Earth Sci Animation

This is a very simple post, but I really must share this great little animation. I am after all, a geophysicist by training, and this elegant animation “Everything You Need to Know About Planet Earth” by Munich-based Kurzgesagt, covers much of a first year physics of the Earth course in a lucid, fun, succinct way, with a great minimalist aesthetic, and a few extra dinosaurs.



Their rapid summary of plate tectonics does leave out mid-ocean ridges, transform faults, collision zones and more... but in fairness, an entire plate tectonics future video is promised. Way to go Kurzgesagt!

(via Laughing Squid)

Bespoke Insects

Source: designboom.com via minouette on Pinterest

 The 'muscle bug (Coleoptera Tendonitis)' by Mark Oliver

For some reason, I've been seeing a quite a few insects in art of late. After the recent post on the photographic work of Laurent Seroussi, today I bring you more than 2D insects: sculptural and animated fanciful insects.

Working with trash (and found objects), British artist Mark Oliver has created the 'litterbugs', building their bodies and classifying his imaginary creatures with scientific and common names. The 'muscle bug (Coleoptera Tendonitis)' for instance involves anatomical illustrations of the muscles in human limbs. The 'frequency moth (Lepidoptera Doppler)' has clock arms for legs. The 'celebellar bug (Coleoptera Mesmerical)' contains anatomical drawings of human heads and brains. Some are more metaphorical in classification. The 'Prophet Moth (Lepidoptera Inspiration)' contains the spine of a bible. He describes his beautiful and whimical Litter Bugs thus as, "A creature whose instinctual and physical qualities have adapted so uniquely to the modern urban environment that it has rendered itself, by nature of camouflage, virtually invisible" in its habitat. They make a truly wonderous collection; be sure to peruse the whole collection.

Source: designboom.com via minouette on Pinterest 

The 'frequency moth (Lepidoptera Doppler)' by Mark Oliver

Source: designboom.com via minouette on Pinterest

 The 'celebellar bug (Coleoptera Mesmerical)' by Mark Oliver

Source: designboom.com via minouette on Pinterest

 The 'Prophet Moth (Lepidoptera Inspiration)' by Mark Oliver

(↬design boom)

Mark Oliver isn't the only artist inventing species of insects. The previously mentioned Finland-based artist Vladimir Stankovic invented Cephalopodoptera, which, as the name suggests, combines the cephalopods (octopi and squids) with insects. What makes them magical is that he has not only illustrated them but animated them, like the often colour-changing or bioluminescent cephalopods. Find more here.

Cephalopodoptera by Vladimir Stankovic

Cephalopodoptera by Vladimir Stankovic

I am really taken with the work of Canadian metalsmith and jeweller Elizabeth Goluch. Her gorgeous metal and gemstone insect sculptures include clever little allusions to nomenclature or folklore. There are a dragons and flies on her dragonfly. Insider her ladybugs are a house engulfed in flames ("Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire..."). Her Violin Beetle has a violin, bow and scored music included. Her carpenter arts contain the tools of the trade (hammer, nails and saw). Her work isn't limited to insects; I love the medusa jellyfish with medusa head. Have a look at her marvellous portfolio.

DRAGONFLY by Elizabeth Goluch
Sterling silver, 18k & l4k gold, fresh water pearls, garnets
9.5"l x 11.75"w x 2.75"h

LADYBUG #2 by Elizabeth Goluch
sterling silver, 18k + 14k gold, garnets, enamel, ceramit
5.5"l x 4.5 "w x 1.5 "h

VIOLIN BEETLE by Elizabeth Goluch
sterling silver, 18k & 14k gold
10.5"l x 8.5"w x 1.5"h

CARPENTER ANTS by Elizabeth Goluch
Sterling silver, 14K & 18K gold
8.5"l x 7.25"w x 2.25"h
10"l x 8.75"w x 3"h
9"l x 7"w x 2.75"h

This work reminds me of the Insect Lab Studio. "Borrowing from science fiction and fact, Insect Lab customizes insect specimens with antique watch parts and other mechanical components for a luxurious and whimsical effect." Insect Lab creates sort of steampunk robot-like insects; they don't function robotically, but they merely look like Victoria cyborg insects (or cybugs).

Cetonidae: Amaurodes Passerinii Linnei by Insect Lab
Steel watch parts, gears and screw
2.75"
3"x4" dome

Cetonidae: Dicarphaneous Adamsi by Insect Lab
Steel watch parts, gears, spring and screw
3"
4"x4" dome

Cerambycidae: Batocera Numitor by Insect Lab
Steel pocket watch parts, gears, springs and shafts.
5"
5.5"x5.5" dome

I notice that what all these bespoke insect sculptures (and animations) have in common is that they are made of disparate parts. This seems entirely apt. The word insect itself means segment or cut, refering to their separate parts.

