Radical Constructivism - ‘What is radical constructivism? It is an unconventional approach to the problem of knowledge and knowing. It starts from the assumption that knowledge, no matter how it is defined, is in the heads of persons, and that the thinking subject has no alternative but to construct what he or she knows on the basis of his or her own experience. What we make of experience constitutes the only world we consciously live in. It can be sorted into many kinds, such as things, self, others, and so on. But all kinds of experience are essentially subjective, and though I may find reasons to believe that my experience may not be unlike yours, I have no way of knowing that it is the same. The experience and interpretation of language are no exception.
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/index.html
http://www.constructivistfoundations.info/
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Callas Project
CALLAS (the acronym stands for Conveying Affectiveness in Leading-edge Living Adaptive Systems) is a integrated project funded by the European Commission.
In the project vision, ambitious challenges are pursued: partners from different countries are working together in pursuit a common goal that will contribute to reduce the cost and the complexity of development of multimodal interfaces in the Digital Entertainment and Information context.
- to produce a set of components (known as Shelf components) which can be used to generate emotionally-aware user interfaces (or Affective Multimodal Interfaces).
- to handle interoperability between the components through the open source CALLAS Framework
- to provide APIs to 3rd party developers through which the shelf components and emotional model might be accessed.
Finally, the capabilities of the CALLAS Framework will be demonstrated through the development of CALLAS Showcases, significant test-beds in the context of New Media, embryonic samples of applications of the future.
CALLAS aims to design and develop a Framework based on a plug-in multimodal architecture, invariant to configuration of Multimodal Components, to interpret and process emotional aspects in real-time for easy and fast development of applications for Art and Entertainment, paying attention to the value of users, who are no longer passive spectators of artistic performances, but stimulating sources of human communication. The project is developing selected scenarios for Art and Entertainment, to showcase CALLAS technology in different typologies of space: theatres, home, squares, festivals, etc., as the "space" is one of the most interesting factors where human emotional interaction takes place. A strong attention is given to all interface and interaction aspects, to minimize the complexity for multimodal handling, to make creative industries and artists free to develop truly interactive art, keeping the technology burden hidden and preserving the naturalness of user interaction, not altering the spontaneity of their experience.
Animals save the planet
Nice animal animations prompting us to save planet earth
http://www.animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home
http://www.animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
NIP (New Interfaces for Performance)
NIP (New Interfaces for Performance) is a practical, artists led, workshop and touring event, which examines techniques for creating mixed media and interactive work for live, interactive contexts - for the most this refers to live performance (music, theatre, dance, sound) and interactive, real-time installation.
http://newinterfaces.net/nip/
http://newinterfaces.net/nip/
"Parkfield Interventional EQ Fieldwork" (PIEQF) - Seismic Art
Parkfield Interventional EQ Fieldwork (PIEQF) is a geologically interactive, kinetic earthwork that has been installed in the township of Parkfield, Central California. This machine controlled earthwork is triggered by near real-time reported Californian earthquakes from Magnitude M 0.1 and above.
This machine earthwork is feedback loop between the seismicity of California and a physical and mechanical representation of all Californian seismic events. Each time a Californian earthquake occurs, an array of 5/8 inch steel rods attached to an earthquake shake table oscillate and resonate, reflecting the dynamic nature of the Californian landscape. On average 30-60 seismic events occur throughout California daily.
http://pieqf.allshookup.org
GRAMMA - Journal of Theory and Criticism
Journal of Theory and Criticism is an international journal, published in English and Greek once a year by the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with the Publications Department of the university. It welcomes articles and book reviews from a wide range of areas within the theory and criticism of literature and culture. Of particular interest to the journal are articles with an interdisciplinary approach. Each individual issue has guest editors and is devoted to a subject of recent cultural interest, with book reviews relevant to the topic. All manuscripts are subject to blind peer review and will be commented on by at least two independent experts.
http://www.enl.auth.gr/gramma/
http://www.enl.auth.gr/gramma/
Thursday, September 18, 2008
ABLE DANGER THE MOVIE
POSTING ABLE DANGER
To conclude our series of blog posts from Paul Krik, writer/director of Able Danger, currently in theaters, here is his breakdown of how he posted his movie.
Able Danger was shot on an Panasonic AG-HVX200 by accomplished Brooklyn-based cinematographer Charlie Libin. We shot HD using no tape. It was shot to P2 cards, basically RAM and then copied to a hard drive. It was edited on Avid mostly on a laptop in a basement and then on an Avid at Jump Editorial. It was edited in HD but at the Panasonic "native" file size of 1280 x 720. This is not true HD, but after testing the camera's 1920 x 1080 record modes, I found the difference negligible and the 1080 mode had problems with motion. And the file sizes made shooting 1080 inefficient.
