jorge.cortell.net

Before more days go by and I forget the things I have been doing, here is a quick run-down for the first half of August (the last day of July I went to a Sigur Rós concert in Prospect Park):

August 1st I went to the MoMA to watch Hitchcock’s “To catch a thief” and eat at the nearby Le Pain Quotidien.

August 2nd, instead of taking advantage of the invitation to the Park Avenue Armory for the opening night party for Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller: “The Murder of Crows”, I went to AlphaOne Labs for a 3D printing session. But it turns out the session was cancelled, so ended up having dinner and a long conversation in Brooklyn.

August 4th I spent completely (and delightfully) at the MET.

Augut 6th I went to the Social Security Administration to get a replacement card (needed for my ID and driver’s license). I took this picture of a stupid sign there. After that, I saw “The Adventures of Robin Hood” at Bryant Park.

August 7th I was invited to a wonderful “M Ward + Yo La Tengo” concert at Prospect Park (thanks, it was great! unlike my crappy phone picture).

August 8th I strolled through Grand Central and re-discovered the market (where I got some food and ate it at Bryant Park).

August 9th I went to the MoMA premiere of Keanu Reeves’ new documentary about the film industry.

August 11th I went to Times Square Summer Festival (just a couple of streets closed to the traffic, where I got some mozzarepa, crêpe, and lemonade).

August 12th I had an awesome day at two parks. First I went kayaking on the Hudson River (Riverside Park downtown boathouse). Then to Central Park where I reflected on the Imagine mosaic, enjoyed moving music under the Bethesda Terrace, and had a blast seeing the AfroBats and the Central Park Roller Skaters.

Let’s see what the second half of August brings!

Yesterday I was invited to the premiere of Keanu Reeves and Chris Kenneally’s documentary “Side by side” at MoMA. Beyond the star-appeal of an amazing roster of artists and celebrities appearing on the film, and its obvious educational value (every film lover should go and see it, and see “the real person behind the myth” in many cases), I really liked the after-movie talk with Chris and Keanu. They not only love film, and did an excellent job showing a “balanced” view of the debate between celluloid vs. digital, but did venture into three other areas that I found fascinating:

• The first one was the archiving and preservation of film. While an interesting debate by itself, it is not as important as it seemed to them, since, as I see it, technology will catch up and surpass the needs and expectations in a matter of very few years. Although a lot could be said about culture, preservation, archiving, formats, etc. Which leads us to…
• The second one: it was a very brief moment, when upon the comment “somebody has to be the taste maker” by one of the producers being interviewed, Keanu, as interviewer said “wow”. He did not make many comments afterwards, but he repeated “wow” and “it leaves you thinking” and “really??”. And that “industry” position of gate-keepers and the surprise it causes among artist, intellectuals and general public, it worth a very lengthy debate.
• The third one was only hinted at, but it has a major significance: rather than nostalgic celluloid die-hards versus digital film visionaries (one can only admire George Lucas’ determination), it is the new technology, early adopters, explorers of new ways, versus the scared, controlling, and anachronic status quo.

And one thing that I wish they considered, and did not have time to propose: free all that “extra” material (they interviewed 140 people, and only show 70 in the fim), let people see it, download it, commment it, tag it, organize it, transcribe it… it is very valuable and it would not diminish your return on investment. If anything, as we all know, it would increase promotion and awareness, which it means higher revenues… But then again, you would do it for the love of film, wouldn’t you?

Hugo sends me this amazing song/video made in Minecraft. Of course, that leads to 10 more, 14 more… there are so many!

When you make the tools available to the people, and allow them to create (in this case under the safe harbor of “parody”) wonderful things happen. It’s NOT all about the money, profit, control… It’s about imagination, art, creativity, culture. That’s how it happens: copying, re-using, mixing, adjusting, modifying… that’s what creativity is really about (or did you think it was about “inventing” and “making unheard of things out of thin air”?).

I have no clue about physics or philosophy. But just like, when thinking theoretical physics, I can’t help but reach the conclusion that time is a form of energy, when I think of epistemology, I can’t help but to think of it in a multidimensional matrix, of which we can usually only grasp part, because the interconnexions we trace are linear an unidirectional.

It’s a well known fact that our brain is not built to comprehend reality, but “to make sense” of it. And this is my attempt.

Just saying.

New York’s Intrepid Museum, new home of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, does not allow unions. You can see it (point number 13) in their “code of conduct“. WTF!!??

via Alvaro.