The Roof at the Bottom of the World

A history of exploration in the world’s most enigmatic range
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One of the last remaining mysteries of the terrestrial world, the Transantarctic Mountains that abut the South Pole elicit the kind of exploratory giddiness typically reserved for 16th century seafarers. Scientist-explorer Edmund Stump has charted the courses of previous polar expeditions through this magnificent range, bringing to bear the trials of exploration from Clark Ross’ initial 1840 voyage to scientific missions of the late 20th century. The Roof at the Bottom of the World transports readers into a world of rock and ice, one filled with stark beauty, unforgiving conditions and the enthrall of virgin terrain.

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Not to be confused with other mountain photography books, Stump’s work is for people with an earnest interest in geology and exploration. While including details culled from journals and ship logs, Stump keeps narrative considerations in mind as he effortlessly guides readers through the labyrinthine region. Super-imposed route lines decorate historic maps as well as Stump’s own images, giving readers insight into historic journeys such as the Discovery Expedition taken by explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton in 1901.

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His rich prose adds dimension to the journeys he narrates. Describing the antarctic wind, Stump writes, “It is movement and sound, alternately relentless and fickle. When it stop s and the sun beams down from a cloudless sky, you can strip to bare skin and immediately feel the warmth. But let one puff of breeze disturb the thin layer of radiant air, and shivers will well up.” For those of us who lack the means to travel to the remotest regions of the earth, Stump’s account provides a vicarious substitute.

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With a wealth of personal experience documenting the Transantarctic Mountains, Stump’s work is as much a reflection of his own desire to understand the region as the explorers who preceded him. He notes an attachment of the Gothic Mountains, deemed by 1930s explorer Stuart Paine the “most attractive of all spots the world over.” The dark granite peaks of this area make harsh reliefs to the uninterrupted canvas of the low-lying Scott glacier.

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The Roof at the Bottom of the World offers an understanding of the rich texture that underlies the sweeping glaciers of the antarctic. and is available from Yale University Press through Amazon for $19.


UnBeige Gift Guide: A is for Adjaye’s African Metropolitan Architecture

It’s that time of year again, when design lovers around the world seek out gifts that surprise, delight, and won’t be swiftly returned for store credit. In the coming days, we’ll offer an alphabet of suggestions in the UnBeige Gift Guide, which we hope will also supply some ideas on how to spend the seasonal smattering of gift certificates (and store credit) that will soon be burning a hole in your pocket. Our first pick: African Metropolitan Architecture (Rizzoli), the sublime new book by David Adjaye. The set of seven slipcased volumes is the culmination of the Tanzanian-born, London-based architect’s decade-long project to document the built environment of every major African city. It’s a fresh look at a continent that the world has come to know through exotic images from National Geographic.

“I just wanted ordinary pictures. Everyday life,” said Adjaye last week at Design Miami, where he was celebrated as Designer of the Year. “There’s a sense that Africa’s all a jungle, with savannahs, animals running around, and some nice natives.” In fact, with 54 countries and 1.5 billion people, Africa is on an urbanization streak. Growth of cities on the continent is now outpacing that of China. “But nobody’s talking about Africa. I couldn’t even talk to architects about it,” he added. In the course of visiting every African city, Adjaye looked beyond the political boundaries to examine the distinctive aspects of six regions: the maghreb, the sahel, savannah and grassland, mountain and gighveld, desert, and forest. A book of essays about African urban development rounds out the edition. “The landscape of Africa is one of the most primal and powerful environments that we have on this planet,” said Adjaye. “It’s nurtured a lot of artists and creative people, and even when architecture doesn’t realize what’s happening, it’s actually authoring architecture, and that’s what this book is about.”

Have a suggestion for the UnBeige Gift Guide? E-mail us at unbeige@mediabistro.com.

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The Beautiful Cliché

The lens of a native captures Venice in poetic new form
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Italian photographer Renato D’Agostin creates haunting black-and-white portraits that capture a city’s essence in serenely abstract form. The budding lensman began shooting these fragmented narratives in 2001, and has since published two books, “Metropolis” and “Tokyo Untitled,” before taking his approach back to his home town of Venice, the subject of his latest series, “The Beautiful Cliché.”

