Tech intersection art.

The Wood Mirror - My definite favourite in this genre – this 1999 piece by Daniel Rozin uses a hidden video camera to capture what is in front of it; the mirror’s 830 wooden pixels then tilt to reflect back a shaded mosaic of its surroundings.



Here’s a video of the piece, he’s done mirrors on many surfaces (trash, circles, etc.). It’s beautiful.

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Bumper Art – These art-bots by Christian Cerrito each cover a sheet of paper, drawing as they move.  The three BumpBots are wirelessly linked, so whenever one of them hits a wall or encounters an obstacle, all three change course.

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Handicam – Seung Jun Lee’s table lights up and pixelates whatever is above it (with aid of an overhead cam).  The table also responds to objects with abstract musical effects.

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DJ Like Spinning Plates – Thomas Gerhardt allows users to create unique musical tracks by spinning modified dinner plates at different speeds.

[adapted from Scientific American Online].

Happy (late) Festivus.

Sorry, I know I’m a day late, it was a busy pre-xmas day yesterday, but wanted to wish you a happy Festivus nonetheless.

Whole village.

This week I’ve really been looking into intentional communities (aka community shared agriculture aka ecovillages aka sustainable communities aka yeah).  After emailing some of my more “conscious” friends from Waterloo, we’ve decided to pick a week next summer and volunteer at Whole Village to get a better idea as to what it’s like.  Whole Village is located in Caledon (just north of Toront0) and its mandate is based around organic farming and community.

Check out their website if you’re interested in organic farming and sustainable communities.

This style of living would erase a majority of my pre-existing white liberal guilt, in other words just help me feel more honest and responsible.   I’ve (sort of) been working in agriculture for a couple of years now for my Master’s and if it wasn’t becoming increasingly harder to be a farmer, I would definitely consider doing agriculture full time as long as I didn’t have to grow too much corn.  The benefits are clear – working outside, getting dirty, applying environmental concepts, optimization, and most importantly, I can do something honest.  A big goal.

Something that also really appeals to me is the idea of community with a shared vision.  An actual community.  I don’t want to be afraid of my neighbours, I just want to hug them.  Screw your shrunken heart if you think that’s too Kumbayah, you’re missing something.

Living in Waterloo for many years, visitors were always surprised to see the nearby St. Jacobs Mennonite community around in horse and buggy and back in black.  The more I lived in Waterloo the more I envied parts of their lifestyle – community, agriculture, simplicity.  If their sub-culture was more (spiritually and aesthetically) flexible it would be something I’d seriously consider.

Luckily, there are communities like Whole Village all over Canada.  I’m taking my week there next summer as a vacation, and it will be a vacation in true sense.

Changed my theme.

Like?  No like?  No care?  Just wanted a change.  Changed from “Vanilla Mist” to “Press Row”.  I sound like George Costanza’s outfit titles. Also added some pages up top, thought it made more sense this way.

Would love to you know if you preferred the other one better or if this one suits your fancy.  I like how all my tags don’t show up at the top, and how white images blend in with the background much better.  And I still get dear Georgia.

Perfect winter storm 5pm music.

Grouper, from Portland, OR.  Beautiful chambered female vocals and acoustic, like a ultra-reverby Low.  Portland is one of my top 10 “want to move to most” cities, for sure.  Urban planning mecca of the world, great music, west coast feels.

More reverb on an acoustic track that I may have ever heard, the perfect thing to quench my ‘verb thirst at such a great time in the day.

The week’s eyes uphill fight with a calf full on the deck.  The green summer deckchair can be made out through the back incisions and polyethed arms.

Listen here.

Why I worship water.

I’m almost done my Master’s in hydrogeology, aka studying water, soil, and most specifically groundwater.  Groundwater sounds extremely unsexy, but with a bit of surface scratching you will realize it is life to billions of people.  I feel lucky to be in this field of study.

