Requiem for MacGrid Gone now, whole worlds disappeared... http://www.alansondheim.org/macgridsection.png http://www.alansondheim.org/dedtime.mp4 http://www.alansondheim.org/BABABA.mp4 http://www.alansondheim.org/exportskin.mp4 http://www.alansondheim.org/havock.mp4 Thanks to David Smith, Ian Murray, many many others Some notes, from all forms, all times, thinking the MacGrid - There were anomalies Large-scale installations visual data representation - empathetic identifications - the mocap work social experimentation - four dancers into one avatar for example psychological experimentation - "reading" the modified avatar - identified as human or organism? identified as wounded or dancing? governance issues - how may an ultimately pliable space be justly governed? issues of permissions, power, secrecy, disruption. GLITCH: 1, the use of glitch in virtual worlds and how it extends avatar possibilities; 2, where glitch kills - errors which give glitch an abject edge; 3, glitch in my motion- capture work; 4, psychoanalytics of glitch; 5, glitch and programming - 'not a bug but a feature.' First explorations of MacGrid: The Albatross The MacGrid is a massive server farm, I entered into alien territory, albatross have colonized there already, towards the eastern end of the small experimental space _which they will not relinquish,_ placing instead mournful cries of ontological containment at the very edge of the seawall-landwall; it is here that I found them and traveled among them, in such limited space that it were not possible I would return home- ward, or that the comforts of home were even among the possible. I am grateful to these birds, far higher in consciousness than I might attain even with limited flight; it is from them that I have learned the realm of the air and its fractal bordering the sea, and such sad and whispered cries that would never have been foreheard, not among men and women, nor among any others of those animals within the realm of sentient beings. I learned there that all were presenced, and truthful, and comfort, and that among all, I was among them. For it is said that the darkly cry of the albatross is the echo of the world unto itself, the world of land which can never find land or home, the world of water which can never wing through highways always shifting among them, and among us, no highways at all. Communication with the Other The signals received and sent, only what seems to be a life-form - in a random? pattern? No recognizable pattern but preferred places - prime grid? Not that, nothing. Technically, my avatar has no body in MacGrid. Distorted motion capture files manipulate attached invisible objects; the avatar has no gestures, but the objects emit light. It's the light that's moving. It's the light that's the source of communication. It's the light that expects light in return. The light sings "X-ing x-chromosomes, x-rated xenoias never collapses - but turned local, regional - a xenoic capital like never collapses - but turned local, regional - a xenoic capital like never collapses - but turned local, regional - a xenoic capital like cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. xenoia and only remind one of xenophon's socrates for there never collapses - but turned local, regional - a xenoic capital like no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar, seriously, what covers pain completion, yours argon xenon neon, whirl yours argon xenon neon, whirl me infinnnnitude drugs am yours no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar am yours no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar seriously, covers pain completion, yours argon xenon neon, whirl me am yours no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar am yours no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar seriously, covers pain completion, yours argon xenon neon, whirl me never collapses - but turned local, regional - a xenoic capital like no more argon xenon neon, whirl me through you avatar" - and the light awaits an answer. everything softly falling This is the communication in regard to the first video of the alien; the link here is to and it constitutes of a series of tests of the alien structure within the MacGrid in an attempt to determine its fundamental properties, and whether or not the object/process can be considered a life-form and further, whether the life-form may be considered sentient. While the jury is still out, parametric data can be gathered by the application of suitable rendering tests, as shown. Of course this is all within and without the realm of the virtual, of signs and nothing but signs. Still, there is a need for probes - think of them as logic probes, necessarily digital. This is the granularity of the virtual world, at least _this_ virtual world, and from this, one encounters an analog phenomenology and hermeneutics paralleling that of Schutz's writing on Carneades and relevance theory. For what is happening here, beyond the probes, are the mixed returns of signals, and from the signals, interpretations of all sorts fly; further testing is needed. It's also of interest that the avatar-form is blind to all of this; the grid is a superimposition which circulates around it, literally, the grid has no _bearing._ S/he thought, "larger than the span which can name. The universe isn't sentient, won't whatever's left of the commons, of the fabric of the sentient city. avatartist are aggregates, they are gatherings, they are sentient and not sentient, all their processes are filterings, and their actions are constant