April 2010 Archives

An interesting video from 1995 by Apple that includes visions of video conference, educational uses, and dreams of what the iPad would have looked like 15 years ago. Its very interesting to see which tech ideas from back then survived and which ones sort of ran into a dead end.

Well worth a look if the idea of fractals, culture, art, combined with a new outlook on human development in society interest you.

quoted from TED Talks:

"Ethno-mathematician" Ron Eglash is the author of African Fractals, a book that examines the fractal patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa. By looking at aerial-view photos -- and then following up with detailed research on the ground -- Eglash discovered that many African villages are purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with self-similar shapes repeated in the rooms of the house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village, in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: "When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganized and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn't even discovered yet."

If you are going to be up in the Seattle in April, this showcase is something you may want to check out. through mid April the Northwest Film Forum will be hosting some excellent, rare  historic music films from the experimental pioneers.


quote from site:

Northwest Film Forum and The Sprocket Society, in association with Center For Visual Music, present this special series celebrating the history of Visual Music.

Over the past century, there have been a number of prescient artists who've approached cinema as a tool for merging visual art and music in order to create a new art form and explore uncharted areas of synaesthetic experience. Through a vibrant history of cinematic experiments, these pioneers have been inventing the concepts, aesthetics, techniques and technologies on which our modern image-and-sound culture is based.

VISUAL MUSIC is a rare opportunity to see restored film prints of work by such master animators as Oskar Fischinger, Mary Ellen Bute, Jordan Belson, Robert Breer and many others on the big screen. In addition, we'll host a panel discussion on Seattle's own history of visual music in the 1960s and early '70s.

Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger Retrospective, April 9
Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound, April 10 (in association with Cecile Starr)
Jordan Belson: Films Sacred and Profane, April 11.
...and some extra goodies to catch!