Study Suggests Gaming Promotes Lucid Dreaming (Gamasutra):

… frequent video game players have more “lucid dreams” (in which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming) than non-gamers. Often, the dreamer can even manipulate the action or observe it in third-person, much like a video game.

And I always wondered, why my dreams were so real and everything - they are just influenced by the latest 3d technology.

The novel “White Collar” by Giacomo Patri (1940) gives an insight how the relationship between ‘brain and hand’ workers during crisis where regarded from a radical standpoint.

“White Collar is a novel in linocuts by Giacomo Patri portraying the injustices of workers during the Depression. There are 128 prints in this unique visualization of the daily life hardships of a middle class family through the 1930s.
Largely undiscovered, because the images of class struggle, unionization, and abortion were controversial for their time; Patri was forced to print and publish White Collar privately in limited numbers. Even now, the copies that survive are few and far between.”

The style of the graphics remind me somewhat of Drooker’s works. Or is it just the technique? Nevertheless, perspective and sharp contrast seem to make a great impression on me.

Via the Visual Resistance collective.

Twelve years ago the sequel to SimCity, a rather successful computer game, was introduced with an isometric view on a city, which was to be ‘managed’ by the player as the mayor. It was possible to put a building behind another, to rotate in 90° steps and to zoom in and out. SimCity 2000 had about 184 different Objects (buildings, powerplants, harbours…) and four types of transportation. Another great improvement was SVGA that gave more detail and more color to the city. Every standard object could take up as much space as 128×128 pixels. Well, back then this was good stuff.

A Polish group, called M-City, has taken this isometric architecture onto street level. As I have entered their site I was overwhelmed by their creativity and slickness. Until this point I just knew that it was possible to combine stencils, yet I didn’t know how far you could take the concept of constructing a large piece by joining ’several’ smaller parts. The people of M-City have done about 100 architectural objects so far and:

“Thanks to such a technique printing the stencil is much easier, moreover it allows printing a single fragment of the building. All of the buildings can be joined in multiple ways with author’s imagination as the only limit. It’s easy to customise the buildings by mixing the roofs and elevations - parts of different stencils. All of the objects have a brighter left face and a darker right face which adds them the depth and vividness. After the sketch is done it’s being enlarged to A2 format and laminated on both sides. The late guarantees long-term resilience of the stencil, proofing it against absorption of the paint. As the layers of the paint get too thick it’s easy to tear them down and use the stencil again (some of the stencils were used hundreds of times). Finally the stencil is being cut out.”

The image of the city - as it is presented by their stencil walls - is not necesserally a realistic one. Instead of depicting a nuclear powerplant and a police station (as in SimCity), the group sees the architecture of their cities as:

“… a promotion of groups of people who work together for society. These include independent media, charities, non-governmental organisations, off theatres etc. Most of the project realisations are on especially chosen walls and matching the historical or architectural context of the surroundings.”

Their site is very well-made, you can find tons of material like pictures, movies and texts on their work. Yet, the slickest thing of them all is the konstruktor, which enables you to create your own City with all the items that were employed in several Polish cities.

Btw, I have found this group via the visual resistance blog, which seems to be a good ressource, too.

All stencil images from http://www.m-city.org

(via) I have just come across some really good short video pieces that employ techniques of information vizualization: BEAUTY KIT, ITSU and CISH CASH (Real player required). They were created by members of a Paris-based community of artists called Pleix.

Of course, Royksopp’s Remind Me has set the standard quite high.

As I am wandering through all kind of types of social software I am checking out flickr these days, too. To sum it up, flickr is ’social galleries’ or something like this. It comes with a simple yet maybe not beautiful interface employing flash technology. Hey, take a look at my wonderful sample account. Yet, I don’t think I’d like to outsource my pictures to flickr. Something tells me.. “Wait! The end of the story has not been written yet. It might not be happy.” But before I know why I am told this, I keep testing it and thinking about social software.

While everybody is talking about ‘Solaris’, the operating system, being open- and out-sourced, the classic sci-fi novel, which goes by the same title, written by the Polish author Stanislaw Lem 1961 has been performed tonight in Nuremberg. Is it worth a visit?

Many things are happening right now in the realm of {blog, rss, xml, social software, etc}, which makes it a bit difficult to keep track of things. What brought me to this is the idea and technique of audiofied blogs which are popping up everywhere. They are called podcasts and take the blog idea into the dimension of sound. Instead of writing the blog entry it is spoken and published as a MP3-file. I am sure that RSS-readers will cover this feature pretty soon, so that listening to such a podcast will be as easy and straightforward as reading a blog. While I am neither interested in listening to personal yada-yada nor in creating such files, I am fond of thinking about how radio could relate to such a way of distribution. Listening to the newspaper is rather boring, since I could probably read faster/more efficient. Yet, conventional radio programs (mostly public or non-commercial) feature rich sets of journalistic and artistic formats that would be lost in txt. Just think of all the interviews, radio plays and features, that you have missed, since you weren’t listening to the radio.. I am aware that this whishful thinking applies to television, as well. Deutschlandfunk and Deutschland Radio, one of the most important public radio stations in Germany, have started experimenting with “Audio on Demand” and they seem to be quite successful, in terms of users. Even though they only put up a fraction of what is going on air, it is a really nice service.

Another thing that caught my ear while surfing the casts, is the way how music can be distributed and discussed via such channels. In Germany for example, de:bug, a magazin on music and technology, has been experimenting with podcasting in this respect. Their de:bug pod features many free tracks with some kind of description/discussion in a blog manner. Which brought me to wonderful electronic reggae-dub by a label called JAHTARI. So, if you ever wondered how digital laptop reggae would sound, get there and grab the freebies.

Today I have discovered Google Maps. I was quite suprised how snappy and seamless it works without employing a Java applet or Flash. It is quite cool. They seem to have invested great effort to make it work and look like this. Here is a well-written “insight article” that analyzes the techniques behind it. The future of web/browser-based applications and tools seem a little brighter .. in terms of technology.

I rarely take the local puplic transport, since I rather enjoy a ride with my bike. Yet, sometimes I have to leave great distances behind me, e.g. when I go to my parents, so I take tram and bus while reading the newspaper or watching out of the window - which is great. But today I had to experience again the warm, fuzzy feeling, which comes while being moved through my home town, getting destroyed by inspectors that are paid for asking passengers for their tickets. I made two trips, to and from my parents, and I was asked to show my valid ticket each time - from the same inspector. How can I be angry about it. It’s their job. This is how they feed their families. Oh well, rebel.

Until the local Rechenzentrum has tweaked the WiFi network to work with minority platforms, such as Linux or Mac, there is a simple trick to get your Apple *book online wirelessly - thanks to simonphi of the MacUserMD Forum, who found it.

Have a look at the small “How To”, so you can do it, too.