Category: History and Culture

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170117 – Emotive Transparency – London

​​​170117 – Emotive Transparency – London > words

In Colin Rowe’s infamous 1955 essay on Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal (with Robert Slutzky) two notions of transparency are discussed with regard to modernist painting and architecture. The first Literal Transparency; that through which we can see whether paint or glass and that through which light can pass is given a reduced text. The second Phenomenal Transparency; that of the suggested space captured within the compressed picture plane, especially with regard to cubist painting and architectural layered space of the early Modern Movement, this has the majority text. Dictionaries only give the definition of transparency as the literal description described above. Phenomenal Transparency is the reserve of Art critics and theorists.

It was my intention to assume the concepts behind Phenomenal Transparency and to apply them to a critique of the Baroque figurative sculpture of Antonio Corradini (1688-1752). In re-reading the Rowe essay the concepts behind the idea of Phenomenal Transparency were totally inappropriate to the Corradini work but equally interestingly and equally inappropriate were the Literal Transparency definitions. It was concluded that Corradini exploits a third type of transparency that of a perceived or emotive transparency. It was further concluded that in the Baroque world, where faith had equal authority to science and law, the perception of emotive transparency would be considerably stronger than our perception of it today. 

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of sedimentary carbonate minerals that have recrystallized. Recrystallization is a metamorphic process that requires intense temperature and pressure where grains, atoms or molecules of a rock or mineral are packed close together, creating a new crystal structure. Marble is nearly twice as dense as concrete and is only translucent as a backlit veneer when a few millimetres thick. Antonio Corradini uses marble that is solid, heavy and non translucent. Scientifically we are aware that the marble is solid and that we cannot see through it. Emotionally the sculptor induces a cognitive response to two known conditions, that of the woman and that of the veil. By presenting this duality the artist creates the desire to see two complete known entities simultaneously and in so doing creates the illusion of transparency

The Surrealists were aware of emotive transparency. In the Rene Magritte’s Le Blanc-Seing in the essay below (d.161116) there is no flattened cubist layered space, as both components that make up the space fall within a single perspective on the same picture plane. The image is flattened by the manipulation of ones perception. Our desire to complete the image overrules our rational interpretation of what we actually see. Our minds join the horse and rider as one image passing behind the trees in a space represented through normal perspective. The reality is that the horse is not whole but instead laid as three strips onto an exiting perspective of woodlands. Antoni Corradini uses the same technique. When looking at the veiled face in detail, the veil does not cover the face but instead it is carved in strips that are laid upon the face. Up close we either see only the folds of the veil or the curves of the face. Our desire to see both of these things simultaneously creates the illusion of transparency. The transparency is generated by a sensual and emotive response to the appearance of two known cognitive conditions presented concurrently.

Ambiguous images are famous for inducing the phenomenon of multi-stable perception. This is when an image provides multiple, though stable, perceptions. Usually two images from one drawing, one image is perceived at a time, never the two images simultaneously. Veiled Truth is also a three dimensional optic that manipulates our sensory perception but with greater sophistication than an ambiguous image. When we see an image the first act of perception is to organise the image into identifiable groups. The simplest group consists of edges. On a 3D figure we first identify the edges and our brains connect the edges to conclude an identifiable form. When a pattern or form is perceived frequently it is stored in memory so that it can be recalled easily without the need to study in detail the entirety. The human form and the human face would be such frequently perceived patterns. This obeys what is now known as part of the Gestalt grouping rules where good continuation provides the visual system with a basis for identifying outlines and forms. Veiled Truth also obeys the Gestalt ideas of proximity where close similar objects are most likely to belong to the same group, here the folds of the veil. Perceived complete forms seen from a series of drawn fragments is best exampled by the Kanizsa Triangle. In this drawing the perception of two overlaid triangles on three circles is induced by a series of drawn fragments. Veiled Truth draws upon this emotive cognitive response to achieve transparency in the solid medium of marble.

In summation we have three known types of transparency. 

Literal Transparency this has a scientific definition and requires transparency or translucency within a material.

Phenomenal Transparency has an intellectual definition and is read through decoding information.

Emotive Transparency has an impassioned definition where the desire to see overrules the logic of seeing.

It saddens to concede that the craftsman’s skills of the past may never be revived and that we live in a culture that so undervalues such skill? Our instantly obtainable and so easily disposable digital culture has lost so much.

Images left to right.  1-5+7 Veiled Truth, Antonio Corradini (1688-1752).  6 Kanizsa Triangle

The Surrogate Twin

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150117 – Kinetic Fresco – London

​​​150117 – Kinetic Fresco – London > words

The forgotten techniques of Mannerism and Baroque.

Di sotto in sú 

Quadratura

Anamorphosis

Trompe-l’oeil 

Fresco and Fresco-secco

Perspective theories developed in the 17th century to a point where enclosed space could be opened up using illusionistic painting techniques. Walls and ceilings became surfaces that could be expanded into other fictional worlds. The techniques were adopted from the theatre and were often used to open up a space to the outside world typically with garden vistas or soaring skies. These fictional painted spaces contained other worlds that were often mythical or biblical. They were spaces in which to escape or to be reminded of ones humble place on earth, a space to explore but also an over looking space who’s inhabitants watch and judge. ‘As the gods look down’ the physical space is monitored by the fictional space. Story telling, myths and fables complete the interaction between the two spaces and the physical space becomes a transitional space to another world, a gateway. Religious spaces have often been rendered as such.

Trompe-l’oeil – Fresco is painted into plaster that is still wet (fresh) whilst fresco-secco is painted onto dry plaster. The technique for transferring the images to the plaster is dependent upon the type of fresco used. On fresco an outline drawing would be sketched on the under layer in a red pigment that then bled into the fresh top layer prior to pigmentation. In fresco-secco the drawings were transferred from paper sketches or cartoons in the same way as all large paintings were created. Outlines on the cartoon are pricked with a series of fine holes through which soot or chalk powder is rubbed to mark out the areas to paint. Fresco painting is a slow process with large ceilings and walls often taking years to complete. Once complete it is a static image, a static illusion.

