Bertillonage (aka anthropometry)

anthropometry - the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body.

Today, anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products. Changes in life styles, nutrition and ethnic composition of populations lead to changes in the distribution of body dimensions (e.g., the obesityepidemic), and require regular updating of anthropometric data collections.

-Wiki

An identification system designed in 1880 by French police officer and biometrics researcher,

Alphonse Bertillonage (1853 - 1914).

With the assumption that a person's physical measurements don't change after the age of 20,

Bertillonage measured and registered people to identify criminals. He also introduced the mug shot, developed metric photography (placing objects in reconstructed dimensions of space) and forensic techniques such as ballistics, footprint capturing system and the dynamometer.

Due to many miscalculations, the expensive and time consuming Bertillonage system was later rejected, implementing the fingerprint system created by Francis Galton.

Some of the elements are still used today like the mug shot and the collection of types of facial characteristics form the basis of composite sketches of suspects.

There were eleven measurements:

1. Height
2. Stretch: Length of body from left shoulder to right middle finger when arm is raised
3. Bust: Length of torso from head to seat, taken when seated
4. Length of head: Crown to forehead
5. Width of head: Temple to temple
6. Length of right ear
7. Length of left foot
8. Length of left middle finger
9. Length of left cubit: Elbow to tip of middle finger
10. Width of cheeks
11. Length of left little finger

John Brown (1800 - 1859)

John Brown (aka. Osawatomie Brown, Old Man Brown, Captain Brown, Old Brown of Kansas,

Nelson Hawkins, Shubel Morgan, Isaac Smith...)

...is one of the most controversial Americans of all time.

He believed God chose him to overthrow black slavery in America leading him to

organize attacks and leading antislavery troops to keep Kansas a free state.

Brown's faulty decision making, fanatical methods, and ego has made him

both, a (anti)terrorist and a hero.

His violent actions may have triggered the Civil War,

but he ultimately achieved his aim of abolishing slavery.

Brown was ultimately executed for treason

in the winter of 1859.

"Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done!"

-John Brown's last speech, November 2, 1859

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

-Written by John Brown on the day of his death

Gouache paintings by Jacob Lawrence on

The Legend of John Brown

The series begins with Brown’s decision to become an activist,

depicts his struggle as an organizer and strategist,

and ends with his capture, conviction,

and execution for treason

in the winter of 1859.

"These men are all talk. What we need is action - action!"

Sunday, October 16, 1859, John Brown

with a company of 21 men, white and black,

marched on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

a legend and a half

we are doomed, so let's dance.

(via Pilfered Magazine Jan '10 Issue)

The Great OMI - The Tattooed Gentleman

Horace Ridler (1892–1969) was a professional freak and sideshow performer, a tattooed man exhibiting himself as The Great Omi or The Zebra Man.

born rich -> large inheritance -> Oxford/Cambridge or party & gambling ->

war -> demobilized -> sideshow

At some point between 1927 and 1934, while living in Mitcham, a few miles south of London, Ridler took steps to improve his career as a sideshow act. Contacting tattooist George Burchett, he inquired about having himself "tattooed all over". Burchett performed more than 150 hours of tattooing on Ridler with a pattern of curved black stripes, often described as zebra-like, masking the earlier tattoos. He later claimed he spent $10,000 for the procedure, although Burchett said it was only $3,000 and that he was never paid in full.

Omi concocted an elaborate back story to explain his appearance and claimed he had been forcibly tattooed by New Guinea savages. The story really boosted his popularity and he soon became one of the highest paid circus performers of his time.

Omi donated his services, giving free performances to troops and charity organizations. He also supported the Allied effort by promoting the sales of war bonds.

Last Words: “Underneath it all, I’m just an ordinary man.”

(via The Human Marvels & Wiki)

we had to look at chimps and babies to find out we're good at heart!

(From another assignment from Ben Katchor's Visual Narrative class -

2 minutes on each drawing via dictated passage)

The Baby Antichrist Incident

Bic Pen

© Yong Shin

"Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

...not something imposed by parents or culture...

