Previously on Skandalon

Artist’s statement:

In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices. (read on)

First spotted via Who Killed Bambi.

The dog’s name was Nipper:

In 1898, three years after Nipper’s death, Francis painted a picture based on a photograph of Nipper listening intently to a wind-up Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph, substituting a disc gramophone for the phonograph. On February 11, 1899, Francis filed an application for copyright of his picture “Dog Looking At and Listening to a Phonograph.” Thinking the Edison-Bell Company might find it useful, he presented it to James E. Hough who, in a move that would eventually result in Edison exiting the record business altogether, promptly said, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.” On May 31, 1899, Francis went to the Maiden Lane offices of The Gramophone Company with the intention of borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black horn on the painting. Manager, William Barry Owen suggested that if the artist replaced the entire machine with a Berliner disc gramophone, the Company would buy the painting. A modified form of the painting became the successful trademark of Victor and HMV records, HMV music stores, and RCA. The trademark itself was registered by Berliner on July 10, 1900. (wikipedia)

More info about Nipper over at DesignBoom.

Previously on Skandalon

“A video on YouTube gets 50% of its views in the first 6 days it is on the site, according to data from analytics firm TubeMogul. After 20 days, a YouTube video has had 75% of its total views.

That’s a really short life span for YouTube videos, and it’s probably getting shorter. In 2008, it took 14 days for a video to get 50% of its views and 44 days to get 75% of its views.

Why? In the last two years, YouTube has improved its user interface, which helps videos get seen early on. Also, the world has gotten more adept at embedding and sharing videos in real-time via Twitter and Facebook. (And there’s probably more video to choose from.)” (more)

Ephemeral culture.

Previously on Skandalon

Previously on Skandalon: Barry Blitt

“Long before modern icon libraries like Helveticons, designers and sign-makers were forced to use a mishmash of symbols. Until the Helvetica man came along… — By 1974, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) realized the problem of using inconsistent symbols and commissioned the AIGA to produce a standard set for the Interstate Highway System, resulting in Symbol Signs. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Helvetica’ of pictograms (or specifically the Helvetica Man as coined by Ellen Lupton, and interviewed by Designer Observer), the project gave us the most common pictograms we see today. […] The AIGA team (which consisted of Thomas Geismar, Seymour Chwast, Rudolph de Harak, John Lees, and Massimo Vignelli) worked with designers Roger Cook and Don Shanosky to study the various pictogram systems in use around the world at the time, drawing inspiration from airports, train stations, and the Olympic Games.

A set of 34 symbols was published in 1974, receiving one of the first Presidential Design Awards. In 1979, 16 more symbols were added, creating a total of 50. Over the years, the symbols have become a standard in wayfinding, resulting in a set of icons we see and recognize on a daily basis (like the popular restroom and no smoking signs).

The copyright-free symbols, available for download from AIGA’s website, were released in the public domain and can be used by anyone without license.” (read more).

Conan the Nietzschean… Way to go, Conan.

The quote is taken from Twilight of the Idols (Die Götzen-Dämmerung, 1895). It’s the 8th maxim from the section “Maxims and arrows” (the very first section of the book, after the preface). Here is a slightly different translation : “Out of life’s school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.” (tr. by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale here).