Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Collection provides visitors with the opportunity to view a virtual reconstruction of Walpole's extensive collections--everything from armor to wall hangings--housed in his custom-built Gothic villa,
Strawberry Hill. (For video tours and discussions of its ornamentation, ongoing restoration &c., check out the
Strawberry Hill Youtube Channel.) Objects can be viewed according to maker, type, or room; there's also a virtual tour, based on contemporary paintings and sketches. For more about Walpole, plus links to e-texts of his fiction (most famously, the pioneering Gothic novel
The Castle of Otranto), visit
The Literary Gothic.
posted by thomas j wise
on Jan 21, 2012 -
5 comments
We and the Color is a blog about creative inspiration in art, graphic design, illustration, photography, architecture, fashion, product, interior, video and motion design. Also
on Flickr.
posted by netbros
on Oct 28, 2011 -
1 comment
Most people know that Venice has long been threatened by chronic flooding, but in recent years the Queen of the Adriatic has faced a rising tide of a different sort:
advertising.
From the
Doge's Palace to
St. Mark's Square to the bittersweet
Bridge of Sighs -- named for the grief its splendid views once inspired in crossing death row prisoners -- immense billboards
lit late into the night now mar the city's most treasured places.
Allegedly built to cover the cost of restoration work in the face of government cutbacks, the ads have brought in around $600,000 per year since 2008 -- a fraction of the shortfall -- and show no sign of going away any time soon. Their presence prompted a consortium of the world's leading cultural experts led by the
Venice in Peril Fund to air
an open letter demanding the city government put a stop to the placards that "hit you in the eye and ruin your experience of one of the most beautiful creations of humankind." Mayor Giorgio Orsoni, for one, was not moved, saying last year "If people want to see the building
they should go home and look at a picture of it in a book."
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 4, 2011 -
59 comments
"Day by day we pass by vacant lots downtown ... Neighbourhoods that, although having a huge potential, have more and more unused spaces ... Sometimes, the tourists are the ones who open our eyes by mentioning or questioning whether this situation is normal. On other occasions, we pay attention to it for a moment only because the secondary problems that those spaces imply affect us directly. But in most of the cases, they are only a part of our way."
Habit Makes Us Blind is a series of colorful images by Spanish studio
Espai MGR that seeks to draw attention to the problem of wasted space in urban environments (specifically, in the city of Valencia) -- by building conceptual LEGO structures in them. [
via]
posted by bayani
on May 9, 2011 -
8 comments
Stephen Biesty is an award-winning British illustrator famous for his bestselling "Incredible" series of engineering art books:
Incredible Cross-Sections,
Incredible Explosions,
Incredible Body, and
many more. A master draftsman, Biesty
does not use computers or even rulers in composing his intricate and imaginative drawings, relying on nothing more than pen and ink, watercolor, and a steady hand. Over the years, he's adapted his work to many other mediums, including
pop-up books,
educational games (
video),
interactive history sites, and
animation. You can view much of his work in
the zoomable galleries on his professional page, or click inside for a full listing of direct links to high-resolution, desktop-quality copies from his and other sites, including several with written commentary from collaborator
Richard Platt [site, .mp3 chat].
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Feb 4, 2011 -
24 comments
Labyrinths –
not to be confused with mazes – are being
rediscovered as tools for
contemplation,
meditation,
reflection, and
community well-being, as well as inspiration for
architecture,
music,
dance,
ritual,
business, and
visual art.
[more inside]
posted by velvet winter
on Dec 20, 2010 -
19 comments
Istanbul Photos If you love Istanbul like I do, and can't visit often enough, this is a fine place to get a virtual glimpse of all of it.
posted by sandrach
on Nov 15, 2010 -
9 comments
Triangulation Blog is done by industrial designer, art director
Emilio Gomariz, and covers photography, art installations, product design, architecture, animation, technological and digital projects. Gomariz also does
Base Times Height Divided By 2, an experimental, scientific and technologic extension of Triangulation Blog.
posted by netbros
on Oct 25, 2010 -
4 comments
"I never know what to call myself really. I call myself a cartoonist because it's what I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember, it's what I always return to, and it's how I think. But I don't really work in that field. I think I'm an artist and a writer, or more appropriately, an artist who writes."
[more inside]
posted by oulipian
on Jul 31, 2010 -
5 comments
Why don't rabbits burrow rectangular burrows? Why didn't early man make rectagular caves?Archigram are amongst the most seminal, iconoclastic and influential architectural groups of the modern age. They created some of the 20th century's most iconic images and projects, rethought the relationship of technology, society and architecture, predicted and envisioned the information revolution decades before it came to pass, and reinvented a whole mode of architectural education – and therefore produced a seam of architectural thought with truly global impact.
The Archigram Archival Project is
an online, searchable database of all the available works of Archigram [and much, much more]
for study by architectural specialists and the general public. [more inside]
posted by carsonb
on Apr 26, 2010 -
24 comments
"All of which is a long way of saying that, to construct a new church of anatomical horror and to do so out of stone, as Al-Mehdari seems to be suggesting, is a fascinating idea. " -
Body Baroque
posted by Artw
on Sep 23, 2009 -
24 comments
Dr. Frances W. Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages at Columbia University, New York, has created
a superb online collection of resources, all about
India and South Asia, its art, history, literature, architecture and culture. Her
Indian Routes section (the
Index page) is a particularly rich resource. Her vast, colorful and informative site also has many great images. Check out her "scrapbook pages" on the
Princes l the
Ghaznavids l
British Rule l
Women's Spaces l
Perspectives on Hinduism.
[more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Jun 9, 2009 -
14 comments
Explore the
History of the Ancient Greek World from the Neolithic to the Classical Period. Covering important topics, such as
Art and Architecture,
Mythology,
Wars,
Culture and Society, Poetry,
Olympics,
History Periods, Philosophy,
Playwrights, Kings and Rulers of Ancient Greece.
posted by netbros
on Feb 21, 2009 -
3 comments
The Evoluon was a museum dedicated to science and technology, and the place of technology in society. It was closed for the public in 1989 and has not been re-opened as a public museum since. Watch the wonderfully 60s
promotion (worth it just for the soundtrack).
[via]
posted by tellurian
on Dec 5, 2008 -
12 comments
Come, take a
ride and
look at some of the
Islamic Art of the past. Or, you could call it
Art of the
Islamic World if you're so inclined. If not, then how about taking into account some of the
major milestones of
Islam throughout the
centuries, from
past till
present (
more examples here), including the
art of
Calligraphy and
Architecture. Not to mention the
Arab world's contribution to
music, both
old and
new. [
Previously mentioned,
here,
here,
here, and
here, with a
wonderful comment from
nickyskye as usual]
posted by hadjiboy
on May 29, 2008 -
28 comments