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D’Agostin’s images are emotional without seeming preciously nostalgic and his languid style for “The Beautiful Cliché” draws the viewer in without inciting a longing for a holiday—the tack many photographers take when documenting a city as romantically charged and picturesque as Venice. Instead, D’Agostin shows its raw beauty through distinct snippets of daily life and dissected architecture, creating a scene that feels both familiar and vaguely mysterious.

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Using Kodak TRI-X400 film, D’Agostin shot on a Leica M6 and a Nikon F100 to create the set of poetically granular images. Whether capturing one of the city’s quintessential pigeons, moorings in the lagoon or the wake of a boat, the original perspective and artistic production turn Venice into uncharted land.

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“A Beautiful Cliché” is both a large-scale book and upcoming exhibition, opening tomorrow at The Chinese Porcelain Company in NYC and running through 15 December 2011. Produced by Venetian Heritage, the book sells for $60 or as a limited edition, which includes an 8×10-inch silver gelatin print for $500. Purchasing information can be found on D’Agostin’s website.

See more images in the slideshow.


Competition: five copies of Sketching, the Basics to be won

Sketching the Basics

Competition: we’ve teamed up with BIS Publishers to give away five copies of Sketching, the Basics by Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur.

Sketching the Basics

The 184-page hardback book explains basic sketching techniques and the decisions to be made in detail with step-by-step examples.

Sketching the Basics

It’s intended as a prequel to Eissen and Steur’s earlier book Sketching and starts right from the beginning with a blank sheet of paper or screen.

Sketching the Basics

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Sketching the Basics” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Sketching the Basics

Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 20 December 2011. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Sketching the Basics

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Here are some more details from BIS Publishers:


Sketching, The Basics

This is the long awaited successor to the international besteller Sketching by Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur. Sketching sold over 70.000 copies to date and has many fans, among whom design guru Colani who dubbed it: “The best sketching book I have ever seen.”

Sketching the Basics

The new book explains the basic sketching techniques and decisions more in depth and provides much more step-by-step example drawings, which makes it even more suitable for students and professionals who want to become better sketchers.

Sketching the Basics

Sketching The Basics can be seen as the prequel to Sketching as it is more targeted at the novice designer. The Basics explains the essential techniques and effects more in detail, taking the reader by the hand and guiding him step by step through all the various aspects of drawing that novice designers come up against.

Sketching the Basics
Sketching the Basics starts with the white sheet of paper or the empty screen and explains the rudiments of learning to draw both clearly and comprehensively, using step by step illustrations, examples and strategies. You will learn to use and master the different techniques and also how to apply sketches in the design process.

The authors believe in active observation and participation by the student. During the drawing process there are many moments when choices alter the outcome. Being aware of those moments and the variety of choices and opportunities makes your attitude more flexible and less rigid. Sketching the Basics helps you to sketch with an open mind. And an open mind is key to a good design process.

Sketching the Basics

Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur teach drawing techniques. Eissen is associate professor at Delft University of Technology, where he is responsible for the freehand and digital drawing classes at the Faculty of Industrial Design. Steur is an experienced drawing lecturer at university and art academy level who now specialises in design sketching workshops.

ISBN: 978-90-6369-253-7
Author: Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur
Design: Booreiland
Format: hardcover
Dimensions: 27 x 21 cm
Pages: 184

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(in association with amazon.co.uk)

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Create ‘Something out of Something’ for the Etgar Keret Design Contest

