Thursday 21 April 2011

Retired this blog, join me at nice new address:http://nicenewblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/nice-new-blog.html

http://nicenewblog.blogspot.com/
Yes nice new blog at the above address, sorry Phil - the old one had to go.
Goodbye old followers - why not join me in a whole new world of post-doctoral lovelyness, new design schema, hopeful typeface, uncynical and shiny...spring cleaned, fresh and fragrant..

Friday 15 April 2011

Corrections accepted

Corrections accepted, phew...not sure what to do with this blog now....retire it and start a nice new shiny one?

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Passed PhD viva with minor corrections..
:-)

Friday 25 March 2011


Lee and I have had our paper accepted for the Istanbul ISEA 2011 in Spetember, the paper is about our VAINS collaboration. No idea how we are going to fund it...we might have to hitch-hike and sleep in ditches. But it's pleasing to get through, apparently there were thousands of applicants, so that's a bit of validation for our project.

"ISEA2011 Istanbul is the international festival of new media, electronic and digital arts. The 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art, a leading world conference and exhibition event for art, media and technology, is scheduled for September 14 to 21, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. The ISEA2011 Istanbul exhibition will coincide with the Istanbul Biennial and will provide a fantastic opportunity to showcase contemporary new media arts. "

My viva rehersal on Monday seemed to go ok, but I've got to work on making it clearer exactly how the software works with the book and egg. No one liked my film much so I dont think I'll bother to show it, probably wont have time anyway..

Wednesday 23 March 2011

South film


Other places to load South content, just as good on a kindle or mobile phone...

Our beautiful robot

So today we built our first Buridan's Robot prototype, now it responds to light, next we will give it conflicting desires. Below very simple Urbi code to make it communicate when light is a certain brightness:






















load("/home/student/creativerobotics/urbi-for-bioloid/dynamixel.u");

 var Global.d = Dynamixel.new;

class Thing
{

function init()
{
/* var this.shoulder =
Dynamixel.Device.new(d,1,Dynamixel.DeviceDesc.AX12);
var this.elbow =
Dynamixel.Device.new(d,2,Dynamixel.DeviceDesc.AX12);
var this.wrist =
Dynamixel.Device.new(d,3,Dynamixel.DeviceDesc.AX12);
var this.hand =
Dynamixel.Device.new(d,4,Dynamixel.DeviceDesc.AX12);
*/

var this.sensorH = Dynamixel.Device.new(d,100,
Dynamixel.DeviceDesc.AXS1);
var this.sensorRead = 0;



};

function start_feedback(){
detach
({
every(0.1s)
{
this.sensorRead = this.sensorH.lightLeft;
}
});

};


function startReact(){
whenever(sensorRead10)
{

echo("lighjt");}
};



};
var thing2 = Thing.new;
thing2.start_feedback;

thing2.startReact;


Wednesday 16 March 2011

Creative Robotics Basic plan for Buridan's Robot a robot that needs help to make choices


Basic plan for Buridan's Robot a robot that needs help to make choices
//we are finally getting somewhere with Urbi in Creative Robotics

loadModule("urbi/qt-for-urbi");
load("thing.u");

var thing = Thing.new;

function conv(a){

var res = ((a* 3.4/100.0) -1.7);
res
}|

function gui_stuff()
{
var window = Qt.Widget.new;//create a window
var layout = Qt.GridLayout.new;//create the layout to display the
// things in the window
window.setLayout(layout);//set the layout in the window !notice the comment is longer than the line ....

//here you create the sliders
var shoulder_slider = Qt.Slider.new;
var elbow_slider = Qt.Slider.new;
var wrist_slider = Qt.Slider.new;
var hand_slider = Qt.Slider.new;


//here you add the stuff to the layout
layout.addWidget(shoulder_slider, 0, 0, Qt.Alignment.AlignHCenter);
layout.addWidget(elbow_slider, 0, 1, Qt.Alignment.AlignHCenter);
layout.addWidget(wrist_slider, 0, 2, Qt.Alignment.AlignHCenter);
layout.addWidget(hand_slider, 0, 3, Qt.Alignment.AlignHCenter);


//the following is how you catch an event, notice the event?(var msg) construct
at (shoulder_slider.sliderMoved?(var msg))
thing.shoulder.targetPos=conv(msg);


at (elbow_slider.sliderMoved?(var msg))
echo(msg);


at (wrist_slider.sliderMoved?(var msg))
echo(msg);


at (hand_slider.sliderMoved?(var msg))
echo(msg);


window.show;//here you make the window visible!!!!

};
//hmm interetsing http://support.robotis.com/en/product/bioloid/beginnerkit/download/bioloid_beginner_app.htm
this is our simple idea:



react to sound - wants to turn to sound - we have a sound sensor

react to light - wants to turn to light - we have a light sensor

if it detects both it will signal need for our support how - by moving head - signs of panic

we might use attack duck example - simple movements


we activate proximity sensor to give it permision to make a random decision


decision( Tag)

Saturday 12 March 2011

Another good android example with rotation

Another good android example with rotation from http://bestsiteinthemultiverse.com/2008/11/android-graphics-example/

Executed in Eclispe

package com.android.drawdemo;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.DashPathEffect;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Path;
import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

public class DrawDemo extends Activity {
DemoView demoview;
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
demoview = new DemoView(this);
setContentView(demoview);
}

private class DemoView extends View{
public DemoView(Context context){
super(context);
}

@Override protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);

// custom drawing code here
// remember: y increases from top to bottom
// x increases from left to right
int x = 0;
int y = 0;
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);

// make the entire canvas white
paint.setColor(Color.WHITE);
canvas.drawPaint(paint);
// another way to do this is to use:
// canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);

// draw a solid blue circle
paint.setColor(Color.BLUE);
canvas.drawCircle(20, 20, 15, paint);

// draw blue circle with antialiasing turned on
paint.setAntiAlias(true);
paint.setColor(Color.BLUE);
canvas.drawCircle(60, 20, 15, paint);

// compare the above circles once drawn
// the fist circle has a jagged perimeter
// the second circle has a smooth perimeter

// draw a solid green rectangle
paint.setAntiAlias(false);
paint.setColor(Color.GREEN);
canvas.drawRect(100, 5, 200, 30, paint);

// create and draw triangles
// use a Path object to store the 3 line segments
// use .offset to draw in many locations
// note: this triangle is not centered at 0,0
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
paint.setStrokeWidth(2);
paint.setColor(Color.RED);
Path path = new Path();
path.moveTo(0, -10);
path.lineTo(5, 0);
path.lineTo(-5, 0);
path.close();
path.offset(10, 40);
canvas.drawPath(path, paint);
path.offset(50, 100);
canvas.drawPath(path, paint);
// offset is cumlative
// next draw displaces 50,100 from previous
path.offset(50, 100);
canvas.drawPath(path, paint);

// draw some text using STROKE style
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
paint.setStrokeWidth(1);
paint.setColor(Color.MAGENTA);
paint.setTextSize(30);
canvas.drawText("Style.STROKE", 75, 75, paint);

