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opera realizzata per il tema della settimana #12 del GSFP: Intersection.
Fino a qualche ora fa ero completamente all'oscuro di quella che sarebbe stata la mia fotografia per il tema di questa settimana. Questi giorni sono stati così pieni di sperimentazioni analogiche, di università e di Dan Margulis, che stasera mi sono ritrovato stanco e senza la voglia di creare dopo aver imparato tanto a livello tecnico: l'errore più comune!!
Quando provo attrezzatura nuova, o imparo tonnellate di roba poi finisco sempre per creare ciofeche...l'arte ha origine nell'inconscio, in un angolo remoto di noi che va al di là di ogni conoscenza teorica (certo aiutano, ma devono essere così ben assimilate da venire usate completamente in automatico, senza pensarci).
Così ho spento la luce e mi sono abbandonato all'ultimo cd di Yann Tiersen - Dust Lane... da consigliare vivamente a tutti!!
...è un puro viaggio nella spiritualità, nell'inconscio, nelle sensazioni pure, nella gioia più irrazionale e selvaggia..nei SOGNI...e questa foto rappresenta proprio questo stato d'animo, cioè l'intersezione tra mille pensieri diversi, tra mille sogni, ossessioni, prospettive, tra mille idee e progetti...un delirio accecante ma pieno di positività!
copyright, 2012, Ferran Cubedo.
SALE OF PRINTED ARTS > : society6.com/ferrancubedo/Perception-Nature_Framed-Print#...
Sun, sand, Seagull and Seagill all together make for more of the same. The waves roll out to sea and return back to the shore that they left from, but everything has changed and changed and changed again each tide each new sea on each new shore and so the cycle seems set to run for evermore. In amongst the rolling waves are both life and death each arriving and departing all along the coast that is the fertile belt stretched and wrapped all around the land.
© PHH Sykes 2022
phhsykes@gmail.com
copyright, 2012, Ferran Cubedo.
SALE OF PRINTED ARTS > : society6.com/ferrancubedo/Perception-Nature_Framed-Print#...
copyright, 2012, Ferran Cubedo.
SALE OF PRINTED ARTS > : society6.com/ferrancubedo/Perception-Nature_Framed-Print#...
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
VersuS: love vs turin, visualizing the realtime lives of cities
www.artisopensource.net/2011/10/16/versus-rome-october-15...
How do people express their emotions on social networks?
Information has become ubiquitously accessible, thus transforming our perception of cities and of the ways we work, learn, communicate and relate to other people.
VersuS analyzes the digital lives of cities to suggest a scenario in which digital and analog realities interweave and become one.
By performing realtime content harvesting on social networks we are able to perform natural language analyses on the conversations running between users, to peek into their emotions, wishes, expectations and desires.
We can make this information available and accessible using information visualizations, mobile applications and generative design artifacts, thus creating the tools which enable the creation of a new form of public space which merges the digital and analog lives of people, transforming them into active agents in a new idea of citizenship, enabling novel forms of expression and representation.
In "love VS turin", we focus on an emotional approach, visualizing the expressions of love and passion of the citizens of the city of Turin, in a realtime collective conversation.
The visualization is put side by side with 3D objects produced using various digital fabrication techniques, and which represent a tangible representation of the emotional condition of the whole territory of the city of Turin.
"Love" can be replaced with other emotions, thus enabling scenarios of focal importance for ecology, public administrations, security, economy and the overall possibility to evaluate the wellness of the people on a certain territory.
VersuS is designed as an evocative tool for people, institutions and organizations, fostering the creation of new, positive, imaginaries for the future of our lives and our relation with the planet and with our fellow human beings.
VersuS is a concept by Art is Open Source and FakePress Publishing, and it is part of the ConnectiCity initiative.
It has been created together with the Fablab Italia and with the Piemonte Share Festival, in a transdisciplinary process in which arts and sciences collaborate to the creation of innovative, breakthrough, scenarios.
VersuS will be officially presented at the 2011 edition of the Piemonte Share Festival together with the Fablab Italia.
Check these websites for more information:
Star Trek- The Menagerie , “Return to Talos IV”
youtu.be/v5XBfgPy43A?t=2s The full feature.
The Menagerie Review: February 8, 2014 by neoethereal
As the only two-part episode in The Original Series, “The Menagerie” also cleverly serves as a re-telling of the very first Star Trek story ever filmed, “The Cage.” This week on The Uncommon Geek, I examine all of these episodes in full detail, highlighting their connections to other aspects of the Trek mythos. As well, I take a look at the ground broken by Gene Roddenberry concerning the nature of reality, decades before movies like “The Matrix” challenged the perception of our everyday world.
Equipped with little more than a shoestring budget and massive constraints on time with which to work, Gene Roddenberry and his Star Trek production team had to get extremely creative in order to make the show work. Nowhere, in my opinion, is that more evident than here in “The Menagerie,” an entry that served the purpose of buying the production team time to properly finish subsequent episodes, and as well, afforded Gene Roddenberry a unique opportunity to re-tell the story he had wanted to get on the air all along, “The Cage.”
This episode begins with the Enterprise having been called out of its way, to Starbase 11. Confusion arises when the starbase’s commanding officer, Commodore Mendez, reveals to Captain Kirk that the base never sent any message to the Enterprise. Spock claims to have received that message, which puts Kirk into the difficult position of whether to trust the starbase computers, or the word of his first officer and friend.
