Tag: art

Exploring the Rational and Historical Intricacies of Paper Sizes | February 23 2025, 14:57

Somehow I managed to miss this back in the day, but it turned out that the European paper sizes A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, … are not just arbitrary. Let’s start with the fact that A0 has an area of exactly 1 square meter. Well, with a slight error margin to avoid dealing with fractional millimeters. And the aspect ratio — 1:√2 is the only possible one that maintains itself when the paper is divided in half. Thus, there is a rationale behind paper formats in Europe.

But with our paper formats, there seems to be no sense. What we have are letter, legal, tabloid, all with different proportions, and the origin of the format goes back to tradition and is not well known.

I decided to dig into the topic and found a claim that “dimension originates from the days of manual papermaking and that the 11-inch length of the page is about a quarter of ‘the average maximum stretch of an experienced vatman’s arms’. However, the claim does not explain the proportions, but then there is the word vatman, which reminds one of Whatman sheets, remember those? But no, a vatman is a specialist who scooped up the liquid paper pulp from a vat using a mold (sieve) and formed the sheet. And the Whatman sheet comes from James Whatman, an English paper manufacturer of the 18th century, which was simplified to ‘vatman’. Interestingly, the term ‘vatman’ seems to exist only in Russian, derived from Whatman’s surname and his paper, Whatman paper.

And why do we call the formats in the U.S. legal and letter? This is quite interesting as well.

Interestingly, in the U.S., there were two different “standard” sizes initially: 8″ x 10.5″ and 8.5″ x 11″. Different committees independently adopted different standards: 8″ x 10.5″ for the government, and 8.5″ x 11″ for everyone else. When the committees discovered a few years later that they had different standards, they agreed to “disagree until the early 1980s when Reagan finally declared 8.5″ x 11” the officially approved standard size for paper.

The matter began in 1921, when the first Director of the Bureau of the Budget, with the President’s approval, formed an inter-agency advisory group called the “Permanent Conference on Printing,” which approved 8″ x 10½” as the standard format for government agency forms. This continued a practice established earlier by former President Hoover (who was then serving as Secretary of Commerce), defining 8″ x 10½” as the standard format for his department’s forms.

In the same year, the Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes, comprising representatives from the printing industry, was appointed to work with the Bureau of Standards as part of Hoover’s program to eliminate waste in industry. This committee defined basic sizes for different types of printed and writing paper. The “writing” size was set as a sheet of 17″ x 22″, while the “legal” size was 17″ x 28″. The now well-known Letter format emerged as a result of dividing these sheets in half (8½” x 11″ and 8½” x 14″).

Even when choosing 8½” x 11″, there wasn’t a special analysis conducted to verify that this size was optimal for commercial forms. The committee that developed these formats aimed solely to “reduce leftovers and waste during the trimming of sheets by reducing the range of paper sizes.”

Moreover, the legal size is still in full use as its name suggests, especially among lawyers, and folders and desk drawers are made to fit its size.

But if you look at a pack of paper in the U.S., you will see “20lb” on the pack. Actually, 20lb is the weight of a small dog, but it is also written that there are 500 pages. “Amazon Basics Multipurpose Copy Printer Paper, 20 Pound, White, 96 Brightness, 8.5 x 11 Inch, 1 Ream, 500 Sheets Total”

In the U.S., the “weight category” of paper indicates the total weight of one ream (500 sheets) of paper in its uncut (original) format. For office paper of the Bond class (often sold in Letter format), the base size is considered to be 17 x 22 inches. For example, a “20-pound” label means that 500 sheets of exactly 17 x 22 weigh 20 pounds. But if we take a pack of Letter format (8.5 x 11), which results from cutting 17 x 22 into four parts, its weight will be about 5 pounds.

In Europe, the weight category essentially refers to the weight of an A0 sheet in grams.

So, if you fold A0 in half, you get A1 with half a square meter area, if you fold A1, you get A2. That’s clear. But how many times can you actually fold a sheet of paper?

The maximum number of times a non-compressible material can be folded has been calculated. With each fold, a part of the paper “loses” for the next potential fold. The function of folding paper in half in one direction is:

L=πt/6(2ⁿ+4)(2ⁿ-1)

where L is the minimum paper length (or other material),

t is the thickness of the material,

n is the number of possible folds.

The length L and thickness t must be expressed in the same units.

The thickness W is calculated as πt2^(3(n-1)/2).

This formula was derived by Britney Gallivan, a high school student from California, in December 2001. In January 2002, she and her helpers spent eight hours folding a roll of toilet paper about 4000 feet long (approximately 1200 meters) twelve times in the same direction, thus debunking the old myth that paper cannot be folded more than eight times.

Sources mention that she started in school with gold foil (I wrote about such foil recently), and, starting with a square sheet the size of a hand, after many hours of perseverance and practice, using rulers, soft brushes, and tweezers, she managed to fold her gold foil twelve times. But apparently, that wasn’t spectacular enough, and she found toilet paper over a kilometer long somewhere in 2002 and made a show for the Guinness record.

Britney didn’t stop there and wrote a book. Though it was only 48 pages. How about that, Britney?