// draw some text using FILL style
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
//turn antialiasing on
paint.setAntiAlias(true);
paint.setTextSize(30);
canvas.drawText("Style.FILL", 75, 110, paint);

// draw some rotated text
// get text width and height
// set desired drawing location
x = 75;
y = 185;
paint.setColor(Color.GRAY);
paint.setTextSize(25);
String str2rotate = "Rotated!";

// draw bounding rect before rotating text
Rect rect = new Rect();
paint.getTextBounds(str2rotate, 0, str2rotate.length(), rect);
canvas.translate(x, y);
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
// draw unrotated text
canvas.drawText("!Rotated", 0, 0, paint);
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
canvas.drawRect(rect, paint);
// undo the translate
canvas.translate(-x, -y);

// rotate the canvas on center of the text to draw
canvas.rotate(-45, x + rect.exactCenterX(),
y + rect.exactCenterY());
// draw the rotated text
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
canvas.drawText(str2rotate, x, y, paint);

//undo the rotate
canvas.restore();
canvas.drawText("After canvas.restore()", 50, 250, paint);

// draw a thick dashed line
DashPathEffect dashPath =
new DashPathEffect(new float[]{20,5}, 1);
paint.setPathEffect(dashPath);
paint.setStrokeWidth(8);
canvas.drawLine(0, 300 , 320, 300, paint);

}
}
}

Example of simple animation and touch events in Android via Eclipse







Example of simple animation and touch events in Android via Eclipse










package amdroid.TransformationalActivity.com;


import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Window;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Rect;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.SurfaceView;


public class TransformationalActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
setContentView(new Panel(this));
}
}
//////////

class Panel extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

private Bitmap mBitmap;
private ViewThread mThread;

private int mX;
private int mY;
private int rad; //my variable for radius and movable x and ys

public Panel(Context context) {
super(context);
mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.lotus);
getHolder().addCallback(this);
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
}

public void doDraw(Canvas canvas) {

/*because of the thread this is looping like draw() in Processing*/

//simple way to make circle grow then go small again

rad++;
if(rad>300){
rad=3;

}




canvas.drawColor(Color.BLUE); //background colour

Paint paint = new Paint();


canvas.drawLine(33, 0, 33, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.RED); paint.setStrokeWidth(10); canvas.drawLine(56, 0, 56, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.GREEN); paint.setStrokeWidth(25);
for (int y = 30, alpha = 255; alpha > 2; alpha >>= 1, y += 10) {
paint.setAlpha(alpha);

//canvas.drawRect(cx, cy, radius, paint);
canvas.drawLine(0, y, 100, y, paint);

}



paint.setColor(Color.CYAN);
//canvas.drawCircle(mX-20, mY-20, rad, paint); //use my rad variable for radius
canvas.drawBitmap(mBitmap, mX, mY, null);

//strange solution to drawing a stable sized moving rect
paint.setColor(Color.RED);
Rect simplr = new Rect();
simplr.set(rad+120, 130, rad+156, 156);
canvas.drawRect(simplr, paint);
////////
paint.setColor(Color.CYAN);
canvas.drawCircle(rad*2, 220, 30, paint); //faster circle

paint.setColor(Color.RED);
canvas.drawRect(rad, 67, 68, 45, paint);
//////////////////
paint.setColor(Color.GREEN);
canvas.drawCircle(rad, 125, 45, paint); //move circle across screen
//////////////////////

paint.setColor(Color.MAGENTA);
canvas.drawCircle(125, rad, rad/2, paint); //move circle down screen

paint.setColor(Color.YELLOW);

canvas.drawRect(rad, rad, 45, 45, paint);
}

@Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}

@Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (!mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
mThread.setRunning(true);
mThread.start();
}
}

@Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread.setRunning(false);
}
}

@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
mX = (int) event.getX() - mBitmap.getWidth() / 2;
mY = (int) event.getY() - mBitmap.getHeight() / 2;
return super.onTouchEvent(event);
}
}


/////////
class ViewThread extends Thread {
private Panel mPanel;
private SurfaceHolder mHolder;
private boolean mRun = false;

public ViewThread(Panel panel) {
mPanel = panel;
mHolder = mPanel.getHolder();
}

public void setRunning(boolean run) {
mRun = run;
}

@Override
public void run() {
Canvas canvas = null;
while (mRun) {
canvas = mHolder.lockCanvas();
if (canvas != null) {
mPanel.doDraw(canvas);
mHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
}
}
}

simple android touch screen move image, draw lines

//again thanks to these excellant and clear tutorials:
http://www.droidnova.com/2d-tutorial-series-part-i,770.html

package amdroid.TransformationalActivity.com;


import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Window;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
import android.view.SurfaceView;


public class TransformationalActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
setContentView(new Panel(this));
}
}
//////////

class Panel extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

private Bitmap mBitmap;
private ViewThread mThread;

private int mX;
private int mY;

public Panel(Context context) {
super(context);
mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.lotus);
getHolder().addCallback(this);
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
}

public void doDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.drawColor(Color.BLUE);
Paint paint = new Paint();
canvas.drawLine(33, 0, 33, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.RED); paint.setStrokeWidth(10); canvas.drawLine(56, 0, 56, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.GREEN); paint.setStrokeWidth(25);
for (int y = 30, alpha = 255; alpha > 2; alpha >>= 1, y += 10) {
paint.setAlpha(alpha);

canvas.drawLine(0, y, 100, y, paint);
}

canvas.drawBitmap(mBitmap, mX, mY, null);
}

@Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}

@Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (!mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
mThread.setRunning(true);
mThread.start();
}
}

@Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread.setRunning(false);
}
}

@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
mX = (int) event.getX() - mBitmap.getWidth() / 2;
mY = (int) event.getY() - mBitmap.getHeight() / 2;
return super.onTouchEvent(event);
}
}


/////////
class ViewThread extends Thread {
private Panel mPanel;
private SurfaceHolder mHolder;
private boolean mRun = false;

public ViewThread(Panel panel) {
mPanel = panel;
mHolder = mPanel.getHolder();
}

public void setRunning(boolean run) {
mRun = run;
}

@Override
public void run() {
Canvas canvas = null;
while (mRun) {
canvas = mHolder.lockCanvas();
if (canvas != null) {
mPanel.doDraw(canvas);
mHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
}
}
}

Simplest possible android graphic example




Simplest possible android graphic example - display an image (i.e lotus in the drawable-hdpi folder) make liness create the canvas, use paint, for loop for alpha channel etc
done in Eclipse. Second example below that draws image where user touches screen

//thanks to http://www.droidnova.com/2d-tutorial-series-part-ii,772.html
I've also been reading O'Reilly's Android Application Development, its got a little bit on Graphics and Matrix Transformations...
add this line for text - easy!!! paint.setColor(Color.RED); canvas.drawText("Android", 125, 30, paint);

package amdroid.TransformationalActivity.com; //my silly spelling. still works!




