1 pm Red Desert, M.Antonioni and
3pm Blade Runner or Plan 9 from outer space, according to attending people's wishes.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
SCI-FI CINEMA SCREENING PROGRAM
Saturday 30th August
4 PM: Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, 118 min., 1927.
6.30 PM: Fahrenheit 451, directed by François Truffaut, 112 min., 1966.
9 PM: eXistenZ, directed by David Cronenberg, 97 min., 1999.
Sunday 31st August
5 PM: Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovski, 155 min., 1979.
8 PM: Brazil, Directed by Terry Gilliam, 94 min., 1985.
Also,
For 12 PM you can choose from list:
-A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater, 120 min., 2006.
-Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, 112 min., 1982.
-2001 a space odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, 143 min., 1968.
-Red Desert, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 120 min., 1964.
-Plan 9 from outer Space, directed by Ed Wood, 79 min., 1959.
Contact myrto.stampoulou@gmail.com until Friday evening to request up to two films from the list. The two selected films will be announced on Friday night on this blog
Monday 1st September
4 PM: Alphaville, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 99 min., 1965.
6 PM: THX 1138, directed by George Lukas, 88 min., 1971.
8 PM: V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, 132 min., 2006.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1.The door will be almost closed during the screenings. Please try to arrive on time, but if late, don’t hesitate, bend, watch your head, and enter!
2.Bring your favorite refreshments.
3.Don't wear your favorite white trousers-skirts, you'll be sitting mostly on the floor
4.Screening free, all welcome!
Oh, and thank you, the Scottish arts council, for the precious support.
4 PM: Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, 118 min., 1927.
6.30 PM: Fahrenheit 451, directed by François Truffaut, 112 min., 1966.
9 PM: eXistenZ, directed by David Cronenberg, 97 min., 1999.
Sunday 31st August
5 PM: Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovski, 155 min., 1979.
8 PM: Brazil, Directed by Terry Gilliam, 94 min., 1985.
Also,
For 12 PM you can choose from list:
-A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater, 120 min., 2006.
-Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, 112 min., 1982.
-2001 a space odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, 143 min., 1968.
-Red Desert, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 120 min., 1964.
-Plan 9 from outer Space, directed by Ed Wood, 79 min., 1959.
Contact myrto.stampoulou@gmail.com until Friday evening to request up to two films from the list. The two selected films will be announced on Friday night on this blog
Monday 1st September
4 PM: Alphaville, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 99 min., 1965.
6 PM: THX 1138, directed by George Lukas, 88 min., 1971.
8 PM: V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, 132 min., 2006.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1.The door will be almost closed during the screenings. Please try to arrive on time, but if late, don’t hesitate, bend, watch your head, and enter!
2.Bring your favorite refreshments.
3.Don't wear your favorite white trousers-skirts, you'll be sitting mostly on the floor
4.Screening free, all welcome!
Oh, and thank you, the Scottish arts council, for the precious support.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
(Zhuanzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring states Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of thoughts philosophical summit of Chinese tought)
(Zhuanzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring states Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of thoughts philosophical summit of Chinese tought)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Excerpt from: Space Settlements, A design study
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/
SPACE SETTLEMENTS
APPENDIX A
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
Several geometrical forms for the physical shape of space communities have been studied: including a cylinder of a few kilometers in diameter; a torus of a few kilometers in diameter and several tens of meters in cross section; a bundle of narrower parallel toruses; a necklace shape consisting of small spheres; a pair of large spheres, each of which has a diameter of several kilometers. They were examined from the points of view of volume, mass, rotational speed, shielding needed, construction and costs.
However, there are also some psychological considerations of physical shape which affect the mental health of the inhabitants. Different geometrical forms of the communities may also influence the types of social interactions and social organization which take place in them.
The Solipsism Syndrome in Artificial Environment
Some environments are conducive to the state of mind in which a person feels that everything is a dream and is not real. This state of mind occurs, for example, in the Arctic winter when it is night 24 hr a day. It is also known to occur in some youths who have been brought up on television as a substitute to reality.
Solipsism is a philosophical theory that everything is in the imagination, and there is no reality outside one's own brain. As a philosophical theory it is interesting because is is internally
consistent and, therefore, cannot be disproved. But as a psychological state, it is highly uncomfortable. The whole of life becomes a long dream from which an individual can never wake up. Each person is trapped in a nightmare. Even friends are not real, they are a part of the dream. A person feels very lonely and detached, and eventually becomes apathetic and indifferent.
In the small town of Lund, Sweden, the winter days have 6 hr of daylight and 18 hr of darkness. Most of the time people live under artificial light, so that life acquires a special quality. Outdoors, there is no landscape to see; only street corners lit by lamps. These street corners look like theater stages, detached from one another. There is no connectedness or depth in the universe and it acquires a very unreal quality as though the whole world is imagination. Ingmar Bergman's film "Wild Strawberries" expresses this feeling very well.
This state of mind can be easily produced in an environment where everything is artificial, where everything is like a theater stage, where every wish can be fulfilled by a push-button, and where there is nothing beyond the theater stage and beyond an individual's control.
