Curio Cabinet

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Decorative flowers, lighters, tiny toys—so many small, colorful bits of plastic we use a few times, then throw away. In photos like SOUP—Ruinous Remembrance, above, British photographer Mandy Barker shows how these items linger in oceans long after we're finished with them. Barker works with scientists and organizations like Greenpeace to collect refuse from beaches around the world; she even traveled with a research team to track the trash that spread through the Pacific after Japan’s 2011 tsunami. Creating collages of the refuse she retrieves, Barker uses Photoshop to make it appear that the items are suspended—much like they would in the ocean. In Ruinous Remembrance, Barker assembled plastic flowers, leaves, and fishing line, and added bones and feathers. In other works, she arranges lighters, plastic balls, and random fragments to create images that are arresting, even lovely—until the viewer considers what they mean. Barker hopes her work will raise public awareness about plastic waste that kills an estimated one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year. Maybe not so pretty after all?  

Below: More of Barker’s images including: Hong Kong Soup 1826 - Lighter; PENALTY - Europe;
and SOUP - Alphabet.
 

Image credit & copyright: Mandy Barker
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Title: untitled SCREWED robot
Artist: Professor Screwed
Medium: scrap metal
Dimensions: 6-8 in tall (15-20 cm)
Current location: Brighton, United Kingdom
 

Run for the hills—there might be free robots there! Residents of Brighton, England, have dubbed a local artist "The Iron Womble" for his habit of hiding upcycled, miniature robots all about the city. Shown above is a little metal man whose form could be interpreted two ways: either he's got soldered screws for legs and snipped wiring for arms, or he's holding some sort of whiskery prawn. Only "The Iron Womble"—or Professor Screwed, as he calls himself—would truly know. Each week, he produces a fresh batch of robo-vikings, tricera-tanks, and guitar-shredding automatons; and each creation is unique from the rest. Once a batch of bespoke sculpts is finished, the Prof hides the individuals about Brighton, tucking them behind leaves or ledges, before leaving hints to their whereabouts on Facebook. All the Prof asks in return for his creations is that whoever finds them posts a photo with them online. Who'd have thought… the robots don't really want a hostile takeover, just a selfie or two!
 

Below: robo-vikings; one of the many robots hidden in public; Professor Screwed posing with some of his creations.
 

Image credit & copyright: screwedsculpts
 

It's a green, flesh-eating monster with at least twenty eyes! Captured by Swedish photographer Helene Schmitz, this photo of a Drosera stolonifera, also known as the leafy sundew, is part of her recently-completed Carnivores series, which features up-close-and-personal photos of carnivorous plants. Macro photography allows Schmitz to communicate with great detail the complexity of the leafy sundew, which only grows to about six inches in height. It's no wonder her work has appeared in publications like National Geographic. In Drosera stolonifera, the plant's colors, from the bright green of its central stalks to the deep red of the thin stems at its center, stand out beautifully against the simple, black background. Even the translucent liquid secreted from the end of each stem can be seen in full detail, thanks to the image's dark backdrop. Schmitz likely wanted to highlight these round "eyes" of liquid, since they are what allow the plant to be carnivorous. Insects get trapped in the sticky substance when they stop to look for nectar and are slowly digested by the plant. It's like a smaller, slower Little Shop of Horrors.
 

Below: Nepenthes lowii and Venus flytrap from Schmitz's Carnivores series.
 

