Well, is a tiger shark in formaldehyde art (Damien Hirst)? Is a cutting depicting a perfect nuclear family on a lesbian's back art? Is a urinal signed R. Mutt art (Marcel Duchamp)? Is getting shot by a 22-calibre rifle art (Chris Burden)? Are photographs and videos of spiting art (Brice Nauman - Human Fountain)? Is a canvas painted black art (many...)? Is a striptease art (Chamaine Weatley)? Is stalking random people art (Sophie Calle)?
One aspect that these excellent and accepted artworks possess is a level of intellectual questioning, observation and social relevance that provokes intense debate. The vast majority of video games are so commercial, regurgitated, thoughtless and over marketed that they simply don't function as very good art at all.
It seems to me that the issue of programming and game-theory as art was answered about fifty years ago. I think that the social position and function of art itself is a far more interesting problem. Let's face it, it takes some substantial effort to go to galleries and read fairly difficult texts that may challenge your own beliefs and sense of history.
And yes, I really do believe that that cheap reproduced picture of ducks in your folks condo bathroom is crap...
Thank-you for your kind comments... and indeed, the cowboys have certainly saddled up... Lets take a moment to reflect upon the magnitude of Tuesday's disgusting and deadly attacks... (by my record book)
Korea - millions killed.
Vietnam - millions killed.
Cambodia - hundreds of thousands killed.
Laos - hundreds of thousands killed.
Iraq - hundreds of thousands killed.
Guatemala - hundreds of thousands killed.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - hundreds of thousands killed.
East Timor - hundreds of thousands killed.
Nicaragua - tens of thousands killed.
El Salvador -tens of thousands killed.
Colombia - tens of thousands killed.
Dominican Republic - thousands killed.
Somalia - thousands killed.
Haiti - thousands killed.
Yugoslavia - thousands killed.
Panama -hundreds killed.
Is a single one of these individuals less important somehow than any single one of the 5000+ individuals massacred in Tuesdays remorsefull attacks? And if so, why, exactly? (...)
In the interests of peace, let me make these few humble suggestions...
How about developing sustainable green sources of power (wind, tidal, solar) to lighten our economic reliance on "tradition" infrastructures of non-renewable resources and their exporters?
How about considering a social design model that does not emphasis concentrated icons of power, wealth and military superiority and thus a ready target of great symbolic import. We have heard alot about how this is a "different type of enemy", how about a different method of internal governance aimed not at meeting radical terrorist demands, but at appeasing moderate (related) criticism of foreign economic and military interventions.
Deal with this disgusting and tragic loss of human life in the context of other international losses of human life (many as a direct result of US milary involvement) and accept that America is integrated into the fabric of the world community and the issues have become very complex indeed.
Avoid the subtextual disgusting racialist bias of contemporary media reporting on this and other events involving the middle east and acknowledge that the middle east is a very old and complicated society--much more so than Europe. Continuing to characterize these societies as "bronze age" and uncivilized serves only military interests.
Accept that a diplomatic policy of retaliation will be far healthier and sustainable in the long term and stop this insane, deporable talk of nukes and ww3 and groundwars. sigh.
What does it matter though. It would seem that the cowboys have already saddled up and left the OK coral while us moderate leftist intellectuals are still trying to analyze the situation and determine exactly what happened...
As for those who financed and provided the conceptual impedus and operational infrastructure for last Tuesday, lets put the UN and international courts into full motion. In my equation, war measures immediatly absolve countries of legal and peaceable solutions. Lets not forget that Clintons moderate policies kept this situation in check for eight or so years. The symbolic import of two generations of Bushes and their involvement in the middle east was as much of a target as the pentagon and twin trade towers were, I suspect.
The breaking point for peace-seeking dissent will come when americans and the foreign community recognize that more than 50,000 (a tenfold retaliation) civilians abroad have been killed. Give peace a chance, as it were...
This would be a bit difficult to enact as law actually. In general, new laws have to have at least the minimum burden of factual truth. Crack cocaine would have to be confirmed as a lethal agent. Unfortunately, the most toxic drugs around seems to be cigarettes and alcohol. So, until someone actually proves that these illegal substances kill...
