We’re leaving on our World Tour tomorrow, but before we go I’d like to say goodbye to lovely Sydney. Ages ago, I took a bunch of pictures of the Sydney Opera House. This building is famous and iconically Sydney-ish, and it’s practically required by law that a picture of it appear alongside every mention of this city.
But the usual pictures never capture how cool the SOH is in person. How alien and dazzling, and how much fun Dess would have with the sheer mathiness of it. So here’s me trying.
Of course, the classic view of its “sails” is pretty cool . . .
But what you don’t get from that distance is how much like a grounded alien spaceship the building is. As you get closer, the sails tower over everything, till you sort of expect them to swallow the tourists. This is a BIG building. It’s intimidating and jaw-dropping, like getting too close to a sleeping dinosaur.
Supposedly, the goal-state of every English garden is that you can point a camera in any direction and get a perfectly composed picture. The Opera House gets much closer to this state than any garden I’ve ever seen. As you walk through the sails, unexpected compositions appear all around you.
Sometimes they’re soft and curvilinear . . .
And sometimes they get that alien spaceship/dinosaur vibe again.
But the coolest feature of the Opera House is the tiles. Every surface is covered with them. The tiles come in several shapes, and are organized in patterns that reflect the curve of the sails. There’s this self-similar fractal thing going on, so as you get closer or step away, the same curves pop out at your eyeballs at different scales.
And the tiles are really shiny, so the sun gets involved in the whole transformative process . . .
The whole building has this totally math-ilicious-ness about it that I’m sure Dess would love. Walking among its shifting shapes is sort of what I imagine it would be like to be in her head at midnight.
To see what I mean, click here for a monster-big version of the tiles in action.
Cool, huh?
Overall, it’s my favorite piece of modern architecture in the world. I’ll miss it while I’m gone.
March 5th, 2006 19:48
O cool Scott you are going on a world tour? when was this decided?
totally cool pics, definetly a Dess thing as well as really pretty.
Hope the tour is lots of fun, good luck with all the jet lag, and come back soon because what else am i gonna spend all my internet time reading if you arent here to do your blog! well anyways see ya and have fun!
March 5th, 2006 20:59
Wow I love the pics… Hmm tour..I am close enough to New York maybe I should get some books signed finally.. Well I hope that you are having a good time, don’t do anything bad…
March 6th, 2006 03:59
Wicked!
Up close, the tiles sort of look reptilian – like a snakeskin…
March 6th, 2006 04:05
Wow, those pictures are amazing, i want to go to australia even more now! thats not fair, i cant believe ur leaving it behind! But at least its for a good cause, being around fans is really important! If u get this before u get on the plane, will u wave to australia for me? does that sound weird, nvrmnd i said it, if it did sound weird. lol. i wish i was in the area u r coming to, silver u are so lucky! well have a safe trip scott, thanks for writing!
March 6th, 2006 04:38
makes me home sick..I want to go home
March 6th, 2006 05:32
OOOhhh… cool… I wanna see it… I never realized just how big that thing really is. Wow.
March 6th, 2006 07:53
I like the pics there…… I would post more but I’m still depressed about the Midnighters situation. I need a moment *sniffles*
March 6th, 2006 11:21
“Aww…”, *waves* “bye-bye sdyney!”
Atually i have never been there but i would love to go and see that famous opera house everyone is talking about.
March 7th, 2006 08:21
I must add Sydney to my list of places I want to visit…
March 7th, 2006 19:24
Whoa! That’s so cool. On the extra large one, I resized to be as big as possible and then scrolled down. It did this crazy optical illusion-type thing. Awesome, thanks.
March 9th, 2006 18:22
Omygosh! You were in Sydney! Dammit! Were you signing books???(Obviously I live here in awesome Sydney). Is Midnighters 3# even out in Aus yet? I’ve looked… but maybe it was too early? And I’m HANGING for Specials…! Have fun on your tour!
March 9th, 2006 18:36
He lives in Sydney.
March 9th, 2006 18:37
I mean, you probably know that but by the “you were in Sydney” part, it makes it sound like you don’t.
March 16th, 2006 07:09
I wonder what it would look like all thirteen letter word-a-fied.
March 27th, 2006 09:59
Latinus!