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Sunday, May 3
A Pleasing Secret History: Andrei Codrescu's Posthuman Dada Guide (Village Voice)
by
Rich
on May 3, 2009 06:25AM (PDT)
In listening to Codrescu he seems to believe the species bifurcation is on the horizon and dada is an appropriate response... Highly recommended rc
Dada: An absurdist art movement declaring itself against rationality, tradition, and—above all—Dada. Catholic mystic Hugo Ball and poet/impresario Tristan Tzara launched it in Zurich as World War I blazed all around.
Posthuman: A sci-fi term that came of age in the mid-1980s through texts like Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. It's what we homo sapiens supposedly become when technological enhancements allow us to transcend our biology.
The Posthuman Dada Guide: A hard-edged, rapier-like volume, perfect for sliding into a back pocket of skinny hipster pants or stabbing into the complacent underbelly of bourgeois (or bourgeois-bohemian) society. Authored by NPR commentator and essayist Andrei Codrescu, it offers a headier-than-usual tour of the early-1900s avant-garde, sprinkled with sex appeal for the would-be MySpace-age revolutionary. Jacket blurbs from the likes of Josephine Baker and Aleister Crowley affirm the Guide's period credentials. Meanwhile, the whole thing is a kind of hypertext, composed of cross-referenced "database" entries—so you can't doubt its cyberpunk legitimacy.... more »
Friday, April 24
The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin
by
Rich
on April 24, 2009 09:52AM (PDT)
Reference: 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution
Since Darwin has attained sainthood (if not divinity) among evolutionary biologists, and since all sides invoke God's allegiance, Darwin has often been depicted as a radical selectionist at heart who invoked other mechanisms only in retreat, and only as a result of his age's own lamented ignorance about the mechanisms of heredity. This view is false. Although Darwin regarded selection as the most important of evolutionary mechanisms (as do we), no argument from opponents angered him more than the common attempt to caricature and trivialize his theory by stating that it relied exclusively upon natural selection. In the last edition of the Origin, he wrote (1872, p. 395):
# As my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous position-namely at the close of the introduction-the following words: "I am convinced that natural selection has been the main, but not the exclusive means of modification." This has been of no avail. Great is the power of steady misinterpretation.
more »
Thursday, March 12
The Soul of a City: The Crystal Cathedral as Organizing Metaphor for (post)Modern Architecture at the Bauhaus
by
Debashish
on March 12, 2009 10:38PM (PDT)
 The Bauhaus, founded in 1919 at Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius, was arguably the most influential school of design in modern times, set up in the form of a residential creative community of designers, craftsmen, architects and artists. As part of its central ideal, Water Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, envisaged a world made up of creative communities united spiritually in and around a materialized soul, which he likened to "a crystal cathedral." Today, Bauhaus influenced architecture is ubiquitous as the symbol of world modernity, but Gropius' dream is far from fulfilled. This article explores the historical dimensions of this ideal, the causes for its failure and the possible conditions for its postmodern manifestation. more »
Wednesday, March 11
The BioArt of Eduardo Kac
by
Rich
on March 11, 2009 06:29PM (PDT)
Perhaps one of the most interesting disappearances of bio-technology is when its vanishing horizon is art....
BioArt is an art practice in which the medium is living matter and the works of art are produced in laboratories and/or artists’ studios. The tool is biotechnology, which includes such technologies as genetic engineering, tissue culture and cloning. BioArt is considered by most artists to be strictly limited to “living forms,” although there is some debate as to the stages at which matter can be considered to be alive or living. The materials used by Bioartists are cells, DNA, proteins and living tissue. Creating living beings and practicing in the life sciences brings about ethical, social and aesthetic inquiry. The phrase "BioArt" was coined by Eduardo Kac in 1997 in relation to his artwork "Time Capsule". Although it originated at the end of the 20th century through the works of pioneers like Kac and Gessert, BioArt started to be more widely practiced in the beginning of the 21st Century. Thus, it may be considered the first 21st century art movement.
"Move 36" makes reference to the dramatic move made by the computer called Deep Blue against chess world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. This competition may be characterized as a match between the greatest chess player who ever lived and the greatest chess player who never lived. The installation sheds light on the limits of the human mind and the increasing capabilities developed by computers and robots, inanimate beings whose actions often acquire a force comparable to subjective human agency.
