• MillerKnoll opens new design archive showcasing over one million objects from the company’s history

    In a 12,000-square-foot warehouse in Zeeland, Michigan, hundreds of chairs, sofas, and loveseats rest on open storage racks. Their bold colors and elegant forms stand in striking contrast to the industrial setting. A plush recliner, seemingly made for sinking into, sits beside a mesh desk chair like those found in generic office cubicles. Nearby, a rare prototype of the Knoll Womb® Chair, gifted by Eero Saarinen to his mother, blooms open like a flower–inviting someone to sit. There’s also mahogany furniture designed by Gilbert Rohde for Herman Miller, originally unveiled at the 1933 World’s Fair; early office pieces by Florence Knoll; and a sculptural paper lamp by Isamu Noguchi. This is the newly unveiled MillerKnoll Archive, a space that honors the distinct legacies of its formerly rival brands. In collaboration with New York–based design firm Standard Issue, MillerKnoll has created a permanent display of its most iconic designs at the company’s Michigan Design Yard headquarters.

    In the early 1920s, Dutch-born businessman Herman Miller became the majority stakeholder in a Zeeland, Michigan, company where his son-in-law served as president. Following the acquisition, Star Furniture Co. was renamed the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Stuttgart, Germany, Walter Knoll joined his family’s furniture business and formed close ties with modernist pioneers Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, immersing himself in the Bauhaus movement as Germany edged toward war. 
    Just before the outbreak of World War II, Walter Knoll relocated to the United States and established his own furniture company in New York City. Around the same time, Michigan native Florence Schust was studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art under Eliel Saarinen. There, she met Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. Schust, who later married Walter Knoll, and Saarinen would go on to become key designers for the company, while Eames would play a similarly pivotal role at Herman Miller—setting both firms on parallel paths in the world of modern design.
    The facility was designed in collaboration with New York-based design firm Standard Issue. The archive, located in MillerKnoll’s Design Yard Headquarters, is 12,000 square feet and holds over one million objects.Formerly seen as competitors, Herman Miller acquired Knoll four years ago in a billion merger that formed MillerKnoll. The deal united two of the most influential names in American furniture, merging their storied design legacies and the iconic pieces that helped define modern design. Now, MillerKnoll is honoring the distinct histories of each brand through this new archive. The archive is a permanent home for the brands’ archival collections and also exhibits the evolution of modern design. The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room. 

    The facility’s first exhibition, Manufacturing Modern, explores the intertwined histories of Knoll and Herman Miller. It showcases designs from the individuals who helped shape each company. The open storage area displays over 300 pieces of modern furniture, featuring both original works from Knoll and Herman Miller as well as contemporary designs. In addition to viewing the furniture pieces, visitors can kick back in the reading room, which offers access to a collection of archival materials, including correspondence, photography, drawings, and textiles.
    The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room and will be open for tours in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Academy this summer.“The debut of the MillerKnoll Archives invites our communities to experience design history – and imagine its future– in one dynamic space,” said MillerKnoll’s chief creative and product officer Ben Watson. “The ability to not only understand how iconic designs came to be, but how design solutions evolved over time, is a never-ending source of inspiration.”
    Exclusive tours of the archive will be available in July and August in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Museum and in October in partnership with Docomomo.
    #millerknoll #opens #new #design #archive
    MillerKnoll opens new design archive showcasing over one million objects from the company’s history
    In a 12,000-square-foot warehouse in Zeeland, Michigan, hundreds of chairs, sofas, and loveseats rest on open storage racks. Their bold colors and elegant forms stand in striking contrast to the industrial setting. A plush recliner, seemingly made for sinking into, sits beside a mesh desk chair like those found in generic office cubicles. Nearby, a rare prototype of the Knoll Womb® Chair, gifted by Eero Saarinen to his mother, blooms open like a flower–inviting someone to sit. There’s also mahogany furniture designed by Gilbert Rohde for Herman Miller, originally unveiled at the 1933 World’s Fair; early office pieces by Florence Knoll; and a sculptural paper lamp by Isamu Noguchi. This is the newly unveiled MillerKnoll Archive, a space that honors the distinct legacies of its formerly rival brands. In collaboration with New York–based design firm Standard Issue, MillerKnoll has created a permanent display of its most iconic designs at the company’s Michigan Design Yard headquarters. In the early 1920s, Dutch-born businessman Herman Miller became the majority stakeholder in a Zeeland, Michigan, company where his son-in-law served as president. Following the acquisition, Star Furniture Co. was renamed the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Stuttgart, Germany, Walter Knoll joined his family’s furniture business and formed close ties with modernist pioneers Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, immersing himself in the Bauhaus movement as Germany edged toward war.  Just before the outbreak of World War II, Walter Knoll relocated to the United States and established his own furniture company in New York City. Around the same time, Michigan native Florence Schust was studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art under Eliel Saarinen. There, she met Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. Schust, who later married Walter Knoll, and Saarinen would go on to become key designers for the company, while Eames would play a similarly pivotal role at Herman Miller—setting both firms on parallel paths in the world of modern design. The facility was designed in collaboration with New York-based design firm Standard Issue. The archive, located in MillerKnoll’s Design Yard Headquarters, is 12,000 square feet and holds over one million objects.Formerly seen as competitors, Herman Miller acquired Knoll four years ago in a billion merger that formed MillerKnoll. The deal united two of the most influential names in American furniture, merging their storied design legacies and the iconic pieces that helped define modern design. Now, MillerKnoll is honoring the distinct histories of each brand through this new archive. The archive is a permanent home for the brands’ archival collections and also exhibits the evolution of modern design. The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room.  The facility’s first exhibition, Manufacturing Modern, explores the intertwined histories of Knoll and Herman Miller. It showcases designs from the individuals who helped shape each company. The open storage area displays over 300 pieces of modern furniture, featuring both original works from Knoll and Herman Miller as well as contemporary designs. In addition to viewing the furniture pieces, visitors can kick back in the reading room, which offers access to a collection of archival materials, including correspondence, photography, drawings, and textiles. The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room and will be open for tours in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Academy this summer.“The debut of the MillerKnoll Archives invites our communities to experience design history – and imagine its future– in one dynamic space,” said MillerKnoll’s chief creative and product officer Ben Watson. “The ability to not only understand how iconic designs came to be, but how design solutions evolved over time, is a never-ending source of inspiration.” Exclusive tours of the archive will be available in July and August in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Museum and in October in partnership with Docomomo. #millerknoll #opens #new #design #archive
    WWW.ARCHPAPER.COM
    MillerKnoll opens new design archive showcasing over one million objects from the company’s history
    In a 12,000-square-foot warehouse in Zeeland, Michigan, hundreds of chairs, sofas, and loveseats rest on open storage racks. Their bold colors and elegant forms stand in striking contrast to the industrial setting. A plush recliner, seemingly made for sinking into, sits beside a mesh desk chair like those found in generic office cubicles. Nearby, a rare prototype of the Knoll Womb® Chair, gifted by Eero Saarinen to his mother, blooms open like a flower–inviting someone to sit. There’s also mahogany furniture designed by Gilbert Rohde for Herman Miller, originally unveiled at the 1933 World’s Fair; early office pieces by Florence Knoll; and a sculptural paper lamp by Isamu Noguchi. This is the newly unveiled MillerKnoll Archive, a space that honors the distinct legacies of its formerly rival brands. In collaboration with New York–based design firm Standard Issue, MillerKnoll has created a permanent display of its most iconic designs at the company’s Michigan Design Yard headquarters. In the early 1920s, Dutch-born businessman Herman Miller became the majority stakeholder in a Zeeland, Michigan, company where his son-in-law served as president. Following the acquisition, Star Furniture Co. was renamed the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Stuttgart, Germany, Walter Knoll joined his family’s furniture business and formed close ties with modernist pioneers Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, immersing himself in the Bauhaus movement as Germany edged toward war.  Just before the outbreak of World War II, Walter Knoll relocated to the United States and established his own furniture company in New York City. Around the same time, Michigan native Florence Schust was studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art under Eliel Saarinen. There, she met Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. Schust, who later married Walter Knoll, and Saarinen would go on to become key designers for the company, while Eames would play a similarly pivotal role at Herman Miller—setting both firms on parallel paths in the world of modern design. The facility was designed in collaboration with New York-based design firm Standard Issue. The archive, located in MillerKnoll’s Design Yard Headquarters, is 12,000 square feet and holds over one million objects. (Nicholas Calcott/Courtesy MillerKnoll) Formerly seen as competitors, Herman Miller acquired Knoll four years ago in a $1.8 billion merger that formed MillerKnoll. The deal united two of the most influential names in American furniture, merging their storied design legacies and the iconic pieces that helped define modern design. Now, MillerKnoll is honoring the distinct histories of each brand through this new archive. The archive is a permanent home for the brands’ archival collections and also exhibits the evolution of modern design. The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room.  The facility’s first exhibition, Manufacturing Modern, explores the intertwined histories of Knoll and Herman Miller. It showcases designs from the individuals who helped shape each company. The open storage area displays over 300 pieces of modern furniture, featuring both original works from Knoll and Herman Miller as well as contemporary designs. In addition to viewing the furniture pieces, visitors can kick back in the reading room, which offers access to a collection of archival materials, including correspondence, photography, drawings, and textiles. The facility is organized into three distinct areas: an exhibition space, open storage, and a reading room and will be open for tours in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Academy this summer. (Nicholas Calcott/Courtesy MillerKnoll) “The debut of the MillerKnoll Archives invites our communities to experience design history – and imagine its future– in one dynamic space,” said MillerKnoll’s chief creative and product officer Ben Watson. “The ability to not only understand how iconic designs came to be, but how design solutions evolved over time, is a never-ending source of inspiration.” Exclusive tours of the archive will be available in July and August in partnership with the Cranbrook Art Museum and in October in partnership with Docomomo.
    Like
    Love
    Wow
    Sad
    Angry
    490
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • Creating a Highly Detailed Tech-Inspired Scene with Blender

