Archive Page 2
(click on pic for mightier version or go here for mightiest version)
this is incredible.
published in 1884, the diagram above shows the 77 tallest buildings of the old world (europe, asia and africa) at that time. strangely, the 78th and tallest structure shown is from the new world: the washington monument. it stood/stands at 555ft and was completed the year the diagram was made. the tallest of the old world was number 34, cologne cathedral, at 510ft.
the buildings were colour coded depending on the construction materials used…
red tint = brick ; stone colour = stone ; pink = granite ; purple = bronze, copper or lead ; yellow = gold
just as a comparison, here are the current tallest buildings on earth…
Filed under: architecture, construction, history, just brilliant, technology, vintage, wow | 46 Comments
can you spot the library?
if you’ve ever wanted to feel like an ant, head to the library in either cardiff or kansas missouri: rather than using a traditional front to the building, both have decided to turn the premises into giant bookshelves, creating an extremely surreal experience for passers by.
(photos from flickr are linked to the user’s account)
cardiff public library
apparently this is only a temporary feature at cardiff library until the new building is completed. if it was up to me the place would stay like this permanently.
kansas city library
local residents were asked to nominate influential books that represent kansas city, humungous versions of the winning nominations were then used as the exterior of the library car-park.
Filed under: architecture, bizarre, just brilliant, photo, surreal | 159 Comments
5 artists who have somehow produced the smallest art you’ll struggle to see…
1. willard wigan (website)
using a hair plucked from a dead fly as a brush, birmingham willard wigan paints miniscule sculptures he has carved from grains of rice and sugar. each ‘brushstroke’ is applied between heartbeats and he has said that the pulse in one of his fingers can ruin his work.
below is the titanic on a pin.
earlier this year a 70-piece collection he sold was insured by the new owner for £11.2million.
2. jin yin hua (website)
the slim photo above is of a 1/2 inch strand of black human hair. on it has been painted the portraits of 42 u.s. presidents. the top portrait can be seen below – click on it for a larger version which is magnified x 1′000′000.
the artist, jin yin hua from china, has painstakingly created over 100 micro-paintings and carvings during the past 10 years.
3. ee jin teo
to ee jin teo, a piece of micro-art on a grain of rice must seem cumbersome. he decided to go a few steps further and created what he calls ‘quantum art’ by reproducing william blake’s ‘ancient of days’ out of nanocrystals (really really small stuff). ‘this photoluminescent version of Blake’s painting was created in porous silicon by focused helium beam writing and subsequent electrochemical etching in hydrofluoric acid’. by the way, 1µm is 1′000th of a millimetre.
4. mykola syadristy (website)
unbelievably, the tube in which the rose above is contained is actually a hollowed out human hair, also polished inside and out. the diameter of the rose itself is a hefty 0.05mm. below is another piece by the ukrainian. the gold mosquito sculpture is life-size.
5. eduard ghazaryan
85 year old ghazaryan is a micro-sculptor with over 600 pieces to his name, one being the world’s smallest working violin (above). the body of the 7mm violin is sculpted from gold, the fiddle from a hair, and it actually works. when challenged by conductor ohan duryan, eduard responded by playing aram khachaturyan’s ‘dance’ with duryan’s orchestra.
the violin in the piece below, seen in a needle’s eye, is even smaller and carved from a golden powder granule.
Filed under: art, design, interessant, just brilliant, mental, photo, skill, wow | 14 Comments
back of the net
this morning i was sat in a dentist chair in chester, syringe mid-gums, dribble running down my chin, heavy rain lashing against the surgery window, a whole day of work in front of me: basically, at that point i believed that life couldn’t get much better. how very wrong i was.
i just recieved an email from a french chap informing me of a deputydog appreciation society on facebook.
fucking brilliant.
Filed under: drivel | 5 Comments
there’s a relatively easy way to give the audience a chill during a film: slip in a shot of a deserted city centre, a city centre that’s notoriously busy in real-life, the scene preferably culminating in the camera panning out to prove the crew didn’t just manage to clear 10ft of road for 5 seconds.
it’s a guaranteed talking point. look at vanilla sky: the film was bordering on atrocious but the one thing that always gets mentioned (apart from cameron crowe losing his grip) is the ‘how the fuck did they manage to clear times square?’ bit. if i was a director i’d have a deserted city scene in every film, regardless of the movie’s plot.
here are my 5 favourite goosebump inducing ‘empty’ scenes.
5. philadelphia – twelve monkeys, 1995 (imdb)
the opening shot of terry gilliam’s top-notch ‘twelve monkeys’ is superb, bruce willis’ character coming above ground in a post-apocalyptic philadelphia to be faced with a world deserted but for wild animals roaming the streets. gilliam’s crew were given a corner of the city hall to work with, built a lip around the area to hide surrounding traffic and added snow to make it feel ‘more desolate’.
4. los angeles – omega man, 1971 (imdb)
‘omega man’ was the 2nd film based on the novel ‘i am legend’, the 1st being ‘last man on earth’ and the 3rd being ‘i am legend’, to be released in a few weeks. after coming to terms with the fact that a huge set would be too costly the producer realised prior to filming that l.a. was surprisingly quiet early in the day at weekends so all of the deserted city scenes were shot at that time of the week. the scene below even includes a pan-out for added despair and the echoes of ringing payphones.
3. madrid – abre los ojos, 1997 (imdb)
the gran via in madrid was completely closed off to film the scene below, the inspiration for vanilla sky’s big budget version in times square. it may not have the flashing billboards and an a-list star to run down the street like a maniac but the street’s architecture more than makes up for it. this clip is actually the first 10 minutes of the film, the initial 3-4 minutes being the ‘deserted’ section.
2. manhattan – vanilla sky, 2001 (imdb)
this remake of ‘open your eyes’ was largely disappointing, this scene being the best part of it. the crew were given 3 hours to shoot the times square sequence early on a sunday morning and crowe was determined not to use cg to remove any signs of life. the whole process included lenghty discussions with the new york mayor’s office, the new york film commission and the police department. the result is incredible.
1. london – 28 days later, 2002 (imdb)
it took 6 days to shoot the ‘deserted’ sections of this brilliant film on mini-dv cameras, the crew only able to get permission to close off entire streets in london for minutes at a time, and the effort was worth it. for the empty motorway scenes, they even managed to persuade the traffic police to close off a 10 mile stretch of the m1 for a very short period of time. warning: the clip below has been subjected to a shit soundtrack by the youtube user. turn the volume down.
Filed under: big screen, cinema, geek, just brilliant, scary, spooky, trickery, video, wow | 44 Comments
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