According to Kasparov, Deep Blue's quintessential moment in game two came at Move 36. Rather than making a move expected by viewers and commentators alike--a sound move that would have afforded immediate gratification--it made a move that was subtle and conceptual and, in the long run, better. Kasparov could not believe that a machine had made such a keen move. The game, in his mind, was lost.
The installation presents a chessboard made of earth (dark squares) and white sand (light squares) in the middle of the room. There are no chess pieces on the board. Positioned exactly where Deep Blue made its Move 36 is a plant whose genome incorporates a new gene that I created specifically for this work. The gene uses ASCII (the universal computer code for representing binary numbers as Roman characters, on- and off-line) to translate Descartes's statement: "Cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am) into the four bases of genetics.
Through genetic modification, the leaves of the plants curl. In the wild these leaves would be flat. The "Cartesian gene" was coupled with a gene that causes this sculptural mutation in the plant, so that the public can see with the naked eye that the "Cartesian gene" is expressed precisely where the curls develop and twist....more
The "Cartesian gene" was produced according to a new code I created especially for the work. In 8-bit ASCII, the letter C, for example, is: 01000011. Thus, the gene is created by the following associations between genetic bases and binary digits:
Genesis is a transgenic artwork that explores the intricate relationship between biology, belief systems, information technology, dialogical interaction, ethics, and the Internet. The key element of the work is an "artist's gene", a synthetic gene that was created by Kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into Morse Code, and converting the Morse Code into DNA base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed by the artist for this work. The sentence reads: "Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." It was chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion--divinely sanctioned--of humanity's supremacy over nature. Morse code was chosen because, as the first example of the use of radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age--the genesis of global communication.
The Genesis gene was incorporated into bacteria, which were shown in the gallery. Participants on the Web could turn on an ultraviolet light in the gallery, causing real, biological mutations in the bacteria. This changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria. After the show, the DNA of the bacteria was translated back into Morse code, and then back into English. The mutation that took place in the DNA had changed the original sentence from the Bible. The mutated sentence was posted on the Genesis web site. In the context of the work, the ability to change the sentence is a symbolic gesture: it means that we do not accept its meaning in the form we inherited it, and that new meanings emerge as we seek to change it.....
more »
Tuesday, March 10
A Chronology of Modern Indian Art and Thematic Considerations By Debashish Banerji
by
Debashish
on March 10, 2009 10:25PM (PDT)
An Introduction to the history of modern Indian art along with an approach to its categorization, as expressed in the curatorial practice of the exhibition "Contours of Modernity" held at the SOKA University, Irvine from February-April, 2005 and curated by Debashish Banerji and Nalini Rao. more »
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Sunday, December 28
The BioArt of Eduardo Kac (cont)
by
Rich
on December 28, 2008 06:03PM (PST)
Clairvoyance
Odyssey
"Specimen of Secrecy about Marvelous Discoveries" is a series of works comprised of what Kac calls "biotopes", that is, living pieces that change during the exhibition in response to internal metabolism and environmental conditions. Each of Kac’s biotopes is literally a self-sustaining ecology comprised of thousands of very small living beings in a medium of earth, water, and other materials. The artist orchestrates the metabolism of these organisms in order to produce his constantly-evolving living works.
Kac's biotopes expand on ecological and evolutionary issues previously explored by the artist (for example, in his transgenic work "The Eighth Day"). At the same time, the biotopes further develop dialogical principles implemented and theorized by Kac for approximately two decades.
The biotopes are a discrete ecology because within their world the microorganisms interact with and support each other (that is, the activities of one organism enable another to grow, and vice-versa). However, they are not entirely secluded from the outside world : the aerobic organisms within the biotope absorb oxygen from outside (while the anaerobic ones comfortably migrate to regions where air cannot reach). A complex set of relationships emerge as the work unfolds, bringing together the internal dialogical interactions among the microorganisms in the biotope and the interaction of the biotope as a discrete unit with the external world. The biotope is affected by several factors, including the very presence of viewers, which can increase the temperature in the room (warm bodies) and release other microorganisms in the air (breathing, sneezing).
