I was searching for boarding pass samples for my project when I found this site; http://passfail.squarespace.com/. This is a man who is sick of seeing the bad boarding pass design ( which he doesn’t thinks it’s a design anyway) and he makes alternatifs for that. Which is quite interesting how a boarding pass becomes this beautiful.
As I was doing research about the ideograms I ran in to a writing type called ‘ Asemic Writing’. The esthetic about that writing caught my attention. It’s like scratch writing but somehow it seems beautiful.
“As a creator of asemics, I consider myself an explorer and a global storyteller. “
Satu Kaikkonen( painter of the red one on the right)
The shapes or the alphabet we can say, have no meaning like the alphabet we use. Yet it is also universal. Like the cavepainting on the early ages. They had a meaning for sure but it changed from person to person. Also we could see similar paintings in different places of the world. The asemic writing is the same. It is made usually unconsciously and yet two peoples asemic writing could look similar. It is surprising how brain works.
It has feelings in it like a painting also has shapes looking like letters. As for the meaning, it’s open. I can just stare and enjoy it’s esthetic someother person can look for a meaning and find his/her own meaning. This is also called a modern style of writing since it’s abstract and subjective. “Asemic writing seems to be a gigantic, unexplored territory.”*
The writing focuses on visuality rather than the meaning. From all people from different literacy levels are equal when asemic writing is considered. When we think of it, it can be a protesto to the educational system all over the world. Prostesting that there can be a common ‘language’ which is not semantic but universal for sure since it’s made unconsciously.
Some asemic writings have pictograms or ideograms in them which are symbols that represents some ideas or concepts. As they put in to asemic writings it helps to configure the meaning. Also the writings similarity with arabic calligraphy is interesting. The arabic alphabet is also visually rich.
“Since asemic writing emphasizes the visual, representational quality of language, it creates a unique dialogue between the writer/reader and the world of signs, one that allows for multiple, subjective acts of decoding.”
First thing came to my mind as I was reading about the Rensissance was the huge architectures remained from that time. Sin in Europe especially when you are in a city, doesn’t matter which, you see the remanings from the time especially churches. Then I figured that since Renaissance is a turning point to modernism the architecture today depends on this flow. The modern buildings today we have came to my mind and the one I’ve never forgot.
Burj Al Arab is one of the most beautiful structures i’ve ever seen. It stands on an artificial island out from Jumeirah Beach of Dubai and it has been the symbol of the city for the last decade. The beachfront area where the Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach. The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. The locale’s name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tankers on the site.
Burj Al Arab is the fourt tallest hotel in the world.
Construction of Burj Al Arab began in 1994. It was built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. Two “wings” spread in a V to form a vast “mast”, while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium. The architect Tom Wright said “The client wanted a building that would become an iconic or symbolic statement for Dubai; this is very similar to Sydney with its Opera House, or Paris with the Eiffel Tower. It needed to be a building that would become synonymous with the name of the country.”
It is clear to say that Tom Wright achieved his goal as an architect building such a magnificant, beautiful building and creating a symbol for such a thriving city, Dubai.
The mystical and alien stuff really catches my attention. I remembered the legendary crystal skulls that were found; not knowing who made or brought them, so I decided to know more about that.
Common idea is that these skulls have mystical powers; some say it has healing power some say it makes you see the future. There are videos people swearing that it had affected them anyhow. These heads were found in varity of places different times. (Mexico, Central America and South America) It’s said said pre-Columbian Mesoamerican’s have made it but it is not scientifically proved that it is true. It has a mystery since these skulls don’t have any clue about who made them; actually there’s no sign that anybody made them. They are perfect in that sense; no sign of a hand work is seen andthat’s why it is extraordinary.
One of the skulls; the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull has been said the most uniqe one. It is almost identical of a human skull with a removable jawbone. The others are skulls are more artistic kind of made which are representing a human skull unlike Mitchell-Hedges which is very similar to reality. And it’s said that many people all around the world tried to make a skull similar to this one but couldn’t accomplish since it’s literally speaking; flawless.
Since nowadays everything is commercialized the crystal skulls have a vodka named and shped after them. The idea is very clever for my opinion; it is visually attractive..
