<nettime> sondheimogram x5: fasten, access, haptic, odyssey, performing

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

          [digested @ nettime -- mod (tb)]

Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
     Fasten Show (and full ELO Conf. video)   
     Access Grid resonance and selenite filtering      
     Haptic - touch at the limits      
     Odyssey presents: The Accidental Artist (Alan Sondheim in SL) (fwd)
     Nikuko, others, performing 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 23:15:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
Subject: Fasten Show (and full ELO Conf. video)   

[ Note - full ELO Conf. video at http://www.alansondheim.org/123elo.mp4 - 
large!! - apologies, Alan ]


Fasten Show


http://www.alansondheim.org/placement.jpg (Oscar Shlemer) (smaller!)
http://www.alansondheim.org/fashionshow.mp4 (Askher Slimmer) (smaller!)

Here very splay of the real? In such a fashion incisions, fashion, ges-
ture, languagings, and what continually emerges is the good-old-fashioned-
real, Beau-Brummel-Roseland messy messy fashion. You're either online or
offline, one way or another: dresses for infinity are bypassed in this
fashion; the systems are both functional and must be created anew - each
time one moves string and creates the appearance of arousal, nothing more,
such wonderful kostumes.

Here's the old culture of the unconscious.

Indeed it has been abstracted from all concretion in such thoroughgoing
fashion that one understands the endless worry about embodiment of ideas.
The body does not embody ideas; it more accurately is ideas, matter, and
energy that may pursue the same erotic, fantastic fashioning of the social
system, unbelievably uncontrollable, the very splay of the real. Nikuko's
writing begins with Askher's writhing on hir bohdi.

He signs hir, she signs hirself. Writing doesn't begin, it dozes, a high-
wire act of haute couture. The energy skimming surfaces, burrowing into
them. Jennifer runs off at the mouth, going on about fashion, Askhir's
doing what he always doze and philosophy Okkurs.

Jennifer's mouth runs, Jennifer runs on Askhir, Nikuko says "wayward",
"nice", "feminine", "lovely", "used", "fashionable", "small", "inci-
sions, gestures, cuts, surgeries, sutures, surges."

Nikuko fashions hir texts and where's hem, pornography with absinthe
organs, Schlemmer wrytes about the photoplay. Nikuko's back (is) in the
imaginary, it's all the splay of the reel - trainers, gym memberships,
fashionable clothing, pebbles...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 01:01:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
Subject: Access Grid resonance and selenite filtering      

Access Grid resonance and selenite filtering


For us at AG, an exciting group of videos/images!

This has been a dream: to bounce a video signal repeatedly around the
world, creating video feedback as the signal resonates with itself. On a
laptop, my video camera received an image from the West Virginia
University Access Grid that bounced from the Asia Pacific Access Grid
Lobby in Queensland. My camera sent the image back to the APAG Lobby where
it was transmitted and picked up by a camera on the WVU Access Grid. The
camera transmitted the image to the Asia Pacific Access Grid node,
whereupon it bounced back to my laptop, where it was received ...

A similar looping was created using the Argonne National Laboratory Access
Grid Lobby in Chicago. Another looping used two cameras and transmissions
from the WVU Access Grid across to Argonne and / or the APAG; the looping
was picked up by the laptop which sent the image back through the Lobby to
WVU where it was inserted (medium against large) into one of the WVU
images ....

I wanted a sense of the distances covered. We did ping and traceroute and
found that while Argonne came back around 38 ms and Queensland hit some-
where around 152 ms, the looping through the latter seemed considerably
faster.

The first of the files below is a series of stills from the whole process.

The second is video feedback with the usual tilted camera and infinite
regress circling the planet.

The third is a somewhat steady-state blob of light, oddly breast-shaped,
that pulsed and sometimes disappeared on the screen; again, this was built
up through / by planetary circulation.

The fourth is Azure Carter singing with room and Access Grid resonance
through Argonne; she's locally on four different cameras, and the reson-
ances bounce through the WVU AG room and across the network.

