Consumption

Coal Country the movie

2010-03-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Coal Country a documentary about the devastating affects of strip coal mining in Appalachia. Shockingly, over half of the electricity in the US is still produced with coal so this is not just an issue for the people of Appalachia, but for the whole country. Coal Country documents the environmental devastation wrought by the coal companies, and the crushing affects their new strip mining (mountain top elimination) methods are having on local communities. Its not just about jobs, its about the quality of life for an entire region struggling under the the big business monopolies created in the past 30 years. If you are a consumer, and are interested in our nation's environmental future, I highly recommend this movie.

Good Bye Clifford

2006-11-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs..."

Clifford Geertz, father of symbolic anthropology, died on October 30th. One of his most famous studies was an ethnographic perspective of Javanese religion. However to me Clifford's greatest contribution to anthropological thought was his 1973 classic Interpretation of Cultures. Clifford--you will be missed -PFC.

John Kricfalusi's all kinds of stuff Blog

2006-05-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

John K., the incredibly talented animator and creator of "Ren and Stimpy", has a blog. What does John K. discuss there? Why, cartooning of course. One of his recent posts discusses the reasons why classic cartoons look so much better than most modern ones, with plenty of visuals to illustrate. John K.'s all kinds of stuff blog.

Intersection of Graphics, Visual Art, and Culture--Lukelab

2006-05-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

The Anxiety Graphs

The Gnostics believed the world was a mistake and that "salvation" was to make sense of the world by rationalizing it. When things fall apart we either embrace the dissipation and orgy of chaos or search for a schema that will organize the mess and horror. By adopting the same rhetoric that simplifies culture through amplification, these graphs present a picture of unification and provide a home for free-floating anxiety.

They accomplish this state by joining thought and feeling along sets of reputedly indisputable axes. By placing the elusive elements of our psyche in mathematical relation to dependent conditions or impulses, the culture of anxiety suddenly becomes manageable and predictable because when Cartesian co-ordinates are applied to the ineffable forces of human beings, a mathematical function transforms into a comfort function. When you locate your position on the graph, you also locate where you are in time and by following the trajectory of the graph, you can predict your future. Conversely, if you work backward along the curve of a graph, you have access to a past that is now closed.

The graphs are both the rationalization and the visualization of states that resist measurement but despite their soothing manifestation, resolution takes place just outside the points of the graph.

Besides the PowerPoint graphs page, Lukelab also hosts several interactive java applets such as The Spiral of Shame.

Artist's Bio:

"Rev. Luke Murphy has used computers to assist and produce his work for the past seven years. This project and the many charts he has made are the manifestation of a graphing project started on in 1994 when he first graphed the relation of Suffering to Pain. He has produced several collections of these works that chart the impossible quantification and monetization of elements of the psyche and spirit. Parallel to this work, Rev. Murphy has also shown computer-generated drawings and projections based on Gnostic and Masonic writings. Much of his painting is also developed digitally. His most recent exhibit of landscapes was the result of repeated re-processing of “template” images from earlier landscape paintings. These evocative works are first resolved digitally and then manifested in concise black and white oil paint, resulting in a digital rendering of emotionally-charged and expressionistic painting."

Rev. Luke Murphy's website

Interviewing Michael Parenti about The Culture Struggle

2006-03-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

"Culture" refers to the entire panorama of conventional beliefs and practices within any society. But it has long occurred to me that what we call "culture" is not just a set of practices, mores, and beliefs, the "innocent accretion of past solutions," as an anthropologist once said. Much of culture is certainly that, but culture is also a politically charged component of the social order, mediated through institutions and groups that have quite privileged vested interests.

Culture should be thought of as a changing process, the product of a dynamic interplay-even serious struggle--between a wide range of social and political interests. To understand a society we need to understand the problem of culture as well as that of power. And, conversely, to understand culture we also need to take note of how power is used in society, toward what end and for whose benefit and at whose cost…

…Many parts of modern culture are being commodified, that is, packaged and sold to those who can pay. Folk culture is giving way to a corporate market culture. Art, science, medicine, psychiatry, and even marriage have been used as instruments of cultural control across the centuries. I deal with all this in the book."

