Sally Mann

I went to see Sally Mann's exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery with my dad last summer but I was just reminded about her.

Her work is considered quite controversial by some but nevertheless the photographs are amazing.

evolving fractal landscape

Surface detail from subBlue on Vimeo.

Surface detail By subBlue

VIVIAN MAIER

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

(Street photography. Quite want to see exhibition at Museum of London about street photography in London.)

Is there a genius in all of us?

Those who think geniuses are born and not made may be wrong, says writer David Shenk.

London cabbies famously navigate one of the most complex cities in the world.

In 1999, neurologist Eleanor Maguire conducted MRI scans on their brains and compared them with the brain scans of others.

In contrast with non-cabbies, experienced taxi drivers had a greatly enlarged posterior hippocampus - that part of the brain that specialises in recalling spatial representations.

What's more, the size of cabbies' hippocampi correlated directly with each driver's experience: the longer the driving career, the larger the posterior hippocampus.

That showed that spatial tasks were actively changing cabbies' brains. This was perfectly consistent with studies of violinists, Braille readers, meditation practitioners, and recovering stroke victims.

Our brains adapt in response to the demands we put on them.

Read the whole article from BBC news here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12140064

RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation

"Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society." - RSA

(Sort of related to Memento mori, which I've been reading about recently)

Farnham charity shops are ace. Continued.

1950's Hoover in Oxfam. The colour is awesome. Unfortunately it had already been sold.

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger

Since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Hesse-Honegger has collected, studied and painted morphologically disturbed insects, which she finds in the fallout areas of Chernobyl as well as near nuclear installations. Her findings show that the radioactivity has affected the health and development of the leaf bugs. Her research was highly controversial at the time. Many scientists and worst of all governments have disregarded her research totally, denying that low-level exposure to radioactivity has any effect on health.

http://www.wissenskunst.ch/

90GB of data stored in 1g of bacteria

"Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong have succeeded in demonstrating data storage and encryption with bacteria.

While current electronic data storage methods approach their limits in density, the team achieved unprecedented results with a colony of E.coli. Their technique allows the equivalent of the United States Declaration of Independence to be stored in the DNA of eighteen bacterial cells. Given there are approximately ten million cells in one gram of biological material, the potential for data storage is huge. Furthermore, data can be encrypted using the natural process of site specific genetic recombination: information is scrambled by recombinase genes, whose actions are controlled by a transcription factor.

However, the technique is not yet perfect. Retrieval of data requires a sequencer, and is therefore tedious and expensive. Additionally, toxic DNA is bound to be present within the stored sequences. It is feared that organisms will mutate to remove such sequences, thereby deleting some of the data.

Consequently, the application of this technology is currently restricted to storing copyright information in genetically engineered organisms. Nevertheless, these results are encouraging. A bacterial medium has the potential to be more resilient than electronic methods of data storage. For example, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is extremely radioresistant; the entrusted information would survive even under the electromagnetic pulse and radiation of nuclear fallout."

- http://www.bluesci.org/

(A very interesting development in biotechnology. Also, one of the main problems with data storage is it can be damaged quite easily or simply becomes corrupted over time. As it says above this method has the potential to be far more resilient and therefore data can be preserved for much longer periods of time than previously possible)

Manmade Landscapes

- Empty cul-de-sacs fill an area south of Rotonda West in Charlotte County, Florida.

- Oil fields in Saudi Arabia. Pictures from Google Earth.

Visited: R&S Boiler Room Session @ Pattern Cutters Warehouse

Pretty good.

James Blake - http://www.readplatform.com/james-blake-55-min-boiler-room-mix/

Pariah - http://www.readplatform.com/pariahs-45-min-boiler-room-mix/

A Collection a Day

Everyone should collect something. But maybe a new collection for every day is a bit excessive?! - http://collectionaday2010.blogspot.com/

Digital Anthropology at UCL

http://www.ucl. ac.uk/anthropology/digital-anthropology/

The new MSc in Digital Anthropology- -begun in the Autumn of 2009–is well positioned for becoming a world leader in the training of researchers in the social and cultural dimensions of information technologies and digital media.

Digital technologies have become ubiquitous. From Facebook, Youtube and Flickr to PowerPoint, Google Earth and Second Life. Museum displays migrate to the internet, family communication in the Diaspora is dominated by new media, artists work with digital films and images.

Anthropology and ethnographic research is fundamental to understanding the local consequences of these innovations, and to create theories that help us acknowledge, understand and engage with them. Today’s students need to become proficient with digital technologies as research and communication tools. Through combining technical skills with appreciation of social effects, students will be trained for further research and involvement in this emergent world.

This MSc (…) brings together three key components in the study of digital culture:

1. Skills training in digital technologies, including our own Digital Lab, from internet and digital film editing to e-curation and digital ethnography.
2. Anthropological theories of virtualism, materiality/ immateriality and digitisation.
3. Understanding the consequences of digital culture through the ethnographic study of its social and regional impact and issues of the digital divide.

Started in 2009 but I've only just read about it. Sounds quite interesting and opportune. I'd be curious to know how the course is going.

Tangible Music

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

Quite a nice project. Also featured in IDEO's "I miss my pencil" book. A very similar idea to Matt Brown's RFID Radio.

tight

Water Sculpture

Water Sculpture from Shinichi Maruyama on Vimeo.

Art work by Shinichi Maruyama
Composited by Tetsushi Wakasugi

Ishihara

Ishihara - English version from Yoav Brill on Vimeo.

Yoav Brill has quite extreme colour blindness. He spent his chilldhood being unable to distinguish pink from gray, or even pick out a white flower in a sea of red ones. Brill made this film about his experience called Ishihara -- named after the instantly recognizable test patterns of colored dots that doctors use to diagnose colorblindness.

