This highly technical installation by artist Susan Hiller features 400 speakers suspended from the ceiling, simultaneously running audio of different people recounting their extraterrestrial encounters. The exhibited work titled Witness offers an out-of-this world experience. The constructed piece itself resembles a celestial entity, adding to the astronomically alien sensation in the room. I imagine that hearing all of the voices communicate their observance of UFOs and other unearthly occurrences can be a bit overwhelming, as though you’ve stepped into an episode of The X Files. One may laugh at the idea of a UFO sighting, but for the London-based artist there is a direct connection with these recorded sightings and religious faith. Hiller says, “Listening to these people whispering in your ears is like being a priest in a confessional. The whole piece is built upon the shape of the cross and the circle. There are four pathways where you can enter the inner circle of the installation…The religious symbolism of the cross in the circle is crucial because the stories are examples of contemporary visionary experience. Only today people see UFOs where once they saw angels.”
A homeless man poses for a photo with TIna Fey in New York
This is one of the many reasons I love Tina Fey.
(via thefrisky)
Source: celebritypassionista
Skeleton at London Dungeon found to be real
A skeleton at the London Dungeon’s popular “creepy crypt” exhibit has been found to be real.
It is believed that the bones could have been displayed at the attraction since it opened in 1975.
Now the skeleton has been found to be genuine, it must be licensed by the Human Tissues Authority at a cost of 2,000 pounds a year.
The remains, which include a rib-cage and backbone, have been named Kate - after model Kate Moss.
It is thought she might date from the early days of anatomical research when bodies were regularly smuggled in from the Far East
And staff now suspect another skeleton hanging in a gibbet cage might also be real. She is known as Twiggy.
Great story! Click through to read the rest of the article.
(via theossuary)
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Klein Bottle
A Klein bottle is a surface which has no edges, no “inside” or “outside” and cannot properly be constructed in three dimensional space. This bottle, from a series made by Alan Bennett, was constructed as accurately as possible.
(via wanderwomann)
Source: quantumaniac
SHERLOCK HOLMES FOUGHT HERE Never-before-seen photographs of London’s Tower Bridge being constructed have been unearthed in a vacant building. Some of the photos date as far back to 1892.
Guess the Sherlock Holmes movie got it just about right, eh?
(Photo: Barcroft Media via the Telegraph)
(via inothernews)
Tree Hotels in Sweden. The hanging tent features a fabric-covered platform supported by a metal frame, that is suspended from a secured single point. At Waldseilgarten, the tents are suspended from thick branches of large free-standing trees, where guests can only ascend or descend with rope assistance.
(via tillyandthewall)
Source: gaksdesigns
(via erosboros)
(via alacrum)
Weirdly prescient 1987 sitcom predicted the death of Muammar Gaddafi.
There was no shortage of crappy, short-lived genre shows in the 1980s, but only one of them accidentally predicted the death year of a newly deceased Libyan strongman.
In this bizarre scene from the pilot of the 1987 “guy comes back from the afterlife to make amends” series Second Chance, St. Peter tosses Gaddafi into the bowels of Hell in the far-off year of 2011. [Via Buzzfeed]
HARP UNDER WATER
The attractive harpist who is shown above comfortably submerged in 5 feet of water is illustrating one of science’s newest gifts to music: the underwater harp. This invention is not as silly as it might seem. Ever since David first serenaded King Saul, harpists have been at the mercy of moisture. Damp days changed the tune of their strings, mostly made of gut, and sometimes even caused them to snap . This problem was not solved until Melville Clark, a harp manufacturer of Syracuse, N.Y. who is a harpist himself and used to accompany Tenor John McCormack, developed strings made of nylon. These not only outwore the gut strings but also successfully resisted the elements.
Recently Clark went himself one better, produced a completely waterproof Irish harp and induced the NBC Symphony’s pretty harpist, Elaine Vito, to plunge into a glass tank with it. Miss Vito had a difficult time staying under water because both she and the harp showed a tendency to float. She did stay down long enough to pluck a few aquatic arpeggios and to prove to her satisfaction that the harp definitely withstood wetting. It had kept its tune and showed, as she put it, “an enchanting liquid tone.” Mr. Clark has already begun preparing to go into mass production and he expects his new harp to sell for $99.50. “It will be ideal,” he says, “to accompany bathtub singers.”