Link to interview.
The Culture Struggle at Seven Stories Press.

It's Not OK to Eat a Sexed-Up Chicken

2006-03-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

"Researchers from the United States and Brazil posed the following hypothetical: "A man goes to the supermarket once a week and buys a dead chicken. But before cooking the chicken, he has sexual intercourse with it. Is that wrong?" People in both countries said it's not OK to eat a sexed-up chicken considerably more often if they hailed from a low socioeconomic background. Cultural differences extend even to basic matters such as the meaning of language. Imagine that Gödel didn't invent Gödel's Theorem. Some guy named Schmidt did. Then to whom do we refer when we continue to use the word "Gödel"? In one experiment, researchers found that Americans tend to say, "the guy who got credit for the theorem," while Hong Kongers say, "the guy who actually came up with it."

Jon Lackman writes on Slate about the new applied philosophy movement called "X-Phil" and philosophy's cross-cultural quagmire.

Immigrant Economic Engines and Late Night Comedy

2006-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

…On evening comedy television in “America” immigrants are threats to “our” jobs and “our” security or they are ignorant indios who can’t speak proper English. On primetime and late night comedy Mexicans are pariahs and not the people who oil the U.S. economic machine…

…Since the 1980s the service industry in the U.S. has grown reaping tremendous profits from workers born in other countries. Foreign-born workers serve citizen interests as cooks, servers, and busboys in all types of restaurants. Day laborers assist homeowners trying to make repairs or improvements to their homes and yards. Homes, office buildings, and college campus buildings are built by the same immigrants who comedians call ignorant or dangerous…Let’s not also forget that the immigrant presence provides jobs for lawyers, doctors, and agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Thousands of ‘citizens’ rely either directly (e.g., border patrol agents) or indirectly on immigrants for their paychecks…

…Many essays in the book, Immigrants Out! (Juan F. Perea, editor), point to the similarities of periods of increased nativism in U.S. history. Clearly, older racist rhetoric plays an important role. Well-established stereotypes contribute to seeing immigrants as Others to be disdained. However, racism seems to be a divide and conquer tactic within in a larger strategy that pits capital and greedy capitalists against workers…

…We have few opportunities to understand the importance of Mexican and other immigrants to our society. Rarely, do we get an opportunity to ask “what if there were no Mexicans in the United States?”

From The Anti-Immigrant Impulse in U.S. Comedy
Also
A Day Without a Mexican
Immigrants Out!: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States

Coming to American Medicine

2006-02-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

…Cultural nuances are why a Hmong man would be insulted if a doctor looked directly at him during a lengthy conversation and why a Salvadoran woman who feared mal de ojo , or the evil eye, would seek a folk medicine healer, a curandero.

At Bailey's, where 10 percent of patients speak Arabic, Farsi or Urdu as their primary language, cultural norms were the reason a breast self-exam program for Muslim women several years ago took place before regular business hours and involved only female staff. The center agreed that no male employees would be on the premises.

"It all gets down to basic respect," said Christina Stevens, program director of the Fairfax County Community Health Care Network. "And it's better medicine."

Even for those on the receiving end of routine encounters, the experiences can be unsettling. Lubaba Mohammed, a young Ethiopian woman who lives in Prince George's County, was taken aback by the information she was asked during medical appointments. The doctors' manner seemed so forward, she said…

…An article last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association cited "the need for significant improvement" in physician training. It detailed a survey in which a quarter of more than 2,000 final-year medical residents said they were insufficiently prepared to deliver care to new immigrants or those with beliefs not in line with Western medicine.

"You make assumptions about patients based on how they look, how they speak, the clothes they have on, and, truth to tell, patients make assumptions, too," said Yolanda Haywood, an assistant dean at George Washington University medical school. In keeping with national accreditation standards passed in 2001, the school incorporates cultural questions into a required four-year course, the Practice of Medicine.

Dealing with varied backgrounds and beliefs takes time, which the pressures of managed care do not easily accommodate.

From the MSNBC article.
Also:
Newsweek article: "When Cultures Clash"
Stanford University film, "Hold Your Breath"

Pop Culture Gets Serious…Istanbulywood: Valley of the Wolves

2006-02-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

A Turkish TV show goes silver screen to become Middle East blockbuster. Starring Gary Busey and Billy Zane.

