Harold Cohen “Aaron” “Aaron” é um programa de computador que possa pintar plantas e povos por se. É o trabalho do artista Harold Cohen de Califórnia, que programou a primeira parte traseira da versão em 1974. Entretanto, as potencialidades originais de “Aaron” não estenderam além dos cí­rculos e dos quadrados. Desde então, Cohen melhorou continuamente o sistema, fazendo lhe um dos sistemas com o desenvolvimento contí­nuo o mais longo no history do computador. Cohen ensinou “Aaron” mais e mais réguas sobre o perspective, o anatomy humano e as fundações óticas das plantas, para o exemplo, que as filiais se tornam cada vez mais por mais mais finas que começassem mais por muito tempo. No fim dos 1980s, uma série dos trabalhos foi criada em povos em um jardim botanical. No começo dos 1990s, “Aaron” aprendeu como usar cores. Desde então, foi capaz perpetually de criar originais originais dos povos e das plantas desde que o sistema pode combinar muitas réguas diferentes para extrair. Outros motifs são fora de seu repertoire.

í«Aaroní» is a computer program that can paint plants and people by itself. It is the work of the California artist Harold Cohen, who programmed the first version back in 1974. However, í«Aaron’sí» original capabilities did not extend beyond circles and squares. Since then, Cohen has continuously improved the system, making it one of the systems with the longest continuous development in computer history. Cohen taught í«Aaroní» more and more rules about perspective, human anatomy and the optical foundations of plants, for example, that branches become increasingly thinner as they get longer. At the end of the 1980s, a series of works was created on people in a botanical garden. At the beginning of the 1990s, í«Aaroní» learned how to use colors. Since then, it has been capable of perpetually creating unique originals of people and plants since the system can combine many different rules for drawing. Other motifs are outside of its repertoire.

t the November 1995 Telepolis ‘Fractal Flesh’ event, Paris (the Pompidou Centre), Helsinki (The Media Lab) and Amsterdam (for the Doors of Perception Conference) were electronically linked through a performance website allowing the audience to remotely access, view and actuate Stelarc’s body via a computer-interfaced muscle-stimulation system based at the main performance site in Luxembourg.

Although the body’s movements were involuntary, it could respond by activating its robotic Third Hand and also trigger the upload of images to a website so that the performance could be monitored live on the Net. Web server statistics indicated the live event was watched worldwide.

During the Ping Body performances, what is being considered is a body moving not to the promptings of another body in another place, but rather to Internet activity itself – the body’s proprioception and musculature stimulated not by its internal nervous system but by the external ebb and flow of data.

By random pinging (or measuring the echo times) to Internet domains it is possible to map spatial distance and transmission time to body motion. Ping values from 0-2000 milliseconds (indicative of both distance and density levels of Internet activity) are used to activate a multiple muscle stimulator directing 0-60 volts to the body. Thus ping values that indicate spatial and time parameters of the Internet choreograph and compose the performances. A graphical interface of limb motions simulates and initiates the physical body’s movements. This, in turn, generates sounds mapped to proximity, positioning and bending of the arms and legs.

The Ping Body performances produce a powerful inversion of the usual interface of the body to the Net. Instead of collective bodies determining the operation of the Internet, collective Internet activity moves the body. The Internet becomes not merely a mode of information transmission, but also a transducer, effecting physical action.

The performance was carried out with the assistance of Gary Zebington (programming and graphics), Rainer Linz (sound design), Dmitri Aronov (Unix ping software), Mic Gruchy (video) and the Merlin crew in general. The artist has also consulted Adam Burns (Pegasus), Andrew Garton (Toy Satellite) and Andrew Pam (State Film Centre).

(Source: http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/pingbody/index.html)

Stelarc