import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Window;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.view.View;

public class TransformationalActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
setContentView(new Panel(this));
}
}


class Panel extends View {

private Bitmap mBitmap;

public Panel(Context context) {
super(context);
mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.lotus);
}

@Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.drawColor(Color.BLUE);

Paint paint = new Paint();
canvas.drawLine(33, 0, 33, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.RED); paint.setStrokeWidth(10); canvas.drawLine(56, 0, 56, 100, paint);
paint.setColor(Color.GREEN); paint.setStrokeWidth(25);
for (int y = 30, alpha = 255; alpha > 2; alpha >>= 1, y += 10) {
paint.setAlpha(alpha);

canvas.drawLine(0, y, 100, y, paint);
}
//add this for text - EASY!! no need to import a font for this
paint.setColor(Color.RED); canvas.drawText("Hello Androids everywhere", 125, 30, paint);
canvas.drawBitmap(mBitmap, 100, 100, null);
}
}/////////////////

//////////////////////////////

Second example - draw image where user touches screen:

package amdroid.TransformationalActivity.com;


import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Window;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
import android.view.SurfaceView;


public class TransformationalActivity extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
setContentView(new Panel(this));
}
}
//////////

class Panel extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

private Bitmap mBitmap;
private ViewThread mThread;

private int mX;
private int mY;

public Panel(Context context) {
super(context);
mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.lotus);
getHolder().addCallback(this);
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
}

public void doDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.drawColor(Color.BLUE);
canvas.drawBitmap(mBitmap, mX, mY, null);
}

@Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}

@Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (!mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread = new ViewThread(this);
mThread.setRunning(true);
mThread.start();
}
}

@Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
if (mThread.isAlive()) {
mThread.setRunning(false);
}
}

@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
mX = (int) event.getX() - mBitmap.getWidth() / 2;
mY = (int) event.getY() - mBitmap.getHeight() / 2;
return super.onTouchEvent(event);
}
}


/////////
class ViewThread extends Thread {
private Panel mPanel;
private SurfaceHolder mHolder;
private boolean mRun = false;

public ViewThread(Panel panel) {
mPanel = panel;
mHolder = mPanel.getHolder();
}

public void setRunning(boolean run) {
mRun = run;
}

@Override
public void run() {
Canvas canvas = null;
while (mRun) {
canvas = mHolder.lockCanvas();
if (canvas != null) {
mPanel.doDraw(canvas);
mHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
}
}
}
//////////

Friday 11 March 2011

Cartesian Theatre

Cartesian Theatre:

So far I've mapped the 'characters' to Alpha and Beta channels, so they move on and off the stage as those two of my brain frequencies fluctuate. Would be great to map it to a paper theatre with servos etc via the EEG unit...


EEG controlled theatre of the mind, different characters and stories will unfold depending on brain wave activity, could be in physical realm use Phys Comp, servos etc, or purely screen based...each viewer framed as the homunculous. See Dennett:
Cartesian materialism is the view that there is a crucial finish line or boundary somewhere in the brain, marking a place where the order of arrival equals the order of "presentation" in experience because what happens there is what you are conscious of. [...] Many theorists would insist that they have explicitly rejected such an obviously bad idea. But [...] the persuasive imagery of the Cartesian Theatre keeps coming back to haunt us - laypeople and scientists alike - even after its ghostly dualism has been denounced and exorcized. [p.107, original emphasis.]
also reference:

http://www.opticalsweets.com/

The problem of Buridan's Ass

The problem of Buridan's Ass (thanks to Msc Cognitive computing student, Alex, for this reference), which will be very useful in framing the indescisive robot we are building in Patrick's creative robotics class

"It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since the paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, it will die of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision to choose one over the other.[1] The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirises.

The paradox did not originate in Buridan's time; it dates to antiquity, being first found in Aristotle's De Caelo, where Aristotle mentions an example of a man who makes no move because he is as hungry as he is thirsty and is positioned exactly between food and drink.

Buridan nowhere discusses this specific problem, but its relevance is that he did advocate a moral determinism whereby, save for ignorance or impediment, a human faced by alternative courses of action must always choose the greater good. Buridan allowed that the will could delay the choice to more fully assess the possible outcomes of the choice. Later writers satirised this view in terms of an ass which, confronted by both food and water must necessarily die of both hunger and thirst while pondering a decision.

A common variant substitutes two identical piles of hay for both hay and water and advances that the ass, unable to choose between the two, dies of hunger alone.

Some proponents of hard determinism have granted the unpleasantness of the scenario, but have denied that it illustrates a true paradox, since one does not contradict oneself in suggesting that a man might die between two equally plausible routes of action. For example, Baruch Spinoza in his Ethics, suggests that a person who sees two options as truly equally compelling cannot be fully rational:

[I]t may be objected, if man does not act from free will, what will happen if the incentives to action are equally balanced, as in the case of Buridan's ass? [In reply,] I am quite ready to admit, that a man placed in the equilibrium described (namely, as perceiving nothing but hunger and thirst, a certain food and a certain drink, each equally distant from him) would die of hunger and thirst. If I am asked, whether such an one should not rather be considered an ass than a man; I answer, that I do not know, neither do I know how a man should be considered, who hangs himself, or how we should consider children, fools, madmen, &c." etc

Monday's symposium at the Scrolls Museum was special and quite challenging, I'm used to presenting my work to other academically institutionalised people, and take for granted a certain mutual language and theoretical framework. It's useful but quite appalling to realise the ideas and modes of language we take for granted might be alien and meaningless to other people. I was shocked that some people viewed our work as not connected to things that other people find important in their lives. I thought we were all dealing with quite common themes of belonging, loss, abandonment. It's unsettling to think that doesn't always come across, that people might think we are just trying to be clever or abstract etc...
The museum is unique, small and very well designed so you get a sense of proximity to the objects and a sense of individual lives. Evelyn and Ariel who run the museum extended great hospitality and kindness to us in hosting this event. It felt like something very special.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Doing simple Android apps

Doing simple Android apps, not with Processing as that can only work with Android 2.2 onwards, but with eclipse and the android sdk, and today playing with Appinventor - a bit like Lego Mindstorms,quick and v easy. Should be revising but this is too much fun. Thanks to my sister for the lovely G1 phone!

Friday 4 March 2011



http://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/~ma501ed/south/south_Download.html
Trying to organise all the extra bits of south code at the link above. The text photo program produced this image today - apologie sto Jenny Holzer but I'm not sure if I agree with the statement, or really understand it - if a metaphor is a transport perhaps its more useful than a description?

Thursday 24 February 2011

Hooray, I've had a paper acepted for the GLITS e-journal (an electronic journal of literary and cultural criticism produced in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London. ) about the South project and Ivan Dar's illness...an exciting week all round - with Alexandra and I doing a Thursday Club talk and presenting my EEG paper on Saturday at the Amnesia conference...a whirl of academic chatter...the panel discussion on the Social Web was very exciting in light of events in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia etc. It's a good point that once you knock out the internet and mobile communicvations the only place people can find out what's happening is on the streets..

