The Golden Record

Here is the Golden Record compiled on mp3 along with a good number of the images. I'm keeping the files at the following link. They are not organized on this link in the original order, so to see the order, you'll have to go to goldenrecord.org or nasa.gov.

http://sustainabletheatre.org/goldenrecord/
(this compilation of media is for research purposes only and should not be redistributed)

wunderkammen

i was too tired to pipe in much at this point in the conversation last night, but to my knowledge the original cabinets of curiosities were called "wunderkammen" - something i learned through a kiki smith exhibit a few years ago through her creation of her own personal wunderkammen, which was quite visually arresting. google is sort of failing me at the moment - i'm not coming up with much - but please add to the list of links if you find anything. obviously for the phase #1 showing this won't be so elaborate - but i imagine this could be quite awesome in the future.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/26/HOLAU35EJ.DTL&hw=glasses&sn=099&sc=114

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities

http://cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/pg/stein.html

Heart Transplant

Here is the This American Life story I heard a while back of the little girl who receives a heart transplant and ends up meeting the mother of the little boy whose heart she receives. Here's the official blurb and the link to the story. You have to skip ahead to about 20 minutes in.

Act Two. Lucas and Sarah.

When Sarah was 10 years old, she got a heart transplant. Soon after, her mother decided to find out more about the person who saved her daughter’s life. She discovers the donor was a little boy her daughter’s age, and that he’d been murdered by gang members who mistook him for his older brother. The two families begin to connect—everyone but Sarah, who’s not at all sure she wants to know anything at all about the boy or the family that lost him. Reporter Jill Wolfson tells the story. (21 minutes)

The National Institue on Aging

http://www.nia.nih.gov/

MISSION
NIA’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of older Americans through research, and specifically, to:

Support and conduct high-quality research on:
Aging processes
Age-related diseases
Special problems and needs of the aged

Train and develop highly skilled research scientists from all population groups

Develop and maintain state-of-the-art resources to accelerate research progress

Disseminate information and communicate with the public and interested groups on health and research advances and on new directions for research.

Life Extension and Immortality

Here is a real audio link of Interviews with Leonard Guarente of Elixir Pharmaceuticals and Stephen S. Hall, author of 'Merchants of Immortality' on the real possibilities of life extension. Might be good for use in tonights improvs. Unfortunately I'm at work so could not rip the audio for use on portable players.

http://media.cbc.ca:8080/ramgen/cbc.ca/thecurrent/media/200307/20030704thecurrent_sec3.rm

SpaceCollective

This is a fascinating online community engaging in projects that touch on many areas of our research. Here's how they define themselves:

SpaceCollective: Where forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction today.

Here are some of their projects:

Voyager Update Project (not officially started yet, but the first post is a good read)

The Great Enhancement Debate (transhumanism...especially interesting are 3 introductory videos by a woman named Nina.)

Timecapsules (each member has an online timecapsule)

While poking around I also found out about Air Force pilot Joe Kittinger, who in 1960 flew 30km straight up into the sky using a pressurized, high-altitude balloon. This very nearly made him the first man in space. He then free fell back to earth for 20 kilometers, moving so fast that he broke the sound barrier! Here's a video:

Death/Immortality Text and the Count of St. Germain

I uploaded a file with some death and immortality text to Mission Control.

I've also come upon an interesting historical/mythological figure named the Count of St. Germain, who is considered to be an immortal by some theosophists and previously reincarnated as various figures including:

• Ruler of a Golden Age civilization in the area of the Sahara Desert 70,000 years ago, originally a colony sent out from Atlantis.
• High priest on Atlantis 13,000 years ago, serving in the Order of Lord Zadkiel in the Temple of Purification, located where the island of Cuba is now
• Saint Joseph, first century A.D., Nazareth. Husband of Mary and Guardian of Jesus
• Merlin, c. fifth or sixth century, Britain. Magician and counselor at King Arthur's Camelot who inspired the establishment of the Order of the Knights of the Round Table
• Roger Bacon, c. 1220–1292 A.D., England. Philosopher, educational reformer, and experimental scientist; forerunner of modern science renowned for his exhaustive investigations into alchemy, optics, mathematics, and languages
• Christopher Columbus, 1451–1506 A.D. Believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy and settled in Portugal. Landed in America in 1492 during first of four voyages to the New World sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
• Francis Bacon, 1561–1626, England. Philosopher, statesman, essayist and literary master, father of inductive science and herald of the scientific revolution.

