To be exact, we want you to print out the attached PDF with a color printer, attach it to something torch-like (a stick, handle, pole), and make a video of yourself running with it. If you don’t have a color printer, try to get something close to the same color. Your video should be no longer than 1 minute. The video should start with you entering the frame from the left, and end with you handing off the torch to an unseen person out of the frame to the right. This is important because we will edit the videos together so that the relay (handing off the torch) looks more or less continuous. But beyond that, it’s pretty much up to you what you do. The crazier the better.

Oh, and we also need your location (latitude and longitude). We will connect all of the videos together, superimpose animated GIFs of fire onto your torch, and animate the torch route onto a map of the world (think Indiana Jones). The video will culminate in a torch lighting ceremony at MIXER: OLYMPIAD on March 12.

The goal is to have some geographic diversity here, so the further you are from NY, the better. If you have any friends in far-off places that might be interested, please pass this along to them. Right now we are just looking for a head count if people who might be interested. We can provide a very small materials budget if you need it (I’m talking like $10-$20).

Of course, everyone who makes a video will be an honored guest at the MIXER: OLYMPIAD, you will receive credit on the Eyebeam website, and you will earn our gratitude. So please, pass this along. Post it on your FaceTweeter. And if you are interested in making a video, please contact me ASAP.

While on the subject, Aaron and I are still looking for an intern to help us with the super-exciting new version of World Series of ‘Tubing.  We have tentatively scheduled a performance at a super hip new venue in Brooklyn.  So, if I may horrifically mix some metaphors, the time is right to get on this bus on the ground floor.

One of the manifestations of this research group for me personally is a class. Here is a rough draft of the course description.

Course Description

The premise of this class is that, like television, film, audio, and other traditional media, software can be a very effective medium for humor, which, in turn, can be a powerful tool for activism, editorial, and hilarious jokes. Beyond simply rendering our CG, hosting our Flash animations, or providing a target for nerd jokes, the computer can be exploited for its strengths (interactivity, procedurality, logic, networkability) to achieve the funny.

We will explore what makes good humor in traditional media by looking at several comedy styles such as absurdism, prop humor, sketch comedy, improv, and black comedy, with special attention to parody and satire.  We will also look at some software artists who have already struck software comedy gold, including Cory Archangel, Max Goldberg (“YTMND”), Ze Frank, and Evan Roth. We will apply the ideas of game theorists and other prominent software gurus such as Ian Bogost, Chris Crawford, and Tim Berners-Lee to the styles of comedians such as Tim and Eric, Andy Kaufman, Yakov Smirnov, Douglas Adams, Stephen Colbert, Mr. Show, the Wondershowzen team, and Eric Fensler to produce funny software.  The final independent projects will be shown at a New York comedy club.  All of the example code will be provided in openFrameworks, but you may also work in Processing or Flash.

Prerequisite: you must be experienced with either oF, Processing/Java, or ActionScript.

Learning objectives:

1. To attempt to define humor in the context of software
2. To answer the question: Are there such things as funny algorithms?
3. To explore tropes and mechanisms frequently used in software – not just games, but software art and plain old software – that can be used to achieve a humorous  effect
4. To invent the field of software comedy in the same way that there are comedy writers, actors, and even singers

All Hail Jesus’ Name:

All Things are Thine

Crown Royal

Jesus Loves Me

My Faith Looks Up to Thee

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Onward Christian Soldier

Prelude and Fugue in G Major – Fugue

Prelude and Fugue in G Majog – Prelude 

Paslm 19

Savior, Like a Shepard Lead Us 

St. Annes Prelude

Trio Sonata No. 1 in E major

Trop Sonata No. 5 in C major

Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major

or Download the whole thing!

Art Fag City critic and series participant Paddy Johnson calls it, “The most challenging IRL Internet competition of the decade.”

“Blurring distinctions between performer, audience, and participant, this work exposes and makes fun of network culture.”
- Brian McCormick on “World Series of ‘Tubing”

The World Series of ‘Tubing is a conceptual augmented reality game played in front of a live audience, combining the intensity of a high-stakes poker tournament with the world of sensational online video. The competition consists of two players trying to out-do each other by presenting a series of YouTube videos (rendered as an augmented reality layer on top of a real card) to an audience in a series of fast-paced rounds. The competitors can manipulate the playback of the video in a number of ways by tilting or gesturing with their card. The crowd decides which video/card wins by shooting a target on stage with a laser, and the process repeats until a player wins three rounds. During the game, commentators provide a running commentary on the game much like during a football or World Series of Poker game.

The World Series of ‘Tubing brings televised competitive sport and game show aesthetics into the realm of participatory theater, complete with live commentators and stellar motion graphics. The everyday action of “favoriting” online media is expanded into a participatory game show. By blurring the distinctions between performer, audience, and participant, it work builds upon the inherent qualities of shared culture as it exists online.

