art: The Arrival of the Modern Mind runs from 7 February until 26 May 2013 – but you can take a sneak preview here

Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian



 Photo: Diagram prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year 2013 - in pictures

From the transformative power of tea cosies to a medical study of Adolf Hitler, the Diagram prize shortlist shines a light on the oddest corners of the publishing universe

http://gu.com/p/3ex6x/tw




 http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/155107/article_2927be39f6edf844_1359481757_9j-4aaqsk.jpeg




Douentza, Mali
An armoured vehicle hit by a French air strike lies in the sand in Douentza, Mali.

The vehicle was used by radical Islamist group MUJAO. Credit: Reuters




 

Shetland Islands, Scotland
The annual Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival began on Lerwick on the Shetland Islands.




Bangkok, Thailand
Police officers confiscated a python from a restaurant on the outskirts of Bangkok.

The snake was shown off at a press conference. Credit: Reuters


 

The diamond-encrusted skull is on show at the Tate Modern.
The diamond-encrusted skull is on show at the Tate Modern. Photo: Comic Relief


Damien Hirst has been creating art for charity's sake with a new version of his wallet-busting artwork For The Love Of God.
He has produced a new image of the diamond-encrusted skull with a Comic Relief red nose which will be displayed at Tate Modern.


 

Money raised from the work will be spent on Comic Relief projects in Africa and the UK.
Money raised from the work will be spent on Comic Relief projects in Africa and the UK. Credit: Comic Relief handout















 


 
 
Alan Cumming Broadway-bound in solo Macbeth

Acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland production set for 73-performance run at Ethel Barrymore theatre

http://gu.com/p/3dfjx/tw

Photograph: Murdo Macleod



 

3D-print your face in chocolate for that special Valentine's Day gift

Tokyo's FabCafe launches service to make your face edible – but are the results more sinister than romantic?
http://gu.com/p/3dbbd/tw






 



Danger Mouse: Natalie Haynes's guide to TV detectives #23

The James Bond of the rodent world is 30 years old. But age has not blunted the brilliance of this classic kids' cartoon

http://gu.com/p/3czvj/tw

Photograph: FremantleMedia Ltd / Rex Featured




 
 The top 20 grossing foreign language films - in pictures

There is a new openness to other cultures and growing acceptability of subtitled entertainment as this list of top grossing foreign language films from Box Office Mojo shows

Photograph: Pan's Labyrinth, 2006
Mexico
Lifetime gross $37,634,615

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2013/jan/12/world-cinema-pictures#/?picture=402252771&index=3






Source:

 Guardian culture