Compare
February 03, 2012

Via Vanity Fair: "For most of the last century, America’s cultural landscape—its fashion, art, music, design, entertainment—changed dramatically every 20 years or so. But these days, even as technological and scientific leaps have continued to revolutionize life, popular style has been stuck on repeat, consuming the past instead of creating the new. (...)
We seem to have trapped ourselves in a vicious cycle-economic progress and innovation stagnated, except in information technology; which leads us to embrace the past and turn the present into a pleasantly eclectic for-profit museum; which deprives the cultures of innovation of the fuel they need to conjure genuinely new ideas and forms; which deters radical change, reinforcing the economic (and political) stagnation."

vs.

Via Cyborgology: "And then there is war. Lots of war. Anderson briefly mentions Vietnam as a cultural touchstone of the 60s and 70s, but no mention of this generation’s indefinite warfare. No mention of drones becoming household words, no mention of the art that opposes the war, the record-setting protests that, while largely ignored by the media, definitely did actually happen. Also no mention of the video games as a form of media. Nothing about violent video games made by the American Army, no discussion of Hillary Clinton’s crusade to keep violent video games out of the hands of children, or the any of the similar discussions we have had, as a society, about interactive media.

Popular politics and protest are very influential in pop culture. But when such protest is ignored by the media, individuals are left to making their own media, and with it, their own culture. Anderson is looking for culture in all the wrong places. There are parts of our culture that definitely conform to Kurt Anderson’s critique. The GAP and Starbucks haven’t changed much in the past decade and, as Anderson correctly notes, Now that multi-billion-dollar enterprises have become style businesses…a massive damper has been placed on the genreal impetus for innovation and change. One thinks immediately of the first episode of Portlandia, in which Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein triumphantly declare that The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland. But even then, the very existence of a show like Portlandia, suggests that this subculture has reached such a level of self-referential awareness, that it is only a matter of time before it is all SO TOTALLY OVER."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. —Oscar Wilde
January 29, 2012

Via Review of General Psychology: "This article examines the possibility that romantic love (with intensity, engagement, and sexual interest) can exist in long-term relationships. A review of taxonomies, theory, and research suggests that romantic love, without the obsession component typical of early stage romantic love, can and does exist in long-term marriages, and is associated with marital satisfaction, well-being, and high self-esteem. Supporting the separate roles of romantic love and obsession in long-term relationships, an analysis of a moderately large data set of community couples identified independent latent factors for romantic love and obsession and a subsample of individuals reporting very high levels of romantic love (but not obsession) even after controlling for social desirability. Finally, a meta-analysis of 25 relevant studies found that in long- and short-term relationships, romantic love (without obsession) was strongly associated with relationship satisfaction; but obsession was negatively correlated with it in long-term and positively in short-term relationships."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Byron Katie
January 24, 2012

Via The Work: "In its most basic form, The Work consists of four questions and your turnarounds. For example, your statement might be '[Name] doesn't listen to me.' Find someone in your life about whom you have had that thought, take that statement and put it up against the four questions and turnarounds of The Work.

Step 1 Is it true?
Step 2 Can you absolutely know that it's true?
Step 3 How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
Step 4 Who would you be without the thought?

Turn around the concept you are questioning, and be sure to find at least three genuine, specific examples of each turnaround.

After you have investigated your statement with the four questions, you’re ready to turn around the concept you’re questioning. (...)

Each turnaround is an opportunity to experience the opposite of what you originally believed.
A statement can be turned around to the opposite, to the other, and to the self (and sometimes to my thinking, when that feels appropriate). Find a minimum of three genuine, specific examples of how each turnaround is true in your life, and then allow yourself the time and presence to feel them deeply."

Examples here.

Filed under: Wunderkammer

γνῶθι σεαυτόν
January 23, 2012

Via Wikipedia: "The Ancient Greek aphorism Know thyself, Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, English phonetics pronunciation: gnōthi seauton (also ... σαυτόν ... sauton with the ε contracted), was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).

