L E G M O U N T A I N

“Automatic Camera situated 7 miles from blast with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/1000,000,000 of-a-second exposure.” Early instances of an atomic explosion.

The photos are by Harold Edgerton aka “Papa Flash” who is famed for using Stroboscopic photography to photograph discrete instances of the everyday - balloons bursting, divers diving into pools, milk drops. These photos were taken using another of Edgerton’s inventions, the Rapatronic camera - capable of taking photographs with exposure times of 10 nanoseconds and are far from everday occurences. 

Since they evolved trees have had a great influence on the shaping of the ecology of our planet and in determining the present arrangements of life on earth. Of particular importance for us has been the role of trees in the evolution of mankind and the development of human cultures and communities.

The origins of man

Some 65 million years ago, just after the demise of the dinosaurs, a small rat-like species of mammal (now known as a prosimian) left the ground and took to life in the trees. Eventually after 50 million years had passed, this creature returned to the ground as the ancestor of man.

The period spent in the environment of the trees was of great formative importance because it promoted many physical changes. These changes included a massive increase in body size, the development of paws into hands and 3D colour vision. The physical changes were mapped by an increase in the size and the capability of the brain. Thus prosimian developed into simian.

The increase in stature led to changes in posture which enabled some simians to stand upright. Eventually one of these species was able to walk on two legs.

It was these changes which led to the descent from the trees and eventually to homo sapiens. So it can be seen that without trees the evolution of prosimian into man would never have taken place. Without trees we would not be here.

The development of human civilization

The development of civilization has been dependent on wood based technologies. Where would we be without such aspects of our culture as fire, agriculture, the wheel, the use of metals, spinning, weaving, water and land based transport, building, and printing? Our technological culture could not have developed without wood.

The wonder and the mystery

On many people trees exert a powerful emotional influence. To many of us a tree is a thing of spiritual sustenance and renewal. The tree is the embodiment of mankind’s condition: birth, life, death, regeneration and rebirth. The rising sap is the spirit of life and seeds and fruit are the symbols of fertility.

The importance of trees

Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. To grow tall the tree has become a miracle of engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft above. By means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Trees also remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the air.

Trees are of continued importance to the environment. Tropical rain forests have of particular significance; although they now occupy less than 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth they probable sustain more than half of the biological species on the planet.

Notwithstanding the debt we owe to trees, their emotive power, and their importance to other forms of life, the forested area of the earth is steadily being depleted. This is leading to the degradation of the environment and the extinction of many species. There is now a real danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present population of species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment, and then die out himself. If this happens it will not be the first time that a large proportion of the species on the earth have been extinguished. 

Image 1 - Hedi Slimane  | Image 2 - Sanford Wurmfield ‘E-Cyclorama‘ | Image 3 - Jaime Martinez | Image 4 - Emily Graham

The 1901 exhibition

1947, Finch, drawn by Andrew Bain for The Brick Development Association

1977, British Steel Corporation, Bdg

Gotham Company, 1953, Ryder and Yates

1951, James Clark and Eaton, Wells Coates

I found this excellent cover of Architectural Review which got me thinking the magazine, that I have never really thought about.In a piece called “Retrospect” in the Architectural Review of February 1971, the leaving editor of over 30 years, J.M. Richards wrote this, which I thought was pretty insightful:“another essential role of the architectural magazine: criticism – of architects and all their works, of the opportunities they are given and of the conditions that allow, or don’t allow, them to make their proper contribution to the world.There is still not enough informed and constructive criticism of architecture, and it is sometimes asked why architectural magazines do not pillory the bad buildings, instead – as they mostly do at present – of criticising them only by implication; by ignoring them and paying attention instead to the buildings they think worth serious discussion. Perhaps they should attack the bad more positively, though this would make it all the more necessary to reach beyond subjective and appearance criticism; to look critically not only at the result but at the programme.Criticism in my experience had not been made easier by the touchiness of many members of the architectural profession, who claim to approve of it but resent its being applied to themselves.”

Penguin books and their iconic covers have a place in history that merits study and appreciation. They have influenced generations of readers and played an important role in our cultural heritage. Over the years new cover designs have appeared, and in the 1950s a transition took place from typographical to pictorial covers. This was followed by the introduction of a radically new cover design in the 1960s, and the launch of a Penguin science fiction series with covers featuring reproductions of abstract and surrealist art.

I am most excited about this. The best thing to happen in Trafalgar Square (in my life time at least).

The man-sized pieces will be handmade out of ceramic in and set on rollers so that they can be manouevred around the board by two “movers”.  The players will overlook the board from raised thrones!

The London-based Spanish designer Jaime Haydon says the idea was inspired by strategy maps for the Battle of Trafalgar, when Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon’s fleet (not to mention his Spanish allies) in 1805.

‘Our Image,’ by artist Joseph Hiller, was lifted onto its shoulders in preparation for being painted in northeast England Monday. Mr. Hiller has been working with a nine-person team on the big sculpture. This 1.5tonne head of the sculpture was lifted more than 82ft into the air by a crane and placed on a scaffold tower, where it will be sandblasted and painted before its unveiling in May.