It is rabidly anti-American, and it is the biggest draw in town.

In one scene, trigger-happy US troops massacre civilians at a wedding party.

In another they firebomb a mosque during evening prayer. There are multiple summary executions.

And for the first time, the real-life abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison are played out on the big screen.

This film poisons the climate in a way that enhances jingoistic nationalism among Turks. Even the doctor - played by Gary Busey - is evil, removing human organs from Iraqi prisoners to send to patients in the US, Israel and Britain.

"Our film's a sort of political action," explains script-writer Bahadir Ozdener at the production company's stylish office on the Asian side of Istanbul.

"Maybe 60 or 70% of what happens on screen is factually true. Turkey and America are allies, but Turkey wants to say something to its friend. We want to say the bitter truth. We want to say that this is wrong."

In a mainly Muslim country that has enjoyed a long strategic partnership with the US, Valley of the Wolves has sparked intense interest.

The US ambassador to Ankara was quizzed for his reaction to the film on a major news channel; even Turkey's foreign minister has felt moved to comment on it. Both were anxious to appear conciliatory.

But the film clearly capitalises on a wave of anti-American feeling that peaked with the Sulaymaniyah controversy, but began to swell with preparation for the invasion of Iraq.

Middle East expert Cengiz Candar says the incident in Sulaymaniyah added deep insult to injury in Turkey, where there was already strong opposition to the war across the border.

Source: BBC article.

Other sites:

Valley of the Wolves official site.
Internet Movie DataBase entry.

Education as commodity

2006-02-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

"College education" is one of those concepts slathered in meanings, expectations, and symbolism. Today the breadth of degree choices are astounding; AAS, BS, BA, MA, MFA, MD, MSc, MA, MB, MBChB, PhD, DPhil…letters add prestige, assumptions, salary increases, career advancement, maybe a shot at an academic job.

Although awarding of degrees for higher education is an ancient practice dating back to the Greeks, the modern series of academic degrees as they are known today formed in the nineteenth century, a product of increasing specialization, standardized education, industrialization, scientific advancement, and economic expansion.

Wikipedia lists entries for higher education, undergraduate, graduate, PhD, and doctorate degrees. They also list an informative entry for higher education which includes this:

In most developed countries a high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enter higher education at some time in their lives. Higher education is therefore very important to national economies , both as a significant industry in its own right, and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy; it is often argued that in a modern economy the quantity and quality of such human capital is the most important factor underlying economic growth.

What was once a 'dedication to learning' has become a commodified cog of economic growth, at least in the United States. So its no wonder that with such high economic stakes, especially for individuals, a certain level of cheating has accelerated in the past decade.

David Edmondson, CEO of Radio Shack, could be called a poster-executive for this growing trend.

Claire Babrowski, RadioShack's recently installed acting CEO, may have found that her impressive curriculum vitae came in for closer scrutiny than usual when acceding to her new post. She's got David Edmondson, the former incumbent, to thank for that.

The revelation of Edmondson's resume as a cock-and-bull story--including claims of earning two college degrees for which the school he attended has no records--has led to his resignation, though Edmondson's brief statement Monday sidestepped the issue: "At this time the board and I have agreed that it is in the best interest of the company for new leadership to step forward so that our turnaround plan has the best possible chance to succeed, as I know it will," he said.

While Edmondson isn't the first to pull such a stunt, he certainly won't be the last. That senior officials and executives, public and private, risk their careers on faked diplomas is telling. The perception of holding an advanced degree can hypnotize normal skeptics into not checking records. The symbolic meaning of letters appearing after a name, or not, can also overshadow expectations and intellectual muscle. While it seems that Edmondson only acquired two semesters of undergrad ed, his co-executives seemed entranced and happy enough for several years with the CEO's performance. Sans a degree, Edmondson's illusion of attaining a college education seemed to work just fine as he functioned within Radio Shack's corporate structure.

