broken pixel

Today is voting day, and it's got me thinking. I've voted, it's my duty (whether I believe ANY of the parties or politicians), I had thought of spoiling my ballot paper, but I didn't...but, it did get me thinking about polite rebellion, defiance and disdain*. It is also interesting to hear that this election will be the first time that "electronic counters" are being used, which will funnily enough SLOW the process of counting votes (!?). This sounded absurd to me, why invent a system that SLOWS a known working process? My logical brain told me, it would be slow this time, as they want to make sure it works, to "test" the machines...which then got me thinking...should they not have tested it on a "grand scale" before now? I also noticed that the ballot papers were to be marked with pencil! It’s an interesting interface from the crudest of mark making "X" (the classic mark of an illiterate person’s signature), with one of the most basic tools know (a pencil), to be then fed into a "cutting edge machine", a clever computer that can count X's (IF the ballot paper was put in the right way, IF the X was put in the right place, IF the X is dark enough to be read, IF the ballot is not folded...that's just the tip of the iceberg). Is it no wonder people are sceptical of machinery, especially when it comes to important matters of human governance. If you cast your mind back to the US elections, when "voting machines" were rolled in, instead of the "tried and tested" (for centuries) hand counted methods...It emerged that the makers of the voting machines, actually sponsored the Republican Party! (and that's just the tip of the iceberg...Déjà vu?). I am sure there is a system that can count votes quicker than humans, but does this all not boil down to one question...why do we need to know any result "quickly". It's not cancer; it's not a dose of Ebola! We've had elections for hundreds of years, and people EXPECT a true and honest result, no matter how long it takes to count, and Scotland is only a wee place! The counts last no longer than 10 hours, and what's that in the grand scheme of things? This perpetual need for "progress" (read: speed) confuses matters surely. The race is on (to win what, I don't know). Speed = Efficiency...does it? it also equals DANGER, MISSING THE MARK, OVERSHOOTIN...we all remember the Hare and the Tortoise story of our childhoods, take your time, and you will finish (and you can take in the view too!)

I have also read a few scientific stories on the BBC today, one of a giant 40 storey tower in Seville, that harnesses the energy of the sun, reflected by 600 gigantic mirrors and how "natural techniques" in "build" of snowflakes and tooth enamel is shaping the future of more efficient and faster computer chip technologies. These technologies are exciting, also very interesting that nature plays the main role in both. It's interesting that the Spanish tower's "downside" is that the electricity is 3 times more "expensive" than "regular" electricity...what is cost? How much more expensive is carbon emmission in the future? what is the price of clean energy NOW valued against the killing of our environment? again, this all boils down to humans short term needs and values. It's perpetuated by the american ideaology that either "god" will look after us (Who's god? I don't think the Christians would have a problem saying "mine" and neither the Muslims!) OR, that "technology" will save us, and here is me talking about how our new technologies need to look to nature for more elegant and efficient solutions! how can a man made system or machine "fix" a system (or "machine") that is so much more complex than we can ever understand, comprehend or even respect. I'd watched the BBC news, where a story about moth numbers that are in decline in Scotland, and the presenter almost scoffing at the idea it even mattered, which made me angry. It's the lack of understanding of how complex an eco-system is, that every unit of life within it MATTERS, the idea that "oh well, no more holey jumpers" if the moths die...People forget that moths pollinate plants, are food for birds etc... Because people can't see that it matters, they can't see "an affect" in their lives, they discount it...again, a very Republican / Right Wing Christian stance (these are the people that deny "evolution happens" (because they can't see it), yet blindly follow a story written 1500+ years ago about "unseen things" in the name of god. Difference being, that scientific rigour and analysis pretty much proves the evolutionary theory to be "a law" and that biblical "happenings" are left to "faith" (or a governing body (the church) to tell people how it is, without rigorously testing their "findings")...boy oh boy is this a rant!

Within the new Frieze magazine, I read of an artist ( Tommy Støckel )that combines computer technologies (programing, nets and plans) with "lo-fi" outputs, that is creating paper / card "models" from the printouts, often combining complex mathematical formulae (fractal / geometrical) with simple "cut and assemble" techniques (a patient child could make these objects), but that's where the "art" steps in. Tommy's execution is a bridge between the two worlds of complexity and simplicity. Mass is impressive, collation is confusion, yet elegant and simplistic. When confronted with 100+ shapes of the same form, but in differing sizes, the eyes are bombarded with new forms, patterns to disseminate and objects to identify and single out. The brain is treated to a game, a tantalising opportunity to see maths "take form". Rules, patterns, scales and shapes collide to form pleasing, yet intriguing sculptures. The materials form a bridge between a yesteryear of "craft" (likening it to an old cut out from a kids comic book, to build and "own") and with the highly technical means as to its entry into this world, via computers and programming. It's something I am interested in, an "interface" to present people forms and workings of "unknown" or mysterious technologies. It is interesting to look at where technology becomes a blockade to acceptance of it, when technology is "not helpful" because of its impenetrable or cold position in our world of soft, human, organic needs…

The broken pixel came to me when thinking about all these systems. A "broken pixel" is a new phenomenon on a lap top / plasma screen, where a pixel in the display ceases to work (show anything). It's quite a subversive thing, such a small "glitch" can cause such an annoyance, one little square that should flicker and pulse with light, stubbornly refusing to display anything other than black. It's secretive too, it is being fed information, but refuses to disseminate and display / convey that information. I liken it to a hermit, refusing to respond to social impetus, imagine how many "broken pixels" it would take to change a system, to make sure the system fixes, or accounts for broken pixels? I think there might be some work come out of these thoughts...

listening to : joanna newsome - Ys : young gods - XXY : equations of eternity - EOE