Geometry in Motion

Below: Nancy Kovak as Medea in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).
When I saw her dance, all painted in gold and glitter, I realized I've been looking in the wrong direction for Star Trek design influences. Yes, the show incorporates elements of classy design, like Russell Wright's cheese server;
but even more it loves the cheese.

When I checked, sure enough, here's Nancy Kovak four years later in Star Trek, wearing one of my favorite of William Theiss's cheese-o-rama costumes.
From the episode with the Mugato, an entire monster made out of white fun fur: "A Private Little War." (It seems to prefer ham to cheese: it attacks Kirk.)


Speaking of dancing figures, check out the way the animator makes these classical images leap about:
"All Creative Work Is Derivative" (Thanks, Jen!)
Photographed and animated by Nina Paley; music by Todd Michaelsen.



Very fun! Though I don't agree that all creative work builds on what came before, as stated, unless by "what came before" one means the human body.

Cultures separate from other cultures come up with similar designs because they are working from the same model:
us, in space.
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It'd be fun to animate my Star Trek and design posts, or Kirk's body language.

I just found another Enterprise-shaped blueprint: the old British Library, when it was in the British Museum.
Here's my little collection, all together:

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1. H-bomb; 2. Enterprise; 3. male reproductive system; 4. British Library

The significance I draw from these is that humans and nature are messing around with same geometry, so things start to look like other things.

Leonardo da Vinci's Virtuvian Man