meet me by the fountain (12. 352)

First spotted by Nag on the Lake, we really enjoyed this expanded preview of a documentary about a group of eight people who built a secret apartment inside a mall in Providence, Rhode Island and were residents there for nearly four years from 99% Invisible after having watched the colossal structure slowly come together—with cautious optimism that this development might revitalise the state capital’s downtown but encountered increasing horror as construction began to swallow up everything around it, including the home of the plan’s future leader. They found a neglected entryway that led to a hidden cavity within the building and slowly, at first as an art project, began smuggling in furniture and materials to convert the space and felt vindicated for using this empty and forgotten room just as the developers had left no inch unclaimed as Providence Place was coming together. The remainder of the episode is devoted to an equally fascinating discussion on the origin of the mall, with Victor Gruen (previously here and here) wanting to recreate the community feeling of Vienna’s Altstadt for American suburbia and keep shoppers engaged and captive, a surrogate downtown with all the amenities, ample parking and perfect weather, the rise and decline and near demise of the consumer institution and pastime, its causes and while it’s not quite dead.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Imperial Airways (with synchronoptica) plus more on leap-seconds

seven years ago: artist Květa Pacovská   

eight years ago: reusable booster rockets plus the vice president requires a chaperone

nine years ago: a collection of Ouija boards plus vanishing languages reincarnated as music  

ten years ago: medieval machines of war plus ancient automata

as american as apple pie and school-shootings (12. 351)

Via JWZ, whilst trying to further belittle and harass transgender individuals, through an emergency measure the governor of the American state of Idaho (see also), ahead of planned Pride celebrations later this summer, signed into law that would classify as misdemeanour indecent exposure any display of female breasts or likeness thereof (breastfeeding mothers exempted but with no further guarantees of privacy and no protections for animals nursing heroes or demigods), extending to toys or other paraphernalia resembling genitalia (as carefully worded as a commandment from the Duniverse against think machines and the consequences)—opposition leader from the Democratic party successfully attaching a rider to extend the ban to replica scrota hanging from trailer hitches and tailgates—“they call them ‘truck nuts.’ They are gross and offensive (agreed—though one would have thought such accessories would have ossified by now like Confederal flags and Cybertrucks) and kids on the highway see them.” America is a profoundly dumb and unserious nation, at the same time clawing in international industry but applying the same sweeping discriminatory measures) and we’d like to have not truck with these internal, performative squabbles and are best ignored until they come to a head, but sometimes stupidity is best fought with stupidity and any win counts.

confessions of a young exile (12. 350)

Via friend of the blog sans pareil, Nag on the Lake, we are directed to the reissue of the classic guide to fleeing America by Mark Ivor Satin, neopacifist and radical centrist and expatriate himself, displaced from university in Texas in the late sixties for refusing to take a loyalty oath to the constitution and escaping to Toronto to avoid conscription in the Vietnam War and founding a post-immigration assistance programme for other US refugees, eventually publishing a manual with practical advice on immigration, an underground bestseller with over one hundred thousand copies distributed during the first printing in 1968. Back in circulation since 2017 during Trump’s first term, the guide is garnering greater readership as relations strain and students, educators and scientists (who cannot learn, teach or research in this environment) are pledging to move to Canadian institutions and there are many parallels with the original impetus of the author and current times, though Canada—and other US allies—was never before the target of conquest and punishment, and instead of draft-dodging as a response to vindictive and destructive US policy, it’s a brain-drain and boycotts (regardless of the outcome of capricious tariffs one could give up US-produced goods, streaming services, fast food, apps ecosystems—and make ones own—and branding point-of-sales systems, you’ll survive) or the account of enslaved individual who made it to Canada in 1853 on the Underground Railroad that prefaces and contrasts the original foreword. The stakes are high for the American Project, and there’s much more ponder at the from LitHub at the link above.

catbus and content policy (12. 349)

