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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Uh-oh. Just got back to town. Looks like there's not gonna be a Sunday Devotional today. Here's some art/sci blithering instead....
Back in June I went to a Power Plant panel held in conjunction with the exhibition Universal Code. It was a conversation (moderated by Misha Glouberman) with Sean Gryb, a PhD candidate at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Lee Smolin and artist Katie Paterson who's piece Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon) was in the exhibition.
Sean Gryb started off by talking about the ways in which physics is moving beyond reductivism. There are just too many real phenomena that are irreducible to their components. The standard particle theory is not really useful for describing something like, for instance, love. But the challenge is: how to deal scientifically with contingency and an open-ended range of variables?
Next, Lee Smolin had a conversation with Katie Paterson. It was pretty good. They'd had a chance to talk previously, so the discussion got beyond the usual strange disconnects that happen when artists and scientists come together. Katie is an interesting artist and Smolin showed her lots of respect. But at one point in their discussion he mentioned, kind of off-handedly, that scientists own the narrative of cosmology and artists are responding to it.
Typically, when artists and scientists come together the scientists are interested in outreach, and their motivation for collaborating is that they hope artists can illustrate and disseminate their ideas to broader audiences. Or, in some cases, scientists are frustrated because they see aesthetic value in the visual by-products of their work and hope that in an art context it will be appreciated. Smolin is much more sophisticated. He has been around artists for years, and has a genuine curiosity about the artistic process. But his comment indicated that he is nonetheless thinking of art as a kind of application of science, rather than a parallel investigation with its own systemic methodologies and results.
There is a real surge of art and science collaborations going on right now. This panel was by no means an isolated event and it seems that more and more scientists, like Smolin, are voluntarily seeking out conversation with artists. I have my own theory about why this is happening.
Physics is not the only scientific field where reductivism has become uncool. It is happening in neuroscience as well, where people are grappling to describe consciousness not just in terms of the modular mechanics of the brain but in terms of the brain-in-relation to environmental and cultural stimuli. The challenge is similar to the problem of contingency and variables articulated by Gryb. This kind of knowledge is beyond the tautological scope of laboratory experiments and imaging technologies. Additionally, in both physics and neuroscience there has been a failure of technology to provide viable experimental proof even for the most current reductivist theories. In neuroscience it was the failure of AI, in physics it was the lack of experimental proof for string theory.
Art can be considered a technology if we adopt a definition of technology as a modality (Heidegger said that technology came before science) rather than a bunch of equipment, or an application of science. Could it be that some scientists are intuitively drawn to art specifically because it is a tried-and-true, non-reductive technology — one with a long and sophisticated history of addressing contingency and open-ended variability in concrete, material form? Art historians have known for centuries that artworks emerge from — but are not reducible to — the conditions of their production. Are scientists nosing around art these days, because, on some level, they sense it might provide a potentially fruitful experimental methodoloy in the face of the failure of reductivism?
If there's an element of truth to this, then I think the scientists need to acknowledge it, and let go of the idea that they could 'own' a narrative with as much deep history as cosmology. No discipline operates in a vacuum, and like it or not the humanities and the sciences have co-evolved. There's more cross-over than we might think.
Total system crash. No posts Sunday.
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
Email from M. Jean: Kraft dinner: A strangely malleable yet unforgiving medium.
And my cautious, measured response: PICKLE MAN RIDING PICKLE HORSE!
