Intersections of Art, Technology, Science & Culture - Links
Shader Lamps: Animating Real Objects with Image-Based Illumination
basic 2D math
basic 3D math
2D transformations
3D matrix math demystified
make additional comments here. mine are in the extended extry.
As I first began to read this, I was concerned that it would simply be about this physical connection between body and the machine || body and technology.
"the body is redesigned through technology, as perception adjusts to meet the challenge set out by the stimulus at a neurological level."
in most of Stelarc's art, perception doesn't seem to play much of a role -- at first. However, as I read, I liked the idea of the mind learning through the body's relationship w/ technology. it is about more about this involunary connection ("involuntary muscle spasms) between these two elements. the standard cyborg stuff. At the beginning of the author, Mark Fernandes, talks about the idea that the notion of the body as a discrete elemet is not a modern one, but rather one espoused by Descartes in his Discourse on Method:
"The body and mind were distinctly separate for Descartes, who thought the body a machine, to be informed by the higher order rationality of the mind."
"Thereby, the body is redesigned through technology, as perception adjusts to meet the challenge set out by the stimulus at a neurological level. Now if the spatial distances between form and body collapse, so alters consciousness."
so as the body and technology play off each other, our nuerological state also begins evolving. This is a nice idea. However, I question whether Stelarc's work actually addresses this exact notion, which brings be back to my first concern, that his work comes off as simply another well-worn cyborg dialogue between the physical body, and technology.
In ParaSite for Invaded and Involuntary Body, "the Internet-generated metabody orders the human towards a revelation of its function"
ostensibly, but in reality it seems like more of a simple mirror - the physical human interacting with his virtual counterparts.
His theories are interesting, but I find myself not being that interested in Sterlarc's work -- I feel that there is too large a gap here between the theory and the execution in the art.
convince me otherwise.
Please post comments to the reading below of the "Poetics of Interactivity" article by Margaret Morse. http://switch.sjsu.edu/nextswitch/switch_engine/front/front.php?artc=267
post any notes you have on this week's reading here. mine are included in the extended entry of this post.
"instruments as general purpose tools" - demarinis questions the notion of creating a medium, in this case, a synthesizer, for the creation of music, with the intent of ignoring the thing itself -- that is, the syntheiszer is made to create music, but the technical work of art underlying the machine is dismissed. This is an interesting notion, one that has been explored by a number of electronic musicians. a couple interesting examples, as I'm thinking of this, in the less esoteric of recorded music, would be Robert Fripp and Tom Morello. With Frippertronics, the recording process itself is the message, so to speak; and Morello is known for showcasing the electric, mechanical aspects of the electric guitar. Clearly, there are many other, probably better examples of this, as it has sort of been "done" in the computer media world ad infinitum. Anyway, these are all examples, therefore, of Demarinis' idea that "the circuits themselves are works of art," which could be again would harken back to McLuhan's famous: "The medium is the message."
- Demarinis is very concerned with voice analysis. it's interesting to note that in general, building interactivity is highly concerned with analysis, and these vocal pieces could simply be viewed as a recognization of that fact.
speech / melody / music - power of human voice in music. For a while, electronic music was really ambient, bells and whistles, etc. I'm blanking on the name of the composer (he was a french radio engineer), but he used tape loops of children talking on a musical bed, and once you hear the human voice, it adds this completely other level. I can't remember if it was EBN, but there was a more modern piece that was basically layering Dan Rather's voice onto a breakbeat. It changed the whole thing, and now that's used to the point of me wanting to break things when I hear it. But I digress...Marinis uses all this in a nice way: his voice work is interesting because it plays off these principles, both employing, and commenting on them at the same time.
Edison Effect - further emphasis on the medium - "Unlike the environmental sounds, these sounds would not exist if the recording had not been made. I call this the shadow of technology."
"For me the real illusions are the ones that still mystify even when the technology is revealed and explained."
"Thus the artist's role is to animate with the imagination the way things work."