The Evolution of Useful Things

The evolution of useful things / Henry Petroski

Another Petroski book. Note the title, evolution, things. Do things evolve? According to Petroski, yes. He draws the parallel of Darwinian theory of evolution to man made objects... his vehicle object is the paper clip.

Things evolve because of failure of form, so he debunks the theory or the dictum, form follows function. There was a need to hold paper together. They used the pin. But the failure of the pin to do a satisfactory job (eg make holes in paper, makes holes in fngers, etc) that pushed inventors to modify it into a paper clip. But the clip is far from satisfactory and it evolves. Of course, I would say that it may evolve itself out of existence when our society become more and more paperless.

Petroski also details the example of Raymond Loewy, the first Industrial Designer, to illustrate his argument that form also follows fashion. Gestetner I think was the early duplicating press used in office. It also used to trip secretaries over. Loewy designed a new form. Must check out Loewy - but he goes into the streamlined look.

I liked some of Petroskis examples. Like with the creation of canning as a food preservation, there was a need to create the can opener - which continually evolves (due to complaints of environmental hazards) into the pull top cans that we have today. But still the can/can opener is far from perfect.

Good read, although it got a bit tedious as the examples build upon the same old argument... form evolve from failure to function. .. which if I think about it, is another way of saying form follows function. .. and where does that lead Petroski?

Origami

4 books rather interesting, a bit different from the usual frog and crane

Polyhedron origami for beginners / Miyuki Kawamura.
Rather interesting constructions using modules. Good explanations and illustrations

Origami monsters & mythical beings / Jay Ansill
Rather complicated although imaginative. Some of the illustrations skip steps.

Modern origami / James Minoru Sakoda

The least interesting of the four. No colour illustrations and fairly boring. But good instructions on how to start with the bases. By modern the author means the style of folding which emphasized the beauty of the straight line and geometric forms. As contrast with older forms as done by Akira Yoshizawa who seek beauty in rounder edges. The author has interesting terms. Eg:
Hikari-Ori (shining light folding) using foil surface, and low relief geometric figures
the eight point star
cross pleating.
This book is rather academic but provides very interesting history of origami.

The art of origami : an illustrated guide to Japanese paperfolding, with over 30 classic designs / Rick Beech

This is the best. Has good explanations, the steps work, tells you latest things, although doesnt show you how to do some of the innovations by Robert Lang.

Some rather interesting points to note:

All origami steps evolve from base folds:
Kite base
Blintz base - derived from Yiddish word for thin pancake containing cheese. The name was taken by Gershon Legman and other 1950s folders to refer to the act of folding all four corners to the centre.
Fish base - from kite base
Waterbomb base
Preliminary base
Bird base - from preliminary base
Frog base - from preliminary base

Some models:
the sampan
the butterfly - there is a Japanese master Akira Yoshizawa who folded numerous different species with many variations
the elephant. There is a group of young Japanese enthusiasts who call themselves the Tantedan and specialize in fairly complex folds. The elephant was designed by a member called Nobuyoshi Enomoto

The Lost Life of Eva Braun

Angela Lambert
Call no. 943.086 LAM

I don't really know why I borrowed this book . Maybe the cover said something to me. It had a photo of Hitler (standing) and Eva seated and she had a nice, clean, clear of evil look about her. So I thought this might be an interesting take on the Eva Braun. The mistress. The one who accompanied Hitler in death.

I don't mind reading the book, but I really objected to the author weaving in her own family into Eva's story. It's kind of like a biographic bandwagon... it's like saying, Eva lived during this time (and oh, by the way, so did my grandma, who also happened to be German and who lived nearly in the same city, etc.) I don't care two hoots about the author's grandma, especially when it came in small mozaic moments. I particularly took objection to the author inserted photos of her grandparents in among the photo pages of Hitler and Eva.

This diluted the authorship and credibility of the book. For eg: when Geli committed suicide (the author did mention that there were rumours about Himmler murdering Geli, but she brushed that aside with nothing else than her subjective hands, as she has done with countless other counter facts) she wrote: "The event triggered a huge scandal and a feeding frenzy in the newspaper.... The news would certainly have reached my mother in Hamburg. Ditha (author's mother) was twenty by then and given her love of gossip and interest in the paccadilloes of great men, she must have speculated about the truth behind the denials. Was it possible the Fuhrer had murdered his own niece? " Frankly, I didn't care what Ditha thought. Especially if Ditha's life was only going to be mentioned as a sub-plot or used as a punction mark to link speculation and fact.

This made me wonder more about Eva Braun, but it convinced me that I was not going to find out about Eva Braun via Ditha or by continuing to read Angela Lambert's book.