I always meant to do a post on the Institute of Figuring when I first came across it a few years ago, but now you can just watch Margaret Wertheim herself explaining the beautiful maths of coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry in this great talk at TED.
art
Plastic Surgery
My daughter Anna’s new photographic work, Plastic Surgery, is on at the Canberra Contemporary Arts Space in Manuka until Sunday. The images are photographs of the human body form manipulated in different ways in graffiti art and fashion design in the urban environment. They are printed large on aluminium foil which gives them an industrial brash feel.
Anna also has a new website, Anna Madeleine, where you can catch up with some of her stop motion videos and other photography. The cool images drawn and printed on maps from her previous exhibition, Unchartered, are there too.
Cine-Theatre Girondin
I snapped this beautifully decorated facade of Cine-Theatre Girondin from the tram in Bordeaux. You can see it in more detail if you click on the largest size at Flickr.
iPhone art
Some of the things you can do on the iPhone just seem like magic to me. This image is drawn on the iPhone screen with my finger, using the Brushes app. It’s taking me a while to get some finesse, but the Brushes Gallery pool at Flickr is ample proof that it is possible.
(btw, Ocarina has been the most jaw-droppingly magic app for me so far.)
Place Igor Stravinski
Here are some photos of the playful fountains just to the south of the Centre Pompidou, in Place Igor Stravinski. Most of them move, for instance the big lips make a slow mechanical nod, and others turn while spouting water. They were created by Niki de St-Phalle and Jean Tinguely. The graffiti snake was high up on one of the walls surrounding the square; I like that it reflects the snake in the fountain.
When I was there, aside from the coffee drinkers, lots of people were sketching, a bunch of boys were playing football, and some other kids were playing an elastics game.
Jean Dubuffet
I’m seeing and liking quite a lot of artwork by Jean Dubuffet here in Paris. This kind of cave of his, called Le Jardin d’hiver, took my fancy, and I spent a while in it. It’s lumpy and bumpy and the lines don’t always go where you might expect them too. The little girl in the photo was really enjoying it.
The bride
This was the most intriguing sculpture I saw in the Centre Pompidou the other day, La mariee, by Niki de Saint Phalle.
Rhinos
Two very different rhinos! The shiny red one is by Xavier Veilhan, and is presently in the Centre Pompidou. The other is outside the Musee d’Orsay.
Testing iphone blogging
Testing the wordpress app on my iphone – this is an amazingly cool and beautiful thing!
