96 hours later

xirdalium Posted on by

'Life After People' (de Vries 2008-2010)
↑96 hours to the stone age at ↑GigaOM complements ↵behind closed doors and ↵telegeography. The story asks, especially in respect to information technology, what will happen when electrical power won’t be delivered anymore. Well, an apocalypse in the strict sense of the term will happen—a revelation. It will be revealed to all of us in unblinking clearness, on how much hardware around us we depend, which in turn depends on electricity.
    The gist of this kind of speculation is informed by scientific methodology: Take an element, or a whole category of elements, out of a system and see what happens. In this case the system in question is the global human sociotechnic system. Obviously an actual experiment can’t be done in this context and on that grand a scale. Hence the conclusions are based on educated guesses, as much as possible grounded on reliable data.
    The History Channel aired an according television series which is a haunting hybrid out of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction and documentary, carried by spectacular computer generated imagery: ‘↑Life After People‘ (de Vries 2008-2010):

HISTORY takes you on an amazing visual journey that uncovers what would happen if humans were suddenly to disappear. Visit the ghostly villages surrounding Chernobyl, travel to remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for abandoned towns that have vanished from view in only a few decades, then head beneath the streets of New York to see how subway tunnels may become watery canals.

That’s not enough yet. One of my favourite novels is by ↑Philip Wylie, famous for his science fiction novel ‘↑When Worlds Collide‘ (1933), which very successfully was ↑adapted to the silver screen (Maté 1951). but he also wrote a literary thought experiment in gender studies. The core plot idea of ‘The Disappearance’ (Wylie 1951) is the same as in the cases above: Take one aspect out of the system. Here are the novel’s opening sentences:

The female of the species vanished on the afternoon of the second Tuesday of February at four minutes and fifty-two seconds past four o’clock, Eastern Standard Time. The event occurred universally at the same instant, without regard to time belts, and was followed by such phenomena as might be expected after happenings of that nature. (Wylie 1951: 1)

DE VRIES, DAVID. 2008-2010. Life after people [television documentary series]. 2 seasons, 20 episodes. Sherman Oaks: Flight 33 Productions.
MATÉ, RUDOLPH. 1951. When worlds collide [motion picture]. Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures.
WYLIE, PHILIP GORDON. 1933. When worlds collide. New York: Frederick A. Stokes.
WYLIE, PHILIP GORDON. 1951. The disappearance. New York: Rinehart & Co.
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simroid

xirdalium Posted on by

Simroid
More from ↵robotopia nipponica. The Simroid is a training android for dentists. It is developed at ↑The Nippon Dental University and built by ↑Kokoro [a lot more of weird robot stuff there]. After the first version, called Simuloid and presented in 2007, the new Simroid features a higher level of naturalism (↑video at DigInfo TV):
    It ‘behaves’ quite like a human patient on a dentist’s torturing chair [‘Brazil’ anyone?], moves, speaks, and reacts—e.g. by simulating gag reflexes, or by expressing discomfort when the doctor accidentally strokes its breasts with the elbow.
    Reminds me of ↵mor gui, and when the Philip K. Dick ↵android went missing in early 2006. It hasn’t reappeared until today, but a ↑new one has been built recently.

simroid via ↑entry at ↑techcrunch
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joker in academia

xirdalium Posted on by

The Joker in Strange Apparitions
And I thought the topics and issues I am belabouring are somewhat exotic, or even strange … If I’d have the time, I’d love to submit something. On the other hand, that last note: ‘Note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.’ Quite frankly, and this isn’t meant arrogantly, but I do not see myself fit to meet rules like that—it’s simply a matter of time, the scarcest resource.
    Anyway, here’s the worthwhile call for abstracts (although I do not think that the Joker himself will like being dissected academically—see above. Panel taken from ↵Strange Apparitions):

The Joker: Critical Essays on the Clown Prince of Crime
Robert Moses Peaslee & Robert G. Weiner, Editors

“Nobody panics when things are going according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.”
—The Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight (2008)