As a consequence of having some friends who are in close touch with architecture, i’ve learned a lot about different architecture styles and the forthcoming architects of the last few centuries. Last year, when i was packing up my stuff to fly to New York, he informed me about a gorgeous building, which has been used as a museum for over 50 years. The building is called “Guggenheim Museum” and the architecture of this building is worth seeing. The building was created by the famous architect of the time’ Lloyd Wright. Guggenheim Museum is Wright’s last work and it’s the most sophisticated one of all. With its curved walls, it lays on the 5th Avenue like a law-breaking citizen as all the other buildings raise towards the sky consistently.
Frank Lloyd Wright was not a big fan of abstract art. One day, when he was shown a masterpiece of Guggenheim, he couldn’t resist asking “What do you call this stuff?”. But when he first started to build up his own masterpiece, Guggenheim Museum, even the most important artists argued about the shape of the building, saying that their beautiful works could not hang on such curved walls. Some people called him Frank Lloyd “Wrong” for his work. Against all odds, Wright built his museum and from the first opening day of the building, it has been one of the most beautiful buildings to have been built ever.
On the previous weekend I went to London spontaneously. There, besides having so much fun I had time to got the the design museum. There was 2 floors in the museum in one there was products of famous British industrial designer Kenneth Grange’s designs and in the other floor there was products of many designers in retrospect. Kenneth Grange which I haven’t heard before is mainly the first designer of Kodak, Kenwood and many cultural significant aspects of London such as the red phone booths, the taxis and the bus stops.
For me the designs that he made for B&W speakers were the best. I always thought that company’s started to make designs for speakers very lately but I sat that Kenneth did many minimalistic designs for his company which they can still be seen as modern designs. Here below are some photos I took from the museum.
B&W
As I was surfing through design pages a saw works of artists called Elmgreen and Dragset. Which immediatly reminded me of Marcel Duchamp’s works of art. Elmgreen and Dragset are two people who are working duo in Berlin and have interesting pieces of art which can be called as contemporary art. Below left is the work of Marcel Duchamp ( the fountain) and the right is the work of Elmgreen and Dragset.
Both work of art has the same element but presented differently. Even though Marcel Duchamp’s work is made in 1917, around 100 years before, the same subject is used as art today. At Duchamp’s time the usage of ready-made object was criticized and rejected by many of art critics and when we look at the same subject today; it is still the same.
The one above is again a work of Elmgreen and Dragset. I like the work because the idea of sleeping face to face is given with a humorous way. The artists are known for their humorous approach to art where we can see that in this particular art work.
After looking through their works I wanted to know more about their personal life as artists and read an interview and here is a humorous part of it which can be also food for thought.
Interviewer: Are there other artists whose work intrigues you guys enough that you want to adopt it as your own?
Michael Elmgreen: The problem with that question is that we don’t consider ourselves as artists. We fell into this by chance. Someone once told us that it was a very profitable profession, that you could travel and meet a lot of boys
without even working so hard. But this is all false. There’s far too much
work. We don’t really mind it, however. In fact, we can’t imagine any other option. There is, at least, a certain amount of respect. This is one
profession in which we can be a little bit stupid, and people will say, ‘Oh,
you are so stupid; thank you, thank you for being so stupid.’
üstü kalsın (hayırkuruluşu)
fondip (gece kulubü/bar)
vırvır (cafe)
dımtıs (gece kulubü/bar)
baca (hayır kuruluşu kömür karşıtı)
tırtıl (restoran/cafe)
merdiven (mağaza)
çöp (2. el kıyafetçi)
katakulle (restoran/cafe)
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson which is more known as Lewis Carroll is the author of the novel Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland. This book he wrote became the main inspiration of the Disney based movie and cartoon series main inspiration. The interesting thing that caught my attention was the relationship between Dodgson and ‘real’ Alice who was his neighbor.
He met Alice when she was around 6 and wanted to take photos of her since he was also photographer. Because he takes photos of her and her sisters naked or ‘erotic’, Dodgson still been accused by being paedophilia. Above left is an example of a photo he took which is a naked child. Alice’s parents forbid Alice to see Dodgson but they still meet up when her parents were outside of country. Also another significant detail is that the letters Lewis wrote were found but what he wrote about Alice were lost. Some sources say that he burnt them which creates a suspicion. For him being a grown man and having child-friends is also a bit weird.
