An answer to some questions

What is the relationship of totalitarianism to simplicity? Perhaps this series from the BBC may offer some answers:

I won't attempt to do the idea justice here, but it has something to do with simplistic models of human behavior based on outmoded behavioralist theories that ignore the workings of the mind and focus on discrete and quantifiable human actions. These models depict humans devoid of altruism, emotion, subtlety, and any true sense of individuality. The fact that humans embody all these things skews the math of these economic models, rendering them useless. Complexity is despised because it makes the ruling class' goal of creating a completely mechanized society unattainable. These videos are visually entertaining, well researched and well worth watching. It is worth going back to start the series from the beginning.

And in other "answers;" just as a present to my most loyal readers who have slogged through yesterday's post on infinitely tall pyramids, I present the words of one of the earliest bloggers, one who seems to be thinking along the same lines:

"Perspective is no more than a scientific demonstration in which experience shows us that every object sends its image to the eye by a pyramid of lines, and which shows that bodies of equal size will create a pyramid of larger or smaller size, according to their distance. A pyramid of lines are those which start from both the surface and the edges of the objects in question and which converge from a distance into a single point. A point is that which has no dimensions and is indivisible. This point is placed in the eye and receives all the points of the pyramid of lines.

The air is filled with an infinite number of images of all the objects in it. All these images are represented everywhere, all these images combine together: if you place two mirrors in such a way that they face each other perfectly, the first mirror will reflect into the second mirror and the second mirror will reflect into the first mirror. So: the first mirror takes the image of the second mirror and the second mirror takes the image of the first mirror, and each mirror takes the image of the other on to infinity, each mirror having within it a smaller mirror. This proves, by experience, that every object sends its image to every spot where that object can be seen. The reverse is also true: that very same object sending its image to every spot can also receive the images of all objects placed in front of it. Therefore, the human eye sends out its image through the air to all objects placed in front of it, including other eyes, and it also receives all the images of all the objects placed in front of it; it receives these images on its surface, communicates them to the common sense, which judges them, and if pleased with them, communicates them to the memory. As a result of this, I believe that the invisible images in the eye are also communicated to the object, as the image of the object is communicated to the eye."

- Leonardo da Vinci

ONE BIT

The difference between one and zero in one line of code - whether in a computer or in the universe at large - can make a huge difference, or it can be completely buried in the all-pervasive fuzz-noise. There are theorists who analyse the universe as being essentially digital in nature - certainly it is a more logical way of breaking shit down than the "trialectic" we were he-hawwing about here earlier...). The trick is that the difference lies essentially in where in the architecture of the code the zero or one is reversed. In your DNA a single bit of information can turn on or off a huge section of code - a switch. But every event in the universe functions as a kind of switch. From some vantage point, every event in the universe is the apex of an infinitely tall pyramid. Or it may be an insignificant bit of dust buried in the foundation (whereever the foundation of an infinitely tall pyramid may be located...).










As I created these images as a metaphor for this idea, I also was thinking about how pattern is essentially a function of our perception, a symptom of consciousness. After all, the bit doesn't care if it is part of a smooth tiling or an irritating obstruction. The stone doesn't care whether it is eroding into the sand or crushing someone's skull. The pyramid spreads out from our own center of focus, constantly reordering the universe from the inside out, fading into the insignificant distance.

From the wikipedia article on informational physics:
"...every ‘it’ – every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself – derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely – even if in some contexts indirectly – from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. ‘It from bit’ symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom – a very deep bottom, in most instances – an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes–no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe” (John Archibald Wheeler [1990]"

COSMIC

FREAK

complication

I've been thinking a lot about complication recently. Specifically, I've been thinking about the often poorly-taken-advantage-of subtlety of the senses and mind and how that relates to uncanny synchronous moments of seemingly more-than-perfect communication with others. Also, how does complexity arise in artificial situations? What is seen as complicated? How does this explain how our minds process sensory input? Complexity in aesthetics; it is used as both a positive and negative attribute. What does it mean to have complexity in art? When does it work? When does it not work? Is the universe inherently a complicated or uncomplicated place; are the physicists who are upset to see the seemingly endless multiplicity of potential solutions to string theory actually on the right path? There is no reason to assume that the universe's laws are simple and easily expressed.

