confidential cables

Merry merry and all that. The annual holiday cards were squeezed into the season, a method of procrastinating from an over-scheduled and overwrought month.

Christmases past have produced cards that were high-effort and glamorous. This year the production focused on high-effort and dingy. Why not spend the same amount of time on fewer cards, and make those cards look care-worn and old?

This year represents eight or maybe nine years of holiday card production. Only the past six have been memorable, but the earlier efforts get points for enthusiasm. The most recent three were documented on DYP: the luminaria of 2009/10; origami cranes in 2008/09; and mobiles featuring the fifties family Gibbs in 2007/08.

It was actually a question of significant consideration whether the cards were going to be produced this year. Time was lacking and inspiration hadn't paid a visit, until it did, in the 'leaked diplomatic cables' released into the world. I love the idea of 'diplomatic cables', especially so-called even when they are just garden variety snarky emails. I love the predecessor, the 'diplomatic pouch.'

Originally, the cards were going to be diplomatic pouches. But that was too much effort. Researching cables -- telegrams -- though: that was fun and easy, and what better combination is there than fun and easy? And telegrams information proved plentiful in the research stage.

Research sites for telegrams: basic how to | pdf template | fonts

Then there was the envelope. Telegram envelopes are decidedly unexciting. The first thought was to use brown paper envelopes, which have a charm all their own, but then I discovered the British Postal Museum. Totally adorable. Wonderful pdf downloads.

While my anglophilia has paled to the point that sending actual British telegrams wasn't an attractive option, the lure of the Ocean Penny Postage Envelope:
"Britain! From thee the world expects an ocean penny postage to make her children one fraternity"
was too strong a lure to resist. And it roughly fit the artificial aging through using tea-dying theme.

And so all of the envelopes and telegrams were pdf'd, printed, tea-dyed, trimmed, folded, and posted. Stay warm and conquer the world!

Möbius strips of verbiage

Ah, June, deadlines met with procrastinations met with vacation plans met with trapeze lessons. Moving, traveling, traversing, and fighting against the rain. The beginning of the month transposed to the end of the month, with the odd birthday here and there thrown in to keep things off kilter.


This month's project, thanks to late-night Economist reading (obituary: Martin Gardner)
is all about making multi-dimensional geometric forms ("a conjuror introduced him to the hexaflexagon, a piece of paper folded into an almost flat six-sided shape that could be manipulated to reveal a series of different interiors") : a four dimensional Möbius strip!



Ah, Google. Ah, mathematicians. The free exchange of knowledge brought gloriously to life. The following were made using the first search results for "hexaflexagon," a paper pattern which I interpreted as being 7 one-inch sections, with 1 inch bases, and a youtube video, which provided the multi-dimensional context for doing what when and where.



Some notes. I used double sided tape and copier paper. My glue stick, as ever, was dried out and didn't stick. The copier paper was not a color I would normally have chosen, but it was in the art drawer. These are rough drafts of projects that will receive more attention throughout the summer, so bear with the wonky folds and questionable text layouts. Other search terms to become acquainted with:
Kaleidocycle
Flexagon



The text of "Places" is from DYP! June 2; what I love about this form is that multiple story-lines without beginning or end can be played against each other, and this piece was in the parallel plot department.



The second piece, "Artist's Conscience," came from two separate conversations, one on the need to develop an artistic conscience ("get work done now!") and one on having a truculent routine, in that my daily routine must be shy or have other issues, since it often can't be found. Is it hiding under the couch? Sulking in the closet?



But "truculent" wasn't exactly the word that we used in our conversation. I can't remember the word, and hoped consulting a thesaurus would trigger the neurons. It didn't, but here's the text of "Conscience":



{with all due thanks to the Mac dictionary application)

truculent
antonym cooperative, amiable.
defiant, aggressive, antagonistic, combative,
belligerent, pugnacious, confrontational, ready for a fight,
obstreperous, argumentative, quarrelsome, uncooperative;
bad-tempered, ornery, short-tempered, cross,
snappish, cranky; feisty, spoiling for a fight.

defiant
antonym cooperative.
intransigent, resistant, obstinate,
uncooperative, noncompliant, recalcitrant;
obstreperous, truculent, dissenting,
disobedient, insubordinate, subversive,
rebellious, mutinous, feisty.

intransigent
antonym compliant.
uncompromising, inflexible, unbending,
unyielding, diehard, unshakable, unwavering,
resolute, rigid, unaccommodating,
uncooperative, stubborn, obstinate, obdurate,
pigheaded, single-minded, iron-willed, stiff-necked.

uncompromising
antonym flexible.
inflexible, unbending, unyielding, unshakable,
resolute, rigid, hard-line, immovable, intractable,
inexorable, firm, determined, obstinate,
stubborn, adamant, obdurate, intransigent, headstrong,
stiff-necked, pigheaded, single-minded, bloody-minded.

weather

As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that ’s false, before
You trust in critics.

George Gordon, Lord Byron

reading
Dada in Paris / Michel Sanouillet

The Posthuman Dada Guide: tzara and lenin play chess / Andrei Codrescu

Bauhaus 1919-1933 : workshops for modernity / [organized by] Barry Bergdoll, Leah Dickerman.

Big ideas for growing mathematicians : exploring elementary math with 20 ready-to-go activities

Mathematics appreciation : ten complete enrichment lessons / Theoni Pappas

Hexaflexagons and other mathematical diversions : the first Scientific American book of puzzles

Polyhedron models / Magnus J. Wenninger