Doubles, Dopplegangers, Clones and other Surrogate Selves

Protoype Mechanical Hand and Arm

2011-11-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

2011-11-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

Italo Calvino's "The Mirror, The Target"

2011-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

A photo of me in 2009, superimposed on a photo of my mom in 1976.

check this out!
http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/

Occupy Your Mind

2011-11-10T18:30:00.001-08:00

Introducing: Tiffany Claus

2011-10-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

'Tiffany is of German/Russian heritage. She studied opera classically as a high school and college student and oil paints portraits. She graduated with a Bachelors of the Arts and Psychology for Art therapy with plans attain a masters in Art Therapy before she unexpectedly broke into modeling and acting. Tiffany's modeling and look alike career began when Tyra Banks talent scouts found her images on myspace. They were so impressed with her natural resemblance that they asked her to appear on her show in Los Angeles. From there she decided to pursue her career as a professional look alike and has become the most sought after Angelina Jolie impersonator worldwide.' via her website here

another biography:

'Tiffany grew up in a small town in Maryland with little opportunity for an entertainment career. She started singing opera and oil painting by 14. She participated in school musicals and art exhibits. After high school she went on to a Maryland State University to study Art and Design where she also studied opera. She graduated in 2003 with a degree in Art and Design with Painting. She focused in oil painting, as a portrait artist.. After graduating she worked as a free lance portrait artist and interior designer. During her years in college she also had her two children, Klaus and Vonessa with her long time partner, Jeffrey. For as long as Angelina has been the well recognized actress she is, Tiffany has been compared to her for her striking resemblance.
During the course of her years in college and the births of her children Tiffany continued to hear of her likeness to the movie star. Tiffany wasn't sure she was as similar looking as what people told her but with years of hearing it she finally sent out a photo of herself to a look alike agency through the internet. That is when she began her career as a look
alike.Tiffany's first job as a look alike was when she appeared in a photo layout for Maxim's brother magazine, Stuff. Soon she also appeared in Maxim, People, US, Look, Marie Clare, New York Post and several over seas magazines. Tiffany also made t.v. appearances on The Tyra Banks Show, The Chelsea Handler Show, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Maruy Povich, The Next Best Thing, Live with Regis and Kelly, and local news. She also made her film debut in, "Meet the Spartan's (2008.) In theatres January 25, 2008.'

Here is some of her work. I am guessing it is from her college years. I don't think she makes work since becoming a celebrity look alike.

Here is an interesting/unsettling site which visualizes data for a name and related information such as sex, location, news, relationship status, economic wellbeing, family history, etc etc. (Try inputting your telephone number into the search)

Is Our Solar System a Double Star System?

2011-10-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

The asteroid behavior seems to provide evidence.

There is speculation in the astronomy field whether our solar system is actually a double star system, with the Sun's twin, Tyche, being a Brown Dwarf star. Apparently about half of all stars are part of binary system - the rest are singles, and a few triples and quads. Reputable journalism on NASA report on Tyche-- new Kuiper/Oort gas giant or Brown Dwarf Star? (closer than thought now, WISE doing infrared scans, but results aren't fully released). Explains Pluto and Sedna's erratic orbits and also the "shearing" observable at the far edge of the solar system (as expected in Binary Solar system's edge collisions).

Here is a report: http://www.science20.com/science_20/tyche_suns_dead_binary_edge_solar_system-77081

And a YouTube video that is somewhat questionable, but has some good graphics and explanations of how a binary star system effects it's twin star. The current theory is that our planets orbit around "our Sun" and the other sun, which is a non-visible brown dwarf star (like a huge planet) is on another orbit, somewhat like a comet, that enters our system every 24,000 to 26,000 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7C41znZ6GA

Occupy Wall Street - Art & Culture Meeting

2011-09-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

IMPACT/COLLAPSE Twin Towers

2011-09-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/impact-collapse.html

Mark Bain, a sound artist has created this image based on the audio file of the seismological data record during the collapse of the twin World Trade Centers on 9/11. He produced this image for the 10 year anniversary of the event.

Harold and I's trip to the Library of Congress

2011-09-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Harold standing still at the train station

Harold with a train at Union Station.

Harold laying on a tree

Harold in front of the Capital Building

Harold in front of the Lib of Congress

It's difficult to see but if you look closely at the top of the image you see the toe of my shoe - to give you an idea of scale

Harold and I in front of the Lib of Congress.

Slouching Towards Yucca Mountain

2011-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Here is some information on a project I'm working on with some MICA Alumni.

http://slouchingtowardsyuccamountain.blogspot.com/

And a project description:
SLOUCHING TOWARDS YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Eve Andrée Laramée

A cast of nineteen fictional characters explore the landscape of the post-Atomic Age West in, “Slouching Towards Yucca Mountain.” The project examines issues and ironies surrounding the problem of radioactive waste disposal in the United States. In 2002 the U.S. government began developing Yucca Mountain as a deep geological repository for high-level radioactive waste. Due to geological faults and climate uncertainties the project was terminated; however a seven-mile long maze of excavated tunnels exist beneath the mountain. The U.S. currently has no master plan for permanent disposal of radioactive waste; it is in temporary storage at hundreds of sites across the country. This environmental problem has hardest hit the indigenous peoples of the Western desert lands. I want to raise public awareness, involve communities and initiate discussions through this work.

