Say What!?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080216175953.htm

I’ve been discussing this for some time now.  One of the first things to get out of the way is the notion of “Natural” selection.  Nature has changed, some say it no longer exists.  However, the notion of how selection works in a Darwinian framework still applies to artificial selection; as seen in Dog evolution.  These principles still apply to culture, as they do to markets, and species. Of course the time scales are vastly different, but cultures and civilizations evolve at much greater rates than to biological systems. Domestic animals are especially interesting because they are a perfect blend of cultural and biological selection manifesting themselves.  I’m currently exploring the other side of this coin: the blending of cultural and technological selection as it applies to the homo sapien. Or more simply stated, the evolution of Man™

http://www.bridgesmathart.org/art-exhibits/jmm08/

I’ve got a new body of photos up at troyb.net

artist’s statement

The utility poles series and the communication towers are an examination of what we have learned to ignore. These poles, and towers, are engineered and designed for functionality with no appreciable concern for their outward aesthetic. Despite this, they expose a fascinating sculptural vocabulary. The whole system is designed to carry the invisible and vital, life-force of the evolving organism known as civilization. 

Societies, and cultures are organisms with brains and bodies composed of infinitely complex and instantaneous human relationships. These relationships are exponentially enhanced through the instantaneity and reach of the global communication network(s).  In almost no time, these shifting and evolving relationships can manifest into dynamic new virtual organisms. These organisms survive on human, financial, and natural resources. Darwinian principles still apply. We are ultimately evolving toward a terrestrial singularity. As this occurs, homo sapiens are increasingly becoming inconsequential to the goals of the totality,and finding a mate will be paramount for the singularity.

My goal is to examine and record the developmental process of this entity.

The physical show is currently hanging on the walls of one of the better Atlanta art galleries, Get This! Gallery. Go Check it out!

Beautiful Evidence
This looks to be a beautiful addition to the Tufte books. I’m going to try getting my Library to pick this up.

http://www.shapelock.com/index.html

http://www.zoomr.com

http://www.paikstudios.com/
One of my favorite artists has passed away. Nam June Paik’s work was not only revolutionary, and ahead of its time, it also was one of the first voices to force us to look at our relationship with technology as a social phenomenon. I remember the hype when the Guggenhiem Soho opened up in the late 90’s. Paik’s huge video wall was one of the big draws. I wonder when and where the retrospective will be. 

http://www.cyphic.net/zoomquilt/zoom.htm

Karen sent this to me. I think it’s pretty amazing, you make up your own mind.

update: unfortunately the link has rotted. I’m sure that a search would find a miror somewhere?

http://www.folkways.si.edu/

From the site:
“Folkways Records & Service Co. was founded in 1948 in New York City by Moses Asch (1905-1986) and Marian Distler (1919-1964). Under Asch’s enthusiastic and dedicated direction, Folkways sought to record and document the entire world of sound. Between 1948 and Asch’s death, Folkways’ tiny staff released 2,168 albums. Topics included traditional, ethnic, and contemporary music from around the world; poetry, spoken word, and instructional recordings in numerous languages; and documentary recordings of individuals, communities, current events, and natural sounds.”

Moses Asch in many ways started what amounts to the equivalent of “photojournalism” for sound. Think of it, there are sounds that have died with either places, species, or cultures that are to never to be heard again. Too bad Darwin didn't have the technology at his disposal. I suspect that he would have considered it an important undertaking.

In many ways, Asch was as serious as Darwin, and we as both country and peoples are indebted to him.

Cartier-Bresson Retrospective at Magnum

Kimmelman at the NY Times pays homage

Henri Cartier-Bresson was the definitive photojournalist. The phrase and the title of one of his books, “The Decisive Moment” has been a subject in my own work. After all, isn’t that what a photographer does; decide what and when? It’s just so rare to find those who can make as many wise decisions as Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Investigating digital images

The tip comes from Slashdot which also has a link to an article at the NY Times.
For Doctored Photos, a New Flavor of Digital Truth Serum

I think despite photos now being possibly “verified” at a pixel level, there is still the notion that anything can be staged for the camera.  The camera is only capable of rendering what lies before it’s lens. There nothing saying that what is in view by the lens isn’t lying.