Monday 21 February 2011

God and Geometry film

The sound and light are coming from the box...

God and Geometry


Interesting that the film came out backwards, I take this as a sign of well founded resistance to figuration...

Saturday 19 February 2011

potentiometer to motor





















int sensorPin = A0; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int ledPin = 13; // select the pin for the LED
int sensorValue = 0;

int motorPin = 9; // define the pin the motor is connected to
// (if you use pin 9,10,11 or 3you can also control speed)

/*
* setup() - this function runs once when you turn your Arduino on
* We set the motors pin to be an output (turning the pin high (+5v) or low (ground) (-))
* rather than an input (checking whether a pin is high or low)
*/
void setup()
{
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);
}


/*
* loop() - this function will start after setup finishes and then repeat
* we call a function called motorOnThenOff()
*/

void loop() // run over and over again
{
// motorOnThenOff();

sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);
// turn the ledPin on
analogWrite(ledPin, sensorValue);
// stop the program for milliseconds:
digitalWrite(motorPin, sensorValue);
// turn the ledPin off:

//motorOnThenOffWithSpeed();
//motorAcceleration();
}

/*
* motorOnThenOff() - turns motor on then off
* (notice this code is identical to the code we used for
* the blinking LED)
*/
void motorOnThenOff(){
int onTime = 2500; //the number of milliseconds for the motor to turn on for
int offTime = 1000; //the number of milliseconds for the motor to turn off for

digitalWrite(motorPin, sensorValue); // turns the motor On
delay(onTime); // waits for onTime milliseconds
digitalWrite(motorPin, LOW); // turns the motor Off
delay(offTime); // waits for offTime milliseconds
}

/*
* motorOnThenOffWithSpeed() - turns motor on then off but uses speed values as well
* (notice this code is identical to the code we used for
* the blinking LED)
*/
void motorOnThenOffWithSpeed(){

int onSpeed = 200; // a number between 0 (stopped) and 255 (full speed)
int onTime = 2500; //the number of milliseconds for the motor to turn on for

int offSpeed = 50; // a number between 0 (stopped) and 255 (full speed)
int offTime = 1000; //the number of milliseconds for the motor to turn off for

analogWrite(motorPin, onSpeed); // turns the motor On
delay(onTime); // waits for onTime milliseconds
analogWrite(motorPin, offSpeed); // turns the motor Off
delay(offTime); // waits for offTime milliseconds
}

/*
* motorAcceleration() - accelerates the motor to full speed then
* back down to zero
*/
void motorAcceleration(){
int delayTime = 50; //milliseconds between each speed step

//Accelerates the motor
for(int i = 0; i < 256; i++){ //goes through each speed from 0 to 255
analogWrite(motorPin, i); //sets the new speed
delay(delayTime); // waits for delayTime milliseconds
}

//Decelerates the motor
for(int i = 255; i >= 0; i--){ //goes through each speed from 255 to 0
analogWrite(motorPin, i); //sets the new speed
delay(delayTime); // waits for delayTime milliseconds
}
}

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Notes after meeting with Sarah today, re viva:

Viva notes Sarah asked some very good questions, so I'm really grateful to have time to think carefully about my responses..


The main focus of work – subjectivity and representation and the acquisition of knowledge (epistemology)

when making software agents, I also needed to understand agency.



These themes emerged as they are linked to core problems in artificial intelligence – state clearly what those problems are -

what is propositional knowledge, what is symbolic representation – how else do we humans

know things? Tell this as a story that relates to my practice – how did I identify these themes?

How did my practice develop in relation to these themes?


Why connect artists's books and narrative? This is not a link that all book artists would make, we might think at first, but the focus of book art is to use the book as a medium the way other artists might use paint, and also to interrogate the book form, this often encompasses an exploration of the meaning and form of narrative, whether it is Sol LeWitt's algorithmic books, some artists also refer to themselves as narrative artists, but I not much of their work is unswervingly orthodox, and rooted in the auratic domain of the art object. William Blake is perhaps the best known book artist, although Drucker et al define book artists as essentially a late twentieth century phenomenon (60's onwards) . The Livre d'Artiste commmisioned by Anbroise Vollard from Bonnard etc were also illustrative , such as the loosely narrative pornographic poems of Paul Verlaine's , Parallèlement, 1900


But if I can return to Sol Lewitt and also Dieter Roth (daily mirror book 1961) and Ed Ruscha 26 gasoline stations (1963) we see a concern with seriality and sequence provided by the turning of pages -


'Roth's distinctive contribution to the emergent genre was his examination, through his bookworks, of the formal qualities of books themselves. These formal qualities such as flat pages, bound into fixed sequences were deconstructed and investigated, for instance in 2 Bilderbücher (1957) which comprised 2 picture books of geometric shapes, with die-cut holes cut into each page to allow glimpses of patterns from the pages beneath. Structural investigations such as these became the subject matter of the book itself.'

Many artists have taken up the challenge to experiment with the content and physical structure of the traditional book form.

(Tate Modern site tp://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/features/artists_books/definitions/index.html.)

also Guy Debord and Asger John making artsist books of found narraitives – narrative derives from

news papers, eg Memoires (1959)

unreadable books such as Dieter Roth's Literature Saussage (a pulped book sausage) Literaturwurst 1961 – 1974


Legendary, Lexical, Loquacious Love by Eve Rhymer (Karen Reimer), 1996, an alphabetical re-ordering of the text in a romance novel

More explicitly, as identified by Katherine Hayles in Writing Machines, such books as House of Leaves , and Tom Phillip's A Humument, 'Hayles examines the ways in which literary texts in every genre and period mutate

Hayles explores works that focus on the very inscription technologies that produce them, examining three writing machines in depth: Talan Memmott's groundbreaking electronic work Lexia to Perplexia, Mark Z. Danielewski's cult postprint novel House of Leaves, and Tom Phillips's artist's book A Humument.

A Treated Victorian Novel. 'One day, Phillips went to a bookseller's with the express intention of buying a cheap book to use as the basis of an art project. He randomly purchased a novel called A Human Document by Victorian author William Hurrell Mallock, and began a long project of creating art from its pages. He paints, collages or draws over the pages, leaving some of the text peeking through in serpentine bubble shapes, creating a "found" text with its own story, different from the original.' (wikipedia/) explicit playfulness with narrative and the book form.

Hayles concludes by speculating on how technotexts
affect the development of contemporary subjectivity.

"Writing Machines is a major addition to the scholarship on hypertext and, in general, on the relation of technology to literature. As this volume so clearly demonstrates, Hayles is a subtle reader of texts, a knowledgeable critic of new technology, and a fine theorist of culture... I am certain readers of Writing Machines will place it near the top of their list of books on hypertext."
--Mark Poster, University of California, Irvine

http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/mediawork/titles/writing/writing_book.html



notes – further Suchman, Braidotti,


where have I not succeeded? South requires intensive involvement, its fragmentation may also be problematic (like much digital fiction) though I see this as a necessary quality may annoy some, as might the intrusion of the software – this came out in the evaluations, also there are techniocal problems – the small screen requires small computational input, but I think this constraint may be beneficial, I am not averse to Twitter's constraints. I would now write the sofwtare for Mobile phones. I would make a device myself, I now have the the skill, with a voice and bio sensors, I would use technology for more deeply embodied interaction – eeg and GSR, as I have now done for new projects.


