Monday, December 17, 2012

Wired Beauty

I was chatting on twitter with a few friends today about buzzwords we hate: paradigms, synergy, gamification and so on. Afterward, I somehow got stuck in my brain the beginning of a lovely poem, Pied Beauty, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which begins, "Glory be to God for dappled things" and celebrates the beauty in imperfection. With apologies to Hopkins, I update the poem for 2012.

Wired Beauty
 
GLORY be to God for disruptive tech— 
  For apps of couple-colour as a branded cow;    
    For data gleaned from chips upon trout that swim;     
For viral video of finches’ wings;              
Paradigms plotted and pieced—push, pivot and plug;            
    And all trades, their transactions well tracked.               

All things counter, original, spare, strange;          
  Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)              
    With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;    
All those things whose beauty is past change:           
                  Upgrade them.              

You should really read the original

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Petri Dishes Today, Holiday Market Tomorrow

I just listed my last dozen petri dish ornaments online, and now I'm getting ready to sell my work for 5 days at DC's Downtown Holiday Market. It's right in front of The National Portrait Gallery and is definitely worth a visit, particularly between December 7-11, when I'll be there! (The market continues until December 23 - vendors rotate)

I'll have lots of new work, both science-y and not, but if you're looking for a particular item, please let me know so I'll be sure to bring it along. Can't bring my whole inventory - too much stuff for one 10 x 10 tent. One thing I will have is a few one-of-a-kind scarves that are not on my website.

Hope to see lots of you DC folks there. I usually ask people to bring me coffee because it's so cold standing outside from 12-8 in December, but this year I think I'll be just fine, with temperatures predicted in the 50s and even 60s. But I certainly won't turn down a coffee if you bring me one!