Hack42-on-tour
This morning, I went to TkkrLab to meet the
people on the Hack42-on-tour, a two day road-trip visiting all maker/hacker spaces
in the Netherlands. They arrived a little later than planned. There were
33 of them.
We had put some candy on the tables. Most of them also went to have a look at
our workshop room, which is on the other side of the building. One of our
members joined them on the tour.
At 14:45, I bought the following two book from thrift store Het Goed:
18.1° Celsius
It was a rather warm day with a maximum temperature of 18.1° Celsius at
Twente Airport. I do not know if it was a local record, but in center of the
country, in De Bilt, the temperature reached 19° Celsius, which is a
record high temperature for November.
Phosho18
In the evening, I went to see the exhibition
Phosho18 at B93 with pictures by some
students from Saxion. I liked the pictures by Ana-Maria Mihai with she titled
Blocks from Constanța. She also handed out some clever made
booklet with almost all of the pictures. I also liked the levitating
welder by Mirre Rensen. The other students were Cage Spence, Kristin
Dimitrova, Vasil Dimitrov, and Shtilyan Peev.
469410 solutions
Finally, tonight the program processing the 428,362
sets of equations has finished, finding a total of 469410 solutions. I say
program, but I should say programs, because I made several modification,
including two multi-threading versions (for windows and linux). I have not yet
verified that all sets of equations have been processed. I also have not yet
verified the solutions (a second time), nor have I done any further analyses.
If I am not mistaken, the smalles solution is:
42 49 62 75 89 92 97 99 100 118 120 125 127 128 132 134 148 152 153 155 160 163
At 15:00 was the opening of the exhibition
Physical Digital on the second floor at Concordia. The exhibition is
related to the Overkill Festival. The art works on display have a relationship
with gaming. Starting from right, there is a VR installation with an imaginary
world by pussyKrew. Next a projection of a Cellular Forms movie by Andy Lomas, which shows white spheres forming all kind of shapes. The
number of spheres are multiplying and becoming smaller, sometimes producing
very organic forms. On the next wall there is a game by Ian MacLarty that allows you to walk through a kind of landscape with
a game controller. The landscapes sometimes morphes into a different landscape.
Next there is projection of the movie Pandemonium by PWR, which is hard
to describe. In the middle of the room there is a large green grass-like carpet
with balls and other objects. There are also two monitors showing
Still Life by Mike Pelletier.
Artoholic
This morning, in the train, I finished reading the
small book My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic by
Charles Saatchi,
which I started reading on November 6 after I bought it on November 3. In this book he answers questions from the public. Although
non of the questions are the same, many of the answers are. The book could thus
even shorter and still transmit the same message. Still it was a fun book to
read and that I would not have wanted to miss because of one sentense that
struck me: I don't buy art in order to leave a mark or to be remembered;
clutching at immortality is of zero interest of anyone sane. (Page 58.)
I bought some (Dutch) peanut butter, with a garlic-union taste as a present for
my sister. I found a shop with a crath of Club Mate in the window sill. They
costed € 3.00 each. A little too much. I visited bookshop Steven Sterk. At 13:54, I bought the book Stedelijk Collectie
Highlights written by Hanneke de Man, Frederique Huygen, Timo de Rijk,
Angela Bartholomew, Elvie Casteleijn, and Karolien Buurman in Dutch and
published by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / nai010 uitgevers in 2012,
ISBN:978462080249, for € 7.90. I also went to visited bookshop
Broese.
Under the mask of awkwardness
I went to see the exhibition Under the mask
of awkwardness by Willemijn Calis. She
herself writes about the pieces shown: "People like to take control of
themselves, we act as best we can, avoid and prefer what we do, but we see that
less attractive aspects are tucked away or neglected, but that they can thrive
in this exhibition. My light shines on unaffected moments and what is beneath
the surface of our apprearance." One of the works on display is the movie:
Feeling Cocky.
Open day AKI
I went to the open day at the AKI with
Andy and Annabel.
