AlexOtiv.com

Ralf Ziervogel

2006-04-11T11:31:00.000Z

From 3quarksdaily.

More beautiful ink drawings, this time from German artist Ralf Ziervogel.

Stereoscopy

2006-04-10T13:56:00.000Z

Camera Constructs Workshop 4th-7th April, UEL.

Designing in stereoscopic space. With Richard Difford & Penelope Haralambidou.

Results to follow!

The Third Policeman

2006-04-10T12:14:00.000Z

A novel by Flann O'Brien.

Such a unique writing style. Beautiful use of language. Twist at the end - making for an interesting second read. Fantastic book.

Inka Essenhigh

2006-03-28T13:22:00.000Z

I stumbled across her work in the Artkrush newsletter in the run-up the opening of her MOMA exhibition.
Immediately beautiful images, to me suggesting a barely suspended animation, time and space distending and ballooning under the grip of focus.

Baudrillard

2006-03-28T12:53:00.000Z

Jean Baudrillard - The Intelligence of Evil

Having gained an interest in Baudrillard's thinking from quotes in various sources, this was my first full-length work.

I wasn't expecting it to be easy, and it was hard going in parts, but there was plenty of meaty stuff to chew on.

Sections on contemporary art and his well publicised thoughts on the media and the role of the event were perhaps the most personally intriguing.

2006-03-15T15:25:00.000Z

Foam Of The Daze - Boris Vian

A pretty unique and evocative writing style. Builds an atmosphere of saccharine unease which dissolves in a quite disturbing descent. Beautiful and frightening in an unexpected way.

Interested in the way the illness leaked into everything, pervading the space of the appartment which reconfigured itself into a manifestation of the physical and mental malaise.

Fractal Analysis

2006-03-06T13:50:00.000Z

Nature article on the use of fractal geometry to analyse Jackson Pollock's paintings, and it's implications in identifying fakes.

2006-03-05T18:06:00.000Z

Anamorphosis

2006-02-27T13:50:00.000Z

Anamorphism

The dome and vault of the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo, represented the pinnacle of illusion. Due to complaints of blocked light by neighboring monks, Pozzo was commissioned to paint the inside of a dome instead of constructing one. However, because it was flat, there was only one spot where the illusion was perfect and the dome looked real.

Sea Squirt

2006-02-24T13:40:00.000Z

"...the sea squirt, a truly bizarre animal. It begins life as a tiny tadpole. It swims with a tail made of a stiff rod called a notochord, along which runs a hollow nerve cord. It also has slits in its throat for swallowing food. These traits are not found in echinoderms or other invertebrates, suggesting a close link to vertebrates. Remarkably, most of its vertebrate-like traits disappear when it gets to be an adult. It lands on the sea floor on its head, rotates its organs ninety degrees, and eats its own nervous system. It then sits on the sea floor, filtering food and making new tadpoles."

From The Loom.

Housing solution for crabs

2006-02-21T13:30:00.000Z

Elizabeth Demaray is using rapid prototyping lasers to create plastic monocoque shells for land hermit crabs.

The forms are apparently based on the architecture of Guiseppe Terragni.

The shells aim to remedy the shortage, but also to improve on the existing natural solution. Thoughts on advanced prosthetics, accelerated evolution and the use of technology in environmental issues.

A Scanner Darkly

2006-02-20T13:47:00.000Z

I've been meaning to read some Philip K. Dick for a long time, and given the impending release of the Hollywood blockbuster Keanu Reeves vehicle, I thought it'd be a good place to start.

Definately a product of the early seventies era in which it was written, but still holding plenty of relevant issues. Should be an interesting film - concepts of brain/identity separation and drug-induced paranoia will hopefully be handled in an experimental way - the trailer shows extensive use of a vectorising filter to create a graphic-novel appearance that looks pretty unique.

Straw Dogs

2006-02-20T13:32:00.000Z

Catching up on my record of books read;

Straw Dogs by John Gray

Didn't necessarily provoke the profound reality-shift that I was half expecting, but some very interesting points.

Conjured images of a post-collapse society of tribal hunter-gatherer cities, amongst vast expanses of agriculture-free wilderness.

What it certainly did do was add substantially to my 'to-read' list - Chuang Tzu, Schopenhauer & Lovelock to name a few.

The Virtual Wilderness

2006-02-02T13:37:00.000Z

From a post at the Huge Entity;

'New technologies are creating a new wilderness, a realm that
humans can wander in without ever understanding. The emergence of a virtual
wilderness does not compensate for the loss of the earthly one that humans are
destroying; but it is like it in being unknowable by them. The new wilderness is
a pathway leading beyond the borders of the human world.' - John Gray, Straw Dogs

''As the simulacra of our world manifest themselves anew in the interweaving 'wilderness' of the internet we are beginning to cast off our attempts to objectify reality and embrace new forms of our own creation. ...In this transcendent realm, an undiscovered New World far surpassing that breached by the global explorers of 500 years hence, all manner of possibilities will fold themselves from the infinity; evolving perspectives seething out of the digital ether. In cyberspace science, religion, spirituality will lose their meaning as a multitude of godlike entities manifest themselves from our imaginations.''

Having read quite a bit recently on the age of wonder fuelled by the exploration of the New World, I am intrigued by the notion that the internet may form a new unknowable realm of discovery.
The article also touches on the power of story-narrative in giving meaning to the human condition, and suggests for the emergence of a new global narrative that, by combining the old stories, could unify all people. Optimistic?