The technique of Quadratura created single point spatial perspectives. This false architecture of perspective when painted onto a flat or shallow vaulted ceiling would continue the real architectural space. The perspective had one focal point and used foreshortening of figures, architectures and landscapes to create the illusion of a deeper space often opening to an infinite sky. Fresco painting is the technique ideally suited to the Grand Manner of the Baroque. The ambition of scale and subject complement the vast canvas of the walls and ceilings of the palaces of the nobility. Whole spaces were transformed as each enclosing surface was expanded with an illusionistic space. A dialogue would begin between each expanded space that conversed across the room and in so doing dragged the real world into the fictional and vice versa.

Baroque Quadratura was only convincing when standing at one point. Augmented and animated ceilings could shift this perspective as the viewer walked around the room. The shopping mall is already an augmented space, a real space overlaid with wireless fed information about products, information or events, a rich and dynamic multi-media experience. It will be interesting to see whether these augmented spaces develop into a new medium of spatial experience or whether they will remain merely as information overlay options to be turned on or off as desired. As virtual reality (VR) becomes mainstream, at first adopted for home and public entertainment, the overspill of this spatial type onto the city will create another layer to be explored by artists, architects and designers. Layering the fictional onto a real space, exploring time, place, sound and activity dislocation, the consequences of such experimentation are yet to be known. What is certain is that the augmented real space will be a hyper-real alternative to the space we experience today. The layering of the augmented onto the real will be read as one single spatial experience in the same way as the fictional ceiling frescos and real time volumes read as one space. What is new is that the augmented space will be dynamic and interactive and that we experience it in two ways, one as a space and two via a device. If there is a further layer of augmentation via a device, a cell phone, pad or wearable, a hybrid interpretation of space materialises. The space has a public domain and numerous subjective, simultaneous personal domains. The urban spaces of Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul, where walls of electronic media enclose public spaces, are a precursor of this spatial type. The information the media walls support is pragmatic and informative as opposed to purely cultural or experimental.

The 1990’s offered VR parallel worlds and the internet created cyberspace. Whilst VR is still waiting for technology to catch up and commercialise, cyber space has been domesticated, taken over by the big brands and normalised and is now little more than an ‘electronic suburb’ (Norman Klein). However within cyberspace new obsessions have emerged that create a constant and continuous dialogue between the data of cyberspace and occupied real space. Selfies, the use of GoPro or dog cams are all forms of video surveillance that turn real space into cyberspace. Cyberspace when recalled upon a device informs real space. Every real time object with embedded information becomes a cornerstone to cyberspace, simultaneously a three dimensional reality and a two dimensional on screen character. Once in cyberspace it can be edited, altered, layered with text of further information such as music or sound. It becomes something else, neither a copy nor an original, neither fact nor fiction. Space has never been experienced with this type of dynamic duality before.

When every object in a physical space has been embedded with some level of technological tangible interface the centralised computer becomes obsolete and a reader is all that is required. All of the surrounding physical space becomes part of the human computer interface. When tracking a users interface to provide localised information the users data is collected. Augmented space is both an experiential and monitored space (‘as the gods look down’ text from above). Augmented space is a 4D physical space (when 4D is 3D plus time) with an additional fifth dimension of information, a 5D space. Augmented space is never permanent and exists within a feedback loop. As information is collected and uploaded from interactions with the physical space the augmented space is modified to accommodate new incoming information that is in turn fed back to the physical space. Augmented space is therefore a space of collective learning and experiencing. At present the user needs an interface device to access and then interpret the augmented space. When the interface device is no longer electronic but biological it is feasible that collective learning or collective experiences could add a further perceptual dimension. The collective experience would have multiple experiential responses; these may be polar or assimilated into a generic.

With the augmented electronic space, the dynamic or kinetic fresco, choreography is added to the skills required of the electronic fresco painter. Unlike previous frescos, in the kinetic fresco every constant has been replaced by a variable and every variable is a fiction. In this world the image has a greater inherent value than the original, as the image is hyper-real, super-intense, edited and associative. The image is the myth that the object aspires to and possession of the object is the means of acquiring that myth. Through this image and its associative context the original object is loaded with additional values and aspirations and as such the real becomes more fictional. When the object is a space we inhabit and that space is further continuously augmented, updated and refined. The two spatial types, real and fictional are blended, their differences become indistinguishable, and we inhabit this new spatial type with blind religious fever.

The Blue Journey dance performance (gif image four) is a work that consists of two elements that happen at different times and are then re-sequenced in the present. The backdrop is a pre-recorded animation that draws upon a limited pallet of black on blue (the work of choreographer David Middendorp). It is two-dimensional and flat, an animated picture plane presented as a vertical surface, as a border enclosing a real space, a boundary. The events on this flat animated space are fantastical, they defy gravity, have no fixed scale, they are able to morph in form, disappear and reappear, they can float, fly and become ephemeral. This fiction is a dream space edited and rehearsed, it tells a story, it is an animated locale, a fresco, a Trompe l Oeil. The fictional space is a space from the past, a historical space that has already happened elsewhere, perhaps only happened in the digital space of the computer screen. A transplanted fiction from another time and place. A space that never existed is presented as a spatial extension of the real.

The Blue Journey performance happens in real time in a physical space, the stage in front of the animated space and consists of a dance, a dialogue between two characters, over viewed by a third party, the animation. To cement the relationship between the performers and the backdrop, two events happening at separate times, the backdrop first takes the role of shadow to the performer. This is introduced simply, as the male dancer walks across the stage followed by his shadow. This simple act of walking with ones shadow apparently falling onto a wall sets the premise for the full extent of the credibility of the following journey. By locking these two dislocated movement pieces into one time frame, the fantastical and the real merge and a mythological landscape materialises. The boundary that contained the real world has been breached and space is extended into an animated augmented world. The transition is seamless; the audience are given no instruction other than this simple introduction that the shadow follows the walking male. This is all that was needed to link an imaginary world to the real world, to link two distinct time zones. When the female dancer begins to move she is beautiful, graceful and poetic, her shadow follows and the audience is dragged further into the illusion of synchronised time. Then the shadow stops, it no longer follows the dancer, but the idea of synchronised time is not lost as the audience is convinced that the shadow is that of another dancer working back stage. Not losing the illusion of synchronised time is essential to maintaining the extension of the real space into the fictional. 

