The Discipline of DE

17 April 2011 • watchings
tags: cinema, conscience, control, fiction, patterns

This short film by Gus Van Sant is so absurd in a sort of [search for proper adjective] way that it reminds me to Peter Greenaway.

The script is based on The Discipline of DE, a short story by William S. Burroughs from the book Exterminator!

Bandwagon effect

16 March 2011 • out of context
tags: economy, patterns, politics, science

“The bandwagon effect, closely related to opportunism, is a phenomenon —observed primarily within the fields of microeconomics, political science, and behaviorism— that people often do and believe things merely because many other people do and believe the same things. The effect is often called herd instinct, though strictly speaking, this effect is not a result of herd instinct. The bandwagon effect is the reason for the bandwagon fallacy’s success.”

Wikipedia

Arithmomania

3 October 2010 • out of context
tags: brain, mathematics, patterns, science, television, vampires

Arithmomania is a mental disorder that may be seen as an expression of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sufferers from this disorder have a strong need to count their actions or objects in their surroundings.

Sufferers may for instance feel compelled to count the steps while ascending or descending a flight of stairs or to count the number of letters in words. They often feel it is necessary to perform an action a certain number of times to prevent alleged calamities. Other examples include counting tiles on the floor or ceiling, the number of lines on the highway, or simply the number of times one breathes or blinks.

Arithmomania sometimes develops into a complex system in which the sufferer assigns values or numbers to people, objects and events in order to deduce their coherence.

(…)

Folklore concerning vampires often depicts them with arithmomania, such as a compulsion to count seeds or grains of rice. More lightheartedly, the muppet Count von Count from Sesame Street appears to be a fellow “sufferer”.

Wikipedia

Readings

3 August 2010 • readings
tags: body, books, fiction, patterns, perception, psychogeography, rain, seitai, space, texts, uncertainty, walking

• Walking [read]
Henry David Thoreau. 1862.

• El cuerpo, su estado y la espontaneidad [download pdf]
Haruchika Noguchi

• The Crimes of the Flaneur
Tom McDonough. October Magazine, Fall 2002, No. 102.

• The Man of the Crowd [read]
Edgar Allan Poe. 1840.

• Théorie de la dérive [read]
Guy Debord. 1956.

• Sensorium
Edited by Caroline A. Jones

Watchings

24 July 2010 • watchings
tags: animation, books, cinema, conscience, documentaries, fantasy, music, painting, patterns, religion, zen

• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Wes Anderson

• … ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren… (1968-70)
José Antonio Sistiaga

• I’m Not There (2007)
Todd Haynes

• Le chant du dragon [watch]
Joel Daguerre & Maître Kosen

A series of blips

24 June 2010 • out of context
tags: patterns, quotes, radio, television, tv series, waves

“I was tracking radio waves from deep space. For years, we heard nothing but static, and then, one night, a series of blips. You know what defines intelligence? The ability to create patterns.”

Nip/Tuck (Season 5, Episode 7: Dr. Joshua Lee) by Ryan Murphy

Listenings

24 February 2010 • listenings
tags: live, minimal, music, noise, patterns, phonography, sound, techno, water

• Live at Club Transmediale (2008) [listen]
Pure

• Ström (2001)
Carl Michael von Hausswolff

• Weather Report (2003)
Chris Watson

• Palimpsest (2004)
Yasunao Tone & Hecker

• Vox Tinnitus (1999)
CoH

• I Plead Guilty (12″) (2004)
Horror Inc.

• The Beach (2004)
Morane

Noise & Chaos

3 February 2010 • out of context
tags: books, chaos, noise, patterns, quotes, uncertainty

“Scientists often say that any uncertainty in an observation is due to noise, without really defining exactly what the noise is, other than that which obscures our vision of whatever we are trying to measure, be it the length of a table, the number of rabbits in a garden, or the midday temperature. Noise gives rise to observational uncertainty, chaos helps us to understand how small uncertainties can become large uncertainties, once we have a model for the noise. Some of the insights gleaned from chaos lie in clarifying the role(s) noise plays in the dynamics of uncertainty in the quantitative sciences. Noise has become much more interesting, as the study of chaos forces us to look again at what we might mean by the concept of a ‘True’ value.”

Chaos: A Very Short Introduction by Leonard Smith

Induced Seizures

18 November 2009 • out of context
tags: body, brain, flicker, patterns, sound, waves

Epileptic Seizure Comparison by Paul Sharits