Measuring the Universe, Animated

This is a lovely, very graphic animation, with simple lines and sparing use of colour, gives one of the most straightforward, yet rather thorough explanations I've heard of the sheer scale of our Universe and how we measure astronomical distances. It is directed by Richard Hogg, animated by Robert Milne,Ross Philips, and Kwok Fung Lam and narrated by astrophysicist Olivia Johnson.



↬ Brain Pickings

I particularly liked her efficient explanation of 'standard candles', which is something I've tried to put as simply and plainly as possible, when I describe the importance of Henrietta Swan Leavitt's discovery of the relationship between luminosity, or brightness, of a certain type of star, the Cepheid variable stars. Thanks to her discovery, we now know there is a simple relationship between period and luminosity for these stars - something which radically changed the theory of modern astronomy, an accomplishment for which she received almost no recognition during her lifetime.

Cepheid variables are a class of pulsating star. They are named for the star Delta Cephei in the Cepheus constellation. The relationship between a Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period is quite precise, securing Cepheids as viable standard candles and the foundation of the Extragalactic Distance Scale.



My portrait of Swan Leavitt, shows Henrietta, related constellations, and a plot of her period-luminosity relation. This is a first edition lino block print in lavender-silver and gold ink on Japanese kozo paper (10" by 12.5" or 25.4 cm by 31.8 cm). The first edition is a run of 6 prints.

Singing about Isostsy, with Stop-Motion and the Baltic Sea

(↬Colossal)

This lovely short stop-motion paper craft video is directed by Vincent Pianina and Lorenzo Papace (May 2012) for Papace's band Ödland, for the song Østersøen on the album Sankta Lucia (October 2011). The music was also written, composed and recorded by Lorenzo Papace. The song tells the story, in French, of dreaming of traveling in bed, moving about a room, aboard a train, which in turn is aboard a ship, which is sailing the Baltic Sea, trying to avoid dangerous islands.

There is a verse about isostacy, which has got to be the most only artistic interpretation of the geophysical concept I've ever seen. It's quite pertinent to the Baltic, due to the post-glacial rebound (or isotatic rebound) of Fennoscandia¹ to the north and east of the sea; basically, the nature and size of the sea depends on its relative height. Imagine all the continents floating on the Earth's mantle (also shown in the video), much like icebergs float in the sea, with a certain proportion above water and the remainder below. Everything will find its equilibrium position. If you drop an ice cube in your glass of water, it may sink initially then float to the surface; isostasy (or with fluids, buoyancy) will push the less dense up so that it can be in gravitational equilibrium. In the case of icebergs, which are only slightly less dense than water, there is 90% below the sea and only 10% above. It is isostasy which determines these proportions, as the song says (the islands like icebergs find the sea surface through the process of isostasy). Thus mountains have 'roots' just like icebergs hide much below the waterline. If you put a large weight on the Earth, it will deform to accommodate this weight like a trampoline. Consider for instance huge glacial ice sheets during ice ages. These pushed the crust downward. Since the removal of that weight and the retreat of the icesheets, the Earth has been rebounding upward to find its new icesheet-less equilibrium. (The Earth, like SillyPutty, is viscoelastic, so it does not respond instantaneously to the removal of the icesheet's mass, but on a longer time scale governed by the nature of the mantle - specifically its viscosity. It's also important to remember that if we think in geological time, units of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years are not that long). Thus vast regions of the Earth near the poles, like Fennoscandia, or Canada's Hudson's Bay are in fact moving and have been moving upward, away from the centre of the planet, since the retreat of the glaciers and the end of the last ice age. In the song, which describes a dream, the process is vastly sped up, and "dangerous islands" pop up through isostasy in a matter of seconds, so the boat must take a circumambulating path to navigate its changing seascape.

Consider the series of shapes needed to show the rise of a single island!

The video uses the plates of Ernst Haeckel² to great effect. I love the spatial context; the bed upon the train upon the ship upon the sea, complete with the multifarious sea life; the sea in turn is shown in context of Northern Europe and earth and the solar system. In the process they built a wonderful orrery (solar system model). How I love orreries. The train furthermore travels an amazing roller coaster-like track, which I'm astounded to learn they built and filmed in only 4 months. It's really quite marvellous.