    IntroductionHello! My name is Denys. I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I'm currently based. I began my journey into 3D art in March 2022, teaching myself through online resources, starting, of course, with the iconic donut tutorial on YouTube. Since then, I've continued to grow my skills independently, and now I'm working toward a career in 3D generalism, with a particular interest in environment art.I originally got into Blender because SketchUp wasn't free, and I could not keep up with the subscriptions. While searching for alternatives, I came across Blender. That's when I realized I had installed it once years ago, but back then, the interface completely intimidated me, and I gave up on it. This time, though, I decided to stick with it – and I'm glad I did.I started out creating simple models. One of my first big projects was modeling the entire SpongeBob crew. That led to my first animation, and eventually, the first four episodes of a short animated series. As I grew more confident, I began participating in online 3D competitions, like cgandwe, where I focused on designing realistic environments. Those experiences have played a huge role in getting me to where I am today.Getting Started Before starting any scene, I always look for references. It might not be the most original approach, but it's what works best for me. One piece that inspired me was a beautiful artwork by Calder Moore. I bookmarked it as soon as I saw it back in 2023, and luckily, I finally found the time to bring it to life last month.BlockoutThe goal was to match the original camera angle and roughly model the main frame of the structures. It wasn't perfect, but modeling and placing the lower docks helped me get the perspective right. Then I moved on to modeling and positioning the major structures in the scene.I gave myself two weeks to complete this project. And as much as I enjoy modeling, I also enjoy not modeling, so I turned to asset kits and free models to help speed things up. I came across an awesome paid kit by Bigmediumsmall and instantly knew it would fit perfectly into my scene.I also downloaded a few models from Sketchfab, including a lamp, desk console, freighter controls, and a robotic arm, which I later took apart to add extra detail. Another incredibly helpful tool was the Random Flow add-on by BlenderGuppy, which made adding sci-fi elements much easier. Lastly, I pulled in some models from my older sci-fi and cyberpunk projects to round things out.Kitbashing Once I had the overall shape I was aiming for, I moved on to kitbashing to pack in as much detail as possible. There wasn't any strict method to the madness; I simply picked assets I liked, whether it was a set of pipes, vents, or even a random shape that just worked in the sci-fi context. I focused first on kitbashing the front structure, and used the Random Flow add-on to fill in areas where I didn't kitbash manually. Then I moved on to the other collections, following the same process.The freighter was the final piece of the puzzle, and I knew it was going to be a challenge. Part of me wanted to model it entirely from scratch, but the more practical side knew I could save a lot of time by sticking with my usual method. So I modeled the main shapes myself, then kitbashed the details to bring it to life. I also grabbed some crates from Sketchfab to fill out the scene.Texturing This part was easily my favorite, and there was no shortcut here. I had to meticulously create each material myself. Well, I did use PBR materials downloaded from CGAmbient as a base, but I spent a lot of time tweaking and editing them to get everything just right.Texturing has always been my favorite stage when building scenes like this. Many artists prefer external tools like Substance 3D Painter, but I've learned so much about procedural texturing, especially from RyanKingArt, that I couldn't let it go. It's such a flexible and rewarding approach, and I love pushing it as far as I can.I wanted most of the colors in the scene to be dark, but I did keep the original color of the pipes and the pillars, just to add a little bit of vibrance to the scene. I also wanted the overall texture to be very rough and grungy. One of the biggest helps in achieving this was using the Grunge Maps from Substance 3D Painter. I found a way to extract them into Blender, and it helped.A major tool during the texturing phase was Jsplacement, which I used to procedurally generate sci-fi grids and plates. This was the icing on the cake for adding intricate details. Whenever an area felt too flat, I applied bump maps with these grids and panels to bring the materials to life. For example, both the lamp pole and the entire black metal material feature these Jsplacement Maps.Lighting For this, I didn't do anything fancy. I knew the scene was in a high altitude, so I looked for HDRI with a cloudless sky, and I boosted the saturation up a little to give it that high altitude look.Post-Production The rendering phase was challenging since I was working on a low-end laptop. I couldn't render the entire scene all at once, so I broke it down by collections and rendered them as separate layers. Then, I composited the layers together in post-production. I'm not big on heavy post-work, so I kept it simple, mostly tweaking brightness and saturation on my phone. That's about it for the post-production process.Conclusion The entire project took me 10 days to complete, working at least four hours each day. Although I've expressed my love for texturing, my favorite part of this project was the detailing and kitbashing. I really enjoyed piecing all the small details together. The most challenging part was deciding which assets to use and where to place them. I had a lot of greebles to choose from, but I'm happy with the ones I selected; they felt like a perfect fit for the scene.I know kitbashing sometimes gets a negative reputation in the 3D community, but I found it incredibly relieving. Honestly, this project wouldn't have come together without it, so I fully embraced the process.I'm excited to keep making projects like this. The world of 3D art is truly an endless and vast realm, and I encourage every artist like me to keep exploring it, one project at a time.Denys Molokwu, 3D Artist
    #creating #highly #detailed #techinspired #scene
    Creating a Highly Detailed Tech-Inspired Scene with Blender
    IntroductionHello! My name is Denys. I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I'm currently based. I began my journey into 3D art in March 2022, teaching myself through online resources, starting, of course, with the iconic donut tutorial on YouTube. Since then, I've continued to grow my skills independently, and now I'm working toward a career in 3D generalism, with a particular interest in environment art.I originally got into Blender because SketchUp wasn't free, and I could not keep up with the subscriptions. While searching for alternatives, I came across Blender. That's when I realized I had installed it once years ago, but back then, the interface completely intimidated me, and I gave up on it. This time, though, I decided to stick with it – and I'm glad I did.I started out creating simple models. One of my first big projects was modeling the entire SpongeBob crew. That led to my first animation, and eventually, the first four episodes of a short animated series. As I grew more confident, I began participating in online 3D competitions, like cgandwe, where I focused on designing realistic environments. Those experiences have played a huge role in getting me to where I am today.Getting Started Before starting any scene, I always look for references. It might not be the most original approach, but it's what works best for me. One piece that inspired me was a beautiful artwork by Calder Moore. I bookmarked it as soon as I saw it back in 2023, and luckily, I finally found the time to bring it to life last month.BlockoutThe goal was to match the original camera angle and roughly model the main frame of the structures. It wasn't perfect, but modeling and placing the lower docks helped me get the perspective right. Then I moved on to modeling and positioning the major structures in the scene.I gave myself two weeks to complete this project. And as much as I enjoy modeling, I also enjoy not modeling, so I turned to asset kits and free models to help speed things up. I came across an awesome paid kit by Bigmediumsmall and instantly knew it would fit perfectly into my scene.I also downloaded a few models from Sketchfab, including a lamp, desk console, freighter controls, and a robotic arm, which I later took apart to add extra detail. Another incredibly helpful tool was the Random Flow add-on by BlenderGuppy, which made adding sci-fi elements much easier. Lastly, I pulled in some models from my older sci-fi and cyberpunk projects to round things out.Kitbashing Once I had the overall shape I was aiming for, I moved on to kitbashing to pack in as much detail as possible. There wasn't any strict method to the madness; I simply picked assets I liked, whether it was a set of pipes, vents, or even a random shape that just worked in the sci-fi context. I focused first on kitbashing the front structure, and used the Random Flow add-on to fill in areas where I didn't kitbash manually. Then I moved on to the other collections, following the same process.The freighter was the final piece of the puzzle, and I knew it was going to be a challenge. Part of me wanted to model it entirely from scratch, but the more practical side knew I could save a lot of time by sticking with my usual method. So I modeled the main shapes myself, then kitbashed the details to bring it to life. I also grabbed some crates from Sketchfab to fill out the scene.Texturing This part was easily my favorite, and there was no shortcut here. I had to meticulously create each material myself. Well, I did use PBR materials downloaded from CGAmbient as a base, but I spent a lot of time tweaking and editing them to get everything just right.Texturing has always been my favorite stage when building scenes like this. Many artists prefer external tools like Substance 3D Painter, but I've learned so much about procedural texturing, especially from RyanKingArt, that I couldn't let it go. It's such a flexible and rewarding approach, and I love pushing it as far as I can.I wanted most of the colors in the scene to be dark, but I did keep the original color of the pipes and the pillars, just to add a little bit of vibrance to the scene. I also wanted the overall texture to be very rough and grungy. One of the biggest helps in achieving this was using the Grunge Maps from Substance 3D Painter. I found a way to extract them into Blender, and it helped.A major tool during the texturing phase was Jsplacement, which I used to procedurally generate sci-fi grids and plates. This was the icing on the cake for adding intricate details. Whenever an area felt too flat, I applied bump maps with these grids and panels to bring the materials to life. For example, both the lamp pole and the entire black metal material feature these Jsplacement Maps.Lighting For this, I didn't do anything fancy. I knew the scene was in a high altitude, so I looked for HDRI with a cloudless sky, and I boosted the saturation up a little to give it that high altitude look.Post-Production The rendering phase was challenging since I was working on a low-end laptop. I couldn't render the entire scene all at once, so I broke it down by collections and rendered them as separate layers. Then, I composited the layers together in post-production. I'm not big on heavy post-work, so I kept it simple, mostly tweaking brightness and saturation on my phone. That's about it for the post-production process.Conclusion The entire project took me 10 days to complete, working at least four hours each day. Although I've expressed my love for texturing, my favorite part of this project was the detailing and kitbashing. I really enjoyed piecing all the small details together. The most challenging part was deciding which assets to use and where to place them. I had a lot of greebles to choose from, but I'm happy with the ones I selected; they felt like a perfect fit for the scene.I know kitbashing sometimes gets a negative reputation in the 3D community, but I found it incredibly relieving. Honestly, this project wouldn't have come together without it, so I fully embraced the process.I'm excited to keep making projects like this. The world of 3D art is truly an endless and vast realm, and I encourage every artist like me to keep exploring it, one project at a time.Denys Molokwu, 3D Artist #creating #highly #detailed #techinspired #scene
    80.LV
    Creating a Highly Detailed Tech-Inspired Scene with Blender
    IntroductionHello! My name is Denys. I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I'm currently based. I began my journey into 3D art in March 2022, teaching myself through online resources, starting, of course, with the iconic donut tutorial on YouTube. Since then, I've continued to grow my skills independently, and now I'm working toward a career in 3D generalism, with a particular interest in environment art.I originally got into Blender because SketchUp wasn't free, and I could not keep up with the subscriptions. While searching for alternatives, I came across Blender. That's when I realized I had installed it once years ago, but back then, the interface completely intimidated me, and I gave up on it. This time, though, I decided to stick with it – and I'm glad I did.I started out creating simple models. One of my first big projects was modeling the entire SpongeBob crew. That led to my first animation, and eventually, the first four episodes of a short animated series (though it's still incomplete). As I grew more confident, I began participating in online 3D competitions, like cgandwe, where I focused on designing realistic environments. Those experiences have played a huge role in getting me to where I am today.Getting Started Before starting any scene, I always look for references. It might not be the most original approach, but it's what works best for me. One piece that inspired me was a beautiful artwork by Calder Moore. I bookmarked it as soon as I saw it back in 2023, and luckily, I finally found the time to bring it to life last month.BlockoutThe goal was to match the original camera angle and roughly model the main frame of the structures. It wasn't perfect, but modeling and placing the lower docks helped me get the perspective right. Then I moved on to modeling and positioning the major structures in the scene.I gave myself two weeks to complete this project. And as much as I enjoy modeling, I also enjoy not modeling, so I turned to asset kits and free models to help speed things up. I came across an awesome paid kit by Bigmediumsmall and instantly knew it would fit perfectly into my scene.I also downloaded a few models from Sketchfab, including a lamp, desk console, freighter controls, and a robotic arm, which I later took apart to add extra detail. Another incredibly helpful tool was the Random Flow add-on by BlenderGuppy, which made adding sci-fi elements much easier. Lastly, I pulled in some models from my older sci-fi and cyberpunk projects to round things out.Kitbashing Once I had the overall shape I was aiming for, I moved on to kitbashing to pack in as much detail as possible. There wasn't any strict method to the madness; I simply picked assets I liked, whether it was a set of pipes, vents, or even a random shape that just worked in the sci-fi context. I focused first on kitbashing the front structure, and used the Random Flow add-on to fill in areas where I didn't kitbash manually. Then I moved on to the other collections, following the same process.The freighter was the final piece of the puzzle, and I knew it was going to be a challenge. Part of me wanted to model it entirely from scratch, but the more practical side knew I could save a lot of time by sticking with my usual method. So I modeled the main shapes myself, then kitbashed the details to bring it to life. I also grabbed some crates from Sketchfab to fill out the scene.Texturing This part was easily my favorite, and there was no shortcut here. I had to meticulously create each material myself. Well, I did use PBR materials downloaded from CGAmbient as a base, but I spent a lot of time tweaking and editing them to get everything just right.Texturing has always been my favorite stage when building scenes like this. Many artists prefer external tools like Substance 3D Painter (which I did use for some of the models), but I've learned so much about procedural texturing, especially from RyanKingArt, that I couldn't let it go. It's such a flexible and rewarding approach, and I love pushing it as far as I can.I wanted most of the colors in the scene to be dark, but I did keep the original color of the pipes and the pillars, just to add a little bit of vibrance to the scene. I also wanted the overall texture to be very rough and grungy. One of the biggest helps in achieving this was using the Grunge Maps from Substance 3D Painter. I found a way to extract them into Blender, and it helped.A major tool during the texturing phase was Jsplacement, which I used to procedurally generate sci-fi grids and plates. This was the icing on the cake for adding intricate details. Whenever an area felt too flat, I applied bump maps with these grids and panels to bring the materials to life. For example, both the lamp pole and the entire black metal material feature these Jsplacement Maps.Lighting For this, I didn't do anything fancy. I knew the scene was in a high altitude, so I looked for HDRI with a cloudless sky, and I boosted the saturation up a little to give it that high altitude look.Post-Production The rendering phase was challenging since I was working on a low-end laptop. I couldn't render the entire scene all at once, so I broke it down by collections and rendered them as separate layers. Then, I composited the layers together in post-production. I'm not big on heavy post-work, so I kept it simple, mostly tweaking brightness and saturation on my phone. That's about it for the post-production process.Conclusion The entire project took me 10 days to complete, working at least four hours each day. Although I've expressed my love for texturing, my favorite part of this project was the detailing and kitbashing. I really enjoyed piecing all the small details together. The most challenging part was deciding which assets to use and where to place them. I had a lot of greebles to choose from, but I'm happy with the ones I selected; they felt like a perfect fit for the scene.I know kitbashing sometimes gets a negative reputation in the 3D community, but I found it incredibly relieving. Honestly, this project wouldn't have come together without it, so I fully embraced the process.I'm excited to keep making projects like this. The world of 3D art is truly an endless and vast realm, and I encourage every artist like me to keep exploring it, one project at a time.Denys Molokwu, 3D Artist
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • Why an Xbox Video Game Franchise Is a Partner in a Major Exhibit at The Louvre Museum

    While it’s now accepted by many that video games are an art form, it still might be hard to believe that one is featured in an exhibit at the same museum that’s home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”: The Louvre in Paris.

    But this week, Xbox and World’s Edge Studio announced a partnership with what is arguably the most prestigious museum in the world for its new exhibition, “Mamluks 1250–1517.”

    Related Stories

    For those who are unaware of how the gaming studios connect to this aspect of the Egyptian Syrian empire: The Mamluks cavalry are among the many units featured in Xbox and World’s Edge Studio’s “Age of Empires” video game franchise. The cavalry is a fan favorite choice in the game centered around traversing the ages and competing against rival empires, particularly in “Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.”

    Popular on Variety

    Presented at the Louvre until July 28, the exhibit “Mamluks 1250–1517″ recounts “the glorious and unique history of this Egyptian Syrian empire, which represents a golden age for the Near East during the Islamic era,” per its official description. “Bringing together 260 pieces from international collections, the exhibition explores the richness of this singular and lesser-known society through a spectacular and immersive scenography.”

    This marks the first time a video game franchise has collaborated with the Louvre Museum, with installations and events that occur both in person at the museum and online through the “Age of Empires” game:

    Official “Louvre Museum” scenario in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
    Players can embody General Baybars and Sultan Qutuz at the really heart of the Ain Jalut battle, which opposed the Mamluk Sultanate to the Mongol Empire. This scenario, speciallycreated for the occasion, is already available in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.Exclusive Gaming Night on Twitch Live from the Louvre
    On Thursday, June 12, at 8 PM, streamer and journalist Samuel Etiennewill replay live from the exhibition “Mamluks 1250-1517” at the Louvre the official“Louvre Museum” scenario to relive the famous Battle of Ain Jalut on the game Age of EmpiresII: Definitive Edition, in the presence of Le Louvre Teams and one of the studio’s developers.This is an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Mamluks and their representationin the various episodes of the saga.Cross-Interview: The Louvre x Age of Empires
    To discover more, an interview featuring Adam Isgreen, creative director at World’s Edge, thestudio behind the franchise, and Souraya Noujaïm and Carine Juvin, curators of the exhibition,is available on the YouTube channels of the Louvre and Age of Empires.Mediation and Gaming Sessions at the Museum
    Museum visitors at the Louvre are invited to test the scenario of the Battle of Ain Jalut,specially designed for the Mamluk exhibition, in the presence of a Louvre mediator and anXbox representative during an exceptional series of workshops. The sessions will take place onFridays, June 20, 27, and 4 & 11 of July. All information and registrations are available here:www.louvre.fr

    “World’s Edge is honoured to collaborate with Le Louvre,” head of World’s Edge studio Michael Mann said. “The ‘Age of Empires’ franchise has been bringing history to life for more than 65 million players around the world for almost 30 years. We’ve always believed in the great potential for our games to spark an interest in history and culture. We often hear of teachers using ‘Age of Empires’ to teach history to their students and stories from our players about how ‘Age of Empires’ has driven them to learn more, or even to pursue history academically or as a career. This opportunity to bring the amazing stories of the Mamluks to new audiences through the Louvre’s exhibition is one we’re excited to be a part of. We hope that through the excellent work of the Louvre’s team, the legacy of the Mamluks can be shared around the world, and that people enjoy their stories as they come to life through ‘Age of Empires.'”

