Through Lines 151

This teaser for A24’s forthcoming 4K remaster release of Talking Heads’ 1984 classic concert film Stop Making Sense has been the smile I needed among an otherwise difficult and upsetting week.

• Despite usability concerns and the notable lack of diversity in the highlighted women, you might spend some time reading and exploring the new Designing Women site.
• Tech exceptionalism continues to be easily proved to instead be a house of cards. The more troubling thing I find is that it seems to extend to most things in this country — education, healthcare, government. All of it.
• It’s good that Sam Altman is a little scared of what OpenAI is working on. He should be — if only because of speed and reach.
• See also Noam Chomsky’s excellent The False Promise of ChatGPT. “…we are fallible. But this is part of what it means to think: To be right, it must be possible to be wrong. Intelligence consists not only of creative conjectures but also of creative criticism.”
• Mitsuru Nikaido’s LEGO animals and mecha-inspired figures are their own kind of sculptural works of art. A master builder indeed I would say.
• Jason Logan’s book Make Ink on the art and science of natural inkmaking with uncommon, found materials is going on my wishlist.
• I’ve always sucked at solving a jumbled Rubik’s Cube, and I realize I’m very late to this, but the Cube 20 site will probably keep me entertained on this rainy Sunday.
• NASA's Artemis mission space suits were unveiled this week. They look like something from a Hollywood movie. Not sure about the black color though myself.
• Borrowed Trouble, from Feist’s forthcoming Multitudes album.

Notable Type Releases

• Flavia Zimbardi’s Melindrosa is steeped in Art Deco character and charm from the early 20th Century along with an unusual alternate backwards Q and off-balance/inverted-looking S.
• The 7 weight Acorn family from Simon Walker’s Beasts of England foundry also picks up some Deco character but then packages it within a clean, friendly and modern sans-serif. Delightful, like all of Simon’s typefaces.
• Twogether Rounded, designed by Raúl Plancarte, per the releases description does “feel good.” It’s fun and friendly — perhaps I’d even say youthful. That might just be the emoji though.
• Dan Rhatigan launched his Bijou foundry this week with not one, but two releases — Gloridot and Ringold both whose origins are steeped in 1970s magazine history.
• The top heavy, sculpted and chunky Basati lives in a world all its own. It’s fun, funky, and screams jungle amusement park ride to me.
• Boiga. Same the name again… Boiga. Kel Troughton has captured something I immediately recognized from Japanese packaging and signage. I like it.