How Big Is Infinity? An Animated Explanation from TED

On the whimsy and limitations of mathematics.

Beloved novelist Umberto Eco believed that we use lists to make infinity comprehensible. Quantum computation pioneer David Deutsch teased apart the beginning and unboundedness of infinity. But what, exactly, is “infinity” and how big is it?

The fine folks at TED-Ed have teamed up with educator Dennis Wildfogel and animation studio Augenblick to explore the dimensions of infinity through this stimulatingly mind-bending lesson on legacies of mathematicians Georg Cantor, David Hilbet, Kurt Gödel, and Paul J. Cohen, exposing both the genius and limitations of mathematics.

For more on this fascinating subject, see George Gamow’s 1961 gem One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science, which features more than 120 pen-and-ink illustrations by the author himself, such as this:

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Illustration (The Finest Occupation): An Animated Short Film

A charming tongue-in-cheek testament to the art of taking joy in one’s work.

I recently had the delight of moderating an AIGA conversation on the future of illustration with all-star illustrators Christoph Niemann, Nicholas Blechman, and Jennifer Daniel, in which two things became immediately clear: The borders of what illustration actually is are ever-shifting, and the finest illustrators take enormous pride and pleasure in their work, despite its creative frustrations.

From Temujin Doran — documentarian, illustrator, language-lover, provocateur — comes Illustration (The Finest Occupation), a lovely short film about illustration based on a poem he wrote in his last year of (illustration) school, “a fictitious congratulatory letter written by a proud tutor to a recent graduate.” Doran’s drawings reminiscent of Edward Gorey and tongue-in-cheek rhymes, despite their irreverent tone, deliver the same tremendously important message Ray Bradbury so passionately articulated: Work with joy, always.

The greatest illustration
is not mere decoration
but succinct accumulation
of creative demonstration
and ratifying observation
of the intended subjectation
with alarming innovation
and shining punctuation
of all relevant information
done with stoic consideration
for its intended situation
exceeding all expectation
with regard to the examination
of images domination
to that of textual affectation
that commands generation upon generation
to convey without hesitation
their continued exultation
at its supreme imagination
within the realms of communication.

Thus it delights be beyond all anticipation
to relay my admiration
and relentless adoration
at your unbridled determination
towards your education
and after serious meditation
in the height of contemplation
it becomes my acclimation
to give you confirmation
after just deliberation
and close interrogation
of your startling illumination
variation
adaptation
and exemplification
accomplished in the field of illustration.

And so after such examination
it is my proud pronunciation
of your swift galvanization
a first rate qualification
you may receive with due humiliation
despite its floccinaucinihilipilification
(worthless accreditation)
so it becomes my recommendation
without prevarication
for celebration
and recreation
to be your obligation

Yours truly
Professor Toby Flosotation
B.A. M.A. Ph. D. Illustration

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Bill Plympton’s Quirky Animated Guides to Kissing and Making Love

“Here’s to every him and miss who loves a pure and sunny kiss.”

In 1896, Thomas Edison scandalized society with the very first kiss in cinema. Nearly a century later, in 1989, animation legend Bill Plympton created a charming short film for Rolling Stone, titled How to Kiss, examining with equal parts pragmatism and delightfully violent irreverence the art of the smooch, and laying out the technical components of the different kinds of kisses in his signature colored-pencil technique.

The face is the jewel in the crown of desire.

In 1995, Plympton upped the ante with the equally quirky and much more NSFW How to Make Love to a Woman, an animated guide to “the slippery and challenging path to true [heterosexual] romance”:

For more on and of these classic Plymptoons, see The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton (1987) and The Classic Works of Bill Plympton (1985).

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The Family That Dwelt Apart: Lovely Vintage Animated Film Based on an E. B. White Short Story

Misadventures in happy isolation.

E. B. White was a timeless champion of literary style, crusader for the writer’s social responsibility, vocal pundit on matters of the free press, unsuspected New Yorker cover artist, and one of my two favorite authors of all time.

This wonderful 1973 animated short film is based on White’s New Yorker story The Family That Dwelt Apart, directed by Yvon Mallette, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and narrated by White himself.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 47th Academy Awards, but lost to the claymation short Closed Mondays. It appears in the 1974 compilation More Animation Greats.

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