https://danielrsmall.com Daniel R. Small Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:03:34 +0000 https://danielrsmall.com en https://danielrsmall.com/Fathoms Fri, 07 Jul 2023 17:56:52 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Fathoms Fathoms AI generated animation, Digital Chromogenic prints This project is in collaboration with Miljohn Ruperto It’s all over for the animals in the Clarion-Clipperton zone, a wide swath of the Pacific Ocean. The CCZ’s deep ocean floor has been given over by the International Seabed Authority to mining companies to mine rare earth metals to make&nbsp;your&nbsp;phone. Nature preserves are being set up by marine biologists in the Deep CCZ expedition. These protected areas measure 61,775 square miles, minuscule compared to the area granted to the mining companies which is approximately 400,000 square miles. During their research, the Deep CCZ expedition have encountered, and continue to encounter&nbsp;numerous undiscovered underwater creatures, emergent animals never seen before. In Fathoms, Small and Ruperto work with data scientists to use artificial intelligence to extrapolate the speculative shapes of emergent animals that visualize new ecosystems. Fathoms speculates&nbsp;a fictional depth which penetrates below the Earth’s crust. Small and Ruperto follow the Greek ocean depth naming convention and announce what lies beyond Hades: the Tartarapelagic Zone. Tartarus is the abyssal dungeon, reserved for divine punishment. It is here Small and Ruperto offer up AI generated sea creatures. These digital creatures are the exemplars of the training data set of animals types culled from each level down the ocean depths: Epipelagic Zone 0-200 meters Mesopelagic Zone 200-1000 Bathypelagic Zone 1000-4000 Abyssopelagic Zone 4000-6000 Hadalpelagic Zone 6000-10,994 Tartarapelagic Zone (artists fiction): 10,994- In a darkened room, the installation of Fathoms (Tartarapelagic) sets up a square monitor presenting a digital slideshow of newly AI generated (in real-time) images of sea animals appearing from and dissolving into darkness. There are three jokes. The first is an ontological one: that emergent animals appear only through emergent technology: it is only through the recent development of submersible drone technology that we can explore these depths of the ocean floor. The second darker joke is that in the AI generation of these creatures (their forms limited by their data set—so never really “new”), the energy consumption contributes to the real creatures’ demise. In a way, the AI creatures (iterations of the same) replace the real. The last joke, the most painful one, is that beyond the horizon of immanence—the hope in the unfolding of emergent technologies/emergent animals/emergent aesthetics—mining companies have already dominated that beyond. https://danielrsmall.com/The-Minotaur-s-Shadow Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:03:34 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/The-Minotaur-s-Shadow The Minotaur’s Shadow 03:44 TRT, 4k video with sound The Minotaur’s Shadow moves between the UNESCO El Castillo cave complex in Northern Spain where the oldest known cave paintings were discovered, and the MareNostrum supercomputer installed on the lower level of a Gothic church. The cave paintings found in El Castillo at the back of the cave complex have been dated to 40,000-70,000 years ago, very likely making the authors of some of the paintings Neanderthals. Before arriving at the Panel de Los Manos (the oldest known cave painting) at the back of the cave there is also a form of proto-cinema that exists within the same complex. It is thought that Neanderthals carved into the stalagmites of the cave so when passing with a torch the shadow of a "hybrid bison person" or what 45,000 years later became known as a Minotaur in Greek mythology would pass you moving in the opposite direction. The pairing of this site with the supercomputer site installed within a Gothic church moves between conflating many pasts and presents in the continuum of mytho-poetic cosmology.&nbsp; The shadow of the anthropomorphic Minotaur flickering across the walls of the cave might be one of the first known moving images. This shadow-image can be thought of as an ancient proxy for the supercomputer that today effectively extends images back and forth in time, simulating new conditional realities by developing new pharmaceuticals, climate change models, astrophysical simulations, and human genome research. If we extend the Western theory of the Minotaur into the present it conjures the primal fear of the unknown; but it is in this symbolic ambiguity of both authoring and mythologizing that allows unknown shadows of the terrifying and the sublime to roam new labyrinthes.Camera: Aaron Watson, Daniel R. Small Audio: Choir practicing within the cooling room of MareNostrum supercomputer https://danielrsmall.com/Techne Mon, 24 Oct 2022 22:15:33 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Techne