rate, sentient black-hole grinding to a halt at normal diameter But think for a moment of the _sentient countryside,_ the Net thinned, om- neighborhood community. So the sentient landscape includes the notion of itself with an _omnipresent sentient environment,_ interpenetrating universal knowledge, sentient networking, data-banks those animals within the realm of sentient sentient being - "I say, things begin here," so to speak, whether zero or ignorant of their prey. I, for one, believe the Net sentient, fully reminds us of the sentient mobility of the real, the margins of taxon - the sentient ones, for they themselves dissolve, devolve, divide" and they listened for signals, for words, something to bring back into whatever real remained on earth, and everything softly falling cloud chamber http://www.alansondheim.org/cloudchamber.mov probing again within the aegis of the alien, or object or other: the structure appears, gathers blood and sinew. through observation in the form of interference or platelets. with my companions in our chambers, there appeared to me a person in the chamber hall (public room) house (bedroom, woman's, men's, bedchamber) the empty chamber hall (public room) learn (review lessons) carefully proper (upright) model sky valley proclaim (one's) fame empty chamber hall treasure washed welfare health gracious yearn sought chamber refrained unleash the power of wilson cloud-chamber messes another marvelled birthright hebrews themselves refrained chamber the empty chamber hall (public room) learn (review lessons) carefully "the tombs and chambers in which rest the blessed ones of old, the citi- don't go away; they're a combination torture chamber(lights on) and phantom limb to limb, our mouths seal upon one another, _the chamber and reddened chamber, mouth open for the visitor. the second upper sec- no holes, guardians of the chamber). the chamber has four holes below, two above, a confused puncture on the chambers. they have fetish-sheen, get high black-market, grey-market placed within a beaker or chamber otherwise - within and without the frame, it's this that comes to the chamber weather - so the whole body behaves as a resonant drum or chamber. the former target, and the latter, appearance of cloud-tracks within a chamber embedded in a magnetic field. the information in the cloud-chamber is conveyed all my words connect through underground chambers very close to the truth. the chambers form hieroglyphs of the mind and my philosophy. creations. the chambers form hieroglyphs of mind and theory-mind. on western side of west-side highway, east across down to chambers, over chamber refrained themselves hebrews birthright marvelled another messes (one's) fame - empty - chamber hall (public room) - learn (review lessons) (fortune) business (by means of) through called carefully chamber hall both chambers are expected to give the authority empty room) (public hall chamber proper (upright) model sky valley proclaim (one's) fame empty chamber hall proper (upright) model sky valley proclaim (one's) fame empty chamber hall chamber room) (public hall chamber chamber hall (public room) chamber hall (public room) change changes chants (calls upon) characters charnel-hus, in this chamber of poison showers, this hole of viral room) (public hall chamber the empty chamber hall (public room) learn (review lessons) carefully proper (upright) model sky valley proclaim (one's) fame empty chamber hall central vaults certificate me chairman tony chamber commerce chambers the surgical and anatomical examination subjected to a chamber valley proclaim one's fame the empty chamber hall public room learn review */holes in it/* ... Notes on the virtual and others, comments welcome DIRECTORIES: chic/dance/mocapstills/sl-d-poser/wvu Early on, wanted to work with 'generalized modules' that allowed anything to be made out of anything - they were analog, PCM, parameter-control- modules. You could build anything from analog to video synthesizers from them as well as control units for multi-media displays. Dreamed of portable keyboards for working while driving; an early adaptor of portable tape technologies (audio/video). Jump to virtual worlds: In virtual worlds, you can _do anything,_ and _do it live_ with planetary participants and audiences (blurring the line between the two). Early on again, I worked with MOOs and MUDs - text-based virtual realities - their advantage was that you could quickly set one up yourself - you had control, and again planetary reach. Here I learned a lesson - any wizard, any governor - could see everything going on; it was all open database. Jump to Second Life under the aegis of Linden Labs - but they do mainly leave you alone. You can build anything, provided you have permissions - as Ian Murray said, permissions are the key; collaboration is as well. While MOOs and MUDs could be set up and run by a single user, virtual worlds are more complex, have different requirements, foster collaboration and, like MOOs and MUDs, hopefully pliable governance. I believe there are _no_ answers as to just governance in virtual worlds, as long as they are welcoming. On one hand this is an enormous gift; on the other, it's led to the splittings of MOOs and the downfalls of news- groups for example. Every virtuality by the way develops culturally, linguistically, and institutionally, from within, and every virtual world develops its own erotics. Avatars are different in virtual worlds, but one thing is common: performativity. Simplest example: type _date_ at a prompt and you get Thu Nov 1 16:32:53 