Low Pew

Or is it?

2006-06-26T23:13:00.000+01:00

I was having some fun with some thoughts ans some words. I came accross a small text from John Maeda ("Maeda at Media") and then refixed it to my unsettling thoughts on art and software.

Portrait reversibility

2006-06-26T19:21:00.000+01:00

This piece represents several approaches:

1 - it amends my duality with the digital and the manual, by the use of video/photograph and interaction;

2 - self-portrait signifies merely a living anatomy;

3 - there's cause and there's effect - meaning that I am looking for a direct interaction to my reversible portrait. I like the idea of it standing still while I can appreciate the deformations that occur.

4 -A hint of Francis Bacon paintings arises when I stop to appreciate the deformities, some of my tormented flesh with a somewhat happy grin, transfers it to a more violent place.

I still try to command the plastic features of my paintings towards my digital belongings, and I realize it's what I am to do at this stage of my work.

Sneak preview...

2006-06-24T17:45:00.000+01:00

Working on my latest piece for our final show:
-combining several platforms to play around with my primary idea of birth;
-it now evolved to a dicotomy of genres such as the tree and the cube;
-the self-portraits are key sensors for the ideas that I am developing.

These are snapshots of the current platform, rotating cubes and growing trees.

Still, Solaas' project

2006-06-20T16:07:00.000+01:00

These series of pictures are stills from my name 'Luisa Low Pew' taken from 'Dreamlines' and it generated the picture that comes in first place if I google for my name, under the 'Image' category. I thought it look even better than my own painting! Really a very inspiring work.

Another day, another dream

2006-06-20T15:55:00.000+01:00

http://www.solaas.com.ar/dreamlines/p5/

This is very creative project by Leonardo Solaas, using Processing.

These Dreamlines generate expressive lines that are in constant motion. You type in a word (a dream) and interesting figures start building on your screen.

(on this image my dream was "Love")

Starry night

2006-06-19T19:19:00.000+01:00

Check out this project it is worth several clicks!

StarryNight Author(s):Alex Galloway, Mark Tribe, Martin Wattenberg
Institution:Rhizome.org Year:1999

URL:http://rhizome.org/starrynight/ ---------------------------------

Project Description:When a new text is read for the first time on the Rhizome.org website, it appears on StarryNight as a dim star. Each time a text gets read again by any Internet user around the world the corresponding star gets a bit brighter. Over time, the page comes to resemble a starry night sky, with bright stars corresponding to the most popular texts in the database, and dim stars corresponding to less-popular ones.
Dragging the mouse over one of the stars brings up a pop-up list of keywords that the corresponding text shares with other texts. Select a keyword in the pop-up list to draw a constellation linking all the stars that share that keyword.
StarryNight depends on two pieces of original software: a set of Perl scripts that sort texts by keyword and record their individual hits, and a Java applet that filters this information to draw stars and constellations.
Technology used: Perl and JavaNumber of stars: 2000Age of oldest star: February 5th, 1996New stars added: 5 per week

Same word, same seed, same root

2006-06-12T21:06:00.000+01:00

by Cai Guo Qiang

GENOGRAPHIC

2006-06-12T20:59:00.000+01:00

GENOGRAPHIC... here's the link

Lion of Nemea

2006-06-08T09:57:00.000+01:00

This level is about the 'Lion of Nemea', Hercules' first task in the '12 Labors'.

Birthplace installation

2006-06-08T09:51:00.000+01:00

Birthplace

Here is how my installation will try to look like at the end.
My concept of this 'birthplace' it's just the idea of me growing roots to my desk. As well as my complimentary artwork.
Everything, apparently, is growing roots.

De vez em nunca/Sometimes never

2006-06-05T17:47:00.000+01:00

A wireless installation developed to run on mobile devices. Project by Giselle Beiguelman.
You can download the installation here . Enjoy!

http://www.desvirtual.com/sometimes/never/index.htm

De Vez em Nunca é um vídeo degenerativo que se decompõe pela ação do público. Imagens videográficas, capturadas no recinto expositivo com câmeras de celular, são disponibilizadas à manipulação, pelo teclado e mouse. Os interatores recompõem, em tempo real, a ordem dos quadros e re-editam o filme original, introduzindo filtros de cor e luz sobre as imagens. O filme original recomeça, sobre as novas camadas de imagem construídas pelo público, sempre que se abandona o mouse e/ou teclado. O resultado é um palimpsesto dinâmico de imagens que se consomem, seguindo uma lógica entrópica em que o acúmulo de registros se faz por apagamentos e supressões, construindo memórias passageiras e fugidias. O projeto complementa e dialoga a série De Vez em Sempre, no qual o público também gravava imagens com câmeras de celular para serem manipuladas e desconstruídas instantaneamente. Contudo, apesar de suas semelhanças metodológicas e técnicas, os projetos De Vez em Sempre e De Vez em Nunca têm horizontes cognitivos e percetivos distintos. Ao contrário do primeiro, em que a manipulação das imagens gerava uma situação marcada por diferenças e repetições, em um mosaico entrópico, aqui, o resultado aponta para um palimpsesto instável, no qual prevalece a saturação que impede a repetição de uma mesma ação. Nunca.

Sometimes Never is a (de)generative video which is decomposed through the inputs of its interactors. Videographic images, shot with mobile phones in the exhibition space, can be manipulated by keyboards and mouse and the audience edits, in real time, the order of its original frames, their position on the screen as well as introduce colored filters on the new images. When someone leaves the mouse, the original film restarts over the layers built by the interactors. The result is an imagetic and dynamic palimpsest, that consumes itself following and entropic logic where saturation produces erasing and fluid memories. The project dialogues with the series Sometimes Always, where the audience also shots images with mobile phones to be deconstructed by the same algorithmic process used here. In spite of their methodological and technical equivalences, Sometimes Always and Sometimes Never, are very different in their results and cognitive processes. In Sometimes Never the manipulation of images do not produce an entropic mosaic, but instable saturated palimpsests where it is impossible to repeat an action. Never.

De vez em sempre/ Sometimes always

2006-06-05T17:31:00.000+01:00

A wireless installation developed to run on mobile devices. Project by Giselle Beiguelman.

You can download the installation here . Enjoy!

http://www.desvirtual.com/sometimes/always/index.htm

De vez em Sempre reflete sobre o mundo visto através de telas e janelas, em que cada momento do dia parece um filme, que se apaga e se consome assim que realiza.
O projeto consiste em uma projeção interativa, baseada em sistemas generativos, que permite ao público captar imagens com vídeo-câmeras de celular e enviá-las a telões por bluetooth. Na tela, ao passar o mouse sobre os vídeos, as imagens se decompõem em frames, que são reordenados pela movimentação do interator, seguindo os desenhos e as direções que ele faz e impõe com o mouse. Ao interromper a ação, os vídeos recomeçam, sem apagar o mosaico de imagens dispersas que se formou na tela, gerando uma intrigante situação de intensa diferença e repetição. Sempre.

Sometimes Always discusses the visual horizons of nomadic culture and its entropic and saturated environments. Its point of departure is that nowadays life is seen through windows and screens and each moment seems a movie frame that consumes and erases itself as soon as it is processed. The project consists of an interactive projection, based on generative systems, which allow the audience to shot images with cell phones with video cameras and send them via Bluetooth to big screens. On mouse over, the videos fragments in frames can be reorganized by the interactors, following the movements and draws they do with the mouse. When they interrupt the action, the videos restart without erasing the mosaic of images that was built by their activities on the screen. An intriguing image of difference and repletion emerges there. Always.

Le temps qui rèste

2006-06-05T11:19:00.000+01:00

"Le temps qui rèste" from François Orzon, is a depiction of 'time to leave'. When a fashion photographer finds out he has less than 3 months to live, he starts making preparations to leave his life behind.

He immediately gives up his relationship with his long term boyfriend, mistreats his sister, and then, somehow along the way tries to make up for the people he actually loves. Or does he? He tells no one about his illness, aside from his grandmother, played by the great Jean Moreau.
There are some really beautiful shots in this movie, which is meant to be about death, about leaving/living.

I enjoyed his retrospectives as a child, while I tried to track down the heavy burdens he was carrying inside.

http://www.francois-ozon.com/francais/bande-annonce/le-temps-qui-reste.html

Thumbsucker

2006-06-05T11:06:00.000+01:00

This movie, directed by Mike Mills, delivers us a story about a teenage boy with a 'sweet' habit to suck his thumb.

The film depicts his relationship with his parents, his kid brother, his love interest, his orthodontist and his thumb.

I finally caught a glimpse of it at ondedotzero's movie festival, at ICA. It's interesting to see Mike Mills' background as a graphic designer, kicking in during the film. One of my favorite scenes when his orthodontist was treating Justin's (Thumbsucker) teeth, for one final check-up, pulls a cigarette, lights it and smokes it. While he is referring to life and 'how there's nothing wrong about living life, while sucking your thumb', there's a smoke ring that illustrates what I believe to be a hint of the ephemeral design of life.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/thumbsucker/

Favela rising

2006-05-09T00:29:00.000+01:00

www.favelarising.com

I went to see this movie at Duke of York's theatre, in Brighton. A very good documentary about life and upbringing in a brazilian favela (slum).
It is very intense and demonstrative of what happened and still happens in the brazilian slums.

Lian Amaris

2006-05-08T23:42:00.000+01:00

A reference to keep:

http://lianamaris.com/

This artist features several works that condense both quality research with quality work.

Enjoy her gallery of work.

Stranger Information web performance

2006-05-08T23:35:00.000+01:00

Web performance, click here to find it, read instructions carefully

INSTRUCTIONS:
Running Time is approximately 17 minutes. There will be no intermission and the use of the [BACK] button is strictly prohibited.
Please be aware that a new window will open once you click [ENTER].
You will be asked to choose a room. Please be aware that you only have access to one room at this time.
Once the GUIDE has found you, please be prepared to read the subtitles. Each window is open for six seconds, so please read accordingly.
You will be presented with a functioning switch several times throughout the performance. Please feel free to use it.
Once the performance has ended, the GUIDE will try to escort you to another room. You do not have access to this next room, so the performance you just saw will begin again.
When you are ready to leave, simply close the window using the [X] icon at the top of your browser window, and you will return to this page.