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Inspired by distributed computing projects such as Folding@Home and SETI@Home, Praying@Home is the name given to a suite of technologies developed by The Institute for Faith-Based Technology, or InFaBat™, innovators in the field of technologically-aided spirituality.  The first development is the PrayerRecorder™ – a USB device that plugs into any PC and allows the user to capture her unique Prayer Signature®, an ultra-frequentic resonance that is “broadcasted” by the human body while praying.  The user simply attaches the InFaBat Senso-Cap to her temples and forehead, presses a small InFaBat Prayer Paddle™ between her hands, and prays on a particular subject.  Meanwhile, the PrayerRecorder captures and records the PrayerSignature to the users’ hard drive.  Then, using the InFaBat PrayerBroadcaster™, we can broadcast her Prayer Signature, somewhat like an FM radio station that only God can hear!  Unlike humans, who need to take breaks from praying to fulfill biological needs, computers need no breaks, resulting in 24/7 prayer output.  Additionally, the PrayerBroadcaster unit is equipped with a SPU (Standard Prayer Unit) Amplifier, which increases the strength of your prayers by up to 54%.  These technologies truly represent a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of Digital Prayer Technology.

Our display at the Expo consists of a small, tastefully decorated booth – 8 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 8 feet tall, containing a solid white prayer bench facing a white computer screen on a white altar and hundreds of pure white candles: a mix between a confessional and a blood-giving station. An attendant in a white lab coat and a priest’s shirt and collar stands by to help users. Choral music plays from speakers positioned in the far corners of the booth.  Adorning the proscenium of the booth is a large glowing sign that displays the number of Standard Prayer Units (SPUs) that we have collected over the course of the Expo. Our goal for the Eyebeam Mixer Expo is to collect 375,000 SPUs, focused on a variety of urgent problems faced by the world today. Above the SPU meter is a glowing sign with the words “Institute for Faith-Based Technology: Come Experience The Amazing New Digital Prayer Enhancement Technology”.  Atop the booth sits an InFaBat PrayerBroadcaster, which looks a lot like a large set of rabbit ears.  Inside, the both is adorned with religious symbols and imagery.  On the prayer bench is the InFaBat PrayerRecorder with the InFaBat  PrayerPaddle and InFaBat Sens-o-cap.

Visitors are invited to come into the booth and kneel down on our prayer bench facing the computer screen.  A soothing voice leads the user through the initial setup process, explaining how to put on the InFaBat Senso-Cap and position the InFaBat PrayerPaddle properly.  The voice will explain that in order to get a perfectly pure PrayerSignature, un-Christian thoughts must be kept at bay because they can disturb the prayer recording process. The voice will suggest that the user get all un-Christian thourhgs out of their system before starting the recording process.  The voice will then go through a brief explanation of how the technology works, and instruct the user to start praying. Meanwhile, the InFaBat PrayerRecorder senses and records the peaks and valleys of the users Prayer Signature as they whiz by on the screen on the altar.  If, at any time during the process, an un-Christian thought is sensed, an alarm sounds and red lights flash, and the user must start over.  On average, this happens to 1 out of every 3 users.

Once recorded, the Prayer Signature and a 2-frame animated snapshot of the user are uploaded to our InFaBat Worldwide Prayer Visualizer. The visualizer is displayed in the form of a large projection above the prayer booth. Participants who have contributed their Prayer Signature are represented inside the visualization by a bubble-like avatar featuring their animated snapshot and prayer signature. The avatars float in a sparkling stew of ephemeral prayer-related iconography. As their prayer is digitally replicated in the InFaBat Mainframe, participants will be treated to dazzling animations of the SPU’s emanating from their avatars and then projected into the heavens.

When the user is done, they are given a readout of their Signature, a sticker to tell the world that they contributed their Prayer Signature to a good cause, and a pamphlet will be available that describes the technology behind the system and give users information about how they can purchase the Praying@Home PE system and optimize their prayer output by using unused computing cycles on their home PC.

Why?

Praying@Home is a parody of Christianity’s attempt to validate itself in the scientific academy, as seen in “scientific” studies about the effectiveness of prayer, creationism, intelligent design, and faith healing.  Our fictitious group – The Institute for Faith-Based Technology – claims to be interested in finding a link between technology and faith, seeming not to notice that their attempts undermine the very idea of faith – namely that it doesn’t care about evidence.  They believe that praying is a purely mechanical task and should be dealt with like any other task that is such a waste of human effort – by mechanizing it.  In so doing, not only do we save time, but we take advantage of the added efficiency, tirelessness, and networkability of computers to multiply the worlds prayer output infinitely, thus solving all of the worlds problems and creating a utopia on Earth.

The Institute will invite visitors to try out their PrayerRecorder and PrayerBroadcaster technology at the Expo in an attempt to get them to buy the home version.  As a marketing scheme, the Institute has announced that they will try to collect 375,000 “Beckells“, or “Standard Prayer Units” (discovered by Fredrick Beckell in the 1970s) during the Expo.  Each user who volunteers to kneel down in the booth and use the PrayerRecorder contributes a varying number of Beckells depending on the purity of their thought and the strength of their unique Prayer Signature.

The Institute also displays a not-so-subtle favoritism towards Christianity, simply assuming that the Christian God is the “correct” god to pray to, while also imposing their on values on the users by warning them against thinking any un-Christian thoughts while operating the PrayerRecorder.  This very dystopic attitude betrays the fact that the illusion of utopia often hides a darker truth.

In society today, criticizing a persons religion is often seen as un-PC at least, and completely taboo at worst.  Religion is given special privileges in most areas of public life, from politics to casual conversation, where other beliefs, like non-religious pacifism, are not protected by the law.  People treat religion as if it is something immutable, like race or sex, rather than as a choice that a person makes for themselves.  Through this parody, we hope to open a debate that is often enthusiastically avoided by forcefully insisting that religion should be open to criticism just like any other belief.

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