HEAT records set in the u.s. (in us), 2010

hottest year on record?
hottest year on record?

I find it amazing and exhausting that people are surprised about The Weather. But then there are those who make silk purses out of it, like pollution magnate David Koch:

“Global warming could be good for the planet, Koch says. ‘A far greater land area will be available to produce food.’”
– from New York Magazine, via Climate Progress (continued below)

“Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines. “The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food,” he says.”

Koch is  a major supporter of deregulation and the Tea Party. Koch’s Family Foundation’s philanthropic arm funded a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History: the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, cancer research, and the arts (Lincoln Center’s State Theater has been renamed after him)…

Rand Paul doesn’t think we’ll miss a couple of little mountaintops…

Rand Paul believes people can do what they want with their mountains. (satellite image of a mountaintop removal site in Mud River, West Virginia from thinkprogress.org)
Rand Paul believes people can do what they want with their mountains. (satellite image of a mountaintop removal site in Mud River, West Virginia from thinkprogress.org)

Words from Mr Paul on Kentucky coal mining:

I think whoever owns the property can do with the property as they wish, and if the coal company buys it from a private property owner and they want to do it, fine. The other thing I think is that I think coal gets a bad name, because I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it’s been flattened out. As I came over here from Harlan, you’ve got quite a few hills. I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there.

And some people like having the flat land. Some of it apparently has become quite valuable when it’s become flattened. And I think they do a good job at reclaiming the land, and you know, adding back in topsoil, bringing in help. So the bottom line is, it’s not just me pandering to coal. It’s me believing in private property.

Video interview here:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rand-paul-mountaintop-removal-i-don

Vegetation shift Map, 2100

A study conducted by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley and the U.S. Forest Service projects major vegetation shifts worldwide if greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control and the Earth continues to rapidly warm. The study forecasts that by 2100 much of Arctic tundra will replaced by boreal forest and that deserts will spread in regions such as North America, Australia, and Central and South Asia. – from environment360

The Friend Feeder

I’m ready enough to post this work in progress of a new animation project, The Friend Feeder.

The Friend Feeder is based on the figure of Leigh Bowery from a painting by Lucien Freud. He’s a sort of ür British green man, watching out over the moors of Northumberland.

Using a probability system, non-linear animated sprites  come and go from the stage. Ultimately, all four seasons will unfold over a 146 hour long cycle.

If you click on the link, a file will load that shows summer only –  disregard the time stamp at the top of the frame. It begins at midnight.

It’s still fairly buggy – but it’s running. There are day animals and night animals, and some weather input at the moment. The man is stationary, until I film reference footage of the inimitable Lawrence Goldhüber this week.

Picture 1

Here’s some information on the project:

While a Resident artist at Eyebeam Art + Technology in New York this fall, I began developing a non-linear animation system with software artist Jeff Crouse; we are almost finished building the shell of a Flash ActionScript based system that will allow me direct input of animation components.

Actually, we started on this in 2008 as an OpenFrameworks project. But after a year or so, realized it was too much like emulating Flash. So heeeere we are.

In this first incarnation of the work, I am building a very long animated cycle that represents one year of real time: animated objects are placed on a stage, and code determines the frequency and order of their appearance. No cycle is identical to the last, because the appearance of characters and seasonal weather are based on probability. One year of narrative time is condensed into a 146-hour cycle:
1 real-time hour : 1 animation minute
1 day : 24 minutes
1 season : 36.5hours
1 year : 146 animation hours
Seasons unfold, snows fall, days pass and moons rise, animals come and go. We do not know if the man in the garden is alive or some kind of magical food: he sits naked, day in and day out, and offers his body as nourishment to the garden feeders. Fog, vehicles, mythical nature pass through and have various interactions on stage, sometimes absurdly (like the 1% chance that a flock of Fairies will pass through on a Midsummer night).

Love

My cousin Pejk Malinowski sent me this poem last night by Robert Creeley. I am smitten.

Love

The thing comes
of itself

(Look up
to see
the cat & the squirrel,
the one
torn, a red thing,
& the other
somehow immaculate)

– Robert Creeley