VERY SHORT LIST Spin city |
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 PHOTO PROJECT |
Their Circular Life is a beautifully designed, Flash-based photo-and-audio project that records 24-hour stretches in the life of five Italian locations.
Use the site’s onscreen speed dial to whisk through the buzz of activity at Modena’s railway station, or to check out the traffic at one of its crazier intersections. Enjoy the sound of water lapping the shore of Lago Santo, and watch an Italian park transform from daytime playground to twilight teen scene. And for those of us who won’t be making that European vacation this year, Their Circular Life presents a daylong look at Venice. Bravo!
Their Circular Life
the VeryShortList.com archiveVSL:SCIENCE Never mind the Pollocks |
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 STUDY |
Ten years ago, a physicist and painter named Richard Taylor made a splash by claiming that Jackson Pollock’s “splatter paintings” contained fractals — irregular patterns repeated at multiple scales — that were so distinctive, they could be used to tell genuine Pollocks from fakes. Now it appears that Taylor was wrong.
To test Taylor’s theory, Case Western physicist Katherine Jones-Smith commissioned Pittsburgh-area painters to paint two Pollock-style drip paintings. She then searched both those paintings and three undisputed Pollock canvases for fractals. While both of the commissioned paintings contained fractals, only one of the Pollocks did. Though “well-motivated,” says Jones-Smith, Taylor’s work “doesn’t stand up under scrutiny.” And we thought the art world was rough.
the Pollock fractals
the VeryShortList.com archiveVSL:WEB Line drawing |
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 GAME |
Programmer-artist Josh Nimoy calls his newest invention, BallDroppings, “a musical playtoy.” We say it’s mesmerizing.
The JavaScript-based app lets you create Pong-style paddles, which deflect the tiny balls that fall from the edges of your screen. You’ll hear a ping each time a ball bounces off a line you’ve made, and if you keep enough balls in play, those pings will turn into a silly symphony. (Hint: Adjust the GRAVITY setting for an extra-trippy effect.)
BallDroppings
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