2006-05-03T10:02:00.000+01:00

The PLATFORM website has a multifunction purpose:

Development lab;
Game structure presentation and concept overview;
Portfolio;
Webart station;
Blog;
Media related news.

It will contain several dynamic features, for instance, the news has a structure which through login any artist, designer that registers can add, alter, the news displayed.

I really want that this platform can be useful for people that know my work as well as people that want to be more informed about the digital arts scene.

I also want to make it as the main frame for my game at the final show.

New platform website

2006-05-03T09:37:00.000+01:00

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/game/index.html

By Joshua Davis

2006-05-03T09:25:00.000+01:00

I follow Davis' work and I thought it was quite interesting how he evaluates his work in terms of processes. I pointed out some key words from his text that I affilliate to my proposition in my artwork:

Randomness;
Accident;
Art;
Machine;
Audience of one;

-------------------------------------

Joshua Davis is an artist and technologist who lives in New York. Since the emergence of the web as an expressive medium, Davis has continued to define the ‘cutting edge’ of digital youth culture.

Among modern artist, I conceptually identify with Jackson Pollock, not because I am a particular fan of his visual style, but because he always called himself a painter, even though a lot of the time his brush never hit the canvas. There is something in this disconnection – not using a brush or tool in traditional methods – that says a lot about the concept of dynamic abstraction; in that loss of control there can be a beauty of randomness.

Pollock might have argued it is the process of abstraction that is dynamic, not the end result, which in his case was a static painting. In my own work, the end result is never static; by making room for as many anomalies as possible, I write programs that create unique compositions.
I program the “brushes”, the “paints”, the “strokes”, the rules, and the boundaries. However, it is the machine that generates the compositions: The programs draw themselves. I am in a constant state of surprise and discovery, because the program often compiles something I would never think of executing, or which would take me hours to create manually.

The program (or “machine”, as I like to call it) is triggered simply by pressing the space bar on my keyboard. The random composition generators can populate a few hundred objects in the layout – imagine how long it would take if you had to do it by hand. Or, what if I kept asking you to give me a new composition, randomizing the assets, until you came up with a few hundred possible layouts?

Macromedia Flash is my primary piece of software. I know its limitations, but I very much like hacking it; it is just like finding new and different ways to use paint.

Basically, I am still the same artist I was as a painter, only my tools have changed.
Fundamentally, art and design have been taught as very static processes: executing style and method to arrive at an end result. I am rewriting the rules, redefining the process.

I create for an audience of one – myself. No-one else has to understand, like or “get” my work. This might seem odd considering I have chosen a medium that is open to a global audience and through which I share my work with others. If other people do not like what I produce, that is OK; if they do like it, it is an added bonus.
I know I am creating work for the love of making it, rather than because I think people will like it.

My work is malleable: I can write programs for the Net, I can capture movements for use in video or DVD broadcast, and I can run programs through a Postscript Driver to capture the composition the program generated for use in print. One process, multiple media.

For me, the artform is not the few days it takes me to write the program; it is the few weeks I will spend living with the work, waiting for the work to evolve.
Pressing the space bar, pressing the space bar, always waiting to capture that moment in time: the beautiful accident.

Structure ++ Quick links

2006-03-29T04:53:00.000+01:00

During this unit, I have tried several applications to develop my project, naming Flash, JAVA development kit, Textpad, the usual image software, Dreamweaver and WiseFusion. I encountered several problems, naming my machine kept on crashing while trying to run JAVA applications, eventually I fixed it just in time. During our last tutorials, I could see which focus would suit me best for my project; I used a cross media, linking drawing, Internet, JAVA application and VRML.

I also looked more at Maeda's work to find some hints to develop my idea, and the objects he produced and the exercises he sent out to his students at MIT.

I have worked as well with my sketches to try and define my main structure. I am happy to see its result, as these links follow:

http://www.madigitalarts.co.uk/lowpew/oblivion2_Window.jar
(downloadable, tested in browser, 106 Kb, mobile download availability, although my device model does not open it, need to try other models)

http://www.madigitalarts.co.uk/lowpew/tester_tree_Window.jar
(downloadable, tested in browser, mobile phone does not receive a file with this size)

http://www.madigitalarts.co.uk/lowpew/jogo_1/java_applets/bloodbag.html
(JAVA applet to explore)

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/savage.html
(an interface to be used as a platform to access my game structure )

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/over_100_pieces.html
(web object)

Bedtime stories

2006-03-29T04:21:00.000+01:00

For this unit I looked in these books for technical support as well theoretical aid for my practice.

Prototype 2

2006-03-29T03:33:00.000+01:00

Two different environments that run together. I used a skeleton model and an animated 'tree' that I built in 3D. I lke the use of text , because it is static while the rest of this environment is interactive.

To try out with keyboard+mouse.

Downloadable version (about 2 M) OS needs to be JAVA enabled

http://www.madigitalarts.co.uk/lowpew/tester_tree_Window.jar

Prototype 1

2006-03-29T00:55:00.000+01:00

OS needs to be JAVA http://www.madigitalarts.co.uk/lowpew/jogo_1/java_applets/bloodbag.html

Either use the mouse to move this or try the keyboard, arrows and letters...

OS needs to be JAVA enabled

My grandfather...

2006-03-28T22:46:00.000+01:00

I just got this picture from my grandad, he lives in Curitiba, Brazil. I found it very emotional because of the African memorabilia and the Chinese poster, both on the wall. He sits in the centre.. However his face looks a bit sad or tired. Maybe he just came from his long long walks. He used to walk for 5 km a day, at 6 am! Miss you, Mr Low!

It's time to play

2006-03-28T18:11:00.000+01:00

Visuals from an art game with Maria Moreira!
Players were identify, except one, yet to be identified:
- Cristina X
- Yuki Y
- Luisa X
- (player does not wish to be identified)
- Madoka X
- Mizue X

Over 100 pieces

2006-03-28T17:36:00.000+01:00

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/over_100_pieces.html

This piece shows my anxiety whilst balancing my painting environments and my art for the web. I added an audio loop, which is the base for this piece, it loops over itself until it finds a harmony where it finds the exact moment the loop starts.

The entire piece is about Harmony, cutting the image down to pieces and make them juggle like a keyboard, until they find themselves working towards their own physicallity. Whereas for the painting itself it is just another story that I want to tell.

Demicron website - virtual worlds

2006-03-28T17:22:00.000+01:00

http://www.demicron.com/gallery/index.html#

Click on Virtual Museum.

I have found this piece of work on the above website and found that this is exactly what I want to master with the tools I am using. Just a very simple display in a piece of equipment, where you are able to navigate and encounter interesting features. Enjoy!

Inside Maeda's "Creative Code"

2006-03-18T15:35:00.000Z

YUGO NAKAMURA ------------- www.yugop.com
The Internet tree

Yugo Nakamura is a digital artist and designer who lives in Tokyo. He is the pre-eminent design force within the Flash medium, and I think he will hold this position of leadership for many years to come.

A tree is made from the connection of leaves and branches, but a tree is not merely the sum of its branches and leaves. A “tree” yields a new dimension of recognition: it grows, it goes through different phases, and it dies. From the perspective of a single leaf, however, the image of the tree as a whole cannot be grasped. Certainly, “leaf” and “tree” are physically connected, but there is a discontinuity in recognition: each exists in its own dimensionally distinct space.

I investigate the potential of Internet-based interactive design. In the design of interactions that operate within the client-server model are various aspects that are unique to the Internet and for which the tree metaphor is useful. In the Internet, the space of the “leaf” influences the space of the “tree”. The space of the leaf, i.e., a single computer, is a closed space in which logical order explicitly operates. Conversely, the space of the tree, i.e., the Internet, is vague and broad – a world in which mass psychology and the sciences of probability and statistics are complexly intertwined.
These two spaces are physically connected, but their working methods exist in two different states that are exact opposites of each other.

I am considering two approaches to interaction design that will intersect these two states. The first is a composition of differences in method, such as simple versus complex, precise versus vague. For example, a simple expression is released into the chaos of Internet space. The expression acquires life and begins to function independently; metamorphosis becomes a function of feedback. Within the synergistic movement of expression and its surrounding environment, there is a vivid beauty. In the vocabulary of the composition that yields this dynamic movement, I believe that there are many variations and opportunities.

The other approach is more practical, using a community rather than method as the primary unit. The Internet is not just closed space of single person’s transaction and interaction. It is a large unspecified group, and insight on interaction at an even larger dimension is critical. Rather than consider the entire Internet, which is basically of unknown dimension, it is more effective to study “communities,” which are tangible units. My own lifestyle is based on the premise of various communities. In which aspect of the community does the expression work, and in what way does it generally work?
By repeating the actions and reactions through trial and error, I believe that we get closer to the domain in which the community and the “live” direct expression can become one.

From the standpoint of the leaf, you may not able to entirely grasp the image of the tree, but with a little imagination you can work toward a greater sphere of understanding. Repeating this trial and error, somehow the form of the tree might change just a little. With this in mind, I continue to design.

My Blood bag installation

2006-03-09T11:18:00.000Z

A few shots from my VRML installation... There a few cameras so people can move around more fluidly, without the risk of messing around the views, there are some touch sensor objects as well.
Maybe I will be able to show this over the web, when I finish controlling the file's weight!

Moodle me and VRML

2006-03-08T23:17:00.000Z

I am very excited with the kick start of my online tutoring about Webart, to PG portuguese students of Web design. I am also very happy with Moodle (OLE platform)!

http://moodle.org/ (freeware)

I also got very excited about developing some VRML of my own. I am currently using Flux to upload my objects/scenes and it is a great step for my future gaming.

http://cic.nist.gov/vrml/vbdetect.html (VRML and Xj3D plugins)

2006-03-02T11:28:00.000Z

Where we can play cards together...

Network us

2006-03-02T11:27:00.000Z

Just numbers on the wall

2006-02-22T09:19:00.000Z

----------------------1----------------------------------0-----------------------------------------------------------------1-----------------------------0----------------------------------------------------------------1-----------------------------0----------------------------------------------------------------1-----------------------------0------------------------------------------------------------------1---------------------------0--------------------------------------------------------------------1-------------------------0----------------------------------------------------------------------1-----------------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------1---------------------0--------------------------------------------------------------------------1-------------------0----------------------------------------------------------------------------1-----------------0------------------------------------------------------------------------------11100101011000----------------------------------------------

Programming a wall

2006-02-10T10:35:00.000Z

....: CONSTRUCTION:......

