Ancient ruins as seen from space. Click on the images to see which ruins are pictured above and check out this gallery for more.

blue-voids:

Ted Kincaid - Lunar photographs, 2010-11

Dinosaur art quilts by Betty Busby.

moshita:

Hope Kroll

A few of nature’s most transparent animals. Check out this gallery by National Geographic to see the rest.

Day & Night by Owen Silverwood is “A personal study of water. An abstract depiction of the natural world in transition from day to night.”

doloresdepalabra:

Works by Fabian Buergy

Ties from my Periodic Bar collection available in my Thinx Shop.

likeafieldmouse:

Ryoji Ikeda - The Transfinite (2011)

“A huge, immersive, electronic light-and-sound installation consisting of an immense wall — 54 feet wide by 40 feet tall — which serves as a screen for streaming video projections.

On one side, horizontal black, gray and white stripes and bands divided into left and right sections scroll downward, flickering furiously to the sound of aggressively percussive, buzzing and whistling electronic music emitted by powerful speakers. 

he bar-code-like patterns extend across the white floor in front of the wall, where visitors who have doffed their shoes may loll, dance or meditate. It’s like a walk-in, animated Op Art painting.

On the other side, the floor is covered by soft black fabric and the wall is flooded by finely articulated, incomprehensibly complicated numerical and graphic data.

What is it to be human in such a universe? What values other than statistical ones sustain us?”

Light Reading by Airan Kang

About the project:

This virtual world was created as an homage to specific books that are her current sources of inspiration. Kang traveled around the world to visit and photograph different bookstores and famous libraries in order to then recreate each environment as digitized versions of the original simulacra. The familiarity of these places gives Kang’s lurid universe an unexpected and sublime sense of organic beauty.

Each of Kang’s unique book covers are modified appropriations of the original covers rather than an exact replica. The “hyper books” are then arranged in stacks to show Kang’s growing interest in the relationship between text and the imagined literary space that the texts represent. This is further asserted as quoted text from each books in LED scrolls across the surface, making the information contained readily available and accessible to the viewer. Thus the content of each book is automatically visible, suggesting an ultramodern view of knowledge and intellect that is predetermined and entitled, rather than learned over time.

Read more…

wordsbydan:

7 Great quotes about libraries on photos of beautiful libraries

With libraries around the world in danger of extinction, Flavorwire posted a series of great quotes about libraries from famous writers. I decided to pair them with some of the world’s most beautiful libraries. You’re welcome;

1. Trinity College Library - University of Dublin
2. University Club Library – New York City
3. Admont Abbey Library – Austria
4. Real Gabinete Português de Leitura – Rio de Janeiro
5. Suzzalo Library at the University of Washington – Seattle
6. Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
7. Canadian Library of Parliament – Ottawa

Click on the photo to see it full size. Support your local library, kids.

Felt specimens from Hiné Mizushima’s Unnatural History Museum.

corinnesinteriorstateofmind:

Carpets by Alexandra Kehayoglou

These carpets are made from wool, often from the leftovers of the production of other products in the factory, carrying a strong message of sustainability.

Airigami designed this life-size balloon dinosaur for the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

About the project:

We made a 20-foot acrocanthosaurus, a dinosaur from the early cretaceous period. I’ve always enjoyed blending art and science. This event was a perfect opportunity to do that.

We’ve built dinosaurs before, but this is the first time we were able to build alongside a cast of an actual dinosaur skeleton. Having a life-size model next to us sure made the construction a lot easier. Our design, based on images we found online, was pretty accurate, but it was nice to be able to look up and take measurements off of the real thing.