Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 723

The Museum of Unworkable Devices

*A really beautiful site here. It's old, but these magnificent follies are timeless.

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm

"Whatever you try, geometry stands in your way every time. Try such things over and over, and eventually you may discover that the geometry of the universe, and the physical laws constrained by that geometry are all conspiring to do one thing: absolutely prevent the possibility of a perpetual motion machine. This may be the most profound statement one can make...

Scientist and Hooligan

*Stuff like this happens every day. It's interesting that the local strongmen have thrown so much mud at this guy. If he was a 53-year-old biologist who really WAS a dope-smuggling, arms-smuggling hooligan who beat up strangers in the street at random, that would be super-interesting. Right now he's just another jailed martyr whose friends and relatives have been chased offshore.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Turkmen_Environmental_Activist_Given_FiveYear_Jail_Term/1864506.html

Andrei Zatoka i...

Design Fiction in the Science Gallery

*Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby carry on for over an hour about their practice of "critical design." What a class act these two are: like Robert Louis Stephenson at the monster-movie festival.

*If you're coming in late to the concept of "design fiction," here's the takeaway: Dunne and Raby mock-up some of the most provocative, edgy, unsettling gizmos in the world. They do this by modelling social relationships, emotional reactions and the political implications of objects and services,...

Zombie Romance

*It used to be that critics knew more about genre literary subtexts than the hacks who created the work itself, but not any more:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/30/romantic-fiction-zombie-love

(…)

"Editor Lori Perkins came up with the idea at a conference in July, where "someone brought up the question of whether or not the zombie mythos could possibly have the staying power of the vampire appeal in American pop culture". She said yes; the audience pointed out that "you can't have...

Let's Make Lunch with Kalki Koechlin

*In this strangely endearing video, radically globalized playwright and Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin chops up some lo-cal model-actress chow.

*The fun part comes at the end, when her live-in director and hapless boyfriend Anurag Kashyap has to sit at the table and shovel that stuff in. Anurag looks pretty perky about the prospect, but I'd swear the poor guy has shed five kilos already.

*In the interest of full disclosure, let me admit that I just ate a Cajun alligator tail.

Giant Global Slums and Their Interior Decor

*Out the door, take the camera, go look:

http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=11137

"Several years ago, paternity got the Oslo-based photographer Jonas Bendiksen thinking about slums. Between the time his father was born and the time his son came along in 2002, the world's population more than doubled, to 6.5 billion. When, or if, Bendiksen has a grandchild, he says, the count will have tripled to 8 billion. Most of these people are gravitating toward cities; in 2008 for...

Augmented Reality: Junaio

A. This platform has dinosaurs. Lots.

B. Real soundtrack, pretty-much-okay video, too.

C. Is that a sleeveless pink hoodie on the demo model there?

Dead Media Beat: Dead Media Art Equipment

*Pretty much says it all about the grain of the dead-media material.

http://www.nimk.nl/en/index_nieuws.php?id=202

Questionnaire on Storage and Maintenance Specifications for Video and Computer Equipment for Media Art.

Together with PACKED, the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) is currently reviewing the museum's practice in the storage and maintenance of media art equipment and would be very interested to hear from INCCA members what their practice is and what specifications they are...

Augmented Reality: Arcane Technologies

*Kind of a standard mainstream-media AR puff piece here, and the headmounted thing naturally makes my bogometer go off — because the goggles don't work, none of 'em really work; they've more like steampunk brass goggles than a genuine and functional display technology.

*But: this is what I want you to notice: check out how these Quebecois guys are posed, lit and dressed. They've even out-stylin' Takahito Iguchi of Tonchidot, who to date has been the global gold standard of Glam...

Microsoft Design Fiction: Gubbins

*Look how close to science-fiction this is. They even gave the products some characterization, and made them work their way through scenarios.

*There's so much stuff like this around now that one could anthologize it and get into design-fiction critique. Like: this one has great production values and the soundtrack is top-notch, really kind of mind-stretchingly out-there… but it has no Dunne and Raby edge at all. There's not a whiff of anxiety, discord or unmet need in this vernacular...