The articles also discuss notions of ownership/authorship (digital watermarking) when it comes to digital images as well.  So, if one did present a “faked” digital image in court, that image could not only be “verified” but the author could also be identified.  All this falls flat once things are moved back to film or are compressed as a JPEG.  Good reading, and good food for thought.

http://caedefensefund.org/

Several days ago, I posted some of the goings on in regard to artist Steve Kurtz.  Well, rhizome’s Lewis LaCook has this to add,

“In the dim morning hours of May 11, 2004, American artist Steve Kurtz, a member of the internationally-acclaimed art collective Critical Art Ensemble, called 911 to tell dispatchers that his wife Hope had passed away in her sleep. When police arrived at the couple’s Buffalo, New York, home, they discovered that Kurtz posessed a mobile DNA extraction laboratory, part of the Critical Art Ensemble’s latest art project, ‘Free Range Grain’. The small labortory was being used to test food for possible genetic tampering—an endeavor quite in keeping with the Critical Art Ensemble’s emphasis on revealing and resisting bio-imperialism. Saturated with post-September 11 anti-terror rhetoric, the police called in the FBI to investigate, and, on June 8, seven subpoenas were issued to artists associated with the Critical Art Ensemble, including Kurtz. The artists are to appear before a Federal Grand Jury on June 15. A protest is being planned for the same day at 9 a.m. outside the courthouse in Buffalo, New York, at 138 Delaware Ave. A defense fund has also been established, and suggestions for ways to support Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble are available on the CAE Defense Fund website .”

http://slate.msn.com/id/2102086

I got the heads-up from slashdot.  The above article discusses how human preception of people is far more discriminating than we give credit.  My study, Human-IntoFace approaches things from the other direction. it plays with just how far we can take actual images of human faces and mess with them, before we get creeped out. The article is an interesting read especially for those of you into 3D character design.

My guess is that Pixar has already figured this out to some degree.  They typically try to minimize human characters in their work.  I remember how I felt the first time I saw the mother in Toy Story 2...eewwww. The more plastic one in TS 1 was far better, despite it’s being more ‘fake’ looking. the Incredibles looks great, but notice the cartoon quality of the characters? we don’t need realism here.

I guess we have to wait for Blade Runner level quality before we don’t get creeped out?

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000933.html

Apparently, artist Steve Kurtz is experiencing the "Jock Sturges" school of justice. Although, I think Kurtz’s predicament is a bit more dire.

It’s not bad enough that he lost his wife, but he is about to lose his work too.  Even if all of this works its way back to sanity, His life has been destroyed.  Like a crater in time, it will probably take him years to get close to pulling everything back together.

The sad thing is, provided that sane minds are willing to give Kurtz a grain of credit, This could be resolved within days, perhaps weeks.  However, the reality of the situation appears that it will probably end up being years before this is resolved.

I guess you could say that he’s being Fucked By Idiots.

http://www.makingthings.com/products/products.htm

I’ve known about this for a while, but was shy of funds and time to do anything about it. OK, I was hording it to myself, but now that FlashMagazine has exposed my secret, I suppose I have to discuss it.  I can’t wait until I get my package! If you don’t have a clue what I speak of, read on. From the Making Things site:

“a Flash interface to the Teleo system and we are happy to announce that we have released a free, downloadable Beta Flash component set for Teleo. For the first time, Flash programmers can easily and inexpensively create and control applications that sense, react and interact in the physical world.

Using Macromedia’s Flash with Teleo, any Flash developer can move beyond their computer screen and mouse and create physically interactive projects (devices that actually move and behave) or develop completely new kinds of interactive environments. This system allows people to build applications that sense light, distance, pressure, temperature, etc. In turn, these same applications can react, triggering motors, lights, among other things. Moreover, applications can be controlled locally from any computer or, remotely, via a standard web browser.”

Are we wet/hard yet?

http://marcosweskamp.marumushi.com/
home of “Social Circles”, “Snapsis”, Habitat Perspectives, and “newsMap”