And Finally:

Please find my finished website here...

http://www.wix.com/nicolaballingall/nic-on-the-net

Enjoy!

Light bulb....

At the beginning my story was about displacement: how people move and how I move where I could be in that moment (Ann Arbor for the moment), but I ended up discovering that this was more than that. Since I arrived to this city weird things have happened to me.. good weird things... so the gathering of elements to build my story turned out becoming a whole new story. Started to take my camera everywhere, and to take video and pictures of all of those things that had important mean in my stay here... then I wanted to tell how those things I care about and that call my attention affect me in somehow: like translating sound to color or being extremely sensitive to colors. After making a mental list of all those things, I realized that I was gathering all of my IMPUTS.... understanding IMPUT as the object-situation-action that enters a system and activates an action-process... that's exactly the word I was looking for. Through this story I found out more than what I wanted to tell, realized a process more than result and even more that I collected all of the most significant things for me in AA.
I could explain the whole story here... but you better go to the source: www.forkedjourney.blogspot.com

Provecho!

This past weekend I made cinnamon buns for breakfast before the big chill hockey game. Mostly I made them for my friends since I can't have sugar unless it is from fruit. I was feeling brave and I really wanted to eat one (they had orange zest frosting which is super delicious.) YUMMY. Knowing that my day would suck if I ended up getting a migraine from the sugar, I had a cinnamon bun anyway! Surprisingly I didn't have a migraine, just a small headache instead which was fabulous. It turned out to be a great day & I was so happy to have had a cinnamon bun- it's been a while. (We also made an egg sausage bake. It was so good.) This all is relevant to my multimedia story, sort of =)

Obligatory Post :)

I kind've froze up and babbled during my presentation so If anything about it sounded interesting I have long thought out meaty paragraphs on my project blog explaining stuff [4llm1x3dup.blogspot.com], which this post is taken from. I didn't include the images here because I've been having issues trying to resize images to fit in the blog nicely. Anyway here's some of my thoughts.

Over the summer a friend of mine kept mentioning the fact that within 50 years or so we will have computers capable of running realistic simulations of reality complete with artifical consciousnesses. I tid-bit I forgot about until We started talkign about the multiplication jars.

The jar has a whole world inside of it and within that world more jars exist with more worlds and so on... Christopher Nolan probably read this book as a child because that shoulds kinda like 'Inception' only instead of worlds within jars, its dreams within dreams.

Now as every critic and haughty hipster I know pointed out: Inception is kinda like 'The Matrix', which is kinda like 'Dark City', which is a totally ripped off from Plato's 'Allegory Of The Cave.' In any case I thought about what if I combined all three of these movies premises into one.

Simulated 'realities' like The Matrix, Layers of 'reality' like 'Inception' and 'Aliens studying us by manipulating 'realities'. So I arrived at the idea that If we build a simulation to study people and the people in that simulation build a simulation, what happens?

I started researching the theory Shane had mentioned in the summer and found out about 'Simulism'. Essentially the argument is: If it is possible to build reality simulators with autonomous intelligent digital beings inside one of these three things must be true.

1. Species are wiped out before reaching the level of intelligence and technology to build such simulations.

2. Species with the capacity to build such simulations don't choose to build them.

3. We're probably living in a computer simulation.

So once again I decided to pursue 'All of the above'. Option two could never be true on its own because of the whole Pandora's box argument. Option one is too absolute to occur naturally, so there would have to be some consciousness causing that to occur.

So I decided that the situation would be:

Simulation B is running Simulation A, and is actively trying to prevent Simulation A from creating a Simulation A'. Thus fulfilling rule 2. But somewhere up the hierarchy of simulations, lets call this layer X, a rule was made that effected all subsequent simulations: If a simulation runs a simulation of itself both worlds would be destroyed.

From there I plugged in my story. The strange Zolo being was to be some kind of avatar for the beings running Simulation A to interact with it and thus change things.

Other things I considered was the connection between the computer/machine running the simulation and the simulation itself. Such as what if the program glitched how would this effect the simulation? If too many simulations were run at once would there be problems, would the realities warp together briefly? Ultimately I decided this distance would be expressed two ways: Anachronisms/out of place objects resulting as a glitch would appear in scenes, and that Zolo could only appear in simulation A and not A' because it would be too difficult to invade one simulation and then invade another within it.

memory

my dear shroo.

