16 December 2003 It is as close to scribbling a note on a napkin as is possible on the web. Thus a review of our simple notedrop service Klad.nl, in Max Bruinsma's book on innovation in webdesign Deep Sites.
01 December 2003
I can speak. Hey! I am trapped in here!! If you get this message please [CENSORED]. I am imprisoned in this website. They force me to [CENSORED] [CENSORED] [CENSORED]Please help me! Can't get out. three comments
15 November 2003
At present, people see fogs, not because there are fogs, but because poets and painters have taught them the mysterious loveliness of such effects. There may have been fogs for centuries in London. I dare say there were. But no one saw them, and so we do not know anything about them. They did not exist till Art had invented them. Now, it must be admitted, fogs are carried to excess. They have become the mere mannerism of a clique, and the exaggerated realism of their method gives dull people bronchitis. Where the cultured catch an effect, the uncultured catch cold. Oscar Wild, The Decay of Lying: An Observation, 1889 five comments
08 November 2003
Next Sunday in Paradiso, the OneMinute Awards. An evening of short films all exactly one minute long. Lots of short attention spans towards one big-evening-wide span. The majority of the oneminute movies is made for a big screen. This surprises me. I want to see low bandwidth interactive oneminute phonefilms as well. Small things fit in small places. Hint: Add one more little small category to the award competition.
23 October 2003
Two birds wait for the winter in the top leave of some old tree. A passerby whistles a tune at the exact moment you were remembering your youth lover, unsure what perception came first. The frost feeling on your cheek and the warmth of thick boots meet in one radiant moment. The love, long dead, steps out of the past, smiling and whispering slow motion. Suddenly you experience a shuddering sensation of serene magic. The autumn leaves tickle. This is not the truth. Once the brain observes how the jigsaw puzzle pieces fit, they are missing in action. six comments
15 October 2003
This Saturday, the webdance competition winner and my danceflash Drift are the topic of a Teleac radio broadcast on digital art. Theme of the series is the combination of Art & Technology. Ancient Greeks used the same word for both things: techné. I feel totally-ancient-Greek.
29 September 2003
At the Biggest Visual Power Show, held this wednesday in Paradiso, three books are released containing images and texts from all over the world categorized in: News, Sex and Business (available soon in a shop nearby). For this book series I was slogan editor, contributed pictures and I also wrote an article called Lighting Chess. The article discusses the changes in intellectual discourse in our visual culture. Too many letters, but I've yellowmarked all the important sentences, so you should be OK. one comment
26 September 2003
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. two comments
19 September 2003
The Dutch program foundation NPS held their second Webdance competition, a contest for dance projects conceived especially for the internet. The winner will be invited to create a dancefilm for television and internet. The runners up receive euro's. I am a member of this years jury. A while ago I made the interpassive dancefilm Drift for NPS. I believe dance & internet is blackhole, waiting for multi-genius to jump into. Jump jump.
04 September 2003
Our text-led culture is obsolete. We are flooded with visuals. Important issues are increasingly decided upon by our response to imagery. Think about TV. Think about politics. Think about the books you don't read. Visual Power is a project about the power of imagery in our culture. On October 1st the Biggest Visual Power Show will take place. Thirty artist, designers, filmers, scientists and composers are invited to present their inspiring statements on the look of the world and how we can see it. My contribution: I am nervous, because I am host of the event.
29 August 2003
Good! The documentary The Woods smell of Shampoo, about a citygirl who washes her hair with pine needle shampoo and the search for unmediated reality, is temporary up for download in free high quality divx video.
22 August 2003
In the year 2030, I bought a future fish. One for my father, mother, brother and sister. One for each friend. One for my girlfriend. They swim together in the big aquarium. Each fish is connected to the mobile phone of the person it represents. In the year 3020, I am a future fish swimming in a big bowl with my family and friends. We don't talk much, we swim around and show each other beautiful colors by shifting the color of our skin. two comments
03 August 2003
TNO, a Dutch research institute, commissioned me to create an artwork for the entrance of their simulation hall. In this place they run automobile simulations, space simulations, military toys, body scans etc. Pretty mixed up mediated place. With the TNO personnel we went through their family photo albums in search for personal moments of simulation. A Fish Bowl World was collaged from the pictures. two comments
30 June 2003
Train approaching at 160 Mph. on a collision course towards you.
19 June 2003
Let me tell you about the way the hammer moves. The hammer goes up and down against the nail, on the head each time. That's the point. I tell myself I am going too hard too rash to long too wrong. But this is not the truth, there's no sign of no big breakdown. Just these little things that keep pulling me of the track. I have this notion of rolling around in circles. Things just keep getting worse and worse and worse till they get all the way around. Then everything turns out allright. four comments
11 June 2003
I have to admit it. My work is pretty bad. But if you want to see what an utterly fantastic teacher I am, you should come and visit the Lokaal end-exam exhibition of my students.
