CITY MINE(D)
City Mine -> mine in the city
City Mind -> spirit of the city
Mind the gap/city -> Whatch out of the city !
City Mined -> Undermine the city ! Undermined city. Live the chaos of a city. Be the chaos of a conflict city!

City-Mine(d) is a young organisation, established in 1997, whose objective is to support, initiate and/or undertake projects of a socio-cultural nature, mainly in public open spaces in areas and neighbourhoods which are characterised by problems typical of a large city, such as poverty, exclusion, weak identity etc. The organisational structure is flexible, network oriented, rhizomatic and its activities temporary.
>from *city-mine(d) and the city* by eric swyngedouw, 2000

straddle3_openfriday
·······························
citymine[d] + umos presentation
friday may 30, 2003. 20 h
straddle3. c/ riereta, 32 1-3
barcelona

imago
> mined area

The W3C Patent Policy aims to solve a specific problem -- to reduce the threat of blocking patents on key components of Web infrastructure.

"W3C Members who joined in building the Web in its first decade made the business decision that they, and the entire world, would benefit most by contributing to standards that could be implemented ubiquitously, without royalty payments, explained Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "By adopting this Patent Policy, W3C's Members will continue to be able to concentrate on the business of producing the best possible technical standards for the Web with the best chance for widespread adoption. W3C now sets the benchmark for the pragmatic way to successfully develop royalty-free Web Standards in the current patent environment."

The Policy lends support to the basic intellectual property business model that has driven innovation on the Web from its inception. Companies, researchers and independent developers make contributions of design insights, valuable engineering resources, and hard work in order to develop technical interoperability standards upon which a worldwide information infrastructure can be built.

The W3C royalty-free license requirements are consistent with generally recognized Open Source licensing terms. This royalty-free definition provides reasonable assurance that the Recommendations themselves are available to all users and implementors of the Recommendation. >from *World Wide Web Consortium Approves Patent Policy*. May 21, 2003

related context
> web services - semantic web by tim berners-lee, w3c director. speech at the 12th international www conference. budapest, may 21, 2003
> tim berners-lee full remarks on patent decision. may 20, 2003
> semantic web, the second-generation web?. june 19, 2002
> osi position paper on the sco-vs.-ibm complaint by eric raymond and rob landley. march 10, 2003. "unix, linux, and the open-source movement are vital components of the
internet and the world wide web. sco's attempt to assert proprietary control of these technologies is a indirect but potent threat against the internet and the culture that maintains it."
> w3c process document. 5 technical reports. july 19, 2001

imago
> your life is a web . your data is a web

This hands-on guide to hacking was cancelled by the original publisher, Wiley, out of fear of DMCA-related lawsuits. Now, "Hacking the Xbox" is brought to you directly by the author, a hacker named "bunnie". The book begins with a few step-by-step tutorials on hardware modifications that teaches basic hacking techniques as well as essential reverse engineering skills. The book progresses into a discussion of the Xbox security mechanisms and other advanced hacking topics, with an emphasis on educating the readers on the important subjects of computer security and reverse engineering. Hacking the Xbox includes numerous practical guides, such as where to get hacking gear, soldering techniques, debugging tips and an Xbox hardware reference guide.

"Hacking the Xbox" confronts the social and political issues facing today's hacker. The book introduces readers to the humans behind the hacks through several interviews with master hackers.

"Hacking the Xbox" looks forward and discusses the impact of today's legal challenges on legitimate reverse engineering activities. The book includes a chapter written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) about the rights and responsibilities of hackers, and concludes by discussing the latest trends and vulnerabilities in secure PC platforms.