Like the media, books, music, and movies, brick-and-mortar institutions of higher learning are facing disintermediation via online universities. Why stop your life to move to a university town and drudge away for 4-8 yrs for that piece of paper when you can log in after dinner and email your presentation before Niteline? Lectures on iTunes, "smart rooms" equipped with remote cameras for distance students…why collect tuition from 30 students when you can set up some cameras and collect on 300? Revenue beckons.

At the same time the perception of education has changed. As Edmondson and other recent cheats demonstrate, saying you have such-and-such degrees, including even diploma-milled PhDs, is all that's needed for advancement. No checks required. More alarming is that a degree-faker wouldn't be recognized for their lack of intellectual rigor as they perform their jobs, public or private. That the letters and fake diploma are enough to dupe many says much about the state of higher education, as well as the dream-state level of symbolic value these commodities are publicly perceived as.

But then, what if you're honest--snake your way through the system, spend years in the academic castle and achieve your PhD, DPhil? Does employment within the system await?…60 yrs ago the answer would be yes! Today its "NO". For every 3,000 PhD graduates there are only 800 academic jobs. What about leaving academia with an academic degree to pursue careers in private industry? This would be a great idea if not for academia's and the public's perception of the letters "PhD". Academics will dismiss you like chattle for "not cutting it" and private employers will equate the letters p-h-d with "too expensive" and "not relevant".

I personally know four PhD's who are considerably underemployed or unemployed. History major, anthropologist, special ed, and biologist…working as copywriters, insurance salespersons, etc. I'd considered a PhD myself, but after working with PhDs, and knowing others who cannot find employment in their fields, I considered the ROI not worth it [My measurement of ROI included income, but the clincher was quality of life. After all that work and expense, only 800 jobs per 3,000 students? Could I live with my doctoral-self working at Wal-Mart?] and instead happily pursued an MA with studies in applied areas for good measure.

So "get thee to a phd program" —as one commenter suggested— is quite a narrow, arrogant/slobsnoby point of view. PhD programs are terrific, if your life is set up for them, if you can live on learning alone, thirst for the public perception attached to it, or have an uncle whose a dean at your local U. Like any other subgroup, it has its limits, conformities, beliefs, prejudices, and baggage. It is not an intellectual halo. Any degree, any education, is really about what you do, or don't do, with it.

There are many accomplished professionals whose intelligence and innovative-thinking eclipse their meager college degrees. There are others who's natural talents are so profound they don't bother with college. Perception works in many ways. A person's perception of their own value is just as important, perhaps more important, than the value a culture assigns to them. Belief in self makes all the difference, and in an increasingly commodified higher education system it can be the factor that makes or breaks you as you wind your way through the hallowed, but somewhat dank, hallways of an academic education out into the sunlight of the real world.

Moderating Comments

2006-02-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

Just a note-to comment on Consumption you'll need to register. If you would like to provide spirited commentary, complaints, compliments, or just fun banter, I'd like to know who you are. Its only fair. Such is the case when I post to other blogs. This is not done to stifle comments, but only to allow for fair discussion.

This blog doesn't tow the old anthropology line. Its a place for "tales for a *modern* anthropology", a forum for interesting topics that can provide food for thought and discussion, and also dissension [which is defined as "disagreement among those expected to cooperate"].

The current state of the anthropology discipline puts great weight on expectations of peer cooperation, forced agreement, and plenty of barn-burnings and discrediting of those who find much to disagree with and choose to speak up. Anthropology in 2006 is not the healthiest of humanities disciplines. Most are aware of universities questioning their anthro department's relevance, cuts in funding, merging of anthro depts, and loss of prestige in the larger scientific community. The public face of anthropology also suffers as we are greatly misunderstood by the public, who are the ones behind much of public university funding.

While the occasional TV show projects us as modern-day Quincys or sitcom Jane Curtains, the majority of anthropology PR is non existent. We are Indiana Jones or shovel-wielding "bone-diggers" to most.

Although physical anth and archaeology are blooming, cultural anthropology is faltering. Applied anthropology continues to grow outside the core university culture in areas some consider less than "pure"--obscured from everything but the most peripheral anthropological vision.

The current state of cultural anthropology is ironic. If ever there was a time humanity needed anthropology's depth, it's now. But I don't hear anthropology. I hear sociology, poli sci, military strategists, pundits, and talking heads. Don't understand? Just google "War on Terror".