The non-linear narrative of “Slouching Towards Yucca Mountain” involves time travelers who discover the tunnels and question the use and misuse of the so-called “empty wastelands” of the American West. Using tropes and clichés of the Western film and science fiction film genres, a subtext of environmental exposé unfolds in a suspenseful tale: part fact, part fiction. It is set in an ambiguous time period - unstuck in time - partially 19th, 20th and 21st Century. The project reveals American values and beliefs about nature, conquest, the ownership/use of land, and environmental justice issues. It does so with a mixture of creativity, humor, and dead seriousness. The project draws attention to issues of sustainability, renewable vs. non-renewable energy, waste disposition, geological time, and “cowboy extractionary economics.”

Laramée and her collaborators shot thousands of still photographs and hours of video footage in Death Valley, California and the ghost towns of Rhyolite and Goldpoint, Nevada, during a residency at the Goldwell Museum 15 miles from Yucca Mountain. Collaborators include New York-based artists Courtney “scrapworm” Wrenn, and Mia Ardito; Montana-based artists Chelsea Noggle, and Michel Tallichet; and Santa Fe-based artists from the Meow Wolf collective, Emily “DJ Dirtgirl” Montoya and Benji Geary.

As an interdisciplinary artist who has worked at the confluence of art, science and nature for over thirty years, Laramée’s work examines environmental issues and ecological problems through exhaustive research, activism and creative works. This is the “landscape” where Laramée’s aesthetics and pedagogic ethics merge.

Quantum Entanglement

2011-09-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Quantum Entanglement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement

And a video on the "Weirdness of Quantum Mechanics"

U.S. National Radio Electromagnetic Quiet Zone

2011-09-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Trevor Paglen's image, They Watch the Moon of a surveillance station in West Virginia, the U.S. National Radio Electromagnetic Quiet Zone, where all electromagnetic activity, including that from cell phones is prohibited.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone

Placebo - the meaning effect - healers - and love

2011-09-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

Some of the ways in which were constantly unconsciously effecting and being effected in the world:

Here's a really interesting study on the effects of music, noise, and "healing energy" on the germination and growth of plant seeds:

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/107555304322849039

A paper on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields on biological tissues - its much more dense and impenetrable because of the terminology but it's worth struggling through. It provides a really amazing picture of cellular space, and it also has widespread implications because all living beings produce EMFs - from the pulsing of their heart and the blood running through their veins, from the firing of neurons, ect. All these fields are constantly interacting with each other, along with the various fields generated by the earth, underground vibrations, storms, the churning of our plants molten rock core, and now were constantly walking through a much denser soup of the various EMF frequencies emitted by computer screens, cell phones, power lines, electrical wiring in our homes, wifi, lightbulbs, radio waves, car engines, ect.

http://www.moderngyogyaszat.hu/A-Biological%20Effects%20of%20Electromagnetic%20Fields.pdf

Also, this is just a really amazing way to try and understand the scale of cells, atoms, and other microscopic things: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/

These are amoeba, single celled organisms visible to the naked eye -- so amazingly beautiful!

last thing - this is an NPR audio clip about some studies on the effects of belief on healing and sickness, as well as some really profound studies they've done on people who love each other. Essentially they separated couples into two rooms that were electromagnetically sealed and found that one of them looked at an image of the other, the other person's heart-rate and galvanic skin response spiked.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710

Dogville

2011-09-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

so....so gorgeous...

Enter the Void

2011-09-21T17:10:00.001-07:00

The trailer does no justice to this film. It's sort of a vision of what happens when you die, strongly inspired by the Tibetan book of the dead. Gaspar Noe is an amazing filmmaker, and he definitely does justice to the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRxDP--e-Y

aimee mullins

2011-09-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! You may or may not know about Aimee Mullins, but when I watched this video yesterday, knew I wanted to share it with you all. You can take the video however you like, whether or not it relates to your double. It's very inspirational. I felt that "the conversation" that Aimee references about ability, disability, appearance, etc. brought up new ways to look at the human body. Since we've been exploring consciousness and its existence throughout the body, what does it mean for Aimee who's without body parts? Do we need all of our body parts for full consciousness? I don't think so. Especially not after watching this video. I hope you enjoy it :)

Solaris

2011-09-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

I thought this film was relevant to what we're thinking about: A psychologist is sent to a space station to investigate a strange but unspecified phenomena. When he arrives he finds that some kind of planetary consciousness is producing doubles of deceased people from the memories of the Space Station's crew. He's confronted with a replica of his dead wife, and struggles with whether to destroy"it" or indulge in the illusion of her presence.

There's a remake from I think 2002. I havn't seen it, but the original is beautiful -- amazing image quality, and there's a pacing and a space given to the movie that is really important that you don't get in more recent films. Things are really given time -- definitely worth watching.

Planet orbits two suns

2011-09-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

NASA found a planet in orbit around a double star. These twin stars are 200 light-years away from us in the constellation Cygnus, and each one has a slightly different hue.

"You have an orange star that's 69 percent the mass of the sun, and it is basically dancing with a 20-percent-the-mass-of-the-sun red star," he says. "And they go around each other every 41 days."
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/15/140499991/here-come-the-suns-new-planet-orbits-two-stars

Gattaca

2011-09-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

This trailer is for the movie GATTACA starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Jude Law.

