Sunday, December 6, 2009

The world is changing, and technology quickly envelops our professional and personal lifes, but, this changes don't seem to affect the cultural aspect of them. At the beggining, fotography and such were a revolutionary invention, but, now a days, technology only seems to empower this inventions in matters of cuantity, more speed and capacity, but they have been unable to change the core of this comunicational tools. After all this years, computers haven't been able to take grasp of a personal aesthetic or an own clasical expressive language that could be compared to those of older means, such as films.
Umberto Roncoroni proposes two possible explanations. Firstly; the idea of a strong aesthetic peronality looses importance in this postmodern times, characterized by the indetermination, fragmentation and deconstruction of the great tales. Secondly; in computing and digital technology, we have a complex system which can hardly relate to nature and analogic technology. This two things are infact, higly connected. It occurs that commercial software's used as a mimicry of other tools; a painters canvas or a photographic machine.
We tend to forgett that computing is not a medium or a tool actually, it's but a new language system that has it's own way of working and acting; just think about softwares and the use of interfaces. So, we live in a time where things are getting digitalized; it's like, translating old latin scripts into a modern language. What we do is translate reality (pictures, colour and films) into the digital language, where they keep on existing but in an etherial form.

This may be the main reason why computer don't have a personal aesthetic. I mean, it would be like if, you know, english had it's own artistic canon.

But no... it's not.

Think about the past, when science and art where two compleatelly different things, and mathematics was thought of as a new language, like our present bolean tragedy. Arabs used maths as a way of art, and so did others in the reanissance, I mean, one word; Golden Ratio (I know it's two words but wth).

So, will the time come where digital technoogy stops being a mere language, and turns into a tool and philosophy that affects art in such a deep way that a whole civilization may be destroyed just to prove it's true?

I think not.

Although it may seems like technology hasn't been able to take a specific personality, I hardly beleave it has. The only difference is that it's aparent lack of intellect drives artistic attention away from it. Computers, since it's begining, have been characterized by the integration of games, and, through this last decades, the gaming industry has evolved in a more hastefull way than any other area. Computing has the greatest and best way of performance art that has ever existed.
Think only about Alternate Reality gamming, ok, I know you are going to say that games are only meant for fun and entretainment... but weren't books written in the first place for the same thing? or movies filmed for that purpose? It wasn't until later that people started realizing the increadible amount of messages this means of expression had, and games my friend, do express and convey messages far beyond your imagination.

And it's not like only nerds or geeks take advantage of this awesomeness, we are aloways being attacked by the new digital aesthetics, it's only, we are too young and naive to take account of it.

Interactivity and storytelling are this new digital era's aesthetic seal.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Ravens land upon her hair.-

El siglo XVIII fue conocido como el Siglo de las Luces, esto porque en aquella época, se desarollo un movimiento cultural de mucha fuerza que pretendía 'disipar las tinieblas de la humanidad a través de la luz de la razón'; la Illustación.
Este movimiento se concentró mayoritariamente en Inglaterra y Francia, y sus expositores aseguraban que se podía acabar con la ignorancia, tiranía y las supersticiones para construir un mundo mejor, en base a la razón.
La estética no se quedo atrás en este movimiento, y durante los años 1700-1800, denominaremos la expresión estética de este movimiento intelectual como Neoclassismo.
Durante este período, la arquitectura se centró en la construcción de edificaciones en pro a la humanidad, como hospitales, bibliotecas y museos. Es así, como este sentimiento de época filosófica, dio como resultado un estilo greco-romano, en particular con el uso de fachadas similares a las de los antiguos templos. Eh aquí porque NEOclasismo, pues es un nuevo período clásico que se centra en el hombre. Un muy buen ejemplo puede ser la majestuosa Puerta de Brandeburgo, que hoy en dia es uno de los puntos culturales de mayor importancia en el mundo.
En cuanto a la pintura, la concentración en la razón y la idea de acabar con el misticismo, hace que las obras de la época abunden de figuras humanas en primer plano y que predomine el dibujo como técnica. El hombre es el centro del universo nuevamente.

El enano atrevido.-

Un martes 26 de enero, en Inglaterra, se presentó por primera vez en público la televisión; evento al cual fueron invitados importantes miembros de la Royal Society, es decir, los más grandes hombres de ciencia en el Reino Unido. A nadie pareció sorprenderle mucho, parecía ser un objeto futurístico sin mucho uso. Diez años más tardes, se lanzaron las primeras transmisiones de la ya famosa BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), donde más de mil televisores fueron capazes de captar sus imágenes. Esto marcó el comienzo de la llamada "segunda ola", donde la comunicación masiva se volvió imagen y adquirió el increible poder de convencimiento que hoy tiene.