Supposed to be researching Physiognomy...

Ended up reading -

How much do I want to know about my genes?

Large-scale studies such as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children are playing a fundamental role in helping scientists to identify distinctions between the effects of genes and environment on our bodies and minds. Not only will this point the way to new treatments for disease, it will also illuminate the critical factors that determine who we are.

However, taking part in such studies exploring genetic risk factors for disease could have profound effects on our lives and identities. If the study identified that we had a high risk of a disease, such as breast cancer, but that there was no certainty we would actually get it, for example, would we want to know about the risk?

Would we want to live with the fear of something that may not happen? Would we take drastic preventative action, such as having both our breasts removed, to pre-empt the cancer occurring, even though such operations cannot remove all the tissue that is likely to become cancerous? What about the effects of such 'knowledge' on our sense of safety, our social relationships and life decisions such as whether to marry and have children?

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/the-identity-project/more-identity-in-depth/how-much-do-i-want-to-know.aspx

Cold War-era building frozen in time.

The Palast der Republik, or Palace of the Republic, was new in 1976, but largely unloved after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Thorsten Klapsch became the last photographer to capture its interiors before a long period of demolition began. He has now published a book of his photographs.

Audio / Visual. Amazing

Sculpture is an audiovisual performance duo from London – electronic music producer, Dan Hayhurst, and animator, Reuben Sutherland.

Sutherland ‘DJs’ with home-made zoetropic discs, intricate concentric rings of illustrated frames, projecting fragments of looping images at 33, 45 and 78 rpm – pre-Edisonian imaging technology combined with a digital video camera.

Rotary Signal Emitter - Side B from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.
More info:
http://www.tapebox.co.uk/Tapebox/Home.html

NEWS - I have a bedroom! (No door yet though)

In fact all 6 bedrooms have now been built in Unit 6. Just a bit more painting and doors to attach. Our house is really starting to become a home!

The timber frame

With inner plaster board wall attached

Painting a finished room

The room, complete with belongings!

Games, games, games.

In the past few months I have become quite interested in and have been reading a lot about issues relating to gaming, how it's developing and how it's affecting our culture at the moment.

How gaming is being utilised as a tool to solve serious issues and problems and be of benefit to society but how in turn, with its increased involvement in our lives, it has also caused adverse behavior in some people.

Below is a link to BBC Panorama 'Addicted to Gaming".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/wlmj0/

At first I thought the panorama program was being a bit over the top and extremist but after seeing the interviews with people it seems that in some cases people are displaying all the traits of having an addiction - sometimes playing for more than 12 hours a day, neglecting important responsibilities, even failing to care for pets and children.

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In this photography project called Immersion by Robbie Cooper he takes pictures of people's faces while they are playing computer games. You can see by the emotions displayed on their faces how involved they get with playing the games.

The boy in the photo above cries while he is playing video games because he doesn't blink while playing, so not to miss anything.

More on Serious Gaming

Jane McGonigal’s TED talk on Serious Games.

(This video was the inspiration for the Serious Games Hot Topic event held by NESTA, which I have written about previously on this blog. I have also recently been reading 'Fans, Bloggers and Gamers - Exploring Participatory Culture' a book by Henry Jenkins which links well to this TED video. Both McGonigal and Jenkins talk a lot about utilising collective intelligence, via the internet, for solving bigger real world issues which I'm finding very interesting at the moment).

What if...

http://whatiftheydid.blogspot.com/

Colour A Sound

Color a Sound from blair neal on Vimeo.

I'm already obsessed with those wind up music boxes...

'Color a Sound is a sound installation by Blair Neal, that invites participants to color on a transparency and hear a corresponding sound. Sound is triggered when it passes a line, observed by MaxMSP software running in the background. Different colors control the octave of a note, blue – low, green – middle and red – high. Modes can also be changed so that blue colours trigger 808 drum sounds instead of chimes.'

Heart Chamber Orchestra

Heart Chamber Orchestra from pure on Vimeo.

The Heart Chamber Orchestra – HCO - is an audiovisual performance. The orchestra consists of 12 classical musicians and the artist duo TERMINALBEACH. Using their heartbeats, the musicians control a computer composition and visualization environment. The musical score is generated in real time by the heartbeats of the musicians. They read and play this score from a computer screen placed in front of them. Custom-made software analyzes the data and via different algorithms it generates the real-time musical score for the musicians, the electronic sounds and the computer graphic visualization via 2 projectors in the space.

From http://www.creativeapplications.net/

Dead Drops

‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation. If you want to install a dead drop in your city/neighborhood follow the ‘how to’ instructions and submit the location and pictures.

Berlin based media artist, Aram Bartholl started the ‘Dead Drops’ project during his stay in NYC at EYEBEAM as an artist in residence, October 2010.

http://deaddrops.com/

Black and WTF

Date unknown

Beauty device to shape the nose - $6.00.

From Black and WTF

One Hundred and Eight

One Hundred and Eight – Interactive Installation from Nils Völker on Vimeo.

One Hundred and Eight is an interactive installation made by Nils Völker. It’s made out of ordinary garbage bags which can be selectively inflated and deflated by two cooling fans.

Maria Blaisse - kuma guna 1996, foam costumes for dance

Kuma Kuna, a project initiated by Maria Blaisse for which she developped a specific elastic foam to make a study form in movement. In this project she developed a series of costums with a focus on the stubborn qualities of the material. The costums are trying to find their counterbalance of the strenght of the human body. In movement the wearer is influencing the form of the costumn, and visa versa, together forming a fascinating language.

http://www.mariablaisse.com/

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"Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity" !!

(time to renew my website it seems!)