The basic problem of representation is not fully resolved in this project, but I have been able now to move forward with works that have sprung from this, involving bio sensors, motion capture and physical computing. There are still hard coded rules in the system, but I think the hackablity of the code goes some way to opening up the issue of representation.



Why do I say the digital can 'enliven' ?? I argue book art is in danger, as Lucy Lippard has also noted, of reverting to the rarefied and antiquated Livre d'artiste, instead of the medium that interrogated the meaning and form of books- it must address the digital if it wants to remain current, and vital. Encompassing the digital and save it from fetishistic and anachronistic, auratic craft objects. I am not against craft at all, but I am against stasis and stagnation in art form particularly an art form that has as rich and radical a history as book art.


Explain situatedness – Suchman, sailors, Brooks, etc reread Haraway.

Need for a sucessor science, realist, relational, not a god trick or a view from nowhere.

Site specificity and situatedness.


What are my agendas? If I have them they emerged from practice and research. Alternatives to rigid a priori structures that lead to an impasse in AI, and disembodied models of knowledge.



What does the digital add to books? Potentially - dynamism, learning, mutability, adaptation, intersubjectivity, multi-media, growth, sensitivity, knowledge of situations and sites and subjects.


///////////

Lemurs and storytelling

K Dautenhahn

www.aaai.org/Papers/Symposia/Fall/1999/FS-99-01/FS99-01-010.pdf

non-human primates do have symbolic representations and K Dautenhahn sees human primate storytelling as evolving from intersubjective expression of knowledge about family members, primates do remember reationships among groups, and do exhibit evidence of referring to a past - a proto-storytelling behaviour.

Friday 11 February 2011

The Neural Art Navigator

oops will have to be The Neural Art Navigator as the Neural Navigator is being used by a medical imaging system in Utrecht, its an exciting phase for VAINS, as we will get a chance to demonstrate a radical new system for online art interaction..curtesy of the EEG headset and christmas holiday hack.

The Neural Navigator

Abstract

The Neural Navigator: a novel navigation and collaborative filtering system for retrieving online art content.


The problem of suitable and innovative means for filtering and navigating online art content has long been acknowledged by influential figures in the domain of digital art practice, for example Beryl Graham (1999), Edward Shanken (1992) and Lev Manovich (1996) have all critiqued the fragmentation and anachronism of many online art contexts. This paper will describe the development, testing and evaluation of the Neural Navigator, an embodied system for navigating and collaboratively filtering online art content that addresses many of the core problems in the field of online art interaction.

The Neural Navigator is a physical computation system that deploys EEG (electroencephalography) to sense the electronic brainwave frequencies of individuals while they are visiting online art sites. The system analyses the patterns of electroencephalographic signals and matches them to suitable art works based on a collaborative filtering algorithm developed over the last two years by Eleanor Dare and Lee Weinberg, doctoral students at Goldsmiths (University of London) in the departments of Computing and Art.

The paper will describe the reasons for pursuing an embodied form of online navigation, framing this goal within the context of increasing interest in embodied interactive systems, while acknowledging the contribution of cognitive scientists such as Francisco Varela, Eleanor Rosch, Evan Thompson (1993) Alva Nöe (2009, 2004) and significant art practitioners such as Jeffrey Shaw (2002) and Robert Lazzarini (2001).

The proposed paper will describe the empirical testing of this system and the reactions of users to the experience of a seemingly sub-symbolic, autonomic process of interaction with the Computer Fine Arts Collection, which has been the focus for the development of the Neural Navigator. The architecture of the Neural Navigator has been influenced by an enactive and situated methodology that privileges action over a priori goals, and instead seeks an emergent, fluid and constantly changing set of navigational pathways. The paper cites Lucy Suchman (2007) and Alva Noe (2009, 2004) as key theoretical figures in the decision to pursue an enactive methodology, this will be clearly outlined and justified, as will the contribution of this work to the field of online art navigation, filtering and content retrieval.

Key words: Content retrieval; collaborative filtering; bio-sensors; social content and tools;

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Friday 4 February 2011




Alexandra made this poster for our Thursday club appearance, it brings back losts of good and funny memories about this project. I am glad we are going to do a sort of retrospective of it, leading up to our more recent work with getures.

A Strange House in Stockholm

This is ED and AA in Nils Bohr's house in Carlsberg city where we presented our individual doctoral research last summer...


Look A, the door! To nowhere...In Stockholm. We will talk about this place at The Thursday Club, a house that generated stories while we were there.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

some Arduino blinks

note to self
//blink light number of button presses
int count = 0;
const int ledPin = 13; // the number of the LED pinconst int buttonPin = 7; int buttonState = 0;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop(){


buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
if (buttonState == HIGH) {
count++;
doBlink(count); //method for blinking
delay(200);
}

if(buttonState ==LOW){
// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); }
Serial.println(count);


if(count>7){
count = 0; }

}

//pass button presses as arguments for number of blinks:
void doBlink(int aa){
for(int i =0;i//stupid blog wont allow me to
//write a for loop, but this is a for loop while i is less than aa


delay(200);
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
delay(200);
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
}
}

Thursday 27 January 2011

link to Brock's evernote


http://www.evernote.com/pub/thatbrock/is71013aphysicalcomputing

Also check out PC tarot machine
http://www.faludi.com/2010/01/26/fun-of-physical-computing/

Wednesday 26 January 2011


This is a link to the south sampler I put together today in anticipation of the workshop/seminar I'm presenting in February for the GLITS literature thingy:
stuff like this:




Before following any of the exercises contained in this sampler readers are urged to discover what ‘type’ they are by downloading a free version of the South book from this location:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/south/13520786?showPreview



Every good book needs a protagonist and luckily you’ve come along just in time to fulfil that role. According to How to Write a Blockbuster ‘characters provide readers with the emotional key, the route into your story’. This principle seems equally applicable to any decent guidebook or gazetteer, but the authors of this book also warn: ‘if your characters are flat and lifeless, no one will want to read it’.
Are you feeling flat and lifeless? You’re in for a pretty boring read if you are. Your job is ‘come alive’ so that I can just sit back and type. You should expertly discover who you ‘really’ are and help the rest of us to get to know you. You might of course be shy or introverted and reveal yourself just a little bit at a time, facet by facet as it were, or you might on the other hand just burst into life like a New Years Eve firework display along the Southbank. It’s up to you.
Other characters will be fleshed out by the people you’ll meet while reading this book, by friends and family, passing strangers and by me, the typist.
So what is South? South is an instrumental discrimination borne out of the fact that without a North there is no South. It is a navigational system created by your own networks of meaning. South is a reference axis emanating from the Southbank area of South London. It is perfectly possible to find a slippery surface, lay this book down upon it and spin it round to create a new orientation; perhaps we could call it Weast or the South East Pole as my Grandfather put it. Whatever name you choose, the particular form that your journey to this destination will take is the subject of this book. The author and publishers wish you great luck on your journey, however they would also like to point out that they cannot accept legal responsibility for any strangeness, temporal or subjective dislocation, psychogenic slippages or other oddities that might result from it.