More information and accounts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_of_St_Germain

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/germain.htm

Photos from Wisconsin Death Trip

I don't know if this is exactly in the vein we're looking for, but I'm trying to think a little out of the box on death.

I'm going to rent the film and see if there's anything that might be useful, but here are some photos from the book of the same title. It's based on a collection of late 19th century photographs by Jackson County, Wisconsin photographer Charles Van Schaick, mostly in the town of Black River Falls, and local news reports from the same period. It includes accounts of all kinds of crazy events (barn burnings, attacks by gangs of armed tramps, threatening and obscene letters, madness, witchcraft etc) but also death by diphtheria and smallpox (lots of funerals). You can view more photos of the same period by Van Schaick on the Wisconsin Historical Society website.

Minnesotans Build a Beating Heart

Just another reason why Minnesota rules...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18023493

"A custom-built replacement organ sounds like science fiction, but researchers working in Minnesota have figured out a way to construct a beating rat heart in the lab...

...Taylor and her colleagues knew that when nature builds a heart, the cells attach to a kind of scaffold, or frame, made of things like proteins. "It's basically what's underneath all of the cells, the tough part that the cells make to hold each other together," she says.

The researchers decided to see if they could take a dead heart and remove all of its cells, leaving this scaffold behind. The scientists thought they could then use the scaffold to construct a new heart out of healthy cells."

Video here: https://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embed/7238

Random science news from today: transhumanism and space travel

Transhumanism (yo Jerry) news:

Double amputee runner disqualified from Olympics trials because he is TOO FAST, and his metal spring-based legs-feet are 30% more efficient than the traditional human angle:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/17/prosthetic-limbed-runner-disqualified-from-olympics/

Space travel news:

New drinking cup for use in non-gravity environments --this invention takes advantage of liquid adhering to surfaces:

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13194-corkscrew-cups-could-keep-space-drinks-flowing.html

monsieur tomas

not the video, but the audio.

James Turrell, "acclaimed light and space sculptor," will be in Portland for a lecture given by PNCA. It will be February 16th at 4:00. Not quite sure where, but prob at PNCA.

End of life, video logged

Here's the link to amazing decision by this woman, Lovelle, to blog/document the last months of her life for the public.

http://next.oregonianextra.com/lovelle/

Answers to the 3 big questions

1) Goal of Project X
To make people sympathize with, and be infuriated by, and desperately agree with the human desire for a life larger than themselves.

2) Xtudes that are unforgettable.
a) Transhumanism lecture, real tech for longer life...ending aging argument
b) Hearing people (on video) tell very individual stories about near death, and death of those close to them
c) Space Travel...in bathtub with Liz, asking people to describe (in complete naive way) the photos of human subjects and 'life on earth'


3) How Project X will impact audience
This will be a guided journey, during which the audience steadily deepens their understanding of the push for immortality in others, then-unexpectedly-in themselves...privately, slowly personal beliefs audience hardly knew they held tumble out.

space nerd test

http://space.about.com/library/quiz/nerds/blspacenerdtest1.htm

man on the moon

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/Videos/StarChild/space/1st_step.mov

good quality file of the first steps on the moon! here is the transcription. we should use this in improv tonight.

AUDIO:

Neil Armstrong:
OK Houston, I'm on the porch.

Houston Mission Control:
Roger, Neil. And we're getting a picture on the TV.

Neil Armstrong:
I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LEM footpads are on the, uh, depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches. Going to step off the LEM now. That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.


VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Image of LEM shadow on the moon. Neil Armstrong is decending the ladder (video from above). Quick shot of someone at Mission Control. Back to Neil Armstrong on the ladder. Video from another LEM leg of Armstrong descending to the footpad. Video of Mission Control showing people watching the descent on the ladder. Armstrong descending all the way to the surface. Close up shot of boot next to footprint on the surface.

Answers from Emma

1) Man's quest for meaning, recognition and immoratlity in the cosmos, as in the self.

2) a. Julie's space walk. It sort of sums the whole project up for me, is fun, very versatile and applicable for a lot of different interactions/installations/uses, can link things together, is aesthetically pleasing, can be great for just a viewing/spectating experience, can also be something to emulate

b. Jonathan's recycled stories. Typifies the kind of audience interaction experience we seem to be looking to create. There was the element of discomfort, surprise, and genuine intimacy.

3) Experiences and experiments in interaction, togetherness, intimacy, isolation. In the world, in our selves, in the universe. The search for what that search means and how it is all related.

Response : First human in outer space - Major Yuri Gagarin

The sunlit side of the earth is visible quite well, and one can easily distinguish the shore of continents, islands, great rivers, large areas of water, and folds of the land. During the flight I saw for the first time with my own eyes the earth's spherical shape. You can see its curvature when looking to the horizon. I must say the view of the horizon is quite unique and very beautiful. It is possible to see the remarkably colorful change from the light surface of the earth to the completely black sky in which one can see the stars. This dividing line is very thin, just like a belt of film surrounding the earth's sphere. It is of a delicate blue color. And this transition from the blue to the dark is very gradual and lovely. It is difficult to put it in words. When I emerged from the shadow of the earth the horizon looked different. There was a bright orange strip along it, which again passed into a blue hue and once again into a dense black color. I did not see the moon. The sun in outer space is ten times brighter than here on earth. The stars are visible very well: they are bright and distinct. The whole picture of the heavens has much more contrast than when seen from the earth. Everything was easier to perform, this is understandable. Legs and arms weigh nothing. Objects are swimming in the cabin, and I did not sit in the chair, as before, but was suspended in mid air. During the state of weightlessness I ate, and drank and everything was like on earth. I was working in that state, noting my observations. Handwriting did not change, though the hand was weightless. But it was necessary to hold the writing block, as otherwise it would float away from the hands. I was in communication contact on various channels, using a telegraph key. I was convinced that weightlessness has an effect on the ability to work. The passage from weightlessness to gravitation, to the appearance of the force of gravity, happens smoothly. Arms and legs feel as previously, the same as during weightlessness, but now they have weight. I ceased to be suspended over the chair, but eased myself into it.

FUTURE HI

This is a must see site. It has a huge amount of primary sources, most of which are right on topic for us, in the form of audio recordings, interview transcripts, photos, etc.

http://www.futurehi.net/index.html

Coast to Coast AM

Has anyone checked out this radio show Coast to Coast AM? Lots of crazy stuff there: aliens, outer space, time travel, conspiracy theories, on and on and on. Could be a great resource of first person text. I started looking through the past episodes and wow!

PBS Program: Exploring Space, The Quest for Life

This could be an awesome program, and the website has a bunch of interesting features, a space simulator for instance! (Do you have what it takes to be an astronaut?). They also have a good list of resources (websites and other PBS shows).

Does anyone have the time/ability to record the show? It's on OPB HDTV this Friday at 8am and Sunday, January 27th at 6am.

NY Times article - cosmology & reincarnation

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/science/15brain.html?em&ex=1200632400&en=c3b4dba4881c96e2&ei=5087%0A

Answers from Marc

1) To escape the bonds of human separation, go into space, and look back at home.
or
To bring the elite secrets of space travel, time travel, and immortality to the people.

2a) Maesie's life extension pod open house was an incredible idea. I loved the limited interaction where the challenge isn't as much what to say as how to communicate. I think that an audience would feel less pressure in that situation as there is a clear liminal delineation.