Finally, here is a quote from an article in the NYTimes about the recent government crackdown on the protesters in Burma; a rebuff from the Chinese who most shamefully blocked the Security Council's resolution to take action to avert this situation:

"As Myanmar’s chief international patron, China blocked an effort on Wednesday by the United States and European countries to have the Security Council condemn the violent crackdown. On Thursday, while not going as far as Mr. Bush might have wished, China added its voice to criticism from abroad when it publicly called for restraint.
“As a neighbor, China is extremely concerned about the situation in Myanmar,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said at a news briefing in Beijing. “China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated.” "

Complicated; what is it about totalitarian governments that oppose complication? What about recent events in our own government? Is complication a humanist value?

reverse frustration --- polar coordinates

Double spiral goes in and out --- it's the help we are looking for. In and out laughter. In laugher is ha ha ha. Out laughter is ha ha ha. Out of pockets. One tiny mind state holds true for a bit, then swirls into chaos. This is what is meant by situation. One circuit of social relations. Teaching technique means fake pocket. Challenging the sides of pocket. Pocket is made of things you can't say to people. One is things not allowed to say. Two is things not able to imagine. Both sides of pockets can develop holes. This is an information key. Do the right thing; think sideways. Choruses unite through time, produce warbling. Warbling is impossible in fake media time. Barbershop quartets are subtle, TV's in sync are blunt. Blunt is the tool of great strength, tiny sharp blades are the tools of the powerless operators. This is the embedded code, compass measures the invisible --- to make the magic visible is to deactivate it. Carry any secret outside of the forbidden area and it is powerless. Each law has an inverse law that is on the books somewhere.

Soft subtle growling and sneer is the name of my new band.

Reading

Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious

K - I think I was with you when you bought this book. I find that you often mention books, and then I forget about them, and then months or years later I run into them and it's like - duh - I should have read this years ago. So, please be more considerate and repeat yourself until you get through my thick skull. I know it seems like all I talk about are obscure topics in consciousness studies and art theory, but I have no clue what the next step is and am always searching around. Books all around my bed!

Expertise

Recently I am working on Howwa We Ana, but I am also doing my own work. I've been shooting video - lots of shots of my face while I carry out various mysterious experiments, mostly me acting like a bozo. Oh yeah. Hopefully I will post some of the rejects at some point. But the project I am planning for the long term (though before the placebo machine sculptures) is an experiment on evolutionary growth of non-linguistic communicative symbols that was inspited by these new microchips that design themselves. I've got a whole thing planned out, and it isn't tricky at all (like the last idea up here) so I can feel comfy with it. There's gonna be a lot of drawing and talking - what else? For this I am going to need experts. Any experts will do, really, which is great because there are a million experts at Berkeley although nobody can really understand exactly what they are experts on. By which I mean most of their topics are super-specialized. Though I have found people to be most kind when explaining their research to me, Mr. bug brain art student. Well...

I forget what path exactly lead me here:
consciousness journal review site
I think it was a prof at Berkeley who is writing (second article) on the Quantum theory of mind - which is one of the most interesting things anyone is researching these days. I would like to learn more about it so that I can design projects that take it into account, but I am afraid that my brain is still to small to understand it.

Anyway, while trying to get something done for one project (choreography), I took a break and was reading about these chips - well, looking at the pictures mainly - and fell asleep, and I woke up and suddenly I knew how to do this project - it involves duplicating drawings by destroying the original, while still keeping a copy of the original, and it involves letting one idea go to gain another - basically decentralizing the authority of the drawings. It sounds very abstract, but really it is quite practical. The algorithm for the project is very clear, and it uses von Ahn's idea of wetware in a way that starts out rational, but through the loss of information automatically becomes more of an artistic, intuitive exploration of form, conducted through a node system of wetware. I can't reveal the way the project works. This is not because I have artistic hangups, but that if the participants knew exactly what my goals were it would invalidate the experiment. But it is not tricky yo.

I think my sciatic nerve has decided to quit monopolizing my attention - although I am out of ibuprofin, so we will see what happens tomorrow morning. Tomorrow (after meeting with a group of people to talk over these interactive puppets we are making for this woman's project doing playback theater with migrant workers in China...) I am going to go DANCE in the studio. YAAAAAAAAY!!!! Too bad it's so far away - I think it's the bike that makes my back mad (I wrote "my mack bad" - I hear bikes can do that as well...). But it's all worth at it because my choreography is AWESOME. For procedural reasons I can't reveal what it's like at all, but I can say, "oh gya no dao we are chika..." Anyway, it's not really the choreography that is awesome, it is the whole project. Howwa We Ana is so important to me.

I should say goodnight. Goodnight.

fake turing test

I'd like to have a contest where 16 or so people go toe to toe, trying to prove that they are human. None of the participants would know what was going on, and the judges wouldn't either. At the end of each round the judges would write opinions on why they made their decision (with quotes). At the end there would be one winner - the most human human - and a litany of evidence.

