That's Interesting
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Experience Footage of Roaring 1920s Berlin, Restored & Colorized with Artificial Intelligence
15th April, 2021Offered the chance to travel back in time to any city in any period, surely more than a few would choose Berlin in the 1920s. Ideally it would be Berlin in the mid-1920s: after much of the social and economic damage of the Great War had been repaired, but before the Great Depression reached Germany at the end of the decade, doing its part to enable the rise of Hitler. The closest experience to stepping in that time machine yet developed is a series of clips from Walther Ruttmann’s 1927 documentary Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis, but smoothed out, scaled up, and colorized with the aid of applications powered by artificial intelligence.
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Mapping the World’s Key Maritime Choke Points
15th April, 2021Maritime transport is an essential part of international trade—approximately 80% of global merchandise is shipped via sea. Because of its importance, commercial shipping relies on strategic trade routes to move goods efficiently. These waterways are used by thousands of vessels a year—but it’s not always smooth sailing. In fact, there are certain points along these routes that pose a risk to the whole system. Here’s a look at the world’s most vulnerable maritime bottlenecks—also known as choke points.
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The Mathematics Behind Origami, the Ancient Japanese Art of Paper Folding
25th March, 2021The two characters at the core of origami (折り紙), one of the best-known Japanese words around the world, mean “folding” and “paper.” Given the variety and elaborateness of the constructions produced by origami masters over the past few centuries, the simplicity of the practice’s basic nature bears repeating. Those masters must develop no slight degree of manual dexterity, it goes without saying, but also a formidable mathematical understanding of their medium.
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The heavens underground: the Soviet Union’s opulent metro stations, from Belarus to Uzbekistan
04th March, 2021Decorated with chandeliers, mosaics, and Lenin busts, the Soviet Union produced the most photographed transport system in the world. In this excerpt from Fuel’s latest book, Soviet Metro Stations, writer Owen Hatherley and photographer Christopher Herwig celebrate the metro’s expansive architectural legacy, travelling as far as Tashkent and Baku.
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The Complete Works of Hilma af Klint Will Get Published for the First Time in a Beautiful, Seven-Volume Collection
24th February, 2021The seven-volume series, published by Bokförlaget Stolpe, “is organized both chronologically and by theme, beginning with the spiritual sketches af Klint made in conjunction with The Five, a group of women who attended séances in hopes of obtaining messages from the dead.”
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How the Internet Archive Digitizes 3,500 Books a Day – the Hard Way, One Page at a Time
24th February, 2021Does turning the pages of an old book excite you? How about 3 million pages? That’s how many pages Eliza Zhang has scanned over her ten years with the Internet Archive, using Scribe, a specialized scanning machine invented by Archive engineers over 15 years ago.
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Discover the remarkable buildings that shaped the Eastern Bloc
15th February, 2021The Calvert Journal ‘s Eastern bloc architecture series discusses their roundup of architectural experimentation.
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How Giorgio Moroder & Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” Created the “Blueprint for All Electronic Dance Music Today” (1977)
09th February, 2021House, trance, techno—any DJ playing a four-on-the-floor groove can drop Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love” into a set and instantly mesmerize the crowd. It has been happening since 1977. The disco hit doesn’t just hold up as a classic moment of nostalgia: it’s still one of the greatest dance tracks ever produced.
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