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Mobile Frame Zero frames from only the bricks in Lego 41506, 41507, and 41508 sets (left to right).
Another shot at Mantiskings's Single Set Challenge
My SSC's for The Infernites (sets 41500, 41501, 41502) and The Cragsters (sets 41503, 41504, 41505).
Alt models for 'Race Car polybag' 30572. Roadster, Formula 1, Euro Racing Truck, Le Mans Prototype (LMP).
More 30572 alts: Working Vehicles
nixel claw mech (spikels max)
inspired from dark_syntax nixel mech squad, i made a new nixel mech, this time using spikels mixels.
video review:
From the series “Code”, oil and graphite on paper, 40 x 40 cm. Original sold.
A map is an imprint, a sign of man in the landscape. An alien intelligence, observing our cities from the great distances of space, could interpret them as the characters of an alphabet, sort of messages, a code of signs, each one different from the other, each with its own meaning and its own syntax. This hypothetical alien presence may not even realize that these cities have a purpose and a function, which are the product of the way we have adapted to live on this planet, but it could engage in an attempt to interpret this unknown language, identifying the alphabet and associating to each character a precise meaning. Will we still be able to understand and share these new meanings, or will they have lost any sense for us?
Rémi Beaupré, Meme Snippets, 17 mai 2012 au 27 février 2013, Centre Dare-dare aux abords du métro St-Laurent.
"The word has not been recognised as a virus because it has achieved a state of stable symbiosis with the host."
(Le mot n'est pas reconnu comme un virus parce qu'il est parvenu à un stade de symbiose stable son hôte.)
- William S. Burroughs, The Electronic Revolution
"A meme is an idea that behaves like a virus--that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects."
(Un mème est une idée qui agit comme un virus – il se mobilise au sein d'une population, s'emparant de chaque personne qu'elle touche)
- Malcolm Gladwell
Le code qui constitue notre vie en ligne nous est de plus en plus familier. Les médias sociaux gonflent en popularité. L'accessibilité informatique et les moyens de diffusion personnelle n'est plus réservée au programmeur. Nous sommes de plus en plus touchés, d'une façon ou d'une autre, par la programmation et sa manifestation.
Maintenant plus que jamais nous avons tous et chacun le potentiel d'être un pôle pour la réception et la transmission d'informations, aussi banals ou indispensables soient elles. Ces transmissions circulent librement, à être absorbées par n'importe quel nombre d'individus, à être ensuite traitées et retransmises. Nous nous infectons quotidiennement par des mèmes qui ont différents degrés d'impact. Ce sont des idées. Ce sont des icônes. Elles incitent à agir.
Je transforme des balises de code HTML, de CSS, des instances de hashtags ou de chatspeak en phrases codées qui portent sur l'éthique, les médias et le futur. Je maintiens une structure de code crédible, comme s'il s'agissait d'un site internet au contenu inconnu, d'une entité à la portée insaisissable.
Ces Meme Snippets sont un mashup linguistique, un jeu de ponctuation et de syntaxe. Points et exclamations apparaissent au début des phrases. Des accolades contiennent des conditions succinctes. Tout espace entre les mots sont éliminés. chaqueMotDebuteParUneMajusculeSaufLePremier. La phrase est présentée en tant qu'une seule chaîne.
J'utilise souvent des « commentaires » HTML qui réfèrent à la nature de commenter en ligne; un mélange curieux de points de vue pertinents et de volubilité insipide exprimés sous le voile d'avatars ou de l'anonymat. Je trouve que c'est un fort contraste à la collection croissante de nos données personnelles, à notre obsession d'exhiber ce que nous considérons nos profils en ligne. Je crois que le combat pour l'anonymat et la vie privée, la création d'identités virtuelles, le pur volume de données indélébiles en concert avec la diffusion excessive d'opinions seront des facteurs clés qui définiront l'avenir près.
- Rémi Beaupré
My tribute build of my favorite SHIP from SHIPtember 2013, Jacob Unterreiner's Phoenix
Special thanks to dark_syntax for the suggestions on the connections for the side "wings".