"Consumption" exists in every culture, past and present, but it is only the last century's globalization/westernization pressures that has raised it to a culture-crushing artform. Such culture change ripples affect everyone. The affects of globalization, new media, technology, and advertising cannot be ignored. My studies of these topics made me question the discipline's relevance in, and contribution to, the modern world. The ipodded, myspaced, information-overloaded world. I found research inroads there anemic. Thus, this blog--fun, unusual new media topics, tech, globalization, ads, and criticism of the current state of cultural anthropology.

If you're allergic to anything new, questioning outdated systems, or open mindedness, and feel your education and/or experience insulates you with know-it-all smugness, why are you here? You should get busy with your own blog.

If you're curious, open minded, and think creatively, you might find something here of interest. I encourage your comments whether you're an anthropologist or just play one on TV. I don't pretend to have answers, but I believe this new media tool can foster intelligent discourse and creative thinking. So enough on this…lets explore!

McLuhan and Carpenter: Mid-20th Century Collaboration

2006-02-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

Anthropological studies are unique in their lack of cross-disciplinary collaborations. Imagination, creative out-of-the-box thinking? No. Boring, tedious, self-absorbed studies that give sleeping pills competition.

Endless undergrad anthro courses, offered to fulfill multicultural requirements, focus on the usual overexposed cast of characters—Mead, Leakey, Goodall, etc.—great anthros of their time, but the icon parade just gets old. Uninspiring, somewhat removed from our budding ipodded, TiVoish 21st century lives. Potential 21st century Goodalls get turned off fast from the tedium…and lack of collaborations with other disciplines.

Other sciences thrive on collaboration. Sociologists constantly tune themselves into other fields and latch on, elucidating points of study that are current and relative to living now. Biology also has its collaboration stars, and reaped such hybrids as nanotech and omic studies. But anthropology continues its relevancy slide in university budgets because the discipline seems less and less congruent to practical 21st century application. Yanomamos and Masai make great PBS specials, but how does that relate to my car payments, job interview skills, or globalized economy?

Sure there were collaborations, grudgingly in some cases I suppose, but you never hear of them in undergrad or grad anthro classes. Perhaps the internet is changing that. Old school, embedded in stone anthros are losing their control over the focus of anthropology via the internet, possibly the best thing since sliced pita.

Hidden anthro information, long forgotten from study, comes forth to the light of day. Including interesting collaborations long buried by those who's lack of imagination launched a thousand snoozing students.

One of the most interesting anthropological collaborations that never gets discussed is between the anthropologist Edmund Carpenter and the media prophet, Marshall McLuhan. Who knew? McLuhan, father of media studies and 50 yrs ahead of his time, recognized anthropology as a useful tool towards furthering his analysis of media, and its lasting changes in the public zeitgeist.

Here's a link that discusses the Carpenter/McLuhan collaboration in detail, including quotes from their short-lived journal, Explorations in Communications. Apparently they became lifelong friends. Certainly a terrific example of the POTENTIALS collaboration has to offer the anthropological discipline.

Don't know much about Marshall? Here's some more Marshall Media:
McLuhan at Wikipedia.
Marshall's 'official' website.
20 min. mp3 soundclip of McLuhan on Dick Cavett in 1970.

Remember: the media IS the message :)

Chinatown

2006-01-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! On January 1st 2006 I decided to spend the day in New York City's Chinatown. Other cities have some version, I've been to Boston's and Montreal's, but east of the Mississipi, NYC's is perhaps the most comprehensive and interesting. One of many subculture outposts throughout New York.

Chinatown is one of the most visually interesting and diverse areas of NYC. I brought along a camera to document my adventure. Above is a shot of the subway stop at Canal and Lafayette Streets, on the edge of Chinatown. The next photo is the colorful visitor kiosk at Chinatown's entrance. Notice the chinese-style Western Union billboard behind it.

Consumer goods are modified to fit in with the local cultural context, including McDonalds.

Although the Chinese celebrate a new year, its not the same as the Times Square affair we're used to and not at the same time. Nevertheless there were tossed New Year's decorations and fragments of firecrackers all over the place, like this festive firehydrant.

