August 13, 2007: Toothpick art

Yes, it's the Monday Neatorama Collaboration Image!



The entire Daily Times caption:

Tirana: Albanian painter Saimir Strati works on a horse mosaic using toothpicks at the International Center of Culture. Strati will use around 1,000,000 toothpicks on an 8 square-metre polystyrene board in an effort to secure a place in the Guinness World Record.

Art for World's Records' sake? Hmmm... if at least the dude can create something decent along the way, why not?

And it does look like he's creating something interesting; inserting the picks to different heights, he's given the piece a new and unusual texture.

Also, there is something to the idea of using ordinary, everyday objects to create art. So, sure, I'm coming out in favor of the idea of using art to set world records. Let's do this thing.

Be sure to check out Neatorama for more neato items all the time!

After eating hundreds of IOtDs, toothpicks are handy.

The pinscreen is a similar technique.

And as an animation technique.

the things people do to get into Guinness...

Piccolo Padawan;374474 wrote:

the things people do to get into Guinness...

No worse than the things they'll do to get a Guinness into them. :-)

Undertoad;374348 wrote:

Also, there is something to the idea of using ordinary, everyday objects to create art.

I agree! :p

What he's doing is interesting and I think it qualifies as Art. However, the Guinness Book of World Records??? Just for using toothpicks in an artwork? Really, I take no further notice of the GBWR because of the ridiculous things that they deem qualify as a world record. For instance- the amount of people singing the Hallelujia Chorus in 1 place at 1 time is a world record. Give me a bloody break! Technically, it is a world record but how many people really care about dumb things like that so that there is a book made out of stupid facts like this? The world's tallest man: now that's something most people want to know. That's a world records that should be included in a book. Thanks GBWR editors: now I know how dumb you all are, I know not to waste money paying for paper that's worth more if nothing was printed on it.

I bet he ends up with toothpicks stabbing under his fingernails from time to time.....

morie;374536 wrote:

What he's doing is interesting and I think it qualifies as Art. However, the Guinness Book of World Records??? Just for using toothpicks in an artwork? Really, I take no further notice of the GBWR because of the ridiculous things that they deem qualify as a world record. For instance- the amount of people singing the Hallelujia Chorus in 1 place at 1 time is a world record. Give me a bloody break! Technically, it is a world record but how many people really care about dumb things like that so that there is a book made out of stupid facts like this? The world's tallest man: now that's something most people want to know. That's a world records that should be included in a book. Thanks GBWR editors: now I know how dumb you all are, I know not to waste money paying for paper that's worth more if nothing was printed on it.

That is EXACTLY why the book was written. To resolve stupid bar trivia.

THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS

History: The Guinness Book of World Records was born one bleak fall day in 1954 when Sir Hugh Beaver, while on a shooting expedition in Ireland, aimed at a small flock of golden plover and missed.

Sir Hugh, the managing director of Arthur Guinness, Son and Co., Ltd., had, of course, missed birds before, but it didn't happen often, and he was curious. Clearly the plover were considerably faster than the ducks and geese that he readily bagged. Perhaps, he mentioned to his companions over whiskey and soda that night, the plover was "the fastest game bird we've got." His companions countered with other birds, but the argument ended in frustration because there was nowhere to check. The most erudite encyclopedias, when consulted, proved to have no information on the flight speeds of game birds.

Back in London, Sir Hugh mulled over this deficiency; what modern Britain needed was a book that would tell people quickly and concisely just what was biggest, smallest, fastest, slowest, shortest, longest, etc., about as many things as possible. If such a book did not already exist, one should waste no time creating it; what was more, once created, it could be distributed to the many British pubs where Guinness stout was sold and where it would be useful in settling all those arguments that are peculiar to pubs.

http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-of-the-guinness-book-of-world-records-part-1.htm

When I first read the above comment, I thought it said "Sir Huge Beaver"......:headshake (better than Lady Huge Beaver, I guess)

"That is EXACTLY why the book was written. To resolve stupid bar trivia."

Yeah, but I think there's a difference between stupid bar trivia that's interesting, and stupid bar trivia that to most people is boring and not worth mentioning.

Also, there's a difference between phenomena that just occur naturally and events where people gather deliberately to try to break the world record so they could get into the Guinness Book.

Undertoad;374348 wrote:

Also, there is something to the idea of using ordinary, everyday objects to create art. So, sure, I'm coming out in favor of the idea of using art to set world records. Let's do this thing.

Yeah, there sure is. Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine come to mind.

Here's a bit of trivia for you.

Did you know that the Guiness Book of World Records is the book most stolen from libraries? (it's in the book)

Aliantha;375227 wrote:

Here's a bit of trivia for you.

Did you know that the Guiness Book of World Records is the book most stolen from libraries? (it's in the book)

Actually I thought the most stolen book was the bible.

Although I know that the Guinness Book of World Records is the top selling recurring book.