02.13.11
John Foster | Accidental Mysteries

Accidental Mysteries


























Accidental Mysteries is an online curiosity shop of extraordinary things, mined from the depths of the online world and brought to you each week by John Foster, a writer, designer and longtime collector of self-taught art and vernacular photography. “I enjoy the search for incredible, obscure objects that challenge, delight and amuse my eye. More so, I enjoy sharing these discoveries with the diverse and informed readers of Design Observer.”

Editor's Note: All images link to their original source and are copyright their original owners.


Posted in: Accidental Mysteries



Comments [3]

Uncanny! I had taken a photo of the exact same Toynbee tile (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2008/05/06/top-5-groundbreaking-graffiti-artwork/#toynbee) in 2008, evidently prior to when this one was taken, judging by the decay of the artwork. So interesting to see this urban mystery evolve over time.

A bit of background here: http://www.good.is/post/the-greatest-guerrilla-art-mystery-youve-never-heard-of-but-may-have-walked-over
Maria Popova
02.13.11
09:33

I really love those archives. It is inspiring and rich and diversified. The only problem lies in the source attribution system: images rarely link to their "original source". Instead, they link to their "via" source: the source by which John Foster discovered them. From the "via" source, one can try to track down the original source (to find out about the creator, the context of creation, the date, etc.), but often it's a dead end.

Take the third image from the bottom. The guy with a "THUG' in his face. It links to a Tumblr account which links to another one and then another one etc. If you check the allegedly "original" source within the Tumblr community, you'll see that it is someone who reblog the picture without making any kind of reference to where it comes from.

I find it a major design problem for an archive (it is by no mean a problem specific to Accidental Mysteries: it's widespread all over the Internet).

Thanks for sharing,

Philippe
Philippe
03.03.11
11:21

fantastic! amazing!
lisa
03.30.11
04:19


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