This tapestry is my depiction of the Artemis II mission as a traditional US American colonial coverlet. In each corner, four diamonds (astronauts) surround a circle (the moon). Semi-circles (earthrise) make up the borders, and the dark circles (the moon's dark side) in the center are repeated in a 9 by 9 grid (nine days in space).
By designing artemis ii in the style of a traditional coverlet, I wanted to make it explicit that our colonial history - and the immense harm therein - is intrinsically woven together with our modern success. The weave structure (our history & our ongoing harm) is the foundation that makes the design (our successes) possible.
-
This project started as an obsession with finding the origin of a popular late-1800's coverlet draft named Lee's Surrender. Given its name and its age, I had questions. Mostly, who designed it? The assumption is that it's named for the surrender of confederate general robert e. lee, but is the name a celebration or a condemnation of that event? If I make this, would I be displaying a confederate dogwhistle in my home? Etc, etc.
After lots of searching and no well-sourced answers, the final nail in my research coffin was Eliza Calvert Hall's 1912 "A Book of Handwoven Coverlets." She lists, for an entire page, the questions that plague her about coverlet names. And among them:
If we've been asking this same question for over a century, then it might not be possible to know. The knowledge of who designed it and why is likely lost to time.
In my research, I found one theory I thought was interesting - that Lee's Surrender wasn't named as a manner of opinion, but rather as an impartial description. Many coverlets from this era are named after what they depict. The squares in the center might be soldiers lined up in formation, walled in by the surrounding borders; the corners, explosions from muskets or cannons.
Even if that's true, even if somehow its creator named it with complete indifference (which I doubt), it is still an act of creation and therefore still has inherent political meaning.
And as I thought about all this, I also watched live as astronauts approached the moon. I listened with intense interest as they described the greens and browns visible on the surface. I waited in horror for the nuclear destruction promised by my government back on Earth. I held my breath during reentry. Finally, the US military airlifted the astronauts from their capsule to safety. The same US military murdered thousands of Iranians in air strikes that same week.
artemis ii is a modified version of Snowballs (A Handweaver's Pattern Book by M. P. Davison, p. 181). I hope I've done enough to justify giving this version its own name.
It simultaneously represents my celebration of our scientific achievements - of the good that comes from space exploration, and my condemnation of the violent legacy needed to get here.
If, 100 years from now, someone finds themselves asking if artemis ii was named in sorrow or in triumph, here is the answer:
I love that Jules Verne asked the question "What kind of person could circumnavigate the world in 80 days?" and decided that the answer was not a groundbreaking explorer or genius inventor, but a guy who's really, really, really obsessed with train and boat schedules.
my final paper for my CS degree was literally "how can we algorithmically optimise for the fastest possible circumnavigation route on commercial flights?", which incidentally required me to adopt a very good working knowledge of what flight options are available at what times (and also led to me accidentally memorising several hundred airport codes)
incidentally the fastest possible route seems to be about 51 hours, if you're working from 2022 schedules like i was. if you use current schedules and are very optimistic about how quickly you can transfer between flights, you can maybe get it down to around 48 hours (also known as 25 millivernes).
the egyptian vulture is small vulture found from the iberian peninsula to north africa, west asia and india. like many vultures, a large portion of their diet consists of carrion - however, they are opportunistic feeders that eat a variety of found foods, and willing hunters. they predate on small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and are known for their love of feeding on the eggs of other birds. large, thick-shelled eggs are difficult for the vultures to open, and they have been recorded using tools to access the inside of the egg, such as dropping rocks onto the eggs to crack them open. egyptian vultures have also been recorded using tools in other ways - they use twigs in order to roll up found wool to bring back for use in their nests. adult birds’ plumage is white overall, with black flight feathers. they also have notable bright yellow facial skin, which is bare as in other vultures. wild birds often appear brown or rusty in color from contact with iron-rich soil. the egyptian vulture is currently considered endangered by the IUCN. with few natural predators for adult birds, most of the threats to wild populations are human-influenced, such as poisonings (both accidental and intentional), hunting, pesticide accumulation and collisions with power lines.
Fábio Gomes Trindade, a Brazilian street artist, is celebrated for blending street art with nature, incorporating branches and flowers as living parts of his murals. His renowned works often depict women and children, where the natural greenery becomes their “hair,” resulting in a powerful and organic balance. Artist: @fabiogomestrindade
"Sea Matryoshka (A whale eats a seal that eats a penguin that eats a fish that eats a calamari that eats a sea cucumber, and finally, there's aplankton)" Nesting dolls created in Semenov, Russia for the Helsinki-based studio COMPANY.
"Sea Matryoshka (A whale eats a seal that eats a penguin that eats a fish that eats a calamari that eats a sea cucumber, and finally, there's aplankton)" Nesting dolls created in Semenov, Russia for the Helsinki-based studio COMPANY.
Okay, this made me pause and literally write out every letter that 'fell' in order (‘oomngouuhhrsrtutpntnue’), then make sure they were all contained in 'turntomushuponthergroun'.
the golden-crowned kinglet is a small species of songbird found distributed across much of north america. adults are olive-gray on their upperparts, with white-light gray undersides; they have a yellow crown surrounded by black, which has an orange patch in the center on males. their breeding habitat is coniferous forests, which allows them to thrive in a large north american range. these small birds forage in trees and shrubbery for their prey; they are insectivorous, and feed on insects (with a preference for caterpillars), insect eggs, and arachnids. they nest in a well-hidden ‘cup’ shaped nest that hangs from a conifer branch.
being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?
