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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Bio Teams - Watching Nature To Understand Teamwork



Here is a link to the BioTeam Blog Interview with Ken Thompson:

Ken Thompson - Bio-teaming www.bioteams.com and Swarm Teams www.swarmteams.com

Summary notes added by P. Frischer: Information obtained from observing nature’s team. For example, in migration, there is not one leader who knows the way. Instead everyone has a bit of the knowledge and the leader changes as the journey progresses.

Team Intelligence – working for collective success

Treat every member of the team as a leader

Everyone communicate to everyone – short messages (texting or emails or blog communications)

Learn by experimentation – don’t spend too much time planning

Work may start from a nucleus but expand the team to get full benefit from all members.

Summary of video above:

1. Karma Check – set goals of the team, set expectation. Trust Breakers –free loader comes to the meeting to see if it will work. If you are free loader of the month twice, you don’t contribute and are out. If you don’t come to three meetings you are out with the three strike rule

2. Clear rules of engagement - Write down all that is agreed. The 5% that is not agreed caused 95% of the problems. What information is shared. Try to agree on shared values and behaviors

3. Don’t fly to close to hit each other, but stayed alignment and stay close together.

4. Look for collective success – if you only looking out for yourself, the team will fail. Have early warning systems to see if the team is still functioning

5. Strong ties to ask for help when you need it and trust that is OK

6. Weak ties to get new input – use as grapevine, use for short term solution

7. Three types of wisdom – a. wisdom of group, the average answer is the best, b. collective intelligence (identify the one who know the subject the best and use it) or c. the leader decides. All are useful at different times.

Monday, July 25, 2011

London's rolling bridge





The curling - or rolling - bridge in Paddington Basin, London, is a unique design by Thomas Heatherwick. Instead of flipping open or turning sideways, as more conventional bridges do, this one curls into an octogonal roll to open and then uncurls again. This pedestrian bridge is a wonderful piece of architectural art. The bridge opens every Friday at noon. The concept could be used for all sorts of amazing things.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Felena Hanson Shares a Business Perspective on Creativity


Hear more from this dynamic San Diego business leader and entrepreneur whose latest venture is a collaborative work, meeting, and event space for female entrepreneurs called Hera Hub. This unique concept offers hourly, daily, and monthly space for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and authors. Creativity in Business at its BEST in Art West Agency's 'Interviews on Creativity'.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Thought Festival

Portia La Touche sent us this link to a "denkfest" that she found through her work with Invetch.

She likes this concept of “thought festival” and wonder how we might employ it.

Organised by the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland, denkfest aims to promote the public's understanding of science and the approach to critical and innovative thinking, in an entertaining atmosphere. In German, denkfest, is a play with words, meaning both "think hard" and "thought festival".

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

San Diego Artist and Sculptor, Jeffrey Steorts, Provides Mindful Approach to Creativity


Travel with Art West Agency on a journey with San Diego artist and sculptor, Jeffrey Steorts. His mindful approach to inspiration and creativity captivates the mind and penetrates the spirit. See the latest in the series of Art West Agency's 'Interviews on Creativity'.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

SybioticA and the Visceral Project

Lisa Carrie Goldberg used to write the newsletter for SymbioticA form the University of Western Australia and has sent us her selection of links of interest that they gathered. We first read about their Visceral Project in Science Magazine. The exhibition explored and provoked questions about scientific truths, what constitutes living and the ethical and artistic implications of life manipulation. Check out these links which are on a variety of subjects.

http://www.artscatalyst.org/

http://www.lelaboratoire.org/

Check out Lisa's own sites on her Somnolence Drawing project


We are also including links sent to us by Naimeh Tahna:

Bay Area Science Fair: http://wonderfest.org/home_body/

and another cool one Your DNA Song



Saturday, July 16, 2011

How Accurate are computer images?

These images are all CGI - computer graphics

Art Meets Medicine: Surgeons Carry Out First Synthetic Windpipe Transplant 'tailor made trachea & two main bronchi made of glass'

Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Italy...

"Thanks to nanotechnology, this new branch of regenerative medicine, we are now able to produce a custom-made windpipe within two days or one week.

"This is a synthetic windpipe. The beauty of this is you can have it immediately. There is no delay. This technique does not rely on a human donation."

Scientists at University College London were able to craft a perfect copy of a trachea and two main bronchi out of glass.

