Tagged: materials

Interior of a fictional museum with large photos of rusty schip's hulls on exhibition

4. November 2020

The Rust Museum

Let’s talk about rust today. In other words, about corrosion, the decay of metals caused by electrochemical reactions. There is a rule of thumb that says that with every scientific formula in a text you lose half of your readers. So for the detailed chemical explanation I refer to Wikipedia. But the bottom line is that iron is converted into iron oxide through the influence of oxygen and water. Bad news Rust is usually considered bad news. A rusty hull is regarded by the ship owner as costly and cumbersome damage. That’s understandable: the lifespan of a boat, or a… Read More

A map of the inner city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands and surrounding neighbourhoods, made of digital scrapwood, plywood and chipboard

Digital art

1. May 2020

Scrapwood Cities: Groningen and Rotterdam

Mid-March, in the week that the corona panic began to take hold, my growing apprehension was somewhat tempered by a nice little job for the municipality of Groningen. They had seen my digital scrapwood map of the Netherlands and wondered if there were more maps like that. And more specifically if there was one of the city of Groningen. That would be a perfect gift for a departing alderman. Blocks That map did not exist yet, but could of course be made. The question was: do I make each neighborhood out of a separate piece of virtual scrapwood, as I… Read More

Map of the Netherlands made out of scrapwood, rotated 20 degrees anticlockwise, with next to it the Dutch lion as a recessed surface in the concrete of the wall

Cartography

20. February 2018

How to Crop a Country – The Netherlands in Scrapwood

The scrap wood map of the Netherlands is a good example of digital recycling. A map of the twelve provinces, made from old planks, slats, boxes, scaffolding wood, plywood, floorboards and similar scrap. But what is actually the most economical crop for that map? Advice Sometimes, when I get stuck during a design process, I ask the Facebook panel for advice. Social media is a blessing for the self-employed: since I no longer work in an open-plan office, I can not walk up to my colleagues anymore to ask them what they think. In those cases, I ask my friends… Read More

Detail of the Rotterdam Water Map, shaped like rust patterns on the hull of a ship, zoomed in on the city center and the Kop van Zuid district

Cartography

28. August 2017

Rusty Rivers – the Rotterdam Water Map

On one of my photo tours through Rotterdam I went to Park Quay. At that location, not far from the inner city, often relatively large seagoing ships are moored. This time, one of those ships was in obvious need of some major maintenance. I made some pictures of it, including this one: Rust I can look at this kind of pictures for hours. A lot of things are happening here on a couple of square meters! The red paint on the ship’s hull is irregularly discolored into a wild palette of shades all the way to purple and pink. In… Read More

Downtown rotterdam between central station and the river and between Claes de Vrieselaan and Mariniersweg; fragment of a map of Rotterdam with all city blocks as glass in 15 different colors

Cartography / Visualisation

26. March 2017

The Glass Map of Rotterdam: a plan in fifteen colors

Wow! That must have been a hell of a job … Cutting all those pieces of colored glass, exactly the right size and shape. And then carefully arranging them on a steel plate to create a colorful map of Rotterdam. Digital glass No, fortunately these days we have software to simulate things like that digitally. This glass map of Rotterdam was made using an AutoCAD file of the city’s building blocks. In 3ds Max, I added some irregularity to make it look not too computerized. Then I, totally randomly, assigned to each block one of fifteen different colors of glass.… Read More

Composition with shards of a red and a gold colored Christmas bauble, sien from a low angle

Photography

5. March 2017

Broken Christmas Baubles: Red, Gold and Silver

Beauty can be found in unexpected places. Even in broken Christmas baubles, left by a sloppy neighbour. Sometimes it just takes a little effort to really see that beauty. Shards It started with a somewhat peculiar action of a fellow inhabitant of my apartment complex (which I recently started referring to as the 3Develop Tower). A few weeks ago this person had used the emergency stairwell to get rid of his or her Christmas tree. A little bit late, indeed; February was well on its way. Dragging Christmas trees around is usually a good way to create a mess. As a… Read More

Corten steel wall under van der Louw bridge in Rotterdam with root shaped openings shaping the word ROTTE-DAM

Various

14. October 2016

The Wijnhaven effect

Why is it easier for our eyes to recognize certain patterns when we see those patterns on a photograph instead of seeing them in real life? Three examples and an attempt to explain the phenomenon. The extended Willems Bridge, it was a weird name for the bridge across Wijnhaven. Especially after the Willems Bridge itself was relocated two hundred meters further upstream, only connected to the extended portion by a strangely twisting road. A good reason to rename it Andre van der Louw Bridge, after the man with the moustache and the pipe who from 1974 to 1981 was mayor… Read More

A virtual relief, creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface,, done as a colorful tile mosaic in a white wooden frame.

Digital art

4. February 2016

Virtual Reliefs: 3d Illusions on a Flat Surface

A while ago I visited an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, dedicated to the work of Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994). An artist from Delft who is best known for the cardboard reliefs he made. They made him world-famous, and he even had to hire assistants in order to meet the demand. One of his reliefs was auctioned in 2010 for more than 800.000 euros. Yet he continued to work until his retirement as a civil servant at the Dutch Mail. Reportedly the money he earned with his art was to a large extent spent on the jazz concerts that his wife organized.… Read More