Archive for July, 2009
Mission to Mars
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
I was reading an article yesterday about a planned 520-day isolation test to determine if people can handle the isolation required for a manned trip to mars. I’m pretty sure I would go insane being cooped up for so long…
Of course, it would probably be worth it to get to see Mars. Here I have tried to capture the astronaut’s sense of relief at finally escaping from his small, cramped spaceship. (I know that Mars is red, I was taking artistic liberties.)
Imagine how strange and lonely it would feel to be so far away from the earth that it was nothing but a small glowing dot. Would it be terrifying? Or just exciting and interesting? Would you dread getting back in the spaceship for another year or two on the way back, or would you be glad to be on your way home? Would you have nightmares of dreadful things happening to your ship and not making it back? Would you see strange, unbelievable things out the windows? I wish I knew!
Happy wednesday!
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
I took some photos in Mauerpark the other day, as the sun was setting. The whole park seemed to be going crazy with purple and white flowers, and I wanted to catch them before they disappeared. While I was taking this first photo, a strange character happened by, waved his arm toward the horizon and asked if I could see “the rainbows.” I told him that unfortunately I could not. He seemed disappointed and ambled on his way. Now that I look at it, however, this plant does have a kind of rainbow gradient going on:
Website issues
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
This weekend, I set up the tripod and took some new photographs of some of my paintings. I figured that the ones I took with my point-and-shoot on the kitchen counter and then heavily adjusted in photoshop to compensate for the terrible lighting were perhaps a bit unprofessional.
Anyway, as I was uploading things to the site I kept noticing a problem: the colors just weren’t right. No matter how cheerful and vibrant the original was, when it showed up on the internet it looked like a faded newspaper clipping.
Fortunately, some clever person found the solution to this problem for me: this article will tell you everything you need to know, In case you need to know everything.
I took some before and after shots to prove how noticeable the change was:
okay, maybe I overdid the saturation a bit in the second one; I was having a hard time holding back since I was nearly crying in frustration before I figured it out. Regardless, it’s good to finally know how to fix this problem!
Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain)
Monday, July 27th, 2009
There are many hill-like mounds around Berlin (and Europe, so I hear) that are composed of the rubble from countless destroyed buildings. The “mountain” of Teufelsberg, on the western edge of Berlin, is one such mountain. Some estimates say that the mountain may contain remains from as many as 400,000 buildings.
As if it were not already spooky enough, the US National Security Agency built a large “listening station” on the top in the mountain during the Cold War. It was abandoned after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the ruins of the towers and radar domes were left to be reclaimed by the forest.
Many things have since been broken by vandals, but there are some good images of the station in earlier days on this website: http://www.ccc.de/teufelsberg/index.html
The tallest tower rises at least eight stories above the top of the hill, and originally had walls of canvas that are now only tatters and shreds that blow in the wind.
The top dome is still unbroken and has incredible acoustic properties. You can’t whisper without your words being amplified and echoing all around you—anything said in the dome is audible to someone clear on the other side. Even the sounds from my camera’s shutter release seemed to be extremely loud, coming from every direction. I’m thinking of going back to make some audio recordings there so you can see what it’s like.Something about the weird noises in the dark dome had me jumping at every little thing. I was ready to bolt for the stairs in case a ghostly specter should appear.
The sun had sunk below the horizon by the time we left, and we hurried to find our way down the mountain before all the light in the sky was lost. It very quickly went from “beautiful leafy green” to “dark and creepy with rustling noises.” The hill is heavily populated with wild boars, some of whom I surprised earlier in the day and was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of before they disappeared into the vines with an angry grunt. They are much bigger than I realized, with some pretty impressive tusks. On the way down they were everywhere, grunting and grumbling at us, but by that point it was so dark we couldn’t see much aside from eyes glowing in the dark.
some inspiration
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
I recently discovered the Australian artist Shaun Tan and have been drooling over his website for the last few days. I’m not sure if I feel inspired or just plain intimidated, but the illustrations sure are beautiful. Look at these (from his website, http://www.shauntan.net)
Look at these clouds. Just pencil on paper. Amazing.
another day, another art show
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
It happens every day in Berlin: people gather at an unremarkable space on some anonymous city street, a place that you might normally walk past without ever noticing. A small bar is usually set up in one corner, where beers are sold for 2 Euro each. It starts small, but before long there are dozens of people there. Some walk, many ride bicycles with fixed gears. People stand outside wearing skinny jeans and thick-framed glasses, smoking cigarettes and talking. Inside, there is usually a small, white room, where art is being shown.