Techne Techne: Evidence in the Anthropocene Techne is a documentary series based on diverse sets of research from a wide range of experts in fields such as philosophy, zoology, astrophysics, planetary science, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence among other fields. The aim of the series locates these research groupings as being in direct conversation with the inquiries of contemporary artists and the ways that the term “artist” has become a catch-all for generating ideas in fields such as philosophy, archaeology, cultural anthropology, law, biology, technology, and various other disciplines. Through analyzing case studies involving the evolution of humans, the natural world, and the amplification of technologies, Techne forms an epistemology of the present that models generative bodies of evidence. Techne: Evidence in the Anthropocene telescopes between galactic and planetary evidence that is presented by scientists and artist-investigators who contemplate both deep time and the fate of the human species. Using the framework of a simulation model developed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory that considers the probability for intelligent life to occur in the Milky Way galaxy, as well as the potential for self-annihilation; new forms and methods of investigation are highlighted. By moving back and forth between dystopian landscapes, forgotten technologies, legal conditions, and forensic traces a web of interconnected realities emerges through seemingly disparate sets of ideas and research methods. Evidence in the Anthropocene is about an era that is marked by a crisis of imagination and travels with these scientists and artists to explore the lush landscape of a remote Indonesian palm oil plantation; the abandoned ruins of a former nuclear test site in the Bikini Atoll lagoon that now appears as a sub-natural alien megastructure; the concept of the “material witness” in the context of the legal imagination; and gestures towards colonizing other planets and the “cone of imaginable possibilities” by developing weaving prototypes in zero gravity.The Long Tail of the Future: Techne and Revising the Golden Record The LACMA Art + Technology Lab in collaboration with Caltech presents the premiere screening of Techne: Evidence in the Anthropocene, directed by Daniel R. Small, with a panel discussion to follow. Techne telescopes between galactic and planetary evidence presented by scientists and artist-investigators who contemplate both deep time and the fate of the human species. The film brings together scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (which Caltech manages for NASA), Jonathan H. Jiang, and Kristen Fahy, as well as artists Julian Charrière, Susan Schuppli, and Ebru Kurbak. Following the 48-minute screening, stay for a panel discussion and announcement about a new interstellar messaging effort to revise the Golden Record. The panel will include Jonathan H. Jiang, Ann Druyan (Creative Director and collaborator with Carl Sagan, her husband, on the Golden Record), and Techne director Daniel R. Small. The discussion will be moderated by Daniel Oberhaus, science and technology journalist and author of Extraterrestrial Languages (2019).RSVP here: https://www.lacma.org/ko/node/43705 Directed by: Daniel R. Small Executive Producers: Daniel R. Small, Fernando Sanchez Produced by: Riccardo Maddalosso Edited by: Fernando Sanchez In Association with: LACMA Art + Technology Lab Cast: Jonathan H. Jiang (NASA JPL), Kristen Fahy (NASA JPL), Julian Charrière, Susan Schuppli, Ebru Kurbak Director of Photography: Johannes Förster, Steven Heuer, Fabian Moser, Susan Schuppli Visual FX: Chris Parks Post Sound Services: Tonemesa Inc, Nathan Van Hala Drone Operators: Khalil S Nabelsi, Steven Heuer Music by: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Félicia Atkinson and Stephen O’ Malley, Stephen O’ Malley, Aaron LepleyTechne: Evidence in the Anthropocene is produced in partnership with: LACMA Art+Technology Lab, MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, and the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (University of Applied Arts Vienna) <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6e8a1fc20cba722eb66ef428501a145300033c99f2671e9daf8b3285c5f10fb/TechneStill_020.jpg" data-mid="156859843" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e6e8a1fc20cba722eb66ef428501a145300033c99f2671e9daf8b3285c5f10fb/TechneStill_020.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6862d69a3dee09469b38577c232952b012a5fe0de13d7eb1563e1e156df0f35/TechneStill_030.jpg" data-mid="156859844" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c6862d69a3dee09469b38577c232952b012a5fe0de13d7eb1563e1e156df0f35/TechneStill_030.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca6d5a27bf05f0917dbed558e778f991f166b9b0c9b13e23a1d495b8da214093/TechneStill_040.jpg" data-mid="156859845" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ca6d5a27bf05f0917dbed558e778f991f166b9b0c9b13e23a1d495b8da214093/TechneStill_040.