The Theory of Nevolution

My kids are all grown up

Punt road has never been a favourite of mine; having to be a passenger while forced to listen to drivers complain about how much they hate the traffic and how many hours of their life they've lost while sitting in a slow moving car-park. I better stop it there before I get lynched. But I've recently enjoyed walking down it, and enjoying the stupidity of walking down such an annoying street. Walking underneath the overpass I've started to notice the details on band posters - something you don't get while in the confines of the passenger seat - but usually dismiss most of them as trite pieces of work until something caught my eye and stopped in my tracks. 

I know those letterforms. Hell, I know the scratches, missing corners and annoying type-high requirements of those letters. I've cleaned them, sorted them, tested them and tried to bring them closer to the sweet spot of 0.9186 of an inch. After nursing them back to health, feeding them, shining them and giving them a good childhood. And what a marvellous use of those letters as well. I usually get annoyed by the poster type look, but this has been done with class, attention to detail and an eye for the craft. My hunch was further compounded when I saw the Melbourne Museum of Printing logo in the bottom, which not only confirmed my suspicion. I feel proud that the museum is being put to some good use, and so is all those hours I put into fixing their type collection. My little kids have all grown up, left the nest (typecase) and got themselves a job.

Sure, the kerning on the Modified Gothic Condensed is a little off and I'm a bit surprised because they either didn't use the pre-cut A and T that kerns perfectly, or fix it in photoshop. I suppose a hint of awkward authenticity helps this a bit. All is not lost however. Not only are the street posters charming examples of well crafted typography (and the face is a wonderful example of image making) but the website is just as nice.

I shudder to think how long it took to use the palette of a somewhat limited poster type collection in creating these faces. They somehow capture the caricature of aussie manliness (something I have in spades) while only hinting at cliches. The colours, stance and faces are all pitch perfect. If only I liked this music and had the inclination to go to the country to check out the festival.

WWJTD?

I've been watching and waiting for Olly Moss to finish off this set of Penguin inspired video game covers; only to find out he's not releasing the last three because something cool has happened with them and he's been asked not to release anymore. Funny how quickly this thing spread around the tubes a few weeks ago. I'm not willing to place bets on where this meme originated, but I've seen plenty of them sprout up very quickly; Spacesick did movies and Corleym did potter to name a few. And then everyone got tired of it after a few jumpers really ruined the quality of it for everyone.

The shadow of things as well as the things themselves

I'm always a sucker for the rigid authority that natural history museums present to the public. All those trays of butterflies and fossils; visual evidence of genetic change laid out with little white stickers next to them all. The stark presentation of the object itself, with disregard to it's surrounding environment (dioramas not included). It seems that I've been missing out on what goes on behind closed doors. Justine Cooper was privileged to go backstage at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and took these beautiful photographs that look at both as an evolution of the collecting and storing process, and as an historical and contemporary perspective on how we systematise and assign value to nature. Seed have a rather beautiful slideshow of her work Saved by Science (which look better on their site than they do on hers).

As the only artist ever given the privilege as the museum's artist-in-residence she was able to document the 'immense corridors of locked steel storage cabinets most powerfully express the veil of structure dropped over the complexity of nature'. And yes, I was just dying to drop that line in somewhere. It's not all systems of stark rational order; these bones haven't been unwrapped since they were excavated nearly 100 years ago. I'd be dying to delicately unbundle them not just to handle 70 million year old bones but to also gaze at editorial design from 100 years ago. 

As an accompanying article to the slideshow Seed have an article about The Awe of Natural History Collections. The lure of these collections as well as the vast storage of the unseen lies not just in it's systems of order, but in the collection's utilitarian value. As Ole Worm (builder of one of the most impressive wunderkammern of his time) said to his students when using his collection to teach "Let us take off the spectacles that show us the shadow of things instead of the things themselves".

Which is exactly what this guy would be thinking.

This is not poignant

It's not. It's not poetic, poignant or symbolic. It's just weird. People should just not be leaving rubber faces lying around. It's highly unsettling. 

On the origin of reading The Origin of Species

Having been given this book for my birthday last year, I'll sheepishly admit that I haven't touched it. It's tome-like denseness mocks me every time I think about it. However considering the rare window of opportunity I have, I've decided to start and finish it between now and the 150th anniversary of the launching of the book on the 24th of November. I'm well aware that this gives me a rather large timeframe to complete this task, but considering the growing pile of unfinished books tormenting me on the bed head it's not so trivial. I'm particularly looking forward to supplementing it with what this guy has to say on it. And yes, I'll also be reading the Voyage of the Beagle as well. No point in doing things in literary halves.

5 Things you may or may not know

Got all excited yesterday to celebrate so I planned a day of going down to the museum to see the free exhibition they have in the foyer. Being skint, I didn't feel like paying to have another look at the Darwin to DNA exhibit they have inside. Besides, the light isn't very good, and you can't take photos; pretty much means it doesn't exist. Although they do have some neat dioramas of beaks, skulls, monkeys and all that jazz. Anyway, I knew it was going to be a smallish affair but one trivial box? 