The maxim, or aphorism, Know Thyself has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a tenth century encyclopedia of Greek Knowledge, says: 'the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are,' and that know thyself is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Intuition
January 22, 2012

Via Wikipedia: "Intuition is a priori knowledge or experiential belief characterized by its immediacy. Beyond this, the nature of intuition is debated. Roughly speaking, there are two main views. They are:

1. Intuitions are a priori. This view holds that distinctions are to be made between various sorts of intuition, roughly corresponding to their subject matter (see George Bealer). The only intuitions that are relevant in analytic philosophy are 'rational' intuitions. These are intellectual seemings that something is necessarily the case. They are directed exclusively towards statements that make some kind of necessity claim. For example, a rational intuition is what occurs when it seems to us that a mathematical statement (e.g. 2+2=4) must be true. Intuitions as this view characterizes them are to be distinguished from beliefs, since we can hold beliefs which are not intuitive, or have intuitions for propositions that we know to be false.

2. Intuitions are a species of belief, and based ultimately in experience. This view holds that intuitions are not especially different from beliefs, although they appear subjectively to be more unrevisable than other beliefs. Unlike the previous view, these intuitions are liable to differ between social groups. Evidence for this is shown in various psychological studies (e.g. the one by Stich, Weinburg and Nichols)."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Can we eat to starve cancer?
January 6, 2012

Via TED: "William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Glowing words by Kent Rogowski
January 5, 2012

Via Boston Globe: "But the real question, when it comes to predicting the future of forecasting, may not be whether we can or can’t forecast accurately — it’s whether we want to."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Dinah Sanders
January 4, 2012

Via Discardia: "We know we don’t have everything we want. We know we have things in our homes and minds that don’t match the ideal we want for ourselves, but the idea of adding anything or taking on more to-do’s to change things is overwhelming. We view that dreamed-of excellent life as a thing we need to squeeze into the overcrowded chaos of the one we live now. The good news is that it’s already in there, just buried and hidden under a bunch of stuff we don’t need or want."

From the review by Mark Frauenfelder: "Even if you don’t feel like your life needs an overhaul, everyone could use some fine-tuning. Discardia, which offers plenty of useful advice, is one of the best life hacking books I’ve come across."

Filed under: Reading

I want to know
January 3, 2012

Via EurekAlert!: "It may seem like a good thing to have a better memory, but people with excessively vivid memories have a difficult life. 'Memory is a double-edged sword,' Hills says. In post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, a person can’t stop remembering some awful episode. 'If something bad happens, you want to be able to forget it, to move on.'"

Via Neon Tommy: "The researchers found that trans fat (found in fried and many processed foods) contributed to more shrinkage of the brain in addition to less cognitive recognition."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Still my No 1 value: Openness
January 2, 2012

Via Wikipedia: "Serendipity means a happy accident or pleasant surprise; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it. The word has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company. However, due to its sociological use, the word has been exported into many other languages."

"One must Learn to Love. This is our experience in music: we must first learn in general to hear to hear fully, and to distinguish a theme or melody, we have to isolate and limit it as a life by itself; then we need to exercise effort and good will in order to endure it in spite of its strangeness we need patience towards its aspect and expression and indulgence towards what is odd in it in the end there comes a moment when we are accustomed to it, when we expect it, when it dawns upon us that we should miss it if it were lacking; and then it goes on to exercise its spell and charm more and more, and does not cease until we have become its humble and enraptured lovers, who want it and want it again, and ask for nothing better from the world. It is thus with us, however, not only in music: it is precisely thus that we have learned to love everything that we love. We are always silly recompensed for our good will, our patient reasonableness and gentleness towards what is unfamiliar, by the unfamiliar slowly throwing off its veil and presenting itself to us as a new, ineffable beauty: that is its thanks for our hospitality. He also who loves himself must have learned it in this way: there is no other way. Love also has to be learned." –Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science.

Thanks to Katharina Hauke!

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Als wär's das letzte Mal
January 1, 2012

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere
And gie's a hand o'thine
And we'll tak a right gude willie-waughtm
for auld lang syne.

