My favorites:

31) Aside from trying to communicate, don`t think of your readers when you create your comics. Please yourself and a few friends. Then hope for the best.

2) It can take years to find something to write about.

25) When starting out, try to get in print as quickly as possible. Seeing your work in print is tremendously educational. All your mistakes leap out. Educational, but painful. If you do strips (as opposed to longer stories) try your weekly papers first. Self-publish. Any way to get into print is good, including the web.

In the rgb2xyz series I transpose some images from 2D to 3D space according to RGB values for each pixel. The resulting images are unique and allow for new ways to see – or visualize – the information in the original content.

The algorithm used is very simple: the pixels in the original image are represented by spheres (in the same color as the corresponding pixel) in 3D space, positioned in x,y,z coordinates according to its color values r,g,b.

I chose four images with very distinctive nature, in order to explore as much as possible the qualities that would stand out in the proposed transformation. The original images are Mona Lisa (classic art), Andy’s Banana (a more stylized look), Mrs. Monroe (an iconic photograph) and Nature.

Mona Lisa
The rgb2xyz representation for Mona Lisa (here) reflects the predominance of brownish tones, and also a continuous volume. For comparison I also did some “planar” versions of the images, in 3D space but keeping the pixels original positions (here and here).

Andy‘s Banana
This transformation (here) resulted in an interesting triangular shape, since the image consists basically of three colors – yellow, white and black. In this case I also experimented making a “planar” version with the position in z axis determined by color intensity (here).

Mrs. Monroe
This photograph is very iconic, so in some ways it’s transformation (here) led to a similar result from to the previous image – it basically goes from red to white. But since it is a photography, the volume is more organic.

I also did a higher resolution version (here) – more detail here.

Nature
The resulting volume in this transformation is very big (here), reflecting the organic nature (and visual richness) of the original image, representing a forest.

In this transformation it is also more clear that there is a natural compression that happens to all the images, due to restrictions, limitations or simple bottle-necks in the process of capturing, scanning and digitally manipulating these images. Note that the entire volume has some “hard corners” which certainly are not “natural”.

Procedural Painting aplication made in 2007 to generate an image for a “digital art” contest. Click on the image above to see two images generated on the aplication.

If you’d like a Wallpaper, save the images in the corresponding links below:

• Procedural Painting 01: 1600×1200 | 1280×1024 | 1024×768
• Procedural Painting 02: 1600×1200 | 1280×1024 | 1024×768

Why should I pretend to stop drinking? For the children? Shit, they’re the reason I drink!

I know everything, that’s my problem. I’m too smart for this world (…) Clever, smart, driven pain. I’m always right.

I hate people who rationalize suffering. I hate people who have to have a reason for everything.

I’m a living Hell and I intend to keep my devil out.

I want to be dependent on drugs, alcohol, and sex again.

Excerpts from Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: Source Book of Artists Writings (1996), edited by Peter Selz and Kristine Stiles.

Artist’s website: karenfinley.com

It’s been a while since I lost my interest for adventure games. There are great titles in the genre, but I just got tired of the frustration of being locked in a room even though I have an axe in my inventory, or having to limit my dialogue to certain pre-defined options.

So I decided to wait for the next big evolution, something that would expand in a significant way the possibilities of interactions I had with these virtual worlds.

One of the biggest advances in the field of artificial intelligence applied to virtual characters can be found in Façade. Even though it’s not exactly a game, and despite having some problems and limitations, in Façade the characters talk and interact with each other and the player in a really “lifelike” way (well, not all the time, but still).

That’s why I was surprised to see Façade mentioned in this article (via Noah Wardrip-Fruin) about the new game by Quantic Dream, Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain made a good first impression awhile back, with the impressive “audition tape” video, but today we know it doesn’t bring anything really innovative to the gaming experience (as suggested by certain members of the hype-media).