Humans putting their heads together in shared cooperative activities are thus the originators of human culture.

We evolved to be nice to each other,

in other words,

because there was no alternative.

The only people emotionally immune to another's situation...

...are psychopaths.

One can shudder at the thought that the humaneness of our societies would depend on the the whims of politics, culture or religion.

"Warefare is ultimately not a denial of the human capacity for cooperation, but merely the most destructive expression of it." - Lawrence H. Keeley"

(via NY Times)

hindenburg

97 on board.

in less than 40 seconds -

36 people died

(13 passengers, 22 crew

plus

1 death on ground)

Cause still unknown...

culture is...

(via Hans Bacher who also wrote this great book)

ha-re-cy

Eurasia Siberian Symphony, 1963

Joseph Beuys

(at the MOMA)

A Hare and a Leg of Lamb, 1742

Oil on Canvas

Jean Baptiste Oudry

Still Life: Hare, Duck, Loaf of Bread, Cheese and Flasks of Wine, 1742.

Oil on Canvas

Jean Baptiste Oudry

fall is here... it's nick drake time.

see also:

and

and

Why Socialism? -Einstein

"It is "society" which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word "society."

Memory, the capacity to make new combinations, the gift of oral communication have made possible developments among human beings which are not dictated by biological necessities. Such developments manifest themselves in traditions, institutions, and organizations; in literature; in scientific and engineering accomplishments; in works of art. This explains how it happens that, in a certain sense, man can influence his life through his own conduct, and that in this process conscious thinking and wanting can play a part.

It is on this that those who are striving to improve the lot of man may ground their hopes: human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.

Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.

It is important to understand that even in theory the payment of the worker is not determined by the value of his product.

The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

-Albert Einstein from Monthly Review, New York, May, 1949.

[Re-printed in Ideas and Opinions]

Galarina, 1944

portrait of Gala Dalí

by Salvador Dalí

"...usually known simply as Gala, was the wife of first Paul Éluard, then Salvador Dalí, and an inspiration for them and many other writers and artists." (wiki)

The New Leipzig School

Bretter, 2005,

David Schnel

Theater, 2003

Christoph Ruckhäberle

Diktat, 2004

Neo Rauch

Das Neue, 2003

Neo Rauch

"...he was young enough to absorb the imagery of comic books, television and computer graphics that shaped the stylistic tastes of his generation. He was a bridge between the older political painters of the G.D.R. and the young artists of a unified Germany." -on Neo Rauch, from an old New York Times article, The New Leipzig School

more from the article:

"They (the old Leipzig School artists) resorted to symbols to express a veiled criticism of their society without sacrificing their privileged status."

Icarus (by engraving by Hendrick Goltzius)

"The paintings convey a mood, not a message."

Die Stickerin, 2008

Neo Rauch

"The old clichés of painting at night with a bottle of wine, taking drugs and being excessive - a lot of people in Düsseldorf think this is what it means to be an artist." In Leipzig, being a painter means working slowly and deliberately, like Rauch, to produce 15 or 20 canvases a year."

extremely well put, on his paintings:

"There is a sense of isolation that goes on in his picture space... Wildly theatrical, the paintings demand that the viewer's eye jump nervously to take in concurrently played, weirdly suggestive but ultimately inexplicable activities."

Para, 2007

Neo Rauch from his Para Series

"It seems to me that I am drawn back further and further, that elements from distant periods are knocking on the door and want to be let in," he says. "That is also reflected in my dreams, that I am drawn back to earlier lives. The incarnation cycles are trying to reach formulation." Asked if he believes that he led previous lives, he replies: "Not as direct as that, but I have recurring dreams in the same rooms and same houses and same streets. What you see in the picture is not the dream but a new version of the dream, like from a recycling plant."

Vater (Father), 2007

Neo Rauch (mmm... notice them Bacon hands?)

"In painting "Characteristic, suggestion and eternity" are important marks of quality"

-Neo Rauch