Roy Ascott
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Roy Ascott is a visiting professor for Design|Media Arts at UCLA, a pioneer of telematic art, and a seminal theorist in the field of new media.
Syncretic Reality and the Technoetic Universe

The convergence of silicon-dry computational systems and wet biological processes provides new media for all creative fields. The human mind and telematic systems are interacting to produce a new sense of self and planetary consciousness. Immaterial connectedness defines both quantum reality and the spiritual domain. The biophotonic information network of the body can be seen to parallel the telematic flows of electrons and photons across the planet. From this ontological horizon, certain questions arise: Are we developing a syncretic reality that merges mixed reality technology, altered states of consciousness, and conflicting models of reality governed by metaphors of biology, quantum physics, language and social habit? Is our drive to created wider and deeper and faster networks an evolutionary impulse to engage more fully with universal mind? Does the telematic field of cyberception attempt to mirror or even augment our awareness of the field of consciousness? Are there teleological promptings and purposive impulses in our own DNA? Is our interest in the hybridization of forms related to an emergent hybridization of space? Are online gaming and other instruments of digital entertainment merely ephemeral distractions or might they contribute to processes of world-building and planetary consciousness that political strategies cannot reach? These questions are compounded by what we do not know about dark matter and dark energy, the location of mind, the nature of qualia, purpose in evolutionary processes; the complexity of energy fields. Syncretism, well recognised historically as an attempt to reconcile and analogise disparate religious beliefs and cultural practices - seeking likeness within unlike things - may now serve us in understanding the multi-layered world views, both material and metaphysical, that are emerging from our engagement with pervasive computational technologies and post-biological systems.

I also found this little weird video randomly when searching telematics:
mars : 2068 - by lawine torrèn

Mon, Apr 30, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

The Secret
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

So, I kind of overheard about this "secret" thing, kinda heard Oprah saying something about it. Having a clean house you can have a better life or something. Well I decided to find out what this whole thing is about. It's about the Law of Attraction. Here is the first 20 minutes of the docufilm:

In a way it's related to what I was researching last night about Metaphysics and how mind and matter are much different things. Just reading about metaphysics on wikipedia engages me and wants me to go find old philosophy books and start reading like a madman.

Mon, Apr 30, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Nikola Tesla
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Part 1 of 4 Documentary about Nikola Tesla

Sun, Apr 29, 2007  Permanent link
Categories: Nikola Tesla
Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Recent Research
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

So, for the past few hours I've been researching metaphysics, quantum physics, secret societies, mind control, teleportation, and Nikola Tesla. My objective is to find the relation to memory and to make a respective project.

The first film is a montage put together by a student with many clips from Waking Life and What the Bleep Do We Know?


Nikola Tesla
I never knew anything about Tesla, never really even heard of him before this evening/morning. I found out that Tesla was a former apprentice to Edison and eventually became the arch rival of Edison. It seems that the U.S. has much of Tesla's work hidden, one being the death ray, forcefields, and other things that could be used for the military. He was an enormously influencial man for technology, alternating current, x-rays, the official inventor of the radio. He was brilliant, the only things that troubled me when reading was that he was celibate and possibly an anti-semite. Most interesting was his theorhetical inventions, maybe because the could have existed or may soon exist:
The single strangest invention Tesla ever proposed was probably the "thought photography" machine. He reasoned that a thought formed in the mind created a corresponding image in the retina, and the electrical data of this neural transmission could be read and recorded in a machine. The stored information could then be processed through an artificial optic nerve and played back as visual patterns on a viewscreen.
Tesla patents including theorhetical and claimed inventions

I also came upon this interesting wiki: Meaning of Life One part of the Existentialist View that interested me: Søren Kierkegaard invented the term "leap of faith" and argued that life is full of absurdity and the individual must make his or her own values in an indifferent world. For Kierkegaard, an individual can have a meaningful life (at least one free of despair) if the individual relates the self in an unconditional commitment to something finite, and devotes his or her life to the commitment despite the inherent vulnerability of doing so.

Sun, Apr 29, 2007  Permanent link
Categories: metaphysics, quantum physics, secret societies, mind control, teleportation, Nikola Tesla
Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Son of a bitch
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

So, I had just wrote a whole entry about the refinement of people and their consequent evolution in relation to computers. Of course my browser was "not responding" and I lost it, which maybe comments on my lost entry to say that sometimes you can't always rely on computers.

Thu, Apr 26, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Sans Soleil
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Once again, Chris Marker, and amazing, take a look...

Fri, Apr 20, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

La Jetée
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Part 1/3

Directed by Chris Marker
A short french film about memory, time, and perception.
"Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments, only afterwards do they claim rememberance on account of their scars."

Fri, Apr 20, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Inspiring or Scary?
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

I just watched all 6 of the movies on the space collective homepage and while most of it was inspiring, I found some of it kind of scary. One of the clips even has a picture from an incident that happened 2 days ago, that was fast. It makes me think that the people who created those videos are leaning on the pessimistic side which inherently does not inspire. I like the visuals and thought of nanobots though. I think we should just edit all the war and pessimism out and make a long clip which is optimistic. Any thoughts?

Thu, Apr 19, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

History
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Why are we going to space?
To save ourselves, to save our humanity and in turn to save our history. I think our history needs to be addressed for space collective and space colonies. How do we save our history? Is it just pictures and text in a book or a website? People seem to be drawn to history, seeing things others have seen, studying people, places and concepts of the past. Trying to learn from our mistakes. How do we bring this with us or continue our tradition of connecting to history in a tactile way?

Mon, Apr 16, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

Bare Necessities
Project: Design Media Arts at UCLA

"The Primitive Hut for the 21st Century aims to combine the essential elements of shelter—earth, the hearth, framework, roof structure—with the expediency of digital technology. The lightweight, enclosing membrane enables the building to respond automatically to climate changes and to allow its occupants to program the internal environment of the building."

Open House

Mon, Apr 16, 2007  Permanent link

Sent to project: Design Media Arts at UCLA