How This Book Works
South may be represented as a radical form of construct elicitation or subjective geometry. The history of the South East Pole which is spread throughout this book as a distributed chapter (there is also an enhanced, computational version available on the web) describes the background to the development of the mysterious South system, explaining how it was formulated in the turmoil of the 1930’s and in the personal turmoil of its creator, my grandfather, Ivan Dâr. For those of you, who would like to read this history a complex navigational exercise will ensue, those of you who would like to jump straight into the South system can avail themselves forthwith of a rapid introduction:


The South software and a free download of the South book are all available on the web here: http://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/~ma501ed/south/south_Download.html

Quick start:
Before undertaking the core algorithms presented in this book the reader should complete a series of processes, these processes will help the South system to construct a hypothesis about you, or, what my grandfather called a psychogenic topology. Some of these processes take the form of ‘repertory grid’ tests, the investigation of your own networks of beliefs, which may also be called constructs. (Exactly how you use these tests will be explained in great detail) Other processes may be more familiar, such as multiple-choice questions involving five level Likert scales such as:
Please indicate how much you like bananas:
Not all 1 2 3 4 5 very much
Most of these processes use bipolar scaling methods, identifying the magnetic attraction of dichotomous concepts, discovering which pole a particular notion pulls you towards. Oddly numbered scales do not allow for equatorial malingering. Your ontological commitment is required at all times.





Inventory:

Before you depart it is crucial that you collect useful items to take with you, these items, if chosen well, MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE, so proceed with care.

Each of you should pick a word associated with the Southbank and the River Thames. It’s a good idea to test this word out loud before finally committing to it. The sorts of words I have found useful in the past have been BASTULE, RIVERINE, POWER-STATION, WATERLOO, SEA-CONTAINER and OXO. These are purely subjective choices and may be wildly different from your own word preferences. Unfortunately there is only room for one word on this expedition. On the whole, the better the word the greater its relative atomic mass.
You will also need to choose a colour out of RED, GREEN, VIOLET, BROWN, YELLOW, BLUE, GRAY and BLACK.

You should also choose between a FERN, a ROSE and a SUNFLOWER.


Expedition Inventory:

Date:


Word:


Colour:


Plant:

Spare entries:
Date:


Word:


Colour:


Plant:









Date:


Word:


Colour:


Plant:






Please write in this book whenever instructed to do so. It will increase its second hand value as you are adding new content. Obsessive collectors will have an excuse to hunt down multiple copies. Others might swap copies on the Internet or sell them on Ebay etc. In no way should writing in this book be seen as damaging or undermining it. If the book is a library book however, you are entreated to use only the pages marked ‘Library Users’. Those who do write in library books should be aware that there is a special circle of hell awaiting you (see Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy for more details).
Above, Dante’s special circle of hell for the perpetrators
of library book defacement.
The History of the South East Pole begins
The content of this book represents an attempted reconstruction following my grandfather’s fragmented and sometimes illegible notes. In reconstructing his system I have pieced together an instrument that deploys aspects of George Kelly’s repertory grid system, the I Ching, sir Francis Drake’s putative programming language Dra (later adapted by my grandfather to become the strongly situated language known as Dâr) and other processes that most closely approximate the schema my grandfather describes. The full extent of his method remains a mystery, what seems certain from the notes he did leave, is that a complete system was constructed and implemented, but in the intervening decades the full details of that implementation have somehow been lost or maliciously destroyed. We can only assume that this loss is irreversible. The system that I have salvaged from his legacy is, however, a powerfully interpolating assemblage of forces. Use them with discernment and the rewards will be numerous.
Like Aldous Huxley my grandfather embarked upon a mind-altering journey. I too have travelled that tenuous road in writing this text. The following algorithms expand upon the esoteric processes and transformations that entailed the writing of this book. These phenomena are in a state of flux, subject to erasure, scour, the pulling and pushing forces of the fluid and solid, the interplay of the exterior and the interior. Categorical descriptions of these processes are problematic. Perhaps, (and I suspect this more strongly as I experience the matrices of the South system), this ontological breakdown is what my grandfather had designed for his system all along. No doubt you will find your own answers and generate even more questions in engaging with it.

Algorithms Continued


You are here to provide a point of view. You are the most important character in this book, so let’s establish some important facts about you.

Lerqs:
Go to the twenty-one acres of the Southbank centre, walk along the Festival Terrace towards the National Theatre, regardless of the weather sit down outside the theatre complex and open this book at page 103
Criks: go to page 95

Ums:
Make your way to the Skylon Restaurant, it offers a range of cocktails and an extensive wine list, as well as a modern British menu in stylish surroundings. But you won’t be enjoying any of this today. You are on an important mission that involves carefully watching and writing a meticulous report on a Lerq. Carry on up the staircase until you reach the wide balcony that overlooks the Festival Terrace; try to get a good overview of the area before proceeding to the darkly concrete environs of The National Theatre. Go to the terrace that looks down on the pavement outside (if you can afford it you could go to one of the flashy restaurants they’ve got up there, as long as you have a view of the area below). You should be reasonably tired by now having climbed those two sets of stairs, possibly more if you got lost. Good. A degree of physical exhaustion can make surveillance work easier; your legs won’t be itching to move on. Remember that this silent, isolated and analytical process, though in many ways at odds with your outward-looking character, is actually good for you and, more importantly, it’s good for this book as a whole.
As an Um you probably enjoy being outside amongst the crowds and thinking outside of yourself. Your energy flows outward. In the first stage of this journey you spent time listening, this can be quite a challenge for an Um, but no doubt you rose to that challenge. In the West Ums are probably the most appreciated of all the types identified by the South System. Your brain is a little different from the others too; some research suggests that your posterior thalamus and posterior insula are more active, making you highly attuned to sensory and emotional inputs. In the past you might have been characterised as having a choleric or sanguine temperament. Stereotypically, you should be a risk taker. Tempered by your social intelligence and talent for happiness you will make an excellent team leader. But how will you handle difficulties and periods of isolation? Try to spot a Lerq in the crowd below. A Lerq might be chracterised as your diametrically opposite charcter. Lerqs are stimultaed by their own company and by their own thoughts, they do not need others in the same way that you do. You can learn a lot about yourself by studying Lerqs. Try to imagine what thoughts and feelings they are experiencing that enable them to remain so self-contained. How could this Lerq way of being help you? Do you envy or reject it? How, if at all does your Um nature impede you in life? Write your answers here:




Now go to page 137



Criks:
You Criks are enviably adaptable in social situations but we will not take advantage and subject you to an overly boisterous group of people. Instead you will visit the London Aquarium. There you will study the three-hearted genus Octopus. They too are adaptable, to the extent that they sometimes change colour to suit their surroundings.
http://www.londonaquarium.co.uk/

Where do fish keep their cash?

