MEFT3102

For those who might be interested, here is the Podcast in which neuropsychologist Chris Frith talks about the extent to which we model or simulate reality as part or our most basic experience. So when we enter a virtual environment, it’s simulation vs simulation.

We’ll be discussing both Augmented and Virtual Realities (AR and VR) as examples of how connecting things up differently transforms our actions/perceptions (which are increasingly merged, precisely via technical connections between what we do and what we perceive, and vice versa, in closer to something like real-time … or, we might say, increasingly approximate in technical terms the symbiotic relationship between perception and action we have always had).

Here’s a good discussion of Augmented Reality. Then there the required reading on AR for this week. It’s also worth going to my delicious links on AR, or here on VR. There’s also the very good Wikipedia entry on VR, which is required reading for this week in any case.

This is an interesting research lab at Columbia University, working on AR and VR.

This is a also a great time to know what the sense of proprioception is (your body’s sense of itself in movement .. the “interoceptive” sense by which the body knows where it’s tendons, muscles and so on are relative to each other at any given time)is, or the haptic (to do with touch, which is a different matter to the proprioceptive, even if it involves it), if you don’t already. Here are some links.

And you might like to think of sensation from the other side of the fence, that is, from the point of view of technological sensation and perception .. e.g. robotics … and you might look at this post from the past on robotics

It’s interesting to think how the electronic and digital reworking these senses that are so very close to us.

Here are some relevant videos.

Google Wave

Virtual Reality

Brain-computer interface

Augmented Reality

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/08/mapterritory-augmented-reality.html

Map/Territory from timo on Vimeo.

Some links now we’re back from the break—hope it was a good one for you.

For those interested in/still thinking through the philosophy of aesthetics, here’s a nice general intro.

As for this week, the Houston reading on VJing and Simondon is perhaps complex but I think one that might lead you to rethink your relationship to technology. I enjoy it more each time I read it. But the key quote for this week is probably this, from Anne-Marie Boisvert:

It is significant that we speak about a remix “culture”, for it is much more than a mere musical movement. Naturally it includes cultural products - in other words, the “works” themselves. But it is also and especially the events in which these “products”(ie, music and/or video works) find themselves not so much presented as truly (re)created and remixed each time. The remix depends, above all, on the way the artist interacts with his or her machinery; on the “samples” chosen and the way they are related … (On Bricolage: http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/remix.php?is=8&file=4&tlang=0)

Which is to say that everything can be sampled/resequenced/modulated … music and sounds, images, bits of code (whether computer or genetic), experience, friendships, brainwaves, relations, technical structures, their elements, their modes of relating to the exterior, internal resonances, even perhaps “imagination” or “intuition”. Boisvert even applies this to politics, suggesting remix culture is the “death of ideology”, and a ongoing remix of the elements of history in general (so that any kind of notion of fixed history, or of living in an easy to define “historical period” goes out the window).

The other side of this, as DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller) notes, is that “Whenever you look at an image, there’s a ruthless logic of selection that you have to go through to simply to create a sense of order.” (http://www.djspooky.com/articles/rebirth.php). And the same for all the other things above I’ve suggested are open to sampling, resequencing, modulation. Here Houston’s account of Simondon’s approach to technology is very useful beyond the context of VJing!

Really interesting contemporary aspects of this re-modulation/sequencing are thought about in the fabulous issue of Vague Terrain—Biomorph (in my opinion now a leading journal in several areas).

Those of you thinking of enrolling in Honours in 2010 are invited to a meeting on September 14.

HONOURS INFORMATION SESSION

The School of English, Media and Performing Arts will be running an information session for prospective Honours students on Monday 14th September at 5 pm in Room 331 Robert Webster Building.

All 2^nd and 3^rd students who are eligible to take honours (who have a grade average of 70% or more) are invited to attend. Interested first year students are also welcome.

In the meantime, further information about Honours can be found at http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/

This piece has it all …. For the geekier among us, this is a great project by the international group Aetherbits. It’s well worth while watching this short video, which covers a very wide range of topics, from datamining to synthesis, with some interesting software and operations to back it up. They’re also interested in generating a new kind of media awareness.

SOCIAL SYNTHESIZER from aetherbits on Vimeo.

Video: Bruce Sterling’s Keynote - At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry from Maarten Lens-FitzGerald on Vimeo.

Via Mitchell Whitelaw, very interesting artwork involving “relief projection and multichannel sequencing”.

After a long wait, we can now see what James Cameron’s latest work is looking like. The trailer (or teaser) for Avatar is available here. See for yourself if it’s an improvement on Final Fantasy.

Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist is one of the world’s leading video artists. This video is about the largest video installation I’ve ever seen

Augmented reality is all the go this year! Lots of interesting applications.