Why Georges Seurat’s Pointillist Painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Is a Masterpiece

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Everyone knows that Georges Seurat's Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte, or A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, resides at the Art Institute of Chicago. Or at least everyone who's seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off knows it. The Art Institute appears as just one of the…

Watch a Visual Symphony of Everyday Objects in the French Stop Motion Film, “Grands Canons”

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"A brush makes watercolors appear on a white sheet of paper. An everyday object takes shape, drawn with precision by an artist's hand. Then two, then three, then four... Superimposed, condensed, multiplied, thousands of documentary drawings in successive series come to life on the screen, composing a veritable visual symphony of everyday objects. The accumulation, both fascinating and dizzying, takes us on a trip through time." That's how the Vimeo channel of Girelle Productions prefaces the animation "Grands Canons" (aka "Big Guns") by French filmmaker Alain Biet. It's a wild ride, a painstaking feat in experimental filmmaking. Enjoy it above.

via Aeon/Kottke

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How 99% of Ancient Literature Was Lost

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Ancient Greece and Rome had plenty of literature, but practically none of it survives today. What exactly became of almost everything written down in Western antiquity is the subject of the video above by ancient-history Youtube channel Told in Stone, previously featured here on Open Culture for its investigations into everything from the…

An Architect Breaks Down the Design of New York City Subway Stations, from the Oldest to Newest

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With 26 lines and 472 stations, the New York City subway system is practically a living organism, and way too big a topic to tackle in a short video.

Architect Michael Wyetzner may not have time to touch on rats, crime track fires, flooding, night and weekend service disruptions, or the

Behold 900+ Magnificent Botanical Collages Created by a 72-Year-Old Widow, Starting in 1772

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“I have invented a new way of imitating flowers,” Mary Delany, a 72-year-old widow wrote to her niece in 1772 from the grand home where she was a frequent guest, having just captured her hostess' geranium's likeness, by collaging cut paper in a nearly identical shade.

Novelty rekindled the creative fire her husband’s…