Turing Alan was a British mathematician who helped crack the Enigma Code used by the German U-Boats during World War Two.He Solved the Enigma Code in just a few weeks
using his own invention, the Bombe Machine.This machine used the “Heuristics” way of thinking. This was a form of
artificial intelligence.
The Enigma Code Machine used by German Submarines
The Bonbe Machine
The Bombe machine was not 100% accurate, but close enough to be useful in cracking the German Code. Cracking the Enigma code was a major factor in Germany loosing World War II.
After the war Turing turned his focus on technologies of the future. He thought of computers as children. We can teach children why not teach computers to think and even communicate with us. Even today computers are thought of as either Turing compatible or Turing equivalent. He developed the Turing Test which has not yet been achieved. The test is a person talking via computer to another person which in reality is a computer. The real person can not figure out that they are talking to a computer, otherwise the test failed. This test is still being used today.
MUTO is a wall painting animation by BLU. This video was so
captivating to me because of the intricate details of the drawing as well as
the fluidity of the animation. The artist takes the viewer on a journey with
this piece. The sound track really adds to the experience. There is a vulgar
aspect to the artistry. The repetition of the man climbing out of himself really
touches me on a personal level. We are always trying to reinvent ourselves as
humans, and this piece spoke to me in that aspect of my life. I felt like I was
watching someone’s life flash before me. I was amazed at the thought that went
into this video, as well as the time that elapsed. It seemed to take all day to paint the
animation. Beautiful piece.
A group of men go to the moon shot out of a huge cannon. When they get there they are captured by the moon people. They manage to escape the moon people and return to earth. this movie changed the way movies would be made from that point on, as well as how the audiance would watch movies.
The use of Techne in the form of sculpture and mechanical
devices and camera tricks for special effects, was unheard of in 1902. This was
the first time in movies that animation was used. It was a spectacle that
delighted people of all ages. It was the beginning of how movies would be made
from then on.
For my grid art project, I took the Florida Gator’s logo, brought it
into Adobe Photoshop and zoomed in until the picture was completely pixelated.
I then laid down a grid of guidelines so I could sample each individual color.
I purchased sheets of precut 1.5" x 1.5" squares and printed the different
color shades on each sheet. I set up a camera on a tripod and shot a picture as
I placed the squares in their corresponding grid I drew out on the poster board.
There was plenty of counting the squares to make sure I was placing the right
colors in the right places, according to the picture on the computer.
Surrealism is a radical approach to
art through letting go of the traditional art skills and venturing into a dreamlike
or unconsciousness state of thinking. A reality described in many of
Sigmund Freud's writings. This art is usually socially unacceptable, using
sexually perverse images or depicting death and violence. This gave the
surrealists the permission to tap into their most basic instincts of sexuality,
fear, delight, terror etc. and bring it to life through their art.
This art
form derived from Dadaism and was officially presented in 1924 with the
introduction of “The Manifest of Surrealism”. These artists would find their
inspiration from children, mental patients, naive art, and outsider art.
Max Ernst was a German Artist and poet painted the Two Children Are Threatened by a
Nightingale in 1924 which is one of the most famous surreal art pieces today. He was a pioneer of Dadaism and surrealism.
Here are some other examples of surrealism.
Surrealism never disappeared from the art world it just evolved into many other smaller forms of art. Here are some examples of "exquisite corpses".
This video is so well done for the little amount of time used to tell the story. The Music score is haunting. I loved the transition from background music to the phonograph and back. It really gave the music a sense of reality to the story line. The number of still shots that were done to get such a fluid motion of the characters, must have been staggering.
The story line stays cohesive with the changes in time throughout the piece. All the major points of the story are covered for such a short performance. When the sailor returns to her after getting her pregnant, and taking the child from her to give her to his new wife, just destroyed her.
The big twist to the story is when the main character starts to take her self apart so she can turn into a butterfly. Her leaving the story background and doing this on the table of what could be the puppet's creator was a great example of breaking the fourth wall to me.
The Strange Beauty of Historic Computers Brought Back From the Dead
Images: Computer History Museum
Looking t the picture above reminds me of the pictures my father shared with me of when he was in the United States Air Force. These machines look a lot like the ones he worked with. He told me that one of his jobs was the punch card machine in the intelligence room of the air force base he worked at. It amazes me that this IBM 1401 Room has taken over 10 years to put together.
Images: Computer History Museum
The picture above explains why it took so long to put these computers back in working condition. The were not the simple machines of today, with integrated circuit boards, and the restoration team only met once a week to work on then.
The Computer Conservation Society in England is restoring a computer named the WITCH (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing from Harwell). The curator of this restoration is the organization's secretary Kevin Murrell. This computer was used in the Atomic Research facility in Harwell and is now housed in the British National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.
Most of the old computer equipment have been restored by hobbyist and ex-engineers that actually works on these massive and complicated machines in the late 50's and early 60's. Looking at the size and complexity of computers makes me realize how fortunate we are to have plug-and-play components to our computers today.
I have been building computers for about 10 years now and I do not have the degrees or skills the engineers had when computers were coming into existence.
For more pictures and information click on the link below.
Disney's THE LION KING is one of the most colorful and imaginative plays on Broadway. There is so much going on at any one scene, that you could watch it a second time and still not take it all in. The music score, the dancers, and the use of puppetry, make this one of my favorite plays.
In the Broadway production of HAIR SPRAY, I enjoyed this play because of the great characters and the realistic situations they get in. The main character is a plump teenage girl with a little weight problem, wins a position on a dance TV show. She starts right away to integrate the show, a problem very apparent in the 1960's. The show won several awards and ran for 2500 shows.
Grease the Musical is all about teenage problems and love of the middle class working teenager. The show is based around a high school in the late 1950's. A common theme so far in all these plays is bright colors and a lot of singing and dancing. There is always a story to be told. The music for this play is Rock n Roll of the 1950's.
Wicked the musical is the untold story of the wicked witch of the West. Her perspective is a parallel story from the 1939 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The story of two unlikely friends, the white good witch and the black wicked witch of the west. A very nice difference in points of view. I have not had the pleasure of seeing the show in person, but I have seen a lot of the videos on the web. It must be spectacular in person.
The musical CATS is very interesting because its about cats that are representing cats instead of something else like in may of the Broadway shows. This play is composed by one of my favorite composers Andrew Lloyd Webber. The show is about deciding which cat is going to rise into the heavens. The story line is based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, written by T.S. Elliot. One of the most memorable songs from this show is "Memory".
The play RENT is about the struggling young musicians and artists in New York's Lower East Side during the time that AIDS was the big scare of that time. Aids struck all areas of the art and music world at that time. Many great artist just vanished from the face of the earth, taking their great talents with them. Such a terrible loss to future generations. It's up to all of us to keep their memories alive by sharing their work with as many people as we can.
You can never go wrong with a Disney story. One of my fondest is Beauty and the beast. My daughter and I have watched this video a hundred times. The characters of the enchanted castle were turned into furniture and house hold serving ware and other items that were around the castle. After ten years Belle came to the castle and wins over the heart of the beast that lets her go home to help her ill father. The spell is broken when the beast showed his love to Belle and received her love in return.
Every one should watch this video. I did not realize the there is a worldwide shortage of computer programmers. This video states that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world in this industry. We cannot become complacent with what we have achieved so far, the rest of the world is scratching and clawing its way ahead of us, with success I might add. The more successful companies in this industry are making the workplace more desirable for the best and brightest talent in the industry by offering free food and laundry. Work spaces are designed to promote creativity, friendships, and a sense of community. This video really inspired me to learn more about coding and do something important with the skills I am learning today!
