October 1, 2007 at 11:52 pm · Filed under Art, On the Web, Visual Design
I came across Mark Luthringer’s project Ridgemont Typologies several weeks ago and put a note out to Mark hoping he’d allow me to post a few images along with a link back to his site. Mark obliged, but the post never saw daylight.
Fast forward to today. While running through some email from that time period I came across Mark’s response and wanted to post an excerpt from his artist statement (as opposed to trying to embellish upon or pull from it) and provide a link to his work:
The typological array’s inherent ability to depict prevalence and repetition make it the perfect technique for examining the excess, redundancy, and meaningless freedom of our current age of consumption. Part of my intent with this work is to answer the question implied by the title of Robert Adams’s book What We Bought: If there is some kind of big sellout occuring, what are we getting in the deal?
The typological form achieves an uncanny synergy and resonance with this subject matter because it mimics the mental images I suspect many of us form as a way of ordering the chaos of abundance that surrounds us. We can’t help but form in our heads lists, groups and categories based on product, brand, price point, style, market segment, country of origin, etc.
To see one of these turned into a group of images lined up together can be unnerving, though. In print, they confront us in a way never possible when they’re just in our heads. We are presented with order, and while it is often an absurd, seemingly pointless order, it is one that we recognize immediately.
I’m glad I came across that email. View the work: Mark Luthringer - Ridgemont Typologies
Tags: Art, On the Web, Photography, Visual DesignShare This
August 25, 2007 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Events
Flugtag’s first U.S. night flight in Austin! The Flick’r set below includes pictures of team crafts and the setup at Auditorium Shores. I’ll be posting more pictures throughout the day and night! If you’re coming to the event and need more information, visit the Red Bull Flugtag USA web site!
These Flugtag pictures are a few of a larger Flick’r set of Flugtag Texas 2007 pictures.
Tags: Events, Flugtag, Online Marketing, Photography, Photos, Red Bull, Terralever, UncategorizedShare This
March 24, 2007 at 12:29 pm · Filed under On the Web, Visual Design
The Library of Congress’ American Memory site is has multiple collections of historic American maps, photographs, audio, video and documents. It takes some time wading through the collections, but if you’re into nostalgia or specific American artists, inventors, and visionaries, you’ll likely find something of interest. A good amount of the print (photographs, posters and maps) can be ordered as reproductions at, what it seems, just the cost of the materials.
Baseball Cards 1887-1914
I’m not an avid baseball fan, but I still find this to be one of the most interesting collections that I viewed at the American Memory site. The card designs themselves are of interest to me. For actual baseball fans, the historic cards from the likes of Ty Cobb and Cy Young will likely be of more interest.
Reproductions of the cards can be ordered from the Library of Congress’ Photo duplication service or from authorized third party vendors.
America from the Great Depression to World War II
Photographs from the FSA-OWI 1935-1945
This collection has both color and black-and-white digitized negatives-over 160,000 that can be browsed online. They are all a result of the FSA photographers shooting throughout the United States during the Great Depression.
Almost all of this work is in the public domain, and almost all of the images can be ordered as prints from the Prints and Photographs Division (as with the baseball cards above). When you order prints, you can specify the size of the image as well as the quality of the photographic paper. Photographers of note include Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee.
Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz
Although it is comprised of photographs, this collection isn’t from the Prints and Photographs Division-it’s from the Music Division. The collection contains over 1600 photographs taken by photographer William P. Gottlieb between 1938 and 1948.
Notable musicians you can find images of include Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and more.
There is also an option on the site called “In His Own Words: Photos and Commentary by William Gottlieb” where audio commentary by Gottlieb is paired up with imagery from the collection.
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There’s a lot more on the site beyond these few collections, including a variety of maps, and blueprints from the Wright brothers.
Tags: American History, FSA, Library of Congress, On the Web, Photography, Public Domain, Visual DesignShare This