Something weird has happened: I officially have an accent in Spanish! But no one seems to agree on what type of accent, they just insist I don't sound "normal"... those that pay a bit more attention, agree with me that really, it is my syntax which has gone weird. Then again, Spanish has so many valid syntax configurations of a sentence (in comparison to, for example English or German) that this detail sounds silly; oh but it is not! For syntax makes the order of the words, hence, a type of change in intonation can be correlated to the repetitions of a particular syntax (think about it a bit... where does rhyme come from?) :)
Anyways, if we agree on this last step, then I think it is my peculiar syntax along with my loud voice that emphasizes (if not caused) my recent and unexplainable accent... and I am sure: it is contagious! –But on unexpected aspects.
Richard Serra: Junction/Cycle
Two new sculptures
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Junction (2011) and Cycle (2010), two new sculptures by Richard Serra. Serra has pushed the unique sculptural syntax that he developed over the last fifteen years to arrive at entirely new forms in two of his most complex and challenging works to date.
Born in 1938, Richard Serra is one of the most significant artists of his generation. His groundbreaking bodies of work in both sculpture and drawing have been celebrated with major retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art (“Richard Serra Sculpture Forty Years,” 2007 and “Richard Serra/Sculpture,” 1986) and the current “Richard Serra Drawings: A Retrospective" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which will travel this year to SFMOMA and the Menil Collection in Houston. He has produced large-scale, site-specific sculptures for architectural, urban and landscape settings spanning the globe, from Iceland to New Zealand. In addition to his 2008 MONUMENTA installation Promenade at the Grand Palais in Paris, Serra conceived The Matter of Time, an eightpart permanent installation at the Guggenheim Bilbao in 2005.
14 September, 2011 - 26 November, 2011
exhibition
Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
I took this picture in Siegen, Germany, whre the sculpture was built.
© 2011 Werner Schnell - All rights reserved !
My 15th Mecha Mixel-Nixel Expeditionary Force (MMNEF) mech; this one from the Lixers tribe.
For more on the MMNEF click here.
Trying to figure out how to upgrade my TV without having to replace EVERYTHING ELSE.
1. Syntax Olevia LT32HVE 32" LCD HDTV
2. Philips DSR7000 DirecTiVo DVR & Satellite Receiver
3. Slingbox A/V
4. Zenith DVD/VHS combo player
5. Original Gigantic PS2
6. XBOX 360 with super awesome faceplate
7. West Elm Coffee Table as TV Bench (44")
1
Right now, I've got an older, smallish 32" HDTV languishing with lowly SD service . I'd like to finally join the HD set and really make it worthwhile by grabbing a bigger display with HDMI -- Probably a Toshiba or Samsung around 46". Should be easy, right?
STEP ONE: NEW TV +$1600
2
Unfortunately, getting HDTV service means getting rid of my amazing DVR, which has 2 tuners, lots of storage, records everything at broadcast quality and does double duty as a satellite receiver. I guess I need a new DVR. TiVo HD looks like the right answer, but isn't free, and will cost about $10 mote a month than my current DVR solution
STEP TWO: NEW TIVO HD DVR +$300 (+$10 /mo)
3
But what about my Slingbox? It works really well right now because it can only take input from one device, but I happen to have a single device receiving and recording. If I have to get rid of the DirecTiVo, I may need to replace my Slingbox.
STEP THREE: NEW SLINGBOX PRO +$190
2 again
And if I'm not gonna keep the DirecTV DVR, why keep DirecTV? Comcast offers HD service cheaper and will combine tv service bills with the internet service bills I already receive. Plus, since they supposedly support Cable Card -- and so does the new TiVo HD -- I may be able to finagle a single-unit receiver/DVR after all. Maybe?
STEP FOUR: CHANGE TV SERVICE PROVIDER
7
Oh yeah. I have a old West Elm coffee table I bought from the catalogue to use as a TV bench years ago. I love this thing. Problem is, it's 44" wide and the narrowest TV I'm considering is 44.5". It's tacky to have a TV that's bigger than it's stand, right?
...
So.. all in all it would cost me around $2200, plus the increased monthly cost of TiVo and HD service, plus the headache of canceling DirecTV and installing Comcast just to get a bigger, sharper picture, HD DVR, and HD Slingbox. Not terrible, but aren;t I supposed to be saving for a house?
Alt models for Lego set 40109.
Left to right:
Top: jet fighter plane, racer, hotrod, aircraft tug,
Bottom: golf cart, roadster, truck, beach cruiser (jeep), forklift
Bought my first Mixel set a while ago since they were on sale in our area. Bought the Medivals set since I want to create a "mech minotaur" as my first MOC. After a lot of failed attempts I've decided to make an exosuit for my desktop dwarf instead.