    “We are delighted to welcome ‘Age of Empires’ as part of the exhibition Mamluks 1250–1517, through a unique partnership that blends the pleasures of gaming with learning and discovery,” Souraya Noujaim, director of the Department of Islamic Arts and chief curator of the exhibition at le Louvre Museum, said. “It is a way for the museum to engage with diverse audiences and offer a new narrative, one that resonates with contemporary sensitivities, allowing for a deeper understanding of artworks and a greater openness to world history. Beyond the game, the museum experience becomes an opportunity to move from the virtual to the real and uncover the true history of the Mamluks and their unique contribution to universal heritage.”

    See video and images below from the “Age of Empires” in-game event and the in-person exhibit at the Louvre.
    #why #xbox #video #game #franchise
    Why an Xbox Video Game Franchise Is a Partner in a Major Exhibit at The Louvre Museum
    While it’s now accepted by many that video games are an art form, it still might be hard to believe that one is featured in an exhibit at the same museum that’s home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”: The Louvre in Paris. But this week, Xbox and World’s Edge Studio announced a partnership with what is arguably the most prestigious museum in the world for its new exhibition, “Mamluks 1250–1517.” Related Stories For those who are unaware of how the gaming studios connect to this aspect of the Egyptian Syrian empire: The Mamluks cavalry are among the many units featured in Xbox and World’s Edge Studio’s “Age of Empires” video game franchise. The cavalry is a fan favorite choice in the game centered around traversing the ages and competing against rival empires, particularly in “Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.” Popular on Variety Presented at the Louvre until July 28, the exhibit “Mamluks 1250–1517″ recounts “the glorious and unique history of this Egyptian Syrian empire, which represents a golden age for the Near East during the Islamic era,” per its official description. “Bringing together 260 pieces from international collections, the exhibition explores the richness of this singular and lesser-known society through a spectacular and immersive scenography.” This marks the first time a video game franchise has collaborated with the Louvre Museum, with installations and events that occur both in person at the museum and online through the “Age of Empires” game: Official “Louvre Museum” scenario in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Players can embody General Baybars and Sultan Qutuz at the really heart of the Ain Jalut battle, which opposed the Mamluk Sultanate to the Mongol Empire. This scenario, speciallycreated for the occasion, is already available in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.Exclusive Gaming Night on Twitch Live from the Louvre On Thursday, June 12, at 8 PM, streamer and journalist Samuel Etiennewill replay live from the exhibition “Mamluks 1250-1517” at the Louvre the official“Louvre Museum” scenario to relive the famous Battle of Ain Jalut on the game Age of EmpiresII: Definitive Edition, in the presence of Le Louvre Teams and one of the studio’s developers.This is an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Mamluks and their representationin the various episodes of the saga.Cross-Interview: The Louvre x Age of Empires To discover more, an interview featuring Adam Isgreen, creative director at World’s Edge, thestudio behind the franchise, and Souraya Noujaïm and Carine Juvin, curators of the exhibition,is available on the YouTube channels of the Louvre and Age of Empires.Mediation and Gaming Sessions at the Museum Museum visitors at the Louvre are invited to test the scenario of the Battle of Ain Jalut,specially designed for the Mamluk exhibition, in the presence of a Louvre mediator and anXbox representative during an exceptional series of workshops. The sessions will take place onFridays, June 20, 27, and 4 & 11 of July. All information and registrations are available here:www.louvre.fr “World’s Edge is honoured to collaborate with Le Louvre,” head of World’s Edge studio Michael Mann said. “The ‘Age of Empires’ franchise has been bringing history to life for more than 65 million players around the world for almost 30 years. We’ve always believed in the great potential for our games to spark an interest in history and culture. We often hear of teachers using ‘Age of Empires’ to teach history to their students and stories from our players about how ‘Age of Empires’ has driven them to learn more, or even to pursue history academically or as a career. This opportunity to bring the amazing stories of the Mamluks to new audiences through the Louvre’s exhibition is one we’re excited to be a part of. We hope that through the excellent work of the Louvre’s team, the legacy of the Mamluks can be shared around the world, and that people enjoy their stories as they come to life through ‘Age of Empires.'” “We are delighted to welcome ‘Age of Empires’ as part of the exhibition Mamluks 1250–1517, through a unique partnership that blends the pleasures of gaming with learning and discovery,” Souraya Noujaim, director of the Department of Islamic Arts and chief curator of the exhibition at le Louvre Museum, said. “It is a way for the museum to engage with diverse audiences and offer a new narrative, one that resonates with contemporary sensitivities, allowing for a deeper understanding of artworks and a greater openness to world history. Beyond the game, the museum experience becomes an opportunity to move from the virtual to the real and uncover the true history of the Mamluks and their unique contribution to universal heritage.” See video and images below from the “Age of Empires” in-game event and the in-person exhibit at the Louvre. #why #xbox #video #game #franchise
    VARIETY.COM
    Why an Xbox Video Game Franchise Is a Partner in a Major Exhibit at The Louvre Museum
    While it’s now accepted by many that video games are an art form, it still might be hard to believe that one is featured in an exhibit at the same museum that’s home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”: The Louvre in Paris. But this week, Xbox and World’s Edge Studio announced a partnership with what is arguably the most prestigious museum in the world for its new exhibition, “Mamluks 1250–1517.” Related Stories For those who are unaware of how the gaming studios connect to this aspect of the Egyptian Syrian empire: The Mamluks cavalry are among the many units featured in Xbox and World’s Edge Studio’s “Age of Empires” video game franchise. The cavalry is a fan favorite choice in the game centered around traversing the ages and competing against rival empires, particularly in “Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.” Popular on Variety Presented at the Louvre until July 28, the exhibit “Mamluks 1250–1517″ recounts “the glorious and unique history of this Egyptian Syrian empire, which represents a golden age for the Near East during the Islamic era,” per its official description. “Bringing together 260 pieces from international collections, the exhibition explores the richness of this singular and lesser-known society through a spectacular and immersive scenography.” This marks the first time a video game franchise has collaborated with the Louvre Museum, with installations and events that occur both in person at the museum and online through the “Age of Empires” game: Official “Louvre Museum” scenario in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Players can embody General Baybars and Sultan Qutuz at the really heart of the Ain Jalut battle(1260), which opposed the Mamluk Sultanate to the Mongol Empire. This scenario, speciallycreated for the occasion, is already available in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (see onhttp://www.ageofempire.com/lelouvre for instructions on finding the map in the game) [LiveTuesday 10th at 9am PT/6pm BST].Exclusive Gaming Night on Twitch Live from the Louvre On Thursday, June 12, at 8 PM, streamer and journalist Samuel Etienne (1.1M FrenchStreamer) will replay live from the exhibition “Mamluks 1250-1517” at the Louvre the official“Louvre Museum” scenario to relive the famous Battle of Ain Jalut on the game Age of EmpiresII: Definitive Edition, in the presence of Le Louvre Teams and one of the studio’s developers.This is an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Mamluks and their representationin the various episodes of the saga.Cross-Interview: The Louvre x Age of Empires To discover more, an interview featuring Adam Isgreen, creative director at World’s Edge, thestudio behind the franchise, and Souraya Noujaïm and Carine Juvin, curators of the exhibition,is available on the YouTube channels of the Louvre and Age of Empires.Mediation and Gaming Sessions at the Museum Museum visitors at the Louvre are invited to test the scenario of the Battle of Ain Jalut,specially designed for the Mamluk exhibition, in the presence of a Louvre mediator and anXbox representative during an exceptional series of workshops. The sessions will take place onFridays, June 20, 27, and 4 & 11 of July. All information and registrations are available here:www.louvre.fr “World’s Edge is honoured to collaborate with Le Louvre,” head of World’s Edge studio Michael Mann said. “The ‘Age of Empires’ franchise has been bringing history to life for more than 65 million players around the world for almost 30 years. We’ve always believed in the great potential for our games to spark an interest in history and culture. We often hear of teachers using ‘Age of Empires’ to teach history to their students and stories from our players about how ‘Age of Empires’ has driven them to learn more, or even to pursue history academically or as a career. This opportunity to bring the amazing stories of the Mamluks to new audiences through the Louvre’s exhibition is one we’re excited to be a part of. We hope that through the excellent work of the Louvre’s team, the legacy of the Mamluks can be shared around the world, and that people enjoy their stories as they come to life through ‘Age of Empires.'” “We are delighted to welcome ‘Age of Empires’ as part of the exhibition Mamluks 1250–1517, through a unique partnership that blends the pleasures of gaming with learning and discovery,” Souraya Noujaim, director of the Department of Islamic Arts and chief curator of the exhibition at le Louvre Museum, said. “It is a way for the museum to engage with diverse audiences and offer a new narrative, one that resonates with contemporary sensitivities, allowing for a deeper understanding of artworks and a greater openness to world history. Beyond the game, the museum experience becomes an opportunity to move from the virtual to the real and uncover the true history of the Mamluks and their unique contribution to universal heritage.” See video and images below from the “Age of Empires” in-game event and the in-person exhibit at the Louvre.
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • 48 Rustic Living Room Ideas For the Coziest Family Space

