The topic of sudden madness seem to be coming up a lot around me these days. An odd coincidence I must say, like a plot setting for some twisted Stephen King novel. Of course, any individual circumstance happening in such light is rather unlikely. Instead, perhaps there is some underlying zeitgeist toward such artificial constructs (containing or centering around the concept of sudden madness/relapse of conventions)?
The facet of madness is drawn on two largely contradicting view point. The first one draws the concept and manifestation of madness in a fearful, but somewhat neutral light. Madness is not an illness of a person per se, but a phase, a type of eschewed viewpoint that may or may not be permanent that nonetheless open the door to a new possibility of the world to the individual/group exposed to the madness. The second one still views the facet of madness in a fearful and primordially feared light, while the intrusive and dangerous aspect of the madness is emphasised. In the first case the madness is treated as a frame of mind, a power that may be controlled or in some way utilized for the benefit of the individual despite its mysterious and unpredictable origin. In the second case the madness is considered as an unexpected and nigh unstoppable catastrophe close to the ancient (and still current in many regions of the world) notion of natural force like storm or related famine.
The most distinct common point shared between the two cases point toward the view of the madness as the unknown and unpredictable in its origin, manifestation, and purpose, its outcomes sometimes destructive and sometimes beneficial according to some whim of the fabric of the world we can only dimly understand.
It is also interesting to note that the concept and practice of sudden madness is used as a bridge between the world of the perceived mundane and the world reflected in an individual's mind, not necessarily dangerous in any way, perhaps even magical and friendly under certain circumstances. Also it must be noted that the sudden cases of madness are always accompanied with some form of intense alienation from the individual's normal environment, real or perceived.
All in all, I consider this to be an interesting presence in the mass media today, worthy of deeper studies.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
ghost in the shell
This series is quite amazing. I just love their idea of the all-encompassing net that goes beyond simple technical protocols and physical networks, woven into the very foundation of the human condition in terms of society and its zeitgeist, enhanced and perpetuated by the physical network.
The series and its later sequel has such deep sense of retrospection and insight that I almost hope to see such a thing in writing as well as the anime series, although I am well aware of the distinct tableau of the series come from its visual as well as aural components, each intermingled in a masterful way.
The series and its later sequel has such deep sense of retrospection and insight that I almost hope to see such a thing in writing as well as the anime series, although I am well aware of the distinct tableau of the series come from its visual as well as aural components, each intermingled in a masterful way.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Been a while
Things had been a little hectic for me lately. I couldn't even get enough time to write a few lines on this page.
I find myself favoring my main laptop when typing things up and doing some mobile browsing. It's really a matter of screen size and capability. While the eeepc has a decent keyboard and usable screen size, it doesn't really give off the feeling of being the most usable laptop on the planet, and the design doesn't really help much either. The design of the white model actually makes the screen look smaller, maybe because of the color contrast with the black screen edge and white body. And the capability. I'm not talking about processor speed though. I'm talking about the hard drive space. the 4G space is really anemic, and there aren't a whole lot of things I can do except work when I'm on that machine. This computer however, has a 7200 RPM hard drive, so I'm able to look up quite a few ebooks (on larger screen) and read e-comics (on larger screen) while listening to a movie or a music (hard drive). But when I'm going outside, will I lug around this $2000~ laptop? Not in my life. My outside companion will always be, without question, the eeepc. It's much, much lighter than even this 12in semi-ultraportable, and does practically anything I would ever hope for while on the rode. As for music and such, I have my trusty 80G ipod, so there's no big loss, not to mention I wouldn't be able to do much listening or watching while I'm at work.
Enough about the gadget talk. I've recently visited the Jasper Johns exhibit at the metropolitan museum of art. Interesting stuff. His research on form that is revealed when the chromatic interferences (colors) had been stripped away is very interesting to me. Basically, some of his focus seem to be what composes the heart of form, somewhat in abstract expressionist fashion. Without color, certain type of 'things' come together and almost spontaneously begins to resemble something, as a form, signifying things both real and ideal. Yet the relation of such theory of thought and perception to memory and life is somewhat shaky.... All in all, very deep, and I can't possibly grasp all of its significance at this moment in time.
I find myself favoring my main laptop when typing things up and doing some mobile browsing. It's really a matter of screen size and capability. While the eeepc has a decent keyboard and usable screen size, it doesn't really give off the feeling of being the most usable laptop on the planet, and the design doesn't really help much either. The design of the white model actually makes the screen look smaller, maybe because of the color contrast with the black screen edge and white body. And the capability. I'm not talking about processor speed though. I'm talking about the hard drive space. the 4G space is really anemic, and there aren't a whole lot of things I can do except work when I'm on that machine. This computer however, has a 7200 RPM hard drive, so I'm able to look up quite a few ebooks (on larger screen) and read e-comics (on larger screen) while listening to a movie or a music (hard drive). But when I'm going outside, will I lug around this $2000~ laptop? Not in my life. My outside companion will always be, without question, the eeepc. It's much, much lighter than even this 12in semi-ultraportable, and does practically anything I would ever hope for while on the rode. As for music and such, I have my trusty 80G ipod, so there's no big loss, not to mention I wouldn't be able to do much listening or watching while I'm at work.
Enough about the gadget talk. I've recently visited the Jasper Johns exhibit at the metropolitan museum of art. Interesting stuff. His research on form that is revealed when the chromatic interferences (colors) had been stripped away is very interesting to me. Basically, some of his focus seem to be what composes the heart of form, somewhat in abstract expressionist fashion. Without color, certain type of 'things' come together and almost spontaneously begins to resemble something, as a form, signifying things both real and ideal. Yet the relation of such theory of thought and perception to memory and life is somewhat shaky.... All in all, very deep, and I can't possibly grasp all of its significance at this moment in time.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Regret
I had one hell of a late night munches last night, and ate a lot of stuff, at around 3 AM. Ugh. I can actually feel myself bloating up.
Such a worrisome trend. I really need to get in shape if I want to keep up with my work.
Such a worrisome trend. I really need to get in shape if I want to keep up with my work.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Rain storm
It is raining here in New York. I love rainstorms. They bring with the droplets of cold water unbearable feeling of nostalgia, the fresh scent of the trees outside despoliating the tableau of my memories, ridding it of the world weary verdigris covering the surfaces of what had once been. The Platonic geometric figurs of the rain drops falling in perfect vertical line to puddles of water, its ringing wave vibrating the strings of my mind, to stir the memories I've put away for so long, the talks and the acts and all the shadows between the thought and the action.
