Universe Creation 101

The Tate Gallery has sites in Britain, London, Liverpool and St Ives. So, when deciding the location for a new venue there was naturally only one place to go…Space.

In order to fulfil their mission to extend access to British and International modern and contemporary art, the Tate Trustees have been considering for some time how they could find new dimensions to Tate’s work. They have therefore determined that the next Tate site should be in space.

Tate in Space obviously has alot of planning to do, but they already have a satellite orbiting Earth every 92.56 minutes. So far all the satellite does is be visible when passing by your local country. It’s hard to see the detail on the landscape paintings, but gee, the next time you hear of a meteor plummeting to Earth, it just may be a valuable statue — so hold out your hands.

SPOILER WARNING: Stop reading now if you want to go to Tate in Space.

The site is part fact, part fiction. It is intended as an agent provocateur: a catalyst, structure and location that invites debate and reflection on the nature of art in space, cultural ambition, and an examination of the role of the institution and the individuals within. Tate in Space also works as interactive or immersive
fiction, where each visitor is encouraged to engage with their own extra-terrestrial cultural fantasies. Some aspects of the work - such as the satellite sightings data - rely on participants ‘wishing’ or ‘believing’ the narrative into existence, assuming a position of co-authorship; collaborating with both the artist and each other in a work of constantly expanding collective fiction.

Quote from interview between Jemima Rellie and Susan Collins ‘Tate in Space’, Rhizome Digest 5.21.04.

On the subject of linking (see previous post) I’ve been reading an article, You’ve Got Hypertext by m.c. schraefel, et al. The authors cannily coin the term ‘clinks’ to merge the words ‘clicks-on-links’. I rather like this because I’m sick of typing out ‘I clicked on the link’ for user testing reports.

Had another look through the threads of my brother’s forum and found a funny (not the only funny thing I must say) joke: How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb? The post is of course from somewhere else, and now I’m posting it in my blog, I’ve commented on it, and you may read it and experience the whole journey yourself, and then may comment on it, and then…

At the same time (same place actually, different time unit) I’ve been reading about transclusion — Ted Nelson’s term for the inclusion of data in a document (webpage) that is only referenced by a hyperlink not actually copied and pasted. As a wiki contributor commented, what if links were copyrighted? What would the realworld (fleshworld) version of such copyrighting be? Perhaps the holding of a partner’s hand could be permitted only if in lawful relationship (de-facto, marriage)? What about telepathy, or knowing what someone is going to say beforehand? Could that be a crime? Would everyone have to script their own way of introducing someone — could conjunctions be outlawed? Would we no-longer be able to refer to something someone had said creating the need for a person you want to be present and say it themselves? If everyone only said and did things that were truly original then evolution would dictate that we only have 1 human as we know it and a whole lotta other types of (one-only) species…Link or Die.

The Information Society Technologies (IST) Working Group on Grand Challenges in the Evolution of the Information Society have released their report. The report, commissioned by the European Commission, intended to ‘identify grand challenges in information and communication technology (ICT), the pursuit of which will stimulate research and development in key areas and help the European Union to achieve its social and economic goals’. Many ‘grand challenges’ have been identified: The 100% Safe Car, The Multilingual Companion, The Service Robot Companion, The Self-Monitoring and Self-Repairing Computer, The Internet Police Agent, The Disease and Treatment Simulator, The Augmented Personal Memory, The Pervasive Communication Jacket, The Personal Everywhere Visualiser, The Ultra-light Aerial Transport Agent and The Intelligent Retail Store. They all make sense and are clearly influenced, as we all are, by sci-fi lit visions.

‘The Service Robot Companion’, page 18 of the report.

I’m excited by The Personal Everywhere Visualizer, or (PEV) as it is known by those in the know, will:

comprise hardware for display, capture, and communication, as well as software for realistic graphics, visualization, animation, image understanding, and multimodal interaction. Having the size of a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the device will be readily available to generate instant display, augmented reality, and immersive communication scenarios for a wide range of applications including tele-presence, tele-learning, product management, mobile office environments, medical applications, retail scenarios, homecare of elders and entertainment.

‘…and entertainment.’ Oh, it just got in there. My lordy! Won’t the projection of fictional characters, scenes, lovers be THE use of the device? I think the report overlooks the strong desire humans have for manifesting or immersing themselves in fictional, constructed or different worlds. I am writing and researching with such future devices in mind. I’m looking forward to digital paper too. So that when people read a book, in that ol’ comfortable shape and size, they can follow hyperlinked words or see scenes played out. Check out the current technology on electronic|digital paper:
digital paper
digital pens & paper
E-Ink
MIT’s Electronic Paper Project
video speed electronic paper
flexible electronic paper.
So, right now, I write sci-fi futuristic works with my eye on future delivery technologies. Will I ever actually be in the present? Or is aiming for the future a normal present state to be in? I do know that I am conscious of the effect sci-fi has on culture and technology creation. So, to prevent stuff happening or uses of technology happening that I forsee I write about the horrible consequences. I hope to offer a choice to people in the present — you don’t have to have that future. But like all sci-fi and other apocalyptic visions of the future we actually end up creating the need for the choice. I’m gonna get my tail, round, round, round…

