I’ve only had one week’s exposure to Contact Improvisation but already I feel that this is how humans were made to move.

I first saw this dance at Priceless last weekend. It was past midnight, having just turned July 4. I was wandering around the festival and decided to check out the chill stage. This stage was covered with a cloth shade structure, kind of like a futuristic circus tent. There was only one entrance which was crowded with people standing, so I had to push my way through.

Despite being outdoors — the night sky visible through the holes between the cloth structure — the chill stage was covered in carpeting and this carpet was strewn with large throw pillows. Within the perimeter were people sitting and lying down on these pillows, most with eyes-closed, listening to the ambient music the DJ was spinning.

But in front of the DJ was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Five or six people were moving at about 4x slow motion, writhing, caressing and falling over each other. A multi-limbed, multi-headed, multi-torsoed human mass oozing at 4x slow motion at the center of an audience entranced by psychedelic ambient music.

In my current state, I couldn’t tell whether this was a performance or something that just spontaneously started happening. It was actually so intense that I had to leave.

The next night I hung around the chill stage in a more sober condition and was able to observe how these dancers initiated their dance and the protocols they used to communicate with each other.

I found out that the dance was called Contact Improvisation. And yesterday morning I took my first class here in New York City.

Here are some reasons why I believe that this will be the dance of the future (at least for me):

Intention not form. The form, the shape you put your body in, is not important. The art happens at the point of contact; very subtle pressure changes allow partners to communicate how the point of contact should evolve, whether it be pulled, pushed, slid, or pivoted. But only the participants experience this, everybody else just sees the form which follows from the intention.

Absolute expression. Although there is a vocabulary for common movements, there is no such thing as a wrong move. Other dances require learning fundamentals before one’s own style can be developed, but in Contact Improvisation you’re already developing your personal style on first contact. The personal styles of each partner flower in complexity as they interact. Every dance tells a unique story.

Intimate. All communication between partners is through touch. The dance can be done completely with eyes closed. There is a group that teaches Contact Improvisation to the blind.

Shared control. Like Capoeira, Contact Improvisation is explicitly an action-reaction, feedback-led dance. There is no leader and follower like many partner dances. Instead the subtle energy fluctuations at the point of contact lead the dancers, like the chaotic forces at an unstable equilibrium.

Physics-defying. Here’s the quick principle of a dance like the moonwalk: Michael Jackson goes up the toes of one foot, puts all of his weight on that foot, then slides the other foot (which is flat on the ground) backwards. The illusion in convincing because the audience sub-consciously thinks that MJ’s weight is on the foot that is flat on the ground, so when this foot is slid back it makes him appear weightless/frictionless. Contact Improvisation creates an entirely new dimension of possibilities for movements like this, because weight can be distributed to your partner.

Modular. Any number of “partners” can simultaneously participate in the dance, all linked through touch, the exchange of partners as effortless as the dance itself.

If you’re in NYC, I highly recommend Kayoko’s class. She gradually introduces the concepts of the dance in a comfortable way, has the class go through exercises which help you learn to communicate your intention, and makes very constructive suggestions on ways you can go deeper into the dance.

(via Nadja)

I’d love to watch the entire novel like this! There’s something so blatantly absurd about a medium entirely inappropriate for its content. (For something similarly wonderful, check out this read-aloud version of the US Tax Code.)

Interestingly, the Overton window is a political theory concept that is becoming a theme on this blog. Its premise is that the scale from absurd to self-evident is relative to the current mood of the collective consciousness. The “Overton window” is the range of political positions that are currently considered acceptable, or at least acceptable enough that people won’t laugh at you.

The political technique that emerges from this consideration is to inject opinions into public discourse which are more extreme than the position you favor. These extreme positions expand the Overton window. Now your favored position seems quite moderate.

This is, of course, exactly the strategy used by Glenn Beck.

The reason this strategy works is that most people gauge the range of others’ opinions and then choose an opinion in the middle of this. It’s like the story of two kids fighting over cake: Sam says he should get all of it, Paul says they should split it half and half, so the adult decides to compromise and gives Sam three-quarters.

