Hybrid

Hybrid (pronounced hahy-brid)

(1) In genetics (plant biology, zoology etc), the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics.

(2) In medical anthropology, a person or group of persons produced by the interaction or crossbreeding of two unlike cultures, traditions etc.

(3) A vehicle that combines an internal-combustion engine with one or more electric motors powered by batteries.

(4) In linguistics, composed of elements originally drawn from different languages, as a word.

(5) In the pedigree pet industry, the modern term, replacing the previous mongrel to describe offspring of mixed origin; contested in the industry.

(6) As a descriptor, anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds; animal, vegetable, mineral or weightless.

(7) Any device which can fulfil two distinct purposes such as "mountain" bikes which can also be used on the road.

(8) In physics, an electromagnetic wave having components of both electric and magnetic field vectors in the direction of propagation.

(9) In golf, a club that combines the characteristics of an iron and a wood.

(10) In electronics, a circuit constructed of individual devices bonded to a substrate or PCB.

(11) In computing, a computer that is part analog computer and part digital computer (and speculatively (1) part conventional and part quantum or (2) part machine and part biological).

1601: From the Middle English hybrid (offspring of plants or animals of different variety or species), from the Latin hybrida, a variant of ibrida (mongrel), originally describing the offspring of a tame sow and wild boar, the origin of which is unknown but etymologists suggest it likely evolved under influence of the Ancient Greek ὕβρις (húbris) (outrage) and it was cognate with the Latin iber & imbrum (mule).  Hybrid was first noted in English in 1601 but use was scant outside of technical use until stimulated in the 1850s by the boom in the sciences of botany and plant breeding, the adjective attested from 1716.  The first hybrid car was the Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid, released in 1901 and based on Ferdinand Porsche’s (1875-1951) earlier electric vehicle, the Electromobile although the first car actually badged as "hybrid" to indicate an "automobile powered by (1) an engine running on electricity and (2) an engine running on fossil fuel was released only in 2002.  The noun hybridity (state or condition of being hybrid) dates from 1823 while the intransitive verb hybridize (cross or inter-breed) was from 1802, the transitive sense of "cause to interbreed" emerging in 1823.  Hybrid is a noun & adjective, hybridize is a verb and hybridity, hybridism & (the awful) hybridisation are nouns; the noun plural is hybrids.

Categories of Eyelash Extensions

Classic Eyelash Extensions give a semi-permanent mascara look.  The technique is to attach what’s as close as possible to the thickness of the natural lash to each strand able to support the load.  They can be applied in different lengths, thereby emulating either the look of mascara only or something both longer and lusher.  Lifespan is two-four weeks depending on body chemistry, lifestyle and care routines.

Clusters or Party lashes are intended to be single-use, worn for no more than a day although, under good conditions, they can last several.  It’s not recommended to wear them for more than two-three days because, being much heavier than other extensions, they can cause damage.

Italian volume.  The lovely "eyelashes" on the Lamborghini P400 Miura (1966-1968) were carried over to the P400S (1968-1971) but were unfortunately not used on the P400SV (1971-1973).  Because of the fundamental design, the Miura had flaws which could to some extent be ameliorated but never wholly fixed.  Few now care because it's so achingly beautiful.    

Express lashes are the A&E of the profession.  Done in minutes, the strands are simply glued to the natural lashes and, because eyelashes grow at different rates, damage can happen if they’re worn too long.  They don’t provide a look as good as other techniques but, apart from their intended purposes of cheapness and speed, there exists in subsets of several groups, the niche market of the obviously fake.

A mix of Classic Lash Extensions and either Pre-Made or Russian Volumes, Hybrid volumes make possible some dramatically textured looks but, unless the mix is purely symmetrical, it needs a trained operator to weave a pleasing design.  The most popular contemporary interpretation usually blends strategically-placed long lengths of classic lashes, filled-in between with volume extensions.  Some operators call this look The Spiky.

Russian Volume modelled by Lindsay Lohan, 2010.  One of a series of monochrome images by photographer Tyler Shields (b 1982).

Real Russian Volume lashes are much lighter than classics and are manipulated by hand, with special tweezers, to create a fan or bouquet of lashes which is then placed onto a single natural lash.  Slow and expensive, each fan is wrapped around the natural lash, not just placed on top and that creates greater structural integrity so they tend to be longer-lasting.  Some lower-cost operators sell what they describe as Russian Volume using pre-made fans which are just placed on top.

Pre Made Volumes are fans or bouquets of lightweight lash extensions, glued or heat-bonded at the base.  They emulate the look of Russian Volume but don’t last as long; at a distance the two are indistinguishable but up-close, the pre-made fans can’t match the flow and flutter of the voluminous Russian.

Mule

Mule (pronounced myule)

(1) The sterile offspring of a female horse and a male donkey; a generalised term for any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.

(2) In informal use, a very stubborn person.

(3) In botany, any sterile hybrid.

(4) As drug mule, slang for a person paid to carry or transport contraband, especially drugs, for a smuggler.

(5) A small locomotive used for pulling rail cars, as in a coal yard or on an industrial site, or for towing, as of ships through canal locks.

(6) As spinning mule, a machine for spinning cotton or other fibers into yarn and winding the yarn on spindles.

(7) A style of open-backed women’s shoe, historically a lounging slipper that covers the toes and instep or only the instep.

(8) In nautical use, a large triangular staysail set between two masts and having its clew set well aft.