I’ve been thinking about how writing for an interactive medium changes the narrative construction…and come up with a working analogy. Imagine a room, a room that is a cube. It has a bench and a stove. From your right walks in a yellow translucent figure. The figure walks to the stove, picks up a yellow kettle and pours into a yellow cup. At this moment another yellow figure walks in from the ‘top’/furthest wall alongside the bench and continues to exit the room just beside where the first figure entered. And then another figure enters from the left this time and this figure is green. This figure walks to the wall on the right and appears to be washing dishes in green water. Another figure, say blue,  enters from the top/furthest wall and stands at the bench facing the yellow person drinking tea and the green person washing dishes. This is linear narrative. It is up to the author to make sure, by walking amongst these coloured phantoms, that their paths never cross. To do so would cause their colours to blend and upset the space and time structure, and indeed character integrity, set up. The worlds could recognise each other, across time and space, if the author intended them so. The green figure at the sink could suddenly turn around and see and be seen by the blue figure standing at the bench. They could transcend the limits to their worlds because of love or some other great motivation for such transgression.
 
Now imagine a user could come in and click a button to have any one of those figures enter at any point. Not one after another but the green figure from the left first and then the yellow one. This would cause the figures, and thus the storyline, to clash. Users love doing this, indeed look for it. It is the task of a writer of such works that allow agency to write in a manner that the figures never clash, unless intended to do so. A possible approach would be to make the paths of the figures so minimal or planned so they never could clash. But this wouldn’t be fun for the users and no challenge for the writers. This is how I see my work as a writer working with new technologies present and envisioned. How to work out the story, the characters, the plot, to work no matter when commenced. Can this work with ’cause and effect’ plot structures or does there need to be some other system in the design? I’m hoping that cause and effect can be achieved at the same time as another system — so all are satisfied at once. Makes sense if it is cumulative, or paradigmatic…
 

This crafty little image is from a software program that is trying to achieve such nifty plays with time and space NOW. Check out Martin Reinhart’s work.

I was lucky enough to be commissioned to write for a new website produced by ABC Arts Online called Strange Attractors that will showcase Australian animators to the rest of the world. My task was to write a critical essay on new media artist Simon Norton’s work Testimony: A Story Machine. Simon did a great job with the work, has scored lots of teaching work and awards from his creations. Testimony was created a few years ago though and in his interview with me he mentioned that he learnt that people want to be TOLD a story. His goal to produce a work that does rely on the reader’s work in producing a story is admirable. And I’m sure that he will find the tenuous balance between Barthes’ ‘writerly’ text and ‘readerly’ text. More about this in my article.

Check out fellow writer and researcher Adam Ford’s review of the entertaining animation by Dan Hartney: BucketHead. A must see animation in the series (there are many) is Adam Duncan’s ‘Robot Republic: The Uncertainty Principle’. What do robots do when faced with Schrodinger’s cat? The results is hilarious and makes complete sense. But the robots can solve this in a way humans cannot. Here’s a quirky program playing with Schrodinger’s Cat.

Another one I found very funny is a satirical animation called The Game by Lucas Licata. Here the consequences on violence in games for game AI is spelled out in a government-warning style. This reminded me of the clever ‘rewriting’ of games at Red vs Blue.

Over a year ago I found out about a website called Jupiter Green. It had info about the concept of an ‘interactive drama’ that will be coming soon. Then last year I attended a seminar and the producer of the site, Jo Lane, gave a talk and showed the actual drama. Back then they were looking for finance to go live. In the audience were folks from Sensis Pty Ltd and CitySearch. They approached Jo Lane and struck a deal. Now the ‘interactive drama’ is live for what Jo Lane dubbed

the most public user testing

It is live until the end of August. It is a soapie series of six episodes that you can access every three days after your initial registration. What you find, though, is that not only can you delve into the lives of the characters who live at the apartment block Jupiter Green, but you will also be emailed by them! This aspect, like alternate reality gaming, is exciting to be involved with. The interactive nature of the drama extends as far as the storyworld only for nothing you do will impact the characters or plot. However, the fact that it is hosted at CitySearch signals the beginning of electronic works beyond games and edutainment having a market. Register asap and read some of the false claims around the work like

Australia’s first web based drama

I’ll be putting together an article on this piece, for sure.

I was inspired by a documentary screened a couple of weeks ago on James Joyce’s Ulysses. I am keen to read the whole book now that I understand more about how the book is structured. Interesting that I needed this info (eg: each chapter is a different writing style, theme and so on) to feel I could ‘access’ it… Anyway, I found some neat websites on the book:
Ulysses Online
Ulysses For Dummies
One Page Every Day
Hypermedia Joyce Studies
Michael Groden’s Digital Ulysses and Ulysses in Hypermedia.

And now I’ll begin by showing you what my name looks like when put through the Cyborg Name Generator:

I thought I’d begin this blog with a reference to an online service that facilitates communication with the future. No time like the present.

The website Future Me allows you to write an email to yourself that will be delivered on date in the future selected by you . You can choose to have your email public or private. Looking through the public emails it seems that people who use this are really wanting their future self to be better than their current dull or painful present. Just like in my story. Ooo, I’m excited. www.futureme.org