the libarynth

present: cocky, lina, jack, pix, theun, maja, nik

notes edited by nik, based on notes from nik & jack

Open Lab - Presentations, talks, etc…

• open lab, as part of funding requirements
• talks, presentations, etc+ to show what foam is doing & interested in
• foton doing a festival in recylceart, showcasing bxl werkplaatsen
• 8-16th dec.
• proposed
  • setup temporary studio
  • work on newsletter → “publication as performance”
  • presentations of research projects, in whatever formats
  • talks, discussions
  • films/projectsions/etc when no-one is there

jack → foam valuator

• summary of research into commercial art world mechanics.
• traditional art dealer model
  • buy low, promote artist, sell high
  • difficult with newmedia, due to production costs, probably requires new financing schemes
• proposed 'IPO' style
  • dealers as investors or an investment bank
  • prefinacing of works → guaranteed interest/attention
• perspectives on philanthropy
  • motivations → how have these changed w/ contemporary arts / new media

lina → materials library update

• classification system
  • still trying to work out categories & reference numbers
  • how does cross referencing work?
• will meet with karen next week to continue discussions & summarise
• importance of being able to locate materials from reference numbers
• data entry for 'information' about materials
• should there be someone involved to work with developing database models?
  • → not really necessary at this stage
• any ideas about barcoding, rfid etc ?+
  • → not really yet, possibly type in & connect to database for more info

cocky → inflatables

• summary of timeless way of building ~14pp
• visual overview of inflatables survey
  • got boring trying to be comprehensive, so just looking for things she likes now
  • what is it that she finds interesting?
    • → alive/playful/something happening → collection
• will put documentation on the libarynth

pix → strange attractors

• more motivated, but still feeling a bit burnt out
• mechanics of embeddings renderer in app framework for attractor explorer
• future directions
  • 3 distinct 1d attractors in 3space
  • decoupling 3d iterators from x→y→z→x loops

theun → Tsunami Pants

• collecting pictures of protective gear / armour/ sports/plague/ rescue
• pictures of shelters build by homeless ppl around ams.

maja & nik → climate change

• conferences - ICCAS & festo
• after the 'stomach cringing discussion on the previous res-gat, looked for positive and inspiring projects
• presentation at festo - opportunities and challenges for communicating about sustainable cultures
• move from consumerist → participatory culture
  • mike longhurst's talk at festo - similar perspective from within the marketing industry→ http://www.uneptie.org/sustain/reports/advertising/article_longhurst_admap.pdf
  • climate change as a symptom of other more fundamental problems
• interesting projects
  • canary project http://www.canary-project.org/
  • worldchanging http://www.worldchanging.com
  • camper (http://www.camper.com/), banyan tree (http://www.banyantree.com/), minergie (http://www.minergie.ch/index.php), ekkovikki (http://www.kolumbus.fi/solpros/ekoviikki.htm)
  • c20 project → cites playing essential roles in moving toward carbon neutral/ sustainability
  • centre for ecoliteracy → http://www.ecoliteracy.org/
  • role of finance → calpers, ecoLogic finance
  • politics necessary to codify previously voluntary efforts, provide longer term stability
    • Iceland's move to complete geothermal energy, attempt to become first carbon neutral country
  • commercial campaign examples → BP, ecomagination [GE], climate group
• authenticity → reaction to increasing virtualisation, greeenwashing, marketing hype etc+
• extending the visualisation of lifestyle choices, carbon footprints, etc+
  • connection between ideas from last meeting and andrey/shai's math models