In terms of total global water resources, here is an interesting table for you:

Reservoir	Percentage (%)	Percentage Viable Fresh Water (%)
Oceans	95.96	n/a
Ice caps and glaciers	2.97	n/a
Groundwater	1.05	98.62
Lakes	0.009	0.85
Soil Moisture	0.0045	0.42
Rivers	0.0001	0.01
Atmosphere	0.001	0.09
Biosphere (in plants etc.)	0.0001	0.01

Oceans can be used for drinking water, but the amount of petroleum and energy needed to heat the water to remove the ever-so-soluble salt is completely unrealistic on a global scale (right now).  Salt is so soluble in water that it takes massive amounts of energy to evaporate the water and re-condense it into fresh water, commonly known as desalination.  Only places like Saudi Arabia can afford desalination right now.  Ice caps and glaciers could be potential sources of water depending on demand in the future, but the transportation cost to get ice to travel thousands of kilometers is umistakably large and unsustainable.

With a growing population and massive amounts of potable water going towards agriculture, our water supplies are drying up.  In Ontario/Quebec we have much less to worry about with one of the biggest fresh water supplies in the world.   However, a country like Yemen is supposed to lose all of their water in 30 years.

Here are some more properties of liquid water.  Scientifically speaking , the water molecule could not be more unique – no other molecule in the universe can boast of properties like this, all because of the miraculous bonding angle between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms.  Nuts.

Property	Comparing with Other Related Substances	Importance
Density	Max at 4oC NOT at freezing point of 0oC.  Expands 9% upon freeing.  Both properties very unusual.	When a lake reaches 4oC, it sinks and causes cycles of nutrients to flow in lakes, maintaining life.  Without it, we would have very little life in our lakes.  Our landscape is directly shaped by freeze thaw processes and the fact that water expands 9% upon freezing.
Melting and boiling points	Abnormally high	Allows water to exist as liquid on the Earth’s surface.
Heat capacity (amount of energy required to heat water by 1oC)	Highest of any liquid besides ammonia.	Moderates extremes in temperature to make life hospitable on Earth.
Surface tension (how it attracts other particles)	Very high.	Allows for formation of clouds and rain, without this property it would be almost impossible for rain to occur.
Abosorption of radiation	Large in infrared/UV, less in visible spectrums of light.	Helps control biological activity
Solvent properties	Excellent solvent for salts	Very important in transfer of nutrients in soil, waterbodies.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

- Albert Einstein

A very simple thing.

This post is/was about your material choices.  I sound too preachy, sorry.  I’m obviously not perfect and most of this is too obvious to be worthy of reading.  But the video, that is actually worth your time. I know everyone is greenwashed these days, so if you don’t want to read this just do yourself a favour and watch the video below or go to this beautiful website for a hi-res version.  If you want to feel bad about yourself over things you already know, you can read more by clicking “more” under the video.   Really I am simply stating my encouragement to fully embrace and consider used commodities – the benefits to you and mum are too clear to ignore.

New In-Flight Safety.

Via their MySpace.

Halifax’s In-Flight Safety have released two tracks from their new LP We Are An Empire, My Dear. The songs seem to go back to their original muse – down-mid tempo cinematic pop.  No more X&Y-inspired mediocrity ala their last record The Coast is Clear - these songs feel honest, sentimental, moving, all the things I originally loved about their debut EP Vacation Land. You can clearly hear their love of Ottawa’s The Acorn, in my books the most underrated band in Canada.

Hope the rest of the record is this focused and does something for these guys – they’ve been fighting the good fight for awhile.  One cool moment in my life was singing “Any Sense of Time” with them on stage a few years ago at a gig, a cover of one my favourite high school bands, The Inbreds.  Fun fun.  In fact, In-Flight’s cover of the tune is on their MySpace as well.

Mike’s musical formula for In-Flight = The Acorn + Wilco + Coldplay + telecaster with reverb on 18 + The National.

Noël un peu tôt.

Cara’s dad was really generous and gave me an early Christmas present to celebrate over the break.