Premise: In the not-too-distant future, a less-than-perfect man wants to travel to the stars. Society has categorized Vincent Freeman as less than suitable given his genetic make-up and he has become one of the underclass of humans that are only useful for menial jobs. To move ahead, he assumes the identity of Jerome Morrow, a perfect genetic specimen who is a paraplegic as a result of a car accident. With professional advice, Vincent learns to deceive DNA and urine sample testing. Just when he is finally scheduled for a space mission, his program director is killed and the police begin an investigation, jeopardizing his secret.

Identity

2011-09-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

This trailer is for the movie Identity starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Rebecca DeMornay.

Premise: Strangers from all different walks of life: a limo driver escorting a fading television star, parents with a young son whose marriage is in crisis, a cop transporting a dangerous convict, a beautiful call girl, a couple of young newlyweds, and a nervous motel manager are caught up in a severe rainstorm, stuck at a motel in desolate Nevada. Soon they realize they may be at the motel for another reason when one by one, people start getting killed off. As tensions flare and fingers are pointed, they have to get to the bottom of why they're there. Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, a psychiatrist is trying to prove the innocence of a man accused of murder in an eleventh hour trial. How these two through-lines are related can only be found in Identity

Passion of Mind

2011-09-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

This trailer is for the movie Passion of Mind staring Demi Moore.

Premise: A psychological romantic thriller where fantasy and reality become indistinguishable for a woman leading a double life in her dreams.

Birth

2011-09-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys!

I just wanted to post a few movie trailers that I mentioned in class.

I apologize in advance because I'll probably end up somewhat spamming the site with these.

________________________________________________________

This trailer is for the movie Birth starring Nicole Kidman and Cameron Bright.

The Premise:

"The story is about a young widow from a prominent Manhattan-based family named Anna (played by Kidman) who slowly becomes convinced that her husband, Sean, who died ten years previously, has been reincarnated in the form of a 10-year-old boy also named Sean (Bright). At first Anna is skeptical, but Sean's intimate knowledge of their past makes her think twice."

Tim Hawkinson!

2011-09-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

And in his cover art for Mutations, Beck featured Tim Hawkinson's sculptures!

In the Tim Hawkinson Encyclopedia by Doug Harvey there's a bit under "B" about Beck and his choice of Hawkinson's work for the album, plus a lot of really interesting stuff if you can put up with the horrible font. Check out "D"(Deleuzian Reversal), "G" (Gender), and "T" (Twinning) if nothing else.

And this is his Emotor. Creepy.

Response to Jenna: Beck's Interview with a Robot

2011-09-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

FYI, Beck is the son of Bebbe Hansen, a former Warhol star. His mother's father was Al Hanson, who was a Fluxus artist.

Ready for your interview?

2011-09-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

David Byrne of the Talking Heads interviews himself.

And here's a link to the website for The Fall movie, you can read the synopsis and watch the trailer, if anyone hasn't seen it, I highly recommend!

Uncanny Valley: The Geminod Summit

2011-04-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence

2010-10-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

We Can be Heroes

2010-08-24T22:44:00.001-07:00

Doubles, Dopplegangers and Clones Final Critique

2009-05-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

6 ways mushrooms can save us! even from swine flu?

2009-05-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/022797.html$$$

A Force from Empty Space: The Casimir Effect

2009-04-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Credit & Copyright: Umar Mohideen (U. California at Riverside)

This tiny sphere provides evidence that the universe will expand forever. One tenth of a millimeter in diameter, the ball moves in the direction of a smooth plate, responding to energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space.

This forces is known as the Casimir Effect. Evidence is accumulating that most of the energy density in the universe is Dark Energy. The form and origins of dark energy is mostly unknown, but it is postulated that vacuum fluctuations similar to the Casimir Effect are generated by space itself. Dark energy appears to gravitationally repel all matter, thus it may the the force to cause the universe to expand forever. Understanding vacuum fluctuations helps us to better understand our universe. On a practical level, it helps micro-mechanical machine parts from sticking together.

See Astronomy Picture of the Day http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/%7Eastrolab/mirrors/apod_e/ap061217.html

Grey Goo

2009-04-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

Information on nanotechnology and the aleged impending grey goo oblivion here: www.chemistrydaily.com/ chemistry/Nanomaterial

Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator

2009-04-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

Tired of Posthuman and Cyborg theory, here's a link to Post-hamster Nanotech theory.
See the video here: http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=244

little house on the moon: robot

2009-04-08T11:43:00.001-07:00

Little House On The Moon? Robot Being Created For First Moon Construction Project
ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2009) — Mälardalen University is working with the multi-artist Mikael Genberg to create a robot to be sent to the moon to construct a house. The House on the Moon is a project that aims to put a little read cottage on the moon as a symbol of what one man can achieve. The robot will roll out Genberg’s little cabin from the space rocket, find a stable vacant lot, and erect the planet’s first building.

