Worldmapper: On the Grid

You may or may not be familiar with Worldmapper. It's a project that originated from the Social and Spatial Inequalities research group at the University of Sheffield, to create maps where geographic territories can be sized according to a whole assortment of other metrics, like population, literacy, income, etc. The resulting graphics are called cartograms and Worldmapper now offers almost 700 of them. Together they provide a fascinating visualization of global issues.

On a recent visit to the website, I discovered gridded cartograms. A uniform grid is imposed on a geographic territory and then each square is sized according to the value of a particular metric. This gridded mapping creates a way more nuanced representation than the traditional cartogram, which assigns a single value for each country. It also allows for analysis within one territory.

Here are some grid-mapped populations. A country like Italy, say, whose population is rather dense throughout, will look very much like its geographic shape, while Brazil (above), has quite a different story to tell.

Lots From the Lot

Here are a few items from the upcoming three-day auction of Hollywood memorabilia, by auctioneers, Profiles in History, June 10-12.

Lot #805 "Wicked Witch of the West" hat from The Wizard of Oz. (M-G-M, 1939). Worn on screen by Margaret Hamilton. Estimate $100,000 - $150,000

A classic, designed by MGM costume designer Adrian (b. Adrian Adolph Greenburg). Read more here and here about the costume designer/couturier who outfitted some 250 films. This guy definitely needs his own post.


Lot #803 Emerald City Prime Minister jeweled gloves from The Wizard of Oz. (MGM, 1939)

These too, are by costume designer Adrian. I love how “gem”-encrusted these are. I can’t wait to see which designer will be reinterpreting these for some future holiday collection …


Lot #637. Alice in Wonderland “Queen of Hearts,” color character design. (Lou Bunin Studios, 1949) Pencil, pen & ink, and gouache on paper by production designer Bernyce Polifka.

There were two Alice in Wonderlands released in 1951. This was the non-Disney production by Lou Bunin Studios which combined stop-motion puppets and live-action. (More here.) We learn from the New York Times review of the “nightmare…put upon the screen,” that “his puppets are ugly and lifeless”, “the sets are uncomfortably tasteless,” and “the Ansco Color in which the whole thing is amateurishly photographed is so muddy, uneven and washed out that it actually tends to nauseate.”

There is now a recently restored 35mm print of the film, and, of course, a cult following.


Lot #786. Original wooden machine gear from the Charles Chaplin film, Modern Times. (UA, 1936) Wooden machine gear painted red over original silver paint that shows through in numerous areas of the piece. Measures 16 in. in diameter x 2 in. wide.

I love this, but something tells me Pottery Barn or Anthropologie will issue the wooden gear as a “home accessory” at some point--probably having something to do with getting-back-to-basics in the economy. Not quite sure I’ll still want it then.

The Art of Suicide

Yet another awesome flickr set by Gunther Stephan. This Berlin-based "image jockey" has 4,838 Facebook friends for a reason. Go here to view the entire set, and here to check out his other sets on flickr.

Margaret Bourke-White, Suicides of Germans in Leipzig City Hall, 1945



George Tooker, Cornice, 1949


A nice Word add-on



George Frederick Watts, Found Drowned, 1867




Edouard Manet, Le suicide, 1877



Christoph Niemann, My Life with Cables



Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl , 1963

African Portrait Cloth

Kanga, (East Africa), or pagne, (West and Central Africa) are the roughly 5 ft. long, rectangular, printed textiles used for everything from wrapping one’s head to carrying a baby. The pictorial fabric, which also traditionally include text, are often printed to commemorate a specific event--funeral, political campaign, visit by a world leader—in which case one or multiple portraits are incorporated into the design.

Long Live the President! Portrait Cloths from Africa, at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, has over 100 examples on display to August 29, 2010. To learn more about these cloths that are such an important part of African textile culture, visit Adire African Textiles online. There, you can view much of the collection from which many of the exhibit's pieces are on loan. Find additional information about kanga here, here, and here.

"Amitié Franco Gabonaise," “Franco-Gabonese friendship,” is printed beneath portraits of President Georges Pompidou and President Omar Bongo on the occasion of Pompidou’s visit to Gabon in February 1971.



Ahmadou Ahidjo, President of Cameroun, 1960-1982.
Two cloths: top, circa 1963, bottom, circa 1970.


Abdoul Diouf , President of Senegal, 1981-2000.
Cloth is from the election year, 1983.


Albert-Bernard Omar Bongo, President of Gabon for 42 years,
1967-2009, when he died in office. Cloth dates from 1971.


Funerary cloth for Marien N'gouabi, President of
Congo (Brazzaville) from 1969 to 1977.


Francois Tombalbaye, President of Chad
from 1960 to 1975. Cloth is circa 1970.


Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of Senegal, 1960-80.
Cloth marked his 90th birthday in 1996.


Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire, 1965-97.
Cloth is circa 1992.


25th anniversary of the death of Thomas Moulero, 1888-1975,
first priest of Dahomey (Benin), 2000.

Nelson Mandela, South Africa, in 2001.

Michael Jackson, Tanzania, 2009.

Pope John Paul II's visit to Benin in 1993

Masai women wearing Barack Obama kanga, 2009.


Kanga for Bush's visit to Tanzania in 2008. (via D.C. Diary)

Photos from Tropenmuseum and Adire African Textiles.

A.M. Cassandre for Harper's Bazaar

In 1936, MoMA held an exhibition of Paris-based A.M. Cassandre’s poster work. That’s when Harper’s Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch, contracted Cassandre to create the numerous surrealistic covers he would produce over the next three years.

Among the handful below, the first two are definitely the trippiest. For a few more, go here.

Betsey Johnson Does Opera

Betsey Johnson: Juliette, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

… well, on her sketchpad she does, and it’s a wide-eyed, leggy, jean-clad, midriff-baring Juliette from the opera Roméo et Juliette. Johnson and a group of other fashion elite agreed to embark upon a truly delectable flight of fashion fancy--to reinterpret the classic-opera character of their choice. The results, which have all been generously donated for a most worthy cause—The New York City Opera--will be auctioned, tomorrow, Thursday May 20th, at the annual DIVAS Shop for Opera benefit event.

Organized by the New York City Opera Thrift Shop (declared NYC’s best thrift shop by Vogue magazine), the Divas Shop for Opera is one of the city’s most anticipated shopping events by fashionistas everywhere.

Visit ‘Soul Stylist’ Lori Sutherland’s blog for details of some of the incredible vintage and designer deals to expect. This is serious stuff—Pauline Trigere, Zandra Rhodes and Issey Miyake, to name a few—at stunningly low (cue for diva to faint) prices.

Here are a handful of about two-dozen designer “reinterpretations” to be on view and auctioned at the event. I’m not sure if it is sold out yet, but you can check here for tix.

threeASFOUR: Queen of the Night, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Christian Lacroix: Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur

Victoria Bartlett: Puccini’s Turandot

Narciso Rodriguez: Cio-Cio San, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Austin Scarlett: Poppea, Monteverdi’s
L’incoronazione di Poppea

Jason Wu: Verdi’s Aida

Behnaz Sarafpour: Puccini’s Tosca

Illustrations: Courtesy of the designers/NYC Opera via Style File