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December 11, 2005
The Wave of the Future
So my favorite piece of art, for at least the last 20 years or so, is a piece called "The Wave of the Future". I don't know where I first came across it -- I think it was in a set of postcards (ads), similar to the "ValPak" envelopes that come in the mail every month or so -- that showed up at my father's office back when I used to sort through the mail.
More in the Extended Entry.
Anyway -- the piece is a transition from the original, through a pixellation, to a wireframe rendering.
http://mistado.50megs.com/java/futurewav.htm has an animated version of it which is pretty nifty.
The backstory is that I liked the print so much that I asked my aunt to buy me a poster of it as my high school graduation present. The plan was to get it framed at a Prints Plus kind of store (in case you don't know, these tend to be relatively cheap, light plastic frames and a plastic sheet protecting the actual poster), and take it with me to college.
However, my aunt spent more money and effort on it than I'd wanted, and put a in a nice metal frame with real glass... And a few days after I got it, someone (one of my parents, if I remember correctly) stumbled into it and knocked it over. The glass broke and slightly tore the print. I was horribly upset by this, and set out to replace the poster; I figured I'd keep the nice frame & glass, put the new print in it, and take the torn one to college with me.
For whatever reason, I never managed to find a new copy. I don't know that I looked too hard; I had probably been distracted by my girlfriend and various other things going on that summer, and more or less forgot about it over time.
That was then, this is now. For some reason I remembered this recently - probably, it had something to do with cleaning up 'my' room at my father's house. Having remembered about it, and still really liking the picture, I've been trying to find it online. With no success at all!!! I don't know that I could have purchased it anyway, since I don't know what size to get, but I wish I could find some store that sells it. I've not yet gone to the malls to look, since it's Christmas season, but I may head out in January and try to find it...
I have a GIF or JPEG of it somewhere, on some computer or another, but I can't find it. Maybe I'll scan in one of the postcards (which I still have) and put that online.
The gist of this is, if anyone finds a copy of the print for sale, please let me know... Thanks. :-)
Posted by aland at December 11, 2005 3:38 PM
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Comments
I am ALSO on a rampage looking for that print, and to no avail! If you do end up scanning a postcard, could you please send me a copy at at least 150 DPI? Email above.
Posted by: Blair Seifert at March 17, 2006 12:20 PM
I checked with the Computer History Museum (who took over for the Boston Computer Museum), and was told:
We are the continuation of the Computer Museum that was in Boston.
Unfortunately we no longer sell that poster and only have a couple
copies that are now part of the Museum collection. I wish you luck in
finding a copy.
Best regards,
Allison
Posted by: Alan D at April 12, 2007 4:01 PM
Now you can search their collections...
Posted by: Alan D.
at June 23, 2008 10:39 PM
http://vorpal.us/img/waveofthefuture.jpg has a nice copy...
Posted by: Alan D.
at September 15, 2008 10:38 PM