Entering the rift, we encountered a space where nothing was as it should be. Common points of reference were fundamentally altered. Signs dissolved into signal. Things grew wings. Confronted by this proliferation of possibility, we tried to create a map of the rift. But our observations, instead of collapsing the multiple reality-potentials we saw into a single reality, further destabilized the system. Meanings mutated, mated and multiplied. When we came out of the rift, we compared our maps. Each was different. Each provided a different set of coordinates for the psychosemantic phenomena we experienced. And when we re-entered the rift, our maps were no longer accurate, could not guide us deeper, or assure us passage home. We realized we were in over our heads. That one map, or even two, could not provide the path we seek, could not create the sigil that we need to harness the powerful energies that the rift has unleashed. This is a mountain we draw the mountain it is not a mountain.

We realized we needed more maps, we needed a Map of Maps, to help us chart this strange space.
To get those maps, Lab members Adam Good and Gabriel Walsh created an audio tour of the Rift, a series of instructions and actions for pairs of partners to undertake in the Rift. Upon exiting the Rift, participants were debriefed on their experience, and each created a map, which was added to the Map of Maps.

Through this activity, we have furthered our understanding of the powerful forces of radical meaning and quantum reality.

It samples source texts and dissolves them into individual words that move about freely in a perpetual swarm. By watching this swarm, we can discern the emergence of new meanings.

VIEW SWARM_EMERGE (link)

(best viewed full-screen in Firefox or Chrome. press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page)

For the (e)merge art fair, I collected artists statements as my source, and used this sample to remix new meanings for art. The process for discovering these meanings is simple: just watch the random words (in the white background), and remix them into new statements about “it” (sentences in blue). This remixing process is not automatic or random; it is guided by the human intent to create a meaningful statement, using the words as material. The statements are meant to be potential pathways to insight, sparks of new ideas for what art is, and what it could be. Many of the remixed “it” statements were created by visitors to the fair.

Want to contribute your artist statement, or your own remixes about “it”?
Email adam AT therealadamgood.com
Or, you can view the original artist statements (google spreadsheet).

Background concepts: emergence; swarming

They treat words and other manifestations of thought as objects (notes) that can be manipulated to create new meaning, facilitating a more fluid, intuitive approach to knowledge production.

I post a new NoteGrid every day, over at notegrids.tumblr.com, where I’m also documenting other inspirations for object-oriented thought, radical recombinance, and the remixing of knowledge.

I also create custom NoteGrids. If you send me a link (or comment with a link on this page), I’ll remix it into a NoteGrid.

Collages of the first 4 sets of posit nodes are below, along with an improvisational remix of the first set.
The individual images themselves are available for reuse under a Creative Commons license.

Posit Nodes – Set 1

Posit Nodes – Set 2

Posit Nodes – Set 3

Posit Nodes – Set 4

Posit nodes are a manifestation of “object-oriented thought” in which all instances of thought are treated as objects for use and re-use. Everything is an interface. Thought-objects are components of interfaces, as well as interfaces themselves.

New Obsolescents presents images in iPods that have been hacked and de-programmmed to do nothing but display a single image. The first three devices are collaborations with photographers Jade Doskow, Megan Cump, and Matthew Gamber.

Learn more about the series.

The series toys with the planned obsolescence of our most cherished and ubiquitous technological marvels, and makes the owner a willing accomplice in the image’s disappearance, highlighting issues of control, access, and responsibility.

The first three New Obsolescents feature work by Jade Doskow, Megan Cump, and Matthew Gamber. Each device displays one image by one artist.

They will be on view in the Camper Contemporary gallery at Pulse Art Fair Miami, from December 2 – 5.

For the piece, I brought an old viewmaster with a bunch of TV show reels, from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to the 6 Million Dollar Man. I then invited audience members to watch a reel and describe what they saw. The results were both funny and disarming. The first audience member, a young girl, described a scene from the 6 Million Dollar man as “Man with Trophy and Friends,” which seemed like a perfect name.

1. ‘The answer ‘as facsimile (for the) ‘first story (works by) ‘pursuing the model (of the) ‘circuit.
2. ‘Another ‘multifaceted ‘predisposition ‘arises (with the) ‘urge’ to wash ‘the mechanism.
3. ‘However, ‘the range ‘of memories ‘in parallel streams (might) ‘work (as though) ‘rising (into) ‘an automatic ‘trigger.
4. ‘Thinking about words ‘as representations (of) ‘accompanied ‘flight (might illustrate) ‘and produce a ‘specific ‘feedback/’reward ‘stream.
5. ‘To discover (that) ‘we live (as) ‘situation, (an) ‘abundance of ‘causal (and casual) ‘relation (leaving maps for) ‘forms (to follow).
6. ‘To discover (that) ‘things change (according to) ‘an awareness of ‘structure and function, (made strange and) ‘illuminated (by) ‘phenomenon, ‘a reminder ‘of regions.
7. ‘Their skilled ‘patchwork ‘intuitively ‘indicated (via flow of) ‘no ‘condition.
8. (Another) ’round of ‘processing ‘the flight (might reveal) ‘reminders, ‘gorgeous, ‘excitable, ‘marching right in ‘through ‘fascination’s ‘over-active ‘circuit.
9. ‘Once ‘suggested, ‘the distant possibility (becomes more) ‘active ‘in attention ‘according to ‘the firing rate ‘of memories (etc) ‘woven round (each moment of) ‘the drawing (forth.
10. ‘We recall ‘this reading (it has changed) ‘the sound (of every channel) ‘they have gone (down).

A note on method:

Statements are creating by rapidly flipping through the source text, pulling fragments together with a general “intent to state” something meaningful about the terrain. The apostrophes and parentheses meant to convey a rough sense of how I’m remixing the statements. An apostrophe denotes the start of a string found in the original text. A phrase in parentheses denotes a phrase I inserted (on the fly) to “drive” the emerging statement towards being more … statement-y.

In his stacks of limitless square sheets of pale blue paper, which visitors were encouraged to take away, Gonzalez-Torres developed a practice of public participation, open interpretation, and mobile adaptation of the work of art, and evolved the cool, intellectual stances of minimalism into something infinitely more haunting, passionate, political, and humane.

In describing his practice, he said, “I need public interaction. Without the public these works are nothing. I need the public to complete the work. I ask the public to help me out, to take responsibility, to become part of my work, to join in.”

The Loverboy Project is an attempt to take Gonzalez-Torres up on his offer, “to complete the work” by adapting it and giving it away in the same spirit as his endlessly replaceable paper stacks. Just as the viewer of his physical work is encouraged to take the physical object away for her personal use, I have taken the form and the idea and the intent of it, to re-imagine and redistribute it in new ways.

This video is the digital equivalent of the paper stacks. An infinite number of viewers can take it with them, and it never diminishes. They can download it, embed it on their websites or Facebook pages, interpret and adapt it; they can complete it, they can join in, they can help.

The images that comprise the video are scans of stickers that I found at a yard sale, nearly the same pale blue as the Loverboy sheets. The box contained almost 2o,000 stickers, on long sheets. I am placing the stickers in public places as another extension of the original work, to bring it to new audiences outside of traditional art spaces.

To participate in the Loverboy Project, simply watch this video, and, if you feel so moved, link to it, embed it on your site or Facebook page, download it, remix it. Complete it.