Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Things that were made by man

The grooves on a vinyl record, greatly magnified:



Robert Hooke in Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver:
A razor looks worse. It is all kinds of shapes, except what it should be. That is why I never use the Microscope any more to look at things that were made by men -- the rudeness and bungling of Art is painful to view. And yet things that one would expect to look disgusting become beautiful when magnified.
A fly's eye: