{ lou suSi : liveJournal }

does the Hero have to be a leader? ::..

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Shep Bush recently asked folks on LinkedIn 'In screenwriting, does the Hero have to be a leader?'

interesting question ... and one that i needed to answer

as much as the post pertained to the 'ani-jobs' LinkedIn Group called Animation and Film Jobs, i wanted to answer in a more general, life-oriented sense ... specifically siting certain movie characterizations and examples to point out the answer here is definitley 'no'

here's my answer

The 'hero' of a story does not need to be a leader. I guess this greatly depends on your definition of 'hero', but I am thinking of the main character or the primary target of the film or camerawork.

Although the hero or main character does not need to be a leader, as passive watchers of a film, we are following that person and therefore they can oftentimes seem like a leader.

I hope that Pee-wee Herman is not considered a leader when we watch 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure'.

The main character in '3 Colours: White' ... is he 'a leader'? We follow his life adventure. We're introduced to his world and his climb back into a productive and almost-happy life, but he is almost an anti-hero. A low movement in the symphony of life. An interesting character, but not a leader.

The characters in 'Ghost World' ... they're almost more like tour guides to a certain mindSet or vantagepoint of looking at the world. The tension comes about when the 2 friends begin to encounter other people in their town that have what most might consider a 'more normal' view of the world. Or at least a less imaginative way of seeing things. This movie is almost about absolutely nothing. And yet we follow the characters and empathize with one or the other girl in our own special way depending on which side of the fence we're standing.

And then, more famously ... 'Pulp Fiction'. Are these horrific gangsters 'leaders'? I feel there is SO much symbollic stuff going on in this movie ... the sort of 'difference between dogs and pigs' ... loveable pets vs filthy animals ... they too become our tourguides into a timeless swirling indecipherable world where the sacred and profane mingle and blur. But there are definitely no heroes here that I can see. And there is definitely a gigantic void in the realm of leadership.

And this concept ... a hero-less, leaderless environment ... this might be the state of the world today. So don't let them fool ya.

shadow theory ::..

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:42:59 GMT

i have this theory about shadows ... not sure if you've thought about it or not, but i was talking about it after class w/ the crew up in Mission Hill ...

so, i think of shadows as volumetric ... sort of the volumetric absence of light on the oth...er side of the bright, bright source of light ( bright or not ) ... so the shadow volume includes the area that wraps around the backside of the lit object and extends in an invisible way down to the shadow as it is projected on the ground, wall or whatever surface it fills ... the shadow itself too pours into the nooks and crannies of whatever surface it clings too ... the dits and divits in the cement on a sidewalk ( as seen here ), the grit of otherSuch surfaces, the grain in wood, the texture that makes life so much more than you anticipated

Photograph by and courtesy of Suzie Motarddelamount

the secret comedy society ::..

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:41:22 GMT

i took a trip out to New York City this past weekend to attend 2 seminars offered through Steve Hoftstetter's Comedy Soapbox ... both courses focused on helping comedians get serious about their work from both the business and web aspects of the industry ...

a lot of fantastic advice about brand and behavior ... good professional advice that anyone 'out there' could use for any profession ... i don't want to reveal too much here or get down into the dirt of what us comedians need to go through to make an honest living and get ahead ( laugh ), but i do need to describe an amazing event that i got to witness immediately following the 4 hours of expert insight and suggestions coming from the comedic and business mind of Hoftstetter

after we all learned the deep dark secrets Steve had to share with us ... we exchanged kind salutations, business cards and shared an elevator ride descent of 16 flights back down to the New York City streets ... some banter and goodbyes and then, standing still and looking up and down the sidewalk i watched the comedians, large and small, men and women each with their own demographically diverse backgrounds, heritage, life experiences and sense of funny fashion ... i got to see the comedians walk off into the afternoon armed with this newfound knowledge to help better their careers and help bring joy and laughter to people all around the world ( but mostly in the United States )

it was an inspiring vision ... an incredible feeling to think of our afternoon union in the sky ... to get the lowdown from a selfless professional in the industry ... we drank in his knowledge and advice and now we all bring this insight out into the world as we aim to kill audiences far and wide ... i felt a joy, a certain powerful sense of a dispersed community, a pride and happiness ... and i laughed a little to myself as i headed off into the slight drizzle and crisp air

related links
http://comedysoapbox.com/
http://stevehofstetter.com/

louddite

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:06:38 GMT

Image by carlotardani via Flickr

its almost noon on Tuesday, October 13, 2009

and i still don't own an iPod

RE: Salem 'Witches'

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:18:00 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

i just saw this amazing Facebook Note posted by my good friend John Biebel ... Salem 'Witches' ... here is his original note and a very cyberSurreally crafted response ... see what you think ...