Jakub Szczesny of Polish architecture collective Centrala recently designed what will be the narrowest house in Warsaw (rendering at right). The slim steel frame will be squeezed between two existing buildings, and the dwelling-cum-art installation will feature remote-control stairs, yacht-style water and sewage systems, as well as the challenge of navigating a space that, at its narrowest, spans a mere 28 inches. The inspiration for this miniature marvel? Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret, an expert at crafting compact narratives that pack an outsized punch. In anticipation of his new story collection (out in April), FSG Originals and BOMB Magazine, have launched a contest that invites readers, artists, and designers to draw inspiration from the written work of Keret to create visual art of their own. The “Something out of Something” contest, which takes its name from a passage in the title story of the forthcoming book, is open for entries through March 1, 2012. The winning piece—as determined by Keret along with judges from FSG and Bomb—will be featured in a Keret story or film. Full details, as well as submissions, can be viewed on the contest’s Tumblr.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hokusai Manga

A massive compilation of the Japanese master artist’s sketchbooks now available in a single book

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One of the best-known artists of the Edo period and famous for his ukiyo-e series 36 Views of Mount Fuji, which includes his ubiquitous wave print, Katsushika Hokusai greatly influenced artists from Monet and the Impressionists to Picasso. Hokusai began painting at age six, instigating a lifetime dedicated to both serious and casual art-making, which he viewed as an expression of self-help. He was also known as a marketing maverick, popularizing his work and attracting students with a series of sketchbooks he called manga; he produced 12 during his lifetime and three were published after his death. The hugely impressive collection includes an array of seemingly effortless sketches and studies of people, animals, nature and more that capture emotions with impeccable detail.

Typically the notebooks are sold separately or in a multi-volume set, but this new edition combines all 15 of Hokusai’s notebooks into a single tome. The 970-page anthology contains more than 3,900 individual drawings, paintings and woodblock prints “sketched at random and in a carefree manner.”

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The massive book opens with a brief tutorial of sorts in “geometrical construction.” Hokusai breaks down his subjects to their most basic forms, components so simple he drew them with only a compass and ruler. Here one can see his use of overlapping flat circles to achieve a sense of volume and depth, and conversely consecutive circles drawn in a row to create a sense of flatness.

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Further into the collection one can see both paintings and sketches, which showcase Hokusai’s extreme control with both fine and broad brush techniques. Hokusai Manga keeps the reader, or viewer, in a constant state of curiosity, changing subjects from page to page. This of course is due to Hokusai’s own exploratory eye that led him to sketch anything and everything that caught his attention, a spirit exemplified in the many humorous portrait-style paintings and detailed caricature drawings.

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Hokusai Manga can be found on Amazon for $43.


Digital Apollo

Man, machine and the dawn of software in the space age
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In Digital Apollo, MIT professor of the history of engineering David Mindell plumbs the archives at the university in order to explore the tenuous relationship between man and machine during the Apollo landings. While machines had long defined human undertakings, it was the rise of software and intelligent machines that caused the most pronounced shift in mechanical interactions. As Mindell puts it, “Astronauts and their spacecraft were but the most visible manifestation of broad changes that raised fundamental questions: in a world of intelligent machines, who is in control?”

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Mindell reveals that in all six Apollo landings, a NASA pilot took control of the landing. Neil Armstrong was the first to do so, responding to an alarm in the guidance software that threatened to abort the mission. Integral to the design of these systems was both the automated and interactive components. Programmers were forced to come to grips with the limits of their own system and those of the pilots. In the end, it was always a synthesis of the two skill sets that resulted in a successful lunar landing.

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The book includes images from the various missions, interviews with NASA personnel, and a wealth of research that even the most informed space fans can enjoy. Mindell avoids the temptation to glorify the space program, instead dealing with the nitty gritty logistics involved in getting a man to the moon. Digital Apollo succeeds in providing an inside track to one of the most difficult technological challenges of the 20th century.

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The recent cancellation of the Constellation program and the uncertain future of space exploration lends special gravity to this volume. The 2008 hardcover of Digital Apollo didn’t get the love it deserved, so we’re letting you in on the new softcover release of this incredible work.

Digital Apollo is available from Amazon for $12.


