echovar - Latest Comments

Re: The Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld

Bill Yarrow — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:23:45 -0000

The Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld is one of my favorite volumes of poetry EVER. Excellent translations. Great book.

Re: The Time of Pattern Recognition

cgerrish — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:44:36 -0000

It's an interesting question, once a public gesture is recorded and patterned, can a person recall the data? Can one pre-recall the data? In essence it's anonymity, invisibility in public. Baudelaire is eloquent on the advent of urban anonymity, it wasn't alway something we enjoyed.

Re: The Time of Pattern Recognition

Jerome Hughes — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:58:38 -0000

accidental repost now edited to serve as the other side of the attached message (metadata) …

"remove me, I’m never part of this pattern you’re interested in. I have no purpose (telos) that may be apparent by just looking at me, but this message you’re reading vouches for my lack of purpose. I am not a part of a significant pattern. Forget me."

Re: The Time of Pattern Recognition

Jerome Hughes — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:58:24 -0000

great post!

interesting to think of patterns in this way, finding members of the set of like elements that fits a pattern which is imposed after the elements exist

also of interest is the nature of patterns that works from the other direction, as a template for created elements of the set that can be made the same or varied, as with sewing patterns, recipes, tutorials, and such

Re: The Politics of the Message and the File

cgerrish — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:55:06 -0000

Once the individual platforms have sufficient scale to create positive economics, there's little motivation to federate with other platforms. Email seemed to mimic the telephone network, the new platforms look back to AOL, the bulletin board on steroids. It may require an architectural innovation like a P2P messaging network to create change. P2P originally rode on the back of the MP3 and popular music to establish network scale. Since that time, the central platforms have managed to blacken the name of the P2P architectural form.

Re: The Politics of the Message and the File

aronski — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:29:30 -0000

It is disturbing that the message is intended to stay indoors albeit on a server farm with a single brand on it. Your post makes me wonder if the confederacy of email will occur again, the mega content with first dibs on the mining, the pittance of rent of the cloud and the gatecharge of clients, leeches and cyber pimps. It really makes no sense to be on the network if the message can only go so far. Will the silos insist on being last server standing or will they be satisfied to tag the Post-it with their own RFID when they send it into the wild? If they can still make a buck, I'm sure they will. China wasn't breached in a day...

Re: The Critic’s Role in Modern Attention Markets

Cliff Gerrish — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:06:17 -0000

As the boundary between art and not-art seems to dissolve, we might ask whether everything can now be read as a work of art, or whether nothing is intrinsically art and only a matter for scientific measurement and personal projection. In Baker's view art is always already social, always situated within a matrix of perspectives and relationships.

Thanks for directing my attention back to this post.

Re: The Critic’s Role in Modern Attention Markets

Kasia Turajczyk — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 05:48:01 -0000

By the way thanks for this interesting post.

Re: The Critic’s Role in Modern Attention Markets

Kasia Turajczyk — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 05:44:59 -0000

never ending issue, what can be definite as art and what can not - in the macro or micro-communities.
More important and interesting is how the art critics and art dealers 'made' something (painting, sculpture, installation, movement etc) very important or valuably, still in the eyes of the average art recipients/consumers a horrible thing, idea. Maybe we shouldn't talk about art any more since Duchamp's Fountain? Of art for avant-garde artists/and art art critics and art for the rest?

Re: A Ring Cycle For The Anthropocene

cgerrish — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:42:39 -0000

Thanks for the kind words. I'm very familiar with Anna Russell, she's a good antidote when things get too stuffy in Wagner-world. Summarizing the Ring is a bit like Monty Python's 'summarize Proust' bit. And while I'm a big proponent of taking large-scale art seriously, part of that has to be seeing the humor in it. Even the humor in taking it seriously. Cheers. cmg

Re: A Ring Cycle For The Anthropocene

Frank Hicks — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:56:50 -0000

From here, DownUnder, I watch US generally and SFO and California, with bug-eyed fascination, enough said, apart from adding that when I occasionally 'drop in' on Echovar, it is ALWAYS inspirational. Thank you. As for the serious Wagner, and even more serious Ring Cycle, can I suggest a nice light, inoculation in the form of Anna Russell, the British comedienne, who on The Anna Russell Album, takes more than 20 minutes to 'summarise' "The Ring of the Nibelungs". I do hope you find it an enjoy the liberating waft of humour.
[Addicts can follow on to the DIY version of a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera, set - where else? in New York]
best wishes
fgh

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

Simon Edhouse — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:12:10 -0000

Oh I do like a search engine with a sense of humour...