The biotope is what Kac calls a "nomad ecology", that is, an ecological system that interacts with its surroundings as it travels around the world. Every time a biotope migrates from one location to another, the very act of transporting it causes an unpredictable redistribution of the microorganisms inside it (due to the constant physical agitation inherent in the course of a trip). Once in place, the biotope self-regulates with internal migrations, metabolic exchanges, and material settling..... more »
Saturday, November 1
Xul Solar
by
Debashish
on November 1, 2008 11:22PM (PDT)
Untitled 1
"A man well versed in all disciplines, curious about each and every
mystery, father of alphabets, languages, utopias and mythologies, host of
paradises and infernos, author, pan-chess player, and perfect astrologer in
indulgent irony and generous friendship, Xul Solar is one of the most peculiar
events of our times" - Jorge Luis Borges
If the essence of critique, as per Foucault, is the desubjugation of the self
in the politics of truth, and if utopias, as per Jameson, represent the limit
condition of social critique, Argentinian Xul Solar (1887-1963) is one kind of
subject exemplar of the wholesale reconfiguration of modernity. Standing at the
initiation of an age of world history which harvests humanity for a totalitarian
global market, offers alienation and conditioning in the name of freedom,
policed uniformity in the name of creativity and multiculturalism, dromologic
deformation in the name of progress, animal lust and aggression cloaked as
civilization, Xul Solar, like his friend Jorge Luis Borges, made of his life and
its expressions a performance at the margins which opened the cracks to
alternate worlds of creative communitarian self-fashioning, poised between
internal coherence and external noise, negotiating their realities and truths in
real-time. An epic personality, Solar leaves his legacy of the message that it
is not through the politics of the democratic vote but through what may seem an
eccentric creative aspiration towards global and teleological alternate
integralities, resistances to assimilation and an assimilation of resistances,
that we may gather the invisible threads and weave the text of a world which
makes possible the gnostic community.
more »
Shahzia Sikander
by
Rich
on November 1, 2008 09:31AM (PDT)
Shahzia Sikander is a Pakistani born artist primarily working in the highly detailed medium of miniature painting, a tradition that stretches back at least to Mughal India. Spiritual has been one adjective applied to her art work that often blurs traditional distinctions that define cultural life on the subcontinent such as Hindu/Muslim, ancient/modern, male/female.
A defining trait of Shahzia Sikander's artwork, but also her life, is the persistent impulse to cross boundaries. Born in Lahore, Pakistan and trained in the traditional art of Persian miniature painting, Sikander later emigrated to the United States, earned an MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, and is currently a rising star in the New York art scene.
Her paintings often address the cultural cross currents that she embodies: East vs. West, tradition vs. invention, spirituality vs, capitalism. Sikander's story might be the latest version of the classic immigrant tale: a young woman from a third world Muslim country leading a very independent life in 21st Century Manhattan.
Here is some of her art work as well as an interview with this talented artist.... more »
Sunday, April 27
Postmodern Film Reviews: Bladerunner by Giovanni Ferri
by
Rich
on April 27, 2008 09:11PM (PDT)
The question of identity is a clear postmodernist concern, and critic Scott Bukatman has added that he believes the issue of human definition is clearly central to the work, and thus the ambiguity is crucial'(14). This view is similar to the philosopher Slavoj Zizek. He argues that Blade Runner' stages a confrontation with our own replicant-status', so it is only when we as humans realize that our notion of self is very much constructed by the world around us, that we can become a truly human subject' ... more »
Thursday, April 17
Could Science and Art Become One and the Same?, by Greg Wendt
by
ronjon
on April 17, 2008 01:00AM (PDT)
Science aims to help us gain an understanding of reality, yet how can that which is dictated by the laws of logic be used to explain the parts of reality that are non-logical? -- Is it possible that art can be used in a scientific way to create a more accurate expression of reality and a greater understanding of human experience?
A recent article by Jonah Lehrer in SEED Magazine called "The Future of Science....Art?" asks whether art is better suited than science to portray the reality of inner experience: ... more »
Tuesday, March 25
or Guernica Iraq!
by
Rich
on March 25, 2008 07:40PM (PDT)
Picasso captured an intense scene reflecting the deeply unjust suffering, agony and despair experienced by the people of Guernica. And in doing so he produced one of the most iconic, powerful and affecting pieces of anti-war artwork ever put to canvas. It is little surprise then that a reproduction of the painting, which hangs outside the entrance to the UN Security Council, was covered while Colin Powell was attempting to sell the Iraq War to the world.
