My thoughts have returned to the unusual Prenzlauer Berg gravestone and I have decided to make a model.  The black outline will be cut from leftover acrylic plastic in the workshop and the design element (in red above) will be engraved (is engraved the right word – sounds quite grand -  anyway, it will be cut also but not all of the way through.)

Having already made an approximation of the spirograph design I have worked with Processing’s bezier() function to make an outline shape similar to that of the original stone.  It took some time to understand how to programme the curves but once the bezier principle is understood it is actually very simple.  Basically, the curve is constructed through combining both sets of co-ordinates for the construction lines (in red below).

Click for sketch and code.

PDF. here also. (any questions please add comment.)

(this instance of DIY gravestone manufacturing may or may not have been inspired by this Home Office video designed to help young people with everyday problems…)

This stone was the most interesting art object that I encountered during my visit to Berlin’s Transmediale.10.

The dead individual (whom this stone is representing) presents us with a subtle, final-word: a challenge to living-beings.

The ‘optical illusion’ of physical depth against this pristine, flat, surface evidences our flawed and filtered sensory apparatus and disturbs any complacency regarding attempts at understanding the nature of perception (and by extension: space; consciousness; life; and death…)

I have begun working with the design from the stone to test out some ideas in Processing.

(My initial code for the above outline is shared here.)

int a;

void setup()
{

size(500, 500);
background(255);
smooth();
noFill();
stroke(0);
a = 10;

ellipseMode(CORNER);

ellipse(125, 250, 250, 250);

for(int a=0;a<360;a=a+10)
{
pushMatrix();
// move the origin to the pivot point);
translate(250,250);
// then pivot the grid
rotate(radians(a));

// and draw the square at the origin
noFill();
ellipse(-125, 0, 250, 250);
popMatrix();
}
}

• a manmade laser rainbow across the sky
• ominous droning from the bell tower
• mass gathering outside of the House of World Cultures

Price and Value of Cultural Work – Session:

Liquid Democracies – Discussion:

• Steve Lambert – EYEBEAM
• Matteo Pasquinelli – Digital Neofeudalism

What is Futurity Now?

(insert blog post here!)

Rainbow on 12seconds.tv

Below are links to un-edited wiki notes on various sessions:

Wed 3rd Feb 2009

• Price and Value of Cultural Work
• Basis of Free Culture

In November 2009, television news reports from the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall returned to our screens, 20 years on, like retinal after images. The Berlin Wall had not been a mere boundary marker but a globally visible, physical, manifestation of a global scale political impasse. The transgression and fall of the wall are now seen as emblematic of the groundswell political changes sweeping Eastern Bloc countries at that time.

In advance of our trip to Berlin for Transmediale, I want to consider some contemporary boundaries and how they manifest.

What (if anything) might contemporary boundaries be symbolic manifestations of?

A couple of months ago I saved a link to a ‘Virtual Berlin Wall’ project but now that I return to the link it directs me to the ‘Google’ web search home page – this anomaly takes this blog post off at a tangent…

Virtual Berlin wall launched to commemorate walls http://tinyurl.com/ydl2oqp 3:47 AM Nov 9th from web

There are three possible reasons for this unexpected outcome:

1. – it is simply a dead link and ‘Google’ is the ‘in browser’ default
2. – this is a smartass conceptual art joke
3. – the ‘error’ is some kind of freudigital slip

I choose to believe all three of the above reasons to be correct.

Google is a kind of global digital interfacing membrane, which applies top secret filtration algorithms in order to control, administer and record the exchange of information on the internet.

Today’s withdrawal of Google from the Chinese ‘market’ on grounds of ongoing state censorship is seen by political commentators as a gesture towards a western democratic moral and political highground.

Despite Google’s seeming omnipotence, the vast majority of internet users seem to perceive Google, less as an oppressive ‘wall’ rather, as a benevolent ‘gateway’. For many, Google is a symbol of free, easy access to information and, as such, Google is more analogous in popular consciousness to the Brandenburg Gate than the Berlin Wall.

Brandenburg Gate image used under licence from Wikimedia Commons.

Links:

Google and China: a cynical ploy or a principled stand? – Charlie Beckett, Director POLIS

Google and China: What’s the real story, and where does it go from here? – Mac Slocum. O’Reilly Radar

Last week Ewelina sent an open invitation to our Digital Media mailing list:

Hey ***
I was wondering if any of you would like to go to Transmediale Festival(?)

Lot’s of people expressed an interest, so we held a meeting after class on the Wednesday and about 20 people came.  All of the people wanted to go to Transmediale 2010 and liked the idea of working together.  At the same time, a nagging question remained:

Q.  How do we co-ordinate loads of positive energy, valuable ideas and different approaches without wasting loads of valuable time and energy in the process?

Rather than begin planning for some kind of ’school-trip’ we set about establishing some guiding principles:

What do we agree on? AND What are the barriers?

We identified the following:
DATES: some people will want to flexible so, good idea to suggest dates and let people book
TRAVEL: best if people book flights, accom individually
ACCOMODATION: desirable to stay together – group hostel, student halls, apartments etc.
PARTICIPATION: Identify two-day activity period during Transmediale that CultureLabbers can plan the rest of their trip around.
MONEY: This was really the only barrier for people attending.

We’re now trying to co-ordinate our efforts through the Digital Media course wiki: http://dm.ncl.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/Transmediale_Festival_2010

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