Und hier ist meine Hand, mein treuer Freund,
Und schlag ein mit der Deinen!
Und dann lass uns einen ordentlichen Schluck nehmen
Der alten Zeiten wegen.

Via Cantaria Folk Song Archive: "Robert Burns sent a copy of the original song to the British Museum with this comment: The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man's singing , is enough to recommend any air. (Gavin Grieg: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads) He set it to a traditional Scottish air that is quite different than the popularized version.
Throughout the English-speaking world, Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung on New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). That tradition does not hearken back to Burns but rather only to Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo who sang at midnight January 1, 1929 in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Guy Lombardo's orchestra played the song every New Years Eve, in live broadcast from New York, until 1976. Since then, their recording has been played each year as part of the Times Square ball drop."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Ten in Eleven: That which is in the way is the way
December 31, 2011

Anticipation Sitting on my hotel bed right at Venice boardwalk and waiting for the wave from Japan. Watching the surfers trying to get into the pacific and listening to the police helicopters above yelling into their megaphone "Clear the beach".
Book Out of Our Heads – Why You Are Not Your Brain by Alva Noë. In this inventive work, Noë suggests that rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do.
Emergence Quitting my Art Director Club's membership with reference to Exit Through The Giftshop.
Film Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a 2010 3-D documentary film by Werner Herzog, about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Finally 3-D makes sense. Altogether a breathtaking treat including a hilarious end.
Exhibition All of This and Nothing at UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Letter The incredibly moving, detailed account of Aldous' last days was written by Laura Huxley just days after her husband's death and sent to his older brother Julian.
Quote If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight…. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all. –John Cage
Teaching tale Enter Zen from there.
To Do Write Cadavre Exquis workshop exposé.
Useful concept The six-faceted diamond of psychological flexibility.

So, here we are... And what is next?

Filed under: Wunderkammer

An idea worth spreading
December 24, 2011

Via TED: "Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day. (…)

If you followed higher education news in the 1990s, you have an opinion on Liz Coleman. The president of what was once the most expensive college in America, Coleman made a radical, controversial plan to snap the college out of a budget and mission slump -- by ending the tenure system, abolishing academic divisions and yes, firing a lot of professors. It was not a period without drama. But fifteen years on, it appears that the move has paid off. Bennington's emphasis on cross-disciplinary, hands-on learning has attracted capacity classes to the small college, and has built a vibrant environment for a new kind of learning.

Coleman's idea is that higher education is an active pursuit -- a performing art. Her vision calls for lots of one-on-one interactions between professor and student, deep engagement with primary sources, highly individual majors, and the destruction of the traditional academic department. It's a lofty goal that takes plenty of hard work to keep on course."

Filed under: People

By John Maeda and Becky Bermont
December 22, 2011

Via The European Business Review: "And though artistry doesn’t lend itself easily to a set of instructional principles, my hope is that the series of vignettes below help to show how artists and designers may have more of a place around the management table than often thought:

1. Build from foundations
2. Craft the team
3. Sense actively
4. Fail productively
5. Openly critiqued
6. Take leaps"

Thanks to Christian Schäfer!

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Alva Noë
December 18, 2011

Via Hill and Wang: "Our culture is obsessed with the brain—how it perceives; how it remembers; how it determines our intelligence, our morality, our likes and our dislikes. It’s widely believed that consciousness itself, that Holy Grail of science and philosophy, will soon be given a neural explanation. And yet, after decades of research, only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious—how it gives rise to sensation, feeling, and subjectivity—has emerged unchallenged: we don’t have a clue.

In this inventive work, Noë suggests that rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do. Debunking an outmoded philosophy that holds the scientific study of consciousness captive, Out of Our Heads is a fresh attempt at understanding our minds and how we interact with the world around us."

"As a neurologist, confronted every day by questions of mind, self, consciousness, and their basis, I find Alva Noë’s concepts—that consciousness is an organismic and not just a cerebral quality, that it is embodied in actions and not just isolated bits of brain—both astounding and convincing. Out of Our Heads is a book that should be read by everyone who thinks about thinking." —Oliver Sacks, Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center

Thanks to Constantin Rothkopf!

