Weave

Monday, 15th September 2003
I'm heading for Rotterdam. The sun is shining and Gouda's train station in exceptionally busy. An American couple joins me in the compartment, not really my favourite kind of tourists. But well, this couple invalidates my prejudices.

They enjoy their journey, departed by train from Amsterdam to Brugge. They have lost count on the trains they have boarded. There must be a big logistic problem somewhere, as they are now detouring Den Haag -> Rotterdam via Gouda. All's well.

This morning they planned to travel to Ireland, the most Western point of Europe. I love this flexibility. I comfort them with the fact that they just passed the deepest point of Europe, 6 metres below sea level. They enjoy it fully, west or deep, what is the difference. They have been there!

Rubens - Achilles' life

boijmans.rotterdam.nl

The exposition cleverly lines up
sketch, painting, and tapestry.
Look from the right angle and see the all three.

My destination for today is the Boymans van Beuningen museum. From Rotterdam Central station I take a stroll along the Westersingel art works. It is as if you feel the museum's atmosphere approaching.

Rotterdam is cool, one of the places where this wanderer feels at home. I enjoy the colourful Chinese restaurants, the pluriform people, the contrasts, the relaxed atmosphere on the streets.

The main attraction in Boymans is an exposition on tapestries. It is impressive indeed, these huge cloths. What catches me most the an introduction movie. Rubens' approach is very well known to me:

  1. Rubens started with paper prototype a cheap sketch. He discussed them with the customer, until the design was stable.
  2. Rubens used the sketches to make paintings, modelling. He enlarged them to real size 'cartons', mockups, the current HTML prototypes.
  3. Only then the weaver started to create the real, expensive tapestry. Look close at such woven tapestry and see... pixels! The old day weavers are todays web developers!
So, paper prototypes are not revolutionary. They date back to the 17the century!

Till next nut,
Nut