After much research about the absolute best methodology for finishing, I decided on the following; 123,840 uncompressed TIFF frames (86 mins x 24 frames per second) were exported to a hard drive and brought over to one of my favorite post production facilities, NICE SHOES, and colorist Chris Ryan imported the TIFF sequence into the specter (German color correct box) and bumped up to true HD 1920 x 1080. It was color corrected there and laid down to D5.
No special pro lenses were used. We used a wide angle adapter on occasion and a long lens adapter for daytime surveillance. For surveillance night scenes, we used military grade night vision.
I did all of the sound editing and sound designing and editing and music editing in the Avid. The final was mixed in Protools. Shots that needed effects were exported as uncompressed TIFFs out of Spectre and went to one of two places:
1. AFTER EFFECTS was used for the surveillance graphics. It took months to develop the surveillance look. We (Roberto Serrini and I) experimented with a lot more graphics on screen and a lot more text. But that took away from the beauty of the imagery and became too noisy and less "filmic" also getting the right interaction of the onscreen text, the surveillance chatter (which I recorded through a kids' toy voice distorter) and the onscreen action took a lot of fine tuning. I worked intimately with my assistant and After Effects artist refining ad infinitum. After I color corrected the night vision in Specter, TIFF frames were exported and we laid the After Effects back on top and then exported TIFF frames.
2. THE FLAME was used for some "gun flashes" and "electricity" in the stun baton were added after the color correct and bump up to 1080 HD from the Specter. The color TVs were composited and tweaked in the flame by Nick Sasso at Manic. Final finishing took the After Effects TIFF frames and conformed in the flame and laid down to D5 at NICE SHOES.
The film basically only existed on hard drives until we were done and laid down to D5. I think it was pretty innovative. The dream sequences on top of the World Trade Towers were shot on green screen, and uncompressed TIFFs were exported out of Avid and into FLAME and matte paintings and comps were done in flame. The intro animation was done in After Effects.
www.abledangerthemovie.com
To conclude our series of blog posts from Paul Krik, writer/director of Able Danger, currently in theaters, here is his breakdown of how he posted his movie.
Able Danger was shot on an Panasonic AG-HVX200 by accomplished Brooklyn-based cinematographer Charlie Libin. We shot HD using no tape. It was shot to P2 cards, basically RAM and then copied to a hard drive. It was edited on Avid mostly on a laptop in a basement and then on an Avid at Jump Editorial. It was edited in HD but at the Panasonic "native" file size of 1280 x 720. This is not true HD, but after testing the camera's 1920 x 1080 record modes, I found the difference negligible and the 1080 mode had problems with motion. And the file sizes made shooting 1080 inefficient.
After much research about the absolute best methodology for finishing, I decided on the following; 123,840 uncompressed TIFF frames (86 mins x 24 frames per second) were exported to a hard drive and brought over to one of my favorite post production facilities, NICE SHOES, and colorist Chris Ryan imported the TIFF sequence into the specter (German color correct box) and bumped up to true HD 1920 x 1080. It was color corrected there and laid down to D5.
No special pro lenses were used. We used a wide angle adapter on occasion and a long lens adapter for daytime surveillance. For surveillance night scenes, we used military grade night vision.
I did all of the sound editing and sound designing and editing and music editing in the Avid. The final was mixed in Protools. Shots that needed effects were exported as uncompressed TIFFs out of Spectre and went to one of two places:
1. AFTER EFFECTS was used for the surveillance graphics. It took months to develop the surveillance look. We (Roberto Serrini and I) experimented with a lot more graphics on screen and a lot more text. But that took away from the beauty of the imagery and became too noisy and less "filmic" also getting the right interaction of the onscreen text, the surveillance chatter (which I recorded through a kids' toy voice distorter) and the onscreen action took a lot of fine tuning. I worked intimately with my assistant and After Effects artist refining ad infinitum. After I color corrected the night vision in Specter, TIFF frames were exported and we laid the After Effects back on top and then exported TIFF frames.
2. THE FLAME was used for some "gun flashes" and "electricity" in the stun baton were added after the color correct and bump up to 1080 HD from the Specter. The color TVs were composited and tweaked in the flame by Nick Sasso at Manic. Final finishing took the After Effects TIFF frames and conformed in the flame and laid down to D5 at NICE SHOES.
The film basically only existed on hard drives until we were done and laid down to D5. I think it was pretty innovative. The dream sequences on top of the World Trade Towers were shot on green screen, and uncompressed TIFFs were exported out of Avid and into FLAME and matte paintings and comps were done in flame. The intro animation was done in After Effects.
www.abledangerthemovie.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Nigel Johnson's "VOX"
Nigel Johnson's website http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/people/njohnson/
"Vox"
http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/people/njohnson/content/proposals/vox/vox_bin/VOX~1.HTM
"Gvision"
http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/people/njohnson/content/proposals/proposals.html
"Vox"
http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/people/njohnson/content/proposals/vox/vox_bin/VOX~1.HTM
"Gvision"
http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/people/njohnson/content/proposals/proposals.html
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Dmitry Gelfand and Evelina Domnitch
Dmitry Gelfand (b.1974, St. Petersburg, Russia) and Evelina Domnitch (b. 1972, Minsk, Belarus) create sensory immersion environments that merge physics, chemistry and computer science with uncanny philosophical practices. Current findings, particularly regarding wave phenomena, are employed by the artists to investigate questions of perception and perpetuality. Such investigations are salient because the scientific picture of the world, which serves as the basis for contemporary thought, still cannot encompass the unrecordable workings of consciousness.