Make design history with scissors and glue

Set to bring joy to even the most hardened of graphic designers, a new book from Gestalten provides an illustrated history of graphic design, complete with cut-out-and-keep designers (Messrs Rand, Tschichold, Bass and Carson, shown above)…

With an all-star cast, Graphic Design History for Rainy Days, takes the reader on a gentle tour of the subject, courtesy of a time-travelling grandfather and his enquiring grandson. The book is designed by Studio 3, the in-school design agency at the Graphic Design Department of Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo.

As the pair journey from the time of the industrial revolution, right up to Jessica Helfand’s mid-90s design studio (above), they meet everyone from Max Bill and Wim Crouwel, to Neville Brody (below, doing the talking) and Paula Scher in between.

Graphic Design History for Rainy Days is a charming take on the medium and, as is the current vogue (see our own paper toys posts and the figure that comes free with the current issue of CR), the book even contains a selection of cut-out designers, your own Bauhaus diploma, and a miniature Apple Macintosh that can be assembled in about 10 minutes, shown above.

This is one for the Christmas list.

Published by Gestalten; £17.99. gestalten.com.

 

 

CR in Print

If you enjoy reading the Creative Review website, we think you’ll enjoy reading the magazine even more. The December issue of CR includes a profile piece on the independent creative scene in Liverpool, a major interview with Dutch book designer Irma Boom and a great piece on ‘Poster King’ Edward McKnight Kauffer. You’ll also find articles on Dentsu London, a review of the Walker Art Center’s Graphic Design: Now in Production show and a fascinating debate on the clash between design and advertising betwen Wally Olins and CHI’s Dan Beckett.

And if that wasn’t enough, the issue also includes a FREE paper toy for readers to cut out and customise.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Nice publications, November

The latest rather nice publications to land on our desks here at CR towers include a really boring colouring book (her words, not ours) by Teresa Monachino, new self published zines from Andy Rementer and also Nigel Peake, and Nobrow‘s latest…

Entitled A Really Boring Colouring Book (£5.99), Teresa Monachino‘s new self-published book is a celebration of boredom, containing as it does no images whatsoever but rather dozens of quotes about boredom, each set in an outline font specially selected to compliment the particular quote, crying out to be coloured in.

All the typefaces used are listed at the back of the book so as not to ruin the colouring book aesthetic, meaning that A Really Boring Colouring Book is actually four books in one: a colouring book, a book of quotations (by the likes of Confucius, Kafka, Ovid, Tostoy, Voltaire, and more), a typeface reference book AND a showcase for great paper (all supplied by Fedrigoni). Boring has never been so much fun!

The book will be available from Magma, The Design Museum Shop and a few other bookshops in London. studiomonachino.co.uk

Issue number six of the lovingly-produced Nobrow (£15) is a bit special. It’s a double ‘flip-cover’ edition filled with 128 pages of work by some of the best comic artists and illustrators around at the moment. The theme for the issue is ‘doubles’ and Gwénola Carrère (above) and Tom Gauld (below) provide the two covers, while inside there’s work by Andy Rementer, Kevin Huizenga, Malachi Ward, Jack Teagle and Michael Deforge. A host of illustration talent including Sean Lewis, Roman Muradov, Katia Spitzer and Luke Best also features. More info at nobrow.net.


My Latest Work by Luke Pearson


The Double by Jon McNaught


I was Tom Cruise’s Stunt Double by Julian Gough and Mikkel Sommer


Home Body by Andy Rementer


by Sean Lewis


by Tom Clohosy Cole


by Joohee Yoon

 

Also fresh from Nobrow Press is Klaus (£15), a collection of charming comic strips by Richard Short featuring the eponymous feline character who is prone to philosophical whimsy. Lovely stuff.

Regular readers may recall that photographer Indre Serpytyte‘s 1944-1991 series of images was selected to appear in the 2010 Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival. Now the project has been commemorated in this cloth-bound book, complete with an introductory essay and an interview with the artist by Martin Barnes.

For the project, the artist tracked down Lithuanian forest dwellings which were used by Soviet security services to interrogate partisans after the Second World War, recreated them as wooden models and photographed them. The book also includes forest photographs and photographs of the notebook she kept when researching the project.