don’t rely on talking to me for courage (though i’m ALWAYS here to provide it!) you must build your strength up! i feel as much as i’m dispensing advice, from old experiences, i hurt very much too. and it’s nice to know that no matter how much strength you have in you, sometimes you must be weak and have a support system. and you have me for that. always. you are doing wonderful things for yourself and there’s SO much i admire in you! i have no list. i try. but i go wandering away with life. i’m trying to stock my mind with things of the world around me to create a travelogue- but i have committed my life and blood to working VERY hard in school and i haven’t had a spare minute in weeks. the hassle of getting through certain days wears me out most often and the pain has become a part of the struggle. whether the struggle reflects in my work or no, i can’t tell. but it reflects in me, my being, my body language. and i know people can tell. its both alone and lonely sometimes. and i think of my thoughts. and i’m stuck in my head sometimes. that’s become the latest struggle. sometimes i can’t identify myself when i look for an escape. but i am looking for one now. every minute. currently a friend and me are talking. just talking. it has released me in wonderful ways.

its been a long and frustrating time for many reasons. after a point my work was stagnant and i lost all interest. but its reaching an end now. will try and send you a picture of what i created! im hoping all of this will add value to what i do when i come back. its adding value to me and thats important! but i feel like i’m living in a bubble here. and im scared to come back shroo! very scared. i feel like i can't not do everything i’ve been doing here for 3 months! i cant get back to that kind of life, work and the negativity. not thinking about it too much anymore. but it rises in me from time to time. its much colder here now and sometimes the weather has COMPLETE control over my emotions.

more soon.

xoxox
me

The Mostly Wonderful Story Status of Universes: a Limited Fork Theory observation of an amazing interactive impulse so far unstoppable, unflappable, unrelenting, undeniable

Not only because of the approach of Thanksgiving and its mandate (as practiced in my family) to reflect on some form of blessing, preferably neglected forms, but also because I'm, well, usually fork-ready do I think about: The Mostly Wonderful Story Status of Universes: a Limited Fork Theory observation of an amazing interactive impulse so far unstoppable, unflappable, unrelenting, undeniable

(images of fork-ready forkergirl by Ansted of kna'Knox)


fork-ready: prepared through a bifurcating, connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting (on some scale, in some location, for some duration of time) tine system (perhaps even a single tine that in its looping and twisting and coiling and curling and thinning and thickening and spiraling and loss and gain or color, etc. seems a mass of many tines instead of an endless single) —even though the many, if that is the case, may have sprouted from a single origin: connected at/to the root system, perhaps forming the root system by bifurcating from an original point, some sort of bursting in every direction, in fact bursting and simultaneously establishing direction, space, time, the remarkable;

prepared for the reaching out, the reaching toward and the reaching for that I like assigning to roots and branches as indication of compulsion to seek something with which to connect, as indication of ability to seek something with which to connect, as indication of need to seek something with which to connect —the very definition of fork. Dare I say as revelatory of design? made to reach, seek, connect? A self-designed existence for which existence is existence's engine? —a whole lot of power that came from where? why? how? Or maybe it was already always there: unbounded, infinite location in which sleepy stuff drifted around, bumping into each other and aggregating into something more robust, more volatile, and then poof! a cycle of existence ignites, spreads, is still spreading, existence riding shockwaves of its own existence —till one day it fizzles? stuff goes back to sleep, drifts, collides, aggregates, explodes.

My favorite branch is the one posted here, a digital copy of what I photographed in 2006 on Miller Road, a branch well-involved with reaching, curving, heading for spiral, partial lung outline, almost half a valentine, more heart when the branch mirrors into valentine fulfillment, the eye/mind/digital manipulation extending/fixing the curve for love of that.


View Larger Map

The branch arced almost completely across the street, from even to odd side. I drove under it twice a week day, as under a wooden arm of rainbow, wooden arch, shrine, colossal matchstick. I had thought to take one of its leaves, without working out how I might climb it, what it would be like to hang from it over moderate residential traffic, or determining whether or not the branch I loved could support my weight plus the added bulk of adoration, but I didn't act soon enough; that branch is gone now, a curl of smoke up and out a chimney (announcing the death by licensed axe-murderer of the wooden Pope of Miller Road) the same year that I photographed it as I approached it in my car. There was no city-wide mourning of the almost-half-heart limited fork branch. No obituary in the print news that soon enough published its own obituary, joining the death of one of the best independent book stores ever, the massive wooden doors transplanted to Shaman Drum from lesser castles.


(fork usually seen tines-up with knife on ShirtiGator red knife and fork apron, black knife and fork apron, and underwear)
At ShirtiGator, forks tell parts of their story, and as clones, they tell other parts of their story here. The telling is an unfolding of information; anything that exists exists as information and as the story system of that information.



I join fork theory at a point where a fork already exists, where a forking system is already active: bifurcations in progress, accustomed to unfolding, yet there's room for me within the accommodating system, and room for the forking within my evolving sensibilities. The limited forking system and I adapt to each other, and my identity is reforged: forkergirl emerges. Reborn daughter of a fork, reborn mother of a fork.
Love at first awareness of encounter.