It turns out that Captain Christopher Pike, the former commander of the Enterprise, who was recently crippled and disfigured in a terrible accident, is on Starbase 11, and suspicion arises that perhaps he relayed a message to Spock. When Kirk finally gets to see Pike, however, he realizes that it would have been impossible for Spock’s former commanding officer to have done this, for Pike is now wheelchair bound, and his communication with others is limited to electronic beeps that fill in for “yes” and “no.
While Kirk and Mendez wrestle over the truth, Spock executes a daring and clever plan to hijack the Enterprise, taking Captain Pike with him. It goes to show just how dangerous an opponent someone as smart and calculating as Spock can be when he puts his mind to it. Spock sets the Enterprise on a locked course for Talos IV, a planet which the ship visited on a past mission under Christopher Pike, and a planet that invites the death penalty upon any Starfleet officer who goes there
The secret file on Talos IV, and the article of General Order 7
I personally find the idea of a death penalty being associated with Talos IV to be somewhat dubious; although there is a very good reason why Starfleet wants the existence of the Talosians kept secret, I find it hard to believe that if the Federation is capable of having a death penalty, that it only applies to one law. It may just be a grand bluff, and indeed, there is some evidence to that effect later in the episode. Regardless, breaking General Order 7 is a serious offense, and Spock is if nothing else, putting his career and livelihood on the line.
Kirk, of course, isn’t going to sit by while his ship is abducted. He and Mendez make a daring attempt to chase the Enterprise in the Shuttlecraft Picasso, knowing full well that while they would never catch up, they would appear on the Enterprise sensors. Kirk gambles his life on the fact that his friend Spock would not leave him to die in the void of space, as the shuttle runs out of fuel. Kirk’s illogical gambit causes Spock’s plan to unravel, and he surrenders himself to custody, pleading guilty to every charge leveled against him. However, Spock has locked the Enterprise into a course for Talos IV that cannot be broken, which will potentially extend the death sentence that is on himself, to Kirk as well.
The court martial that proceeds against Spock is highly unusual; as mentioned, Spock pleads guilty without defense, but through some legal technicality, manages to arrange for the court to hear out his evidence as to why he went through with his illegal actions. Given that Kirk is presiding over the hearing, and that the crew has little else to do but wait until they reach Talos IV, I get the lenience, but I am not sure what real court would remain in session to examine evidence for someone who just admitted their guilt. Or admittedly, maybe I just don’t know enough about legal proceedings.
Spock’s evidence, as it turns out, is a transmission from Talos IV, beamed directly to the Enterprise, which details the vessel’s first trip there under the command of Captain Pike. Of course, this transmission is the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” and from this point on, “The Menagerie” consists almost entirely of footage from that episode.
Aside from some really goofy tech dialogue, and incomplete characterizations, “The Cage” holds up surprisingly well. We get to see that Jeffrey Hunter’s Captain Pike is a darker, colder man than James Kirk; he is someone whose decisions and responsibilities as a commander are weighing on him heavily, and he is nearing the point of considering resignation. Pike’s first officer is only referred to as Number One (played by Majel Barrett), who is an amazing example of a strong female role for 1960’s television, but unfortunately her character had to be discarded by Roddenberry when the studio forced him to choose between keeping his strong, logical female, or his alien Spock. Roddenberry ended up giving Spock Number One’s cold, emotionless, logical persona, and thus the Spock we know and love was born.
It really is a shame that NBC put so much pressure on Roddenberry to alter his concept of women in the 23rd Century; aside from Number One, the other female crew members of the Cage-era Enterprise also seem to be on equal footing with the men, and there isn’t a mini-skirt in sight. Of course, this reviewer by no means, from an aesthetic point view, objects to how the women of the Enterprise look in said mini-skirts, but cheekiness and my own red-blooded male impulses aside, the female officers in Starfleet should have been offered the same, more professional uniform as the males. Unfortunately we would have to wait until The Motion Picture to see more fairness in the way men and women are presented in Star Trek.
When Enterprise finds evidence of human survivors on Talos IV, from a doomed expedition many years ago, Pike, Spock, and an away team beam down to investigate. What at first seems like a wonderful discovery of lost, homesick men, turns out to be just an elaborate, life like illusion created by the Talosians. Pike is abducted when he is lured in by the only true human survivor from the crash, Vina, whom he is extremely attracted to.
Pike is subjected to a variety of illusions crafted by the Talosians, in order to foster cooperation, as well as to strengthen his attraction toward Vina. Vina is presented to Pike in a variety of forms; as a damsel in distress on Rigel VII, as a wife in the countryside on Earth, and as a primal, animalistic Orion slave woman, all in an attempt to make him submit to his situation.
However, Pike is every bit as stubborn as Captain Kirk, and certainly has a darker, more furious edge to him. When he discovers that primitive, base human emotions such as hatred, and anger, block out the Talosian’s illusions and their telepathic abilities, he mines that weakness long enough to take one of them captive. Once the illusion is broken, the Enterprise crew find out that their attempts to break Pike out from his underground cage with phaser fire were actually working, but all along they weren’t able to see it.
The Talosians had, thousands of centuries ago, devastated their planet and their civilization with war. They retreated underground, where their telepathic abilities flourished, but their physical bodies and their technology atrophied. They had apparently been testing various species for many years, looking for a suitable slave race to use for rebuilding their world, but none had shown as much promise as humanity.