The melancholy tones of the gis is echoing in my ears. It had been more than a decade since I've first heard it, but it still remains there, and there is nothing that can clear that sound out of my mind. It had become a part of what I am. Of what kind of conscious construct this something writing here is. This something that dares to call itself myself.
I miss the abundant winds and the crashing of the sea of trees outside my window. I would sit upon the vast wooden floor of the living room with no decorations or furnishings, lie down and look outside the window into the gray sky. Occasional wind would shake an end of a tree to the periphery of my vision, and I would lie there perfectly still, enveloped in the deep aroma of the trees and the forests surrounding my home. No lights, no talking, only myself on the vast wooden floor. But it was something more than that. There was something behind the scene. Just as the mind cannot be retrieved from the liquids and proteins forming it, there was something within that snapshot of the world that could not be quite captured by simply listing what was there, where I was thinking of what.
The nature of what such a thing can be is quite lost on me. Such lack of understanding fills me with a fear that I might be losing my touch with humanity.
The melancholy tones of the gis is echoing in my ears. It had been more than a decade since I've first heard it, but it still remains there, and there is nothing that can clear that sound out of my mind. It had become a part of what I am. Of what kind of conscious construct this something writing here is. This something that dares to call itself myself.
I miss the abundant winds and the crashing of the sea of trees outside my window. I would sit upon the vast wooden floor of the living room with no decorations or furnishings, lie down and look outside the window into the gray sky. Occasional wind would shake an end of a tree to the periphery of my vision, and I would lie there perfectly still, enveloped in the deep aroma of the trees and the forests surrounding my home. No lights, no talking, only myself on the vast wooden floor. But it was something more than that. There was something behind the scene. Just as the mind cannot be retrieved from the liquids and proteins forming it, there was something within that snapshot of the world that could not be quite captured by simply listing what was there, where I was thinking of what.
The nature of what such a thing can be is quite lost on me. Such lack of understanding fills me with a fear that I might be losing my touch with humanity.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Writer's Block: It's Hard to Describe
It is hard to describe what it is hard to describe, and I'm not sure if there is even a word for it. But it is always within my mind, like some singular obsession, and lot of people seem to have it too, although most of them seem to gloss over it. It is that something which resonates between the world and whatever it is that I consider to be myself. It is expressed in art and pursued in science. People living away from it for extended period of time have a bad habit of being useless. It maybe related to erudition to certain extent, although whether it is a cause or a result of it, I cannot tell. When it momentarily shades upon the tableau of my vision, the vision in this sense the slice of the world I can experience at the moment using all kind of senses, I perceive it as a sort of beauty. There is no denying that it is beautiful, but just what shade of beauty it is I cannot describe. I might feel calm, but one thing is for certain. Even a fleeting glimpse of it will drive me toward the brittering edge of obsession, though where the osession goes I still have no idea.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Obsession
It seems that object of obsession is merely a projection of the obsessed' psyche upon one focus. Does that mean that the individual quality of the object of obsession doesn't really matter? Then what does it really mean to be obsessed with something?
Writing things
These days i do most of my mobile computing on the Asus eeepc. My main computer, the 12in xps sits at home and I don't quite use it except when I need to run some demanding application (which is growing less and less since I can now ssh into the semi-supercomputers at work) or view a movie on a bigger screen with more abundant memory.
So I'm keeping a keen eye on how the cheap and portable computing market is developing. Asus really hit the spot when they first realized that so many people were in the market for cheap laptops that doesn't weight as much as a similar sized stone slab (I'm being sarcastic here), so I think we can expect to see such class of products more often from now on, not necessarily from Asus, of course. There already a similarly sized competitor on the horizon, running on gOS, with hard drive based storage that is around 4 times the highest capacity Asus model. The preliminary reports on the model suggests some room for improvement in both the speed and design of the unit (both soft and hardware wise), but it's really to be expected. I mean, we are not talking about Apple folks.
That brings me to the next train of thought, I get this grim feeling that Apple won't be taking any share of the ultra-cheap ultra-portable market anytime soon. Not only Apple, but also other computer manufacturers with significant international market presence. Over the years they've been digging their own graves designing and manufacturing large, cheap laptops with no apparent reason for the consumer to get it except that it's relatively cheap and labeled as a laptop (though, like I said before some of them are too big to fit into a decent student backpack). The kind average user like you and I just get to browse the net and type things up, maybe run a light number or two etc, basically typewriters with graphics and internet connection capabilities. If any of those short sighted giant manufacturers begin saturating the market with cheap and portable laptop that can practically do anything other computers twice the size of it does, they would end up killing their own line-ups. Imagine, Apple making such a laptop. A 10 in. marvel of a design at a dirt cheap price of about four to five hundred dollars. It will kill Apple's current base macbook line faster than you can say pancake. If the gorgeous 13 in. laptop with already significant brand recognition can't withstand such market change, there is absolutely no way other consumer laptop models of Dell, H.P., Sony or Toshiba can last.
This is a sad sad state of affairs. Big manufacturers grown too complacent in their market mechanics unable to accommodate something that clearly represents a shift in public wants, instead opting out to reply on marketing strategies and 'business' computer designs.
So I'm keeping a keen eye on how the cheap and portable computing market is developing. Asus really hit the spot when they first realized that so many people were in the market for cheap laptops that doesn't weight as much as a similar sized stone slab (I'm being sarcastic here), so I think we can expect to see such class of products more often from now on, not necessarily from Asus, of course. There already a similarly sized competitor on the horizon, running on gOS, with hard drive based storage that is around 4 times the highest capacity Asus model. The preliminary reports on the model suggests some room for improvement in both the speed and design of the unit (both soft and hardware wise), but it's really to be expected. I mean, we are not talking about Apple folks.
That brings me to the next train of thought, I get this grim feeling that Apple won't be taking any share of the ultra-cheap ultra-portable market anytime soon. Not only Apple, but also other computer manufacturers with significant international market presence. Over the years they've been digging their own graves designing and manufacturing large, cheap laptops with no apparent reason for the consumer to get it except that it's relatively cheap and labeled as a laptop (though, like I said before some of them are too big to fit into a decent student backpack). The kind average user like you and I just get to browse the net and type things up, maybe run a light number or two etc, basically typewriters with graphics and internet connection capabilities. If any of those short sighted giant manufacturers begin saturating the market with cheap and portable laptop that can practically do anything other computers twice the size of it does, they would end up killing their own line-ups. Imagine, Apple making such a laptop. A 10 in. marvel of a design at a dirt cheap price of about four to five hundred dollars. It will kill Apple's current base macbook line faster than you can say pancake. If the gorgeous 13 in. laptop with already significant brand recognition can't withstand such market change, there is absolutely no way other consumer laptop models of Dell, H.P., Sony or Toshiba can last.