Parts were inspired by the Mixel builds of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/chubbybots] and [https://www.flickr.com/photos/dark_syntax]
A company of Veyman Genesis frames for Mobile Frame Zero.
Equipped systems L to R:
Rh, Y, B, G8, SSRx2
Ra, Y, Y, B
Rd, Y, B, G, SSR
Rd, Y, B, G
Systems: M2c carbine (Rd), A25s shoulder-integrated howitzer (Ra), H1 battlefield chainsaw “ripper” (Rh), S2 EMP shield (B), Mk1 comm’s pack (Y), Battlefield360 sensor mast (Y), J2 jump pack, R1 single-use rockets (SSR)
wherein we explore further failures in the syntax of the semantically minded...
(perhaps they might someday look back and concede that his heart was in it)
--
sigh: hasty set-up really shows here. no reshoots though.. veggies already steaming!
My tribute build of my favorite SHIP from SHIPtember 2013, Jacob Unterreiner's Phoenix
Special thanks to dark_syntax for the suggestions on the connections for the side "wings".
Mirit Ben Nun: Shortness of breath
'Shortness of breath' is not only a sign of physical weakness, it is a metaphor for a mental state of strong desire that knows no repletion; more and more, an unbearable glut, without repose. Mirit Ben Nun's type of work on the other hand requires an abundance of patience. This is a Sisyphean work (requiring hard labor) of marking lines and dots, filling every empty millimeter with brilliant blots. Therefore we are facing a paradox or a logical conflict. A patient and effortful work that stems from an urgent need to cover and fill, to adorn and coat. Her craft of layering reaches a state of a continuous ceremonial ritual.
This ritual digests every object into itself - useful or discarded -- available and ordinary or rare and exceptional -- they submit and devote to the overlay work. Mirit BN gathers scrap off the streets -- cardboard rolls of fabric, assortments of wooden boards and pieces, plates and planks -- and constructs a new link, her own syntax, which she alone is fully responsible for. The new combination -- a type of a sculptural construction -- goes through a process of patching by the act of painting.
In fact Mirit regards her three dimensional objects as a platform for painting, with a uniform continuity, even if it has obstacles, mounds and valleys. These objects beg her to paint, to lay down colors, to set in motion an intricate weave of abstract patterns that at times finds itself wandering the contours of human images and sometimes -- not. In those cases what is left is the monotonous activity of running the patterns, inch by inch, till their absolute coverage, till a short and passing instant of respite and than on again to a new onset.
Next to this assembly of garbage and it's recycling into 'painted sculptures' Mirit offers a surprising reunion between her illustrated objects and so called cheap African sculpture; popular artifacts or articles that are classified in the standard culture as 'primitive'.
This combination emphasizes the difference between her individualistic performance and the collective creation which is translated into cultural clichés. The wood carved image creates a moment of peace within the crowded bustle; an introverted image, without repetitiveness and reverberation. This meeting of strangers testifies that Mirit' work could not be labeled under the ´outsiders art´ category. She is a one woman school who is compelled to do the art work she picked out to perform. Therefore she isn't creating ´an image´ such as the carved wooden statues, but she produces breathless ´emotional jam' whose highest values are color, motion, beauty and plenitude. May it never lack, neither diluted, nor dull for even an instant
Tali Tamir
August 2010
My 13th Mecha Mixel-Nixel Expeditionary Force (MMNEF) mech; this one from the Klinkers tribe.
For more on the MMNEF click here.
A company of Veyman Genesis frames for Mobile Frame Zero.
Equipped systems L to R:
Rd, Y, B, G
Rh, Y, B, G8, SSRx2
Ra, Y, Y, B, SSR
Rd, Y, B, G
Rd, Y, B, G
Systems: MG4b shoulder-integrated Gatling gun “brrrt” (Rd), M1d shoulder-integrated sniper rifle (Ra), P38 combat rotary saw “can opener” (Rh), S3c EMP shield (B), Mk3 comm’s pack (Y), Quad-spectrum targeting array (Y), J5 jump pack, R2b single-use rockets (SSR)
Bought my first Mixel set a while ago since they were on sale in our area. Bought the Medivals set since I want to create a "mech minotaur" as my first MOC. After a lot of failed attempts I've decided to make an exosuit for my desktop dwarf instead.
