8-Bit Graffiti

does this really need a title?, originally uploaded by Bernat_83.

Fixed-width, or monospace, fonts wouldn't exist if not for the invention of the typewriter. While many people claim to have invented the first typewriter it was first manufactured in Central New York. L.C. Smith, Corona, and Morse Chain Company were among the first to build typewriters for the general public.

Manual typewriters used these fixed-width fonts to simplify the key-to-print machinery. These fonts were adopted by early word processing programs and redrawn to for dot-matrix printers.

Nostalgic feelings run deep for these digital relics such as this Graffiti example, ASCII, and other 8-bit art.

Factories of Art

dafen, originally uploaded by lila75.

The gates to the village of Dafen are marked by this giant sculpture. Dafen has gained international fame and noterity as a hub for art reproductions. Cribbing works like the Mona Lisa requires a great deal of technical skill.

In vast studios Dafen's artists create their reproductions in an assembly line fashion. Each artist adds only a few brush strokes, ones that he or she has perfected. The end result is a stunningly high quality painting that is difficult to differentiate from the original.

Dafen is located outside Shenzhen, a large Chinese city near Hong Kong. Each year more artists flock to the village. Spiegel estimates that over 5 million oil paintings come out of Dafen each year.

Australia's Meeting Place: Canberra

Nighty Sky in Canberra, originally uploaded by OzBandit.

The largest and best known planned city in Australia is its capital: Canberra. Around 1900 Aussies debated whether to put the capital in Sydney or Melbourne, the two largest cities on the continent. Since it was located between the two cities Canberra was picked as a compromise in 1908. Currently it is the largest inland city in Australia.

The name of Canberra comes from the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes who inhabited the area. It translates to "meeting place." The nomadic tribes gathered around present-day Canberra to meet the annual Bogong moth migration.

"As the moths migrate southwards, their world collides with human society. Their route, followed for thousands of generations past, now passes over the bright lights of Canberra and other large cities. The lights fool the moths into behaving as if the sun is coming up. Their natural response is to dive down to the ground to find a dark place before the heat of the day sets in, and suddenly there are moths everywhere."

Bogong moths travel over 900 miles during their short lives. The aboriginal Australians met the moth flock every spring to feast on them. According to anthropologists the moths were mashed into a pasty meal that tasted like walnuts. The giant swarm of moths is critical for the ecosystem of the Australian Alps; they are a food source for many animals.

The design of Canberra was selected from an international competition in 1911. Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin along with his partner and wife, Marion Mahony Griffin won the contract. Both had worked for Frank Lloyd Wright. The influence of his prairie style and the City Beautiful movement is evident in their designs.