place, narrative, mobile technologies, background for

Dear folks interested in place, narrative, mobile technologies,
(who may be interested in working with Robert Brandon and me on an NSF SCC pitch,
or with me and Canadian allies toward the large Canada Infrastructure Ecosystems competition)

Steven Tepper sent this article:

Experiential Data for Urban Planning
Federico Casalegno, Amar Boghani, Catherine Winfield
Innovative Technologies in Urban Mapping pp 73-80

This raises in turn the deep question of how narrative structures work to condition experience.
One way to think about "narrative structure”in a way that is more ample and futile for our research-creation is a configuration of marks or signifiers that condition the experience of the visitor.  These can be not just words on a printed page, but the arrangement of objects in space, or of gestures in an event, 

Of course, Stacey M can expand on this a lot more deeply and broadly than I can, but as a starting point, some resources could include:

Paul Ricoeur
The Human Experience of Time and Narrative

Mikhail Bakhtin
The Dialogic Imagination: chronotope and heteroglossia
Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics: polyphony and unfinalizability (and carnivalization)

Aporetic experiences of time in anti-narrative art†

The Narrative Reconfiguration of Time beyond Ricoeur
Jonas Grethlein Heidelberg University

Mneme, Anamnesis and Mimesis: The Function of Narrative in Paul Ricoeur’s Theory of Memory
Ridvan Askin

And in a lighter vein:

Beyond the Narrative Arc
By Jane Alison March 27, 2019

Mobile Technologies and Changing Spaces of Reading
Brian Greenspan, DH Quarterly


At the least, if we can think of narrative structures as more than a unidimensional “story” arc this may open up richer dialogue with experimental architecture, dance, performed music, post-dramatic theater, responsive environments, mobile technologies.


Contact me if you’re interested — I have a window now till June 18.
Xin Wei

Evan Thompson et al: The Blind Spot of Science Is the Neglect of Lived Experience


Aeon 8 Jan 2019 essay "The Blind Spot of Science Is the Neglect of Lived Experience"
by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, Evan Thompson

The problem of time is one of the greatest puzzles of modern physics. The first bit of the conundrum is cosmological. To understand time, scientists talk about finding a ‘First Cause’ or ‘initial condition’ – a description of the Universe at the very beginning (or at ‘time equals zero’). But to determine a system’s initial condition, we need to know the total system. We need to make measurements of the positions and velocities of its constituent parts, such as particles, atoms, fields and so forth. This problem hits a hard wall when we deal with the origin of the Universe itself, because we have no view from the outside. We can’t step outside the box in order to look within, because the box is all there is. A First Cause is not only unknowable, but also scientifically unintelligible. 

The second part of the challenge is philosophical. Scientists have taken physical time to be the only real time – whereas experiential time, the subjective sense of time’s passing, is considered a cognitive fabrication of secondary importance. The young Albert Einstein made this position clear in his debate with philosopher Henri Bergson in the 1920s, when he claimed that the physicist’s time is the only time. With age, Einstein became more circumspect. Up to the time of his death, he remained deeply troubled about how to find a place for the human experience of time in the scientific worldview.

These quandaries rest on the presumption that physical time, with an absolute starting point, is the only real kind of time. But what if the question of the beginning of time is ill-posed? Many of us like to think that science can give us a complete, objective description of cosmic history, distinct from us and our perception of it. But this image of science is deeply flawed. In our urge for knowledge and control, we’ve created a vision of science as a series of discoveries about how reality is in itself, a God’s-eye view of nature.

Such an approach not only distorts the truth, but creates a false sense of distance between ourselves and the world. That divide arises from what we call the Blind Spot, which science itself cannot see. In the Blind Spot sits experience: the sheer presence and immediacy of lived perception.

…

Re: light cast through water

Thinking about this theatrically/cinematically, I'm visualizing seeing the shadow of a figure entering and growing in the space and only later seeing the relatively diminutive source of the shadow. Translating this to the animated lamps, we should see the play of the light in the space and through the atmosphere as the primary dramatic effect and only secondarily see the lamps themselves. This could be accomplished by making relatively narrow fields of view in which they would be directly seen. 

I would emphasize fade effects and movements of light between lamps over strong flashing patterns. I think this will add to the sense of volume (thickness) and be more friendly for long term inhabitants of the space. 

If we want to add "texture" to the mist/light volume, we could use video projectors to produce higher resolution structured light. 

Alexia, I'm happy to meet with you and work through some of these ideas together. 

Best,
Byron

On Mon, Oct 29, 2018 at 7:04 AM Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu> wrote:

I will connect with Theatre about their availability to make the frames. Please keep in mind, this will splatter water all over the floor.

