5 Intriguing Things
"It’s a compelling object. Not my target, per se, but targets in general — and especially those depicting or suggesting a human form. Apart from being quietly iconic (we instantly recognize these things for what they are), they’re vaguely chilling. The design’s function is to improve shooting accuracy. And the undeniable subtext is to promote the skilled use of a gun to inflict damage on another person. The specific image depicted on a target can be, you might say, a loaded design decision. And it’s one we respond to here in a novel way."
2. Perhaps the feelings associated with being in space are not fixed or universal.
"Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman astronaut in space, went out and bought The Overview Effect while training for spaceflight. But it didn't resonate with her the way it did with other astronauts. 'When I read The Overview Effect, people started talking about their hearts connected to this planet. But my response when I went into space is that I was connected to everything,' she says. 'I felt much more connected to everything else in the universe, and sometimes on Earth I felt much more separate from the rest of the universe. I felt like I had as much right to be in space or in this universe as any speck of stardust. I was as eternal as that.' Jemison believes that whatever you experience in space has a lot to do with how you see the universe--and your own existence--from here on Earth. In that sense, she says, overview might just be one of many new space syndromes experienced by people who break away from the home planet. 'In some ways [going to space] is almost a Rorschach test for what you believe in, right?'"
"This new, partly digital sand table interface developed for military planning would seem to have some pretty awesome uses in an architecture or landscape design studio. Using 3D terrain data—in the military's case, gathered in real-time from its planetary network of satellites—and a repurposed Kinect sensor, the system can adapt to hand-sculpted transformations in the sand by projecting new landforms and elevations down onto those newly molded forms."
4. The long-used capabilities of our bodies can connect us to the deep past.
"This is something else you should register about sumo: It is very, very old. Not old like black-and-white movies; old like the mists of time. Sumo was already ancient when the current ranking system came into being in the mid-1700s. The artistry of the banzuke, the traditional ranking sheet, has given rise to an entire school of calligraphy. Imagine how George Will would feel about baseball if he’d seen World Series scorecards from 1789. This is how many Japanese feel about sumo."
+ The art on this story: shakes hand, whistles. Shout out to illustrators Jun Cen and Thoka Mae.
"For Death and the Powers, a team of faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students at the MIT Media Lab has brought a host of innovative technologies to the stage. From robots to visuals to sound-producing Hyperinstruments like the giant Chandelier, more than 40 computers are required to run the production, all backed by extensive wired and wireless networks. These computers run a broad range of distributed control systems that were developed for the production, in which each component can share information with any other in order to create a synchronized and unified presence of Simon in The System."
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
concretize. Orig. a NONCE word, unfortunately kept alive by social economists, among others.
The Credits: 1. medium.com / @sarahrich 2.fastcoexist.com / @rzgreenfield 3. bldgblog.com 4. grantland.com/@adrjeffries 5. opera.media.mit.edu
Not My Target, Per Se, But Targets in General