Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Source of inspiration 244 (click on this title!): Theremin, etc.
The Theremin is one of the earliest electric instruments. It was created by Lev Sergeïevitch Termen (who looks and speaks like a cousin of Count Dracula, cf. the link!).
It is made up of two antennas anchored into a box. Two tubes inside the box combine to create a beat which forms an audible signal between 20 and 20000 Hz. One hand controls the volume, the other the pitch. The musician waves his hands in the air as if he were conducting. It is funny and strange to watch, especially as Theremin players seem to take their instrument very seriously… The sound really is from another dimension.
The Theremin was created during the Russian Revolution. Lenin really liked it and he even found time to take Theremin classes! He ordered six hundred to be distributed throughout the USSR. It was a symbol of the intellectual and artistic revolution of the 20s. It was also a success in Europe and the United-States.
The Theremin has mostly been used in contemporary music. It has also been used by, among others: the Bee Gees, Muse, Radiohead, and the Rolling Stones.
It was used for the soundtrack of many spooky 50s movies. See the links below for two films which pay tribute to that period of cinema history, Ed Wood and Mars Attacks (in which the Theremin is the unexpected weapon that makes the ghastly little green men’s heads explode!):
http://www.indavideo.hu/video/THE_END_-_1996_-_MARS_ATTACKS
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c6gw_ed-wood-generique-keoxprod_shortfilms
The Theremin is a futuristic box from the past… There are other bizarre instruments of the same kind, notably the Ondes Martenot:
Here's an obvious creative idea: make your own Theremin!
Click on this:
Article by Florent Bourgain
Friday, November 12, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Source of inspiration 237 (click on this title!): Cupboard
A cupboard is an ordinary and very useful container. It is a “box” that contains everyday things: food, dishes, linen, books, message boards, etc.
There are several types of cupboards: airing cupboard (large heated built-in clothes wardrobe), china cabinet (for storing precious table ware), linen cupboard, etc.
The cupboard in my boarding school room is filled with clothes, books, and notebooks. At home, my cupboard is filled with, among other artifacts, CDs, fragrance bottles, and stuffed animals. In our kitchen, the cupboard is just filled with too much food. The contents of a cupboard say a lot about a person or a family, and so does the way the cupboard is filled up.
The cupboard in the photo shows that an ordinary cupboard can become a creative space and, apparently, a means to keep in touch. It is nice and tidy and full of interesting stuff. We can imagine it belongs to a nice bunch of people who probably get on well with each other!
Why not reinvent your cupboard and make it a real shrine to the Penates? It’ll show what an interesting person you are!
Article by Anne-Sophie Belbezet
Source of inspiration 235 (click on this title!): Enigma machine
Enigma is the best-known encryption and decryption machine in history. The first Enigma cypher machine was invented by Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer, just after the First World War. German industries used it to exchange secret messages, about new models of their products, etc. It was a revolution in the means to share ideas without the risk of leaks. It was also used by armies and governments of the whole world.
When Germany was under Nazi power, the German secret service and army commissioned a more powerful model of Enigma. The Wehrmacht model was created just before the start of the war. It gave Germany a big advantage because no other country knew the workings of this new model. During the war, to encrypt a message using Enigma became a habit for the German soldiers.
For two years the Allied forces were unable to understand the Nazi messages; it was a terrible disadvantage. But in 1943, British scientists, namely Alan Turing with his Colossus machine, discovered how to decrypt Enigma messages at last.
Article by Thibault Prat
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Not inspired yet?! Start sending your artistic ideas!
Start sending your ideas to : ortisbateau@gmail.com
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