MachineMachine /stream

keytweeter

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:26:00 -0700

A twitter user who logs and archives every key he presses on his computer keyboard: 39doc↵of↵↓↵↓↵↓↵ar↓↵it was runningoh ok↵this morning the code i was writing↵last night i mentioned it was running slow↵like 10 fps↵now it's 4 0 fps↵there thanks :)↵there was somethingthere was something i wforgot←→ to tweak↵so it wasn't approximating as many things as it could be↵:

The Unveiled Divide

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:50:00 -0700

The object holds within itself a series of meanings and values, both imminent and latent. The Berlin Wall, long standing as a symbol of closure, restriction and confinement, came down as a symbol of movement, release and freedom. The Berlin Wall embodies each and every one of these meanings, whilst latent within it stir the possibility of yet more, as now, unseen symbolic possibilities.

In Roman law objects belonging to the Gods were ascribed as sacred. Sacred objects exist removed from the world of…

A new profane triptych from Triptych Industries Inc. : hellograndad.com

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:39:00 -0700

therourke: A new profane triptych from Triptych Industries Inc. : http://hellograndad.com

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:01:00 -0700

Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?” And I’ll pass it, because I know exactly which piece he means. Lego nomenclature is essential for family Lego building. “Dad, I’m building a roof for the medical pod, but I need a hinge-y bit to make it open up. You know, one of those four-er flat hinge-y bits.”

Simulating Kim Jong Il

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:28:00 -0700

Will the real Kim Jong Il please stand up?

The idea of Kim Jong Il has become commodity. There is a reality inside North Korea, and there is another outside. Which is real and which is simulation?

For the past half decade an excess of images, simulations and caricatures of the North Korean leader have bombarded us. The media of excess has repeated the mantra of simulation in bold headlines, in news-print and digital text : “Is…

First computer to sing - Daisy Bell

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:20:00 -0700

Kim Jong Il and?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:18:00 -0700

Mr. Daniel posted a photo:

www.flickr.com/photos/indignico/sets/72157600017697735/

Profane Prisms

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:14:00 -0700

by artist Koizumi Meiro

“It is a delimitation of spaces and times, of the visible and the invisible, of speech and noise, that simultaneously determines the place and the stakes of politics as a form of experience. Politics revolves around what is seen and what can be said about it, around who has the ability to see and the talent to speak, around the properties of spaces and the possibilities of time.”

Jacques Rancière, The Distribution of…

listen to Resonance FM (104.4 or resonancefm.com) from 7pm - Holly Pester and others debate The Poetics of Twitter

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:53:00 -0700

therourke: listen to Resonance FM (104.4 or http://resonancefm.com) from 7pm - Holly Pester and others debate The Poetics of Twitter

IMG MGMT: Teen Image

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:06:00 -0700

IMG MGMT is an annual image-based artist essay series. Today’s invited artist, Seth Price presents an essay challenging the traditional photo essay format. 1. Ritualized Unknowing People keep trying to get a handle on what’s happening. There’s a fear that others are hastening to make startling connections among the raw material, tracing lines between points we didn’t even know existed. Exacerbating this anxiety is the fact that despite its supposed insistence on the consolidation of knowledge and the worth of information, the Internet produces ritualized unknowing. You could say, however, that this is a good thing, for it provokes a…

does anyone have Google Wave yet? connect with me at therourke@googlewave.com

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:32:00 -0700

therourke: does anyone have Google Wave yet? connect with me at therourke@googlewave.com

The Future of Reading

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0700

The future of reading is very much in doubt. In this century, reading could soar to new heights or crash and burn. Some educators and librarians fear that sustained reading for learning, for work, and for pleasure may be slowly dying out as a widespread social practice. Only at living history farms will we see people reading. For decades the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has been studying the reading habits of adult Americans, issuing a series of reports with rousingly alliterative titles such as “Reading at Risk” (July 2004) and “Reading on the Rise” (January 2009). Sometime in…

Mapping The Cracks: Thinking Subjects as Book Objects

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:02:00 -0700

In Part One of this article I wrote about the instability of the art-object. How its meaning moves, and inevitably cracks. In this follow-up I ponder text, the book, page and computer screen. Are they as stable as they appear? And how can we set them in motion?
Part Two
"There’s a way, it seems to me, that reality’s fractured right now, at least the reality that I live in. And the difficulty about... writing about that reality is that text is very linear and it’s very unified, and... I, anyway, am constantly on the lookout for…

Microsoft Office Labs 2019 Vision Montage

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:55:00 -0700

Innovative Book Designs

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:37:00 -0700

Innovative Books: I am looking to compile a list of the most innovative uses of the book format. Books that break the mould in their layout and design, perhaps books that use online systems to extend their content value or push their form into new places. I am most interested in narrative and theory, but any book that is interesting (artist books etc.) would be really appreciated. I have a few examples, in order of publication, to set the ball rolling:

Compendium for literates : a system of writing by Karl Gerstner - A book about book form…

Beauty, Art, and Darwin

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:37:00 -0700

It is possible that we have a kind of built-in moral resistance to the runaway pathologies now visible in the arts. Where did that resistance come from? Judging from his new book Beauty, Roger Scruton’s idea of a nice view would probably be the Wiltshire countryside circa 1750, and a scene like that on his homepage. In contrast, judging from Denis Dutton’s Darwinian The Art Instinct, a congenial vista for that author might be Ethiopia’s Omo Valley circa 1,000,000 BC. Yet in spite of these differences I expect that across a wide range of cultural artefacts and activities both their…

The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:32:00 -0700

In depicting the emergence of the world’s languages as a curse of gibberish, the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel makes us moderns smile. Yet, considering the headache that 6,000 languages can induce in real life, the story makes a certain sense. Not long ago, 33 of the FBI’s 12,000 employees spoke Arabic, as did 6 of the 1,000 employees at the American Embassy in Iraq. How can we significantly improve that situation is a good question. It’s hard to learn Arabic, and not only because it’s hard to pick up any new language. Iraqi Arabic is actually one…

The Library in the New Age

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:19:00 -0700

Information is exploding so furiously around us and information technology is changing at such bewildering speed that we face a fundamental problem: How to orient ourselves in the new landscape? What, for example, will become of research libraries in the

Troubling new revelations about Arendt and Heidegger

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:20:00 -0700

Will we ever be able to think of Hannah Arendt in the same way again? Two new and damning critiques, one of Arendt and one of her longtime Nazi-sycophant lover, the philosopher Martin Heidegger, were published within 10 days of each other last month. The pieces cast further doubt on the overinflated, underexamined reputations of both figures and shed new light on their intellectually toxic relationship. Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Single PageSINGLE PAGE Yahoo! BuzzFacebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE My hope is that these…

Announcing: MachineMachine Radio!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:18:00 -0700

MachineMachine is an unintentional, somewhat rhythmic, eruption involving to-and-fro movements (oscillations) of one or more aural parts. MachineMachine instigates involuntary cultural tremors and can affect the hands, arms, head, face, vocal cords, trunk, legs, elbows, ears and spleen. MachineMachine is making discordant.

Listen to MachineMachine live at Wired Radio every Friday from 5pm

COMING SOON: Full track listings, podcasts and news. What even is this?