Empire State Building Colors

Investigating the recent rainbow-colored lighting of the Empire State Building led me to another 365 day typology…What Color is the Empire State Building

Seems like ESB has the potential for something more exciting…maybe they should turn the lighting over to Creative Time or the Public Art Fund for a year.-Molly

Vanity Table Typology

An enormous Duane Reade just opened in my neighborhood with a subterranean beauty section that should have its own zip code. An image that evokes the many typologies to be found in beauty products:

Molly

knots

from Aileen:

Scaffold Knots and Hitches
from Amateur Work Magazine vol. 5

(via):

As a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so stability of the scaffold is dependent to a great extent upon the security of its knots; hence the importance of knowing the best one to use for the purpose required … A very good proof that the lesson has been learned thoroughly is to tie each of these knots in the dark … The names usually given and their uses are as follows:

6. Granny, or thief, knot; this should not be used, as it will jam tight but not slip (as erroneously supposed), will not “upset,” and consequently is difficult to undo.

29. Catspaw, an endless loop, and used where great power is required.

barbershop posters

from Aileen

Need a haircut? Might want to consult the barber’s poster. Nos. 15 & 22 not recommended for the faint of heart.

silly charts (do these count as infographics?)

from Aileen

re: our discussion of infographics, and possibly my noticed #2 on horsey forms in fashion — some light comedy for your perusal:

more inane charts here (apologies for the offensive blog title, not mine):

http://fuckyeahflowcharts.tumblr.com/

Cellphone Evolution Russian Nesting Dolls

from Aileen:

Yes, it’s 4am. Don’t ask me why or how I found this. I just did:

I think Zack Morris uses the big black model to the left in early episodes of Saved By the Bell.

(via: http://craziestgadgets.com/2009/06/09/cellphone-evolution-russian-nesting-dolls/)

100 Abandoned Houses

In case you were having withdrawal from Typologies class, this in from Phil!

http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/

Inventario

Better late than never, here’s Inventario, the new tri-annual magazine full of typologies that I spoke about some time ago. The cover (and backcover) features a typology of vases, inside you’ll find swings, cabinets, stools, etc. To be found on the magazine shelf at the D-Crit library.

Tea kettles, 170 years ago

Lovely watercolor painting by the Austrian Franz Malek (1836). Please note the collection of tea kettles on the left front.

btw, (don’t go on reading if you’re not interested in know-it-all schoolmastery) we call the period shown on this painting Biedermeier—meaning the first half of the 19th century, until the beginning of the revolution in 1848. Biedermeier has long been seen as a synonym for bourgeois mediocrity, yet it was wronged. As you can see, Biedermeier furniture shows an amazing simplicity that we won’t see again until some eighty years later.

Jeff Brouws at DCrit

From Phil…

Photographer Jeff Brouws spoke to the Typologies class on November 15.  He has worked with Critter Alan Rapp on books,  published work in The New Yorker and The Atlantic and shows at the Robert Mann Gallery.

http://www.jeffbrouws.com/series/main_typologies.html

Jeff Brouws' series "Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations"

Brouws spoke of how he came to think of himself as a “visual anthropologist”– a useful job description for many of us.  He explained that he often brought together various of his photographs into common typologies by linking their horizon lines.  The idea of a common horizon line might be a useful metaphor for joining all sorts of   observations to  discern a common pattern.

He showed us images of partially painted pickup trucks—beyond a certain age, Brouws says, rough used farm trucks become de facto canvases—old drive in theaters, small houses painted in bright colors in suburban California, railroad box cars, surveillance cameras and strip malls   Most recently he has been photographing abandoned railroad rights of way, ghostly paths through forests in the Northeast.