This is a sad sad state of affairs. Big manufacturers grown too complacent in their market mechanics unable to accommodate something that clearly represents a shift in public wants, instead opting out to reply on marketing strategies and 'business' computer designs.
Nostalgia, and wanted things
Nature of nostalgia suggests a few profound things about the true nature of human recognition and memories. For example, sometimes I feel an almost irresistible nostalgia to the days I can objectively say as one of the worst humanely possible conditions one can encounter. The horror, the anxiety, the sadness and the utter feeling of powerlessness. All is subdued within certain lights and certain strange winds, the quiet swaying of trees and the touch of cool twilight wind which turns the whole horrible experience into a perverted romance, making me long for the day even for a single moment. As such, the nature of memory and nostalgia is quite peculiar. I think except under very limited circumstances the nature of memory might as well have only a superficial resemblance to the conventional 'copy of reality' sense we get from the analogies comparing human brain and its functions to that of computers. In fact, first hand experience with a human brain (I have one in here, I assure you) makes me think what we consider to be specific and clear-cut functions of brain might not be as clear cut as usually believed, although I do not quite believe that the structure and function of the brain is entirely holistic as some proponents of the theory seem to suggest. It is more like one function complementing each other in a sort of linked reaction, one thing always verging on the territory of the other, physical and mental reaction accompanying the other (physical pain and memory?) for no sound physiological reason. In such perspective, it is not that memories and processing capabilities come together to build a conscious system, but the conscious system forms aspects of memory and processing ability as the original system gradually becomes specialized with time/evolution.
If certain quality of emotion and reaction can be expected regardless of actual physical situation being experienced, such as an aesthetic thrill or a dramatic flair in situations of distress or sadness, then what does that tell us about the nature of human exprience on the more profound and general level? Would that mean human perception and reaction is entirely separate from the physical circumstances we subject ourselves to? Wouldn't that mean that the sense of beauty exists separate from the 'beautiful thing' being observed at the moment, and that while certain quality for evoking a response may be present in objects, there is no staying power in such evoked responses since the response have nothing to do with the quality of the physical object, its 'being' in the first place? If that is the case, then it is impossible for things in this world to remain beautiful forever, in the eyes of everyone, of everything.
However, even if that is the truth, what can I make of it in connection to certain philosophies behind the beauty of photography and abstract expressionistic art, where certain moments or (rather hazy) units of human response in front of the object-world are sought out as sort of atoms of human experience and thought?
If certain quality of emotion and reaction can be expected regardless of actual physical situation being experienced, such as an aesthetic thrill or a dramatic flair in situations of distress or sadness, then what does that tell us about the nature of human exprience on the more profound and general level? Would that mean human perception and reaction is entirely separate from the physical circumstances we subject ourselves to? Wouldn't that mean that the sense of beauty exists separate from the 'beautiful thing' being observed at the moment, and that while certain quality for evoking a response may be present in objects, there is no staying power in such evoked responses since the response have nothing to do with the quality of the physical object, its 'being' in the first place? If that is the case, then it is impossible for things in this world to remain beautiful forever, in the eyes of everyone, of everything.
However, even if that is the truth, what can I make of it in connection to certain philosophies behind the beauty of photography and abstract expressionistic art, where certain moments or (rather hazy) units of human response in front of the object-world are sought out as sort of atoms of human experience and thought?
Another late night entry
I'm writing this on the firefox scribefire extention, using my eeepc.
I'm a little curious as to how the result will turn out. Will the formatting be acceptable? Will it support one of the more fancier functions of livejournal? I wonder.
Another whole day hard at work. I only got to have a single meal for the whole day, and it was the dinner. Maybe this would help me lose some weight, but I must admit that I might crack should this kind of lifestyle continue, especially considering the increasing load of my work as well as my decision to be physically present in the laboratories for my work instead of working out of my home.
Ah, the relief the writing gives me is immense. I can almost feel the day's stress and weariness lift off from my body. It's like playing music without sound, each of the tune coming out as words and phrases that can ring out in the reader's mind. Such a shame that I am not currently of the enough skill to conjure up such beautiful images and minds.
The night is calm. The bustle of the activity next door that continued late into the night had been over for almost an hour, and in this silence only the quiet tapping of my fingers on the keyboard is echoing against the walls. My eyes are getting heavier from the works of the sandman, and I fear that I must fall asleep soon, only to see the sunrise in an hour or two. I guess tomorrow will be tough again...
I'm a little curious as to how the result will turn out. Will the formatting be acceptable? Will it support one of the more fancier functions of livejournal? I wonder.
Another whole day hard at work. I only got to have a single meal for the whole day, and it was the dinner. Maybe this would help me lose some weight, but I must admit that I might crack should this kind of lifestyle continue, especially considering the increasing load of my work as well as my decision to be physically present in the laboratories for my work instead of working out of my home.
Ah, the relief the writing gives me is immense. I can almost feel the day's stress and weariness lift off from my body. It's like playing music without sound, each of the tune coming out as words and phrases that can ring out in the reader's mind. Such a shame that I am not currently of the enough skill to conjure up such beautiful images and minds.
The night is calm. The bustle of the activity next door that continued late into the night had been over for almost an hour, and in this silence only the quiet tapping of my fingers on the keyboard is echoing against the walls. My eyes are getting heavier from the works of the sandman, and I fear that I must fall asleep soon, only to see the sunrise in an hour or two. I guess tomorrow will be tough again...
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Late night madness
Right now it's 2 AM in the night, and I'm trying to do a full install of windows xp on my cousin's macbook. Due to some compatibility issues he has with some software he simply can't live without, he says he would want to perform the sacrilegious act of doing a full install of xp on macbook while wiping out the OS X partition. No bootcamp here, folks.
Although I am somewhat saddened and definitely shocked by this seemingly rash decision, I must say that I do not quite disapprove of what he is doing. I mean, the OS X does have some serious compatibility issues in this world of multilinguals and multiplatforms, most of which are clearly supported by the Microsoft's somewhat more brutish operating system.