Chinatown is next to Soho, which used to be a big time artist community, and is now home to a growning population of Baby Boomers, who in the search for eternal hipness, are slowly eliminating the artistic quirkiness of the place. However, I was still able to locate some unretouched graffiti, free from prepackaged hipness.

There's also ad graffiti, like this giant mural for the new Warriors PlayStaion game. "The Warriors" is of course, a late 70's movie which took place in a surreal version of NYC.

The streets are crammed with small shops selling everything from trinkets to food. Lots of food, and plenty of fish.

The fishmarkets of Chinatown are unbelievably cheap. If I had a cooler I'd have bought some to bring home.

Even the fishheads looked delicious in this cultural context.

I'm not a big fruit fan, but there's also plenty of sidewalk produce stands. These sell the usual assortment of fruit and vegetables, and also specialized Chinese favorites, like leeches, which a friend and frequent visitor to Chinatown made me try last summer. Leeches are strange looking, but quite delicious. Like a cross between grapes and plums.

All this street walking made me hungry, so I stopped in at my favorite restaurant, Hop Kee, on Mott Street for one of my favorite meals, Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. Although New Jersey has a Chinese Take Out on every corner, they don't serve this dish across the river. It looks plain, but was very tasty. Hop Kee also has other great meals like Crispy Duck, and my friend's favorite, Little Snails, which someone at the next table was eating. Yuck. Cuisine is an excellent transmitter of culture and Chinatown's assortment of food choices are some of the best on the Eastern Seaboard. Definitely not your neighborhood Chinese restaurant.

After dinner I perused the street vendors. Here's some little buddhas.

Items range from little plastic things to unique furniture and statues. Here's some big buddhas. They were atleast 5 ft tall.

Color can also transmit culture. Bright red is not only the color of communism, but I think red and gold also suggest the beauty and mystery of China. Here's some tassle wall hangers.

After this I made my way over to Little Italy for some real cappuccino [makes Starbucks taste like mud] and a canoli. Then it was back on the subway to Port Authority for the ride home. A nice way to start 2006. Happy New Year!

Computerized Visual Imagery

2005-12-30T11:56:00.000-08:00

Today computer animation [CGI] is pretty much taken for granted. Its overuse, especially in movie affects, have all but numbed viewers to this new medium. However, its not that long ago that CGI didn't exist, much less enable visualization of content and process no one had ever dreamed of.

My education in Graphic Arts introduced me to artistic usage of computers at an early age. But even before that, I'd interacted with them in junior high using a VIC120 with an attached cassette tape drive [before floppies], and again in high school, when I wrote simple programs to print my class papers using a Commodore 64 instead of the then standard typewriter. Computers in the 70s and early 80s were dull, lacked visual processing, and interaction consisted mostly of text inputting for program runs. Although I liked computers, they didn't exactly throttle my artistic imagination.

During those formittable years my most interesting computer experiences occurred at the local video arcade or at friend's houses playing Atari. Defender, Space Invaders, and Centipede were three of my most favorite games.

In college I used early IBM PS2 computers, Amigas, and an early form of CAD to digitally render art projects for classes. Those were the days before Mac, and the processin' was slow. Scanning input took place using pole-mounted CCD cameras, printing was prohibitively expensive, and most classwork was presented by photographs of screen images converted to slides. I still have some in my closet.

On the other hand, once I began working I was introduced to Magna, Novel Networks, PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, and the world of the visually intuitive Mac computer. During the 80s the Graphic Art industry underwent a chaotic disassembly and reorganization fueled by the promise of computer graphic art. Those were crazy times. Many Art Directors of the day couldn't conceive computers replacing their "art". These shortsighted individuals eventially lined unemployment offices everywhere. Those of us who realized computers could enhance and expand our profession embraced the new technology and began experimenting, applying, rethinking, and reinventing the profession. The Graphic Arts upheaval was a precursor to the disintermediation taking place now in music, publishing, and media, courtesy of the WWW.

I saw Tron, marvelling at this early CGI attempt. Although the movie 2001 contained wireframed computer images I was disappointed to find that when Kubric made the movie [1965-67] this technology didn't exist and he instead produced conventional analog animations that mimicked what he thought computers would render.

