rad

prostheticknowledge:

Wooden Clockwork Fractal Computer

Blog by Brent Thorne documenting the development of his clockwork wooden computer designed to calculate and draw fractals:

I’ve been working on this for a while now.  Its a wooden computer that computes continuous self-similar fractals.  I’ll post the working model of a general computer implemented in gears as soon as I get some laser cutter time to complete the counter/comparator unit. 

How the hell is this supposed to work?

I could tell you that it took years and years of research and development to create a theory of computation that could be implemented in wood, but alias it would be untrue.  The idea was formed after only a few reductions and one night when I couldn’t get to sleep.  You see, computers are much simpler than your teachers might of taught you in school.  You don’t even need the Boolean logic primitives to create a computer.  These so called primitives are merely symbolic.

The most primitive computer is comprised of only two parts and from these two parts we can create all others.  Those two parts are memory and a comparator.  Some may claim that any practical computer must also have input and output, but that just is memory, or registers, memory again, or an ALU, nope that’s a comparator.

We can further delineate memory into two types, read-only and read-write.  We need the read-write type of memory to store temporary values for comparison.  For example, read-write memory could be a toggle or counter.  Read-only memory is convenient for storing tables or a program, however these two examples are symbolic and not necessary for computation.  An example of read-only memory is pegs in a disc, where the presents of a peg represents a symbol.

The true heart of a computer is the comparator.  A comparator simply compares two values.  One of those two values was read from memory previously and the other value is read at the current position in memory.

Now that we have our fundamental blocks we can start creating all the other complications that are common to modern computers. 

You can find more information about the project at the blog here, including some videos of prototypes in action.

hypna:

Crosshatched Ink Portrait Stencils by Kris Trappeniers

Best known for his stencil and spray paint work, artist Kris Trappeniers has undertaken a new art project involving an artist’s most basic materials — ink and paper. The Belgium-based artist’s series of illustrations, known as Analog haftones, feature contemporary portraits of ordinary people as well as familiar faces of old Hollywood.

hypna:

Long Exposure Photographs of Gold Fireflies in Japan

hypna:

Water Drop Pillars by Markus Reugels

In his continued experiments with water photography Markus Reugels has developed a method of releasing precisely timed water drops that collide to form pillar-like structures. The setup involves three perfectly synchronized valves and three individual gel-covered flashes that all fire in sequence with the camera’s shutter.

hypna:

Photographs of Jellyfish by Alexander Semenov

nycartscene:

Opens Mar 16:

Francesca Woodman: Retrospective

Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Ave., NYC (at 89th St)

When Francesca Woodman leapt to her death at the age of 22, she had only been a photographer for five years. Yet critics praised her blend of “mythology, literature, painting and photography” and marveled that she “had the rarest link with her medium.” On Thursday, Francesca Woodman’s retrospective will open at the Guggenheim, featuring 120 photographs and six newly discovered short films. - Gothamist

mdrnr:

Underwater Ink Photographs by Alberto Seveso

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Dew-Soaked Insects Photographed by Ondrej Pakan

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Photographs by Joshua Scott

mdrnr:

Visitors Tunnel at the Prison in Düsseldorf by Markus Linnenbrink