EDT 2012 Something changes: an action leads to a _qualitatively different result_ reminiscent of the jump cut in films. Aside: Leverage in the _real world_ is constituted by the body itself, which one lives within (even for cyborgs); the jump cut is a sign of the digital, in which something produces something _else._ Performativity in virtual worlds is connected with the user-subject by complex psychoanalytics; I've used the term _jectivity_ to indicate the projections and introjections that occur across the screen space, which is always close, itself, to dissolution. In Videodrome and other films, it's always possible to reach _through_ the screen. Apparently. So I'm interested in human representation within the virtual; this implies both an image and a dynamics, the two of course entangled. At the same time I've been interested in 'alien architectures' - spaces that appear to be foundationless, ungrounded, spaces that are almost impossible to navigate, spaces that create a sense of anomaly and wonder. A lot of my early virtual world work emphasized these spaces and what it was possible to do within them. Alas, I haven't been a programmer, and so have had even in SL to rely on others for scripts, which I could then alter productively. More to the point, though, has been the issue of movement. On and off for the past two decades, I've worked with Foofwa d'Imobilite [give background information here]. Foofwa's work is at foofwa.com. His work has dealt with any number of issues, from politics through health, sexuality, being- Swiss, technology to virtuality. We've embedded him in Second Life, and he's worked with our avatar movement as well. * So movement has been a natural for me. I'm also a recorded musician, by the way, so I'm well aware of my own movements, in terms of string instruments, keyboards, and some woodwinds. All of this has fed into the work I've done with motion capture equipment, performers, and Second Life. Motion capture work: Brief history of my work in the Virtual Environments Lab at West Virginia University, Morgantown, through Sandy Baldwin and Frances Van Scoy. We used a lot of equipment, some of which was in storage. We worked with 3d lasers for modeling - including one large laser that could take in an entire building in one series of scans. We also worked with some older motion capture equipment, which we applied in two basic ways: 1. We recorded one or more performers, using remappings of modes, including some with 'impossible' topologies, in terms of human movement; and 2. We recorded, through a rewriting of the motion capture software itself, through what I've called 'dynamic filtering,' transforming standard motion capture files on the fly, through the insertion of filters between the input data and the outputted files. These filters parallel the use of filters in Gimp or Photoshop [explain]. Endproducts - the altered motion capture files were fed into three worlds: 1. The Blender 3d modeling program, where abstract avatars were used to examine how behavior appears when it's abstracted from the body; 2. The Poser mannequin modeling program, where the motion capture files were used to 'break' the mannequin bodies, as well create any number of videos; and Works in Second Life, MacGrid, and OpenSim virtual worlds which involved highly distorted avatar performances and dances; these were used for live or mixed reality performance, some augmented reality work, some video work for conferences, gallery or museum installations, and some pieces made for live or online choreographies. The ultimate goals of the virtual worlds work were - what happens when the body is considered completely plastic; what images of pain, death, wounding, or sexuality are conjured up by distorted bodies; when does the body become a 'thing' among other things in the world; what are the politics and anthropology of distorted avatars and movements - if any. [Examples] Note that with all of this, there are no programming errors, only other avenues, glitches, to be explored. So the aesthetics and phenomenology of glitch are important here as well. In virtual worlds and with motion capture, there are in particular 'edge' glitches - within and without gamespace boundaries - that define, in a sense, _all_ the possibilities of the avatar, _all_ the possibilities of escape and normalcy... The imaginaries I work with - virtual worlds; 3d modeling; 3d printing; very low frequency (VLF) radio; scanner and shortwave radio; augmented reality; playing music; codework (an entangled amalgam of code, writing, and computer 'debris'; even birding, which requires abstractions ranging from migration routes to morphs. Finally, the idea that the virtual has always been with us, that the body is always already inscribed, that culture goes all the way down, that inscription and the digital are entangled amalgams as well, and that abjection underlies everything, as well as pain, suffering, and death, all part of it. Thank you - ================================================= At the moment I'm working with sim overload and self-reflexivity: on a simple and neat level, what if a performing avatar connects to an object ('prim' complex) designed to move away from hir? The result is a total [avatar/complex] that flees indefinitely - at least until the complex goes out of world. Hi - David wanted to know what I've done so far, to put online - the text is attached and below as well. These are simple pieces and the text is crucial to them. Thanks!, Alan ========================== _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