Nosotros, ya somos parte de la "tercera ola", la generación informática que se comunica através de la internet. Estamos en el siguiente paso evolutivo de la información, en el momento en que McLuhan habló como, la máxima expansión del hombre, donde nuestra persona ha sido transmigrada digitalmente a lo largo del mundo, capaz de comunicarse con quien sea, donde sea y cuando sea.

Durante mucho tiempo se ha hablado de como esta nueva tecnología aplastará al televisor, asi como ocurrió con la "primera ola" el papel escrito, que quedo muy por debajo luego de la aparición de la nueva cultura visual del mundo. Ocurre que, aún no vemos cambios significativos en cuanto a la desaparición o desvalorización del televisor. Sigue vivo, y quizas más que antes.
Ahora somos capazes de elegir nuestros programas.

Negroponte habló de esto en el 96', decía que la televisión no estaba perdida, sólo tenía que aprovecharse de la nueva tecnología para poder, en un par de años, darnos no sólo la posibilidad de ver lo que queramos en el momento que queramos, sino que, seremos capazes de verlo desde donde querramos; cualquier asient del estadio en un partido, incluzo quizas, desde el punto de vista de la pelota de baseball.

No cabe duda que este es definitivamente el futuro de la televisión, y que la "tercera ola" no es en si la multiplicidad de la persona en el internet, sino la multiplicidad de las realidades en la televisión. La red sólo se volvera una enorme enciclopedia comunitaria, un gigantesco registro de información que todos podremos leer y modificar. Será, la escritura 2.0, no la imagen 2.0.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Med y Abál

En la edad media se le dió mucha importancia a la estética de los números, era normal que un artista pasara horas calculando las mediciones exactas para su obra, en cuanto a las proporciones del lienzo y la posición de los objetos en él.

El artista era un artesano que trabajaba para Dios. Las pinturas generalmente sobre madera, mucho obscuro y óleo, luces superiores celestiales.

en esta época, el ser se divide en dos, lo físico y lo espiritual

Santo Tomás de Aquino
La bonda es uno de los "trascendentales" en su metafísica, la cual está en todos los seres y presente en todas las categorías aristotélicas; es el Ser considerando en relación con el deseo o apetito.

La precepción de la belleza es una especie de conocimiento. Dado que el conocimiento consiste en abstraer la forma que hace a un objeto ser lo que es, la belleza depende de la forma. La belleza, dice, incluye tres condiciones:

1 Integridad o perfeccion: los objetos rotos o deteriorados o incompletos son feos
2 Deibido a proporcion o armonía. Que lo que se ve sea proporcionado a la vista.
3 Iluminosida, claridad o brillantez. Esta tercera condicion se relaciona con la luz como símbolo de belleza y verdad divina

win win


SIEMPRE VAMOS A VER GENTE MIRANDO AL CIELO


Origines destiguio tres niveles de sentido en la época: Lo literal, lo moral y lo espiritual/místico.
Esto se estendió a la escritura como algo modélico, hasta el tiempo de Dante.

Para DUCHAMP arte = diálogo con otros artistas. Hacerle pregutnas a personas q hablaron de arte antes. Como Dante, q toma lo de orígenes y se pregunta q es arte???

Aunque estas reflexiones eran enverdad teologicam + que estéticas, pero resultaron de gran ayuda para estetica: plantearron cuestiones sobre la naturaleza de la metáfora y el símbolo, indicando la reflexión en torno a los problemas generales de la interpretación de obras artísticas.

(fines edad media) aqui nace optica y perspectiva.
hacer q el resto vea lo q uno ve, pasar del ojo al cerebro a la mano.
se emplean 3 elementos

1cuerpo
2posición
3plano

Quattrocento -
Brunelleschi -> enciclopediapictura.com?

E.Panosky

el arte se vera de punto externo las cosas.
encuadres muy como si nosotros no estuvieramos ahi...

Codice Urbine : Tratado de se me olvido haha,
pero es sobre la luz y esas cosas.