If one were to survey the global public about their favorite superheroes, the results would likely place Batman, Spider-Man, and perhapsSuperman in the top tier. If one were to ask about super villains, however,it’s unlikely that any character would receive more attention than the Joker. To date, the character has appeared in thousands of comics, numerous animated series, and three major blockbuster feature films dating back to 1966. One could make a strong argument that the Clown Prince of Crime is the most popular and well-known fictional villain in the history of popular culture. A superhero is only as interesting as the villains he or she faces, and the Joker stands out among hundreds of villains as one of the most complex, culturally resonant, and morally ambiguous characters to ever grace a comic book page or movie screen. In 2006, Industry publication Wizard ranked the Joker as the number one comic villain of all time.
    Academic studies and collections of Batman abound, both as a text and as an industry (DiPaolo, 2009; Eury, 2009; Schopp, 2009; Kuwata, 2008; O’Neil, 2008; Zehr, 2008; Brooker, 2007; Morris, 2005; Pearson & Uricchio, 1991). Despite the Joker’s popularity, however, there has never appeared a serious scholarly monograph or edited collection based around the character. The editors hope to rectify this gap in the literature of sequential art, film, media, and cultural studies. Our aspiration is to compile the definitive volume on the character, encompassing historical, textual, institutional, and interpretational approaches from a wide variety of disciplines.
    To this end, the editors seek abstracts of no more than 500 words outlining proposed essays of 6,000-8,000 words. Abstracts should makeclear the author’s approach to the material in epistemological terms and indicate whether or not the piece has appeared in previous forms elsewhere.Abstracts should show potential as rigorous primary research, theory development or criticism.
    A by-no-means-exhaustive list of possible topics includes:

* Historical-textual examinations of the Joker’s emergence and evolution
* Comparative analyses of the Joker’s various characterizations and adaptations
* Socio-cultural approaches to the Joker’s symbolic potential
* The Joker and gender, race, sexuality, ability, etc.
* Gaming environments and the Joker’s manifestations in ludic narratives
* The Joker as an entertainment marketing tool
* The Joker pre- and post-9/11
* Relationships between the Joker and other heroes and/or villains
* Author- or creator-driven analyses
* Theoretical approaches to the Joker’s visual composition
* Narrative and rhetorical criticism
* Archetypal explorations of Joker pre-cursors
* Psychological or psychoanalytical analyses
* Humor and/or clowning and their relationship to the sinister
* The para-cinema of the Joker
* Fan communities and performance
* The Joker as a stabilizing or confounding force in sequential art taxonomies
* Joker philosophy
* Art historical or visual culture-driven analyses of the Joker
* The Joker as a pedagogical tool
* Digital manifestations of the Joker and/or the Joker “ethos”

Abstracts should be submitted no later than Dec. 15, 2011. Please send abstracts via email to rob[dot]weiner[at]ttu[dot]edu
    Those authors whose abstracts are accepted will be notified no later than February 1, 2012. Full essays will be required by April 1, 2012 and will be reviewed by both the editors and guest reviewers.
    Note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume. Selected authors will be notified over the summer of 2012.

Thanks,
Rob

Robert Moses Peaslee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Dept of Electronic Media & Communication
College of Mass Communications
Texas Tech University

via ↑medianthro mailing list
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who wrote it?

xirdalium Posted on by

zeph’s pop culture quiz #4
Discussion
All right, everybody recognizes him standing in the background. But who wrote the novel the movie is based on? The movie is an unusual adaptation, because the other novels of the series were adapted to the silver screen decades earlier, with iconic actors almost defining a genre.

UPDATE and solution (26 November 2011):
My apologies for updating so late. Especially as ↵klandestino already solved the riddle, and provided a ↑YouTube link as proof, the day it was posted: In the background it of course is Arnold Schwarzenegger (not appearing in the movie’s credits), the guy with the tie is actor Elliott Gould playing shamus ↑Philip Marlowe in the movie ‘↑The Long Goodbye‘ directed by Robert Altman (1973), and based on the novel ‘↑The Long Good-Bye‘ written by ↑Raymond Chandler (1953). The screenplay for the Altman-movie was not written by Sterling Silliphant—he wrote the screenplay for another neo-noir Chandler-adaptation: ‘↑Marlowe‘ (Bogart 1969)—as klandestino suggested, but by ↑Leigh Brackett. She created the screenplays to quite a bunch of famous movies. Astoundingly enough, together with William Faulkner and Jules Furthman, she wrote the screenplay for ‘The Big Sleep’ (Hawks 1946), the classic movie adaptation of Chandler’s debut novel of the same name (1939).
 
Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in 'The Big Sleep,' directed by Howard Hawks (1946)

Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in 'The Big Sleep,' directed by Howard Hawks (1946)

Although not the first movie based on one of Chandler’s Marlowe novels, ‘The Big Sleep’ is seminal for the film noir genre. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, it also gave the genre iconic actors.
    All six novels by Chandler (1939, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1949, 1953, 1958) and ‘Poodle Springs’ (a fragment left by Chandler and posthumously completed by Robert B. Parker—Chandler & Parker 1989 [1958]) feature private-eye Philip Marlowe. Meanwhile the whole lot (I read them all earlier this year :-) has been adapted to movies, some more than once: ‘The High Window’ (Chandler 1942) has been made into ‘Time to Kill’ (Leeds 1942) and ‘The Brasher Doubloon’ (Brahm 1947); ‘Farewell, My Lovely’ (Chandler 1940) into ‘The Falcon Takes Over’ (Reis 1942), ‘Murder, My Sweet’ (Dmytryk 1944), and ‘Farewell, My Lovely’ (Richards 1975); ‘The Big Sleep’ (Chandler 1939) under the same name into Hawks 1946 and Winner 1978; ‘The Lady in the Lake’ (Chandler 1944) into ‘Lady in the Lake’ (Montgomery 1947); ‘The Little Sister’ (Chandler 1949) into ‘Marlowe’ (Bogart 1969); ‘The Long Good-Bye’ (Chandler 1953) into ‘The Long Goodbye’ (Altman 1973); and finally ‘Poodle Springs’ (Chandler & Parker 1989 [1958]) under the same name into Rafelson 1998.
    In consequence over time Marlowe has been played by many actors, some of them belonging to the greats. In chronological order: Lloyd Nolan, George Sanders, Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, George Montgomery, Robert Montgomery, James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum (twice), and James Caan.
    Nevertheless Bogart stuck as an icon until today.
    Chandler’s Marlowe owes much to Dashiell Hammett’s character of the same profession: Sam Spade. When ‘The Maltese Falcon’ (Hammett 1930) was adapted to the big screen for the third time (Huston 1941), the choice already was Bogart. Huston’s movie became one of the all time classics, the earlier two versions (Del Ruth 1931, Dieterle 1936) almost forgotten.
 
'The Maltese Falcon' (Huston 1941) and Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade

'The Maltese Falcon' (Huston 1941) and Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade
BOGART, PAUL. 1969. Marlowe [motion picture]. Century City: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
BRAHM, JOHN. 1947. The Brasher doubloon [motion picture]. Century City: 20th Century Fox.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1939. The big sleep. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1940. Farewell, my lovely. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1942. The high window. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1943. The lady in the lake. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1949. The little sister. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1953. The long good-bye. London: Hamish Hamilton.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON. 1958. Playback. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND THORNTON AND ROBERT BROWN PARKER. 1989 [1958]. Poodle springs. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
DEL RUTH, ROY. 1931. The Maltese falcon [motion picture]. Burbank: Warner Bros.
DIETERLE, WILLIAM. 1936. Satan met a lady [motion picture]. Burbank: Warner Bros.
DMYTRYK, EDWARD. 1944. Murder, my sweet [motion picture]. New York: RKO Radio Pictures.
HAMMETT, SAMUEL DASHIELL. 1930. The Maltese falcon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
HAWKS, HOWARD WINCHESTER. 1946. The big sleep [motion picture]. Burbank: Warner Bros.
HUSTON, JOHN MARCELLUS. 1941. The Maltese falcon [motion picture]. Burbank: Warner Bros.
LEEDS, HERBERT I. 1942. Time to kill [motion picture]. Century City: 20th Century Fox.
MONTGOMERY, ROBERT. 1947. Lady in the lake [motion picture]. Century City: Warner Bros.
RAFELSON, ROBERT ‘BOB’. 1998. Poodle springs [motion picture]. New York: HBO.
REIS, IRVING. 1942. The falcon takes over [motion picture]. New York: RKO Radio Pictures.
RICHARDS, DICK. 1975. Farewell, my lovely [motion picture]. ?: Avco Embassy Pictures.
WINNER, MICHAEL ROBERT. 1978. The big sleep [motion picture]. Los Angeles: United Artists.
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thai flood hacks

xirdalium Posted on by

Oil Barrel + Garden Pump = Homebuild Jetski
↑Thai Flood Hacks is a wonderful collection of pictures showing off ingenious technical contraptions cooked up for dealing with the flood in Thailand. With their ↑truck-canoe hybrids [still only at ye ole xirdalium] the people of Bangkok already have shown their skill in dealing with water and in the active appropriation of technology—now they drive it to new heights. Also very worthwhile in these respects: ↑afrigadget and ↑street use.

