The last few months, i’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time watching how this birds were coded, asking about the most basic things about Linux andmaking some absurd statements to describe LISP , the language used to create them. Dan Torop is the crazy brain behind this real time simulation of the Bowery ca 1997, as Dan likes to describe. I remember they started as triangles with visible axis and they suddenly became this strange flock of glassy birds. You can control the flock, the color of the sky, the camera and other physics with a game controler, like his previous amazing Ocean. I also experiment for the first time the process of actualling seeing how code “became” something else: there is no need to point out the esoterism of this line! (i know, specially coming for a background in animation and video, where you are limited by interfaces and timelines)
Last night i went to see “Antartica Encounters at the End of the World” by Werner Herzog wich remind a lot, the photography work i’ve seen of Dan – whom before starting to code again, was a already pretty damn good photographer-. Anyway, both in relation with nature and the use of technology to represent it, i finally connect this image with the Birds of the Bowery, and remind me too, that i should (must) do something with code.
Again, the end of the world gets better and better.
I never thought i was going to be ever so happy about a “tweet”. But when i check the Church this evening and find out the announcement my faith was totally updated, literally via RSS!!
Apparently is not new the existence of ice in Mars, but now they actually see it sublimate. How freaking *incredibly odd* is all of this: .gif evidences of another planets and twitters from rovers and “Dissapearing Ice in Wonderland”.
Looks Beautiful.!
I’ve been all day in downtown. Is kind of beautiful and crowded. I went with some beamers to the Federal Reserve today in 33 Liberty St, Downtown . It was good but not *great* since you don’t get to see machines counting millions dollars, although you get to go to the Gold Vault and you even hold a crazy heavy bar of gold. Also they give you a little bag of “real money” shredded. You get to watch some hillarious videos about Gold being the ultimate Bling and so on. The whole spectacle is ridiculous and sketchy.
I doesn’t surprise that the tour guide didn’t know anything about the big percent of dollar bills that contain traces of cocaine., when i asked, but the answer: “those words are not even in our vocabulary” was kind of shocking. Did she mean “cocaine”? Clearly she doesn’t know that New York is the biggest coke head city in the world and probably thinks she work for the greater good , that money is better than cocaine or that there is absolutely no relation between each other? Inspiring and depressing equally. And i still have to read this comics about ‘the story of money’ and “once upon a dime”. You can order the comics here for free ha!
But it wasn’t all shocking… The video of the robots carrying and storaging money was kind of incredible
The work of Los Carpinteros from Cuba is featured in the exhibition ‘Psyco-buildings’ running in Southbank Centre in UK. It frustates me that i cannot see it so i have to live only with the microsite.
From Los Carpinteros:
“We are interested in the fact that violence exist and that we have to deal with it, as with just another part of your everyday life, like going to the kitchen”
Tanda Foundation raised 74 dollars during Mixer!. By exchanging a dollar for a coin to operate the machine, the users received a fake-currency button from it. Thanks everyone who contribute!. Kudu was incredible as usual.. too bad they played just a few songs. The highlight of the night was the ink-scanner by Friedich Kirschner Absolutely incredible and fun.
We also received the Sunday Soup Grant by inCUBATE this morning. All the people that bought soup vote for the project and the foundation got 104 dollars. Thanks inCUBATE.
I’ll be exchanging money for money buttons to raise funds for my project “Tanda Foundation”. Also my fellow friend Friedich set up a new version of his milk-scanner in an inflatable pool!. Caps and towels are included. Bring your swiming suit and dance with KUDU. (they sound very glamorous!)
The website of Tanda Foundation is up!. Detailed information about this experiment and a widget for take donations are fully working. Tanda Foundation social network will be launched in september during Other Options show in NYC. While that Next Saturday i’ll be soliciting for the foundation at Mixer , using a low-tech cardboard dispenser. With one dollar you’ll get a giant shape lock coin to operate the machine. You’ll get back, fake currency – in button pin style.