2b) Liz's Mobile over golden record. So simple and effective. Beautiful

2c) James' conversations about spirituality. I just really liked the rotating conversation model. It felt kinda like speed dating with philosophers.

2d) Alex's mirror experience. It was very effective for me. I particularly liked the mixing of prepared text and personalized elements. I think it's interesting to try the same thing except the voice could be over a speaker or headphones so that it seems recorded until it gets personal.

2e) Julie's personal time capsules.

3) You will prepare a time capsule of your life on Earth. You will find in the solitude of space a new view of yourself. You will find your humanity reflected by the light of the cosmos. You will have your first Vodka Tang.

Answers from David

Though I no business doing so, as I've only seen the process from
afar, here are my attempts at answers to your 3 questions:

> 1) In 15 words or less, what is the goal/purpose of Project~X~?

Ha ha. To use hard science and its legacy to create a *spiritually*
transforming experience for the audience.


> 2) What two research presentations/eXtudes have spoken to you most
up to this point? Why? (you are welcome to choose your own)

Oh my. Exploring the escape from gravity (or some other earthly
normalness) seems like a license-able prospect (because it is
theatre, after all, you can get away with some seemingly impossible
things)

> 3) If you had to explain right now to a theatregoer what the
experience of Project~X~ will be like, what would you say? (be as abstract or
concrete as you like/can)

Quasi-empirical truth about the cold nature of the universe
resonates through the charlatan devices of theatre. ha ha!

flame on dudes!!!!!

David C

Answers from Alex

1. to give the audience true human experiences and the amazing ways in which people communicate with each other pertaining to both what it is to be living and what it means to die.

2. i liked maise's writing on the shower curtain etude. just a great way to experience and communicate with an audience, and a weird dip into past technology.

i also liked jonathans telling audience stories and having them tell them back and then recycling them back again. again just great beautiful ways to interact with an audience and another human being.

3. the lengths to which we go to be remembered and hold onto the people that we love both living and past. a journey into holding onto something dear and sharing it with people. things remembered and things held dear know no bounds of time.

Answers from Jerry

1) The goal of Project X is a personal journey exploring how humans attempt to define our human experience and advance it into the future.

2) Liz's space mobile struck me as a simple, playful and somewhat awe-inspiring moment of connection to something outside ourselves that captured the wonder of the cosmos. Maesie's life bubble stuck with me as a sad yet beautiful paradox of what we strive for in the advancement of our species vs. the desire to preserve the natural joy in our humanity.

3) The Project X experience will feel as if it could not have taken place without the audience's presence. The piece is about them, their interaction, memories, interpretation, and individual encounter with the world around them. They complete the puzzle that tells a story of who they are and where they want to go.

3 Questions

1) To engage the question: How does humanity’s collective striving towards immortality and outer space impact an individual’s choices about and view of life.

2) My etude in the “life extension pod” resonates with me because it’s a physical embodiment of the inside/outside motif I was talking about on Sunday and it also gives the audience an active role of discovery, hopefully discovering something about themselves through investigation of another person. Sy’s archeological installation struck me for a similar reason. The audience’s internal process was provoked not by direct questions, but by interaction and discovery. That said, Jonathan’s etude has really stayed with be precisely because of its directness. I can’t remember the exact questions, but the feeling of being forced to answer a complex question with only “yes” or “no” is something I won’t forget – in a good way! It was uncomfortable, yes, and we should be careful, but being given the opportunity to engage those deep questions (with no “out”) is rare.

3) Intimate, surprising, a little uncomfortable, not for everyone, heady, active, physical, lingering.

Definition

Project X Anti-Gravity Early Protoype

3 questions....

1: the goal of this project is to capture, release, & educate the chosen populace.

2: I loved my satellite Installation extude on 11/13/08
I loved Jerry's picking sometihing & taking it w/ you to the capsule.

