If You're Not Part of the Future, Get out of the Way

You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future.

The Times Online interviews Bob Dylan.

Gwenda Kaczor Illustration

Love this art from Gwenda Kaczor.

Today's Inspiration

The Today's Inspiration blog is a treasure trove of mid-century illustration and advertising. Last week's post, ... And Girls Will Be Girls quotes from a 1952 article that dictates what it takes to interest women in your advertising. Household scenes, food, flowers, and jewelry feature heavily. Wonder what's changed since then?

Authors with Tattoos

AbeBooks profiles authors with tattoos. Despite the somewhat unimaginative title, this is a fun, link-heavy look at the intersection of the worlds of tattooing and literature. How did I not know Dorothy Parker had ink?

The History of Pulp

So much for regular blogging schedule. Sickness intervened. Better now!

Anyway, here's a min-doc about the history of pulp magazines, notable for its many gorgeous cover images:

More Retro Futurism

Want some more futuristic urban landscapes designed from the past? Your wish is granted with this collection of work from illustrator Hugh Ferriss. (Via io9.)

Retro Future: Glorious Urbanism

From Dark Roasted Blend.

Didier Massard's Fairy Tale Photos

Dreamy photographs from Didier Massard, and an interview, from the Morning News.

Einstein & Dali

When I talk about the need to break down boundaries in technology and related fields, it generally involves issues of gender and occasionally race. But there is another barrier that I think deserves a good smashing just as much as the others, and that's the barrier we set up between art and science.

I've spoken before about how me being a naturally bookish and artsy chick in technology has often worked in my favor (although not without its attendant pains), but this is an issue that also works in the other direction - I feel certain that if scientists and tech people can benefit from a little right-brain thinking, artists and creative folk can learn from logic, rationality and scientific discipline. We tend to look at those two fields as worlds apart, each one unfathomable to those who don't "belong" to it. But how much sense does this actually make?

Some of my favorite pieces of art are those that can bridge the two worlds, from the brilliant twists of logic in the otherwise anarchic Alice in Wonderland to the clean lines and organization of minimalist painters like Mondrian. And not only do I appreciate more those bits of technology that incorporate good visual design (Apple products, or a particularly lovely bit of code) I adore the work of scientists like Carl Sagan, who were gifted writers and who expressed all the imagination and emotion they used in pursuing their work.

So I of course jumped on this article from a biology teacher describing how he teaches using dual examples of Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali. He wraps up with a much better summary of what I just rambled on about for three long paragraphs:

Our world might be a better and more enlightened place if all of us dropped the whole supposed left-brain/right-brain dichotomy and opened our whole minds to the full realm of human imagination as he did. The art world, the humanities world, the science world — ultimately we all live in one world, and it’s worth trying to understand each of the perspectives in it.

Retro Illustration

In case you're, like me, missing your regular dose of inspired mid-century decor and design via Mad Men (second season NOW, please), try this gallery of vintage illustration from Plan 59.

Tom Gauld Illustration

These letter illustrations by Tom Gauld appeared with their related letters in the Guardian, but most stand pretty well just on their own. See the gallery.

Miniature Snape's Office

This is pretty amazing recreation of Professor Snape's office in miniature.

The Moleskine Project

Chronicling the Moleskine creations of the world's artistic folk: the Moleskine Project.