ARTBASE (2)
BIO
Jim Andrews does http://vispo.com . He is a poet-programmer and audio guy. His work explores the new media possibilities of poetry, and seeks to synthesize the poetical with other arts and media.
Re: Charles Simic: "The South: Down There on a Visit" (nyrb)
An interesting point about what would happen if people were to vote in their
economic self-interest. As I understand it, the problems people have with
voting for Nader are mainly two, aren't they: they would rather get rid of
Bush and this seems best accomplished by voting for Kerry; and although
people know Nader has a good record and is conscientious, they wonder if his
organization is large and capable enough to assume the responsibilities of
federal government. Is this right?
However, even when it wasn't so clear that Bush was such an appallingly bad
leader, Nader got relatively few votes. Is it the latter reason, above, that
made it so? A complex question, I realize.
By the way, concerning health care, I live in Canada where there is
'universal' health care. I have a cold in my chest and have a history of it
developing into pneumonia, so i went to the doctor today. i am dissatisfied
with my current doctor, so looked into getting another one. but in the area
where i live, there are no doctors taking new patients. i asked the doctor
at the walk-in-clinic why this is so. "Too many people out here," he said.
"Isn't it better said that there are too few doctors?" I think he may have
been seeking to avoid the adjective 'poor'; there are too many poor people
out here. He went on to say that the universities cut the enrollment some
years ago into medical training. That has changed since, but it takes ten
years to grow a doctor. Coupled with government cutbacks in health care, we
have a medical system that is creaking and groaning. But, even still, people
do have access to health care, although the standard is growing worse and
worse. When I lived in the USA for a few years, my employer covered it, and
dental too. I have never had such good medical care available to me. But I
was working and was making a good living. Many of my friends in the USA
weren't so lucky and I heard more than a few absolute horror stories that
resulted out of their lack of medical coverage. The horror stories you hear
in Canada tend to centre around waiting time for some important types of
procedures.
Concerning education, although it is 'expensive', states need to commit to
high public education standards. In the absence of high public education
standards, the population is prey to lying politicians like Bush and
cronies. We end up with "voters who enthusuastically cast their vote against
their self-interests, who care more about "family values," school prayer,
guns, abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution than about having
decent health care insurance and being paid a living wage," as Simic says.
They vote to support what they *have* been taught is important. We end up
with that very odd thing called 'totalitarian democracy'.
A friend from Beijing and I used to have arguments about China. He
maintained that the standard of education in China was so poor that people
understood nothing but the logic of harshly punitive justice, maintained
that in the absence of higher education standards, it was necessary to reign
in the population under the threat of brutality.
It isn't so much that education teaches people the difference between right
and wrong that they did not know before; though there are sociopaths, most
people know what justice is, know the difference between right and wrong;
instead, education provides more opportunity to make a better living; high
standards of education make for a populace that is better able to function
within society without recourse to thieving etc, though of course there are
also educated thieves. Also, higher standards of education imply wide
general awareness of standards of justice, wealth distribution,
cross-cultural moral and spiritual practices. The more we know about how
people around the world live and have lived, the less likely we are to
adhere to moral absolutes and think that we are the sole keepers of the true
and right way to live; also, the more we know about how other people around
the world live and have lived, the less likely we are to settle for
situations where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
So good education is something of a threat to bad governments. An educated
populace is not so easily fooled by propaganda.
ja
economic self-interest. As I understand it, the problems people have with
voting for Nader are mainly two, aren't they: they would rather get rid of
Bush and this seems best accomplished by voting for Kerry; and although
people know Nader has a good record and is conscientious, they wonder if his
organization is large and capable enough to assume the responsibilities of
federal government. Is this right?
However, even when it wasn't so clear that Bush was such an appallingly bad
leader, Nader got relatively few votes. Is it the latter reason, above, that
made it so? A complex question, I realize.
By the way, concerning health care, I live in Canada where there is
'universal' health care. I have a cold in my chest and have a history of it
developing into pneumonia, so i went to the doctor today. i am dissatisfied
with my current doctor, so looked into getting another one. but in the area
where i live, there are no doctors taking new patients. i asked the doctor
at the walk-in-clinic why this is so. "Too many people out here," he said.
"Isn't it better said that there are too few doctors?" I think he may have
been seeking to avoid the adjective 'poor'; there are too many poor people
out here. He went on to say that the universities cut the enrollment some
years ago into medical training. That has changed since, but it takes ten
years to grow a doctor. Coupled with government cutbacks in health care, we
have a medical system that is creaking and groaning. But, even still, people
do have access to health care, although the standard is growing worse and
worse. When I lived in the USA for a few years, my employer covered it, and
dental too. I have never had such good medical care available to me. But I
was working and was making a good living. Many of my friends in the USA
weren't so lucky and I heard more than a few absolute horror stories that
resulted out of their lack of medical coverage. The horror stories you hear
in Canada tend to centre around waiting time for some important types of
procedures.
