Imagine Ottawa has put a callout for workshops and presentations for their forum. Since I saw the poster last week, I thought, "I should try and do something.... but what ?" And then as I looked at it just now, I thought, hmm, maybe I should put in a proposal for a presentation about making block parties. I'm still undecided, leaning a bit towards going for it, but just thought I'd let people know about the opportunity now.
Two things I'm interested in are Yoga and Intellectual Property issues. They seem rather disparate, but I've had a feeling there was an interesting intersection for a while now. Well, as it turns out, I was right, and my suspicions were confirmed after reading Source-ing Yoga: Implications for the Commons on the iCommons web page. I guess when it comes to the creation of particular schools of yoga, I could understand why trademarks would be purchased and the practice of particular schools regulated by an organization that certifies one's authority on the discipline. It helps to establish a relationship of trust between student and teacher. I feel that we need a third-party for this trust these days mostly because we don't really live in communities anymore so we don't know who to believe unless there's some kind of institution involved. The organics movement also relies on third-parties to establish trust between grower and consumer, but some farms have circumvented this need by setting up CSAs so that the trust is fostered through a personal connection with the farmer and a hands-on awareness of the farm. I wonder if there's an analog in the "yoga movement".
Anyway, what brought me here was to state that I think it is unjust to declare that some sequencing of yoga postures can be owned. Yoga has been around for a loooong time, which means that it should be in the public domain by now, right ? But now we have these hustlin' yogis driving their Mercedes Benz like they wuz Osho trying to capitalize on the comodification of yoga, and I think that's just whack.
On this issue, I also find myself trying to negotiate my feelings that on one hand sacred wisdom should have "gatekeepers" and on the other hand we'd all be much better off if we shared our knowledge. Concerning the former, I feel that there really is a loss of gatekeepers in our society, and it concerns me because it means that those who want to acquire spiritual power can do it regardless of their intention. I sense the teachings get watered down in the process of making them more exoteric as well. And of course, often the spiritual "inner circles" of our society are determined by class (as are the political), which is not the greatest metric for deeming a student to be worthy of this power if you ask me. I still hope that people will continue to publish media on yoga online; maybe I'll go check out what's there already ...
Today I feel compeled to write about one of my greatest aspirations, which is to build an online community centred around Free graphic design scripting (as in, writing computer programs). Currently I manage a piece of Free Software called pLAySVG, which allows me to write computer programs that generate vector graphics images. Currently it is nothing more than a bag of code made out of the functions I have invented to allow me to do particular things with graphics scripting. So, as for my own needs as a graphics scripter, I have most of what I need covered (aside from some things like : making a path that is a circular or eliptical ark i.e. a circle from 10-230 degrees).
However, I feel as though others are not really benefiting from the Freedom of my work (software published under GPL, images licensed under Creative Commons), and that me and/or my project is not benefiting from the interest of others. I haven't heard of anyone who has used my software, never mind someone who wants to contribute to it. But then I think to myself, if I encountered my software on the web for the first time, would I try it out? Maybe... currently the release is not up-to-date, so I'd have to download it though SVN... and if you don't know what that is, you've sorta proved my point, it's not really accessible to the average Joe. I do realize that to a certain degree, only geeks would use it anyway because its a programing library (a program used in programming). However, my overarching goal for the project is to make something that would enable people to learn about geometry and programing in a creative manner. In order for me to make something that enables user to become developers.... well, I have a long way to go.
First of all, my libraries are in no way robust, they have not been thoroughly tested, and they are reliant on some other libraries that have gone defunct (PyXML). Secondly, and I would say more importantly, there is absolutely no user documentation for them. Lastly, I haven't really gone out of my way to promote pLAySVG, partly due to the challenges aforementioned, so really, I'm in no way surprised that this little project has not generated much attention.
However, my geometric art has gotten a little bit of positive light recently, a guy in a local band wants to use some for an album cover, and the deviantart community has given me some thumbs-up. I'm really not all that skilled when it comes to graphic design yet, I just have some powerful tools that allow me to do some neat conceptual things. I would love to see what someone with some programming experience and a keen eye to design could do.
