Category:
1970s

For Carl Andre

For Carl Andre is a 1970 artwork by Lynda Benglis. It consists of a heap of polyurethane foam sitting in the corner of a room. It's owned by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.



The title refers to the sculptor Carl Andre, known for his ultra-minimalist works. For instance, one of Andre's more famous works, Equivalent VIII, consisted of a rectangular stack of bricks. The Fort Worth Art Museum catalog notes:

Benglis uses Andre's name in her piece, but the point she makes is not strictly pejorative. The work is an ironic and humorous homage to Andre's art, which is characteristically made of ordered, flat, modular shapes combined with simple slabs of metal or stone that sit directly on the floor or, like Benglis's piece, are installed in the corner.

So it's not "strictly pejorative," but maybe it's slightly so? Or satirical?

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 08, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, 1970s, Satire

Pixillation



The creator's Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 05, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Movies, Special Effects, Surrealism, Psychedelic, 1970s

Motor Mouse and Autocat

The Spanish dubbing in the second clip only adds to the mystique.

More info here.



Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 29, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Motor Vehicles, Cartoons, 1970s

The Senster

Explanatory text from Are Computers Alive? Evolution and New Life Forms, by Geoff Simons (1983).

A cybernetic sculpture, 'The Senster', was constructed by Edward Ihnatowicz in 1970 for the Philips Evoluon in Eindhoven. The device is a large electrohydraulic structure in the form of a lobster's claw: six hinged joints allow great freedom of movement. It is interesting that the device's unpredictable behaviour makes the observer feel that the sculpture is alive. Reichardt (1978) commented: 'It is as if behaviour were more important than appearance in making us feel that something is alive.' 'The Senster' has senses—sound channels (effective ears) and radar—to allow it to monitor its environment: it will, for example, react to the movement of people in the immediate vicinity. Electrical signals are fed from a control unit to activate mechanisms which cause movement in the device. The brain (a computer) has learning abilities and can modify the machine's behaviour in the light of past experience. Confronted by this artificial device, it is clear that people have no difficulty in organizing their psychological responses as if 'The Senster' were alive—an animal or another human being.

Watch it in action below. The people desperately trying to get its attention clearly hadn't watched enough horror movies to know what usually happens next in situations with sentient machines.





More info: senster.com

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 25, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Art, Technology, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #553

In 1970, everything was psychedelic, including kids' vitamins. The subtext of handing out groovy pills could not be denied.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 22, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Advertising, Children, Nutrition, Psychedelic, 1970s

Casseroles I Have Known

For some reason, this 1973 cookbook sounds rather melancholy.



Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 19, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Cookbooks, 1970s

Rent-a-Drunk

For only $3 a night, Colin White would rent out one of the drunks from his pub to liven up a party.

White explains that when people are worried about their parties getting off to a slow start, they call up and say: "Oh, Mr. White, I wonder whether you could send us around a drunk about 8:30 p.m.?"

So his employees could legitimately claim to be professional drunks.

Asbury Park Press - Nov 26, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 11, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Jobs and Occupations, 1970s

The man who fell 3300 feet and only broke his nose

1972: 19-year-old Bob Hall fell 3300 feet when his parachute malfunctioned. He landed face first on a runway. Somehow, he not only survived, but he only broke his nose and busted up his teeth.

The photo below was taken after his fall.





Related posts:

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 09, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Human Marvels, 1970s

Lafleur!

As far as I know, the genre of disco hockey-instruction music is limited to this one album released by Guy Lafleur in 1979.



Montreal Gazette - Sep 11, 1979

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 02, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Music, Sports, 1970s

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