Reniassance
No se habla de dios en si, pero muy teologicos igual los cuadros.
La luz divina, la virgen, y esas cosas, pero muy humanisadas.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lambda, lambda, lambda.-

Art in Greece sprouted around twentyfive, hundred years before our friend Christ was even born; having it's roots during the Bronze Age in the Cycladic and Minoan civilizations. The latests, originated around the famouse island of Crete and stuck around for a whole millenia. Not much can be rescued from this brave merchantil art, for most of it was made out of copper and wood that quickly desintegrated back to mother earth. Luckily for us, they also excelled (as far as we can know) in the ancient art of pottery... yes, art I said.
I know pots throughout time have only had one meaning in life, that to carry stuff, and that their existance is to the pure cause of satisfying a need and creating a solution, then, why art?
Wasn’t art supposed to create problems rather than solutions?

Well, it happens so that this ceramic vaces, are so exquisite in their design, that they overkill whatever any other civilization could’ve accomplished on such a complicated era. More so, they work as a microcosm of modern art... yes, I said it...

Starting with simple figures, depicting historical scenes, then; spirals and triangles. Before we know it, reniassance kicks and pots tend to become more naturalistic. We then follow the common trends and vases become cans and all we see are monochromatic colours...

But... what legacy did Minoan’s leave us?

Well, the legacy of symbolism and tracendency. Maybe you’ve heard here or there about the Labrys, a golden two-hexed axe but can’t quite aciociate it with ancient times and minotaurs, no; just like the black triangle all this shape brings to your head is that of Lesbians.
In fact, Minoans have created a good deal of imagery and symbolism to the weomans homosexual movement. Sappho, a female writter born in the Island of Lesbos wrote a series of poems expressing passionate love towards other woman, hence the meaning of the word Lesbian, which derived from this Islands own name.

Throughout time, human culture tends to revive ancient objects to give them a new meaning and purpose, and this is what really matters in art, the abilitty of it to be transcendable. The abillity to be dug up thousands of years later and still have a meaning for people, still be able to place paradigms in question and arise new problematics to be discussed. Who could have ever thought in ancient greek that the lower case letter Lambda would be taken by Gay Activists in the 70s’ to fight for the rights of those who, at that time, weren’t even an issue?

People evolve, civilizations move on and culture changes... but art... art remains the same.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Citizen Jeff Hermitcrab the second.

Welcome the new age of turtle bred homeless people! Who like hermit craps carry with them their own collapsable, portable shelters! Made out from cheap cardboard and expensive arduino chipboards... why spend $35 dollars on a GODDAM tent, when you can use the money to BUILD your own non-waterproof, floor-less, carboard shelter, with an incorporated adress that turns on some funny lights far away, with no real meaning yet...
I still can't see how this thing could ever work, or even help homeless people. First off... what's the idea of having an adress? I'm pretty shure homeless people don't recieve mails, and, aren't wuite interested in that basis. INDIGENCY is to be dead in society, this is like, giving food to you dead granmother... PLUS, how in bloody hell are this guys suposed to KNOW about SHELLHOUSE? surfing through the internet??? going to a museum??? I mean... it's not like a poor drunk will even have enough dexterity to even fold the cardboard in the rigt way... and if you GIVE them a ready shellhouse, they'd probably sell the electronics for some wine and tear the cardboard in order to build a more protective shelter....
This thing doesn't work, and I hate it. I can't really understand why it's captured so many people's attention.

But, what the hell, art is all about MAKING problems, not solutions so, yeah, I get it, this is a friggin' piece o' art.

So, why am I talking about all this? Well...

Last Thursday I went to this lecture about the whole SHELLHOUSE thing. Carolina Pino, who made this for her Magister Thesis (I think), was giving the lecture, with the help of another three experts in arts (
Pablo Rivera), philosophy (Sergio Rojas) and architecture (Rodrigo Tisi).


After ms.Pino gave her poorly supported powerpoint introduction, Pablo Rivera gave his opinion about the whole project, which was a bit hard to understand. He gave a couple of examples about art projects with homeless people that didn’t work in reality, like for example, someones idea of creating a supermarket trolley that somehow, probably with the help of Optimus Prime, turned into a home. What the artist wasn’t expecting, was that if the trolley lost a wheel, it was done for (I know, I know... he talked about loosing a goddam wheel, and not about the whole autobot transformation).
Once he was done talking, Sergio Rojas charged in and started talking about a short story about evil spirits taking control over a house, and slowly making the owners push themselves through the main door and into the street. He than said that art wasn’t the best way to communicate something.

Rodrigo Tisi was ready with a powerfull comeback to what his companions had said, but, I didn’t really quite understood him. He said something about Shellhouse being the center of a Electronics, Architecture and Arts triangle... I’m pretty sure he meant a love triangle, but... whatever...
To this, the other invites branched into another conversation and begun debating about communications and arts... to what I couldn’t really pay much attention, for I was starving and dying on my knees.

