the big gallery week

the show is installed at SJSU and i have added to my former comments in statement below. i was replacing the statement printout when i found this on the outside of my gallery. http://twitpic.com/25oa6




planar array antennae paintings
thomas asmuth March 2009

This project is an exploration of non-optimal aesthetic design theory as proposed by Anthony Dunne1. I have used a fractal/self-similar formula known as the 'dragon curve' to draw the formal linear element and a planar antennae. These elements are packaged in the form of a painting, a merged idea of aesthetic and communicative value. The linear element in each painting utilizes gold leaf for it's symbolic and conductive properties. The length of each segment is 'tuned' to a quarter wavelength of a particular channel of the 802.11 standard and allows the work to merge with the local network and become part of the delivery of the network.

There are multiple points of view to situate this project into a historiography of art practice. First, through the implicit connection between circuit design and drawing, we can develop a rubric for formal analysis of the object. Drawing and the linear form is integral in this work and in any circuit trace. The process for making a Printed Circuit Board(PCB) traditionally utilizes the method of etching; indistinguishable from the techniques used to make a printmaking plate. Etching is also reductive process of removing material to reveal something else largely akin to carving as a sculptural process. The technique in these pieces is a direct (additive method) application of the conductive material to establish the mark or drawing.

Antennas are transducers; that is, a class of

"...devices by which variations in one physical quantity (e.g. pressure, brightness) are quantitatively converted into variations in another."2

The term coined in the 1920's by the telecommunication industry is derived from Latin for 'to lead across, transfer’. The connections to art are multitudinous but, I have drawn parallels between antennae and liturgical or icon painting for their ability to facilitate lines of communication. in icon painting gold leaf is prized for its ability to shine as if it is lit from within as a demonstration of the light of God. Today along with the exceptional spectral reflectance in wavelengths above one micrometer, gold is also particularly important as an excellent conductor and thus gold is a very effective media to build a transducer. Thus by use of the gold leaf for these works I am paying homage to historic and exploring contemporary methods of communication.

The theme of communication ties this work to Conceptual Art. Multiple layers of systems are embodied in the work. The linear element in each is the result of a rule set which calls for a mark of one length followed by another mark of one length made perpendicular to the first. The final complexity of the form is dependent on the number of iterations in which this rule set is executed. Each object is symbol and agent in establishing a site for communication analogous to Beuys' Rose für direkte Demokratie (Rose for Direct Democracy). In the 'Organization for Direct Democracy through Peoples Referendum', 1972 Beuys used the rose in a graduated cylinder to consecrate sites of discursive contact and as an institutional critique of the gallery/museum complex. Symbolically these paintings stand as objet d'art or sites for aesthetic or scopophilic discourse and gateways to the discourse of the network. This conflation is a purposeful attempt to make these two aspects converse echoing the spirit of Bauhaus or Droog design.

The multiple references and aspects of this project create a complexity that needs to be reconciled. It is a sort of transgenic genealogy that comes with penalties producing morphologically challenged entities. The visual structure yields nothing immediately identifiable as icon painting nor engineering design project. This is not a hybrid; the notion of hibridity suggests a confluence of form that is somehow compatible.

These objects reflect the ‘monstrous’ ritually assembled from widely variant materials such as industrial paint products, electron microscopy supplies, Medieval painting technique, late 20th century romanticism, and the piety of gilding as a symbol and messenger of light. Like a discussion between the three heads of the Chimera of
Arezzo,3 these forms are the assemblage of products, techniques, and which can be seen as a reflection of desire to facilitate a multilateral discourse.

The efficiency of the product in engineering value is murky as well. These objects give over to “How design can improve the quality of our everyday lives by engaging the invisible electromagnetic environment in which we live.”4 Circuit design and engineering are fields concerned with formally optimized spatial and electrical relationships. The pictorial space of these planar antennae are less concerned with optimization of the engineered space than the aesthetic experience through image plane, self similarity algorithms and in the transmission of the network. Certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design is decidedly non-engineered as to the optimal utility of the spectrum. These device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics while maintaining reasonable functionality in engineering.


1. Dunne, Anthony. "The Electronic as Post-Optimal Object." Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical Design. Cambridge: MIT, 2007. 1-20.

2. "Transducer." Oxford English Dictionary. 16 Mar. 2009 .

3. "Chimera of Arezzo." Scholars Resource. .

4. Dunne, Anthony. "The Electronic as Post-Optimal Object." Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical Design. Cambridge: MIT, 2007. 1-20.

the fundamentlism in futurism or how those who didn't become robots turned into grey goo

a review of two analyses of the seemingly unavoidable cybernetic revolution

The apocalyptic analysis of Bill Joy's "Why the future doesn't need us." is an interesting explanation of all things futurist and pessimistic or as he put it, "...Murphy's law - "Anything that can go wrong, will." (Actually, this is Finagle's law, which in itself shows that Finagle was right.)" Murphy's purportedly exact statement "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way" is not nearly as dire as Finagle's interpretation. Murphy is pointing at good design as the ability to make a standard which cannot be misused or incorrectly installed. Joy's transmission of this translation bungle actually opens a stress fracture in his logic's fuselage that will eventually cause it to fail.

