Tips (the ends of things)

Tip of the Tongue vs. the Mountain Peak

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 09:28:31 -0500

The phrase "on the tip of my tongue" tells us where tips are and differentiates "tips" from other endings. A word or name "on the tip of the tongue" is just out of reach, so close you taste it but not close enough to possess it fully. (Is this a clue to the underlying "feeling" of a tip - you can have them but not possess them?)

Introduction (Draft 2)

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 10:34:05 -0500

(Rewritten Feb 20, Mar 3, 2004)
I want you to think about tips. I want to you look at tips, notice their abundance and their variety and their ubiquity. The crocket at the top of a building, a dragon's tail and tongue, the pointed _________ of a seed pod, the taper of a decorative scroll and the sharp point of a canine tooth are all tips. If I were to ask you to point to the tip of each item in this diverse collection you could easily point to the tip, but more difficult is to define the word "tip". What comes to mind most readily is that a tip is the end of an object. This is clear enough, until scrutinised. Where exactly does an object end? If you begin to think about it, an object ends everywhere its surface meets the space around it. Why, then, does a tip feel like the end of an object? Not an easy question to answer, nor perhaps one this is frutifully pursued. For the time being let us simply agree that some areas of an object feel more like the end than other areas.

Introduction

Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:05:00 -0500

(Rewritten Feb 20, Mar 3, 2004)
I have been thinking about tips, the end of things, the end of objects. I want to investigate the subject in depth and in the end to produce a visual essay. While blogs are meant to be personal diaries I use this blog to present and develop a work in progress. Much of "Tips - The End of Things" is devoted to photographic examples but this introduction dwells on the questions and confusions that shape my query. I would appreciate comments and suggestions for examples of tips.

Knives

Wed, 17 Mar 2004 08:28:59 -0500

Animated Vessels 1 - Soakies

Sun, 07 Mar 2004 13:52:04 -0500

Instead of a bulging tip there is a head. These plastic shampoo and bubble bath bottles for children are part of a long tradition of "animated vessels" (more of these later). The term of art for character bottles is "soakies". One soaky, many soakies.

Antoinette

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:57:42 -0500

In a rare exception to the rule that contemporary objects shun tips, some font designers have brought back the serif, the flourish, the arabesque, as in this instance to a pleasing excess.

Embarassing Tips

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 08:56:20 -0500

Some tips must be hidden. Knives and swords are sheathed. It is impolite to point the finger, to expose the tip fo the finger. Rules govern which tips are exposed and which are not.

Tips are embarassing. That is, body tips. The tip of the penis and the nipple are required, by custom, to be hidden.

Are only the powerful, dangerous tips that are hidden?

Random Ideas 2

Tue, 02 Mar 2004 12:00:00 -0500

added feb 13, 2003
I was wondering if tips have anything to do with desire. It seems as if some kind of yearning is implicit in a tip but I am not sure that this is central or a helpful path to pursue. More important is that tips infer a relationship. I am not sure what the right word is - "make", "create", "require" "force" - but where there is a tip there is a relationship.

Modern Objects

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 09:16:10 -0500

A modern coathook is a rare example of modern/contempary design utilizing tips. An almost humorous, comic-like version of a bulging tip.

Toys

Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:56:15 -0500

A Baby's Toes

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 07:51:32 -0500

The tips of these toes seem more passive than other tips... not yet ready to grab the floor for balance and movement.

Intermediate abstractions.

Wed, 25 Feb 2004 11:49:34 -0500

In art we have tended to focus on the most abstract of abstractions. I want to look at a subject that is slightly less abstract (and all the more fertile for being so).

Finial, Luxemborg Gardens, Paris

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 10:52:06 -0500

Is this shape called a "finial" or is it called something else when it a sculpture on its own? What a strange thing... to isolate a decorative element and make it an autonomous object.

Candelabra, Vases and more

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 10:47:00 -0500

A Design for a Candelabrum, by Micelangelo Buonarroti, c. 1535

Finials Queens New York May 2002

Sat, 21 Feb 2004 13:06:50 -0500

Finials from some homes in Queens, New York, taken on a walk in May of 2002.

Looking at these finials, one after another, makes me wonder "Why do we do this? What happens at the end of things that makes us want to decorate them, elaborate on them/with them?" It is as if something different MUST happen when a shape reaches it top. This does seem to happen more at the top than at the bottom of things. But it is mostly a feeling of astonishment at the fact of their invention and the need to invent "out on a limb".