The best of the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud 2010

Since 2008 I’ve been collecting a series of images on Tumblr under the banner of the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud. This started out as a collection of images that I wanted to keep for easy reference – a sort of Pinterest before its time – but I developed a curiosity about the popularity of certain images and the lack of appeal of others, measured through Tumblr’s notes system. I started posting on a daily basis in February 2010. My interests were photography, landscape and architecture, particularly the New Topographics photographers and a general interest in architecture post 1900. I was also drawn to the themes of Terrain Vague and Le Tiers Paysage. These themes have tremendous importance for practice though many planners do not make the connection, preferring a more cheerful palette of more traditional themes.

During 2010, the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud posted over 380 images in monthly themes as follows – with their popularity shown in brackets:

January – Buildings and landscapes (11th)
February – Buildings and landscapes (12th)
March – Concrete, bleakness (10th)
April – Photography (8th)
May –Photography, Billboards (9th)
June – Photography, landscape (7th)
July – Landscape, interiors, photography (5th)
August – Modernism, landscape, installations (1st)
September – Modernism, landscape, installations (2nd)
October – Film, landscape, modernism (6th)
November – Film, modernism, landscape, installations (3rd)
December – German Modernism – mostly (4th)

The most popular theme for the year was Modernism, landscape and installations from August. The same theme tok second place in September and with the addition of film, the same themes took third place in November. The most popular image of the year was Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs ‘Wires’ from 2008.

The top ten images by month are shown below.