Another strategy to expand the Overton window is to push hard in the other direction.

A while ago Matt Garcia and I wanted to launch a guerilla public policy campaign: Don’t Ban Smoking, California. Here’s Matt’s script for a TV spot:

Close up. Statue of Thomas Jefferson with a single tear rolling down cheek.

Voice Over (menacing):

In 2009, smoking tobacco inside restaurants and bars became illegal in Virginia, the heartland of tobacco country.

Zoom In

Recently, you may have seen ads that suggest smoking should be banned entirely in the state of California.

Smoking is a choice. Don’t let private interest groups bully the government into dictating your choice.

Don’t let Thomas Jefferson shed a tear for you, California.

Cut to: Man in California wilderness smoking. Panning Landscape shot.

Cut to: Jail cell slamming repeatedly from 4 different angles.

Cut to: Man in cell with face against bars.

Cut to: Thomas Jefferson’s face where man’s was, still crying.

Stay free California. Retain personal choice.

Now Matt swears that he’s actually seen ads and other propaganda to ban all tobacco smoking entirely in California. Any corroborators?

My interest in this campaign was to make people think that there are actually people mobilized against the (non-existent?) Ban Smoking movement. This would in turn strengthen the Ban Smoking movement, perhaps to the point where they would even succeed. I don’t really care about this policy but I think it would be interesting to see.

Of course, any time your plan involves people’s reactions and counter-reactions you’re in for unexpected consequences. Really the best you can hope to do is stir things up and make people scratch their heads.

Incidentally, it seems we’ve been beaten to the punch on our smoking campaign by the like-minded Billboard Liberation Front.

Well done!

When I woke up I started looking for technology to implement this, specifically 3D hologram technology. I found this video of Cisco doing an on-stage 3D telepresence demo:

I was thrown off when the physically present Cisco CEO says he can see the hologrammed guy in front of him. He can’t! He’s pretending that he sees the other guy standing next to him.

This is a video showing how the illusion works:

I had to watch a few times to figure it out.

Hint: the “foil” is a one-way mirror, which means it’s both reflective and transparent depending on where the light is coming from. It’s like looking through a glass window at night in pitch black: you see your reflection. But if there’s light coming from outside then you see the outside.

This “hologram” is the same technology that’s used in Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride during the Ballroom scene.

Patrons ride across the track, looking down at the ballroom.

There’s a huge one-way mirror between the patrons and the ballroom. The ghosts are underneath the ride track. The patrons see the faint reflection of the ghosts, making them look transparent. By turning the lights on and off, the ghosts seem to appear and disappear.

The hitchhiking ghosts use a similar effect.

Patrons face a mirror (actually a one-way mirror) and see their reflection. The ghost is behind the mirror, moving on a track in sync with the ride.

Mirrors are folds in space. I’m excited for emerging technologies that can fold and rearrange space into “hyperspace” — the way that it is done on the web, with doors and windows leading you to new spaces unconstrained by physical geometry.

I’m reminded of the psychogeographer Constant Nieuwenhuys who would cut up and collage together maps of European cities to envision his utopic city, New Babylon.

I have in mind several projects exploring this theme:

1. Using mirrors to reverse gravity (interactive sculpture in progress)
2. Treadmill surrounded by projections, allowing you to physically walk through Google Streetview
3. Grids of cameras mounted to the ceiling of an indoor space, creating a live video “Google Map”

Crystals

I hang these from threads and tape them to the ceiling next to my window. When the sun shines through it makes rainbows on my walls.

There is a proliferation of new age websites which sell crystals and talk about them. These unfortunately tend to drown out any other discussion of crystals.

I finally found this cheap place to order good sun-catcher crystals.

For hanging rainbows, I found these 38mm tear-drop ones to work the best. The tear-drop is definitely the best shape for making rainbows, and any bigger than 38mm is too heavy to hang from tape.

The above image was made with a 76mm tear-drop crystal.

Magnets

Neodymium magnets are super strong! There are a bunch of places to order a variety of shapes, I don’t know what vendor is cheapest.

