The MIT Museum
presents The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and
Technology (October 11, 2019–June 21, 2020), the fascinating
story of the Polaroid company told through the MIT’s unique Polaroid Collection
and an array of stunning Polaroid photographs. After traveling around the world, this
extensive exhibition of more than 300 objects will make a stop at the MIT
Museum, approximately one block from where instant film was first invented. The exhibition will provide a glimpse at
rarely seen works, and include objects from the Museum’s own Polaroid
collection that have not been on view at previous venues. “Mention Polaroid and instantly it stirs up
memories,” said John Durant, The Mark R. Epstein Director of the MIT
Museum. The exhibition explores various
dimensions of the art-technology relationship, and features over 200 original
works by 120 artists, along with the tools, materials and related artifacts
that made their artworks possible.
Artists include Ansel Adams, Guy Bourdin, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons,
Chuck Close, Barbara Crane, Harold Edgerton, Walker Evans, Hans Hansen, David
Hockney, Dennis Hopper, Gyorgy Kepes, Robert Mapplethorpe, Olivia Parker,
Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Rosamond Wolff Purcell. The exhibition also showcases more than 100
artifacts, including cameras, prototypes, experimental films and other
technical materials from the Museum’s own historic Polaroid collection of close
to 10,000 objects. Examples of large and
rarely seen important objects include Edwin Land’s personal 20x24 camera, the
238 lb. behemoth that could take pictures 20x24 inches, and extremely rare test
prints that document the invention of instant film. Despite its demise in the early years of this
century, Polaroid remains a highly respected brand, evoking innovation,
utility, creativity and quality.
Polaroid created a complex phenomenon that was, and remains vital to our
image-saturated, instant culture. What
Polaroid promised and delivered, was easier, faster, accessible photography. Art could be made anytime, anywhere, by
anyone. In its heyday during the second
half of the twentieth century, the Polaroid company’s cameras and films were
purchased by millions of amateurs and countless professionals in diverse
fields. While families recorded their
anniversaries and graduation parties, filmmakers and fashion photographers made
test shots, scientists recorded their observations, police documented crime
scenes, and artists embraced the new medium for its unique and striking qualities. And with Polaroid’s instant range,
photographer and subjects could watch together as the image appeared before
their eyes.
Erasers were invented in
1770 by an engineer named Edward Nairne.
Nairne used rubber from trees, and his magical device was so impressive
that the theologian Joseph Priestley mentioned it in a footnote in his
book A Familiar Introduction to the Theory
and Practice of Perspective:
"I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of
wiping from paper the mark of black-lead-pencil,” he wrote. Since then, as material engineering has
improved, erasers have become more high-tech.
The exact composition of today’s erasers is a bit of a mystery. Precise breakdowns of materials tend to be
guarded as company secrets. Rigoberto
Advincula, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who has consulted in
the pencil and eraser industry, said that erasers are usually made of some
combination of rubber and plastic components.
Natural rubbers—made from the stuff that comes from rubber trees—have
good erasing properties. Thermoplastics,
a type of polymer that can be hardened or softened depending on heat, are
easier to shape. A host of additives,
like additional particles and aromatic agents, can tweak the mixture further,
as can the compounding process. The
erasers we see in stores are almost always some proprietary combination of all
three. If you look at graphite pencils
in other countries … they don’t have erasers, and people are used to using a
handheld eraser. Usually a handheld
eraser tends to perform better, just because it’s larger, has a broader
surface, has a little more control.”
Erasers made purely to erase are more likely to do that job well, and
more surface area also reduces the eraser’s chances of drying out. Henry Petroski, the pencil historian, said
that before Nairne introduced his rubber eraser, people used bread to
erase. “I did try it, a long time ago,”
he said. “It depends on the bread, of
course.” Heather Schwedel https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/why-do-erasers-suck-at-erasing/381025/
How to Make Pencil Erasers Work
Again (Quick Tip) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4gXSFiD41o 1:35
Back in 2012, Guinevere de
la Mare and Laura Gluhanich were sipping wine at the now-closed Bistro Central
Parc, a cozy French restaurant near the Panhandle in San Francisco decked out
in twinkling fairy lights. They were
complaining about book clubs. Nearly
everyone who’s been in a book club has a bone to pick with them. Big personalities dominate the
discussion. You’re expected to read a
thousand-page brick in a single month.
The books you pick are too literary, or not literary enough. Janice didn’t pitch in for wine and
cheese. Offhandedly, de la Mare described
the drama-free book club of her dreams to her friend: one where all she had to do was meet people at
a bar with whatever book she was reading.
No forced deadlines. No reading
books she didn’t want to read. No
vacuuming the house. No preparing
deviled eggs or canapés. Gluhanich loved
the idea. Why not make it a
reality? And that’s exactly how Silent Book Club started. Friends in San Francisco, quietly reading in
a bar, led to a global phenomenon with 50,000 members online and more than 180
active chapters in 20 countries. It
surprised them how something as unassuming as two women reading would stop
people in their tracks. “If you look
around a bar or restaurant, look at how many people are staring at their phones
and not talking. That’s a cultural
norm,” said de la Mare. “But if you
replace a screen with a book, all of a sudden it draws a lot of
attention.” Through word of mouth, more
friends found out about Silent Book Club and asked to join. In 2015, one friend moved across the country
to Brooklyn and started her own chapter there.
