Monthly Archives: June 2012

Link round-up

Posted on June 29, 2012 by things magazine

The Architectural Record rounds up architectural websites, the good and the bad thereof. Mostly architectural journalists get incredibly frustrated with tricky navigation, links that can’t be saved and pictures that can’t be clipped… / The Great Myth of Urban Britain … Continue reading →

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Early icons

Posted on June 27, 2012 by things magazine

A little bit more about the Victorian ‘tower for London’ competition posted about last week. Flicking through the descriptive illustrated catalogue of the competition and the sheer range and stylistic variety of the entrants is self-evident, from amateur improbabilities to … Continue reading →

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It all used to be fields

Posted on June 26, 2012 by things magazine

We’re late to the Secret History of Our Streets documentary on BBC, but having read Owen Hatherley’s The secret history of sentimentality about two-up two-downs before we watched the first programme (on Deptford High Street) it was hard not get … Continue reading →

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On rails

Posted on June 25, 2012 by things magazine

Ivan Puig’s SEFT 1 project, in collaboration with Andres Padilla (via Thank You Very Much), takes the aesthetic and heroics of the space programme and translates it to the rather more pragmatic mission of exploring the history and remnants of … Continue reading →

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The city’s spiky skyline

Posted on June 22, 2012 by things magazine

London in 20 Gigapixels, 2012 and a Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue of the Sixty-Eight Competitive Designs for the Great Tower for London, 1890. The former would have been greatly enhanced by the success of the latter (both via b3ta).

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Should I leave the engine on, to listen to that mountain song

Posted on June 22, 2012 by things magazine

The traditional American station wagon is the subject of Wagonmasters, a new documentary about the cultural impact of these road-going behemoths from the pre-SUV era. Now almost entirely displaced by the SUV, CUV and everything in between, the film celebrates … Continue reading →

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Carrying the green flag all winter long

Posted on June 21, 2012 by things magazine

Henry Bourne’s British Folklore Project, brining the Green Man/Jack in the Green to life / Battersea to Peckham in the style of Claude LeLouch’s C’était un rendez-vous / illustration by Adam Simpson / other things, a weblog / Spine Out, … Continue reading →

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Be kind, rewind

Posted on June 19, 2012 by things magazine

The film American Collectors, produced and directed by Bob Ridgley and Terri Krantz, examines the psychology of collecting, with interviews with 15 ‘unique’ collectors. According to Krantz: “in our research for this film we found that 30% of the American … Continue reading →

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A million monkeys

Posted on June 18, 2012 by things magazine

IBM Sequoia: ‘The computer is capable of calculating in one hour what otherwise would take 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they worked non-stop.’ A torturous analogy / Adaism, a coffee table tumblr / Automobila, … Continue reading →

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Everybody knows this is nowhere

Posted on June 15, 2012 by things magazine

Friday link round-up. The Reverend Awdry’s Revenge, a fine broadside from Bat, Bean, Beam against the ubiquitous railway stories and their relentlessly marketed toy division: ‘The titular hero of the modern cartoon and toy empire, Thomas, turns out to be … Continue reading →

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Looks like rain

Posted on June 14, 2012 by things magazine

Nullpointer makes code, in particular code that creates vast procedural landscapes. Their ‘British Countryside Generator’ is at the heart of Big Robot’s forthcoming Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Some screenshots / Cartographer make fun music / on the aesthetics of … Continue reading →

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Catch them young

Posted on June 13, 2012 by things magazine

The Toyota Camette is a concept car designed to woo a new generation of car buyers before they have even left home. Unveiled at the International Tokyo Toy Show, the car is deliberately toy-like, with simplified features and a diminutive … Continue reading →

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Marabout nightmares

Posted on June 13, 2012 by things magazine

In 1856, Napoléon III asked the magician and illusionist Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin to travel to French Algeria to undertake a special mission. As Wikipedia tells it, ‘the Marabouts were able to control their tribe with their faux magical abilities. They … Continue reading →

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Architecture and Illusion

Posted on June 13, 2012 by things magazine

The Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt is currently showing an exhibition entitled The Architectural Model: Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia (with accompanying catalogue). We complain today about the sterility, glossiness and general improbability of the computer-generated render, but concerns about the authenticity … Continue reading →

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Do not adjust your set

Posted on June 12, 2012 by things magazine

The False Alarm of 1971 was an accidental triggering of the USA-wide Emergency Broadcast System, ‘an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or grave national crisis.’ A detailed description of … Continue reading →

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Endurance Publishing and instant media

Posted on June 12, 2012 by things magazine

Endurance Publishing, the polar opposite to the slow movement in all its cultural manifestations. Are things more immediate and meaningful when they happen fast – be it a magazine, a novel, a script or an album (the February Album Writing … Continue reading →

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Supersonic

Posted on June 11, 2012 by things magazine

If you take my advice, I’d repress them. The irrepressible Adam Curtis on the curious relationship between Britain and Bahrain over the decades, taking in awkward proto-synth pop, Concorde, and high-ranking colonial posts doled out in Times classified ads. As … Continue reading →

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Taking flight

Posted on June 11, 2012 by things magazine

A short history of glass viewed through the prism of Game of Thrones / Keith Thomas’s Religion and the Decline of Magic (subtitle ‘Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century’) is being reissued by the Folio Society in a … Continue reading →

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The tomes of Venice

Posted on June 11, 2012 by things magazine

What would the world look like without sponsorship? Creative projects frequently implode due to lack of funding (or else take years and years – see things gone by) and it frequently takes a commercial interest with deep pockets to step … Continue reading →

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Boxy, but good

Posted on June 6, 2012 by things magazine

Archival Footage of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge / a visit to Shermer, Illinois – The John Hughes Filming Locations, by Brian Orndorf / Lego models by NXGeliminator / Rad Library, a book lovers website / LP cover … Continue reading →

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