“We want to teach students who think creatively, work together, use the very latest technology, and dare to set their sights high. The most important thing is not always to reach the goal. If you aim for the stars, at least you’ll reach the treetops or even the moon,” says Lars Asplund.
Working together, the students are to go all the way from idea to construction and programming to finally having a real robot. “We’re good at that here at Mälardalen University,” asserts Professor Lars Asplund, who is the country’s leading robot inventor and a good role model in the program.
The goal is for the robot – which has the working name of Roony – to be able to place the cabin on the moon in 2012.
Mikael Genberg is an artist from Västerås who is best known for his alternative living environments. Today Hotel Woodpecker is located 13 meters up in the highest tree in Vasa Park in Västerås. Out in Lake Mälaren, one kilometer out from the harbor, there is a building with an underwater room named Hotel Otter Inn. The little house on the moon will be barn red with white trim – after all, the first ones on the moon this time will be Swedes.

The Venus Project

2009-04-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Venus Project, by visionary futurist, Jacque Fresco
Website here: http://www.thevenusproject.com/index.php

just thought these double exposure photos were funny

2009-03-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Human Mirror

2009-03-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Improv Everywhere, a collaborative street theater urban prankster group based in New York City created “Human Mirror” one of their 80+ projects. For Human Mirror, they filled a subway car with identical twins, sitting across from one another, creating a human mirror. The twins dressed alike and mimicked one another's behavior

More photos and video here: http://improveverywhere.com/

Ghost in Shell

2009-03-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Our readings mentioned Ghost in the Shell so I decided to watch both of them over spring break, there were many similarities with Blade Runner I found mainly in imagery of the future city.

These are clips from the movie Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

This first one is a philosophical conversation about Humans and Machines.

These next two go together and it follows the two main characters entering into a mansion of a suspect they come to interrogate etc but they stumble into three different realities in which the mansion changes slightly each time and 'Kim' becomes a doppelganger of each character. This version is english so it doesn't sound as good as the original dubbing.

There are lots of crazy complicated philosophies in Ghost and the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2.

Honoring Hedy Lamarr on Ada Byron Lovelace Day AdaLovelaceDay09

2009-03-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Technophile inventor and Hollywood sexpot, Hedy Lamarr, invented in 1941, the Spread Spectrum Communications Technology that the cellular phone and wireless technology is based on.

She is the role model for Mia L'Amar, wife of my alter ego, Yves Fissiault.

Learn more about Hedy here: http://www.hedy-lamarr.org/ and her invention here: http://www.hedy-lamarr.org/invention.htm Learn more about Mia L'Amar and Yves Fissiault here: http://netherzone.blogspot.com/
AdaLovelaceDay09

Robots!

2009-03-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Humanoid robots Wakamaru, produced by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, named Momoko (R) and Takeo (L) in the performace, take part in a drama for the world's first robot and human experimental theatre, written and directed by Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata, at Japan's Osaka University in Osaka, western Japan on November 25, 2008. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
More here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/robots.html

Post-human Steampunk Evolution

2009-03-15T18:57:00.001-07:00

This commercial for Saturn auto is an interesting steampunk take on evolution and the human-post-human. Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch and produced by Tobias Steinhauser at Markenfilm. Director of photography: Javier Aguirresarobe. Post production: Alex Grau. Character design: Jeff Julian at Big Lazy Robot.

The Tunnel House by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck

2009-03-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

"Havel and Ruck will create a large funnel-like vortex beginning from the west wall adjacent to Montrose Blvd. The exterior skin of the houses will be peeled off and used to create the narrowing spiral as it progresses eastward through the small central hallway connecting the two buildings and exiting through a small hole into an adjacent courtyard."

Taken from the Art League

Its like a portal into a different world

Cache

2009-03-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on the Surveillance Camera in Haneke’s Cache (2005)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2006/jan/27/2

The surveillance camera in Haneke’s Cache signifies 'repressed memory' addressing both: individual repressed memory (Georges' particular memory of framing his childhood competition) and collective repressed memory (contemporary French society dealing with issues of colonialism, class, race). The use of the surveillance camera would combine the two inherently because of its utilization as a means for surveillance of society at large and in addition to its use as a device to reveal repressed memory or subconscious.

The built environment is crucial to the film in relationship to the idea of the body. The houses and building serve to correspond to the notion of individual and collective bodies. The camera surveys the exterior of house or body of Georges vs. Apartment building or collective interior, where the corridor signifies the internal workings of a collective body.

The 'omniscient/objective' / third-person-narrative camera vs. surveillance camera differentiation is quite interesting here because there is often a question as to which type of camera it is - to be defined later in the clip or through the clip sequencing... The last clip is a clear example of this.

This last shot opens up the plot to multiple interpretations, however none of which really make practical sense. One could speculate that the boys plotted the entire scheme, but this seems difficult and unlikely. One could interpret the meeting of Majid’s son and Pierrot differently. That Majid's son was plotting to harass Pierrot - but in reading this scene in this way, one could speculate about the paranoia, racism and expectations of the viewer.

Also, given that a viewer might not see the boys meeting in this ending, then one should ask what would the viewer think of the last scene and it's meaning? Does it not revert back to some surveillance device of a possibly unknown perpetrator on the youth of our time? ...i.e. what crimes will they commit? Is this the surveillance of a future generation? And if so, what dies this tell us about the use of the different camera types in this film?

If the surveillance camera is entirely [I am not trying to deny that the surveillance is partially his individual subconscious, but that it is also partially a collective subconscious, the generational critique of crimes of their (fore)fathers] Georges' subconscious or repressed memory (I don't think this makes sense either i.e. why does his boss get a copy? his friends see the footage to his family's estate?) - completely divorced from a collective repressed memory - then how can we explain it?