(found)
Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World
Dustinn Craig, Fausto Fernandez, Luis Gutierrez, David Hannan, Gregory Lomayesva, Brian David Kahehtowanen Miller, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Kent Monkman, Nadia Myre, Alan Natachu, Hector Ruiz, Anna Tsouhlarakis, Kade L. Twist, Bernard Williams, Steven Yazzie
Did anybody here see this show at the AGO this summer? Sarah Milroy wrote a provocative review of the exhibition in April that has been reposted here, at indianz.com. The show was co-curated by Gerald McMaster and Joe Baker in a collaboration between the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. According to the curators, the exhibition represented a generation of artists that "doesn’t feel compelled to reflect a traditional tribal identity in their work." It was an exploration of hybridity, featuring 15 artists from Canada, the United States and Mexico. According to Milroy, "The works on view seem to have lost the vitality of traditional culture, gaining little in the bargain. The curators have made weak choices: These works don't feel dynamically hybrid so much as simply diluted." To put it bluntly, Milroy didn't like the art. But she took her critique further, posing the question of whether or not exhibitions themed around aboriginal identity have become outdated and anachronistic.
McMaster, to his credit, invited Milroy to participate on a panel last Sunday to publicly discuss the issue, and Milroy, to her credit, showed up. Joe Baker was also on the panel along with Salah Hassan, professor of African and African Diaspora art history and visual culture. It was an interesting event.
read the rest of the review...
Wil Murray: We Pet Your Cat to Death?
Galerie PUSH, 5264 boul. Saint-Laurent Montreal PQ Sept. 10 Oct. 11, 2009.
If They Bottled Sex With The Curator I Would Buy It But Spill It On The Way Home 2009 Acrylic & Foam On Board, 49" X 59" X 7"
VVORK (Aleksandra Domanovic, Georg Schnitzer, Christoph Priglinger and Oliver Laric) collaborates on an IMG MGMT essay on Turbo Sculpture for Art Fag City.
Outsider / Picture Show: An Exhibition by Simon McNally in a vacant commercial space at 1518 Dundas St. W, Toronto until Aug 30, 2009
Strangers 2007
Sunday - Ball of Confusion
The Temptations
Love And Rockets
Tina Turner, BEF
Horizons K-8 students
Humberto Vélez: The Fight Poster 2007 made in collaboration with three boxing clubs from Southwark: Fitzroy Lodge ABC, Fisher Downside ABC and Lynn ABC.
AGYU :: Out There presents a screening of The Fight: A documentary film of the project by Humberto Vélez Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 at The Drake Underground , 1150 Queen St. W. Toronto
8:00pm screening will be followed by a Q&A with the artist and co curators Emelie Chhangur and Elizabeth Matheson
Drinks & DJ set by Cozmic Cat
stills from The Welcoming 2006 A documentary film by Humberto Vélez
A few things that came up while I was gone:
Jon Rafman's excellent IMG MGMT essay The Nine Eyes of Google Street View at Art Fag City (Gabrielle Moser liked it too)
XSPACE"s GIF show was on for only a few days. I caught some animations before I left and they looked good. Can't find a site with all of them on it. If anyone has a URL, let me know.
Murray Whyte is trying to convince the TorStar Overlords (who we always welcome) to give him a few itty bitty HTML links for art. Vote yes in his comments. (then joester and I can collaborate on something extra special that will probably crash their servers by mistake) (that's a special feature in a lot of my commercial game work)
Jesse B. Harris has a web site.
Best found GIF ever:
Hello blog! I'm back and I brought you a gift from my mummy!
Of course you can still use the oxo cubes.
And thank you joester for the most excellent guest blogging. (even though you blew up my pointer, you bastard) I brought you a vintage toilet brush that I found under the bathroom sink.
IT STILL WORKS!
I know I signed off, but this is going on NOW and it's fun. Google maps road trip! http://www.googlemapsroadtrip.com/ these guys are "driving" across the country, one click at a time - tune in and give them some chat help to keep the ride interesting.
joe
Sunday Devotionals: Jimmy Smith
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (from 'Get Yourself a College Girl')
Theme from 'Mondo Cane'
(GVB via SM)
Look at this! A goose wearing headphones!
Dude. Now there's a pot wearing headphones!
hear the Fun Machine
If you're in Beacon NY on a sleepy Saturday there's really only one good place to spend your time. That place, of course, is the Retro Arcade Museum.