Hurry and get "Hacking the Xbox" before Microsoft does! >from *% Hacking the Xbox_ (An Introduction to Reverse Engineering) by Andrew "bunnie" Huang*. Starts shipping on May 27, 2003

related context
> scientific computing on the sony playstation 2
> the hacktivismo declaration: assertions of liberty in support of an uncensored internet. July 18, 2002
> h2k2: hackers on planet earth 2002. July 10, 2002
> Xbox Linux project Manifesto by Michael Steil. June 25, 2002. "The Xbox Linux project aims to create a version of GNU/Linux that runs on the Microsoft Xbox gaming console."
> open_source_art_hack: new museum exploration. April 30, 2002
> Child as Audience by Critical Art Ensemble, the Carbon Defense League, and Creation Is Crucifixion. Nintendo GameBoy reverse-engineering. March, 2001

imago
> hacking Xbox

The primary goal of BlogTalk conference is to inventory the current and emerging uses of blogs. The mission of BlogTalk is to survey the status quo of Weblogs or Blogs as tools for professional and private use. It is likewise an issue to think about blogging from different devices particularily from mobile devices such as cellphones or PDAs.

In addition we will talk about future applicatons and uses within a business or educational context. Talking about usage for private use will lead to considerations about Blog services and business models on the one side and on more phenomenological and social issues on the individual side.

Blogs are from a technological perspective micro-content-management systems that separate the content from the layout. In general they are based on databases, template and scripts. Blog-software is available for different operating systems like Linux, Windows, Mac.

Blogs are ideally deployed in the fields of public relations, marketing, product development, knowledge-management, project-management, reporting, research, and of course journalism. They are further ideal tools for personal private publishing.

Another goal of BlogTalk is to bring together active bloggers from all over the world as well all those people from the business world and else who havn't heard the word Weblog or Blog before.

We think we are at a historical tipping point. There are lots of Weblogs already around but only the tip of the iceberg is visible.

The goal of the conference is to boost the awareness of Blogs as proper means for diverse modes for personal and collaborative publishing.

Organised by the Danube-University Krems, Center for New Media. Sponsored by Microsoft Austria, ORTF, and others. >from *BlogTalk conference site*. The conference will be held in Vienna (Austria), May 23 - 24, 2003

related context
> microsoft releases rss feeds to their developers. april, 2003
> sourceforge released rss feeds for all their projects. march, 2003
> live from the blogosphere!. february 13, 2003
> weblog: a new flow of information. may 15, 2002

imago
> talking heads stories

Researchers at Stanford University have developed several new techniques that together may make it possible to calculate Web page rankings as used in the Google search engine up to five times faster. The speed-ups to Google's method may make it realistic to calculate page rankings personalized for an individual's interests or customized to a particular topic.

Computing PageRank, the ranking algorithm behind the Google search engine, for a billion Web pages can take several days. Google currently ranks and searches 3 billion Web pages. Each personalized or topic-sensitive ranking would require a separate multi-day computation, but the payoff would be less time spent wading through irrelevant search results.

To speed up PageRank, the Stanford team developed a trio of techniques in numerical linear algebra ('extrapolation' methods, 'BlockRank,' and 'Adaptive PageRank.') "Further speed-ups are possible when we use all these methods," Kamvar said. "Our preliminary experiments show that combining the methods will make the computation of PageRank up to a factor of five faster. However, there are still several issues to be solved. We're closer to a topic-based PageRank than to a personalized ranking."

The faster method will not affect how quickly Google presents results to users' searches, because the rankings are computed in advance and not at the time a search is requested.

The Stanford team includes graduate students Sepandar Kamvar and Taher Haveliwala, noted numerical analyst Gene Golub and computer science professor Christopher Manning. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation. >from *Researchers Develop Techniques for Computing Google-Style Web Rankings Up to Five Times Faster. Speed-up may make 'topic-sensitive' page rankings feasible*. may 13, 2003

related context
> the anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual web search engine by sergey brin and lawrence page. "in this paper, we present google, a prototype of a large-scale search engine which makes heavy use of the structure present in hypertext."
> the google cluster architecture by luiz andré barroso, jeffrey dean and urs hölzle. IEEE Micro, march-april, 2003
> exploiting the block structure of the web for computing pagerank by taher haveliwala and sepandar kamvar.
> the second eigenvalue of the google matrix by taher haveliwala and sepandar kamvar.
> word burstiness: scanning online trends. march 7, 2003

imago
> arnold schönberg: music production by algorithms

The University of Pennsylvania has installed a virtual reality system that allows a participant full-body interaction with a virtual environment without the hassle of bulky, dizzying 3-D glasses.