I saw one of these art shows last night, a performance piece where visitors packed in like sardines to watch slow-motion videos of dancers at a rock concert. The videos were shown on dual screens, to ambient music. At the peak of the performance, a disco ball and green laser lights and strobes were used to highlight a live dance performance by my friend Helga.
Friends described it as “pretty cool, but too 2009.” Apparently if you want to be a really cutting-edge artist, you have to be making the art of the future. But if you will settle for the art of 2009, be sure to employ the following:
1. laser beams
2. 90’s music
3. animated GIF’s
I spent a while working on a sculpture for some friends who were busy at a show in New York. They had a solo show last Friday, with some of their newest pieces as well as the one I helped with, the little alien. In his hand, he’s offering a USB flash drive.
There was also a video of a performance they did at the Venice Biennale. There were lots of laser lights, but also great costumes and dancing by Helga. (her website is here)
Weißensee
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
This afternoon happened to be perfect for biking off to a lake. Fortunately, there’s one about 20 minutes away in Pankow, the suburbia to the north. And so I bring you: suburban afternoon park pictures. This is really edgy, avant-garde stuff here on my blog.
First, we have the unsuspecting people posing for me in the sunlight:
Then, we have a strange but amazing tree. Is this called a smoke tree? It reminds me of things I used to see in seed catalogues but never experienced in life because they were not “hardy to zone 4.”
Here I am, contemplating smoke trees and the complexity of nature:
Later, I climbed a tree, to get a kind of general overview:
Thus, the lake.
The end.
website makeover
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
I just spent the last day and a half remaking my website. I wanted to put a link on the blog, a nice black button on the side like those other ones you see in the upper left corner, but I realized after staring at CSS code for twenty minutes that I don’t know how. If someone could please enlighten me, I would appreciate it.
In the meantime, it is here: www.jessicalanan.com
Fortunately, with the program I used one can easily change things and add or delete categories and images without wading through thousands of Dreamweaver files and breaking all one’s links. I therefore believe it might actually stand a chance of staying up-to-date. (Unlike every other website I’ve ever made.) Oh, and it was also about 12,000 times faster to make than my last site. Good thing there are people to write programs for inept people like me.
Critiques or comments are welcome. As long as they’re not negative. Just kidding!
Museum für Naturkunde
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Berlin has a wonderful natural history museum. Not only does it house the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world (I saw the Guiness world record plaque by the foot of the Brontosaurus) but the building itself is also amazing. It’s late 19th century facade “shows elements of French-Renaissance and Baroque” (I got this from their website…) The inside is beautiful, with lots of filigree details and wooden paneling, and if you sneak around upstairs you can catch a glimpse of storage rooms filled with mysterious specimens, like stuffed ostriches, getting dusty.
I’m not saying the museum officials actually let their collections get dusty, I’m just saying that something about the museum gives the feeling of a quirky curiosity shop, or the feeling that you stepped back into another era. I believe a large portion of the collection is older than the museum itself. There are lots of specimens in jars, and some terrifying stuffed animals…
…as well as a very informative room showing step-by-step how animals are preserved. Judging from the stuffed animals there, they do a much more professional job now than they used to. I was personally a fan of the “prehistoric mammal” room. Look at those antlers. Just look at how HUGE they are. I also love the vegetation illustrations paired up with their respective fossils. Even the illustration style looks antique.
The museum turned out to be great for observing living creatures, as well. Look at this girl’s face, for example:
There were plenty of kids running around trying to climb on dinosaurs etc. and getting in trouble. These are all characters from the museum (although maybe the woman didn’t really have such big hair:)
Rainy friday
Friday, July 10th, 2009
I was going to do a post on a really interesting furniture/design store that I love, but it turns out they have moved to another undisclosed location. This is what I get for procrastinating. Thus I have only some photographs of the drizzly weather to offer. Entschuldigung.
Today is the sort of day in Berlin when you want to be inside with tea and a book.