(9) In numismatics, a hybrid coin having the obverse of one issue and the reverse of the succeeding issue, or vice versa.

(10) A cocktail in various flavors (Jamaican Mule, Kentucky Mule & Moscow Mule) based respectively on Rum, Bourbon whiskey and Vodka

(11) As mule-deer, a species native to the western United States and so-named because of its large ears.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English mule, from the Anglo-Norman mule and the Old English mūl, both from the Latin mūlus, from the primitive Indo-European mukslós.   Related were the Middle Dutch mūle, the Old French mul (mule, hinny), the Late Latin muscellus (young he-mule), the Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ) (mule), the Phocian Ancient Greek  μυχλός (mukhlós) (he-ass) and the German Maul, Maultier & Maulesel, again derived from Latin.  It’s thought the Latin word was influenced by the Proto-Italic musklo- which is probably (along with the Ancient Greek myklos (pack-mule) and the Albanian mushk (mule)) a loan-word from one of the languages of Asia Minor.  The noun muleteer (mule driver) dates from the 1530s and was from the French muletier, from mulet (mule), a diminutive formation which in French displaced the Old French mul as the word for "mule".  The adjective mulish (possessing the characteristics imputed to the mule) is used of people thought obstinate rather than hard working; the word was in use by 1751 and the  alternative is mulelike (or mule-like), mulesque apparently either never created or not catching on. Mule is a noun & verb, mulishness & muleteer are nouns, mulishly is an adverb and mulish & mulelike are adjectives; the noun plural is mules. 

A mule of the Cyprus Regiment being loaded onto a transport ship, 1940.

As beasts of burden, mules widely were used by all military forces in Greece and the Middle East during World War II (1939-1945).  The Cyprus Regiment (1940-1950) was a unit of the British Army, formed from volunteers who were mostly Greek or Turkish Cypriots but the army's records list also members who were Armenian, Maronite or Latin inhabitants of Cyprus.  In the way such units tended during the conflict to be augmented by elements from other formations, soldiers from a number of Commonwealth nations were also from time to time attached to the establishment.

The mule became a popular pack animal because it was aid to "combine the strength of the horse with the endurance and surefootedness of the ass" and for centuries mules extensively have been bred to select for one characteristic or the other, those working mountainous trails a different beast from those on the plains.  To be zoologically correct, a mule is properly the offspring of a he-ass and a mare; that of a she-ass and a stallion is technically a hinny while a mule born of a horse and a she-ass is a burdon, a late fourteenth century creation from the Latin burdonem.  Ordinarily, male mules are incapable of procreation and commonly the word is applied allusively of hybrids and things of mixed nature.  The phrase "test mule" entered engineering (and later product development generally) in the 1920s to describe devices built for purposes of evaluation and thus expendable, a fate suffered no doubt by many an unfortunate beast. 

The mule's well-deserved reputation as a stellar beast of burden appears in the odd idiomatic form but it's the other traits which accounts for most popular use and perhaps surprisingly, given "stubborn as a mule" now appears in much greater frequency than "dumb as a mule" .  The meaning “stupid person” was noted by the 1470s, that of someone "obstinate or stubborn” not emerging until the eighteenth century although the latter use has endured and "working like a mule" proved an acceptable replacement when "working like an N-word" became proscribed.  There must have been some grounds for the beast picking up its reputation for obstinacy but there seems no evidence of the origin of that but it must sufficiently have been recognized to gain currency and become a proverbial descriptor of stubbornness.  A soul with such a tendency said to be "mulish"; within the family, Winston Churchill's (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) daughter Sarah (1914-1982) was nicknamed “the mule” (the English upper classes do like nick-names).  It seems likely the phrase "kick like a mule" was born of bitter experience although modern use is almost exclusively figurative, stronger forms of alcoholic drink commonly attracting the label.  It was formalized as the "Moscow Mule" (a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer, and lime juice) although in the Western intelligence community that term was used also of traitors in the pay of the Soviet Union.  That use was probably modelled on "drug mule", underworld slang for "a smuggler of narcotics" which was noted as early as 1935 and came into general use in the post-war years.  The mule-deer of the western United States picked up the name because of its strikingly large ears.

Australian architect & multi-media installation Bianca Censori (b 1995), Instagram post, May 2025.

Ms Censori is one of the industry's leading practitioners of minimalist fashion and on this occasion paired a fishnet top with sheer tights, sunglasses the only visible accessory.  Wearing unobtrusive mules rather than the fishnet’s clichéd stilettos was a nice juxtaposition and the background was well-chosen, proving the value of a trained architect's eye.  

The so-named spinning machine dates from 1793 (first known as the "mule jenny" in 1788), the name derived from it being a "hybrid" of Richard Arkwright's (1732–1792) drawing-rollers and the spinning jenny invented by the English carpenter James Hargreaves (circa 1720–1778).  In what seems to have been an imaginative flight of etymological fancy, it was in the eighteenth century suggested the name "mule" was applied because the thing without complaint did so much of the labor which would otherwise have to be undertaken by human hand but there seems no doubt the inspiration was the machine's hybrid origin.  The use to describe the loose slipper worn as footwear was drawn into English in the 1560s from the Old French mule (slipper) from the Latin mulleus calceus (literally “red high-soled shoe”), a shoe worn by Roman patricians and associated with magistrates.  This footwear is unrelated to the long tradition of the Roman Catholic Pope wearing red shoes, the association tracing back to the notion of the blood of Christ falling on his feet as he carried on his back the cross on which he was crucified on Golgotha.  They were made again famous by fashion icon Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) although his successor, Francis (b 1936-2025; pope 2013-2025), favored plain black.