San Diego scientist and web designer, Terry Williams, introduced this article. He began thinking about medical ‘art’ as an interesting ‘science’ and asked me questions that I’d like to share with our audience: Presented with this achievement and how it was done, how would artists portray their feelings? Science overcoming disease, regeneration, conquest of death or at least holding it at bay for awhile become interesting constructs. How do artists use knowledge of cells and biochemistry to recreate vital organs? How would artists work with this knowledge and what would they create? How does an artist portray precision knowledge and microscopic technique?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness


Via Jette Summers in Wichita Kansas - Thanks!
Check it out


In the fall of 2012, a group of New Mexico arts organizations will present , a symposium and series of events exploring the discourse of global proportions on the subject of art and technology. The prestigious international ISEA is held every year in a different location around the world, and has a 30-year history of significant acclaim.

Hear the Muse.....er News? Art West Agency Continues the Series: 'Interviews on Creativity'

Meet Fusionglass Co Artists Debbie Solan and Paul Fernandes of La Mesa, CA:

Paul was a professional musician, playing guitar, singing, and writing music in the ‘60s, and in the ‘70s and ‘80s traveled internationally with his wife Kathy as headliners with their group ‘Chakra’. They world-toured with bands such as the Pointer Sisters and The Marvellettes. Irish lassie Debbie Solan was a flight attendant and flies still, only on the cape of her muse. Hear more from this dynamic duo.



3-D Printer



This was sent from Madelynne Engle and is truly incredible. They demonstrate a working wrench reproduced. I have never seen this before. This is like the replicator on Star Trec

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Physics Of Jackson Pollock


Via Jean Kelley - (Here) is an interesting bit on the physics of Jackson Pollock.

How To Be A Contributor To This Blog

If you have an interest to contribute to the endeavors of this blog then we would like for you to do 2 things.

First – set up a Google account. by going to google.com (see help images below)
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The image below is the first thing you see when you go to Google.com -- Click the "sign on" button in the top left corner and go to the next screen.






Click on the button that says "create a new account" And follow the instructions.



Once you have created your Google account you are ready to receive an invitation from kaz@kazmaslanka.com . Email him and ask him to send you an invitation. When you get the invitation it should look similar to the image below. Click on the blue line and follow it to the next screen.


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If you have any questions you may email kaz@kazmaslanka.com
Cheers!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Fibonacci Numbers

Sent to us by Michelle Kurtis Cole was info about the Fibonacci Number Sequence and the golden number, golden ratio and all sorts of goodies derived from that. Check out the video



and also



Thanks so much to Michelle.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Friday, July 8, 2011

Polytope Slicer


The question was raised, in one of the previous comments, concerning the building of patterns in a 3D shape. - There are infinite answers to this but I find the following link here most interesting.
This is the Polytope Slicer which continuously shows 3 dimensional section cuts through a four dimensional object.
To wrap you head around this - just think of the image of a 3 dimensional wireframe cube with it shadow projected on the wall ( two dimensional surface) - In effect we are projecting the cube into the next dimension down - from 3D to 2D - The image shown above is a hyperdodecahedron (which is a four dimensional object) and we are looking at a 3d section cut of it in (the next dimension down)

Jonathan Glasier


Our Member, Jonathan Glasier is in Berlin for the "Political Patterns" international exhibit at the IFA Gallerie ( Gallery of Foreign and International Arts and Culture) which is a German State sponsored gallery that has existed in Berlin for past 20 years. The Dulcimoon Harp is an 87 string employing scales from Aztec, Tang Dynasty (Chinese), and Arab Cultures. Jonathan says that he has taken some liberties with the tuning. The harp is played by the public with a 4´x5´ screen designed by head Artist Doris Bittar, which is pulled across the instrument creating melodies as the attached plectrum strikes the strings. Some of you may have seen the instrument as it was displayed at the California Center for the Arts in the "Leveled" exhibit last year from August 14th to the end of the year. Doris also designed the pattern of the instrument which was constructed by master woodworker Patrick Edwards. Jonathan created the acoustic sound and tuning design. Jonathan's performance was Thursday July 07.

Diffusion Limited Aggregation (DLA) in 3D


These are really stunning computer generated pictures of fractal-like 3D structures constrained by 3D shapes. See Paul Bourke's site at http://paulbourke.net/fractals/dla3d/
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