Bernie Lubell's Interactive Wooden Machines

The Origins of Innocence - A Theory of Entanglement

In this film Bernie Lubell speaks about the importance of those interacting with the machine to work together. In order to make the machine knit the two people need to coordinate their speed and timing.

I find this conceptually fascinating. Not only does the art work require human intervention to fulfill it potential but it requires a relationship of cooperation, understanding, and most important communication between two people. It seems to me that if the two viewers fail the art work fails.

Differnt Ways of Creating the Gears and Movement

It has become obvious that carving the gears from one piece of wood cannot achieve the precision that this project demands. Researching the history of gears and how the gears were created has shed light on different possibilities. Rather than cutting one gear out of one piece of wood the gear itself can be broken down into more manageable smaller parts. This avoids the need to cut curves and maneuvering the blade in awkwardly. Once the smaller parts have been cut it is a matter of puzzling them together, this creates a pie effect. The gears do not need to be carved, rather they can be built by a circular piece with spokes jutting out on top or on the sides.

Continuous Movement

The gears go around and around and around. How does the continual movement of the gears connect with language? Is it possible to exaggerate this type of movement by creating a perpetual motion machine of sorts. As the "machine" will not be creating anything itself it seems to be important that it maintain its own motion.
A pendulum could be incorporated. As it swings backwards and forwards it moves the gears and could create a greater awareness of time and speed, progress and stagnation.

Banksy Bristol Exhibit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYgRMsKJCQo

Thomas Pynchon "Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?"

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html

Questions & Ideas:

The machine is hand crafted from wood, built by hand, and run manually.

Luddite: Thomas Pynchon

Power/Tapping into knowledge

How do you deal with power?

How should the participating people work together to work the machine?

How has brief communication through written language change as technology has evolved?

What is the cost of communicating in a virtual world?

How does anonymous communication effect us? We read information, watch videos, and listen to audio recordings and much of the time we have no idea who is responsible for the ideas if information is not credited who is responsible? Does somebody need to be held accountable?

This has affected the way we relate to ownership, if the creator is nameless, does the user have to identify his source or is the information “common knowledge”?

In the age of Wikipedia, blogging and Digg, even major magazines do not always sight the author of the article, does this mean the information is free for anyone to use and to claim ownership of? When I want a piece of information on a historic date, a biography or a definition or synonym I type a few key words into Google and click on the first article that seems to fit my needs. The concept of opening a book seems laborious and out of date.

Advances in Abrupt Communication

We have always communicated though limited written language, a pictograph, a note, a telegraph, now we have email, text messaging, facebook, twitter and personal blogs. Technology has closed the distance between all of us and has accelerated the process of communication, but our messages are not getting longer. We are unlimited by distance. To maintain fulfilling and intimate long-distance relationships with friends and family that live thousands of miles away is not only completely possible but now utterly ordinary. We are unlimited by cost. There is no longer any need for a intermediary, a sheet of paper or a postage stamp. We are not limited by time. When an email is sent from Bangkok it will arrive in the recipients Inbox with in a moment, the time it takes to hand a letter to someone sitting next to you.
If uploading, emailing and texting is so easy and something that we do so seamlessly why is it we are not communicating more? more detail, more emotions, more words, more letters?