John posted: Salem 'Witches' on October 12 at 7:16am

OK, maybe someone can help me out here... for all those people fascinated by the famous Salem Witches of the 17th century, what's your opinion - were they witches?

It gets confusing since there are so many practicing witches active today in Salem. Do these modern witches stand by the Salem witches and say 'yes, they were witches and we support them'? It kinda doesn't make sense since the whole controversy is that they were wrongfully accused and therefore innocent victims of a rush to judgement. It is MORE likely that these women WEREN'T witches, and just scapegoats for an over-zealous puritan community.

So... why do modern witches flock to this place, then? It would seem to be a relic that represents the evils and sins of man's cruelty to itself...

One would have to gather, then, that those who believe there is special power in Salem DO believe that the 17th century witches WERE in fact actual witches, and that their sickness, convulsions and visions (aparently Satanic) were legitimate and to be emulated and applauded... but wait: is this the kind of witchery that they're supporting? In order to believe that these women were witches but MISUNDERSTOOD witches, well, that's asking us to believe HALF of the history of Salem, and toss the other half out (i.e., yes they were witches BUT they were not EVIL witches, as the assorted townsfolk said they were...)

Wait - this doesn't make sense, especially for those witches now who practice 'storefront' witchery of White Magic, and who are trying desperately to legitimize Magic as authentic.

Can someone explain this inherent contradiction?
Or is it simply that Salem is a nice historic old New England town where people like to hang out and buy love potion candles?

... and then on October 13 at 5:07 am I posted ...

I think the answer actually has something to do with the neighboring township of Danvers ( or as I say it, somewhat jokingly and somewhat w/ seriour New Englandesian cant ... Danviz ) ... Danvers was originally part of Salem and broke off following the horribly bad kamric energetics following the Salem Witch Trials ( or at least this is how I am recalling how the story goes ) ... the strangest part of all of this is that Danvers ( and Peabody ... aka Peeb'dy ) legend has it such that early Wiccans that fled from Great Britain to The New Land were actually Satanistically blessed by frequent meetings with The Greys ... oftentimes, real practicing 'witches' would wander off into the thick wooded patches of the now-Danvers-area forestScape and meet with The Greys and discuss potential peaceful union ( and sometimes have intergalactic bacchanalian festivals out in nature ) of the human race with these pristine and oft misunderstood otherBeings ... husbands, boyfriends and other curious ( and lustful ) men that lurked a bit along the periphery were so wrought with jealousy that they eventually brought the news of these bizarre events back to the Salem PD and there began the party raids and eventual arrests of numerous Wiccan women in the area, thus starting a wave of suspicious jailings and trials that came to be known as The Salem Witch Trials

horrible stuff

the potential promise for intergalactic union and peace was still thick in the air during the torturous questionings and imprisonment of a fairly innocent bunch of women ( and men, although the marketing of The SWTs tends to leave the male element out ... I get concerned, as a man, to think our society is so terribly frightened by the penis ... so much so as to only have it visually portrayed { or represented } in underground cinematographic film circuits of pornography ... why is it we can see breast and ass, but never { or rarely } a prick? And then why, I need to know, is it only depicted { or depricked dead } in its flaccid and sad hangning state and never in its vanglorious 'awake and ready' mode of play? hmmmm? hmmmmmmMmmMMmM? ) that came to be known as The Salem Witch Trials

and the women never uttered a word of their provocative interracial relations in the woods ... why would that be, one might ask? well, perhaps for the very same reason the government hides some of the debris from September 11 ( for further forensic investigation and study ) in hangers and other large mysterious warehouses like the ones found out off of 495 in Littleton ... do a little investigative reporting ... they won't let you know what's in there ... they won't even entertain the notion of being somewhat 'matter of fact' about what is being covered up there, how they can manipulate and hide the truth behind such an event ... very mysterious

well, at a certain point the ones that were capable of keeping the deeper secrets of these orgies were rewarded by some of the upper crust of Danvers ... they were given quaint shoppes and told how to help market the event in a more positive light ( as if early New England's pre-echo of waterboarding and other torturous 'freedom preservation' activities could ever truly be spun w/ threads of positive gold ) ... how to turn the horrible, horrible burnings, drownings and mutilation of those 13 teenage women into something more sublimely menstrual and fun ... nothing, mind you, to celebrate the wonderful 'Big O' activity that really went down in the furtive forests of 'Salem' as we know it today ... that would perhaps anthropromorphize The Greys a bit too much for our liking ( they are always depicted as these tall and rather cold somewhat sterile heady beings ... great mystics from the sky ... their visits here showing influence in some of the local nomenclaature ... Mystic River Parkway ... Ayer ... Mass MoCA ... iHOP ... and perhaps the most famous, Pizza Hut ( this is more of a visualization ... the roof and major logo brand depicting the now overGeneralized shape of their craft ) ) yes, we like to depict 'them' as being emotionless and remote ala The Vulcans from the original Star Trek television series ... the aliens are awkward, strange 'others' that are 'out there' among us

a monument

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:52:27 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

recently ERP/PLM Administrator at NDS Surgical Imaging Chris Ciraulo asked the following question up on LinkedIn Answers ...

What would your monument be?

The Pyramids of Egypt, the Roman Colleseum, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China...

If you were given the task of creating a new monument to stand the test of time and unlimited resources, what would it be and where would you put it? Be creative!

As much as I know my recent thoughtworks veer toward nature ... both natural elements from the woods and from the oceans ... items like pinecones and seashells, acorns and sea-polished stones ... I was nicely surprised by my answer to Chris' question ( see below ) :

the willow heart of human hope

I would create a concrete tree ... a very large tree ... concrete or marble ... some sort of stone ... leaves and all ... a tree of North America ... lights, there would be lights inside the canopy of the tree ... maybe a huge willow tree ... something you could go into and witness together with others ... you could look up into it and it would be like an internal constellation of sorts ... it would represent the human heart of hope ... light ... joy ...

It would represent enlightenment and protection. Shelter. Natural shelter. The sort of comfort you can only feel when embraced in the arms of nature Herself.

Not the tree that they nailed Jesus Christ to. Not the tree of eternal suffering. Suffering of the child. No, no ... nothing of the sort.

The tree ... this natural willow heart of human hope ... she would stand alone, larger than life ... offering comfort ... the tree would have a halo. A tree that somehow achieved martyrdom ... a saintly status in the form of a weeping willow. Perhaps the tree Herself is also a fountain. A fountain tree of hope and light and trickling streams of joy ... warm water. A true symbol of growth and healing. Growth, healing and comfort.

FB conversation about 'saving the world'

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:03:58 GMT

: Image via Wikipedia

I just posted to the DMI Seminar 2 blog 'out there', check out this quote today:

i think my point is that, with the incredible level of disorder and disfunction we encounter in our greater ( heh ) worldSystem … a rather undertrusted, underrated force … like the power and message of poetry … could be the real answer … NOT political intrigue … NOT war … NOT diplomacy … NOT anything else … just little ole poetry, sitting there the entire time, RIGHT under our nosesdmistudio.org, Design Seminar 2, Sep 2009

Read the whole article when you get a chance ...

livejournaL vs WordPress ::..

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:40:12 GMT

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

woah ... aight ... cool

i was JUST about to pull all my sh!t outta this here LiveJounral account ... just bein' honest ... i have a few other bloggish experiences set up out there and 3 out of 7 of 'em use WordPress and i have been enjoying the setup and the flow you get when posting, so i thought ... let me just put each a my blogs into the WP and run w/ it ...

BUT

i just posted for the first time in a while here on LJ an' i have ta say ... they really stepped it up and put the same sort of add-ins right into the LJ interface ... so that's cool

can anyone suggest how to switch up my archived entries though? i apsolutely HATE the little LJ calendar ... it is sooOOOOOooOOooOOoo difficult to navigate ... i would just love a little list of chronologcial hyperlinks or something to get people into archiveLand and then into an entry ... to just 'show me the blogPosts' and jump right back into reading with this sort of unrelated and irrelevant interaction with a rather useless time construct ... who thinks 'WHEN did i write about the day i bumped across the circus midgets and the clydesdales in Kittery again?'? ... ya know? ... don't you just want to see the title of the blogPost in a list of other titles going backwards in descending chronOrder or something?

is there an app fer THAT?

a little twitPic :: send a laugh :: won't you pleez give? ::..

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:30:29 GMT

Image via Wikipedia

too funny ... here's a Q for ya ... can a photographic still, like this one, inspire laughter and happiness? would video be more infectious | inspiring of further laughter? does an audio track of laughter alone become more effective? or perhaps cause a different effect? what about good old live laughter? is that THE most powerful way to experience &/or inspire the infectious qualities of laughter?

what's your take Mandrake? everybody laughs when they come to my house

Up ::..

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:30:49 GMT

Carol + Maceo + i went + saw Up last weekend + i have to say it is one of the best 3D animated movies Pixar put out ... + just an fyi here, as much as Carol + i follow animation, + specifically 3D animation, we tend to NOT love a movie just for using the latest + greatest technology ... the Pixar difference, from film to film to film, is their emphasis on developing a good, solid story ... + Up focuses nicely on the story of a unique relationship between this little Forest Wilderness boy + the little old man

for me, on a more interesting level ... the wonderful visual symbolism of this house, flying through the sky under a colorful mass of balloons, the image of the balloons + the house floating through the sky quite literally painted a fantastic picture + came to represent a liberation from the mundane, a sort of wake up call to get out into the world + fulfill your dreams ... a big, beautiful blue sky w/ fluffy white clouds ... a cute little house, the point at the bottom of an exclamation point ... zipping through a dreamscape ... an impossibility ... a voyage of love, journey into the heavens, to finally make the dreams of this man's wife finally come true

Paradise Falls ... the ultimate destination ... the unreachable dream

Slagsmålsklubben ::.. ..:: cool vimeo clip ::..

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:53:39 GMT

check out this cool video clip my good friend RJ Foley shared w/ me ... take it ...

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

girl eating a giant scorpion gladly

Wed, 27 May 2009 03:24:28 GMT

girl eating a giant scorpion gladly
Originally uploaded by Mark.Weaver

every once in a while you bump across something online that makes you think 'i am SO happy we have the internet' ... and this image, this entire image set, brings a smile to my face + makes me realize that without the web, without Flickr, i might not bump across the genius of Mark Weaver ( among others 'out there' ) ... thank you for this fantastically surreal collagework ...

iTunes Genius Sidebar ::..

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:14:07 GMT

aight, not sure about you ... but i JUST turned on the iTunes Genius feature, right? and, uhm, i am so completely disappointed ... i mean, i really thought something magical was going to happen over there ... maybe the Genius feature would look at what i listen to in iTunes, on Last.fm, Pandora, Blip.fm and check out any audio-like file on my MacBook Pro and make some interesting suggestions ... might make sense + be a really cool feature, right? but instead it basically echoes the artist of the track that you click on in iTunes?

C'MON!

just ridiculous ...

fun w/ fruit ::..

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:52:07 GMT

something posted just for fuN : found on twitpic ... enjoy! ;] ::..

..:: WHAT is DESIGN? ::.. ..:: Designers' Talk Discussions on LinkedIn ::..

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:28:27 GMT

Fred Showker, Editor and Publisher of DTG, recently posted the following question in the Designers' Talk Discussions section of LinkedIn:

My question: WHAT is DESIGN?

So many readers often write to ask about becoming a design professional. Many ask "What is Design" or "What is Graphic Design?"

Among the established definitions you'll find that just about anyone you ask -- you'll get a different answer. So, in the May issue of DTG we'll be asking ...

WHAT IS DESIGN?

My studies at The Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt bring up many questions about design, media, communication and creativity. The question What is design? seemed to perfectly resonate with recent thoughts and discourse with the fantastic community engaged in these discussions at DMI.

Here is my response:

WHAT is DESIGN? What an excellent question. And what an important question to ask ourselves on a daily basis.

Here is my quick interpretation of design ...

First of all, I think of the word design as more of a verb than a noun. An active process. A process that can contain elements of expression, research, planning, thinking, doing, conversing ... but design is best when there is a lot of active exploration, research and process behind the end result.

As a second notion to consider ... here is a layman's linguistic deconstruction of the word as interpreted by someone personally and professionally involved with design for a decade or more. So here is my breakdown by syllable ...

The 'de' part of DESIGN ... 'de' reminds me of the word 'di' in Italian, both in phonetic | aural similarity and in direct translation of meaning ... 'de' = 'of' in English.

The 'sign' part of DESIGN ... 'sign' is the root of the word 'significance'.

Literally translated DESIGN means 'of significance'. More importantly, the interpretation I come away with is something more like the infinitive 'to bring significance'. I think of it as a process where the designer brings meaning ... actually brings something significant to the world. Or at the very least to a certain targeted audience.

So ... in the end, we not only need to ask from day to day the all-important question 'WHAT is DESIGN?', but we also need to continually update and define 'WHAT is the role of a DESIGNER?' ... the answers to both of these questions are shifting and changing more and more often in these times, due in part to the speedy development of new technologies and also immensely influenced by a confluence of so many eclectic fields coming together to define and design new significance, new meaning, new thought, and new methods of communication.

