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Paintings by Masaaki Sasamoto

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Wake by PeteMohrbacher

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Rianne Ten Haken stars in Jean Paul Gaultier’s ‘On The Docks’ movie

Illustrations by Lindsey Carr

Humans are an industrious lot. When we need to make a ‘lot’ of something, we figure out a way to do it cheaply and efficiently. Below is a compilation of animated gifs that show how everyday products are made (some more delicious than others). We even venture outside of the factory to appreciate the effort that goes into making a commercial or stop motion animation.

Now excuse me while I go buy a box of ice cream sandwiches.

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Illustrations by Sara Golish part Il

Nelson Mandela, who passed away late last year, spent more than a quarter of his life in prisons. For the first twenty years, beginning with his 1962 incarceration in Johannesburg’s Marshall Square Prison when Mandela was 44 years old, there was little hope of clemency from the apartheid regime. By the 1980s, however, international pressure was bearing down on the reigning National Party. Multinational banks stopped investing in South Africa, and several of them, alongside British PM Margaret Thatcher, demanded that Mandela be released. Internally, the country’s tensions were becoming difficult to control, and the regime attempted to enforce order by declaring a state of emergency. The crackdown resulted in further anti-government attacks by the anti-apartheid African National Congress. Eventually, the pressure proved insurmountable, and the 72 year old Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison in 1990.

Upon walking out of Victor Verster, Mandela received the personal property he had relinquished during his time in jail. Above is a photograph of the handwritten list of his personal effects. (Click the image to read it in a larger format.) Our resident Afrikaans expert (i.e., Google Translate) provides an English translation below:

Inventory

Property Mr. Mandela

21 +1 boxes

1 Reisegers* Bag

1 Urn

1 Surf Board

4 Rattan Baskets

1 footstool

1 Large Birthday Card

1 White Cardboard Hat

2 Big Umbrellas

1 Set Weights

1 Exercise Bike

Correct Ontavang:* [illegible]

Urns and rattan baskets are all well and good, but I was most impressed that the great anti-apartheid leader counted an exercise bike and a set of weights among his possessions. Don’t even get me started on the surfboard. Then again, Mandela took his fitness more seriously than most during his lifetime, as he noted in his autobiography:

“I enjoyed the discipline and solitariness of long-distance running, which allowed me to escape from the hurly-burly of school life.”

“On Monday through Thursday, I would do stationary running in my cell in the morning for up to forty-five minutes. I would also perform one hundred fingertip push-ups, two hundred sit-ups, fifty deep knee-bends, and various other calisthenics.”

 “Exercise was unusual for African men of my age and generation… I know that some of my younger comrades looked at me and said to themselves, ‘if that old man can do it, why can’t I?’ They too began to exercise.”

“I attended the gym for one and a half hours each evening from Monday through Thursday… We did an hour of exercise, some combination of roadwork, skipping rope, calisthenics, or shadow boxing, followed by fifteen minutes of body work, some weight lifting, and then sparring.” 

To learn more about Nelson Mandela and view other original documents, head over to the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Digital Archives.

And if you can help us figure out what “Reisegers bag” and “Correct Ontavang” mean and write the translation in the comment section, we’d appreciate it!

Ilia Blinderman is a Montreal-based culture and science writer. Follow him at @iliablinderman.

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U2 Releases a Nelson Mandela-Inspired Song, “Ordinary Love”

A List of Nelson Mandela’s Possessions Upon Leaving Prison: Surfboard, Exercise Bike & White Cardboard Hat is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture by signing up for our Daily Email. That is the most reliable and convenient option. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

Illustrations by Sarah Joncas

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Yesterday, we wrote about the Wellcome Library’s opening up of its digital archives and making over 100,000 medical images freely available online. If you’ve already made your way through this choice selection (or if the prospect of viewing a 19^th century leg amputation doesn’t quite pique your curiosity) have no fear. Getty Publications just announced the launch of its Virtual Library, where readers can freely browse and download over 250 art books from the publisher’s backlist catalogue.

