projects

  Some time or other I have read that ↑Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton at his home in Trieste had twelve wooden desks. On each desk the material of one particular book project he was working on, was stacked. Not that I dare to compare my humble self to the immortal RFB—god forbid—, but yesterday I cleaned up the mess I call my office and found that currently there are six articles I am writing, or am trying to write. In consequence I am in dire need of method and order, ↵as Hercule Poirot would put it. Folders on the … Continue reading

Share

naturealism

  In connection with computergames the term “realistic graphics” is a blunt misnomer—seen from a philosophical, respectively epistemological vantage point. Computergame graphics are an instance of artistical depiction. Already for a long time there is a precise differentiation between “nature” and “reality” in fine art theory. A painting which as accurately as possible simulates what human beings—conditioned in, or by a given culture—visually percept within the outside world of physical things is not to be called “realistic,” but “naturalistic”, or “painted in a naturalistic style.”  The above picture is a clipping from a “hyperreal” oil painting by Robert Bechtle. ↑Jos … Continue reading

Share

second person view

Detail from a promotional screenshot for ‘Max Payne’ (Remedy 2001), forcing the viewer to look down the bore of Mr. Payne’s gun while he is shooting at the onlooker. There are ↑first-person shooters (FPS) and ↑third-person shooters (TPS)—what about the second person’s vantage point? Imagine a game where you always are looking through the eyes of the non-player character (NPC) with which your avatar currently interacts. In the case of e.g. a ↑shooter game you may see your actions from the perspective of the character you are about to shoot … from the perspective of your victim.     Wikipedia … Continue reading

Share

virtualism

The thing that’s going to be quaint about “cyberspace” (that already is, really) is the inherent assumption that it’s a realm unto itself; that it’s in any way elsewhere or other. —↑William Gibson According to Edward Said Orientalism is the notion, that “[…] as much as the West itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West.” (Said 1978:5) For this condition he blamed a distinctive body of academic work which rose under the shield and by the force … Continue reading

Share

light on earth

Daylight, two days later. After the planet has revolved around itself for a little more than two times full circle, an e-mail from her plonks into one of his inboxes. Actually it’s not exactly from her, but triggered by her actions online. It’s a little hidden among the plethora of messages continuously trickling in, but nevertheless quickly spotted, standing out in a way. Obviously she not only has googled him, but used the search engine of some more or less obscure ‘business club’ as well. Within the machine-generated e-mail the non-human system of said club tells him that she has … Continue reading

Share

night on earth

Being well sloshed—and succesfully having unnerved the bartender—they are parting at 2am. “I will google you,” she says as a good bye. “Finally,” he thinks while watching the taxi receding into the unknown city’s dim lights, “the information age has penetrated all aspects of my life.”

Share

bravissimo

  ↑KerLeone just told me that ↵thousand reminded him of the famous ↑Bravia television commercial:  Set to the stripped-down acoustic soundtrack of José González’ “Heartbeats”, 250,000 ‘superballs’ come flying, in slow motion, over the brow of a typical street in San Francisco, raining down on anything that gets in their way. And it was done without computer graphics. […]  In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days—with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.  An entire … Continue reading

Share

more touchy

  ↑Watch the video, or ↑watch the magician himself ↑at TED, or the ↑first video, read everything about it at ↑Jeff Han‘s own website, at ↑multi touch screen, or in Adam L. Penenberg’s excellent article “↑Can’t Touch This“ at ↑FastCompany, and leave me alone, because with all those spooky interfaces making the techno-phantasies from “Minority Report” (2002) come alive, I feel so backward with my mouse & keyboard :-( … but then again, being ↵lo tek is a lifestyle.  P.S.: Just an observation: like with the ↵demonstration of the iPhone‘s browser capabilities, here again Wikipedia was used and clearly shown—is … Continue reading

Share