The fact that this space is animated and choreographed gives it a power that traditional fresco was unable to achieve. The extended space becomes a walk into an occupied fictional space as opposed to the previously Mannerist viewed only space. It is important to note that this spatial extension has been achieved simply by silhouette, in a flattened two-tone, two-dimensional space. This is a space that never imitates the real and has none of the full richness of a Baroque Quadratura. In the Baroque, sculpture was often used as the transition from the real to the fantastical, a peripheral border linking the two worlds, sculpture as foreground, imaginary space as background. Sculpture was a static transition; its dynamic comes from gesture and association. Further movement of the viewer and the changing fall of shadow and light would animate the Baroque sculptural transition.

As the Blue Journey performance continues, the space of the fantastical begins to take over and separate from the real. The audience are drawn into the fictional animated space, as this (background) has greater dynamic than the real time performance (foreground). This shift in dynamic from real to fictional is essential for taking the eye from the real to the fantastical and this will be a key component of future augmented space. The Blue Journey animated space continues to increase the credible limits of fantasy as figures dissolve in mist, float without gravity, multiply instantaneously and eventually the silhouette dancers fall as if rain from the sky. The bonds between the real and imaginary are choreographed through sequencing, gesture and touch, keeping the two spaces locked in one time zone simultaneously happening in the present. This interaction is best exemplified when the dancer leaves the real world to join the animated world only to reappear back in the real. This seamless link of the real and fictional connects the two separate time and location zones in which each space was made into the one space of the present.

Future augmented space will explore the possibilities outlined above and as a consequence the delineation between what is real and imaginary will continue to evaporate. At the same time in a crowded world of physically finite space extended virtual space is infinite.

Images left to right. 1 Chiesa di San Pantaleone Venice – Gian Antonio Fumiani 1645-1710. 2 Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio, Rome – Andrea Pozzo 1642-1709, 3 Palace of Liechtenstein – Andrea Pozzo 1642-1709. 4 Blue Journey Dance.

The Surrogate Twin 

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251216 – Xmas Reflections – London

​​​251216 – Xmas Reflections – London > words

Christmas is so many things to so many people, to some a religious festival or a winter ski holiday, to others blatant marketing and commercialisation. I have a very neutral opinion in that it just exists like every other calendar event that has little meaning or relevance to my life. I neither dislike or like it, as a period of reflection and reassessment of ones values it is worthy interlude from the relentless business world. As such I have little to comment on Xmas so instead have included a link to an FT article that better explains the magic that makes some people so wonderful. The ability to see is a rare gift, here in this article, when some see humble fairy lights others see progress, cosmopolitanism, ecosystems and opportunities.

Happy Xmas John Gapper

FT John Gapper

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​​​211116 – Cloud Gate 2 – Sadler’s, London EC1

​​​211116 – Cloud Gate 2 – Sadler’s, London EC1 > words

Taiwan’s Cloud Gate 2 Sadler’s Wells. The performance was split into three acts Wicked Fish, The Wall and Beckoning.

Cloud Gates acts 1 and 2 were a frenetic, manic, complex choreography with the dancers working as a unified swarming mass. Weaving, layering, swirling they laid a mesh of movement across the stage that formed a rich uniform texture. Dark costumes and dark lighting set the mood. The dancers worked off of each other their execution fluid, skilful, quick and precise. The first two acts were the dance equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting, an energetic canvas covered with undeviating fluid intensity from edge to edge.

If the first two acts were Pollack’s the third was a Kandinsky. The lighting was lifted and the costumes pure colour. The choreography more staccato with bunched group work, flying solos and dancers following a line all working within a sparse canvass. The composition continually takes the eye back and forth moving from areas of dance or mix colour conglomeration to isolated points of energy in vibrant colour.

The Contemporary Dance / Pollack comparative is also contextual. When the narrative, meaning, moral, hierarchy and emotive are stripped from a performance the free flow abstract of movement or paint are limiting. This pure abstraction of paint and dance had a purpose in the 1950’s and 60’s but its relevance is questionable today. Contemporary dance now requires additional layers of meaning, rationale and investigation. The Cloud Gate 2 performance was youthful, competent and complex but lacked the magic of either intellect or virtuoso. As an interpretation of swarm Wicked Fish was the most interesting and for the purely visual aesthetic Beckoning shone.

The Surrogate Twin

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​​​161116 – Fruit Pastels – c09/1991 London

​​​161116 – Fruit Pastels – c09/1991 London > words

Fruit Pastels – When will my apple taste as good as my apple drink? 

Aspirational Living and the Predator House Project September 1991.

In the early 1970’s we ate Instant Whip in day glow bright orange, greens and pinks, we wore platform shoes finished in metal-flake purple fauve leather with snakeskin toes and heart shaped buckles, we listened to Glam Rock and lengthy concept albums. The Bounty bar arrived from its tropical island delivered by a dusky mistress of the sun. A would be Bond risks life and limb to transport his gift of Milk Tray. Manikin cigars, those that make ‘you’ the real man, are hand rolled by a husky voiced exotic Amazonian, she’s curved with ample everything. We dressed as genderless rock stars, we jacked up our cars, added false bonnet scoops and spoilers, covered our seats in leopard print. We were sold the dream of this aspirational life and we soaked it up as the reality of the 1970’s with its poverty, unemployment and endless strikes was just so bad. The 1970’s were escapist and fake, a dreamland created for a society that needed diversion from dissolution. This aspirational life became our reality. As our presold dream always outperformed our real life we soon began converting reality to daydream and in this, and only in this space, could we bare to exist. Club life, football life, fanzines and groupies anything to replace the soulless decanting of the nine to five. The TV screen became the primary habitable space. Decades on the separation between reality and imagined lifestyle continues to grow, it blurs and strengthens until the line between real and unreal is so normalised that we all now live suspended within the dream hoping for a better tomorrow.

