Brazil

SO GOOD.

DIVERSITY

Of thought

Of living

Of culture

Of rituals

Of actions

Of imagination

Of futures

Of realities

Monoculture: How One Story is Changing Everything

F S Michaels 

"A monoculture doesn’t mean that everyone believes exactly the same thing or acts in exactly the same way, but that we end up sharing key beliefs and assumptions that direct our lives. Because a monoculture is mostly left unarticulated until it has been displaced years later, we learn its boundaries by trial and error. We somehow come to know how the master story goes, though no one tells us exactly what the story is or what its rules are. We develop a strong sense of what’s expected of us at work, in our families and communities — even if we sometimes choose not to meet those expectations. We usually don’t ask ourselves where those expectations came from in the first place. They just exist — or they do until we find ourselves wishing things were different somehow, though we can’t say exactly what we would change, or how.” ~ F. S. Michaels"

"The independent life begins with discovering what it means to live alongside the monoculture, given your particular circumstances, in your particular life and time, which will not be duplicated for anyone else. Out of your own struggle to live an independent life, a parallel structure may eventually be birthed. But the development and visibility of that parallel structure is not the goal — the goal is to live many stories, within a wider spectrum of human values.” ~ F. S. Michaels

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/09/02/monoculture-michaels/

“Legislators don’t appreciate that if players introduce novelties into their games, they’ll become different people. Being different, they’ll demand a different kind of life; and that will make them want new institutions and laws. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that the game inventor is biggest menace that can ever afflict a state.” – Plato

http://www.classwargames.net

Open-source Architecture

Down with design elitism - power to the people!

Janet Cardiff Forty Part Motet

The Forty Part Motet (A reworking of “Spem in Alium” by Thomas Tallis 1573)

Forty separately recorded voices are played back through forty speakers strategically placed throughout the space.

Comments by the artist: 
"While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.

I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.”

Miranda July on Strangers

Miranda July on Strangers from The School of Life on Vimeo.