    With its comfortable, laid-back decorating vibes, no room says “come and sit awhile” or “aah, I’m home” quite like a beautifully inviting rustic and cozy living room. Whether you live in a farmhouse, cabin, cottage, a new-build in the suburbs, or even a city apartment—rustic living room ideas bring a certain homespun style that ranges from downright traditional to modern and chic.Here at Country Living, we’ve discovered that the very best classic and country rustic living room ideas begin with good ol’ tried-and-true character-rich decor. We're talking reclaimed wood, stone focal points, and a casual mix of natural textures and materials. More modern rustic living room ideas include a less-is-more approach with calming neutral color palettes and clean-lined furniture. Paint colors, fabrics, and accessories in grays, browns, and greens pulled from nature make for the just-right warmth—all simple rustic living room ideas at their finest. So relax and sink into our best country rustic living room ideas from some of our all-time favorite Country Living house tours!Here are more creative ways to make your home feel rustic and cozy:1Fill the Room With CharacterSean LitchfieldFrom floor to ceiling and wall to wall, this rustic living room packs in loads of character. Comfy leather and upholstered furniture, a vintage patterned rug, and a blue and yellow painted cupboard found on Facebook marketplace sit well together against a backdrop of rustic wood.2Source Local MaterialsLincoln BarbourIn this beautifully rustic Mississippi barn. the owners sourced local wood materials from a nearby military depot to clad the walls and ceiling, bringing maximum warmth and texture. Large windows let in loads of natural light during the day, while a chandelier and mounted sconces make for a romantic glow come nighttime.RELATED: These Wood Ceiling Ideas Bring Country Charm to Any RoomTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below3Pick a Cozy Paint ColorAlpha Smoot for Country LivingThis cozy living room has a built-in warmth, thanks to saturated navy blue walls. Its handsomely worn floorboards, doors, mantel, and warming cabinet above the fireplace complement the dark blue beautifully. The fire and candlelight emit a magical glow.Get the Look:Wall Paint Color: Dark Navy by BehrTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE4Lay a Comfy RugSara Ligorria-TrampWhat's cozier than a roaring fire on a cool night? A soft, fuzzy rug in front of it! The fireplace features mantel made from a tree felled on-site and white Zellige tile. The artwork is a vintage find paired with a contemporary painting.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below5Embrace Log Cabin DetailsLisa FloodIn this stunning Wyoming log cabin, the family usually gathers in the wonderfully rustic great room. Its cozy factor is off the charts, thanks country decorating classics like unpainted log walls and beams, a woodburning stove, textural rugs, and a sweet swing that hangs from the ceiling. Get the Look:Swing: The Oak & Rope CompanyTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE6Wrap a Room in WoodMarta Xochilt PerezIn this rustic and cozy cabin, an original fieldstone fireplace creates the warmest welcome. A pair of cushy leather sofas piled with pillows blankets face off, anchoring the wood-wrapped space, and providing the perfect perches for game night. TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below7Build an Rustic Stone Accent WallMarta Xochilt Perez for Country LivingThis impressive wall of moss rock surrounds the fireplace. Chiseled stone corbels provide mantel supports. On cool nights, you can count on a roaring fire! Throughout the home, carved timbers, rough-cut stone, and walls of windows reflect a combination of the homeowners’ Scandinavian heritage and Irish roots.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE8Go Big in a Small SpaceEmily FollowillThis tiny living room is packed with so much character. Designer James Farmer added decorative oomph with a large tobacco basket, an art-forward fireplace screen, and natural design elements like plants. Details like arranging the paneling on the diagonal to “point” upward enhance the vertical space. Says James, “Tall ceilings, bold plant arrangements, and large light fixtures have even more impact in a small home. Play with scale to find what feels right.” Advertisement - Continue Reading Below9Mix and Match FurnitureLincoln BarbourFor the ultimate collected-over-time vibe, forgo matching furniture. Here, a wingback chair and a spool chair look right at home in this living room. Other period-appropriate decor found in this 100-year-old home: painted paneled walls, exposed ceiling beams, and a rustic mantel wood.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 10Let There Be LightChristopher DibbleWe put this family room in the “rustic light” category. For a top-to-bottom cabin-like feel, designer Max Humphrey wrapped the space in eight-foot knotty pine planks on the ceiling and walls. A clear coat of polyurethane protects the wood while letting its natural color shine through. Colorful national park posters, globes, camp grounds signage, and a linen modern sectional create a hip yet homey living space.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below11Customize a Focal PointHomeowners Victoria and Marcus Ford’s vision of a custom wood fireplace surround included open shelves and striking floor-to-ceiling firewood nooks. “We figured go big or go home,” says Victoria. Brass sconces provide a library-like touch, and a custom frame has the TV looking picture-perfect above the mantel.Get the Look:Wall and Trim Paint: Endless Sea by Sherwin-WilliamsCeiling Paint: Oyster White by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE SPACE12Incorporate Rustic Furniture FindsAnnie SchlechterTopped with a plaid cushion, a rustic yellow daybed nestled in the corner makes for the coziest spot to take in lake views. The 22-foot cathedral ceilings are clad in wood, warming up this lofty open-concept space designed by Amy Meier that also includes a dining area and kitchen.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below13Paint the FloorsDane Tashima for Country LivingWhile the homeowners of this New Jersey dairy barn were able to salvage the structure’s original knotty beams, the walls and floors in the soaring 25-foot-high space needed to be replaced. Simple poplar planks painted white got the job done affordably. A new cast-iron pellet stove warms the space with a rustic, authentic look. Get the Look:Wall and Floor Paint Color: Alabaster by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE14Tell the BackstorySean LitchfieldWhere possible, the original Eastern Hemlock posts and beams of this 1819 Maine barn were carefully preserved when, in 1999, the structure was disassembled and then reassembled several miles down the road. Hand-split slabs of Maine graniteand brick were used to fabricate the massive woodburning fireplace. The walls and floors are lined in rough-hewn, nonuniform wood planks. The sofa table, made from an old piece of barn wood found on the farm, shows off collections of books, ceramics, and shells.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below15Use Old Materials for New BuildsBrie WilliamsIn this new build, reclaimed materials create instant patina for a warm and welcoming family room. Here’s what makes it rustic: reclaimed beams came from an 1800s mill in Massachusetts mill; log skins salvaged from old Midwest barns; North Carolina stone on the fireplace. A soft palette for the furniture and window treatments was inspired by the antique rug that covers the ottoman.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 16Balance Natural Wood with ColorNick JohnsonA pretty blue on the fireplace and in the fabrics balances the overall rustic vibe in this country house. “I wanted this room to feel rich and cozy and warm—the kind of place you’d sit by the fire to read a book,” says Erica Harrison of Detroit-based design firm Hudson and Sterling.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below17Make It WorkHelen NormanDespite the renovation challenges, this cozy sitting area situated just off the open kitchen works. The fireplace, which had to be rebuilt from the inside, was covered in stucco to balance all the exposed brick that was discovered underneath damaged drywall. For attic access, a ladder that was found in a barn on the property gets the job done in lieu of stairs. On the other side of the fireplace, a sturdy wooden bookshelf replaces an existing one that was crumbling.18Paint It WhiteZIO AND SONSFor the ultimate modern farmhouse vibe, start with an all-white palette, like in this home of designer Anthony D’Argenzio. This allows you to layer in character-rich architectural elements, like wide-planked wood floors and ceiling beams. A comfy sectional piled with pillows balances perfectly with hard elements, like the wood-and-iron coffee table, handmade oak stump side table, and a round iron chandelier. The hanging chair in the corner provides a wink to this serene design. RELATED: The Best Warm White Paint Colors For Every Room in Your HouseAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below19Leave Materials NaturalJames MerrellRustic meets cozy in this cabin that features walls constructed of hand-hewn logs, a stone fireplace, exposed ceiling beams, and a pair of comfy armchairs. Leaving all materials in their natural finish and unpainted contributes to the overall homespun feel.RELATED: The Best Places to Find or Buy Reclaimed Wood Near You20Choose Neutral FurnishingsSeth SmootIn this California living room, a comfortable collection of neutral furnishings complements the home’s rustic redwood walls. The solid sofa and barrel chairs that are upholstered in linen leave room for visual delights, like the wicker and fringe lamps, an antique rug, a patterned ottoman, and piles of pillows.Jennifer KopfJennifer Kopf is the Executive Editor of Country Living. She also covers antiques and collecting.Amy MitchellManaging EditorAmy Mitchell is the managing editor for VERANDA and Country Living, where she writes articles on a variety of topics—decorating and design, gardens, and holidays. Amy’s experience in the shelter magazine category spans more than 20 years, as she’s previously held positions at Coastal Living and Cottage Living. Her personal pursuits include cooking, gardening, and hunting her favorite tag sale spots for the next piece of Pyrex for her prized collection.
    #rustic #living #room #ideas #coziest
    48 Rustic Living Room Ideas For the Coziest Family Space
    With its comfortable, laid-back decorating vibes, no room says “come and sit awhile” or “aah, I’m home” quite like a beautifully inviting rustic and cozy living room. Whether you live in a farmhouse, cabin, cottage, a new-build in the suburbs, or even a city apartment—rustic living room ideas bring a certain homespun style that ranges from downright traditional to modern and chic.Here at Country Living, we’ve discovered that the very best classic and country rustic living room ideas begin with good ol’ tried-and-true character-rich decor. We're talking reclaimed wood, stone focal points, and a casual mix of natural textures and materials. More modern rustic living room ideas include a less-is-more approach with calming neutral color palettes and clean-lined furniture. Paint colors, fabrics, and accessories in grays, browns, and greens pulled from nature make for the just-right warmth—all simple rustic living room ideas at their finest. So relax and sink into our best country rustic living room ideas from some of our all-time favorite Country Living house tours!Here are more creative ways to make your home feel rustic and cozy:1Fill the Room With CharacterSean LitchfieldFrom floor to ceiling and wall to wall, this rustic living room packs in loads of character. Comfy leather and upholstered furniture, a vintage patterned rug, and a blue and yellow painted cupboard found on Facebook marketplace sit well together against a backdrop of rustic wood.2Source Local MaterialsLincoln BarbourIn this beautifully rustic Mississippi barn. the owners sourced local wood materials from a nearby military depot to clad the walls and ceiling, bringing maximum warmth and texture. Large windows let in loads of natural light during the day, while a chandelier and mounted sconces make for a romantic glow come nighttime.RELATED: These Wood Ceiling Ideas Bring Country Charm to Any RoomTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below3Pick a Cozy Paint ColorAlpha Smoot for Country LivingThis cozy living room has a built-in warmth, thanks to saturated navy blue walls. Its handsomely worn floorboards, doors, mantel, and warming cabinet above the fireplace complement the dark blue beautifully. The fire and candlelight emit a magical glow.Get the Look:Wall Paint Color: Dark Navy by BehrTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE4Lay a Comfy RugSara Ligorria-TrampWhat's cozier than a roaring fire on a cool night? A soft, fuzzy rug in front of it! The fireplace features mantel made from a tree felled on-site and white Zellige tile. The artwork is a vintage find paired with a contemporary painting.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below5Embrace Log Cabin DetailsLisa FloodIn this stunning Wyoming log cabin, the family usually gathers in the wonderfully rustic great room. Its cozy factor is off the charts, thanks country decorating classics like unpainted log walls and beams, a woodburning stove, textural rugs, and a sweet swing that hangs from the ceiling. Get the Look:Swing: The Oak & Rope CompanyTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE6Wrap a Room in WoodMarta Xochilt PerezIn this rustic and cozy cabin, an original fieldstone fireplace creates the warmest welcome. A pair of cushy leather sofas piled with pillows blankets face off, anchoring the wood-wrapped space, and providing the perfect perches for game night. TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below7Build an Rustic Stone Accent WallMarta Xochilt Perez for Country LivingThis impressive wall of moss rock surrounds the fireplace. Chiseled stone corbels provide mantel supports. On cool nights, you can count on a roaring fire! Throughout the home, carved timbers, rough-cut stone, and walls of windows reflect a combination of the homeowners’ Scandinavian heritage and Irish roots.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE8Go Big in a Small SpaceEmily FollowillThis tiny living room is packed with so much character. Designer James Farmer added decorative oomph with a large tobacco basket, an art-forward fireplace screen, and natural design elements like plants. Details like arranging the paneling on the diagonal to “point” upward enhance the vertical space. Says James, “Tall ceilings, bold plant arrangements, and large light fixtures have even more impact in a small home. Play with scale to find what feels right.” Advertisement - Continue Reading Below9Mix and Match FurnitureLincoln BarbourFor the ultimate collected-over-time vibe, forgo matching furniture. Here, a wingback chair and a spool chair look right at home in this living room. Other period-appropriate decor found in this 100-year-old home: painted paneled walls, exposed ceiling beams, and a rustic mantel wood.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 10Let There Be LightChristopher DibbleWe put this family room in the “rustic light” category. For a top-to-bottom cabin-like feel, designer Max Humphrey wrapped the space in eight-foot knotty pine planks on the ceiling and walls. A clear coat of polyurethane protects the wood while letting its natural color shine through. Colorful national park posters, globes, camp grounds signage, and a linen modern sectional create a hip yet homey living space.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below11Customize a Focal PointHomeowners Victoria and Marcus Ford’s vision of a custom wood fireplace surround included open shelves and striking floor-to-ceiling firewood nooks. “We figured go big or go home,” says Victoria. Brass sconces provide a library-like touch, and a custom frame has the TV looking picture-perfect above the mantel.Get the Look:Wall and Trim Paint: Endless Sea by Sherwin-WilliamsCeiling Paint: Oyster White by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE SPACE12Incorporate Rustic Furniture FindsAnnie SchlechterTopped with a plaid cushion, a rustic yellow daybed nestled in the corner makes for the coziest spot to take in lake views. The 22-foot cathedral ceilings are clad in wood, warming up this lofty open-concept space designed by Amy Meier that also includes a dining area and kitchen.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below13Paint the FloorsDane Tashima for Country LivingWhile the homeowners of this New Jersey dairy barn were able to salvage the structure’s original knotty beams, the walls and floors in the soaring 25-foot-high space needed to be replaced. Simple poplar planks painted white got the job done affordably. A new cast-iron pellet stove warms the space with a rustic, authentic look. Get the Look:Wall and Floor Paint Color: Alabaster by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE14Tell the BackstorySean LitchfieldWhere possible, the original Eastern Hemlock posts and beams of this 1819 Maine barn were carefully preserved when, in 1999, the structure was disassembled and then reassembled several miles down the road. Hand-split slabs of Maine graniteand brick were used to fabricate the massive woodburning fireplace. The walls and floors are lined in rough-hewn, nonuniform wood planks. The sofa table, made from an old piece of barn wood found on the farm, shows off collections of books, ceramics, and shells.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below15Use Old Materials for New BuildsBrie WilliamsIn this new build, reclaimed materials create instant patina for a warm and welcoming family room. Here’s what makes it rustic: reclaimed beams came from an 1800s mill in Massachusetts mill; log skins salvaged from old Midwest barns; North Carolina stone on the fireplace. A soft palette for the furniture and window treatments was inspired by the antique rug that covers the ottoman.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 16Balance Natural Wood with ColorNick JohnsonA pretty blue on the fireplace and in the fabrics balances the overall rustic vibe in this country house. “I wanted this room to feel rich and cozy and warm—the kind of place you’d sit by the fire to read a book,” says Erica Harrison of Detroit-based design firm Hudson and Sterling.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below17Make It WorkHelen NormanDespite the renovation challenges, this cozy sitting area situated just off the open kitchen works. The fireplace, which had to be rebuilt from the inside, was covered in stucco to balance all the exposed brick that was discovered underneath damaged drywall. For attic access, a ladder that was found in a barn on the property gets the job done in lieu of stairs. On the other side of the fireplace, a sturdy wooden bookshelf replaces an existing one that was crumbling.18Paint It WhiteZIO AND SONSFor the ultimate modern farmhouse vibe, start with an all-white palette, like in this home of designer Anthony D’Argenzio. This allows you to layer in character-rich architectural elements, like wide-planked wood floors and ceiling beams. A comfy sectional piled with pillows balances perfectly with hard elements, like the wood-and-iron coffee table, handmade oak stump side table, and a round iron chandelier. The hanging chair in the corner provides a wink to this serene design. RELATED: The Best Warm White Paint Colors For Every Room in Your HouseAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below19Leave Materials NaturalJames MerrellRustic meets cozy in this cabin that features walls constructed of hand-hewn logs, a stone fireplace, exposed ceiling beams, and a pair of comfy armchairs. Leaving all materials in their natural finish and unpainted contributes to the overall homespun feel.RELATED: The Best Places to Find or Buy Reclaimed Wood Near You20Choose Neutral FurnishingsSeth SmootIn this California living room, a comfortable collection of neutral furnishings complements the home’s rustic redwood walls. The solid sofa and barrel chairs that are upholstered in linen leave room for visual delights, like the wicker and fringe lamps, an antique rug, a patterned ottoman, and piles of pillows.Jennifer KopfJennifer Kopf is the Executive Editor of Country Living. She also covers antiques and collecting.Amy MitchellManaging EditorAmy Mitchell is the managing editor for VERANDA and Country Living, where she writes articles on a variety of topics—decorating and design, gardens, and holidays. Amy’s experience in the shelter magazine category spans more than 20 years, as she’s previously held positions at Coastal Living and Cottage Living. Her personal pursuits include cooking, gardening, and hunting her favorite tag sale spots for the next piece of Pyrex for her prized collection. #rustic #living #room #ideas #coziest
    WWW.COUNTRYLIVING.COM
    48 Rustic Living Room Ideas For the Coziest Family Space
    With its comfortable, laid-back decorating vibes, no room says “come and sit awhile” or “aah, I’m home” quite like a beautifully inviting rustic and cozy living room. Whether you live in a farmhouse, cabin, cottage, a new-build in the suburbs, or even a city apartment—rustic living room ideas bring a certain homespun style that ranges from downright traditional to modern and chic.Here at Country Living, we’ve discovered that the very best classic and country rustic living room ideas begin with good ol’ tried-and-true character-rich decor. We're talking reclaimed wood, stone focal points (there are so many rustic style living room ideas with cozy fireplaces!), and a casual mix of natural textures and materials (think wood and woven furniture, perfectly worn leather sofas, vintage wool rugs laid atop natural sisal). More modern rustic living room ideas include a less-is-more approach with calming neutral color palettes and clean-lined furniture. Paint colors, fabrics, and accessories in grays, browns, and greens pulled from nature make for the just-right warmth—all simple rustic living room ideas at their finest. So relax and sink into our best country rustic living room ideas from some of our all-time favorite Country Living house tours!Here are more creative ways to make your home feel rustic and cozy:1Fill the Room With CharacterSean LitchfieldFrom floor to ceiling and wall to wall, this rustic living room packs in loads of character. Comfy leather and upholstered furniture, a vintage patterned rug, and a blue and yellow painted cupboard found on Facebook marketplace sit well together against a backdrop of rustic wood.2Source Local MaterialsLincoln BarbourIn this beautifully rustic Mississippi barn. the owners sourced local wood materials from a nearby military depot to clad the walls and ceiling, bringing maximum warmth and texture. Large windows let in loads of natural light during the day, while a chandelier and mounted sconces make for a romantic glow come nighttime.RELATED: These Wood Ceiling Ideas Bring Country Charm to Any RoomTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below3Pick a Cozy Paint ColorAlpha Smoot for Country LivingThis cozy living room has a built-in warmth, thanks to saturated navy blue walls (“It’s sort of a gentleman’s navy,” says homeowner Justin Reis). Its handsomely worn floorboards, doors, mantel, and warming cabinet above the fireplace complement the dark blue beautifully. The fire and candlelight emit a magical glow.Get the Look:Wall Paint Color: Dark Navy by BehrTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE4Lay a Comfy RugSara Ligorria-TrampWhat's cozier than a roaring fire on a cool night? A soft, fuzzy rug in front of it! The fireplace features mantel made from a tree felled on-site and white Zellige tile. The artwork is a vintage find paired with a contemporary painting.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below5Embrace Log Cabin DetailsLisa FloodIn this stunning Wyoming log cabin, the family usually gathers in the wonderfully rustic great room. Its cozy factor is off the charts, thanks country decorating classics like unpainted log walls and beams, a woodburning stove, textural rugs, and a sweet swing that hangs from the ceiling. Get the Look:Swing: The Oak & Rope CompanyTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE6Wrap a Room in WoodMarta Xochilt PerezIn this rustic and cozy cabin, an original fieldstone fireplace creates the warmest welcome. A pair of cushy leather sofas piled with pillows blankets face off, anchoring the wood-wrapped space, and providing the perfect perches for game night. TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below7Build an Rustic Stone Accent WallMarta Xochilt Perez for Country LivingThis impressive wall of moss rock surrounds the fireplace. Chiseled stone corbels provide mantel supports. On cool nights, you can count on a roaring fire! Throughout the home, carved timbers, rough-cut stone, and walls of windows reflect a combination of the homeowners’ Scandinavian heritage and Irish roots.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE8Go Big in a Small SpaceEmily FollowillThis tiny living room is packed with so much character. Designer James Farmer added decorative oomph with a large tobacco basket, an art-forward fireplace screen, and natural design elements like plants. Details like arranging the paneling on the diagonal to “point” upward enhance the vertical space. Says James, “Tall ceilings, bold plant arrangements, and large light fixtures have even more impact in a small home. Play with scale to find what feels right.” Advertisement - Continue Reading Below9Mix and Match FurnitureLincoln BarbourFor the ultimate collected-over-time vibe, forgo matching furniture. Here, a wingback chair and a spool chair look right at home in this living room. Other period-appropriate decor found in this 100-year-old home: painted paneled walls, exposed ceiling beams, and a rustic mantel wood.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 10Let There Be Light (Wood)Christopher DibbleWe put this family room in the “rustic light” category. For a top-to-bottom cabin-like feel, designer Max Humphrey wrapped the space in eight-foot knotty pine planks on the ceiling and walls. A clear coat of polyurethane protects the wood while letting its natural color shine through (a stain would’ve darkened the room). Colorful national park posters, globes, camp grounds signage, and a linen modern sectional create a hip yet homey living space.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below11Customize a Focal PointHomeowners Victoria and Marcus Ford’s vision of a custom wood fireplace surround included open shelves and striking floor-to-ceiling firewood nooks (our favorite detail!). “We figured go big or go home,” says Victoria. Brass sconces provide a library-like touch, and a custom frame has the TV looking picture-perfect above the mantel.Get the Look:Wall and Trim Paint: Endless Sea by Sherwin-WilliamsCeiling Paint: Oyster White by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE SPACE12Incorporate Rustic Furniture FindsAnnie SchlechterTopped with a plaid cushion, a rustic yellow daybed nestled in the corner makes for the coziest spot to take in lake views. The 22-foot cathedral ceilings are clad in wood, warming up this lofty open-concept space designed by Amy Meier that also includes a dining area and kitchen.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below13Paint the FloorsDane Tashima for Country LivingWhile the homeowners of this New Jersey dairy barn were able to salvage the structure’s original knotty beams, the walls and floors in the soaring 25-foot-high space needed to be replaced. Simple poplar planks painted white got the job done affordably. A new cast-iron pellet stove warms the space with a rustic, authentic look. Get the Look:Wall and Floor Paint Color: Alabaster by Sherwin-WilliamsTOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE14Tell the BackstorySean LitchfieldWhere possible, the original Eastern Hemlock posts and beams of this 1819 Maine barn were carefully preserved when, in 1999, the structure was disassembled and then reassembled several miles down the road. Hand-split slabs of Maine granite (some from the barn's original foundation) and brick were used to fabricate the massive woodburning fireplace. The walls and floors are lined in rough-hewn, nonuniform wood planks. The sofa table, made from an old piece of barn wood found on the farm, shows off collections of books, ceramics, and shells.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below15Use Old Materials for New BuildsBrie WilliamsIn this new build, reclaimed materials create instant patina for a warm and welcoming family room. Here’s what makes it rustic: reclaimed beams came from an 1800s mill in Massachusetts mill; log skins salvaged from old Midwest barns; North Carolina stone on the fireplace. A soft palette for the furniture and window treatments was inspired by the antique rug that covers the ottoman.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSE 16Balance Natural Wood with ColorNick JohnsonA pretty blue on the fireplace and in the fabrics balances the overall rustic vibe in this country house. “I wanted this room to feel rich and cozy and warm—the kind of place you’d sit by the fire to read a book,” says Erica Harrison of Detroit-based design firm Hudson and Sterling.TOUR THE ENTIRE HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below17Make It WorkHelen NormanDespite the renovation challenges, this cozy sitting area situated just off the open kitchen works. The fireplace, which had to be rebuilt from the inside, was covered in stucco to balance all the exposed brick that was discovered underneath damaged drywall. For attic access, a ladder that was found in a barn on the property gets the job done in lieu of stairs. On the other side of the fireplace, a sturdy wooden bookshelf replaces an existing one that was crumbling.18Paint It WhiteZIO AND SONSFor the ultimate modern farmhouse vibe, start with an all-white palette, like in this home of designer Anthony D’Argenzio. This allows you to layer in character-rich architectural elements, like wide-planked wood floors and ceiling beams. A comfy sectional piled with pillows balances perfectly with hard elements, like the wood-and-iron coffee table, handmade oak stump side table, and a round iron chandelier. The hanging chair in the corner provides a wink to this serene design. RELATED: The Best Warm White Paint Colors For Every Room in Your HouseAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below19Leave Materials NaturalJames MerrellRustic meets cozy in this cabin that features walls constructed of hand-hewn logs, a stone fireplace, exposed ceiling beams, and a pair of comfy armchairs. Leaving all materials in their natural finish and unpainted contributes to the overall homespun feel.RELATED: The Best Places to Find or Buy Reclaimed Wood Near You20Choose Neutral FurnishingsSeth SmootIn this California living room, a comfortable collection of neutral furnishings complements the home’s rustic redwood walls. The solid sofa and barrel chairs that are upholstered in linen leave room for visual delights, like the wicker and fringe lamps, an antique rug, a patterned ottoman, and piles of pillows.Jennifer KopfJennifer Kopf is the Executive Editor of Country Living. She also covers antiques and collecting.Amy MitchellManaging EditorAmy Mitchell is the managing editor for VERANDA and Country Living, where she writes articles on a variety of topics—decorating and design, gardens, and holidays. Amy’s experience in the shelter magazine category spans more than 20 years, as she’s previously held positions at Coastal Living and Cottage Living. Her personal pursuits include cooking, gardening, and hunting her favorite tag sale spots for the next piece of Pyrex for her prized collection.
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals

    Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals
    She spent nearly 40 years taking theater and dance pictures, providing glimpses behind the scenes and creating images that the public couldn’t otherwise access

    Stephanie Rudig

    - Freelance Writer

    June 11, 2025

    Photographer Martha Swope sitting on a floor covered with prints of her photos in 1987
    Andrea Legge / © NYPL

    Martha Swope wanted to be a dancer. She moved from her home state of Texas to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, hoping to start a career in dance. Swope also happened to be an amateur photographer. So, in 1957, a fellow classmate invited her to bring her camera and document rehearsals for a little theater show he was working on. The classmate was director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and the show was West Side Story.
    One of those rehearsal shots ended up in Life magazine, and Swope quickly started getting professional bookings. It’s notoriously tough to make it on Broadway, but through photography, Swope carved out a career capturing theater and dance. Over the course of nearly four decades, she photographed hundreds more rehearsals, productions and promotional studio shots.

    Unidentified male chorus members dancing during rehearsals for musical West Side Story in 1957

    Martha Swope / © NYPL

    At a time when live performances were not often or easily captured, Swope’s photographs caught the animated moments and distilled the essence of a show into a single image: André De Shields clad in a jumpsuit as the title character in The Wiz, Patti LuPone with her arms raised overhead in Evita, the cast of Cats leaping in feline formations, a close-up of a forlorn Sheryl Lee Ralph in Dreamgirls and the row of dancers obscuring their faces with their headshots in A Chorus Line were all captured by Swope’s camera. She was also the house photographer for the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company and photographed other major dance companies such as the Ailey School.
    Her vision of the stage became fairly ubiquitous, with Playbill reporting that in the late 1970s, two-thirds of Broadway productions were photographed by Swope, meaning her work dominated theater and dance coverage. Carol Rosegg was early in her photography career when she heard that Swope was looking for an assistant. “I didn't frankly even know who she was,” Rosegg says. “Then the press agent who told me said, ‘Pick up any New York Times and you’ll find out.’”
    Swope’s background as a dancer likely equipped her to press the shutter at the exact right moment to capture movement, and to know when everyone on stage was precisely posed. She taught herself photography and early on used a Brownie camera, a simple box model made by Kodak. “She was what she described as ‘a dancer with a Brownie,’” says Barbara Stratyner, a historian of the performing arts who curated exhibitions of Swope’s work at the New York Public Library.

    An ensemble of dancers in rehearsal for the stage production Cats in 1982

    Martha Swope / © NYPL

    “Dance was her first love,” Rosegg says. “She knew everything about dance. She would never use a photo of a dancer whose foot was wrong; the feet had to be perfect.”
    According to Rosegg, once the photo subjects knew she was shooting, “the anxiety level came down a little bit.” They knew that they’d look good in the resulting photos, and they likely trusted her intuition as a fellow dancer. Swope moved with the bearing of a dancer and often stood with her feet in ballet’s fourth position while she shot. She continued to take dance classes throughout her life, including at the prestigious Martha Graham School. Stratyner says, “As Graham got older,was, I think, the only person who was allowed to photograph rehearsals, because Graham didn’t want rehearsals shown.”
    Photographic technology and the theater and dance landscapes evolved greatly over the course of Swope’s career. Rosegg points out that at the start of her own career, cameras didn’t even automatically advance the film after each shot. She explains the delicate nature of working with film, saying, “When you were shooting film, you actually had to compose, because you had 35 shots and then you had to change your film.” Swope also worked during a period of changing over from all black-and-white photos to a mixture of black-and-white and color photography. Rosegg notes that simultaneously, Swope would shoot black-and-white, and she herself would shoot color. Looking at Swope’s portfolio is also an examination of increasingly crisp photo production. Advances in photography made shooting in the dark or capturing subjects under blinding stage lights easier, and they allowed for better zooming in from afar.

    Martha Graham rehearses dancer Takako Asakawa and others in Heretic, a dance work choreographed by Graham, in 1986

    Martha Swope / © NYPL

    It’s much more common nowadays to get a look behind the curtain of theater productions via social media. “The theater photographers of today need to supply so much content,” Rosegg says. “We didn’t have any of that, and getting to go backstage was kind of a big deal.”
    Photographers coming to document a rehearsal once might have been seen as an intrusion, but now, as Rosegg puts it, “everybody is desperate for you to come, and if you’re not there, they’re shooting it on their iPhone.”
    Even with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the hottest tickets in town and the biggest stars of the day, Swope remained unpretentious. She lived and worked in a brownstone with her apartment above her studio, where the film was developed in a closet and the bathroom served as a darkroom. Rosegg recalls that a phone sat in the darkroom so they could be reached while printing, and she would be amazed at the big-name producers and theater glitterati who rang in while she was making prints in an unventilated space.

    From left to right: Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, Marsha Jackson and Denzel Washington in the stage production Checkmates in 1988

    Martha Swope / © NYPL

    Swope’s approachability extended to how she chose to preserve her work. She originally sold her body of work to Time Life, and, according to Stratyner, she was unhappy with the way the photos became relatively inaccessible. She took back the rights to her collection and donated it to the New York Public Library, where many photos can be accessed by researchers in person, and the entire array of photos is available online to the public in the Digital Collections. Searching “Martha Swope” yields over 50,000 items from more than 800 productions, featuring a huge variety of figures, from a white-suited John Travolta busting a disco move in Saturday Night Fever to Andrew Lloyd Webber with Nancy Reagan at a performance of Phantom of the Opera.
    Swope’s extensive career was recognized in 2004 with a special Tony Award, a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theater, which are given intermittently to notable figures in theater who operate outside of traditional awards categories. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women in 2007. Though she retired in 1994 and died in 2017, her work still reverberates through dance and Broadway history today. For decades, she captured the fleeting moments of theater that would otherwise never be seen by the public. And her passion was clear and straightforward. As she once told an interviewer: “I’m not interested in what’s going on on my side of the camera. I’m interested in what’s happening on the other side.”

    Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.
    #meet #martha #swope #legendary #broadway
    Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals
    Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals She spent nearly 40 years taking theater and dance pictures, providing glimpses behind the scenes and creating images that the public couldn’t otherwise access Stephanie Rudig - Freelance Writer June 11, 2025 Photographer Martha Swope sitting on a floor covered with prints of her photos in 1987 Andrea Legge / © NYPL Martha Swope wanted to be a dancer. She moved from her home state of Texas to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, hoping to start a career in dance. Swope also happened to be an amateur photographer. So, in 1957, a fellow classmate invited her to bring her camera and document rehearsals for a little theater show he was working on. The classmate was director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and the show was West Side Story. One of those rehearsal shots ended up in Life magazine, and Swope quickly started getting professional bookings. It’s notoriously tough to make it on Broadway, but through photography, Swope carved out a career capturing theater and dance. Over the course of nearly four decades, she photographed hundreds more rehearsals, productions and promotional studio shots. Unidentified male chorus members dancing during rehearsals for musical West Side Story in 1957 Martha Swope / © NYPL At a time when live performances were not often or easily captured, Swope’s photographs caught the animated moments and distilled the essence of a show into a single image: André De Shields clad in a jumpsuit as the title character in The Wiz, Patti LuPone with her arms raised overhead in Evita, the cast of Cats leaping in feline formations, a close-up of a forlorn Sheryl Lee Ralph in Dreamgirls and the row of dancers obscuring their faces with their headshots in A Chorus Line were all captured by Swope’s camera. She was also the house photographer for the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company and photographed other major dance companies such as the Ailey School. Her vision of the stage became fairly ubiquitous, with Playbill reporting that in the late 1970s, two-thirds of Broadway productions were photographed by Swope, meaning her work dominated theater and dance coverage. Carol Rosegg was early in her photography career when she heard that Swope was looking for an assistant. “I didn't frankly even know who she was,” Rosegg says. “Then the press agent who told me said, ‘Pick up any New York Times and you’ll find out.’” Swope’s background as a dancer likely equipped her to press the shutter at the exact right moment to capture movement, and to know when everyone on stage was precisely posed. She taught herself photography and early on used a Brownie camera, a simple box model made by Kodak. “She was what she described as ‘a dancer with a Brownie,’” says Barbara Stratyner, a historian of the performing arts who curated exhibitions of Swope’s work at the New York Public Library. An ensemble of dancers in rehearsal for the stage production Cats in 1982 Martha Swope / © NYPL “Dance was her first love,” Rosegg says. “She knew everything about dance. She would never use a photo of a dancer whose foot was wrong; the feet had to be perfect.” According to Rosegg, once the photo subjects knew she was shooting, “the anxiety level came down a little bit.” They knew that they’d look good in the resulting photos, and they likely trusted her intuition as a fellow dancer. Swope moved with the bearing of a dancer and often stood with her feet in ballet’s fourth position while she shot. She continued to take dance classes throughout her life, including at the prestigious Martha Graham School. Stratyner says, “As Graham got older,was, I think, the only person who was allowed to photograph rehearsals, because Graham didn’t want rehearsals shown.” Photographic technology and the theater and dance landscapes evolved greatly over the course of Swope’s career. Rosegg points out that at the start of her own career, cameras didn’t even automatically advance the film after each shot. She explains the delicate nature of working with film, saying, “When you were shooting film, you actually had to compose, because you had 35 shots and then you had to change your film.” Swope also worked during a period of changing over from all black-and-white photos to a mixture of black-and-white and color photography. Rosegg notes that simultaneously, Swope would shoot black-and-white, and she herself would shoot color. Looking at Swope’s portfolio is also an examination of increasingly crisp photo production. Advances in photography made shooting in the dark or capturing subjects under blinding stage lights easier, and they allowed for better zooming in from afar. Martha Graham rehearses dancer Takako Asakawa and others in Heretic, a dance work choreographed by Graham, in 1986 Martha Swope / © NYPL It’s much more common nowadays to get a look behind the curtain of theater productions via social media. “The theater photographers of today need to supply so much content,” Rosegg says. “We didn’t have any of that, and getting to go backstage was kind of a big deal.” Photographers coming to document a rehearsal once might have been seen as an intrusion, but now, as Rosegg puts it, “everybody is desperate for you to come, and if you’re not there, they’re shooting it on their iPhone.” Even with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the hottest tickets in town and the biggest stars of the day, Swope remained unpretentious. She lived and worked in a brownstone with her apartment above her studio, where the film was developed in a closet and the bathroom served as a darkroom. Rosegg recalls that a phone sat in the darkroom so they could be reached while printing, and she would be amazed at the big-name producers and theater glitterati who rang in while she was making prints in an unventilated space. From left to right: Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, Marsha Jackson and Denzel Washington in the stage production Checkmates in 1988 Martha Swope / © NYPL Swope’s approachability extended to how she chose to preserve her work. She originally sold her body of work to Time Life, and, according to Stratyner, she was unhappy with the way the photos became relatively inaccessible. She took back the rights to her collection and donated it to the New York Public Library, where many photos can be accessed by researchers in person, and the entire array of photos is available online to the public in the Digital Collections. Searching “Martha Swope” yields over 50,000 items from more than 800 productions, featuring a huge variety of figures, from a white-suited John Travolta busting a disco move in Saturday Night Fever to Andrew Lloyd Webber with Nancy Reagan at a performance of Phantom of the Opera. Swope’s extensive career was recognized in 2004 with a special Tony Award, a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theater, which are given intermittently to notable figures in theater who operate outside of traditional awards categories. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women in 2007. Though she retired in 1994 and died in 2017, her work still reverberates through dance and Broadway history today. For decades, she captured the fleeting moments of theater that would otherwise never be seen by the public. And her passion was clear and straightforward. As she once told an interviewer: “I’m not interested in what’s going on on my side of the camera. I’m interested in what’s happening on the other side.” Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox. #meet #martha #swope #legendary #broadway
    WWW.SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
    Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals
    Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals She spent nearly 40 years taking theater and dance pictures, providing glimpses behind the scenes and creating images that the public couldn’t otherwise access Stephanie Rudig - Freelance Writer June 11, 2025 Photographer Martha Swope sitting on a floor covered with prints of her photos in 1987 Andrea Legge / © NYPL Martha Swope wanted to be a dancer. She moved from her home state of Texas to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, hoping to start a career in dance. Swope also happened to be an amateur photographer. So, in 1957, a fellow classmate invited her to bring her camera and document rehearsals for a little theater show he was working on. The classmate was director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and the show was West Side Story. One of those rehearsal shots ended up in Life magazine, and Swope quickly started getting professional bookings. It’s notoriously tough to make it on Broadway, but through photography, Swope carved out a career capturing theater and dance. Over the course of nearly four decades, she photographed hundreds more rehearsals, productions and promotional studio shots. Unidentified male chorus members dancing during rehearsals for musical West Side Story in 1957 Martha Swope / © NYPL At a time when live performances were not often or easily captured, Swope’s photographs caught the animated moments and distilled the essence of a show into a single image: André De Shields clad in a jumpsuit as the title character in The Wiz, Patti LuPone with her arms raised overhead in Evita, the cast of Cats leaping in feline formations, a close-up of a forlorn Sheryl Lee Ralph in Dreamgirls and the row of dancers obscuring their faces with their headshots in A Chorus Line were all captured by Swope’s camera. She was also the house photographer for the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company and photographed other major dance companies such as the Ailey School. Her vision of the stage became fairly ubiquitous, with Playbill reporting that in the late 1970s, two-thirds of Broadway productions were photographed by Swope, meaning her work dominated theater and dance coverage. Carol Rosegg was early in her photography career when she heard that Swope was looking for an assistant. “I didn't frankly even know who she was,” Rosegg says. “Then the press agent who told me said, ‘Pick up any New York Times and you’ll find out.’” Swope’s background as a dancer likely equipped her to press the shutter at the exact right moment to capture movement, and to know when everyone on stage was precisely posed. She taught herself photography and early on used a Brownie camera, a simple box model made by Kodak. “She was what she described as ‘a dancer with a Brownie,’” says Barbara Stratyner, a historian of the performing arts who curated exhibitions of Swope’s work at the New York Public Library. An ensemble of dancers in rehearsal for the stage production Cats in 1982 Martha Swope / © NYPL “Dance was her first love,” Rosegg says. “She knew everything about dance. She would never use a photo of a dancer whose foot was wrong; the feet had to be perfect.” According to Rosegg, once the photo subjects knew she was shooting, “the anxiety level came down a little bit.” They knew that they’d look good in the resulting photos, and they likely trusted her intuition as a fellow dancer. Swope moved with the bearing of a dancer and often stood with her feet in ballet’s fourth position while she shot. She continued to take dance classes throughout her life, including at the prestigious Martha Graham School. Stratyner says, “As Graham got older, [Swope] was, I think, the only person who was allowed to photograph rehearsals, because Graham didn’t want rehearsals shown.” Photographic technology and the theater and dance landscapes evolved greatly over the course of Swope’s career. Rosegg points out that at the start of her own career, cameras didn’t even automatically advance the film after each shot. She explains the delicate nature of working with film, saying, “When you were shooting film, you actually had to compose, because you had 35 shots and then you had to change your film.” Swope also worked during a period of changing over from all black-and-white photos to a mixture of black-and-white and color photography. Rosegg notes that simultaneously, Swope would shoot black-and-white, and she herself would shoot color. Looking at Swope’s portfolio is also an examination of increasingly crisp photo production. Advances in photography made shooting in the dark or capturing subjects under blinding stage lights easier, and they allowed for better zooming in from afar. Martha Graham rehearses dancer Takako Asakawa and others in Heretic, a dance work choreographed by Graham, in 1986 Martha Swope / © NYPL It’s much more common nowadays to get a look behind the curtain of theater productions via social media. “The theater photographers of today need to supply so much content,” Rosegg says. “We didn’t have any of that, and getting to go backstage was kind of a big deal.” Photographers coming to document a rehearsal once might have been seen as an intrusion, but now, as Rosegg puts it, “everybody is desperate for you to come, and if you’re not there, they’re shooting it on their iPhone.” Even with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the hottest tickets in town and the biggest stars of the day, Swope remained unpretentious. She lived and worked in a brownstone with her apartment above her studio, where the film was developed in a closet and the bathroom served as a darkroom. Rosegg recalls that a phone sat in the darkroom so they could be reached while printing, and she would be amazed at the big-name producers and theater glitterati who rang in while she was making prints in an unventilated space. From left to right: Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, Marsha Jackson and Denzel Washington in the stage production Checkmates in 1988 Martha Swope / © NYPL Swope’s approachability extended to how she chose to preserve her work. She originally sold her body of work to Time Life, and, according to Stratyner, she was unhappy with the way the photos became relatively inaccessible. She took back the rights to her collection and donated it to the New York Public Library, where many photos can be accessed by researchers in person, and the entire array of photos is available online to the public in the Digital Collections. Searching “Martha Swope” yields over 50,000 items from more than 800 productions, featuring a huge variety of figures, from a white-suited John Travolta busting a disco move in Saturday Night Fever to Andrew Lloyd Webber with Nancy Reagan at a performance of Phantom of the Opera. Swope’s extensive career was recognized in 2004 with a special Tony Award, a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theater, which are given intermittently to notable figures in theater who operate outside of traditional awards categories. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women in 2007. Though she retired in 1994 and died in 2017, her work still reverberates through dance and Broadway history today. For decades, she captured the fleeting moments of theater that would otherwise never be seen by the public. And her passion was clear and straightforward. As she once told an interviewer: “I’m not interested in what’s going on on my side of the camera. I’m interested in what’s happening on the other side.” Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • How a planetarium show discovered a spiral at the edge of our solar system

    If you’ve ever flown through outer space, at least while watching a documentary or a science fiction film, you’ve seen how artists turn astronomical findings into stunning visuals. But in the process of visualizing data for their latest planetarium show, a production team at New York’s American Museum of Natural History made a surprising discovery of their own: a trillion-and-a-half mile long spiral of material drifting along the edge of our solar system.

    “So this is a really fun thing that happened,” says Jackie Faherty, the museum’s senior scientist.

    Last winter, Faherty and her colleagues were beneath the dome of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, fine-tuning a scene that featured the Oort cloud, the big, thick bubble surrounding our Sun and planets that’s filled with ice and rock and other remnants from the solar system’s infancy. The Oort cloud begins far beyond Neptune, around one and a half light years from the Sun. It has never been directly observed; its existence is inferred from the behavior of long-period comets entering the inner solar system. The cloud is so expansive that the Voyager spacecraft, our most distant probes, would need another 250 years just to reach its inner boundary; to reach the other side, they would need about 30,000 years. 

    The 30-minute show, Encounters in the Milky Way, narrated by Pedro Pascal, guides audiences on a trip through the galaxy across billions of years. For a section about our nascent solar system, the writing team decided “there’s going to be a fly-by” of the Oort cloud, Faherty says. “But what does our Oort cloud look like?” 

    To find out, the museum consulted astronomers and turned to David Nesvorný, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He provided his model of the millions of particles believed to make up the Oort cloud, based on extensive observational data.

    “Everybody said, go talk to Nesvorný. He’s got the best model,” says Faherty. And “everybody told us, ‘There’s structure in the model,’ so we were kind of set up to look for stuff,” she says. 

    The museum’s technical team began using Nesvorný’s model to simulate how the cloud evolved over time. Later, as the team projected versions of the fly-by scene into the dome, with the camera looking back at the Oort cloud, they saw a familiar shape, one that appears in galaxies, Saturn’s rings, and disks around young stars.

    “We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system,” Faherty marveled. “A huge structure, millions and millions of particles.”

    She emailed Nesvorný to ask for “more particles,” with a render of the scene attached. “We noticed the spiral of course,” she wrote. “And then he writes me back: ‘what are you talking about, a spiral?’” 

    While fine-tuning a simulation of the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of ice material leftover from the birth of our Sun, the ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ production team noticed a very clear shape: a structure made of billions of comets and shaped like a spiral-armed galaxy, seen here in a scene from the final Space ShowMore simulations ensued, this time on Pleiades, a powerful NASA supercomputer. In high-performance computer simulations spanning 4.6 billion years, starting from the Solar System’s earliest days, the researchers visualized how the initial icy and rocky ingredients of the Oort cloud began circling the Sun, in the elliptical orbits that are thought to give the cloud its rough disc shape. The simulations also incorporated the physics of the Sun’s gravitational pull, the influences from our Milky Way galaxy, and the movements of the comets themselves. 

    In each simulation, the spiral persisted.

    “No one has ever seen the Oort structure like that before,” says Faherty. Nesvorný “has a great quote about this: ‘The math was all there. We just needed the visuals.’” 

    An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system.As the Oort cloud grew with the early solar system, Nesvorný and his colleagues hypothesize that the galactic tide, or the gravitational force from the Milky Way, disrupted the orbits of some comets. Although the Sun pulls these objects inward, the galaxy’s gravity appears to have twisted part of the Oort cloud outward, forming a spiral tilted roughly 30 degrees from the plane of the solar system.

    “As the galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 astronomical units in length,” or around 1.4 trillion miles from one end to the other, the researchers write in a paper that was published in March in the Astrophysical Journal. “The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort Cloud to the present time.”

