JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post The Unintentional Absurd series
I was checking out what turned out to be a significant article on solitons ("Called "On Waves") by Lord Rayleigh in the April, 1876 issue of the Philosophical Magazine when I bumped into a neighboring article1 from the month before with this beautiful found-Abstract art illustration. It is headed with this gorgeous title, "On the Serpentinite2 of the Lizard...", and written by T.H. Rowney, who addressed its unusual appearance, citing its "organic appearance", "fossil corals", and "worm casts". The geological issues aside, I found the complexity (there are a number of different images contained in this one engraving), color, and the found-design to be all very captivating, especially appearing four decades before the invention of the Absurd.
Notes:
1. Philosophical Magazine, 5th Series, New Series I, March, 1876.
2. "Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's mantle. Themineral alteration is particularly important at the sea floor at tectonic plate boundaries. Serpentinization is a geological low-temperature metamorphic process involving heat and water in which low-silica mafic and ultramafic rocks are oxidized (anaerobic oxidation of Fe2+ by the protons of water leading to the formation of H2) and hydrolyzed with water into serpentinite."--Wikipedia
Comments