Key to the installation, dubbed LiveActor, is the pairing of an optical motion capture system to monitor the body's movements with a stereo projection system to immerse users in a virtual environment. The combination lets users interact with characters embedded within virtual worlds.

LiveActor users wear a special suit that positions 30 sensors on different parts of the body. As the system tracks the movement of these sensors as an actor moves around a stage roughly 10 feet by 20 feet in size, a virtual character can recreate the user's movements with great precision and without a noticeable time lag. The system can also project images onto the array of screens surrounding the LiveActor

While stereo projection systems have in the past been limited to relatively static observation and navigation - such as architectural walk-throughs, games and medical visualizations - LiveActor can be used to simulate nearly any environment or circumstance, chart user reactions and train users to behave in new ways. Unlike actual humans, virtual characters can be scripted to behave consistently in a certain way. >from *New Virtual Reality Array Allows Immersive Experience Without the Disorienting 3-D Goggles*. may 12, 2003

related context
> tele-immersion demonstration: milestone of grid computing. november 27, 2002
> first transatlantic touch: virtual reality touch. november 4, 2002
> first large-scale vr environment for biz apps. march 8, 1999

imago
> stereo play

New research findings on the ability of a fetus to recognize its mother's voice and even distinguish it from other female voices confirms that experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behaviour.

"This is an extremely exciting finding that provides evidence of sustained attention, memory and learning by the fetus," says Dr Barbara Kisilevsky. "The fetuses learn about their mother's voice in the womb and then prefer it after birth. Our findings provide evidence that in-utero experience has an impact on newborn/infant behaviour and development and that voice recognition may play a role in mother-infant attachment."

Along with researchers at Zhejiang University, China, Dr. Kisilevsky, a Queen's University professor of nursing, tested 60 fetuses at term. Thirty fetuses were played a two-minute audiotape of their own mother reading a poem and 30 fetuses were played the voice of a female stranger reading the poem. The researchers found that the fetuses responded to their own mother's voice with heart-rate acceleration and to the stranger's voice with a heart-rate deceleration.

The findings also suggest that the foundation for speech perception and language acquisition are laid before birth.

In 2000, Dr. Kisilevsky's research team proved that fetuses hear by the
third trimester of pregnancy. >from *Fetus heart races when Mom reads poetry. New findings reveal fetuses recognize mother's voice in-utero*. may 9, 2003

related context
> first look at the world: making sense of the unknown. december 3, 2002
> sign language boost children's learning of language . november 30, 2001

imago
> mother's voice force

PSY-GEO-CONFLUX 2003 marks the inauguration of an annual event dedicated to current artistic and social investigations in psychogeography. Part festival and part conference, it brings together visual and sound artists, writers, and urban adventurers to explore the physical and psychological landscape of the city.

In 1955, Guy Debord defined psychogeography as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals." (An Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography). It has also been summarized as "the active search for, and celebration of, chance and coincidence, concurrently with the divination of patterns and repetitions thrown up by the [meeting/collision] of the chaos and structures of cities, personal histories and interpretations. It is based on the technique of the "derive,"an informed and aware wandering, with continuous observation, through varied environments. It can be sought and can lead anywhere." (Psychogeography: a working definition)

PSY-GEO-CONFLUX is produced by ABC No Rio (The Culture of Opposition Since 1980), Glowlab (a multimedia arts lab for the exploration of cognitive | terrestrial | digital space), and the Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association. >from *PSY-GEO-CONFLUX*. New York City, May 8-11, 2003 (exhibition runs through May 29)

related context
> Walking in the City: Spatial Practices in Art, from the Mid-1960s to the Present. ApexArt, january 2003
> International Psychogeographic Society
> Warchalking. Collaboratively creating a hobo-language for free wireless networking.
> GPS Drawing. The Global Positioning System drawing project.

imago
> dialectical movements

The study proposes innovative new approaches and models for art and technology institutions. Sponsored by Leonardo/ISAST and funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the study assesses the current international landscape, lessons learned from recent programs, and new opportunities that would allow art and technology development in a viable and sustainable way.

'Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Money: Technology-Based Art and the Dynamics of Sustainability' by Michael Naimark, a 40 page report, is now available at http://www.artslab.net.

"Arts Lab," proposes a unique hybrid art center and research lab designed to be "fast, competitive, market-savvy, and not-for-profit." Its goal is to be financially sustainable with little compromise of artistic or research values.

"We've decided to make Naimark's report available online immediately," says Leonardo Executive Editor Roger Malina. "It's very timely, and we feel this is the time to rethink what works and what doesn't. This report will encourage healthy discussion and debate. Naimark has written it from the perspective of an artist and researcher who has worked within several of the key institutions in the field. His conclusions are based on this experience."

Leonardo/ISAST promotes the work of artists involved in contemporary science and technology and seeks to stimulate innovative work between artists, scientists and engineers. >from *Leonardo/ISAST "Arts Lab" Report Released for Community Discussion and Debate*. may 5, 2003

related context
> Leonardo. Leonardo is a print journal, edited by Leonardo/the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, and published by the MIT Press.
> michael naimark. media arts and research.

imago
> lab dynamics

This peer-reviewed journal presents the cutting edge of ideas, projects and practices arising from the confluence of art, science, technology and consciousness research. It has a special interest in matters of mind and the extension of the senses through technologies of cognition and perception. It documents accounts of transdisciplinary research, collaboration and innovation in the design, theory and production of new systems and structures for life in the 21st century, while inviting a re-evaluation of older worldviews, esoteric knowledge and arcane cultural practices. Artificial life, the promise of nanotechnology, the ecology of mixed reality environments, the reach of telematic media, and the effect generally of a post-biological culture on human values and identity, are issues central to the journal's focus.

First number include: "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of fact and fiction in the construction of a new science" by Jim Gimzewski and Victoria Vesna, "The shaman reborn in cyberspace, or evolving magico-spiritual techniques of consciousness-making" by Manie Eagar, "Are the Semi-Living semi-good or semi-evil?" by Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts, "The dying dreamer: architecture of parallel realities" by Malin Zimm, "IDENSITY(r): urbanism in the communication age" by Elizabeth Sikiaridi and Frans Vogelaar, and "Social dimensions of wearable computers: an overview" by Ana Viseu.

The editor of technoetic arts is Roy Ascott from CAiiA-STAR. The publication is subscription based. Sample Issues are available from the publisher . The web site offers an abstract of each journal. >from *technoetic arts site*

related context
> Leonardo. Leonardo is a print journal, edited by Leonardo/the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, and published by the MIT Press.
> the enigma of consciousness symposium of science, technics and aesthetics. january 16, 2001

imago
> speculative research -^`SR

Peer into the deep recesses of an ant colony and you'll discover an extremely well organized community with thousands of workers quietly going about their jobs. Some dig nests while others gather food or tend the young. Remarkably, every chore is done without supervision or direction, and some workers even switch jobs to meet the ever-changing needs of the colony.

How does an insect with a brain the size of a poppy seed decide to carry out a particular task? The answer, says a team of Stanford University biologists, has less to do with brainpower than with the ant's extraordinary sense of smell. The scientists found that, when a parade of patroller ants returns to the nest, their distinctive body odor cues other workers to go out and forage for food. This new insight into the behavior of social insects is the latest discovery to emerge from a 20-year field study of red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) in the southern Arizona desert - a project designed and led by Deborah M. Gordon.