    “The physics makes sense,” says Faherty. “Scientists, we’re amazing at what we do, but it doesn’t mean we can see everything right away.”

    It helped that the team behind the space show was primed to look for something, says Carter Emmart, the museum’s director of astrovisualization and director of Encounters. Astronomers had described Nesvorný’s model as having “a structure,” which intrigued the team’s artists. “We were also looking for structure so that it wouldn’t just be sort of like a big blob,” he says. “Other models were also revealing this—but they just hadn’t been visualized.”

    The museum’s attempts to simulate nature date back to its first habitat dioramas in the early 1900s, which brought visitors to places that hadn’t yet been captured by color photos, TV, or the web. The planetarium, a night sky simulator for generations of would-be scientists and astronauts, got its start after financier Charles Hayden bought the museum its first Zeiss projector. The planetarium now boasts one of the world’s few Zeiss Mark IX systems.

    Still, these days the star projector is rarely used, Emmart says, now that fulldome laser projectors can turn the old static starfield into 3D video running at 60 frames per second. The Hayden boasts six custom-built Christie projectors, part of what the museum’s former president called “the most advanced planetarium ever attempted.”

     In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in ‘Encounters in the Milky Way.’ During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths.Emmart recalls how in 1998, when he and other museum leaders were imagining the future of space shows at the Hayden—now with the help of digital projectors and computer graphics—there were questions over how much space they could try to show.

    “We’re talking about these astronomical data sets we could plot to make the galaxy and the stars,” he says. “Of course, we knew that we would have this star projector, but we really wanted to emphasize astrophysics with this dome video system. I was drawing pictures of this just to get our heads around it and noting the tip of the solar system to the Milky Way is about 60 degrees. And I said, what are we gonna do when we get outside the Milky Way?’

    “ThenNeil Degrasse Tyson “goes, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Carter, we have enough to do. And just plotting the Milky Way, that’s hard enough.’ And I said, ‘well, when we exit the Milky Way and we don’t see any other galaxies, that’s sort of like astronomy in 1920—we thought maybe the entire universe is just a Milky Way.'”

    “And that kind of led to a chaotic discussion about, well, what other data sets are there for this?” Emmart adds.

    The museum worked with astronomer Brent Tully, who had mapped 3500 galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in collaboration with the National Center for Super Computing Applications. “That was it,” he says, “and that seemed fantastical.”

    By the time the first planetarium show opened at the museum’s new Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, Tully had broadened his survey “to an amazing” 30,000 galaxies. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey followed—it’s now at data release 18—with six million galaxies.

    To build the map of the universe that underlies Encounters, the team also relied on data from the European Space Agency’s space observatory, Gaia. Launched in 2013 and powered down in March of this year, Gaia brought an unprecedented precision to our astronomical map, plotting the distance between 1.7 billion stars. To visualize and render the simulated data, Jon Parker, the museum’s lead technical director, relied on Houdini, a 3D animation tool by Toronto-based SideFX.

    The goal is immersion, “whether it’s in front of the buffalo downstairs, and seeing what those herds were like before we decimated them, to coming in this room and being teleported to space, with an accurate foundation in the science,” Emmart says. “But the art is important, because the art is the way to the soul.” 

    The museum, he adds, is “a testament to wonder. And I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, and inspiration is a gateway to motivation.”

    Three-D visuals aren’t just powerful tools for communicating science, but increasingly crucial for science itself. Software like OpenSpace, an open source simulation tool developed by the museum, along with the growing availability of high-performance computing, are making it easier to build highly detailed visuals of ever larger and more complex collections of data.

    “Anytime we look, literally, from a different angle at catalogs of astronomical positions, simulations, or exploring the phase space of a complex data set, there is great potential to discover something new,” says Brian R. Kent, an astronomer and director of science communications at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “There is also a wealth of astronomics tatical data in archives that can be reanalyzed in new ways, leading to new discoveries.”

    As the instruments grow in size and sophistication, so does the data, and the challenge of understanding it. Like all scientists, astronomers are facing a deluge of data, ranging from gamma rays and X-rays to ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands.

    Our Oort cloud, a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system and extends one-and-a-half light years in every direction, is shown in this scene from ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ along with the Oort clouds of neighboring stars. The more massive the star, the larger its Oort cloud“New facilities like the Next Generation Very Large Array here at NRAO or the Vera Rubin Observatory and LSST survey project will generate large volumes of data, so astronomers have to get creative with how to analyze it,” says Kent. 

    More data—and new instruments—will also be needed to prove the spiral itself is actually there: there’s still no known way to even observe the Oort cloud. 

    Instead, the paper notes, the structure will have to be measured from “detection of a large number of objects” in the radius of the inner Oort cloud or from “thermal emission from small particles in the Oort spiral.” 

    The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a powerful, U.S.-funded telescope that recently began operation in Chile, could possibly observe individual icy bodies within the cloud. But researchers expect the telescope will likely discover only dozens of these objects, maybe hundreds, not enough to meaningfully visualize any shapes in the Oort cloud. 

    For us, here and now, the 1.4 trillion mile-long spiral will remain confined to the inside of a dark dome across the street from Central Park.
    #how #planetarium #show #discovered #spiral
    How a planetarium show discovered a spiral at the edge of our solar system
    If you’ve ever flown through outer space, at least while watching a documentary or a science fiction film, you’ve seen how artists turn astronomical findings into stunning visuals. But in the process of visualizing data for their latest planetarium show, a production team at New York’s American Museum of Natural History made a surprising discovery of their own: a trillion-and-a-half mile long spiral of material drifting along the edge of our solar system. “So this is a really fun thing that happened,” says Jackie Faherty, the museum’s senior scientist. Last winter, Faherty and her colleagues were beneath the dome of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, fine-tuning a scene that featured the Oort cloud, the big, thick bubble surrounding our Sun and planets that’s filled with ice and rock and other remnants from the solar system’s infancy. The Oort cloud begins far beyond Neptune, around one and a half light years from the Sun. It has never been directly observed; its existence is inferred from the behavior of long-period comets entering the inner solar system. The cloud is so expansive that the Voyager spacecraft, our most distant probes, would need another 250 years just to reach its inner boundary; to reach the other side, they would need about 30,000 years.  The 30-minute show, Encounters in the Milky Way, narrated by Pedro Pascal, guides audiences on a trip through the galaxy across billions of years. For a section about our nascent solar system, the writing team decided “there’s going to be a fly-by” of the Oort cloud, Faherty says. “But what does our Oort cloud look like?”  To find out, the museum consulted astronomers and turned to David Nesvorný, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He provided his model of the millions of particles believed to make up the Oort cloud, based on extensive observational data. “Everybody said, go talk to Nesvorný. He’s got the best model,” says Faherty. And “everybody told us, ‘There’s structure in the model,’ so we were kind of set up to look for stuff,” she says.  The museum’s technical team began using Nesvorný’s model to simulate how the cloud evolved over time. Later, as the team projected versions of the fly-by scene into the dome, with the camera looking back at the Oort cloud, they saw a familiar shape, one that appears in galaxies, Saturn’s rings, and disks around young stars. “We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system,” Faherty marveled. “A huge structure, millions and millions of particles.” She emailed Nesvorný to ask for “more particles,” with a render of the scene attached. “We noticed the spiral of course,” she wrote. “And then he writes me back: ‘what are you talking about, a spiral?’”  While fine-tuning a simulation of the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of ice material leftover from the birth of our Sun, the ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ production team noticed a very clear shape: a structure made of billions of comets and shaped like a spiral-armed galaxy, seen here in a scene from the final Space ShowMore simulations ensued, this time on Pleiades, a powerful NASA supercomputer. In high-performance computer simulations spanning 4.6 billion years, starting from the Solar System’s earliest days, the researchers visualized how the initial icy and rocky ingredients of the Oort cloud began circling the Sun, in the elliptical orbits that are thought to give the cloud its rough disc shape. The simulations also incorporated the physics of the Sun’s gravitational pull, the influences from our Milky Way galaxy, and the movements of the comets themselves.  In each simulation, the spiral persisted. “No one has ever seen the Oort structure like that before,” says Faherty. Nesvorný “has a great quote about this: ‘The math was all there. We just needed the visuals.’”  An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system.As the Oort cloud grew with the early solar system, Nesvorný and his colleagues hypothesize that the galactic tide, or the gravitational force from the Milky Way, disrupted the orbits of some comets. Although the Sun pulls these objects inward, the galaxy’s gravity appears to have twisted part of the Oort cloud outward, forming a spiral tilted roughly 30 degrees from the plane of the solar system. “As the galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 astronomical units in length,” or around 1.4 trillion miles from one end to the other, the researchers write in a paper that was published in March in the Astrophysical Journal. “The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort Cloud to the present time.” “The physics makes sense,” says Faherty. “Scientists, we’re amazing at what we do, but it doesn’t mean we can see everything right away.” It helped that the team behind the space show was primed to look for something, says Carter Emmart, the museum’s director of astrovisualization and director of Encounters. Astronomers had described Nesvorný’s model as having “a structure,” which intrigued the team’s artists. “We were also looking for structure so that it wouldn’t just be sort of like a big blob,” he says. “Other models were also revealing this—but they just hadn’t been visualized.” The museum’s attempts to simulate nature date back to its first habitat dioramas in the early 1900s, which brought visitors to places that hadn’t yet been captured by color photos, TV, or the web. The planetarium, a night sky simulator for generations of would-be scientists and astronauts, got its start after financier Charles Hayden bought the museum its first Zeiss projector. The planetarium now boasts one of the world’s few Zeiss Mark IX systems. Still, these days the star projector is rarely used, Emmart says, now that fulldome laser projectors can turn the old static starfield into 3D video running at 60 frames per second. The Hayden boasts six custom-built Christie projectors, part of what the museum’s former president called “the most advanced planetarium ever attempted.”  In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in ‘Encounters in the Milky Way.’ During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths.Emmart recalls how in 1998, when he and other museum leaders were imagining the future of space shows at the Hayden—now with the help of digital projectors and computer graphics—there were questions over how much space they could try to show. “We’re talking about these astronomical data sets we could plot to make the galaxy and the stars,” he says. “Of course, we knew that we would have this star projector, but we really wanted to emphasize astrophysics with this dome video system. I was drawing pictures of this just to get our heads around it and noting the tip of the solar system to the Milky Way is about 60 degrees. And I said, what are we gonna do when we get outside the Milky Way?’ “ThenNeil Degrasse Tyson “goes, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Carter, we have enough to do. And just plotting the Milky Way, that’s hard enough.’ And I said, ‘well, when we exit the Milky Way and we don’t see any other galaxies, that’s sort of like astronomy in 1920—we thought maybe the entire universe is just a Milky Way.'” “And that kind of led to a chaotic discussion about, well, what other data sets are there for this?” Emmart adds. The museum worked with astronomer Brent Tully, who had mapped 3500 galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in collaboration with the National Center for Super Computing Applications. “That was it,” he says, “and that seemed fantastical.” By the time the first planetarium show opened at the museum’s new Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, Tully had broadened his survey “to an amazing” 30,000 galaxies. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey followed—it’s now at data release 18—with six million galaxies. To build the map of the universe that underlies Encounters, the team also relied on data from the European Space Agency’s space observatory, Gaia. Launched in 2013 and powered down in March of this year, Gaia brought an unprecedented precision to our astronomical map, plotting the distance between 1.7 billion stars. To visualize and render the simulated data, Jon Parker, the museum’s lead technical director, relied on Houdini, a 3D animation tool by Toronto-based SideFX. The goal is immersion, “whether it’s in front of the buffalo downstairs, and seeing what those herds were like before we decimated them, to coming in this room and being teleported to space, with an accurate foundation in the science,” Emmart says. “But the art is important, because the art is the way to the soul.”  The museum, he adds, is “a testament to wonder. And I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, and inspiration is a gateway to motivation.” Three-D visuals aren’t just powerful tools for communicating science, but increasingly crucial for science itself. Software like OpenSpace, an open source simulation tool developed by the museum, along with the growing availability of high-performance computing, are making it easier to build highly detailed visuals of ever larger and more complex collections of data. “Anytime we look, literally, from a different angle at catalogs of astronomical positions, simulations, or exploring the phase space of a complex data set, there is great potential to discover something new,” says Brian R. Kent, an astronomer and director of science communications at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “There is also a wealth of astronomics tatical data in archives that can be reanalyzed in new ways, leading to new discoveries.” As the instruments grow in size and sophistication, so does the data, and the challenge of understanding it. Like all scientists, astronomers are facing a deluge of data, ranging from gamma rays and X-rays to ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands. Our Oort cloud, a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system and extends one-and-a-half light years in every direction, is shown in this scene from ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ along with the Oort clouds of neighboring stars. The more massive the star, the larger its Oort cloud“New facilities like the Next Generation Very Large Array here at NRAO or the Vera Rubin Observatory and LSST survey project will generate large volumes of data, so astronomers have to get creative with how to analyze it,” says Kent.  More data—and new instruments—will also be needed to prove the spiral itself is actually there: there’s still no known way to even observe the Oort cloud.  Instead, the paper notes, the structure will have to be measured from “detection of a large number of objects” in the radius of the inner Oort cloud or from “thermal emission from small particles in the Oort spiral.”  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a powerful, U.S.-funded telescope that recently began operation in Chile, could possibly observe individual icy bodies within the cloud. But researchers expect the telescope will likely discover only dozens of these objects, maybe hundreds, not enough to meaningfully visualize any shapes in the Oort cloud.  For us, here and now, the 1.4 trillion mile-long spiral will remain confined to the inside of a dark dome across the street from Central Park. #how #planetarium #show #discovered #spiral
    WWW.FASTCOMPANY.COM
    How a planetarium show discovered a spiral at the edge of our solar system
    If you’ve ever flown through outer space, at least while watching a documentary or a science fiction film, you’ve seen how artists turn astronomical findings into stunning visuals. But in the process of visualizing data for their latest planetarium show, a production team at New York’s American Museum of Natural History made a surprising discovery of their own: a trillion-and-a-half mile long spiral of material drifting along the edge of our solar system. “So this is a really fun thing that happened,” says Jackie Faherty, the museum’s senior scientist. Last winter, Faherty and her colleagues were beneath the dome of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, fine-tuning a scene that featured the Oort cloud, the big, thick bubble surrounding our Sun and planets that’s filled with ice and rock and other remnants from the solar system’s infancy. The Oort cloud begins far beyond Neptune, around one and a half light years from the Sun. It has never been directly observed; its existence is inferred from the behavior of long-period comets entering the inner solar system. The cloud is so expansive that the Voyager spacecraft, our most distant probes, would need another 250 years just to reach its inner boundary; to reach the other side, they would need about 30,000 years.  The 30-minute show, Encounters in the Milky Way, narrated by Pedro Pascal, guides audiences on a trip through the galaxy across billions of years. For a section about our nascent solar system, the writing team decided “there’s going to be a fly-by” of the Oort cloud, Faherty says. “But what does our Oort cloud look like?”  To find out, the museum consulted astronomers and turned to David Nesvorný, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He provided his model of the millions of particles believed to make up the Oort cloud, based on extensive observational data. “Everybody said, go talk to Nesvorný. He’s got the best model,” says Faherty. And “everybody told us, ‘There’s structure in the model,’ so we were kind of set up to look for stuff,” she says.  The museum’s technical team began using Nesvorný’s model to simulate how the cloud evolved over time. Later, as the team projected versions of the fly-by scene into the dome, with the camera looking back at the Oort cloud, they saw a familiar shape, one that appears in galaxies, Saturn’s rings, and disks around young stars. “We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system,” Faherty marveled. “A huge structure, millions and millions of particles.” She emailed Nesvorný to ask for “more particles,” with a render of the scene attached. “We noticed the spiral of course,” she wrote. “And then he writes me back: ‘what are you talking about, a spiral?’”  While fine-tuning a simulation of the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of ice material leftover from the birth of our Sun, the ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ production team noticed a very clear shape: a structure made of billions of comets and shaped like a spiral-armed galaxy, seen here in a scene from the final Space Show (curving, dusty S-shape behind the Sun) [Image: © AMNH] More simulations ensued, this time on Pleiades, a powerful NASA supercomputer. In high-performance computer simulations spanning 4.6 billion years, starting from the Solar System’s earliest days, the researchers visualized how the initial icy and rocky ingredients of the Oort cloud began circling the Sun, in the elliptical orbits that are thought to give the cloud its rough disc shape. The simulations also incorporated the physics of the Sun’s gravitational pull, the influences from our Milky Way galaxy, and the movements of the comets themselves.  In each simulation, the spiral persisted. “No one has ever seen the Oort structure like that before,” says Faherty. Nesvorný “has a great quote about this: ‘The math was all there. We just needed the visuals.’”  An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. [Image: NASA] As the Oort cloud grew with the early solar system, Nesvorný and his colleagues hypothesize that the galactic tide, or the gravitational force from the Milky Way, disrupted the orbits of some comets. Although the Sun pulls these objects inward, the galaxy’s gravity appears to have twisted part of the Oort cloud outward, forming a spiral tilted roughly 30 degrees from the plane of the solar system. “As the galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 astronomical units in length,” or around 1.4 trillion miles from one end to the other, the researchers write in a paper that was published in March in the Astrophysical Journal. “The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort Cloud to the present time.” “The physics makes sense,” says Faherty. “Scientists, we’re amazing at what we do, but it doesn’t mean we can see everything right away.” It helped that the team behind the space show was primed to look for something, says Carter Emmart, the museum’s director of astrovisualization and director of Encounters. Astronomers had described Nesvorný’s model as having “a structure,” which intrigued the team’s artists. “We were also looking for structure so that it wouldn’t just be sort of like a big blob,” he says. “Other models were also revealing this—but they just hadn’t been visualized.” The museum’s attempts to simulate nature date back to its first habitat dioramas in the early 1900s, which brought visitors to places that hadn’t yet been captured by color photos, TV, or the web. The planetarium, a night sky simulator for generations of would-be scientists and astronauts, got its start after financier Charles Hayden bought the museum its first Zeiss projector. The planetarium now boasts one of the world’s few Zeiss Mark IX systems. Still, these days the star projector is rarely used, Emmart says, now that fulldome laser projectors can turn the old static starfield into 3D video running at 60 frames per second. The Hayden boasts six custom-built Christie projectors, part of what the museum’s former president called “the most advanced planetarium ever attempted.”  In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in ‘Encounters in the Milky Way.’ During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths. [Image: © AMNH] Emmart recalls how in 1998, when he and other museum leaders were imagining the future of space shows at the Hayden—now with the help of digital projectors and computer graphics—there were questions over how much space they could try to show. “We’re talking about these astronomical data sets we could plot to make the galaxy and the stars,” he says. “Of course, we knew that we would have this star projector, but we really wanted to emphasize astrophysics with this dome video system. I was drawing pictures of this just to get our heads around it and noting the tip of the solar system to the Milky Way is about 60 degrees. And I said, what are we gonna do when we get outside the Milky Way?’ “Then [planetarium’s director] Neil Degrasse Tyson “goes, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Carter, we have enough to do. And just plotting the Milky Way, that’s hard enough.’ And I said, ‘well, when we exit the Milky Way and we don’t see any other galaxies, that’s sort of like astronomy in 1920—we thought maybe the entire universe is just a Milky Way.'” “And that kind of led to a chaotic discussion about, well, what other data sets are there for this?” Emmart adds. The museum worked with astronomer Brent Tully, who had mapped 3500 galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in collaboration with the National Center for Super Computing Applications. “That was it,” he says, “and that seemed fantastical.” By the time the first planetarium show opened at the museum’s new Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, Tully had broadened his survey “to an amazing” 30,000 galaxies. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey followed—it’s now at data release 18—with six million galaxies. To build the map of the universe that underlies Encounters, the team also relied on data from the European Space Agency’s space observatory, Gaia. Launched in 2013 and powered down in March of this year, Gaia brought an unprecedented precision to our astronomical map, plotting the distance between 1.7 billion stars. To visualize and render the simulated data, Jon Parker, the museum’s lead technical director, relied on Houdini, a 3D animation tool by Toronto-based SideFX. The goal is immersion, “whether it’s in front of the buffalo downstairs, and seeing what those herds were like before we decimated them, to coming in this room and being teleported to space, with an accurate foundation in the science,” Emmart says. “But the art is important, because the art is the way to the soul.”  The museum, he adds, is “a testament to wonder. And I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, and inspiration is a gateway to motivation.” Three-D visuals aren’t just powerful tools for communicating science, but increasingly crucial for science itself. Software like OpenSpace, an open source simulation tool developed by the museum, along with the growing availability of high-performance computing, are making it easier to build highly detailed visuals of ever larger and more complex collections of data. “Anytime we look, literally, from a different angle at catalogs of astronomical positions, simulations, or exploring the phase space of a complex data set, there is great potential to discover something new,” says Brian R. Kent, an astronomer and director of science communications at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “There is also a wealth of astronomics tatical data in archives that can be reanalyzed in new ways, leading to new discoveries.” As the instruments grow in size and sophistication, so does the data, and the challenge of understanding it. Like all scientists, astronomers are facing a deluge of data, ranging from gamma rays and X-rays to ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands. Our Oort cloud (center), a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system and extends one-and-a-half light years in every direction, is shown in this scene from ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ along with the Oort clouds of neighboring stars. The more massive the star, the larger its Oort cloud [Image: © AMNH ] “New facilities like the Next Generation Very Large Array here at NRAO or the Vera Rubin Observatory and LSST survey project will generate large volumes of data, so astronomers have to get creative with how to analyze it,” says Kent.  More data—and new instruments—will also be needed to prove the spiral itself is actually there: there’s still no known way to even observe the Oort cloud.  Instead, the paper notes, the structure will have to be measured from “detection of a large number of objects” in the radius of the inner Oort cloud or from “thermal emission from small particles in the Oort spiral.”  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a powerful, U.S.-funded telescope that recently began operation in Chile, could possibly observe individual icy bodies within the cloud. But researchers expect the telescope will likely discover only dozens of these objects, maybe hundreds, not enough to meaningfully visualize any shapes in the Oort cloud.  For us, here and now, the 1.4 trillion mile-long spiral will remain confined to the inside of a dark dome across the street from Central Park.
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
  • Barbie x HEWI Come Together to Think Pink in New Bath Line