How can we exist in a world where our dreams by far exceed our obtainable reality without falling under the blanket of depression weighed heavy by our own obvious inadequacies. Our expectations are pre-set so high that life is now solitary as one is never quite able to meet the ideal, perfect in everyway partner, the one we were supposed to meet through our TV ad compatible surrogate.

Predator House explored the potential of these issues to create a house for those that enjoy being marginalised and disenfranchised. With the adaptive camouflage of the chameleons skin, LEDs in the glass mimic the surroundings. Above ground the house does its best to be invisible, an anonymous wallflower, the critic in the corner, the shadow. The outside world is viewed at a distance the house offers a safe arms length third party lifestyle. The Predator House hides as a Rene Magritte’s Le Blanc-Seing, a visual static breakdown, a glitch in the system, the home of a misplaced, misled, misfit. The space above ground, the glasshouse, has no intent to be lived in but instead is the guise of the voyeur, a hidden space from where reality can be viewed. It is below ground where one inhabits ones preferred well-edited, non-confrontational, aspirational realities, the daydreams. Space here is in constant flux, it adapts to ones moods, it can be pre-set and predetermined, its intensity can be turned up and down as wished, just as one sets mood and volume for music. The space could be left on constant shuffle or instead explore a pre-chosen compilation based around the theme of happy yellow or whatever one wishes. The virtual plan of the below ground far exceeds its physical enclosure as it can be both room or landscape, a country walk or a comfy sofa. The space is a virtual space that exists in real space-time blurring the edges of what’s real and imaginary. It is the celebrity space I want and not the mildewed, rental, rat infested, HMO micro pad, four jumpers and a set of thermals, space that I got.

See also 211216 The Electronic Gallery

Images from left to right.  1-3 Predator House; 4-6 below ground Synthetic Space, 7 Rene Magritte’s Le Blanc-Seing.

The Surrogate Twin

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​​​151116 – Kathak Giselle – Sadlers Wells, London EC1

​​​151116 – Kathak Giselle – Sadlers Wells, London EC1 > words

Between 1983-85 The Electric Ballroom in Camden London had a small upstairs room hidden above a Hip Hop floor that can only be described as African tribal, it was male, black, physical, fast and violent. A mixture of adrenalin and fear dripped from the ceiling. The African drum and the aggressive percussion of Art Blakey made for a heady cocktail. When The Electric Ballroom closed Congas and Afro Cuban rhythm could be heard at Dingwalls and the Blue Note club. When Drum’n’Bass took off in the mid 1990’s The Blue Note became the home of Metalheadz. The Shoreditch clubs soon introduced dancers to Tablas and Indian rhythms, by way of Talvin Singh and The Asian Dub Foundation among others, and with it introduced club dancers to Kathak. The professional voice, if your feet and hands can be the voice, of Kathak was Akram Khan.

The semi-professional club dancers throughout the eighties and nineties were scavengers nothing was sacred. Dance moves would be taken from The Nicholas Brothers and Westside Story just as easily as from Capoeira or skateboarding. Each re-appropriation choreographed next to the equally unexpected annexation. A dance step would be taken without reference, a pure phonetic movement to be interpreted as one wished. The delivery and sentence flow of the moves was both the test and jury. Club dancers are intuitive improvisers, no sooner had a move been appropriated it is then given a further idiosyncratic interpretation, mixed into a new combination and as such evolves into something innovative and unique. One only has to compare a 1980’s break dance video with a 2016 world champion competition to see how far and how fast a new language of dance can evolve. The semi-professionals that inhabit the club dance scene are raw and unpolished, they play as much to each other as to an audience. Yet it is this microcosm of popular culture that provides much of the upfront R&D for the dance High Arts. Language development and adaption is intrinsic to both.

I have seen numerous works by Akram Khan, most were solos or duets in Khan’s contemporary Kathak rhythmic style. Kathak is story telling through dance so it was of interest to see how Khan would translate the 1841 Giselle classic? The story remains much the same as the original here it includes migrant factory workers, a love between caste and class, betrayal and condemnation, and eventual redemption. Khan’s Giselle was not as expected. It exceeded all preconceptions and is indeed the work of a mature director and equally competent and brilliant team. Visually stunning, complex and intricate, seamlessly weaving contemporary and classical ballet, heightened by the exquisite delivery of the dancers. With the set and costumes by Tim Yip (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) the razor hipped translucent filigree Mantua dress was a timeless couture piece. The music by Vincenzo Lamagna sometimes reduced to static and looped radio interference created a haunting space in which to perform. Costumes, musical score and narrative all drew heavily upon the original. Professionalism exudes from exemplary teamwork with each contributor lifting the entirety of the final piece. Within this process it is impossible to fully identify who contributes what as the creative process is itself a dialogue of proposals each informing the other, Dancer to Director, Choreographer to Composer, Production to Performance. This creative process evolves semantic interpretations of previous accepted language. At the professional High Arts level the sources are heavily referenced and authenticated and more often refined as opposed to improvised.

The dancers, migrant workers, in Act 1 performed both the mechanisms of work and the movement of the machines that facilitated the work. This impression was that of mechanical weaving where the soloists were free flowing bobbins flying back and forth through a hypnotic repetitive tapestry. It provided the texture through which one could experience a life of cyclic toil. In this story of love and betrayal, Giselle is a peasant girl who is in love with Albrecht an upper class disguised incognito. Hilarion a jealous rival exposes Albrecht’s secret and by doing elicits tragedy, sending Giselle to madness and death. Simple gestures throughout the performance have significance. Giselle’s cupped hand held over the stomach is read as a pregnancy. Open hands on top of each other pulsate as a beating heart. Madness is a sea of undulating bodies that slowly disperse to reveal Giselle’s lifeless corpse.