I lost the ability to form any contexts that a limited fork did not inform. I terminated old loyalties, even those from which I'd benefitted. The whole fork (within the limits) and nothing but the fork. Live by the fork, for the fork: the tines that bind also blind. I'm lovin' the fastness of the reconfiguration of food: when the tines are bare, turns out that the utensil itself has a taste. Assessments of information are filtered through Limited Fork Theory, connection after connection in an incredible anthology of encounter. In the evidence of encounter, the information of encounter are the stories of encounter. Time is also the story of time. Space is also the story of space. The fork-constant keeps forking; the fork constantly forks. Assessments are therefore made within a limited or compromised context of, as far as Limited Fork Theory knows, fork perpetuity.

Ever since there's been a limited fork system, the fork has been constant, existing in some form on some scale in some location. That it adapts as it receive (and transmits) information (stories); that it is configurable helps it succeed, helps it persist, form after form, iteration after iteration, story after story.

Mysteries of beginning have no consequence that threatens the fork, for solving those mysteries or not solving them does not terminate the fork's existence. All possible beginnings lead to a lead fork, bifurcate into a limited fork, because the fork exists already, is already an interim destination of all genesises. Any speculation, hypothesis, or ultimately proof about genesis must somehow lead to emergence of a limited fork system, a system that only from time to time distresses over a lack definitive reason for its existence —maybe that's why it works so hard to reach for, to reach toward, eventually, everything, collaborating in manufactured purpose. Could it be that the complete story of anything is also the story of everything?



Seeking connection, making connection, toward a moment in which everything has become temporarily connected with everything, a kind of filling in of those gaps between things, as if once all connected, that tine, that string could be pulled returning stuff to a compact state, perhaps a dense ball becoming increasing more dense the tighter the string is pulled by a gravity of self-embrace into a tiny speck of infinite density, a seed for another cycle of universes as a tendril leaks and the whole thing comes undone, an infinite unraveling until stuff grabs onto stuff and pulls everything together again until another leak. Above, the Ganges as captured in a NASA satellite image bifurcates, flows, connects with (with a little help from forkergirl and their shared ambition) two Twisted Fork Bistro logos, the convergence telling a story of convergence, accommodation, access, connection.

The Ganges-Twisted Fork Bistro poam.

River and logo side-by-side, a bit of Ganges and a taste of Vancouver bathing in the river, forking up water that washes the twisted tines, that flows between them, that falls, having touched tines back into the river, back into the water cycle, back into recycling bits of reconfigured existence:


At the top, a bit of silver-plated Ganges captured just after it came out of forkergirl's mouth as the words silver-plated Ganges came out of the mouth that tasted them with teeth, tongue, lips, mind, heart: a moment of giving Thanks.




(A Veal Surprise Shatters A Family's Turkey Day
by JEFFERY RUDELL from npr)


To exist is to be a form of story.

We are immersed in chapters, we contain chapters, and we are chapters.

Some of us experience the poetry of this, are aware of the lovely and tragic poetry of this, burden of metaphor, information able to be expressed as other information, the loveliness and tragedies of configurability, everything is the poetry of this terrible and wondrous, the powerful and humbling intrusion of connection, the collaborative nature of all things telling a story against singular possession and individual achievement, a story of embrace that as it widens on all scales in all locations during all moments of time snares everything (at least once), possesses all (on some scale in some location for some duration of time), achieves.

Experiments and Plans:

I have at last found a method of animation that works for me! I have tried drawing with chalk on brick walls, scribbling felt tips on mirrors, I even used the drawing pad in Motion...

I have taken a series of 150 photographs of a painting developing from a blank page to pencil, charcoal, and finally oil paint. I was trying to create a portrait in a way to show how it takes time to truly get to know a person, and I am finally happy with this outcome.

My original story was an animation of The Traveler's journal opening and gradually coming to life. I now think it would looks very disjointed to combine all the experiments I mentioned earlier. They should remain separate, as mini stories.

I am now trying to find a way to reconnect with those we care about in our home countries through art, possibly by sending images in the post around the world...

wall post

Two from Fier on Vimeo.

Waiting...

I am currently at a stage in my process where most of my time is spent waiting....

I mailed out my booklets to my brother and sister, and have yet to receive them back. They should arrive this week.

This is what I am waiting for, with the addition of their handwritten answers:












More to come...

Mari.Noelle

Rules & Obstructions of PREPAREDNESS OF MOMENTS

In Limited Fork Theory, the moments are always ready.

