A Magazine of Many Arts

Many art materials and technologies are ageless.  Pottery is one of the oldest skills of mankind, pre-dating even writing by 6,000 years. Cavemen painted.  But it’s easy for us to forget how much technology has gone into these skills, from the development of paint beyond the egg tempera used in the Last Painting to pigments derived from petroleum products.  Our generation has polymer clays,  digital painting, computer animation, film and photography, and other new media that developed over the course of the last century.  So what is emerging now, and what will develop over the next century?

As primarily a fiber artist, I suddenly have an unprecedented urge to learn more electronics.  A lot more about electronics.  My inspiration has been projects like these:

Technically speaking, this is a present technology, since after all, these projects do exist.  However, it seems to me that this is relatively unexplored territory for fiber artists, and there’s a lot of room for great things in the future.  This gives an overview of smart materials that change color, give off sound and interact with their environment.  Another thing that excites me is the chapter on toymaking… sure, many of us grew up with dolls that cried or had other gimmicks, but can you imagine making your own original interactive art dolls with that kind of material?  My copy of the book now has big drool marks all over it.

What other technologies do you foresee having an influence on artwork in the future?  If any of you are working on something new, or are aware of something new, I would love to hear about it.

Clenching the reins and the girg with stiff fingers, Iliss was carried farther and farther along the barely perceptible trail. There were adequate supplies of grain and dried meat in the back of the sled, and extra warm blankets. The grain was for her own consumption — for since that dark day she had stopped eating flesh — while the meat was for the dogs.

One last point of honor Iliss refused to part with at the shelter-station. A long knife of finely honed iron she had kept close to her body, tied around her left upper thigh. This knife she had used when fighting for her life.

Her knife, first taken from her and plunged into beloved flesh, brother’s guts spewing… Her knife, regained too late while Naiass was broken — little smiling Naiass — her soft eyes agonized, then glassy… Screams, crackle of fire, her mother’s hands charred… Smoke, and Northerners with long pale hair, rose-skinned, shrieking, clawing at her, Trei, Trei, Trei, then bleeding, limbs severed under her slashing knife….

Her knife.

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There may not be much in the way of science quilts out there, but science jewelry is a different matter. I had a wonderful evening web browsing by searching for “science jewelry” on Etsy. Here is a small sample of some of my favorites:

Read on for information on these artists and pictures of more of their work. Remember that the next installment of Vera Nazarian’s story “The Slaying of Winter” will appear next week.

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Vera Nazarian immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages. She made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed Dreams of the Compass Rose, followed by epic fantasy about a world without color, Lords of Rainbow. Her novella The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass from PS Publishing with an introduction by Charles de Lint made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. Her collection Salt of the Air with an introduction by Gene Wolfe contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated “The Story of Love.” Recent work includes the baroque illustrated fantasy novella The Duke In His Castle, released in June 2008. In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist she is also the publisher of Norilana Books. This story was originally published in 2005 in the anthology Lords of Swords by Pitch-Black Books.
Official website: http://www.veranazarian.com/

Iliss moved through a dead world.

Snowflakes finer than dandelion seed floated down gently, sparsely, brushing against her face with feather lightness, while the tundra around whirled by. A solitary bird soared overhead — a Northern bird — and trained a strange look of its sharp eagle-eye on the being below.

Iliss huddled in the voluminous fur garment which she had bought back at the old roadside shelter-station. This peculiar cumbersome thing she wore as a beast wears its own skin came with a hood that left only her eyes and a slit of her face exposed, and it was unbelievably warm.

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