Llull, Bruno, Borges, and the fourth dimension

Charles Hinton worked on visualizing the fourth dimension.  There are some interesting connections between his techniques and and other visualization methods like the Ars Memoria. (Ramon Llull, you'll recall, invented a way of recombining words to make new ideas called the Ars Combinitorica, which influenced Leibniz's grand AI project. Jorge Borges, the scholar and author, commented on Llull and on ontologies.)  Check out the links below.

http://www.waggish.org/2010/charles-hinton/

http://ideafoundlings.blogspot.com/2009/10/maelstroms-from-renaissance.html

http://higherspace.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/borges-on-hinton/

Also, Boole's daughter (I discuss both her parents in the book) was adept at visualizing the fourth dimension.
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/stott.htm

Aeolian harps

This is an Aeolian harp, driven by the wind.  I talk about them a bit in the book, but you really need to listen to one to understand the description.
Steve Cameron is an artist who built one as designed by Athanasius Kircher. Here is a link to his videos.

Here is another one to listen to. Does it remind anyone else of the Myst games?

Natural magic

Ken Perlin (my advisor when I was at NYU) gave a talk recently in Hong Kong. Notice how the tech demo resembles a magic show.  The connection between stage magic and science/technology that was pervasive at the time of Athanasius Kircher and has never really gone away.

Cabinet magazine published an interesting interview on this topic with Simon During.  During contends that magic (in the sense of stage magic) has had a huge influence on the film industry, advertising, and art. All of these take advantage of illusions.

AARON

AARON is Harold Cohen's artistic program.  It was available as a screensaver from Kurzweil for a while. I mentioned in the book that Cohen didn't consider his program creative, but he is interested in figuring out what he would need to do to make it creative.  In an article in Wired magazine, he says:

"All the time in the back of mind is the question of machine autonomy. The problem I would face if I ever figured out how to do it, in giving Aaron as it were its own head, is I might hate what it does...If the program did a drawing in August that it couldn't have done when I stopped programming it in January, then I'll consider it creative."

It wouldn't be hard to achieve what he is asking for in a trivial way-- the program could take in new imagery from the web to learn new leaf shapes, for example.  But I suspect more than this would be needed for Cohen to feel satisfied. When he says, "I might hate what it does" that might be okay if other people liked it. The question is if we can set a program free and yet give it enough of a human sense of aesthetics that any people will like what it produces.

Another good article is from a course page at MIT about genetics and culture.  This describes a little of how the code works, and the design process behind the program. 

Cohen's own writings on the subject

Wikipedia article

Magic, Memory, and the Angels of Information

An interesting essay by Eric Davis exploring the connections between magic and the computer interface-- magical space as cyberspace.
The point of all this, I think, is that magic was once associated with information processing machines, and that our goal with them is to engage an audience with that magic. The idea of being able to build a world with a special formal language is ancient and fascinating.

Generative art links

Philip Galanter has a great list of resources if you want to explore contemporary generative art.

The above image is by Jared Tarbell, who I just learned is one of the cofounders of Etsy! One of the reasons I like his work is the organic quality and colors he uses.  I experimented with dyeing yarn when I was nine or ten years old, and some of his art reminds me of that.

Machinamenta has been published!

The book is available now on Amazon, or on CreateSpace.  I earn more profit if you use the CreateSpace link, but it's more convenient for most people to order through Amazon (if Amazon already has your address and credit card, or if you have the free shipping deal.)