V&A doors by George Cullen

 

Rotating doors at Victoria and Albert museum (by George Cullen). One of those instants of cinematic poetry, if there is one...

Brief Permanence @ Cambridge

PRIVATE VIEW
28th January 2012
from 18.00
100 Regent Street 
Cambridge 
Cambridgeshire 
CB2 1DP

ROLAND BRAUCHLI
EGIDIJA ČIRICAITĖ WADE
GEORGE CULLEN
RENEE FISHER
ROBERT GOOD
JUKHEE KWON
LISA WILKENS
PATSY RATHBONE

Brief Permanence is an exhibition showing the works of eight artists whose practices explore the boundaries of what a book is and can be. Using a variety of different media such as sculpture, installation, collage and video the book as container of knowledge and object of culture is reconsidered and reconstructed.

Brief Permanence is a collaboration of recent MA Book Arts and MA Printmaking graduates from Camberwell College and MFA Fine Arts graduates from Cambridge School of Art.

http://briefpermanence.blogspot.com/

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Supersymmetry and broken symmetry

 

From The Hunt for Higgs: A Horizon Special.:

In the standard model symmetry rules. The laws are dictated - really - in their form by requiring tremendous amounts symmetry. That's how we found them.

Paradox:

If the laws of science are framed in their most perfect most symmetrical form, than  life cannot exist at all.  

A universe created along absolute symmetric principles would be in perfect balance and would cancel itself out. There'd be no mass, Higs - or matter at all.

In short, 
broken symmetry creates
imperfection is productive

Symmetry

A beautiful video from Everyone. 

The aesthetics algorithm or rationalizing the eye of the beholder.

Kaunas 1

Kaunas 2

Which one of those two photos would you prefer? Which one of those two photos would I prefer? Xerox knows the answer.

The eye of the beholder has lost the crown  - your preferences have just been rationalized. Pure scientific analysis that one day will make Google Image Search like a trip to the gallery.

The idea is very exciting indeed and certainly hugely applicable. Yet, I would be greatly disappointed to find the software in my camera. It is those shit framed and poorly lit photos that generally produce the most interesting material. And they make the Google Image Search more exciting.

The aesthetics algorithm.

What is it?

The algorithm is a key part of a system that can sort photos by how aesthetically pleasing they are. The system's been developed at Xerox Research Center Europe in France.

How does the system work?

It studies photographs where the subject matter is known - pictures tagged "boat" or "flower" or Flickr., for example - and analyses their characteristics. This allows an algorithm - a set of instructions a computer can follow - to recognise other images in the same category.

What about aesthetics?

Images known to look good, such as examples rated as high quality on Flikr, are also analysed. Common characteristics are noted and used by algorithm for its selection. Those characteristics show a distict similarity to what experts already know makes a good photo.

Who would want to use this?

It could help you choose the best images from all those snaps you inevitably take while you 're on holiday. Or, if it is built into a camera, it could allow lower quality images to be wiper out instantly, so they don't clog your memory card. 

When will I be able to use this?

The system will be tested this year by Xerox's corporate partners, including photographic agencies and design firms. A more advanced version should be available commercially within two to four years.

From BBC Focus Feb. 2012

Memory is not history: interview with Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis.

From an interviu with Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis by Zigmas Vitkus.

Memory is not history. I understand memory in rather simple terms: memory is what people remember, or - more specifically - what they say they remember. Sometimes it comes from a personal experience, sometimes from stories. I separate personal memory from collective memory, because the latter one often acquires mythologial features. I understand history as a science in terms of historical analysis and reconstruction, based on certain research methods acknowledeged by research institutes. It is a kind of reflective, questioning and critical relationship with past, open to further interpretations.


Sometimes history and authentic historical memory get compromised. It may happen, when traumatized collective conscience needs explanations, to relieve a psychological burden of painful experiences. This forms favorable conditions to the rise of oppressive stereotypes and myths. I think it is important to avoid ideological statements when we talk about wars, occupations, resistence, genocide. These are the subjects that have an obvious moral and ethical context. Indeed, whenever we talk about a widespread brutality, especially when it concerns those close to us, we do ask the question “what are we - good or evil?”. I believe, that we need to project our history from a variety of angles  to avoid selecting the facts favourible to a specific interpretation. Only then our memory traditions (culture) will improve.

from Bernardinai 12/01/02

Tonis Saadoja & Flo Kasearu. "21.05.09" / "14.06.09" @ ŠMC, Vilnius

Tonis Saadoja @ ŠMC, Vilnius

Tonis Saadoja @ ŠMC, Vilnius

Flo Kasearu @ ŠMC, Vilnius

Flo Kasearu @ ŠMC, Vilnius

Two young generation Estonian artists Tonis Saadoja and Flo Kasearu present their works "21.05.09" / "14.06.09".

Tonis Saadoja’s photo installation "14.06.09" refers to the date of the first mass deportation in Estonia by the Soviet troops in 1941. The photos are taken in Tallinn the same night 68 years later, each portraying an empty crossroad. Although the portrayed locations have individually no specific connection to historic deportation sites, and rather follow a mind construction ,what if it happened today, the pictures are displayed in a sequence from the late 19th century bourgeois suburb towards the modernist Soviet blocks of houses of 1980s.
Presented as a lightbox installation the work physically influences the viewers’ control over the surrounding space, serving as a memorial piece to situations where human control is replaced by force majeure.

The lightbox installation is accompanied by a video work "21.05.09" (aka ESC) by Flo Kasearu referring to an awkward real life incident with escaped hippodrome horses galloping in a desolate Tallinn some years ago on the night of the 21st of May. Being partly a reconstruction of the documentary events the video features a digital high speed graffiti displayed on the facades of Tallinn. The expressive galloping of a symbolic white horse in a desperate boy racer situation leads to a powerful trip through the city presented from a perspective of the invisible persuader.