In todays news...

[mangocrazy]

I'd say that Harry is probably the most relateable of all the Royals (although that isn't saying a great deal). I also doubt that HRH Jug Ears is his Dad...

[cheb]

I read some research some decades ago that suggested, with evidence, that about 20% of children had been fathered by someone other than the man who thought he had.

AKA a grudge pregnancy, someone had it in for you.

[gremlin]

I wouldn't swap with him.

I wouldn't swap with any of them.

Same.

But then I wouldn't write a 'tell all' book about my family either...


Although my mum's life as a cleaner for Greenwich council would exactly be a page turner.

[Yorick]

Since when did common sense and courtesy become so offensive?



Usually advice to tourists to be respectful of their host's cultures and customs would welcomed. But not when it involves LGBTQ+ advice....

When I've been in Muslim countries, I make a point of wearing long trousers where appropriate, not going overboard with displays of affection for Mrs. G in public, etc. It's just common courtesy. Quite why James Cleverly is being branded 'tone deaf' for what seems like sage advice, is beyond me.

When in Rome etc...

[Yorick]

FWIW I don't think the World Cup should be in Qatar, hosting it there was the wrong decision for various reasons. But since it is being hosted there, it seems that Foreign Office should be giving out this ^^^ advice. People should be taking issue with FIFA's decision, not anything else.

Qatar, the great footballing nation? Why not..? I mean it's the perfect temperature to run around playing football with plenty of readily-available stadia and, most importantly for travelling fans, plenty of places to have a reasonably-priced beer and get a bit merry in the sun.

Unless of course you are insinuating that FIFA's decision making process could be, in some strange way, corrupted....

I hate cynisim in a big way, but I'd wear the Bumming hat for a week if there was no money involved in that decision

[irie]

I read some research some decades ago that suggested, with evidence, that about 20% of children had been fathered by someone other than the man who thought he had.

AKA a grudge pregnancy, someone had it in for you.

Such pregnancies are often the result of the mother spreading the genetic risk of having only one father of her children. IYSWIM.

[JackyJoll]

I wouldn't swap with him.

I wouldn't swap with any of them.

Same.

But then I wouldn't write a 'tell all' book about my family either...


Although my mum's life as a cleaner for Greenwich council would[n’t] exactly be a page turner.

“Her hands quickly found the soft, wet mop…”

[Horse]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63423811

Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years

[David]

What an amazing piece of art.




I have one or two boxes from the move that look like that...and I don't care which way up they go.

[Horse]

What an amazing piece of art.




I have one or two boxes from the move that look like that...and I don't care which way up they go.

Have you ever seen one? I was of similar opinion from seeing photos in books. When they're right 'there' they look a whole lot better*

* caveats: definitions of 'better' might vary.

FWIW I like art that looks like what it's supposed to be and don't really 'get' abstracts. But, in the right place, I'd give some Mondrians house room.

[Mr. Dazzle]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63423811

Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years

"Ce n'est pas le bon chemin"

[cheb]

One of the curious things to me about art like this is that you look at a good one and can't quite see what makes it undoubtedly better than a bad one.

Jackson Pollack being a good example. You look at it and think anyone could do that, then you see see one that anyone has done, and it's worse, much worse.

And these things generally look better IRL than on a small screen, there's texture and depth to consider.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I remember when we did Jackson Pollock in GCSE art. Before we looked at any of his stuff the teacher said "Your'e going to look at it and say "that's easy!", but you're wrong".

He wasn't incorrect.

[JackyJoll]

Jackson Pollack being a good example. You look at it and think anyone could do that, then you see see one that anyone has done, and it's worse, much worse.

Pollock.

[cheb]

Bollacks, I can't even blame the spell checker, just good old fashioned stupidity.

[Horse]

I remember when we did Jackson Pollock in GCSE art. Before we looked at any of his stuff the teacher said "Your'e going to look at it and say "that's easy!", but you're wrong".

He wasn't incorrect.

https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-10-30/pollock

Scientists reveal the physics of Jackson Pollock’s painting technique

A study finds that Pollock’s “drip” technique was geared to avoid a classic fluid mechanical instability, whether he was aware of it or not.

