View allAll Photos Tagged complexity
Our floral bounty is a never ending inspiration to me. I get drawn deeper and deeper into the textures and details daily.
meta_creation lab: inter-actors, attractors and the aesthetics of complexity
Marlon Barrios Solano
www.dance-tech.net/page/meta-creation
A collaborative workshop interfacing movement art practices, digital creativity, portable computation and networked systems.
This workshop is a collaborative lab to creatively explore the contemporary approaches, practices and aesthetics of self organization and of complex systems within the dynamic couplings of mind, body and information/data flows.
This workshop is an open space for experimentation and inquiry within a well defined theoretical/aesthetic frame and open space format: the participants self-organize in different node projects (collaborative and flexible groups) in order to investigate and deploy bottom-up architectures as compositional prototyping strategies and processes. It explores interactivity plus generativity.
An embodied/distributed cognition approach is used to generate physical activities and games, guided discussions/conversations about relevant artists works and concepts exploring the aesthetic of complex systems and emergence.
Open source technologies and methodologies will be explored in combination with composition in real-time.
Inter and trans-disciplinary explorations are encouraged and diversity is the main asset.
Several nodes of research projects are suggested:
Sampling, recombinations and mashups
New Internet technologies (web 2.0) and collaborative creation
Post-pc technologies apps, tablets and mobile technologies
Life logging and creative process
Media Capturing and Real time processing
Bottom-up architectures of generative systems
Hybrid realities and alternative sites
Portable cameras and video production
Online video and video straming
Cloud/social computing
Locative media/Mobile
Performance, rule systems and algorithms.
Computer aided choreography
Portable hardware as interfaces/interactive media control
Social media for distributed creativity and knowledge production
Networked documentaries/storytelling.
Photos from workshops in Beirut, October 2011
Entered "Complexity" challenge of photofriday.
taken by shorty.
These images are latest 200 images of our photoblogs (W2 a-w-f-i-l). Please visit our blog!
this is a tiny detail (but still impressive in size) of the internal structure of the LZ129 hindenburg, the zeppelin that ended the zeppelin era. seeing the sheer number of parts in this construction is mindboggling: each of the triangular beams is constructed of probably hundreds of aluminum parts bolted together, and there are thousands of those beams. the ropes were used to separate the gas bags (not part of the reconstruction) from the outer shell, so that the trapped air would serve as insulation, and also make sure that a minor accident involving the outer shell would not compromise the gas bags. ultimately, the zeppelin era did not last very long, but seeing how far they got (LZ130, the biggest one, was 244m/803ft in length) is pretty amazing.
Zooms of the Mandelbrot set around a point projected so that the distance to the point forms a logarithmic scale. Details on the left edge are ~10^15 times smaller than on the right edge.
The rightmost black blob in the pictures is the main "continent" of the set. Satelite sets of different sizes can be seen linked by fractal chains of varying complexity.
The colors are set using the distance estimator method.
This photograph looks a simple and ordinary photograph of urban landscape. It shows near traffic lights in front of a distant office building (at the end of Jaffa Street) but it has two layers which add to it complexity: the background is black and white while the traffic lights and the sign have color; The background is made of squares in different sizes, while the traffic lights and the sign above them are round.
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Traffic Light & Windows
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פשטות ומורכבות
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הצילום הזה נראה צילום פשוט ושגרתי של נוף עירוני: אורות רמזור קרוב על רקע חזית מרוחקת של בניין משרדים, אבל יש בו שני רבדים שמוסיפים לו מורכבות: הרקע שחור לבן בעוד הרמזור והשלט שמעליו בצבע; הרקע עשוי מריבועים, בעוד הרמזור מלבני והפנסים והשלט שמעל לרמזור עגולים
Dr. William Abler, Associate Professor in Human Development Counseling, uses visual metaphors to bring the aesthetics and extraordinary complexities of family system dynamics to life for his Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling (MCFC) students.