A truly frightening observation. At the risk of sounding like a slobbering pomarx type, lets just say that there are very many types of knowledge/research activities that should not be based in the cultivation of purely economic assessment. Fine Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences/Theoretical Sciences anyoneÑsorry, thatÕs just not profitable inquiryÉ Not to mention the actually cost to business interests if we continue to cultivate (or even allow just to sit in the local library) political radicals and social revolutionaries who insist on being critical and thinking things beyond how to influence people and accrue wealth.
The damage is immeasurable in any attempt to mold them in this way. In Montreal, Canada now at a local University there is a newly renamed John Molson School of Business (John Molson was a famous brewer responsible for one of the biggest breweries in CanadaÑrather a good sort of fellow, really). The concise mixture of inebriates with the study of commerce and marketing is actually rather appropriate, wouldnÕt you say?
IÕm not so sure about that. It would be more accurate to say that this phase is more akin to the discovery of elemental particles. There is no real structural understanding (except linear and groupedÑa very trivial form of nomenclature) offered by this informationÑrather akin to the ÔgroupingÕ capabilities in biology. ItÕs somewhat like discovering the underlying 1s and 0s pattern that underlies an incredibly complex bit of code. However we havenÕt the slightest notion how to read itÑlet alone make any kind of prediction. There remains no real insight into the workings of the code. Nor is there any predictive modeling capacity. From the periodic table, an immense range of predictions are made available including structural understanding of virtually any type of reaction through increasing complexity of interaction. For the most part we have none of the lovely structural analysis and prescriptive/predictive insight made possible through the periodic table.
LetÕs not pat ourselves on the back just yet. On the other hand, at least the code is open source. This always seems to lead to greater insight and innovation.
yeah, this one is dead on. Its being carried on several newswires including space.com. & nasa (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/water_mars_001201.html) Im vaguely curious about it, myself. I suspect it has something to do w/ water errosion or something like that. I would like to see this post moderated up. The fact that nasa does not plan t carry it on their broadcast channel implies that its really not that significant however. They plan to cover some space-walk stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
hmmm...
Well, is a tiger shark in formaldehyde art (Damien Hirst)? Is a cutting depicting a perfect nuclear family on a lesbian's back art? Is a urinal signed R. Mutt art (Marcel Duchamp)? Is getting shot by a 22-calibre rifle art (Chris Burden)? Are photographs and videos of spiting art (Brice Nauman - Human Fountain)? Is a canvas painted black art (many...)? Is a striptease art (Chamaine Weatley)? Is stalking random people art (Sophie Calle)?
One aspect that these excellent and accepted artworks possess is a level of intellectual questioning, observation and social relevance that provokes intense debate. The vast majority of video games are so commercial, regurgitated, thoughtless and over marketed that they simply don't function as very good art at all.
It seems to me that the issue of programming and game-theory as art was answered about fifty years ago. I think that the social position and function of art itself is a far more interesting problem. Let's face it, it takes some substantial effort to go to galleries and read fairly difficult texts that may challenge your own beliefs and sense of history.
And yes, I really do believe that that cheap reproduced picture of ducks in your folks condo bathroom is crap...
Good art does not merely tickle.
Thank-you for your kind comments... and indeed, the cowboys have certainly saddled up... Lets take a moment to reflect upon the magnitude of Tuesday's disgusting and deadly attacks... (by my record book)
Korea - millions killed.
Vietnam - millions killed.
Cambodia - hundreds of thousands killed.
Laos - hundreds of thousands killed.
Iraq - hundreds of thousands killed.
Guatemala - hundreds of thousands killed.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - hundreds of thousands killed.
East Timor - hundreds of thousands killed.
Nicaragua - tens of thousands killed.
El Salvador -tens of thousands killed.
Colombia - tens of thousands killed.
Dominican Republic - thousands killed.
Somalia - thousands killed.
Haiti - thousands killed.
Yugoslavia - thousands killed.
Panama -hundreds killed.
Is a single one of these individuals less important somehow than any single one of the 5000+ individuals massacred in Tuesdays remorsefull attacks? And if so, why, exactly? (...)
In the interests of peace, let me make these few humble suggestions...
How about developing sustainable green sources of power (wind, tidal, solar) to lighten our economic reliance on "tradition" infrastructures of non-renewable resources and their exporters?
