skandalon

technology cat animal cctv camera surveillance private public uk big_brother critic system

✖ Via YouTube: UK Women Live Cat dumping

By now most of us are aware of this story : Mary Bale, a woman living in UK was caught on a CCTV camera dumping a cat in a trash bin. The video was uploaded on Youtube, went viral and made the news worldwide. The response was quick and intense : sheer outrage. Mashable has a good summary of the ways this anger was expressed all over the Internet. Quite a normal reaction, one may think. Yet, something doesn’t add up. How come suddenly nobody seems to be too concerned about the use of CCTV cameras to spy on citizens?

Those are serious topics in our times : the respect of private life, the surveillance of citizens by the Government, the rising specter of Big Brother. It’s one of the recurrent topic on Boing Boing : the rising number of CCTV cameras in big cities, specifically in the UK (try this customized search).

Looks like Big Brother isn’t the problem in this particular scenario : the problem is that we don’t want others to spy on us. But if we happen to find ourselves in a position where we can spy on our neighbors, and maybe catch them doing something we think is wrong, then CCTV cameras are ok, surveillance is good, the system is working just fine.

• Aug 31, 2010 link notes tagged: technology cat animal CCTV camera surveillance private public UK Big Brother critic system

art photography photographer photograph object technology apparatus camera anatomy piece fragment decomposition separation part whole system element

✖ Via Benn Innes: “Polaroid SX-70” from the Separations series, c-print, 30”x40”, 2008

Studio series focusing on disused electronics, as well as flora and fauna.

About Benn Innes:

Born in Knoxville, TN, Ben Innes now works, eats and sleeps in Minneapolis, MN. He gained his BFA in photography from the Minneapolis College Of Art and Design in the spring of 2009. (About)

First spotted via Coudal Partners.

• Aug 27, 2010 link notes tagged: art photography photographer photograph object technology apparatus camera anatomy piece fragment decomposition separation part whole system element

Why? and automatically answering, out of the blue, for no reason, just opening my mouth, words coming out, summarizing for the idiots: “Well, though I know I should have done that instead of not doing it, I’m twenty‑seven for Christ sakes and this is, uh, how life presents itself in a bar or in a club in New York, maybe anywhere, at the end of the century and how people, you know, me, behave, and this is what being Patrick means to me, I guess, so, well, yup, uh…” and this is followed by a sigh, then a slight shrug and another sigh, and above one of the doors covered by red velvet drapes in Harry’s is a sign and on the sign in letters that match the drapes’ color are the words THIS IS NOT AN EXIT.

✖ Via American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, 1991, p. 568

More news about Bret Easton Ellis: a new novels, a film in production and maybe another one in the pipeline (an no, I’m not talking about Glamorama).

“Ellis speculated that Fox Searchlight might make his upcoming Hollywood novel Imperial Bedrooms (his seventh) into a film. […] Lunar Park is in pre-production, said Ellis; Jude Law may replace Benicio Del Toro, who Ellis knows and likes. He was set to play the role, but Ellis thought Del Toro was miscast. Ellis doesn’t see himself as Jude Law either.” (more)

• May 31, 2010 link notes tagged: art novel book author Easton Ellis chaos exit system closure end world uncertainty anxiety representation New York: Vintage Books

― The more visionary the idea, the more people it leaves behind. This is what the protest is all about. Visions of technology and wealth. The force of cyber-capital that will send people into the gutter to retch and die. What is the flaw of human rationality?
He said, “What?”
― It pretends not to see the horror and death at the end of the schemes it builds. This is a protest against the future. They want to hold off the future. They want to normalize it, keep it from overwhelming the present.

✖ Via Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo, New York: Scribner, 2003, p. 90-91

Previously on Skandalon: Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo

• May 24, 2010 link notes tagged: DeLillo art author book capitalism critic future market novel protest revolution system representation order chaos community organization anguish anxiety

The market culture is total. It breeds these men and women. They are necessary to the system they despise. They give it energy and definition. They are market-driven. They are traded on the markets of the world. This is why they exist, to invigorate and perpetuate the system.

✖ Via Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo, New York: Sribner, 2003, p. 90

Previously on Skandalon: Don DeLillo

• May 14, 2010 link notes tagged: DeLillo art author book capitalism critic integration market novel revolution system Cosmopolis

Disconnection is the new counterculture.

✖ Via Rough Type: “Exodus” by Nicholas Carr, April 8th, 2010

Aside from being an obvious overstatement, and from ignoring what happened to the counterculture of the late 60s and early 70s (it has been recycled by the mainstream culture) it’s funny to see this idea blogged and reblogged about. Let’s not forget, in the enthusiasm one can have to find or to point a way out, that connectivity is not only about the Internet, that one cannot be “disconnected” simply by turning off a computer or a TV.

Nicholas Carr made this comment regarding James Sturms’ decision to stop using his computer and quit the web. James Sturms is a cartoonist : he tells the whole story over at Slate magazine.