Whilst building a brick wall, we have to consider the space allocated, the materials we need and the hand work. Can you build a stable wall, that can put together an entire house, without hand work, or tools, or materials and even a designated space? Remains the idea of it then.

....: CONFINEMENT:......

Whenever I am progamming an object that will interact with others, I have to think about all kinds of possibilities. My tools are mainly virtual, but my support has to be a real thing, a real brick, real cement. When I program an object to behave like a wall, it will confine objects from passing through and get anywhere but the designated areas of circulation.

Walls are used to circumscribe things inside and are also necessary to keep away unwanted things as well. We build them for prisons as we build them for the comfort of our homes.

....: RISK ASSESSMENT:......

I could, virtually, program a wall to be easily demolished or which bodies could pass through like in a ghost movement. Sometimes it makes sense, I think.
Then, I could build a new room, with walls that nothing could get by them, so strong and unbeatable, that not even the ghost movements would do.

As a kid, in a very rough time of me and my family's life, my imagination used to flow so easily. In real life, me and my brothers would be looking for coins on the streets that people might have dropped, so we could take them home and we could give them to my mom, and she could buy some bread or salt or tea. She worked quite a lot, but the times were very difficult, I remember it was so hard to reach the next day and to think that 'will we make until tomorrow?'.
Anyway, struggle and walls come together in a strangeness of my own desires. Whenever I fight against another player, like in my martial arts class, I am totally focused in that environment, protection and avoidance and strike. It is all very effective for me.

....: FINISHING ACTS:......

Whenever I am practising my artwork, a lot of walls come in between, a lot of anxiety and wishful thoughts of a finishing line. When I struggle, only to find another wall, I've learned how to build them, to program them, and both processes become one, inside my mind.
Once you have thought about something, you act. Once you imagine something, in order to accomplish it, you design, you program, you act.
By doing so, things will come together and happen. If you don't, things can get by, 'ghostly' movements are allowed and your life passes you by, like a moving house. And then you have to run and try to catch it, that's when you realize what is important, what is crucial, what is above you and above your will.

....: LIGHTING:......

That's when you demolish the wall and build a bridge.

Lulu Blind

2006-02-05T19:14:00.000Z

Process and development ++

Translucid when...

2006-02-05T10:04:00.000Z

The blurred images series, which I entitled "Travelling without moving" series, is my impression of the quality of thoughts, mainly. It may sound a bit vague, but this is just an attribute on the quality of thoughts, it is about constant change.

This is what I mean, non-defined ideas, possibilities, choices, this all makes me travel without moving one single square meter.

Mona Luisa

2006-02-05T01:51:00.000Z

"Mona" has a slang usage in Portuguese language, means head - as in a body's head - and in the spirit of self portraits that have been assaulting my entire artistic drive since forever, here we go, my head.

They told me to scan my imperfections

2006-02-05T01:41:00.000Z

I am being scanned through the eyes of the passer-by. Many times, a face in a crowd is hard to define, it's hard to focus.
I am trying to be this a defined article, but still I find no specific outlines that are worth consolidating.

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/scan_my_imperfections.html

I saw a black lightening

2006-02-02T00:25:00.000Z

I have been using photologs to record several moods, I do it in a compulsory way now.

I was never very fond of the photographic methods, I always thought I couldn't get the thrill of a real image if it wasn't moving. It just didn't tell me enough about what was going on. It seemed like somehow I needed it to resolve itself at some point. The funny thing about compulsory photography is the facts you can narrate from those moments, but when you abstract yourself from that particular moment, when you read through the image itself, it rearranges itself and takes form of a narrative or discourse. This is what for me is so appealing about photography.
Possible narratives and possible encounters gives us large insights of the possibilities of human imagination; to capture of a particular event which can branch into forms of understading our perimeters and outerboundaries, whether passive or agressive.

Translucid when confused

2006-02-01T23:06:00.000Z

See through me while I am travelling without moving.

Paloma's eye and structure

2006-01-26T22:13:00.000Z

One of my favourite names in the world, of all languages I am familiar with is Paloma, a spanish name, that means dove.
Once again, I used the time scheme, similar to the http://timertv.home.sapo.pt .
You can play around with this time scheme project at http://paloma.home.sapo.pt .

SELF-PORTRAIT of Paloma

Whitecube opening night for Gilbert & George's "SonofaGod"

2006-01-24T10:47:00.000Z

I went to the opening night with Peter Forde to see the latest work from Gilbert & George called "SonofaGod - Was Jesus Heterossexual?". To maintain their reputation in the Brittish artscene, this latest work is about a over-saturation and satyrical view of Christianism, or is it?

Here is a review from this night taken from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-2000332,00.html:

It is called Sonofagod Pictures, with an impudent subtitle that inquires: Was Jesus Heterosexual? But in this age of the fatwa and the suicide bomber, an attack on the Christian faith feels like a soft option. And yet Gilbert and George aficionados — and, as probably the single most influential force on the Brit Art phenomenon, they have a lot of fans — should find this show as thought provocative as it is visually striking. The eccentric duo, who were quiet for a year or so while they mastered the digital technology used to fertile effect in this new show, are back in force.
Their vast, gridded collages glow from the walls: gaudy, lavish, extravagant, ornate. Lining the gallery, they conjure an overblown cathedral-like aura. The medieval and the postmodern seem almost to merge. The spectator enters what feels like the inner sanctum of some weird, and decidedly sinister, sect.
Gilbert and George have made images of the myriad trinkets that they have been collecting over the years and, blowing them up to enormous size, have played about making patterns, finding symmetries, creating kaleidoscope-style designs in which the artists themselves also feature, of course. The initial impression is of an almost dizzying fecundity.
But then you move in more closely and wonder at the meaning of the symbols. The crucifix is the prevalent motif: Christ’s body split open upon it like some carcass of beef. But here too are Stars of David, Islamic sickle moons, horseshoes and wishbones, charm trinkets and mottos and leering leprechauns. The tawdry emblems of superstitious belief glint and beguile and repulse in a body of work that, typically, sets out not so much to preach as to provoke. These images raise questions about the nature of belief, about religious antagonisms and the divisions they spawn. Beneath the glitter lies a darker subtext.

Projects...

2006-01-24T10:20:00.000Z

Two installations concerning different types of conflicts: social and environmental.

Green World, you don't deserve me now

2006-01-24T10:10:00.000Z

The Great Sphinx of Giza in time

2006-01-19T09:05:00.000Z

Taken from http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3499/sphinx.htm

Again Egyptologist's dismissed Schoch's theory, saying that the great rain storms that once happened over Egypt had stopped long before the Sphinx was built.Then in stepped Robert Buvaul with his own theory behind the Sphinx's true age,i will let him in his own words explain his theory:-
In 1989 I published a paper in the Oxford Journal, Discussions In Egyptology (vol. 13), in which I demonstrated that the three Great Pyramids and their relative position to the Nile created on the ground a sort of 3-D 'hologram' of the three stars of Orion's belt and their relative position to the Milky Way. To support this contention, I brought into evidence the inclined shaft in the Great Pyramid which were aimed at the south meridian towards these group of stars as well as written evidence from the Pyramid Texts that identified the afterlife destiny of the pyramid-kings with Orion.
Later in my book The Orion Mystery (Heinemann-Mandarin) I also demonstrated that the best fit for the Giza Pyramids/Nile pattern with the Orion's belt/Milky Way pattern occurred when the sky was pushed back in time (i.e. precessed) to the epoch of 10,500 BC. There were good reasons for doing so.
The ancient Egyptians, for example, constantly refer to a remote golden age they called Zep Tepi, 'The First Time' of Osiris, which they believed had long predated the Pyramid Age. Osiris was Orion, and the Great Pyramid had a shaft directed to Orion at the meridian. To me, this 'silent' astro-architectural language seemed to be spelling out 'here is Osiris in the sky when these pyramids were built, yet know, too, that his origins are rooted in the First Time.' But The 'First Time' of what? How could the stars of Orion have a 'First Time'?
Well they can. And they do. Provided, of course, that you can read through the allegorical 'language' of the ancients via the symbolic architecture and the related Pyramid Texts. Allegory, to put it in another way, is the 'Q-Basics' of the master astronomers who designed the Giza complex. When the stars of Orion are observed at the meridian in the precise manner that the ancient Egyptian astronomers did over many centuries, the could not help noting that these stars crossed the south meridian at different altitudes at different epoch. This is, of course, due to the phenomenon of Precession (see The Orion Mystery, appendices 1 and 2). In short, the stars of Orion can be said to have a starting point or 'beginning' at the nadir of their precessional cycle. Simple calculations show that this occurred in 10,500 BC. Could the ancient astronomers of the Pyramid Age have used their very clever 'silent language' combined with Precession to freeze the 'First Time' of Osiris - somewhat like the gifted architects of gothic cathedral froze in its allegorical stonework the 'time of Christ'?
In the summer of 1993 Graham Hancock and I got together to investigate this issue further. Graham was quick to realised the important implications this approach could have on the Sphinx problem. He had a hunch that the curious harking back to the epoch of 10,500 BC by the pyramid builders of Giza was an invitation by them to consider the actual age of the Sphinx. If this hypothesis was correct, then the Sphinx must be an 'original' time-marker of that remote epoch using an obvious celestial tag valid for 10,500 BC. But which tag? What could the Sphinx be representing that was in the sky? Could this have something to do with the due east direction of its gaze towards the horizon?
In his ground-breaking book Fingerprints of the Gods (Heinemann-Mandarin), Hancock pointed out that the 'First Time' date of 10,500 BC also denoted the beginning or 'First Time' of the Age of Leo. This was when the 'lion' constellation would have risen heliacally (at dawn before the sun) on the day of the spring (vernal) equinox. This event brought the celestial lion to rest due east, thus in perfect alignment with the Sphinx. The Sphinx, in other words, was made to look at his own image in the horizon - and consequently at his own 'time'. Hancock pointed out that 10,500 BC was no random date. It very precisely denoted another beginning, that of Orion-Osiris defined on the ground with the pattern and alignments of the nearby Pyramids. Here, then, were not just the Pyramids but also the Sphinx luring us to the same date of 10,500 BC. But were we dealing with a 'coincidence' -albeit an astonishing one- or was all this part of a deliberate long term scheme set by the ancients? Could it be possible that some blueprint was put into motion in 10,500 BC with the making of the Sphinx then to be completed much later by the builders of the Pyramids? Was there evidence of a continuous presence here at Giza through the ages of some master 'astronomers' who could have been responsible to see this scheme through?
If so, who were they? Where had they come from? Why here at Giza? Graham and I have spent the last two years researching this fascinating issue. We believe that what we have uncovered will change the perceptions of what Giza was (and still is) forever. The full results of our investigation, as you might have guessed, are laid out in our new book, Keeper of Genesis, available now at a discount through AA&ES. Suffice at this stage to say that author Colin Wilson, who gave the book an early review, thinks it's 'a much more satisfying tour de force' than Fingerprints of the Gods or The Orion Mystery.
So has Robert Buvaul got a 'good case' ? Many people seem to validate his theory but maybe we will never truly understand the reasons behind these great monuments, we can only listen to the theory's behind the mystery and come to our own conclusions, until we are given unquestionable proof their will always be people wanting to knock others idea's, but please keep an open mind to all possibilities and try to enjoy the experience.