To be fair it was kinda neat, and I guess I did learn five things, so I can't really complain. I must admit though, the museum really do know how to put on a good spread. Perfectly structured, considered layout and nice use of white (green?) space. The way they've divided up the page (board? Language eludes me) into three main columns while allowing for crisp hierarchy to follow throughout. 

Don't get me started on inside here. A rather nice witty solution don't you think? Although it would have been nice to see some more modern book covers other than what was on rotation in the late seventies and early eighties. You might not be able to see it here, but all the words line up with all of that intricate and lovely origami, which F thinks is coming back into vogue; not just intricate folding but evidence that someone has put time, labour and effort into an artwork as opposed to conceptual works where the hand of the artist isn't visible. We'll get into that another day, but it's still a nice point to make as we head towards tighter definitions of authenticity (now that history has started again after 20 long years).

Quite a funny list as well. Stood there nodding my head in agreement at the prospect of not being able to spend money on books due to the needs of children and not being able to have conversations win a gentlemen's club. Can't really say I've ever thought about marrying my cousin though, even if her name was as lovely sounding as Emma Wedgewood.

And yes you're right, that is some lovely 19th century scotch modern typography lining the insides of those bird boxes. My thoughts exactly. What's that you ask? How could anyone else dream up the almost perfect mixture of Darwin, taxidermy, evolution and Victorian era sharp serifs into something resembling my wet dream representation of a cabinet of curiousity? Oh, they've also included old swing tags to show the taxonomy of the birds as well. Well, isn't that the sweetest gosh darn fucking awesome display in the world then isn't it. 

It's on at the Melbourne Museum until May 31st.

On the Origin of Darwin

It being his 200th birthday today, I decided a quick round up of a few sites I've come across today. I don't really need to go into hyperbole about how important his works still are, so I won't. I presume as the days go on I'll put up more stuff that comes by my eyeballs.

John Whitfield is Blogging The Origin, chapter by chapter. I haven't read too much of it; I don't want any spoilers for when I do. But I'm thinking I might read each post as I go through the book.

The totally awesome Seed Magazine have an article on Extending Darwinism, whether there is more than just DNA and genes at play in natural selection. Quite an interesting idea articulating that the environment could have more of an impact than previously thought, by way of epigenetic change.  

For those of you wanting to know how it was celebrated 100 years ago, Darwin Online have collected a mass of information detailing how it was celebrated on the day. They've also got the complete works of the man online too. Yes, that's right, the complete works.

The Natural History Museum in London seems to have a massive exhibition going on – the Big Idea -  and their slide show definitely proves this to be the case. Highlight for me is his first sketch of an evolutionary tree describing the relationships among groups.

The Guardian meanwhile have a whole site devoted to the man, and it's quite extensive and informing with lots of commentary, insight and editorials. And yes, they even have a video of Dave talking about the influence it's had on his life as part of a BBC series they've made. 

So too it seems, do the NYTimes. Just as jam packed as you would expect from them, with quite a few interesting videos and interactive widgets.

Never one to rest on their laurels, Wired has a few choice articles from today, with a fairly large catalogue of back posts they've had over the years about evolution or the man himself.

Spent

Just came back from a public lecture on the evolutionary psychology of conspicuous consumption and thought I'd quickly try and tap out what I remember from it before I head to bed. As part of the Evolution Festival celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth Darwin – tomorrow – they've had a series of lectures over the past three days (I only found out about it yesterday night, and am annoyed as you are in not being able to go to any of the other ones). Although we stayed for the last lecture; on Music, Society and Evolution, didn't really present well (and the slide quality was annoying) and wasn't the point of the outing so we'll leave it at that.

Arrived late, so we missed the first few moments of the talk, but the speaker, Geoffrey Miller, who has previously written about sexual selection through mate choice, did offer a fresh perspective on the tired left/right arguments on consumer capitalism. I get quite excited when evolution as an ism (and if not evolution, then cold hard capital S Science) trounces the two stale ideologies that seem to have degenerated into irreconcilable bickering. To be fair, the data can always be viewed behind whatever prism one wants, but let's not go there, it's a boring retort. He showed two slides regarding their model of consumer capitalism, which I can't remember now, but they were sharp as hell. The third model, which I happened to take a photo of just in time, was as follows:

Human instincts for trying unconsciously to display certain desirable traits

+ Current social norms for displaying those traits

+ Current technological abilities and constraints

+ Social intitutions and ideologies

+ Historical accident and cultural inertia

= 21st century consumerist capitalism

Now, I could spend some time going over this, translating and remembering what he said, but I think it's easier if I just quote the abstract of the talk and hope we can all put two and two together:

The global economic and environmental crises show that conspicuous consumption is a key problem in the 21st century. The new science of evolutionary psychology offers some unique insights into the origins and nature of runaway consumerism. In this talk I'll explore how conspicuous consumption arises from human instincts for showing off our intelligence, personality traits, and moral virtues to family, friends, and mates. Consumerism is not a matter of 'materialism', but of runaway signalling, status display, and socially validated narcissism. This new perspective explains some otherwise baffling aspects of consumer behaviour, product design, branding, and marketing, such as why economic growth does not much increase human happiness. It also suggests some practical policy changes that could reduce consumerism's personal and ecological costs, and that could increase its social and cultural benefits.