Jackson Pollock's Number 1A (1948) was created using his "drip technique." New research shows the technique was geared to avoid a classic fluid mechanical instability. Credit: "MOMA Pollock" by C.K.H. is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The celebrated painter Jackson Pollock created his most iconic works not with a brush, but by pouring paint onto the canvas from above, weaving sinuous filaments of color into abstract masterpieces. A team of researchers analyzing the physics of Pollock’s technique has shown that the artist had a keen understanding of a classic phenomenon in fluid dynamics — whether he was aware of it or not.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers show that Pollock’s technique seems to intentionally avoid what’s known as coiling instability — the tendency of a viscous fluid to form curls and coils when poured on a surface.

“Like most painters, Jackson Pollock went through a long process of experimentation in order to perfect his technique,” said Roberto Zenit, a professor in Brown University's School of Engineering and senior author on the paper. “What we were trying to do with this research is figure out what conclusions Pollock reached in order to execute his paintings the way he wanted. Our main finding in this paper was that Pollock’s movements and the properties of his paints were such that he avoided this coiling instability.”

Pollock’s technique typically involved pouring paint straight from a can or along a stick onto a canvas lying horizontally on the floor. It’s often referred to as the “drip technique,” but that’s a bit of a misnomer in the parlance of fluid mechanics, Zenit says. In fluid mechanics, “dripping” would be dispensing the fluid in a way that makes discrete droplets on the canvas. Pollock largely avoided droplets, in favor of unbroken filaments of paint stretching across the canvas.

In order to understand exactly how the technique worked, Zenit and colleagues from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico analyzed extensive video of Pollock at work, taking careful measure of how fast he moved and how far from the canvas he poured his paints. Having gathered data on how Pollock worked, the researchers used an experimental setup to recreate his technique. Using the setup, the researchers could deposit paint using a syringe mounted at varying heights onto a canvas moving at varying speeds. The experiments helped to zero in on the most important aspects of what Pollock was doing.

“We can vary one thing at a time so we can decipher the key elements of the technique,” Zenit said. “For example, we could vary the height from which the paint is poured and keep the speed constant to see how that changes things.”

The researchers found that the combination of Pollock’s hand speed, the distance he maintained from the canvas and the viscosity of his paint seem to be aimed at avoiding coiling instability. Anyone who’s ever poured a viscous fluid — perhaps some honey on toast — has likely seen some coiling instability. When a small amount of a viscous fluid is poured, it tends to stack up like a coil of rope before oozing across the surface.

In the context of Pollock’s technique, the instability can result in paint filaments making pigtail-like curls when poured from the can. Some prior research had concluded that the curved lines in Pollock’s paintings were a result of this instability, but this latest research shows the opposite.

“What we found is that he moved his hand at a sufficiently high speed and a sufficiently short height such that this coiling would not occur,” Zenit said.

Zenit says the findings could be useful in authenticating Pollock’s works. Too many tight curls might suggest that a drip-style painting is not a Pollock. The work could also inform other settings in which viscous fluids are stretched into filaments, such as the manufacture of fiber optics. But Zenit says his main interest in the work is that it’s simply a fascinating way to explore interesting questions in fluid mechanics.

“I consider myself to be a fluid mechanics messenger,” he said. “This is my excuse to talk science. It’s fascinating to see that painters are really fluid mechanicians, even though they may not know it.”

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0223706

[cheb]

Thanks for that, interesting stuff.

[Horse]

Thanks for that, interesting stuff.

Background: I'm an arty-farty git, did it at A Level, etc. So I saw plenty (well, 'sufficient') Mondrian photos to know that I didn't like (understand, appreciate, whatever) them.

Then I saw one (or two, can't remember) in the Tate St Ives gallery. Pictures in books don't do them justice.

Just had a mental tour around the house. We have a fair bit of of 'art'. Only one item that could be considered at all 'abstract' and even that is more decorative than abstract.

[cheb]

Art doesn't need ' ', nor does abstract. Buy it if you like it, don't buy it if you don't As I've mentioned before I'm a life model, every so often there'll be a picture of me that has that something that makes it stand out to me as me. That sounds very self centred I know, but I'm what I know best.

I like abstract landscapes and try to buy one every couple of years, there's usually a student that does them. Most of the other pictures I have are of swamps.

And to end on a really weird note, one of the students gave my wife a picture they'd drawn of me as a present.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Did you wear a bow when you sat for it?