The two groups began bicoastal meetups using Instagram hashtags to
connect, which sparked the idea to form an online community that could spread
Silent Book Club’s geographical reach even farther. They launched a website as well as a
Facebook group, and new chapters kept popping up steadily for years. “Social media and word of mouth were the
primary drivers of new chapters until 2019, when we were featured in Oprah
Magazine and NPR and there was a global explosion of new chapters,” explained
de la Mare. The format of a Silent Book
Club meeting is simple: The group picks
a time and a place, and everyone brings a book to read of their choosing. For the first half hour, people order drinks,
share what they’re reading and get settled.
Then, it’s an hour of uninterrupted quiet reading time. After the hour is up, people are invited to
start chatting again—or, keep reading if they so choose. Madeline Wells https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/Silent-Book-Club-women-reading-bar-San-Francisco-14954269.php
January 31, 2020 A rare book the size of a matchbox written by
the teenage Charlotte Brontë will go on public
display for the first time after a museum paid €600,000 (£505,000) to bring it
back to Britain. Curators said they wept
when they finally received the book, which arrived from an auction house in
Paris. It was penned by the oldest of the Brontë sisters at the family’s home
in Haworth, West Yorkshire, 200 years ago. Handwritten by Brontë at the age of 14, the
book has just 20 pages and contains three entire short stories. It is one of six surviving “little books”
penned by the author of Jane Eyre and had been in a private collection since
her death in 1855. The manuscript,
called The Young Men’s Magazine, contains more than 4,000 handwritten words in
a meticulously folded and stitched magazine.
It is made up of three stories: A
letter From Lord Charles Wellesley, The Midnight Song and Journal of a
Frenchman. Nazia Parveen https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/31/charlotte-bronte-little-book-on-show-haworth-parsonage-museum
February 3, 2020 Tulane University has acquired the complete
archives of bestselling author Anne Rice, who was born and raised in New
Orleans and whose books, including “Interview with a Vampire,” often drew
inspiration from her hometown. The
collection was a gift from Stuart Rose and the Stuart Rose Family Foundation to
the university’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. “That Tulane has provided a home for my
papers is exciting and comforting,” Rice said in the statement. “All my novels — in a career spanning more
than 40 years—have been profoundly influenced by the history and beauty of New
Orleans, and by its unique ambience in which my imagination flourished even in
early childhood.” Rice has written 30
novels. She moved to California to
attend university and has spent much of her life since then in California,
according to her biography. However, New
Orleans has played a central role in much of her fiction. “Interview with a Vampire” was her first
novel when it was published in 1976 and is set in the city’s French Quarter. The collection at Tulane will consist of
manuscripts of most of her published works, some unpublished short stories,
journals, screenplays, personal artifacts and correspondence from family,
friends and fans of the author. It will
also include materials from her late husband Stan Rice and her sister, Alice
Borchardt, who was also a writer. https://www.newstribune.com/news/news/story/2020/feb/03/tulane-acquires-archive-of-vampire-author-anne-rice/814988/
A Mercer
County (Ohio) family dispute escalated to a point where a judge issued civil protection orders that banned a man
for mentioning his mother and sister in any future social media posting. That act has drawn the attention of
free-speech advocates, as well as protectors of domestic violence victims. The Ohio Supreme Court will consider whether
the addition of an online posting ban to a civil stalking protection order
(CSPO) is an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech or a legal
safeguard against further harassment by someone already deemed by a court to be
stalking his victims. The Court will
hear oral arguments Feb. 11-12, 2020
in Bey v. Rasawehr and six other cases. In
November 2017, Joni Bey and Rebecca Rasawehr petitioned the Mercer County
Common Pleas Court for CSPOs against Jeffrey Rasawehr. At a court hearing, Bey identified nine
incidents in which her brother, Jeffrey Rasawehr, allegedly made claims on
internet websites and social media outlets that Bey killed her husband or
participated in a conspiracy with Mercer County officials to “cover up” the
circumstances of her husband’s death. He
also purchased a billboard near Bey’s house advertising a website called
“countycoverup.com,” which included his photo and stated, “Jeff Rasawehr says,
‘Learn about county corruption & cover-ups at . . .
countycoverup.com.’” Rasawehr’s mother,
Rebecca Rasawehr, identified 14 incidents in which her son claimed she killed
her husband, Jeffrey Rasawehr’s father, and she was involved in acts of
conspiracy with Mercer County officials to cover up the circumstances of her
husband’s death. Both women
characterized the behavior as bullying and harassment, and indicated they
suffered from distress caused by the episodes. Rasawehr chose not to testify at the hearing, instead invoking his Fifth
Amendment right to remain silent.
The case has drawn state and national
attention from advocates for free speech who are participating through the
filing of amicus curiae briefs. Dan Trevas
Read more at http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2020/SCO/previews/0211-12/0211-12.asp#.XjoJU2hKiUl Thank you, Muse reader!
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2220
February 5, 2020
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