Take for instance, the chatting program/protocol called nate-on, used perhaps by the entire population of south Korea and some Japanese or Chinese people. The program itself is ported to OS X, but it lacks some of the more useful functionality such as the ability to send text message to anyone and everyone on any cellphone network, or the flawless syncing with the ubiquitous cyworld system that everybody and their mother seem to use (literally) in the Eastern portion of the world. So while nate-on on windows is an interesting piece of community program, the nate-on on OS X is simply a watered down version of the jabber, which isn't really much in itself.
Some of the more famous web site formats aren't quite supported either, like the outdated but still quite widely used shockwave, which is used (again) to provide p2p music playing support for cyworld webpages (in the Eastern area at least. they seem to get everything), and some other quite famous web pages in Japan whose name I can't quite recall at the moment.
All this and I hear apple people wondering about their tiny market share in the far east. Geez.
Although I am somewhat saddened and definitely shocked by this seemingly rash decision, I must say that I do not quite disapprove of what he is doing. I mean, the OS X does have some serious compatibility issues in this world of multilinguals and multiplatforms, most of which are clearly supported by the Microsoft's somewhat more brutish operating system.
Take for instance, the chatting program/protocol called nate-on, used perhaps by the entire population of south Korea and some Japanese or Chinese people. The program itself is ported to OS X, but it lacks some of the more useful functionality such as the ability to send text message to anyone and everyone on any cellphone network, or the flawless syncing with the ubiquitous cyworld system that everybody and their mother seem to use (literally) in the Eastern portion of the world. So while nate-on on windows is an interesting piece of community program, the nate-on on OS X is simply a watered down version of the jabber, which isn't really much in itself.
Some of the more famous web site formats aren't quite supported either, like the outdated but still quite widely used shockwave, which is used (again) to provide p2p music playing support for cyworld webpages (in the Eastern area at least. they seem to get everything), and some other quite famous web pages in Japan whose name I can't quite recall at the moment.
All this and I hear apple people wondering about their tiny market share in the far east. Geez.
Surprising
I am surprised at how I didn't write at all today, especially considering that I had today off. Perhaps that explains this bit of unreasonable agitation I am feeling right now. Or perhaps it's the unpleasant company I must keep?
My living cycle had been more or less destroyed, I should begin sleeping early from now on... If only I didnt have so much things to do...
My living cycle had been more or less destroyed, I should begin sleeping early from now on... If only I didnt have so much things to do...
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wordpress
For the life of me I can't understand why my blog on wordpress gets far more hits and responses than my blog on the livejournal site, especially considering that livejournal is supposed to be the more 'community oriented' one.
My own writing habit might be able to provide the answer here, I think. I mostly use wordpress blog to write long dedicated essays and discussions on things that really interest me. Livejournal on the other hand, I use for one of those sporadic 'writing moments' where you feel like writing a random stuff about the day or some topis that suddenly popped into my head. The writings are usually very jumbled up and relatively without focus, although some kind of gem emerged here now and then which I transcribe to the wordpress blog again.
Which is to say, no one in their sane mind would spend their time reading through a freewrite of a total stranger, unless of course that person is really, realy bored. The community aspect of the livejournal actually hurts possible readership in this case, since whatever the little posts of substance I make in livejournal would inevitably be buried in a whole sea of community-related articles that comes online, what, every five minutes? Likely to be less. Oh well, c'est la vie. I guess I should go join up a specific community or something, maybe something related to transhumanism, to which I'm taking quite an interest in these days in parallel with my study in artificial life? Although I must say, I'm not sure if the transhumanism crowd is the kind of people I want to converse with. Many of them felt like they had the officious prickishness of (thanks Stephen King) of scientists without the specialized knowledge or years of experience... Which would actually make them the worst possible speciments of humanity one can encounter on the web, where the distinction between truth and falsehood is easily blurred. Maybe I'm better off joining the steampunk crowd or Lovecraftian horror lovers.
I recently heard, on the penny-arcade website, that the Professor Layton and the Curious Village had been released state side, and is so far taking much chunk of time away from Tycho, the writer for the penny-arcade webcomic (which is quite a work. If you are not familiar with them, I suggest taking a short look) . According to his impression (however short it was) this Professor Layton iteration was everything I would have dreamed it to be, and maybe more. I haven't bought a DS cart in months. Maybe it's time I put the system to a good use other then Phoenix Wright, NYT crosswords, and Brain training...
The combination of the unique game play of puzzle and the rustic yet delicate aesthetics looks really fantastic. And that little tune of music I heard in the English trailer for the game really caught my ears, and I can't really seem to forget its enchanting effect. A curious little town with a secret (that everyone's a puzzle maniac?) and a professor and his sidekick with a flair for trouble and mystery. Only the ones with heart of ice, the icy block from the deepest layers of cocytus would be able to resist the allure of such magnificent creation!
My own writing habit might be able to provide the answer here, I think. I mostly use wordpress blog to write long dedicated essays and discussions on things that really interest me. Livejournal on the other hand, I use for one of those sporadic 'writing moments' where you feel like writing a random stuff about the day or some topis that suddenly popped into my head. The writings are usually very jumbled up and relatively without focus, although some kind of gem emerged here now and then which I transcribe to the wordpress blog again.
Which is to say, no one in their sane mind would spend their time reading through a freewrite of a total stranger, unless of course that person is really, realy bored. The community aspect of the livejournal actually hurts possible readership in this case, since whatever the little posts of substance I make in livejournal would inevitably be buried in a whole sea of community-related articles that comes online, what, every five minutes? Likely to be less. Oh well, c'est la vie. I guess I should go join up a specific community or something, maybe something related to transhumanism, to which I'm taking quite an interest in these days in parallel with my study in artificial life? Although I must say, I'm not sure if the transhumanism crowd is the kind of people I want to converse with. Many of them felt like they had the officious prickishness of (thanks Stephen King) of scientists without the specialized knowledge or years of experience... Which would actually make them the worst possible speciments of humanity one can encounter on the web, where the distinction between truth and falsehood is easily blurred. Maybe I'm better off joining the steampunk crowd or Lovecraftian horror lovers.
I recently heard, on the penny-arcade website, that the Professor Layton and the Curious Village had been released state side, and is so far taking much chunk of time away from Tycho, the writer for the penny-arcade webcomic (which is quite a work. If you are not familiar with them, I suggest taking a short look) . According to his impression (however short it was) this Professor Layton iteration was everything I would have dreamed it to be, and maybe more. I haven't bought a DS cart in months. Maybe it's time I put the system to a good use other then Phoenix Wright, NYT crosswords, and Brain training...