Concerning education, although it is 'expensive', states need to commit to
high public education standards. In the absence of high public education
standards, the population is prey to lying politicians like Bush and
cronies. We end up with "voters who enthusuastically cast their vote against
their self-interests, who care more about "family values," school prayer,
guns, abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution than about having
decent health care insurance and being paid a living wage," as Simic says.
They vote to support what they *have* been taught is important. We end up
with that very odd thing called 'totalitarian democracy'.
A friend from Beijing and I used to have arguments about China. He
maintained that the standard of education in China was so poor that people
understood nothing but the logic of harshly punitive justice, maintained
that in the absence of higher education standards, it was necessary to reign
in the population under the threat of brutality.
It isn't so much that education teaches people the difference between right
and wrong that they did not know before; though there are sociopaths, most
people know what justice is, know the difference between right and wrong;
instead, education provides more opportunity to make a better living; high
standards of education make for a populace that is better able to function
within society without recourse to thieving etc, though of course there are
also educated thieves. Also, higher standards of education imply wide
general awareness of standards of justice, wealth distribution,
cross-cultural moral and spiritual practices. The more we know about how
people around the world live and have lived, the less likely we are to
adhere to moral absolutes and think that we are the sole keepers of the true
and right way to live; also, the more we know about how other people around
the world live and have lived, the less likely we are to settle for
situations where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
So good education is something of a threat to bad governments. An educated
populace is not so easily fooled by propaganda.
ja
Charles Simic: "The South: Down There on a Visit" (nyrb)
Don't know if anybody read the piece by poet Charles Simic called "The
South: Down There on a Visit" in the Aug 12/2004 issue of The New York
Review of Books. I would be interested to hear what people thought of it. An
excerpt:
"The lack of compassion for the less fortunate is also to be found in New
Hampshire, where I live. Our politicians are as heartless as the ones in
Mississippi and see themselves, despite their assurances otherwise, as being
elected primarily to serve the well-to-do. Let the fittest survive is their
attitude. However, they don't invoke God as they go about ensuring that the
poor stay poor. As for the losers, both in the South and in the North, their
outrage is not directed against the politicians. This is one of the great
puzzles of recent American politics: voters who enthusuastically cast their
vote against their self-interests, who care more about "family values,"
school prayer, guns, abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution
than about having decent health care insurance and being paid a living wage.
They squabble, as they did in Alabama recently, over whether the Ten
Commandments ought to be posted in a courthouse while the education of their
children continues to be underfunded and their overcrowded public schools
are violent and dangerous places."
ja
South: Down There on a Visit" in the Aug 12/2004 issue of The New York
Review of Books. I would be interested to hear what people thought of it. An
excerpt:
"The lack of compassion for the less fortunate is also to be found in New
Hampshire, where I live. Our politicians are as heartless as the ones in
Mississippi and see themselves, despite their assurances otherwise, as being
elected primarily to serve the well-to-do. Let the fittest survive is their
attitude. However, they don't invoke God as they go about ensuring that the
poor stay poor. As for the losers, both in the South and in the North, their
outrage is not directed against the politicians. This is one of the great
puzzles of recent American politics: voters who enthusuastically cast their
vote against their self-interests, who care more about "family values,"
school prayer, guns, abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution
than about having decent health care insurance and being paid a living wage.
They squabble, as they did in Alabama recently, over whether the Ten
Commandments ought to be posted in a courthouse while the education of their
children continues to be underfunded and their overcrowded public schools
are violent and dangerous places."
ja
Re: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thanks for clearing that up, Bjorn.
ja
> OK, summarized the discussion is -
> -Grethe is bored, though she sees a point in the material/immaterial of
> physical and digital art practice, and refers to Luther Blisset's
> actions.
> -Tore sees the value in culturejamming the media hype.
> -Jens questions art's status in media society.
> -I agree it's done in boredom as a response to media's boredom, yawning
> together as a group practice :) Then our dialogue. And lastly, I state
> that if anybody wants the case solved quickly and the paintings returned
> to public space, they should deposit 1,4 mill. kroners into my account,
> else I can't guarantee what will happen to them.
>
> That's what I found out so far, the unreality of it, coinciding with the
> art part - artist's should make good use of the unreality given to them
> so generously.
