May 4, 2011
La Défense, Paris “From the irreciprocity of causality it follows that even if the net be known, though we may predict future from present activities, we can deduce neither afferent from central, nor central from efferent, nor past from present activities - conclusions which are reinforced by the contradictory testimony of eye-witness, by the difficulty of diagnosing differentially the organically diseased, the hysteric and the malingerer, and by comparing one’s own memories or recollection with his contemporaneous records” Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts - A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity (1943)

La Défense, Paris

“From the irreciprocity of causality it follows that even if the net be known, though we may predict future from present activities, we can deduce neither afferent from central, nor central from efferent, nor past from present activities - conclusions which are reinforced by the contradictory testimony of eye-witness, by the difficulty of diagnosing differentially the organically diseased, the hysteric and the malingerer, and by comparing one’s own memories or recollection with his contemporaneous records”

Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts - A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity (1943)

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April 2, 2011
Mont Pelerin, Switzerland “For the first time in history, it might be possible to locate on a mountain top and to maintain intimate, real-time, and realistic contact with business or other associates. All persons tapped into the global communication net would have ties approximating those used today in a given metropolitan region” Melvin Webber - The Post-City Age (1968)

Mont Pelerin, Switzerland

“For the first time in history, it might be possible to locate on a mountain top and to maintain intimate, real-time, and realistic contact with business or other associates. All persons tapped into the global communication net would have ties approximating those used today in a given metropolitan region”

Melvin Webber - The Post-City Age (1968)

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(Notes: 1)
  
March 28, 2011
Arhus, Denmark. “The truth of the matter is that every circuit of causation in the whole of biology, in our physiology, in our thinking, our neural processes, in our homeostasis, and in the ecological and cultural systems of which we are parts—every such circuit conceals or proposes those paradoxes and confusions that accompany errors and distortions in logical typing” Gregory Bateson - Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979)

Arhus, Denmark.

“The truth of the matter is that every circuit of causation in the whole of biology, in our physiology, in our thinking, our neural processes, in our homeostasis, and in the ecological and cultural systems of which we are parts—every such circuit conceals or proposes those paradoxes and confusions that accompany errors and distortions in logical typing”

Gregory Bateson - Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979)

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March 27, 2011
Rotterdam, Netherlands. “Today machines are poor at handling sudden changes in context in environment (…) If computers are to be our friends they must understand our metaphors. If they are to be responsive to changing, unpredictable, context-dependent human needs, they will need an artificial intelligence that can cope with complex in a sophisticated manner (drawing upon these metaphors).” Jack Burnham - Notes on Art and Information Processing (1970)

Rotterdam, Netherlands.

“Today machines are poor at handling sudden changes in context in environment (…) If computers are to be our friends they must understand our metaphors. If they are to be responsive to changing, unpredictable, context-dependent human needs, they will need an artificial intelligence that can cope with complex in a sophisticated manner (drawing upon these metaphors).”

Jack Burnham - Notes on Art and Information Processing (1970)

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March 20, 2011
Lyon, France. “The automobile has come to show even the slowest minds that the earth is truly round, that the heart is just a poetic relic, that a human being contains two standard gauges: one indicates miles, the other minutes.” Illya Ehrenburg - The Life of the Automobile (1929)

Lyon, France.

“The automobile has come to show even the slowest minds that the earth is truly round, that the heart is just a poetic relic, that a human being contains two standard gauges: one indicates miles, the other minutes.”

Illya Ehrenburg - The Life of the Automobile (1929)

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March 16, 2011
CERN, Geneva (Switzerland/France) “With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism. It could well be that the successive mechanizations of the various physical organs since the invention of printing have made too violent and superstimulated a social experience for the central nervous system to endure.” Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)

CERN, Geneva (Switzerland/France)

“With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism. It could well be that the successive mechanizations of the various physical organs since the invention of printing have made too violent and superstimulated a social experience for the central nervous system to endure.”

Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)

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February 25, 2011
Seoul, Korea. “All this information (the building design and its associated ‘thought structure’) can be stored on a tape to represent the ‘design manual’ for the building. Loading this tape into his own ‘clerk’, another architect, a builder, or the client can maneuver within this ‘design manual’ to pursue whatever details or insights are of interest to him . and can append special notes that are integrated into the ‘design manual’ for his own or someone else’s later benefit” Douglas Engelbart - Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework (1962)

Seoul, Korea.

“All this information (the building design and its associated ‘thought structure’) can be stored on a tape to represent the ‘design manual’ for the building. Loading this tape into his own ‘clerk’, another architect, a builder, or the client can maneuver within this ‘design manual’ to pursue whatever details or insights are of interest to him . and can append special notes that are integrated into the ‘design manual’ for his own or someone else’s later benefit”

Douglas Engelbart - Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework (1962)

4:47pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZsqG1y3HAmpv
February 20, 2011
Istanbul, Turkey. “Programme as production process (…) A house is not to be built just for a life-time (and the following generations); it can be constantly altered from top to bottom to meet changing needs virtually without anything being forfeited in the process. So programming does not merely rationalize life in the sense of cramping it; on the contrary, it makes it richer. It is processes that are rationalized. The result is freedom and movement. And deliverance from the need to make decisions ‘for good’” K. Gerstner - Designing programmes (1962), p.29

Istanbul, Turkey.

“Programme as production process (…) A house is not to be built just for a life-time (and the following generations); it can be constantly altered from top to bottom to meet changing needs virtually without anything being forfeited in the process. So programming does not merely rationalize life in the sense of cramping it; on the contrary, it makes it richer. It is processes that are rationalized. The result is freedom and movement. And deliverance from the need to make decisions ‘for good’”

K. Gerstner - Designing programmes (1962), p.29

7:46am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZsqG1y3AmM2U
February 19, 2011
Lyon, France “Birds and many other living specie of higher organisms also have intermittently employedy mechanical extensions, for instance: - the bird’s nest, an extension of the womb function required only once a year is abandoned and flown back to annually” R. Buckminster-Fuller - Untitle Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization (1962), p.40.

Lyon, France

“Birds and many other living specie of higher organisms
also have intermittently employedy
mechanical extensions,
for instance: -
the bird’s nest,
an extension of the womb function
required only once a year
is abandoned and flown back to annually”

R. Buckminster-Fuller - Untitle Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization (1962), p.40.

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(Notes: 1)
  
February 12, 2011
La Grande Motte, France “anyone who presumes to design cities must build in escape valves for the myriad personal idiosyncrasies of mankind” Donald Wall - Visionary Cities: The Arcology of Paolo Soleri (1970).

La Grande Motte, France

“anyone who presumes to design cities must build in escape valves for the myriad personal idiosyncrasies of mankind”

Donald Wall - Visionary Cities: The Arcology of Paolo Soleri (1970).

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