In Act 2 Giselle walks amongst the Wilis. The Wilis are beautiful female sprits that exist between here and the afterlife. They are also fierce witchy warriors, suspicious of mortal men. The Wilis work en pointe for almost an hour. At the beginning of the act the performers emerge on mass out of the darkness. The effect is icy and poignant, creating a performance, which is both cold and haunting. The Wilis with their wild long hair are angry, footless, hovering, all moving as one army of spears. In this piece Khan has subverted the classical language of ballet where en pointe work is the height of delicacy and beauty to represent instead eternal damnation and suffering. 

The language of the arts is in constant flux it is forever re-used and reinvented. It’s re-writing is as persistent in the High Arts as it is in popular culture by feeding off of each other. There is a semiotic cultural loop where misrepresentation can be absorbed and be as positive as deliberate re-contextualising. Language like culture constantly evolves. The information age has proliferated the speed at which culture is dispersed and adapted and it now operates in many layers and at many levels. This is as true in art as it is in dance. The evolution of language is a measure of societies ability to adapt to the ever-changing circumstance that determines our existence.

The Surrogate Twin

Postscript

Cesar Corrales plays the jilted Hilarion. Formerly trained classical ballet dancers often look wooden when trying to convey a contemporary piece. Corrales is Mexican Cuban and moves with the inherited DNA of Afro Cuban, Tango and Latin. He delivers with feeling and has an on stage presence and maturity way beyond his age. He is a rising star and a dancer to watch.

Stina Quagebeur as Myrtha delivered the faultless and perfectly evil Queen of the Wilis.

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​011116 – Westworld – London

​011116 – Westworld – London > words

The 2016 TV series Westworld written by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan loosely based on the 1973 Westworld by Michael Crichton has taken the place of Game Of Thrones as the must see TV series. Both Westworld and Game Of Thrones are by Time Warner owned HBO. Like Game Of Thrones, Westworld has an excellent story line and script and both shows have secured many positive reviews. Westworld is now showing Season 1 episode 5 and is proving to have the higher intellectual narrative and of the many points touched three stand out of interest.

  • The concept of circular time
  • Is machine AI a plausible reality?
  • Man’s relationship to the machine

Circular Time

One of the driving concepts of Westworld is the idea of re-enactment. The robot hosts of the Westworld theme park live on a repertoire of scripted text and scenarios. The robots have a limited ability to improvise around the scripts to suit and respond to the requirements of the clients. The human concept of time is linear and non-recurring. In Westworld time is circular and forever recurring except with each session there may be minor adjustments and interventions. This allows the visitor to equally re-visit the same scene numerous times. During these revisits, they may decide to view the event from another perspective or to take on a different role within it or experiment with both the dialogue and the outcome. Reoccurring experience eventually establishes ones concept of truth or fact. At Westworld as the client selects and in some way directs recurring events they in turn create their own truth.

Circular time is intrinsic to gamers of all types but specifically integrated into the world of digital games where the gamer replays the same game over and over to achieve a higher score and to move onto the next level. In Westworld, Logan (Ben Barnes) is a typical gamer. The theme park is never real to him and is just an expensive extension of the video arcade. The repetitious nature of gaming is addictive, there is an emotional security in repetition, in which humans see order and build confidence. As confidence grows micro adventures into the next level are explored. In search of forever more immersive experiences the frequent visitor Logan pushes the extremes of the Westworld landscape where the stakes are higher and the game is more real. This would be the normal route of the addicted gamer. To escape the repetition of circular time its intensity is increased. Circular time is also an evasion of reality it is comforting as one revisits the preferred experience infinitely. Reoccurring events become ingrained as dominant memories. To the gamer real time and game time are never confused but the latter is preferred. Real events are slowly displaced and used solely as a means to finance gamer recurring events with a forever-higher proportion of time spent in reoccurring or circular time. To the gamer circular time sustains a self-denial of the real world.

In Westworld circular time ‘the loop’ is intrinsic to the narrative and the audience is uncertain if they are viewing circular time as a lineal sequence. Westworld has been open for thirty years and the robot hosts have experienced a continuous loop throughout. The robots have flashbacks, memories of previous loops their sequence unknown. The show follows various visitors each experiencing their own time inside a loop. Each visitor’s loop doesn’t necessarily exist at the same time as the other loops within each episode. The nameless Man In Black (Ed Harris) could well be William (Jimmi Simpson) thirty years later. If time forever recurs ones place in it becomes confused and shuffled, the urgency of now is lost.

AI

It is presumed that we will soon have AI and it is indisputable that machines can problem solve better than humans, have better memories than humans and can consume never ending quantities of data? Using these vast quantities of data Machines will obtain General AI (GAI) and then reach the point of singularity when they surpass mans intelligence. Intelligence is a loaded word, which I use here to mean clever or smart in the analytical sense. When GAI is reached it does not imply that the machine is self aware or conscious. 

At the core of the Westworld narrative is the principal issue of AI; can a machine have consciousness? In Westworld the hosts all look human, act human and participate in human activities and yet these activities and responses both verbal and physical are scripted. Emotive states such as grief, happiness, despair and anger are over laid filters or better described as ‘Ford’s reveries’, gestures tied to artificial memories. Each host could reencounter the exact same script with either or any emotive filter but takes cues from its immediate contextual environment as to which filter to apply. The host can read emotive states and using this they have a limited ability to improvise mixing or reinterpreting stored scripts intended for use by others. This is a type of role-play but is a long way from consciousness. 

