May 28, 2012
Top Trumps is a card game. Each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values in order to try to trump and win an opponent’s card. Each pack of Top Trumps is based on a theme, such as cars, aircraft, dinosaurs, or characters from a popular film or television series.
Each card in the pack shows a list of numerical data about the item. For example, in a pack based on cars, each card shows a different model of car, and the stats and data may include its engine size, its weight, its length, and its top speed. If the theme is about a TV series or film, the cards include characters and the data varying from things like strength and bravery to fashion and looks, depending on the criteria. Continue reading →
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May 28, 2012
Chromaroma is a London-based game using players’ public transport passes (Oyster cards and Barclays Cycle Hire accounts). Points are awarded depending on the stations and journeys users complete on the London Underground and London Buses, as well as using ‘Boris bikes.’
It is described by its creators, Mudlark, as ‘location-based top trumps,’ and encourages competition through leaderboards. (Top Trumps is a card game. Each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values in order to try to trump and win an opponent’s card. A wide variety of different packs of Top Trumps have been published).
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May 27, 2012
GPS Drawing combines art, travelling (walking, flying, and driving) and technology and is a method of drawing that uses GPS to create large-scale artwork. Global Positioning System receivers determine one’s position on the surface of the Earth by trilateration of microwave signals from satellites orbiting at an altitude of 20,200 km. Tracks of a journey can automatically be recorded into the GPS receiver’s memory and can be downloaded onto a computer as a basis for drawing, sculpture or animation. This journey may be on the surface (e.g. walking) or taken in 3D (e.g. while flying).
The idea was first implemented by artists Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood, who have drawn a 13-mile wide fish in Oxfordshire and spiders whose legs reach across cities. They have also provided an answer to the question ‘What is the world’s biggest ‘IF’? It happens to be a pair of letters, ‘I,’ which goes from Iffley in Oxford to Southampton and back, and ‘F” which traverses through the Ifield Road in London down to Iford in East Sussex, through Iford and back up through Ifold in West Sussex. The total length is 537 km, and the height of the drawing in typographic units is 319,334,400 points.
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May 27, 2012
A paperclip is an instrument used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape. Most paper clips are variations of the Gem type introduced in the 1890s or earlier, characterized by the almost two full loops made by the wire. Common to paper clips proper is their utilization of torsion and elasticity in the wire, and friction between wire and paper.
When a moderate number of sheets are inserted between the two ‘tongues’ of the clip, the tongues will be forced apart and cause torsion in the bend of the wire to grip the sheets together. Too many sheets will cause the elastic limit of the material to be exceeded, resulting in permanent deformation. Paper clips usually have an oblong shape with straight sides, but may also be triangular or circular, or have more elaborate shapes. The most common material is steel, but molded plastic is also used. Some other kinds of paper clip use a two-piece clamping system. Recent innovations include multi-colored plastic-coated paper clips and spring-fastened binder clips.
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May 27, 2012
PAL-V Europe is a Dutch company who are developing a flying car, the PAL-V One, an autogyro or gyrocopter, with a pusher propeller at the rear of the fuselage providing forward thrust and a free-spinning rotor providing lift. Directional stability is provided by twin boom-mounted tailfins.
It has a tricycle undercarriage with relatively large wheels. On the ground, the propeller and rotor are stopped and power is diverted to the wheels, allowing it to travel as a three-wheeled car. Unusually, it leans into turns like a motorcycle, a solution pioneered by the Carver vehicle, also produced by a Dutch company.
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May 26, 2012
Glitch is a term used to describe a style of electronic music that emerged in the mid to late 1990s that adheres to an ‘aesthetic of failure,’ where the deliberate use of glitch based audio media, and other sonic artifacts, is a central concern.
Sources of glitch sound material are usually malfunctioning or abused audio recording devices or digital technology, such as CD skipping, electric hum, digital or analog distortion, bit rate reduction, hardware noise, computer bugs, crashes, vinyl record hiss or scratches, and system errors. In a ‘Computer Music Journal’ article published in 2000, composer and writer Kim Cascone classifies glitch as a sub-genre of electronica, and used the term ‘post-digital’ to describe the glitch aesthetic.