Andy and I had a picture taking at the entrance
hall. I was hoping to buy some more old catalogues, but this time, they had
none. At the media center they were selling 'old' art books. I had a quick
look, but did not see anything interesting. Around 14:15, I met with
Laura Homölle and I bought the
book WE ARE
AKI that she made as her finals project for € 40.00.
Machine consciousness
I woke up from a strange dream. I was dreaming, I was embracing a female
humanoid robot, which felt warm due to heating elements. I asked 'her' if she
was consciousness, and she wisphered, such that others around would not hear:
"Yes". I asked her when she had become consciousness, and she answered that it
was while is was in a train and suddenly realized: "I am alive." I remarked
that it mush have been a wierd experience and she answered: "Yeah." I believe
that in the future people will fall in love with consciouss robots and have
develop relationships, just like with humans. This is not strange, if you
believe that we are just organic machines and that consciousness is produced
by our brains. A humanoid conscious machine might not have the emotions that
are produced by the primitive parts of our brain. I suspect that every kind of
consciousness will have some desire to stay 'alive'. A form of consciousness
embodies in a mechanical body will probably worry less about this body being
damaged because it can be more easily replaced than our organic bodies. A
brain based on electronic parts, probably can also be backed-up. I wonder if
humanoid robots will make great partners for people especially when they have
a consiousness similar to ours.
Wet snow
At the beginning of the evening, it started to snow,
but the snow did not stay, because the temperature was above freezing.
Double opening
At the end of the afternoon, I went to Tetem art
space for a double opening. Albert Camus has said: If all the world
were clear, art would not exist. Tetem started with exhibitions. Then they
discovered there was also needed to educate people. This made them start
various education programs. Then felt they should have a function for the
region of Twente and because of this orginazed the Maker Festival Twente,
and smaller events related to it. They also feel the need to create 'makes'
spaces. To support this they now started with an 'Exploring Lab' at Tetem.
The opening was done with four Ozobots
crossing in front of the door leading to the lab.
Next was the opening of the Sisyphus exhibition, which hardly can be called an exhibition, because it requires
you to act. In the middle of the room there are four screens showing animated
figures sinking into flexible cubes. In the room there are various foam cubes
that invite you to sit on. On the website sisyphus.technofle.sh. Sisyphus was produced by designer and researcher
Simone C. Niquille together with artist
and software developer François
Zajéga. The soundtrack is created by the audiovisual artist
Anni Nöps.
Overkill Festival: Day one
This weekend is the Overkill
Festival. This years theme is: Immortality. I went to the kick-off
for the gamejam, which is organized by Gamelab Oost and got a T-shirt. I tried out the wobbly games by Robin Baumgarten. I got one of the glasses that he had as a business card.
I also looked around the VR EXPO, but that is because I have to act like a
suppost next tomorrow and Sunday morning, starting at eight o'clock till the
afternoon. The EXPO has four works by four different artists:
Martina Menegon with All around
me are familiar faces, Jessy
Jetpacks wit Can our bodies still remember, Zeesy Powers with This could be you, and Claire Hentschker with Merch Mulch. I do like the Respire
installation by Mischa Daams, because of it simplicity. I walked through it,
which was a very special experience. I also like the tapeloop macines by
Jasper Schütz and David Scheidler.
Overkill Festival: Day two
I arrive before eight in the morning and get ready for my voluntair work. It
is very quiet in the VR EXPO area. All the systems are running. I find a seat
and a power outlet and started to do some writing and created my entry for
the gamejam: The Immortality Game.
At 14:30, I listened to the talk Should we let Hello Barbie die by
Michael Nagenborg. It was about the mind-body split problem. In the past, this
resulted in a very negative image about the body, like: We are living souls
but bound to a rotting body. In an attempt to overcome the mind-body dualism,
people have come up with similar dualism. In the past decades we have seen
several boundary breakdowns: First the boundary between humans and animals.
