Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 219
December 18, 2013
Happy Christmas from C-MOULD: BioDomes
*Yeah, sure, best wishes to you biotech art guys, too.
http://exploringtheinvisible.com/2013/12/16/happy-christmas-from-c-mould-biodomes/
“C-MOULD, is the world’s largest collection of microorganisms for use in the arts and design, (((Oh lordy))) with over 50 different kinds of microorganism. We have bacteria and fungi that glow in ethereal shades of green and blue light, bacteria that make antibiotics, gold and electrically conductive nanowires, and bacteria that produce biotextiles. We also possess the largest collection of pigmented bacteria.
“To celebrate Christmas we have made a small collection of unique and living Christmas tree decorations. Called BioDomes, each one contains a unique microbiological gift….”
Design Fiction: Elgreen & Dragset at V&A in London
*Clearly, this isn’t “design fiction,” because it’s full of carefully chosen fictional props that aren’t “diegetic prototypes,” but it met be a closely related effort, and it seems to be quite an interesting and provocative art installation.
http://www.domusweb.it/content/domusweb/en/art/2013/12/17/elmgreen_dragsettomorrow.html
(…)
“The London and Berlin-based artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset (((what a great name they have))) have transformed several of the museum’s rooms into the apartment of a fictional architect. As I enter over faded rugs into the living room, it is clear that this is not the abode of a Corbusian, nor a purveyor of minimalist design. A gallery assistant dressed as a butler glides by, and I perceive the faint tones of a classical refrain. Georgian sofas surround a mahogany coffee table, scattered with old copies of the Architecture Review. Leather bound books line a wall-length cabinet – from histories of urban planning to Merleau Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. A badly painted portrait of a young boy in antiquated school uniform hangs above the fireplace, whose life-size sculpture crouches below….”
December 17, 2013
Dead Media Beat: North Korean digital history annihilation
*It’s not even “censorship” or bowdlerization, it’s blatant expungement.
*It’s interesting to see how easy it is to do this with the Internet. Remember “censorship routed around”? Not if you’re North Korea.
*Something dreadful is going on there, by the way. The family at the core of the regime is settling accounts among its own blood relations. With machine guns, and mortar shells, and also, um, by removing every possible mention of them from the backup disks in a frenzy of nonpersonalization.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/12/north-korea-deleting-history/
“North Korea has expanded its deletion of a few hundred online articles mentioning Jang Song Thaek, the executed uncle of Kim Jong Un, to all articles on state media up to October 2013, numbering in the tens of thousands.
” “It’s definitely the largest ‘management’ of its online archive North Korea has engaged in since it went online. No question,” Frank Feinstein, North Korea news analyst, told this writer on Sunday (15 December).
“The Korean Central News Agency (www.kcna.kp), the state’s main organ, started publishing in its current online form on 1 January, 2012, and had some 39,000 Korean-language articles by mid-December 2013, with many translated into other languages.
” “Now however there are now no articles in the archive from prior to October 2013, with everything numbered to around 35,000 – or to October this year – gone,” said Feinstein, director of KCNA Watch, which analyses North Korean media for keywords and converts that into visual data to gauge reporting trends. Similar proportions of deletions were true for Korean Workers’ Party paper Rodong Sinmun and www.uriminzokkiri.com.
“Just four days passed from the arrest Kim Jong Un’s uncle Jang, which was televised across North Korea, to his execution on 12 December 12. Thereafter the expurgation of any mention of Jang from the state news files took just hours. (((Yike.)))
“Following outages that to seemed to affect several state online news sources, of some 550 Jang-related Korean articles on www.kcna.kp, Feinstein estimated that by late Friday, “every single one has either been altered, or deleted, without exception”. This included the most anodyne reports such as a 5 October KCNA story about Kim Jong Un visiting a hospital under construction now reads: “He personally named it ‘Okryu Children’s Hospital’ as it is situated in the area of Munsu where the clean water of the River Taedong flows.” But the original had continued: “He was accompanied by Jang Song Thaek, member of the Political Bureau of the CC, the WPK and vice-chairman of the NDC, and Pak Chun Hong, Ma Won Chun and Ho Hwan Chol, vice department directors of the CC, the WPK.”
