Imperial Measures Brainstorm

The Imperial Style of the Father of Modern European Empire (exhibition)
http://arttattler.com/designsymbolsofpower.html

Carlos Garaicoa (artist)
*Diptychs of urban ruins outlined in thread
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/majorprojects/garaicoa/work_1.htm

Lauren drew up a mind map of brainstorming ideas.
Looking over those ideas one that stuck out to me, due to it's relationship to water,
the human body, and technology(or anti-relationship in this case), was
NATURAL.
Finding the word natural on Wiki was not as easy as I thought, but Nature was possible and as I continued to click throughout the links I found the link Evolution.
If you look at the following snidbits, and consider it to be the projects of our classmates, it's interesting to think about the evolution of this show.

----------------------

Evolution WIKI
Over many generations, adaptations occur through a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of those variants best-suited for their environment.

The similarities between organisms suggest that all known species are descended from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool) through this process of gradual divergence.

The frequency of one particular allele will fluctuate, becoming more or less prevalent relative to other forms of that gene.

For example, the human eye uses four genes to make structures that sense light: three for color vision and one for night vision; all four arose from a single ancestral gene.

In evolution, the most important role of such chromosomal rearrangements may be to accelerate the divergence of a population into new species by making populations less likely to interbreed, and thereby preserving genetic differences between these populations.

Off of the Orbital Plane wiki (which I got to from Nature) I found something very interesting when you consider the abstract nature of the following comment.
It's an interesting way to think of our projects as launch windows...
originally it's relating to satellites and things, but perhaps that's what our projects are, satellites in a three rooms instead of the universe....
(it's an unfinished concept, but it's interesting)

Launch vehicle's launch windows are usually determined by when the points in the time that the target orbital plane intersects the launch site.

The following is a link to a travel sight, showcasing the ideas of Vienna and it's imperial times and tourist-ish opportunities. Good visuals perhaps can be derived from this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2004/jun/03/austria.vienna

Walking through the Hofburg palace into the compact Innere Stadt, however, the grand boulevards give way to a maze of streets with an intimate, busy feel that at once makes the city much more approachable.

After the Ring, you may feel you've had enough of monumental architecture, but it's well worth making time for Vienna's two other great palaces. The huge Baroque palace of Schloss Schonbrunn, completed in 1700, is outside the centre but easily reached on the U4 metro line. You can take a tour of the spectacular rococo interiors of empress Maria Theresa's favourite residence, but the gardens are just as popular and the perfect place to break for a picnic or just to laze around before heading back into the city.

One of the main ideas I was drawn to off of my mind map was the idea of a "system" because of its connections to nature and networking, and its ability to change between real and abstract.

Here is some interesting points I found:
Most systems share the same common characteristics. These common characteristics include the following:

1. Systems have a structure that is defined by its parts and processes.
2. Systems are generalizations of reality.
3. Systems tend to function in the same way. This involves the inputs and outputs of material (energy and/or matter) that is then processed causing it to change in some way.
4. The various parts of a system have functional as well as structural relationships between each other.

-Systems Theory: the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_systems_theory

http://www.florilegium.org/files/COMMERCE/measures-art.html

This link lists all of the old Imperial Measures terms.
It's an older site, but still may be influential.

2. Systems are generalizations of reality.

...i love it....
good find lauren.

http://thumpingthetub.blogspot.com/2006/07/another-film-imperial-measures.html

This has a video clip titled imperial measures.
It is modern and graphic.
I post it to think about perhaps more imperial things happening in the world around us today, as opposed to any history that
we may be stuck on.

I really like the idea of nature and technology, it's always fascinated me.On a very general level, networks exist in nature; whether it be networks of caves or rivers, or even the entire network of the food chain.... everything has a reason, and everything effects each other, much like the general goal we're leaning towards with Imperial Measures.

Coincidentally, I actually happened to reflect that theme in the Curatorial web site, before we even discussed it. (which, by the way, should have been up hours ago.... I'm waiting on a response from Fred as to how to access the FTP. I think he forgot to give me permissions to other directories.)

the golden mean....
numbers that appear in everything, both in technology and nature.
I haven't researched it yet,
but Steph suggested it and I thought I should write it down to see if
that concept would help us at all.

the golden section is extremely cool. it's shows up in so many things. I think it's definitely something to consider but it's more of a design technique then a symbol.

This is an interesting essay but Matthew Fuller
Freaks of number
<http://www.spc.org/fuller/texts/freaks-of-number/>

it talks about how standardization and abstraction, and the resulting avalanche of numbers, relate to coding and computing. The mathematics of digital culture— as 00.01.11.10. turns into <http://reas.com/category.php?section=process>—and part to whole relation that can be seen in pixels that become pictures were part of the thinking behind Imperial Measures.

While this essay doesn't directly address telematic art, it creates a really interesting context for thinking about the 'invisibles' that subtend networked communication.
kpa

I came across this today online.
It's interesting to me as it is such a natural use of what the environment provides, incorporated with mechanical and
somewhat magical working parts.
I've tried to think of a concrete way to tie this into the theme, or come up with a real reason why I posted it,
however I think all I have to say is I hope that maybe it inspires us - perhaps from this show something just as cool will come out of it.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1764773

wow mal! that's amazing!

I don't know if any of you made it to norms talk at ocad a couple weeks ago, but theo was one of the artists he talked about, I believe it was in reference to behavior and machines, natural selection, etc.