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f449d5ac31f8707b21d1abd79588f518c25d458254fb2478eb1444eb20105db/TechneStill_090.jpg" data-mid="156859848" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3f449d5ac31f8707b21d1abd79588f518c25d458254fb2478eb1444eb20105db/TechneStill_090.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a36214b94ebc06deea64dc425aa850d3240433c2fa78e160c8bffabedb151f4/TechneStill_170.jpg" data-mid="156859852" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a36214b94ebc06deea64dc425aa850d3240433c2fa78e160c8bffabedb151f4/TechneStill_170.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e009c8e88fb24f65b2424eeaf0e844471e68e38948a9737ff2f9dab89b60811/TechneStill_230.jpg" data-mid="156859854" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e009c8e88fb24f65b2424eeaf0e844471e68e38948a9737ff2f9dab89b60811/TechneStill_230.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ecff100e0c149829680ae0c5154c337d2d550f392f48322523656c0faa1f7a2/TechneStill_140.jpg" data-mid="156859850" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ecff100e0c149829680ae0c5154c337d2d550f392f48322523656c0faa1f7a2/TechneStill_140.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb48a366fa756fa656a31e705f2c5098ce4e467a180ea77e3b6686254fed1514/TechneStill_100.jpg" data-mid="156859849" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb48a366fa756fa656a31e705f2c5098ce4e467a180ea77e3b6686254fed1514/TechneStill_100.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea1bfacd70c0e2d9c53f97c8a9e831b5ad8ded757ae9151a084437f5f3511e9d/TechneStill_060.jpg" data-mid="156859847" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea1bfacd70c0e2d9c53f97c8a9e831b5ad8ded757ae9151a084437f5f3511e9d/TechneStill_060.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/89f8bf2247cbf3b78a34aa85f98be13326babcc1615c37369596fd95272d26c0/TechneStill_050.jpg" data-mid="156859846" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/89f8bf2247cbf3b78a34aa85f98be13326babcc1615c37369596fd95272d26c0/TechneStill_050.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/14b19b9c0ad794b011555e053a102509822d196397c2dbf7aaaf290e78c27293/TechneStill_300.jpg" data-mid="156859858" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/14b19b9c0ad794b011555e053a102509822d196397c2dbf7aaaf290e78c27293/TechneStill_300.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/82df68ae28395aafa37c5d31aa87a0d98a3eaccd7a4aaa48f3336f62147be84d/TechneStill_290.jpg" data-mid="156859857" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/82df68ae28395aafa37c5d31aa87a0d98a3eaccd7a4aaa48f3336f62147be84d/TechneStill_290.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33c10faba35ca83b77a73a2e6ded7d346c64001170ee692858b726743b37668b/TechneStill_280.jpg" data-mid="156859856" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33c10faba35ca83b77a73a2e6ded7d346c64001170ee692858b726743b37668b/TechneStill_280.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3db396fa15ef47069e5e2ec7114269fcf2faec1b6d102dec1fed4b8f28ba350b/TechneStill_260.jpg" data-mid="156859855" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3db396fa15ef47069e5e2ec7114269fcf2faec1b6d102dec1fed4b8f28ba350b/TechneStill_260.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="750" width_o="1333" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7006c7c2bdab4fb40dbbdcda381480ee6271cf0df70c932e3bcf83a1a2093a30/TechneStill_310.jpg" data-mid="156859861" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7006c7c2bdab4fb40dbbdcda381480ee6271cf0df70c932e3bcf83a1a2093a30/TechneStill_310.jpg" /> https://danielrsmall.com/The-Past-is-Yet-to-Come Sat, 09 Apr 2022 19:07:17 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/The-Past-is-Yet-to-Come The Past is Yet to Come <img width="9854" height="4088" width_o="9854" height_o="4088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d4dabf877bccf1d4fe8f77bd84cf23376b174fe421530a86bf8e4b8ac55a98e2/THE-PAST-IS-YET-TO-COME.jpg" data-mid="139191611" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d4dabf877bccf1d4fe8f77bd84cf23376b174fe421530a86bf8e4b8ac55a98e2/THE-PAST-IS-YET-TO-COME.jpg" />Flow chart mapping Ur to Inceptionism, engraving, 13 x 32 inches. https://danielrsmall.com/Anomalous-Divinations Wed, 10 Nov 2021 22:18:24 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Anomalous-Divinations Anomalous Divinations Divination I: text to video synthesis, 00:01:39 Divination II: text to video synthesis, 00:02:05 Anomalous Divinations is composed of a series of animations made from a text to video AI pipeline. Each animation consists of creating an animation using aggregates of creation myths from around the world.&nbsp;Its representations are driven by text based aggregates of creation myths spanning creator, creator through emergence, creation from world parents, creation from cosmic egg, Earth diver, and creation from corpse reanimation thereby attempting to conjure the emergent aesthetics of collective cosmologies. Divination I conceives of a sentient entity across time with a ghostly womb that dreams of itself moving between the present and the skeletal remains of a creature from the Mesozoic era.