Category Archives: Lectures

Ignite DC Talk – Becoming a DJ of Thought

Video from my talk at Ignite DC #2, titled “Becoming a DJ of Thought.” More description below the video.


Or, download it at iTunes

Description:
Remixing is not just an art form: it is a fundamental method for understanding and interacting with what we know. We’ve realized the potential of remixing in music, literature, and art—we must now remix the entire spectrum of human thought. If we can remix songs, why not the encyclopedia? If we can mash-up Jay-Z and the Beatles, why not Einstein and Darwin, the Bible and Pythagoras, Isaac Newton and Lewis Carroll? Remixing “the stuff of thought” will yield not only compelling art, but, with the right understanding and appreciation, real insight and scientific advancement. The innovators of the future will be “DJs of Thought,” sampling, mixing, and spinning all existing ideas and thought-objects into ever-new structures. They will remix what we know into what we could know. They will show the Academy how to dance.

Also posted in Performance, Remixes, Video | 1 Comment

Improvised Recombinance / Functional Improvised Recombinance

Improvised Recombinance


Functional Improvised Recombinance
in which a recombinance, or remix, is channeled into a structure for further use

An interactive performance lecture in which I taught a group of George Mason University students how to re-mix thought-objects to generate answers to the question “What is Thought?”
This is a condensed “promo” version of the 20-minute lecture.

Also posted in Process, Remixes, Video | 2 Comments

Lecture 2 – Intro Slide

Intro slide to Lecture 2 – What We Think When We Think About Thought

As far as I can tell, here’s what’s happening:

  • A primary user (left) access a thought-object (center) that is connected to a portable medium (top).
  • Collective knowledge of the thought-object, combined with perceptions of the primary user’s use of it, flows back and forth between observers (bottom) and the thought-object. This changes it.
  • The thought-object, combining the inputs and manipulations of the primary user, portable medium, and observers, projects an image onto a screen (right) …

Scene_Intro

  • The primary user and observers now have access to a representation of the thought-object.
  • They can now discuss it as a tangible entity, and change its properties by manipulating the representation or by adjusting variables in the thought-object itself.

Note: this is probably very similar to the process of making a thought “happen” in your own mind.

More slides from Lecture 2

Video of Lecture 2

Also posted in Diagrams, Performance | Leave a comment