View the original LinkedIn Answers question and responses here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=92232&discussionID=2742196&commentID=3023128&goback=.hom.anh_92232#commentID_3023128

datamummification + madness ::..

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:43:56 GMT

Judith Donath stopped in at Media Tech Tonic sponsored at MassArt's The Dynamic Media Insitute to discuss The Sociable Media Group's latest exhibit 'Connections' at The MIT Museum. A lot of amazing work ... I checked out some of the people involved in the project work earlier in the day ... specifically looking deeper into some of the previous work in visualization and interface design. I particularly enjoyed Alex Dragulescu's 'Spam Architecture' as I had previously attempted to approach the topic of troublesome eMeddlings in my own 'Operation Enduring Email' ...

but seriously folks ... the jist of the discourse tonight centered around a new 'new media' twist on the concept of portraiture ... excellent lecture, fantastic work all around ... i especially loved the participatory installation 'metropath(ologies)' ... such a dream project for me ... the overflow of information projected on a cityscape model, a veritable maze of data + architecture to get lost in ... amazing work + the best of the collection shown at the talk ... i gotta get down there + check it out

i've digressed once again ... so, back to portraiture ... a quick whirlwind history of the portrait as an artform ... a golden bust of royalty from greco-roman times, renaissance-painted realism complete with symbolic items and less idealized facial features, 20th century cubistic renditions capturing a more abstract essence of Picasso's art dealer, and for the 21st century ...

the portrait of the micromoment involved feeds from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Seesmic and other multivariate social networking sites the your modernday eCitizen gladly pours information into with feverish up-to-the-minute details about the minutae of our daily lives ... 'Data Portraits' took the unsuspecting tweets of the twitterverse to create a portrait visualization of each user ... words { the smallest common denominator allowing some balance between private and public exposure } from the user | participant's tweetstream make up the outline of head, neck and shoulders ... words on the left are from recent tweets, words along the right of the datahead silhouette are the most-used throughout your tweetstream history ... the words of each portrait pop forth from the black backdrop muchlike a smooth data-persona tagcloud, quite literally outlining your wordstream of the moment for you

what strikes me the most about these linear-textual gestural snapshots is the cocoonlike and ghostly bodily presence of each figure ... there's also a wonderful sense of swirling ... the words seem to envelope or mummify a preset human form ... besides certain key words that pop out { i am guessing the word size follows the same sort of rules of frequent use that most tagcloud methodologies implement }, there is little differentiation from portrait to portrait ... the shape of the head, neck and shoulders remains the same ... and the words simply outline or 'contain' the previously human form

at first i thought that the datamummification might be a purposeful artisitic and aesthetic choice ... i don't think i get the sense that my portrait would look that much different than anyone else as far as physical attributes are concerned ... same height, same weight, same shape, same lack of eyes, mouth, ears and hair ... you are your words in these portraits ... you are the ghostly echo-trace of your micro-bloggings ... a bit sobering ... a little scary ... and unless you are lucky enough to have micro-entered some emotionally-laden and unique words over the last year or so, you are just as unique as everyone else on Twitter ...

part of me wants to think these implications are an intentional affect of the visualization as portraiture ... and if nothing else, perhaps we can see this as a subconscious expression of the artists involved ... maybe there is no true participatory auto-magical means to create this sort of portrait ... or perhaps the effect is completely intentional ... a statement about machine-produced { app-influenced } human behavioral modification ... the media we use shapes our behavior, and now we quite literally all itch to tell it all right now ... a sort of electronic OCD ...

another memorable concept that came up tonight was the notion of 'pure knowledge' ... an amazing question from the crowd mentioned Elie Weisel's Zalmen, Or the Madness of God ... in the book a person comes to know God, but not as the bearded, old white guy in the clouds oft-depicted by Michelangelo ... but instead as the concept of 'pure knowledge' ... the question specifically asked tonight had to do with the current proliferation of information 'out there' for all of us to access and whether or not we, as humanity, are reaching a moment of 'pure knowledge' ... my own answer to this concept delves into questioning 'knowledge' ... information is not knowledge ... accumulation of datapoints provides no higher wisdom to the individual or to society at large ... consuming data alone, collecting data does not translate into knowledge or a deeper understanding ... in fact, my personal belief is that knowledge and wisdom are not even closely related ... and neither can ever be thought of as 'pure' ...

read more at the DMI Seminar 2 blog here ... http://dmistudio.org/seminar/

comment posted to the Dubberly Design Office ::..