There are a few pinball machines, and a couple classic video games, but it's the "electro mechanical" games in between that really make the place astonishing. These games, are chock full of two way mirrors, DC motors, 8 track sound and innovative gameplay. In many the fun lies in a "look what we used to find entertaining" way, but a few are completely engrossing – and with those you could spend hours at a time. Good news is the games are all free after the 10 dollar cover charge and Fred* Bobrow the proprietor is eager and willing to show you how everything works.
Among my favorites are :
Rifleman - an incredible shooter that gives you no feedback telling you how well you're doing until the end when it prints out your targets with your actual shots punched through the card. It's even up to you to add your own score. It's got "I'm going to kick your ass" written all over it.
And
Super Shifter – Who's tag line "the most complete Driving Game ever" seems like a joke until 20 minutes have passed and you still suck and it's making you very angry. Ask Fred to tell you about being schooled by a 12 year old. (ouch).
* Fred is the luckiest man on the planet.
- joe
Sorry for the ego surfing, but someone on the tubes called me "an imaginative schlep with a cat". Okay to be fair he said that I only appear that way at first glance. Brilliant line in any case. Here's the link
ne Sally pas. Joester.
Here's something you could be doing right now!
I made a new game and it's fun. Play it!
joe not Sally
Sunday Devotional
find the Kitty part II
not sally: JOEster
New game: find the Kitty.
Much ballyhoo has been made (and rightfully so) about the DRM issues with the Kindle – Amazon's new media reader. If you haven't been following along they sold the ebook of 1984, then upon discovering that they didn't actually have the rights to sell it, retroactively pulled it from every machine. That it happened with 1984 is unresistingly ironic, and gets to the nuts of the DRM issues.
All the big hitters – EFF , Lessig, Doctorow are all raising the appropriate stinks about this.
But I find I get creeped out more by the little things.
The iphone (yes I have an Iphone, shut up) has a very awkward keyboard. Because there are no actual buttons it is hard to know if you're pressing the correct letter. To aid in this apple build a fairly clever program that guesses at the word and auto fills as you go. This is great when it works as annoying as hell when it doesn't.
Or should I say annoying as he'll.
Yes, the auto fill doesn’t know the word "hell" and puts "he'll" instead. Doesn't mean you can't spell hell, just makes it more difficult every time you want to do it (there's no "learn" feature for auto fill, and no way to turn it off). I could see the argument that "he'll" is a more common word, and the ' is tricky to produce so they are actually doing you a service – but they let you spell "shell" just fine. No, someone at apple made a conscious decision to make it hard to spell hell.
I bet you know some guy who'll be really annoyed when he find this out. I bet he'll hath no fury like a woman scorned. Damn, doesn't quite make sense.
Also, if you're keeping score, Fucked = Ducked and Fucker = Ducker. Somehow I can live with saying that our culture is ducked because of all the Duckers. Makes me happy.
Update: the iphone auto fills fuckers as duckers, but the mac spellchecker knows fuckers but not duckers. So the iphone auto fills a word that the mac doesn't even acknowledge the existence of. Confused yet? To he'll with all the duckers!
Joester posting
I promise this will be the only rebloging I do. I just thought we should kick things off with a bee-utiful picture I saw today on the boing boing.
joester posting with the "sally mckay" login.
Bear in mind that joester is very sensitive and probably takes a dim view of animal exploitation gifs.
In fact he may be so highly evolved that it makes him sad.
I am very very highly evolved too, so this jpeg makes me sad.
But joester is very fond of mutants.
(found)
(found)
One of my favourite net artists, Petra Cortright, has created a stunning page of gradient rainbow masters for Art Fag City's IMG MGMT series.
(found)
(found)
Sunday - The Animals
Please Don't let me be Misunderstood
It's My Life (Sullivan Show rehearsal 1965)
Sky Pilot (there is nothing right with this video so I am forcing you to watch it)
(found)