What Is Your Formula? project

John Brockman's Edge "World Question Center" and the Seprentine Gallery in London debuted a new collaborative project where they asked dozens of smart people--scientists, authors, big thinkers--this question: "What is your formula? Your Equation? Your Algorithm?" People like Craig Venter, Keith Devlin, Freeman Dyson, Drew Endy, Brian Eno, and Douglas Rushkoff answered. The collected responses, like Edge itself, blur the line between science, art, and culture. (Above, Rudy Rucker and Marvin Minsky's responses.) From John's introduction:

I recently paid a visit to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London to see Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, a long-time friend with whom I have a mutual connection: we both worked closely with the late James Lee Byars, the conceptual artist who, in 1971, implemented "The World Question Center" as a work of conceptual art.

The walls of Obrist's office were covered with single pages of size A4 paper on which artists, writers, scientists had responded to his question: "What Is Your Formula?" Among the pieces were formulas by quantum physicist David Deutsch, artist and musician Brian Eno, architect Rem Koolhaas, and fractal mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot.

Within minutes we had hatched an Edge-Serpentine collaboration for a "World Question Center" project, to debut on Edge during the annual Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon, the weekend of October 13-14. The plan was to further the reach of Obrist's question by asking for responses from the science-minded Edge community, thus complementing the rich array of formulas already assembled by the Serpentine from distinguished artists such as Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, and Rosemarie Trockel.

Link

[#1 posted by phasor3000 , October 19, 2007 12:35 PM]

Now how the hell am I supposed to get any work done for the rest of the afternoon?

[#2 posted by Comstock , October 19, 2007 1:12 PM]

Why is it that I find so many Edge projects to be ridiculous in the extreme? What's your algorithm? Breathe, eat, sleep, bitches. Why does this project for hyping book deals generate so much coverage in the nerd media world?

[#3 posted by phasor3000 , October 19, 2007 2:01 PM]

comstock, yes, Edge stuff has some amount of "elite brainiac clique salon" smell to it, but there are always some interesting insights or angles in there. Although some of these (like the Rucker doodle above) do come across like Deep Thoughts written in a high school yearbook to impress your classmates...

[#4 posted by Neuron , October 20, 2007 7:58 AM]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

[#5 posted by jphilby , October 20, 2007 9:50 AM]

That Minsky is such a meat machine.