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:11:59 GMT

recent comment posted as a follow-up + thank you to Hugh Dubberly for bringing the topic 'Design in The Age of Biology: Shifting from mechanical to organic, from object to system' as part of The Dynamic Media Institute's Annual Lecture Series ...

Fantastic lecture tonight at The Pozen Center for Interrelated Media as part of The Dynamic Media Institute's Annual Lecture Series.

Hugh, thank you for bringing this conversation to MassArt and for meeting up at DMI Headquarters to deepen the discussion and engage us all in the extended conversation. I especially appreciate the references you gave pertaining to 'total design'. My own thesis topic for graduate studies at The Dynamic Media Institute pertains to 'media translation' ... which for me includes discussion of translation versus interpretation, the occasional poetic impossibility to fully bring exact meaning from one mediaform to another, as well as Wagner's concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ... and how the role of the designer becomes less and less about a particular medium or format and more that of a strategic visionmaker of environment, experience, culture, systems ... basically a re-inventor of new language.

Is there a new media equivalent to Esperanto? Or will we need to weed through babble to distill meaning from a multi-lingual onslaught of expression in this dawn of participatory dialectics?

more details about the lecture here: http://www.dubberly.com/articles/design-in-the-age-of-biology.html/comment-page-1#comment-6972

tools + language + resistance, oh my! | part 1 ::..

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:58:36 GMT

media tech tonic #8 ... scott kirsner brought the topic + conversation ‘what innovators can learn from hollywood’ to the dmi design seminar 2 table ... walking + talking us through the history of technological innovations in the american film industry + the amazing, relentless resistance each innovation met with along the trajectory of celluloid to digital moviemaking ...

par for the course comes the inevitable discussion of :

the innovators ... creators of tools ... artists in the guise of engineers, working to create the bionic mouth + vocal chords of the new poet, or maybe its the electronic quill, a special digitalneural tweak if there can be innovation in poetry ...

the tools reach a point of release ... innovators put them out on the candyshelf to await purchase + use by artists ... creators of a new language ... language unique + appropriate to the tools now in hand ... the new language becomes uncharted territory, strangely familiar to the artists in some ways as the undiscovered new landscape they traverse is cosmologically linked to the invisible, universal core of all creativity ... the action of creation, of losing oneself in the process of complete exploration + work in the medium, is one that elevates + transports the conscious to a different place ... in the case of tools from digiteria, the self-translation from a previous, perhaps more traditional creative process carries forward into the new with a certain muscle memory ...

the process might remain the same ... the tools, the materials, these present fresh challenges + many new decisions ... the new tools + new materials at first might lead to new media echo ... tintype cetaceous blips into the underwater journies of an artist in suspended animation ... sculpting through a range of possibilities never before presented to her | him ... finding limitations + loss as previous opportunities fall away, but simultaneously setting foot on fertile, virgin moonscapes of otherness ... what new things can be said now that we can do x? + now that we can finally incorporate what was once only a fantasctic notion into the crux of our new art ... what will we make with it? what will we say with it? where will we choose to let us take it?

what happens when these new tools + the new language react + percolate at a pace beyond human capacity? in a time that no longer believes in time?

up late ... workin' on Monster + blippin' out ::..

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:11:19 GMT

aight ... i'm up late working on some re-design work for Monster ... got some good momentum going lately ... playing Windy by The Association over + over + over + over + over again really helps though, too ... right? fo sho ;] ::..

part of it too is that fr!kken crazy fife solo at the end ... just makes the whole '60s composition 'revolutionary' ... such a timetrip into the sock drawer of happy elevator music that haunts me ::..

thoughtleader :: a poeM

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:58:00 GMT

lots going on :: work + school + work + research + up late once again ::..

.. ..:: here is a poeM from not so long ago { a year ago or so i fear } ::.. .. .. ..:: i thought i would post it to remind me to still work in time for these areas of my mind to work, keep spinning, keep writing ... keep the voice inside alive ...

this one, of course, comes to me in a certain voice ... something not entirely mine ... a translation from a different place, an interpretation of a voice from very far away ... seemingly of this earth, but the true point of origin left intentionally vague { implications being of an interstellar proportion ... conjuring a surreality through dullness ... a sullen understatement ... Keatonian creepy cool } ...

from the eventual collection entitled 'Web 2.0 Poetry' ... i give you ::..

thoughtleader


as frightening as it may seem
i thought i should let you in on a little secret


i can read your email


it’s a bit like riding a bike
      just as they say
            no?