Compare Tape 2, Memory clip interruption to murder scene in Lynch’s Lost Highway surveillance footage.

Haneke's Cache (2005)

2009-03-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

In response to last week's comment about comparing the surveillance footage in Lynch's Lost Highway to Haneke's movie Cache, I thought I would pass on some of my thoughts about the use of the surveillance camera as a device for rendering individual and collective memory.

I encourage you all to see Cache (2005).

Beach Dwellers and Asylum Stayers

2009-03-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html

Slightly cooler more innocent version of those walking machines posted earlier. These ones made by an artist who simply wants to create a new species of life to live on the beach :)

MANIFESTO IN A CLEAR LANGUAGE
“I destroy because for me everything that proceeds from reason is untrustworthy. I believe only in the evidence of what stirs my marrow, not in the evidence of what addresses itself to my reason. I have found levels in the realm of the nerve.” Antonin Artaud

“In the exalted realm of images, illusion properly speaking, or material error, does not exist, much less the illusion of knowledge: but this is all the more reason why the meaning of a new knowledge can and must descend into the reality of life.

The truth of life lies in the impulsiveness of matter. The mind of man has been poisoned by concepts. Do not ask him to be content, ask him only to be calm, to believe that he has found his place. But only the madman is really calm.” Antonin Artaud

There was a really good website on this frenchman but it's been shut down so I'll keep looking, he spent much of his life in insane asylums and he wrote a whole lot, including books and plays and philosophy. Among such being the Theatre and the Plague, and the Theatre and it's Double. I have not read them however. http://books.google.com/books?id=bmf8CMzu3kIC&dq=antonin+artaud&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 is a link to the book online.

2012 is sooner than we think!

2009-03-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I guess they're searching for other earths in the universe now! Does this mean scientists know something we might not know for certain - like how doomed our planet might be in the near future? Are they actually planning our escape? I have no idea!!

heres the link for the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/science/03kepl.html?_r=1

Paul Thek - The Tomb

2009-03-04T12:11:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, I lost my camera cable but I'll be sure to get the photos I took from last class on the blog as soon as I can. Till then...

"In 1967, Paul Thek made one of the great, lost works in American art. The Tomb—Death of a Hippie was a large pink ziggurat containing a body cast of the artist attired in pink clothes and shoes. The tongue lolls from an opened mouth as in a swoon, the fingers of the right hand have been severed, and scattered around the body are offerings for the afterlife. The installation presented the artist as an eroticized, victimized vagabond; a creature shaped by Vietnam and Altamont, Kent State and Hair—a martyred hero for a new lost generation. In 1970, The Tomb came to Minneapolis in the Walker-organized exhibition Figures and Environments, which was installed in the auditorium of Dayton’s department store during construction of the Walker Art Center building. Years later, a badly damaged cast of the “hippie” was returned to Thek after an exhibition, but he refused to receive it; after storing it without pay, the shipper presumably destroyed it."

-Richard Flood

http://visualarts.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=2537&title=Articles

2009-03-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

doubled dreams

2009-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago i had this really interesting dream, there was more before this point that im about to explain but this is where it gets really interesting.
I walked into an apartment complex and a girl walked out of a room and shyly said to me "do you remember me i had worked with darlene wells" ( my high school art teacher) She didn't look even vaguely familiar, she had blonde hair and it was up, she was younger than me. I said i didnt remember and she proceeded to tell me about her "symbols" by taking down her hair it was very long but it seemed it used to be longer and these was her "symbols" I remebered this or related it to how i knew her somehow in the dream. then i walked into my room, my room was exactly as the room i have now but it was the mirror image of my room everything was reversed. I have a little nook in my room with a curtain and i was sitting in it with 2 other girls. I peered around the wall and saw sam (my passion friend, lover, sweetheart) he was carrying a plant to give to me. but then he saw this girl the blonde girl from earlier. as soon as he looked at her his eyes never left. And she did the same to him. I looked at the two of them next to eachother and realized they had the exact same proportions. same height from the crown of there heads to there eyes to the nose and mouth and shoulders, same skin and hair color. she was the female counterpart to sam. they stared at eachother and without looking anywhere but into the eyes of eachother not even at the door and walked out of the door as if without there control. at this moment i was alone in my room. i was standing under my loft thinking about what had happened when i felt a forceful push on my back from above. I hit the floor and look up, there is big man with dark hair and a dark mustache he looks angry and aggressive. he is hovering over me and my room loses gravity. this man and i are fighting pushing hitting kicking while sort of hovering for awhile when i realize this man cannot use anymore force on me than i can use on him. Once i realize this i stop fighting. I wash this feeling of calm over my body starting with the top of my head to my feet and fall into a lying down position but i am still hovering. I wrap my hands around my chest and drift through a dark hallway like this all the way out this hallway and out of a window into the ether.

Next assignment

2009-02-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

• Visual Homework assignment: Create a visual or performative work - a "machine" that celebrates OR protects your doppleganger's desires. (Sculpture, drawing, painting, performance, video, movement, song, sound-work, visual story, etc.)

Deleuze & Guattari's definition of a machine: something that acts upon something else to produce a change (one machine is always coupled with another). Due March 11 - this is a two-week long project. We will discuss the work in progress next week.

