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  • Izzy 19:11 on 29/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Medici Family Tree 

    Diagram of Medici family tree

    Hello #1850charla‘ers! I found a nice tool for diagramming your (homicidal or otherwise) family. It’s called “PeoplePlotr.” They have various pay versions, but the free version seemed to do everything I wanted. It seems like a good way to organize the sprawl of humanity.
    • peopleplotr.com/plot/entry/13099/Medici-Family

    Fascinating Family Trivia:
    My lovely brother Francesco sanctioned the murder of not one, but two Medici princesses by their husbands. On 11 July 1576 my friend, cousin, and sister-in-law Lenora was murdered by her husband Pietro, and 5 days later on 16 July 1576 I was murdered by my husband Paolo. Good times.

     

  • Izzy 12:29 on 25/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Mom & Dad 

    diptych of 2 portraits: Eleonora di Toleco and Cosimo I de Medici

    Mom & Dad. Eleonora di Toledo (Spain) & Cosimo I de Medici. Mom had so many kids, 11, that they nicknamed her “la fecundissima.” Dad actually came from the lesser branch of the family, but he wound up being the first Grand Duke in Medici history.

     

  • Izzy 23:44 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Isabella-Izzy 1564-2014 

    diptych of Isabella Medici featuring portraits from 1564 and 2014

    Isabella Medici 1564 / 2014

    Back then I had everything, except freedom. Now I have nothing, save for freedom.
    I like to think I have decayed with dignity.

    Your slave in perpetuity,
    Izzy.

     

  • Izzy 10:38 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    What does an altered book artists book look… 

    What does an altered book (artists book) look like when books have become websites?

    I’ve been thinking about the idea of Cornell Boxes in cyberspace. Say in a 2D space like a website. Yes the “messy desk” blog themes are kind of contrived, remediation, and skeuomorphic… yet critiqueable as they are, they’re also an attempt, no doubt at least sometimes successful, to give an embodied being a tactile experience in a 2D place. Do you think a compelling Cornell-like experience in cyberspace would look Cornell-like? Or entirely different? Is Pinterest not a Cornell Box because it has hard edges and is on a grid? Or does it depend on the depth of the investigation of the pinner?

     

    • Molly Ross 10:49 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Isabella! Fabulous questions and ideas to ponder. I’m always struck by cyberspace’s ability to act as a portal–transporting me from my space to yours (or where ever you take me). You seem to be time traveling at the moment–see a portal from your time to our time! The thing about Cornell’s boxes is that they too are portals into miniature worlds–that represent collections, thoughts, emotions, spaces, times. Pinterest is an obvious parallel but because the pinner (artist/maker/collector) has little control over the display (the site dictates the grid pattern, the colors of the page) you are right– it does not manifest in a way that is very “Cornell.” I wonder how can you play with scale in the magical way the boxes do on a screen and in cyberspace–is that possible?

      • Isabella Medici 11:17 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Yes Molly, Pinterest, like Facebook, demands that you pour your content into their template. vs. WordPress, Tumblr, etc, that allow you more flex in how your ideas are displayed. Do we care too much about surface? Do FB’s 1B users care about aesthetics at all?

        A Cornell Box does seem to be the nexus of form & content. The same ideas in a book by a French culture theorist certainly wouldn’t have the quality of a Cornell Box. These “portals” (great word!) are remarkably tactile and fetishistic in their presence. Still, an awful lot of the general public might look at one and say “Old crap, so? Can we eat lunch now?” So I think the portalfulness is as dependent on the depth of investigation of the experiencer as the creator.

        The rabbi Lawrence Kushner tells the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. He asks, “Why a burning bush?” He notes that a burning bush is a pretty cheap trick. That you’re god, after all! Why not materialize the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, standing on the wing of a 747 Jumbo Jet, hovering over the mountain, as they sing the Hallelujah Chorus? Wouldn’t that be a better way to get Moses attention?

        Kushner notes that it takes 5-7 minutes for a piece of wood to combust. So if you see a burning bush, you can’t know if it’s “just a burning bush” or a divine presence, unless you stand there and watch it burn for more than 7 minutes. Kushner concludes that god was not trying to GET Moses attention, rather that she was trying to see if Moses was PAYING attention.

        Is it not the skeuomorphic details like “sloppy desk” or “layers of detritus” but the depth of attention paid by the viewer that creates this immersive Portal/Cornell experience? And if so, is it impossible to have such an experience in our ADD age? In our vastly-more-websites-than-you-could-ever-see-in-a-human-lifetime-even-if-all-you-did-was-click-“next” age?

        Or, as McCluhan said, when things become really important and ubiquitous, they become invisible. Almost everything we do is based on electricity, yet we rarely think of it. Is the entire Internet an infinite set of Nesting Dolls of Cornell Boxes that we don’t even have to try to make because it is already the journey that all the web surfers take every day for however long they are “awake” in this place? Do we live our online lives in Virtual Cornell Boxes?

    • Christa Forster 11:00 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Cornell’s boxes had layers, where things were seen on top of other things. At the Menil collection in Houston — where there was a great Cornell show in the mid 90s — there is a cabinet of curiosities, which seems to me what Cornell’s boxes do — create the cabinet of curiosity writ small.

      I think Molly’s right in that it’s a playing with scale and maybe layers issue. Holographs! Hey!

  • Izzy 06:41 on 20/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Hi Everyone I’m so excited about Christa’s Tweetchat… 

    Hi Everyone! I’m so excited about Christa’s Tweetchat! And Oscar’s research is so interesting! I’ve started writing a few bits of information here:
    http://mediciprincess.com/

    I’ve also discovered a thing called “Pinterest” — oh how many hours and days we would have spent on this back in my day! I think it is a wondrous tool for collecting bits of detritus and feelings. I must work further with it!

     

    • Christa Forster 08:47 on 20/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Wassup, Izzy? I’m trying to get Ysidora a Ghost account, but I can’t make the images work (even though I’ve tried resizing them, etc.)! I keep getting a message saying that I must upload a “valid image.”

      What would you in your royal, timeless wisdom suggest I do?

      • Isabella Medici 12:15 on 20/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

        What a wonderful idea Christa. My website is actually on a platform called “Ghost”
        http://ghost.org

        (as opposed to WordPress or Tumblr, etc)
        You probably don’t mean that, do you?

        Do you mean to get Ysidora an account here on .Re/act? I’m certain Vanessa could set that up with great alacrity.

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