Filed under: Reading

by James Guppy
December 17, 2011

Happiness (is a warm gun)
Bang Bang Shoot Shoot

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by positivity psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky
December 11, 2011

Via Marc and Angel Hack Life: "Studies conducted by positivity psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky point to 12 things happy people do differently to increase their levels of happiness. These are things that we can start doing today to feel the effects of more happiness in our lives. (...)

1. Express gratitude.
2. Cultivate optimism.
3. Avoid over-thinking and social comparison.
4. Practice acts of kindness.
5. Nurture social relationships.
6. Develop strategies for coping.
7. Learn to forgive.
8. Increase flow experiences.
9. Savor life’s joys.
10. Commit to your goals.
11. Practice spirituality.
12. Take care of your body."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Compiled by Golan Levin
December 10, 2011

Via Flong: "Slitscan imaging techniques are used to create static images of time-based phenomena. In traditional film photography, slit scan images are created by exposing film as it slides past a slit-shaped aperture. In the digital realm, thin slices are extracted from a sequence of video frames, and concatenated into a new image.
Recently I've seen many new-media projects based on slit-scan techniques. They range from student projects, to Java demonstrations on the Processing.org site, to works by recognized pioneers of video and interactive art. My inclination to make lists is irresistible, and so I've put together this catalogue as an aid to researchers and students. My aim is to be as inclusive as possible, rather than attempt to winnow the projects down to just a few ideal exemplars or the most significant historic precursors. Thus not all of the examples are even computational: some of the projects described below use motion-picture film, still photography, or analog video techniques. Please note that this page is not self-promotional; I have not produced any slit-scan based projects myself.
Eddie Elliott, one of the earliest researchers of digital slit-scan imaging, keeps a related list which is more oriented towards photography, early cinema and flipbooks. There is now a Flickr tag for slitscan images, and many of the latest and informal productions can be seen there."

Thanks to Katharina Hauke!

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Visual Music projects by IMM students on TV
December 2, 2011

In the night from Friday to Saturday, on 3 December at 12:30 am, German TV channel BR-alpha will be broadcasting a Phase 3 Video.Kunst.Zeit special edition about IMM – Institute For Music And Media presenting a total of 16 works of Visual Music by my IMM students.
Amongst others, the show will feature the projects Light Orchestra by Lukas Vogel, Particles by Felix Rösch and telephone helicopter applause gunshot by Anne Lucht. The complete playlist is available here.

All works were produced under the supervision of IMM assistant professor Andreas Kolinski and me.
The programme was put together by Maximilian Joseph, Bayerischer Rundfunk Filmmusik.

Filed under: Students

by Derek Holzer
November 30, 2011

Here is a great timeline of the technology of synthesizing sound.
Via UMATIC: "Optical sound technology was developed first solely for recording soundtracks for early speakies, and every one of the Russian innovators used their graphical sound techniques to provide music scores for the kino. But the connection with the Visual Music movement in cinema is also very close, with perhaps the works of Norman McLaren providing the strongest bridge. But the direct cinema techniques of many filmmakers from the 1920's and 1930's on through the 1960's and 1970's show more than a casual relationship with the techniques of direct optical sound synthesis. The works of Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye, Stan Brakhage, John Whitney, Hy Hirsch, Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, Larry Cuba and many others all reflect an ongoing lineage of this visual music tradition. (...)
My hope is that this small survey sparks more interest in all of these inventors, composers and artists and their incredible works (...)"

Maura McDonnell's website gives an excellent synopsis and timeline as well.

Thanks to Marcus Schmickler!

Filed under: Visual Music

by Burt Bacharach
November 27, 2011

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,
Enough to last till the end of time.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don't need another meadow
There are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
Oh listen, lord, if you want to know.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.

Listen here.