See also: Full article from New Scientist on fundamentalist psychology.

Schopenhauer

2006-02-01T14:02:00.000Z

Currently reading 'Straw Dogs'. The chapter on Arthur Schopenhauer has certainly aroused my interest in his thinking.

Gray raises connections to asian philosophy and the Gaia theory which clearly support the central theme of the book. Something else to add to my list of stuff to read.

Maybe Logic Academy

2006-02-01T13:49:00.000Z

Stumbled across the MLA via a 'pataphysical site whilst searching blogs for Roussel.
I have ended up looking at The Illuminatus!: Trilogy on Amazon before, without being tempted enough to purchase.

The academy and it's courses sound very interesting, without knowing much about it. The whole thing has slightly worrying conotations of some sort of mystical cult, but maybe that appeals in a 'pataphysical/alchemical way.

Blog Search

2006-02-01T13:47:00.000Z

www.blogger.com search facility - reaches the places that Google doesn't.

Locus Solus

2006-02-01T09:48:00.000Z

Locus Solus - Raymond Roussel

Description of Martial Canterel's collection of curiosities;

"An African mud-sculpture representing a naked child; a road-mender's tool which, when activated by the weather, creates a mosaic of human teeth; a vast aquarium in which human's can breathe and in which a depilated cat is seen stimulating the partially decomposed head of Danton to fresh flights of oratory."
I was particularly interested in the intricate descriptions of the mechanical apparatus and its connections with automata and horology. The 'demoiselle' (weather controlled tooth mosiac paver) is a fascinating device that I am currently sketching.

Cloud Seeding

2006-01-28T23:24:00.000Z

From Pruned.

See also Lenticular Clouds.

Very interesting form of climate manipulation. If the forecasts on global warming are correct and we continue down the path of high carbon emissions in exchange for high rate technological advance, climate control techniques may be best hope.

Might we see banks of cloud farms floating around in the upper atmosphere, regulating the weather down below? What would a cloud farm look like? Would it be manned? What other forms of climate crop could be cultivated?

2006-01-24T15:55:00.000Z

Great little book about the MJT (Museum of Jurassic Technology) in LA.

Deals with the roles and origins of museums and the wider concept of wonder.

Great sense of ambiguity regarding what is real. I could research further but I wouldn't want to spoil it.

Makes me wonder if there really was more wonder going around in pre-industrial times. Or are we just less receptive these days? The frontiers of science still seem to generate as many wonderous discoveries, but maybe they're no longer so tangible or accessible to the majorities?

Thomas Pynchon - V

2006-01-24T14:51:00.000Z

Just a quick catch-up on books i've read/bought in 06.

Epic, labrynthine book. I feel as if i've only caught the veneer in terms of layers of meaning, but very enjoyable nonetheless. One of those books you could read several times consecutively and see new interpretations each time.

Particularly interested in the motif of the clockwork glass eye and the various references to clockwork and automata. Themes of inanimate and animate objects.

Links;

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/index.html - web index

Seed vault

2006-01-24T13:44:00.000Z

Norway is in the process of collecting around 2 million seed samples from all the worlds crops. These will be housed in a concrete vault buried within a permafrost covered mountain. The vault will be designed to withstand a range of apocalyptic scenarios - nuclear war, climate change, meteor strike, super-volcano eruption etc.

How will the seeds be categorised and stored in the vault? How will post-apocalypse society locate and access the seed-bank? Could the seeds be self-propagating? How about a Noah's Ark vault containing animal genes and automated cloning machinery? In space? I'm sure it's already on the web somewhere.

Deli.cio.us

2006-01-23T11:43:00.000Z

Web-based links/favourites database.

Finally got around to registering and just beginning to comprehend the potential power of this site. Very useful, especially with firefox integration.

Ice Shacks

2006-01-19T16:35:00.000Z

Utilitarian, surreal, beautiful.

Great photographs.

From Polar Inertia online journal.

Huxley, Hesse...

2006-01-19T13:43:00.000Z

"Huxley, Hesse andThe Cybernetic Society"

Hesse's 'Glass Bead Game' and it's prophetic relevance to our computer society.

Essay from downlode.org

Historical Anatomies on the Web

2006-01-19T13:37:00.000Z

Another link found at the Huge Entity.

Fascinating collection of high quality images from Medical atlases.

Link

Mirrors & Reflection

2006-01-19T13:24:00.000Z

Article from the ever-engrossing Huge Entity;

"The retina of each of our eyes picks up an upside down, 2-dimensional reflection
of the physical world around us which, when recombined by the brain, forms a
superb 3-dimensional representation of our surroundings as mapped onto our
visual cortex. Through the surface of the mirror and beyond into dimensions that
do not exist the human perception can mould another 3-dimensional construct of
reality inside the mirror. It appears that our brains' evolved 3d systems work
equally well to project reality to the realm of the reflected image. The mirror
is nature's way of showing us that reality is a mental construct."

Full entry

Founding Post

2006-01-17T19:02:00.000Z

The intention for this blog is to function as an organised site history to form some evidence of my many hours spent voyaging the web.

I will also update with films i've seen, books i'm reading, or any other interesting bits that I feel are worth documenting.