Norman Bel Geddes’ models have added an extra dimension to pictorial reporting. By recreating large or small parts of the sea and the earth’s surface in miniature they have made it possible for the camera to take positions which would normally be highly unusual or impossible. By the use of these models, the lens may [...]
Tag Archives: embodiment
“I want my heart to be open”
This is a moving and engaging presentation given by Karen Sandler, executive director of the GNOME foundation, at OSCON 2011. After she received a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy diagnosis, she realized that the source code running her defribrillator implant was closed, proprietary, and unregulated by the FDA. She does a great job outlining the numerous implications closed-source [...]
Posted in biology, computing, media studies Also tagged biotech, programming, technology Leave a comment
Le modèle réduit selon Lévi-Strauss
Quelle vertu s’attache donc à la réduction, que celle-ci soit d’échelle, ou qu’elle affecte les propriétés? Elle résulte, semble-t-il, d’une sorte de renversement du procès de la connaissance : pour connaître l’objet réel dans sa totalité, nous avons toujours tendance à opérer depuis ses parties. La résistance qu’il nous oppose est surmontée en la divisant. [...]
Écriture, corps social, inscription
16. C’était une idée durkheimienne que le code social s’inscrit sur la nature individuelle en la mutilant. L’écriture, aurait donc pour forme première la mutilation, qui donne force d’emblème. Voir Emile Durkheim, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse, Paris, PUF, 1968. De Certeau, M. (1990). L’invention du quotidien. 1. Arts de faire. Paris: Gallimard. [...]
Excerpt from “Transhumanism Meets Design”, an Interview with Natasha Vita-More
What do you think are interesting nascent signals of biology extended through technology taking shape in current apps/services/products? Usually a signal is a flashing red light, or a sharp sound. The nascent signals my brainwaves are picking up are somewhat invisible, but exceedingly active. For example, it is as if the human body’s cells have [...]
Imagination, the Self and Mathematical Reasoning, according to Peirce
§1. Ground, Object, and Interpretant†1 227. Logic, in its general sense, is, as I believe I have shown, only another name for semiotic ({sémeiötiké}), the quasi-necessary, or formal, doctrine of signs. By describing the doctrine as “quasi-necessary,” or formal, I mean that we observe the characters of such signs as we know, and from such [...]
Posted in computing, media studies, philosophy Also tagged materiality, mathematics, performance Leave a comment
Parallel Processing and Open Science
“As a society, we dont understand biology yet,” says Melanie Swan, a genomics researcher and principle at MS Futures Group in Palo Alto, California. As she sees it, there are all sorts of problems with the way we conduct biological research en masse. Individuals can gain huge amounts of information about their own genetic makeup, [...]
Posted in computing, media studies Also tagged biology, communication, database, technology Leave a comment
Transparence
De tous les idéaux dont nous avons hérité des Lumières, la transparence est peut-être le seul à ne pas avoir été profondément remis en cause à l’époque contemporaine. Tout au contraire, là où d’autres notions utopiques ont prouvé leur incapacité à résister à la récupération totalitaire, l’idéal de la transparence n’en est ressorti que renforcé, [...]
La monnaie vivante – Pierre Klossowki
L’objet fabriqué, contrairement au bien d’usage (naturel), quoiqu’il se conforme encore à quelque signification coutumière (p. ex. selon l’emploi de métaux ayant un sens emblématique), perd ce caractère à mesure que l’acte de fabriquer se diversifie. Diversifié selon sa complexité progressive, l’acte de fabriquer substitue à l’usage des biens (naturels ou cultivés) l’utilisation efficace des [...]
Ben Tolman: “Cognitive transformation”
I found this illustration on Mind Hacks first. It reminded me of Fritz Kahn’s artwork for a moment. That was before I explored Ben Tolman’s gallery, featuring ink drawings which can be viewed with great detail through zoomify. Ben Tolman invites us to a great experience consisting of various wanderings on his website. Mouse scrolls [...]
Posted in art & design, media studies Also tagged art, biology, creation, technology, visibility Leave a comment