CGI became increasingly intermixed with our culture's visual experience during the 1980s. TV commercials embraced CGi to create eye-popping visuals and save time and money. This early exposure to CGI began fueling the public's expectations of computer graphics, pushing the leading CGI artists to their limits.

In the early 1990s, before Jurassic Park and Toy Story, I purchased 2 CGI VHS tapes:

I was blown away by these two 'movies'. The CGI clips came from leading animators across the field, there was nothing like these anywhere else at that time. There is also an earlier Mind's Eye produced in 1990. All three art available on Amazon as DVDs.

I wondered where the clips came from for these VHS tapes. I played them many, many times, totally obsessed with the lush colors, smooth animation, and mind-blowing images these computer artists created. And now, thanks to the web, I know why these were produced and by whom. Many of the movies used in the Mind's Eye videos are linked at a new site by OSU.

Ohio State University's website contains an indepth online history of computer graphics and animation, sitelink is here. A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation is a website designed to accompany Industrial, Interior and Visual Communications Design #797/Arts College 732, Winter 05.

The site is filled with intriguing still images, but what sets it apart from other histories is its use of Quicktime movies--video samples of even the earliest computer graphics--which more richly display CGI evolution than any words could explain.

I never knew there were serious attempts at analog computer animation, using vacuum tube computers as this image explains.

Among the most interesting sections are those dedicated to the computational complications encountered along the way.

One of the sessions I attended at the recent AAA meeting contained presentations by NASA and computer intelligence Anthropologists working on current problems. One of the presenters works at an AI thinktank and discussed the accomplishments of Craig Reynolds in the 1980s. I wanted to learn more. The Ohio State site discusses his AI work in great detail:

A variation of the particle system was used by Craig Reynolds to model the flocking and schooling behavior of birds and fish. In this particle system the particles are used to represent what Reynolds called "boids". In this case, each particle is an entire polygonal object rather than a graphical primitive, each particle has a local coordinate system, and there are a fixed number of particles that are not created or destroyed. The attributes which control the boids behavior is dependent on external as well as internal conditions, allowing a boid particle to react to what other particles are doing around it. Some characteristics of this system include:
. Collision avoidance - a boid is constrained from colliding with other boids or obstacles;
. Velocity matching - each boid attempts to go the same speed and direction as neighboring boids;
. Flock centering - each boid attempts to stay close to nearby flockmates.
According to Reynolds:
Typical computer animation models only the shape and physical properties of the characters, whereas behavioral or character-based animation seeks to model the behavior of the character. The goal is for such simulated characters to handle many of the details of their actions, and hence their motions. These behaviors include a whole range of activities from simple path planning to complex "emotional" interactions between characters. The construction of behavioral animation characters has attracted many researchers, but it is still a young field in which more work is needed.
Reynolds' 1986 computer model of coordinated animal motion was based on three dimensional computational geometry. The flocking model placed an individual "boid" in a flock, and determined the motion path using the steering behaviors that were based on the positions and velocities nearby flockmates:
. Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates
. Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates
. Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates
Each boid has direct access to the whole scene's geometric description, but it needs to react only to flockmates within a certain small neighborhood around itself. The neighborhood is characterized by a distance (measured from the center of the boid) and an angle, measured from the boid's direction of flight. Flockmates outside the local neighborhood are ignored.

Another topic this site goes into in great detail is the discovery of fractals and their contribution to CGI. The illustration above is a Mandelbrot fractal. Mandelbrot was a French mathematician who's imagination and foresight let to the computer visualization of fractals.

A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. Fractals are generally self-similar and independent of scale, that is they have similar properties at all levels of magnification or across all times. Just as the sphere is a concept that unites physical objects that can be described in terms of that shape, so fractals are a concept that unites plants, clouds, mountains, turbulence, and coastlines, that do not correspond to simple geometric shapes.

According to Mandelbrot,
"I coined fractal from the Latin adjective fractus. The corresponding Latin verb frangere means "to break" or to create irregular fragents. It is therefore sensible - and how appropriate for our needs - that, in addition to "fragmented" (as in fraction or refraction), fractus should also mean "irregular," both meanings being preserved in fragment." _(The Fractal Geometry of Nature, page 4.)