“Other examples are at the KCNA Watch site, and as also observed by North Korea watcher, Martyn Williams at www.northkoreatech.org.
“What’s new about the North’s retrospective media management is its scale and that it’s doing it online, before a global audience. “This is North Korea censoring itself to the world – not just to its own citizens… Personally, I can’t believe they could think they’d get away with this sort of revisionism,” said Feinstein.
“Nonetheless, the North can sustain its digital Ministry of Truth antics on the World Wide Web by preventing its output from being indexed. ‘It already works on KCNA – Google can’t index it at all. You can’t even link to an article on KCNA,’ said Feinstein, pointing to Google’s entire, paltry record of KCNA’s office in Pyongyang via this link.
“Its not clear even if South Korean intelligence or news agency Yonhap can archive KCNA’s database in its live form. “While North Korea doesn’t understand much about how to successfully operate online, they do understand this much.”
“One theory contends that the North publishes different propaganda for internal and external consumption. For sure, North Korean people can only access news produced by the North Korean state, accessing www.kcna.kp through the country’s intranet, but more likely from the state TV, radio or newspapers on station platform hoardings of which obviously none enable access to digital or visual archives. TV has also been noted as adjusted, with a documentary first shown on 7 October 2013 being reshown on 7 December with Jang cut out of shots by adjusted focus and framing. (((Wow.)))
“The upshot is this: “Our party, state, army and people do not know anyone except Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un,” according to the sole English-language article left on KCNA that mentions Jang, a vicious 2,750-word denouncement from 13 December 13. The piece calls Jang “impudent, arrogant, reckless, rude and crafty,” “despicable human scum … worse than a dog,” who, backed by “ex convicts”, had plotted to destroy the economy before “rescuing” the country by military coup and billions earned from hoarded precious metals….”
Dead Media Beat: XL Repubblica
Dead Media Beat: XL Repubblica
I just received news from the ex-editor that XL Repubblica, one of my favorite magazines, has ceased publication. A very Dead Media story — but for me, a heartfelt one.
This mag was created by some with-it Milanese mediated guys who got the ear of a major Italian publishing house. They wrote to me, and asked me to become a founding columnist for their daring, out-of-nowhere effort.
I was properly touched by this mark of the esteem in which I was held in glamorous Milano, so I agreed to give it a try. So I promptly became an Italian mag staffer, writing about future trends, for Italian men. XL Repubblica was an Italian hipster guy mag. Lots of music, shoes, clubs, cars, clothes, travel, some scandal sometimes, some thoughtful pondering of the mystery that is Italian womanhood, and also me, an American cyberpunk futurist.
Although the guys running it were supremely with-it, that plan to publish a category print magazine was old-fashioned, even eight years ago. Mags are still around, but their business is disrupted. You just can’t get the necessary car, clothes and cologne ads together to support the enterprise. That’s not how consumerism works any more. A lot of the economies of scale around printing, shipping, storing and mailing paper are blown to hell, too.
But I cheerfully did it anyway, deck chair on the analog Titanic, because it was the right thing to do. And boy, did I ever write some weird stuff for XL Repubblica. Every month. I never missed a deadline — and here at the end, I feel I can brag about that.
And Jesus, what off-the-wall topics they allowed me. Sometimes, they’d commission something from me — usually about some significant current event — but most of the time they were just, well, “Whatever, maestro!”
My XL column was quite a lot like this blog. Only it was more thought-through, better arranged, and entirely and utterly for Italians. There was something especially cool and weird about its strange, cross-cultural, artificial Italian-ness. It’s super-strange when a foreigner is deliberately trying to explain things to you, from an idiom and point of view that he imagines that you yourself have, and that he thinks you will understand. That sounds and feels weirder, in some ways, than him just simply being foreign. Sometimes you have to marry a foreigner to get it about how mind-distorting and exhilarating that is. It’s like guitar reverb.