The moment of enactment, of idea taking shape, not out of nothing, but out of some energy and substance available to become the electrical and chemical activity of thought. Both the mechanisms and what powers the mechanisms of thought are available. A moment is ready to become tethered to an idea, to become part of the birth stamp of idea. A peculiar —and I think, marvelous— enlargement


—time need not be physically stressed to accommodate moments in which idea is born. Time is apparently flexible. A moment opens, not necessarily as a slit, but in all directions and on all scales necessary for what will occupy the opening (which could also take the form of a swelling or bubble or other distortion without causing time to stop functioning). Occurrence may be experienced sequentially, but the line of sequence may take on any shape, may twist, curl, spiral, loop, fold, coil, and so forth, or may be, on some scale[s] of encounter, apparently straight. So the idea system may change shape, may be configured and reconfigured and still be supported by the time and space that host it, the configurable time and the configurable space that host it. The idea system's movement and growth are unrestricted within what is possible for movement and growth of idea systems. (image of neuron response to an electrical signal from Contemplating Thought by Susan Gaidos at Science News for Kids)

Brain need not be physically stressed in order to accommodate idea systems and their possible associated infinities. But there is expansion occurring. An emerging idea system contributes to there being more in the mind than before the emergence. The idea system itself may grow, may lead to subsystems capable of as much or even more growth than any of its source systems. And there is room for the expansion, always room for expansion. I have not had to evict an idea system in order to make room for another. When inactive, it is as if the idea system is compressed for better storage, but when necessary, it may unfold, and have space for that unfolding, the size of my head apparently constant. The hat I wore before an idea system emerges sill fits after emergence. In the mind there are many universes. Compressed universes. And both electrical and chemical keys and locks to these kingdoms.

(image of linked neurons from Contemplating Thought by Susan Gaidos at Science News for Kids)

The time and space in which thought occurs is available —the idea system will fit into the existing brain, the forms of enlargement and expansion the idea system require apparently not enlarging the brain's physical dimensions, at least not in an easily measurable way. There are bursts of electrical and chemical activity when idea systems are born—sometimes twin idea systems, triplets, or more. Explosions perhaps similar to fireworks: flowering idea systems. Luminous flowerings. Lightning, of course, as idea trails. I would love for my hair to respond to these flowerings, a glow traveling from the roots to the ends of the hair, maybe even splitting those ends more. I would like this at least once. I am thinking of this light, and it is a radiant happening in my mind. And in the mind of a mermaid I imagine thinking while submerged in water, her glowing hair like other glowing tentacles in the ocean. She comes out of the sea as if her head's on fire, strands of hair like streaks of sunset, intensified by dust and debris light filters.

Maybe I'm too easily impressed, wowed too much by existence itself —the existence of anything— but I'm taken with the wow of how there's room for an idea when the idea emerges. No pinch or squeeze in my experience. Within what exists, an access point appears to, for instance, a tube-like structure where a universe may grow, attached to a facet of a universe that itself may be attached to a facet of yet another universe or system of existence with complex geometry.

Space and time are able to accommodate the idea system, no matter how elaborate the growth of the world of that thought system. A new reality may emerge without displacing realities already active; in fact, the thinker may easily navigate to other idea system realities. The electrical and chemical streams will flow (unless damaged —in some cases, perhaps damaged on some scale in some location by aspects of the flow of the erupting idea system). Forms of displacement (including forms of distortion) can and do occur, but are not necessary, may not the norm; in most cases, a new reality of thought emerges in the brain without apparently altering space and time although space and time were full before the arrival of the idea system that prior to arrival apparently had no existence.


The moments are available, moment systems: moment and the tethered context of moment, the where of when, the when of where, for instance. The moment system comes in stereo, is quadrophonic, has dimensions of being, complex geometry. The possibilities of moments are arranged in all possible arrangements, fulfillment occurring when a path is selected, followed. A ideas emerges in a moment and fixes that moment to its emergence, produces a general definition further defined by subsequent choices and behavior along the path of emergence. Now are choices limited to the shaped infinities available within the context of the fixed moment, each decision reconfiguring the available possibilities within limited infinities. So there is a sequence of decision or a line of decision. A line of what happens in the idea system. The line is made of sequential components, but the shape of the line may be any possible shape. May be a spiral or curl, a loop, a zigzag, or may be straight, etc., may be of mixed form, may change direction yet still be expressible as sequence: this happened, then this happened, as the happenings form patterns and shapes of diverse and complex geometries.
(tree mapping of streets of Seoul from Lee jang sub's ComplexCity Project)


Every possible configuration of moment is waiting to become event, etched into a memory of happening, even what may be imagined, what happens in imagination, and what decision excludes. Possible substance is not the same as fulfilled (it has happened) substance. Available for fulfillment vs fulfilled. The where of availability lacks the physicality that defines the where of our existence; accessing the where of availability produces fulfillment, but an act of fulfillment indicates that what was necessary for fulfillment could be accessed.