Homo sapiens sapiens

2006-01-10T13:54:00.000Z

I found this artcile in January's British Airways' High life magazine concerning a project from Ichikoo company to develop a product that reflects your life or just story telling...

Life Catching: ARE YOU INTERESTING?

Forget decluttering. Whether it’s postcards, teapots or ad’s, we all have to collect. The old fashioned activity (think scrap books and tons of stamps) somehow appeals to the pedant in all of us, and late has been enhanced by the wonders of technology.
MP3 players we can carry our whole music collection with us (and catalogue it in a worrying compulsive fashion); camera phones mean we can obsessively take pictures; while the increasing popularity of blogging means that every insignificant detail of our day can be written down for all to read.
Now ICHIKOO locked into this trend of “life-catching” collecting, storing and displaying one’s entire life, for private use, or for friends, family or the entire world to pore over. The company creates personalized documentary films, drawing and photographs, home videos, favourite songs and other personal archives, such as in-jokes or private family anecdotes. It can create “mocumentaries” about a client’s life or a slideshow pastiche, perhaps to viewing in a subject’s info the hero of a famous film.

Elevator

2005-12-17T10:47:00.000Z

http://www.nogome.com/luisa/video_3.html
http://www.nogome.com/luisa/video_4.html

The wisdom is in the trees

2005-12-16T09:54:00.000Z

the idea generate the ideas generate the idea

to wrap up our today's conversation: i like producing work for myself, i like the processes i encounter, many times, occasionally, in a song, in a feeling, in an exhibition. i don't know if it is good art, if it is even an art definition, to me it is, because i find it, the idea, what it brings, what it provokes, as an object, but it still has to provoke something, even if it just in me, to push me into another process, maybe.

if we can't express what is going on in our minds, the ideas shruggle, the artistic (creative) flow allows and instigate us to achieve a state where we can find affinities... the work we produce, for me, looks for a certain truth in the idea, meaning we reward what it seems valid for us in context of where we are placed or based. every art i know is produced inside a new found context.

I need this old train to breakdown

2005-12-15T23:24:00.000Z

http://low.com.sapo.pt/video/video_1.html

Re-telling stories

2005-12-12T11:18:00.000Z

As a kid, I always loved listening to stories, even horror ones. My mother told me stories about the head-shrinking men who lived in the forests of Mozambique, man-eating bulls, even a true story of an elephant stampede, when the circus was in town and she was a little girl. She told me her mom, her sister and herself had to hide in the forest until the danger was contained.
I remember one story about this big tree house, inhabited by a woman who devoured human flesh and kept the heads, hanging around this house. She was very powerful, because she drank a lot of human fluids, keeping their powers within her and she would never grow old or die. Eventually she fell in love with one these men that tried to destroy her, and she had to eat him and died with a heartbreak.

I am fascinated about the whole structure of my game, it has evolved and now I find myself in search of great stories I want to tell within my own issues. The 12 Labours of Hercules were a great breakthrough as I like the structure of these stories, in terms of relating this with my own project, I see the main character of the game will be defying several tasks - 12. Within these tasks, I will encorporate every issue that I have come accross and in a way, changed my life.
I know this has become very autobiographic, but I see this project as a challenge, where I will learn more than my previous experiences with my art.

12 Labours of Hercules/Heracles

2005-12-09T22:44:00.000Z

Labor 1: The Nemean Lion
Labor 2: The Lernean Hydra
Labor 3: The Hind of Ceryneia
Labor 4: The Erymanthean Boar
Labor 5: The Augean Stables
Labor 6: The Stymphalian Birds
Labor 7: The Cretan Bull
Labor 8: The Horses of Diomedes
Labor 9: The Belt of Hippolyte
Labor 10: Geryon's Cattle
Labor 11: The Apples of the Hesperides
Labor 12: Cerberus

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1: The Nemean Lion

Setting out on such a seemingly impossible labor, Hercules came to a town called Cleonae, where he stayed at the house of a poor workman-for-hire, Molorchus. When his host offered to sacrifice an animal to pray for a safe lion hunt, Hercules asked him to wait 30 days. If the hero returned with the lion's skin, they would sacrifice to Zeus, king of the gods. If Hercules died trying to kill the lion, Molorchus agreed to sacrifice instead to Hercules, as a hero.
When Hercules got to Nemea and began tracking the terrible lion, he soon discovered his arrows were useless against the beast. Hercules picked up his club and went after the lion. Following it to a cave which had two entrances, Hercules blocked one of the doorways, then approached the fierce lion through the other. Grasping the lion in his mighty arms, and ignoring its powerful claws, he held it tightly until he'd choked it to death.
Hercules returned to Cleonae, carrying the dead lion, and found Molorchus on the 30th day after he'd left for the hunt. Instead of sacrificing to Hercules as a dead man, Molorchus and Hercules were able to sacrifice together, to Zeus.
When Hercules made it back to Mycenae, Eurystheus was amazed that the hero had managed such an impossible task. The king became afraid of Hercules, and forbade him from entering through the gates of the city. Furthermore, Eurystheus had a large bronze jar made and buried partway in the earth, where he could hide from Hercules if need be. After that, Eurystheus sent his commands to Hercules through a herald, refusing to see the powerful hero face to face.
Many times we can identify Hercules in ancient Greek vase paintings or sculptures simply because he is depicted wearing a lion skin. Ancient writers disagreed as to whether the skin Hercules wore was that of the Nemean lion, or one from a different lion, which Hercules was said to have killed when he was 18 years old. The playwright Euripides wrote that Hercules' lion skin came from the grove of Zeus, the sanctuary at Nemea:

First he cleared the grove of Zeus of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its fearful tawny gaping jaws.

Euripides, Hercules, 359

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2: The Hydra

The second labor of Hercules was to kill the Lernean Hydra. From the murky waters of the swamps near a place called Lerna, the hydra would rise up and terrorize the countryside. A monstrous serpent with nine heads, the hydra attacked with poisonous venom. Nor was this beast easy prey, for one of the nine heads was immortal and therefore indestructible.
Hercules set off to hunt the nine-headed menace, but he did not go alone. His trusty nephew, Iolaus, was by his side. Iolaus, who shared many adventures with Hercules, accompanied him on many of the twelve labors. Legend has it that Iolaus won a victory in chariot racing at the Olympics and he is often depicted as Hercules' charioteer. So, the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone, they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra.
First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape. With his club, Hercules attacked the many heads of the hydra, but as soon as he smashed one head, two more would burst forth in its place! To make matters worse, the hydra had a friend of its own: a huge crab began biting the trapped foot of Hercules. Quickly disposing of this nuisance, most likely with a swift bash of his club, Hercules called on Iolaus to help him out of this tricky situation.
Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth, immortal head. This he buried at the side of the road leading from Lerna to Elaeus, and for good measure, he covered it with a heavy rock. As for the rest of the hapless hydra, Hercules slit open the corpse and dipped his arrows in the venomous blood.
Eurystheus was not impressed with Hercules' feat, however. He said that since Iolaus had helped his uncle, this labor should not count as one of the ten. This technicality didn't seem to matter much to anyone else: the ancient authors still give Hercules all of the credit. Even so, Pausanias did not think that this labor was as fantastic as the myths made it out to be: to him, the fearsome hydra was just, well, a big water snake.

At the source of the Amymone grows a plane tree, beneath which, they say, the hydra (water-snake) grew. I am ready to believe that this beast was superior in size to other water-snakes, and that its poison had something in it so deadly that Heracles treated the points of his arrows with its gall. It had, however, in my opinion, one head, and not several. It was Peisander of Camirus who, in order that the beast might appear more frightful and his poetry might be more remarkable, represented the hydra with its many heads.

Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.37.4

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3: The Hind of Ceryneia - Diana's Pet Deer

For the third labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Hind of Ceryneia.
You'd think it would have been easy for a hero like Hercules to go shoot a deer and bring it back to Eurystheus, but a few problems made things complicated. This was a special deer, because it had golden horns and hoofs of bronze. Not only that, the deer was sacred to the goddess of hunting and the moon, Diana; she was Diana's special pet. That meant that Hercules could neither kill the deer nor hurt her. He couldn't risk getting Diana angry at him; he was already in enough trouble with Hera.
Hercules set out on this adventure, and he hunted the deer for a whole year. At last, when the deer had become weary with the chase, she looked for a place to rest on a mountain called Artemisius, and then made her way to the river Ladon. Realizing that the deer was about to get away, Hercules shot her just as she was about to cross the stream. He caught the deer, put her on his shoulders and turned back to Mycenae. As Hercules hurried on his way, he was met by Diana and Apollo.
Diana was very angry because Hercules tried to kill her sacred animal. She was about to take the deer away from Hercules, and surely she would have punished him, but Hercules told her the truth. He said that he had to obey the oracle and do the labors Eurystheus had given him. Diana let go of her anger and healed the deer's wound. Hercules carried it alive to Mycenae.