The combination of the unique game play of puzzle and the rustic yet delicate aesthetics looks really fantastic. And that little tune of music I heard in the English trailer for the game really caught my ears, and I can't really seem to forget its enchanting effect. A curious little town with a secret (that everyone's a puzzle maniac?) and a professor and his sidekick with a flair for trouble and mystery. Only the ones with heart of ice, the icy block from the deepest layers of cocytus would be able to resist the allure of such magnificent creation!
Digital art
I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall asleep again, so I'm writing here. (again)
I happened to pass by a little debate in a corner of the internet regarding the validity of the digital art as one of the 'true' or 'fine' art. Now, I personally consider the digital art medium to be just as fine and true as any other art form, and I mostly see current difficulty of many digital artists as lack of a true vision on the part of the artists and unfamiliarity with the medium on the traditional art front.
The answer I have drawn myself for economic nature of the digital media would be simple. The rules and such that applies mostly to photography right now would apply to the digital arts just the same. And I believe no one now is crazy enough to argue about photography not being 'real art.' When magazines and such hires professional photographers (which is I believe how most of them make a living), they are not really paying for a little piece of negative that can be copied over and over and over again. They are paying for the unique perspective and characteristic talent the photographer him/herself had achieved with the medium of photography. In a sense, the industry is not buying 'photography', they are buying the essence of art contained in a medium, which in this case happens to be a photography. I believe the similar pursuit is natural, and indeed necessary, for digital art scene to make an impact on the traditional arts community. The only way to transcend the limits imposed by the infinite malleability of the medium (no matter how ironic it may be) is to drag the essence of the art away from its physical medium, to be freed from all the dpis, pixels and screen resolutions. In effect, the only way for digital art to truly walk into the realm of the common notion of 'valuable art', would be to trade the artist rather than the art object. The digitally created art object is in fact an extension of the artist him/herself, and we are buying little pieces of the artist, with his/her sharp eyes, lucid thinking and agile hands, rather than the jumble of bits and data that was created as a result of his/her effort. I see a street light outside my window. If asked to draw something outside, I will most certainly draw a street light. But will some highly talented digital artist see things differently? Will he/she draw something more when asked to draw the same scene outside the window? While we all share the same world to live in, we don't necessarily see the same thing within that world, and that's where the salvation of the digital arts lies.
The art is trying to drop from the canvas and smudge the world. The fetishes and sculptures are frozen in middle of movement, and will walk and speak when the waiting is over. And beyond all that shenanigan is art, that had been applied to many things yet not quite touched in any fundamental way for the duration of the human history. We've been trading art objects. We are trading artists now. Maybe in the future the art objects will tap us on the shoulder and ask what that was all about.
I happened to pass by a little debate in a corner of the internet regarding the validity of the digital art as one of the 'true' or 'fine' art. Now, I personally consider the digital art medium to be just as fine and true as any other art form, and I mostly see current difficulty of many digital artists as lack of a true vision on the part of the artists and unfamiliarity with the medium on the traditional art front.
The answer I have drawn myself for economic nature of the digital media would be simple. The rules and such that applies mostly to photography right now would apply to the digital arts just the same. And I believe no one now is crazy enough to argue about photography not being 'real art.' When magazines and such hires professional photographers (which is I believe how most of them make a living), they are not really paying for a little piece of negative that can be copied over and over and over again. They are paying for the unique perspective and characteristic talent the photographer him/herself had achieved with the medium of photography. In a sense, the industry is not buying 'photography', they are buying the essence of art contained in a medium, which in this case happens to be a photography. I believe the similar pursuit is natural, and indeed necessary, for digital art scene to make an impact on the traditional arts community. The only way to transcend the limits imposed by the infinite malleability of the medium (no matter how ironic it may be) is to drag the essence of the art away from its physical medium, to be freed from all the dpis, pixels and screen resolutions. In effect, the only way for digital art to truly walk into the realm of the common notion of 'valuable art', would be to trade the artist rather than the art object. The digitally created art object is in fact an extension of the artist him/herself, and we are buying little pieces of the artist, with his/her sharp eyes, lucid thinking and agile hands, rather than the jumble of bits and data that was created as a result of his/her effort. I see a street light outside my window. If asked to draw something outside, I will most certainly draw a street light. But will some highly talented digital artist see things differently? Will he/she draw something more when asked to draw the same scene outside the window? While we all share the same world to live in, we don't necessarily see the same thing within that world, and that's where the salvation of the digital arts lies.
The art is trying to drop from the canvas and smudge the world. The fetishes and sculptures are frozen in middle of movement, and will walk and speak when the waiting is over. And beyond all that shenanigan is art, that had been applied to many things yet not quite touched in any fundamental way for the duration of the human history. We've been trading art objects. We are trading artists now. Maybe in the future the art objects will tap us on the shoulder and ask what that was all about.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Night again
The night has come again, beyond the curtain of delightful snow. I wonder how the weather would be like tomorrow.
I saw a lot of charming people today. Just what kind of quality is there that can endow first encounter with such pleasure? Human senses are a strange thing.
I saw a lot of charming people today. Just what kind of quality is there that can endow first encounter with such pleasure? Human senses are a strange thing.
Monday, February 11, 2008
The day is gone
The day is coming to something of a close already. Well, at least for me since I have the mondays off from school/work. Though I would have enjoyed this little peace of mind, I can't do so right now due to some nasty company I have to keep in my house today. Oh well.
I've been using the LochJournal program to access my livejournal entry for two days now. Frankly, I don't see what the big advantage this program has over standard web browser interface. Of course, I am able to save my work offline using this, but then I can do so with a thousand other word processing applications. It's only a matter of copying and pasting the content. The lauded advantage of using a dedicated client for livejournal is dubious when I also consider that this particular program doesn't seem to support spell checking. Though I must stress that I am not at all familiar with how this kind of prgram is supposed to work, so I should give it more time and explore its functionalities.
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Whenever I am writing the limited milieu of my vocaulary begins to annoy me. I feel as if I am only scratching the verdigris off the maginificent sculpture that is my thought (in my head) and present those metallic scrumbs as the entirety of my thought. Whenever I try to lead people into the labyrinth that is my mind (in which even I get frequently lost) toward some grand ordinance at the center (or a giant minotaur), I only feel as if I'm walking around the appurtenances surrounding the grand design of my mind. It's like a newly wed couple giving a grand tour of a new home to their friends, only to end up giving them a tour of closets and shoe boxes and hush everyone home. Many people recommend learning more words, but the fact is whenever I try to memorize or otherwise learn more words it happens that I know most or all of them already! The problem is really a problem of being able to conjure up the words at appropriate moment, rather than physical learning of it, I think. How would I be able to learn to think of appropriate words rich in substance when called for? Maybe this is a clue to the fundamental nature of learning, that knowledge and ability to link those knowledge might be separated on a very basic level.
