Ubik

book-aesthete:

Philip K. Dick. Garden City: Doubleday, 1969 

First edition, first printing of this scarce title.

In two short essays – written in 1933 – Walter Benjamin argues that primitive language emerged in magical correspondence with the world. The faculty we all exhibit in childhood play, to impersonate and imitate people and things loses its determining power as language gradually takes over from our “non-sensuous” connection with reality. In a break from Saussurian linguistics, Benjamin decries the loss of this “mimetic faculty”, as it becomes further replaced by the “archive of non-sensuous correspondences” we know as writing.

To put it in simpler terms… Where once we read the world, the stars or the entrails of a… ]]> Wed, 25 May 2011 05:21:34 -0700 http://machinemachine.net/text/ideas/the-doctrine-of-the-similar-gif-gif-gif http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/a-guide-to-enjoying-and-making-your-own-gif-art You can satisfy your low-brow GIF cravings on sites like 4chan or the countless GIF-glorifying Tumblrs like GIF Party and Fuck Yeah GIFs. A step above is the image-based chat site dump.fm from artist Ryder Ripps, whose community no doubt benefits from the artistic ties of its creator, yielding content that is more conceptual and refined than the aforementioned Tumblrs (and has even spawned exhibitions of its own). Then there’s the ambitious ANI GIF project from Daniel Rehn and Sarah Caluag, which presents monthly GIF exhibitions online and is working towards an Animated GIF Biennial (in the real world) slated… ]]> Thu, 19 May 2011 11:50:02 -0700 http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/a-guide-to-enjoying-and-making-your-own-gif-art http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/5477247486 The First Zombie-Proof House:

via: all-thats-interesting:

Somehow, ritual drunk-conversation concerning team captains for the apocalypse has become a major part of the lives of 20-somethings. Having been matured in the Grandaddy-crowned masterpiece film (put “A.M. 180” on and forget that you have a job) 28 Days Later and the best-selling Zombie Survival Guide, we’re all a little too ready to deal with the 2012 of our dreams.

Cast: NYU Game Center

Alphaland

Ever wondered what’s going on in the background of your favorite video games, behind all the moving pictures and pretty sounds? A new Flash game from Jonas Kyratzes titled Alphaland answers that very question by placing players in a rough Alpha version of a minimalist platformer, and then placing them deep within said Alpha’s metaphysical guts.

If it sounds confusing … well, that’s because it is. But it’s also pretty short, and pretty sad, and pretty pretty. If you’ve got a few minutes, give it a play over at Newgrounds!

(via Joystiq)

Takeshi Murata: Get Your Ass To Mars

If men really are from Mars, then Takeshi Murata’s new exhibition Get Your Ass To Mars at Ratio 3 in San Francisco might give us a sneak peak of some of the planets’ potential portraiture. Favoring work that cancross over different platforms, Murata moves away from the vivid animations that he’s known for, unveiling a new series of pigment prints using imagery rendered entirely on the computer.

These prints, set in a virtual space, incorporate found objects including VHS tapes, ripe fruit, skulls and helmets, cracked iPhones, musical instruments, and beer… ]]> Fri, 06 May 2011 02:36:02 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/5240178214 http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/cinemagraph-stillness-with-a-twist.html I admit it. I'm a junkie for animated gifs.

The animated gif has a deservedly mixed reputation. It's a vestige of the early web, a grainy reminder of badly animated banners ads or captured weirdness, 7-8 frames with a limited palette and abrupt transitions. However, like many other old media formats it's remerging, more refined, grown-up and with a new purpose in life. And, as with records, film and other old/new media, obsolescence has been freeing, allowing the gif to exist in a way that's as, if not more, interesting than the way it was originally used. ]]> Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:07:53 -0700 http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/cinemagraph-stillness-with-a-twist.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cEQZreQ2zQ&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:38:41 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cEQZreQ2zQ&feature=youtube_gdata http://www.bsjohnson.info/novels/content.aspx?title=albert%20angelo&type=home Albert Angelo is the second novel written by the experimental novelist B. S. Johnson (1933–1973). Published in 1964, the book achieved fame for having holes cut in several pages as a narrative technique. It is written in an unusual and pioneering style, frequently changing from first-person narrative to third-person commentary, and often descending into stream-of-consciousness interior monologue. Like all of Johnson's novels it is an auto-biographical work. ]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:59:53 -0700 http://www.bsjohnson.info/novels/content.aspx?title=albert%20angelo&type=home http://darc.imv.au.dk/publicinterfaces/?p=261 Being that this conference is about public interfaces, it would be evidently meaningful to talk about interfaces, machines and humans. But instead of examining the present multifaceted overwhelming and immense quantity of interfaces that daily calls for our attention, I will try to examine the relationship between the machine and the interface in a media archaeological perspective, that will, hopefully, point towards the physicality of the machine, in contrast to the symbolic ordering that is prevailing in the current understanding of interface.

In the introduction to this conference it is being stated that “in the case of… ]]> Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:53:12 -0700 http://darc.imv.au.dk/publicinterfaces/?p=261 http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2010/12/third-queue.html I bring all this up because the state of the themed queue - a Disney practice if there ever was one - seems to very much be in a state of flux right now. Less than a month ago (at the time of this writing) Walt Disney World opened her brand new "next generation" queue at the Winnie-the-Pooh attraction in Fantasyland. It is as fully accomplished as one could reasonably expect. Despite the small footprint, there is a very successful woodland atmosphere and some charming activities. Crawl through Pooh's house (much more fun than walking around it, by the way).… ]]> Sat, 11 Dec 2010 03:11:00 -0700 http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2010/12/third-queue.html