Asia Institute Report
Proposal for a Constitution of Information
March 3, 2013
Emanuel Pastreich
Introduction
Continue reading “"Proposal for a Constitution of Information" from the Asia Institute” »
wee halve houses because, (s)mutch liȇk cured accuraysee,
hutch liȇk vid’ veil-lid-ity, touch lijȇk acyrillic pewrity,
wee liȇk two be rheborn bye the day
And houses within houses beakause wee liȇk a fire fractal
Liȇk the Phoenix feather front-tier fringed bye
Its population-liek seethe ov sunny
Tongues liȇck transient paint upawn space sitself
Thus rooms four wombs withinside the larger twomb ov house
Thrue puckerparting labiassed doors wee move head
first out from form, to be rhesearected bye the (-m-)
Inute (h)as well/s
Four wee on-live the day liek it was h/our life
mand night liek a no ther’s
And wee live-on-e’er the (-m-) inute liek {-t-} it was the day
Hand each second as though {-t-} it were the
first minute Cand secowned second
Thus halls liȇk vul[can]vic
Passaways (…burn–, werrm–, I mean pass ages) Tube e
(…-t–urn–, mum–, knot tubey, butt two be) revoluted minutely,
Too be the not now, to be the knotted not then not now, t(w/h)o
Both be and beenaught bye becoming inst.ed; altimetely two bhe
Born and die bye
The passling ov pulsed doors and halls
In microcosmic cataclysm sublime, wee pass two and fro as
Though {-t-} it were e’er forth and foremost fireward
Hinto the forge[t]fall [f]org[e]
A( )negative prefix is a( )n indefinite article taken’ a( )step back 2 look back a( )head. Thus not U or mue or me, but yus. Thus no chair is the chair, a( )nd therefore no chair a chair, for the particular is not the category a( )nd hence the category, in particular, isn’t.
Ent. Ropey.
Where?
Noware.
Congratulations Drs. Musha, Pinheiro & Valone on their soon to be published new book.
For those who are interested T. Musha, M.J. Pinheiro and T. Valone (Advanced Science Technology Research Organization, Yokohama, Japan, and others) have a new book that will be published soon:
In the final part of this installment, I will analyze a few more mainstream music videos with future-friendly memes and motifs, this time looking at videos mostly from 2010. In the last two installments, I argued that the increasing prominence of future-friendly memes and motifs as well as themes of self-empowerment via technology in mainstream music are significant insofar as such an increasing prominence extends the general awareness and potential-recognition of futurist or futuristic concepts, causes and potential crises, and insofar as it presents a sexy and appealing vision of the futuristic gestalt and of technology both high (e.g emerging, converging and otherwise-radically-transformative technologies) and low (e.g. consumer electronics).
This final part of the present installment will be my last dip in the mainstream as far as this series in concerned (although I am finding some of these EDM beats getting stuck in my head, despite myself). The next installment will consider some future-infused visuals and videos made by artists of EDM and electronic-music-“proper” (as opposed to the recent mainstream incorporation of EDM beats as a musical foundation).
Following that we’ll take a more pragmatic and discerning eye to the near future of music, considering how certain existing and on-the-horizon enhancement technologies could potentially disrupt the music industry and dramatically increase the variety and diversity of new music still to come.
All of the following images are the copyright of Interscope Records.
Continue reading “Future-friendly Memes & Motifs in Mainstream Music pt. 3” »
The Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics (AIAA) will be having their 2nd Annual Technical Symposium, October 25 2013. The call for papers ends May 31 2013. I would recommend submitting your papers. This conference gives you the opportunity to put your work together in a cohesive manner, get feedback and keep your copyrights, before you write your final papers for journals you will submitting to. A great way to polish your papers.
Here is the link to the call for papers: http://www.iseti.us/pdf/RMAIAA_Call_For_Abstracts_2013-0507.pdf
Here is the link to the conference: http://www.iseti.us/pdf/RMAIAA_General_Advert_2013-0507.pdf
I’ll be presenting 2 papers. The first is a slightly revised version of the presentation I gave at the APS April 2013 conference here in Denver (http://www.iseti.us/WhitePapers/APS2013/Solomon-APS-April(2013-04-15).pdf). The second is titled ‘The Mechanics of Gravity Modification’.