However, when the away team threatens to kill themselves with an overloaded phaser, and as well when the Talosians finish screening the Enterprise‘s records, they realize that humans would rather die than be enslaved, and would be too violent to keep in captivity. With of course, the sad exception of Vina, who in reality is too badly disfigured to live a normal life outside of Talos IV.
(I once heard a suggestion that Vina could be repaired using the transporter. I don’t think 23rd century transporters were sophisticated enough for that, plus, there wouldn’t be an original, unaltered version of her pattern to reference.)
The ending of “The Cage” leads us to the final moments of “The Menagerie,” where it is revealed that not only have the Talosians been transmitting a signal to the Enterprise, but even Commodore Mendez himself has been one of their illusions all along!
It is also revealed that Spock’s only intention was to take Captain Pike to Talos IV, so that the crippled starship commander could live out the rest of his life as a healthy, happy man with Vina. Even Kirk seems to relent that it is better to live with an illusion of health and happiness, than a reality of living as a useless vegetable. That Commodore Mendez was an illusion, and that Starfleet sends a signal to the Enterprise, apparently excusing their violation of Talos space, seems to let Spock off the hook. Perhaps too easily in fact; despite acting out of nothing but loyalty to his former Captain, and despite that the way he enacted his plan was done in such a manner as to put the blame only on himself, Spock seems to get out of his predicament with apparently no trouble at all. We can make a guess that perhaps this incident is why he doesn’t receive a promotion or command of his own until years later, but there is nothing spoken on-screen to that effect.
We are also left to ponder about how much of the incident was real at all. Since the Talosians can apparently project their powers through subspace, one wonders just how long they conspired with Spock, and also, how much we see of Mendez was real or an illusion. My guess is that the Mendez we see at the base was real, and what goes onto the shuttle with Kirk was the illusion, but unfortunately, again, there is little to back that up. What we do know for sure is that the Talosian’s powers are not to be trifled with, and it is truly for wise for Starfleet to give them a wide berth.
Despite some problems with logic and consistency, “The Menagerie” is an entertaining, fascinating episode that shows original series Trek at some of its most interestingly cerebral. Gene Roddenberry’s first pilot examines the nature of reality decades before The Matrix did, and asks the questions: What is real? How does one define their purpose, their reality? Is our reality just relative, defined only by experience? Is there a such thing as an absolute reality, or only what our senses perceive, or for that matter what they think they perceive? This is smart, ahead of its time writing for the 1960s.
Through the tragedies that befell both Vina and Pike, we must also question the quality of human life, and the value we place on it. Is it worth staying alive if you can’t function? If your brain is sound but your body is broken, can you still truly live? Speaking for myself, I certainly would despise the existence that Captain Pike is forced to endure in his wheelchair. I’d rather be dead than live that way. I’m not sure how I would react exactly to being forced to live in an illusion, but it is certainly preferable to a reality of uselessness and immobility. Besides, is our everyday life not just an elaborate series of deceptions spun before our very eyes; maybe not as powerful as a trick of telepathy played by an alien race, but an illusion nonetheless?
For even provoking these thoughts, and much more, “The Cage,” and by extension, “The Menagerie,” are what I consider among the best of Star Trek’s purely cerebral stories about human nature. It is imaginative, thoughtful, and quite engaging.
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
Depending on your perceptions of the current state of the traditional painting in a technology obsessed popular culture of gadgets, Michael Kutsche is either simply a friend, healer, or necromancer of painting. Creative Tempest believes generally in extremes, and so to us Michael Kutsche as a necromancer of traditional painting. With magic and mathematical spells he speaks an incantation over the corpse of a blank canvas bringing it back to life by filling it with cinematic and surreal visions. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
Directed by Val Guest and stars Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing and Maureen Connell.
Brief Synopsis
Botanist Dr. John Rollason, his wife and colleague Helen and his assistant, Pete Fox, venture into the rugged Himalayan mountains in search of rare plants. One day, after they establish camp at a village, the Lhama, the spiritual leader of the village who possesses extrasensory perception, forecasts the imminent arrival of a climbing expedition and asks John if he intends to join them. When Helen learns about the expedition, she fears that John plans to hlep them search for the mythical creature known as the Abominable Snowman. Soon after, Tom Friend, an American adventurer, arrives with his guide Kusang and his colleagues, Jacques McNee and Ed Shelley, and a band of porters. When Helen denies the existence of the creatures, known as the "Yeti" by the natives, McNee rebuts that he has seen their footprints in the snow. As proof of their existence, Friend produces a stolen silver cylinder bearing an inscription about "powerful beings." Inside is a giant tooth, allegedly belonging to a Yeti. Friend then explains that he plans to lead a small party of five men into the heights of the Himalayas in search of the Yeti, and invites John to be their fifth member. When they present the tooth to the Lhama, however, the holy man claims that it is not real, but carved from ivory. Disregarding Helen's objections, John joins Friend's expedition, and the next morning, they begin their trek into the treacherous snow-covered peaks. That night, as they camp, John hypothesizes that the Yeti may have developed in parallel to mankind. When the crude, unthinking Shelley displays a trap he has brought to capture the creature, John is distressed to discover that he has been enlisted in a hunting party. The mercenary Friend then admits that his goal, far from being scientific, is to catch the Yeti and then make money by exhibiting him on television. In the village below, meanwhile, the porters that Friend left behind clamor for their unpaid wages. The next day, the expedition continues their trek, and McNee