3: I loved Alex on the other side of the wall. Writing, listening, questioning, & distributing.

4: I loved Maesie in the pod extude, writing her life on the plastic..

5: I loved my mobile set to the golden record...if I had the funds...It would be brilliant picture it...I only need 50.00 bucks.

3: The experience is....that of...Capturing life, letting it go, reclaiming it, searching for it, discovering it, analyzing it, & finally coming to terms the not answering it...is okay....

my favorite space oddities!

david bowie IS a research topic in himself!





barbarella



woody allen's sleeper

Major Toms

I've been thinking about this Peter Schilling song since Sy's etude on Sunday and got psyched about the video and then, naturally, about watching the original Bowie video for "Space Oddity" which Schilling's song is based on. Notice Bowie's super budget space floating (he turns in a circle while the camera is held at an angle). I think out fake floating is better than DB's! Also, David C. has a version of "Major Tom (coming home)" in German which is pretty rad and might be super fun to use. Seems the next natural step is for H2M to make a third version of the song called "Earth Below Us". Anyone...?

David Bowie: Space Oddity



Peter Schilling: Major Tom (Coming Home)

Questions for Tuesday

Here are three questions to think about and be ready to answer at Tuesday's rehearsal.

1) In 15 words or less, what is the goal/purpose of Project~X~?

2) What two research presentations/eXtudes have spoken to you most up to this point? Why? (you are welcome to choose your own)

3) If you had to explain right now to a theatregoer what the experience of Project~X~ will be like, what would you say? (be as abstract or concrete as you like/can)

[If you are not attending the Tuesday rehearsal, please post your answers on the blog or by email]

Bazha or Georgian Walnut Pomgegranate Sauce

Here's the recipe for the dip from Sunday's potluck lunch. It's from The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert.

1 3/4 c. shelled walnuts, chopped fine. Or not, doesn't affect the taste.
Pinch of cayenne
1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with a pinch of salt
1 tsp. ground coriander seeds
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 T. pomegranate molasses, diluted in 1/2 c. hot water
1 T. crushed cilantro

Place walnuts, paprika, cayenne, garlic, coriander, and salt into a food processor. You could also use a blender, but I've never done it that way.
Blend until pureed.
With machine running, add diluted pomegranate molasses. You may need to scrape the bowl of your food processor/blender and whiz it up again to make sure everything gets pureed. Mix in cilantro.

Notes:
This recipe is very forgiving, so feel free to play around with proportions.
I always go ahead and use 2 cups of walnuts, for instance. Do you really like cilantro? Then add some more!

You can also add more water than called for to turn it into a sauce for meats, veggies,tofu or whatever.

Nut sauces tend to thicken as they age, so this might need to be thinned with a bit of water if it's been sitting in the fridge.

Enjoy!

man on the moon

hilarious that they knocked the flag over when the lunar module left the moon.

singular/shared experience

To sort of inarticulately recap the discussion that we started on Thursday:

I said: It takes many, many people and the support of many more to create a space program. What is interesting to me about the space race is the human element - the patriotism of it, the unification of the nation, the emotion and hope and dreams tied up in it. While those first men were on the moon, 600 million people below them were watching the footage. YET very few individuals are involved in the space program, few go in space and even fewer are known for it. Being on the moon must be the ultimate in insolation. Part of being human, in the form it currently takes, is existence on earth. Space travel is therefore automatically super-human, or transhuman, if you will. It is about exploring part of the universe that humans cannot currently survive in, where there are currently no other humans or vestiges of life as we know it. It is the abandonment of humanity. The search for immortality, and most things regarding "futurescience" are about moving past humanity...

Julie responded that in her astronaut research she discovered that astronauts in fact say the opposite, that being on the moon is the ultimate feeling of connection to humanity and the earth and mankind. (Julie, can we hear this footage??)

How fascinating, then, that perhaps the ultimate in human experience exists millions of miles away from humanity?