The mule the clog and the slide

Lindsay Lohan in Alexander Wang (b 1983) Amelia mules, Mykonos, Greece, June 2019.  Note the low heel, an example of how the term “mule" is used now by manufacturers to describe just about anything with some degree of openness in the heel.

Mules, by definition are backless but may be sling-backs and can have open or closed toes.  There are many who would classify these as sandals and some manufacturers agree.  In this context "mule" was from the Ancient Roman mulleus calceus a red (or reddish-purple) shoe popular with upper-class Romans and worn as a symbol of office by the three highest magistrates although the scant historical evidence does suggest the Roman footwear looked more like modern clogs than mules and logically, one would expect footwear with thicker, tougher soles would at the time have been preferred for use outdoors.  High-heeled mules became a popular indoor style during the 1700s, influenced by the pattern, a backless overshoe of the sixteenth century, although, by early in the twentieth, mules were often derided as the "dress-wear" of the "better class of prostitutes" and it wasn’t until Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) adopted the mule in the 1950s they again assumed some respectability.  By the 1990s, mules were among the most popular of shoes, their combination of stylishness, comfort and practicality making them a wardrobe essential.

Chanel Mesh & Grosgrain Mule in black with 3.3 inch (85mm) heel @ US$800, Chanel part-number: G37505 Y55290 94305.

The descriptors mules, clogs and slides are sometimes used interchangeably.  The typical clog is a closed-toed wooden (or other) soled shoe with a heel no more than a couple of inches high.  Clogs are backless (although there are clog boots).  Mules, by comparison, traditionally had a higher heel although the strictness applied to that definition has weakened the emphasis seemingly now on the backlessness although there standards too are loose, slingback mules common.  The term slide derives from being applied to designs permitting the foot to slide in and may thus apply to both mules and clogs rather than being a distinct style.

Ultracrepidarian

Ultracrepidarian (pronounced uhl-truh-krep-i-dair-ee-uhn)

Of or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside their area of expertise

1819: An English adaptation of the historic words sūtor, ne ultra crepidam, uttered by the Greek artist Apelles and reported by the Pliny the Elder.  Translating literally as “let the shoemaker venture no further” and sometimes cited as ne supra crepidam sūtor judicare, the translation something like “a cobbler should stick to shoes”.  From the Latin, ultra is beyond, sūtor is cobbler and crepidam is accusative singular of crepida (from the Ancient Greek κρηπίς (krēpís)) and means sandal or sole of a shoe.  Ultracrepidarian is a noun & verb and ultracrepidarianism is a noun; the noun plural is ultracrepidarians.  For humorous purposes, forms such as ultracrepidarist, ultracrepidarianish, ultracrepidarianize & ultracrepidarianesque have been coined; all are non-standard.

Ultracrepidarianism describes the tendency among some to offer opinions and advice on matters beyond their competence.  The word entered English in 1819 when used by English literary critic and self-described “good hater”, William Hazlitt (1778–1830), in an open letter to William Gifford (1756–1826), editor of the Quarterly Review, a letter described by one critic as “one of the finest works of invective in the language” although another suggested it was "one of his more moderate castigations" a hint that though now neglected, for students of especially waspish invective, he can be entertaining; the odd quote from him would certainly lend a varnish of erudition to trolling.  Ultracrepidarian comes from a classical allusion, Pliny the Elder (circa 24-79) recording the habit of the famous Greek painter Apelles (a fourth century BC contemporary of Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon, 356-323 BC)), to display his work in public view, then conceal himself close by to listen to the comments of those passing.  One day, a cobbler paused and picked fault with Apelles’ rendering of sandals and the artist immediately took his brushes and pallet and touched-up the errant straps.  Encouraged, the amateur critic then let his eye wander above the ankle and suggested how the leg might be improved but this Apelles rejected, telling him to speak only of shoes and otherwise maintain a deferential silence.  Pliny hinted the artist's words of dismissal may not have been polite.

So critics should comment only on that about which they know.  The phrase in English is usually “cobbler, stick to your last” (a last a shoemaker’s pattern, ultimately from a Germanic root meaning “to follow a track'' hence footstep) and exists in many European languages: zapatero a tus zapatos is the Spanish, schoenmaker, blijf bij je leest the Dutch, skomager, bliv ved din læst the Danish and schuster, bleib bei deinen leisten, the German.  Pliny’s actual words were ne supra crepidam judicaret, (crepidam a sandal or the sole of a shoe), but the idea is conveyed is in several ways in Latin tags, such as Ne sutor ultra crepidam (sutor means “cobbler”, a word which survives in Scotland in the spelling souter).  The best-known version is the abbreviated tag ultra crepidam (beyond the sole), and it’s that which Hazlitt used to construct ultracrepidarian.  Crepidam is from the Ancient Greek κρηπίς (krēpís) and has no link with words like decrepit or crepitation (which are from the Classical Latin crepare (to creak, rattle, or make a noise)) or crepuscular (from the Latin word for twilight); crepidarian is an adjective rare perhaps to the point of extinction meaning “pertaining to a shoemaker”.