&nbsp; Divination II is a sequence of the Venus of Willendorf gazing at their image in a room of mirrors. The Venus then imagines itself as an unidentifiable organ. The alien organ moves through time evolving into a spectral presence reminiscent of Georgione and Titian’s Venus.&nbsp; https://danielrsmall.com/Future-Continuous Fri, 29 Jan 2021 19:11:06 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Future-Continuous Future Continuous Future Continuous is an online series of episodes featuring contemporary artists and scholars responding to the shifting necessities of our moment. Ep. 1 of the series was supported by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and JOAN Los Angeles. Focused primarily on artists working with research-based methodologies, Future Continuous activates their inquiries by intermingling speculative works of art with discoveries and analysis from a diverse selection of invited scholars and experts in fields including neurobiology, planetary science, robotics, and urban history. Future Continuous is a documentary series that presents new and innovative forms of knowledge production that foreground the primacy of adaptability in recent contemporary art. The themes of each segment will continuously circle back to questions related to the limits, boundaries and pursuits entailed by operating under the umbrella term, “artist.” It will seek to interrogate which definitions of the term still hold true and which appear vestigial in our shifting present. Future Continuous will explore parallel and competing visions of what the future holds for both art and the world it lives in. In presenting both hopeful examples of progress and neglected signs of change, Future Continuous will strive to map our real evolving futures. Episode 1: Viral Memory Episode 1 of Future Continuous includes interviews with writer, urbanist, and media historian Norman M. Klein, artists Miljohn Ruperto and Candice Lin, and neurobiologist Jason Shepherd. By considering current upheavals through the lens of science fiction such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward 2000-1887 (1888), the episode’s prologue considers the future of downtown Los Angeles’s Bradbury Building by way of its history. "Viral Memory" then examines speculations around an ancient virus linked to memory in the brain's genetic structure, the sibling relationship between infection and possession, and our estrangement from the intimacy of other species that share our bodies. Video works excerpted in Episode 1 include Ordinal SW/NE (2017) by Miljohn Ruperto and Rini Yun Keagy and Toxic Semiotics (2020) by Candice Lin. Future Continuous is made possible with support from the Wilhelm Family Foundation and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. https://danielrsmall.com/AREE Fri, 08 Jan 2021 18:47:38 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/AREE AREE <img width="1487" height="1300" width_o="1487" height_o="1300" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c8192eb035e46adb1d6982915d9bf8b42091229e30870e789877305fcd41f5c/AREE-Painting1.jpg" data-mid="104780064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c8192eb035e46adb1d6982915d9bf8b42091229e30870e789877305fcd41f5c/AREE-Painting1.jpg" />AREE (mechanized chronos), Urethane painting on aluminum panel, 20 x 20 inches <img width="1400" height="1300" width_o="1400" height_o="1300" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af955da66807b56ee84b6e320630d4f5fb564447057c88a3915f632e42d9c9c7/AREE_prototype-clock-FOR-WEB.jpg" data-mid="104665587" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af955da66807b56ee84b6e320630d4f5fb564447057c88a3915f632e42d9c9c7/AREE_prototype-clock-FOR-WEB.jpg" />AREE (prototype clock), Heat treated steel and clock components, 7.5 x 7 x 5 inches&nbsp; In collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments is a mechanized rover being developed to travel to the planet Venus. Its design is inspired and engineered using the first mechanical computer and orrery, the anachronistic Antikythera mechanism developed ca 60BC. Research, consultation, and guidance on this undertaking came from multiple sources including: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers Evan Hilgemann and Jonathan Sauder, Dr. Alexander Jones author of A Portable Cosmos: Revealing the Antikythera Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of the Ancient World and Inscriptions of the Antikythera Mechanism, Fred Gettings’ Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils, and Donal Buchanan’s consultation from the Epigraphic Society of Occasional Papers. The graphic identity of the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE) was developed utilizing alchemical sigils from the middle ages that invoke an era in which mechanization