Exploring Ojibwe: Language, Cultural Heritage, and Translation Challenges | February 22 2025, 20:55

Interestingly, in the Toronto art museum, all labels are available not only in English and French but also in Ojibwe, also known as Anishinaabemowin (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ); in the USA, the language is called Chippewa. The ethnonyms “Chippewa” and “Ojibwe” originate from the same word with different pronunciations, meaning “puckered”. It is the language of one of the largest Native American peoples in North America, roughly equal in number to the Cree, and second only to the Cherokee and Navajo. However, only about 10,000 people speak it in the USA and about 48,000 in Canada.

Chipmunk, wigwam, totem – these are borrowings from this language. And as for geographical names – there are loads. Illinois, Mississippi, Ottawa, Michigan.

Did you know that half (25) of the names of American states are named in honor of Native Americans? I found this very surprising at the time.

I inserted into the image another example of original, not adapted for the English alphabet, writing. These are the circles and stars, triangles. This is the Evans syllabic system. I don’t know how one can remember it: it consisted of only nine symbols, each of which could be written in four different orientations to represent different combinations of consonant and vowel. This allowed for a complete recording of the Ojibwe language. However, Evans’ superiors disapproved of his invention and prohibited its use. Later, he adapted his system for writing in Cree. Today, it is still found among some Ojibwe communities in Canada, but its use is limited. It is more common in Cree. In the USA, Ojibwe speakers mostly prefer Latin writing.

ChatGPT recognizes the language, but is unable to translate anything at all. There are also no online translators, and online dictionaries are very poor. Interestingly, the language has enough words to describe modern concepts.

I tried to translate Native expressions, which, according to the author’s intention, were supposed to mean “Europe” and “dilemma”, but nothing similar resulted. Then I compared how different LLMs translate a piece about the historical period of 1910–1930 when “Europe was shaken by war and its consequences”. Each system produces its own version of the text: some talk about the war on the Great Lakes, some about “the great bay” or spiritual practices, somewhere it’s even about protecting the Indian population (I fed them a text about artists). In the end, “war” is somewhat uniformly recognized (apparently, there are fifty words for war there), but the overall meaning varies significantly.

Exploring Generative Art with Raven Kwok | February 14 2025, 23:52

A fascinating Chinese comrade, Raven Kwok (郭 锐文). He calls himself a visual artist and creative technologist: his work focuses on exploring generative visual aesthetics created through computer algorithms. His works have been exhibited at international media-art and film festivals such as Ars Electronica, FILE, VIS, Punto y Raya, Resonate, FIBER, and others.

His biography also mentions education at the Shanghai Academy of Visual Arts, where he received a bachelor’s degree in photography (2007–2011).

Interestingly, this is not the first time I’ve seen Processing used professionally for such gadgets. I’ve run plotting software on it – a plotter that I’ve seen mounted on two motors at the corners of a large board, with ropes dangling from them supporting a pen. I should take a deeper look at this Processing.

The website has a lot of beautiful content

https://ravenkwok.com/

Training Dogs: Communication and Challenges | February 13 2025, 19:59

If, like us, you train a dog to ask to go outside by tapping the window with its paw, and to ask for food by tapping the refrigerator similarly, you quickly notice an interesting effect. Ignoring these requests becomes unpleasant: not because you urgently need to go walking or feed them, but because the tapping turns into something more — into a voice, and teaching the dog to understand the reason for refusal is much trickier. You might want to reinforce — well done, let’s go, I’ll do what you want, you’ve learned to communicate with us, we’ve learned to understand you, but on the other hand, the dog begins to control you, realizing that tapping with its paw actually produces a tangible effect.

The real problem is that if I don’t react, my dog doesn’t think: “Ah, probably not the time right now.” It decides that it’s just not loud enough or persistent enough. In its world, the absence of a response is not an argument but a reason to increase the pressure.

Well okay, it has learned to understand and accept a verbal refusal, after all. But occasionally it doesn’t work. Apparently, in its world, an insufficiently justified refusal is not seen as a refusal.

When we watch movies, we slice cheese for the wine. Yuka knows that when the projector turns on, the smell of wine will soon be accompanied by cheese, and settles nearby. And interestingly, it very clearly senses when the cheese is finished. It can’t see that it’s finished, but apparently, its sense of smell replaces its vision. And as soon as you eat the last piece with it, it stands up and leaves.

Global Leaders in the Sneaker Market | February 11 2025, 22:05

Today we went shopping for sneakers, and I decided to investigate which countries are currently the world leaders in sneakers.

Overall, no surprises—the US is in the absolute lead. Germany and Japan are notable. The rest are catching up.

American brands—at least 9 of them: Nike (+Converse), New Balance, Brooks, Saucony (+Merrell), Reebok, Skechers, Vans, Hoka. Purely sport-wise, probably 7 from the list.

Japanese—Asics, Mizuno.

German—Adidas, Puma (by the way, both founded by the Dassler brothers, yet they are competitors). Swiss—On. Korean—Fila.

Of course, production is all in China, Vietnam, Indonesia.

Personally, I’ve been buying almost exclusively Asics for a long time. They are very comfortable, although the design is so-so, a mere pass.

By the way, want an interesting fact you probably didn’t know? The thin layer of felt on the sole of Converse sneakers was added (at least as of 10 years ago—it was added) not for functional reasons but for economic ones. Footwear with a fabric sole was subject to lower customs duties when imported compared to footwear with a rubber sole because it was classified as slippers. And the duty was reduced from 37.5% to 3%.

Who else from other countries – are there any brands that are very noticeable and popular in your markets, and have yet to make it to the US?