Links on Art and Design: A digest of short items from Twitter and other sources

Some interesting links and short items on Art and Design from The New Modern twitter stream and other sources.

Architecture

Design

  • Hollywood’s computers: NPR looks at the computer screens shown in films that tell a story in a flash of computer animation. [read/listen]
  • A blog entirely dedicated to the beauty of ampersands [view] via @swissmiss
  • Beautiful, historic, and/or interesting letterheads enshrined Letterheady [view] via @walterolson
  • Why did the modernists love sans serif typefaces? [read] via @thinkaboutart & @ColinPeters

Visual Art

  • How art affects the brain, a study/exhibition at the Walters Museum [read] via @davetroy
  • Niagara Falls… to American art what portraits of kings are to European art? [read]
  • A typically lovely illustration by the legendary Arthur Rackham [view] via @ThinkAboutArt & @EricOrchard

A sparkling blue “alien” in our own seas

Vivid blue creatures with sparkling bioluminescence… not just the province of expensive special effects in sci-fi movies. Here in earth’s own oceans you can find the lovely Corynactis viridis:

You can read more about this intriguing little organism (and see other beautiful videos of sea creatures) at the blog of Morphologic Studios – a “scientific art endeavor.”

[via @Vimeo]

How a carefully disguised corpse helped win World War II

Operation Mincemeat
A Heroic Corpse

On April 30, 1943, the body of Glyndwr Michael, disguised as Major William Martin of the Royal Marines, was dropped into the sea off Huelva on the Spanish coast. In his briefcase were letters, meticulously faked by British intelligence officers to give the impression that the Allies intended to attack Greece, and not Sicily.

So begins the remarkable story of “Operation Mincemeat” – an amazingly complicated and surprisingly successful operation by MI5. After finding a suitable”volunteer” from the among the vagrants’ corpses in a London morgue, operatives created a detailed back story and a convincing set of personal effects and letters.  A submarine deposited “Major Martin” a mile from shore with his attache case.  Many twists and turns followed, even after the Germans took the bait.  Here’s a thorough-seeming Wikipedia page on the operation.

The operation is detailed in a new book by Ben Macintyre which will be released in the U.S. in May 2010.  The Times [UK] has been publishing lengthy and fascinating excerpts [part I; part II].

Civil War ghosts haunt Sally Mann’s photography

This segment from a documentary film about photographer Sally Mann focuses on her use of 19th Century technology to capture haunting images of Civil War battlefields.  Appropriately spooky.

But Mann’s comments about photographic technique inspire greater respect for Matthew Brady and other period practitioners… they struggled mightily to avoid the “imperfections” Mann regard as stylish postmodern flourishes.

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[Via @GreatDismal and @Charlie_Athanas]

Sally Mann What Remains Documentary

This video clip is from What Remains – a 2005 documentary about Sally Mann’s work and family.  Her book of photographs of the same title is available from Amazon.