privacy is not an issue of secrecy really 
      but more a matter of control


in this new age of information
		the dawn of this new era
			when all is 2.0 & dreamy

i am the leader
the thoughtleader
feet planted firmly in the clouds
		i can see your dreams
		taste your thoughts
		feel your desires
		& see all of the naughty jokes that people sometimes forward 
whether you like them or not


	it’s a bit like mindreading
fortunetelling
		cheating on the graduate record exam
			or selling girlscout cookies outside the automated door of the
 supermarket on a Saturday morning

		fluffy ideas
	no longer secret
the message is clear
split open wide like a coconut
		electronic proof 
			that you & i are alive

DMI @ MassArt | automatic writing #5

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:38:43 GMT

automatic writings for media translation

question: when is a poem no longer a poem?
answer: only at the precise moment that it becomes an aria

this point in time marks the miniscule change in mediaform from one expression type to the next — a passing on — a transition from the world of writing, books, voice on paper, the written word and at its very best in the acted + spokenword — a passing on into the realm of music

ah, music

that’s right — the poem, the poetry, the poetic, the poesy — through subtle difference in vibration + tonality —from diaphragm up through the throat — through a slight twist in the means of delivery — that poetry becomes an aria

now the words danse — climb + cascade through the air on invisible g-clef nomenclature — an unseen language written for the performer, never meant to be seen by the audience — a translation of written and oral language to that of the language of song, beautiful vocal projection — the listener immediately understands this alien language — feels the power — the depths + heights of raw audio emotion conveyed by the lone, powerful female presence standing in the spotlight

question: when is an aria no longer an aria?
answer: only at the precise moment it becomes some strange collage — pasted this way + that on the back of scotch-taped neverending sheets of CVS receipt paper — images of song + geese + hiking trails — fashion models + torture + playmobile toys — images stitched together + presented as a snapshot of stolen time — collage based on the aria — at one time based upon the villanelle ( that was the poem that is no longer a poem )

how do we translate? how do we move from one means of creative expression to another to emerge with an equally fascinating artistic piece? can we, in fact, translate from one media to another and retain meaning? keep the core experience? what gets lost in translation? what new meanings evolve? when several media collide, does the meaning dillute? or does it get richer? deeper? with new connective expanse not yet imagined?

this is no longer the house that jack built — instead we find ourselves outside + naked by a shady, wooded stream — the pieces, shattered + strewn — the tools are fathomless + waiting

does a poet sculpt words? does a painter dance on canvas? does a sculptor sing stone aria?

DMI @ MassArt | automatic writing #4

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:15:03 GMT

back from class just finished some more mapping work mostly turning into a free-association more than a mapping or another automatic writing piece but still interesting to explore nonetheless — not sure if i made progress or backtracked a bit — but still — here it is — here are the raw, honest thoughts as they tap out from the tips of my fingers — the medium of choice right now is thought directly to the fingertips — typing but not on the typewriter — clicking like the sounds of dolphins — the little chirps, the clicks + clacks of the computer keyboard as i dump the contents of my head in automatic fashion onto the surface of light in front of me

so taking the concept of material i tried to further extrapolate + see what the origins of my fascination w/ material might be — and honestly it seems like i didn’t get to the end of it, i didn’t dive deep enough or loosen up enough tonight to really dig deep w/ my teeth + fingers to find the molten core

it may have something to do w/ the journey i have made to get to this point — i don’t think i want it to be, i don’t want to it be that self-reflective or that self-driven in any way, that selfish — but to some degree i know that i feel that my trajectory in life follows a sort of drawing to painting to assemblage to installation to performance art and music to multimedia to web design to dynamic media — my interests lie somewhere between the medium, somewhere between the forms of expression that i have explored + the ones i have not yet begun to think about — the commonalities — the creative connective tissue — the connectedness of each + every artform

the first mapping tonight came in the form of a cruciform — material to virtual — physical to spiritual — a bit heavyhanded — i abandoned it early on

next mapping then moved over a list of artforms followed by a simple list of the associated ‘materials’ — this list then led to the idea of surface — tool, material, surface + method — action | event + object | artifact — and then finally the relationship of viewer | participant to material | surface | interface

the final exercise tonight explored the concept of material + memory — more soon

research for Design Seminar 2 | DMI @ MassArt ::..

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:28:56 GMT

2 concepts that repeat through some of my initial mindmaps [ photo imagery to follow soon ] include 'material' + 'delivery' ... i just wanted to capture the basic dictionary definition of each of these terms as found on m-w.com ::.. ..