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4: The Erymanthian Boar

For the fourth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Erymanthian boar alive. Now, a boar is a huge, wild pig with a bad temper, and tusks growing out of its mouth.
This one was called the Erymanthian boar, because it lived on a mountain called Erymanthus. Every day the boar would come crashing down from his lair on the mountain, attacking men and animals all over the countryside, gouging them with its tusks, and destroying everything in its path.
On his way to hunt the boar, Hercules stopped to visit his friend Pholus, who was a centaur and lived in a cave near Mount Erymanthus. Everyone knows that centaur is a human from his head to his waist, and a horse for the rest of his body and his legs. Hercules was hungry and thirsty, so the kindly centaur cooked Hercules some meat in the fireplace, while he himself ate his meat raw.
When Hercules asked for wine, Pholus said that he was afraid to open the wine jar, because it belonged to all the centaurs in common. But Hercules said not to worry, and opened it himself.
Soon afterwards, the rest of the centaurs smelled the wine and came to Pholus's cave. They were angry that someone was drinking all of their wine. The first two who dared to enter were armed with rocks and fir trees.
Hercules grabbed burning sticks from the fireplace and threw them at the centaurs, then went after them with his club.
He shot arrows at the rest of them and chased after them for about twenty miles. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions. One of the centaurs, Chiron, received a wound that no amount of medicine would heal...but what happened to Chiron is another story.
While Hercules was gone, Pholus pulled an arrow from the body of one of the dead centaurs. He wondered that so little a thing could kill such a big creature. Suddenly, the arrow slipped from his hand. It fell onto his foot and killed him on the spot. So when Hercules returned, he found Pholus dead. He buried his centaur friend, and proceeded to hunt the boar.
It wasn't too hard for Hercules to find the boar. He could hear the beast snorting and stomping as it rooted around for something to eat. Hercules chased the boar round and round the mountain, shouting as loud as he could. The boar, frightened and out of breath, hid in a thicket. Hercules poked his spear into the thicket and drove the exhausted animal into a deep patch of snow.
Then he trapped the boar in a net, and carried it all the way to Mycenae. Eurystheus, again amazed and frightened by the hero's powers, hid in his partly buried bronze jar.

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5: The Augean stables

For the fifth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clean up King Augeas' stables. Hercules knew this job would mean getting dirty and smelly, but sometimes even a hero has to do these things. Then Eurystheus made Hercules' task even harder: he had to clean up after the cattle of Augeas in a single day.
Now King Augeas owned more cattle than anyone in Greece. Some say that he was a son of one of the great gods, and others that he was a son of a mortal; whosever son he was, Augeas was very rich, and he had many herds of cows, bulls, goats, sheep and horses.

Every night the cowherds, goatherds and shepherds drove the thousands of animals to the stables.

Hercules went to King Augeas, and without telling anything about Eurystheus, said that he would clean out the stables in one day, if Augeas would give him a tenth of his fine cattle.
Augeas couldn't believe his ears, but promised. Hercules brought Augeas's son along to watch. First the hero tore a big opening in the wall of the cattle-yard where the stables were. Then he made another opening in the wall on the opposite side of the yard.
Next, he dug wide trenches to two rivers which flowed nearby. He turned the course of the rivers into the yard. The rivers rushed through the stables, flushing them out, and all the mess flowed out the hole in the wall on other side of the yard.
When Augeas learned that Eurystheus was behind all this, he would not pay Hercules his reward. Not only that, he denied that he had even promised to pay a reward. Augeas said that if Hercules didn't like it, he could take the matter to a judge to decide.
The judge took his seat. Hercules called the son of Augeas to testify. The boy swore that his father had agreed to give Hercules a reward. The judge ruled that Hercules would have to be paid. In a rage, Augeas ordered both his own son and Hercules to leave his kingdom at once. So the boy went to the north country to live with his aunts, and Hercules headed back to Mycenae. But Eurystheus said that this labour didn't count, because Hercules was paid for having done the work.

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6: The Stymphalian Birds

After Hercules returned from his success in the Augean stables, Eurystheus came up with an even more difficult task. For the sixth Labor, Hercules was to drive away an enormous flock of birds which gathered at a lake near the town of Stymphalos.
Arriving at the lake, which was deep in the woods, Hercules had no idea how to drive the huge gathering of birds away. The goddess Athena came to his aid, providing a pair of bronze krotala, noisemaking clappers similar to castanets. These were no ordinary noisemakers. They had been made by an immortal craftsman, Hephaistos, the god of the forge.
Climbing a nearby mountain, Hercules clashed the krotala loudly, scaring the birds out of the trees, then shot them with bow and arrow, or possibly with a slingshot, as they took flight.
Some versions of the legend say that these Stymphalian birds were vicious man-eaters. The 2nd century A.D. travel writer, Pausanias, trying to discover what kind of birds they might have been, wrote that during his time a type of bird from the Arabian desert was called "Stymphalian," describing them as equal to lions or leopards in their fierceness. He speculated that the birds Hercules encountered in the legend were similar to these Arabian birds.

These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armor of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment... These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis.

Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.22.5

Pausanias also saw and described the religious sanctuary built by the Greeks of Stymphalos and dedicated to the goddess Artemis. He reported that the temple had carvings of the Stymphalian birds up near its roof. Standing behind the temple, he saw marble statues of maidens with the legs of birds.

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7: The Cretan Bull

After the complicated business with the Stymphalian Birds, Hercules easily disposed of the Cretan Bull.
At that time, Minos, King of Crete, controlled many of the islands in the seas around Greece, and was such a powerful ruler that the Athenians sent him tribute every year. There are many bull stories about Crete. Zeus, in the shape of a bull, had carried Minos' mother Europa to Crete, and the Cretans were fond of the sport of bull-leaping, in which contestants grabbed the horns of a bull and were thrown over its back.anias also saw and described the religious sanctuary built by the Greeks of Stymphalos and dedicated to the goddess Artemis. He reported that the temple had carvings of the Stymphalian birds up near its roof. Standing behind the temple, he saw marble statues of maidens with the legs of birds.
Minos himself, in order to prove his claim to the throne, had promised the sea-god Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent him from the sea. Poseidon sent a bull, but Minos thought it was too beautiful to kill, and so he sacrificed another bull. Poseidon was furious with Minos for breaking his promise. In his anger, he made the bull rampage all over Crete, and caused Minos' wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the animal. As a result, Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Minos had to shut up this beast in the Labyrinth, a huge maze underneath the palace, and every year he fed it prisoners from Athens.
When Hercules got to Crete, he easily wrestled the bull to the ground and drove it back to King Eurystheus. Eurystheus let the bull go free. It wandered around Greece, terrorizing the people, and ended up in Marathon, a city near Athens.
The Athenian hero Theseus tied up some loose ends of this story. He killed the Cretan Bull at Marathon. Later, he sailed to Crete, found his way to the center of the Labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur.

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8: The Man-Eating Horses of Diomedes

After Hercules had captured the Cretan Bull, Eurystheus sent him to get the man-eating mares of Diomedes, the king of a Thracian tribe called the Bistones, and bring them back to him in Mycenae.
According to Apollodorus, Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers across the Aegean to Bistonia. There he and his companions overpowered the grooms who were tending the horses, and drove them to the sea. But by the time he got there, the Bistones had realized what had happened, and they sent a band of soldiers to recapture the animals. To free himself to fight, Hercules entrusted the mares to a youth named Abderos.
Unfortunately, the mares got the better of young Abderos and dragged him around until he was killed.
Meanwhile Hercules fought the Bistones, killed Diomedes, and made the rest flee. In honor of the slain Abderos, Hercules founded the city of Abdera.
The hero took the mares back to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus set them free. The mares wandered around until eventually they came to Mount Olympos, the home of the gods, where they were eaten by wild beasts.
Euripides gives two different versions of the story, but both of them differ from Apollodorus's in that Hercules seems to be performing the labor alone, rather than with a band of followers. In one, Diomedes has the four horses harnessed to a chariot, and Hercules has to bring back the chariot as well as the horses. In the other, Hercules tames the horses from his own chariot:

He mounted on a chariot and tamed with the bit the horses of Diomedes, that greedily champed their bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws, devouring with hideous joy the flesh of men.

Euripides, Hercules, 380

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9: Hippolyte's Belt - Hercules Fights the Amazons

For the ninth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the belt of Hippolyte [Hip-POLLY-tee]. This was no ordinary belt and no ordinary warrior. Hippolyte was queen of the Amazons, a tribe of women warriors.
These Amazons had nothing to do with the Amazon river in South America. Their name comes from a Greek word meaning "missing one breast." This is because an Amazon's right breast got in the way when she threw a spear.
The Amazons lived apart from men, and if they ever gave birth to children, they kept only the females and reared them to be warriors like themselves.
Queen Hippolyte had a special piece of armor. It was a leather belt that had been given to her by Ares, the war god, because she was the best warrior of all the Amazons. She wore this belt across her chest and used it to carry her sword and spear. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyte's belt as a present to give to his daughter, and he sent Hercules to bring it back.
Hercules' friends realized that the hero could not fight against the whole Amazon army by himself, so they joined with him and set sail in a single ship.
After a long journey, they reached the land of the Amazons and put in at the harbor. When Hercules and the Greeks got off the boat, Hippolyte came down to visit them.
She asked Hercules why he had come, and when he told her, she promised to give him the belt. But the goddess Hera knew that the arrival of Hercules meant nothing but trouble for the Amazons. Disguised as an Amazon warrior, Hera went up and down the army saying to each woman that the strangers who had arrived were going to carry off the queen. So the Amazons put on their armor.

The women warriors charged on horseback down to the ship.

But when Hercules saw that they were wearing their armor and were carrying their weapons, he knew that he was under attack. Thinking fast, he drew his sword and killed Hippolyte.
Then he undid her belt and took it away from her.
Hercules and the Greeks fought the rest of the Amazons in a great battle.
When the enemy had been driven off, Hercules sailed away. After a stopover at the city of Troy, Hercules returned to Mycenae, and he gave the belt to Eurystheus.