I've been using the LochJournal program to access my livejournal entry for two days now. Frankly, I don't see what the big advantage this program has over standard web browser interface. Of course, I am able to save my work offline using this, but then I can do so with a thousand other word processing applications. It's only a matter of copying and pasting the content. The lauded advantage of using a dedicated client for livejournal is dubious when I also consider that this particular program doesn't seem to support spell checking. Though I must stress that I am not at all familiar with how this kind of prgram is supposed to work, so I should give it more time and explore its functionalities.
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Whenever I am writing the limited milieu of my vocaulary begins to annoy me. I feel as if I am only scratching the verdigris off the maginificent sculpture that is my thought (in my head) and present those metallic scrumbs as the entirety of my thought. Whenever I try to lead people into the labyrinth that is my mind (in which even I get frequently lost) toward some grand ordinance at the center (or a giant minotaur), I only feel as if I'm walking around the appurtenances surrounding the grand design of my mind. It's like a newly wed couple giving a grand tour of a new home to their friends, only to end up giving them a tour of closets and shoe boxes and hush everyone home. Many people recommend learning more words, but the fact is whenever I try to memorize or otherwise learn more words it happens that I know most or all of them already! The problem is really a problem of being able to conjure up the words at appropriate moment, rather than physical learning of it, I think. How would I be able to learn to think of appropriate words rich in substance when called for? Maybe this is a clue to the fundamental nature of learning, that knowledge and ability to link those knowledge might be separated on a very basic level.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Videodrome, ipod, and etc.
I just can't fall asleep tonight, so I thought I might as well write something.
Does anyone remember the movie videodrome? If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do. It's an old movie but it still rides on the bleeding edge of the prophetic. The phrase 'Death to the videodrome, long live the new flesh!' will ring in your mind for a long time after you finish watching it. I believe I can still see the phrase being repeated in many places throughout the net and other media.
The prophetic vision of the betamax era movie had come and pass, but the poignant insight into the fundamental relationship between a mass-media society and humanity still rings true today, and it might still tell us many things when we view the lessons in the context of the abundance of mobile mass-storage media player such as the ipod.
Unlike some people out there, I do not view the popularity of the ipod as the popularity of the apple. The way I see it, ipod is the modern vellum that are capable of storing pages after pages of 'moving information' and 'audible information' in form of music and movies. The popularity of the ipod is in fact the popularity of a notion of being able to create a localized collection of information/media that connects us to not the physical network of electricity, but the emergent network of the cultural zeitgeist wherever we go. Even in the times of actual vellum information, the truth of the matter being written about was never the focus of the author/creator's mind. There are numerous examples of medieval vellum codex beginning as something as innocuous as a collection of prayer texts or certain dispositions on the bible, or even a collection of herbal remedies, that grdually turns into a wild text concerning the supernatural, the arts, the philosophies and etc., anything and everything within the zeitgeist of the era capable of reflecting the thought of the author/creator of the codex. The fact is, a long collection of any media, text or music or herbal remedy, requires heavy choosing on the side of the creator. No matter how hard the author tries to keep things in objective light, the 'objective' facts being written on the pages are chosen among millions and millions of 'objective truths' out there in the sea of information (and yes. I do believe that some form of the sea of information existed at all stages of human history, far before the advent of electronic networks). The ending result must inevitably reflect the state of the author as well as the signs of the times, gradually turning the most mundane collection into something profound and fantastic (the codex gigas probably had a very humble beginning, but it's now surrounded by legends of demonic deals of the monk who wrote it. Who's to say that something like that can't be true of some of our ipods a century later?), a little graffitti drawn at the corner of the world that turns the whole scene around (I just love the graffitti analogy. Maybe I'll do a full post on this later).
The success of the ipod is, in fact, the success of such mindset. The success of web logging and podcasts are not in that they act as easy gateway to reach out to others (although it is a fundamental and integral part of the medium), but in that they might build up within the cultural zeitgeist (think penny-arcade. Those guys would never have drawn/written so much and so well within isolation, but it would be shallow to think that they began drawing and writing simply to show it to others) and have a connection with the sea of information at a very instinctive, almost Jungian way. As it was metaphorically suggested in the movie videodrome, this movement of human civilization goes beyond the physical brute-force way of 'uploading' a mind onto other medium (as is frquently depicted in pulp fictions). It is about the something within the basic fabric of human psyche that can only be fulfilled through meaningful activity that allows one to connect with a sense of humanity at a collective level, the something that dreads meaningless activities and drives people to despair or unreasonable act in defense of something one might consider meaningful. The collection of movies and songs within ipod gradually grows to encompass the footprint of the collector's mind, and the pod itself, through sound and vision, recreates a strange world for the collector to immerse him/herself in at any moment, anywhere.
Where do we go on from here? If the appeal of the 'ipod concept' was about being able to immerse oneself in a world through a 'cascading' medium, what would be the natural progression?
Does anyone remember the movie videodrome? If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do. It's an old movie but it still rides on the bleeding edge of the prophetic. The phrase 'Death to the videodrome, long live the new flesh!' will ring in your mind for a long time after you finish watching it. I believe I can still see the phrase being repeated in many places throughout the net and other media.
The prophetic vision of the betamax era movie had come and pass, but the poignant insight into the fundamental relationship between a mass-media society and humanity still rings true today, and it might still tell us many things when we view the lessons in the context of the abundance of mobile mass-storage media player such as the ipod.
