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Public Art - The Toynbee Tiles
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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I love public art. By public art I don't mean that art sanctioned by city councils and governments, that's not art. There is nothing even remotely artistic about it. Governments and Jury's simply don't have the wherewithal to judge art.
No, by public art I mean art given to the people, slipped surreptitiously into their diet of news and misinformation without their knowing. Art that seeds thought. Art that raises questions.
Crop circles are one example. Some people put them down to space aliens trying to communicate with us. Personally, I subscribe to the view of a group of guerrilla artists. Whatever you think, they have become a sort of cultural meme.
Another example I'm very fond of are the Toynbee Tiles. They consist of a linoleum and asphalt blend of tile that's layered into the pavement of streets. Examples have been found in many major cities, the identity of the artist remains unknown. Typically the tiles state:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.
Or some variation thereof.
Further reading:
The NY Times (1999) on the Toynbee Tiles
Dimensions of Dialogue - Jan Svankmajer
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Yep. More by Jan Svankmajer. I like him. I like him a lot.
See part 2....
The Psychology of Luck - Richard Wiseman
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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Richard Wiseman is a British psychologist who does some very interesting research, occasionally intruding upon some of our more commonly held beliefs & superstitions.
One of his more interesting studies involved "Luck"- in which a group of people were asked to self assess themselves as being "Lucky" or "Not Lucky". They were then assigned a task of reading a newspaper and counting the number of photographs they saw within it. Unbeknownst to them there was an ad within the paper that stated they could stop searching and show it to the researcher to collect a $250.00 reward.
Lucky people noticed the ad and cashed in. Unlucky people tended to be so focused on the search for pictures of people that they missed the ad, and therefore the opportunity to make $250.00.
The results from the study were simply explained. People who reported themselves as lucky were more likely to see "The Big Picture" instead of merely focusing on the task at hand. Luck, it seemed, was a matter of personality and entirely within reach of everybody, provided they had the right outlook.
Curious? Read more about Richard Wiseman here:
Website: http://www.richardwiseman.com (Note: The navigation is a bit odd. Use the head...) or visit his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Quirkology
Article for the Skeptical Inquirer here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf (Note: Adobe .pdf format.) and a short summary of his findings here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/research/moreluck.html
2 I Missed
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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Both of these topics I've covered before, but in different links. The link below is a color Cellular Automata program, based (loosely) on Conway's game of life.
http://www.collidoscope.com/modernca/
And this follows some speculation I've done as to the future of technology, and imagining additional senses. While I couldn't find the associated video on TED it's sure to be interesting....
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