Finally the fifth video explores an odd quality of a selenite crystal
which produces a series of rings for 'fuzzed' sources of light and color.
One might think of this as a simulacrum of resonance as well.

http://www.alansondheim.org/agresonance.mov (series of stills)

http://www.alansondheim.org/agasiapacific.mp4 (series of video
sections with the usual feedback infinite regress circling the planet)

http://www.alansondheim.org/agpascreen.mp4 (video of breast-shaped
almost steady-state light partially filling the screen, regress
circling the world)

http://www.alansondheim.org/azuresong.mp4 (azure carter singing with
access grid sending voice to argonne national laboratory and back with
additional local room resonance)

http://www.alansondheim.org/seleniterings.mp4 (imaging through selenite
crystal)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:43:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
Subject: Haptic - touch at the limits      

Haptic


The Hapticmath program was written at WVU for a Phantom2 haptic stylus;
move the stylus, and the cursor can 'feel' the graph of a mathematical
expression as a groove, which is also visible on a screen. In the
following series of images, the program is demonstrated and applied to
equations with anomalous curves. The sin(x) - a sinewave - maps simply, as
does tan(x) - the tangent curve. But the latter goes asymptotically to +
and - infinity, and the stylus can't connect at the juncture. This is a
well-defined vertical line. Of greater interest is sin(tan(x)), which has
an anomalous region; most of the images are of that. The expression was
biased to fill the screen, i.e. 3*(sin(tan(1.5*(x+3)))). While dashes are
visible, nothing connects with the stylus, which tends to disappear,
become absorbed in the region. The visible haptic anomalous region, in
other words, becomes a paradoxically indeterminate haptic surface with an
invisible cursor. Metaphorically, touch has been compromised and absorbed
in a virtual space barely hinted at. As with my other work, this indicates
an informal limit where other phenomena appear, and the usual extensions
of the body, as well as body image, cannot be taken for granted.

http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic01.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic02.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic03.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic04.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic05.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic06.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic07.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic08.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic09.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic10.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic11.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic12.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/haptic13.jpg

(Thanks to Frances van Scoy and the West Virginia VEL for use of the
equipment.)

(video possibly forthcoming)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:24:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
Subject: Odyssey presents: The Accidental Artist (Alan Sondheim in SL) (fwd)

  This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,
  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

Odyssey presents:


THE ACCIDENTAL ARTIST

Alan Sondheim

Opening with performance June 25th 10pm EDT and June 26th 10pm CET
location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/48/12/22

VIDEO PERFORMERS: Foofwa d'Imobilite, Azure Carter, Kira Sedlock, David
Bello, Alan Sondheim.

PERFORMANCE: Sandy Baldwin, Alan Sondheim

Thanks to Sugar Seville, Sandy Baldwin, NYSCA, Frances van Scoy, Virtual
Environments Laboratory at West Virginia University, Gary Manes


WRITE HOME: ACCIDENTS HAPPEN! Poor little avatars hide behind poor
little avatars! Avatars ab/use! Avatars don't need air! You can't weigh
them! They don't know the meaning of the word! THESE avatars don't know
anything! They're weighed down by coordinates! They can't fuck! Their
prims bend, smash! Smashed prims are prims. Hello, hello! Video and
performance spewed from a laboratory of virtual environments. IN MY
WORLD, THERE ARE NO ERRORS, ONLY SEDUCTIONS!



The human figure's place in art gets turned inside out here in this
world of unfolded and refolded geometries. What remains of the body in
the domain of the virtual? What survives the transition? Could this
still be called a body? Where are we going in this crossing over into
bits, why are we going there/nowhere and what does it say about the
nature of human desire? At what point does a beautiful accident become
a tragic mistake? Is there truly such a thing as a mistake?

A pioneer in virtual worlds and networked environments, Alan Sondheim
brings his latest work to Odyssey http://odysseyart.ning.com/, an
international community of artists working on 2 servers in the
networked 3d virtual world called Second Life. An autobiography of
Sondheim's career as an artist can be found here=20
http://www.alansondheim.org/COMPBIO.TXT





This exhibit is being presented in the networked environment Second
Life on the Odyssey simulator. To view this work you must have a Second
Life account and avatar, which is free of charge and takes about 30
minutes to set up and learn the basic functionality. To set up an
account, go here: http://secondlife.com/ Once you are logged into
Second Life, click this link
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/48/12/22 in your web browser and
the Second Life client will teleport your avatar to the location of the
exhibit. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate your avatar
through the exhibit and be sure to press play on both the audio and
video buttons located on the lower right of your Second Life client.







avatar : noun
Etymology: Sanskrit avat=E2rah descent, from avatarati he descends, from
ava- away + tarati he crosses over
1: the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu) 2 a: an incarnation in
human form b: an embodiment (as of a concept or philosophy) often in a
person 3: a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity 4: an
electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user
(as in a computer game)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:41:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
Subject: Nikuko, others, performing 

