Reading nooks with views of the hip Shimokitazawa neighbourhood in Tokyo, Japan
A quick hop from Shibuya and Shinjuku, Shimokitazawa is a nice change of pace from the craziness of the big city. We stumbled upon this little shop selling books and curiosities with seating areas where one can take in the scene over a cuppa, and feel safe about burying one’s face in a book and being lost in thoughts.
(via llieo)
Source: whatsthecatreading
Crystalised Books (2011) - Borax crystals
Alexis Arnold is a sculptor and installation artist interested in the visual displays of time and history. Objects have their own life cycles of accumulation and decomposition. Arnold creates these changes over condensed time frames through catalyzed natural processes, such as crystal growth, forced oxidation, or sun-bleaching, in an effort to see objects in a new way, with a new history. For his ‘Crystalized Books’ series he grows crystals on a selection of books. The books, now frozen with heavy crystal growth, become artifacts or geologic specimens imbued with the history of time, use, and nostalgia. The crystal growth highlights or creates the aesthetics of these once-utilitarian objects that are entering the world of obsolescence, as well as acts to suggest past and future narratives laden with memory, wonder, and the interminable progression of time, both geologic and on a smaller, more relatable scale.
(via abukkitofcelestialintent)
Source: razorshapes
As of several days ago the wonderful British Library has announced their digitised publication of the Cotton Manuscript Beowulf!!!
The image at the bottom is the fully-zoomed page. (I know, right?!) And above that a part of the binding… nothing fancy. :)
You can view it here. (ff 132r–201v)
But that’s not all. Head out to Hominis Aevum for a Renaissance delicacy released on the same day.
(via Twitter / erik_kwakkel: Wow, 1500 followers: thank …)
Ink cat pawprints in a 15th c. book. I was just wondering today if calligraphers of the past had problems with cats walking across wet ink and ruining things.
(via mysteriousbeerbottle)
Source: twitter.com
At some point in the late 10th century, a scribe copied several works by the Greek scientist, mathematician and inventor Archimedes. On the day before Easter 1229 — however, a priest-scribe completed a new work which he wrote on top of the Archimedes text, which he erased.
Don’t freak out just yet. :) Read what happened and praise luck, science and invaluable work of conservators.
There are two kinds of people on planet Earth, Batman and Iron Man. Batman has a secret identity, right? So Bruce Wayne has to walk around every second of every day knowing that if somebody finds out his secret, his family is dead, his friends are dead, everyone he loves gets tortured to death by costumed super villains. And he has to live with the weight of that secret every day, that tension gnawing in his guts. But not Tony Stark, he’s open about who he is. He tells the world he’s Iron Man, he doesn’t give a shit. He doesn’t have that shadow hanging over him, he doesn’t have to spend energy building up those walls of lies around himself. You’re one or the other–either you’re one of those people who has to hide your real self because it would ruin you if it came out, because of your secret fetishes or addictions or crimes, or you’re not one of those people. And the two groups aren’t even living in the same universe.
— David Wong
Week 5
Quote is from This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong, which is AWESOME btw. Can’t wait for JDatE on demand!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. Anyways, this was all I could sputter out this week in between essays and projects. Hehh.
(via mortenavida)
Source: exempli
The MET has got some wonderful, fully illustrated textbooks that are available online for free! (X)
DOWNLOAD
- Art of the Islamic World
- The Art of Africa
- The Art of Ancient Egypt
- The Art of the Ancient Near East
- The Art of Renaissance Europe
- The Art of South and Southeast Asia
- The Arts of Korea
- Auguste Rodin: The Burghers of Calais
- Greek Art from Prehistoric to Classical
- Islamic Art and Geometric Design: Activities for Learning
- A Masterwork of Byzantine Art — The Story of David and Goliath
- Medieval Art
- Nature Within Walls: The Chinese Garden Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Roman Art
(via mukani)
Source: bborgia
do you know when you read a book that’s just so well written that when you finish it you can’t help but just sit there in silence for a few minutes just thinking about it, and then you reread the last couple pages, and just close the book and kind of stroke the cover in a weird sort of way and just keep thinking because it leaves such a strong impression on you that it just kinda haunts you in the back of your mind for the next few days
(via abukkitofcelestialintent)
Source: elizabethdarcy
Source: nevver
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