In order to make ILE a nicer place, here are some random topics...

http://www.earth.rochester.edu/fehnlab/ees215/fig13_8.jpg

(Damn I wish sailing and I miss ahving the nautical Almanac around. I miss being able to predict the height of the tide at any time anywhere around the UK and as far as Cape Finistere, North Cape and the far side of iceland)

But HSA's argument is that the very art itself has been tainted by Saatchi's involvement with Thatcher and Tory regime. I think this is nonsense. Sure, artists may change their work in response to what is perceived as popular, or produce more of what sells (which is HSA's argument that yBa *is* a Tory art movement despite the left-leaning beliefs of many of the artists.) But I don't think you can hold the art itself responsible or tainted because of the political beliefs of its patrons. I mean, how much Rennaisance art would that rule out because art patrons like the Medicis or the Borgias and the Popes were insufferable politcally?

We've been spending a lot of time down on the Thames tidal plane. I found loads and loads of Victorian and previous broken pipe stems and bowls. HSA thinks it is funny that I find them so fascinating because they are essentially Georgian/Victorian butts.

And no, sorry, we never made it to Imber. We asked about three different people and no one wanted to drive; not even his mum. But they are having a spooky church service later in the year which we will go to, come hell or high water!

(exception bob and roberta smith perhaps ?)

I think that knowledge of advertising can lead to better art. More effort, more creativity, more emotional content is put into marketing than just about anything else these days.

Did anyone else read the article about painkillers in the Guardian this weekend? HSA was very interested by the interview with the man who did the package design for Nurofen. That he was just as important as the chemist who invented ibuprofen, in a way!

The tides were so low over the weekend that for the first time ever, I saw the entire mouth of the river Fleet under Blackfriars Bridge.

considering that we live in an obsessivly designed world, where we fetishize what looks pretty over what means something, and in art history where artifice has trumped content, it makes sense that medici would be in marketing.

these are not moral judgements.

Shepherd Tone? That sounds very interesting, will have to ask HSA about it. My favourite one is this tone which he generates with an oscillator bank which is actually several distinct sine waves, which, when viewed on an oscilloscope, produce the illusion that it is a twisting and constantly rotating strand of DNA. It is way cool.

Can we talk about Fourier Transforms. The most interesting thing in maths. They allow conversion between the time an frequency domains in sound.

HSA and I were discussing overlaps between graffiti, "guerilla advertisement" campaigns and art. Because walking through Shoreditch, we kept seeing all these really cool Banksy murals on everything. (I think HSA just has a sneaking thing for Banksy because they are always being confused, due to sharing a surname.) There would be a Banksy mural, then one of those annoying 118-118 things, and flyposters for weird Shoreditch art/music nights, all mixed together. Where does advertising end and art begin?

It's really odd to see these multi-media campaigns with these guerilla flyposter bits that are supposed to only make sense if you've seen the television ad, but then you never see the television bit. There were these posters of vegetables and emotions, which I didn't understand at all!

Also I know at least two artists who will not sell to Saatchi having done so in the past (both nominated for Turners, one won).

luckily i took pic

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/52.jpg

now, do i get the saachi gossip ?

The optical illusion with the spiral-that-is-not-really-a-spiral but actually a series of concentric circles is my favourite. There was one on a Spectrum album cover (I think?) but I can't remember the exact name of it.

http://www.pages2send.com/spirals2.gif

I always like that one with the steps that keep going up forever.

I'm intending to do the Fleet River walk at some point soon, if my Amazon package ever arrives.

I live between Beverley Brook and the Wandle, two of the Thames tributaries still open to the elements. They don't have the history of the Fleet, of course, but I still get some kind of slightly magical feeling when I'm near them.

ILE really has gone downhill. I posted a whole selection of topics for which Old ILE would have gone mad for, and the thread Petered out at about 30-odd posts.

Not as good as it used to be, etc. etc. etc.

http://www.hedonist-materialism.com/images/illusion.jpg

(I have trouble seeing some optical illusions because my left eye is much weaker than my right one. I could never see any Magic Eye pictures at all.)

I, also, would love to see Mail Rail before it shuts down. I'll have to make a note never to miss Hudson Hawk if it's shown on the telly.

But there are loads more comments that could be made...

Though for some reason I thought there was already a thread about the River Fleet, and it turns out that there isn't. That's odd.

The best thing about low tides is you can get out on the banks of the Thames and search through all the weird flotsam and jetsam (what is the difference between flotsam and jetsam - does anyone know?). I have a new collection now, of animal teeth that I've found on the banks of the Thames. Some of them are FREAKING HUGE so they must belong to cows or something.

I too thought there was a Fleet thread. Perhaps there ought to be.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/guildhall_art_gallery/images/paintings/fleet_river.jpg

The difference between flotsam and jetsam, I *think*, is that one is stuff that ends up in the sea by accident and the other is stuff that's deliberately thrown overboard. I have no idea which is which, though.

http://pvdl.best.vwh.net/fleet5.html

http://pvdl.best.vwh.net/oldh1.jpg