..:: ::..

Main Entry: ma·te·ri·al
Pronunciation: \mə-ˈtir-ē-əl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English materiel, from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French, from Late Latin materialis, from Latin materia matter — more at matter
Date: 14th century

1 a (1): relating to, derived from, or consisting of matter ; especially : physical (2): bodily b (1): of or relating to matter rather than form (2): of or relating to the subject matter of reasoning ; especially : empirical
2: having real importance or great consequences
3 a: being of a physical or worldly nature b: relating to or concerned with physical rather than spiritual or intellectual things
— ma·te·ri·al·ly \-ē-ə-lē\ adverb
— ma·te·ri·al·ness noun

..:: ::..

Main Entry: de·liv·er
Pronunciation: \di-ˈli-vər, dē-\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): de·liv·ered; de·liv·er·ing \-v(ə-)riŋ\
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French deliverer, delivrer, from Late Latin deliberare, from Latin de- + liberare to liberate
Date: 13th century

transitive verb
1: to set free < and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil — Matthew 6:13(Authorized Version) >
2 a: to take and hand over to or leave for another : convey < deliver a package > b: hand over , surrender < delivered the prisoners to the sheriff > < delivered themselves over to God >
3 a (1): to assist in giving birth (2): to aid in the birth of b: to give birth to c: to cause (oneself) to produce as if by giving birth < has delivered himself of half an autobiography — H. C. Schonberg >
4: speak , sing , utter < delivered their lines with style > < deliver a song > < deliver a speech >
5: to send (something aimed or guided) to an intended target or destination < ability to deliver nuclear warheads > < delivered a fastball >
6 a: to bring (as votes) to the support of a candidate or cause b: to come through with : produce < can deliver the best results> intransitive verb: to produce the promised, desired, or expected results : come through < can't deliver on all these promises >
synonyms see rescue
— de·liv·er·abil·i·ty \-ˌli-v(ə-)rə-ˈbi-lə-tē\ noun
— de·liv·er·able \-ˈli-v(ə-)rə-bəl\ adjective
— de·liv·er·er \-ˈli-vər-ər\ noun
— deliver the goods : to give results that are promised, expected, or desired

..:: ::..

Bo Barringer | Muscle Memory

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:37:44 GMT

Bo Barringer | Muscle Memory
Originally uploaded by deaddeadsoul

photograph I took of Bo Barringer | Mascara | November 16, 2007 ... for a while i was exploring purposeful blur of the camera at live events { mostly Mascara, right? ;] } and was quite happy with the effect ... originally, at a Lizard Lounge show, my batteries were low + the effect was unavoidable ... a happy mistake, i guess

a little pause ... a bit of muscle memory ... enjoy

DMI @ MassArt | next steps for DMI Design Studio 2 this week

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:08:59 GMT

quick explanation on these automatic writings ...

as part of Design Studio 2 we are currently working on mindmapping to explore the preliminary areas of research for thesis development ... 3 initial mindmaps centered around fine art, humor + laughter { artifacturings from last semester } + poetry ... i'm finding it easier right now to jump out of the visual approach of mindmapping + using the surrealist methods of automatic writing to dive deeper w/ the pencil as scalpel to really search under the surface for some of the inner workings of my initial areas of interest

{ of course, easy is not always best, right? ;] || }

as suggested by Jan ... the central aspects of each mindmap are not in actuality my muse for thesis discovery, research + project work ... the lists, the items, the streams of expressive components as they relate to each of the arts seems to keep bubbling up to the surface | i don't think it is a simple surface 'this correlates to that' comparison from one artistic discipline to the other ... this is definitely not what i expected with the timing ... with the flow from semester one to semester two ...

our next assignment is to read 'Memory is the Medium' by Florian Brody + map our refined, more focused second iteration of mindmap exercise to the concept of memory ... + what is a little strange ... not funny 'ha ha' at all but funny in a poetic sense ... i recall an esssay i wanted to write perhaps over decade ago about the relationship between music, poetry, painting, movement ... about how the expression in one medium oftentimes inspires a unique expression in another medium ... i vaguely remember the title being 'an eSsay on uncreativity & the nature of artistehood' { i think i will throw away this ridiculous title, but move forward with the core, throw away the applemeat, the skin, the stem + keep the core, the essence, the seeds from the previous idea + plant them once again in the once fertile soil of my sullen mind ... i can't wait to see what comes up + grows from the latest automatic writings, from the mindmappings, from the 6 virtues of Bonsiepe, and now from the writings of Florian Brody