There are several means to alleviate the tendency toward the solipsism syndrome in the extraterrestrial communities:
1. A large geometry, in which people can see far beyond the "theater stage" of the vicinity to a view which is overwhelmingly visible.
2. Something must exist beyond each human's manipulation, because people learn to cope with reality when reality is different from their imagination. If the reality is the same as the imagination, there is no escape from falling into solipsism.
In extraterrestrial communities, everything can be virtually controlled. In fact, technically nothing should go beyond human control even though this is psychologically bad. However, some amount of "unpredictability" can be built in within a controllable range.
One way to achieve this is to generate artificial unpredictability by means of a table of random numbers. Another way is to allow animals and plants a degree of freedom and independence from human planning. Both types of unpredictability must have a high visibility to be effective. This high visibility is easier to achieve in a macrogeometry which allows longer lines of sight.
3. Something must exist which /grows/. Interactive processes generate new patterns which cannot be inferred from the information contained in the old state. This is not due to randomness but rather to different amplification by mutual causal loops.
It is important for each person to feel able to contribute personally to something which grows, that the reality often goes in a direction different from expectation, and finally that what each person
takes care of (a child, for example) may possess increased wisdom, and may grow into something beyond the individual in control.
From this point of view, it is important personally to raise children, and to grow vegetables and trees with personal care, not by mechanical means.
It is also desirable to see plants and animals grow, which is facilitated by a long line of sight.
4. It is important to have "something beyond the horizon" which gives the feeling that the world is larger than what is seen.
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/
SPACE SETTLEMENTS
APPENDIX A
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
Several geometrical forms for the physical shape of space communities have been studied: including a cylinder of a few kilometers in diameter; a torus of a few kilometers in diameter and several tens of meters in cross section; a bundle of narrower parallel toruses; a necklace shape consisting of small spheres; a pair of large spheres, each of which has a diameter of several kilometers. They were examined from the points of view of volume, mass, rotational speed, shielding needed, construction and costs.
However, there are also some psychological considerations of physical shape which affect the mental health of the inhabitants. Different geometrical forms of the communities may also influence the types of social interactions and social organization which take place in them.
The Solipsism Syndrome in Artificial Environment
Some environments are conducive to the state of mind in which a person feels that everything is a dream and is not real. This state of mind occurs, for example, in the Arctic winter when it is night 24 hr a day. It is also known to occur in some youths who have been brought up on television as a substitute to reality.
Solipsism is a philosophical theory that everything is in the imagination, and there is no reality outside one's own brain. As a philosophical theory it is interesting because is is internally
consistent and, therefore, cannot be disproved. But as a psychological state, it is highly uncomfortable. The whole of life becomes a long dream from which an individual can never wake up. Each person is trapped in a nightmare. Even friends are not real, they are a part of the dream. A person feels very lonely and detached, and eventually becomes apathetic and indifferent.
In the small town of Lund, Sweden, the winter days have 6 hr of daylight and 18 hr of darkness. Most of the time people live under artificial light, so that life acquires a special quality. Outdoors, there is no landscape to see; only street corners lit by lamps. These street corners look like theater stages, detached from one another. There is no connectedness or depth in the universe and it acquires a very unreal quality as though the whole world is imagination. Ingmar Bergman's film "Wild Strawberries" expresses this feeling very well.
This state of mind can be easily produced in an environment where everything is artificial, where everything is like a theater stage, where every wish can be fulfilled by a push-button, and where there is nothing beyond the theater stage and beyond an individual's control.
There are several means to alleviate the tendency toward the solipsism syndrome in the extraterrestrial communities:
1. A large geometry, in which people can see far beyond the "theater stage" of the vicinity to a view which is overwhelmingly visible.
2. Something must exist beyond each human's manipulation, because people learn to cope with reality when reality is different from their imagination. If the reality is the same as the imagination, there is no escape from falling into solipsism.
In extraterrestrial communities, everything can be virtually controlled. In fact, technically nothing should go beyond human control even though this is psychologically bad. However, some amount of "unpredictability" can be built in within a controllable range.
One way to achieve this is to generate artificial unpredictability by means of a table of random numbers. Another way is to allow animals and plants a degree of freedom and independence from human planning. Both types of unpredictability must have a high visibility to be effective. This high visibility is easier to achieve in a macrogeometry which allows longer lines of sight.
3. Something must exist which /grows/. Interactive processes generate new patterns which cannot be inferred from the information contained in the old state. This is not due to randomness but rather to different amplification by mutual causal loops.
It is important for each person to feel able to contribute personally to something which grows, that the reality often goes in a direction different from expectation, and finally that what each person
takes care of (a child, for example) may possess increased wisdom, and may grow into something beyond the individual in control.
From this point of view, it is important personally to raise children, and to grow vegetables and trees with personal care, not by mechanical means.
It is also desirable to see plants and animals grow, which is facilitated by a long line of sight.
4. It is important to have "something beyond the horizon" which gives the feeling that the world is larger than what is seen.
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