randform

we get hyperselfreferential to improve our google ranking :).

I.e. this is a follow up to the two posts “Journées Informatique et Géométrie” 2006 and to 3 from 2 (dimensions of course).— Or to put it differently: I couldn’t resist to try out the software mentioned in 3 from 2 (dimensions of course). As a matter of fact the software works brilliantly on minimalistic math buildings. In particular it turned the image of the Nautibus building on the Campus in Lyon in to a Potyomkin– Nautibus. Next time I try Roermond-Ecke-Schönhauser
(“corner of Roermond and Schoenhauser Strasse”).

Unfortunately the jReality filereader (I have nothing to do with this bear!) has sofar no VRML2.0 parser, so I had to use Xj3D, whose navigation is mildly speaking “uncomfortable”. Stay tuned for the parser and in particular for the upcoming jReality release!

At Carnegie Mellon the group around Alexei Efros developed a technique to reconstruct 3d data from a single outdoor 2d image. With impressive results.
(via slashdot)

today 184 years ago Charles Babbage proposed his difference engine to the Royal astronomic society. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to recent discussions about pong the randformblog reader may know already about the exhibition pong.mythos and his curator Andreas Lange (see left image on the left, together with manager Dr. Klaus Spieler). However Andreas Lange’s main work (in fact he majored in religious studies) is the Read the rest of this entry »

Roberto Cuoghi, Untitled 2004

Last monday the 4. Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art under the title: “Von Mäusen und Menschen” (Of Mice and Men) closed its doors. The biennale is one of Berlins important regular modern art events.

From the press kit for the exhibition:

“Of Mice and Men” looks at life as a series of traumas and at art as an enigma that capture moments of disorientation and states of uncertainty and fragility. Anxiety and paranoia, a
impenetrable obscurity and a looming sense of suspension are some of the recurring atmospheres in the show.

Read the rest of this entry »

today György Ligeti died.
an exceptional composer, pioneering micropolyphony, fluid in many languages, and unasked filmscore writer

some samples from his work can be found here (audio) and here (score). However, the sound examples can give only a faint idea of the experience a live performance of his work can be.

This latin sentence (the sower Arepo holds the wheels with effort) is more than a palindrome (a sentence that can be read in both directions). In fact it can be read in all four directions of the square exposing even more symmetry. You can mirror it along its diagonals, but not all the symmetries of a square are present: a rotation by 90 degrees does not map the letters to themselves (pong).

assume the world was a simple one Read the rest of this entry »

a google mirror, that is a mirror image of googles page in some sense… Read the rest of this entry »

I know: this link is not very fresh, but still it is worth a post. And it is indeed fresher than the link to its predecessor.
Both are Flash adventure games. The latter featuring an …um someone… inhabitant of an overcrowded planet facing an intergalactic crash. The former even an alien hijacking of a lovely dog…lots of creatures…
or: both are very poetic little treasures with a dreamlike setting and a very good meditative sound track.
Not your cup of tea, these themes? Well better decide for yourself what these games are about…
Created by the Czech studio Amanita Design the games are full of reminiscences to old eastern european illustrations and style. sweet.