The related terms are "Nobel disease" & "Nobel syndrome" which are used to describe some of the opinions offered by Nobel laureates on subjects beyond their specialization.  In some cases this is "demand" rather than "supply" driven because, once a prize winner is added to a media outlet's "list of those who comment on X", if they turn out to give answers which generate audience numbers, controversy or clicks, they become "talent" and may be asked questions about matters of which they know little.  This happens because some laureates in the three "hard" prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine) operate in esoteric corners of their discipline; asking a particle physicist something about plasma physics on the basis of their having won the physics prize may not elicit useful information.  Of course those who have won the economics gong or one of what are now the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) prizes (peace & literature) may be assumed to have helpful opinions on everything.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956): Blue Poles

Number 11 (Blue poles, 1952), oil, enamel and aluminum paint with glass on canvas.

In 1973, when a million dollars was a still lot of money, the NGA (National Gallery of Australia), a little controversially, paid Aus$1.3 million for Jackson Pollock’s (1912-1956) Number 11, 1952, popularly known as Blue Poles since it was first exhibited in 1954, the new name reputedly chosen by the artist.  It was some years ago said to be valued at up to US$100 million but, given the increase in the money supply (among the rich who trade this stuff) over the last two decades odd, that estimate may now be conservative although the suggestion in 2016 the value may have inflated to as much as US$350 million was though to be "on the high side".  Blue Poles emerged during Pollock’s "drip period" (1947-1950), a method which involved techniques such throwing paint at a canvas spread across the floor.  The art industry liked these (often preferring the more evocative term "action painting") and they remain his most popular works, although at this point, he abandoned the dripping and moved to his “black porings phase” a darker, simpler style which didn’t attract the same commercial interest.  He later returned to more colorful ways but his madness and alcoholism worsened; he died in a drink-driving accident.

Alchemy (1947), oil, aluminum, alkyd enamel paint with sand, pebbles, fibres, and broken wooden sticks on canvas.

Although the general public remained uninterested (except in the price tags) or sceptical, there were critics, always drawn to a “troubled genius”, who praised Pollock’s work and the industry approves of any artist who (1) had the decency to die young and (2) produced lots of stuff which can sell for millions.  US historian of art, curator & author Helen A Harrison (b 1943; director (1990-2024) of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, the former home and studio of the Abstract Expressionist artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in East Hampton, New York) is an admirer, noting the “pioneering drip technique…” which “…introduced the notion of action painting", where the canvas became the space with which the artist actively would engage”.  As a thumbnail sketch she offered:

Number 14: Gray (1948), enamel over gesso on paper.

“Reminiscent of the Surrealist notions of the subconscious and automatic painting, Pollock's abstract works cemented his reputation as the most critically championed proponent of Abstract Expressionism. His visceral engagement with emotions, thoughts and other intangibles gives his abstract imagery extraordinary immediacy, while his skillful use of fluid pigment, applied with dance-like movements and sweeping gestures that seldom actually touched the surface, broke decisively with tradition. At first sight, Pollock's vigorous method appears to create chaotic labyrinths, but upon close inspection his strong rhythmic structures become evident, revealing a fascinating complexity and deeper significance.  Far from being calculated to shock, Pollock's liquid medium was crucial to his pictorial aims.  It proved the ideal vehicle for the mercurial content that he sought to communicate 'energy and motion made visible - memories arrested in space'.”

Number 13A: Arabesque (1948), oil and enamel on canvas.

Critics either less visionary or more fastidious seemed often as appalled by Pollock’s violence of technique as they were by the finished work (or “products” as some labelled the drip paintings), questioning whether any artistic skill or vision even existed, one finding them “…mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless.”  The detractors used the language of academic criticism but meant the same thing as the frequent phrase of an unimpressed public: “That’s not art, anyone could do that.”

Number 1, 1949 (1949), enamel and metallic paint on canvas. 

There have been famous responses to  “That’s not art, anyone could do that” but Ms Harrison's was practical, offering people the opportunity to try.  To the view that “…people thought it was arbitrary, that anyone can fling paint around”, Ms Harrison conceded it was true anybody could “fling paint around” but that was her point, anybody could, but having flung, they wouldn’t “…necessarily come up with anything” by which she meant the wouldn't necessarily come up with anything of which the critical establishment (a kind of freemasonry of the art business) would approve (ie could put a price tag on).

Helen A Harrison, The Jackson Pollock Box (Cider Mill Press, 96pp, ISBN-10:1604331860, ISBN-13:978-1604331868).

In 2010, Ms Harrison released The Jackson Pollock Box, a kit which, in addition to an introductory text, included paint brushes, drip bottles and canvases so people could do their own flinging and compare the result against a Pollock.  After that, they may agree with collector Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) that Pollock was “...the greatest painter since Picasso” or remain unrepentant ultracrepidarians.  Of course, many who thought their own eye for art quite well-trained didn't agree with Ms Guggenheim.  In 1945, just after the war, Duff Cooper (1890–1954), then serving as Britain's ambassador to France, came across Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) leaving an exhibition of paintings by English children aged 5-10 and in his diary noted the great cubist saying he "had been much impressed".  "No wonder" added the ambassador, "the pictures are just as good as his".

Dresses & drips: Three photographs by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), shot for a three-page feature in Vogue (March 1951) titled American Fashion: The New Soft Look which juxtaposed Pollock’s paintings hung in New York’s Betty Parsons Gallery with the season’s haute couture by Irene (1872-1951) & Henri Bendel (1868-1936).