Nikuko, others, performing


http://www.alansondheim.org/odyssey.mp4

High compression... this is from the workstation viewpoint... it's hard to
see around the avatar which is enormous and glowing. Lucian Iwish came on
later with a structure that enveloped the whole building... but with the
show, the avatar I use is perhaps twenty-five feet high... Sandy's is both
larger and smaller, variable, ghost-like... We had a few people the first
night, a crowd the second (afternoon) who spoke mainly Italian. This sec=
tion is from the first night. Live instruments included flute, chromatic
harmonica, sampling keyboard. Sandy's texts flew amazingly, were from our
theory writing on avatar and the like. My texts were paste-ins from the
Jennifer, Nikuko, Doctor Leopold Konninger, Julu plays. Sound is from a
number of simultaneous sources under the control of the viewer. You can
talk or make live music in Second Life. Time of the recording was set to
midnight. Second Life beyond the traditional physics (which can be
countermanded to some extent by creating objects without physics) is
incredibly malleable; a building roof can exist without support, marked-
off territories may have no concrete barrier markers beyond the luminous
floating signs; bodies can be modified at will; flying and teleportation
are comment; one exists without breathing on land or sea; set carefully,
one penetrates rocks; you might or might not see through your avatar's
body; for that matter, objects may glow or be transparent; touch at a
distance is possible and common; you may construct on land, in sea, within
air; you normally disappear when your character logs out; environment and
time may follow Second Life time or be set artificially; one might talk
with one's voice, through internal instant messaging, or through chat;
your avatar body may be distorted by others; everything depends on Linden
corporation; Linden may well be able to hear any and all private conversa-
tions; beyond Linden there's the horizon of bandwidth; particle emissions
are quick and contain just about anything; buildings arise and fall in a
twinkling of an eye... The time is midnight, the objects glow, intersect;
I believe, without proof, that they are sliding in a fourth spatial dimen-
sion through some flaw in the software; there are some bodies and some
objects I may fly through; there are some I am held by; there are some who
hold me; there are griefers and hackers; there are some who hold me... Who
am I but avatar-Nikuko, Nikuko-avatar; she speaks through me; asserts her-
self; possesses a literally uncanny insistence; turns towards withdrawn
sexuality; is always waiting and awaiting, as I am always waiting and
awaiting here. Flying through configurations, she settles on a certain
appearance or style or look; I am back beyond the screen; she controls
objects greater than any I have controlled; she is adroit. I am back
beyond the screen; I'm blinded by the objects; for the most part I can't
see ahead, only slight glimpses to the left and right, slight glimpses of
the floorboards beneath her feet. There, beneath her feet, are the vector
guides that somewhat make a mapping. I have three choices: stay within her
body, breathe her breathless air, or fly her everywhere which gives me the
slightest vision above the objects, or use mouselook, which allows me to
see through Nikuko's eyes, gives me her sight, or scent, her touch, her
perfume. But mouselook takes over the screen; the configuration menus and
controls disappear; you're only there with her, in her, as she is in you;
everyone else is present, easy to see and touch; you might run or swoop
with delight; you might stay absolutely still; but your bound within her
as your bound within Second Life as a Life, that is, as a being-in-the-
world which gives you no escape, no meta-processes to fine-tune the
process. You can't build that way; you are sunk in Nikuko's body, part of
her avatar-flesh, sheave-flesh, sheave-mind, Linden-mind; your swallowing
is her swallowing, your food her own. So in these performances, the more
Nikuko gathers, the more I am flying blind, even building blind, speaking
blind, dancing and yes choreographing blind, blind in this airless world
with the trivial fact that it is I who see, dispersed-eye, not Nikuko who
can only whisper through appearance, affect me through her slightest move-
ment, walk and talk, sit and stand, nowhere at all. Yet there is something
of a future here, not in Linden or the Corporation, neither in bandwidth
nor in prim-counts, but in a peripheral and, again that uncanny insist-
ence, that feeling that Nikuko is living, not as prosthetic or other
device, not as prim, but perhaps as a not-so-prim woman or girl or neutral
or male at the last or gender-ending moment of the real. For Nikuko has
taken me, just like others have taken you into the unaccountable true
world, with its lines of flight and inscriptions intensifications and
dispersed gatherings of selves and bodies, the true world of scatterings,
spews, emissions, radiations. And among all of this, Nikuko flies, swoops,
cavorts, in nowhere, among an underground mathesis gone wild, presented
for your pleasure or operating pleasure, for your frisson or sport- or
spoor-world, for the spook or glow, fed by nothing, a picture for your
pretty sight, a longing, for something, somewhere, languor ...

( stills still at http://www.alansondheim.org/ sldoc jpgs )

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org