Parts were inspired by the Mixel builds of chubbybots and dark_syntax
Alt models for 'Race Car polybag' 30572. Harvester, Dump Truck, Pickup Truck with Plow, Telehandler.
More 30572 alts: Racing Vehicles
For the past 200 years, virtually all attempts to account for the neural bases and the evolution of human language have focused on the neocortex. And in the past 40 years, linguists adhering to Noam Chomsky's theories have essentially equated language with syntax, hypothetically specified by an innate, genetically transmitted "universal grammar." In Human Language and our Reptilian Brain (2000), I attempt to shift the focus. My premise is that speech is the central element of human linguistic ability and both speech and syntax are learned skills, based on a neural "functional language system" (FLS). Although neither the anatomy nor the physiology of the FLS can be specified with certainty at the present time, converging behavioral and neurobiological data point to language being regulated by a distributed network that crucially involves subcortical structures, the basal ganglia, often associated with reptilian brains though they derive from amphibians.
Like other distributed neural systems that regulate complex behavior, the architecture of the FLS consists of circuits linking segregated populations of neurons in structures distributed throughout the brain, cortical and subcortical, including the traditional "language" areas (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) as well as other neocortical areas. The FLS rapidly integrates sensory information with stored knowledge; it is a dynamic system, enlisting additional neural resources in response to task difficulty. Regions of the frontal lobes of the human neocortex, implicated in abstract reasoning and planning, and other cortical areas are recruited as task difficulty increases. Since natural selection selects for timely responses to environmental challenges, it is not surprising that the FLS also provides direct access to the information coded in a word, i.e., primary auditory, visual, pragmatic, and motoric information. The mental operations carried out in the brain are not compartmentalized in the "modules" proposed by most linguists and many cognitive scientists. The neural bases of human language are intertwined with other aspects of cognition, motor control, and emotion.
The human FLS is unique; no other living species possesses the neural capacity to command spoken language, which serves as a medium for both communication and thought. The FLS appears, however, to have evolved from neural structures and systems that regulate adaptive motor behavior in other animals. In this light, the subcortical basal ganglia structures usually associated with motor control that are key elements of the FLS reflect its evolutionary history: natural selection operated on neural mechanisms that yield adaptive -- that is, "cognitive"--motor responses in other species. There is no reason to believe that the basic operations of the human brain differ for motor control and language. Insights gained from the study of the neural bases of motor control apply with equal force to human language; although the neural architecture that regulates motor control and syntax is part of our innate endowment, the details are learned. And the early stages of the evolution of the cortico-striatal neural circuits that regulate human language and thought may have been shaped by natural selection to meet the demands of upright bipedal locomotion, the first defining feature of hominid evolution.
This evolutionary perspective may not be familiar to some cognitive scientists, linguists, and philosophers. I hope, however, that biological linguists working in an evolutionary framework will lead the way to new insights on the nature of language. Paraphrasing Dobzhansky, "Nothing in the biology of language makes sense except in the light of evolution."
Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain: The Subcortical Bases of Speech, Syntax, and Thought
Philip Lieberman
Syntax
Limited SD Card Edition :
Syntax
Current
Kasuga Records
KASUGA022
Sounds . Laurian Bardoș
Design . Kasuga
Use Hearing Protection
GMA
OUR AWARENESS OF GOD is a syntax of the silence in which our souls mingle with the divine, in which the ineffable in us communes with the ineffable beyond us. It is the afterglow of years in which soul and sky are silent together, the outgrowth of accumulated certainty of the abundant, never-ebbing presence of the divine. All we ought to do is to let the insight be and to listen to the soul’s recessed certainty of its being a parenthesis in the immense script of God’s eternal speech.
-ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
SHIDtember's back, baby!
5yrs ago today I posted The 8-Belle. Today I give you the Jovian Confederation ship JCS New Belfast, light tactical carrier.
Dual hangar bay with control tower, quad engine nacelles, main bridge, and multiple sensor systems.
108 studs (Duplo studs!), 67.5"/171.5cm. 100% Duplo; all SNOT is Duplo: no System or Toolo bricks, all parts are connected via studs (no "gravity connections"). She's mostly stable sitting on the table, but she wants to collapse under her own weight (she's a big girl); NOT swooshable. The stands are not built into the ship.