Andy Rementer‘s latest self published zine, entitled Perfect Strangers, comprises a selection of what he describes simply as “painting studies”.

Nigel Peake‘s latest self-published book, Bridges, XXXIV Crossings of the Thames (£10 from secondstreet.bigcartel.com) collects a host of drawings all based upon bridges that span the Thames river.

“Walking along the river, depending upon the ebb and flood of the tide, you can see the elevation of these structures,” writes Peake in the introduction to the book, “some with repeated arches, others with a pattern made up of X’s. In a hurry, trains, traffic, bicycles and people cross the thin surface, perhaps unaware of what is below. Walking across a bridge, as on a boat, a different city emerges. Facades are less dominant and you can see beyond and almost through the buildings. With each step, more is revealed. No longer cropped and directed by the architecture, your view goes further. A bridge is a remarkable object.”

The Conductor by French illustrator Laetitia Devernay (Chronicle Books, £11.99) is a text-free illustrated narrative that sees a conductor magically transform a copse of trees into a  swirling mass of bird-like leaves that soar and fly as he waves his baton.

 

 

CR in Print

If you enjoy reading the Creative Review website, we think you’ll enjoy reading the magazine even more. The December issue of CR includes a profile piece on the independent creative scene in Liverpool, a major interview with Dutch book designer Irma Boom and a great piece on ‘Poster King’ Edward McKnight Kauffer. You’ll also find articles on Dentsu London, a review of the Walker Art Center’s Graphic Design: Now in Production show and a fascinating debate on the clash between design and advertising betwen Wally Olins and CHI’s Dan Beckett.

And if that wasn’t enough, the issue also includes a FREE paper toy for readers to cut out and customise.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Gifts for Your Foodie Friend

Food and drink-focused highlights from our 2011 holiday gift guide

The holiday season is underway and so is our freshly launched 2011 Holiday Gift Guide, and with the magnificent gorging of Thanksgiving, we’ve got food on the brain. Peppered among art-related items and the newest gadgets are culinary trinkets, tools and ingredients to fuel your aspirations throughout this season and the following year. The following are eight of our favorite foodie additions to the gift guide, from hand-pressed espresso to a home-grown mushroom kit.

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Bought, Borrowed & Stolen

This unique book showcases the most extravagant meals chef Allegra McEvedy encountered on her most recent travels around the world. Accompanying each recipe is a unique knife from each locale, reflecting the gastronomical heritage of each of the 20 countries.

Paella Kit

From Calasparra rice to saffron and spices to the actual Paella pan, the Paella Kit provides the essentials for cooking up the ultimate surf and turf Spanish delicacy—just add shellfish and sausage.

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Clear Hive Honey Set

Inspired by the geometry of bee hives, the Clear Hive Honey Set is perfect for design enthusiasts and apiarists alike. Plus the artfully crafted wooden dipper keeps fingers sticky-free.

Steel Chef Knives by Bob Kramer for Zwilling

As the only master bladesmith in the world specializing in kitchen cutlery, Bob Kramer’s supreme skills have been tapped to construct a set of knives built for remarkable strength and unmatched edge-retention.

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Intelligentsia Pourover Set

This winter-themed Pourover Gift Box contains a Hario V60 dripper, a box of 40 paper filters, a custom designed notNeutral coffee mug, a half-pound of coffee beans and detailed instructions for brewing the perfect cup of joe.

Presso

When there’s not enough time to enjoy a drip coffee there always espresso to get you going. With Presso just add boiling water and you’ll be enjoying your hand-pressed shot before most automated machines would have even gotten warm.

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Twin Hens Chicken Pot Pie

We love a good, old-fashioned chicken pot pie when winter hits. Nothing says comfort food like these delectable little gems from Twin Hens, but if you’re feeling guilty about indulging, just remember they’re made with organic ingredients and free range chicken.

Mushroom Garden

Perfect for the urbanite with a green thumb, the Mushroom Garden grows more than a pound of gourmet oyster mushrooms in a matter of days. Best part is they grow from the box so there’s no real gardening necessary.