Beaton choose the combinations of fashion and painting; pairing Lavender Mist (1950, left) with a short black ball gown of silk paper taffeta with large pink bow at one shoulder and an asymmetrical hooped skirt best illustrates the value of his trained eye.  Critics and social commentators have always liked these three pages, relishing the opportunity to comment on the interplay of so many of the clashing forces of modernity: the avant-garde and fashion, production and consumption, abstraction and representation, painting and photography, autonomy and decoration, masculinity and femininity, art and commerce.  Historians of art note it too because it was the abstract expressionism of the 1940s which was both uniquely an American movement and the one which in the post-war years saw the New York supplant Paris as the centre of Western art.  There have been interesting discussions about when last it could be said Western art had a "centre".

Blue Poles, upside down.

Although the suggestion might offend the trained and discerning eyes of art critics, it’s doubtful that for ultracrepidarians the experience of viewing Blue Poles would much be different were it to be hung upside down.  Fortunately, the world does have a goodly stock of art critics who can explain that while Pollock did more than once say his works should be interpreted “subjectively”, their intended orientation is a part of the whole and an inversion would change the visual dynamics and gravitational illusions upon which the abstraction effects depend would be changed.  It would still be a painting but, in a sense, not the one the artist painted.  Because the drip technique involved “flinging and poring paint” onto a canvas spread across a studio’s floor, there was not exactly a randomness in where the paint landed but physics did mean gravity exerted some pull (in flight and on the ground), lending layers and rivulets what must be a specific downward orientation.  Thus, were the work to be hung inverted, what was in the creative process a downward flow would be seen as “flowing uphill” as it were.  The compositional elements which lent the work its name were course the quasi-vertical “poles” placed at slight angles and its these which are the superstructure which “anchor” the rest of the drips and, being intrinsically “directional”, they too have a “right way up”.  There is in the assessment of art the “eye of the beholder” but although it may be something they leave unstated, most critics will be of the “some eyes are more equal than others” school.

Mondrian’s 1941 New York City 1 as it (presumably correctly) sat in the artist's studio in 1944 (left) and as it was since 1945 exhibited (upside-down) in New York and Düsseldorf (right).  Spot the difference.

So although ultracrepidarians may not “get it” (even after digesting the critics’ explanations) and wouldn’t be able to tell whether or not it was hung correctly, that’s because they’re philistines.  In the world of abstract art however, even the critics can be fooled: in 2022, it was revealed a work in Piet Mondrian’s (1872-1944) 1941 New York City 1 series had for 77 years been hanging upside down.  First in exhibited in 1945 in New York’s MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), the piece was created with multi-colored adhesive paper tape and, in an incorrect orientation, it has since 1980 hung in the Düsseldorf Museum as part of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen’s collection.  The decades-long, trans-Atlantic mistake came to light during a press conference held to announce the Kunstsammlung’s new Mondrian exhibition and the conclusion was the error may have been caused by something as simple as the packing-crate being overturned or misleading instructions being given to the staff.  1941 New York City 1 will remain upside because of the condition of the adhesive strips.  “The adhesive tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread” a curator was quoted as saying, adding that if it were now to be turned-over, “…gravity would pull it into another direction.  And it’s now part of the work’s story.”  Mondrian was one of the more significant theorists of abstract art and its withdrawal from nature and natural subjects.  “Denaturalization” he proclaimed to be a milestone in human progress, adding: “The power of neo-plastic painting lies in having shown the necessity of this denaturalization in painterly terms... to denaturalize is to abstract... to abstract is to deepen.”  Now even ultracrepidarians can understand.

Eye of the beholder: Portrait of Lindsay Lohan in the style of Claude Monet (1840–1926) at craiyon.com and available at US$26 on an organic cotton T-shirt made in a factory powered by renewable energy.

Whether the arguments about what deserves to be called “art” began among prehistoric “artists” and their critics in caves long ago isn’t known but it’s certainly a dispute with a long history.  In the sense it’s a subjective judgment the matter was doubtless often resolved by a potential buyer declining to purchase but during the twentieth century it became a contested topic and there were celebrated exhibits and squabbles which for decades played out before, in the post modern age, the final answer appeared to be something was art if variously (1) the creator said it was or (2) an art critic said it was or (3) it was in an art gallery or (4) the price tag was sufficiently impressive.

So what constitutes “art” is a construct of time, place & context which evolves, shaped by historical, cultural, social, economic, political & personal influences, factors which in recent years have had to be cognizant of the rise of cultural equivalency, the recognition that Western concepts such as the distinction between “high” (or “fine”) art and “folk” (or “popular”) art can’t be applied to work from other traditions where cultural objects are not classified by a graduated hierarchy.  In other words, everybody’s definition is equally valid.  That doesn’t mean there are no longer gatekeepers because the curators in institutions such as museums, galleries & academies all discriminate and thus play a significant role in deciding what gets exhibited, studied & promoted, even though few would now dare to suggest what is art and what is not: that would be cultural imperialism.

Eye of the prompt 1.0: An AI (artificial intelligence) generated portrait of Lindsay Lohan by ChatGPT imagined in "drip painting style", this one using an interpretation which overlaid "curated drips" over "flung paint".  This could be rendered using Ms Harrison's Jackson Pollock Box but would demand some talent.