Which is why I have decided to set a goal for myself to build an online community around graphics scripting. It wasn't until I saw Jon Phillips' iSummit Presentation Slides on Building Online Communities
that I thought of it in these words. I felt pretty honoured when Jon friended me on Facebook, because I've decided he's my new... hero ? ... well, I never liked that word, I'm not so into idolatry ... let's just say I aspire to his excellence in this field (check out his website to see what I mean).
The kind of online community he has built at http://www.openclipart.org is very similar to a component of what would be the "pLAySVG community": a ccHost site that would allow users to publish SVG files (and the scripts that made them) under any CC license (OpenClipart is all public domain). It would serve as a remix community for graphic designers. Frankly, I think many artforms could use a ccMixter-like site, video has some already, but I've never heard a ccHost site for something like poetry and song.... I digress.
More central to the pLAySVG community is the software product itself. I have been dragging my heals on changing PyXML functionality to lxml, which shouldn't be to tricky. I found out about this mess because the Inkscape developer who was central to building a python extensions architecture went throught the same ordeal of having to change over.
I have used my software to build extensions and I would like other to be able to as well, so it's important I stay in sync with Inkscape. I would like to help make the functionality available to Inkscape extensions developers be more centralized because I find that there's some useful stuff in extensions that I would like pLAySVG programmers and other extensions developers to be able to use more readily. From what I understand, the Inkscape developers community also needs a repository for extensions so that people who want to develop extensions can simply submit them to a website. That way not all extensions have to be included with the releases of Inscape... but that's a bit of a different story.
Another thing that's going on with Inkscape is that they're centralizing all of their geometric functionality inot a separate library called lib2Geom. Because there are some really smart people doing some really difficult things for this project, I would like to just use this functionality rather than my own geometric libraries. Already the developers are working on python bindings for it (the library is written in C++, which I'm not so skilled with), so it seems managable.
In the end, I think the best possible way to describe this project would be to say that it could become something like a cross-platform version of NodeBox that could be distributed as a part of Inkscape... I'm starting to feel a little too bright and warm, like my wings are going to fall off or something... I better go make some concrete plans, like: make time to align with people/organizations with similar intentions, and more importantly, find a sense of consistency with my application to this project (aside from my own play with pLAySVG). I find it's rather challenging when it's all coming from my own volition sometimes, which is why I want to partner up and/or get some funding for the project (it really bring a new level of comitment to it) but first I think I need to prove myself to be worthy of that.
Last night I suffered through Richard Dawkin's program The Enemies of Reason, and found myself it a fit of fury. So I decided to write a personal rebuttal to the arguement he makes in this program in a somewhat ranty fashion.
Admitedly, I am have been quite hesitant to write anything about my personal opinions on spirituality, especially since anyone who is my Facebook friend is going to see this in my notes, but I think that's only going to foster a fear of these kinds of beliefs, and so it's time to crack that shell. And I figure, I've already told people just yesterday that I work with the I Ching, and if I'm actually going to make my philosophical beliefs a part of my public performance, then I better get used the challenge of people projecting "New-Aged flake" onto me.
In the beginning, Dawkins names off the gifts of science and reason, one of them being antibiotics, which are the one of the harshest kind of medicine for your body. But garlic has been known to be a effective antibiotic and antiviral healing agent long before science "proved" it to be; it was not a "personal feeling" that moved people to use it as such, but rather personal experience: it simply worked. Also an ancient practice that did not grow out of modern science, Traditional Chinese Medicine has been proven to be just as effective as modern medicine at treating certain kinds of illness (I read this in The Web That Has no weaver). These are just a couple tidbits I know of, but there is a huge slew of scientific evidence for the validity of ancient natural healing techniques which could easily take many volumes to summarize.
The example psychics chosen by Dawkins in this program are the hokeyest unbelievable people you could imagine. This reminds me that there is a lot of New-Aged bunk out there pushed by profiteers who play on others' insecurities and trauma. But if what could be dubbed "psychic technologies" have no scientific grounding, it makes me wonder why the CIA would fund research on things like Remote Viewing and other psychic phenomena for decades.