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10: The Cattle of Geryon

To accomplish his tenth labor, Hercules had to journey to the end of the world. Eurystheus ordered the hero to bring him the cattle of the monster Geryon. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe. Chrysaor had sprung from the body of the Gorgon Medusa after Perseus beheaded her, and Callirrhoe was the daughter of two Titans, Oceanus and Tethys. With such distinguished lineage, it is no surprise that Geryon himself was quite unique. It seems that Geryon had three heads and three sets of legs all joined at the waist.

And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe... bore a son who was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen.

Hesiod, Theogony, 980

Geryon lived on an island called Erythia, which was near the boundary of Europe and Libya. On this island, Geryon kept a herd of red cattle guarded by Cerberus's brother, Orthus, a two-headed hound, and the herdsman Eurytion. Hercules set off on for Erythia, encountering and promptly killing many wild beasts along the way, and he came to the place where Libya met Europe. Here, Apollodorus tells us, Hercules built two massive mountains, one in Europe and one in Libya, to commemorate his extensive journey. Other accounts say that Hercules split one mountain into two. Either way, these mountains became known as the Gates or Pillars of Hercules. The strait Hercules made when he broke the mountain apart is now called the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco, the gateway from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
Sailing in a goblet which the Sun gave him in admiration, Hercules reached the island of Erythia. Not long after he arrived, Orthus, the two-headed dog, attacked Hercules, so Hercules bashed him with his club. Eurytion followed, with the same result. Another herdsman in the area reported these events to Geryon. Just as Hercules was escaping with the cattle, Geryon attacked him. Hercules fought with him and shot him dead with his arrows.

The stealing of the cattle was not such a difficult task, compared to the trouble Hercules had bringing the herd back to Greece. In Liguria, two sons of Poseidon, the god of the sea, tried to steal the cattle, so he killed them. At Rhegium, a bull got loose and jumped into the sea. The bull swam to Sicily and then made its way to the neighboring country. The native word for bull was "italus," and so the country came to be named after the bull, and was called Italy.
The escaped bull was found by a ruler named Eryx, another of Poseidon's sons, and Eryx put this bull into his own herd. Meanwhile, Hercules was searching for the runaway animal. He temporarily entrusted the rest of the herd to the god Hephaestus, and went after the bull. He found it in Eryx's herd, but the king would return it only if the hero could beat him in a wrestling contest. Never one to shy away from competition, Hercules beat Eryx three times in wrestling, killed the king, took back the bull, and returned it to the herd.

Hercules made it to the edge of the Ionian Sea, with the end of his journey finally in sight. Hera, however, was not about to let the hero accomplish this labor. She sent a gadfly to attack the cattle, and the herd scattered far and wide. Now, Hercules had to run around Thrace gathering the escaped cows. Finally, he regrouped the herd and, blaming his troubles on the river Strymon in Thrace, he filled the river with rocks, making it unnavigable. Then, he brought the cattle of Geryon to Eurystheus, who sacrificed the herd to Hera. The ancients don't tell us how long either Hercules or Europe took to recover from this eventful jaunt.

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11: The Apples of the Hesperides

Poor Hercules! After eight years and one month, after performing ten superhuman labors, he was still not off the hook. Eurystheus demanded two more labors from the hero, since he did not count the hydra or the Augean stables as properly done.
Eurystheus commanded Hercules to bring him golden apples which belonged to Zeus, king of the gods. Hera had given these apples to Zeus as a wedding gift, so surely this task was impossible. Hera, who didn't want to see Hercules succeed, would never permit him to steal one of her prize possessions, would she?
These apples were kept in a garden at the northern edge of the world, and they were guarded not only by a hundred-headed dragon, named Ladon, but also by the Hesperides, nymphs who were daughters of Atlas, the titan who held the sky and the earth upon his shoulders.

Hercules' first problem was that he didn't know where the garden was. He journeyed through Libya, Egypt, Arabia, and Asia, having adventures along the way. He was stopped by Kyknos, the son of the war god, Ares, who demanded that Hercules fight him. After the fight was broken up by a thunderbolt, Hercules continued on to Illyria, where he seized the sea-god Nereus, who knew the garden's secret location. Nereus transformed himself into all kinds of shapes,trying to escape, but Hercules held tight and didn't release Nereus until he got the information he needed.

Continuing on his quest, Hercules was stopped by Antaeus, the son of the sea god, Poseidon, who also challenged Hercules to fight. Hercules defeated him in a wrestling match, lifting him off the ground and crushing him, because when Antaeus touched the earth he became stronger. After that, Hercules met up with Busiris, another of Poseidon's sons, was captured, and was led to an altar to be a human sacrifice. But Hercules escaped, killing Busiris, and journeyed on.

Hercules came to the rock on Mount Caucasus where Prometheus was chained. Prometheus, a trickster who made fun of the gods and stole the secret of fire from them, was sentenced by Zeus to a horrible fate. He was bound to the mountain, and every day a monstrous eagle came and ate his liver, pecking away at Prometheus' tortured body. After the eagle flew off, Prometheus' liver grew back, and the next day he had to endure the eagle's painful visit all over again. This went on for 30 years, until Hercules showed up and killed the eagle.

In gratitude, Prometheus told Hercules the secret to getting the apples. He would have to send Atlas after them, instead of going himself. Atlas hated holding up the sky and the earth so much that he would agree to the task of fetching the apples, in order to pass his burden over to Hercules. Everything happened as Prometheus had predicted, and Atlas went to get the apples while Hercules was stuck in Atlas's place, with the weight of the world literally on his shoulders.

When Atlas returned with the golden apples, he told Hercules he would take them to Eurystheus himself, and asked Hercules to stay there and hold the heavy load for the rest of time. Hercules slyly agreed, but asked Atlas whether he could take it back again, just for a moment, while the hero put some soft padding on his shoulders to help him bear the weight of the sky and the earth. Atlas put the apples on the ground, and lifted the burden onto his own shoulders. And so Hercules picked up the apples and quickly ran off, carrying them back, uneventfully, to Eurystheus.
There was one final problem: because they belonged to the gods, the apples could not remain with Eurystheus. After all the trouble Hercules went through to get them, he had to return them to Athena, who took them back to the garden at the northern edge of the world.

-----------------------------------------------------------

12: Cerberus

The most dangerous labor of all was the twelfth and final one. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to go to the Underworld and kidnap the beast called Cerberus (or Kerberos). Eurystheus must have been sure Hercules would never succeed at this impossible task!
The ancient Greeks believed that after a person died, his or her spirit went to the world below and dwelled for eternity in the depths of the earth. The Underworld was the kingdom of Hades, also called Pluto, and his wife, Persephone. Depending on how a person lived his or her life, they might or might not experience never-ending punishment in Hades. All souls, whether good or bad, were destined for the kingdom of Hades.

Cerberus was a vicious beast that guarded the entrance to Hades and kept the living from entering the world of the dead. According to Apollodorus, Cerberus was a strange mixture of creatures: he had three heads of wild dogs, a dragon or serpent for a tail, and heads of snakes all over his back. Hesiod, though, says that Cerberus had fifty heads and devoured raw flesh.

. . . A monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.

Hesiod, Theogony 310

Cerberus' parents were the monster Echinda (half-woman, half-serpent) and Typhon (a fire-breathing giant covered with dragons and serpents). Even the gods of Olympus were afraid of Typhon.
Among the children attributed to this awful couple were Orthus (or Othros), the Hydra of Lerna, and the Chimaera. Orthus was a two-headed hound which guarded the cattle of Geryon. With the Chimaera, Orthus fathered the Nemean Lion and the Sphinx. The Chimaera was a three-headed fire-breathing monster, part lion, part snake, and part goat. Hercules seemed to have a lot of experience dealing with this family: he killed Orthus, when he stole the cattle of Geryon, and strangled the Nemean Lion. Compared to these unfortunate family members, Cerberus was actually rather lucky.

Before making the trip to the Underworld, Hercules decided that he should take some extra precautions. This was, after all, a journey from which no mortal had ever returned. Hercules knew that once in the kingdom of Hades, he might not be allowed to leave and rejoin the living. The hero went to Eleusis and saw Eumolpus, a priest who began what were known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. The mysteries were sacred religious rites which celebrated the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The ancients believed that those who learned the secrets of the mysteries would have happiness in the Underworld. After the hero met a few conditions of membership, Eumolpus initiated Hercules into the mysteries.
Hercules went to a place called Taenarum in Laconia. Through a deep, rocky cave, Hercules made his way down to the Underworld. He encountered monsters, heroes, and ghosts as he made his way through Hades. He even engaged in a wrestling contest! Then, finally, he found Pluto and asked the god for Cerberus. The lord of the Underworld replied that Hercules could indeed take Cerberus with him, but only if he overpowered the beast with nothing more than his own brute strength.

A weaponless Hercules set off to find Cerberus. Near the gates of Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Underworld, Hercules encountered Cerberus. Undaunted, the hero threw his strong arms around the beast, perhaps grasping all three heads at once, and wrestled Cerberus into submission. The dragon in the tail of the fierce flesh-eating guard dog bit Hercules, but that did not stop him. Cerberus had to submit to the force of the hero, and Hercules brought Cerberus to Eurystheus. Unlike other monsters that crossed the path of the legendary hero, Cerberus was returned safely to Hades, where he resumed guarding the gateway to the Underworld. Presumably, Hercules inflicted no lasting damage on Cerberus, except, of course, the wound to his pride!

Reconciliation MADA

2005-12-06T22:46:00.000Z

-EXPERIMENT YOURSELF, try...

- I have been posting in the wikipedia, I just posted things I wanted to see under a "Digital Arts" sign. I created a news area, hopefully in the future we will have more condensed information and make use of our wide range of interests.

- I feel the MADA class (online, full-time, part-time) give a very wide, broad approach to different types of art and I like to think that the entire concept of this course is to propell ideas, rather to pin down a theory that defines Digital Arts.

- Whether we talk about the processes each of us undertake, our pursuits, there's a great dynamic in motion attached to the differential of outcomes. I appreciate that in every aspect, diversity is a powerful tool. As an individual experience, I have gain more awareness about thinking processes.

- I am looking forward to see where these ideas are taking us.

- I appreciate the foruns we have been participating, I understand them as a flexibility exercise for our discourse, if there is such a definition.

