Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Friday, October 23, 2020

RV, or home, or cabin...

Alex Arnott wrote:

Try to look at and accept them for being exactly who they are right now, not how you think they should be.

There is a whole world outside the RV AND a whole world inside their iPad. Whatever they choose, be there with them! It’s hard to truly be with another person when you’re wishing they were something else.
—Alex Arnott
on Unschooling Discussion 2020
"RV" stands for "recreational vehicle." They can be used for travel and for sleeping and living. In other places they might be called motorhomes, campervans or caravans. While I was looking, I found some new designs from India, and The Netherlands.

photo by Sarah S.

Friday, September 25, 2020

Pre-electric recordings

Before electricity, and even before wind-up/crank record players, there were music boxes, calliopes and player pianos. Music met engineering centuries ago, in many different places.

What is pictured here is a steam-powered calliope, in England. It has wooden pipes, that sound like loud flutes (because of the notch cut in them, and their sizes), and air passes through holes in a heavy card-stock board, fastened to the next and next. They are fed through, and refold themselves fan-style on the other side.

The history of science, the history of technology, and in this case art and music, too, can help fill in a lot of connections and timelines.

Today's link goes into the wilds: Some history of music boxes, with links
and info on Calliopes
photo by Sandra Dodd

Sunday, January 21, 2018

"Sculpture" and other words

This photo is from a Chinese Lantern Festival event.


What is a Chinese lantern? What is "a lantern"? These have wire frames with cloth, and electric light inside. There are many other kinds of lanterns, both more traditional and modern.

In Albuquerque, balloonists sometimes get together to inflate their balloons at night. They stay on the ground, and the fire from the hot-air-creating burner will light the huge balloon up from the inside beautifully.

Back to the photo, though. It'a a monkey. It's a Chinese zodiac symbol. Geometry and technology were involved, with some traditional ideas about connecting pieces of cloth to create three-dimensional forms. It is a tool of cultural exchange, of good will, from a country at odds with our own. It is a propaganda monkey, and an art monkey. It was a happy light in darkness.

One thing is many things.

The flow of words
photo by Sandra Dodd, of other people's art
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