Image credit & copyright: Helene Schmitz
 

Pixar's computer-animated movie classic Toy Story 2 was released on today's date in 1999. Grossing $500 million at the global box office, it was one of the blockbusters that helped solidify the legacy of Pixar. It also nearly ruined the animation studio, thanks to an ill-conceived command entered into a computer. Roughly a year before the movie dropped, in the winter of 1998, an unnamed and likely disgraced employee at Pixar entered "/bin/rm -r -f *" in the movie's storage drives. The command was essentially the self-destruct button, designed to wipe out all files as quickly as possible. Oren Jacobs, a technical director, was horrified as he watched bits of the film vanish before his eyes in real-time. First, Woody's hat faded. Then the cowboy protagonist dematerialized in entirety, like an apparition. Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head, Rex—the whole gang proceeded to disappear as well. Jacobs dialed systems support to pull the plug on Toy Story 2's "master machine." But it was too late. Around 90 percent of the film had been erased. Even worse, the back-up protocol failed and Pixar (rather foolishly) didn't keep a copy of the movie on hand. It would take a staff of 30 a year to replicate it. Fortunately, another technical director named Galyn Susman had been working from home, so she could spend time with her newborn. Each week, she'd venture to Pixar's studios to snag a copy of Toy Story 2, to work on it remote. When she caught wind of the calamity taking place at Pixar, she swaddled her computer in blankets, set in the back seat of her car, and cautiously drove to work. According to Jacobs, she and others carried the computer "into Pixar like an Egyptian pharaoh." Susman's copied file ended up saving the film and Pixar, alike. Hopefully, Pixar learned a permanent lesson from the ordeal. Oh, and fired the employee who caused it to infinity and beyond!
 

Image credit & copyright: Pixar
 

It's no wonder that this photo by Teresa Zgoda & Teresa Kugler, titled Fluorescent turtle embryo, was recently announced as the winner of the 2019 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition: this turtle looks ready for a blacklight-lit rave! This stunning image appears to show a turtle painted with a skeletal design in fluorescent shades of turquoise, green and magenta. Amazingly, it is actually a photograph of a turtle embryo under a microscope, and the visible magenta bones are the embryo's actual, developing skeleton. The image was captured using the techniques of fluorescence (which records the light which bounces off of objects that are exposed to ultraviolet rays) and stereomicroscopy (digital photography using a stereomicroscope, which is used for viewing objects at fairly low magnification). Together, they allow the viewer to see not only the turtle embryo's scales, toe bones, and spine, but its unique ribs, which splay out just below the upper layer of its shell. The image's black background ensures that every detail of the embryo stands out; and the embryo's pose, with one clawed foot extended, makes it appear as if it is swimming in the depths of the dark ocean. Little does this youngster know that, even though it has yet to be born, it's already a winner!
 

Below: the second and third place winners of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, Depth-color coded projections of three stentors (single-cell freshwater protozoans) by Dr. Igor Siwanowicz and Alligator embryo developing nerves and skeleton by Daniel Smith Paredes & Dr. Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar.
 

Image credit & copyright: Teresa Zgoda & Teresa Kugler, Dr. Igor Siwanowicz, Daniel Smith Paredes & Dr. Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition
 

Title: Putto Poised on a Globe
Andrea del Verrocchio: (1435-1488)
Created: 1480
Medium: unbaked clay
Dimensions: 29 x 15 x 9 in (75 x 38 x 23 cm)
Current location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
 

Careful not to fall! Andrea del Verrocchio's Putto Poised on a Globe is so lifelike that it's easy to feel nervous for the depicted child, shown precariously balanced on one foot, reaching for something unseen. It is one of many sculptures and paintings on display until January 2020, as part of the Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence exhibit at Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art. This exhibit marks the first time Verrocchio's work has gotten its own survey in the United States. The Florentine sculptor and painter certainly deserves his due credit: in addition to his participation in the Italian Renaissance, Verrocchio was a tutor to other artists who went on to define the period with their style. Among Verrocchio's pupils were Pietro Perugino and, most famously, Leonardo Da Vinci. Although little is known about Verrocchio's early life, he became known as a genius in the latter half of the 15th century. Oddly, all of Verrocchio's most famous works were created in the last twenty years of his life. It just goes to show that it's never too late to make an incredible impact on the world!
 

Below: learn more about Verrocchio's exhibit in the video below.
 

Image credit & copyright: Andrea del Verrocchio, National Gallery of Art