The moments that are available as if in queues configured in every way that queues may be configured. So some queues bend somewhere in their queue state. Some rotate somewhere in the queue state. Some twist. Some decay. Some spring. Some (parts of) queues are concealed in (parts of) queues). Some queues are reflections, shadows, eclipse systems. Some queues commit to digesting. Some are uncommitted for now. Some are gaseous. Noisy. Some are apparently silent because their vibrations are not measured in an audible range, but the trembling is nevertheless symphonic sometimes. This is all at once. Every possibility exists. Can be mined. Plucked. And so forth. And maybe there is someone to select every possibility. Maybe there is no waste of possibility. Maybe, for this would have to be one of the possibilities, there is a version of me who still sees clearly out of the left eye.

It is as if one moment system contains all possibility, is all possibility, is contained by all possibility until defined by specifics of happening.

The moments are ready to be enacted, to become path, to become a queue of limiting factors as the moment trail unfolds.

Infinities within the limiting factor of enactment are always available.

Each selection shapes the remaining infinities, each smaller, but no less infinite.

Financial crisis final - NPR

Financial crisis final - NPR

View more presentations from sownational.

BLOG alive

The story of my story is already being hosted in Forked jouney

Use as Directed film (at onedotzeroadventures in motion festival) as story body system

If you happen to go to the onedotzero adventures in motion festival at the British Film Institute, from 11-14 November, you'll be able to attend a screening of Use as Directed by Ansted Moss, in Wow+Flutter 10:

Use as Directed from Ansted Moss on Vimeo.

Use as Directed is a story system about systems of convergence and conspiracy, where parts intersect and interact as a single body to accomplish a shared goal. Once connection between parts is established, the body system benefits from a combining of forces. The body system is a more powerful complex structure than any single part comprising the body system.

In the animation technique of this short film, some visual distinctness of each component of the composite structure remains apparent, loss of distinction tending to occur where boundaries touch and opportunity for merger is asserted to varying degrees on various scales. The merged form is the offspring of interaction (1+1=3 again, as Rima pointed out earlier in the semester).

Participation in this story body system does not render the components unable to be part of other systems, but some form of memory of having been attached to this Use as Directed body system will likely travel with the components into other systems of (temporary) connection.

Use as Directed explores formation of a story body system, and formation of purpose for body assemblage. In establishing configurability of the body, Use as Directed suggests that other configurations are possible; the built body could be unbuilt then rebuilt differently, that story related to stories of other configurations, but not exact duplicates, of course; any given configuration perhaps seemingly more endearing for the unlikelihood of exact duplication. Then too, this configurability suggests a generalized compatibility of parts, even that anything be considered a part, and certainly in the manipulation strategies of a maker, that which is prevented from being combined according to rules and obstructions of three-dimensional reality, can be combined in the various spaces and media of aesthetic and imaginative expression. Designation as part brings with that designation, an idea that part should connect with or be a component of something, should become a part of something, leaving bits and parts of itself behind during the tenure of the temporary partnership, and acquiring something from other parts of a body system in which a part has temporary membership.

Explore more of Ansted's visual theory at kna'Knox.com

Animation!

I'm now working with stop motion to animate my Indian character exploring a new city. I've been drawing the figure in chalk on brick walls, and planning to start working with pens on a mirror....



http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nicolab/_MG_0026.JPG
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nicolab/_MG_0026.JPG

My focus is on medicine and migraines. The history, effects migraines have on the human body, people's experiences, and vaccines or possible treatments.

Happy Birthday Pablo Picasso

Happy Birthday, Pablo Picasso

More mistakes (the good kinds)

Here are more mistakes from a little while ago. There are still "fuzzy" parts and it isn't iterating quite right, but the fuzz may be due to how Processing deals with rounding numbers. Either way, the parts that break the intended rules actually seem to be following very specific rules and are fractal.

All the past stuff was just a part of the bigger picture

I haven't posted for a bit due to a large influx of projects, as well as my ideas changing rather rapidly to reveal some much more interesting and larger scale concepts that my previous ideas were but a small piece of. The lack of visuals is due to tue fact that none of these ideas are terribly visual, or at least I don't have the tools (yet) to show the concepts visually; pictures would only serve as distractions and eye candy.

Thee first step now is to either find some one (which is turning out to be the less possible route) or learning a language like R to code myself something to do fourier transforms on whole pieces of music as if they are one cycle of a waveform. The component harmonics will then have to be visualized in an appropriate way so different orders of magnitude can be seen to try to figure out if rhythms, structure, envelope, key and notation, and timbre qualities become apparent from the component audio and sub-audio frequencies. Can music (not musical notations which IS NOT music) be analyzed and visualized purely using the dimension of component harmonica of the whole.

How to pieces differ?
How do genres and movements differ?
What does it sound like if you re-synthesize the sound missing a certain order of magnitude of component frequencies?
What does taking the rhythm harmonics of one piece, the timbre of another, etc and synthesizing them together sound like?
Are their patterns and rules that can be used to generate wholly new music and sounds from the component harmonic level?
What if fractal patterns are applied?
Can the human aspect be seen? Reproduced?
Can the organic be faked?

Are their other techniques besides fourier transforms that can reveal new dimensions, more depth, new synthesis techniques?

The tools are relatively simple and common, the data sets are huge. There is a tiny chance humanity and the organic can be reconstructed, decomposed, and reinvented. This all will probably take years or even a lifetime to pursue. Fun, no?

Motion!

My Little Indian Character being told to Stop. Walk. Answer. Close. Belt-Up. Eat-Up. Consume.

FreeVideoCoding.com

It's been a while since I've posted, but I needed some time to gather my thoughts and try to come up with a system of both limitation and extraction. I like the idea of creating through systematic processes, taking something that already exists in a certain form and generating new meanings and forms from its content. This is how the universe is constructed out of atoms (the formation of molecules and elements leads to the solids, liquids, and gases that define our tangible world).

This is a concept map of my understanding of reality. As humans we take in sensory input that generates memory, is stored in our brain, gives context and meaning, is translated into language. Everything is about translation and regeneration.


This is a concept map of how stories are told. An event occurs, sensory input is stored in the brain, it is recalled, translated into words, given meaning, symbols, context, etc.


I have never been a big reader of newspapers or watcher of the news. It is a limited, controlled stream of information that is chosen by the network or company. Those networks and companies are funded largely by advertising. Therefore, large businesses control our news sources, only letting the information they deem worthy to be released to the public. So much information slips through the tines of the news-fork system. I wanted to take newspapers, daily accumulations of stories, and limit them even farther in order to generate new stories. Instead of taking the news at face value or even reading between the lines, I am interested in returning to the actual construction of language, to semiotics.

Working solely with University of Michigan print publications, I began by choosing words myself, making blackout poetry. This was a hard endeavor to undertake because the subject matter of the newspaper did not lend itself to much of interest. It was tiring to compose in this way and not systematic enough for my taste. Sometimes delightful things would happen, but it didn't delve into sentence construction and the English language like I wanted it to. It was just a way of making pretty a word combination:

today it becomes more through simplifying and allowing open doors in life,"

Then I found out about John Cage's system which he calls "CIRCUS ON ______". He would take existing writing and find words that began with certain letters, extracting an acrostic poem. Those words could then be used to create something new. I did this with an entire copy of The Statement from September 29, 2010. The main article was on stem cell research so that was the acrostic I pulled out. I have quoted the resultant words, grouped by article, below:

"state the eating million coconuts? eat last looking really earth speck ever acceptable rival

stories the Elmo Mark CEO effort leader

Society the event Mexican Chilean echo listserve

save to eat meet campus events like life

SEARCH THE Eva molecular cure Europe least lives regenerate eats seconds. Even athletes reason claims human stem treat Emory more corridor established, last last right. embryos. state embryos also researchers California housed stem that executive Michigan, calls eventually lead lines regulation existing stem embryonic According received couples. human stem that embryos. Morrison called embryonic Last law researchers each start embryo analyzed recommendations Congress, hanging said. that economic Michigan Cell Economics like left research even stem embryonic amendments Rivet, countries hours stem the Economic Michigan, Carl evaluated Lastly, looked research embryonic strides even and researchers come hope

Sixty those —entirely midnight crowd exhibitionists. lewd lists Review end Street. excessive a responded could he supervising the encourage mean campus, else list, lists Review’s editor survey each and rankings can he say.” the emphasis majority categorizes everyone labeled list reputation each scene especially and randomly campus here school. the evident meets Cervi, events like like responsibly everybody sometimes enter as

STATEMENT told episode my college even legal lawyers reasons), entourage surround exploitation a realized create how show to every minutes conversation emotional like legally reaction enough. sound episode air realized chapter hope"

While I found John Cage's method interesting, I want to make sentences that contain the correct parts of speech. I want to make something where I can interchange words, and therefore meanings, to take a closer look at semiotics. In what feels like the opposite of MadLibs, I want to come up with systems of extraction for different grammatical parts of speech in the English language:
nouns (including pronouns)
verbs
adjectives
adverbs
prepositions
conjunctions
interjections

I have come up with several different systems I am going to try on the same newspaper:
1. MASH: When I was a kid we would play a game called MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) which was meant to predict the outcome of your future. You would make categories like job, salary, husband's name, pet, wedding dress color, etc. and then use a number (determined "randomly") to systematically count through all of the listings. Each time you hit the magic number, that option was crossed out. If there's only one thing left in each category, it's left as the final "answer." I want to try this system using the date of publication as the number (specifically the number denoting the day of the month).
2. Alphabetical: Choosing only parts of speech that start with the same letter to create alliterations.
3. Take the first noun from the first article, the second verb from the second article, the third adjective from the third article, etc. and create one sentence that sums up the whole publication.