↑thai flood hacks via ↑entry at ↑ethno::log
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behind closed doors

xirdalium Posted on by

'Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors,' documentary film by Ben Mendelsohn
That one came timely—just two days after ↵telegeography, my rant on the other side of information technology, the Internet’s hardware aspect, and its importance for anthropology, ↑boingboing posted on ↑Ben Mendelsohn‘s documentary ↑Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors:

I want to share a short documentary that I recently produced about the hidden Infrastructure of the Internet called Bundled, Buried and Behind Closed Doors. The video is meant to remind viewers that the Internet is a physical, geographically anchored thing. It features a tour inside Telx’s 9th floor Internet exchange at 60 Hudson Street in New York City, and explores how this building became one of the world’s most concentrated hubs of Internet connectivity. [bold emphasis mine]

MENDELSOHN, BEN AND ALEX CHOLAS-WOOD. 2011. Bundled, buried & behind closed doors [documentary film]. New York.
via ↑entry at ↑boingboing
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flying sphere

xirdalium Posted on by

The flying sphere built by the Technical Research and Development Institute at Japan's Ministry of Defense

Star Wars fans (like me) will get a vague sense of deja vu when they see this flying sphere in action. Weighing in at about 12 ounces (350 g), the 16-inch (42 cm) diameter flying ball can launch and return vertically, maintain a stationary hover and zip along at up to 37 mph (60 km/h). Coupled with the ball camera we reported on earlier this month, it could become a valuable reconnaissance platform. Who knows? In time, more advanced autonomous versions might actually be used to train would-be Jedi knights. Once again, life imitates art.
    Announced last summer by the Technical Research and Development Institute at Japan’s Ministry of Defense (JMD) and recently unveiled at Digital Content Expo 2011, the world’s first spherical air vehicle will likely be deployed in search and rescue operations deemed unsuitable for traditional aircraft. As for other possible uses, the sky just may be the limit.

Well, ↑like gizmag’s Randolph Jonsson my first association, when I saw the ↑video at DigInfo TV was Star Wars, too—but I had in mind those spherical flying Sith probe droids used by Darth Maul and Count Dooku …
 
Darth Maul (Ray Park) having a conversation with his probe droids
As it seems both, my associations and ↑Bryan Alexander‘s, do have a darkish tint. But still there are slight differences. As a cyberpunk aficionado I thought of devices gathering intelligence for evil purposes. Bryan in turn, as a horror specialist, immediately ↵thought of a downright gruesome executioner—the silver sphere used by ↑The Tall Man:
 
The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and his silver sphere

COSCARELLI, DON. 1979 [1977]. Phantasm [motion picture]. ?: Avco Embassy Pictures.
LUCAS, GEORGE WALTON. 1999. Star Wars episode I: The phantom menace [motion picture]. Century City: 20th Century Fox.
flying sphere initially via ↑entry at ↑cpc
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culture’s shadow

xirdalium Posted on by

Der lange Schatten von Kultur
Tonight the opening of ↑this year’s EthnoFilmFest in Munich (16 through 20 November 2011) will take place at the Völkerkundemuseum [Ethnological Museum]. The festival, and Munich meanwhile being renowned for visual anthropology, is largely due to the work of my colleague, friend, and teacher ↑Frank Heidemann. Now that I have duly paid my compliments, it’s time for an anecdote.
    Frank’s not only active behind the scenes, but had his own television series, starring himself, ‘Der lange Schatten von Kultur’ [Culture’s long shadow], which aired on ↑BR-alpha, but unfortunately isn’t available online at the moment.
    While the series was still in pre-production, Frank one day strolled into our little kitchen at the institute, beaming all over his face. He was so happy, he told us, because finally he had found the right title for his television series—culture’s long shadow.
    At this moment Paul, another colleague present, coffee-mug in hand, intentionally displaying a bit of a thousand-yard stare, began to quote Viennese satirist ↑Karl Kraus (1874-1936): ‘When culture’s sun has sunken low, even dwarfs are casting long shadows.’ [‘Wenn die Sonne der Kultur niedrig steht, werfen selbst Zwerge lange Schatten.’]
    It was for the very first time in ten-or-so years that I saw Frank at a complete loss for words :-)

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