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

cgerrish — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:54:21 -0000

Unequivocal but not serious. We feel uncomfortable at the margins, so we make jokes.

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

Simon Edhouse — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:39:06 -0000

...and what do you make of Wolfram's "Angels are pure intelligences" answer? - That's fairly unequivocal isn't it?

I'm surprised to know that the existence of Angels apparently now has a scientific, 'a posteriori' basis in fact c/o Wolfram Alpha.

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

cgerrish — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:28:24 -0000

The form of exploration consisting of a question that has a true or false answer has an oddly narrow range.

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

Simon Edhouse — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:15:12 -0000

Yes, although they have built in a fix for some all too obvious philosophical / epistemological questions. ~ If you ask Wolfram: "Is there a God?" or "Does God exist?" it replies:

"I'm sorry, but a poor computational knowledge engine, no matter how powerful, is not capable of providing a simple answer to that question"

...and this is what makes Wolfram such a joke, because these type of answers are certainly written by their editorial team, if not Stephen himself.

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

cgerrish — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:52:41 -0000

Interesting that Wolfram weighs in on metaphysical questions.

Re: Sleepers Awake: Grains of Sand

Simon Edhouse — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:15:41 -0000

Grains of sand / Angels on a pin...

Richard Baxter c: 1667 ~ "And Schibler with others, maketh the difference of extension to be this, that Angels can contract their whole substance into one part of space, and therefore have not partes extra partes. Whereupon it is that
the Schoolmen have questioned how many Angels may fit upon the point of a Needle?" - http://bit.ly/7M92FS

Wolfram Alpha's answer:
"Angels are pure intelligences, not material, but limited, so that they have location in space, but not extension. Therefore, an infinity of angels can be located on the head of a pin"
~ (Thankyou Stephen, very helpful...)
http://bit.ly/NBuxO

or... Australian Singer/Songwriter Paul Kelly in his song "Careless" (about overcoming his heroin addiction)
"How many cabs in New York City, how many angels on a pin?" ~ http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Contra Optimization: 4th Time Around

cgerrish — Wed, 11 May 2011 01:31:27 -0000

Duplication that isn't duplication, a net for catching errors, listening for signal in the noise.

Re: Contra Optimization: 4th Time Around

aronski — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:34:48 -0000

@cgerrish The imperfect duplication leads to errors and innovation.Happy accidents become new cliches and classic moments. Human interface FTW.

Re: Screen and Cloud: Wrong Way Round

cgerrish — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:56:02 -0000

Kurtz's last words in 'Heart of Darkness' or 'Apocalypse Now' -- "the horror, the horror." It's always on, whether the power switch is on or not.

Re: Screen and Cloud: Wrong Way Round

aronski — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:00:06 -0000

Always on; the horror some around me have to that idea.

Re: Delusions of Reference: They’re Not Talking To You

MikeGrace — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:15:25 -0000

Wow! Awesome! Love the inclusion of the Forbidden Planet. : )

Re: The End Times of the Network

Simon Edhouse — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 20:22:22 -0000

Nice post Cliff... gonna read it a few more times though, before I attempt to make a meaningful comment. ~ The image of the young Cliff in the 1960's getting his B&W info-feed terminated sticks in the mind. :)

Re: A World of Infinite Info: Flattening the Curvature of the Earth

cgerrish — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:14:52 -0000

The road back from the infinite to the finite involves creating some limitations. I've described it as drawing a new horizon line. But another way to describe it would be the drawing of circles, and how my circle connects to and harvests the resonances and differences of your circle.

We also describe these kinds of limitations as lists and portfolios. In the curation model, we seek to hire portfolio managers to find the most productive set of people to follow.

Notice in this model, it's not pages or feeds from pages that are being followed but people.