Alex Gibson's blog

NYID Real Estate endeavour to ensure the process of buying and selling a house should be not just about the real estate but also the memory, the history and the accumulated experiences of the property

I have created a new website for artistic collaboration... check it out here:
www.collaborativecommons.com

I have done a quick revamp of polyopticon.org... new menus, front page, buttons, layout.

It is cleaner, more functional with a kind of software approach to design... will probably keep fiddling with it though. I have dreams of getting some funding and making this site something very special.

I have been designing a website for a gallery/ site specific project in Frankston. Its very interesting, they pay artists to make work for either a gallery, light boxes, shipping containers or an 'open' site. Definitely worth checking out. www.whitestreetproject.org

I am going to a workshop about Open Sourced art!!

http://www.anat.org.au/stillopen/about.php

"""You have been successful in gaining a place in the Still/Open workshop
series as part of ANAT's Media Lab 07 Program.

Australian Network for Art and  Technology (ANAT) is supported by the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy, an  initiative of the Australian, State and
Territory Governments;  the Australian Government through  the Australia
Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South  Australian
Government through Arts SA."""

Google is a pretty amazing corporation. I generally hate corporations as a rule. It is a corrupt and corrupting system for trade and organisation, however Google is less bad than the others. It has so much creativity. Sure it is all about capturing an audience for advertising (zzzzz) but it is also about making genuinely useful widgets for people to organise information, etc... Here is a custom search engine for polyopticon.org - by Google...

What is hyperspace?

"Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source
hyperspace 

"space of more than three dimensions," 1867, from hyper- + space (n.). A hybrid; correctly formed it would be superspace.

"Duchamp approached the topic of the fourth dimension by way of what is usually called—the idea is less mysterious than it may sound at first—"n -dimensionality." Starting from a figure of any given number of dimensions, n , one can progress by ordinary, commonsense operations to one that has n + 1 dimensions. Thus, in geometry a single point has zero dimensions, but any two points define a line, which has one dimension; any two lines or any line rotated around one of its points creates a plane, a two-dimensional figure; any two planes, or any plane figure rotated on one of its edges, creates a volume, a three-dimensional space or object. If we extend the same thinking beyond the world we know, then it appears that a three-dimensional figure, similarly rotated through one of its plane sides ought to produce a four-dimensional continuum. Physically we can't experience this fourth dimension, but in the mind it seems to bear the same relationship to the world we do experience that familiar elements of that world bear to each other. We understand what it means to progress from one dimension to two, and from two to three: why stop there? Our way of thinking about experience seems to demand that we presume the fourth dimension as a possibility, albeit one into which we can never enter.^[20]"

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The strangest thing about seeing a picture of another galaxy or even an artist’s rendition of the Milky Way is that it exposes our heliocentricity. Consider the enormous sum of suns within a galaxy and then consider the sum of galaxies. It is incalculable by a mind rooted in the worship of a single celestial object; Sol. It is a flawed, centralized ontology. We have decentralized everything else; culture, politics, economy and business. We institute inter-networks and polyopticons that self organize and collaborate with the various environments. And yet we are only dealing metaphysically with a minor interior of the spatial significance of our position in the magnitude of our universe. We have yet to decentralize our concept of place and significance in the universe. We tell ourselves that we are a wonder of nature and that we are more important than the incalculable volume of space, due to our high intellect and due to the complexity of our life systems. And we do not criticize the logic or the reason of such statements, because to do so would lead us to horror. It would lead us to the knowledge that we are utterly insignificant; that we exist in a tiny bubble of chance that is destined to pop. We fall back on the limited ontology involving feudalism or worse; theological mysticism. It is our inability to deal with the horror of outer space that has lead to a cultural state of technophobia. We fear the objects that contain the images of our fear. The images of outer space represented by vast networks, infinitely reproducible thermodynamic matter and energy, observable histories and mathematical distance are the dark fantasies of technophobes. Technophobia is the fear of distance and proximity to outer space, not the fear of technology. Technology is only the messenger. ‘Technophobia’ would better be called ‘Outer-phobia’. That is the fear of a non-heliocentric universe. And yet we fetishize our fear. We burn our metaphysical bodies on the technological flame like a moth, burning our eyes with images of super nova and email.

...from EngageMedia.org

I presented Polyopticon.org at a symposium the other day. It was just a "brief introduction to the social networking website where a number of 'real-world' collaborative art projects are being developed internationally by a community of over 50 artists." There were some really great presentations. Check them out here: digishow.blogspot.com/

I am a geek... I doubt anyone else on this site will enjoy this loooong video - but I want it here so I know where it is.

Google Tech Talks February 14, 2007

ABSTRACT

Since the renewed Python 3000 effort was announced at PyCon 2006, a lot has happened. ... all » We've implemented about half of the promised changes in a branch, we've solidified the schedule, there's a refactoring tool that can do source-to-source translations, and we've produced several gigabytes of discussion about language change proposals (most of which were deemed too radical in the end :-). In this talk, a preview of a keynote to be given at PyCon 2007, I'll discuss the Python 3000 road map, status, and what this means for the average Python user.

This talk is part of the Advanced Topics in Programming Languages series. The goal of this series is to encourage all of the people at Google who know and love programming languages to share their knowledge.

I have added a new wysiwig editor to the site.

By pressing the 'Open rich text' link above appropriate textareas you can access these features (and many more):

• bold
• italics
• underline
• strike
• sub_text
• super^text
• colors
• links: ie/ www.google.com.au

 There a many more features to this tool. Play with them and see. :)

The growth of the Internet and the issue of Net Neutrality.

Water Fuel

Add to My Profile | More Videos

I am installing the Userplane Webchat system into Polyopticon.org

This will provide a way for polyopticon.org members to have text/audio/video multiuser chats at anytime. This should aid collaborative processes through synchronous discussion. Text conversations could be tabled by copying and pasting also. Here is the login and popup - soon I will have a page for the function.

The 'we are the web' show is coming up in a few days. I am beginning installation on Sunday and it is just turned Friday (00:05).

I have painted two plinths, connected the Internet to my laptop through a wireless broadband system that uses the 3g network here in Melbourne and have prepared an enhanced version of the Drawing Machine. All is goin well so far - now I just need an audience. :)

[img_assist|nid=1299|title=We are the web flyer|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=300|height=196]

[img_assist|nid=1282|title=My Art Practice|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=700|height=496]

This image is a Concept Map of my art practice.

For more info on CMaps: click here

In other news:

The Inuit people are mounting a supreme case suit against the USA in Washington D.C based on the argument that their human rights are being violated, in part, by Americas refusal to comply to green house gas emissions caps.

+ more info

Also, here is a word by me to my Collaboration Contracts students:

Add and receive information about the world and share it with the world.

Interactive Map:

I have been doing alot of bloggin on YouTube and have neglected polyopticon for a week. So here is my latest discovery... an embedded playlist of Vito Acconci performances: