e-volved living

Jeph and I went to a talk at UC Berkeley tonight; part of the Art and Technology Colloquium organized by their Center for New Media.  The presenter was Luke Dubois.  Through sharing a variety of his past, current, and planned projects, he explored the evolution of information flow, and some of the ways he is dissecting and reinterpreting it.

He’s very technically savvy and creates software to play around with data and produce new compositions.  It’s not solely remixing because he creates many of the programs which morph the data, and conceives of new material (such as an original score, original film, etc) which complements what is altered.  As a hard core Taurus, I tend to look for tactile analogies to conceptual discussions so I visualize the data as clay which he is sculpting and reforming.

Zooming in on how we experience time makes sense, because that is being dramatically impacted by the flow of data, which is a direct result of technological evolution.  We watched a few scattered moments of his Academy piece (a compression of sound and image of 75 years of Academy Awards winners into 1 minute segments.)  While the Casablanca segment was distinguishable and surprisingly easy to focus on, the Chicago segment was jarring and unfocused.  As he explained, average film shot lengths have gone from 26 minutes down to 6.  That’s a reality we might not be aware of while viewing the movies in their normal form, but when compressed (as he seems fond of doing) the change is tangible.

For his Hindsight is 20/20 project, the data is US State of the Union addresses.  Using statistical methods to order words by frequency, representing the most frequent (in the format of an eye exam chart) in the largest size and getting smaller from there, the priorities of each administration are distilled for us.  Stripping away the sound and image (of the radio and then televised broadcasts) simplifies the message and allows the reader to focus their interpretation without the layers of sensory distraction.  A great example of using sophisticated tools yet simplifying the output.

I’m not advocating for one minute movies, or written presidential addresses, but rather appreciating the analysis such changes in perception encourage.  And that’s what’s fascinating to me, how the application of technology, which can cause much complication and confusion, can also get us thinking in novel ways.  The ever expanding arsenal of available tools can either contribute to information overload, or be used to provide clarity.  The latter takes real talent.