Theoreti.ca – Page 211 – Research notes taken on subjects around multimedia, electronic texts, and computer games.

Perimeter Institute

The BlackBerry Brain Trust is an article in Wired, Issue 13.01, by Duff McDonald about the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics that was set up in Waterloo with funding from Mike Lazaridis of RIM. Here is what the article says about the new building:

Made largely of patterned glass, the 65,000-square-foot complex has a soaring atrium, multiple fireplaces, a bistro, a squash court, and a 205-seat auditorium for lectures and string quartet performances. It looks more like a resort than a think tank where some of the smartest people in the world are contemplating the foundations of quantum physics. The elegant structure answers the question (as the architect put it), How do you design a place in which to think?

Good question! How do you design a place to learn and discover?
Continue reading Perimeter Institute

Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology (CCAT)

Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology is a resarch centre at Waterloo with a number of interesting projects in the early phase. From the sounds of this press release, UW’s new centre studies human response to technology, Waterloo is investing in this area with funds and CRC chairs.
Continue reading Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology (CCAT)

Pew Internet & American Life Project

While it has a long name, the Pew Internet & American Life Project seems to be conducting interesting and relevant surveys of Internet usage. In particular they have a report on Artists, Musicians and the Internet and a new one on the The state of blogging. The reports are in PDF format.

Public Structure

Jared Tarbell and colleagues at Levitated do some very cool Flash “toys”. One neat project that shows how Flash can be used to create multiuser spaces is Public Structure | a collaborative computational environment. Some of their work has been exhibited, including the I’Ching Poetry Generator, a Levitated exhibition. I find his/their work achingly beautiful.

Arizona: Arts, Media and Engineering (Again)

Herberger College of Fine Arts is the college at Arizona State University for arts, theatre, music and dance that is collaborating with the school of engineering on the Arts, Media and Engineering research and education program that I blogged before. (See Arizona State: Arts, Media and Engineering.)
It looks like they have MFAs in Art, Dance and Theatre (and PhD in Music) each of which can have a concentration in “Interdisciplinary Digital Media” or “Interdisciplinary Digital Media and Performance”.

Chatonsky: Aesthetics of Interactivity

In issue three of intermÈdialitÈs, new journal about “history and theory of the arts, letters, and techniques”, there is an original article, Le centre d’indÈtermination : une esthÈtique de l’intÈractivitÈ by GrÈgory Chatonsky.
In it Chatonsky presents an theory of interactivity riffing on Bergson (the journal issue is titled “devenir-bergson”) and how the body is the possibility of causality and the new. He connects this to interactive art where what is new is that the “spect-acteur” have to move to cause the aesthetic experience.

In the wake

In the wake is in memory of the buried temple I came across on the Tamil coast. It is for us to give.

Shining Snow

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Shining Dunes of snow is another small photo set from the holidays.

Shadowed Snow

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Shadowed Snow is a small collection of photos taken this holiday in the woods of Cootes.

Learning Spaces

In the Fall we went to Ithaca and toured Cornell. I took my digital camera as I was beginning to think about learning and space. Today I finally got my pictures uploaded. They aren’t great, and the spaces are hard to parse, but it s a start, see Learning Spaces.