They then talked about how goverments are becoming more authoritarial, and how this adress thing makes homeless people trackable and an easy target for shadowy goverment agencies... which... probably made them homeless in the first place...hahah...

The truth is, the conversation that sparked through the lecture was probablly the same thing any other group of people could have had anywhere else about the project (except they didn’t directly talked against this horrid project), and, that was hard to follow, specially because in this open, informal lecture, the exposees talked to each other like close friends talk, you know, in their own PERSONAL language.

So yeah, it was a bit of a bad expierence... at least I had the chance to give the UC’s srchitecture campus a quick glance through the night.

It was also fun reading the myriad amount of comments on the internet about the un-improvised shelter... specially the funny remarks on some of the negative feedback .

No intentions to hurt anyone but, I can’t really see much of a future on this project...
maybe something like what THIS guy did would work better...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Abstract Alambreado

Cleave Thompson finds himself talking with Massimo Banzi, creator of the Arduino chipboard, in it's Milan factory. It's all about Open Source, building something, sharing it and letting others make the best of it.

Arduino is a physical computing plataform, a single-board microcrontoller with open hardware designs, using a Creative Commons liecense, meaning that anyone can use it for free, reproduce and modify it. This license also obliges the new Arduino modifications to stay open and free, making this board evolve through out the users interests.

We all know about Linux and it's success, but, can Open Hardware have the same fate as a petty programm with absolutelly no costs in it's production?
This is what the Arduino creators wondered once they published their work, for the profit they made from every board was just enough to make a new one. And even mor important, what happens when the Chinese start selling their own half price cheaper versions? Surprisinglly enough, it us sustainable. Why? marely because of the fact that the creators, although they virtually make no profit from the actual physical board, they sell their experience as creators to every company who wants to implement the Arduino into any kind of technology they plan to sell.
And to top it off, cheap imitations make their consulting even more appealing.


" Basically, what we have is the brand," says Tom Igoe

So yeah, companies will have to change, they no longer need to waste their dreaming up ideas and trying to guess what their costumers want, the costumers know what they want, just let them do it.

There's thousands of increadible examples of how Open Source, both hardware and software, have lead to increadible inventions and appealing ideas that have benefited as much as the creators as for the costumers, happy to see this kind of economic growing.

Just think about the WRT54G router...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Abstract McLuhanico

Canadiense. Nació en 1911 y estudió literatura inglesa y se doctoró en 1942 con una tesis que sobresale por su riqueza y buen análisis. Durante su vida tuvo un acercamiento "extremadamente moralista" hacia la tecnología ambiental; odiaba a las máquinas, es más, concideraba a la revolución industrial el pecado original.

En 1951 publica su primer libro, "The Mechanical Bride. Folklore of the industrial man." Donde expresa su miedo ante el 'Gigante amable', la televisión.

En 1962 escribe su obra mas difundida; "The Gutenberg Galaxy: The making of typographic man." Aquí relaciona sus principales aportes teóricos y expone la visión determinista de la relación entre la implantación de las nuevas formas tecnológicas de comunicación y el conocimiento y la organización social. Es en este libro donde McLuhan menciona el concepto de 'Aldea Global' con el que se refiere a que, gracias a la tecnología y su rápida evolución en el área de las comunicaciones, llegará el momento en que el planeta este tan conectado que nuestra sociedad se transformará en algo parecido a lo que ocurre en una aldea. Todos nos afectaríamos directamente.

Luego escribe "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" en el '64, donde recoge la idea descriptiva de su famosa frase 'el medio es el mensaje' y a los medios en 'fríos' y 'calientes', en función de la densidad de información transmitida y la participación de las audiencias. Por ejemplo, el teléfono, que sería un medio frío; pues es muy poco lo que se puede decir con el habla y mucho lo que el otro debe completar al escuchar del otro lado de la bocina. Es decir,
los medios cálidos son de poca o baja participación, mientras que los medios fríos son de alta participación para que el público los complete.
Con respecto a 'El medio es el mensaje' cabe decir que McLuhan concideraba a el medio como una extensión del hombre, y que con esta frase esperaba expresar su idea de que nuestro entorno esta siempre comunicándonos y condicionando nuestro propio mensaje.

Sin duda, Herbert Marshall puede conciderarse como un adelantado a su época, un visionario que fue capaz de prever las problemáticas en diversas áreas de la comunicación que no estubieron vigentes en su época, pero sirvieron para las futuras generaciones.