Red Book

The Red Book, by Carl Jung. An illuminated manuscript written during a phase of psychosis. Awesome. Click the above title-link. Mmm.

luv

I found this letter while walking down Maryland Av on my way to work today. I find it facinating- being removed (to some degree) from teenange angst and dreams.
How old do you think she is? Can't you just hear her?

Susan Waters-Eller launches new blog: seeing-meaning

One of our most brilliant artists and philosophers has created a forum for her influential thoughts on visual culture. Susan Waters-Eller's long-beloved lectures about the intersections of science and art are presented here as small masterpieces to savor, post after post.

CASE AGAINST STEVEN KURTZ DISMISSED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 21, 2008

JUDGE DISMISSES MAIL FRAUD CASE AGAINST BIO-ARTIST KURTZ

Buffalo, NY_A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz's lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was "pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end."

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz_ legal defense, said, "We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action." She added that _this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place."

BACKGROUND ON DR. STEVEN KURTZ AND CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

Critical Art Ensemble (which Kurtz co-founded in 1987 with Steven Barnes) has won numerous awards for its bio-art, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, honoring more than two decades of distinguished work. The group has been commissioned to exhibit and perform in many of the world's cultural institutions_including the London Museum of Natural History; The ICA, London; the Whitney Museum and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; der Volksbüne, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; El Matadero, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo de Arte Carrilo Gil, Mexico City and many more.

For more information about the case, please visit: caedefensefund.org



CHUCK KLEINHANS

Long Second Toes Indicators Of Criminals, Study Finds.

"...Dr. Lizbeth Maybe, director of the study said that a toe length analysis of 14, 826 infants born in both the United Kingdom and the USA since 1960, shows that those who were born with long second toes often scored high marks in school and did well in aptitude tests. Unfortunately, as adults they also tended to be far more represented in death rows and in psychiatric facilities for the criminally insane than babies born with normal toe architecture. Asked what 'normal' meant in these circumstances she said it meant those born with second toes shorter than their big toes. Such people, "represent more than ninety percent of the adult population."

Our greek toes.

Morton's toe is the common term for the second toe (second from innermost) extending further than the great toe (Hallux).
Photo of Morton's toe.
Photo of Morton's toe.

The name derives from American orthopaedic surgeon Dudley Joy Morton (1884-1960), who originally described it as part of Morton's triad (a.k.a Morton's syndrome or Morton's foot syndrome): a congenital short first metatarsal bone, a hypermobile first metatarsal segment, and calluses under the second and third metatarsals.

Although commonly described as a disorder, it is sufficiently common to be considered a normal variant of foot shape (its prevalence varies with different populations, but around 10% of feet worldwide have this form). In shoe-wearing cultures it can be problematic: for instance, in causing nail problems from wearing shoes with a profile that doesn't accommodate the longer second toe.

It has a long association with disputed anthropological and ethnic interpretations. Morton called it Metatarsus atavicus, considering it an atavism recalling prehuman grasping toes. In statuary and shoe fitting it has been called the Greek foot (as opposed to the Egyptian foot, where the great toe is longer). It was an idealised form in Greek sculpture, and this persisted as an aesthetic standard through Roman and Renaissance periods and later (the Statue of Liberty has toes of this proportion). The French call it pied ancestral or pied de Néanderthal[1].

Confusion has arisen from the term also sometimes being used for a different condition, Morton's neuroma, a term coined by Thomas George Morton (1835-1903) for a syndrome involving pain caused by neuroma between the third and fourth toes.

DC in Berlin

The Future of L+S...

A few design ideas for Lines + Stars, done by my talented pal Wiena Lin (www.wienalin.com)....

Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum (Netherlands)

The architects invented a new kind of glazing with the collaboration of a multi-media artist, Jaap Drupsteen. An amazing exterior of color and movement for a building that is primarily used for storage of film and soundtracks from Dutch radio and television.
Check it outhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/arts/design/26visi.html
http://www.drupsteen.nl/

Alyssa-rama-lama!

Some photos from Friday's opening...

Building-Plundering and Other Sundries

I'm working on an article for my old employer (Preservation Mag) about copper theft from historic buildings (which, of course, totally screws up the buildings). Found these two cool sites in the searching process:

http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/ -- blog about development/preservation in the Brooklyn waterfront area
http://www.saveindustrialbrooklyn.org/ -- Brooklyn-based preservation group that focuses on sustainable reuse of industrial structures....the interactive map is cool!

Max Roach dies this week.

click above for NPR story aired today (Aug 17th)

Tunnel Hizzle and Other 'Sundries

Check out the link above for a ridiculous/great thing.

Also: www.woostercollective.com. Street-art loveliness!

tracing made pretty thing

I was tracing a cornice today in CAD from a blk and white line drawing. My eyes were hurting and then I realized there was quite a pretty thing in front of me.