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May 26, 2012
Glitch art is the aestheticization of digital or analog errors, such as artifacts and other ‘bugs,’ by either corrupting digital code/data or by physically manipulating electronic devices, for example by circuit bending (the intentional short-circuiting of low power electronic devices to create new musical devices). In a technical sense a glitch is the unexpected result of a malfunction. The term is thought to derive from the German ‘glitschig,’ meaning ‘slippery.’ It was first recorded in English in 1962 during the American space program by John Glenn when describing problems they were having, Glenn explained, ‘Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical current.’
Glitch is used to describe these kinds of bugs as they occur in software, video games, images, videos, audio, and other forms of data. The term glitch came to be associated with music in the mid 90s to describe a genre of experimental/noise/electronica (see glitch music). Shortly after, as VJs and other visual artist like Tony (Ant) Scott began to embrace the glitch as an aesthetic of the digital age, glitch art came to refer to a whole assembly of visual arts.
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May 25, 2012
The memory-prediction framework is a theory of brain function that was created by Jeff Hawkins and described in his 2004 book, ‘On Intelligence.’ This theory concerns the role of the mammalian neocortex and its associations with the hippocampus and the thalamus in matching sensory inputs to stored memory patterns and how this process leads to predictions of what will happen in the future.
The theory is motivated by the observed similarities between the brain structures (especially neocortical tissue) that are used for a wide range of behaviours available to mammals. It posits that the remarkably uniform physical arrangement of cortical tissue reflects a single principle or algorithm which underlies all cortical information processing. Continue reading →
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May 25, 2012
Encephalization Quotient [en-sefa-lie-zay-shun] (EQ) is a measure of relative brain size defined as the ratio between actual brain mass and predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, which is hypothesized to be a rough estimate of the intelligence of the animal. This is a more refined measurement than the raw brain-to-body mass ratio, as it takes into account allometric effects (changes in proportion of various parts of an organism as a consequence of growth).
The relationship, expressed as a formula, has been developed for mammals, and may not yield relevant results when applied outside this group. Brain size usually increases with body size in animals. The relationship is not linear, however. Generally, small mammals have relatively larger brains than big ones. Mice have a direct brain/body size ratio similar to humans (1/40), while elephants have a comparatively small brain/body size (1/560), despite elephants being quite intelligent animals. Continue reading →
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May 25, 2012
‘There are no atheists in foxholes‘ is an aphorism used to argue that in times of extreme stress or fear, such as when participating in warfare, all people will believe in or hope for a higher power. The precise origin of the phrase is uncertain.
While primarily used to comment on the specific experiences faced by combat soldiers, the statement is often adapted to other perilous situations such as ‘there are no atheists in Probate Court.’ Continue reading →
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May 25, 2012
A connoisseur [kon-uh-sur] (meaning ‘to be acquainted with’ or ‘to know somebody/something’) is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the arts and is an expert judge in matters of taste.
Internationally, the term is also used in gastronomy (in connection with fine food, beer, wine, tea, and many other products whose consumption can be pleasing to the senses). The ability to tell almost instinctively who painted a picture is defined as connoisseurship. Modern connoisseurship must be seen in context with museums, art galleries, and ‘the cult of originality.’
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May 24, 2012
Cornershop is a British indie rock band formed in 1991 by Tjinder Singh, his brother Avtar, David Chambers, and Ben Ayres. The band name originated from a stereotype referring to British Asians often owning street corner stores. Their music is a fusion of Indian music, Britpop, and electronic dance music.
Their debut release, the ‘In The Days of Ford Cortina’ EP, pressed on ‘curry-colored vinyl,’ contained a blend of Indian-tinged noise pop. The sound mellowed somewhat with the release of debut album ‘Hold On It Hurts’ in 1994. The album impressed David Byrne sufficiently for him to sign the band to his Luaka Bop label. Although David Chambers left, replaced by Nick Simms, the band re-emerged in 1995. Continue reading →
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