Unlike some people out there, I do not view the popularity of the ipod as the popularity of the apple. The way I see it, ipod is the modern vellum that are capable of storing pages after pages of 'moving information' and 'audible information' in form of music and movies. The popularity of the ipod is in fact the popularity of a notion of being able to create a localized collection of information/media that connects us to not the physical network of electricity, but the emergent network of the cultural zeitgeist wherever we go. Even in the times of actual vellum information, the truth of the matter being written about was never the focus of the author/creator's mind. There are numerous examples of medieval vellum codex beginning as something as innocuous as a collection of prayer texts or certain dispositions on the bible, or even a collection of herbal remedies, that grdually turns into a wild text concerning the supernatural, the arts, the philosophies and etc., anything and everything within the zeitgeist of the era capable of reflecting the thought of the author/creator of the codex. The fact is, a long collection of any media, text or music or herbal remedy, requires heavy choosing on the side of the creator. No matter how hard the author tries to keep things in objective light, the 'objective' facts being written on the pages are chosen among millions and millions of 'objective truths' out there in the sea of information (and yes. I do believe that some form of the sea of information existed at all stages of human history, far before the advent of electronic networks). The ending result must inevitably reflect the state of the author as well as the signs of the times, gradually turning the most mundane collection into something profound and fantastic (the codex gigas probably had a very humble beginning, but it's now surrounded by legends of demonic deals of the monk who wrote it. Who's to say that something like that can't be true of some of our ipods a century later?), a little graffitti drawn at the corner of the world that turns the whole scene around (I just love the graffitti analogy. Maybe I'll do a full post on this later).
The success of the ipod is, in fact, the success of such mindset. The success of web logging and podcasts are not in that they act as easy gateway to reach out to others (although it is a fundamental and integral part of the medium), but in that they might build up within the cultural zeitgeist (think penny-arcade. Those guys would never have drawn/written so much and so well within isolation, but it would be shallow to think that they began drawing and writing simply to show it to others) and have a connection with the sea of information at a very instinctive, almost Jungian way. As it was metaphorically suggested in the movie videodrome, this movement of human civilization goes beyond the physical brute-force way of 'uploading' a mind onto other medium (as is frquently depicted in pulp fictions). It is about the something within the basic fabric of human psyche that can only be fulfilled through meaningful activity that allows one to connect with a sense of humanity at a collective level, the something that dreads meaningless activities and drives people to despair or unreasonable act in defense of something one might consider meaningful. The collection of movies and songs within ipod gradually grows to encompass the footprint of the collector's mind, and the pod itself, through sound and vision, recreates a strange world for the collector to immerse him/herself in at any moment, anywhere.
Where do we go on from here? If the appeal of the 'ipod concept' was about being able to immerse oneself in a world through a 'cascading' medium, what would be the natural progression?
Day of rest
The whole day went by while I was resting. The bit of snow in the faternoon was a nice surprise. The vision of white flakes flying in the twilight has such a beautiful charm that makes me long for the cold outside, as if the footprint of the faint light is drawn on my very heart, beating as one with the scenery.
How the world can be so beautiful is always a subject of curiosity for me.
How the world can be so beautiful is always a subject of curiosity for me.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hollow men, by T.S. Eliot
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Am I about a hundreth person to quote T.S. Eliot on livejournal?
Still, what can I do? His proses are simply too beautiful to resist!
Livejournal benefits
The real benefits of livejournal, at least for me, is that this service provides a space for me to stretch my creative legs, so to speak. I do have a bit more formal web log site on wordpress, which I don't update often due to the fear of besmirching my creative edge (though I must say it's been besmirched quite enough already). The community-based feature of livejournal, while attractive, isn't something I took time to partake in yet. I feel as if it's the kind of feature that people who already know each other in real life would enjoy, rather than someone like me whose close acquaintances don't use livejournal service (they all seem to use facebook, but I have personal reservations against using that service). Maybe I'll find a club or two that fits my bill, though I haven't been ale to find anything significantly interesting so far.
Writing random things on the net without fear of continuity or any specific repercussion, a sort of personal journal on the net with possibilities of interacting with those who share similar interests, is in the end the best benefit of using this service, and something I believe many of the other more community oriented microblogging services seem to lack.
Writing random things on the net without fear of continuity or any specific repercussion, a sort of personal journal on the net with possibilities of interacting with those who share similar interests, is in the end the best benefit of using this service, and something I believe many of the other more community oriented microblogging services seem to lack.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
matter of music
When I'm listening to a music, am I listening to a physical ripple in the airwave or am I listening to the musician him/herself? Is the music something separate from the musician or an extension of him/herself? What about music generated by a program in some predefined rules of harmony? Is the product of art an extension of the artist or something that stands upon its own, a a separate being?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Shopping around
I'm looking into buying a student edition of mathematica 6.0
While I had no problem getting by with ruby/python scripting and a bit of maxima so far, as I study deeper into things I'm beginning to feel a need for a more sophisticated mathematical tool, with full publishing and graphics output support. Of course, there are quite a few open source and GNU applications that do all those things to a certain extent, but it is also true that they don't seem to be able to stand upto a truly commercial software like the mathematica in fullness and integration of all the features into one concise package.
One thing that irks me about mathematica is simply, that it isn't open, and runs contrary to some of my beliefs regarding what a scientific computing platform should be. All those half-cooked 'libertarians' running around talking as if the commercial flow represents the virtue of humanity doesn't really help my appetite for a commercial software either.
Being a student though, I guess I should be more kin to my realistic needs as a student. It is undeniable truth that I'll be needing some powerful modeling platform soon. Choices choices....
While I had no problem getting by with ruby/python scripting and a bit of maxima so far, as I study deeper into things I'm beginning to feel a need for a more sophisticated mathematical tool, with full publishing and graphics output support. Of course, there are quite a few open source and GNU applications that do all those things to a certain extent, but it is also true that they don't seem to be able to stand upto a truly commercial software like the mathematica in fullness and integration of all the features into one concise package.
One thing that irks me about mathematica is simply, that it isn't open, and runs contrary to some of my beliefs regarding what a scientific computing platform should be. All those half-cooked 'libertarians' running around talking as if the commercial flow represents the virtue of humanity doesn't really help my appetite for a commercial software either.
Being a student though, I guess I should be more kin to my realistic needs as a student. It is undeniable truth that I'll be needing some powerful modeling platform soon. Choices choices....
Monday, February 4, 2008
Night
I woke up in middle of the night. The world reminds me of the statue by Rodin, how calm and silent it is.
Maybe I'll catch a little midnight movie before I go to the lab in the morning.
Maybe I'll catch a little midnight movie before I go to the lab in the morning.
Pleasantly cloudy
The morning's come again. Is it the time again? Woe to the ones who must wonder what to do for the day every morning!
I have a few paths opened before me, and I should choose one. I wonder which one will end for the best by the end of the day?
The tune of music is doing well to calm my edge down somewhat.
I have a few paths opened before me, and I should choose one. I wonder which one will end for the best by the end of the day?
The tune of music is doing well to calm my edge down somewhat.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Hmm
It's about time to exercise, but I feel so lazy right now. But I shouldn't skip exercise right? The fact that I stayed indoors all day doesn't really help me either.