confesses to John that he has been obsessed by the creatures ever since spotting their footprints in the snow. Soon after, McNee, an inexperienced climber who has paid Friend for the privilege of joining the expedition, falls into a trap set by Shelley and injures his foot. John denounces the use of traps until Shelley claims that he has caught one of the creatures. When John examines Shelley's catch, however, he identifies it as a Himalayan monkey. As they pitch their tent that night, a radio broadcast warns of an approaching blizzard. Later, the monkey, locked in the cage outside, begins wildly chattering, and is accompanied by snarls and growls. When Kusang, Shelley, John and Friend run out to investigate, they find a huge footprint in the snow. McNee, left behind in the tent, sees a huge, hairy claw slip under the tent flap. Returning to the tent for his rifle, Kusang spots the Yeti and goes berserk, streaking down the mountain to the village below, while McNee, hypersensitive to the creature, goes into a trance. Firing at a figure fleeing on the ice, Shelley wounds the creature and they follow a trail of blood to find the fallen Yeti, dead. When Kusang returns to the village, Helen, fearing for her husband's safety, requests an audience with the Lhama, who confirms that John is in danger but pronounces that his outcome will be governed by his own nature. Determined to find John, Helen offers to pay the porters' back wages if they will lead her into the mountains. At the camp, meanwhile, McNee regains consciousness and questions John about the dead Yeti. After John reports that he saw sadness and wisdom in the slain creature's face, McNee sneaks out of the tent. Continuing his quest for the Yeti, the weakened McNee strikes out through the snow and plunges to his death from a precipice. After Shelley is attacked by two other creatures, Friend hits upon the idea of using him as bait and instructs Shelley to sequester himself in the cave while Friend watches from the tent, gun in hand. In a blinding blizzard, Friend and John hear the snarls of the creatures, and Shelley, confronted by the charging Yeti, aims his rifle, but the weapon fails to fire. By the time John and Friend reach the cave, Shelley has died from a heart attack. When the creatures return for the body of their compatriot, John surmises that they are more civilized and intelligent than man, and sense they must hide from man, the destroyer. Soon after, Friend, hallucinating, hears Shelley calling for help and runs out of the cave, firing his gun, thus triggering an avalanche that buries him alive. John remains in the cave, and when the two creatures come to claim their friend's body, he stares into their faces and then passes out. In a tent nearby, Helen hears the creatures' cries and runs out into the blizzard, where she finds John unconscious in the snow, and a giant footprint near his body. After John is rescued, he meets with the Lhama and affirms that the Yeti does not exist.
Second opinion.synopsis
This is a so-so early Hammer horror film from Nigel Kneale, who also wrote The Quatermass Experiment. Forrest Tucker and botanist Peter Cushing lead an expedition to the Himalayan Mountains (actually the Pyrenees, but who's complaining?) in search of the legendary Yeti. Several mysterious locals tell them to stay away with the sort of cryptic warnings found only in horror movies, but they carry on regardless. As expected, the furry beast is alive and well; meanwhile, members of the expedition begin to die from a series of accidents. The monster isn't shown very often and looks silly when it finally shows up, but there is a fair amount of atmosphere, and the stars are always fun to watch. Director Val Guest's career continued to slide from its 1940's highs until, by the '70s, he was making leering nonsense like The Au Pair Girls.
A photo illustration I did for a BNET blog entry using two Flickr images: www.flickr.com/photos/f8dy/347044331/ and www.flickr.com/photos/thelastminute/1973927918/. Thanks to Mark.Pilgrim and thelastminute for making their work available. Because they did, I'm putting this particular image under a CC license. Attribution should be made not only to me but to the two photographers who allowed use of their work. Please include links to the original sources.
Reality is just a manner of perception
Hey guys! I'm really sorry I haven't uploaded lately. I've been really busy with school and all the other stuff. Anyway, this is inspired by Fringe (the BRILLIANT tv serie). I continue to be in experimenting phase and I'm loving it!
I'm going down to my Grandpa's house today for Easter and I'm procrastinating like always.
Happy holidays guys <3
Bustier-Dresses in color with silver contrast are now up in-world!.
7 sizes, the five standard sizes plus special sizes M+ for very curvy shapes and Bx for top-heavy shapes.
:$285 each or L$985 per fatpack of 5.
Copy/Mod, No Transfer.
Bottle of Notes by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, unveiled in 1993 and situated in Middlesbrough Centre Square.
“In public sites, our sculptures reflect both the surroundings and their context, but through our imagination and selective perception – which is what makes them also personal” Claes Oldenburgh.
Bottle of Notes is a sculpture by internationally renowned artists and creators of public artworks, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Unveiled in 1993, it was commissioned by Middlesbrough Borough Council as the first public artwork to be installed as part of a regeneration initiative for the Tees Valley region.
Situated in Middlesbrough Centre Square, outside Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), the sculpture takes the form of a giant bottle, standing nine metres high – twice the height of a giraffe. The shape of the bottle is made from a continuous, off-white swirl of steel letters. Blue letters spiral upwards from the inside.
The artists took their inspiration from the local area’s industrial heritage, its relationship with the sea and from Captain Cook, one of the area’s most famous sons. The intricate steel lettering reflects the region’s rich heritage in steel production and fabrication. It was constructed in Hebburn, helping to provide employment for steel workers in the shipyards.
For the outside of the bottle, van Bruggen selected a line of text from Captain Cook’s Journals, written during his first voyage of exploration in the Pacific in 1769: We had every advantage we could desire in observing the whole of the passage of the planet Venus over the Sun’s disk. The text on the inside comes from a poem she wrote, ‘Recalling Amsterdam’, which links the English shore to the European continent: “I like to remember seagulls in full flight gliding over the ring of canals.”