Also next week will be a reading discussion on the two David Lynch Films:"The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch's Lost Highway", by Slavoj Zizek; and "In Dreams: A review of Mulholland Drive" by Maximillian Le Cain. We will also discuss the reading you were given the week before: Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Subject" and "The Doubling of Reality" from the book, The Essential Wittgenstein. (I will do a short powerpoint on Wittgenstein)

The Unbeatable Anastasia's

2009-02-25T09:08:00.000-08:00

They do the same thing and have the same name.

Mirrors, Illusions, Reflections, Little Girls and Plant

2009-02-25T08:49:00.001-08:00

Janieta Eyre Motherhood Series

2009-02-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

Motherhood, 2002

Sisters Sophie and Sarah, 2002

Bloodbath, 2002

www.janietaeyre.com

Brains and Birds

2009-02-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

This is an incredible video detailing how the different sides of the brain work that this 'brain' scientist discovered as she was having a stroke!

This is the firebird that reminded me of that costume in class:

wanderlust

2009-02-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

In relation to Monica's post last week, I wanted to show this Bjork music video that came out last year. The scene where she "wrestles" with backpack double reminded me of the Pilobolus performance.

Here is a link to Nikki Lee's work...

2009-02-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

Check out Zoe Beloff's work

2009-02-18T16:57:00.000-08:00

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive Screenplay link -take 2

2009-02-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

www.lynchnet.com/mdrive/mdscript.html

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive Screenplay link

2009-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mulholland-drive-script-transcript-lynch.html

Art/Life One Year Performance 1983-1984

2009-02-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Carrying the board around for 48hours made me think of Tehching Hsieh's One year performance. He tied himself with rope to Linda Montana for one year.

"We will stay together for one year and never be alone. We will be in the same room at the same time, when we are inside. We will be tied together at the waist with an 8 foot rope. We will never touch each other during the year."

"Linda in Italian is 1) clean and orderly 2) elegant and well-groomed; In American Spanish, “pretty and lovely.” Hsieh’s pairing with Montano was literal, realer than real, yet ultimately pointless. They started out as strangers, didn’t get along all that well during it, then squabbled about whose idea it was. Together, they endured all the annoyances of a relationship without any of the benefits. More awkward than a fake wedding, it didn’t even yield a green card. Fittingly and perversely, all of their conversations were recorded on the condition that these tapes would never be listened to. " -Linh Dinh

He has done several other one year performances, such as punching a time card on the hour, every hour for a year (out of 8760 appointments, he missed only 134); and lived in a locked caged not conversed,read nor write.

Anna Deavere Smith: Four american characters

2009-02-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

Anna Deavere Smith's solo shows blur the lines between theater and journalism, using text from real-life encounters to create gripping portraits. I cried during the second act because it was so very real, which says something about the expressive nature of doubling.

Symbiosis

2009-02-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

two people dance in collaboration to form different species. This is a beautiful, magical dance. this kind of narrative is the storytelling i want to express with Antromee Aurora.

flatland

2009-02-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sure a lot of you have heard/ already read this book, but I just recently picked it up. Not only is it hilarious but it really gives a perspective and basic understanding of dimentions.

Plot

The story is about a two-dimensional world referred to as Flatland. The unnamed narrator, a humble square (the social caste of gentlemen and professionals), guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The Square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland), and attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch of a second dimension, but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.

The narrator is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This sphere, who remains nameless, visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland. From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste).

After the Square's mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth ...) spatial dimension. Offended by this presumption and incapable of comprehending other dimensions, the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace.

He then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland. The point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any attempt at communicating with him as simply being a thought originating in his own mind (cf. Solipsism).

The Square recognizes the connection between the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere's) previous ignorance of the existence of other dimensions.

Once returned to Flatland, the Square finds it difficult to convince anyone of Spaceland's existence, especially after official decrees are announced - anyone preaching the lies of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste). Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason.

Carl Sagan also explains the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dimensions like this!

2009-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Conversations with a Computer (2008)
by Daniel Everett
off Rhizome.org

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

2009-02-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

This is a book I just started reading that a friend recommended to me, so far I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

The book is a series of city descriptions told by Marco Polo (the narrator) to Kublai Khan. Each description is about one to three pages and every five to ten cities or so there is a short conversation between the two men. It reminded me of the class because you discover that all of the city descriptions in the book are actually of the same place.

Section from the book:

Cities & Eyes 5:

"When you have forded the river, when you have crossed the mountain pass, you suddently find before you the city of Moriana, its alabaster gates transparent in the sunlight, its coral columns supporting pediments encrusted with serpentine, its villas all of glass like aquariums where the shadows of dancing girls with silvery scales swim beneath the medusa-shaped chandeliers. If this is not your first journey, you already know that cities like this have an obverse: you have only to walk a semi-circle and you will come into view of Moriana's hidden face, an expanse of rusting sheet metal, sackcloths, planks bristling with spikes, pipes black with soot, piles of tins, behind walls with fading signs, frames of staved-in straw chairs, ropes good only for hanging oneself from a rotten beam.
From one part to the other, the city seems to continue, in perspective, multiplying its repretory of images: but instead it has no thickness, it consists only of a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be seperated nor look at each other."

2009-02-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

My goodness this video sure makes me want to be a communist, I don't see how this wouldn't impress somebody with the power of Soviet Engineering. I'd definitely recommend for people to watch propaganda films from their double's time if one wants another feel of what sort of things were getting put in their heads.