Islay scotch is a big “interest” of mine, and Lagavulin is one of the best I’ve had.  What makes it different to other regions in Scotland is the peat and smoke infusions – I recently was at an event where 4 premium whiskeys were open-barred – Highland Park, Johnnie Walker Blue, Lagavulin, and Macallan 15 year.  So pretty much reminiscent of a certain new Andy Samberg/Jorm Taccone song.  All were amazing, my favourite was probably the Macallan but the Lag has a special peaty place in my heart.

You can call it snotty, but it’s just big flavour, big love.  I’ve been told that a drop of water opens up the scotch, but that’s as close to dilution as I will accept.  It’s like adding 6 cans of water to your OJ, just don’t do it (link reference – go to 1:16 through the video).  Again sounds snotty, but that’s just my preference – ice makes my mouth cold and less sensitive to the flavours.

What’s more awesome is that I can succumb to my drone like temptations while watching Mad Men.

The Mad Men wagon.

It’s not a popular stance, but I think we are in a period of really high quality in television.  Lots of people love to trash TV but I think that’s too easy.  It’s a very accessible way to reach people and display one’s art.  Yes it can be exploited and yes there is MTV, but there’s major potential to really move people for extended periods of time and still maintain high artistic quality.  HBO and AMC are two of the leaders, and Mad Men is a crowning example.  Never have I been so impressed with the quality and depth that an adventurous TV show can provide.   Amazing serial dramas in Mad Men and The Wire, (periodically) dark comedies in Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office, specialty channels (great for the chef and interior designer in us all), all which can be taped on your PVR or TiVo to avoid commercials and maybe even get recommendations for other things that will inform and entertain.  And if you like it so much, you can even buy a well packaged season on DVD.  What’s so horrible about that?

I just finished the first season of Mad Men, starting the second nowish.  The past few years I’ve had a TV series to start/finish while on the Christmas break.  Last year was a major guilty indulgence in Entourage.  This year I have been almost completely loving Mad Men.  You’ve likely heard the buzzes and blips, and it’s pretty much all warranted.  The winning points are clear and well documented – the historical accuracy and comprehensive styling of the show, and the instant infatuation with the polar protagonist Don Draper (actor Jon Hamm recently won a Golden Globe and is likely the next great classic movie star ala Clooney, Pitt, etc).   So many strong and beautifully-acted characters, it’s truly difficult to pick a favourite.  Each of them show their unique struggles and dark moments.

The only complaint I have is the popularity of the polar dichotomy in characters in some recent television shows that have received critical acclaim.   Dexter’s cool,calm/sociopath and Don Draper’s perfectman/slimebag seems a bit too black and white.  For a series so concerned with reality, I’m sure this happens but to show it in this extreme way seems a bit overly dramatized.

Creator Matthew Weiner (formerly worked on The Sopranos) has extreme creative control, and was inspired by a lot of socially relevant issues for this period in time – Ralph Nader’s classic “Unsafe at Any Speed“, the canon of Alfred Hitchcock (the influence is definitely there), the growth of women’s rights and civil rights in early 60s culture, how Kennedy changed the Western world, and the ugly side of the prosperous and soma-filled post-war boom.

Literally, the Montreal sound.

Concordia University has initiated a very cool sound/music project, and combined my love of spatial data and found sound.

They have completed the “Montreal Sound Map” – sounds located throughout the entire city.  My favourite is a sound geek that has converted electromagnetic waves naturally found at the cosmetic counter of a Pharmaprix into audible tones.  Ku. Dos.  I plan on stealing every second of it for a new handkerchief revival track.  So there.  Try and find it, that’s your devoir.

Click here.

[via SpacingMontreal].

Auto-cratic.

“OUT OF A JOB YET?  KEEP BUYING FOREIGN!”

Have you seen those bumper stickers?  They make my ears steam.  If you see that bumper sticker on a car at a grocery store – look in their grocery bags.  Do you think anything in those bags is made in Canada?  Even the plastic bag itself?  How about good ‘ol Canadian Tire?  How about those tools you’re buying?  Made in Taiwan means foreign.  It’s this blind hypocrisy that angers me.  We live in a complex global market now, and to me this just seems like uninformed propaganda. Not to mention that many foreign carmakers have plants right here in Canada.  Furthermore, the vast percentage of car parts assembled in domestic plants comes from foreign sources.  Purely domestic almost never exists anymore!