Annoyingly, he didn't really craft the talk to discuss the more interesting aspects of this, and flew through what appeared to be the more interesting slides. I would have loved for him in retrospect to discuss branding and design in relation to evolutionary traits and psychology; fortunately he has a new book coming out which I hope deals with these issues in depth and might be worth picking up a copy when it does. Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behaviour seems to have a simple catchy title (yes, I stole it for the title here, as well as the cover image; sue me) which would lead one to presume that it's aimed at the lay-person. Not to sound like a prude, but I hope that there isn't much sex in there and deals more with the links between evolutionary psychology and consumer behaviour. I just looked at his bio page and they seem to have titled his book Flaunting fitness: How evolution shaped us as conspicuous consumers, so there's hope.

While we're on the topic of the cover image, it reminded me of this great Banksy that I'd seen at Sign Language some time back (thanks Sean).

Sarah the Maid

Oven dial of the month. Naturally, it's a Maid. I fear I won't be seeing it again. Being the bad friend that I am I've only seen it once, and I couldn't get a good enough angle to snap up the name, nor the cute stripe of little blue stars.

Forty six point four

The hottest day on record prompted F and I to get out of the house and soak up the perverse heat en route to ACCA. Once we got there, I marvelled at how appropriate the building feels from the outside in 40+ degrees as the reflections from the sand started to bleach my dry eyeballs. We headed there figuring that it would be air-conditioned; a more cultured escape from the heat than shopping malls at least.

To my delight, the current exhibition 'The Water Hole' treats the whole gallery as an immersive meditation on the nature and origins of our water. Stepping into a beautifully air conditioned tunnel, the walls constructed out of a lightweight foil with found branches supporting the metallic skin. As you walk past and through it, the lightest breeze causes the insulation to breathe, further heightening my realising that this was the best choice of all possible galleries to visit on victoria's hottest day on record. 

Coming to the end of the cavernous walkway, you're presented with an orgy of erratic objects; from plastic toys, spiders and mobile phones, crystals, toy flowers, tree branches, plastic water bottles, pvc piping and naturally a kitchen sink. A charming mix of organic and inorganic matter, the main room is heavily detailed, and once you end up at the water hole, the title of the exhibition, it's worth marvelling at the technical detail. The result of a three month stay in victoria, the artists Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger became fascinated with the importance that water plays on our psyche, and as a reflection of the australian landscape. For those wanting a more detailed explanation of their work, ACCA has a rather illuminating audio interview with them. Only now do I realise that I listened to it while doing the dishes today; I did try and conserve the water while I was doing it though. Without wanting to get all meta on everyone, I didn't really think about where the water comes from, nor think about where it was going, something the artists explored rather in a timely manner considering this vicious drought we're only now beginning to feel it's true effects. 

This isn't the whole exhibition, as this cooling wonderland takes over the whole of the gallery. I highly suggest you check out the three beds, each offering different horizontal perspectives. A bed hanging from the roof gave  me to time to meditate on the sparse lines given off from the shadows and cables holding me up, contrasted rather nicely with the huge hanging mobile over at the next bed. Similar materials (branches, plastic toys, leaves etc) hang above your head, air conditioning slowly rotating them all, giving you time to focus on each element and the interplay of shadows they give off. I'm still impressed that none of the objects interrupted the flow of the other. The last bed allowed for a far more reflective escape from the heat. Suspended centimetres above your face is a 4 million year old asteroid; giving time to really consider the simple majesty of a rock, albeit one with a glacial timeframe. I'd go into detail discussing the other rooms, but I hope by omission you'll decide to go and check it out. Although it finishes on the 1st of march, I'd wait for a really hot day to go and see it. 

Ode to the Notebook

Mister Bierut has written a lovely post about the importance of the notebook over at designobserver. I haven't exactly gone through 85 in 26 years, but I'm working on it. My one regret is not keeping them all the standard size. I used to physically need to carry around black A5 wirebounds, but I felt the size to be a bit restrictive. A4 just seems to be a bit too expansive for me as well. 

Beaufort fire sale

It's a mildly sad state of affairs when you go away to the country for the weekend and you take time away from partying to take a photo of this. It's an even sadder state of affairs when you realise it has taken you four years to find the time to photograph it.