- I appreciate the perspectives I can get out of working under software production and drawing processes, with ink paper, pens...

- In "The System of Objects", Jean Baudrillard states:
(...) each object corresponds to an operation, often a tiny or heteroclite operation, but nowhere is any system of meanings even touched upon. (...) their functional structures, or what cultural, infracultural or transcultural system underpins their directly experienced everydayness.

- I am particularly interested in categorizing objects, not in the same way as Baudrillard worked, but rather, experimenting objects. Regarding my previous works, I would say, I surround myself with objects of affection...

- This takes me to one of the questions, I didn't quite exposed yet, the idea of portability. I used to work with small dimensional canvases. I felt that by using small areas, I would make them more close to me, I would be able to travel my objects. I found that aswell, by working with the Internet, the objects would travel miles and miles of connections, and get everywhere under safeguard... This is what I mean with affection.

Reading support

2005-12-05T13:21:00.000Z

After I engaged myself in this adventure of creating a videogame, I am chose to read practical books about JAVA. Which I believe to be the best tool to create the gaming environment and a tool I know little about. I do understand its potential, and I believe I should learn it, instead of using my previous knowledge of other gaming platforms. It is a big challenge at this time, but I strongly want it to be my learning outcome for this year's project. It will provide me with several tools for me in the future. JAVA is everywhere, mobiles, web and because of its dynamic features. It shall be in my work, at this point. Give me a few months...

The three emperors of China

2005-12-05T10:28:00.000Z

Last friday, I bumped into Cherry in this magnificient exhibition "The three emperors of China". I appreciated very much, and I think the visitors felt really a part of this piece of chinese history.

I always very influenced by chinese painting (for family reasons!!). In this exhibition, aside from the beautiful scrolls and the boddhisatvas paintings and sculptures, I was particularly interested in the bats (fu) these flying animals were considered to bring good fortune as the word for bats (fu) is the same for blessing. There were other elements I found excellent for my icons, like the magical mushrooms, for eternal life.

I will definitely look upon more meanings to the bats and surely include them in my aesthetics. This icon brought to my attention, gained a different meaning to my thinking process.

I decided to include here a small dictionary of my iconographic icons:

BATS > small flying, bloodsucking rodents, symbolizing a new found happiness for me, for their magical powers.

CIRCLE OF DRAGON > search for stability, finding strenght in all things.

DRAGON > strenght and perseverance, strong of will.

FISH > element of a path, runs in water, element of life.

PHOENIX > rebirth and re-tellying of the stories.

TRIBAL > conscience, awareness.

Axel's lecture about Program and Art

2005-11-30T23:15:00.000Z

Axel's lecture today was particularly interesting to me, because it focused on the genesis of "digital" works and the "analogue" conditions.
We talked about where the line lies between digital and analogue. During his lecture, I was thinking about the decisions we undergo whenever we create something.
My relationship with software it is just like a kid in toy store. I like to experiment with code, it is true, I get very frustrated when I get to that point where I really want to do something the way I imagine it in my mind (analogue?) and simply, can't reproduce it with the software. My missing links...
As for my relationship with drawing and painting, is more serious. I see myself in a different mood when I have the extension (pen or brush) than when I work with the codes or ready made tools in the software.
What I know about my creative process is that it comes from the same thing (...) I just like making constant shiftings.
Why I feel more serious and literally more introspect with my drawings because there is no code there, there's no preview movie or anything like that. It is my immediate extension... I feel serious because anything can happen and I can't delete it, there's a beautiful margin for error... I feel less protected.
Behind softwares, I have possibilities, I have certainties and I know my limitations, and when I push my limitations, like when I learn how to move them aside, it is great. If I can control the code or the code correspondes to my expectation, I feel reassured about it...

That is where my art is now, in my emotions about what I use as a drive for my work, for what I would like my work to become.

2005-11-29T14:19:00.000Z

Indeed what to do?
If the shadow grows any bigger, there might not be more room for anything else.

ASTRONAUTS - going places, floating around or: astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut or taikonaut (taikongren, 太空人) is a person who travels into space, or who makes a career of doing so (Wikipedia).

The Black Issues

2005-11-27T19:24:00.000Z

http://low.home.sapo.pt/black/black2.html
http://low.home.sapo.pt/black/black3.html
http://low.home.sapo.pt/black/black4.html

Black Women History

2005-11-27T10:23:00.000Z

This week , I have been discussing women with a couple of friends, I mean, womenly behaviours, sensations and feelings, concerns. After dozens of talks about weight, hair, clothes, men/women, family, age, over-weight, over-aged, career, health, too short, too tall, etc. I came across something greater than my own concern about my womanly condition: Black women history. What can I say or even describe about the history about black-african women? It required more than I expected, more than google itself.

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/blacklib/

This was taken from a text written by Maxine Williams, I read: "In the early part of the sixties, social scientists became more and more interested in the family structure of blacks. Unemployment and so called crime among Blacks was increasing and some of these "scientists" decided that the problems of the Black community were caused by the family pattern among Black people.
Since Blacks were deviating from the "norm" more female heads of households, higher unemployment, more school "dropouts" these pseudoscientists claimed that the way to solve these problems was to build up a more stable Black family in accord with the American patriarchal pattern.
In 1965, the U.S. government published a booklet entitled "The Negro Family The Case for National Action." The author (U.S. Dept. of Labor) stated, "In essence, the Negro community has been forced into a matriarcal structure which, because it is so out of line with the rest of American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole."
According to this theory, the institution of slavery led to a breakdown in the Black family and the development of a socalled matriarchy, in which the Black woman was "dominant." This "matriarchal" structure was held responsible, in turn, for contributing to the "emasculation" of the Black man. In other words, as these people would have it, the oppression of black people was partly caused by the chief victims of this oppression, black women!
This myth of the Black Matriarchy has had wide spread influence, and is even widely believed in the Black community today. It is something we have to fight against and expose. To show just how wrong this theory is, let's look at the real condition and history of the socalled dominant Black woman."
After reading this part, I felt how could this become a theory at all! This clearly, makes a massive expose blaming balck woman for the slow development of the black community! Where is the position of black women nowadays?

Names

2005-11-21T13:47:00.000Z

I was inspired by my friend, Victor, and I tried to google things up, about own names. By accident, the name that my friends call me is "Lu". This is what I have so far...

Origin of Lu*, Loh*, Low*

Famous People in History

The 42nd most common last name in China. They are the descendents of ancient king Yan Di. During Xi Zhou Dynasty, the grandson of Yan Di, Lu Shang was made duke of Qi, known as Qi Tai Gong. After a few generations, Qi Wen Gong’s wife gave birth to Gong Zi Gao. Gong Zi Gao had a grandson named Xi, who was made duke of Lu, because of his contribution in reestablishing kingdom for Qi Heng Gong. His descendents all have the last name Lu. After the Tian family took over the Qi kingdom, the Lus migrated north. During the Qin Dynasty, there was a wise man Lu Ao who lived in Shi (Hebei). At the end of Qin Dynasty, Lu Ao’s descendent Lu Guan assisted Han Dynasty in rebelling against Qin Dynasty, and was awarded the duke of Yan in the vicinity of Shi. During the Three Kingdoms, Shi was under the control of the Wei kingdom, known as Fan Yang. Thus Lu people of Shi are also called Fan Yang Lu. Lu, Xie, Cui and Wang were known as the "four great last names" during the Nanbei Dynasty.
Hometown: Shi in Hebei Province.

Curious about this place

2005-11-20T11:54:00.000Z

"I brought my guinea pig with me, my toys, my television and my bed."

I found this idea very intriguing, this photo was posted in a wall, on top of this big red door, in the Margate coast. I was walking and found this picture out of context, or was it fully contextualized, I don't know.
It reminded me of 'uncanny' - as in, Buñuel's movies, where during the narratives, strange thingas happen, apparently out of context from the storyline, yet, complementing the narrative with their strangeness.

Landscaper

2005-11-20T11:50:00.000Z

Blogcanvas

2005-11-15T11:20:00.000Z

Really Simple Syndication

2005-11-15T11:06:00.000Z

My latest interest goes to... RSS!

From CSS to easy managing every single page with RSS.

http://www.w3schools.com/rss/rss_history.asp
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication
RSS allows you to syndicate your site content
RSS is a selected list of defined items on a site
RSS defines an easy way to share and view headlines and content
RSS files can be automatically updated
RSS allows personalized views for different sites
RSS is written in XML
Why Use RSS?
RSS was designed to show selected data.
Without RSS, users will have to check your site daily to check for new updates. This may be too time-consuming for many users. With an RSS feed (RSS is often called a News Feed or RSS Feed) they can check your site faster using an RSS aggregator (a site or program that gathers and sorts out several RSS feeds).
Since RSS data is small and fast-loading, it can easily be used with services like cell phones or PDA's.
Web-rings with similar information can easily share data on their sites to make them better and more useful.
Who Should Use RSS?
Webmasters who seldom update their sites do not need RSS.
RSS can be useful for Web sites that are updated frequently, like:
News sites - Lists news with title, date and descriptions
Site changes - Lists changed pages or new pages
Companies - Lists news and new products
Calendars - Lists upcoming events and important days
The Future of RSS
RSS is going to be everywhere.
Thousands of sites use RSS and more people understand its usefulness every day.
By using RSS, information on the Web becomes easier to find and web developers can spread their information more easily to special interest groups.
Hopefully, future RSS versions will include additional fields that will make it even easier to categorize and share.

The science in Art

2005-11-15T10:50:00.000Z

“When the weather was beautiful I thought it was a waste of time to sit in front of the computer” Interview with Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist with a background in science. For the last 15 years, he has been evolving a series of wind-powered animals, made of plastic tubes. When these constructions are fed by wind, they set into motion and transmute into organic-looking creatures; or beach-animals as Jansen calls them. Theo Jansen received the Jury's Special Price in the Interactive Art category at Ars Electronica Festival 2005. Sebastian Campion met him for a talk.

Click in the link to read the full interview http://www.artificial.dk/articles/theojansen.htm

No more not again

2005-11-14T19:03:00.000Z

'No more, not again' is in my mind as I dwell around confusion and (in)decision.
Time is running out, in all aspects, and I am capturing several signals out of this.
I transited from one overall concept to a more narrow field of research, the systematization of hypertext, or metacultural objects (metadata, massive information).

