Nature Abhors a Vacuum (and so do I).
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Index 2004
Titanic
Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: “What does this vaingloriousness down here?”…—Thomas Hardy, ‘The Convergence of the Twain’, V
The oceans of Titan aren't like the oceans of Earth. Yes, the tides move the ocean--but they also move you. We're on a lander (actually a skimmer) at low tide--prancing around in the low-g--when out from the sea erupts a something. As we train the skimmer spotlight on it through the soupy fog, it looks geological, parts ramified upon parts like some complex foam. But its movements seem to imply something more complex--maybe life? Is Saturn's gravity just pulling a dumb formation out of the organic soup or am I looking at a sentient being with whom it's my imperative to communicate. What do you say to a piece of complex foam? I wouldn't want to insult it, but at the same time one has to think of the impression one makes on the crew members.
So, at the risk of sounding like an idiot, I say "Hello, I'm Adam and we're from the third planet," as I point to myself then hold up three space-suit fingers. Right, I know, geological ramifications of another planet's moon are pretty unlikely to understand the implications of three fingers, much less the English language, but what else am I going to say? Nothing much happened, but as we back off the gas on the skimmer and train some instruments on the eruption, it darkens and splits into two parts...
So, I guess, using our idiotic communication algorithm, the ramification's name must be 'Dark' and it's from Venus. I guess when you're the first humans on a planet with life potential you get a little gung-ho about the whole 'first contact' thing. Even if it is a "life-form", the chances of 'Dark' being sentient and able to communicate with me are pretty microscopic.
Art and Education
Contemporary Art Month cometh and every day brings an update to the calendar. I'm not the only one working hard though--Tatum and Gupta are clearly kickin' ass to make this thing happen. I'll be at the CAM-19 event tomorrow night and it should be an amazing opening. For 1 of 19, Buttercup will re-enact the "Goodbye, Blue Monday" show. We released the documentary of the original on the gRacKle MunDy site today--it's a great testament to the genius of my friends.
Besides those two projects, much of my focus has been devoted to framing the web site for Askew studios. I'm still not sure exactly what the name means, but its mission and operation seem pretty cool. Basically, it is a not for profit organization that helps local youth create and promote mosaic tile art work. Check out the site (it's still just a skeleton) and tell me what you think.
Film and Art
I've been working hard on preparing for the San Antonio Underground Film Festival and Contemporary Art Month. Saw a great show with The New Year and Tortoise last night in Austin. Here are some film reviews for the festival that I wrote for Voices of Art:
3 days, 55 films
If the San Antonio Underground Film Festival (SAUFF) weren't so underground, it would be a local institution. In its 10th consecutive year, the film festival shows anything and everything from homemade cartoons and small time productions to directorial debuts and avant-garde shorts. The only common denominator is independent effort and freedom from the corporate movie machine. Last year's SAUFF packed the Alameda Theatre to standing room only with more than 80 independent films over a three-day weekend. This year's festival moves to Sunset Station at 1174 East Commerce and will take place over the weekend of June 25th - 27th.
The longevity and success of the film festival is mainly due to the devotion of its founder, Adam Rocha. The original name and inspiration for the film festival was the "Golden Shower of Hits" and his film fest retains its irreverent attitude towards Hollywood's commercial products -- definitely the only film-festival in the world that awards a low-rider bike as the grand prize. Dago Patlan directs the panel of judges selecting the movies and the prizewinners, but we've taken an early look at some of this years strongest entries.
Support Project Antarctica
Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was not confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle.
Not until 1840 was it established that Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands. Several exploration "firsts" were achieved in the early 20th century. Following World War II, there was an upsurge in scientific research on the continent. A number of countries have set up year-round research stations on Antarctica. Seven have made territorial claims, but no other country recognizes these claims. In order to form a legal framework for the activities of nations on the continent, an Antarctic Treaty was negotiated that neither denies nor gives recognition to existing territorial claims; signed in 1959, it entered into force in 1961.
Fixing Internet Explorer: a cross browser tutorial for CSS fixed positioning
One of the major positioning schemes of CSS-2 is fixed positioning. It theoretically allows the positioning of block-level elements with respect to the user agent veiwport rather than the scrollable browser window. Because fixed blocks don't scroll with the window, a single page can emulate the look of a frame-based layout without all the nasty complications. Great, a couple of lines of CSS and we can trash the whole frameset -- you're going to need more than scroll-bars to escape the clutches of my navigation. Now I know that many people find fixed positioning annoying but I love how it creates the illusion of 3-dimensionality through parallax and scrolling. If you think this is bad, wait until I figure out how to make elements scroll at variable rates. Here's a simple example: fixtest mark 1.