When it comes to astrology, we know that the moon cycle affects many things in our physical existence, from the tides, to plant's biological functions, to the women's menstrual cycles, so why would we assume that larger bodies in our solar system could not affect our physical and thus mental state. Unfortunately the astrologer he interviewed had no rational explanation for it. I do like the point that Dawkins makes in commenting that Astrology is not an evolving science, and has done nothing to come into concord with our scientific knowledge of the cosmos.
Yes, people will tend to believe broad statements that you give them in horoscopes, and so people are conciously subjecting themselves to a certain influence when they read their horoscopes. But I suppose the point in astrology is to conduct your mind towards those energies that are present so as to go with the cosmic flow. I wonder if Dawkings celebrates the solistices and equinoxes, which tends to be a ritual for pagans, "those bastian stuperstitious types" **fist shaking**. After all, those are points in our calendar that are scientifically chosen.
To be honest, I don't even check my horoscope regularly, nevermind keep up to date on the ephemerus, but I think there is something important about mentally taking note of different temporal cycles. Nevermind gazing up at the stars, that's not really a time machine at all. A calendar is a time machine, it has the ability to allow us to communicate with our future and past selves in a very rational way: our calendar is how we plot our our intentions for our futures, and look back at our former deeds cronologically.
As for the idea of associating symbolics to different time periods, well, I think that running any balanced set of symbolics through ones mind at any rate is a useful idea. For example, I think it's a useful exercise to for 12 days in a row to medidate on each one of the astrological symbols. Why ? Because the astrological symbols are a metaphorical language for our different types of behaviour, and to be able to understand that language gives us the ability to better understand human reationships and to have a degree of control of our own psychologies. By running the cycle in our mind, it's like running a course of learning in imagination.
As for the ability of the human mind's intention to affect the physical world, I drect you attention to the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, which has proven by many studies over a 27-year period that the human mind and its intentions can affect the results of supposedly random mechanical output. I first saw these kind of studies on David Suzuki's The Nature of Things, and it really changed my attitude towards these types of things because I was a very skeptical and scientific person at the time. Another project hosted by Princeton is the Global Conciousness Project, it's homepage reads:
Our purpose is to examine subtle correlations that reflect the presence and activity of consciousness in the world. We have learned that when millions of us share intentions and emotions the GCP/EGG network shows correlations. We can interpret this as evidence for participation in a growing global consciousness. It suggests we have the capability and responsibility for conscious evolution. We make the world we live in, and we can create a Planetary Smile.What Dawkins calls a false positive I call a ritual, and rituals are designed to strengthen one's intentions. One example of how rituals have been scientifically proven to strengthen one's intentions: I know there are studies that have proven that having a group of strangers pray for and individual in a hospital significantly improves their healing process.
I love this guy's skits, he was about the only mime with a good selection of videos online that I could find. You can check out the rest of Mimo Chispa's videos out too. I may just have to borrow this one ... hmmm, I wonder if he'd mind ... of course, I'd put my own little spin on it too.
Well, last weekend I had the opportunity to participant in the Lumiere Festival, which is probably the most majestic event I have ever seen in Ottawa. As I described earlier in my blog, I made a series of lanterns for the festival based on the Platonic Solids and the Classical Elements. I also appeared as my performance character Mizster Cubeball, minus the makeup (Mizster Cubeball doesn't like to show his face unless he is explicitly invited to go somewhere).
So, after setting up my lanterns, I joined the rallying players in the streets to begin the parade march. At first, I was kind of playing on the side lines during the parade since I wasn't really invited to march in the parade. But then I told myself, what the heck, there's a marching Samba band and I have batons, so it's time to play drum major, so I got right up in front of Samba Ottawa and did my marching thing. One of my more long-term goals as a performer is to lead a circus marching band, so that was a bit of a glory moment for me, although I didn't "have the balls" to stay up there the whole time, considering the situation.