Intelligence has no definitive translation. Intelligence does not necessarily transfer across a range of disciplines. One could have analytic, creative or emotional intelligence but not necessarily all three. It is easy to conceive of a machine having analytical intelligence, even in having creative intelligence when the act of arbitrary association is applied but emotional intelligence is difficult to comprehend. Intelligence could be described as the ability to perceive information and to retain it as knowledge. This is then applied towards adaptive behaviours within an environment or context.Emotive intelligence requires knowing ones own emotive state and how it interacts with others. Creative and emotional intelligence requires feelings and although machines may emulate feelings, they are not felt. Feeling and compassion set up the value systems for right and wrong. Complex problems, the answers to difficult questions are rarely purely objective. However, feelings are only a form of sensory overload and perhaps these can eventually be installed or experienced by a machine. In Ex Machina, Nathan Ava’s creator explains to Caleb that everything in nature is gendered, that all thoughts and actions are (on some level) driven by a reproductive urge, and no biogenetic impulse exists without a priori acknowledgment of attraction. For a machine to attain the status of “singularity” (the point at which the human and artificial become indistinguishable) it must have a sexual component. The machine must have gender. Nathan later describes Ava as having AI as she used self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality and empathy to persuade Caleb to help her escape. The machines at Westworld have gender but as machines are still genderless. 

The Westworld hosts are guided by keywords to trigger scripts and role-play. Keyword referencing is used by chatbots and these are used extensively throughout the internet, for example as customer service providers, Siri, Echo or dating agencies. Chatbots are based upon the software languages of ELIZA, PARRY, ALICE, Jabberwacky having been refined over decades with many self-learning. We interact with them without a second thought; they are the voice at the other end of the phone the text in a messenger service. We rarely question whether we are talking to a machine or a human as we want to believe that we are receiving personal service. Chatbots that provide a service are just a personalised interface. One asks a question and the chatbot provides an answer. The chatbot in a dating agency however differs slightly as its first task is to befriend you and gains its information by building up a sympathetic reciprocal response to ones needs. 

In Westworld the chatbots have human form and the clients interact directly with them. When a chatbot exists within a humanoid entity the relationship to that entity changes, there is an immediate sympathetic emotional connection. In Westworld the gun fighting hosts and the saloon girls are service-providing chatbots, however Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the dating agency. The dating agency chatbot has no opinion but instead follows ones interests guided by keywords and phrases. The client using a dating chatbot, here Dolores, is in effect talking to himself and generating answers that he wishes to hear. The longer the conversation the more refined the answers, the more sympathetic, the more like the client the chatbot becomes. The film Her comes to mind. Software exists that is able to read an emotive state, Emotient and Soft Banks Pepper. The Westworld hosts constantly respond to the visitor’s emotive state and use this as a similar cue to keywords. Westworld profiles its visitors prior to their visits by compiling and analysing their online search histories and from this it knows their desires and preferences. Cloud based facial recognition software would make this information available to all hosts and therefore cue differing responses for each and every clients. 

In Westworld Dolores is the machine in which the fundamental issues of AI will be portrayed, a computer given human form and emotive response. She is fragile and vulnerable, she searches for something that she does not fully comprehend yet it is supposed to lead her to a better more fulfilled life. These are qualities that humans can relate to. There are many similarities between the relationship of Ava and Caleb in Ex Machina and Dolores and William in Westworld. Both men know that Ava/Dolores are machines but in each case form a relationship to that machine on the belief that the machine is self aware, both men then assist the machine to self-discovery and to find ‘freedom’. The audience is being led through the relationship of William and Dolores to eventually form an opinion about the essence of AI. Is Dolores self-aware? The Imitation Game and the Turing Test are represented here as popular culture.

The reality of Westworld, the chatbot in a human form, is already on our shelves. In 2015 Mattel introduced Hello Barbie, an interactive doll designed using keyword search to befriend any child. As yet it has no means to read the child’s emotive state but the days of buying something closer to David in Steven Spielberg’s AI are not far away.

Mans Relationship with the Machine

If one ‘owns’ a horse or a dog as a pet and over time one builds memories through experiences and adventures with that horse or dog and a bonding occurs that could be described as love. The horse and the dog as pets are domesticated and as such are biological prosthetic extensions to ourselves through which we increase our sensory landscapes. Machines also extend our sensory landscapes. It is possible to bond with a car or bike in the same way that we bond with the horse or dog as we bond not with the car or bike as object but instead through the memories of experiences accumulated. Our relationship to an object increases with intensity and longevity. Anyone who has taken a motorbike to the limits of either machine or rider will understand experiential intensity. Whilst travelling at speed, moving ones body around a motorbike tank, transferring weight back and forth and feeling the effect on traction, balance and stability whilst only inches from the roads surface is a symbiotic experience. There is a sense of oneness between man and machine, man and the prosthetic sensory extension. Violinists, snowboarders, yachtsman would be typical examples of sensory extensions but experiential intensity increases the bond, the Samurais sword, the gunslingers Colt 45. 

Love is an emotion that we use specifically for human to human experiences. We cannot love objects that are dead or innate and yet the experiences generated through the prosthetic extension of the tool or machine are just as real as human to human experiences. In Westworld the machine has a human form, accumulated experiences with that machine would be indistinguishable from human to human experiences. In our search for an ever more intense perfect experience the desired machine would be hyper-real and/or super-intense and the experiences with this hyper-real machine would exceed human to human experience. The hyper-real or super-intense is explored and exported daily from porn sites, to photoshopped ads, to colour saturated slow motion film clips, all well edited and enhanced. The hyper-real machine described here is not only the prosthetic extension of our sensory landscape but equally an extension of our imagined or desired landscape built in real time and space with which we interact.

In Westworld Dolores is the machine through which mans relationship to the machine is explored. William is aware that Dolores is a machine, he is aware that he is within a theme park and that he has paid for specific adventure. The relationship between William and Dolores is ambiguous in that there is uncertainty whether Dolores is responding to inputs from William, acting as she is programmed, within her loop, or whether Dolores is manipulating inputs and known client data to lead William. Either way as their shared experiences increase their bond strengthens. It is interesting that none of the human visitors to Westworld have any interest in instigating relationships with other humans. Equally interesting that no human has impersonated a robot host to gain access to the fantasies of another human. At Westworld the human to human experience is of little interest when compared to the human machine experience. As mans technical ability improves within the areas of robotics and virtual environments, man’s relationship with and to the machine will intensify and may one day be the preferred experiential environment. The definition of Hyper-reality is the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. At that point of ‘inability’ does the distinction real to unreal matter if all experiences are recorded and stored as neurological equals? In Matrix 1 Cypher prefers his virtual steak.