The Virtual Library consists of texts associated with several Getty institutions. Readers can view extensively researched exhibition catalogues from the J. Paul Getty Museum, including Paul Cézanne’s late-life watercolours, when the painter raised the still life to a high art (Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolors, 2004), as well as the woefully underappreciated Flemish illustrations of the 15th and 16th centuries (Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript, 2003).  The collection also contains detailed treatises on art conservation from the Getty Conservation Institute, and scholarly works from the Getty Research Institute, both of which include a multitude of books on specialized topics. Fancy reading about the relationship between Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, the two legendary 17^th century painters who lived in the Netherlands’ city of Antwerp? There’s a book on that. Intrigued by all the prostitutes in French impressionism? Try Painted Love: Prostitution in French Art of the Impressionist Era (2003). Perhaps you’re partial to ancient vases, and have already read The Colors of Clay (2006), Pots & Plays (2007), and Greek Vases (1983)? Don’t worry, the Getty’s virtual library has at least 8 more vase-oriented books.

All of the Getty’s virtual library volumes are available in PDF format, and can be added to your Google Books library. If you’re looking for more free art books, don’t miss our post from last year: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Offer 474 Free Art Books Online.

Ilia Blinderman is a Montreal-based culture and science writer. Follow him at @iliablinderman.

Related Content:

The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix

The Getty Puts 4600 Art Images Into the Public Domain (and There’s More to Come)

The National Gallery Makes 25,000 Images of Artwork Freely Available Online

Read 700 Free eBooks Made Available by the University of California Press

Download Over 250 Free Art Books From the Getty Museum is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture by signing up for our Daily Email. That is the most reliable and convenient option. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

Illustrations by Amanda Klammer

In this fantastic close up by Alessandro Cancian, we see a chipmunk and bird facing off, both clearly interested in the food that is atop this post. In the photo description page on 500px, Cancian says he used a telephoto lens with a focal length of 420 mm, so he was definitely a fair distance away. Talk about great timing!

Additional photo details: Shutter speed 1/1000, Aperture f/5.6, ISO 400. Taken with a Nikon D3S.

Artist and architect Yusuke Oono has designed an amazing series of 40-page books that fan out into 360-degree storybooks. Each page is laser-cut and bound from Yusuke’s digital designs and can be viewed page by page or fanned out as demonstrated below.

You can find the complete gallery with additional books and angles at loftwork.com.

[via Colossal]

In this breathtaking underwater photograph by Kurt Arrigo, we see a woman freediving (i.e., no breathing aid) with a school of tuna fish. This is not a composite or digitally manipulated as many may be quick to assume. The model in the photograph is Saho Harada, a two-time Olympic synchronised swimmer for Japan, and the photograph was taken at a depth of approximately 18 meters (59 ft).

On 500px where I came across this photo, Kurt titled it, Set me free. At first it didn’t make much sense to me. Was he implying the woman was being trapped by the surrounding tuna fish? Then I noticed the faint mesh pattern in the background and realized the fish and diver were inside a large fishing net.

At first glance, it is an achingly beautiful photo of a woman in harmony with the surrounding tuna. Her pose, the lighting, the composition; it’s dreamlike. While the reality stands in stark contrast: these fish are taking their final swim before being hauled up to the surface. A truly striking image.

Paintings by Marjolein Caljouw

Illustrations by Amy Sol

Imagine Finding Me is a series of unique double self-portraits which are created around a collection of childhood photographs taken from artist Chino Otsuka’s family album. In these digitally manipulated images, her present and past selves are snapped together in various locations and situations. As Chino describes:

“the digital process becomes a tool, almost like a time machine as I’m embarking on the journey where I once belonged and at the same time becoming a tourist of my own history.”