After that, I got to see a couple of great performances. There was a really cute Indonesian shadow pupet show. I also met up for a second time with Christiane Claude the mime, who I had spoken with earlier, and helped her rouse a crowd for her show. The performance was a thematic re-enactment of the birth-death-rebirth cycle, and I found it inspiring.
An aside about miming: when doing peformance in the streets during Bluesfest, someone asked me if I was a mime once, and I had never considered that I kind of look like a mime with my chekery shirts and black and white facepaint. So, I ended up improvising getting stuck in a box, eventually turning the sides inside out to form a box outside of me. I don't think I could be a traditional mime because I really like to make sound, but I'm considering encorporating elements of mime into my act, maybe taking a different spin and becoming a "rhyming mime" of sorts. "Hey ! Somebody help me out of this box ! It's got no door nor locks. Until someone helps me out, I'm going to scream and shout."
One last thing I would like to note is the Earthrise performance group, who were helping to raise awareness about the delecate weave of the web of life. They had this really neat "earth drum" which consited of a very wide short cylinder, having a transparent top, and a bottom with an earth painted on it and mung beans inside, such that when you tilted it side to side, it made the sound of the ocean. The also had a beautiful giant turtle sculpture with the world on it's back. I helped to clean up the earth by pulling out my "head cleaner" (a feather duster) and giving it's back a sweep. The turtle has become an important symbol to me because of it's connection with the Lo Shu Square, which formed the basis for the trigrams of the I Ching.
Anyway, after I saw those performances, I did a lot of wandering around and had a little bit of magical adventure. I got blasted by magic ball of light by the mage and sprinkled with magic farie dust when I encountered the Mini Circque duo. I walked the glowing labrynth and shined my light in the middle. And in all of my wanderings, I got to do lots of play with my roley poles.
To be completely honest, I found myself quite disoriented amongst it all. After the festival was over, I discovered there were a bunch of performers that I would have really liked to see (a full list is on the website), but I had no way of knowing what was going on. Two things that I wished I would not have missed for the sake of inspiration were the fortune teller, because I am interested in doing I Ching divinations as part of my act, and secondly, there was a world-class magician, Michael Bourada, and I am also learning to do magic tricks (luckily I got invited to a magic circle by another magician I met). Oh, that reminds me, if you're interested in giving me an opportunity to practice either form of magic, let me know, and I'll give you a show.
So, as much as I loved the festival, my biggest constructive criticism of it is that there was no orientation to it. I realize that this bias is partly due to the fact that I tend to get lost. Still, I think I would like to help bring some more order to the festival for next year, because I'm sure there's others like me out there. I had some ideas on how to help conduct the masses (if they so chose)
Last night I went out to the Buskersfest and saw some amazing acts, most notably The Flying Ducthmen; with 7-ball juggling and a 12-foot unicycle ride, my mind was thoroughly blown. Unfortunately I made plans to travel home this weekend so that's about all I will see, but at least there's a list of performers so I can check out their website. After seeing a handful of street performance acts, I'm starting to envision how I can fit my performance character Mizster Cubeball into this kind of venue. "Learn from the pros" they say ...
So, for the past couple of weeks I've kind of lost touch with humanity and with my body, caught up in pursuits of the mind. Because of this, I've been feeling a little alien ... so it's only logical that I would be attracted to crop circles. My attention was drawn to them when I saw a poster for a movie about them, which I did not attend, but which caught my eye because of the neat geometric design. So for artistic inspiration I did some research on crop circles, at first just looking at images of them. Then I recalled that about 6 years ago saw a TV show where the "secret" of the crop circles was revealed; all along it had been a group called The Circle Makers who had been making the crop circles with some wood boards and some string. So I visited their web site for the first time recently and found some interesting stories and philosophical musings. I also discovered that they have published a book on their experiences in circle-making, which includes a guide on how to make them yourself. I really appreciate how they are sharing their artform with others. I'm not sure if I'd ever want to make crop circles out of respect for the farmers and their riches; they have it bad enough already. However, I am interested in plotting their images digitally and I'm sure I could gain a lot of inspiration from their publication; here's a little sample of some designs I have reproduced already using a combination of my pLAySVG libraries and Inkscape:
