tom stoppard

From Act One, Scene Four of Arcadia, in which Valentine describes to his pupil Hannah the idea of mathematical iteration in the context of a project he is working on (tracking grouse populations). In the conversation from which this passage was excerpted, Valentine and Hannah discuss objects of nature as mathematical models and how "the unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is."

Get it here.

stanislaw lem

The "liquid giant" is a prominent figure in this seminal sci-fi novel. The setting is a space station positioned near an ocean-like organism out of which the shapes of the space station inhabitants' deepest emotions are formed and made "real."

For example, one morning the protagonist wakes to find a former lover, who had committed suicide some 10 years before, lying next to him. As the story progresses, he is forced to examine his role in her demise and bear the consequences of the resulting emotions.

Through the metaphor of this alien organism, Lem dives headfirst into a deep exploration of the cosmic noise made when our conception of reality rubs against our conception of the imaginary, and how qualities like desire and guilt fuel that noise.

Get it here.

rave review for "What If Art..."

What a pleasant surprise to find this supportive message in my inbox today, in reaction to the LeopardFlip(tm) extravaganza What If Art Did Not Exist?:

"Wow, that is a cool use of Jing. I don't think I have seen anything unique like that yet."
-April Noren, Jing Developer, TechSmith

Thanks, April! Funding for the next project may be only a heartbeat or two away. (I'm kidding.) In any case, I appreciate the feedback. It makes the moral perspiration; loss of income; and assorted, miscellaneous sacrifices so much easier to swallow.

In other news, mm reached a landmark single-day, unique-viewer total of 53 on January 28. Viewers have been served from networks as far off as Bangkok, Thailand; Caracas, Venezuela; London, England; and Invercargill, New Zealand.

Thanks to all, and let us know what you like and what you might rather not see.

russell hoban no. 2

The first half of Come Dance With Me is a lighthearted, sometimes funny description of the budding romance of a 50-something woman who heads a heavy metal band and a 60-something physician. Hoban's sly social commentary can be heard in whispers throughout. But every once in a while, the tone changes to one of concession to the largeness of inexplicable experience, as shown in this account of crossing the line between the states of sleep and wake.

Get it here.

young moderns

I had the chance to see this band a couple weeks ago and will testify that they really know how to sprinkle their box of hooks around a room. That is to say, most of the crowd I could see were engaged by the enthusiastic performance of dynamic, well-crafted pop tunes.

Clever lyrics weave a mildly sardonic cultural commentary with a low-grade empathy and remorse—none of that brooding angst, anger or rage you might associate with some of the 80s alt-acts that have surely influenced these guys. Instead, it's upbeat pop, fairly complex and without the nasty cheerleader sheen. Check 'em out. Bring friends.

Listen here.

leopardflip

And now, as they say, something completely different: a refreshingly concise multimedia presentation, as Painter Worship week draws to a close.

This artifact is powered by proprietary technology I call LeopardFlip(tm), which marries Leopard (the new Macintosh operating system) to the Jing Project (a screen capture utility).

An Early Concept Illustration

The engine is Leopard's folder view, which shows a preview of the first page of each file within a given folder. As one scrolls through the files, the first pages of each file are displayed in sequence. Jing is a free app that captures screencasts; that is, it records what's going on on your desktop and saves the recording as a video file.

In essence, I created individual documents in a word processing application, used Leopard to display the first pages of each document as slides, then recorded the folder window as I scrolled through the files. Click on the window below to start the show.


Click to start the show.


What if Art did not exist? is for sale for $9,000.

In the spirit of Modernism, shareware, and open source apps, I will now do what Sol LeWitt would have done, were he with us now. That is, I will offer precise instructions as to how any artist, artist's assistant, or art student can reproduce the work exactly as it appears here. If you do embark on such an endeavor, I wish you the best of fortune, asking only that you report outcomes to these pages.

Click me.

gerhard richter

The photo-based, realistic, figurative technique displayed in Richter's early and middle career has the peculiar effect of stopping a viewer's eye at the surface of the painting and reflecting his attention, rendering the composition a mirror of sorts. The anemic pigmentation and grainy textures of these paintings imply motion and decay. It's the mixing of these ingredients that catalyzes the emotional qualities of the sometimes ordinary, everyday subjects.

Among Americans, Two Candles is probably Richter's most popular painting. (A bucket of chicken for the first commenter who can identify the No Wave band whose album/CD cover featured this painting—without looking it up.)

In response to the suggestion that because he avoids "taking a position" in his work he is an aesthetic cynic, Richter said:

"I believe it would be a misunderstanding to call what I do cynical. I'd rather call it sentimental. Rather, what I do is naive."

Get it here.