Joy's statements are based in a priori of Moore's Law as well as assumptions that the all systems can be modeled via computation. Although computing statistically can give us a good range of answers and sophisticated computing can narrow the tolerances of the range it is still a ideal reading versus an actual result.

I see the loss of skepticism as the fuel of Joy's pessimism. Jaron Lanier supports this idea in his article "One Half a Manifesto" written six months after the aforementioned Joy article. Lanier labels the aficionados of Moore's Law, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary psychology as "cybernetic totalists". The disconnect for me and Lanier is ideological adherence to an idealist misinterpretation of theory. A dogma that purports theory as reality and as the path that the future will certainly unfold. It is a real irony that these ideals that are the results of studies such as complexity theory but, they have have become dogma and stultifyingly singular. It displays (learned) ignorance of the body of practical observation of diversity, character, processes, and form in the universe. Lanier concurs:

"In nature, evolution appears to be brilliant at optimizing, but stupid at strategizing. (The mathematical image that expresses this idea is that "blind" evolution has enourmous trouble getting unstuck from a local minima in an energy landscape.) The classic question would be: How could evolution have made such marvelous feet, claws, fins, and paws, but have missed the wheel?"

Both quote Moravec's "Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind" (which I highly recommend, no, you don't have to be a computer scientist to read it). In the treatise he optimistically imagines a day of decision in our lifetime or the next generation's lifetime where it will be highly possible to transplant our consciousness into a synthetic body. Moravec is projecting a future where technology has become completely transparent and where to the best and worst of our empathetic and fuzzy logic and semantic reasoning which define humanity can instantaneously merge with high-powered computational calculation. A time where mental note becomes discrete and retrievable. And a time where when I stand up I am not plagued with arthritic pain in my back and knees.

How outrageous? No. It is a simply an extension of the practices of today's life. As I write this document the laptop marks my mistyped words with better than fair recognition and my iCal reminders pop up just before my phone jitters with the aide-mémoire for the same appointment. My dentist has installed many permanent prosthetic devices and a colleague this summer is replacing her coxal articulation (hip joint) with a ball and socket made from titanium and polyethylene. If I can replace my knees so I can walk on the surface of Mars or Pluto (or further), I do believe I will get in that line.

Moravec and others suggest a potentially exciting and pivotal fold in history of humankind. To confuse any futurist prediction as the road to perdition though, seems to ignore the fundamental aspects of good scientific practice about objectivity. Quoting Lanier again: "In general, I find that technologists, rather than natural scientists, have tended to be vocal about the possibility of a near-term criticality. I have no idea, however, what figures like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett make of it. Somehow I can't imagine these elegant theorists speculating about whether nanorobots might take over the planet in twenty years."

Do any of us really know about the consequences of this transformation we think we see in the near future? Of course not but, I am highly contentious about the medieval attitude that some things are too scary to intellectually know. Once again, I find myself at the crossroads of the dilemma and my analysis is that some people are lacking in empathy and have a horrifying character; the tools they decide(d) to use were merely tools. I believe the human spirit is not necessarily diluted by these transformations; changed yes, weakened no.

802.11 planar antennae paintings

is a project in non-optimal aesthetic design. the straightforward premise is to use fractal/self-similar lines as a formal pictorial element and as a planar antennae packaged as the form of a painting. the 'dragon curve' is the drawing element that represents this merged idea. each segment is tuned to a quarter wavelength of a particular channel of the 802.11 standard and allows the work to merge with the local network and become part of the delivery of the network.

i continue to make new associations between all the concepts of this project. the latest are the implicit connection between circuit design and drawing. the linear form is integral in this and an any circuit trace. the trace could be directly thought of as an art making process. such as etching; leaving a trace or to make a printmaking plate. etching is also reductive process of removing material to reveal something else largely akin to carving as a sculptural process. the technique in these pieces is a direct (additive method) application of the conductive material to establish mark-making or a drawing.


circuit design is a field concerned with optimization spatial and electrical relationships of the formal plane. the pictorial space of these planar antennae paintings is less concerned with optimization of the engineered space and is an attempt to create an aesthetic experience through self similarity algorithms and in the transmission of the network. certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design in decidedly non-engineered as to the optimal utility of the spectrum. these device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics and functionality in engineering.

i maintain a ustream channel in which you may see me constructing these devices. there is documentary footage available for 'off-air' periods. please follow this link to the channel. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/painting-happy-fractals

/hug

/hug |sla sh·həg|
noun [treated as sing. or pl. ]

/hug is the latest interventionist act of Third Faction, a non-factional guild/performance World of Warcraft group. /hug (prounounced: slash hug) is a Non Governemental Organization modeled after Red Cross/Crescent. /hug provides comfort and aid to all entities of the endlessly war torn world of Azeroth regardless of faction, allegiance, species, or creed.

/hug will be presenting a project space at the Laguna Museum of Art for the exhibition named: WOW: Emergent Media Phenomena, June 14 – October 4, 2009. the exhibition space will two parts. First is a theatre showing documentary and training machinima and the second section is a field work station where new recruits can immediately begin humanitarian aid missions in world.

/hug is a wordplay and represents a non-factional communication form that all players of WoW and all of humanity can understand, the hug.

Third Faction is a project-collaboration founded on Valentine's Day 2008 by members of the Ars Virtua, the acclaimed virtual worlds critical practice.