In the twentieth century, it seemed to depend on artistic intent, something which transcended a traditional measure such as aesthetic value but as the graphic art in advertising and that with a political purpose such as agitprop became bigger, brighter and more intrusive, such forms also came to be regarded as art or at least worth of being studied or exhibited on the same basis, in the same spaces as oil on canvas portraits & landscapes.  Once though, an unfamiliar object in such places could shock as French painter & sculptor Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) managed in 1917 when he submitted a porcelain urinal as his piece for an exhibition in New York, his rationale being “…everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist's act of choice.”  Even then it wasn’t a wholly original approach but the art establishment has never quite recovered and from that urinal to Dadaism, to soup cans to unmade beds, it became accepted that “anything goes” and people should be left to make of it what they will.  Probably the last remaining reliable guide to what really is "art" remains the price tag.

Eye of the prompt 1.1: An AI (artificial intelligence) generated portrait of Lindsay Lohan by ChatGPT imagined in "drip painting style", this one closer to Pollock’s “action painting” technique.

His drip period wholly non-representational, Pollock didn’t produce recognizable portraiture so applying the technique for this purpose demands guesswork.  As AI illustrates, it can be done but, in blending two incompatible modes, whether it looks much like what Pollock would have produced had he accepted a “paint Lindsay Lohan” commission, is wholly speculative.  What is more likely is that even if some sort of hybrid, a portrait by Pollock would have been an abstraction altogether more chaotic and owing little to the structure on which such works usually depend in that there probably would have been no central focal point, fewer hints of symmetry and a use of shading producing a face not lineal in its composition.  That’s what his sense of “continuous motion” dictated: no single form becoming privileged over the rest.  So, this too is not for the literalists schooled in the tradition of photo-realism but as a work it’s also an example of how most armed with Ms Harrison's Jackson Pollock Box could with "drip & fling" produce this but not necessarily would produce this, chaos on canvas needing talent too.

1948 Cisitalia 202 GT (left; 1947-1952) and 1962 Jaguar E-Type (1961-1974; right), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City.

Urinals tend not to be admired for their aesthetic qualities but there are those who find beauty in stuff as diverse as math equations and battleships.  Certain cars have long been objects which can exert an emotional pull on those with a feeling for such things and if the lines are sufficiently pleasing, many flaws in execution or engineering can be forgiven, sometimes to the point they become part of the charm.  New York’s MoMA in 1972 acknowledged such creations can be treated as works of art when they added a 1948 Cisitalia 202 GT finished in “Cisitalia Red” (MoMA object number 409.1972) to their collection, the press release noting it was “…the first time that an art museum in the U.S. put a car into its collection.”  Others appeared from time-to-time and while the 1953 Willys-Overland Jeep M-38A1 Utility Truck (MoMA object number 261.2002) perhaps is not conventionally beautiful, its brutish functionalism has a certain simplicity of form and in the exhibition notes MoMA clarified somewhat by describing it as a “rolling sculpture”, presumably in the spirit of a urinal being a “static sculpture”, both to be admired as pieces of design perfectly suited to their intended purpose, something of an art in itself.  Of the 1962 Jaguar E-Type (informally sometimes as XKE or XK-E in the US) open two seater (OTS, better known as a roadster and acquired as MoMA object number 113.996), there was no need to explain because it’s one of the most seductive shapes ever rendered in metal.  Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) attended the 1961 Geneva International Motor Show (now defunct but, on much the same basis as manufacturers east of Suez buying brand-names such as MG, Jaguar and such, the name has been purchased for use by an event in staged in Qatar) when the E-Type made its stunning debut and part of folklore is he called it “the most beautiful car in the world”.  Whether those words ever passed his lips isn’t certain because the sources vary slightly in detail and il Commendatore apparently never confirmed or denied the sentiment but it’s easy to believe and to this day many agree just looking at the thing can be a visceral experience.  The MoMA car is finished in "Opalescent Dark Blue" with a grey interior and blue soft-top (there are those who would prefer it in BRG (British Racing Green) over tan leather) and although as a piece of design it's not flawless, anyone who can't see the beauty in a Series 1 E-Type OTS truly is an ultracrepidarian.   

Fishnet

Fishnet (pronounced fish-net)

(1) A net for catching fish.

(2) A fabric with an open mesh, resembling a fishnet.

(3) Being of an open-mesh weave.

(4) In fashion as a clipping of “fishnet stockings” & “fishnet tights”, usually in the form “fishnets”.

(5) In math, geometry and mapping, as “fishnet grid”, a grid of equally-sized (usually square or rectangular) cells which can be overlaid onto another representations (graphs, chart-lines, maps etc) for various purposes.  

Pre 1000: from the Middle English, from the Old English fiscnett, the construct being fish + net.  Fish was from the Middle English fisch, from the Old English fisċ (fish), from the Proto-West Germanic fisk, from the Proto-Germanic fiskaz (fish).  It may be compared with the West Frisian fisk, the Dutch vis, the German Fisch, the Danish, Norwegian & Swedish fisk and the Icelandic fiskur, from the primitive Indo-European peysḱ- (fish) (the equivalent form in was iasc and in Latin piscis.  Net was from the Middle English nett, from the Old English net & nett, from the Proto-West Germanic nati, from the Proto-Germanic natją, from the primitive Indo-European ned- (to turn, twist, knot).  It was cognate with the West Frisian net, the Low German Nett, the Dutch net, the German Netz, the Danish net and the Swedish nät.  Fishnet is a noun & adjective and fishnetted & fishnetty are adjectives; the noun plural is fishnets.