Please note the London Aquarium tests its fire alarm system every Thursday between 10 am and 11 am, so try to look a bit surprised, perhaps even panic-stricken when it goes off.

Like any Crik an octopus is a flexible and intelligent creature. An octopus can camouflage itself by deploying incredible mechanisms; these include specialized skin cells that transform
the colour of its skin, including its reflectivity and opacity. Octopus can also change colour in order to communicate with other octopuses; these communications may be friendly or hostile. A blue-ringed octopus can make itself bright yellow with blue rings if it gets angry.
Extraordinarily some octopus like the Mimic Octopus have an additional defence mechanism, they can transform their flexible bodies and the colour of their epidermis to imitate more deadly creatures such as eels and sea snakes. They can also change the texture of their mantle to make it spiky like seaweed, or scraggly and bumpy like a rock.

But how does the octopus remember who it is? There is no subjective security in these transformations. How do you know who you are between one setting and another? In this condition of near non-being you must anchor your own being in your present state. This consists of a journey within a journey. My grandfather characterised this state as an egg within an egg, and sometimes as an empty egg.
Look into the face of the fish here, but also look at the faces of the other human visitors, can you find anyone (fish or human) who looks like yourself, or in some way feels like home? Do you like the look of this person/fish? If not why not? Write what this feels like. Perhaps you have had to compromise because no one really looks like or reminds you of yourself, in that case writes what that feels like. Does it make you feel lonely or unique, do you begin to feel any sense of yourself as a location? It has been said that octopus, like other cold blooded creatures, including fish, do not dream, some people think this is because their cold hearts heal quicker from trauma.
Date:




Now go to page 148




Story 2

Degrees of freedom


If I am supposed to be writing an autobiography there is a fundamental flaw in the contract which my publishers have hitherto not noticed - there is no real ‘I’ to autobiographize. Although it is true I use this solitary symmetrical construction on a habitual basis. This ‘I’ of which there is no solid empirical evidence represents a vast number of un-useful habits – the continuous construction of un-resourceful representations, self destructive symbols, phobias and fear. Taking a small stroll through Borough Market will expose a cornucopia of such fears, the fear of not having material things and sensuous experiences, to name just two. You may retrace these steps yourself; beginning perhaps by the ship of avaricious cruelty we currently call the Golden Hind. A boat that represents every malignancy you can care to name. Start there, at this mendacious centre piece of Thames-side reverie.

Have I lost you yet? Who are you anyway? Those of you who are expecting to read a scientific treatise should already be dismayed by the subjective slant of my writing today. Others may be wondering what on earth I am doing using such resources – as the phobia, the displacement, the un-resourceful representation. Are these theoretical resources? Are you interested? Do they fit into a programming language as remotely valid entities?

My goal may once have been to make you all say a resounding communal ‘yes’ following a meticulous submission to the elegance of my logic. But there is no longer an ‘I’ to either persuade or be persuaded.

We are largely sets of unobservable relations, to even use that term implies an anthropocentrism I cannot support, nor yet can I support any form of essentialism. This is the world as I encounter it today. Tomorrow I plan to write a chapter on differential geometry and group theory that will clarify my slippery realism. I will present the case for manifolds, transformation groups and vector fields as fitting processes for a differential morphogenesis that works across both time and space, a philosophical terrain that consists of both the singular and the ordinary. In short a multiplicity, a set of relations and a rate of change.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Walk from the Golden Hind to Borough Market. You will surely become increasingly aware of gustatory representations. Can you resist them? What happens if you do? After 20 minutes suspend resistance, now what do you do? Write down exactly what happens. Describe before, after and during. Describe urges, flavours and regrets. Next time you come here do the same exercise. Note carefully any differences between each visit. In this way you will understand your own degrees of freedom.
Story 8

Cartographies of Constraint

My parents always criticised me for my fear of bridges, which I now know is called ‘gephyrophobia’. We lived so close to Waterloo Bridge my parents were exasperated by the limitations my phobia created, by what they characterised as my ‘scenes’ and ‘tantrums’ every time we crossed to the North. I didn’t want to be criticised for my fear of bridges. I wanted them to accommodate it, but this was not possible. My father would carry me across the bridge screaming. My mother would stride across it, leaving me to choose between the twin horrors of bridge crossing or maternal abandonment. At about the age of five I began to devise strategies that would nowadays be characterised as tantamount to a neurotic compulsion, but which at the time I found absorbing and satisfactorily distracting.

Tunnels have never disturbed me. I could cycle to Greenwich and cross under the Thames, or, if I had the money take the underground from Waterloo to Embankment. It fascinated me to learn that London has not always been resplendent with bridges, until relatively late in its history I would have been able to traverse north and South via myriad ferries, and thence drawn no attention to my phobia. But, as the London of my youth was, as far as I was concerned, over accommodated with bridges, I began necessarily to impose a range of restrictions and complex procedures upon myself, like an inverted version of the Bridges of Göttingen problem. I challenged myself to move through London with the maximum amount of riverine proximity without actually crossing any bridges. Though I have no liking for railway or motorway bridges, it is particularly bridges over bodies of water that terrify me. But my permutations and schedules of algorithms somehow mitigated my fear. In this way I gradually also eroded my desire for parental praise. My parents had no appreciation for my search algorithms so instead I sought praise from myself and lived in fear of my own disapprobation. I was like a rat who had built a maze for himself from which I desperately needed to escape, by exhausting all sets of combinations. A problem I am still trying to solve.

Lesson: What seems like a solution to one problem can cause even more inconvenience than the originating predicament.


Notes:

The New York Thruway Authority will lead gephyrophobiacs over the Tappan Zee Bridge. A driver can call the authority in advance and arrange for someone to drive the car over the bridge for them. The authority performs the service about six times a year.[
^ a b c Foderaro, Lisa W. (January 8, 2008). "To Gephyrophobiacs, Bridges Are a Terror.". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/nyregion/08bridge.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "Mrs. Steers, 47, suffered from a little-known disorder called gephyrophobia, a fear of bridges. And she had the misfortune of living in a region with 26 major bridges, whose heights and spans could turn an afternoon car ride into a rolling trip through a haunted house."
^ "Gephyrophobia: A Fear Of Crossing Bridges. Even Before The Minnesota Collapse, Many Have Severe Phobia About Bridges.". CBS News. August 10, 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/10/eveningnews/main3156354.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "The monster she fears is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland. At four miles (6 km) long and 185 feet (56 m) high, Ayers says the thought of driving the bridge - with the way it rises straight in the air - raises a sense of panic in her."
^ "Reasonable fear or bridge phobia?". USA Today. August 8, 2007. http://www.mywire.com/pubs/USATODAY/2007/08/08/4184015?extID=10051. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "Jerilyn Ross, a psychotherapist and president of the Anxiety Disorder Association of America, notes that phobias are more than just being afraid of a certain object; they are marked by panic. Someone with gephyrophobia is afraid of panicking on a bridge, not necessarily the bridge itself, she says."