I believe this is a photo taken just outside of - well - I just noted my location on the side there, to Midlothian, TX USA! :) I used to travel out this way for sunrises from DFW. :)
The small, specialized parts seem to lend themselves to scripted designs rather than plastic play. Maybe this helps LEGO sell more sets…
A CALL TO ACTION TO BUILD BELOVED COMMUNITY
SOUTHERNERS ON NEW GROUND & ALTERNATE ROOTS
CHARLESTON MARKET HALL
Charleston, SC
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2013
Today, as we commemorate freedom fighter Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and as President Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term, we gather on contested ground to promote Dr. King’s vision of Beloved Community. We gather because the current symbolism of Charleston is rooted in its history as a pro-slavery Port City and it does not reflect our histories, our struggles, or our resistances. We gather because the face of Charleston should show the diversity and complexity of our lives and histories. We do not glorify the bloodshed, violence and horror of chattel slavery that built this city. We recognize this history as people of color, and as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, and we know that we have a shared stake in transforming this city. We gather today because, in this time of great peril and great possibility, we believe in redemption!
We call on all Southern people to build King’s vision of Beloved Community! We must undergo a transformation of our collective values in order to end what King called “the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism”. We need a revolution of our values that spans in scale from the conversations we have with our kids over breakfast to the way whole communities relate internationally. To do this, we must weave a strong new social fabric between us. We call on our communities, locally, nationally, and globally, to step boldly over the lines of race, gender, class, religion, and sexuality that isolate us from one another. We call on you, our sisters and brothers in struggle, to meet each other as neighbors and friends, to collaborate to make King’s dream of Beloved Community come true.
We dream, too. We dream of an end to racism, an end to poverty, an end to military terror. We dream of queer liberation, of community gardens that grow where prisons and detention centers have closed. We dream of safety for all children, we dream of a place where every person is able to achieve their full humanity. We know that these dreams are not impossible or idealistic, but absolutely necessary if we are all to survive and thrive. In the word’s of Fannie Lou Hamer, “Nobody’s free ‘til everybody’s free!”
It is with increasing urgency that we gather today to make visible our renewed commitment to Southern Freedom Movement, the same movement that swept the South in the 60’s and broke the back of Jim Crow. On this day, hundreds of other organizations and communities are gathering in their home towns, sharing their dreams for their lives and the lives of their children. We stand in solidarity with people all over the South who are organizing to solve problems in their communities, who are resisting poverty, resisting racism, resisting obliteration of our lives and our cultures. We will not be erased! We are your neighbors, your family members and friends; we are your teachers, your grandmothers, we are people of faith; and we are queers, we are sex workers, we are youth in the streets, we are undocumented and unafraid! We will leave no one in our Beloved Communities behind!
We stand in solidarity with People’s First 100 Days Actions today in Jacksonville, FL; San Antonio, TX; Atlanta, GA; Durham and Greensboro, NC; Dothan, AL; Knoxville, TN; Houston, TX; Asheville, NC; Tunica, MS Little Rock, AR; and all other cities and towns where Southern Freedom Movement is rising to the call of a new day. And, because we know that Southern people are not alone in this struggle, we stand in solidarity with oppressed people everywhere. In a time of charismatic leaders, we decide instead to look to ourselves, because we are the leaders we have been waiting for. Together, we will rise and transform the South’s legacy of division, fear and hate into a New South, a Beloved Community that we can ALL be proud of. In the words of Dr. King, “We shall overcome, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
photo by Savannah Brennan
Saw this sitting on my computer desk and thought to play around a bit. A symmetric abstract of circles.
Orpheus
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917)
1890s, cast 1980
Bronze
84.75.3, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
This sculpture, with its intense torsion and strain, its mixture of exaltation and despair, reflects the complexity of the theme and Rodin's willingness to have his works express the internal conflict and amibuity of actual experience, evenw hen dealing with a mythological theme.
According to the Greek myth, when Orpheus' wife, Eurydice, died, he descended intot he underworld to try to regain her. This he accomplished through the persuasive power of his music; but returning with her to the upper world, he was unable to restrain his passion and glanced back at her too soon, ignoring one of the conditions set by the gods, and lost Eurydice again.