A special mention has to be made for acquiring large amounts of small spherical magnets. Here are a few pictures of sculptures I’ve made with them.

You can order these from Neocube.

Finally ferrofluid is an amazing magical substance, but messy. It is an oil-like liquid that is magnetic. When placed near a magnet it makes these amazing spikes due to the interaction between the magnetic forces and surface tension.

Mirrors

I have been having a lot of fun playing with mirrors recently. I’m not sure the best place to acquire them online, but I found a place in Manhattan, TT Plastic Land, that cuts acrylic mirror to any size you need. They also sell one-way mirror (transparent on one side, mirror on the other) which I’m psyched to do a project with.

You can do video feedback with a mirror and laptop webcam.

LED’s

Deal Extreme (which sells many other magical items) has a 10-pack of colored super-bright LED key chains for $4-5, free shipping! Warning: It takes weeks to get your stuff from Deal Extreme, they ship from Hong Kong by boat.

More

Here are other magical items that I don’t have as much experience with:

Miracle berry temporarily blocks your sour and bitter taste receptors. Get the tablets and try eating a lemon, etc.

Electronics are a lot of fun to play with, I only started programming my own stuff a couple days ago. Arduino boards are very easy to get going. Order one with the USB port. I ordered from SparkFun which seems good enough. This ITP page has tutorials to get you started.

Little mannequins that you can pose in various ways are fun. No idea where to get them.

Dichloromethane is used in those drinking bird toys to create a heat engine. Might have some potential.

You can order tapioca balls and fat straws and make your own bubble tea. Magic?

The anti-drug campaign in the US is grounded on loose “facts” and this PSA just points that out!

But when it comes to influencing public opinion, it’s enough to:

1. Show a debate around a topic.
2. Show one side winning through body language.

This technique is much more effective than supporting a position with “rational” arguments.

These high fructose corn syrup ads follow a similar formula.

The ads are carried by the expressions of the actors playing the losing side. These smart alecs think they know what they’re talking about but then are surprised and humbled by the unwavering resolve of the winning side.

It’s amazing to me how easily the human mind can be influenced. So much of what we consider true is based on what others consider true. And we grant the authority to decide truth based on signals of authority, such as body language. My favorite moments in Don DeLillo’s White Noise are the absurd situations that this leads us to.

One final propaganda ad, I recently saw this trailer on Hulu. Honda is running ads to change the public perception of robots. They’re not the bad guys!

Bryan Newbold and I made a game for the 2010 Global Game Jam, a worldwide, 48-hour game making marathon.

The theme for the 2010 jam was deception. We decided to make a 3D game where the space was constantly changing due to datamoshing.

Read the whole story here.

Whether you’re getting a massage or gambling in an illegal poker room, now you can learn the protocol on the internet instead of plunging blindly into an unfamiliar social situation.

Also of interest are the protocols for familiar situations (getting the check at a restaurant, etc.) but in different places all over the world.

Metro stops can be quite long, sometimes taking several minutes to walk end to end. Experienced riders, while waiting for their train, will walk to a specific place, so that they can exit or transfer out of the station as soon as they step off the train.

But if you’re new to a line, you don’t know where the exits are. The proposal is to put “ghost” exits at every metro stop, so that you know where all the exits and transfer points are for all the stops on the line. Some sort of indicator saying “if you were at the Morgan Av stop, this would be the exit to Bogart St”. This could be a subtle sign or a drawn doorway like in Beetlejuice.

Domain names are cheap. So cheap that squatters will put together any words that make sense (or don’t) and sit on the dot-com.

Creative people are getting the picture. Many people I know have started buying fun domain names without any specific intentions, just to reserve the name in case a project comes up that needs it.

So I propose a domain trading website where people can post their “haves”. If you see something you like, propose a trade. Tell the current owner about the project you have in mind. Offer up some domains of your own, or recognition on the website-to-be. To protect the spirit of the site, monetary transactions are banned.

Paradoxically, I need to find someone with the perfect domain to bake this.