About Nicholas Carr:

“Nicholas Carr writes on the social, economic, and business implications of technology. He is the author of the 2008 Wall Street Journal bestseller The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, which is “widely considered to be the most influential book so far on the cloud computing movement,” according the Christian Science Monitor.” (more)

• Apr 21, 2010 link notes reblogged from chrbutler [via] tagged: communication technology computer counterculture connexion disconnexion Internet web critic system

god internet art being comic communication complex computer illustration illustrator philosophy religion system technology dilbert

✖ Via

Dilbert by Scott Adams, Feb. 11, 1996

• Apr 13, 2010 link notes tagged: God Internet art being comic communication complex computer illustration illustrator philosophy religion system technology Dilbert

In the morning I walked to the bank. I went to the automated teller machine to check my balance. I inserted my card, entered my secret code, tapped out my request. The figure on the screen roughly corresponded to my independent estimate, feebly arrived at after long searches through documents, tormented arithmetic. Waves of relief and gratitude flowed over me. The system had blessed my life. I felt its support and approval. The system hardware, the mainframe sitting in a locked room in some distant city. What a pleasing interaction. I sensed something of deep personal value, but not money, not that at all, had been authenticated and confirmed. A deranged person was escorted from the bank by two armed guards. The system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with. But we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies.

✖ Via White Noise by Don DeLillo, Penguin Books, [1985]1986, p. 46

White Noise won the National Book Award in 1985. Learn more about it on Wikipedia.

• Mar 17, 2010 link notes reblogged from circuitry [via] tagged: art communication technology machine computer network interaction design user interface money ATM DeLillo author book lost system

art communication technology system circulation anatomy transport design metaphor reblog

✖ Via Samantha Loman: “Underskin” (on the behance network)

About Samantha Loman:

“Sam or in case you are wondering her full name is Samantha Patricia Loman was born on August 7, 1983. She studied Illustration at the academy of arts in Rotterdam the Netherlands and received her Bachelor of Design in January 2005. A year before her graduation she started her own design business. First as an illustrator but soon she extended her creative skills with graphic design, photography, product design and writing children and non-fiction books.” (more)

• Mar 07, 2010 link notes reblogged from mary1in [via] tagged: art communication technology system circulation anatomy transport design metaphor

art communication technology illustration illustrator comic circulation transport system network metaphor body city

✖ Via The New Yorker: “Subway Man” cover by Roz Chast for the June 30, 2008 edition.

About Roz Chast:

“Rosalind “Roz” Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. She grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the only child of an assistant principal and a high school teacher who subscribed to The New Yorker. Her earliest cartoons were published in Christopher Street and the The Village Voice. In 1978 The New Yorker accepted one of her cartoons and has since published more than 800. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review. (wikipedia)

• Mar 07, 2010 link notes tagged: art communication technology illustration illustrator comic circulation transport system network metaphor body city

Systems work because they do not work. Nonfunctioning remains essential for functioning. And that can be formalized. Given, two stations and a channel. They exchange messages. If the relation succeeds, if it is perfect, optimum, and immediate, it disappears as a relation. If it is there, if it exists, that means it failed. It is only mediation.

✖ Via The Parasite by Michel Serres, tr. Lawrence R. Schehr, Minneapolis, University of Minesota Press, 2007, p. 79 [Amazon]

• Feb 18, 2010 link notes reblogged from leftoverfest [via] tagged: communication technology failure system communion philosophy lost loser separation fragmentation reject waste function

archive art class classification epistemology exhibition illustration knowledge ressource system technology tumblr

✖ Via Musei Wormiani Historia, by Ole Worm, 1655: the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Wormius’ cabinet of curiosities (Wikipedia)

Learn more about cabinet of curiousities. Think of them as antique tumblelogs.

• Jan 16, 2010 link notes tagged: archive art class classification epistemology exhibition illustration knowledge ressource system technology tumblr

technology human body chart system modern space visualization data astronaut

✖ Via NASA Astrophysics Data System: Bioastronautics Data Book: Second Edition. NASA SP-3006, by James F. Parker and Vita R. West, 930 pages, published by NASA, Washington, D.C., 1973, p. 79 (of electronic edition: PDF).

Figure 3–1. Regional cooling requirements of the human body in air at sea level at rest.

About the Book: “It now is becoming very clear that a body of life sciences information is needed not only to determine the best way in which to utilize man in complex systems, but to assess the impact of system operation on man. In this latter sense, we refer to impact on all mankind and not just to effetcs on humans working within a system. […] This revision of Bioastronautics Data Book was prepared in order to bring together the essrntials of the large body of human research information generated in recent years and to present it in a form suitable for engineers and others concerned with the develepment and evaluation of modern system.” (Preface)

About NASA ADS: “The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a Digital Library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The ADS maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 7.8 million records: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and arXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records, which are searchable through highly customizable query forms, and full-text scans of much of the astronomical literature which can be browsed or searched via our full-text search interface. Integrated in its databases, the ADS provides access and pointers to a wealth of external resources, including electronic articles, data catalogs and archives. We currently have links to over 8.4 million records maintained by our collaborators.” (read more)

• Jul 27, 2009 link notes tagged: technology human body chart system modern space visualization data astronaut