Having dismissed the use of recording and fixative media, Domnitch and Gelfand’s installations exist as ever-transforming phenomena offered for observation. Because these rarely seen phenomena take place directly in front of the observer without being intermediated, they often serve to vastly extend the observer’s sensory envelope. The immediacy of this experience allows the observer to transcend the illusory distinction between scientific discovery and perceptual expansion.
http://www.portablepalace.com/
Having dismissed the use of recording and fixative media, Domnitch and Gelfand’s installations exist as ever-transforming phenomena offered for observation. Because these rarely seen phenomena take place directly in front of the observer without being intermediated, they often serve to vastly extend the observer’s sensory envelope. The immediacy of this experience allows the observer to transcend the illusory distinction between scientific discovery and perceptual expansion.
http://www.portablepalace.com/
Monday, September 8, 2008
Manny Farber's Lists
Barbara Schock wrote for Filmmaker:
The phenomenal painter, teacher and film critic Manny Farber called his film class “A Hard Look at the Movies.” It was the first upper-division college class I took. I’d transferred from a small college in the Midwest to the University of California at San Diego, and I’d never seen a foreign film, unless you count the Sergio Leone westerns. We watched the following films in a 10-week period, and it turned the way I looked at movies upside down: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Max Ophuls’s The Earrings of Madame de…, Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Joseph Lewis’s Gun Crazy, Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy, Werner Schroeter’s The Death of Maria Malibran, Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou and Les Carabiniers, John Boorman’s Point Blank, Eric Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse, Joseph Losey’s Accident, Robert Aldrich’s The Grissom Gang, Luis Buñuel’s Diary of a Chambermaid, Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle, Nagisa Oshima’s Diary of a Shinjuku Burglar, Jean Cocteau and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Les Enfants terribles and several Buster Keaton films.
The phenomenal painter, teacher and film critic Manny Farber called his film class “A Hard Look at the Movies.” It was the first upper-division college class I took. I’d transferred from a small college in the Midwest to the University of California at San Diego, and I’d never seen a foreign film, unless you count the Sergio Leone westerns. We watched the following films in a 10-week period, and it turned the way I looked at movies upside down: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Max Ophuls’s The Earrings of Madame de…, Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Joseph Lewis’s Gun Crazy, Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy, Werner Schroeter’s The Death of Maria Malibran, Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou and Les Carabiniers, John Boorman’s Point Blank, Eric Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse, Joseph Losey’s Accident, Robert Aldrich’s The Grissom Gang, Luis Buñuel’s Diary of a Chambermaid, Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle, Nagisa Oshima’s Diary of a Shinjuku Burglar, Jean Cocteau and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Les Enfants terribles and several Buster Keaton films.
Azazel Jacobs
The son of avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs.
His first short film Message Machine "...is a brilliant example of how the avant-garde and experimental can still tell us something about the human experience that no amount of budget or special effects ever will."
His graduation film, Kirk and Kerry, won best short film at Slamdance in 1997, and he began making his first feature, Nobody Needs to Know while studying for his Masters at AFI in Los Angeles. The film, which played the festival circuit in 2003, fused conventional narrative with more experimental elements as Jacobs grappled with the idea of “honest” filmmaking. The film is about fame and how pursues those who run from it, and runs from those who pursue it. After an appalling audition Iris decides she probably does not want it after all, clashing with her roommate Mira, who will do anything to get there. At the same time in Manhattan- which plays a major role itself- a young man explores behind the camera and outside the frame.
He followed it up in 2005 with the delightful offbeat comedy drama The GoodTimesKid, which he made for just $10,000 in collaboration with Jacobs' girlfriend Sara Diaz and Drama/Mex director (and fellow AFI alum) Gerardo Naranjo.
Jacobs' third feature, Momma's Man, sees him return home with the story of Mikey (Matt Boren), who stays at his parents' house while on a business trip to New York. Lulled by the security of these familiar surroundings, he starts concocting reasons why he can't return to his wife and baby daughter in California...
http://nobodyneedstoknow.com/
His first short film Message Machine "...is a brilliant example of how the avant-garde and experimental can still tell us something about the human experience that no amount of budget or special effects ever will."
His graduation film, Kirk and Kerry, won best short film at Slamdance in 1997, and he began making his first feature, Nobody Needs to Know while studying for his Masters at AFI in Los Angeles. The film, which played the festival circuit in 2003, fused conventional narrative with more experimental elements as Jacobs grappled with the idea of “honest” filmmaking. The film is about fame and how pursues those who run from it, and runs from those who pursue it. After an appalling audition Iris decides she probably does not want it after all, clashing with her roommate Mira, who will do anything to get there. At the same time in Manhattan- which plays a major role itself- a young man explores behind the camera and outside the frame.
He followed it up in 2005 with the delightful offbeat comedy drama The GoodTimesKid, which he made for just $10,000 in collaboration with Jacobs' girlfriend Sara Diaz and Drama/Mex director (and fellow AFI alum) Gerardo Naranjo.
Jacobs' third feature, Momma's Man, sees him return home with the story of Mikey (Matt Boren), who stays at his parents' house while on a business trip to New York. Lulled by the security of these familiar surroundings, he starts concocting reasons why he can't return to his wife and baby daughter in California...
http://nobodyneedstoknow.com/
Jeremy Bailey
His work has been described by filmmaker magazine as "a one man revolution on the way we use video, computers and our bodies to create art". Jeremy lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
http://www.jeremybailey.net/bio.html
http://www.640480.com/home.html
http://www.jeremybailey.net/bio.html
http://www.640480.com/home.html
Grease to Greece
Localized and personalized cinema: "GPSFilms"
GPS Film is a new way of watching a movie that’s based on the viewer’s location. The system is a new media artwork from Scott Hessels and is released as an open source application that runs on any GPS-enabled mobile phone or PDA.
http://gpsfilm.com/
As the viewer travels by walking, bus, or taxi, the movie unfolds by passing through different areas. By exploring a park, a neighborhood, or even a city or country, GPS Film continually ‘reads’ the location of the viewer and plays scenes that are tied to those places.The more the viewer travels, the more of the film they see.
http://gpsfilm.com/
As the viewer travels by walking, bus, or taxi, the movie unfolds by passing through different areas. By exploring a park, a neighborhood, or even a city or country, GPS Film continually ‘reads’ the location of the viewer and plays scenes that are tied to those places.The more the viewer travels, the more of the film they see.
Friday, September 5, 2008
"NO END IN SIGHT" by Charles Ferguson
No End in Sight is being made available free to the public to reveal the facts about the Bush Administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq to voters concerned with the issues of national security and the adverse economic impact of the war when making decisions in this crucial election. NO END IN SIGHT condenses and clarifies the murky decisions made before and after the invasion and is invaluable to the public’s understanding of what went wrong. The film is both an analysis of an ill-conceived war and a plea to consider the impact of future military actions. According to the film's director, Charles Ferguson, he underwrote the exhibition of the film on YouTube because, "I wanted to make the film, and the facts about the occupation of Iraq, accessible to a larger group of people. My hope is that this will contribute to the process of making better foreign policy decisions moving forward in Iraq and elsewhere. During this election year, it’s important to examine the leadership mentality and policies that caused Iraq to descend into such a horrific state that after 4,000 American deaths, at least a quarter million Iraqis killed, 4 million refugees, and over $2 trillion spent, Iraq remains in a state of near collapse."
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
"The Passion Project" by Reid Farrington
Read from: http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=31262
The Passion Project is a vibrant archival film experiment spun from the reels of the last great silent film, Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 immortal masterpiece, "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Exploring the intersection of live performance, film, and installation, The Passion Project includes every frame of Dreyer's film - his outtakes and the reels that were eerily lost to fire - and explodes the film into three dimensions, placing the audience inside the action and surrounding them with the relentless rhythm of 30mm projections. The Passion Project features a mesmerizing and meticulous performance by Shelley Kay, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Melle. Falconetti, the actress in the film.
Directed by Reid Farrington and performed by Shelley Kay, production includes costumes by Sara Jeanne Asselin, set by Janet D. Clancy and dramaturgy/technical assistance by Stephen O'Connell and Austin Guest. The piece had its initial workshop production at the PS/K2 Festival, last November in Copenhagen, Denmark and continued workshop showings at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in June and July.
For the past seven years Reid Farrington has been a technical artist and collaborator with the Wooster Group. He has designed video and created hardware and software systems for the playback of video and sound for To You the Birdie!, Brace Up!, Poor Theater, House/Lights, WHO'S YOUR DADA, and Hamlet. He has toured productions to Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Brussels, and Athens. He has edited has authored interactive DVDs of The Wooster Group's performances, Brace Up! and House/Lights. In addition to being a video artist, he is a director, set, light, and costume designer for various theater and dance companies in NYC.
For more information, visit http://www.reidfarrington.com.