"Ants use chemicals the way we human beings use sight and sound. That's how they get the majority of the information about what's going on in their environment," said Stanford postdoctoral fellow Michael J. Greene. "Tactile, or touching, information is important to them, too, but for most ants, vision is not." An ant's antennae are extraordinarily fine-tuned to differentiate subtle smells produced by hydrocarbons. The waxy outer surface of an ant's body contains about 25 different hydrocarbons, which emit slightly different odors that are imperceptible to people, but to an ant provide important information about life in the colony. "Subtle changes in the concentration of these relatively simple chemicals can produce very important and profound behavioral changes in ants," Greene noted.

"An ant can assess the tasks of another ant using hydrocarbons that are specific to that task. It's not an intellectual achievement; it's a perceptual achievement. The ant doesn't have to think to get the difference between one hydrocarbon and another. It just has to have the right receptors to smell the difference," explained Gordon. Ants do not tell each other what to do when they meet, she emphasized: "What seems to matter to an ant is the pattern of interactions it experiences rather than a particular message or signal transferred at each interaction."

Understanding the subtle cues and interactions that enable small-brained insects to build elaborate communities has become a major area of research, not only for biologists but also for engineers trying to solve intricate problems in computer science, network communications and even robotics. Greene and Gordon's study, "Cuticular Hydrocarbons Inform Task Decisions," appeared in the May 1 edition of Nature. >from *'Work stinks': It's more than just a slogan among ants, researchers find*. april 30, 2003

related context
> swarm paintings: artificial art, next aesthetical rupture?. march 12, 2002
> ANTS. From Ant Colonies to Artificial Ants:A Series of International Workshops on Ant Algorithms.

imago
> a poppy seed brain?

A federal judge ruled that companies providing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software cannot be held liable for copyright infringement by users of the software. Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing programs enables users to share any digital file from their own hard disk (including images, audio, video, reports, documents, etc.)

The ruling is a striking victory for the makers of the Morpheus and Grokster software products. In the court's words: "Grokster and Streamcast [the company that provides Morpheus software] are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

"We believe the case is about technology, not piracy, and today the court agreed, making it clear that technology companies are not responsible for every misuse of the tools they make," noted Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Today's ruling reaffirms the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the Sony Betamax case."

"Hollywood sought to control what innovators can make available to consumers," added EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "This ruling makes clear that technology companies can provide general purpose tools without fear of copyright liability."

"Over 61 million Americans use peer-to-peer systems -- more than voted for our President," added EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "It's time we found a way to ensure that artists get paid without killing off this tremendous new technology." >from *Win for Makers of Morpheus Peer-to-Peer Software! Court Rejects Entertainment Industry Copyright Claims*. April 25, 2003

related context
> the free network project: freedom of communication. november 5, 2002
> CodeCon 2002: p2p and cripto programming. february 21, 2002
> napster alternatives. august 10, 2001
> distributed computing projects @home. december 18, 2000
> name spaces in peer-to-peer infrastructure. november 16, 2000
> file sharing integrated with instant messaging . august 9, 2000

imago
> eagle's fly over barbed wire

today we will present the context project concept at Sala Metrònom, a pioneering space in the artistic scene of Barcelona.

context project aims to appropriate and disseminate the emerging culture as a new 'art de vivre' the planetary civilization that technology allows. our online publication context weblog acts as 'an emerging culture observatory.'

the presentation format is a performance. we begin to investigate in a language of the emergency; an expression means that, although coming from the ideas, do not treat about them, but that produces them. thus we will try to express key concepts related with context project through a poetical experience.

for the event we formed an ad-hoc team. a team that tries to express a networked way of looking things. at the origen of this work are the textual and graphical materials published in context weblog, a joint work of josep saldaña and joan escofet. We incorporated the contributions from x-flow (sonic landscapes), solu and fernando casañas (visual improvisations) and beatriz liebe (theater. with iluminations by dramatist andres kalawski).

plastic artist ruben carpeta contributes with a sculpture as a souvenir for the assistants.

context_live@metrònom
friday, may 2, 2003. 20 h
sala metrònom. c/ fusina, 9
barcelona