MetaFilter posts tagged with commonplace

Lugar Común/Common Place

emilyd22222 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:16:24 -0800

In an effort to explore the hierarchy and commonalities between maids and those who employ them, Justine Graham and Ruby Rumié created a photo exhibit entitled Lugar Común (Common Place) (pdf, text in spanish) of fifty female Latin-American employer-employee dyads. All women wear white shirts and no accessories. They sit in the same poses. There is no explicit indication of who works for whom. (via) It is currently on display at el Museo de Artes Visuales/the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI) in Santiago.

Mad artist in ancient sinister house draws things. What were his models? Glimpse.

Artw — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:10:13 -0800

"Mirage in time—image of long-vanish’d pre-human city." - "Ancient and unknown ruins—strange and immortal bird who SPEAKS in a language horrifying and revelatory to the explorers." - "A very ancient colossus in a very ancient desert. Face gone—no man hath seen it." - Images based on the commonplace book of HP Lovecraft. "As dinosaurs were once surpassed by mammals, so will man-mammal be surpassed by insect or bird—fall of man before the new race." - "The Italians call Fear La figlia della Morte—the daughter of Death." - "Death lights dancing over a salt marsh." - "Daemons, when desiring an human form for evil purposes, take to themselves the bodies of hanged men." (2) - Talking rock of Africa—immemorially ancient oracle in desolate jungle ruins that speaks with a voice out of the aeons". - "Azathoth, hideous name." - "Shapeless living thing forming nucleus of ancient building." - (2, 3) - "Life and Death Death--its desolation and horror--bleak spaces-sea bottom-dead cities. But Life-the greater horror/Vast unheard-of reptiles and levia-thans-hideous beasts of prehistoric jungle-rank slimy vegetation-evil in-stincts of primal man--Life is more horrible than death." - "An sint unquam daemones incubi et succubae, et an ex tali congressu proles nasci queat?" - "A very ancient tomb in the deep woods near where a 17th century Virginia manor-house used to be. The undecayed, bloated thing found within." - "A monstrous derelict—found and boarded by a castaway or shipwreck survivor." - "Monsters born living—burrow underground and multiply, forming race of unsuspected daemons."

Commonplace books

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:00:49 -0800

The paper analogue of the blog is not the diary, but rather the commonplace book. With the availability of relatively cheap paper beginning as early as the 14th century, people began to collect knowledge in commonplace books. Bits of quotes, reference materials, summaries of arguments, all contained in a handy bound volume. This merchant's commonplace, for example, dates from 1312 and contains hand-drawn diagrams of Venetian ships and descriptions of Venice's merchant culture. An English commonplace dating to the 15th century, the Book of Brome, contains poems, notations on memorial law, lists of expenses, and diary entries. John Locke devised a method for keeping a commonplace. Thomas Jefferson kept both legal and literary commonplaces, and owned a copy of Sir John Randolph's legal commonplace, published in 1680.