Thursday, May 12, 2011

Source of inspiration 275: Box turtle


For a turtle, her carapace is her home, her only home. When she is afraid, she enters into her carapace to protect herself against different dangers. Do you know what a turtle carapace is made of ? Her carapace is made of bone and cartilage. Often it is rigid but sometimes it can be soft.

Human beings also have a carapace, a psychological one... For us, it is a wall that protects us against society, feelings, and painful relationships… Some people have a strong carapace, but they are often alone, they end up hating life !

Sometimes some people want to destroy their protective layer, but they can’t do it alone. So they ask for help from a psychologist because they are not strong enough to do so alone.

Human beings can’t live alone ! We need to share our lives, our worries, with other people, to have relationships. Sometimes you need to be alone, but feeling lonely is terrible.

So, stop being a turtle!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Source of inspiration 268: Jeux d'enfants


I really like the film 'Jeux d'enfants' ('Love Me if You Dare'), by Yann Samuell. The main roles are played by Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet who are my favourites actors.
The story is about two childhood friends, Julien and Sophie. Their friendship is linked by a box and a challenge game which they never stop playing, even when they grow up: "truth or dare" ("cap ou pas cap?"). Both are "cap" every time, except to say they love each other. They live with these bets, for these bets, by these bets! The film shows us their life, from the beginning of their friendship until their deaths. It will take them a lifetime to say "I love you"...
And what is the box all about? In fact, when Julien and Sophie play the game, they give each other a lovely box. Whoever owns the box gives the other a challenge, and when it is done, the other wins the box and can gives a challenge in turn to his friend.
It is Julien's mother who gave him the box before her death. Sophie is Polish and people laugh about her. So for both of them, the game is a way to forget their problems. As time goes by, the game becomes essential, more beautiful and important in their lives.
Julien and Sophie, with this story, show us that we can stay child-like all our lives. This film is funny, touching, a little sad, very realistic, and it makes me dream!
A very good friend, Damien, gave me this film and I saw it, for the first time, with Mathilde and Margaux, my room mates at boarding school. We really enjoyed it! I thought it was important to say what this film represents for us. It makes me ask questions about the meaning of my life, my way of thinking and how I live every day.
And is it really a problem to stay a bit like a child all one's life? We must be serious, responsible, but we only have one life! So I think it is essential to be positive, and not to be so stressed like the adults!
Now, with my friends, we have found a box, and we sometime play "cap ou pas cap" to have fun. So, find a beautiful box and have fun in your life too!

Friday, February 18, 2011

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

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 236 (click on this title!): Loud speakers

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