 

Pete

 

Peter M.Weisman

Technical Director

Arizona State University

School of Arts, Media and Engineering 

P.O. Box 875802

Tempe, Arizona 85287-5802

P: 480-965-9041

- 

 

 

From: sxw asu <sxwasu@gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 4:10 AM
To: Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu>, Connor Rawls <Connor.Rawls@asu.edu>, Alexia Lopez Klein <Alexia.Lopezklein@asu.edu>
Cc: "Yanjun Lyu (Student)" <ylyu16@asu.edu>, Brandon Mechtley <bmechtley@asu.edu>, "Andrew Robinson (Student)" <Andrew.Robinson.1@asu.edu>, "sxwasu@gmail.com" <sxwasu@gmail.com>, Byron Lahey <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>, "post@textures.posthaven.com" <post@textures.posthaven.com>
Subject: light cast through water

 

Pete, Connor, Alexia, Byron,

 

Nima and Thierry in TML Montreal suspended the pool of water overhead, stirred by max-controlled motors, and cast light through the water :

 

 

Goal : 

Let’s try suspending one (ideally three) of our “cloud  nurseries”   so we can test them as light sources modulating the felt experience of a volume of space.  The light sources can be our Source 4’s.

 

Can we map Alexia’s control patch and give her access to the misters?  I’d like to see what she can do.   Then  we can map them into the sc system to modulate them from camera feed.

 

Alexia, Byron, Yanjun can I invite your fresh opinion on this.  What if we do not focus 100% of the inhabitant’s attention on the light fixtures, however mesmerizing they are.  How can we design the effect of the caustics on the airspace in the iStage.   as a function of the state of the environment?  



It’d be interesting to juxtapose this with Garrett’s light games — so we need state engine to swap or even blend state topologies.

 

( Recall the iridescent “mobile” lights that Byron et al suspended in the Brickyard. :) 

 

Xin Wei

 

_________________________

Sha Xin Wei +1.650.815.9962

Director, School of Arts, Media + Engineering | Synthesis @ ASU

_________________________



--
Byron Lahey, PhD
Arizona State University
School of Arts, Media and Engineering
Assistant Professor, Digital Culture
Honors Faculty
byron.lahey@asu.edu

light cast through water

Pete, Connor, Alexia, Byron,

Nima and Thierry in TML Montreal suspended the pool of water overhead, stirred by max-controlled motors, and cast light through the water :


Goal : 
Let’s try suspending one (ideally three) of our “cloud  nurseries”   so we can test them as light sources modulating the felt experience of a volume of space.  The light sources can be our Source 4’s.

Can we map Alexia’s control patch and give her access to the misters?  I’d like to see what she can do.   Then  we can map them into the sc system to modulate them from camera feed.

Alexia, Byron, Yanjun can I invite your fresh opinion on this.  What if we do not focus 100% of the inhabitant’s attention on the light fixtures, however mesmerizing they are.  How can we design the effect of the caustics on the airspace in the iStage.   as a function of the state of the environment?  

It’d be interesting to juxtapose this with Garrett’s light games — so we need state engine to swap or even blend state topologies.

( Recall the iridescent “mobile” lights that Byron et al suspended in the Brickyard. :) 

Xin Wei

Solitons

• exemplary lucid lecture on solitons
by Jeff Murugan

• Introduction to waves and solitons
Gabi

• Why are solitons stable?
Terence Tao



• Rogue Waves in the Ocean, Springer 2009
Christian Kharif, ‎Efim Pelinovsky, ‎Alexey Slunyaev


• Universal Peregrine soliton


• Spectral properties of the Peregrine soliton observed in a water wave tank 
A. Chabchoub, S. Neumann, N. P. Hoffmann, and N. Akhmediev
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117 (2012)

Synthesis Atmosphere: Chomaz’ mist machines

At LADHYX Polytechnique Paris (the MIT of France ) Jean-Marc Chomaz' Hydrodynamics lab has a wall-scale mist array with hundreds of straws to smooth and focus flow, plus fans driving mist over their water chambers in plexi modules. each module is about 50cm cube, one face w straws. entire wall is about 3m x 3m

it can puff out laminar flows of mist clear across a room about 6m or "discrete" person-sized letters.

it's bordered by fans that protect the formed mist from stray winds so that it can also work outdoors to some extent.

Chomaz and I thought we could collaborate by connecting his mist instruments to sc.

Fwd: City Rhythm: Logbook of an Exploration

From Pinar Sefkatli (Universiteit van Amsterdam):
…
 research publication City Rhythm: Logbook of an Exploration.

 

City Rhythm research was started in 2016 by Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan, in collaboration with AMS Institute, 6 Dutch cities (Den Haag, Rotterdam, Zaanstad, Zoetermeer, Helmond en Amsterdam), Amsterdam Health and Technology Institute (ahti) and with the students from LDE Minor Responsible Innovation. The research on rhythms in the physical world and in the data world showed that focusing on rhythm and on dynamics in neighbourhoods and in datasets creates new design spaces that can generate un-expected solutions.