The people of Iraq are suffering what amounts to the similar unjust brutality inflicted on the people of Guernica Iraq, except it's practically on a daily basis. A more accurate comparison would be to imagine having the London Tube and Bus bombings everyday. And have them happen so often that they become a predictable daily occurrence and part of life."
Guernica was the product of a fascist Spanish-German alliance between Franco and Hitler, and the corportist sponsors of the Luftwaffe. The following collage of images come to us trough the efforts of the Anglo-American alliance of Blair and Bush and through the courtesy of Boeing, Haliburton, Blackwater et al....
more »
Monday, February 4
NASA to beam Beatles' song 'Across the Universe' to deep space on Feb.4,2008
by
ronjon
on February 4, 2008 02:00AM (PST)
...at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Feb. 4...NASA will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first space mission — the launch of the Explorer 1 satellite — by using the system of huge antennas that usually listen for inbound signals from space to send one outbound instead: the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe,” which as it happens was mostly recorded exactly 40 years earlier, on Feb. 4, 1968.
Reception will be best in the general direction of Polaris, 431 lightyears away, which is where NASA is aiming the signal. (That would be the North Star to us laymen.) But it ought to be audible in plenty of places on Earth as well, at least by imitation: NASA is encouraging space fans and Beatle fans alike to play the song themselves at the same time.
NASA’s press release includes some perfectly in-character comments from Sir Paul McCartney (”Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.”) and from Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, the song’s main author (”I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe.”). ... more »
Tuesday, December 25
"Al-Kemi: A Memoir"
by
Kim
on December 25, 2007 08:59PM (PST)
Al-Kemi recounts the story of the eighteen months that Andrew VandenBroeck, a painter and writer, spent in daily contact with the remarkable French philosopher, hermetist, and Egyptologist, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887-1961). Structured like a mystery, and distilled in the crucible of memory for fifteen years, Al-Kemi provides a passionately felt, personal, and dramatic introduction to the startling world of this contemporary alchemist (from back cover).
... Before reaching these particulars, it must be known that de Lubicz held the traditional conception of an esoteric science and its transmission: true knowledge is inaccessible to the rational mind. This epistemological tenet caused his writings to be spiked with metaphor, innuendo, and at times, obscurity. He mistrusted the written word, disliked writing because truth was inevitably degraded when committed to paper through a profane language. This attitude most clearly ordinates the lineage along which he inscribes himself by his premises and his results. His low regard for “demotic” writing as a means of truth-communication made personal contact with him invaluable, for he had no such reservations concerning the spoken word, the word of gesture. Thus he actively believed in oral transmission of a kind of knowledge best called “gnosis,” [3] and in private, I always found him accessible to leisurely conversation on the most exalted topics. As our relationship soon proved more than casual, his information became increasingly direct, in contrast to his written expression which often presents problems of meaning and referent.
To such an epistemology, personal contact is the kingpin of communication, and I found out later to what extent his frame of reference was tailored to his correspondent. ...
more »
Monday, October 8
Imagine Peace Tower, an artistic vision by Yoko Ono, dedicated to John Lennon
by
ronjon
on October 8, 2007 04:23PM (PDT)
 The new IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Iceland
I dedicate this light tower to John Lennon
my love for you is forever
Yoko Ono
Videy Island, Reykjavik, Iceland
October 9th 2007 more »
Friday, August 24
Off to Burning Man for the next 10 days
by
ronjon
on August 24, 2007 11:11AM (PDT)
 Burning Man 2006 satellite view. (~ 40,000 participants)
Well, I'm off to Burning Man 2007 tomorrow (Saturday) and will be pretty much out of touch with SCIY (no phones or Internet access out there on the remote playa). Rumors are that this year's festival will be the biggest in its 18 years, even more than the record 40,000 last year. This is truly a remarkable experience when you realize that all the infrastructure for a self-contained international city is literally created by volunteers out of nothing in a few days on a barren, hot, lifeless desert site. It's fully populated for a week, and then completely dismantled, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management regulations for use of the site, with no evidence of it having been there, not even a flake of glitter! ... more »
Sunday, August 19
Burning Man 2007: What is Burning Man?
by
ronjon
on August 19, 2007 09:31AM (PDT)
Every year, tens of thousands of participants gather to create Black Rock City in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, dedicated to self-expression, self-reliance, and art as the center of community. They leave one week later, having left no trace. Read Burning Man's mission statement, 10 Principles, and learn more about this incredible experience. ... more »
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