seeded from the void

seeded from the void
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

Untitled
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

essence of memory

essence of memory
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

(1) Patterns and concerns

february

february
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

bodies at rest and in motion

bodies at rest and in motion
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

bodies at rest and in motion - gravitational collapse 1.

1000 bodies, initialized with v=0 at t=0, random mass and random position, then propagated under gravity.

newton’s law of universal gravitation + processing + photoshop.

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i could never quite decide what to do with my occasional dabbles into generative work... so i started a new tumblr blog for those that like this kind of thing.

bankers

It's been a long time since I've felt politically exorcised, in large part due to the perception that everything is so self-evidently farcical that there's really nothing to add. Hold that thought...

Now read some snippets from Bob Diamon at Davos:

In emollient form afterwards, Barclays' chief executive, Bob Diamond, said the get-together had been an opportunity to deliver "very heartfelt thanks" to governments for rescuing the banking system.

"We have to recognise, although there is some fatigue, that an awful lot has been achieved over the last few years," said Diamond. "We should say thanks to the central bankers and regulators because we're operating in a much safer system than a couple of years ago."
The Guardian

Uh huh. Sure Bob, what a nice fella you are. From the same article on the Davos summit:

There was no respite when they [British ministers] met anxious financiers alarmed by "banker bashing". At a closed-door session today as the Alpine jamboree drew to an end, more than 40 bosses of banking and insurance companies met finance ministers from nations including Britain, Canada, France, South Africa, Turkey and Sweden.
The Guardian

And:

Impatient with criticism of bonuses, tax avoidance and lending to small businesses, many banks used the occasion to turn up the volume in protest at what they see as undue punishment. JP Morgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, snapped last week that banks were not prepared to simply "bend over and accept it" from regulators. The Goldman Sachs president, Gary Cohn, declared that extra regulations on banks would simply encourage people to put their money into riskier hedge funds.
The Guardian

I mean, this level of gall is quite astonishing, not least because it's so self-evidently farcical. How can they say this with a straight face and get away with it? Seems that, as perhaps we all suspected (or knew deep down despite hopes to the contrary), nothing has really changed over the last couple of years and business continues as usual.

january

january
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

december

december
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

artists wanted

Every so often I decide it's time to make an effort with photography... most recently it's the Artists Wanted: Exposure contest. I'm not sure if the contest, or show, is/will be any good. I'm not sure if I care. But either way I somehow feel proactive for trying.

april

april
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

may

may
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

landscape of memory

landscape of memory
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

document

document
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

universal statement

extant in the world

extant in the world
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

the production of the modern world

the production of the modern world
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

(ii) the growth of the system and the development of momentum*

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*Adapted from The Final Frontier: America, Science and Terror by Dominick Jenkins

landslide?

hurrah. here's to a change of tack at the top and, regardless of how an Obama government ends up ruling, nothing can be worse that the bush/cheney/rummy hydra.

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it's interesting to look back 4 years...

watching democracy... closely followed by an existential howl to the winds.



steve bell, the guardian

landscape of memory

landscape of memory
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

return

magenta flash forward 2008

magenta flash forward 2008
Originally uploaded by monkeyinfez.

I'm quite excited to be included in this year's Magenta Flash Forward photography prize. There is a book available with some great, and some not so great, work in it... but it's well worth checking out and is available as a free pdf from the magenta site.

Some of the works will also be on show, see the magenta site for details.

duffy poem to be destroyed

Officials at the AQA board said their request that schools destroy the anthology containing the Carol Ann Duffy poem Education for Leisure had been triggered by concerns in two schools about references to knives. A spokeswoman confirmed the decision had been made in the context of the current spate of knife-related murders.
(as reported in Thursday's Guardian)

Of course it's the same old idiocy and knee-jerk scare reaction to complaints:

A spokeswoman for AQA confirmed there had been three complaints, two referring to knife crime and a third about the description of a goldfish being flushed down the toilet. The first complaint about knives was made in 2004. The second, made in the summer by an exams officer, was then taken up by an MP.

The most recent complaint was made by Lutterworth grammar school's exams invigilator, Pat Schofield, who welcomed the board's decision and said: "I think it is absolutely horrendous - what sort of message is that to give to kids who are reading it as part of their GCSE syllabus?"

And, of course, it's the same old misunderstanding of the point of the art, perhaps wilful or perhaps spurious.

But what sort of message does the call for destruction of a text give to kids? Hopefully the same ideas that the syllabus should be trying to get across: the very power and relevance of literature.

But what sort of message does it send about those calling the shots? That they can't see the line between the content of the syllabus and the existence outside this syllabus of other text? The very idea that the books containing the poem, although AQA branded and tied to the syllabus, should be destroyed, is surely the antithesis of what the board stands for as a provider of education. Choosing to remove the poem from the syllabus is an understandable, if disappointing, response to complaint, but there is never a need for censorship via destruction.

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Education for Leisure

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.

I have had enough of being ignored and today

I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,

a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets

I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.

We did that at school. Shakespeare. It was in

another language and now the fly is in another language.

I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.

I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with half

the chance. But today I am going to change the world.

Something's world. The cat avoids me. The cat

knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.

I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.

I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.

Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into town

For signing on. They don't appreciate my autograph.

There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio

and tell the man he's talking to a superstar.

He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.

The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

Carol Ann Duffy