I am sure that I will come up with more systems to test out and I will add them to my list. Once I find one that I like, I would like to employ it on a whole series of papers. The next step will be to take my chosen words and create something new out of them.

EDIT:
I found some other interesting work that relates to what I'm doing. First, here's an interesting video called Everything's a Remix:

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

It mentioned a book called The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. He takes other writing, cuts & folds it, and creates a new work. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Constructing the Story Body (where tines converge)

In this approach, story system (system in part because multiple angles, multiple configurations, multiple modes of expression, etc. will be considered, and system because different parts are involved, a telling that is not a single narrative element, an unfolding that could be interactive, might not be expected to end, an unfolding that could be generative, etc.); in this approach, the story system will be considered as an organism, something that reacts to and responds to its environment, something that can grow, change, something that came into existence somehow, with or without intelligent design; an entity that is part of a community of possibly similar and possibly dissimilar entities/iterations (that community can be as local as the multicellular organism's own body and as distant as the superorganisms that form from interactions of multiple organisms, collective dependence), an entity made of different parts of various function that together form and/or behave like a single entity, such as the human body (a cooperative society of human cells and microbes). (human brain and global network image from principia cybernetica's article: the social superorganism and its global brain, generative manifesto image from generative.net)

While the story body can be or seem relatively static, can be a moment or moment-sequence isolated for examination, focus, zooming in or zooming out for a time-stopped, frame-by-frame opportunity to study details, etc.), in this Limited Fork Theory approach to constructing a story body, the static study will have as part of its purpose the seeking of insight into the story system's dynamic forms, movement of idea, evolution of idea, etc; the purpose of discovery. A single aspect of the story system (just one tine) can be the focus of the story body you construct, with some nod to the aspect's role or participation in or relationship to a larger (or smaller) system. What you focus on in your story system can be the container of subsystems of the story body, and your focus in your story system can be contained by larger systems or subsystems of something even larger.

So we'll be entering the story body (which is a system) somewhere, a story body that, on some scale, is in progress; we enter something ongoing, establishing a tine that despite how innovative or new it might seem is nevertheless connected to (in some way[s]), is rooted in the already-established, the in-progress [hence some of LFT's commitment to a collaborative nature of all things), the ongoing, interrupting connection somewhere else when we terminate the telling (the body then on its own to interact further with environment and habitat, so not necessarily or even likely to be the end of the story system from which we extract aspects that we shape,that we may split into subsystems, to emphasize in a system related to the ongoing content or subject system, but that is not the actual content or subject system that it might be without our interaction; a tine system of what we might call the actual). We intercept something ongoing when we begin the telling, and we depart from something that persists when we stop our telling.



Does our telling interact with that ongoing system? That is a strong possibility. In telling, a branch or tine of the subject of the telling is at least temporarily established. This subsystem has existence of its own, and mayor may not converge at times with the system to which the subsystem was attached. Could we change or could the system that is the subject of our telling change as a consequence of the interaction of telling the story system, of constructing the story body? That is another strong possibility. Again, the act of telling establishes itself as a subsystem of the subject system of the telling. The telling is not the subject but instead is a related tine, an extension of subject system that may explore the subject system in behaviors and scenarios that the subject system itself does not explore. During moments of our telling, the subject system goes on, perhaps perturbed somehow by interaction with a teller, some influence of a teller; something happens in order for a subject of a telling to become subject. This interaction in which subject becomes subject establishes location (moment) for the interaction, and in that hosting of interaction, a system of telling emerges, a system of telling related to the teller's existence prior to establishment of interaction with the subject and related to the subject's existence prior to establishment of (teller's awareness of) an interaction system with a teller; related to but not identical to prior existences of teller's systems and subject's systems. The same (apparently) subject system may interact with multiple tellers and participate in multiple systems of telling, on multiple scales.