Watch video extract from Wooster Group's "Hamlet" and "The Passion Project"
The Passion Project is a vibrant archival film experiment spun from the reels of the last great silent film, Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 immortal masterpiece, "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Exploring the intersection of live performance, film, and installation, The Passion Project includes every frame of Dreyer's film - his outtakes and the reels that were eerily lost to fire - and explodes the film into three dimensions, placing the audience inside the action and surrounding them with the relentless rhythm of 30mm projections. The Passion Project features a mesmerizing and meticulous performance by Shelley Kay, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Melle. Falconetti, the actress in the film.
Directed by Reid Farrington and performed by Shelley Kay, production includes costumes by Sara Jeanne Asselin, set by Janet D. Clancy and dramaturgy/technical assistance by Stephen O'Connell and Austin Guest. The piece had its initial workshop production at the PS/K2 Festival, last November in Copenhagen, Denmark and continued workshop showings at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in June and July.
For the past seven years Reid Farrington has been a technical artist and collaborator with the Wooster Group. He has designed video and created hardware and software systems for the playback of video and sound for To You the Birdie!, Brace Up!, Poor Theater, House/Lights, WHO'S YOUR DADA, and Hamlet. He has toured productions to Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Brussels, and Athens. He has edited has authored interactive DVDs of The Wooster Group's performances, Brace Up! and House/Lights. In addition to being a video artist, he is a director, set, light, and costume designer for various theater and dance companies in NYC.
For more information, visit http://www.reidfarrington.com.
Watch video extract from Wooster Group's "Hamlet" and "The Passion Project"
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Steve Ballmer Microsoft's CEO attacked with eggs
Just as soon as the Microsoft CEO started his speech at the Corvinus University, in Budapest, Hungary, a protesting student wearing a "Microsoft=Corruption" shirt stood up and threw eggs at the Microsoft CEO. Not exactly a sign of the famous "Hungarian hospitality". Ballmer showed great reflexes and dodged the attack, hiding behind the desk.
The video of the accident on youtube was introduced with the following words: Steve Ballmer attacked by Nagy Gyorgy, a hungarian idiot who can't even speak english:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUZNw7h96WU&feature=related
The explanation of the attacker:Why I raised my voice against the contract between Microsoft and Hungarian government: http://nagyorgy.uw.hu/
The video of the accident on youtube was introduced with the following words: Steve Ballmer attacked by Nagy Gyorgy, a hungarian idiot who can't even speak english:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUZNw7h96WU&feature=related
The explanation of the attacker:Why I raised my voice against the contract between Microsoft and Hungarian government: http://nagyorgy.uw.hu/
RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE
Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, ShuddhabrataSengupta) is a collective of media practitioners based in New Delhi thatworks in art practice, new media, filmmaking, photography, media theory& research, writing, criticism and curation. Raqs are currentlyco-curators of the MANIFESTA 7 in South Tyrol/Trentino.
The origins of Raqs Media Collective’s practice lies in documentaryfilmmaking, and though they have traversed a long distance from theempiricist imperative of mainstream documentary making, documentsthemselves, and other forms that gesture to the notionally real,continue to intrigue them.Raqs are interested in documents because of the rhetorical spaces thatcan be prised open while handling documents. These include the elaboratedisguises and ruses that the rhetoric of documents sometimes carry withand within itself.
www.raqsmediacollective.net
www.manifesta7.it
The origins of Raqs Media Collective’s practice lies in documentaryfilmmaking, and though they have traversed a long distance from theempiricist imperative of mainstream documentary making, documentsthemselves, and other forms that gesture to the notionally real,continue to intrigue them.Raqs are interested in documents because of the rhetorical spaces thatcan be prised open while handling documents. These include the elaboratedisguises and ruses that the rhetoric of documents sometimes carry withand within itself.
www.raqsmediacollective.net
www.manifesta7.it
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Motionplex: On-line Collaborative Video Lab
http://www.dance-tech.net/motionplex
This is an on-line collaborative editing platform in development phase that will allow you to create on-line video collaboratively by adding video, stills and sound. The user is able to edit, re-sequence and remix the online content up-loaded by him/her and by other users
Motionplex allows you to search for media in the whole Kaltura network, Flickr (photo sharing site), google images and the New York City Public Library and the Internet Archives.
You are welcome to test it adding and re-mixing media.
You can also create a new mix!
This is an on-line collaborative editing platform in development phase that will allow you to create on-line video collaboratively by adding video, stills and sound. The user is able to edit, re-sequence and remix the online content up-loaded by him/her and by other users
Motionplex allows you to search for media in the whole Kaltura network, Flickr (photo sharing site), google images and the New York City Public Library and the Internet Archives.
You are welcome to test it adding and re-mixing media.
You can also create a new mix!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Anamorphic parking garage signage...
...is the kind of thing that wins design award...
