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A little Friday afternoon ribbing – graph-er to photographer. Click through for a closer look and the sourcing path.
Photographer and mathematician Nikki Graziano overlays graphs and their corresponding equations over full color nature photography. This set of engaging compositions reminds us of the elegance and “art” of math, and its essential function as a descriptor of natural phenomena. Click through the image below (and keep clicking) to check out the full “Found Functions” set.
By Nikki Graziano
A couple of links from mid-May highlighting creative formats for print magazines. Both articles are by Andrew Losowsky for the WSJ. Subscription to periodicals is still fun – I expect that if the content sings, there’s probably a base of creative class readers out there. Maybe some spark of the creative new ideas here will catch fire:
Recently I stumbled upon two interesting projects that aim to provide insight into who we are. One does this through a closed small American town sample and one relies upon happen chance encounters along a nationwide road trip. Both intriguing.
A collection of photographs and narrative that portray the people who make up a small American town, all 670 of its residents. The first series of portrait photographs were conducted in 1984, and each is paired with its corresponding photo completed two decades later. A longitudinal study of American life and a seemingly interesting portrayal of juxtapositions and uncanny similarities.
“What a marvelous way to get at ‘who we are’ as people. This powerful confessional book draws its strength from the truth that so-called ordinary people, not those with bold-faced names, are actually the heroes of our American drama.”
—Ken Burns, Walpole, New Hampshire
A David Lynch project that documents a 20,000 mile road trip over 70 days. Interviews were conducted at random with people they found along the road.
“The people told their story.” – David Lynch
“It’s a chance to meet these people.” -David Lynch
Is the growth in the E-book industry driven by online social sharing?
With the fairly recent release of the new and improved Amazon Kindle, increased promotion through iTunes, advancing reader applications for the iPhone, and more frequent PR and media about readers’ social networks’ growth, is the e-book medium finally revving up?
Scribd is one of the leaders in readers’ networks, and they’re now partnering with major publishers to offer more bestsellers, in addition to the many “paperbacks,” magazines (can’t you get those online in another format?), and business, legal, and government documents. Even the Obama campaign and administration have utilized this service to share documents. Yet despite high purported membership and use, the application is not widely known. This partnership at the very least signals that publishers are treating the network and its related web tools like a platform for distribution, not just a promotion and testing ground.
It will be interesting to watch how this channel is adopted by the commercial book and literature world. If Amazon consumer reviews, Facebook reader applications, adoption and interest in the Kindle, and microblogging through social networks like Scribd are any indication, we can expect growth and advances in the way information about books is shared.
Personally, I would always rather read a bound hard copy of a novel or nonfiction work. I welcome the break from the flashing light screen; I will likely revisit the book at some future date at least in reference; and in my opinion, the content can lose much of its ability to communicate human emotion.
Several years ago when e-books were first being offered online in an experiment in channel, I read Jack London’s Martin Eden while toiling away at mindless deskwork (a previous employer, of course). While I was able to follow the plot and enjoy the language, I didn’t feel the frustration and despair that I got when I re-read it in a physical copy. Sure, maybe one may not want to willingly empathize with frustration and despair specifically, but the thing that concerned me was that the communication suffered. It was clearly not just the case that a re-read was necessary to “get it” – the medium itself failed me. But hopefully these companies on the upstart are also addressing the reader (consumer) experience.
Additional news on this front: Wired Epicenter
An interesting lecture series is underway in Amsterdam this year, focusing on the concept of “new” in the arts and within greater culture. The program synopses on the website trigger initial thought – I’m hoping they post the lectures later this year.
Intriguing that the program’s curators are considering “new” as a brand element, in addition to exploring the idea of “brand new.” More info from the link below.
