Fea(s)ts of Imagination

I love to be shocked by the extraordinary possibilities of human imagination and invention. Here are two examples that struck me tonight:

The Sea Organ (Morske Orgulje)

Found on the shoreline of the Adriatic Sea in Zadar, Croatia, this is the world's first organ played by the wind. Measuring in at 70 meters and containing seven sets of five pipes, each tuned to their own diatonic chord, this giant natural instrument plays music affected by the wind and tides. Openings draw air in which travels through underground tubes of varying length and is then pushed out apertures nearby. As waves fills up the tubes in random ways, their length changes thus changing the pitch as well. Essentially, the music that you hear is a combinations of several elements in the environment working together to produce a variant, transient piece of music. The organ was built in 2005 by Nikolai Basic and has garnered the chap the European Prize for Urban Public Space. And rightfully so. Check out some of the organ's melodies here.

Codex Seraphinianus
A mysterious package arrived on the doorstep of an Italian publishing house in 1978. Inside was the manuscript of one of the most bizarre books ever created. It contained over 350 pages of inexplicably odd, beautifully drawn illustrations accompanied with text written in an unknown language and alphabet. The code of the alphabet has yet to be cracked, but apparently the system of page number was finally found to be based off of base 21.

The book covers topics from nature (strange creatures and plants, human anatomy, physics and chemistry, etc.) to human constructs (clothing, food, architecture, etc.), but it a surreal, indecipherable way. Truly odd.

The Codex turned out to the work of Italian artist Luigi Serafini which he produced over the course of 30 months. It's all very reminiscent of the Voynich manuscript. But on acid.

Brilliant analysis of our universe? Silly, elaborate joke? Key to understanding the universe? Ron Moore, eat your heart out.

Amazing stuff. Now go make your own.

(More great stuff at this site: Dark Roasted Blend.)