The sculpture is positioned on a slant, to appear as if it had been left stuck in the sand by a receding wave – a giant message in a bottle to local people and the wider world.
This commission was a significant move by the Council to use arts and culture to help revitalise the region and its identity. This was a time when Middlesbrough – like many other traditionally industrial towns and cities, was experiencing a period of change and looking to the future. Initially met by local people with a mix of intrigue, genuine bewilderment and, in some cases, outright hostility, Bottle of notes has now become part of the landscape. It remains the only example in the UK to date of a public sculpture by these celebrated artists.
Oldenburgh and van Bruggen are a husband and wife team who have created monumental public art installations around the world. Their works are characterised by giant, colourful replicas of everyday objects, including a lipstick, trowel and an inverted ice-cream cone (which appears to have dropped out of the sky onto the top of a shopping mall, in Cologne).
Middlesbrough is a town in the Middlesbrough unitary authority borough of North Yorkshire, England. The town lies near the mouth of the River Tees and north of the North York Moors National Park. The built-up area had a population of 148,215 at the 2021 UK census. It is the largest town of the wider Teesside area, which had a population of 376,633 in 2011.
Until the early 1800s, the area was rural farmland in the historic county of Yorkshire. The town was a planned development which started in 1830, based around a new port with coal and later ironworks added. Steel production and ship building began in the late 1800s, remaining associated with the town until the post-industrial decline of the late twentieth century. Trade (notably through ports) and digital enterprise sectors contemporarily contribute to the local economy, Teesside University and Middlesbrough College to local education.
Middlesbrough was made a municipal borough in 1853. When elected county councils were created in 1889, Middlesbrough was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from North Riding County Council. The borough of Middlesbrough was abolished in 1968 when the area was absorbed into the larger County Borough of Teesside. Six years later in 1974 Middlesbrough was re-established as a borough within the new county of Cleveland. Cleveland was abolished in 1996, since when Middlesbrough has been a unitary authority within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.
Middlesbrough started as a Benedictine priory on the south bank of the River Tees, its name possibly derived from it being midway between the holy sites of Durham and Whitby. The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is "Mydilsburgh", containing the term burgh.
In 686, a monastic cell was consecrated by St. Cuthbert at the request of St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby. The manor of Middlesburgh belonged to Whitby Abbey and Guisborough Priory.[1] Robert Bruce, Lord of Cleveland and Annandale, granted and confirmed, in 1119, the church of St. Hilda of Middleburg to Whitby. Up until its closure on the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537, the church was maintained by 12 Benedictine monks, many of whom became vicars, or rectors, of various places in Cleveland.
After the Angles, the area became home to Viking settlers. Names of Viking origin (with the suffix by meaning village) are abundant in the area; for example, Ormesby, Stainsby and Tollesby were once separate villages that belonged to Vikings called Orm, Steinn and Toll that are now areas of Middlesbrough were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Other names around Middlesbrough include the village of Maltby (of Malti) along with the towns of Ingleby Barwick (Anglo-place and barley-wick) and Thornaby (of Thormod).
Links persist in the area, often through school or road names, to now-outgrown or abandoned local settlements, such as the medieval settlement of Stainsby, deserted by 1757, which amounts to little more today than a series of grassy mounds near the A19 road.
In 1801, Middlesbrough was a small farm with a population of just 25; however, during the latter half of the 19th century, it experienced rapid growth. In 1828 the influential Quaker banker, coal mine owner and Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) shareholder Joseph Pease sailed up the River Tees to find a suitable new site downriver of Stockton on which to place new coal staithes. As a result, in 1829 he and a group of Quaker businessmen bought the Middlesbrough farmstead and associated estate, some 527 acres (213 ha) of land, and established the Middlesbrough Estate Company.
Through the company, the investors set about a new coal port development (designed by John Harris) on the southern banks of the Tees. The first coal shipping staithes at the port (known as "Port Darlington") were constructed with a settlement to the east established on the site of Middlesbrough farm as labour for the port, taking on the farm's name as it developed into a village. The small farmstead became a village of streets such as North Street, South Street, West Street, East Street, Commercial Street, Stockton Street and Cleveland Street, laid out in a grid-iron pattern around a market square, with the first house being built on West Street in April 1830. New businesses bought premises and plots of land in the new town including: shippers, merchants, butchers, innkeepers, joiners, blacksmiths, tailors, builders and painters.
The first coal shipping staithes at the port (known as "Port Darlington") were constructed just to the west of the site earmarked for the location of Middlesbrough. The port was linked to the S&DR on 27 December 1830 via a branch that extended to an area just north of the current Middlesbrough railway station, helping secure the town's future.
The success of the port meant it soon became overwhelmed by the volume of imports and exports, and in 1839 work started on Middlesbrough Dock. Laid out by Sir William Cubitt, the whole infrastructure was built by resident civil engineer George Turnbull. After three years and an expenditure of £122,000 (equivalent to £9.65 million at 2011 prices), first water was let in on 19 March 1842, and the formal opening took place on 12 May 1842. On completion, the docks were bought by the S&DR.
Iron and steel have dominated the Tees area since 1841 when Henry Bolckow in partnership with John Vaughan, founded the Vulcan iron foundry and rolling mill. Vaughan, who had worked his way up through the Iron industry in South Wales, used his technical expertise to find a more abundant supply of Ironstone in the Eston Hills in 1850, and introduced the new "Bell Hopper" system of closed blast furnaces developed at the Ebbw Vale works. These factors made the works an unprecedented success with Teesside becoming known as the "Iron-smelting centre of the world" and Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd became the largest company in existence.