In the last installment I argued that the increasing predominance of futurist themes, memes and motifs in mainstream popular media (focusing on mainstream music and music-videos) is making future-friendly and technology-dominated concepts, aesthetics and general gestalts increasingly attractive, appealing and sexy to mainstream audiences. I then argued that this is good for futurist and futuristic topics in general because it increases popular awareness of the future and makes the wider public more willing to entertain and consider futuristic notions, concepts, causes and contraptions. The dehumanising, disenfranchising, deterministic and alienating connotations that surrounded technology (especially high-technology — i.e. any non-consumer technology, like those used by military and public industry, or else very-high-end consumer technology and/or technologies that are as-yet only conceptual, embryonic, in their infancy) during the latter half of the 20th century, created in part by the massive scale of destruction made possible by advanced in technology and exemplified by the 1st and 2nd World Wars, are being supplemented by sexy and self-empowering memes and motifs that are increasing future-friendly and technology-sympathetic.
In this follow-up installment, I will analyze a few more real-world examples of future-friendly mainstream music videos, giving additional real-world credence to the claim that mainstream music is indeed featuring futuristic concepts and aesthetics to an increasingly greater degree. This will hopefully be my last dip into the mainstream, at least as far as this series is concerned — so for all you real EDM heads longing for some more references to EDM-music proper, don’t worry, you won’t have to wait for long.
The majority of music videos discussed here are by will.i.am. This is not to say that connotations of the future aren’t present or prominent in tracks and videos by other mainstream artists — as demonstrated by the discussion of Tyga’s Molly in the first part of this installment, and in the discussion of Nicki Minaj’s Starships in the next and final of this particular installment — but will.i.am seems to be ahead of the game on this one, importing futuristic themes and scenes in every single music video I’ve yet seen by him. Moreover, he seems to have made an explicit vow to help bring topics centering on and sympathetic to transformative technologies, technological advancement and the future in general to mainstream audiences.
Continue reading “Future-Friendly Memes & Motifs in Mainstream Music pt. 2” »
In the last installment, I argued that the futuristic aesthetic of electronic music, evidenced by the themes and imagery used in the music videos for both electronic music proper and more mainstream tracks that have heavily incorporated EDM beats recently, is helping to make the future and advancing technologies seem cool to mainstream audiences. I went on to argue that this improves our chances of a safe and fulfilling future vicariously by increasing the general awareness of advancing technology and the radically-different state the future may hold as it unfolds, and by replacing the alienating, dehumanizing and disenfranchising connotations of technology that grew up in the latter half of the 20th century with a memetic aesthetic that is new, exciting, self-empowering and sexy – and using the same themes, sounds and imagery that helped foster the old, negative aesthetic.
In this installment I’m going to provide some empirical support for the claim that imagery and themes in recent music videos shows such music to generate positive future-friendly connotations and memes. I’ll first analyze some mainstream music videos employing such futuristic images and themes. Then, in the next installment, I’ll analyze music videso for tracks that are EDM-proper, showing that these futuristic connotations aren’t just a result of mainstream artists importing electronic styles into their own sonic milieu, but are also exemplified by artists who have been on the electronic music and EDM scene since before it blew up in popularity.
Let’s start with a look at November 2011’s “Scream & Shout” by will.i.am and Brittany Spears. All images copyright Interscope Records.
Continue reading “Future-Friendly Memes & Motifs in Mainstream Music pt. 1” »
This poem was originally published at Transhumanity
Seamingly: I think, therefor I am.
At least: I remember thinking, therefor I was;
Be-cause. we can see ourselves thinking.
Cause seeing is be-leaving and believing is
synominous with being (I think?).
Does one virtually need to think in order
to really be? How could thought itself
predicate being if one needs to be before(.)
the(y) can see for(e) the(m)selves the selfseen
eye of this idea of I (infingressive
twin-twin(n)ed mirrors that see eachother
with equal clarity and con|fusion)? Might it
be that existence is everythere
and what I vainly call “I am” is nought butt our
awareness of our awareness of
our own(ed) existence in interlaced relation
to our underbase awareness of
(n)or(m)ative awareness itself? In other wor(l)ds
refedbacklooped perception, butt a
type(o)n) of more me(x)t{r}a-convoluted ware of
a-wareness. No need for some irreproachable
animessence, just a sum}airy
folding whose phasal geodynametry a
hydrological analog to (more…)
