1,182 days, 1,855 entries ... Newsticker, link list, time machine: HOLO.mg/stream logs emerging trajectories in art, science, technology, and culture––every day
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“The feat was repeated in November 2009 when Joe Davis, a self-described ‘bio-artist’ in residence at MIT, hooked his smartphone to the Arecibo telescope and sent the genetic code for RuBisCO—ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase, a common plant protein—in the direction of three nearby stars.”
–
Dennis Overbye , going through the iconic Arecibo Observatory’s history in the wake of a freak accident that left it damaged
In a wry activation of collection holdings from a bygone era, praise is due to the curators of “Conflict in My Outlook,” a freshly-launched online exhibition focused on the “erosion of boundaries between online and offline, public and private.” Nestled amongst contemporary artists Zach Blas, Natalie Bookchin, and Elisa Giardina Papa, the University of Queensland Art Museum show includes a 1930 painting by Kenneth Macqueen that delineates the majesty of ‘the cloud.’
“Oftentimes, cisgendered white-identified and white-presenting people are recognized as the forward thinkers in discourse about cyberculture…. The romanticized discourse around the 1990s and, in particular, the birth of cyberfeminism often prioritizes white women as the core contributors.”
–
Glitch Feminism author
Legacy Russell , on challenging cyberculture’s origin story
PEmbroider, a new library for Processing has been released. Spearheaded by Lingdong Huang and Tatyana Mustakos (working under the direction of Golan Levin) at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, it offers a “free, cross-platform, open-source, lightweight Java library for generative embroidery design,” merging computation and craft.
“Strangely enough, the V-2 rocket became over time a very strong symbol. Using this symbol, making it the world’s largest seed bomb, fully biodegradable and harmless made a lot of sense to me.”
– Artist
Jos Volkers , in conversation with Régine Debatty about reclaiming the iconography of rocketry with his
Bioremediating Missile project
Epic Games has lauched a lawsuit against Apple for “unfair and anti-competitive actions.” Tensions flared between the two companies when Epic added in-game currency to Fortnight , which Apple argued violated its in-app payment policy—and pulled the game from the App Store. Epic has fired back with not only a lawsuit, but a brilliant parody of the “1984” ad that put the Macintosh on the map.
One of the world’s largest radio telescopes, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is out of commission after a key support cable snapped, gashing the central dish and rendering it inoperable. Damage and repair assessments are already underway, but expectations are that the faiclity will remain offline for months.
“It would be approximately 130 years until the power needed to sustain digital information creation would equal all the power currently produced on planet Earth, and by 2245, half of Earth’s mass would be converted to digital information mass.”
–
American Institute of Physics researchers, on the redistribution of Earth’s matter from physical atoms to digital data—“the fifth state of matter, alongside liquid, solid, gas and plasma”
“Andy Warhol’s Early Colored Liz , which sold for well over $20 million, goes for $203.25 here, while his Campbell’s cans for $18.15, all payable via PayPal. Picassos are currently even cheaper.”
– Critic Bernd Graff, on artist Paolo Cirio’s
Art Derivatives (2019), a provocative online project offering digital reproductions of countless expensive artworks at a one hundred thousandth of their Sotheby’s auction price
Paolo Pedercini, head of radical game studio Molleindustria and the Pittsburgh game art gallery LIKELIKE , announces the online restoration of what is arguably North America’s first interactive film: I’m Your Man TweeVee , LIKELIKE’s JavaScript engine for interactive video, the oddity can be experienced again.
The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) published new guidelines for gene naming, including for symbols that affect data handling and retrieval. “For example, all symbols that auto-converted to dates in Microsoft Excel have been changed,” the HGNC announcement states. “Finally!!!” responded computational biologist Mudra Hegde—and many others—on Twitter.
OUT NOW :
Beyond The Uncanny Valley
Claudia Schmuckli, Yuk Hui, and Janna Keegan delve into the artworks of and ideas surrounding “Uncanny Valley,” the de Young Museum’s major survey show exploring the intricacies of human-machine relations.
Capitalizling on the post-Instagram popularity of installations by Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, and Random International, Pace Gallery’s new Superblue initiative is launching a series of venues dedicated to big, immersive art—despite bans on public gatherings. Essentially functioning as a broker, the venture will promote and circulate large-scale, experiential installations with a ticket sales and royalty-based business model, showcasing artists including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, teamLab (pictured), and JR. The first venue is set to open in Miami in December.
“She was the first person to realize that this problem exists, to talk about it, and do academic work around it until the powers that be took notice.”
–
Kade Crockford , director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, on MIT computer scientist and activist
Joy Buolamwini , whose research helped persuade Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft to put a hold on facial recognition technology.
A follow-up to her recent monograph, Video/Art: The First 50 Years Barbara London Calling , the trailblazing curator’s planned an itinerary of twelve conversations with leading digital and intermedia artists including Samson Young, Rachel Rosin, and Didem Pekün.
“2020: Where everybody is looking at everybody else and nobody is looking at each other.”
–
Anab Jain , designer and futurist filmmaker, shedding “#zoomtears” on Twitter
Scientists are currently embroiled in a debate about whether trees have the potential to be immortal or not. Countering the optimism of a study published earlier this year that conducted genetic analysis of robust 600-year-old ginkos, biologist Sergi Munné-Bosch argues there are limits to the regeneration of plant physiology. He also underscores a temporal conundrum: how do scientists that measure their lifespan in decades rigorously study subjects that can live for centuries and even millenia?
“I ate a slime mold species called the Physarum polycephalum , thinking of it as a form of AI, allowing its hive-like behavior to ‘program’ me.”
– Finnish artist
Jenna Sutela , describing her 2016 performance
Many-Headed Reading to science historian and
Synthetic: How Life Got Made (2017) author
Sophia Roosth . “I wanted to highlight how we’re interwoven with microbes and machines alike,” Sutela explains. “Though we may have created machines, they’re also taking on a life of their own.”
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