...but shouldn’t—for several reasons:
(1) Signage in this kind of environment is most useful to those who are in the wrong place and/or on the wrong path; not only does this signage fail to serve them, but it introduces additional ambiguities and disorientation. (2) It assumes clear lines of sight, but they’re likely to be obscured by other traffic. (3) This signage uses color in arbitrary or counterconventional ways: green for “in” contrasted with red for “out” rather than green for “go” and red for “stop” (and for fire equipment), blue for “up” and yellow for “down” (which conflicts with other use of yellow for stop lines, warning on pylons, etc). (4) It obscures practical geometries (for example, tight turns on ramps) and introduces lots of unresolved factors (red lines that run across walkways into the roadway). The whole idea privileges the distracting satisfaction of watching a discombobulated illusion ‘fall into place’ rather than helping to drivers to find their way while watching out for other traffic as it enters and exits at unexpected angles). 
...but shouldn’t—for several reasons:(1) Signage in this kind of environment is most useful to those who are in the wrong place and/or on the wrong path; not only does this signage fail to serve them, but it introduces additional ambiguities and disorientation. (2) It assumes clear lines of sight, but they’re likely to be obscured by other traffic. (3) This signage uses color in arbitrary or counterconventional ways: green for “in” contrasted with red for “out” rather than green for “go” and red for “stop” (and for fire equipment), blue for “up” and yellow for “down” (which conflicts with other use of yellow for stop lines, warning on pylons, etc). (4) It obscures practical geometries (for example, tight turns on ramps) and introduces lots of unresolved factors (red lines that run across walkways into the roadway). The whole idea privileges the distracting satisfaction of watching a discombobulated illusion ‘fall into place’ rather than helping to drivers to find their way while watching out for other traffic as it enters and exits at unexpected angles).
The Salt Satyagraha by Joseph Delappe
Over the course of 26 days, using a treadmill customized for cyberspace, Joseph Delappe reenacted Mahatma Gandhi's famous 1930 Salt March. The original 240-mile walk was made in protest of the British salt tax; the update of this seminal protest march took place at Eyebeam and in Second Life, the Internet-based virtual world. For this performance, Joseph Delappe walked the entire 240 miles of the original march on a converted treadmill at Eyebeam in New York City and online in Second Life. My steps on the treadmill controlled the forward movement of my avatar, MGandhi Chakrabarti, enabling the live and virtual reenactment of the march.Realized in several stages, DeLappe's virtual re-creation of The Salt Satyagraha, Mahatma Ghandi's Salt March to Dandi, a journey 240 mileslong, is part installation and part performance art. His historical re-enactment reveals more about how virtual space is navigated from real
space than it explains the politics of Mahatma Ghandi's protest against British salt tax in 1930, utilizing travel in real space, a blog, and images from the journey housed on Flickr.
More of the article:
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=308
On joining a “real” march in NYC…
May 6, 2008 by delappe
Long delayed in writing about my experience on April 6th, 2008, walking in a march in “real life” sponsored by the NYC based “Satya Graha Forum”. The march was the inaugural event of a month of activities surrounding the production of “The Satyagraha”, the Phillip Glass opera from 1977 that was being revived by The Metropolitan Opera here in New York. The march involved starting at any one of four gathering points, walking a few miles and circling Union Square Park with all four groups converging on the Gandhi statue at the Soutwest corner of the park for a rally and speeches.
Keep in mind this was the day after completing the 240 miles of the reenactment in Second Life and on the treadmill - I was tired! All the same, it was quite an amazing experience to break out of my daily regimen of walking at Eyebeam (indoors), sleeping, getting up the next day and walking again. I made my way to Houston and 2nd avenue to gather with my fellow marchers. I immediately found myself feeling very self-conscious and shy in only the way that gathering with a group of complete strangers can do to me. Oddly, this was the complete opposite of my behavior and demeanor within Second Life during the course of the reenactment where I was completely at ease in approaching others in the online space to chat and invite them to be my “friends” and perhaps join me in walking.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
FINISTERRE by Saint Etienne
FINISTERRE from Plexifilm on Vimeo.
Presented by Saint Etienne, Finisterre takes us on a journey through London, from the suburbs into the heart of the city over an imaginary 24 hours. Featuring the observations and reminiscences of Lawrence from Felt/Denim, Mark Perry, the editor of original punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue, singer Vashti Bunyan, and many more...
http://plexifilm.com/media.php?id=77
Friday, July 4, 2008
STEVE KURTZ : ARTIST CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES IN PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE
ARTIST CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES IN PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE
Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal
Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal
Buffalo, NY—Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will not seek any new charges against Kurtz.
For over a decade, cultural institutions worldwide have hosted Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects, which use common science materials to examine issues surrounding the new biotechnologies. In 2004 the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. Kurtz had schemed with colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to illegally acquire two harmless bacteria cultures for use in one of those projects. The Justice Department further alleged that the transfer of the material from Ferrell to Kurtz broke a material transfer agreement, thus constituting mail fraud.
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the maximum sentence for these charges was increased from five years to twenty years in prison.
