Lisa Roberts blog

2010/10/25

Tai Chi tree

Filed under: Iconography — Lisa @ 12:52

A tree near my home provides shade from the sun as it rises in the mornings from the east.
This is perfect ground for Tai Chi that may attract more people than me.

I agree with Tim Flannery who writes,

I believe in the sacredness, if you like, of other people. I’m not arrogant enough to be an atheist because we know so little about the world … As we come to know ourselves and our planet, we will be moved to act [on climate change].

Sunday October 24, 2010 The Sun-Herald,p.6

2010/10/21

Blob motility

Filed under: Iconography, Literature, Science — Lisa @ 07:48

Blob motility

My friend Natalie Shell, of Think, Talk, Walk, sends this link to Blob motility:

Blob Motility is an early phase of a new “actuated shape display using programmable matter.” With it, A gel substance can be programmed to a specific geometry and topology, resulting in organic shape-changing in real space—not unlike a “metaball” in computer graphics, as the lab points out.

The hardware is composed of electromagnets arranged in a honeycomb structure underneath, with control circuits that create a dynamic magnetic field. The blob, a magnetic fluid known as “pBlob,” responds to this field, changing shape in response.

For a demo of the magnetic non-organism that will one day float you to work, see the video above. They explain a little bit there as well, but to get the full story, including the method of blob creation, mechanism details, the language of transformation control, and proposed application, you’ll have to wait until the International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction in 2011, where the design team will present their work.

2010/10/20

Antarctic art in China

Filed under: Iconography, Literature — Lisa @ 08:25
Andrea Juan exhibits Antarctic art in Beijing

Andrea Juan exhibits Antarctic art in Beijing

Andrea Juan’s exhibition of Antarctic art coincides with international recognition of China’s first Nobel Peace prize winner. Will China recognise the need for continuing peace in Antarctica?

2010/10/12

Dr Squiggle?

Filed under: Iconography, Literature, Methods — Tags: , — Lisa @ 09:10

Mr Squiggle came from the moon.
He inspired me to see and draw lines to describe a real and imagined world.
What would Mr Squiggle make of Antarctica?

**

On 12 December 2010, Kate Dennehy for the Sydney Morning Herald:

WHEN Julian Assange’s mother agreed to our request for an interview, she set very strict parameters: “I will talk about Mr Squiggle and only Mr Squiggle.”

Christine Assange is a puppeteer, and she is very worried about the decline of her artform.

Her phone has been running hot, however, with national and international media seeking comment on arguably a more pressing matter: the arrest in England of her son, the editor-in-chief of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, who has been accused of rape in Sweden.

When contacted by The Sun-Herald on the Sunshine Coast last week, Ms Assange had nothing to say – until the subject turned to Mr Squiggle, the moon-dwelling marionette with a pencil for a nose who entertained generations of Australians on ABC television for 40 years. Mr Squiggle was back in the news because his creator, Norman Hetherington, had died, aged 89, in a Sydney hospital.

“I absolutely adored Mr Squiggle and so did the kids,” Ms Assange said. ”I still adore him.”

She added: “I was designing and making puppets for theatres when my children were growing up. They were immersed in puppetry from their early years and loved watching the show then playing with their own puppets.”

Ms Assange moved about six weeks ago from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast, where she runs the Fairytale Puppet Theatre. She entertains at schools, libraries and parties. “Unfortunately, traditional puppetry is a dying art in Australia and children these days have too much TV and not enough reading and things to engage their imaginations.”

Asked whether the media had offered her money for her son’s life story, she said: “That’s not about Mr Squiggle.”

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