It took about 20hrs to build. No preplan, just a huge pile of Duplo and go!
More pics in my Duplo album.
For more on the origin and the present day state of the original nomads of India read here ..
www.flickr.com/photos/ezee123/3670984925
The nomads of India represent the origin of the Gypsys in Europe. The gypsys to be found in Europe trace their descent to the Banjaras and Lahmanis of India. A DNA mapping project would prove it without doubt but the basic structure on which this is worked out is the language used by the Roma gypsies of Europe.
Their language has a core syntax of verbs and nouns that are Hindi in origin. Their count is totally Indian and so are the words that would refer to eating and drinking and living. Thereafter the language has broadened with layers of words adopted from areas through which the migration took place from India to Europe. Words have been picked up from Burushashki, Persian, Kurdish and then a layer of Byzantine languages like Greek, Ossetic and Armenian.
A whole lot of cultural traditions and familial relationships are identical for the Lahmanis and the Roma Gypsys.
So here is to a great living culture that has not changed much in thousands of years.
_DSC9745 nef V sel cu br grad sm face grad copy bnw emerald filter tone enhanced
William Combe’s “The Tour of Doctor Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque” was begun in 1809 and published in book form in 1812. Together with the accompanying aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson that inspired the poem, it satirizes the aesthetic ideals lying behind the picturesque and its frequently pompous followers. The poem tells how Dr Syntax, a curate, sets off in search of the ideal picturesque landscape only to be continually thwarted by bathetic and farcical inconveniences. During the course of the poem the unfortunate Dr Syntax stumbles into a lake while attempting to reach the perfect location from which to sketch a suitably ruined castle, is chased by a bull and driven to distraction by the incessant bleating of sheep. - See more at: www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-tour-of-doctor-syntax#stha...
This first tour of Dr. Syntax is accompanied by thirty colored illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson.
A frame demo'ing systems for Mobile Frame Zero using the C6 concept by micah bauer.
For more, see the Mobile Frame Hangar post and my C6 set.
Credit to dark_syntax for the idea he gave me on the angled bridge tower.
Designed for use in Mobile Frame Zero: Intercept Orbit.
Carol Bove (b. 1971 Switzerland )
Carol Bove’s sculpture turns the clean lines of Modernism on its head. Her formal syntax is an adept language of bends, dents, torques, kinks, crumples, creases, and other folds that animate the sculptural surface. The artist has called these works “collage sculptures” – a type of activity that navigates a productive tension between the industrially formed and the merely found, between the obsolete and the newly minted. The physical friction of her material is animated through a bold, candy-coloured palette of reds, yellows, pinks and greens placed in dynamic contrast to her rough untreated steel. The slick finish of her paint jars with the rough faded materiality of her found objects. In this mode, the surface colour promotes the illusion that her steel tubes are constructed from a soft, malleable substance. Bove’s deft twists, folds, and bends demand a kinaesthetic approach from the viewer: they force the body, eye, and mind to shift, move and circumnavigate the work. If these objects were to tell a story it would be an account of movement and pressure, force and softness.
Arriving -
A rather upbeat and lively logo I have to say!
LNER Azuma 801225 from Edinburgh to London, working 1E22, early evening at Newark Northgate.
I had a brief glimpse of the graphics the other day, and thought to get my own picture of it . . .
LNER - eLeaNoR - syntax > rhythm > pronunciation :)
This was shot looking towards Ogibashi from Yuki's rooftop. We were at his place for a party last Saturday. Great view, lovely neighbourhood.
Link to a map here: sorry about the odd link syntax but Flickr bans links to tinyurl
www [dot] tinyurl [dot] com/nuhu9o
Nikon D300
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
5-frame bracketed HDR, using the wall as my tripod
Blended in Photomatix
Tweaked to tone down the colour saturation in Photoshop
A rework of my previous truck, now with working tipper (I like this one quite a bit so I thought I'd share a breakdown pic), and another alt model, a European racing truck, bringing my alt count to 5 for Lego set 31027.
- 104 studs (Duplo studs)
- 100% Duplo - although I've experimented with System solutions for Duplo SNOT, this build is pure Duplo.
- The stands are not built into the ship.
- While she stays together sitting on a table, she cannot be moved in one piece (NOT swooshable) and is a little fragile.