Dr. Kurtz has been fighting the charges ever since. In October 2007, Dr. Ferrell pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge after recurring bouts of cancer and three strokes suffered since his indictment prevented him from continuing the struggle.
KURTZ SUMS UP END OF FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE
Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do have questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”
Said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria, “I am glad an innocent man has been vindicated. Steve Kurtz stared in the face of the federal government and a twenty-year prison term and never flinched, because he believes in his work and his actions were those of a completely innocent man. Clients like him are a blessing, and although I have had many important victories, this one stands at the top of the list.”
As coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, a group organized to support Kurtz from the beginning of the case, Lucia Sommer sees the end of the prosecution as bittersweet, and like Kurtz, is thoughtful about the broader significance of the case: “This ruling is the best possible ending to a horrible ordeal—but we are mindful of numerous cases still pending, and the grave injustices perpetrated by the Bush administration following 9/11. This case was part of a larger picture, in which law enforcement was given expanded powers. In this instance, the Bush administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to erode Americans’ constitutional rights.”
Referring to the international outcry the case provoked, involving fundraisers and protests held on four continents, Sommer said, “ The government has unlimited resources to bring and prosecute these kinds of charges, but the accused often don’t have any resources to defend themselves. This victory could never have happened without the activism of thousands of people. Supporters protested, vocally opposed the prosecution, and refused to let it go on in silence. And without their efforts at fundraising, Kurtz and Ferrell would not have been able to defend themselves from these false accusations.”
Sommer added that the next step for the defense will be to get back all of the materials taken by the FBI during its 2004 raid on the Kurtz home, including several completed art projects, as well as Dr. Kurtz’s lab equipment, computers, books, manuscripts, notes, research materials, and personal belongings. The four confiscated art projects are the subject of an exhibition entitled SEIZED on view at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, through July 18:http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html.
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
The case originated in May 2004, when Kurtz’s wife Hope died of heart failure as the couple was preparing a project about genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the Kurtzes’ art materials suspicious and alerted the FBI. Kurtz explained that the materials (legally and easily obtained basic life science equipment and two harmless bacteria samples) had already been displayed at museums throughout Europe and North America with absolutely no risk to the public. However, the following day, Kurtz was illegally detained for 22 hours on suspicion of bioterrorism, as dozens of agents from the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, ATF, and numerous other law enforcement agencies raided his home, seizing his personal and professional belongings. After a federal grand jury refused to charge Kurtz with bioterrorism, Kurtz and Ferrell were indicted on two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud concerning the acquisition of $256 of harmless bacteria for one of Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects. (Critical Art Ensemble is the recipient of numerous awards for its projects, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, in recognition of twenty years of distinguished work: http://www.creative-capital.org/index2.html.)
The Department of Justice brought the charges in spite of the fact that the alleged “victims of fraud”—American Type Culture Collection and the University of Pittsburgh—never filed any charges or complained of any wrongdoing, and the fact that in bringing the charges the Department of Justice was acting completely outside its own Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm).
For more information and extensive documentation, including the Judge’s dismissal, please visit:http://caedefensefund.org***
Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal
Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal
Buffalo, NY—Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will not seek any new charges against Kurtz.
For over a decade, cultural institutions worldwide have hosted Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects, which use common science materials to examine issues surrounding the new biotechnologies. In 2004 the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. Kurtz had schemed with colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to illegally acquire two harmless bacteria cultures for use in one of those projects. The Justice Department further alleged that the transfer of the material from Ferrell to Kurtz broke a material transfer agreement, thus constituting mail fraud.
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the maximum sentence for these charges was increased from five years to twenty years in prison.
Dr. Kurtz has been fighting the charges ever since. In October 2007, Dr. Ferrell pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge after recurring bouts of cancer and three strokes suffered since his indictment prevented him from continuing the struggle.
KURTZ SUMS UP END OF FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE
Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do have questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”
Said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria, “I am glad an innocent man has been vindicated. Steve Kurtz stared in the face of the federal government and a twenty-year prison term and never flinched, because he believes in his work and his actions were those of a completely innocent man. Clients like him are a blessing, and although I have had many important victories, this one stands at the top of the list.”
As coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, a group organized to support Kurtz from the beginning of the case, Lucia Sommer sees the end of the prosecution as bittersweet, and like Kurtz, is thoughtful about the broader significance of the case: “This ruling is the best possible ending to a horrible ordeal—but we are mindful of numerous cases still pending, and the grave injustices perpetrated by the Bush administration following 9/11. This case was part of a larger picture, in which law enforcement was given expanded powers. In this instance, the Bush administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to erode Americans’ constitutional rights.”
