Summer of Science

[summerofscience]

Bob Linney is a graphic designer whose art takes influence from cultures across all four corners of the globe. His illustrations in turn have been the face for numerous international organisations - Amnesty, Greenpeace, Oxfam, to name a few - and have been used to market world music concerts and artists since the 1980s. Linney’s use of playful yet detailed illustrations across striking watercolour backdrops creates an instantly appealing and distinctive style.

[summerofscience]

The colorful abstractions of The Memphis Group, an Italian collective of architects and designers, formed in 1981 and have left an indelible impression on the aesthetic of the 1980s. A logical development of the consumer indulgence that characterised the period, the aesthetic of the group fuses the domestic world with the popular art movements of Art Deco and Pop Art with a focus on all that is consumer kitsch. The vivid and playful designs combines eccentric and bizarre patterns, shapes and textures, making for visuals that are hard to look away from. 

[summerofscience]

Kandahar is a 2001 film by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It depicts a woman's return to Afghanistan under the authority of the Taliban, and her witness of the deep social divides wrought between men and women, young and old, rich and poor. The plot of the film is second to the powerful vignette of hardships faced by the people of Afghanistan, of special focus being the disenfranchised status of women. 

Released a few months before September, 2001, the film cannot since be viewed without the subversive political undertones that brought it further attention and visibility. That aside, the film provides a human dimension of the impact of conflict in Afghanistan that has been examined well by few works before or since. 

[summerofscience]

Sơn Đoòng (Mountain River) Cave is a Vietnamese cave formation located in Quảng Bình, and currently stands as the largest known cave in the world. Discovered in 1991, the cave's largest compartment extends for five kilometers. The unique formation and presence of an underground river has also led to the development of a unique ecosystem quite unlike anything seen elsewhere in the world. 

[summerofscience]

The Snoezelen is the antithesis to the sensory deprivation tank, creating a controlled environment where users experience several different elements of sensory interaction. Pioneered in the Netherlands in the 1970's, the use of colorful lights and interactive objects has seen use as a form of psychotherapy for individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Though the philosophy of psychotherapy as been unproven, the Snoezelen reflects an alternative approach to psychotherapy.

[summerofscience]

Lambchop - Scamper

There's a popular idea that nothing ever came of the music scene in Nashville, ignobly dubbed the Nashville Curse. Fortunately, Nashville is fortunate have inventive and mystifying acts such as Lambchop in place of pop success. Headed by Kurt Wagner in 1986, the band predominated the 1990's with effortlessly nostalgic strings, swinging country guitars, and a genuine lyrical oddness about them. See 1998's Scamper: a treatise to suburban paranoia, bladder incontinence, and bad cooking.  

[summerofscience]

One of the largest spiritual centers for Sikhism is located within Amritsar, Punjab, a region to the far northwest of India. Constructed in 1574, one of the most important of sites within the city is the Harmandir Sahib (see topmost), where the central Sikh doctrine, the Adi Granth, was first displayed in 1608. Surrounding the site is a large lake - the 'pool of the nectar of immortality' (Amrit Sarovar) from which the city derives its name.

[summerofscience]

Krzysztof Kieslowski's 1993 film, Three Colors: Blue, is the first of a trilogy that seeks to conceptually connect the French nationalistic themes of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But Blue is much more complex than the the glaring omnipresence of its color might imply, its cinematography always creative, engaging, and aesthetically beautiful.

Performed by Juliette Binoche, the protagonist, Julie, suffers emotional turmoil after the death of her husband, a famous composer, in a car accident. Her only response is to retreat and attempt to cut herself off from the painful symbols of her former life. The powerful characterization in Blue engages the viewer to respond to Julie's choices in her embittered conflict with her past. 

[summerofscience]

Headed by the design firm Fuksas, the major overhaul of Shenzen Bao'an International Airport in Guangdong, China began in 2008, and is slated to open by the end of the month. The honeycomb facade filters natural light into the central terminal, which extends over one-and-a-half kilometers, making it the largest structure in the city by a considerable margin. 

[summerofscience]

Wilmer Murillo - Tulla Pujak

Wilmer Murillo is a Taiwanese artist who lovingly places his Honduran heritage front and center in his colourful works - melding Mesoamerican symbols, mythic creatures, and bizarre cityscapes in his illustrations.

[summerofscience]

Peter Atkins - Journal 1999: Syndey, Auckland, Mexico City, Melbourne ; Indian Journal 1993

The collages of Australian artist Peter Atkins are presented as self contained 'journals' that capture a certain place and time in his travels. Working with 30 x 30 cm panels, Atkins utilities all manner of colorful materials and textures to convey his experiences. His perspective is personal, though the visual styles, influenced by his travels to Spain, the US, Mexico and India, are global.

[summerofscience]

Inspired by African, Middle Eastern and South American building practices with adobe - a compound of sand, clay, and water - the 'eco-dome' is a style of architecture that seeks to combine environmental sustainability with durability. Some are a result of local building techniques, others, such as the 'moon cocoon' from the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (see center-right), are the result of environmental projects.

[summerofscience]

The Azores is a remote archipelago centered in the North Atlantic, on a latitude to the far west of Portugal. Despite the 245,000 Portuguese who occupy the islands, vast swathes of the Azores remain stunningly untouched. The chain lies over an intersection of three tectonic faults, which has led to the formation of grand craters, lakes, and ridges of an impressive scale.

[summerofscience]

Gummo is very far from being a perfect film, but it's by no means a superficial one. The protagonists from Harmony Korine's 1997 sophomore film are a bunch of dejected kids who aimlessly wander their hometown in Xenia, Ohio. The viewer is told as pretext that a storm ravaged the area, but this seems unnecessary - even the interiors are caked with grime, trash, and neglect. 

What follows is a vignette of hicks, freaks, and losers, but this is never played for laughs. Gummo's characters are genuinely strange, some of them even otherworldly. However, they have internalized what is normal based upon the squalor and poverty around them. Theft, murder, and sex are just another facet of daily life - nothing more, nothing less - and this is perhaps what makes Gummo as unsettling as it is strange.

[summerofscience]

Here's the Loch Ard Gorge, some ways along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. The eroded coastline extends interstate west of Melbourne across the south coast of the country, and is a fairly stunning departure from the geography one might expect to see on the east coast. The scale's deceptively large.

[summerofscience]

Luna - Broken Chair

After the disbandment of 80's dream-pop band Galaxie 500, lead singer and guitarist Dean Wareham proceeded to found Luna in 1991. Luna's albums have always been a wry combination of Wareham's deadpan lyrics, a touch of Americana and humor always present. Here he's joined by drummer Stanley Demeski, who was a member of the Feelies, and Justin Harwood.

The band disbanded in 2004, but Wareham is having a bit of a second (or third?) wind at the moment.

[summerofscience]

Whilst putting aside the plague of miseries that most attach to Detroit, it goes without saying also that the city is a genuinely interesting and beautiful place. The residential district of Lafayette Park boasts a collection of apartment blocks by Mies Van der Rohe, constructed in between 1956 and 1963, and photographed stunningly here by J Griffiohen almost fifty years later. It's a reflection on the architect when, after half a century, the product still manages to look modern.