came to represent a transmutation of forms. In medieval alchemical symbology glyphs and pictograms conjured or summoned as much as they represented and illustrated, and frequently contained multiple meanings. This process of conjuring many times consisted of writing out the intentions that the glyph was supposed to achieve or its desired effect, then; through contemplating the meanings of both the intent and the symbols used to literally spell it out the letters were composited into a singular glyph which consisted of overlaying, stacking, and manipulating the characters. This process of structuring language into condensed glyphs or pictograms has its own mechanized effect as it deals with choosing formal attributes to implement and build a greater sum of parts that is simultaneously a scaffolding to consider its meaning and the object-subject of its operation. Using this morphological premise to consider how best to represent AREE’s graphic design, symbols representing “ancients” and “mechanic” from an alchemical text from the 1500’s were merged into a form resembling a rover. Contained within the center of this rover like form are concentric circles invoking the schematics of clockwork recalling the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,300-year-old clock computer which influenced the engineering for AREE. Beyond the historical references, the graphic identity of the rover contains within its form the view of the planets Venus and Mercury from Earth and thereby becomes a literal framing or mediating device between the planet Venus and our understanding of it. The symbolism evoked in this graphic rendering seeks to distill the past and present by synthesizing symbology that strangely identifies the future by reinterpreting the past and has the ability to elicit our imaginations through historical slippage. <img width="1500" height="1500" width_o="1500" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d7976cd7f92af9bcf85766a214d36f6b534063d0d1dabfffde0e74ab0fe76d50/4.jpg" data-mid="96861588" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d7976cd7f92af9bcf85766a214d36f6b534063d0d1dabfffde0e74ab0fe76d50/4.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/832c54c96dd5cc1a9f70332ef206ce1977e7e3f8f6fc8dc9f25129e127d447a2/5.jpg" data-mid="97018669" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/832c54c96dd5cc1a9f70332ef206ce1977e7e3f8f6fc8dc9f25129e127d447a2/5.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca8eb479ffa4dfbd08da4c35bed89baba3074f2c86857d9047ae087c8ba9e234/3.jpg" data-mid="96861524" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ca8eb479ffa4dfbd08da4c35bed89baba3074f2c86857d9047ae087c8ba9e234/3.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a79ecb11674db0e961fcb6165973020a9f1b3d492cac53b52c9887a1eb286e71/6.jpg" data-mid="96861527" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a79ecb11674db0e961fcb6165973020a9f1b3d492cac53b52c9887a1eb286e71/6.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/10f58dacff3422bdfb4c6597a5021d02dd44e095f24109cb1290f0504eafd787/2.jpg" data-mid="96861523" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/10f58dacff3422bdfb4c6597a5021d02dd44e095f24109cb1290f0504eafd787/2.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/215299c9fbedce1832cd91421efff33a89571becc3b9b911a345778f09f00102/7.jpg" data-mid="96861529" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/215299c9fbedce1832cd91421efff33a89571becc3b9b911a345778f09f00102/7.jpg" /> https://danielrsmall.com/Myth-of-the-Divine Tue, 05 Jan 2021 19:44:45 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Myth-of-the-Divine Myth of the Divine Digital animation with GPT-3, 00:01:45 This animation combines reproductions of shaman’s masks and text written by an Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Processor. The AI that produced this text was trained using the first couple sentences of the Uitoto creation myth, an indigenous people of southeastern Colombia and northern Peru. The myth was used as the basis for the training data as the Uitoto are one of the only cosmologies that tie their existence to an acknowledgement that the act of observation is itself an illusion. In a way that is no different than in quantum physics our perception plucks events into manifestation from a cosmic soup of potentialities, and in essence our reality begins with illusion. In this case, a cosmic illusion becomes self-aware and looks into itself.