I saw James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ over Christmas. It’s a remarkable technical achievement, injecting new possibilities for the creation of wholly artificial, wholly convincing dramatic worlds into cinema. In that, it reminded me of Masaccio’s masterpiece ‘The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St John and Two Donors’, in Florence’s Santa Maria Novella church: Masaccio’s work wasContinue reading “James Cameron meets Masaccio in Santa Maria Novella downtown”
Category Archives: Human power
Go Go Le FigaROW! (or, London to Paris by hand)
Well, tonight allumination takes a break from the weird pondering to salute… My brother Edward! Who even now is getting an early night before getting up tomorrow morning to row from London to Paris. He’s part of the Le FigaROW Team, racing the Langstone Cutters in one of a pair of matched Thames Watermen CuttersContinue reading “Go Go Le FigaROW! (or, London to Paris by hand)”
King James I’s submarine
A post today about weak points; about where fantasies, alternate worlds, break through into reality. Based on seeing a working rebuild of Cornelis Drebbel’s human powered submarine at a Farmer’s market in Richmond. Here’s the submarine: And here’s the plan: Here some of the fittings – the waterproof oar joints: The oar mechanism, allowing theContinue reading “King James I’s submarine”