Referring to the international outcry the case provoked, involving fundraisers and protests held on four continents, Sommer said, “ The government has unlimited resources to bring and prosecute these kinds of charges, but the accused often don’t have any resources to defend themselves. This victory could never have happened without the activism of thousands of people. Supporters protested, vocally opposed the prosecution, and refused to let it go on in silence. And without their efforts at fundraising, Kurtz and Ferrell would not have been able to defend themselves from these false accusations.”
Sommer added that the next step for the defense will be to get back all of the materials taken by the FBI during its 2004 raid on the Kurtz home, including several completed art projects, as well as Dr. Kurtz’s lab equipment, computers, books, manuscripts, notes, research materials, and personal belongings. The four confiscated art projects are the subject of an exhibition entitled SEIZED on view at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, through July 18:http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html.
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
The case originated in May 2004, when Kurtz’s wife Hope died of heart failure as the couple was preparing a project about genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the Kurtzes’ art materials suspicious and alerted the FBI. Kurtz explained that the materials (legally and easily obtained basic life science equipment and two harmless bacteria samples) had already been displayed at museums throughout Europe and North America with absolutely no risk to the public. However, the following day, Kurtz was illegally detained for 22 hours on suspicion of bioterrorism, as dozens of agents from the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, ATF, and numerous other law enforcement agencies raided his home, seizing his personal and professional belongings. After a federal grand jury refused to charge Kurtz with bioterrorism, Kurtz and Ferrell were indicted on two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud concerning the acquisition of $256 of harmless bacteria for one of Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects. (Critical Art Ensemble is the recipient of numerous awards for its projects, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, in recognition of twenty years of distinguished work: http://www.creative-capital.org/index2.html.)
The Department of Justice brought the charges in spite of the fact that the alleged “victims of fraud”—American Type Culture Collection and the University of Pittsburgh—never filed any charges or complained of any wrongdoing, and the fact that in bringing the charges the Department of Justice was acting completely outside its own Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm).
For more information and extensive documentation, including the Judge’s dismissal, please visit:http://caedefensefund.org***
"La palabra de los mudos"
on the 15th of May, in front of a huge audience the action "La palabra de los mudos" was staged in Redondo Beach, in the district of Miraflores, Lima, as the first artistic project of the French-Peruvian artist Jota Castro in Peru after three decades away from his homeland. During the development of the V Summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union, Jota Castro carried out this performance, which addressed the limits of communication and the problems concerning inclusion.
Before the event, there was a concentration in Bajada Balta, Miraflores, at 10.00 a.m., where participants (including a contingent of deaf people) from different points of the city gathered. From this meeting point, the participants started their way down to the shore towards Redondo Beach.
From a stage at the beach, Peruvian actor Sergio Galliani prepared the audience for the performance, which started when an interpreter delivered a speech in sign language. This speech was "echoed" at different moments of the performance by the participants, who had been previously taught slogans in sign language by Galliani. In a strongly symbolic and esthetically powerful scene, the responses of the audience were both in sign and oral languages. After the sign language speech, Jota Castro disclosed the content of the sign language message, which dealt with the exclusion suffered by the artist because of his race, establishing a parallel with the pain that three quarters of the world have to bear. "They don't listen to us", Castro repeated, talking about miscommunication, lack of justice, indifference and poverty. "We are all dumbŠ we are only a long silence in history". Then he encouraged the audience to "dream with a better world, a common future", as the Summit was taking place.
The French-Peruvian artist's performance transformed autobiographical and political issues into a historic and emotional experience that joined the audience for the first time with one of the most celebrated contemporary artists in the international scene today.
You can read and watch more information on the project, including press info at: www.lapalabradelosmudos.org.
There is also a video of the action available at: http://www.youtube.com/lapalabradelosmudos
Before the event, there was a concentration in Bajada Balta, Miraflores, at 10.00 a.m., where participants (including a contingent of deaf people) from different points of the city gathered. From this meeting point, the participants started their way down to the shore towards Redondo Beach.
From a stage at the beach, Peruvian actor Sergio Galliani prepared the audience for the performance, which started when an interpreter delivered a speech in sign language. This speech was "echoed" at different moments of the performance by the participants, who had been previously taught slogans in sign language by Galliani. In a strongly symbolic and esthetically powerful scene, the responses of the audience were both in sign and oral languages. After the sign language speech, Jota Castro disclosed the content of the sign language message, which dealt with the exclusion suffered by the artist because of his race, establishing a parallel with the pain that three quarters of the world have to bear. "They don't listen to us", Castro repeated, talking about miscommunication, lack of justice, indifference and poverty. "We are all dumbŠ we are only a long silence in history". Then he encouraged the audience to "dream with a better world, a common future", as the Summit was taking place.
The French-Peruvian artist's performance transformed autobiographical and political issues into a historic and emotional experience that joined the audience for the first time with one of the most celebrated contemporary artists in the international scene today.
You can read and watch more information on the project, including press info at: www.lapalabradelosmudos.org.
There is also a video of the action available at: http://www.youtube.com/lapalabradelosmudos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)