Here It Goes Again

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs

March 5th, 2010

 

From Dangerous Minds: "Let's face it, with all of the many, many entertainment choices we have facing us, every minute of every single day, when it comes to the matter of what we choose to give our precious attention to, music videos tend to rank pretty low on the totem pole. There's probably a pretty compelling reason MTV is no longer calling itself a music channel. So '80s, isn't it? A three-minute music video? Who has the time?

 

So when you hear about some cool new music video — maybe your tweeps told you about it — it had, well, better be good. Chicago-based indie rockers OK Go know this. Their 2006 video, Here It Goes Again, featuring the group doing a synchronized dance routine on treadmills, has been viewed by about 50 million people, so the follow-up had, well, better be good too.

 

Trust me, it's great. I could describe for you the Rube Goldberg-inspired centerpiece of the new This Too Shall Pass video, but since their record company finally relented and allowed the piece to be embedded (I mean, what was that all about?), you can simply press play and see for yourself.

 

Engineered with help from CalTech and MIT, and built by Syyn Labs, the video — and its kinetic sculpture centerpiece — is nothing short of astonishing. Like its predecessor, it's bound to snag all kinds of kudos and awards."

 

Also, don't hesitate to review Fischli & Weiss' Der Lauf der Dinge.

Crystal World and Missed Connections

or (Radical) Constructivism

February 25th, 2010

 

From Wikipedia: "Constructivism criticizes objectivism, which embraces the belief that a human can come to know external reality (the reality that exists beyond one's own mind). Constructivism holds the opposite view, that the only reality we can know is that which is represented by human thought (assuming a disbelief or lack of faith in a superhuman God). Reality is independent of human thought, but meaning or knowledge is always a human construction. (...)

Constructivism proposes new definitions for knowledge and truth that forms a new paradigm, based on inter-subjectivity instead of the classical objectivity and viability instead of truth. The constructivist point of view is pragmatic as Vico said: 'the truth is to have made it'. (...)

 

'And, irrespective of what one might assume, in the life of a science, problems do not arise by themselves. It is precisely this that marks out a problem as being of the true scientific spirit: all knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no question, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed.' (Gaston Bachelard, La formation de l'esprit scientifique, 1934)

 

'My hand feels touched as well as it touches; that's reality, and nothing more.' (Paul Valéry)"

 

Also check out this Radical Constructivism and Daily Life video by Ernst von Glasersfeld.

MacGuffin

Nothing at all

February 18th, 2010

 

From Wikipedia: "The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term MacGuffin and the technique. (...)

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is 'a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction.'

Sometimes, the specific nature of the MacGuffin is not important to the plot such that anything that serves as a motivation serves its purpose. The MacGuffin can sometimes be ambiguous, completely undefined, generic or left open to interpretation."

 

From The Colombus Dispatch: "The best way to spot a true MacGuffin is to substitute anything else for it and ask whether the movie would change. If the microfilm in North by Northwest were papers or jewels or a safe-deposit box key, would the rest of the movie change? Not at all.

While the MacGuffin propels the story, it shouldn't be mistaken for an essential plot device. The shark in Jaws isn't a MacGuffin but a key character. It has to be a shark, or the story can't be told. (...)

As Hitchcock said of the microfilm in North by Northwest: 'Here, you see, the MacGuffin has been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!'"

After laughter

Valentine's Day

February 14th, 2010

 

"Ada's letters breathed, writhed, lived; Van's Letters from Terra, 'a philosophical novel,' showed no sign of life whatsoever."

"Finito! It was now the forming of soft black pits (yamï, yamishchi) in her mind, between the dimming sculptures of thought and recollection, that tormented her phenomenally; mental panic and physical pain joined black-ruby hands, one making her pray for sanity, the other, plead for death."

(from "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle" by Vladimir Nabokov)

 

If you are interested in my favourite book, the one above all others, check out this fantastic online resource.

 

(Painting by Eric Fischl)

These Are The Moments

by Matthew Hoffman (2009)

February 11th, 2010

The Glass House Conversations

at the Philip Johnson Glass House

February 7th, 2010

 

From Design Observer: "Since it reopened last year, the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, has been the venue of a series of intimate conversations. They've been moderated by, among others, Roger Mandle, Laurie Beckelman, Maurice Cox, and John Maeda; the themes have included Breaking the Rules, Transparency, and Design and Civic Leadership."

How to Make Trillions of Dollars

by David Cain
January 29th, 2010

Via Raptitude: "The big money isn't in creating products, it's in creating customers. A single, lifelong customer who lives his life spending the way you want him to is worth six or seven figures. A single one. Creating millions of these is the only way to make trillions.

You can make millions by selling a great product to people who need it, but you make billions and trillions by conditioning an entire nation of people to react to every inconvenience, every whim, and every passing desire or fear by buying something. […]

You are being encouraged, from virtually every angle, to become or remain unhealthy and unfulfilled, because then you will buy more. Not to make you paranoid, but that's the primary purpose of the glowing rectangle in your living room — to encourage poor (but not quite failing) health, general complacency, and an unconscious reflex for parting with money."

Loslassen

Keep those tears hid out of sight, let it loose, let it all come down.

January 29th, 2010

 

to disengage

to loose

to release

to relinquish

to unclasp

to unhand

to lay so. to rest

to let go

to let loose

to let sth. loose

to loose one's hold on sth.

to lose one's hold of

to release a load

End of 2009

Ten points - Dix point - Zehn Punkte
December 31st, 2009

Coffee In 2009 I celebrated my addiction to coffee. Had the best in Milan, right across from the hotel where I stayed for a week while teaching at NABA. The lady who made it was in her 80s. 7am in the morning, the air clean and the heat still asleep.

Film Keep The River On Your Right is a fascinating movie because its subject is so fascinating. Calm, pleasant, self-deprecating, Schneebaum manages to draw you in to his obsessions and joys.

Insight The results of my Five Factor Model or FFM test. In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which have been scientifically discovered to define human personality at the highest level of organization. Who beats my 97% openness?

Occupation One song, repeat mode, glue, scissors, three scraps of paper.

Quote "When the shadow of your house would be your home, the moment of arrival would determine where home is" by Tomas Schats.

Role model for coming of age Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009)

Song Murphy's Law, sure out to get you!

Talk Joseph Campbell - Transformations of Myth Through Time consists of 14 hour-long programs selected from over 50 hours of Campbell lectures and is introduced by "THE HERO'S JOURNEY," an award-winning biographical film.

TV series Big Love, a fair portrayal of polygamy without being judgmental. The series' theme song is God Only Knows by The Beach Boys.

Website I check out This isn't happiness nearly every day and it nevver fails to surprise, irritate and delight me.

So, here we are... And what is next?

Königin der Nacht

Minnie Riperton performs "Loving You" on Soul Train

December 24th, 2009

 

Lovin' you I see your soul come shinin' through.