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Insanely Futuristic 3D Music Interface
November 17, 2011

Via Create Digital Music: "Now, I could say more, but perhaps it’s best to watch the videos. Normally, when you see a demo video with 10 or 11 minutes on the timeline, you might tune out. Here, I predict you’ll be too busy trying to get your jaw off the floor to skip ahead in the timeline.

At the same time, to me this kind of visualization of music opens a very, very wide door to new audiovisual exploration. Christian’s eye-popping work is the result of countless decisions – which visualization to use, which sound to use, which interaction to devise, which combination of interfaces, of instruments – and, most importantly, what kind of music. Any one of those decisions represents a branch that could lead elsewhere. If I’m right – and I dearly hope I am – we’re seeing the first future echoes of a vast, expanding audiovisual universe yet unseen."

Thanks to Peter Thoma!

Filed under: Visual Music

The bigger picture
November 12, 2011

Via Qualitative Sociology Review (PDF): "Is it possible to look at something without actually noticing it? Is it possible to see something in the picture that is not really there? The answers to these philosophical questions can be obtained by comparing the results of eye-tracking tests combined with interviews based on sociological theories. (…)
The respondents, in line with our expectations, turned out to be familiar with the catalogue investigated. All of them provided the correct name of the company. When asked to describe in their own words the situations presented, the respondents would stress the fact that they show the ideal world. (…)
While most attention should be given to watching the advertisements, we constitute our dreams of a perfect life, environment and the items that furnish it."

Via Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Advertising by Luke Sullivan: "People generally deny advertising has any effect on them. They’ll insist they’re immune to it. And perhaps, taken on a person-by- person basis, the effect of your ad is indeed modest. But over time, the results are undeniable. Try this on: 1980—Absolut Vodka is a little nothing brand. Selling 12,000 cases a year. That’s nothing. Ten years and one campaign later, this colorless, nearly tasteless, and odorless product is the preferred brand, selling nearly 3 million cases a year. All because of the advertising."

Thanks to the New Shelton wet/dry !

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Dash
November 11, 2011

Via Wikipedia: "A dash is one of several kinds of punctuation mark. Dashes appear similar to hyphens, but differ from them primarily in length, and serve different functions. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).
The en dash, n dash, n-rule, or nut (–) is traditionally half the width of an em dash. In modern fonts, the length of the en dash is not standardized, and the en dash is often more than half the width of the em dash. The widths of en and em dashes have also been specified as being equal to those of the upper-case letters N and M respectively, and at other times to the widths of the lower-case letters. (...)

Similarly, it can be used instead of an ellipsis to indicate aposiopesis, the rhetorical device by which a sentence is stopped short not because of interruption but because the speaker is too emotional to continue, such as Darth Vader’s line 'I sense something; a presence I’ve not felt since—' in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Marcus Schmickler and Julian Rohrhuber
November 2, 2011

Filed under: People

by Iannis Xenakis
October 28, 2011

Via Wikipedia: "UPIC is a computerised musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris, and was completed in 1977. The name is an acronym of Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu. Xenakis used it on his subsequent piece Mycènes Alpha (1978), and it has been used by composers such as Jean-Claude Risset (on Saxatile (1992)), Takehito Shimazu (Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994)), Aphex Twin, Mari King, and Curtis Roads.

Physically, the UPIC is a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display. Its functionality is similar to that of the later Fairlight CMI, in that the user draws waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet, which are rendered by the computer. Once the waveforms have been stored, the user can compose with them by drawing compositions on the tablet, with the X-axis representing time, and the Y-axis representing pitch. The compositions can be stretched in duration from a few seconds to an hour. They can also be transposed, reversed, inverted, and subject to a number of algorithmic transformations. The system allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet."

Filed under: Visual Music

by Mark Suster
October 27, 2011

Via Both Sides of the Table: "Here’s the deal. Busy execs hate lunches. They are time sucks. Sure, they like to occasionally meeting good friends for lunch, important contacts for them or group lunches. But somebody they don’t know? Not so much. (…)

So what can you do? And when is lunch or dinner OK?

