Degrees of Intent

Curators and Imitators takes a slightly aggrieved look at the emergence of self-described curatorial tendencies amongst bloggers. ‘In the usual modern senses of the word, a curator (who often works for a museum) has a complex set of responsibilities that can only be carried out well by someone with a good deal of training, taste, experience, and intelligence…. If a person whose website links to other websites is a curator, then a person who walks into the Louvre with a friend and points out the Mona Lisa is also a curator. It seems to me that if we go with that usage we’re losing a worthwhile distinction.’ We were therefore very flattered to be given the benefit of the doubt in The New Atlantis’s suggested taxonomy. From the comments, a rather more straightforward spin: Design Blogs: The New Museums, which focuses on the work of 50 Watts (rich posts about illustrated books). To be honest, the aspects of things that approach conventional curation are the projects, which serve as drawers or boxes for us to put stuff that we feel belongs together. Or somewhere (on a more cynical note, these pages also act as potential linkbait (hopefully) for other sites). So is curation more about intent than presentation?

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‘In some ways, de Botton is the Jeremy Clarkson of architecture’: Exploring the architecture of Alain de Botton. A slightly snarky look at Living Architecture, which points out the project’s main flaw – it is creating a tiny handful of ‘inspirational spaces’ to be experienced only by a design-literate and monied minority / the Hangar House. Kinetic architecture never really took off. Occasionally, there are houses that do neat things slide or rotate. Then there are (largely hypothetical) buildings that do much more. Finally, there are cleverly concealed monster truck garages hidden behind hinged verandahs / Heatherwick on design. Some folding and hinging going on here.

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Peter Saville on his album cover artwork / Global Petrol Price Index, an infographic (via Technovia). Related, Report: Saudi prince worried over increasing fuel economy standards and technology. Not an Onion headline / Jimmy Fiction, giant letters for your garden, Michael Craig-Martin style / ‘a cartographic depiction of player deaths in Just Cause 2‘ at RPS / two scrapbook style tumblrs: Si rien avait une forme ce serait cela and A compendium of something / strangely creepy book art, via Simple Style / a collection of scanned hi-fi catalogues.

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Better Homes & Bunkers: The Fallout Shelter for the Nuclear Family / What Germany Looks Like from the Sky / Rough Space, a glitchy, twitchy compilation of astronomical imagery. There’s something of Georges Méliès about the aesthetic / Fantomatik, a weblog / This was brought by the railway, on the relationship between the railways and rural modernisation in Hungary, at Poemas del rio Wang / Tonematrix, an audio toy / more Taryn Simon.

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The Sir John Soane’s Museum Drawings Collection. Absolutely wonderful to have all this information available, but the browsing experience is rather unintuitive / ablaknaplo, a daily window window diary / No Deer Skulls, a tumblr / roomthily, a tumblr / the restoration of a 1957 double-skinned fibreglass caravan, one of 115 buitl by Willerby Caravan Co Ltd of Hull.

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We’re not sure why this oxymoronically-name news page should suddenly get so many hits. For the record, here’s what we were saying six and a half years ago: ‘As of November 2004, things 19 is still quite a few months away – we’re looking at a publication date of around mid 2005. If you would like us to alert you when the issue is nearly ready, please send an email.’ Oh the speed of print. Things 19-20 is now here, of course, just a few years late.

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