Science Fiction is a useful means by which to explore aspects of possible futures. Many of the themes explored in Westworld are of the near and not too distant future. In the search for the essence of AI the error is that the ‘machine’ will be the medium through which it is created. As GAI is reached there will be an explosion of biological progress and discovery. Eventually from this man will build his self-aware metaphorical ‘Frankenstein’ but I doubt it will have any mechanical components or any of the imperfections of man.

Between 1768 and 1774 Pierre Jaquet-Droz, the Neuchatel watchmaker, made three automata dolls as a means of promoting the complexity and sophistication of his work. One of these, The Writer is a small-automated doll that is comprised of approximately 6000 pieces. The doll writes with a quill pen using real ink. A forty-cog wheel operates cam selectors. The cams work three at a time and in turn operate levers. One cam operates left to right, one up and down, both work on a horizontal plane. The third cam alters altitude, the lift and pressure applied to the quill pen. By creating this movement in three-dimensional space the doll is able to write and punctuate text. Spacing is achieved by moving the paper across the writing plane. The right hand of the doll regularly dips the quill pen into an inkpot, then applying pressure with the quill onto the paper to start each letter and providing tail off lift to end each letter. The left hand of the doll moves the paper across a board to separate each letter. The cogs on the forty-cog wheel are inter-changeable and therefor can be programmed. This 248 year old doll is a distant ancestor to todays computer and robot.

Image 1. Pierre Jaquet-Drox The Writer 1768 – A 248 year old, 6000 piece automaton. 

Images 2-7 Westworld 2016.

The Surrogate Twin

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141016 – The Teenage Entrepreneur – London

141016 – The Teenage Entrepreneur – London > words

I was recently asked “what three skills are most important for a successful entrepreneur?”

Entrepreneurs are on trend at the moment, apparently everyone with a beard and a coffee shop is an entrepreneur. It is a frightening over used word and sadly follows the fad’s of the Aerobics Teacher, the DJ, the Chef, The Yoga Teacher, The Wellbeing Coach, The Blogger, The Social Celebrity, etc. They are generally posts for people with few skills and great followings and are therefore marketable to the mainstream. So the word entrepreneur like the others on the list makes me cringe. The web is full of text on what makes a successful entrepreneur along with get rich quick schemes and how to be a millionaire and work 5 minutes a week, followed by buy my book or subscribe. But there are some incredible entrepreneurs out there.

                                      Salesman

                      Team worker      Cross-pollinator

I would list the three key skills of the successful entrepreneur as the above with the Salesman being foremost and Team Worker – Cross Pollinator running equal second. The word inventor or director could be substituted for cross-pollinator but with the word inventor one first thinks of objects and with the word director one first thinks of organisations. The cross-pollinator works across inventions, finance and organisations.

Many of the most successful entrepreneurs come from the US and the key to this is in the words, Show-Business. Show business is an American invention, the business of showing or making widely accessible. Business and to show are intrinsically linked. Americans understand and invented the power of popular culture. If one can see the clarity of turning popular culture into a business it takes little to see that in reverse and turn business into popular culture. The salesman is the ‘show-man’ the man that shows, he is the market man, the guru, the entertainer, the performer. When we say salesman we think of door to door or the guy behind the counter in a shop but to sell someone something you have to convince someone that there is value in that product or service. The product or service has to be ‘sold’ to both the client and the financier. Even the word ‘sold’ here is used as a metaphor as it is not physically selling but instead represents the idea that converts others to share your confidence in a product and its potential. The salesman convinces, he is a seller of confidence. Many of the truly successful entrepreneurs were neither inventors or makers but instead sellers of confidence.

Henry Ford     neither invented the motorcar or the production line

Elon Musk      neither invented Paypal or Tesla

Steve Jobs      neither invented the computer or its software.

Many entrepreneurs such as Alan Sugar and Charles Dunstone have no inventions but all see the potential in a product a service or an idea and have the skills to make others see that potential too. Many entrepreneurs start with a very simple idea and then maximise its potential. In the age of the internet this has benefitted from extreme leverage. i.e. an image that fades after a few seconds becomes Snap with a soon forth coming IPO valuation of $25 billion (due March 2017). Others started equally simply and include a photo compare hot or not – Facebook, a web search by page rank – Google or discount book sales – Amazon. Once an income stream through market capture is established the potential entrepreneur has the capital to truly become an entrepreneur. Many salesmen time the lucky break but the key to the true entrepreneur is not what he does first but what he does next.

Entrepreneurs grow their revenue streams through diversification and they use pre-existing revenue streams to expand into new markets. Entrepreneurs are well aware of their own limitations and quickly build teams of the right people for the right job and delegate work. Once teams are established the entrepreneur directs through cross pollination mixing ideas, inventions, marketing, advertising and finance. Success comes from this directorship, knowing which projects to run with and which projects to drop. Entrepreneurs are rarely first to market but instead capitalise on the groundwork of others. The groundwork of others is the commodity used to ‘convince’ and the showman sells this ‘confidence’. As the success of the entrepreneur grows the groundwork is internalised as the commodity of confidence is established within the brand of the entrepreneur. This allows the entrepreneur to run the moon shot projects that develop into the totally new products and markets and to do this the development teams constantly need to be remixed and refreshed.

The internet has lowered the age of the successful entrepreneur. Unicorn companies, those with valuations over $1b have been created in only a few years. This has created many financially powerful young people and the consequences of this will take time to evaluate. Youth tends to be more cavalier with its attitude towards risk and at present with a planet that needs such radical overall this is a good thing. Doing something is better than the old school doing nothing. However, tackling so many high risk projects will have considerable financial consequences down stream, fortunately entrepreneurs also have focus and perhaps this will avoid the downside of risk. We live in the times of the teenage entrepreneur where the rest of the world holds the baby reigns blindly following our new leaders. What type of world will they create only future history will tell?

Images from left to right. Elon Musk, Victoria beckham, Jeff Bezos, Natalie Massenet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Aneeqa Khan, Mark Zuckerberg.

