austinkleon: darksilenceinsuburbia: Dial M for Magnificent From the book “Reinventing the Whee
austinkleon:darksilenceinsuburbia:Dial M for MagnificentFrom the book “Reinventing the Wheel”Oh man Reinventing The Wheel looks great:Helfand begins with an essay that interweaves the history of wheel charts with humanity’s fascination with the circle. The earliest volvelles (graduated movable paper circles-within-circles), as they are also called, are found in Renaissance astronomy texts. They offer data on celestial cycles, movements of the heavenly bodies, and the tides. Illustrations of these early texts are beautifully reproduced here. Other volvelles, such as the planisphere, a kind of manual computer used to reveal the portion of the night sky visible from a particular spot on earth, are discussed. The 20th century saw a mass audience develop for volvelles, representing an enormous range of topics from astronomy to American history to zoology, and the major portion of this book is devoted to full-page illustrations of these. Jessica Helfand has a new book out I’ve been meaning to read called Design: The Invention of Desire. -- source link
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