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Due to installations in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, twelve bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin have been installed in the Rubin Entrance Pavilion. This newly excerpted presentation of the Museum's large holdings by Rodin includes The Age of Bronze, a signature conception from the early years of the sculptor's career, as well as other works from his most significant commissions, including The Burghers of Calais, The Gates of Hell, and the Monument to Balzac. These casts came to the Brooklyn Museum through the generosity of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor.
The Brooklyn Museum, sitting at the border of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights near Prospect Park, is the second largest art museum in New York City. Opened in 1897 under the leadership of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences president John B. Woodward, the 560,000-square foot, Beaux-Arts building houses a permanent collection including more than one-and-a-half million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art.
The Brooklyn Museum was designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.
National Historic Register #77000944
With the screening of the final (sob!) ep of Wild Life at the Zoo, it has now been officially announced that both Kuma and Koko are pregnant.
It was another great episode, detailing Kamili's pregnancy, and the sad outcome. She gave birth to a male. I thought it was excellent and very open how they explained the complexities of the situation, how they really had to leave it up to the chimps as to the final outcome.
I remember seeing the chimps when they split them off into two groups. At the time i asked what was going on, and was told "management issues" lol. But i was pretty sure it was all to do with Kamili's pregnancy. From memory, the first time i saw the split up, it was Shiba's family line and Spitter's in the smaller enclosure. The females of the family lines ... don't think it included the males, but i cannot remember for sure now unless i ever manage to unearth pix i took at the time. But anyway, i figured they were getting Shiba away from Kamili, and maybe including Spitter's family with them so Sembe still had Sule as playmate.
Next time i was at the zoo, i think it was just Shiba's family split off from main group. And then next time i was there, they were all back together again.
Once again, the tv show casts a high index of suspicion on shiba being involved in the death of Kamili's baby. I had wondered if after the loss of her baby Kamili would be put back on contraceptives to give her a break. I asked about that a while ago, and was told no. So it's possible she could fall pregnant again this year, hopefully with a better outcome. Especially if Kuma and Koko produce babies.
In the past i've been given somewhat contradictory info about how many and which of the chimps was off contraceptives. I ended up deciding on the info given that it was Kamili, Kuma and Koko. Kamili and Kuma i knew better and had already been following, and could see when changes occurred. With Koko ... well i thought it would be extremely difficult to spot any signs if she was pregnant lol. And how true this has proved to be. The above picture is of Koko from my latest visit to the zoo ... and one could say Koko is keeping quite mum about her condition right now. With her floppy stomach, i certainly cannot see any bulge. And as she keeps to the sidelines so much, i cannot really spot differences in her behaviour, or the males' behaviour to her.
I asked one of the keepers when Kuma and Koko are due. A simple thing to answer, i thought. But it turns out it is much trickier than i thought. The human pregnancy test only works on chimps near beginning of pregnancy, or near end. So there could be birth/s soon ... or maybe not until towards end of year, like say November.
personally, i'm pretty well convinced that Kuma must now be well advanced in her pregancy. there's a definite bulge to her belly showing all the time now. not quite as full as Kamili got, but there.
I worry about Kuma being so alone. But the general vibe i get is that that Kuma is a powerful, experienced chimp, and should be able to look after herself and protect her baby. I so hope this is right.
Also got some more info about contraception for the females. Most (i dont think all?) implants were removed at last?/earlier health checks, and now using oral contraceptives. Earlier i'd been told that advantage of oral over implant is that the females still get big swellings, so more 'attractive" in season females available for males, less fighting. But other advantage is that it is easier to stop contraception in female, and hence allow the possibility of her getting pregnant. I have this sneaking suspicion that they may be considering taking some of the other females off contraception now, or maybe soon! Or maybe some of the others are already off contraceptives.
If you take a raw food and process it to the point it looks nothing like the original form, does it make it more appealing and appetizing for you?