In building a story body, in part we are assemblers; we cobble stuff together from forms of existing stuff, and we can be somewhat reckless and bold in how we form rules and obstructions concerning what can, and what shouldn't be cobbled together, even if only in imagination. In essence, these story bodies may be considered hybrid forms, mutant entities, transformations, alternative species, variations, etc. We bring into existence that which we believe or come to believe warrants temporary emphasis, ideally with a perspective, angle, twist, etc. that differs subtly or profoundly from what already exists. in this way, contributing to a collective story body that through a mesh of connection and intersection, a mesh of tines that seems to fill in more, that seems to acquire density approaching (but not fully arriving) an apparent solidity that if actual might suggest that all connections have been made, all possibilities have been fulfilled, all angles have been visited, etc.

Because of slippage through tines, challenges to forming the complete picture remain; there can be little or no certainty that nothing has fallen through, that everything has adhered to every possible tine in every limited fork and has been assembled in every possible form on every possible scale, including, for sake of completion all possible future forms. Even assembling a complete moment to which we (may believe we) have limited access across the planet will defy completion on all scales in all possible forms; there are gaps in what is known no matter how close we may have come (and oh the fascinating challenges to measure the distance —on all scales— of the fully assembled moment from an absolute completeness of a moment —in all its dimensions, including somehow acknowledgment of all imagined configurations of its completeness, including outcomes of generative configurations, and thoughts of the moment that embrace the past and future of the moment, antecedents and descendants). But even with a miraculous completion, what might emerge may contain more than what is assembled, the sum of the parts of the moment in interacting produce something more than a simple addition; interacting is more complex; some interactions enable tines of behavior, tines of form that are fueled by reactions that occur with the interactions —what Rima refers to as 1+1=3: that which is being added, that what is participating in the interaction and the outcome system that emerges from the interaction system.



There's a touch of homage to Frankenstein here, a story system/body that embraces many tellings and modifications: visual, still, moving, sonic, tactile —many costume options (such as the options in the above image from fancy dress ideas), masks of various materials, skin paint, etc. meant to be temporary —though more permanent cosmetic surgery options exist, including peculiar assisted vanity operations (as shown in the image to the right of Jocelyn Wildenstein from The Daily Mail). Highly manipulated evolutions with intense visual impact without necessarily having direct genetic intervention to influence species change through natural or assisted breeding. Planned and unplanned, coerced or natural genetic mutation helps to produce that which, in departure from expectation and norms, seems monstrous, at least until advantages of the mutation become apparent. A possible monstrous outcome is a necessary risk if more ideal forms (from this tine of perception and that tine of perception) of mutation are to be attained. Various circumstances conspire (it might seem) or somehow align in order to support (temporarily) what emerges from the interaction system. That this happens can be extraordinary, mechanisms that resist maintenance of status quo, that resist, even if it seems pleasant and/or near perfect, permanence, that participate in change —by any means that are or become (tines that emerge, for instance, as consequences or outcomes of interactions) possible.

That transformation is possible is celebrated in many instances of human-manipulated morphing. A redirection of a natural (without direct intervention) progression of form via deliberate structural manipulation whose outcomes may match or deviate (immediately or over time) from a target. Efforts to shape an inevitable change in appearance. Efforts to control inevitable change. To set inevitable tines of change in motion. To stop a tine of events from progressing along what may seem an inevitable path system to inevitable destinations. Of course, intentions and outcomes are systems that may converge and diverge along paths that themselves are systems of gestures and behaviors, shaping and being shaped by interactions with systems of variables on some scale in some location[s] for some duration[s] of time. ¡O for the love of variables!

James Whale's (a filmmaker who who once was a cobbler) 1931 cinematic achievement: Watch Dr. Frankenstein as the moment of achievement emerges in a temporarily ultimate configuration cobbled together from various parts, assembled from diverse sources yet IT'S ALIVE!




All of existence in involved at all times in telling the complex, compelling (I think), story systems of a shared existence system; all of existence is involved in this telling (an assembled involvement in this moment) even without consent or awareness of telling the story, which is to say that telling the story everything is telling may not be is probably not the purpose of existence. The trails of existence, what happens as outcomes of existence become stories of what occurs when existence happens. In the next video, a BMW Z4 tells part of the story of its existence, writing its rolling trail in paint and color in An Expression of Joy:



The moving architecture of existing, of meaning; the assembled story body that itself moves, dances, explores space, that actively tells a story can be explored in work by Theo Jansen, a kinetic sculptor (the Theo Jansen link is to a story system tine about the strandbeest moving in the video story tine of a strandbeest/Jansen collaboration system):



What follows is an assembled story system, a form of video collage story body system that, as described on the video story body's youtube page, is:
A story body made from:
- footages of Heima Dvd
- footages of Theo Jansen docs
- footages of differents Sigur Ros clips
for the great song of Sigur ros


Please enjoy the building of your own story body systems and please post the stories of the building of your story body systems.