So my junket was great, and I think I could have gone on with that task until I was white-haired, feeble, and the oldest young-guy’s futurist in this whole world But: the cruel economics of the Twenty-Teens finally caught up with them. So, XL Repubblica is no more.
Well, I sure learned a lot, doing that. I don’t regret one moment. My heart goes out to everyone associated with this noble effort. They are good people. I hope they thrive in the new year.
A lot of things die at Christmas. It’s the darkest time of the year — at least, in this hemisphere that the USA shares with Italy, that is.
So it goes — as the late Mr. Vonnegut used to pontificate, before he went.
This blog you’re reading won’t last forever, either. It’s haunted by Dead Media, too.
This blog, you see, is actually the remnant of my WIRED USA column. For quite a while, I wrote a column in the WIRED USA print mag, before I became WIRED’s first blogger ever.
The thing I still find cool about this blog — and the reason I still do it here, practically every day — is that it makes absolutely no economic sense. It looks kinda like mainstream publishing, but it isn’t. This blog is a historical accident, and truly a bohemian niche.
I mean, sure, there are some pop up ads floating around over there (((—->))). I hope somebody makes money from those. I don’t. I doubt that you, my blog reader, ever give them any.
My blog here in the shadowed attic of the Conde Nast empire doesn’t even have a topic. It’s just a clearinghouse for general whatever-the-hellness, aimed at a core audience of nobody-in-particular.
Blogging here, for me, is not even an act of labor. It’s scarcely more trouble to me than getting up in the morning and putting on a shirt, pants and shoes. My clothes also distribute public messages, too. My clothes have come to identify me as a traveller. A globalist, a network type, and believe me, I know that attitude of mine is very much part of the problem, in the destruction of so many things I once loved.
Us real futurists, the ones who aren’t kidding about our engagement with the passage of time, we don’t sell that many shiny new cars. But we sure spend a lot of thoughtful time at the graveside.
And sometimes we mourn. We must grieve. A pity about that cool magazine. They were swell.
Over the years, I wrote an absolute ton of XL Repubblica pieces, and I wrote ‘em in English (they were painstakingly translated into Italians by dedicated staffers). Nobody ever read them in English, though — no one but me.
So I thought, in cherished memory of XL — an enterprise I was in from start to finish — I would run one of my favorite XL columns here.
This piece has a very European sensibility, given that it’s mostly about American gadgets. It dates back to about 2008. And if you’re Italian: you know that term you still use, “Crisis”? You’re not in a crisis. A crisis doesn’t ever last that long. You’re not even in a depression, because those also lift after a while, and it’s been a long while. In Southern Europe, you’re in a condition of organized oppression.
*************************
Technology for Tomorrow’s Hard Times
Business news all over the planet is howling that we’re past the edge of financial collapse, so here are some handy technology tips for living in a depression.
You won’t need to worry much about fancy new consumer technology, because a society in a depression lacks consumers. Basically, you can put your trust in two important technical possessions. First, a cheap, sturdy cellphone. Second, a rugged Leatherman “Pocket Survival Tool.” I’ll explain why in a minute.
You don’t have to be married to a Serb (like I am) to understand that Eastern Europe should be your role model for modern collapse. If you want to know what a financial collapse is really like, study the post-Communist “Transition.” The governments went broke, money was worthless, all the major industries slowed or stopped, the police and army lost their credibility, and everything people thought they knew about reality was turned on its head. That’s what it’s like when it gets serious.
Many people died in the Transition — they found they were unable to survive. However, they never died from any huge, imaginary threats to their well-being, such as terrorists, atom bombs, starving mobs, or freezing or starving to death. That’s all the glamorous stuff of science-fiction disaster movies. Most people who died, died from shame. They died from bewilderment, embarrassment, confusion, regret, and despair. Their primary means of death was alcohol.
These casualties were mostly men. They were responsible men who were committed to the collapsing system and took that sense of much failure too personally. They hated being seen in public with their torn shoes, no car, aimless, hopeless, looking like a bum. They couldn’t invent any useful new role for themselves and regain their lost self-respect. So they drank themselves to death.
