Pop-Ups and Paperdolls

I've been escorting my friend Andrew about Seattle and today we visited Allen Library's Special Collections show "A Merry Company." I suggest watching the slideshow at the end of this link (( http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/paper-poetry-the-colorful-world-of-vintage-pop-up-movable-and-toy-books-with-slide-show)) An enormous collection of all types of pop-up books from the last 300 years, it also had a great range of paper dolls. (please excuse that these photos are all shot surreptitiously with my phone) These actually come closest to how I now envision my calendar. I especially like the headless Scotsman. The idea of physically removing myself from the objects also allows me to think about making the props themselves 2 dimensional.

I loved this pop-up anatomy diagram, the "human-o-scope." The body parts are attached to transparent pages, and printed on both sides, so you could remove the structure on one body then replace the structure on the opposing side. This could work wonderfully for actually showing the costumes, perhaps...

I know it's early in the semester, but I'm absolutely overwhelmed by how much work I have to do, and the incredible expenses I can only begin to imagine to carry out the work that interests me. UGH...

Sci- Fi and Seals

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For nearly the last week I've been chilling at the Oregon Coast and immersing myself in a study of sci-fi. This time of year the weather alternates between hail, rain, burst of sun, and grey, so there isn't a lot of reason to go outside. Instead I've been sitting on a courderoy couch, fingerknitting like a fiend, while my friend Andrew curates the basics.

So far the list has included:
Metropolis
Flash Gordon, the Purple Plague serial
Omega Man
Solaris
Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Megalon
2001
Soylent Green
Stalker
The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Today it's Blade Runner... and then there's going to be a little break...

Anyway, what has been kicking around as an idea is how science fiction seems to rely on the misunderstanding of science as the fulcrum on which the story turns. That's where the anxiety comes from. Not quite sure where to go with the rest of that observation.

But in the meantime I read the old issue of Nature that was next to the toilet in the bathroom here in the house of a chemist, and found this article titled "Governance and Environmental Change in the Arctic Ocean" (April, 2009, that had this beautiful map graphic. Perfect sci-fi plot- How witll the Arctic be divided politically after there is no more ice?

And I've been out watching the seals. Which are just so much cooler than anything that can fit in a television.