1. First date, speculative meeting: I always recommend you ask for coffee. And better if it’s at their offices if you’re asking for the meeting. “Hey, can I bring you a coffee and get 30 minutes of your time at your offices next Tues or Wed? I promise I won’t overrun my time.” And don’t. You become an easy second date to accept.

2. First date, high intent: Let’s say you have a meeting with somebody you know wants to meet you. Let’s say it’s for biz dev purposes, or you’re pitching investors, recruiting, or it’s a sales meeting – whatever. Then you can more easily just say, “How about if I swing by your offices next Tues / Wed” and leave the shorter 30-minute time unit out. I wouldn’t mention length of time until you’re there. You might get an hour. Awesome. You don’t have to be sheepish about short time because you know they want to meet you."

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Engraving
October 25, 2011

Via Wikipedia: "Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as Remember your mortality, Remember you must die or Remember you will die. It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality. The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to antiquity."

Thanks to Jochen Kuhn!

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Jenny Holzer
October 22, 2011

Filed under: People

A Perfect Match? On the Alliance of Sound and Visuals
October 16th, 2011

Prof. Dr. Peter Rautmann invited me to give a talk on the relationship between sound and visuals on 05 November 2011 at Dialoge. The conference is hosted by Academy for the Arts Bremen's institute syn from 4 – 6 November, 2011. See PDF for more details.

Filed under: Talks & Workshops

Documentary about Carl Gustav Jung
October 15, 2011

Via Dangerous Minds: "Matter of Heart: The Extraordinary Journey of C.G. Jung is a fascinating 1986 documentary that explores Jung’s life through interviews with the man himself and reminiscences from his colleagues, friend and students, some of whom were analyzed by Jung. This is a fine introduction to Jung’s concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious. Written by Suzanne Wagner and directed by Mark Whitney."

Filed under: People

by Georges Polti
October 12, 2011

Via Wikipedia: "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is a descriptive list which was created by Georges Polti to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. To do this Polti analyzed classical Greek texts, plus classical and contemporaneous French works. He also analyzed a handful of non-French authors. In his introduction, Polti claims to be continuing the work of Carlo Gozzi, who also identified 36 situations. (...)

1. Supplication
2. Deliverance
3. Crime pursued by vengeance
4. Vengeance taken for kin upon kin
5. Pursuit
6. Disaster
7. Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune
8. Revolt
9. Daring enterprise
10. Abduction
11. The enigma
12. Obtaining
13. Enmity of kin
14. Rivalry of kin
15. Murderous adultery
16. Madness
17. Fatal imprudence
18. Involuntary crimes of love
19. Slaying of kin unrecognized
20. Self-sacrifice for an ideal
21. Self-sacrifice for kin
22. All sacrificed for passion
23. Necessity of sacrificing loved ones
24. Rivalry of superior vs. inferior
25. Adultery
26. Crimes of love
27. Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one
28. Obstacles to love
29. An enemy loved
30. Ambition
31. Conflict with a god
32. Mistaken jealousy
33. Erroneous judgement
34. Remorse
35. Recovery of a lost one
36. Loss of loved ones"

Via the New Shelton wet/dry: "Gozzi maintained that there can be but thirty-six tragic situations. Schiller took great pains to find more, but he was unable to find even so many as Gozzi. –Goethe"

Filed under: Wunderkammer

by Jim Hen­son (1936-1990)
October 11th, 2011

Via IMDB: "Dis­lo­ca­ti­on in ti­me, ti­me si­gna­tu­res, ti­me as a phi­lo­so­phi­cal con­cept, and sla­very to ti­me are so­me of the the­mes tou­ched upon in this ni­ne-​mi­nu­te, ex­pe­ri­men­tal film, which was writ­ten, di­rec­ted, and pro­du­ced by Jim Hen­son – ​and star­red Jim Hen­son! Scree­ned for the first ti­me at the Mu­se­um of Mo­dern Art in May of 1965, Ti­me Pie­ce en­joy­ed an eigh­teen-​month run at one Man­hat­tan mo­vie thea­ter and was no­mi­na­ted for an Aca­de­my Award for out­stan­ding short sub­ject."