The aesthetics of the mechanical placebo

I am trying to come up with ideas for a project to challenge my programming skills in this computer interactions class I am taking. These are just some notes.

SELF and machines

When you are driving a car or riding a bike, the machine is a natural extension of your body both in that you grow to intuitively understand the controls, but also to identify with the machine as part of your body - the physical manifestation of your SELF extends to objects under your direct control, not only to your body. For example, if something passes too close by your car, you may wince - anticipating pain although there is no sensory feedback. If you are driving uphill you may feel as though you are making an extra effort (though this may be related to the extra pressure that may be exerted on the gas pedal or changing sound of the engine). And when parking a car you are accustomed to, you may intuitively know when the car is approaching the curb or the car behind.

This article investigates this idea more scientifically and shows an interesting experiment (it has been rather sensationally promoted as the induction of an out-of-body experience in a clinical setting):article about identification of the self and body

THE PLACEBO EFFECT and the role of the mind

I am interested in the placebo effect as an investigation of the role of faith and consciousness over the material world, of the meaning of expertise and authority. Some facts: the general consensus on this controversial and hard-to-measure effect is that an average of 35% of patients in a clinical trial will be relieved by a sugar pill alone. The effect is not only mental, it is physical (though this is an artificial distinction - our minds are physical too); 75% of patients given a placebo for pain medication spontaneously release opioids in their brains. The circumstances in which a placebo is given are important; a placebo that involves ingestion, injection, or incision is often more powerful than a non-invasive technique. A placebo given
by an authority figure is more effective. Of course, a patient who knows they have been given a placebo will not show any evidence of the placebo effect.

The AESTHETICS of medical pseudo-scientific/sci-fi alternative medicine MACHINEs

This topic relates to the placebo effect in that the appearance of these machines and their relationship to the viewer are essential. The machine, appearing expensive, hi-tech, clean, and lacking any evidence of the hand in its craft, is seen as being in a position of AUTHORITY. This is doubled by the fact that many of these machines are employed while the patient is lying down - a physically and psychologically vulnerable and submissive position - and by the patient's state of partial or complete undress. The machines also tend to move the patient physically without their control (i.e. using a servo motor to slide the patient into position within the machine - i.e. in an MRI). The sounds of the machine's operation are also important, as are the fact that they often have special attendants.

Representations of the body that are not based on the visual sense

A homunculus is the representation of the body with the size of the body parts mapped to sensory intensity (or more accurately, density of nerve cells) rather than actual size. In a related field, in traditional Ayurvedic medicine and Kundalini/Chakra meditation as well as Japanese Reiki there are detailed representations of the body that map the flow of spiritual and psychosexual energy through various centers that do not correspond to physical anatomies. I relate this to our study of the tangible in that these representations explore the
ways in which our beliefs about our bodies affect our self-conception, as the qualia of our sensations are partially determined by metaphor.

PIZZA OVEN

Things are heating up at the EPN.

FIXED THE LINK.

pix from opening

Chester (aka Guild of Birthdays) just sent me these pix of the opening. There aren't pix of everyone who went, but these are great. This makes me feel a little more like the opening actually happened. Though these things can be faked.

Chet:

My Mom and Dad:

Corrupting the youth?

Thanks for nice smiles!

dream

I know it's dangerous to keep a dream diary - it's caused major problems before...

Late night I woke up having dreamed a very strange dream though.

Feel the end of your nose. It's been a long time since I felt the end of anyone else's nose, and I forget what it's like. Isn't there a little cleft in the cartilage at the very end, an up and down kind of soft spot?

The dream was that if you rub this soft spot...

No, it was more like, you know if your eyes are crossed... That normally your eyes aren't crossed, but if you twist them together they may be two of everything (or for me there is only a faint shadow of a double which is hard to see). But in this dream I realized that you need to cross your eyes in a different way, perhaps it is along a different dimensional plane?

Then your nose, it starts to separate. It becomes two noses with a valley in between. This valley was very light-toned as it didn't get any sunlight. Looking at it was hard, unfocussed without major effort, kind of like the way the world seems when your eyes are crossed. But I could touch it and it was very real. This did not strike me as very strange, but I was concerned about the appearance of my skin in this area, so I was rubbing it with anti-zit cream, or maybe fake tanning oil? I discovered that there was a soft spot up above, where the valley ended underneath my forhead-eyebrow ridge. If I rubbed this spot (it didn't feel bad, but you can't rub too hard) I could then see an extra eye, but that was very hard to maintain (I remember thinking it was funny that I hadn't noticed this sooner). Anyway, this was so hard to concentrate on that the eye disappeared and my nose closed up and I left the bathroom to hang out in the foyer with the transparent bleacher all set in an arc and luminous white ceilings covered with tiny colorful stickers to observe the beautiful young people in the public chorus that had spilled out of the packed concert hall, but when I started humming along (rather poorly I remember), I got yelled at by my high school singing teacher, told that singing was only for "members". I don't need this, I thought, and rode away on my bike.