    The name, the myth, the icon: Barbie is almost synonymous with pink, the specific hues of the time responding to cultural trends across the decades. The doll – created by Ruth Handler in 1959, and distributed and produced by Mattel – has reflected and also shaped decades of American culture. Bauhaus-inspired, Barbie and HEWI have collaborated to present the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, bathed in an approachable yet sophisticated shade of pink. With a focus on celebrating individuality the Barbie way, HEWI fosters a precedent of inclusive design for bathrooms at large, ushering in a new era where all are safe and welcome.

    HEWI continues to set new standards in bathroom and accessory design for almost one hundred years. Their iconic extruded door handle has extended to every facet of the bathroom, including a towel bar, shower seat, soap dish, and toilet roll holder, offering everything you might need if your bathroom needs a bit of brightness. A lovely shade of light pink accented with an approachable cream color allows the Barbie x HEWI collection to fit in with existing decor, palette incredibly important in a room made for washing and cleanliness. With a satisfying thickness sometimes absent from bathroom collections, each piece receives the signature HEWI finish, glossy and made to last even through the toughest bath times.

    Barbie has been an integral part of our culture for over 65 years, offering a new perspective about what professions the doll could take part in and the roles she could play. In more recent years, inclusion has been a priority for the brand, choosing a more natural silhouette and featuring a more accurate and diverse picture of who Barbie and her friends could be. Here, this energy extends to the restroom, where the iconic Barbie pink meets the bold, Bauhaus silhouette of HEWI designs.

    HEWI has been at the forefront of product design for over 90 years, challenging themselves and others to anticipate the needs of subsequent generations. With work in healthcare, public projects, hotels, and education, HEWI strives to continue to push the boundaries of materials technology, closing loops on their production processes with projects like the Re-seat collection, made out of offcuts from injection molding.

    To learn more about the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, please visit barbiexhewi.com. 
    Imagery courtesy of HEWI.
    #barbie #hewi #come #together #think
    Barbie x HEWI Come Together to Think Pink in New Bath Line
    The name, the myth, the icon: Barbie is almost synonymous with pink, the specific hues of the time responding to cultural trends across the decades. The doll – created by Ruth Handler in 1959, and distributed and produced by Mattel – has reflected and also shaped decades of American culture. Bauhaus-inspired, Barbie and HEWI have collaborated to present the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, bathed in an approachable yet sophisticated shade of pink. With a focus on celebrating individuality the Barbie way, HEWI fosters a precedent of inclusive design for bathrooms at large, ushering in a new era where all are safe and welcome. HEWI continues to set new standards in bathroom and accessory design for almost one hundred years. Their iconic extruded door handle has extended to every facet of the bathroom, including a towel bar, shower seat, soap dish, and toilet roll holder, offering everything you might need if your bathroom needs a bit of brightness. A lovely shade of light pink accented with an approachable cream color allows the Barbie x HEWI collection to fit in with existing decor, palette incredibly important in a room made for washing and cleanliness. With a satisfying thickness sometimes absent from bathroom collections, each piece receives the signature HEWI finish, glossy and made to last even through the toughest bath times. Barbie has been an integral part of our culture for over 65 years, offering a new perspective about what professions the doll could take part in and the roles she could play. In more recent years, inclusion has been a priority for the brand, choosing a more natural silhouette and featuring a more accurate and diverse picture of who Barbie and her friends could be. Here, this energy extends to the restroom, where the iconic Barbie pink meets the bold, Bauhaus silhouette of HEWI designs. HEWI has been at the forefront of product design for over 90 years, challenging themselves and others to anticipate the needs of subsequent generations. With work in healthcare, public projects, hotels, and education, HEWI strives to continue to push the boundaries of materials technology, closing loops on their production processes with projects like the Re-seat collection, made out of offcuts from injection molding. To learn more about the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, please visit barbiexhewi.com.  Imagery courtesy of HEWI. #barbie #hewi #come #together #think
    DESIGN-MILK.COM
    Barbie x HEWI Come Together to Think Pink in New Bath Line
    The name, the myth, the icon: Barbie is almost synonymous with pink, the specific hues of the time responding to cultural trends across the decades. The doll – created by Ruth Handler in 1959, and distributed and produced by Mattel – has reflected and also shaped decades of American culture. Bauhaus-inspired, Barbie and HEWI have collaborated to present the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, bathed in an approachable yet sophisticated shade of pink. With a focus on celebrating individuality the Barbie way, HEWI fosters a precedent of inclusive design for bathrooms at large, ushering in a new era where all are safe and welcome. HEWI continues to set new standards in bathroom and accessory design for almost one hundred years. Their iconic extruded door handle has extended to every facet of the bathroom, including a towel bar, shower seat, soap dish, and toilet roll holder, offering everything you might need if your bathroom needs a bit of brightness. A lovely shade of light pink accented with an approachable cream color allows the Barbie x HEWI collection to fit in with existing decor, palette incredibly important in a room made for washing and cleanliness. With a satisfying thickness sometimes absent from bathroom collections, each piece receives the signature HEWI finish, glossy and made to last even through the toughest bath times. Barbie has been an integral part of our culture for over 65 years, offering a new perspective about what professions the doll could take part in and the roles she could play. In more recent years, inclusion has been a priority for the brand, choosing a more natural silhouette and featuring a more accurate and diverse picture of who Barbie and her friends could be. Here, this energy extends to the restroom, where the iconic Barbie pink meets the bold, Bauhaus silhouette of HEWI designs. HEWI has been at the forefront of product design for over 90 years, challenging themselves and others to anticipate the needs of subsequent generations. With work in healthcare, public projects, hotels, and education, HEWI strives to continue to push the boundaries of materials technology, closing loops on their production processes with projects like the Re-seat collection, made out of offcuts from injection molding. To learn more about the Barbie x HEWI sanitaryware collection, please visit barbiexhewi.com.  Imagery courtesy of HEWI.
    0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 0 previzualizare
CGShares https://cgshares.com