Filed under: Visual Music

Don't waste your money on alternative flu remedies
October 10th, 2011

"Chicken soup has long been regarded as a remedy for symptomatic upper respiratory tract infections. As it is likely that the clinical similarity of the diverse infectious processes that can result in colds is due to a shared inflammatory response, an effect of chicken soup in mitigating inflammation could account for its attested benefits. To evaluate this, a traditional chicken soup was tested for its ability to inhibit neutrophil migration using the standard Boyden blindwell chemotaxis chamber assay with zymosan-activated serum and fMet-Leu-Phe as chemoattractants. Chicken soup significantly inhibited neutrophil migration and did so in a concentration-dependent manner. The activity was present in a nonparticulate component of the chicken soup. All of the vegetables present in the soup and the chicken individually had inhibitory activity, although only the chicken lacked cytotoxic activity. Interestingly, the complete soup also lacked cytotoxic activity. Commercial soups varied greatly in their inhibitory activity. The present study, therefore, suggests that chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity. A mild anti-inflammatory effect could be one mechanism by which the soup could result in the mitigation of symptomatic upper respiratory tract infections."

Full recipe here: Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro by Barbara O. Rennard, BA, Ronald F. Ertl, BS, Gail L. Gossman, BS, Richard A. Robbins, MD, FCCP and Stephen I. Rennard, MD, FCCP

Filed under: Wunderkammer

Sung by a nightingale
October 9th, 2011

"Through his use of Beethoven in Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick forges a connection with A Clockwork Orange that underscores some of the central themes of the film — the complex nature of vision, and of looking/seeing, of free-will, of directorial control (the two psychologists in A Clockwork Orange are surrogates for the director) and places Eyes Wide Shut within the larger context of his own work.
The full title of Beethoven’s opera is Fidelio, or Married Love (Fidelio, oder Die eheliche Liebe) and Kubrick’s film is a dissection of a married love that seems, on the surface, all too perfect. Eyes Wide Shut gradually peals away the protective layers and forces the characters to view the deceptions beneath the surface. The film forces us to do the same. The simple password Fidelio means literally I who am faithful, and this suggests a very different orientation for the speaker than the password of Schnitzler’s novella. One enters the inner sanctum not by drawing on past fantasies of sexual infidelity, but by reaffirming – however ironically – some notion of fidelity.
Not only is the meaning of the password important, but so is the bearer of that word and the context in which the transmission takes place. Bill seeks out Nick at the Sonata Café, a dive where he is playing in Greenwich Village. Bill enters and descends into the café by way of a narrow staircase that is illuminated with red lights. He sits at a table in the darkened room and when Nick later joins him, red holiday lights illuminate Nick from the rear, giving him a Mephistophelean air. What’s in a name? His Christian name, Nick, implies a demonic temptation, and that is certainly what takes place. The nightingale is a migratory species of bird whose male sings beautiful songs during the mating season. In Keats’s famous Ode, it is the song of the nightingale . . .
. . . that oft-times hath
Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn.
What could be a more apt description of the world Nightingale permits Bill access to?
The name of the café - the Sonata Café - also suggests a possible structural principal for Eyes Wide Shut. Music informs Kubrick’s films in many ways — thematic and structural. The sonata form consists of a three-part structure that is particularly appropriate to a work that spans three days. Moreover, each of the days has the structure of a sonata: exposition, development, and recapitulation, the recapitulation consisting of an emotional scene in the bedroom followed by a black screen. On the final day, the night never ends, as the passionate confessional scene becomes Bill and Alice’s all- night discussion of Bill’s peregrinations, followed by a coda in the light of day."

From Eyes Wide Shut – The dream-odyssey of Stanley Kubrick by Stuart Y. McDougal

Filed under: People

That Bohemian Girl
October 4, 2011

Great hippie interior.

"We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, 1874"

Filed under: Wunderkammer