The Surrogate Twin

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111016 – Swarm – Southbank, London SE1

​111016 – Swarm – Southbank, London SE1 > words

The Richard Dawkins lecture at the Southbank Centre began with Richard reading short extracts from some of his most popular books. Starting with his first book The Selfish Gene of 1976 on its 40thanniversary and working through successive equally well known and well read books up until his latest publication, Brief Candle In The Dark 2015. This was a clear and easily accessible introduction and the perfect summation of Richard’s work to date whilst simultaneously setting the ground for the following discussion. The evening rolled out to be a fascinating and stimulating glimpse into the mind of one of the 20th century’s best intellects and one of the most rewarding lectures we have attended.

I have read many of Richard Dawkins books since my days as a student. As I pull the books from my library shelves and flick through their yellowed pages I recall covering many of them with scribbles and notes, cross referencing various pages on the back covers all in preparation for various academic papers written long ago. As a designer the ideas around memetics were more influential than those of genetics but together they made a rich resource for discussion.

According to Richard Dawkins ‘The Selfish Gene’s’ sole purpose is to preserve its own replication, to pass on its DNA to the next generation that will in turn continue to replicate. The body is just a vessel that facilitates the DNA replication. Evolutionary improvements are made en route and the survival of the fittest dominates. With ‘The Extended Phenotype’ in which replicators try to out propagate each other, the phenotypic effects of the gene are no longer limited to the individual and develop an ecosystem that effects many including other organisms. The Selfish Gene understands that its dominance is not always best delivered as a sole entity and its own needs can often be better met through alliance. Many of our selection criteria could be described as above the level of the gene and at this point, as I asked as a student and still ask as an adult, at what point does cultural evolution, memetics and altruism impact on genetic evolution? It has been shown that the Indian Caste system has already existed for long enough to have an evolutionary consequence. At what point does morality and intellect deteriorate propagation and the chances of species survival and development? At what point does the memetic interfere with propagation? Our cultural and social systems, the memes that now affect our evolution, are not keeping pace with our technologies.

The Obese Leopard and Gazelle – An open letter to Richard Dawkins

Richard is renowned for tackling difficult subjects, his works, books, papers and broadcasts on Religion have rattled many a society. He brings to the open forum subjects that many politely leave aside in fear of offending and these are subjects that need to be tackled as the world is in crisis. The human Selfish Gene has been successful and in our forever more overcrowded world far too successful. So to add to Richard’s endless list of subjects that are well known and yet constantly ignored we need to talk about population. Politicians shy of it as economic growth needs forever larger markets, Religion encourages it as part of its dominance by group size, people talk around it but never confront it as their best friend or neighbour has three or more children. We are all aware that the earth has moved beyond its sustainable level of human population. We are aware of the consequences of human over population on other species that share our planet, on finite resources, on quality of life and on the environment. We know we need a global plan to reduce population and we know that getting World Governments to agree anything is notoriously difficult. But what we really need Richard is an objective list of what could be done and what would be the consequences of each action. In David Mackay’s excellent book ‘Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air’, David quantifies what is actually required for the planet to move to a solar economy. The book is a list of approaches that could be used to address climate change, if used together they achieve equilibrium. The list can be shuffled and re-weighted but any alteration on one component has to be balanced by additions or reductions to the others. The book is a list from which Governments could sit and pick and chose their mix to achieve a sustainable goal. Population needs an equivalent book that lists alternative approaches that can be ordered and reordered to achieve a sustainable population, a book that provides the maths.

So why should I ask Richard to take on such a book? The issue of population first needs to be addressed through education and comprehension. Comprehension needs clarity and accessibility and Richard is master of providing both. So perhaps the title of Richard Dawkins next book should be The Super Selfish Gene with the subtitle Memetic Manipulation to Consolidate Population. In nature the very idea of the obese leopard or the obese gazelle cites ridicule as nature is forever perfect. But this perfection comes at a cost as nature has little tolerance for the weak or foolish.

The Surrogate Twin

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110916 – Revolution – V&A, London SW7

​110916 – Revolution – V&A, London SW7 > words

You Say You Want A Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-70.

The world goes Pop! Popular culture dominates this exhibition with far too much emphasis put on to pop music and the icons of the era as if they were heroic leaders of The Revolution. The exhibition is a crowd pleaser rammed with the over sixties complete with their ‘I was there’ smiles. Consumerism exploded into the new world and the throwaway culture that still exists today was heavily sold. Advertising and business were quick to recognise the market potential of popular culture and those of the Paris riots, Carnaby Street photo shoots or the crowds at Woodstock were swept up in the frenzy. People were sold what they wanted to be told and this in turn helped change the old order. The World Wars helped break the Edwardian hierarchies of class, society and business and the 1960’s offered a possible new direction. With radio and TV now widely available giving young people access to trends and information enabling the popular to become even more popular.

The 1960’s was a volatile decade of bi-polar excess. Mistrust amongst governments, The Prague Spring, The Vietnam War, The Space Race, segregation, with extremes of philosophy. Industry cranked up to sell anything anyway it could no matter what the consequences nepalm, DDT, Contergan. But each of these events had a counterpoint, The Sacred Spring, The Peace and Love movements, The US Civil Rights Act of 1964. What is key to all aspects of the 1960’s is that it has been documented, rationalised, examined and re-examined throughout the decades that followed and as such it has given mankind ample text to re-evaluate himself. One of the strongest images from the lunar landing was not that of the moon but of the earth from space. It was the first time that we saw just how unique and precious our planet is. The 1960’s was a catalyst for the on-going discussions on environment, gender, politics, apartheid, capitalism and protectionism these became the educational doctrines for the next two generations.

This is a large exhibition and on the day we viewed far too busy to access the small print. The exhibition continues through to the end of February 2017 so there is time for a re-visit when the through traffic has diminished.

Images from left to right

Moon Landing 1969, Paris Riots 1968, Segregation Memphis 1968, Vietnam War 1968, Carnaby St, Swinging 60s, Woodstock. Earth. 

The Surrogate Twin