I was recently at the Brighton' King George IV Pavilion and I was wondering about the indian and chinese influence, and the value of that cultural panorama in that specific community. Apparently none (it doesn't seem to be a particular representation of the city, but just a remembrance), still it is the town's major symbol, a stravaganza of styles, hyper-styles and how things evolved from the decorating to the state of mind. The pavilion was more about exuberant luxury, a display for a fervorous prince and his ecclectic parties. Although depicting scenes of a Chinese day to day life, the pavilion was all about modern 18th century royal festivities.

Anyway, my idea is now to create a safe environment where "objects" can live and have no cultural position, is it possible? Are we capable of depriving ourselves from our past and future, our time and just things grow as they are? I don't want to rationalize, I don't need to be effective, I don't want to dialogue, but I want to create and get away with it.

HOLOGRAPHER

2005-10-21T13:55:00.000+01:00

Here's a treat to all you Holograph fans out there!

Just like computer graphics, holograms are being applied as tools to solve individual research, engineering, and presentation problems within several domains. Up till today, however, these tools are applied separately. The overall goal of this project is to combine both technologies to create a powerful tool for science, industry and education.We investigate the possibility of integrating computer-generated graphics into holograms. Our goal is to combine the advantages of conventional holograms (i.e., extremely high visual quality and realism, support of all depth queues and of multiple observers at no computational cost, space efficiency, etc.) with the advantages of today's computer-graphics capabilities (i.e., interactivity, real-time rendering, simulation and animation, stereoscopic and autostereoscopic presentation, etc.).Several engineering and computer science topics will be addressed throughout the project: The potentials of different hologram types with respect to the project's goal have to be investigated. New three-dimensional displays that combine computer graphics and holography will be engineered. New real-time rendering algorithms, registration methods, and human-computer interaction techniques that are adequate for the proposed metaphor will be developed. The outcome will be a three-dimensional display concept whose application is envisioned in areas such as scientific visualization (e.g., paleontology, pathology, density, medicine, biomedicine, orthopedics or archeology), industrial simulation (e.g., design, manufacturing and quality assurance), and education (e.g., medical training or public museums).

www.holographer.de

2005-10-10T13:08:00.000+01:00

BREAKTHROUGH – between Connectivity and Interactivity

For the last 5 years I have been trying to work over different concepts of proximity. My mother would say “it’s because you have trouble staying quiet”!
Anyway, I have been working in different Medias[1], because I felt it was the best way to turn this “stability” issue around and make it work for me. Therefore, even if I had to travel around, I could carry my work around, if I had any luck I could show it to a bunch of people.

This concept still works for me, although I know now that I can also work in the same place for a longer period. I have to live in the area…

The web industry brought me new tools which I could make them work for me and my different anxieties, and because it is such an immediate media, I began exploring its possibilities.

In the past week, I’ve been meeting a lot of interesting people, artists, business people, industry people, and all these different input/outputs from “new media life”. I will come back later to this subject, how people influence your way of creating and enrich your experience throughout their different perspectives.

In a similar way, this approach I am going to describe was a result of converging conversation. First, the idea of connectivity, which I integrate in my works, whether they are websites or paintings, with which I permanently struggle to make them bring some proximity with the public. Many of these works are only done when they actually go into the public eye/hand/ear/mind. When does any one decide to walk towards something and grab it or move it or just put some headphones sit down/stand up and listen…? Intricate in this concept is the idea of CHOICE. How do people connect to one item and what impels them to interact with it?

[1] In 1999, I was working with miniature watercolours. In the end of 99, I started printmaking, engravery, using different illustration techniques, with William Blake as my source of inspiration. Worked on a concept about “3d canvas” and “objects of affection”, which were basically built-in canvas with 3d structures, painted over, where you could hold close and resulted in a series of pictures taken with close friends. Then, in 2001, began my animation series, where I started playing with the idea of Iconography, and started creating icons which could refer to my cultural origins.

> CONNECTIVITY – Choice

Implies your background, your ease to connect to an object, or not. It implies a chemic in your neurons, here’s a small definition I found for this behaviour:

“(…) they interact with other such elements through their afferent and efferent connections in an orchestrated manner so as to enable different sensorimotor and cognitive tasks to be performed”

In this scientific display, I understand that our choices are purely a combination of circumstance, judging of value, cultural-political-religious-genre oriented decisions, at all times. What we know and what we aim to discover, allows us innumerous possibilities of behaviours and compositions.

My interest tries to retain this basic idea of connecting or disconnecting onto objects.

> INTERACTIVITY – Random

Whether one perceives the idea of interaction as being a way to click and link, or just to use your senses towards an event, interactivity is a Random force. It depends on different qualities that lie within us. How do we, rationally, deal with randomness?

The co-relation between cause and effect implies that for every cause, some effect has to be produced. Effectively, it’s not at all random, because all actions are related to the environment in which it is surrounded, therefore, this idea of randomness takes place only in the event of we can’t control all aspects that we can’t foresee. We, the artist, can develop an idea, but in the minute our idea, our object, is under a public eye, it starts to disintegrate from its previous matter and becomes something else. We can expect it, but not foresee it. This is where our Random concept lies. It is everything that goes beyond our own idea and development, beyond the body we have created for our idea and travels through different channels, like time zones, language zones, sight zones and becomes something new. Our receptacle or receptacles give their own “production” site over their reception.

The artist, the idea, the instrument and the visitor

In this model, duelling between connectivity and interactivity, there are patterns that make it possible to manifest.
The artist is the conceptualist, the idea is the concept translated, the instrument becomes the face of the concept and the visitor a receptacle and a producer, as well.

The romantic idea that a painting is never finished, the old dilemma of “when is it over”, and various torments linked to the romantic painter, maybe the answer lies around, somewhere, in a digital arts environment. Not to ease this torment, but whether to break the line that does not correspond a work of art to the eye of the beholder. There is a gap containing all sorts of missing information, information which we could gather and make it work as massive report of human behaviour in this century. Note that massive should consider the importance of the masses, a collective of life experts who could interpret ideas of this new millennium. How art is going to overgrow importance to future generation? Will it become more mechanic, in a sense of how new tools promulgate new environments? Or are we to expect more in-depth views, as modern painting and sculpture grow as great devices of creativity, only available in museum displays? Are we ready to catch up within new media world?

For me, it is all a question of how our ideas are manifested towards people’s concerns. The connectivity and interactivity are answers to my own concerns of time, displacement, and objects. To develop mechanisms that can approach to a better response to this is where my idea resides. The end to my work resides on how people are going to respond to it. Again, the channel subverts ideas giving perspective to my initial model. It is no longer a basic artist > artwork > gallery > audience, it is flexible and enriches the experience of site-specific works. Hopefully, web art[2] can translate this as a role model to new perspectives of understanding art as a model of communication.

[2] Web art was born in the middle of the ‘90s and perpetuated a series of dangling objects coming of from “normal” websites. Mail art has a major influence in this because it meant “transportation” and “carriage”, as for in the web art, nowadays, it is far more than just change through carriage. http://www.mowa.org/work/instlltns/instlltnfr6.html

Source code in http://lowpew.no.sapo.pt

2005-09-28T11:08:00.000+01:00

Some code fun to share...

I added this code in a "onClipEvent" behaviour to my movie clip:

onClipEvent (load) {
j = 1;
}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
this._x = j;
j = j * 1.2;
}

Another video from the tag team Gunnal and Eyl

2005-09-28T10:50:00.000+01:00

http://www.fredericeyl.de/aperture/index.php?main=3&sub=12&video=0

This concept of moving image and body and the idea of perception of movement, leaves us considerations towards our own behaviour as being watched and traced. I find much relevance in this work, as for the mechanic sound of the shutters and the fluid body moves.

Take some time

2005-09-21T15:53:00.000+01:00

"TimerTV" is a piece under-construction, it involves different outputs combined to this particular web-piece, like sound, digital stills, trying to be films (!), poetry (word forms) and TIME, both physical and psychological. I try to have a lot of interactivities, like the music, the manipulating of the images screened (with the keyboard arrows) and the systems' time display. During the day, this piece displays different objects, so it is never the same content as the day goes by. Presently it slightly changes the words/poetry.
here's the link

http://timertv.home.sapo.pt

Cheers

Carla Cabanas

2005-09-20T16:22:00.000+01:00

http://carlacabanas.no.sapo.pt

Check it out!

lowpew stuff

2005-09-20T16:18:00.000+01:00

http://lowpew.no.sapo.pt

para quem deixou de ver alguns trabalhos da exposição ESAD'04.

low home

2005-09-20T16:13:00.000+01:00

some music piece in http://low.home.sapo.pt
old work, simple animation, different audio streaming...

2005-09-20T16:07:00.000+01:00

http://timertv.home.sapo.pt

Project "4 the time being" - during the day it is possible different poems, it changes according to your time zone, what you read it is actually different from what a person in Singapore is reading... You can also control the images you are watching, as much it as possible, anyway, try the arrow keys.

Picturesque

2005-09-20T14:34:00.000+01:00

2005-09-19T17:12:00.000+01:00

www.raku-gaki.com

cheers

2005-09-19T17:08:00.000+01:00

Check ou www.1h05.com/diad . Good imagery and sound.

TRAVEL exhibition

2005-09-19T16:58:00.000+01:00

A preview from a collective exhibition that is being held in Lisbon, Portugal, called TRAVEL. Check out my work there, it is called "Blogcanvas", and it is a 6 m painting converted to a visual blog. I tried to enable interactivity with the visitors, try to understand if they feel distant or less distant within the concept of "allowing people to touch a work of art".

Cheers,

Luisa

Good links

2005-09-19T16:57:00.000+01:00

Hi, turn on this page www.nogome.com and check out great links to new media works.
If you need anything translated, ask me for more information.

Cheers

Brad vs Rob

2005-08-01T16:33:00.000+01:00

A "babe" ao lado do Rob Zombie, jura de pés juntos que o Rob é a cara chapada do Brad Pitt sem a barba, ou será o contrário?

2005-07-21T18:13:00.000+01:00

Dear Diana is sleeping ... shh... do not wake the baby!