I have been working for over two weeks now on a post following my presentation on how the 5 Senses are simulated online and on the relationship between sensual experience and interface.
While I am somewhat overwhelmed with the numerous examples and the immense details i have to plow through when it comes to simulating senses online (and the reasons why taste and smell are so much more difficult to represent and replicate on any interface/ machine) – I started thinking about a new project – submitting a paper to a special issue of the magazine “The Philosophy of Computer Science” dedicated to Minds and Machines (scheduled for Fall 2010).
The call for paper (CFP as academics like to call it) lists no less than 27 topics – but question no. 7 immediately grabbed me:
“What kinds of things are digital objects? Do we need a new ontological category to house them?”
Thinking about the ontology of digital being and on “digital identity matters” as some researchers already put it, threw my brain into a conundrum and started that tickle that i guess i am addicted to.
After sometime i realized that even though i may not know much about Computer Science i am rather familiar with digital beings and i’d love to think about how they occupy space in the world, the relationships they hold among themselves, and the differences between digital and physical objects.
I’d like to do a George Perec inspired exploration – and to move from smaller objects (or spaces) to larger ones. Georges Perec was a French writer and a structuralist who experimented not only with language and content but also with form. For example, he wrote a book without the letter E (La Disparition), a 500 words long palindrome and composed crosswords for living.
Georges a un chat
The first item that i’d look at will be the autograph, from there i’ll move to letters (or e-mail to be more specific, including spam), folders, books and finally – libraries. Initially i wanted to write about songs and images as well, but they’re less textual based and the topic is already huge.
There’s also a song i like, which is just perfect for this post – it’s conveniently called “Folder” (!) by a band called “Plastic Operator” and the animated music video for the song was directed by Pete Circuitt.
Once upon a time I had over 10000 CDs in my house. My (ex-) boyfriend and I each worked for local branches of record companies (me – Universal Music and him Sony/ Warner Music) so obviously we both had a HUGE CD collection (although we were both obsessive CD buyers even before working in the music industry). I had a “modest” collection of about 1000+ CD’s and he had some 10,000 (not including vinyls). Those were the days when people were still buying CDs, and I remember how exciting it was to rush home from the record store and peel off the plastic wrap to listen to an album for the first time.
I
Derrida, Trauma, Photography and all that Jazz
D (my ex) LOVED things. HE loved buying CD’s almost as much as he loved listening to them. He loved possessing rarities and limited editions and had an amazing collection. Working in the radio and in the local music industry for years and being a music-head from birth, more or less birth (his earliest childhood memory: hearing “Breakfast in America” when he was about 1 a year old and pushing his crib towards the radio) – enabled him to have a magnificent collection.
Sebald Sebald Sebald (in English, Hebrew, German) but also some Dellilo, Foer, Hemon
In fact, our study walls were covered with CDs. One of the first things D did after moving in with me was to put up shelves (with some help from @OshikErnst), turning our study into a music room: a realm of CDs sorted alphabetically, but also by genre (Jazz, soundtracks, boxsets. Hebrew, etc). It was a very impressive “Wall of Fame”.
Freud, Lacan, Foucault and Art Catalogs (curated by Leah A)
We’re talking about the early 2000’s here. People were still buying CD’s, Napster was popular and music downloading and sharing were only beginning. What an age of innocence…
Did you know that the Hitler Bio can be helpful in preventing small-talk on airplanes? (a genius plan devised by my sista) - try it - it works!
The shelves and CD sorting were a project that lasted several weekends. When we decided to move to Canada it was clear to him that he was taking his collection with him. My task was simpler. I took only my favorite CDs and anything we had two or more of (I remember finding 4 copies of the first Destniy’s Child album…)ץ The rest was given to my younger sister who “inherited” the flat, our furniture, and the rest of our abandoned belongings (including the empty shelves in the study).
Still in Search of Lost Time
A year went by. My sis also decided to move to Canada. But she didn’t ship her belongings (nor did she have a massive CD collection she couldn’t part with – she’s got a more pragmatic attitude in some realms of life). A. threw away all the plastic jewel cases, bought a big CD case and kept only the discs themselves with the booklets. She brought it with her to Canada. Even today whenever I visit her, my heart still aches at the sight of my former CD collection.
from Dosto to "Nails" a contemporary Lit Mag
I still have BOXES filled with CDs and books in Canada. It’s been 2 1/2 years since I moved back to TLV and I still can’t bring myself to ship them back. I’m not sure why. I clearly don’t have anywhere to put those boxes, but it’s not that. Somehow I believe that if I haven’t opened those boxes in such a long time, I might as well live without them.
Bleak(er St.)
In my first years of traveling back and forth between Toronto and TLV I imported my most of my books back. I used to carry heavy suitcases filled with books, ask my family to help me carry, had to beg and befriend Custom Officers in order to avoid paying overweight fines.
Funny/ Weird Detective Novels and Some Poetry
But I never “imported” my CDs. They’re still there. And so is my stereo. I guess the two go hand in hand and that I now listen to music only from my computer or iPod, and my music collection is more virtual than physical. As Dylan put it – the times they are a-changing.
Warm Colors Work for ME
D’s CD collection is probably even bigger now (he works in the music industry in Canada). My sister is a proud Torontonian technophobe and doesn’t have an MP3 player. She doesn’t even use the mobile phone i left her (in Canada), she likes using Public PayPhones (for crying out loud!)
I keep some of the books here - just because i like their color
So, I engulf myself with books. Writing book reviews for Walla! sure helps, I got tons of books for free, but i am running out of space. Maybe Oshik can come over and build some more shelves for me…
It's beyond my understanding how come i have 3 copies at home of Sacks' Musicophilia. So i keep 1 by the bed - just in case
I know that i am partially to blame for the Rain Forests ruin. But isn’t paper more eco-friendly than plastic?
I love books – always have. Reading literature is like a portal to a parallel universe where I can find refuge from everything troublesome, tedious, or overwhelming in this world. Books are a maze in which I love to lose myself (knowing I can always find my way out and safely return to the present moment with its pressing matters).
Books make beauty more tangible, more approachable; more present. They do not only tell stories: they convey thoughts, concepts, insights, dreams, and emotions. They expose their volume, their sounds, and their texture. Books can be magic; they can be music too.
Some books exist only in other books: their existence is limited to the realms of another work of fiction. Do such books have a bearing in our “real,” physical world? If a book was written by a character within another book, what ontological status does it have? Can it be placed or catalogued somewhere?
From Abelardo Morell's books photography project
The Invisible Library’ is a project dedicated to books that exist only within other books. It is an alphabetical index of literature that exists only as ideas, as unfulfilled potential. Might these books be considered as an challenge to write them? Or are they just that – ideas? To whom do they belong? Do they belong to the authors – read this slowly – who invented the authors who supposedly wrote them? In the invisible library for imaginary (or not so imaginary) books, they have a home in the virtual world.
Still in Search of Lost Time