One of a series of images shot for a project involving food groups. These are all shot at the Whole Foods Market off Tatum at Shea. All the meat images are shot through the glass, so I was surprised they turned out so well. Just think of the possibilities for these images as backgrounds or perhaps a mosaic.
meta_creation lab: inter-actors, attractors and the aesthetics of complexity
marlon barrios solano
www.dance-tech.net/page/meta-creation
A collaborative workshop interfacing movement art practices, digital creativity, portable computation and networked systems.
This workshop is a collaborative lab to creatively explore the contemporary approaches, practices and aesthetics of self organization and of complex systems within the dynamic couplings of mind, body and information/data flows.
This workshop is an open space for experimentation and inquiry within a well defined theoretical/aesthetic frame and open space format: the participants self-organize in different node projects (collaborative and flexible groups) in order to investigate and deploy bottom-up architectures as compositional prototyping strategies and processes. It explores interactivity plus generativity.
An embodied/distributed cognition approach is used to generate physical activities and games, guided discussions/conversations about relevant artists works and concepts exploring the aesthetic of complex systems and emergence.
Open source technologies and methodologies will be explored in combination with composition in real-time.
Inter and trans-disciplinary explorations are encouraged and diversity is the main asset.
Several nodes of research projects are suggested:
Sampling, recombinations and mashups
New Internet technologies (web 2.0) and collaborative creation
Post-pc technologies apps, tablets and mobile technologies
Life logging and creative process
Media Capturing and Real time processing
Bottom-up architectures of generative systems
Hybrid realities and alternative sites
Portable cameras and video production
Online video and video straming
Cloud/social computing
Locative media/Mobile
Performance, rule systems and algorithms.
Computer aided choreography
Portable hardware as interfaces/interactive media control
Social media for distributed creativity and knowledge production
Networked documentaries/storytelling.
Photos from workshops in Beirut, Lebanon.
October 2011
Melanie Mitchell, Complexity: A Guided Tour.
www.amazon.com/Complexity-Guided-Tour-Melanie-Mitchell/dp...
14.5'' diameter fully beaded sphere. Glass seed beads hand sewn to a wool felt stuffed ball. Approx. 660 hrs. to complete
A close up of the Chihuly 'Fireworks of Glass' exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.
--Submitted to 'Masters of Photography' for their February contest, 'Primary Colors.'
--Submitted to Internet Photo Taking Competition for their theme, 'Complexity.'
--Submitted to Photo Friday - 'Elaborate'
From nature
Complexity to simplicity
music
I'm going to plant the seeds of music
Feelings are beginning of thoughts
Feelings where everything srarts
Why do we like music?
The strongest drive is the feeling you belong
Music is the key to world peace
Game of life
Creating situation where feelings are present
It’s all
About feelings
Is it too shameful to admit #Brian Eno
My notes. I always take notes when I watch interesting documentaries in case I will forget something after.
CAMP SAMOUD, Kuwait – Soldiers from the 143d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) raced against the clock as they ran, jumped, climbed and waded their way through an obstacle course at the Kuwait National Guard’s headquarters in Camp Samoud, Kuwait. The Dec. 18 competition featured two six-man teams from the 143d ESC and six teams from the Kuwait National Guard.
Soldiers from both nationalities donned helmets and slung M4 carbines around their backs. The war fighting equipment added an extra layer of complexity as the men navigated through the quarter-mile
path lined with logs, walls, ropes, ladders,monkey bars and a shallow pool.
“The obstacles weren’t challenging as individual events, but when you put them all together they took a lot more out of you,” said Capt. Thomas Feiter, a 143d ESC Soldier serving as a special victim counsel and legal assistance attorney for Area Support Group-Kuwait.
The 143d ESC led the way when one of its teams volunteered to attack the course first. The half-dozen Soldiers set the pace for their Kuwaiti counterparts with a time of 3 minutes, 16 seconds. The second team brought the inaugural event to a close when its fifth man crossed the finish line at 4 minutes, 20 seconds.
The lead the 143d ESC established at the competition’s outset was short lived when a team of the Kuwait National Guard’s elite antiterrorism unit took first place with a record setting 2 minutes, 17 seconds.