I am aware that there is a lot of symbolism in third eye visions. But this didn't seem that way, it was very mundane, all about how looking at things funny can reveal something new. The mood at the end was more of an earthly utopia (or at least a really nice place) than of a heaven or other world.

BTW, don't search for three eyed beings on the internet - it's just going to freak you out. Really. But there is one cute little guy that you shouldn't miss:

DMV

I woke up way early, hopped on my bike, got totally lost forever, then arrived at the DMV to get a driver's licence, and they made me take a written test - WTF? I managed to pass though, which is silly, because I was totally guessing - it's all these irrational questions about blood alcohol and imaginary lines and their idea of good driving... Gosh darn silly! I also completely cheated on the part where you have to prove you can see out of both eyes - I didn't know it, but I legally probably can't have a licence being kinda blind in one eye. But it was really easy to peek through my fingers... Ha ha. Feels great to cheat!

Room

It turned out to be one of those Sundays where I didn't leave the house.

I started writing this post without any clear reason to write - thought I would just see what came out.

I don't think I should continue.

Well. At least it has been determined that I don't have anything to say.

Funny - I spent hours reading art theory today - must have been rubbish.

distant opening...

I'm sitting here in my room in Berkeley while in NY Chet and my parents and a few friends are on their way to this opening that I've been talking everyone's ear about for the past however long.

Chet has been a huge help setting things up for me, and Carla --- I can't even describe how helpful she has been. Wow-o wow-o...

It's kind of funny not being able to be around during the opening. Openings are a big thing not only for the fact that they are fun parties (often with free booze), a chance to meet interesting people, or an opportunity to do the networking that is unfortunately the engine of the art world, but because they are a capstone to a process that can be very long and emotional. Both the frustrations and joys of creating a work of art kind of find a sort of emotional resolution when the work is finished. It's sometimes to see a work as finished until many people see it in a certain kind of formal setting - it's a kind of ceremony.

I've been thinking a lot about finishing work lately. A lot of recent art stresses that art is a process of the exchange of signs between people that unfolds over time - this de-emphasizes the role of the artifact that records this process, the finished work of art that is supposed to last FOREVER... Of course things aren't going to last forever, but there is an interesting state of mind that accompanies the illusion that something is a permenant record, that something is immutable, that it is somehow removed from everyday processes of social relations, of practical concerns, of the exchange of capital, of entropy. This illusion seems to enable a kind of critical thought... If something is constantly moving, how can it be observed (parallels to quantum mechanics)? If the content is in a state of flux, how can it stand up for itself? How can it be criticized? As you see, it is a tough problem - why cling to an illusion, right? What kind of thinking can be done based on a false premise? Could this kind of thinking be unproductive or even destructive?

Anyway, these thoughts have little to do with the project being shown tonight, and more to do with the overwhelming thought pattern energy being focused on me by all the readings and converstations I have been having here at school. Overwhelming is a word that I've been using a lot - I have to be careful that I don't really get overwhelmed. I'm not built for lots of input.

Anyway - lots of energy tonight. Really miss my friends. Really wish I could be at the show. But my mind is elsewhere. Er... actually, ALL of me is somewhere else.

I hope that everything goes well.

caveman surfs ice age

Two songs from the flowers of disgust's new (14th) album "caveman surfs ice age" are available here on they myspace page.
CHECK IT OUT!!!
The songs are horrible - the flowers have always been a noisy band, but these are full-on noise songs, and are quite flat and beautiful.
Since the flowers have always been a band for whom the titles are at least half of the creative output, I guess I should copy in this item:
1) Embarassing Weekend Houseguests! (34:08)
2) Panico Ambulanza (17:04)
3) (Yes) Don't Hang Out in the "No" Zone (08:32)
4) The Tennis Lesson (04:16)
5) Invitation à Funk: Décliné (02:08)
6) Chansons de la Guerre Hispano-Américaine (01:04)
7) Brain Pulled Out On Floor (00:32)
8) (Sneakin' Out the) Egg-Laying Room (00:16)
9) Bipp och Bopp på Hamburgaren Affär (00:08)
10) Naked, Dead and Alone (00:04)
11) Chris Mullis Vs. Robo-Lionel Richie (00:02)
12) Out of the Frying Pan and Into a Big Jug of Pudding (00:01)

maximal humanistic information sensation

a.k.a. Action Theory and Wabi-Sabi.