>
> Bjorn
ja
> OK, summarized the discussion is -
> -Grethe is bored, though she sees a point in the material/immaterial of
> physical and digital art practice, and refers to Luther Blisset's
> actions.
> -Tore sees the value in culturejamming the media hype.
> -Jens questions art's status in media society.
> -I agree it's done in boredom as a response to media's boredom, yawning
> together as a group practice :) Then our dialogue. And lastly, I state
> that if anybody wants the case solved quickly and the paintings returned
> to public space, they should deposit 1,4 mill. kroners into my account,
> else I can't guarantee what will happen to them.
>
> That's what I found out so far, the unreality of it, coinciding with the
> art part - artist's should make good use of the unreality given to them
> so generously.
>
> Bjorn
Re: music online
have been enjoying the mp3s in this thread, thanks much.
just a note on linking to mp3's. most people are linking directly to the mp3
file, which is fine but you have to wait for the whole thing to download
before you hear it, which is a bit of a pain.
there is a way around that, at least for some browsers and some fast
connections.
suppose you want to link to http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
create a text file that just has one line of text:
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
save the text file as mymp3.M3U
instead of linking, in the html page, to http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3 ,
link to http://whatever.net/mymp3.M3U
upload your html file, the mp3, and the M3U file.
then when you click on the link, the mp3 should start up more or less
immediately.
actually, you would want to supply two links on the html page. one to
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3 , and one to http://whatever.net/mymp3.m3u .
because the M3U link will not work for some people with old browsers (not
sure if it works in mac browsers, either) or if they have a slow connection
and the mp3 exceeds the bitrate of their connection.
you can see the approach i've taken with this at http://vispo.com/audio .
the 'hi fi stream' link is to an M3U. the 'low fi stream' is to a low-res
Real Audio version. the 'right click to download mp3' link is directly to
the mp3.
also, i'm under the impression that M3U files can contain multiple lines of
text, ie, multiple links to different mp3 files, and this will form a
playlist, ie, the songs will play one after another.
as in
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
http://whatever.net/myothermp3.mp3
http://whatever.net/anotherone.mp3
M3U files can get rid of a great deal of wait time for some people wanting
to listen to your mp3's.
ja
just a note on linking to mp3's. most people are linking directly to the mp3
file, which is fine but you have to wait for the whole thing to download
before you hear it, which is a bit of a pain.
there is a way around that, at least for some browsers and some fast
connections.
suppose you want to link to http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
create a text file that just has one line of text:
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
save the text file as mymp3.M3U
instead of linking, in the html page, to http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3 ,
link to http://whatever.net/mymp3.M3U
upload your html file, the mp3, and the M3U file.
then when you click on the link, the mp3 should start up more or less
immediately.
actually, you would want to supply two links on the html page. one to
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3 , and one to http://whatever.net/mymp3.m3u .
because the M3U link will not work for some people with old browsers (not
sure if it works in mac browsers, either) or if they have a slow connection
and the mp3 exceeds the bitrate of their connection.
you can see the approach i've taken with this at http://vispo.com/audio .
the 'hi fi stream' link is to an M3U. the 'low fi stream' is to a low-res
Real Audio version. the 'right click to download mp3' link is directly to
the mp3.
also, i'm under the impression that M3U files can contain multiple lines of
text, ie, multiple links to different mp3 files, and this will form a
playlist, ie, the songs will play one after another.
as in
http://whatever.net/mymp3.mp3
http://whatever.net/myothermp3.mp3
http://whatever.net/anotherone.mp3
M3U files can get rid of a great deal of wait time for some people wanting
to listen to your mp3's.
ja
for director developers
http://vispo.com/lingo/Cnr.htm is a script i wrote for director developers.
C(n,r) calculates the number of combinations of n things taken r at a time.
C(n,r) = n! / ((n-r)!r!) = n(n-1)(n-2)...(n-r+1) / r!
P(n,r) calculates the number of permutations of n things taken r at a time.
P(n,r) = n! / (n-r)! = n(n-1)(n-2)...(n-r+1)
nFactorial(n) calculates n!.
n!=n(n-1)(n-2)...1
These functions are sometimes useful in working with combinatoria.
ja
C(n,r) calculates the number of combinations of n things taken r at a time.
C(n,r) = n! / ((n-r)!r!) = n(n-1)(n-2)...(n-r+1) / r!
P(n,r) calculates the number of permutations of n things taken r at a time.
P(n,r) = n! / (n-r)! = n(n-1)(n-2)...(n-r+1)
nFactorial(n) calculates n!.
n!=n(n-1)(n-2)...1
These functions are sometimes useful in working with combinatoria.
ja