The series was turned into a 48-page book (ISBN 0-9550945-1-8) and published by TRACE. A newer book entitled Photo Album (ISBN: 978-1-907893-22-3) brings together seven distinct bodies of work by Otsuka, including Imagine Finding Me.
 
Born in Tokyo, Chino Otsuka came to Britain at the age of 10. The core of her photographic work is based on the personal experience arising from this move and her sense of a dual inheritance from both East and West. In many of her projects she uses self-portraiture to explore themes of belonging, identity and memory. For her, memory is a form of storytelling and the narrative element is important throughout her work. She is preoccupied with the idea of home, displacement, memory and loss. What makes a place a home and where does a sense of belonging come from? For Chino, tracing back and recreating the past is a way to deal with such issues.

[via Art Gallery of Ontario's AIMIA Photography Prize and Bored Panda]

Trying to comprehend the expanse of space is a daunting task. Just reading about the distance between Earth and the nearest star/planet/galaxy is enough to boggle most minds. So the thought of miniaturizing something so expansive as the Cosmos is both fascinating and counter-intuitive.

Last month reddit user TheScienceLlama used the Tilt-Shift filter in Photoshop to create a stunning series of space images. While many associate the technique with tilt-shift photography, it’s more accurate to describe this particular Photoshop process as miniature faking or the diorama effect.

The effect is achieved by blurring parts of the photo to simulate a shallow depth of field. You can read more about the technique here and here.

If you enjoy the series below, be sure to check out the desktop wallpapers that reddit user Wattsit made using the same effect.

[via TheScienceLlama]

At the end of last year, the BuzzFeed team asked students and co-workers to label a map. Those in the UK were asked to label a map of the United States, while those in the US were tasked to label a map of Europe.

Yes there is a difference between labelling states of one particular country versus labelling countries in a continent. Sure some people were probably goofing around and not taking the request too seriously. And while many of the attempts will make you chuckle, some of the maps are quite commendable! Before you snicker too hard, maybe quiz yourself and see how you fare?

If you’d like to test yourself, I’ve included blank maps at the bottom of the post. Or you can just click the links below:

Click here for a blank map of the United States
Click here for a blank map of Europe

To see all submissions, see the original BuzzFeed posts HERE and HERE

In this beautiful sunrise capture we see Washington’s Mount Rainier casting an upward shadow towards the sky. The photo was posted by redditor runrgrl, who says the image was taken from Fox Island, near Gig Harbor. The body of water in the foreground is Hale Passage.

The ‘sky shadow’ phenomenon occurs when the sun rises further to the south and Mt Rainier can block the first rays of the morning. Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States with a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m).

Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list. Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could potentially produce massive lahars (a type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water) that would threaten the whole Puyallup River valley. [Source]

Andre Ermolaev is a photographer from Moscow, Russia (featured previously). In an ongoing series of aerial photos, Andre captures Iceland’s incredible landscape like you’ve never seen. Many of his images focus on capturing glacial rivers flowing through Iceland’s volcanic areas and the patterns and colours that emerge from the resulting flow. As Andre describes on his website:

“Iceland is a wonderful country; I would even say that it is a true paradise for all the photo shooting-lovers. But what has become a real discovery for me is the bird’s eye view of the rivers flowing along the black volcanic sand. It is an inexpressible combination of colors, lines, and patterns.”

You can find many more breathtaking images from Andre at the links below. If you’re interested in prints, click here to see the different sizes and framing options available.

Adara Sánchez Anguiano is an illustrator born in Sevilla in 1987. She started the series ‘Take Off Your Clothes’ four years ago and sometimes she still has an urge of continuing it. The act of undressing amazes her in a way that is difficult to explain, ‘It’s like a romance with the human body, a cupid’s arrow every time I contemplate it,’ she explains. The project revolves around a quotidian gesture, the intimacy and sensuality of a casual and ephemeral movement. In her illustrations she explores the expressivity of human figure in sometimes forced poses. She is fascinated by the idea of the extraordinary exposure of the anatomy by a simple and daily gesture like undressing. But it goes further than a simple human body study. ‘The act of undressing is a rebellion, the uprising of the skin over the tyranny of clothes, it’s actually an act of freedom,’ Adara states.

