Curiosity
star compass from the knowledge of Pius “Mau” Piailug
Pius “Mau” Piailug (1932-2010) was venerated as a master of non-instrument wayfinding. Mau’s traditional navigational system used clues using the sun and stars, winds and clouds, seas and swells, and birds and fish to determine position away from sight of land. He was born on the island of Satawal (Federated States of Micronesia) and learned navigation passed down through generations of oral teaching. This is a representation of a star compass used to teach navigation.
| Satawalese name | Traditional name | Astronomical name |
| Tupul | Setting | |
| Tan | Rising | |
| Wuliwulifasmughet | North star | Polaris |
| Mailapailefung | Little Dipper | Ursa Minor |
| Wylur | Big Dipper | Ursa Major |
| Igulig (“Whale”) | 1) Cassiopeia (head of whale) 2a) Almach & 2b) Mirach (body of whale) 3a) Hamal & 3b) Sharatan (whale’s tail) |
1) Cassiopeia 2a) Gamma Andromedae & 2b) Beta Andromedae 3a) Alpha Arietis & 3b) Beta Arietis |
| Murn | Vega | Vega |
| Marigaht | Seven Sisters | Pleiades |
| Uul | Aldebaran | Alpha Tauri |
| Paiifung | Tarazed | Gamma Aquilae |
| Mailap | Altair | Alpha Aquilae |
| Paiyur | Alshain | Beta Aquilae |
| Earlier | Orion | Orion |
| Sarapool | Corvus | Corvus |
| Tumur | Scorpius (Top 6 stars) | Scorpius |
| Mesario | 1a) Shaula & 1b) Antares |
1a) Lambda Scorpii & 1b) Alpha Scorpii |
| Luubw | Southern Cross (rising or setting) | Crux |
| Machemeias | Southern Cross (at 45° over SE horizon) | Crux |
| Wuliwuliluubw | Southern Cross (upright) | Crux |
| Machemelito | Southern Cross (at 45° over SW horizon) | Crux |
The fearsome crater
Photo Credit: Ambrosine Allen
The Fearsome Crater, 2010 by Ambrosine AllenPaper collage (paper, archival glue, archival varnish) 44cm x 45.5cm
From Axisweb http://www.axisweb.org/artwork.aspx?workid=82311
Shake Rattle and Roll (fluxmix)
Christian Marclay’s 2004 residency at the Walker Art Center included fiddling with fluxus:
Much of the Fluxus and Beuys materials that Marclay researched for his video installation exist as mail ephemera, instructions, posters, and newspapers, and also as boxes that include a medley of objects by many different artists: wooden toys and games, puzzles, and nonsensical items. Marclay wanted to bring these eccentric, historic objects back to life by capturing his playful investigation of their sonic possibilities. Shake Rattle and Roll (fluxmix) presents them in a surprising new light as he frees them from storage to create a clamorous symphony of images, a portfolio of sounds. The philosophy of Fluxus referred to the fluidity between media, and by extension, between art and life. Beuys’ work similarly engaged with multiplying the definitions of art.
Christian Marclay (b. 1955, San Rafael, California) grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel. In 1977, he moved to Boston and attended the Massachusetts College of Art, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Marclay’s work has been shown at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C; the Venice Biennial; the Musée d’Art et d’histoire, Geneva; the Kunsthaus in Zurich; and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris in New York. His 2004 retrospective exhibition organized by the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Marclay’s visual art practice, which combines video installations, sculpture, photography, and collage, addresses the overlapping of aural and visual realms, reflecting on how sound and image are related. He is also a prolific musician. His work is full of nods to popular culture, but he also plays on the tradition of an expanded idea of music inherited from avant-garde composers like John Cage. He has performed throughout Europe, Japan, the United States and in New York City, where he lives and works, with collaborators as diverse as John Zorn, the Kronos Quartet, and Sonic Youth. As a pioneer of “turntablism,” he was sampling before the term was invented.
First anniversary of Eyjafjallajöku eruption
The icelandic earthquake Eyjafjallajöku erupted a number of times in April and May 2010 causing considerable interference to airplane travel.
According to Wikipedia what made this volcanic activity so disruptive to air travel was the combination of the following four factors:
- The volcano’s location is directly under the jet stream
- The direction of the jet stream was unusually stable at the time of the eruption’s second phase, maintaining a continuous south-easterly heading
- The second eruptive phase took place under 200 m (660 ft) of glacial ice. The resulting meltwater flowed back into the erupting volcano which created two specific phenomena:
- The rapidly vapourising water significantly increased the eruption’s explosive power
- The erupting lava cooled very rapidly, which created a cloud of highly abrasive, glass-rich ash, this caused a large amount of flights to be cancelled in the U.K.
- The volcano’s explosive power was sufficient to inject ash directly into the Jet Stream.
However, just something to put it into perspective as a CO2 emitting event… Whilst there is a degree of difficulty in putting numbers to these events, David McCandless had a go (this one is from 20 April 2010).
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/ [!sigh! broken link]
David’s book, Information is Beautiful, is on my Amazon wishlist.