By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown from 40 people in 1829 to 7,600. Pig iron production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856 and by the mid-1870s Middlesbrough was producing one third of the entire nations Pig Iron output. It was during this time Middlesbrough earned the nickname "Ironopolis".
On 21 January 1853, Middlesbrough received its Royal Charter of Incorporation, giving the town the right to have a mayor, aldermen and councillors. Henry Bolckow became mayor, in 1853.
A Welsh community was established in Middlesbrough sometime before the 1840s, with mining being the main form of employment. These migrants included figures who would become important leaders in the commercial, political and cultural life of the town:
John Vaughan established Teesside's first ironworks in 1841, The Vulcan Works at Middlesbrough. Vaughan had worked his way up through the industry at the Dowlais Ironworks in south Wales and encouraged hundreds of the skilled Welsh workers to follow him to Teesside.
Edward Williams (iron-master), although he was the grandson of the famous Welsh Bard Iolo Morganwg, Edward had started as a mere clerk at Dowlais. His move to the Tees saw him rise to ironmaster, alderman, magistrate and Mayor of Middlesbrough. Edward was also the father of Aneurin and Penry, who both became Liberal MPs for the area.
E.T. John arrived from Pontypridd as a junior clerk in Williams' office. John became the director of several industrial enterprises and a radical politician.
Windsor Richards, an Engineer and manager, oversaw the town's transition from iron to steel production.
Much like the contemporary Welsh migration to America, the Welsh of Middlesbrough came almost exclusively from the iron-smelting and coal districts of South Wales. By 1861 42% of the town's ironworkers identified as Welsh and one in twenty of the total population. Place names such as "Welch Cottages" and "Welch Place" appeared around the Vulcan works, and Middlesbrough became a centre for the Welsh communities at Witton Park, Spennymoor, Consett and Stockton on Tees (especially Portrack). David Williams also recorded that a number of the Welsh workers at the Hughesovka Ironworks in 1869 had migrated from Middlesbrough.
A Welsh Baptist chapel was active in the town as early as 1858, and St Hilda's Anglican church began providing services in the Welsh language. Churches and chapels were the centres of Welsh culture, supporting choirs, Sunday Schools, social societies, adult education, lectures and literary meetings. By the 1870s, many more Welsh chapels were built (one reputed to seat 500 people), and the first Eisteddfodau were held.
By the 1880s, a "Welsh cultural revival" was underway, with the Eisteddfodau attracting competitors and spectators from outside the Welsh communities. In 1890 the Middlesbrough Town Hall hosted the first Cleveland and Durham Eisteddfod, an event notable for its non-denominational inclusivity, with Irish Catholic choirs and the bishop of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough as honoured guests.
In the early twentieth century this Eisteddfod had become the biggest annual event in the town and the largest annual Eisteddfod outside Wales. The Eisteddfod had a clear impact on the culture of the town, especially through its literary and music events, by 1911 the Eisteddfod had twenty-two classes of musical competition only two of which were for Welsh language content. By 1914, thirty choirs from across the area were competing in 284 entries. A choral tradition remained part of the town's culture long after the eisteddfod and chapels had gone. In 2012 an exhibition at the Dorman Museum marked the Apollo Male Voice Choir's 125 years as an active choir in the town.
Industrial Wales was noted for its "radical Liberal-Labour" politics, and the rhetoric of these politicians clearly won favour with the urban population of the North East. Penry Williams and Jonathan Samuel won the seats of Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees for the Liberal Party and Penry's brother, Aneurin would also win the newly created Consett seat in 1918.
Sir Horace Davey stressed his Welsh lineage and stated that "it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that Welshmen had founded Middlesbrough", courting the Welsh vote that saw him elected MP for Stockton. However, others complained that local Conservative candidates were losing to "Fenians and Welshers" (Irish and Welsh people).
These sentiments had grown by 1900 when Samuel lost his seat after a Unionist complained publicly that the town had been "forced to submit to the indignity of being trailed ignominiously through the mire by Welsh constituents". Samuel lost the seat but regained it in 1910 with a campaign that made few, if any, references to his Welsh background.
From 1861 to 1871, the census of England & Wales showed that Middlesbrough consistently had the second highest percentage of Irish born people in England after Liverpool. The Irish population in 1861 accounted for 15.6% of the total population of Middlesbrough. In 1871 the amount had dropped to 9.2% yet this still placed Middlesbrough's Irish population second in England behind Liverpool. Due to the rapid development of the town and its industrialisation there was much need for people to work in the many blast furnaces and steel works along the banks of the Tees. This attracted many people from Ireland, who were in much need of work. As well as people from Ireland, the Scottish, Welsh and overseas inhabitants made up 16% of Middlesbrough's population in 1871. A second influx of Irish migration was observed in the early 1900s as Middlesbrough's steel industry boomed producing 1/3 of Britain's total steel output. This second influx lasted through to the 1950s after which Irish migration to Middlesbrough saw a drastic decline. Middlesbrough no longer has a strong Irish presence, with Irish born residents making up around 2% of the current population, however there is still a strong cultural and historical connection with Ireland mainly through the heritage and ancestry of many families within Middlesbrough.