All images © Adara Sánchez Anguiano

Illustrations by Rubén Carral Fajardo

Albert Einstein passionately wooed his first wife Mileva Maric, against his family’s wishes, and the two had a turbulent but intellectually rich relationship that they recorded for posterity in their letters. Einstein and Maric’s love letters have inspired the short film above, My Little Witch (in Serbian, I believe, with English subtitles) and several critical re-evaluations of Einstein’s life and Maric’s influence on his early thought. Some historians have even suggested that Maric—who was also trained in physics—made contributions to Einstein’s early work, a claim hotly disputed and, it seems, poorly substantiated.

The letters—written between 1897 and 1903 and only discovered in 1987—reveal a wealth of previously unknown detail about Maric and the marriage. While the controversy over Maric’s influence on Einstein’s theories raged among academics and viewers of PBS’s controversial documentary, Einstein’s Wife, a scandalous personal item in the letters got much better press. As Einstein and Mileva’s relationship deteriorated, and they attempted to scotch tape it together for the sake of their children, the avuncular pacifist wrote a chilling list of “conditions,” in outline form, that his wife must accept upon his return. Lists of Note transcribes them from Walter Isaacson’s biography Einstein: His Life and Universe:

CONDITIONS

A. You will make sure:

1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.

B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:

1. my sitting at home with you;
2. my going out or travelling with you.

C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:

1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
2. you will stop talking to me if I request it;
3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

D. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.

While it may be unfair to judge anyone’s total character by its most glaring defects, there’s no way to read this without shuddering. Although Einstein tried to preserve the marriage, once they separated for good, he did not lament Mileva’s loss for long. Manjit Kumar tells us in Quantum: Einstein Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality that although “Mileva agreed to his demands and Einstein returned”

[I]t could not last. At the end of July, after just three months in Berlin, Mileva and the boys went back to Zurich. As he stood on the platform waving goodbye, Einstein wept, if not for Mileva and the memories of what had been, then for his two departing sons. But within a matter of weeks he was happily enjoying living alone “in my large apartment in undiminished tranquility.”

Einstein prized his solitude greatly. Another remark shows his difficulty with personal relationships. While he eventually fell in love with his cousin Elsa and finally divorced Mavic to marry her in 1919, that marriage too was troubled. Elsa died in 1936 soon after the couple moved to the U.S. Not long after her death, Einstein would write, “I have gotten used extremely well to life here. I live like a bear in my den…. This bearishness has been further enhanced by the death of my woman comrade, who was better with other people than I am.”

Einstein’s personal failings might pass by without much comment if had not, like his hero Gandhi, been elevated to the status of a “secular saint.” Yet, it is also the personal inconsistencies, the weaknesses and petty, even incredibly callous moments, that make so many famous figures’ lives compelling, if also confusing. As Einstein scholar John Stachel says, “Too much of an idol was made of Einstein. He’s not an idol—he’s a human, and that’s much more interesting.”

Related Content:

Listen as Albert Einstein Reads ‘The Common Language of Science’ (1941)

The Musical Mind of Albert Einstein: Great Physicist, Amateur Violinist and Devotee of Mozart

Einstein Documentary Offers A Revealing Portrait of the Great 20th Century Scientist

Albert Einstein Expresses His Admiration for Mahatma Gandhi, in Letter and Audio

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

Albert Einstein Imposes on His First Wife a Cruel List of Marital Demands is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture by signing up for our Daily Email. That is the most reliable and convenient option. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

by the artist that made AFA’s current and stunning header,  dylan chudzynski, thanks a lot dude!

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A young caiman in the mouth of its mother. (Natural World - BBC)