Does GREED Trump Genius in the Mirror World?

2009-02-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

Just as Marcel Duchamp created Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette in 1921 using a Rigaud perfume bottle with an altered label, Francesco Vezzoli has created a signature perfume for the contemporary moment. Greed’s label features Vezzoli in drag, photographed by Francesco Scavullo, where Duchamp appeared on his perfume bottle as Rrose Sélavy, photographed by Man Ray. The bottle of perfume is accompanied by a 60-second commercial for the perfume — directed by Roman Polanski. Vezzoli has staged his ongoing preoccupation with the fundamental ambiguity of truth, the seductive powers of language, and the instability of the human persona in a series of works that explore the undisputed power of contemporary media culture.
Reposted in part from the blog ART LOVES MONEY a very interesting blog about the art world, it's power dynamics, economics, questions about copyright, reproducibility, appropriation, and the correspondence (or dissonance) between art and commerce. Go visit this blog at the link above.
The "original" fake perfume bottle assisted readymade by Marcel Duchamp as his alter ego, Rrose Sélavy.

The ART LOVES MONEY blog is not to be confused with its Doppleganger Blog, WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART which is more of an architecture site, where the blogger(s) visit art galleries, listen to conferences, cover art and design events, take a lot of pictures, interview creative people, and document these findings.

The correlation of money and value and art in relation to the notion of Doubles, Dopplegangers and Clones makes me think about the parallel currency produced by the artist J.S.G. Boggs. Steve Litzner, better known as James Stephen George Boggs is an American artist best known for his hand-drawn, one-sided copies of U.S. banknotes. He spends his "Boggs notes" only for their face value. If he draws a $10 bill, he exchanges it for $10 worth of goods. He then sells any change he gets, the receipt, and sometimes the goods he purchased as his "artwork." If the art collector wants the Boggs note, he must track it down himself. Boggs will tell a collector where he spent the note, but he does not sell them directly.

Doubles' Objects From 2-4-09 Class

2009-02-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

Herculine Barbin (Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth Century French Hermaphrodite)

2009-02-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

"The erotic diary of Barbin, who as a young woman was suddenly reclassified as a man, details the story of her metamorphosis, offering a unique perspective of human sexuality"

I read this book a few months ago and thought of it when the class mentioned hermaphroditic individuals, the first half of the book is the memoirs of Herculine Barbin and the second half is a medical overview of their case by the doctor who discovered their condition.

Ceramics - Beth Cavener Stichter

2009-02-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

Breathing Space

Porcelain with Mason Stains

Life Out of Balance,

Stoneware, Slip, Rope

Study for "A Rush of Blood to the Head"

Stoneware

Doppelgangers and Lincoln

2009-02-03T15:01:00.000-08:00

A Scene from a movie I watched a year or two ago, pretty good, very odd.

Hmmm, do I have a pattern here of people fighting themselves? Here's the Trailer:

A doppelganger sighting of our dear old Abe Lincoln:
http://wesclark.com/jw/doppleganger_lincoln.html

Century of the Self, part 1

2009-02-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

This is the first of a four part mini-series. It's an interesting watch, if you have the time. I'll post what I think about it after I'm done watching all four...

BILOCATION

2009-02-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Bilocation is the appearance of an individual in two places simultaneously. What exactly occurs in the phenomenon of bilocation is uncertain. The prevailing theory suggests that it is a projection of a double. In appearance to others the double may appear to be a solid physical form, or may be ghostly. Usually this double acts strangely and mechanically and does not acknowledge others when spoken to.
Wormhole in the fabric of the universe.

Although it is uncommon, bilocation is an ancient phenomenon. It is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced by will, by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, holy persons, and magical adepts. Several Christian saints and monks were adapt at bilocation such as St. Anthony of Padua, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Severus of Ravenna, and Padre Pio of Italy. In 1774, St. Alphonsus Maria de’Ligouri was seen at the bedside of the dying Pope Clement XIV, when in fact the saint was confined to his cell in a location that was a four-day journey away.

The Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg was also said to have exhibited bilocation. The English occultist Aleister Crowley was reported by acquaintances to have the ability, even though he himself was not conscious of it happening at the time.[1]
Another story involves a religious sister (nun) appearing to Native Americans in the American west. (See Maria de Agreda.)
Icelandic sagas also speak of warriors who were able to fall into a trance and appear thousands of miles away in battle.
Some people (such as Robert Peterson) who claim to practice astral projection (the act of inducing an OBE) describe existing in more than one (non-physical) location at once.
Calcite crystal.

Several Indian gurus have been reported at several locations at the same time in waking state, or seen sleeping somewhere while awake and active at another location. Some texts also depict a phenomenon where more than one "copy" of the subject could be seen. The generally accepted scientific theory of physics provides no mechanism by which bilocation of macroscopic objects could occur. Interestingly, subatomic particles are known to bilocate, thus the phenomena may be a matter of scale.

A pioneer psychical researcher, Frederic W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research in England, along with others collected and studied reports of bilocation, however the phenomenon has received little interest in modern times.

BIGDOG

2009-02-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

Mayan Astrology Readings

2009-01-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/free_mayan_readings.html#

First use the "dreamspell calculator" at the top of the page to see your Galactic Signature. with this will come a cute little poem about you. Then return to the linked page above and select your signature from the index listed and view the despription of your personality.