This website is a fascinating tour of CGI history not to be missed by anyone interested in modern visual imagery. Check it out. You may come away with a an expanded perspective and new appreciation of computer graphics. Again, sitelink is here.

Christmas Culture

2005-12-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Although ubiquitous, Christmas cards are nonetheless cultural artifacts. Christmas may come the same time every year, but each differs slightly depending on the cultural environment its 'wrapped' in. Each celebration is a snapshot in time, thus our "greetings" contain visual clues as to what's on our collective mind at that particular cultural moment.

Christmas is an emphatically visual cultural marker in western society. A cornucopia of iconic imagery packed with subjective meanings and mixed messages. This card, courtesy of the CCRKBA, is a not so subtle visual that includes not only classic meaning-dense imagery, but also current trends in an ensemble that may require a double-take upon viewing.

"…Santa Claus points a handgun at a masked terrorist on a Christmas card that John Michael Snyder, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, sends this year to a number of recipients.

Named Dean of gun lobbyists by The Washington Post and The New York Times, Snyder includes the president and members of Congress as addressees.

The card wishes recipients a Christmas of peace and joy and a New Year of triumph over terrorism.

The card presents Santa guarding a group of small children from a bomb-harnessed suicide killer. The bomber appears ready to cast a stick of dynamite at an image of the Infant Jesus beneath a decorated Christmas tree.

Snyder thinks the original drawing conveys a definitive holiday message in keeping with these difficult times…"

Quote taken from this Newswire press release which also offers a link to a larger version of the card.

Link to Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

(via J-Walk)

Tech Culture Elite

2005-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

David L. Margulius "From the Analyst"
column discusses PDA and tech attitudes among the educated elite:

A new Forrester Research survey of 1,300 doctors reports that four out of five doctors say technology "makes life easier." Although consumers as a whole are split evenly between technology optimists and pessimists, among doctors there are four technology optimists for every pessimist. And more than 70 percent of doctors said they think electronic medical records systems will help them provide better patient care and run more efficient practices.

According to the survey, doctors use IT systems constantly -- for evaluating treatment options, supporting diagnoses, getting lab results and medical records, and a host of other crucial tasks. So what gives? If doctors are so keen on IT, why do they have the reputation for being the most notorious, heels-dug-in Luddites? And why do we continue to portray them on TV as unplugged heroes -- have scalpel, will travel?

Two words: knowledge worker. "If egos were gravity," one health-care CIO recently said, "this hospital would be the largest black hole in the universe." Like consultants, accountants, lawyers, and even computer programmers, doctors are the top of the food chain of educated, can-do humanoids. Even in real life, they'll use IT systems, but the idea of letting someone else control those systems -- or of giving those systems much credit for their individual virtuoso performances -- is a nonstarter.

Russian Transcendent Square

2005-12-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

The gargantuan Novy Arbat thoroughfare was finished in 1967 as part of the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it has become lined with bright lights, giant advertising billboards and numerous casinos – a small, meretricious piece of Las Vegas in the heart of Moscow. Makarov’s building, like the three other “book” skyscrapers, has one side completely draped in a 24-story-high advertisement for the MTS mobile phone company, screaming out to passing motorists: “You’re the Best!”

Advertising is changing Russia's outdoor environment.

Kids, TV, and Obesity

2005-12-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

"We like to think that SpongeBob SquarePants and Shrek and the pretty little princesses are likable, kid-friendly characters, but they’re being used to manipulate vulnerable children to make unhealthy choices…"

While the research focused on TV advertising, the panel noted advertising is one facet of a marketing environment vastly different from the 1970s. It now includes Internet games, cartoon character endorsements, coupons and store events, product placement in supermarkets and organized word-of-mouth campaigns.

MSNBC story concerning recent ad research that suggest modern advertising environments contribute to the ongoing epidemic of childhood obesity.

blue ball capitalism

2005-11-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

an illustrated guide to capitalism.

Modern Anthropology

2005-11-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

Anthropology is dead. Long live Anthropology.