|
Ecomedia
How the Natural World is Transforming the Nature of Media.
This weblog is not the usual blog of daily events. It contains a series of notes/thoughts designed to make connections between science and media art.
Sometimes these ideas are tied in with current events, but most of the time this blog is not in any particular order. It serves as a central area for a detailed examination of ideas first published in a 1999 Leonardo Journal article entitled 'Active Vision' that I hope to develop into a book that will discuss some of the current developments in science, ecology, media and society and how they inform and are informed by new technologies. The book will be written for artists working with digital media and anyone who is interested in future directions of the medium.
http://www.andreapolli.com
last modified Sep 7, 2006 at 13:00
A few days ago Chuck and I went to the Manhattan Eye, Ear Nose, and Throat Hospital Clinic. Chuck hadn't had his eyes checked for over ten years and was experiencing, as he says, 'old man vision.'
Fortunately, after a thorough check up that included eye drops that dialated his pupils and blurred his vision for a few hours, the doctor determined that he didn't have any eye diseases (we were most concerned about AMD and Glaucoma since his father lost vision in one eye due to Glaucoma in his 40's and AMD tends to afflict men as they age). Unfortunately, there was little the doctor could offer to improve Chuck's sight shrt of glasses. His biggest problem was with close vision, and his reading vision was determined to be around 20-50 while his distance vision was around 20-30. We asked about the lasix eye surgery, laser surgery that is supposed to be very easy and effective, but the doctor said that lasix can only fix one of the two problems, either imporve reading or improve distance. He said that the 'Holy Grail' of opthamology was a treatment that could fix both, but that there weren't any mainstream treatments of that nature currently.
There is a wonderful set of essays and images on world cities put out by the Architectural League called Worldview <http://www.worldviewcities.org> Currently featured are Tijuana Mexico, Oslo Norway, and Dhaka Bangladesh.
I was particularly interested in Dhaka (the tenth most populous city in 2003) because I have studied a little about some projects bringing sustainable energy to Bangladesh, including the SWERA project modeling potential for solar, wind and other sustainables in 13 developing countries. Sustainable energy is important to Bangladesh not only because of its large population, but also because of its geography, it is surrounded by water that is in danger of substantial sea-level rise if global warming trends continue. At a recent presentation at the New York Municipal Society, Kate Ascher of the Mayor's commission on sustainable energy mentioned a fear that Bangladesh would literally drown in the next 50 years.
Worldviews provides some interesting information about Bangladesh. For example: it has only existed as an independent nation since the 1970s, and the American architect Louis Kahn build several large scale projects there. In Dhaka, a city that has grown for the same reason it is in danger, its many waterways, Kahn had proposed a 'water city' series of architectural structures built on bridges and waterways. Kahn died before his vision could be realized, but not before building the incredible Assembly Building that straddles the river.
Some of the images and writing about Dhaka reminded me of images and writing about New York City in the 19th century. For example, the textile industry is currently booming in Dhaka, and large numbers of young women are coming to the city to work in Dhaka's garment district. Its location on the water has made it a center of international trade, and it is currently experiencing a housing crisis that is being addressed by large Robert Moses-style modern housing complexes.
But I know that in a hundredfold as many ways Dhaka is like my image of industrial New York City, it is very different. Having not been there, my image of Dhaka, like my image of New York's past, is formed only by images and words. To me this realization highlights the importance of projects like worldviews and image, sound, and text based projects right here in New York. It is through these creative expressions that our perceptions of the world are formed.
Over the break, I've had an opportunity to do some investigation into eye related devices. Microvision developed a system for 'retinal display', that is, using a wearable device a red laser diode emits a pulsed beam containing an image in a pixel-by-pixel stream, much like how television is transmitted into a cathode ray tube, but instead of writing the image onto a screen, the image is written directly onto the viewer's retina. The effect is one of an image superimposed directly on top of the visual scene, appearing as a floating transparent screen.
When being fitted for this wearable, users need to determine their dominant eye, and Microvision provides a test for determining this eye. Create a small opening in your hand like a viewfinder and hold your hand in front of you with your arm outstretched. Focus on an object in the distance (I did this recently and placed the top of the Empire State building in view). Then, close each eye and determine with which eye the image remains cenetered in your view, this is your dominant eye. In my case, my left eye was extremely dominant, in fact, the Empire state building was not visible at all through my right eye.
So, I decided to try a little experiment. I blacked out the left lens of a pair of old sunglasses and have been wearing them to try and see if I can better balance eye dominance. I have been doing this for a coupld of days, and so far I have only been able to wear the glasses for a few hour each day because it is extremely tiring. It takes some determination, as if my mind depsperately wants me to pull off the glases and allow the left eye to take over. I am reminded of split brain experiments where a dominant hand will slap away the other hand while performing building tasks.
I have found that wearing the glasses has somewhat changed my perception. Obviously there are some difficulties with depth perception, but I have also found that while wearing the glasses, I have been able to notice close detail more easily. In fact, I have found myself struck by some surface details without making a conscious effort to notice them.
When removing the glasses after a few hours, I can feel my right eye reamining dominant for a little while, but very soon the left eye seems to take over again.
|