AUTHOR :
DATE POSTED : 12/6/2003
CATEGORIES : nettime
TAGS : architecture minimalism objectification rant

Re: software as brainboxing

wade tillett on Fri, 22 Nov 2002 10:01:37 +0100 (CET)

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Re: <nettime> software as brainboxing

IF one were to link all of these individual life databases together, via some sort of metanarrative based on position and time, there is the possibility of creating a sort of ultra-rational 4D historical representation. Put a GPS stamp on all the input, uplink a tag to a centralized database, make the stored data on people’s computer available, and then, upon entry of a search for a certain time and place – you could pull up all the photographs, sounds, or any other form of recorded representation linked to that time/place. Then, with intense processing and a minimum number of input data sources (cameras, etc.), a singular 4D data source could be compiled. That is, a centralized history based on everyone’s personal ‘surrogate memories’. What could be produced is a sort of ultra-rationalist centralized ‘surrogate memory’ which would be passed off as nothing less than a Reality of History. The multiple camera images could be assimilated into a singular time space image based on a GPS stamp indicating time and position (relative to the absolute GPS time-space). By using the GPS information and perspective algorithms, a virtually inhabitable time-space could be recreated from which one could enter and explore. That is, NEW perspectives of an already passed time-space could be generated, and presented as accurate representations of the past reality. Areas lacking adequate data could be infilled with models – of buildings, of people, of weather – that is, with macro-data. Based on a sort of reality consensus, off the mark data would have to be discarded during processing. For example, imagine a complicated crime scene in a crowded tourist district. Multiple criminal acts committed simultaneously under the eyes of multiple cameras. A face caught in a various cameras and in various frames could re-processed into a 3 dimensional model, based on the multi-perspectival frames, and then relocated and moved to correspond with the fourth dimensional data. A close-up frontal mug shot could be produced when none were actually taken. Overlapping sounds from various cameras could be placed onto each other and mapped to the 4D model. One could zoom in close to a whisper that was not decipharable in any of the 3D (stereo audio + time) camera sound files, but which could be reconstructed by parsing the background data to a location based on overlaps and the GPS marks. Each participant, each element could be reconstructed into a 4D history in which the contemporary viewer selects the new position, perspective, time, rate, and data to display. The police, in the recreation, show a zoomed out axonemetric aerial view, with the figures in question conveniently highlighted, selectively clicking on each to hear the audio emanating from that source. Beyond the camcorder and the surveillance camera, history becomes the virtual model of reality, recorded in real time, but accessed on demand. —– http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993084 19:00 20 November 02 “Imagine being able to run a Google-like search on your life,” says Gordon Bell, one of the developers. …<snip> The system can also be used to build narratives involving other people, events or places. Searching for the name of a friend would bring together a chronological set of files describing when you both did things together, for instance. …<snip> Bell believes that for some people, especially those with memory problems, MyLifeBits will become a surrogate memory that is able to recall past experiences in a way not possible with the familiar but disparate records like photo albums and scrapbooks. “You’ll begin to rely on it more and more,” he believes. …<snip> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and “info nettime-l” in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net