The town's rapid expansion continued throughout the second half of the 19th century, fuelled by the iron and steel industry. In 1864 the North Riding Infirmary (an ear, nose and mouth hospital) opened in Newport Road; this was demolished in 2006.
On 15 August 1867, a Reform Bill was passed, making Middlesbrough a new parliamentary borough, Bolckow was elected member for Middlesbrough the following year. In 1875, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co opened the Cleveland Steelworks in Middlesbrough beginning the transition from Iron production to Steel and by the turn of the century. Henry Bolckow died in 1878 and left an endowment of £5,000 for the infirmary.
In the latter third of the 19th century, Old Middlesbrough was starting to decline and was overshadowed by developments built around the new town hall, south of the original town hall, the town's population reaching 90,000 by the dawn of the 20th century.[9] In 1900, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co had become the largest producer of steel in Great Britain and possibly came to be one of the major steel centres in the world.
In 1914, Dorman Long, another major steel producer from Middlesbrough, became the largest company in Britain. It employed a workforce of over 20,000 and by 1929 and gained enough to take over from Bolckow, Vaughan & Co's dominance and to acquire their assets. The steel components of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) were engineered and fabricated by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. The company was also responsible for the New Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.
Several large shipyards also lined the Tees, including the Sir Raylton Dixon & Company, Smith's Dock Company of South Bank and Furness Shipbuilding Company of Haverton Hill.
Middlesbrough was the first major British town and industrial target to be bombed during the Second World War. The Luftwaffe first attacked the town on 25 May 1940 when a lone bomber dropped 13 bombs between South Bank Road and the South Steel Plant. One of the bombs fell on the South Bank football ground making a large crater in the pitch. The bomber was forced to leave after RAF night fighters were scrambled to intercept. Two months after the first bombing Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the town to meet the public and inspect coastal defences.
German bombers often flew over the Eston Hills while heading for targets further inland, such as Manchester. On 30 March 1941 a Junkers Ju 88 was shot down by two Spitfires of No. 41 Squadron, piloted by Tony Lovell and Archie Winskill, over Middlesbrough. The aircraft dived into the ground at Barnaby Moor, Eston; the engines and most of the airframe were entirely buried upon impact.
On 5 December 1941 a Spitfire of No. 122 Squadron, piloted by Sgt Hutton, crashed into rising ground near Mill Farm, Upsall, on the lower slopes of Eston Hills. Poor visibility due to bad weather and low cloud is believed to have been the cause of the crash.
On 15 January 1942, minutes after being hit by gunfire from a merchant ship anchored off Hartlepool, a Dornier Do 217 collided with the cable of a barrage balloon over the River Tees. The blazing bomber plummeted onto the railway sidings in South Bank leaving a crater twelve feet deep. In 1997 the remains of the Dornier were unearthed by a group of workers clearing land for redevelopment; the remains were put on display for a short while at Kirkleatham museum.
On 4 August 1942 a lone Dornier Do 217 picked its way through the barrage balloons and dropped a stick of bombs onto the railway station. One bomb caused serious damage to the Victorian glass and steel roof. A train in the station was also badly damaged although there were no passengers aboard. The station was put out action for two weeks.
The Green Howards was a British Army infantry regiment very strongly associated with Middlesbrough and the area south of the River Tees. Originally formed at Dunster Castle, Somerset in 1688 to serve King William of Orange, later King William III, this regiment became affiliated to the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1782. As Middlesbrough grew, its population of men came to be a group most targeted by the recruiters. The Green Howards were part of the King's Division. On 6 June 2006, this famous regiment was merged into the new Yorkshire Regiment and are now known as 2 Yorks, The 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards). There is also a Territorial Army (TA) company at Stockton Road in Middlesbrough, part of 4 Yorks which is wholly reserve.
Post Second World War to contemporary era
By the end of the war over 200 buildings had been destroyed within the Middlesbrough area. The borough lost 99 civilians as a result of enemy action.
Areas of early and mid-Victorian housing were demolished and much of central Middlesbrough was redeveloped. Heavy industry was relocated to areas of land better suited to the needs of modern technology. Middlesbrough itself began to take on a completely different look.
Middlesbrough's 1903 Gaumont cinema, originally an opera house until the 1930s, was demolished in 1971. The Cleveland Centre opened in the same year. In 1974, Middlesbrough and other areas around the Tees, became part of the county of Cleveland. This was to create a county within a single NUTS region of England, with the UK joining the European Union predecessor (European Communities) a year earlier.
Middlesbrough's Royal Exchange building was demolished, to make way for the road. A multi-storey the Star and Garter Hotel built in the 1890s near to the exchange on the site of a former Welsh Congregational Church, was also demolished. The Victorian era North Riding Infirmary was demolished in 2006 and replaced by a hotel and supermarket.
The Cleveland Centre opened in 1971, Hill Street shopping centre opened in 1981 and Captain Cook Square opened in 1999.
Middlesbrough F.C.'s modern Riverside Stadium opened on 26 August 1995 next to Middlesbrough Dock. The club moved from Ayresome Park their previous home in the town for 92 years.
With the abolition of Cleveland County in 1996, Middlesbrough again became part of North Yorkshire.
The original St.Hilda's area of Middlesbrough, after decades of decline and clearance, was given a new name of Middlehaven in 1986 on investment proposals to build on the land. Middlehaven has since had new buildings built there including Middlesbrough College and Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium amongst others. Also situated at Middlehaven is the "Boho" zone, offering office space to the area's business and to attract new companies, and also "Bohouse", housing. Some of the street names from the original grid-iron street plan of the town still exist in the area today.