- I've never built anything this large, let alone tried to photograph any builds this large. I have no idea how I'm going to get good pics of this monster.
- More pics in my Duplo album.
"The Belle of Belfast City", vessel number 8 of the Jovian Transport Corporation, serves the shipping lanes between the mining operations on the Jovian moons and manufacturing centers on Earth and Mars.
She has never missed a schedule, never lost cargo, and never suffered any sort of serious mechanical failure in the nearly 50 years since she entered service in 2372. Her crew is often heard describing her ability to out perform other ships saying "She'll take you down like an 8-ball" earning her the nickname "The 8-Belle".
- 936m in length
- 2 officers, 16 merchant marines including 2 NCO's
- Variable-rail cargo system capable of hauling standard cargo containers and over/odd-sized cargo.
With all the great parts on the PaB walls right now I was planning another Small PaB Cup challenge ala Mantiskings's Single Set Challenge like the one I did last January, but after scoping out the wall, making a plan and buying the cupful of parts, I haven't had much time and I lost motivation.
A few days ago I sat down with the cup and started fiddling and this happened. I don't think I'm going to finish the challenge, but at least I got something from the cup. Once finished, it struck me how much it looked like a Poke Ball. HA!
Mirit Ben Nun: Shortness of breath
'Shortness of breath' is not only a sign of physical weakness, it is a metaphor for a mental state of strong desire that knows no repletion; more and more, an unbearable glut, without repose. Mirit Ben Nun's type of work on the other hand requires an abundance of patience. This is a Sisyphean work (requiring hard labor) of marking lines and dots, filling every empty millimeter with brilliant blots. Therefore we are facing a paradox or a logical conflict. A patient and effortful work that stems from an urgent need to cover and fill, to adorn and coat. Her craft of layering reaches a state of a continuous ceremonial ritual.
This ritual digests every object into itself - useful or discarded -- available and ordinary or rare and exceptional -- they submit and devote to the overlay work. Mirit BN gathers scrap off the streets -- cardboard rolls of fabric, assortments of wooden boards and pieces, plates and planks -- and constructs a new link, her own syntax, which she alone is fully responsible for. The new combination -- a type of a sculptural construction -- goes through a process of patching by the act of painting.
In fact Mirit regards her three dimensional objects as a platform for painting, with a uniform continuity, even if it has obstacles, mounds and valleys. These objects beg her to paint, to lay down colors, to set in motion an intricate weave of abstract patterns that at times finds itself wandering the contours of human images and sometimes -- not. In those cases what is left is the monotonous activity of running the patterns, inch by inch, till their absolute coverage, till a short and passing instant of respite and than on again to a new onset.
Next to this assembly of garbage and it's recycling into 'painted sculptures' Mirit offers a surprising reunion between her illustrated objects and so called cheap African sculpture; popular artifacts or articles that are classified in the standard culture as 'primitive'.
This combination emphasizes the difference between her individualistic performance and the collective creation which is translated into cultural clichés. The wood carved image creates a moment of peace within the crowded bustle; an introverted image, without repetitiveness and reverberation. This meeting of strangers testifies that Mirit' work could not be labeled under the ´outsiders art´ category. She is a one woman school who is compelled to do the art work she picked out to perform. Therefore she isn't creating ´an image´ such as the carved wooden statues, but she produces breathless ´emotional jam' whose highest values are color, motion, beauty and plenitude. May it never lack, neither diluted, nor dull for even an instant
Tali Tamir
August 2010
Tribute build of my favorite SHIP from SHIPtember 2013, Jacob Unterreiner's Phoenix.
Special thanks to dark_syntax for the suggestions on the connections for the side "wings".
Beauty as Syntax, 1992. Oil and water-based paints, metal sign, collage, chalk on plywood (1934-2025) Kent Logan gift. SFMOMA
Boone Hall Plantation.
What is special about Boone Hall? It has a wonderful Virginian Live Oak alley which was planted from 1743 to 1843. The plantation has been continuously producing crops since 1681. It especially focuses on Gullah culture and the slave quarters with presentations by black Americans. Eight slave cabins (1790-1810) depict different aspects of Gullah culture and history. The plantation style homestead was only built in 1936 but the original house was built around 1700. It has beautiful flower gardens and the azaleas should be at their best. In the 1850s the plantation had 85 slaves with many involved in red brick production. Its main crops in early years were indigo and then cotton from the early 1800s. Its structures include the round smokehouse (1750); and the cotton gin factory (1853).
