Every second Wednesday of the month, at Goldsmiths college in New
Cross, London, some people are meeting to discuss, around a table,
different projects and researches concerning media art and related
fields of inspection. On November 12th Gabriel Menotti presented a very
interesting text entitled ‘Computation as dynamic topography’, part of
his research at University of Sao Paulo. His approach is presenting
computation as a specif process that cannot be described as simple
text, because, in short, computation is a dynamic event happening
inside a machine, thus it is not text in itself, and probably software
should not be defined as text at all. On November 26th the project Virtual Entity
will be presented and discussed. The door is open and any interested
person is welcome to come in and participate, we are gathering at 18:00
at Whitehead Building, room 117.
New Media Meetings
Language glitch
I am speaking English… All of a sudden I have the impression I am speaking Italian, it feels as natural and familiar. I question myself. I keep speaking, I have the impression i am talking a language I do not know, but it still makes sense. I am talking to someone, I think I am speaking English, but in fact I am speaking Italian. I think I am thinking in Italian, but in fact I am thinking in English. I talk on the phone, I want to speak Italian but I cannot, I speak Eglish and my mum understands. I am in Italy, I enter a sigarettes shop. I ask for a tram ticket, and make a joke about the weather. I though I was speaking Italian, but no one understood, in fact I was speaking English. I try again, I get the tram ticket. I walk away, I think I am an idiot. It’s just a Glitch, another glitch!
Reflections around substances after Haip
During the presentation at Haip festival Virtual Entity’s digital world
division into four substances was put under question. Basically the
whole lecture was divided in two segments: from a general presentation
of the project and its current state, the focus went on substances as
relevant categories, including relative problems and possible solutions
to those. These four substances are, in the specific, Text, Audio,
Video, and Image. These are somewhat echoing Aristotle’s four elements
constituting earth, and the celestial globe.
An interesting discussion started, here is a recording of the stream in mp3 or ogg.
The war on Symbols
I used to think that humans understand symbols (in the sense of visual
representations) before and in a more instinctive and effective way
than they actually reach to comprehend their meaning. Teenagers embrace
style before politics. They choose the A inside a circle, or do they
choose anarchism? Do they like long hair and running to political
demonstrations, or are they really interested in the working classes
rights? This very superficial approach and argumentation I am drafting
here is just a simplistic way to depict a deeper intuition I have had
about intrinsic relations between images and the human entity, be this
entity intended as a complexity which includes spirit, brain and body
(and these are not to be interpreted as necessarily separated
‘properties’). How far can we go injecting ideas inside a picture? What
is a logo? I like the idea of structuring powerful relations between
simplicity and complexity, induction and deduction, intuition, and
argumentation.
-written in Milan-
Text for Jan van Eyck catalog
Virtual Entity is a philosophical research
starting from the assumption that the concepts of authenticity,
ownership, uniqueness and seriality are, within the digital domain, no
longer valid. In fact there is no substantial difference between copy
and original on the Web, and these two categories are not relevant.
Since any file can generate an infinite number of entities identical to
itself, there is no scarcity on the Net, and any resource is
indefinitely available. Assuming possession is related to the numerical
proportion between resources (objects) and potential owners (subjects),
then, whereas resources are not limited, the concept of ownership and
the idea of property become superfluous.
If socialist and communist experiments in real world were limited by
the presence of state ownership, Virtual Entity is proposing the
implementation of a non-property system within the digital domain.
Entoptic phenomena
Under suitable conditions light falling on the
eye may render visible certain objects within the eye itself. These
perceptions are called entoptical.
Entoptic images differ from optical illusions because, whereas
illusion is a phenomenon happening in the brain, entoptic phenomena
take place within the observer’s own eye. In this sense, the observer
cannot share this experience with others, because in fact the image is
caged within his eyes.
What does it mean to own an image?
And a non-image?
Haip: an open-source art festival
The idea of an open-source art festival emerged inside the multimedia center Kiberpipa, and the first biennial event was held on 2004. Thematic focus of the HAIP Festival 2008, Hacktopia tries to question the results of the actual practice of opensource-technology-supported creative media art and the dimensions of the freedom of expression inside it.The core question is: hacktopia at the continuum of utopia and dystopia.
Where is the freedom of artistic expression in open source media?
How can we hack the paradigms of society?
Día de los Muertos
This log is about a coincidence: the first Souls database was created
on November 2nd, one day after the day of the dead. Sounds like a
perfect timing for Souls’ collectors. A special date that occurred by
chance, a day charged of specific significance by different cultural
traditions. Voila’. The game has started!
-written in Milan-