Forms/Audience/Tools

Architectural Forms

Open Installation/Environment
-audience can move freely between multiple installations or interactive stations

Continuous Pulse (small sphincter)
-smaller audience groups are moved in a specific order from one room/location to next. New audience group is moved into a room once previous leaves. can be linear or circular

Singular Pulse (large sphincter)
-full audience is moved from one room/location to the next.

Durational
-audience is divided into multiple rooms and performers move between the rooms (typically long-lasting)

Public space/spectacle
-uncontrolled public space. many different audience possibilities

Multiple Locations
-show takes place over various diverse locations either simultaneously or consecutively (multiple rooms in one place are not considered multiple locations)

Remote
-audience is connected remotely to performance, most likely by some sort of electronic device


Audience types

-Large/Full
-Small/Divided
-Partners
-Solo


Tools

-Tour Guide
-Map
-Instructions (audio/visual/written/live)
-Interpretation/Presentation (audio/visual/written/live)
-Teaching / Training
-Audio Repetition (repeat what you hear)
-Direct Feedback (i.e. mic direct to headphones, video direct to monitor, mirror)
-Delayed Feedback (i.e. playback of recorded material, repeating of earlier material)
-Flocking / Echoing
-Information piping (using gathered information later in show)
-Installation/Set Piece/Interactive
-Survey / Interview / Direct Questioning
-Application / Registration
-Conversation
-Limited interaction (i.e. life extension pod)
-Intercom (walkie talkies, cell phones, etc.)
-Audience Plant
-Ghosting
-Recalling earlier ideas and motivations / Motif
-Space Pod (large plastic bag)
-Moving Air (fan)
-Food (i.e. tea and bicuits)
-Choral reading
-Rallying / Parade
-Soap Box
-Space walking/Anti-gravity
-Anti-gravity Harness

Edgar Cayce Hip-Hop

Carl Sagan's Cosmos - episodes to watch

Carl Sagan's Cosmos tv series from the late 1970's

Since the beginning of the Project X discussions, I've wanted to present this episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series (episode 12: Encyclopedia Galactica) as it not only covers the whole motivation behind space exploration, but connects it clearly with the explorers of the 15th-19th centuries(conquistadors (city of gold) connection is touched on) and the transformation of society by discovering seperately-evolved cultures:

Carl Sagan's Cosmos - Ep 12 - Encyclopedia Galactica

If you groove on this, check the episode after, 13 - Who Speaks For Earth?, which is more passionate, yet spiritual in a way that you'll be shocked to see from a scientist presenting you with hard science.

Carl Sagan's Cosmos - Ep 13 - Who Speaks For Earth?

In fact, Sagan conveys how the scientific understanding of the forces of the universe can give a person spiritual buoyancy without needing any kind of silly dieties or superstitions. He even calls the entirety of UFO/alien anecotal story-telling as predictably false, but clearly giving a convincing case that we need to take on the centuries-long task of contacting whatever technical civilisations are probably outside of our solar system. He convinces me that if you understand the gradual forces of chance behind our own history--ones that could create organisms (and eventually conscious beings) on our planet--you could see how, given the size of the universe, that it is fairly inevitable to exist elsewhere. This arguement is bolstered by the information gathered about our own tiny solar system since the show first aired. We've found water, complex organic carbon-based molecules needed for replicating proteins to emerge on Mars and extraplanetary moons just in the last 10 years. Given the billions of stars and planets...yet this is all in the realm of hard science, which is so poorly understood outside of academia. (maybe similar to theatre? ;) )

BTW, here is the entire golden record (Pioneer & Explorer missions) audio online:

http://goldenrecord.org/sounds.htm

Quick something-interesting

Something twigged when I was typing up notes, and I was able to track it down after a bit of messing around with google. I present to you:

The Clock of the Long Now, an attempt to make a clock that will be able to tell time for 10,000 years. It's actually very, very difficult to make something that will last that long without human intervention.

It's a really interesting read. The entire project, the Long Now Foundation, is really interesting in general.