At least in the mentioned article, the author makes the difference clear:

As a first step, Façade tried to solve this problem by replacing the parrot with something more like a brain-damaged human; Heavy Rain, by comparison, is probably the best-trained parrot in history

He even quotes Michael Mateas, one of Façade creators:

It’s not a problem that can be solved by budget (…) With Façade, there’s lot of ways we failed, it’s a hard problem. But at least we tried to take it on for real, instead of trying to find some trick around it. We hoped people would move on from that, and they haven’t.

If they are so different, then why make the association in the first place? Oh well…

The Resumer is an experimental audio project in which I try to “resume” a song, but keeping intact its beginning and end. I did two Beatles albums:

Resume of Beatles – White Album (2005) (6min total):

Resume of Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (2009) (1min 40s total):

Obs: experimental project with no comercial purposes.

I just read an article on WIRED about neuromarketing applied to cinema. Here are some excerpts (the highlights are mine):

The filmmakers will be able to track precisely which sequences/scenes excite, emotionally engage or lose the viewer’s interest based on what regions of the brain are activated. From that info a director can edit, re-shoot an actor’s bad performance, adjust a score, pump up visual effects and apply any other changes to improve or replace the least compelling scenes.

(…) This technology doesn’t brainwash anyone. A moviegoer’s brain will reveal their personal preferences, while creators will be able pay attention to those important details to produce better films and know how to effectively market them.

I consider neuroscience to be one of the most interesting fields of our time, but the practice suggested by this article bothers me.

If not “brainwashing” (although at a long term that is practically what it is), when the mind itself begins to determine the world around it the result seems to be some kind of mental short-circuit. It’s no surprise that this strategy would be adopted by the entertainment industry (whether we like it or not, neuromarketing exists for a while now, helping us identify our deepest needs).

I just hope that this kind of approach doesn’t turn out to be a common practice in art and culture. When I go to the movies the last thing I want to see is what I expect.

This month took place in São Paulo the pd~con09 (3rd International Convention for Puredata), in a series of activities and performances.

Quoted from their blog:

“The International Convention for Puredata (Pd) is a periodic event that started in 2004 and is the most important event of the community of developers and enthusiasts of Pd. The Pd is a programming language itself to the development of interactive applications, allowing the manipulation of data flow in real-time. “

Since I’ve been experimenting with Pd the last few weeks, I was curious to watch at least some of the presentations. I went last friday and saw some performances in the SESC auditorium (Paulista Av.).

The presentation that interested me most was Silent Construction by Jaime Oliver (Peru), because of the beautiful visuals and sound textures that the artist generated with the instrument. Click here to watch a video from one of his performances, including some “behind the scenes” footage from the inner workings of the algorithm used (unfortunately this is not the same performance I saw – the lighting was much cooler, all dark, with only one light source inside the drum).

I also enjoyed [kleine machine], digital poetry by a duo called HP Process (France), mixing sound, visuals and motion capture in some kind of hybrid narrative revolving around the image captured in real time of a woman in a red dress (which eventually ended up in the stage floor). They have audio and video in their myspace page here.

My only complaint about the performances was that the sound was too loud. I’m sure many people went home that night with damaged eardrums.

“Why are you conducting this interview?
I want to crystalize the daily situation of talking to myself. (…)
If you were alone in the world would you be an artist?
I am alone in the world. (…)
Are you nice to people?
No. I am accurate about my feelings.
Do you want to be wealthy?
Not any more.
Why?
Wealth is a profession.
Don’t you want to have wealth?
I want just enough to live and do my work without feeling that I have to give something away out of guilt or generosity.
What’s wrong with generosity?
It perpetuates a moneyed aristrocracy. (…)
Why don’t you drive?
I don’t trust my killer instincts.
Why do you want a megaphone, why reach millions?
I don’t want to reach millions but the equivalent of myself among those millions.”

Excerpts from “Another Autointerview” (1971) by Lucas Samaras, from the book “Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: Source Book of Artists Writings” (1996), edited by Peter Selz and Kristine Stiles (bold highlights not part of the original text).