The Diagram as Technique of Existence: reading group 1
Reading Group 1. Sunday, 7th August, 2011, 3-5pm. Text: Brian Massumi, ‘The Diagram as Technique of Existence’, Chapter 3, Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts, MIT Press (forthcoming, 2011) Place: Brunswick studio. We met on Sunday afternoon for a lovely session of discussion around Brian’s ‘Diagram as Technique of Existence’. We had me [Pia E-B], Jondi Keane, Michelle Mantsio, Andrew →
Vitality Machines workshop
In April 2011, we conducted a major research workshop/symposium over 3 days with a group of 20 practitioners. We explored historical and spatially oriented examples of innovative systems in art and architecture, with the aim of developing a notion of the 'vitality machine' as a way to re-theorise innovation practices in the creative disciplines. A separate blog was created for this →
E-chromi
Check out the video, by Daisy Ginsberg, James King and others, about the E-Chromi project, where e-coli, bacteria found in poo, is re-designed or re-engineered to turn different colours under different conditions. This points to synthetic biology as a new territory of design activity.... E. chromi from Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg on Vimeo.E. chromi is a collaboration between designers and scientists in →
Hairiness, Spatial Affects, and Intricate Intimacy
Browsing the news at MOS we can find some indication of what happens when you make hairy architecture: And, on that note, I urge you to read a review of the hairy installation by MOS architects, in which it is claimed this is "the first time hair has been convincingly employed in architecture. Not merely a simple novelty, the hairiness →
lab things
This post is a collection of 'things' that play a role in the laboratory work. I will add to this. photos by Pete Waters.
Ghost in your Genes
In between microscopic viewing of cell lines being incubated we are watching bits of this movie - on why DNA is far from the whole story of identity. DNA is not destiny.
DIY sterile hood.
Sterile hoods aim to keep the microbes out of the air, or in other words, to make sterile air conditions. Sterile spaces. This enables specimens to be worked with/prepared in controlled conditions. These contraptions usually look something like this: This is Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at a sterile hood. We will be working with these expensive, stainless steel bits of →
Becoming an Amateur Biologist
Published in 2002, but containing instructions for doing simple experiments/projects at home. Looks great.
EcoLogicStudio
On the eve of the SymbioticA workshop commencing, I imagine that many of the participants are wading through the reading material in preparation. I haven't got through it all, and I am already full of questions. More on that later. Having posted out invites on facebook, and in emails to various people who I thought might be interested in engaging →
Oron Catts seminar at RMIT Bundoora
The School of Applied Science at RMIT is hosting a seminar by Oron Catts this Thursday. I have only ever attended his presentations to an audience of artists and the like. This will be an almost all science crowd. This is the poster/info:
Abstract Intimacy
The New Worlds magazine discussed in the previous post, was something I "stumbled upon". I got there because I did a search for 'Harrison 2002 Light' and found this useful review of M J Harrison's 2002 sci-fi novel Light. This contains a link to something about New Worlds , which doesn't go anywhere, but obviously I persisted and found info. Now, →
What New Worlds look like
Across Plastic Futures, we have often discussed what the future looks like (or, more precisely, how it is imagined and depicted). In Plastic Futures 1, for instance, we noticed that images of the future (often sci-fi) quite often involve grandiose scenes of enormity in which people become minute figures. So, in Plastic Futures 2 with the next group of participants, →
Architectures of the Near Future
Nic Clear's lecture, "Architectures of the Near Future: A Tribute to JG Ballard", at the Bartlett, Wed 21 October: http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/lectures/lectures Nic Clear Architectures of the Near Future: A Tribute to JG Ballard JG Ballard was one of the most original and distinctive authors of the last part of the C20th and beginning of the C21st; his writing encompassed topics as diverse as ecological crisis, →
Framed
Look out for the Jan/Feb edition of Frame magazine – http://www.framemag.com/ – for an appearance of the Plastic Futures exhibition.
Plastic Futures 2 Review
I think I might have nearly recovered from the Plastic Futures exhibition (marked by the creeping, insane desire to do another one). This week, the Plastic Futures 2 group are meeting up for a final session, after a long break. Time for the next layer of reflection. Pics of the exhibition, for those who missed it, are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piaedniebrown/sets/72157621732953109/ Plus, I just stumbled upon →
the news on Barbie
The gossip on Barbie. And she's coming to town in an exhibition at Federation Square, June 26 to July 12. As it coincides with the Salvador Dali exhibition down the road, I'd say this is a very Vermilion Sands moment in Melbourne.
what kind of potential catastrophe is this?
What does this mean? What threat does this water pose? One might get wet? Or does the water come alive, form massive mouths in its waves and like monsters, chew you up? (wild west: where the wild things are?) Is it about to rise out of control? North Cottesloe beach is, for those who don't know Western Australia, one of the →
Scale + Laughter and Self + Ballard
As we explore the immensity of the world through photographing tiny 1:87 scale people, the short story 'Scale' by Will Self, is a useful and entertaining read. I haven't managed to confirm this anywhere, but its seems unlikely that this story isn't highly influenced by (an adaptation even) of J. G. Ballards novel Concrete Island. At the bottom of this →
Creating Synthetic Life
Ted Talks: Craig Venter on DNA and the Sea (2007) and On the Verge of Creating Synthetic Life (2008) I think we might have to put this one on the to-be-watched list for Plastic Futures 2. An outline on Venter from the TED site: In 2005, Venter founded Synthetic Genomics, a private company with a provocative mission: to engineer new life →
Science fiction and crochet
I'm not going to go on about the connection I am making here, I am just going to say that there is a neat little affinity between what Dr Daina Taimina discusses re her crochet, if you follow this story at IFF (Institute for Figuring) and what Warren Ellis cleverly summarises about what Sci-Fi does in the quote below (taken →
The Future: It’s not for everyone (2049 release)
*under construction:* The Future: It's not for everyone (2049 release) Got a talent for cancer? Have a high plasticity rating? Keen to develop your bio-becomings with all the labware you'll ever need? If so, consider testing out for a life in The Future. The Future is an exciting new bio-secure community estate currently being constructed on the most isolated, protected, stable →
brain-computer interfaces become cheap, ubiquitous consumer items…
Technologically assisted mind control is soon to reach a store near you. Check it out: http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/53629/mind-over-matter?page=0%2C0 Here's a taster: You slip the wireless headset on. It looks like something a telemarketer would wear, except the earpieces are actually sensors, and what looks like a microphone is a brain-wave detector. You place its tip against your forehead, above your left eyebrow. A few →
butoh-flow
Wishing now that I had made all of the PALS do the butoh workshop, if moments like these grew from those seeds: Facebook Yun Bettergood is flowing in between bodies in stealth Yun Bettergood is feeling her way through the mist twitter (Peter) is still sensing the walls and meowing like a cat... butoh....