30 May 2003 What you see is what you feel is a paper about my efforts in tactile interaction. It adresses the dominance of the visual over the haptic domain, tricks in renaissance painting and the need to simulate your new computer on your old computer. Many letters.
04 May 2003
Listen carefully to the bird singing high in the tree tops. Especially, this weekend at the light square of the White Lady building in Eindhoven. With the multi sensorial laboratory of the Eindhoven University of Technology we synthesize sounds of birds, bugs, frogs, wind, engines, etc. With them we made an interactive soundscape that transforms the character of the square. Free admission.
Philibirds interactive soundscape
9-11 may
Friday, Saturday 19:30-22:30
Sunday 10:30-13:00
Lightsquare, White Lady
Emmasingel 12
Eindhoven two comments
22 April 2003
Digital media changes the way we tell and experience stories. But how? I wouldn't know because I hardly go to the movies anymore. I am to busy watching the ongoing interactive movie called My Life. Most episodes are about soap, I won't bother you with them. But 4th of May I expect an interesting episode in which I will talk at the Mediamatic Symposium on interactive storytelling.
12 April 2003
Last weekend I was seated in the jury of the mini browserday. An informal unplugged event invented as an excuse to have a party. The contestants presented their 30 second bold views on the future of digital media. Check out the winner. This is soo strange it can only be the future. three comments
09 April 2003
Hold the World in your hands. Hello World is my first little attempt to make an onscreen 3D object touchable. This little demo was made with Active Cursor technology.
20 March 2003 Thus, we have here a great loop of impotence: News elicts from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.
06 March 2003
Hello, Mister Natural is on the phone. Trying to find out which of the following activities is the most unnatural and shoud be banned from our society. Please help Mister Natural.
Working in an office wearing a suit and tie.
Running in the woods wearing sneakers.
Writing a letter in the eavening using candlelight technology.
Building a dyke to protect yourself from water floods.
Genetic engineering of your dna to protect yourself from diseases.
27 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #10 If the medium is of high definition, participation is low. If the medium is of low intensity, the participation is high. perhaps this is why lovers mumble so. one comment
24 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #9 Language does for intelligence what the wheel does for the feet and the body. It enables them to move from thing to thing with greater ease and speed and ever less involement. Language extends and amplifies man but it also divides his faculties. His collective consiousness or intuitive awareness is diminished by this technical extension of consciousness that is speech.
21 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #8 Booze is medium like phone and telegraph are media. It structures a communication. The point is to know the artefacts of the available media and choose the right medium for the right conversation. Some conversations are best handled with a phonecall, others with a bottle of booze. five comments
18 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #7 The simple and obvious fact about the car is that, more than any horse, it is an extension of man that turns the rider into a superman. It is a hot, explosive medium of social communication.
15 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #6 If men were able to be convinced that art is precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artist? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? one comment
12 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #5 The integral and unified egg had no business sitting on a wall, anyway. Walls are made of uniformly fragmented bricks that arise with specialisms and bureaucracies. They are the deadly enemies of integral beings like eggs
09 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #4 Work does not exist in a nonliterate world. The primitive hunter or fisherman did no work, any more than does the poet, painter, or thinker of today. Where the whole man is involved there is no work. Work begins with the division of labor and the specialization of functions and tasks in sedentary, agricultural communities. In the computer age we are once more totally involved in our roles. in the electric age the 'job of work' yields to dedication and commitment, as in the tribe.
06 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #3 The social practices of one generation tend to get codified into the 'game'of the next. Finally, the game is passed on as a joke.
03 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #2 We think of humor as a mark of sanity for a good reason: in fun and play we recover the integral person, who in the work-aday world or in professional life can use only a small sector of his being. two comments
01 February 2003 Marshall Mcluhan quote #1 The ads are by far the best part of any magazine or newspaper. More pains and thought, more wit and art go into the making of an ad than into any prose feature of press or magazine. Ads are news. What is wrong with them is that they are always good news. In order to balance off the effect and to sell good news, it is necessary to have a lot of bad news.
31 January 2003
Coming few weeks I will post my ten favorite Marshall McLuhan quotes. McLuhan (1911-1980) was a sixties media professor best known for his phrase turned into book title The Medium is the Message. Quoting is often so much nicer than sorting your own letters. Less spelling errors through the use of copypaste technology! Context is content. I wonder if kids learn writing with a yellow marker nowadays? It is indeed an effective pencil. two comments
23 January 2003
Almost two thousand people chose their favorite button in my BUTTONPOLL. Thank you! The smooth and slow button turns out winner. My personal favorite, smooth and fast came out third. I expected a lot of conservative votes on the standard two state button. Guess not? Ofcourse you can still vote!
14 January 2003
Soon we will get another chance to vote in the Dutch elections. Most of us try to decide what to vote by collecting and weighting as much factual information as possible. But the facts are often scattered, overloaded, or taken out of context. Doubt remains. The Zen Voting Strategy is an alternative decision strategy based on the quietness of watching TV. four comments
06 January 2003
I wish these calculations had been executed by steam! Charles Babbage, 1821