Consider this quote about how medical records on paper are sometimes more useful than ones in a computer database. This is in the context of how to design better ways for people to interact with computers:

"...through their direct embodiment in the world we occupy, the artifacts of daily interaction can play many different roles. As an example, consider the revealing studies of the role of medical record cards in hospitals (Nygren et al., 1992). From a technical perspective, patient record cards are simply carriers of well-defined information concerning the patient's diagnosis and treatment, and, as embodied on paper, present various problems: they can be lost, they can be hard to read, and they can only be in one place at a time. From this perspective, it seems both straightforward and beneficial to replace the paper records with electronic versions. However, in practice, such straightforward replacements are rarely successful. Studies of the failure of such systems show that the paper records are more than simply carriers of information about the patient. They carry other important information as a result of the way that they are used in the work of the hospital. For example, handwriting on the forms reveals who performed different parts of the treatment; wear and tear on the form indicates heavy use; and the use of pencil marks rather than pen informally indicates tentative information. To trained eyes, a card conveys information not just about the patient, but also about the history of activities over the card and around the patient. It can do this because it not only represents the world of the patient, but it also participates in that world -- it is an embodied artifact, and it participates in the embodied activities of those administering medical care."

(from Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction by Paul Dourish)

This is a great example of the oft-ignored SUBTLETY of communication and embodiment of information. The attention to "wear and tear" has many parallels to the traditional Japanese aesthetic guidelines of "wabi-sabi" --- "wabi" meaning the individuality that arises through the construction of a unique object (i.e. doctor's handwriting) and "sabi" being the beauty that comes about through the process of ageing, the record of the object's history expressed through entropy (the condition of the paperwork).

This attention to detail and appreciation of the artist's "touch" and "expressive line" etc. is a big part of how artists talk about traditional media such as painting and drawing. I find it interesting that physical computing is coming around to appreciating this. It is a humanistic enterprize that values the complexity of the human mind and the power of our sensory systems.

Strange, because wabi-sabi is associated with a feeling of gentle sadness. After all, an awareness of entropy is the same as realizing that everything falls apart - artifacts, relationships, our stories, our bodies. There must always be an awareness of death, but it is gentle - this awareness is a counterpoint to life, not a kind of nihilsim or masochism.

So perhaps it isn't as much of a paradox as I originally thought. Isn't it nice to find new paths of hope?

Entropy can be part of life - wouldn't it be great if instead of every "quirk" that arises as things fall apart (i.e. keys on your computer stop working, your stove doesn't light right, etc...) became a considered part of the design? A good example of this is NEW SHOES. By wearing them they come to fit your feet and no longer give you blisters. And it is a theory of emotion as well - do people do not grow attached to old shoes and t-shirts and refuse to throw them away until they are smelly and full of holes?

Coming soon...

I would like to work on writing a little more specifically, so I am going to try something. This is sympathetic superstring's first COMING SOON entry! I will write a sentence or two on a few ideas that have been bouncing around my head, and later write a full entry on these subjects. This way I can put a little pressure on myself to write more "thesis-driven" posts (and less blablablah - though I don't think I'll be giving that up anytime soon...). Also I hope that I can get some ideas from y'all before I write them (or not, yes no maybe?) so I can challenge myself and perhaps even start a dialog. I guess this idea partially was born of TCD's promise to write a post about authoritarian aesthetics on the Extended Pizza Network (or something - we are still eagerly awaiting - I will post something here if it materializes...).

COMING SoOoOoN (bang)

1. Why John and everyone should care about thumbs up/down on YouTube - how recent ideas in art (relational aesthetics), in science (information engineering), scifi (fantastic Memetics) and computing (Luis von Ahn's wetware and human cycles) led to exciting new possibilities for democracy and concepts of the self.

2. Relational Aesthetics - What is it? (Shortly, artworks that have as their goal the creation of new social relationships between people) How does it relate to my work (i.e. Perceival, etc.), and how does this place my work in a new context with other artists? What are it's problems, and how can I work beyond these in my new work?

3. The placebo effect. Scifi movie sets, pseudo-scientific and alternative medicine lab machines as sculpture. The focus on the subject, the non-rational or faith-based functioning of the mind as the field in which these machines operate. The aesthetic effects of these machines, and further possibilities as sculpture and interactive experience.

4. Why Mama always said you shouldn't play games with your heart - the dangers of intersubjective, relational art.

Post-human

I'd like to read this book about what the world will be like after humans.

book

.

Break out!

In hives!

I guess I'm allergic to figs!