The most obvious “fishnet grid” is of course the fishnet, used by fishers to harvest seafood and one of the oldest technologies still in use with its essential design unchanged although much has changed in terms of materials, scale and techniques of use, some now highly controversial.  The same design (a grid structure with equal sized cells) is used in various field including (1) concreting where the steel reinforcing for slabs is used in this form, either in pre-made sections or assembled on-site.  (2) In agriculture, the grids are used as a support structure for climbing plants like beans which grow up the grid, gaining enhanced exposure to airflow and sunlight; ultimately, the arrangements also make harvesting easier and cheaper.  Made now with slender, strong, cheap and lightweight plastic strands which don’t absorb moisture, like the nets used to harvest fish, the agricultural mesh is produced in a variety of cell sizes, the choice dictated by the crop. (3) In architecture and interior decorating, grids are common design element, sometimes integrated into structural members and sometimes merely decorative.  (4) In fashion, the most famous fishnet grids are of course those used on stockings & tights where the most frequently seen patterns are diamonds or squares displayed with points perpendicular.  When used of other garments, the orientation of the cells can vary. (5) In industrial design, fishnet grids made of durable materials like steel or synthetic fibers are widely used, providing structures which can be lighter than those made with solid materials yet, in a seeming paradox, be stronger, at least in the direction of the stresses to which they’ll be exposed.  Such constructions are often used in support structures, fencing and other barriers.

North America with the lines of latitude & longitude as traditionally depicted in maps using a fishnet grid (left) and in a form which reflects the effects of the curvature of the earth.

In cartography, the most famous fishnet grid is that made up from the lines of latitude & longitude which, east & west, north & south, encircle the globe and have for centuries been used for navigation.  However, the familiar representation of the lines of latitude and longitude as a fishnet grid is illusory because the common, rectangular map of the world is just a two-dimensional rendering of a three dimensional sphere.  For most purposes, the flat map is ideal but when lines of latitude & longitude were added, so were distortions because the lines of longitude converge at the poles, becoming progressively closer as they move away from the equator.  Never parallel on the sphere which is planet Earth, on a map the lines are exactly parallel; a perfect fishnet grid.

The politics of the Mercator Map

The Mercator projection was developed in 1568 by Flemish geographer, cosmographer & cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) as a navigation tool with spherical planet earth depicted on a flat rectangular grid with parallel lines of latitude and longitude.  Its functionality was such that in the west, it became the standard technique of projection for nautical navigation and the de facto standard for maps and charts.  For seafarers it was invaluable; all they needed do was follow the line on the chart and, barring accidents, they would arrive where intended.  However, the Mercator map is a most imprecise representation of the precise shapes and relative sizes of land masses because the projection distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the Equator to the poles, where scale becomes infinite.  That’s why land-masses such as Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger than they actually are, relative to equatorial areas such as central Africa.

The Mercator map (left), the distorting effect of the Mercator projection with the real size in the darker shade (centre) and the actual geography of Earth's land masses (right).

In the twentieth century, that distortion attracted criticism on the grounds the projection tended to increase the size of the land-masses of the European colonial powers while reducing those in the colonized south.  However, neither Gerardus Mercator nor other cartographers had social or political axes to grind; the geographical distortion was an unintended consequence of what was designed as a navigational device and it's anyway impossible accurately to depict the surface of a sphere as a two-dimensional rectangle or square (the so-called "orange-segment" renditions are dimensionally most accurate but harder to read).  The Mercator map is no different from the map of the London Underground; a thing perfect for navigation and certainly indicative but not to exact scale.  Modern atlases generally no longer use the Mercator map (except for historical or artistic illustrations) but they’re still published as wall-maps.

The Tube

The classic "map" of the London underground is an ideal navigational aid but, conceptual rather than being drawn to scale, applying a fishnet grid would be both pointless and without meaning.  Professional cartographers refer to such things as "diagrams" or "mud maps", the latter a colloquial term which began life in the military and was a reference to the improvised "maps" drawn in the soil by soldiers in the field.  While not precise, to scale or a detailed representation of an area, they were a simple visual aid to assist in navigation.

Fishnet fan Lindsay Lohan: Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), (left), Elle Style Awards, London, February 2015 (centre) and Cannes Film Festival, May 2017 (right).  

There are both fishnet tights and fishnet stockings and unless worn in a manner to permit an observer to discern which, whether it’s one or another is often known only to the wearer, the distinction blurred further by manufacturers being sometimes inclined to be a bit loose with their labeling.  While both items of leg-wear, there are technical differences in the construction, coverage and style.  Tights should be made of a thicker, more opaque material which affords complete coverage from the waist to the toes.  Although a fashion item, the historic purpose of tights was to keep the legs warm in cold weather and they were a garment of some importance when there were dress codes which denied women the right to wear trousers.  Constructed almost always in one piece, tights have an elastic waistband which has the primary purpose of keeping them in place but there are some tights which technically are “shapewear”, the midsection an expanded, all-round elastic panel which has a mild compression effect on the areas around and immediately above the hips, rendering a more trim silhouette.  Except for a handful of high-priced products, tights use relatively thick materials like nylon or spandex (sold as lycra in some markets).  There are also composite materials now available which has meant the range of thicknesses, colors and patterns offered has been expanded and the finishes range from semi-sheer to opaque, making them suitable for casual and formal occasions while still providing protection from the cold.  The essential difference between tights and leggings is the later are shorter, stopping anywhere from the ankle to the upper calf (although some specialized sports leggings extend only to somewhere above the knee).