Gullah Culture and Language and Blacks in Charleston.
Gullah language is recognised as a distinct language and the black American population of coastal Sth Carolina and Georgia recognise themselves as Gullah people. But where did this culture originate? American historian Joseph Opala has spent decades researching the connections between Sierra Leone in Africa and Sth Carolina. A majority of the coastal black slaves arriving in Sth Carolina in the 1700s came from Sierra Leone where the area was known as the “Rice Coast” of Africa. The slaves brought with them the knowledge and skills for rice cultivation in Sth Carolina; their rice cooking methods; their West African language; their legends and myths; and their beliefs in spirits and voodoo. The Gullah people are thought to have the best preserved African culture of any black American group. Few have moved around the USA and black families in Charleston are now tracing their family history (and having family reunions with relatives) in Sierra Leone and Gambia, despite a break of 250 years in family contact! Many can trace their family links back to the Mende or Temne tribal groups in Sierra Leone. The Gullah language is a Creole language based on English but with different syntax more akin to African languages and with many African words and a few French words. The word Gullah is believed to be a mispronunciation of the African word Gora or Gola which came from several tribal groups in Sierra Leone. The direct links with Sierra Leone have been supported by the discovery of an African American funeral song which is identical to one sung by villagers in Sierra Leone.
The Gullah women in Charleston are also known for their weaving- the Sweetgrass basket sellers who can be found in several locations around the city. The skill and tradition of basket making came directly from Africa. And although they do not usually use the term voodoo the Gullah people believe in spirits and the power of roots, herbs or potions to ward off evil spirits or to snare a reluctant lover. If a spell is cast upon you can be “rooted” or “fixed” by this witchcraft and unable to resist the spell. This spiritual tradition is still strong and even whites in Charleston paint the ceilings of their piazzas blue to ward off old hags and evil spirits (and the colour is also meant to deter mosquitoes.)
In the city of Charleston about 18,000 of its residents were slaves in 1861. Large households often had 10 to 20 slaves to do gardening, the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, the food serving, caring for the horses etc. Some households hired out servants to others for short periods and some households sold products produced by the slaves - dresses, other clothing, pastries, shoes, hats, horse shoes etc. Some slaves were musicians and played for their masters or were hired out for social functions to other houses; others were hired out with horse teams for transportation of others etc. So not all slaves worked as domestic servants. But there were also free blacks in Charleston. Often illegitimate children were freed upon their white father’s death and some slaves received small incomes if they had special skills and they could saved enough to buy their freedom. Eventually some free blacks became slave owners themselves by either purchasing slaves or by inheriting slaves from their white fathers. One of the wealthiest free blacks in Charleston in the Antebellum period was Richard DeReef who owned a wharf where he ran a timber business. He also owned a number of rental properties in Charleston. Richard was not a former slave. His African father with his Indian wife had migrated to Sth Carolina in the late 1700s when this was still possible. As his business grew Richard purchased slaves of his own. Despite his wealth Richard DeReef was considered a mixed race or coloured man and was never accepted into Charleston society. After the Civil War when the Radical Republicans from the North were overseeing/controlling Southern governments Richard DeReef was elected as a city councillor in 1868. That was the year that the new federally enforced state constitution allowing blacks to vote came into force. DeReef probably only served for a year or two. By 1870 the Ku Klux Klan was active and blacks disappeared from elected positions. When Northerners left Sth Carolina to its own devises in 1877, with the end of Northern Reconstruction, Sth Carolina stripped blacks of their right to vote by new state laws. Ballots for each of the usual eight categories of office had to be placed in a different ballot box. If any ballot was placed incorrectly all votes by that person were illegal. Later in the 1880s southern states brought in grandfather clauses- you could only vote if your grandfather did. This meant that slaves were not eligible to vote.
A Quatro mech with a Mobile Frame Zero Chub for scale.
My first time working with Quatro. The pieces are softer, more rubbery, like Mega Bloks Duplo clones. The fit and clutch of Duplo is looser than System and Quatro is, in turn, looser than Duplo. However the fit between System, Duplo, and Quatro is still quite good. The standard bricks would make good filler for large-scale System builds (reducing weight and adding strength) and the large curved slopes might make good elements in Duplo builds.