&nbsp; This myth does not neatly fit into categorical cosmogonies since illusion precedes existence. Instead the AI produces a kind of mystical pulp that completes as much as speculates as to the generative action of its own perception. https://danielrsmall.com/Arc Fri, 18 Dec 2020 20:13:00 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Arc Arc <img width="2000" height="510" width_o="2000" height_o="510" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7b3d789d3ff52fc516e107213b15b8c2dc85df99bdc1817d393a341c9d5f13f2/lead-image_composite.jpg" data-mid="92574575" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7b3d789d3ff52fc516e107213b15b8c2dc85df99bdc1817d393a341c9d5f13f2/lead-image_composite.jpg" />Book pages with 3-D prints of ancient viral capsids in artist frame, 9.25 x 11.25 x 3 inches each. Arc considers the viral origins of neural plasticity and the biology of memory alongside the teleological conception of human history. The Arc protein started as a virus 400 million years ago and infected land mammals. While it is still unknown why somewhere in human’s biological evolution where Arc became useful and evolved it eventually solidified into the human genome and stopped evolving. Now, when mammals learn anything new or recall anything old, Arc is activated and acts as a conduit to neuronal plasticity and long and short-term retention of memory. Arc contemplates that the rigid finality of the results of evolutionary psychology and cognition were a viral phenomenon as much as a linear progression of brains autonomously evolving. Borrowing from encyclopedias about the most important cross sections of human history and their resulting artifacts are paired with speculative 3-D prints of viral capsids that we now know evolved and infected our brain’s cells with memory allowing for a parallel conception of historical consciousness to occur. This cumulative effect took millions of years, but even in the short span of human history these viral capsids continued to act like viruses and half of the human genome has now been identified as originating from viral origins. <img width="1792" height="2000" width_o="1792" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/171989e87a0c8b08d7dfdb6eb9e5d2c036bbc4f8c43fd2d8d02054b20da26b13/Arc-Homo-sapiens-sapiens.jpg" data-mid="92574569" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/171989e87a0c8b08d7dfdb6eb9e5d2c036bbc4f8c43fd2d8d02054b20da26b13/Arc-Homo-sapiens-sapiens.jpg" /> <img width="1789" height="2000" width_o="1789" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae0e998febf6bd8409eaf5d22a2314274be847a90e0304cb4cef68e3f3b527c6/Arc-Australopithecus-footprints.jpg" data-mid="92574570" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae0e998febf6bd8409eaf5d22a2314274be847a90e0304cb4cef68e3f3b527c6/Arc-Australopithecus-footprints.jpg" /> <img width="1781" height="2000" width_o="1781" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25cd4f9441a26d75e558ab1365c1715c7bc43568634ec64e5338ffba0033b13b/Arc-Emporer-Justinian.jpg" data-mid="92574571" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25cd4f9441a26d75e558ab1365c1715c7bc43568634ec64e5338ffba0033b13b/Arc-Emporer-Justinian.jpg" /> <img width="1786" height="2000" width_o="1786" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e487a7b287c725ecefeaf713d517db5778d5ff207f6ee91e65e8ebb4f99c18f/Arc-Szegvar-Tuzkoves.jpg" data-mid="92574572" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e487a7b287c725ecefeaf713d517db5778d5ff207f6ee91e65e8ebb4f99c18f/Arc-Szegvar-Tuzkoves.jpg" /> <img width="1785" height="2000" width_o="1785" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ca88a931aefe9692b3e02553e819b3947cc4b0d6b59c554e273f8a2a173f092/Arc-Taung-Skull.jpg" data-mid="92574573" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1ca88a931aefe9692b3e02553e819b3947cc4b0d6b59c554e273f8a2a173f092/Arc-Taung-Skull.jpg" /> https://danielrsmall.com/Eternal-Enfolding Fri, 18 Dec 2020 20:11:09 +0000 Daniel R. Small https://danielrsmall.com/Eternal-Enfolding Eternal Enfolding <img width="2000" height="1442" width_o="2000" height_o="1442" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfc74583fbd3d09f38ecfdd0ea38850a88ef3b862ce386e18b103bcace8122c0/leadimage.jpg" data-mid="92638366" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cfc74583fbd3d09f38ecfdd0ea38850a88ef3b862ce386e18b103bcace8122c0/leadimage.jpg" /> Nanostructured fused quartz disc etched with femtosecond laser, 2” x 2” inches Eternal Enfolding is a growing archive of hundreds of creation myths collected from various sources over many years that are stored on a 5D eternal disc. With the help of scientists from the Optoelectrics Research Centre at the University of Southampton these myths have been etched onto nanostructured fused quartz with a femtosecond laser that will last billions of years. The project considers the growing field of intangible cultural heritage and the perplexing historical conundrums associated with organizations like UNESCO’s archives. The disc serves as an open platform to track how stories are passed down and undergo their own evolutionary cycles depending on the tellers and the time in which they are told. It considers these stories to be living entities embodied in an ever-expanding branching archive of their collection and dissemination, and they are stored on a disc with a 360-terabyte capacity allowing for an almost endless reconfiguration of varying stories of genesis that will track revisions and excisions by considering the time they might be told in.&nbsp;