“Fine Art”

 AARRRGH, art, blather, Forward!, Gah., Meh., politics, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 282023
 

I listened to part of an NPR piece earlier today on the subject of art forgery and the economics of it. Part of the discussion revolved around a case where a museum had a special display of “art” produced, supposedly, by Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 80’s. If you’ve never heard of Basquiat, there are two things to keep in mind:

1) His paintings have sold for over one Hundred MILLION dollars.

2) His paintings look like this:

Yeah. That’s really what passes for “fine art” these days.

As it turns out, this museum exhibition was populated by *forged* Basquiat paintings, which caused headaches all around.

Anyway, the thing that made me laugh out loud was one of the admissions by one of the forgers: the paintings took less than half an hour to create. According to THIS ARTICLE, some of them as little as five minutes. If you can forge “art” that passes *any* sort of muster in a matter of minutes, I gotta question whether said “art” is worthy of any real mention.

 

In the NPR piece, the expert they talked to yammered on about how “important” Basquiat was, along with Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. There’s yer problem: you think *that* is art worthy of remembrance. But where is your reverence for Chesley Bonestell? Norman Rockwell? Robert McCall? You know, artists with actual skill and talent, producers of art that inspired and uplifted… and demonstrated craftsmanship and ᚠᚢcᚲᛁᚾᚷ effort? Artists you couldn’t create “previously unseen” art from in the time it takes to listen to a mediocre podcast?

This is just a part of the uglification of the world, the exaltation of the mediocre, the banal, the bland.

 Posted by at 6:05 pm

“2001” laptop: What *are* these?

 art, history, Hmm..., science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 282023
 

There are several raised rectangular “buttons” on the briefcase computer prop that appear to be simple beveled rectangles of plexiglass, or cast clear plastic. I’m reasonably certain that I’ve seen these on “instrument panel” props before, typically lighted from behind. I don’t know if they are simple bits of plastic or if they were originally push buttons. Here it looks as if they were simply glued on and unlit, but lighting them from behind would seem appropriate.

They can be recreated via CAD and 3D printing easily enough… probably easier still to simply *make* one by hand. But it’d be good to know exactly what they are.

 

They *kinda* look like the indicator lights on Goldfingers “trick pool table” control panel. Most of these look like simple plexiglas rectangles, but some look like the “laptop” buttons turned upside-down. Shrug.

 

 Posted by at 7:47 am

“2001” Laptop: Light Pen

 art, history, Hmm..., science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 272023
 

What is this device? It seems to be a light pen for drawing on the briefcase computers screen… but almost certainly was something different. But what? I’m wondering if it was an inspection light. But even in the 1960s there were “pen” flashlights that ran on batteries and didn’t need cords for power. So was this an especially *powerful* light? Or something completely different? It does appear to have a machined aluminum holder for it to clip into.

 Posted by at 11:20 pm

“2001” Laptop: TLAR

 art, awesomeness, history, photography, science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 262023
 

Both the phone and the typewriter arrived today. The phone, as can be seen, seems to fit just about perfectly, indicating that the Samsonite briefcase is the correct one (though a number of virtually trivial details are different). The phone has a cord that seems to be pretty permanently attached, but I am loathe to just lop it off. My goal is to keep all the vintage bits as intact as possible, so I’ll either disassemble the phone or go straight to making a silicone mold of it and casting it in fiberglass. I hope to remove only a few keys from the typewriter, assuming I can figure out how to remove them without damaging them, then mold/cast resin copies. Other than a cracked frame the typewriter seems intact and functional. And while there is about zero chance I’ll ever use a typewriter again… I cringe at the idea of wrecking such a nifty bit of functional analog mechanical genius.

The phone and the keys are the wrong color, so casting copies seems to be the correct way to go in any event. This would also open the door for a very limited run “kit” for those vanishingly few who want this. I plan on making the parts out of a combination of cast resin and fiberglass; hand laid up fiberglass cloth components would be strong, light and *hollow,* allowing those with a mind to to install electronics. A functioning keyboard and monitor would be spectacular, though a functional fiberglass phone seems maybe a bit dubious.

 

 

 

 

Note the obligatory feline photobomb.

 Posted by at 6:53 pm

“2001” Laptop: And so it begins…

 art, awesomeness, cats, critters, photography, science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 252023
 

The first artifact has arrived, a Samsonite briefcase. I am *largely* certain that this is the correct case; there are certainly a largish number of them readily available on Ebay. There are some minor differences between this one and the prop, most of the differences explainable as modifications: the key locks have been removed and replaced with featureless aluminum disks/cylinders; the tabs on the prop have concave ends rather than just squared-off ends. There is a small placard affixed to the middle of the briefcase… I can see “Honeywell,” then something that might be numbers, and then “EXECUTIVE.” The interior lining needs to be removed and the whole thing cleaned, the metal polished and the metal base that the handle is fixed to painted black.

And, of course, the current residents evicted. This took about five seconds; it is a box, after all.

I will wait a little bit before launching into a full preparation. The intercom/phone should be the next item to arrive, and if it fits in this case as it should, then I’ll be off to the races. If it doesn’t… well, I’ll need to rethink the case, I guess. Pretty confident, though.

 Posted by at 6:50 pm

“2001” laptop: tripod

 art, awesomeness, science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 242023
 

Pretty sure I got this component nailed:

 

This appears to be a “Pyramid” compact tripod. There are a bunch of ’em on ebay in the United Kingdom, largely for reasonable prices; but international shipping is anything but reasonable these days. Fortunately I found a vaguely reasonably priced tripod in the US that, while not called out as a “Pyramid,” appears to be exactly the same thing:

Features to note, common to the prop and to the “Pyramid”:

1) black shafts

2) silver caps on either end

3) Black elliptical rubber “feet”

4) Rounded ends on bottom caps with knurling

5) Slightly enlarged diameters at the tops of the upper caps

The prop tripod seems to be either missing the top camera-platform, or it’s folded down out of view.

Once again, I’d *swear* that somewhere along the line I saw a photo of the prop with the camera removed and set up on the tripod. Anybody have any pointers to that…

 

 Posted by at 11:47 pm

Quint’s Monologue

 art, awesomeness, critters, history, youtube  No Responses »
Apr 242023
 

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this, but I never fail to be impressed with the delivery. Steven Spielberg, director of “Jaws,” gave Robert Shaw permission to write this monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (after the great John Milius had a crack at it). Shaw then delivered it, reportedly, drunk. And it’s one of the most amazing bits of understated acting in film history. One of the details I’ve always liked is how Hooper goes from jovial to “Oh Crap” in one breath when Quint says that his removed tattoo is of the USS Indianapolis.

 

I’m a bit disturbed that so many of these reactors are unaware of the story of the Indianapolis. But given how ignorant so many people are about so many things anymore, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

 

“Jaws” is still eminently watchable, one of the great films of all time.

 Posted by at 8:53 pm
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