It's also about time to write a practice flash fiction piece. I also need to update my blog on wordpress. The murmurings from the guy talking on the floor beneath me is starting to get on my nerves. This is a restless night I have in front of me, like a thousand winds whispering into my ear at once, filling my mind with doubts and suspicions.
It's also about time to write a practice flash fiction piece. I also need to update my blog on wordpress. The murmurings from the guy talking on the floor beneath me is starting to get on my nerves. This is a restless night I have in front of me, like a thousand winds whispering into my ear at once, filling my mind with doubts and suspicions.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Violin
I'm beginning my first violin lesson in a few hours. I'm very excited, and at the same time somewhat scared, since I have never had any decent instruction in the field of music and instruments beyond some superficial instruction thrown at me like a charity during my time in nyc public school system (although the marvelous high school time I got to spend mended the bitterness a bit).
I hope I can hold fast against embarrassment and difficulties inherent in learning a new instrument. I hope I can make this till the end, into a type of life-long hobby that will stay with me for a long time to come.
I hope I can hold fast against embarrassment and difficulties inherent in learning a new instrument. I hope I can make this till the end, into a type of life-long hobby that will stay with me for a long time to come.
Writer's Block: My Own Creation
Friday, February 1, 2008
An idea
I had a fun idea just now. How about a fiction about bunch of schizophrenics allowed to chat on the internet? Sounds simple enough but I think it has quite a few possibilities... Maybe I'll write bits of flash fiction on that setting.
Now that I think about it, I have much flash writing to do. So many ideas about whole worlds, so little time to write out any of them to the fullest. In such a case, I think flash fiction can be a potent tool. The real problem is how to capture the depth of the world in a simple and relatively short prose. Like a photography of writings, a single snapshot of situations to lead into a profound end.
Why isn't there a tutorial on this stuff?
Now that I think about it, I have much flash writing to do. So many ideas about whole worlds, so little time to write out any of them to the fullest. In such a case, I think flash fiction can be a potent tool. The real problem is how to capture the depth of the world in a simple and relatively short prose. Like a photography of writings, a single snapshot of situations to lead into a profound end.
Why isn't there a tutorial on this stuff?
Windy
It's rather windy outside. The trees are shaking while drenched with rain. Although it's cold, the fresh turn of weather feels almost inviting. I guess I should stop by one time and feel the change in the air. Is the winter almost over? Considering that there hadn't been a worthwhile snow in the New York City for the whole winter, the thought saddens me somewhat.
And yet, the droplets rolling down my windows feel very familiar, very friendly.
And yet, the droplets rolling down my windows feel very familiar, very friendly.
Pen, paper and rain
The rain is drenching the window by my side, cleaning out the sights of the world in coat of hydrogen. Until a moment ago my pen was scratching against a paper bound to my notes, scribbling images and messages with delicious sound and sensation. Even in this day of blogging and typing, I still can't seem to get over the joy of trying out various writing utensils on varying qualities of paper, feeling something almost similar to an artistic accomplishment to see my terrible handwriting intermingled with images and little nothing drawings about various things, like Si gale-gales of the Toba Batak people in Sumatra, and signs of metamorphosis in people and things.
My mind is free to wander from the tips of Mr. Jonathan Strange's hat to the practices of artificial life to the active galactic nucleus to hushed summer dreams of Chagall, each though leaving a footprint of black ink intertwined into various shapes that might be a language or an image or perhaps both. All from the tip of a pen and its contact with a piece of paper.
To me, the digital medium is not quite as free as I'd like it to be.
My mind is free to wander from the tips of Mr. Jonathan Strange's hat to the practices of artificial life to the active galactic nucleus to hushed summer dreams of Chagall, each though leaving a footprint of black ink intertwined into various shapes that might be a language or an image or perhaps both. All from the tip of a pen and its contact with a piece of paper.
To me, the digital medium is not quite as free as I'd like it to be.
Another day spent at the Met
I spent almost half the day browsing through the fine collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One surprising change in museum policy new visitors should be aware of is that back packs are no longer allowed within museum galleries (since the whole museum is one giant gallery, this means no back pack allowed within the museum for all practical purposes). This caught me completely by surprise and I asked quite a few security guards regarding the specifics of the policy. Some of them were almost as surprised as I was, stating that backpacks were allowed as long as it wasn't excessively large and in danger of toppling displays, while some others were wholly aggressive in telling backpacking visitors to hold their bags in their hands. Of course, all of them were very polite and cordial about the whole affair, and I dare say some of them actually showed genuine concern at forcing some people to carry their (obviously heavy) backpacks in their hands.
I was somewhat confused for a while regarding the precise policy with bags within the museum though, and the fifty people I've seen walking around with backpacks didn't really help clarify the matter. I talked with one particular security guard at length about the issue, and he told me that some person with a backpack scratched a Rembrandt, a priceless artifact for the human civilization if I say so myself (although I can't validate the truth of what he said, I do feel that there were certain grim accidents within the museum in recent days). So I must tell anyone thinking of visiting the Met to try not to bring a backpack into the place, or else check it in at the coat check-in, where they will be happy to hold onto your heavy coat and bag for you, free of charge. If a security guard asks you to hold your bag instead of wearing it, please don't feel insulted, as you are not being singled out. The works in the Met aren't pretty display pieces that can be restored or replaced when misfortune befalls them. They are singular heritage gathered over the course of human history, and we all should take a part in conserving them for future generations. In front of such an importance, mere discomfort at not being able to bring certain types of bag into the museum should not be a reason to threaten the priceless works of art.
I was somewhat confused for a while regarding the precise policy with bags within the museum though, and the fifty people I've seen walking around with backpacks didn't really help clarify the matter. I talked with one particular security guard at length about the issue, and he told me that some person with a backpack scratched a Rembrandt, a priceless artifact for the human civilization if I say so myself (although I can't validate the truth of what he said, I do feel that there were certain grim accidents within the museum in recent days). So I must tell anyone thinking of visiting the Met to try not to bring a backpack into the place, or else check it in at the coat check-in, where they will be happy to hold onto your heavy coat and bag for you, free of charge. If a security guard asks you to hold your bag instead of wearing it, please don't feel insulted, as you are not being singled out. The works in the Met aren't pretty display pieces that can be restored or replaced when misfortune befalls them. They are singular heritage gathered over the course of human history, and we all should take a part in conserving them for future generations. In front of such an importance, mere discomfort at not being able to bring certain types of bag into the museum should not be a reason to threaten the priceless works of art.
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