With the solstice behind us, we in the north are settling in for the quietude of winter’s lingering, deathly chill. Perhaps you’ve already a hearty cord of wood cut, stockpiled, and seasoned, just waiting to flood your dacha with a soft glimmer....
In 1974, Frederic Parke received a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah College of Engineering, where he also created the first computer generated physically-modeled human face. Parke’s original idea of virtual modeling has seen exponential advancements as technology that...
Maybe you’ve never heard of Ian Brignell, a Toronto-based logotype designer, but chances are you’ve seen his work. In fact, unless you’re hiding in an abandoned missile silo in the remote Siberian tundra (as we are), or in some post-capitalist haven (Toronto), it’s likely...
Constructed in 1883, the East River Bridge, later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, was once the longest suspension bridge in the world, and remains one of the most iconic architectural marvels today. In 1899, Edison captured this leisurely train ride across the river...
Martiros Saryan (1880-1972) was an Armenian painter regarded for his masterful selection and use of color. Inspired by the likes of Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse and Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, Saryan captured a sentimental slice of Armenian life in his minimal landscapes, meticulous still...
The dawn of the age of personal computing in the late ’70s and early ’80s offered what may now seem like quaintly outmoded fancies. But so far, many of the basic principles formulated in those early days of small systems programming seem...
Although we love l’art pour l’art as much as the next postmodern aesthete-cum-aviator themed weblog, we’re also thoroughgoing political absurdists. So, all in all, we’re glad Jean-Luc Godard got off that weirdly Catholic purism of the early Cahiers du Cinema crowd and...
With the election season finally behind us — and Mitt Romney thankfully defeated — we can’t help but find ourselves left with a certain white, multimillion-dollar, Mormon-shaped hole in our lives. Looking back with fondness at all the gaffs, the absurdities, and the warmly...
We’ve been admiring the colorful, curvaceous work of Berlin-based Icelandic designer Siggi Eggertsson for some time now. His artwork for Pólýfónía, our favorite album from fellow Icelanders Apparat Organ Quartet, packs quite a powerful punch, devoting a brilliant, iconographic vignette to each track, all the while...
With city transit at the mercy of what’s been dubbed “Frankenstorm,” we here in evacuation Zone C have found ourselves with ample time to remain indoors and contemplate the aesthetics of hurricane visualizations. Although an Ancient Greek mantle like Athena would’ve perhaps...
Emerson called New York City “a sucked orange.” We’ll take it as a compliment, because today’s an orange-letter day here at Overhead Compartment, wherein we offer some curated delicacies of a tart persuasion. The scent of citrus is in the air, a...
Stanley Donwood, which is the pen name of English artist and writer Dan Rickwood, has been collaborating with Radiohead on album covers and posters since 1994. In exploring his diverse body of work, which includes various types of prints, paintings and written...
These fantastical, futuristic Russian cover illustrations for Technology-Youth are absolutely brilliant in all of their inventiveness and characteristic Cold War optimism. via Things Magazine
We had the chance to catch producers Javier Bardem and Lilly Hartley, along with director Alvaro Longoria and Kerry Kennedy from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights present their compelling new documentary, Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony this week...
This week we had the opportunity to hang out with the Analog Research Lab, a hidden gem of a screen-printing studio started by designers Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak which operates out of the basement of Facebook headquarters. Barry and Katigbak began...
Every dullard schoolchild knows the story of how pumpkin spice was introduced at the first Thanksgiving, leading to the economic expansion of the West and the widespread consumer franchise of assorted Fall flavors that we hopelessly depend upon to mark the changing...
The Brazilian national flag is striking in its contrasts: the colorful, orderly geometry centered against a constellational smattering of stars, the straightforward sans-serif typography against its subtle contoured encasing, suggestive of a sphere. It’s impossible to escape the elegance of the Brazilian...
Relentlessly cool, brazenly domineering, the heroism of unapologetic masculinity found a renaissance in the West during the Cold War years. America reveled in cunning, heavily-armed heroes who could thwart those Commie baddies, keep their wits against the seductive wiles of a buxom double-agent, and...
It’s been well over 40 years since its debut, and not only does 2001 stand firmly in cinematic history, but it still reigns supreme among decades of sci-fi films which came after and were more than likely inspired by it. Perhaps the...
An almost childlike appreciation of colors and shapes characterizes the work of Jonas Fredén, a Swedish artist and illustrator who has contributed some brilliant album artwork to Gazell Records. In spite of its simplicity, Fredén’s jazz-infused work mirrors the mood and movement of a...
Dear Comrades, We are pleased to welcome you with the inaugural post of Overhead Compartment, the latest New York-based mainstay of probably unhealthy cultural fixations and lamentations. Our lovely editorial staff will be working around the clock to ensure that your needs...
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective will be opening at Tate Modern early this Spring, showcasing 125 of the artist’s most renowned paintings and sculptures. With his ironical appropriation of comic book imagery, advertising, and cartoon illustration, Lichtenstein irreverently challenged the limits of how art functions within...