Rudy Rucker

Rudy Rucker is a writer, a mathematician and a computer scientist. Born in Kentucky in 1946, Rucker moved to Silicon Valley when he turned 40. Rucker has published twenty-five books, primarily science-fiction and popular science. He was an early cyberpunk and an editor at Mondo 2000. He often writes SF in a style is characterized as transreal. His most recent novels were Frek and the Elixir, a far-future epic about a boy's galactic quest to restore Earth's ecology and As Above So Below, a historical novel based on the life of the sixteenth century painter Peter Bruegel.  Rucker is a professor emeritus of computer science at San Jose State University, where he created a number of freeware programs relating to chaos, artificial life, cellular automata, higher dimensions, and computer games. He is presently working on The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul, a nonfiction book about computers and the nature of reality. Rucker's website can be found at www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker or at www.rudyrucker.com.

More pretty pictures

Edward Burtynsky's photographs of manmade environmental fiascos remind me of Sebastian Salgado's photographic documentation of human tragedies, such as famines, worker exploitation, and displacement. (Salgado's tragic subject matter is sometimes manmade and sometimes not, though aren't we all complicit, if only in our passivity--a state of inaction that is, in fact, re-created in the gallery setting as you stare helplessly at the image?)

The brilliance of both these fine art photographers' works can be attributed to the way they draw you in with their beauty and artistic merit. Skillfully, sublimely captured, the subjects are imbued with dignity (Salgado) and inherent merit (Burtynsky), while their subject matter either repulses or tears up the viewer emotionally, depending on his or her constitution and mood.

The Robert Koch gallery in San Francisco has just published a catalog of Burtynsky's most recent work, "Before the Flood," which documents the Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze, China. "The Three Gorges dam, when completed in 2009 will be the largest concrete structure in the world, producing some 84.7 billion kilowatt hours per year as well as having displaced over 1.8 million people and submerging over 8000 archeological sites under water." It's a subject that would be fitting for both artists.

Thanks, Alan! Discuss

posted by Jenn Shreve at 9:19:35 AM | permalink

Ole!

Michael Rauner is a professional photographer and amateur bullfighter in California. He has combined these two passions into one spectacular documentary project. As a Texas-born, Salinas-raised girl, I have a particular fondness for sports involving large angry cattle, in spite of assurances from my vegetarian friends that I am an evil cow-hater for doing so. What these critics fail to understand is the deep psycho-sexual-religious symbolism of the act. Rituals such as this one enable we humans to access our deepest psychological and existential puzzles. Is that so wrong?

Neat things I've learned about amateur bullfighting in California:
>>>Amateur bullfights typically are private affairs; you have to know someone to be invited.
>>>The art of bullfighting is at risk of dying due to lack of interest among the young.
>>In California, the bulls live pampered lives and are not killed in the ring.
>>Bulls are killed in amateur fights in Mexico and make for delicious tacos afterwards.

Thanks, Michael!

Discuss

posted by Jenn Shreve at 10:54:37 AM | permalink

"Isolation is the essence of land art" A week ago today I was stranded in the New Mexico desert at Walter de Maria's Lightning Field. A statuesque cowboy named Robert drove us and three other guests out to the installation, which is 1 mile by 1 kilometer and so perfectly aligned, one can't help but momentarily conjure extraterrestrial life forms, especially with the Very Large Array not more than an hour down the road. The rustic cabin has food, but no art on the walls or books. Bugs swarm in every windowsill. There is a phone for emergencies, but deprivation is part of the experience, and you feel it very deeply. Clearly you are meant to spend your time outside in contemplation. My husband Alan and I walked along the vast perimeter and made it nearly 3/4 of the way around, when it looked as though a storm might blow in. We ran through the center of the field, plants and ants clawing at our heels. I nearly tripped on a skull. Once a goat? Back at the cabin, I saw the lone lightning strike a rod. Alan saw the light and shock reflected on my face. As the light changed, the rods went from shiny metallic poles to almost organic shades, before being swallowed up by night. In the binder that contained precise documentation of the piece, it was written: "Isolation is the essence of land art." More on this to come …

posted by Jenn Shreve at 9:55:02 AM | permalink

My very first post!

As a clinic health-care provider, my dentist friend is sent frequent emails from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (affectionately known as the CDC). I, of course, begged him to forward these gems along to me, and he has kindly complied.

The links to insider tidbits on Monkey Pox, SARS, and West Nile are obviously fascinating. But among the most charming aspects of these disease info-bearing updates are:

The list’s email address:
CDC-CLINICIANTERRORISM ANDEMERGRESPUPDATES @LISTSERV.CDC.GOV

And the fact that every damn one of these emails begins with the same exact line:
“Good afternoon,”

Good afternoon,
Straight away to Monkey Pox news!

Good afternoon,
Do you clean your SARS mask after taking tea in the afternoons?

Good afternoon,
The germs are winning. I repeat: The germs are winning.

Thanks, Eric!

posted by Jenn Shreve at 6:53:59 PM | permalink

Byeeeeeeeee

15
minutes
of
fame
have
become
15
lines
and
then
you
scroll
off
the
page.

In the archives, no one can hear you scream

posted by Marc Laidlaw at 11:32:26 PM | permalink

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