“Our teams did a walk through [of the course] about a week ago, but we didn’t run it until race day,” said Feiter. “It was a mistake we won’t make again.”
Regardless how quickly he completed the course, every American Soldier received a gift bag courtesy of the Kuwait National Guard. The keychains, magnets, notepads and scarves included in each bag all sported the Kuwait National Guard’s insignia.
The race sprouted from the collaborative partnership between the 143d ESC’s civil affairs section and the Kuwait National Guard’s special event coordinators.
“My Kuwaiti partners and I always think outside the box when finding ways for our forces to interact with each other,” said Sgt. 1st Class Cesar A. Rivera, the 143d ESC’s G-9 noncommissioned officer-in-charge. “Pitting American and Kuwaiti troops against one another in a sports arena is not a new idea, but the obstacle course offered a new way to do it.”
“This was the first time we hosted a competition like this between American and Kuwait National Guard soldiers,” said Warrant Officer Khalad Hamad Alhajris through his translator. “This is another great step in strengthening our partnership in a joint training environment.”
As chief of military training and sporting events for the Kuwait National Guard, Alhajris saw first hand on what transpired to turn this novel idea into a successful mission.
“A lot of planning and organizational went into this event,” said Alhajris. “We inspected the course and equipment to ensure the safety of the participants . . . even the referees went through an intense training course to keep the competition fair and safe.”
Both parties plan to host a variety of contests between the Kuwaitis and the U.S. military to include team sports, physical fitness challenges and shooting competitions.
“This obstacle course opened more opportunities for 143d Soldiers to meet with our allies outside of an embassy or conference room,” said Rivera. “The Kuwait National Guard already invited us to return to Camp Samoud and compete in a two-day physical fitness test.
Photos by Staff Sgt. Lance C.Stewart and John L. Carkeet IV, 143d ESC
Soil as I’ve never thought of it before. The complexity of it and interconnectedness of it. Here lies the science behind biodynamic farming, the homeopathy of it developed by Rudolph Steiner (yes of the Waldorf schools). Published in 1989 the techniques described here are so far from our industrial chemical farming that it is clear they’ve been actively suppressed. No surprise there. Relates how the father of chemical agriculture, a chemist decided that plants survived on only 3 chemical nitrogen, phosphorus and potash the NPK chemical additives. Having completely ignored the role of humus it took another ten years for this scientist to realize he was wrong, but too late; much money was already being made on the chemicals and the destruction of soil and subsequently soil health, food quality and human health was well underway. All due to the compartmentalization of knowledge.
At much the same time a British colonel stationed in India, Sir Albert Howard rediscovered the value of humus as used in India and along with Lady Eve Balfour started the organic movement in England which was then picked up by J. I. Rodale in the States. Still to no avail as we know. But at least discoveries continued and organic farming maintained a toehold.
Written as a series of visits to leaders in the field and their farms to discover how biodynamic theories are put into action the book fleshes out the science of each visit and how it relates to create a whole that is astonishing in its breadth.
Fresh cow manure stuffed into desiccated cow horns buried for a year creates a humus so potent that a fourth of a cup stirred into 3 gallons of rainwater would revitalize an entire acre. Much method in the stirring of this homeopathic preparation 500. The first of 7 such esoteric mixtures. The stirring invoking energies of the cosmos to enter into it as well as the intentions of the stirrer. A vortex is created in one direction then reversed to elicit chaos. For an hour this brew must be stirred. Then it is sprayed onto the field.
Moonshine and particular calendar days relating to constellations also play a part in when potions are applied and seeds started, cows are bred etc. The “biodynamic calendar of sowing” nailing down all these auspicious days.
Others carried on Steiner’s work creating compost on a city wide scale in San Francisco. The better to enliven the microbiota in the soil. Australia was the first to put into practice on a broader basis the application of Steiner’s preparations due to a documentary shown on TV highlighting impressive results to the fertility of the land. Rotation of crops also played a part.
