August 14, 2003
Shades & Mirrors
Whilst looking, with little success, for some images from Saloman de Caus’ 1612 book La Perspective avec la Raison des Ombres et Miroirs, I happened upon the following:
News of a project to create a digital reconstruction of de Caus’ Hortus Palatinus
in Heidelberg; an article entitled Anamorphic Perspective & Illusory Architecture; an on-line exhibition ‘Splash and Spectacle’ on the history of the fountain; a history of automata, at the intriguing Miralab site, which, one must hope, reads better in the original French; a nicely-presented selection of illuminated manuscripts; and, lastly, and very indirectly, a flying pig.
What a delightful flying pig! It brings to mind another pig with wings.
Posted by: Prentiss Riddle on August 21, 2003 01:34 PMJust yesterday I happenedto walk by a couple of the fountains on the University of Texas campus and thought that their display was sadly misdirected.
The "Splash and Spectacle" site gives me the words to express the idea: UT's fountains fall firmly in the propaganda category, from the literal statues of soldiers at a WWI memorial to the phallic spurts of the modernist fountain at the Lyndon B. Johnson library. You can look but you can't touch; climbing into a fountain on a hot day will get you immediately arrested.
If I were king I'd decree their redesign to accommodate swimmers and waders. An "urban oasis" fountain that doesn't let you roll up your trousers and climb in, or strip down and splash around like an otter, is more tantalizing than pleasurable on an August day in Texas.
Posted by: Prentiss Riddle on August 21, 2003 01:45 PM