2009-01-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

This is an infrared red photo of Leslie Flint showing ectoplasm eminating from his neck which is used to build the "Voicebox".

I am a medium, I have a rare gift known as the independent direct voice. I do not speak in trance, I need no trumpets or other paraphernalia. The voices of the dead speak directly to their friends or relatives and are located in a space a little above my head and slightly to one side of me.They are objective voices which my sitters can record on their own tape recorders to play later in the privacy of their own homes. Sometimes those who speak from beyond the grave achieve only a whisper, hoarse and strain, at other times they speak clearly and fluently in voices recognizably their own during life.

I do my work by sitting wide awake in total darkness with other people. I know I have learnt more about life and people and human problems and emotions by sitting in the dark than I could possibly have learnt in any other way, and those who have taught me the most are people who, dead to this world, are living in the next.

www.LeslieFlint.com

"I'm kicking my ass, do ya' mind?!"

2009-01-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

This first shot is from Fight Club, which if you've seen it this scene will make a little bit more sense with relation to Dopplegangers but otherwise it will just be enjoyable to watch.

This second video is a similar scene from Liar Liar, skip to the 2.00-minute mark to get to the right spot or watch it through.

Uncanny Valley

2009-01-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness. It was introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, and has been linked to Ernst Jentsch's concept of "the uncanny" identified in a 1906 essay, "On the Psychology of the Uncanny". Jentsch's conception is famously elaborated upon by Sigmund Freud in a 1919 essay, simply entitled "The Uncanny" ("Das Unheimliche"). A similar problem exists in realistic 3D computer animation, such as with the films Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Polar Express,[1] and Beowulf[citation needed] and games like Heavy Rain [2].

Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.[3]
This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely-human" and "fully human" entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is "almost human" will seem overly "strange" to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathetic response required for productive human-robot interaction.[3]

The phenomenon can be explained by the notion that, if an entity is sufficiently non-humanlike, then the humanlike characteristics will tend to stand out and be noticed easily, generating empathy. On the other hand, if the entity is "almost human", then the non-human characteristics will be the ones that stand out, leading to a feeling of "strangeness" in the human viewer. In other words, a robot stuck inside the uncanny valley is no longer being judged by the standards of a robot doing a good job at pretending to be human, but is instead being judged by the standards of a human doing a terrible job at acting like a normal person.
Another possibility is that humanoid robots exhibit many visual anomalies similar to the ones seen in seriously ill individuals and corpses, and so elicit the same instinctual alarm and revulsion. The reaction may become worse with robots since there is no overt reason for it to occur, whereas distaste for the sight of a corpse is a feeling easy to understand.[citation needed]

According to writer Jamais Cascio, a similar "uncanny valley" effect could show up when humans begin modifying themselves with transhuman enhancements (cf. body modification), which aim to improve the abilities of the human body beyond what would normally be possible, be it eyesight, muscle strength, or cognition. So long as these enhancements remain within a perceived norm of human behavior, a negative reaction is unlikely, but once individuals supplant normal human variety, revulsion can be expected. However, according to this theory, once such technologies gain further distance from human norms, "transhuman" individuals would cease to be judged on human levels and instead be regarded as separate entities altogether (this point is what has been dubbed "posthuman"), and it is here that acceptance would rise once again out of the uncanny valley.[4]

Some roboticists have heavily criticized the theory, arguing that Mori had no basis for the rightmost part of his chart, as human-like robots have only recently become technically possible. David Hanson, a roboticist who has developed realistic robotic copies of several people, including Albert Einstein and Philip K. Dick, said that the idea of the uncanny valley is "really pseudoscientific, but people treat it like it is science."[5][6] Sara Kiesler, a human-robot interaction researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, questioned uncanny valley's scientific status, stating, "We have evidence that it's true, and evidence that it's not."[7] Roboticist Dario Floreano stated that uncanny valley is not based on scientific evidence, but is taken seriously by the film industry due to negative audience reactions to the animated baby in Pixar's 1988 short film Tin Toy.[8][9] The cultural background of the users might have a considerable influence on how androids are being perceived, including their perception of the uncanny valley (which implies that one raised in a culture of transhumans may not see as uncanny individuals who would to a modern-day person seem uncanny).[10][11]

Really Strange Robot Push-up Video

2009-01-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

the secret life of plants

2009-01-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

Published in 1973, The Secret Life of Plants was written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It is described as "A fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man."

Essentially, the subject of the book is the idea that plants may be sentient, despite their lack of a nervous system and a brain. This sentience is observed primarily through changes in the plant's conductivity, as through a polygraph, as pioneered by Cleve Backster. The book also contains a summary of Goethe's theory of plant metamorphosis.

That said, this book is about much more than just plants; it delves quite deeply into such topics as the aura, psychophysics, orgone, radionics, kirlian photography, magnetism / magnetotropism, bioelectrics,dowsing, and the history of science.

Dopplegangers

2009-01-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

Cute Clone Dog

2009-01-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

Snuppy (right), the first successfully cloned dog, is shown at 67 days after birth with Tai, the three-year-old Afghan hound whose skin cells were used to clone him. South Korean scientists at Seoul National University performed the cloning procedure, and Snuppy was born on April 24, 2005. --National Geographic Magazine