A chapter on the Hunza and Hunzakuts known for their health and longevity serves to demonstrate how those who live an entirely sustainable organic lifestyle are free from disease living a robust and healthy life long into old age. The secret of their health—powdered glacial rock containing all the minerals required by plants. It was also in the water, the vortex of its movement that provided clues to the colloidal chemistry that were the sources of life. The study of chelation by Albert Schatz in turn reveals how soil humus extracts minerals. Chelating acids are created by bacteria in the soil and this is how plants can take up the minerals. Such discovery was of no interest to the U.S. agricultural industry and it was in an Indian publication that his work was published.
We are also introduced to a Dan Carlson who discovered that certain forms of music — jazz or Ravi Shankar — prompted growth in plants at four times the normal rate while hard rock killed them. But his fast growing vine not being edible was of no monetary interest so he entered it into the Guiness Book of Records. He was also able to influence the plants characteristics by informing them they no longer needed thorns or meditating on what color he wanted the blooms. Other such botanical feats of growth also described.
The work of Wes Jackson focuses on the effects of weeds used as companion plants on crops. How weeds improve the soil loosening it and adding humus for the benefit of the crops while also providing mulch services to protect from drought.
Dust i.e. azomite. Works like fertilizer. Plant discoveries continue to slay long held assumptions. This one pertaining to how plants can ingest much larger particles than originally thought.
A curious chapter describes how a man from India is touring the U.S. demonstrating that the atmosphere can be purified by creating a little fire to burn cow dung, Basamati rice, ghee and a pinch of sandalwood inside an inverted copper ziggurat shaped bowl. Found to neutralize radiation and other pollutants. Those present feel the air becoming fresh again. The smoke gathers the molecules and neutralizes them.
Even stranger was a method described to get rid of mice and other pests prescribed by Steiner. The method requires that a mouse be skinned and the skin burned. Then the ashes peppered over the field where the mice are not wanted. Done when Venus is in the sign of Scorpio. The same for getting rid of insects. Their sensitive antennas pick up the infrared bands. The effects of the treatment is described as a counter force to the life force of the insect that prompts it to vacate. Observation speculates that the insects communicate and react to different prisms of light.
Monks meditating in stone towers collect cosmic paramagnetic energy and focus it onto their fields to increase paramagnetic waves in the soil as theorized by Professor Philip S. Callahan. The plants grow bigger for it. A farmer and a business man partnered to try out this method to good effect with 17 towers placed around their fields.
A woman Machaelle Wright of Perlandra gets in touch with Deva spirits just by going in the field and declaring her intention out loud asking the deva how to rebalance a plant that is beset by aphids and such or brokering deals with pests that they can eat the cabbage at the ends of rows.
The final chapter introduces us to a Russian energy worker with telekinetic powers, Alla Kudryashova, who is able to imbue water with healing properties that can also be applied to agriculture and livestock. Studies were done demonstrating her considerable impact on the growth of broiler chickens, wheat and beets. She was also able to fix delicate machinery prompting those studying her to wonder if the spiritual dimension existed not just in live material, but in a dimension of its own. Shamans would say she was using direct revelation to harness this power.
These last two women parallel Steiner’s spiritual dimension in his work involving intention.
By the end of the book I was convinced that biodynamic farming was the optimum way to collaborate with the intelligence of plants, soil and the planet. We have truly underestimated this intelligence in our arrogance to improve on creation much as we have the intelligence of the body and the connection to spirit. Written in 1989, plenty of time for people to have further studied what was introduced here.
"La complessità non è la complicazione. Ciò che è complicato può essere ridotto a un principio semplice e se la situazione fosse solo complicata, cioè intricata e multidipendente, forse sarebbe sufficiente effettuare delle riduzioni ( atomi-particelle, fonemi del linguaggio, basi del codice genetico ecc.). Questo approccio però purtroppo non spiega nulla anche se spesso pretende di spiegare tutto. Il problema vero è che è inutile cercare di convertire ciò che è complicato in regole con una base semplice, ma si tratta invece di accettare il fatto che alla base di tutto c'è la complessità"