Though circulating for less than a week, the relatively low benchmark which has been picked up by several prominent posters, OpenAI’s latest chat-to-image feature can faithfully filter pictures in the style of Studio Ghibli. While again encroaching on a signature look without credit or attribution is hardly anything new, mainstreaming a disregard for infringement on intellectual property does seem to be an inflection point not to be celebrated—especially as it comes on the cusp of a US court decision, reversing earlier judgments, that AI works of art can be copyrighted as long as a human prompter is involved, a seemingly backchannel approach as derivative works would instantly overwhelm and bury their original corpus. Far from thrilled to see their creative process automated, the studio’s co-founder filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki responded that he was utterly disgusted with these developments that can in virtually instantaneously animate the results, something that illustrators and colourists take weeks and months to achieve. This news comes at the same time an AI voice generator, with thirty-six years of dialogue of Homer or Moe Szylak, could effective replace the actors behind The Simpsons franchise.

charted territory (12. 348)

First issued in 2022, Kottke extols the redesign of the coveted Swiss passport from Geneva based studio RETINAA which excels at the intersection of aesthetics and enhanced security features, an homage to the sleek and simple branding of the country, travelling through each of the twenty-six cantons like driving atlas on his pages for entry- and exit-stamps, visas and other endorsements. Authentication measures (see also) that burst out under ultraviolet inspection reveal the cartographic traditions of the alpine ranges, valleys and passes, resulting in an identity document that the holder can be proud of and cherish through its expiry date, for which there is no reason, like classic diplomas and commendations, should not be the case with all official documents.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Neuseenland (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the magazine Children’s Land,  a trip to a local shrine plus No Mates Nigel

eight years ago: the collected landscapes of Bob Ross,  new cloud designations plus German contractors bid to build Trump’s border wall

nine years ago: German flea-markets and other scavenger hunts, the referendum on Scottish independence plus the LGBTQ+ corner of the US congressional cemetery

ten years ago: the last crusades, the etymology of tidings plus assorted links worth revisiting

strangers with candy (12. 347)

Born on this day in 1961 in Endicott, New York, writer, comedian, actor and sister of author and humorist David Sedaris, Amy Louise Sedaris. Disposed to making pranks and working as a waitress in a comedy club in Chicago, Sedaris toured with Second City’s company by the late 1980s, eventually moving to New York and joined with fellow member Stephen Colbert a fledgling cable television venture, Comedy Central, as a sketch artist, eventually given her own series, portraying a middle-aged woman, Jerri Blank who goes back to high school, based on her impression of 1970s era motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, a cautionary cult figure who lectured to students about her lurid past warning them about sex and drugs and falling under the influence of radical charismatics—a sort of scared straight scenario. More active than even, Sedaris has multiple roles, titles and accolades to her name.

la a note to follow doge (12. 346)

Releasing yet another executive order aimed at whitewashing the country’s past, Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” is aimed at museums and other cultural institutions to remedy what MAGA regards a concerted effort by the radical left of revisionism geared to deepen societal divides and promote national shame. The Smithsonian has been politicised and weaponised, ordered to halt exhibits and articles featuring “race-centred ideology,” calling examination of marginalisation effectively anti-American, with vice president Vance deputised with the power to review all publications, projects and presentations to ensure compliance. One wonders when Americans might have their fill of liberty—it seems like a line has already been crossed yet new horrors come. The order also implies that like with earlier dictates that there are only two genders, that race is a biological reality, rather than a social construct playing into the pseudoscience that justifies eugenics and segregation and directs the administration’s secretary of the interior to begin reinstalling and rededicating Confederate and racist statues and monuments toppled or taken down in the course of the Black Lives Matter movement. Attempts to erase the past follow the wholesale assault on present postures diversity, inclusion, equity and access is a regression of decades of struggle against hate and oppression but unlikely to determine the future shape of society.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a biblical epic (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: an earlier Trump portrait plus GDPR compliance

eight years ago: the basement level kiosks of Bulgaria, more long German words plus mapping facial measurements

nine years ago: more state flags that could use an update,  the Sir Vival auto plus garlic dreams

ten years ago: telepathic technology plus redefining the kilogramme

put down artist (12. 345)

There’s a Chinese expression in romanji that’s curiously enunciated, masticated as its acronym, spelt out P-U-A for pick up artist which entered common-parlance a few years ago but still very much circulating and having acquired more nuance synonymic with the concept of gaslighting, manipulative but perhaps not on the same level of flattery, though with same ends, and maybe more akin to the retired, superannuated phrase being owned or pwn’d (pronounced poned). The prescribed antidote is to not have ambitions party to seduction. More on leetspeak and linguistic disabusement with a sample in context from Language Log at the link above.