Women, by contrast, were much less committed to being some sturdy part of the official Communist apparatus, so, during the crisis, women looked after the sick, had pot-luck suppers, washed the laundry, swapped old possessions and, especially, complained a lot. Women took refuge in bargain-hunting, nurturing, bartering, housework, and lamenting. They were too busy to despair, so their casualties were much lower.
This is why you need your cellphone. You will be using your phone to hunt bargains outside the official economic system, which has failed you and all your friends. A failure that large is not your fault. It does not reflect on you personally. Think of it as something like an earthquake. Your dignity, your suit and tie, your fine car — how much energy should you waste on those?
Use your phone to listen carefully to the complaining. Do not beg anybody for help, but find out what your friends are begging for, find that, and give that to them. Your new economic plan is to make them owe you favors. In an economic collapse, personal favors are worth much more than the currency, which is probably inflating or unobtainable. Don’t worry if your favors are not directly returned. You want a big social reputation for being helpful.
Your aim is not to gather cash or earn a salary, but to make yourself visibly valuable to others. Many of your stricken neighbors will be suddenly obsessed with petty crime, violence, looting, revenge and booze. Don’t go into that kind of racketeering; the risk is too high. If you attempt to deal in narcotics, gold, gems, arms, women or money laundering, you will have too much competition.
The best trade goods in a collapse are small, portable luxury items that have become rare because nobody makes them during emergencies: nice items like medicines, condoms, shaving cream, lingerie and candy. While the neighborhood tough guys are busy killing each other for cartons of cigarettes, you’ll have many new friends.
Use your phone to find these valuable things, and whenever you do, always get extra ones. Do not store them or hoard them: give them away for favors. When you live outside the money economy, complaining is the major currency. Listen to the other guy’s complaints, do something practical, then call him on the cellphone to tell him the good news. He’ll be amazed, but also grateful enough to send you text messages about other such opportunities.
If you are the center of a circle of grateful lamenters, you will not drink yourself to death. You will survive. You will not be happier during a depression — that idea is stupid — but you might find that adversity has refined your character. You’ll discover you have skills that you never suspected.
Now we come to the issue of the Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool. Most people in Eastern Europe never had one of these fine devices, which are made of stainless steel and have 25-year warranties. That’s because the Survival Tool was invented by Tim Leatherman, an American engineer who spent time in Eastern Europe.
One of the symptoms of a society destined for collapse is that nobody properly repairs anything. There is general decay all around, because everyone intuitively senses that the enterprise has no future. There is no public money to do large-scale, new, ambitious public projects. Gloomy individuals feel too helpless and scared to take any private initiative.
Thus the Leatherman survival tool, which was designed by Mr. Leatherman to fix the broken things in Eastern Europe. The Survival Tool can fit in a (large) pocket or purse, and it features a neat fold-out arsenal of sturdy steel pliers, knives, saws, screwdrivers, and files. The Leatherman can attack most domestic problems: clumsily, but conveniently.
With or without your Leatherman, you will be a pretty bad amateur handyman. You lack the real tools and real training. Never mind: the professional handymen, the plumbers, electricians and so forth, were too well-paid to find any work, so they’re probably drinking. Your Survival Tool is a psychological prop. This gadget has so many tools, and it offers so many possibilities that, even though you may be lousy at the work, it will keep you from despairing.
Moaning, complaining, despairing people will be hugely impressed when you pull out a huge shiny Leatherman from your pocket, belt or bag, and actually do something. They’ll be grateful even if you screw up, because, after all, they’re not paying you. They’re just watching you cut your way free from the mayhem by refusing to be part of the problem.
And when nobody’s part of the problem, then the problem becomes history.
Design Fiction: Ex-Boyfriend Revenge Kit
*This is a good example of what happens when you start using design-fiction techniques in unethical or illegal fashion.
*This reminds me of something I once heard from a cop. Would I put a bomb-making recipe in one of my sci-fi novels? Yeah, I could do that. Because I know quite well how bombs are made. There are even ways where I could get a thing like that legally published and effectively distributed, you know, in Loompanics, Anarchist-Cookbook style. It might get me shocked attention, or even increase my sales, wow.