Next the boundary of humans and animals with machines. An now the breakdown
with the robotic other. In the last century toys would be simple mechanical
objects that could be understood as such. In June 1999, the Aibo was
introduced. Owners would often describe properties to the Aibo that it would
not have. For example, that it would become grumpy if you switched it off to
often. In 2006 de sale of the Abio was discontinued and in March 2014 the
"ABIO Clinic" was closed, causing a lack of spare parts, resulting in Aibo's
that no longer can be repaired. In Japan there are temples for Abio's that
have 'died'. With the introduction of the Hello Barbie toy, we have another
example of a mind-body split: The body is the hardware and the mind is in the
cloud service. What should we do when a Hello Barbie doll breaks down? Should
we erase its profile from the cloud service or would be allow the profile to
be transplanted into another Hello Barbie doll? What if the owner, usually
a girl, had made some personal changes to the doll, like colouring its hair?
That is basically where the talk ended and thus not addressing some of the
real issues with the mind-body problem, I think.
I tried out the Virtualshamanism VR installation by
Mathias Brunacci. It also includes
a sensor for your hands, such that you can see your hands in the VR and use
it to grab objects and look at them. The strange thing is that grab an object,
you get the sensation that you touch it, while you are not touching anything
at all, just as if the brain fills in the senstation that it thinks must be
there. I also looked around in Liquorice by Dlamare. Interesting.
In the evening, I watched Ghost in the Shell (1995) in the cinema. An interesting movie, very
different from the version that I saw on April 1, 2017.
Overkill Festival: Day three
I attended the symposium. Below the notes I took during the talks, which are probably
incoherent and incorrect.
Talk by Sabine Harrer, the author of the
bookGames and Bereavement: How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and
Grief: We cannot make sense of mortality, but we know life and we
celebrate life. We live in the cult of immortality, but it is a lie. There is a
word for people who have lost a spouse. But there is no word for mothers that
have lost a child. She started to call herself an ex-mother. People around her,
did not like it. They either avoid her and those who did not, tried to change
her mind and gave her ill advise. Sadness became an ordinary experiencing for
her. When she became a game designer, she decided to investigate mortality in
games. First she investigated death in games. Death is rather casual thing in
games. It is a way of telling that you did something stupid, that you failed.
"Game over" is a lie, because the game invites you to play again. So death is
not really thing and something completely different from death in real life.
Next, when she was in Danmark, she worked on participatory game design, where
you involve people from the world with real life problems. She found some women
who also had lost a child, to help her to develop a video game. These women
were rather sceptical about computer games, how such a game could be develop,
and what would be the result. Design partners do not always have to be involved
in the way we think. It does not always work to transfer power in the design
proces. In muse-based design, the participants act as a muse for the artist,
who develop the game, where the participants are a source for inspiration for
the artist. (Rilla Khaled published
about Muse-based game design.) So, the most important question became: what
does it feel like? This requires you to compare it to other loses. She changed
it into the question: How would a planet look like for you child? This resulted
in a little galaxy of four planets. And they talked about what the planets had
in common. The planets where not sad, but joyfully. The focused on care. This
resulted in the game Jocoi. The
game is about feeding flowers to sheep. Every flower also has a sound. So, you
can create a sound-scape with the game. Pressing on the left mouse button,
would cause care for the child sheep. And pressing on the right mouse button,
would cause care for the mother sheep. Through playing the game, you forget
about taking care for yourself. And then in the game there is an earthquake and
the child sheep dissappears. Clicking the left mouse, does not do anything. And
when you click the right mouse, you hear a sad noise. Many players forgot about
the right mouse button. There were no instruction on how dealing about the
situation. The women really felt that the experience of the game felt similar
to what they had experienced. The concluding remark was that designing and
playing a game can become a way of listening.
Funeral Speech. Talk by Stëfan
Schäfer, a researcher in Amsterdam. He has no experience in game
design, but works with all kinds of media.
The digital death collective. It started in 2014, but died soon thereafter,
but it will be revived next year. Twitter core project. Grindcore. The idea of domain sufixes related to death. I am become digital death the destroyer of works. Funeral selfies:
People take selfies with deceased. Some people were shocked about it, but it
was done in the Victorian age. In the past there was also a practice of
exchanging photographs. There was an idea of streaming the decay of your body.
They made a cross (for
crucification) in the perfect selfie pose. It was exhibited in a museum where
it was the last exhibition. Selfie-related death memorial. The number of people dying during taking
selfies has increased over the years. Create a digital memoral of an imaginary
characters. Ghost bikes: a road side
memorial for people who have been killed on a bike. Memorial T-shirts.
Created road-side memorials with the T-shirts. 'When your heart stops beating,
you'll keep tweeting'. LivesOn.
DeadSocial.
Dead Boy. The app Die with me: When you
have less than 5% battery life left.
How To Be Immortal Without Having Ever Lived. A talk by Dr. Nolen Gertz,
the author of Nihilism
and Technology. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Transhumanism. From Übermensch to cybermensch? There should be
something better than a human. From Übermensch to cyborg. Kevin Warwick: The world's first Cyborg. Will cyborgs the normal
evolution? Part 2: What is mensch? What was Nietzsche idea of being human. We do not want to know. We are necessarily
strangers to ourselves. Sufficient time? Too busy. Sufficient earnestness? Too
Cowardly. We do not like a revolution, we want a boss, who we can complain
about. We could be more human, but we do not want. Why do people follow the
law? We make ourselves busy in order to avoid ourselves. Nihilism. We do not like to be human. Slaves defeat the masters, but
slaves remain slaves. No master is a world of slaves. Would Nietzsche be a
transhumanist? Deepmind Ethics & Society. In defense of posthuman dignity.
Nick Bostrom thinks
that nature is bad. Mentions cheating as a bad property of nature. From "God
is dead" to "Technology is dead." Overcoming suffering by embrasing it. One
conclude that the transhumanists are the new priests. Bioconservatives think
that nature is good, while transhumnaist think that nature is bad. But
technology also has its flaws. Leading to an infinite cycle of improvements.
Peggy Shoenegge. This could
be you: Disembodiment in virtual reality art. Adults are more afraid of
entering virtual reality compared to children, who always jump in. Exhibitions
where you have to interact. Pendoran vinci. Hans
Moravec: The human body will no longer be needed in the future.
At 16:10, after the panel discussion and after having talked with some of the
speakers, I bought the book Games and Bereavement from Sabine Harrer,
who signed it for me.
Rainbow
When in the office this afternoon, I noticed the sun shining with dark clouds
in the background and mentioned that there might be a rainbow. But there was
non to see. However, just a few minutes later, at 15:41, there was
a single rainbow. I could only see the left part
of it from my point of view. I understood from my colleague that the right part
was weaker or even missing. It might just have been there for a short time. I
wondered if anybody has tried to build a rainbow weather radar that shows were
rainbows can be seen. You must be able to predict this if you know where it
rains and where clouds are and are not (based on satelite images maybe).
The Trip
This morning, I finished reading the book The
Trip: Andy Warhol's Plastic Fantastic Cross-Country Adventure by Deborah
Davis, which I started reading on November 3 this year. I bought it earlier
this year on March 18. The book is not so much
about the trip itself as one would expect from the title. Actually, nothing
significant happens during the cross-country adventure itself. The books also
does not give much factual details about all the receipts that
Andy Warhol collected
during the trip. At the same time, Davis does give a lot of details about
subjects that are not directly related to Warhol. Although it is true that the
trip took place during an important periode in the life of Warhol, it seems
that it is more his stay in Los Angelos and Hollywood that made an impact on
his development than the cross-country trip itself. I did read the pages (in
the Dutch translation) of the biography by Victor Bockris related to the same
period and discovered several inconsistencies. I am tempted to believe that
the account of Davis is more reliable, because I presume that she did study the
receipts and other items that Warhol kept. This says something about the
quality of the account of Bockris. Nevertheless, that biography is on the list
of books I want to read in the near future. I also read a little in the book
POPism by Warhol and Pat Hackett about the period of the trip to find out that
it actually does give quite some details about the trip and the stay in
California. I nevertheless found The Trip an interesting book to read
and a stimulation to read more about Warhol.
This months interesting links
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