Sunday 31 May 2009

commonplace books



Erasmus on the daughters of Thomas More compiling their commonplace books:

As they flit like so many little bees between Greek and Latin authors of every species, here noting down something to imitate, here culling some notable saying to put into practice in their behavior, there getting by heart some witty anecdote to relate among their friends, you would swear you were watching the Muses at graceful play in the lovely pastures of Mount Helicon, gathering flowers and marjoram to make well-woven garlands.

subterranean homesick blues


Antiquity's representations of space have collapsed: the firmament, the celestial spheres...Its representational spaces however have survived, the realm of the dead, chthonian and telluric forces, the depths and the heights.










january 2017

epic space























the space of the romanceros, which straddled dream and reality, the space of cavalcades, tourneys, where the distinction between war and festival becomes unclear. Lefevbre [231]

Saturday 30 May 2009

damascene sword - pattern welding

infinitization
the serpent in the sword

Beowulf's swords
The first is Hrunting, loaned to Beowulf by Unfero and said to be damascened and ring-patterned on its edge. The giant-sword taken by Beowulf from the monsters' lair beneath the lake is likewise "ring-marked" and inscribed with a wavy pattern as is Beowulf's un-named sword. Although the blade of the giant-sword melts "just like ice", Beowulf returns to Heorot and presents the hilt to Hrothgar:

Hrothgar spoke--he studied the hilt of the old heirloom, where was written the origin of ancient strife [...]. Also, on the sword-guard of bright gold was rightly marked in rune-letters, set down and said for whom that sword, best of irons, had first been made, with scrollery and serpentine patterns.

Monday 25 May 2009

wheatstone bridge



measuring resistance

boetti / perec


This is how space begins, with words only, signs traced on the blank page. To describe space: to name it, to trace it, like those portolano-makers who saturated the coastlines with the names of harbours, the names of capes, the names of inlets, until in the end the land was only separated from the sea by a continuous ribbon of text. Is the aleph, that place in Borges from which the entire world is visible simultaneously, anything other than an alphabet?‎

Monday 18 May 2009

red list

red list

is there anybody there?
























Noun 1. table tapping - alleged form of communication with spirits of the dead
spirit rapping, table rapping
parapsychology, psychic phenomena, psychic phenomenon - phenomena that appear to contradict physical laws and suggest the possibility of causation by mental processes

LEARN MORSE