*I respect the moral judgment of my readers, too; I wouldn’t want to censor myself by pretending to impressionable readers that bombs don’t exist. But: as an artist, as a citizen, that’s something I regard as a clear ethical transgression. It’s an “attractive nuisance,” it borders on negligent homicide. It’s wrong to do it. It’s right to condemn such an action as wrong.
*I take the sarcastic point of the creator here, and her project’s got some with-it design, but there’s something repugnant and slimy about this stunt. As a design-fiction critic, I must object. I hope she doesn’t do more of that.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3023427/ex-boyfriend-revenge-kit-encourages-women-to-murder-in-style
Design Fiction: Rube Works, the Rube Goldberg app
*I wonder if it’s even possible to get more American than this. Probably not. This is a cultural accomplishment like baseball, or roast turkey with cranberry sauce.
http://rubegoldberg.com/rubeworksgame
“Do you have what it takes to turn Rube Goldberg’s humorous comics and cartoons into elaborate and incredible machines?
“Developed by Electric Eggplant in partnership with Kalani Games and the Heirs of Rube Goldberg and published by Unity Games, Rube Works: The Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game is the first officially licensed Rube Goldberg game.
“Rube Works features Rube’s cartoons, contraptions, and irreverent humor and animates the iconic invention cartoons in a way never seen before. The game combines the puzzle genre with slapstick humor and creative problem solving. Imagine the goal is to carve a turkey—and you have a penguin, a bucket, a rooster, a box of sand, a sea sponge, a seesaw and an ice cream maker to complete the task. Then imagine connecting these objects together with string and pulleys along with the laws of gravity and cartoon physics to create a Rube Goldberg machine and proceed to the next level.
“Rube Works is now available for download on the iTunes App Store for iPad and iPhone. Coming soon on Android.”
For more info, visit the official Unity Games Rube Works page
@RubeWorks
@RubeGoldberg
Rube Works Reviews (((oh boy, design critics, etc)))
“Here’s what reviewers are saying about Rube Works:
” “Rube Works is a challenging and fun game that can also teach the user about physics and logic, while not appearing to be an educational app. Rube Works makes the iPad a great learning tool and I highly recommend this beautiful and well made app.”
— Todd Bernhard, iPhone Life
“You haven’t seen puzzle solving until you try to build one of these intricate machines… This is the first game I have ever seen that incorporates Rube Goldberg’s original ideas. The illustrations are charming and sweet and somewhat similar to Goldberg’s designs, without completely copycatting his art. This game is wonderful and fun and great for puzzle solving enthusiasts. Fans of cause-and-effect puzzles should not miss this.”
— Lory, PadGadget
“I totally love the nostalgic feel of the app, and it is really cool that you can re-create real Rube Goldberg machines. It is a great for working on problem- solving skills and encourages lateral thinking as well as the use of physics principles. Challenging but fun, this app will give the old grey cells a good work out and it is really fun re-creating Rube Goldberg’s classic chain reaction inventions. Highly recommended!”
— Mary, The iMums
(((More about the great man and his modern legacy:)))
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3022105/the-mind-boggling-art-of-rube-goldberg#6
December 16, 2013
Design Fiction: Stuart Candy, “Time Machine / Reverse Archaeology”
*I never tried to embed anything from “Scribd” on my blog before, but for this, I’ll make an exception.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/191179400/Candy-2013-Time-Machine-Reverse-Archaeology
Candy 2013 – Time Machine / Reverse Archaeology by Stuart Candy
Musica Globalista: Bostich+Fussible Go Shopping
Uploaded on May 8, 2011
Nortec: Bostich+Fussible go shopping
Punta Banda: from the album Bulevar 2000
Video by Ernesto Aello
Cámara: Ernesto Aello y Humberto Cuevas
Música por Nortec Collective presents:Bostich+Fussible
from the album Bulevar 2000
December 15, 2013
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