How about considering a social design model that does not emphasis concentrated icons of power, wealth and military superiority and thus a ready target of great symbolic import. We have heard alot about how this is a "different type of enemy", how about a different method of internal governance aimed not at meeting radical terrorist demands, but at appeasing moderate (related) criticism of foreign economic and military interventions.
Deal with this disgusting and tragic loss of human life in the context of other international losses of human life (many as a direct result of US milary involvement) and accept that America is integrated into the fabric of the world community and the issues have become very complex indeed.
Avoid the subtextual disgusting racialist bias of contemporary media reporting on this and other events involving the middle east and acknowledge that the middle east is a very old and complicated society--much more so than Europe. Continuing to characterize these societies as "bronze age" and uncivilized serves only military interests.
Accept that a diplomatic policy of retaliation will be far healthier and sustainable in the long term and stop this insane, deporable talk of nukes and ww3 and groundwars. sigh.
What does it matter though. It would seem that the cowboys have already saddled up and left the OK coral while us moderate leftist intellectuals are still trying to analyze the situation and determine exactly what happened...
As for those who financed and provided the conceptual impedus and operational infrastructure for last Tuesday, lets put the UN and international courts into full motion. In my equation, war measures immediatly absolve countries of legal and peaceable solutions. Lets not forget that Clintons moderate policies kept this situation in check for eight or so years. The symbolic import of two generations of Bushes and their involvement in the middle east was as much of a target as the pentagon and twin trade towers were, I suspect.
The breaking point for peace-seeking dissent will come when americans and the foreign community recognize that more than 50,000 (a tenfold retaliation) civilians abroad have been killed. Give peace a chance, as it were...
ahem... HIROSHIMA... ahem... cough, cough... NAGASAKI... cough... cough...
Fencing would be interesting, if they would just take those little plastic knobs off the ends of the rapiers...
please mod this down. way down. a simple check of the related link site contents should reveal the idiot mandate of this parasite.
This would be a bit difficult to enact as law actually. In general, new laws have to have at least the minimum burden of factual truth. Crack cocaine would have to be confirmed as a lethal agent. Unfortunately, the most toxic drugs around seems to be cigarettes and alcohol. So, until someone actually proves that these illegal substances kill...
A truly frightening observation. At the risk of sounding like a slobbering pomarx type, lets just say that there are very many types of knowledge/research activities that should not be based in the cultivation of purely economic assessment. Fine Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences/Theoretical Sciences anyoneÑsorry, thatÕs just not profitable inquiryÉ Not to mention the actually cost to business interests if we continue to cultivate (or even allow just to sit in the local library) political radicals and social revolutionaries who insist on being critical and thinking things beyond how to influence people and accrue wealth. The damage is immeasurable in any attempt to mold them in this way. In Montreal, Canada now at a local University there is a newly renamed John Molson School of Business (John Molson was a famous brewer responsible for one of the biggest breweries in CanadaÑrather a good sort of fellow, really). The concise mixture of inebriates with the study of commerce and marketing is actually rather appropriate, wouldnÕt you say?
IÕm not so sure about that. It would be more accurate to say that this phase is more akin to the discovery of elemental particles. There is no real structural understanding (except linear and groupedÑa very trivial form of nomenclature) offered by this informationÑrather akin to the ÔgroupingÕ capabilities in biology. ItÕs somewhat like discovering the underlying 1s and 0s pattern that underlies an incredibly complex bit of code. However we havenÕt the slightest notion how to read itÑlet alone make any kind of prediction. There remains no real insight into the workings of the code. Nor is there any predictive modeling capacity. From the periodic table, an immense range of predictions are made available including structural understanding of virtually any type of reaction through increasing complexity of interaction. For the most part we have none of the lovely structural analysis and prescriptive/predictive insight made possible through the periodic table. LetÕs not pat ourselves on the back just yet. On the other hand, at least the code is open source. This always seems to lead to greater insight and innovation.
yeah, this one is dead on. Its being carried on several newswires including space.com. & nasa (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem /water_mars_001201.html) Im vaguely curious about it, myself. I suspect it has something to do w/ water errosion or something like that. I would like to see this post moderated up. The fact that nasa does not plan t carry it on their broadcast channel implies that its really not that significant however. They plan to cover some space-walk stuff.