Serendipity Book

Grayson Perry's Map of an Englishman

I'm a sucker for unusual visual representations and Grayson Perry's 'Map of an Englishman' (below) is certainly unusual. Grayson, of course, is the eccentric Turner Prize winning artist from Essex who is perhaps more famous for his transvestite alter-ego 'Claire' than he is for his celebrated ceramics.

His etching 'Map of an Englishman' (2004) pictures the human psyche as an island. Areas of the island represent personality traits, emotions and character flaws. Offshore, rough-looking seas are named after psychological disorders like agoraphobia and schizophrenia.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is Grayson's auto-phrenology.

This is Number 241 in the splendid Strange Maps series. Go here to zoom in and browse.

Update: take a look at this rather similar map of humanity that has been doing the rounds lately.

Carl Warner's Surreal Foodscapes

I'm loving photographer Carl Warner's surreal still life foodscapes which feature fantastical worlds created from vegetables and fruit.

Open Plan Office Paranoia

I saw this fantastic mirror by Sebastian Wrong (great name) whose work is sold via Established & Sons (another great name) when I was in Liberty the other day.

Taking his inspiration from car interior rear view mirrors, Sebastian Wrong has created a wall mounted convex mirror for the home. It provides a panoramic view of the room behind you and has a steel ball joint at the back allowing movement along three axes. At just under a metre wide and available in the classic 80's colours of red, black and white this is a pretty striking object.

It reminded me of an outsized version of the desk mirrors that office workers use to see who is coming up behind them out in the wilds of the open plan. 

Most of the office staff I worked with in South Korea had one of these little mirrors (pictured above right) perched on their computers so they could see when their supervisor was approaching.

Sebastian's mirror is nearly 5 times the size of one of these so I think it would make quite a statement.

Along with good old privacy screen filters (not cheap you'll notice) rear view mirrors are considered to be the norm in open plan offices in South Korea I gather. Presumably paranoia is more socially acceptable than it is here?

With or without a mirror, nothing beats not actually being at your desk as a strategy for getting work done and avoiding interruptions as the New York Times noted recently.

Keep it simple, keep it visual: 1/3rd of adults struggle with reading and writing

Crikey. In the UK there are an estimated 12 million people who have a reading and writing age of between 9 and 14 despite speaking English as their first language. This represents almost a third of the adult population.

I was introduced to this little factoid by Jon Cohen, MD of quallie agency Rosenblatt and a one-time Leo Burnett grad trainee, in a paper he wrote for the Market Research Society Annual Conference last year. Those of you who have a subscription to the indispensable WARC can read it in full here.

In his paper, Jon reported that "almost all self-define themselves as 'visual' people. They like to see visual representations of things. They are often far more keen to 'watch' a story, than to read about it."

Picture credit: cormac70 taken at the Bluewater shopping Centre in Kent

For £70 million you'd expect a decent photo

This 70,000 ft palace in Windlesham in Surrey on the outskirts of London is currently on the market for £70 million.

For that you get 48 acres, 24 bedrooms, 5 swimming pools, a bowling alley, an 8 car garage and even your own beauty salon.

Still, you'd think that Savills or Hamptons would have stumped up for a new photo to earn their commission wouldn't you?

Everyone needs a paintball tank

I don't know about you but I'd feel a bit exposed in one of these.

Brand Cheeks

Very funny. Maybe you had to be there.

Blogging Consumption

Great concept. Proof of Purchase: a series of annotated receipts posted to a blog provide a fascinating commentary to accompany a 20 year old's consumption habits.

This is what my expense receipts often look like. Scrawled with illegible descriptions of the where and when of a life lived in taxis.

I suspect his would work well as a pen portrait / diary method.

Via Mefi

1980s Continuity Announcements & Ad Breaks

This is a treat. YouTube user Jay Firestorm (do you think that is his real name?) has uploaded a series of intro sequences, continuity announcements and ads from British television of the late 80s from his personal archive of video tapes.

This one, from Children's ITV, goes from the end credits of Ghostbusters through to the opening credits of Dramarama via ads for Kellogg's Toppas, Orangina, Milkybar, Captain Birdseye's new Seasiders Cod and Potato shapes, Nesquick milkshake, the London Weekly Advertiser and Kwik Save:

And while I'm in the 80's, here's the legendary intro sequence from CHiPs:

Fantastic piece of '60s anti-LSD propaganda

"The hot dog told me not to eat him as he had a wife and seven kids at home to support ... I was jumping on this hot dog in the middle of market street. I realised I had murdered it".

via PRBlogNews