 

Thanks to the research grant we received from the Dutch Scientific Research Organisation (NWO), the research will proceed for four more years. The next phase of the research, Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience, will focus on the South-East district of Amsterdam (Amsterdam Zuidoost). DRSR will explore more deeply the rhythms of the neighbourhood from architectural and data perspectives with a PhD researcher from both disciplines, with the main goal of making conclusions on social safety and resilience.

 

We hope that you find the findings of our research inspiring, and that you can get an idea about the upcoming research which will start on July 2018. The publication is also available online, which can be found on TU Delft Architecture Faculty’s books catalogue, BK Books. 

 

…

Best wishes,
Pinar Sefkatli

 

De gemeente Amsterdam streeft naar optimale dienstverlening en zorgvuldige afhandeling van e-mailverkeer. Als een e-mail niet voor u is bestemd, verzoekt de gemeente u vriendelijk ons van de juiste adressering op de hoogte te stellen en de e-mail te verwijderen zonder de informatie te gebruiken en te delen met anderen. Voor verdere informatie over de rechten op informatie, zie https://www.amsterdam.nl/proclaimer.

Serra idea for how to relate people activity to ecosystem activity…

Hi Todd, Oana,

As a first pass to composing relations between people's activity to ecosystem activity…I’m thinking about exemplars of ensemble movements, but under two optics: (1)what people would naturally do as they encounter such a structure in an art event, and (2) ensemble movement that kinetically (formally) happens to resonate with some of the behavior that I see up into the ecosystem,

Exemplar A in people ensemble movement : people start filling up the space, when it has been empty for awhile.

Exemplar A’ in ecosystem movement : all the stuff that happens in transition from night to dawn.

Exemplar B in people ensemble movement : 
People have been milling around for awhile, driving the activity-clock*,  but then they begin to settle down in place (presence under the sky > 1** ).
(But after a while, that activity-clock’s acceleration (second time derivative of clock value) starts to fall to zero)

Exemplar B' in ecosystem movement : a storm builds, leaves silver as they turn under the wind, particles begin to be driven by chaotic wind, in addition to the movement of the leaves.

Of course, in these examples A’ is correlated to A, and B’ to B.   That’s a compositional decision.
The correlation is not fully deterministic, but correlated enough to give Serra a sense of legible response to people activity.

In order to make palpable that there are relations between one self’s activity / presence and the ecosystem, that one is in fact part of the ecosystem, some direct 1-1 logic is necessary, such as:

Exemplars C + C': each person’s movement perturbs the plants corresponding to their location, as if the wake of their passage brushes aside those leaves

I know that as a rule, we do not want to build only 1-1 logics into our piece, bc then that would be merely “interactive art.”  On the other hand, I’d like to avoid the illegibility of "complex systems."   Beesley’s hylomorphic “forests” of fronds: although his installation(s) exhibit complex behavior that has some algorithmic relation to inhabitants' presence and activity as well as the fronds' own states.  Bur after the initial charm wore off, I got bored because (1) the activity was homogeneous over time, (2) the complexity seemed randomly related to my activity.  (He explained that indeed there was a randomizer.)

* activity-clock is a Max patch that has an integer value.  It increments at a default rate per clock time.   However degree of motion (or any parameter derived from sensor data reflecting degree of activity ) increments or decrements that rate.   This simply patch could be re-written as an exercise in elementary Max.    I’d like to use it to drive certain transitions or behaviors in place of simple clocks or line or metro.

** presence can be calibrated so that 1.0 corresponds to 1 human body’s worth of occupancy under the field of view of the camera.   Thus stray smaller objects could sum up to 1.   Similarly degree of motion should be scaled so that 1.0 corresponds to the activity of one person walking about at a pace that we set experimentally by walking under Serra ourselves.

When I see you today, maybe we can start with a quick walk thru of all the different states of behaviour of the ecosystem.  Then we can bought out a bunch of human ensemble activities that we expect, then some transitions corresponding to the emergence of those ensemble activities…  (Every correlation will be naturally continuous.  We can make them seem more triggered simply by changing the response curve to be more like a step function.)

Some obvious human ensemble activities:

D. People move such that there is a general drift along one particular vector.

E. People start to move in a big circle, clockwise or counter-clockwise, with an angular velocity.

F. Gather-Scatter (how closely people bunch together): Connor’s utility.

Xin Wei

_________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
Fellow: ASU-Santa Fe Center for Biosocial Complex Systems
Affiliate Professor: Future of Innovation in Society; Computer Science; English
Associate Editor: AI & Society Journal
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
_______________________________________________________