Australian architect & multi-media installation Bianca Censori (b 1995), Instagram post, May 2025.

Ms Censori is one of the industry's leading practitioners of minimalist fashion and on this occasion paired a fishnet top with sheer tights, sunglasses the only visible accessory.  Wearing unobtrusive mules rather than the fishnet’s clichéd stilettos was a nice juxtaposition and the background was well-chosen, proving the value of a trained architect's eye.

Classically, stockings were designed to cover only the legs between the upper-thigh and the toes.  Made typically from a sheer material, they are held in place by a device called a “garter belt” or “suspender belt” which sits around the hips, two (sometimes three) elastic “suspender slings” (a marvelous name) are attached to each side at the ends of which are metal clips into which a rubber or silicone disc is inserted through the stocking material, holding it permanently in place.  Usually sheer in a color spectrum from black to white (with a solid emphasis of “skin tone” although sensitivity to the implications of that term means it now less used), patterns are also available and among the most popular is the single, emulated “seam” running vertically up the back of the leg.  Until the mid twentieth century, stockings were made almost exclusively from silk are they remain available but the majority use some form of synthetic, either nylon or a nylon-mix and are thought to impart both a more delicate and refined look and are thus associated with formal attire.  The modern hybrid which has since the 1970s captured most of the stocking market is “pantyhose” (the construct being a portmanteau of the modified clippings of panties (panty) + hosiery (hose).  Pantyhose used the design of tights and the sheer material of stockings, the obvious advantage being the convenience of not needing the belt apparatus with its alluring but fiddly “suspender slings”.  Fishnet pantyhose are available.

Dame Jilly Cooper (1937–2025), in the 1980s, in fishnets.

Bonkbuster is a literary genre first defined in the late 1980s as meaning “novels with more emphasis on the sex than the romance and enjoying (ore expecting” best-seller status and like likelihood of adaptation in some form for the screen”.  The construct was bonk + (block)buster, the latter element used to describe highly successful book, films, albums etc.  In the literary genre Dame Jilly was the UK’s most accomplished author, something she attributed, at least in part to her “diligent research on the topic”.  Her novels were churning fantasies of smouldering glances, polo ponies, country houses and corporate back-stabbing, always with an undercurrent of infidelity, often in the green and pleasant land of the English countryside.  Before in 1975 she turned to fiction (albeit with much content drawn from he own active life), she’d spent years as a newspaper columnist where she’s offer practical advice to the modern women such as: “If you amuse a man in bed, he's not likely to bother about the mountain of dust underneath it.”  Although she always, accurately, described herself as “upper-middle class”, her novels tended up rather than down the class system and were studded with titles, money and privilege but the turn of phrase she’d honed within the tight word limits imposed on columnists never deserted her, a protagonist in one novel observing: “I don’t expect fidelity from my husbands, but I demand it from my lovers.”

The obsessive fear of nets (as opposed to mere sensible caution) is amphiblestronophobia and this would include those with a morbid aversion to fishnets although, depending on the evidence presented, a clinician might give the patient a diagnosis of textophobia (the irrational fear of certain fabrics).  There seems in the literature no mention of specific phobia tied exclusively to a fear of fishnets; while there may be a few whose experiences have led them to fear those who wear fishnets, that’s not quite the same thing.  That notwithstanding, the non-standard nouns fishnetism and fishnetists are there for those who self-identify as fishnetophiles.  The American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) does sometimes include discussions of specific objects and devices but fishnets seem never to have been mentioned.  Obviously though, fishnet clothing could be an element in a paraphilic disorder, a category of eight updated in the DSM’s fifth edition (DSM-5, 2013).  These disorders are characterized by intense and recurrent urges or fantasies focused on atypical sexual objects, situations, or non-consenting individuals and while those which cause significant distress or impairment can come to the attention of clinicians, there are presumably many individuals who either successfully self-manage or actively cherish their paraphilias, something no longer thought requiring clinical intervention provided the practices are “victim free”.

(1) Voyeuristic Disorder: Sexual arousal from observing others without their knowledge or consent.  This would include those aroused by the sight of fishnet garments being worn “in the wild”.

(2) Exhibitionistic Disorder: Sexual arousal from exposing one's genitals to unsuspecting strangers.

(3) Frotteuristic Disorder: Sexual arousal from touching or rubbing against a non-consenting person.

(4) Sexual Masochism Disorder: Sexual arousal from being humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer.  Fishnet garments may be involved because they’re a stereotypical part of the “uniform” worn in the BDSM (Bondage; Discipline (dominance and submission); SadoMasochism) community but they would be an incidental element.

(5) Sexual Sadism Disorder: Sexual arousal from inflicting pain or humiliation on others.  Again, fishnets may be present but merely coincidental to the condition.

(6) Pedophilic Disorder: Sexual arousal from a desire to have sexual contact with a child who is not of legal age of consent.

(7) Fetishistic Disorder: Sexual arousal from non-living objects, non-genital body parts, or a combination of both.  Fishnet garments would be a classic example of a particular clothing fetish but the fondness is a spectrum and of clinical significance only if causing a patient distress or impairment.

(8) Transvestic Disorder: Sexual arousal from dressing in clothing associated with the opposite sex, particularly when not related to a transgender identity.  Fishnet garments could be an element in this but are not essential.