About your egg


The egg is a proto-novel, a book waiting to be hatched. We suggest you keep the egg close to you for the first few days. If you have spare folds of fat this is great, you can tuck the egg into them. Otherwise you might like to keep the egg in your pocket or under your jumper while watching television. When the egg has reached a temperature of about 67 degrees your book is ready to be hatched. Grab this book, head down to the Southbank, turn the egg on and take it for walk. By pressing the forward and backward buttons at the back of your egg you can experience the enhanced navigational range of this book. This will involve going up its stairs and through its secret tunnels, scampering over its many rooftops, clambering along ridges and down into its green valleys to find new and previously undiscovered pages. The book is designed to be smudged, thumbed, bumped, riffled through, used as a pillow, an occasional table and drawing book. It is also a form of compass. One way or another, (if you stay on Earth) this book will always point towards the South, just like your egg.

Story 7

Nagging Voices

The largest of Ivan’s notebooks was held together by green garden twine.
I begin to read it as the light of the longest day faded:

‘The memories of what I have witnessed act as a filter, but they are only a map of these events and not the actual terrain upon which they unfolded. In 1963 Dr Eee at the Callois Wing of ST Thomas’s hospital advised me to listen to my own language in deconstructing these memories, in order to expose my own filters, the deletions distortions and generalisations that I have unconsciously passed these memories though and made into a baseline habitual state.

My representational filters, explained Dr Eee, include the feelings both inside and outside of the body, but unfortunately I was not in a position to identify these apparently polarised locations. I heard a voice describing these disembodied kinaesthetic phrases: “there is somewhere solid, tickle, preserve pain in the neck warm”. Dr Eee told me that it was my own voice recorded under hypnosis, but I did not recognise it. I was advised by Dr Eee to use breaks and redirections such as Goto and delay – much like those used in my early computer programs, in fact I was constantly minded of these similarities which Dr Eee seemed oblivious too.

I wanted him to praise me for my superhuman efforts in deconstructing my habitual predicates or the language of my preferred representational system, but this desire was itself characterised by Dr Eee as an equally filtered preference for self-talk, which Eee called an auditory digital preference. This was revealed in my frequent use of words such as sense, learn, perceive conceive and process. I nagged at myself continually with these vocabularies, to the degree that they pulled me into a semi-hypnotic negative trance, in which I was profoundly entrenched in my own thinking and negative imaginings that took me deeper and deeper into consistent anchors or triggers. In a sense I was hypnotizing myself with my own language. But was Dr Eee right in his conviction that changing my language would change my life? Wasn’t the fact that I was so often lost in space evidence that my location in the world was dependent on more than language alone?’

Lerqs:

So here you are sitting outside the National Theatre on what is probably quite an unpleasant day. Perhaps you are trying not to concentrate on the negative aspects of this space. Your pain threshold in all probability is quite low, that’s not to imply you are a weakling or a whinger but to suggest that you often find things difficult (even intolerable). You are sensitive to your environment, sensitive to sound and smell. Other people may be intruding upon you right now with their noise and their annoying habits. Despite all these distractions you will probably be interested to know that someone is imagining your life. They are trying to imagine not only what you are doing right now but also why you are doing what you do. They may be observing you from the heavy concrete balconies above. You can try looking for them in the crowds but their number is legion (at least it should be if anyone actually buys this book). If things have been timed properly they will be writing detailed descriptions of you right now. Try not to feel self-conscious or bad about what they might be observing. You are being monitored all the time in this city so you should be used to it by now.
There are many different ways of feeling bad, no doubt during your trips to the Southbank you will experience several of them. That is so often the Lerq way. We highly recommend the following exercise as a counteracting measure to your multifarious bad states.
Practice not expressing unpleasant emotions, not 'identifying' with them but merely observing them. Practice not 'considering inwardly' the real or imagined opinions of others towards yourself, but merely observing them.
Now go to page Error! Bookmark not defined. (I don’t think the author has a clue)

Criks:

Non-Euclidean Observation.
Apparently authors should never allow their subjects to occupy more than one point of view at the same time. Let’s test this out right now here on the Southbank. Note the use of third person perspective in the opening sentence, this is a smoke screen designed to lull readers into a form of third person hypothermia. Now you are in this befuddled and even combative state watch out for further signs such as apathy, confusion and PARADOXICAL UNDRESSING.
This third person state can usually be managed with passive re-warming. This method relies on the victim's own production of specific subjectivity to re-warm the body. After wet perspectives have been removed and the skin dried, the victim should be wrapped in the infinite, warm regress of first person perspective, blankets, towels, or whatever else is available. We will now begin the non-Euclidean observation process. Return to one of the balconies along the Festival Terrace or a craggy overhang on the North face of the National Theatre complex. From there position yourself so that you have a good view of yourself in the area below. This is not hard to achieve with a little resourcefulness. You could try to imagine that one of the people sitting below you sipping a frothy cappuccino is you; if, for example, you had been born a few degrees further South or North, with one different parent or a dash of GM.
Describe that person in great detail. Where do they come from, what do they want, how do they hold themselves, what does their body language suggest to you?
Does this person look like they live to seek the thrill of a moment and yet although they are independent, outgoing and assertive they are also surprisingly trusting, often innocently walking into the lion's den at times? No matter what upheaval, challenge or triumph they confront – do they have a wonderful ability to bounce back?
Or does their life somehow fall short of their childhood dreams? Do their eyes often blaze with feelings that words never express?
Write everything you know about this person in the area below; when you have finished describing them turn your gaze upon yourself in the act of observing your self. Describe what you look like and feel like when you watch yourself:


Date:




















South
HACKS

Lerqs >>>> Make up a more expressive word for ‘lost’

Criks >>>> Trip on an invisible wire.

Ums >>>>> Kiss your own elbow

(The above examples are entirely facetious)
















Write something here
Photograph

1. spirituality
2. jealousy
3. nausea
4. hope
5. despair
6. ennui (look it up)
7. mendacity (ditto)
8. male
9. female
10. wise
11. ignorant
12. desirable
13. repulsive
14. calm
15. chaotic
16. safe
17. dangerous
18. soft
19. unkind
20. best

All types: answer the following questions about the River Thames >>>

Is it an extrovert or an introvert?
Is it lazy or energetic?
What kind of house would it like?
Is it happy or unhappy?
What job does it have?
What is its favourite colour?
How does it feel first thing in the morning?
If it was a film-star who would it be?
What does it smell of?
Who is its best friend?
What is its favourite song?
What gender is the Thames?




Recommended reading

Michel Foucault’s Technologies of the Self:
http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en.html

Aspley Cherry-Garrards the Worst Journey in the World:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14363









© dare 2011