The expansion of Middlesbrough southwards, eastwards and westwards continued throughout the 20th century absorbing villages such as Linthorpe, Acklam, Ormesby, Marton and Nunthorpe[9] and continues to the present day.
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
English below..
Perception Triumph 13. Caiac "SOT" ("eistedd arno"), yn hytrach na'r math eistedd ynddo. Mae wedi'i ddylunio efo gwaelod a blaen ar gyfer rhwyfo'n bell ac yn syth. Serch hynny, ma'n troi yn ddigon rhwydd. Yn y pen blaen, mae lle "sych" er mwyn cadw pethau rhag gwlychu (dan y caead hirgrwn llwyd), ac yn y cefn, mae lle (pant agored) i roi pethau eraill ar gyfer siwrnai. Oherwydd amgylchiadau (diogi) rwy'n defnyddio'r cefn ar gyfer cario troli, sy'n ffitio caiacs SOT, a heb hwnnw, ni fyddwn yn gallu symud y caiac ar dir sych. Mae'n pwyso 27Kg, ac yn lletchwith i'w godi a'i gario. Tydi'r Triumph ddim yn dod efo sêt (o leia doedd o ddim gan y cwmni "Shore")- rhaid prynu hwnnw ar-wahân, ac yn y llun mae sêt "uchel" gan wneuthurwr gwahanol, sy'n well ar gyfer fy nghefn i. Mae lle ar ochr chwith y caiac i ddal y rhwyf yn sownd - sy'n hynod o ddefnyddiol. Ar ganol y caiac, rhwng coesau'r rhwyfwr, mae "lle sych" ychwanegol, sy'n bosib ei gyrraedd wrth rwyfo. Mae'n ddigonol i ddal ffôn, chwiban, goriadau ac ambell i beth bach, ond mae'n rhy fach i ddal camera.
Rwy'n newydd i'r busnes caiacio, ac ar hyn o bryd mae pob siwrnai yn dal yn antur ac yn wefr. Serch hynny rwyf wedi defnyddio gwahanol fathau o gaiacs, ac mae hwn yn rhwydd iawn i'w rwyfo mewn cymhariaeth a sawl un eistedd arno, er nad wyf yn hyderus o gwbl i geisio ei droi'n chwim wrth wyro drosodd - rwy'n argyhoeddidig y byddai'n troi drosodd pe bawn yn ceisio gwneud y fath beth - techneg a fyddai'n rhwydd ac yn ail-natur mewn caiac 'eistedd ynddo'.
Y diweddaraf - rwyf bellach wedi bod allan nifer o weithiau mewn gwahanol dywydd. Mae'r Triumph yn ymateb yn wych wrth rwyfo i mewn i donnau - y tro i fyny yn y pen blaen yn gwneud ei waith yn rhagorol. Er cael fy ngwthio i'r ochr sawl gwaith wrth fynd yn groes i'r llif a'r tonnau, mae'r cwch wedi profi'n sefydlog iawn - ond mae'r tonnau yn torri drosodd yn syndod o rhwydd. O'r profiadau hynny, fyddwn i ddim yn mentro allan efo "bungs" yn y tyllau draenio tra ar y môr. Ar lyn efallai, ond nid ar y môr.
Ceir adolygiad yn fan yma www.canoekayak.co.uk/Reviews/Perception-Triumph-13-Sit-on...
This is a UK made Perception Triumph 13 touring kayak. It's a "sit on top", rather than a "sit in", and is therefore a bit of a compromise. In front of the paddler, there's a dry bow void under the waterproof oval hatch which can be used for storing items not required while on the move, while behind the cockpit is an open "basin" for storing items that don't mind getting wet. Pictured is a SOT carrier axle which is a must for moving the boat on dry land. At around 27Kg the Triumph is much too heavy to lug around solo. The kayak didn't come with a seat, and the one pictured is a high back model from another manufacturer, which suits my back. Two handy touches are a groove along the left side for attaching the paddle (really handy when launching from a beach, or when taking a breather), and a small easy to access dry storage cylinder, which is useful for keys, phone, whistle and so forth, but too small for a camera.
I've only taken the kayak out five times, and apart from getting the beast on and off the car roof, the experience has been great. The boat goes well in a straight line, turns fairly easily, and cuts through swell. It's much less hassle than a "sit in", but doesn't manouvre half as easily. I just don't feel confident enough with it to try "edging" - the equivalent to "banking" on a motorbike, to help make tight turns.
I'd like to try the kayak with the optional rudder, to see if that would make it easier and less of a paddle-fest to counter the affect of strong sideways currents. But at £175 I doubt I'll bother..
Update
I've been out and about on the sea in slightly more challenging weather and I've noticed a couple of things. The boat really cuts into waves very well - the upturn of the bow doing an impressive job. A number of times have seen me pushed sideways by the waves/swell/tide, and I'm surprised at how easily waves enter the kayak "over the side" in these circumstances. Stability hasn't been a problem, but I'm pretty sure that running with bungs in place is would be a BAD IDEA on the sea. On a quiet lake - probably fine, but no way would I go out to sea with bungs in place.
At a university fair I found a mirror box made by an art student. The idea was to promote creativity by attracting kids who'd like to have selfies "like no other" :)) But as someone interested in the working of the mind I found it to be one of the best things at the fair. I've just couldn't resist taking a selfie in the mirror box, to show that right angles can make space distortions ... it's all about perception.