You can find more about the music, the video, art and process on the blog Le Petit Écho Malade. You can even buy the sheet music. I'm so charmed by this quixotic, anachronistic endeavour. Check it out.

1 Ok, I just wanted to use the word 'Fennoscandia'. It is the geological province which encompasses the entire Scandinavian peninsula and Finnland.

2 You know how I am a raving fan of the wunderkammer collections of nature illustration by Ernst Haeckel.

Destino: Dalí meets Disney

Beginning in 1945 Salvador Dalí spent eight months, with Disney story board artist John Hench making storyboards for a short film called Destino but the project was abandoned. Rediscovered in 1999 by Roy E. Disney (nephew to Walt), the film project was completed by director Dominique Monfréy at Disney Studios France, 58 years after it began, by 2003. They were able to encorporate 17 seconds of completed film, and seek advice from Hench and Dalí's widow Gala.



I found the baseball player the most unexpected thing in this intriguing surrealist animated short.

Happy Day of the Dead

Mound by Allison Schulnik from garaco taco on Vimeo.

This lovely short film by Allison Schulnik, stop-motion, claymation even, is so beautiful and ephemeral, with its dancing skeletons and trembling ghosts. Plus, it feature Scott Walker's 'It's Raining Today' which really sets the tone. The motion of the clay is beautifully choreographed to the music (though she identifies Walker by his birth name, Noel Scott Engel). (via TeenAngster)

MÖBIUS - Federation Square

Since we're talking about Möbius strips, and specifically adding the time dimension to the concept of a looped strip with a single side, a 2D object embedded in a 3D space (with, of course the 4th dimension of time) I would be loathe to neglect the MÖBIUS - Federation Square project by ENESS which used sculpture and stop-motion animation to extend the concept to 4D.

MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

ENESS describes the project thus;

Twenty-one large triangles animated by Melbourne, throughout Federation Square. MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground. The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne's landmark location throughout the day.

MÖBIUS was animated over two weeks Friday, Saturday & Sunday between the 6th - 20th of May 2011.

The 'making of' video is also inspiring. I love the public participation in art, design and whimsy.

Making of MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

Historia Naturae

Speaking of musical, natural history-themed multimedia, I have to share the somewhat crazed, sliced and diced, musical wunderkammer of the 1967 short film Historia Naturae by Czech animator Jan Švankmajer (via form is void).

Animated Science of the Deep

Earlier this week was the 50th anniversary of the first manned dive to the deepest point on Earth: the Marianas Trench, south of Japan, near Guam, along the edge of the Philipine Basin. Wired magazine posted this wonderful, animated documentary. They credit the interview to Victor Ozols, and video to Roman Wolter. Featuring the audio recording of an interview with Jacques Piccard, who made the dive, the stylish animation never sacrifices science substance for aesthetics. Information is clearly and elegantly portrayed in illustrations, sufficiently schematic to be easily absorbed, yet really lovely and engaging. If all science museum exhibits were this good, I'd never escape the museum.

Also, I am reminded once again how much I want to go to the seafloor. I was once on a research cruise aboard the R/V Atlantis and got to see ALVIN, but sadly, no dives were included during that trip.

(cross-posted to my other blog)

straight lines

I recently returned from Vancouver Island, where I previously lived for three years. January was the toughest month for me, when I lived there. Not only was it possible to get rain for 40 days straight, the frequent, thick fog made me claustrophobic. In fact, I often feared I would get lost, walking home in the dark and the fog, for about 500 m along a road. Once I did 'get lost'. I mean, I knew I had left work walking in a straight line, and I knew I was not yet home, but I had no clue where I was. I knew sooner or later I would fall in the ditch.

This delightful animation recounts how my fears were justified. We people have no clue how to go in a straight line in the absence of reference points!

A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.

(via swissmiss)

The rest of the year was generally extraordinarily lovely, with perfect weather from February, when the crocuses bloomed, through September, when the rain started.

whispering Lucía

Dear internets,

O, you are the source of so much wonder.
Perhaps in your web you could find me a Spanish speaker who would like to provide me with a gloss of this whispering world?
I watched this without sound and thought beautiful & strange!
I listened to it and am flummoxed.
What can it mean?

love,
magpie & whiskeyjack


"Lucía is a short video shot frame by frame with a digital photo camera. Materials: charcoal, dirt, flowers, found objects and cardboard. July 12th, 2007 by Diluvio"

[via Le Divan Fumoir Bohémien]

I like penguins

Happy Earth Day, Penguins.
This is Takashi Taniguchi’s “Mr. Ando of the Woods” (with English subtitles) [via Pink Tentacle]