There are likely a million opinions today on the Big 3 auto bailout, and my opinion is just as irrelevant as everyone else’s. My heart genuinely goes out to the massive amounts of people affected by this, it’s a scary time for many jobs in this world.  I’m sure what compounds the confusion is they feel they did nothing wrong, and that’s mostly true. What’s even crazier is that the possible 250,000 direct jobs lost from the auto sector is half of November’s job loss alone.

It’s an extremely complex issue – unions, national health care, business practices/strategies, stubbornness, and a clear lack of vision.

I’m extremely polar on unions to be honest, in principle it’s a great concept – protection of workers is extremely important.  However, big unions have lost sight of these principles and now often act just like greedy corporations and just as deserving of lack of trust as the corporations themselves.  In this context, unions have done some damage – they have driven up costs to arguably higher-than-deserved levels and made these companies less competitive.

National health care seems to be a glaring reason as to why these companies also remain uncompetitive – their costs are simply too high, and to compete with other companies by keeping prices low, quality clearly suffers.  A friend of mine astutely quipped that GM is not a car company, they are an HMO.  It seems Canadian plants and other international plants with public health care stay much more competitive than their American counterparts.   It’s been calculated that national health care would save GM alone $22 billion. This is obviously not the fault of the company. Maybe the Big 3 among other major corporations have been lobbying the government for nationalized health care, but this seems to be too much of a Democrat ideal for them to support.  They just want to lobby for more petrol-based vehicles?

The last three have been well documented – their business structure and refusal to adapt has produced major inefficiencies and prevented them from staying ahead of the curve.

There’s talk of some sort of support, especially for Canada.  Maybe the US government with all its bailout fatigue can squeeze the 1 trillion dollar bank bailout and give 1.5% of this to the automakers, that’s all the Big 3 want.  Michael Moore thinks the government should buy GM, as its stock worth is only 3 billion.

Now it’s up to the dude, and glad it’s not up to THE dude.

Ottawa day trip.

Cara and I are off to Ottawa, I’m actually really excited.  It’s been about 5 years since I’ve been, and about 15 since I’ve done anything touristy.

The Museum of Nature is definitely where I’m putting my eggs for the day, if we have time either the National Gallery and/or the Museum of Civilization as well.

Whenever I do something travel related, it’s the only time in my life where I’m completely Type A.  I have 2 maps with all of the things I want to do (including a BeaverTails stopoff) all marked on them with addresses written out on the side.   You got to maximize these times, you know?

The infinite and immanent brain.

I know I post a lot of YouTube videos, but free streaming video is one of the internet’s biggest resources.

I stayed up way past my bedtime to be glued to The Nature of Things documentary on “The Brain That Changes Itself”.  It discusses the emerging concept of neuroplasticity, a theory that proves how our brain is not a static system and continually changes until you die.  It then destroys our old conceptual model of the “computer or machinist” brain and exemplifies this through showing how the brain can rehabilitate itself to actually cure paralysis, phantom pains, and improve health simply through our own thoughts.

Here is part one, and if your interest is piqued, links to parts II-III-IV are below as well.

Part II | Part III | Part IV

I know everyone loves psychology, but it’s just too fascinating not too post.  I love how more than any part of our body, the most important piece is also the most mysterious.  Doesn’t this make the scientific community truly revel in its power, its dynamism, its infiniteness, its beauty?  Something seemingly so immanent is really something transcendent.  Sound like something to you?

After seeing this, I shall wear my CBC Suzuki t-shirt even more proudly.  CBC, is there anything you can’t do?  Oh yes, write a successful fictional series.  But I’ll take great alternative journalism over shitty Helvetica-laced Douglas Coupland remakes any day of the week.