studies in indirect communication vol. xix: deleted expletive

I dreamed that I was colouring in the inside of the basin of my toilet, to just below the water level, with a black permanent marker. Could spend quite some time deleting things that i'd rather weren't there, or hadn't been said. Although probably not my toilet. These fluoro-bangs have a funny coating on them though, that makes my pens run out almost immediately.

words on types of words

 

Click to see bigger.

studies in indirect communication vol. xviii: flee

seafaring & crockery

 Interior view from a peepshow, 18th century.

 

 Frigate in ivory, gold and iron, Jacob Zeller, 1620.

Porcelain plate, 1880, anon. Rebus riddle saying 'Quand on veut commander on doit savoir obeir', or 'If you want to be able to give orders, you must first be able to obey.'

  

Delft tile with depiction of a peepshow, 1880, anon.

Images capturing something of the spirit of the things that are rushing through my head at the moment… Peepshows / turbulent waters / full sail, sails furling / wind capturing apparatus / historical warships / old men of the sea / feasts on boats - looking out to sea / delft blue.

a new label deserves a new post

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dark chamber

 Camera obscura, c. 1769, anonymous etching

I'm thinking back to those ten missing days. I want to make project about it. It may start here. Enough said.

four things

It seems I need to remain focussed.

I'm all over the place at the moment. Too much paid work and not enough quality thinking time.

Thought I should make things a bit easier by setting some parameters.

Four things I want to work on in the immediate future (in order of priority):

• A submission for the launch of the UoP Message website and book 

• Ten missing days project

• Shadows

• Boats, maritime things, naval history, pirates, crockery

There are no pictures on this post. This is to scare me into activity. Best get on then.

studies in indirect communication vol. xvii: deleted exclamations

selects

I love the Cooper Hewitt Selects series. The Shadow puppet image above is from the current exhibition in the series, selected by Ideo. See also Hella Jongerius (selecting samplers) and Yinka Shonibare (selecting objects relating to travel). I saw the latter back in 2005 just the day before I was told my proposal for a project at the British Library had been accepted. The exhibition totally fired me up.

a description of absence vol. i

hair tents

 

  

Thinking about 'hair tents' after reading The Power of Hair in the Victorian Imagination by E.G. Gitter.

To download a pdf version of the article click here.

Hair tents: warm and nest like, dark, sheltering, a protective retreat.  
When 'your girl, lying on top of you, lets her long hair down around your head' (William Tindall).  
For Dante Gabriel Rossetti they provided a 'visionary moment of perfect dark silence' (EG Gitter).
Robert Browning writes about them in Pauline as a place to nurture creativity:

Pauline, mine own, bend o'er me - thy soft breast
Shall pant to mine - bend o'er me - thy sweet eyes,
And loosened hair and breathing lips, and arms
Drawing me to thee - these build up a screen
To shut me in with thee, and from all fear;
So that I may unlock the sleepless brood
Of fancies from my soul, their lurking places.
(lines 1-7)

Links abound between hair, gold, webs, weaving, story-telling and story-reading, with a ladies tresses seen as beautiful and pure, haunting and alluring, duplicitous and deadly. Some things I thought worth making note of for future projects:

Saint Agnes

There are various stories about the martyrdom of Saint Agnes. The following is just one variation.
 
Sempronius, a Roman prefect, is angry at Saint Agnes for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods and to marry his son. He orders her to be stripped naked and weighed down with chains and exposed to his soldiers. But as her clothes are torn off her, she prays to God and inexplicably her hair grows and grows to form a dense cloak around her that cannot be penetrated.

The myth of Philomela

Philomela has her tongue cut out after being raped by her sister's husband, Tereus of Thrace, when she threatens to speak out about the attack. She weaves a fine cloak/tapastry that tells her story and sends it to her sister Procne. The story culminates with her and her sister being turned into birds by the Olympic Gods. One variation of the story states that Philomela is turned into a swallow that has no song and Procne into a nightingale that sings a sad and lonely song by night. More here.