Thomas was Alone, or how little quadrilaterals can have personality

So I've been playing Thomas was Alone this week. All I can say, is wow Humble Bundle, for showing me this game. I never thought it was possible to develop such an emotional attachment to a small rectangle. Despite the minimalist style and story, it's these characters still can be seen to develop, with each speaking lines the size of twitter posts. My personal favourite post (although morbid) comes from James, a previously overconfident, green rectangle: "James hoped that he would be eaten next. He didn't want to be alone" So there you go. More character development then some big budget blockbusters in that line there. Proof that you don't have to write a hundred pages to develop interesting and distinct characters. Plus I find the backstory really interesting- the birth of AI is a seriously fasinating possibility, and the possibility for storytelling is huge- at least, now that we seem to have abandoned the "computers are scary" phase of our development.

Youtube Poop: Internet Junk, or Experimental Film?

For those of you who are not familiar with Youtube's stranger side, let me first give an example of what youtube poop is:



Whilst certainly strange, this kind of remixing appears to be far from unique to YouTube. It seems analogous to the long-running practice of remixing music, with which I'm sure you're all familiar. And then I realised, I'd seen this sort of thing before.



What you just saw, was a piece of ww2 era propaganda. So remixing films is hardly a new thing. But is youtube the new tape recorder? Just as remixes only became big once it was possible share tapes, so is video remixing only possible en mass recently, now that we have it's possible to share videos. With that being said, it occurs to me, that there's still a legal problem with this- since technically, such videos might be infringement (or fair use- the jury's still out- pardon the pun.)


So what do you think- would you watch remixed videos? Or do you get annoyed at meme GIFs already? Let me know in the comments!

The Secret Cinema: A new trend- or a very old one?

For those of you who haven't seen it, there's been rumors of a series of events in London, the like's of which I've rarely seen before. Well, now they have a trailer, it seems.



Much as the idea of a trailer for secret cinema seems a bit strange, it should be noted that the idea of interactive theater is very old. I'm sure that most of us have heard tales of interactive plays in warehouses, going back as far as our parents time, but in our experience, the closest thing we'll have encountered is probably practices of LARP and historical reenactment. These however (at least in my limited experience), seem to be based either on direct combat, or tabletop role-playing rules. The reenactment side, especially, appears to be combat heavy, and hence difficult to get into, and sometimes appear to be closer to martial arts, such as the battle of the nations.


However, reports have it that the Scandinavian countries have developed a more theatrical form of LARP. I've been hearing such varied ideas, as a LARP using Tango, a study on dehumanization in prison camps, and perhaps most impressively, a BSG themed event, held onboard a former US Navy Destroyer.



Whilst my first reaction to seeing this kind of thing, is where do I sign up, sadly it appears that distance and locations become a problem. With that said, it seems to me, that over recent years, there appears to have developed an increasing demand for authentic and involved experiences, away from the limited, prescribed, one directional experiences, which can be found in film and TV. This may correlate with the rise of festivals, Zombie Chases in major cities, flash-mobbing, HvZ on college campuses (documentary pending), and a whole host of new experiences, ripe for the tasting.

I think that these types of experiences will continue to increase in availability and take-up over time, as resources and time allow. Perhaps these represent the development of a cultural balance (with a generations delay) against the now ubiquitous reality television: if television shows a more extreme version of reality- why should reality not show a more extreme version of fiction? At any rate, it seems a pleasing thought. To me, the next question is: how does this relate to the rise of Augmented Reality technologies? Will the established video games industry begun to merge with these experiences, creating a sort of hybrid reality? Or will this conflict with the need for these experiences to be user driven, and the inherent locatedness of these experiences, conflict with such a project?

Thought Yellowstone was big? Integrated Ocean Drilling Program finds volcano comparable to Olympus Mons

Scientists at the Integrated Ocean Drilling program have just discovered a massive volcano, the size of which puts the more famous super-volcano under Yellowstone park to shame. Located beneath the Pacific ocean, to the east of Japan, this volcano might be the largest volcano on earth, similar in size to the largest in the solar system: Olympus Mons, on Mars.

Thought to be formed by very large movements of the earth's mantle, Tamu Massif is merely the largest volcano on a volcanic plateau the size of California. Using magnetic and radioactive dating techniques, it's estimated that this plateau, named the Shatsky Rise, formed around 145 million years ago, putting it right at the boarder between the Triassic and Cretaceous periods of the earth's history.

The authors of the paper which announced this volcano commented:

It is remarkable that Tamu Massif reveals itself to be one enormous shield volcano. Oceanic plateaux have long been recognized as massive volcanic features, but the geometry of magma-supplying vent systems and lava flows has been unclear.

The authors went on to compare the volcano to the island of Hawaii, which although smaller, consists of five individual shield volcanoes, and  Iceland, which again, a composite of many volcanoes. Although they have long known that oceanic plateaus are volcanic, a single volcano of this size is surprising.

Sager et Al, 2013, see link below. The dark grey area on the map represents the outline of the base of Olympus Mons, for scale. In the cutout in the top left corner, the edge of Japan can be seen, giving an indication of just how large this volcano is. 

This of course raises the question as to whether we should be expecting the Tamu Massif to take over from Yellowstone, as the great doomsday in our collective imagination. Whilst there appears to be no danger of eruption from Tamu Massif erupting in reality, this of course is no barrier to our disaster film-makers (Sharknado anyone?). More likely, the lack of interesting scenery (being located square in the Pacific ocean) will be the limiting attribute.

Sources:
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1934.html

The Return of Literature Allusions?

For those of you who haven't seen it, Breaking Bad has an awesome new trailer.



What really makes this one interesting to me, is that it illustrates our continuing tendency to look backward in time for inspiration. Well, it always was said that there is nothing new under the sun, but I've never seen classical allusions in a trailer about a meth empire before. Though technically, it's a quote of a Victorian poem, in turn providing classical allusions, but that's a bit of a mouthful.

That said, the film world is hardly a stranger to classical references, even if they are often limited to the titles. Elysium, for example, refers to the ancient Greek afterlife; the fields of Elysium were the final resting place for the heroic and righteous. Morpheus, in the Matrix, is the name of the Greek god of dreams. Hell, even the Harry Potter series is an example; a good proportion of the names and spells are Latin puns, e.g. Remus Lupin refers to a) Remus, founder of Rome, who was raised by wolves, and b) Lupus, the Latin word for Wolf.

Of course, TV's always had a tendency to make literature references in the episode titles, especially in drama and science fiction series; hell, Star Trek (TOS) has at least four Shakespeare quotes for episode titles, and supernatural even has "It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester"

 So do these literature references represent the return of an old trend? I rather think not- they just tend to work their way into our cultural phrasebook. I'm sure you've all heard of catch-22, but I for one never realised that Green Eyed Envy, was a reference to that American classic, the Great Gasby.

My Take on the Fracking Debate

It seems to me, that the response on both sides of the debate on UK fracking, is something of a knee-jerk response. On the one side, the majority of environmental campaigners on the topic, appear to have a very limited understanding of the processes involved, a few going as far as to think that the rock is primarily dissolved, rather than fractured, by the hydrofracking fluid. On the other hand, a general lack of openness, or at least communication, about the exact specifics of the fracking techniques, and the additives of the fluid in particular, might reduce public concern over the matter, and allow a more balanced decision.

Personally, I remain neutral on the hydrofracking debate. During my year in Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to take a hydrogeology class, which, naturally, focused on the local expertise, including groundwater flows. As I understand it, natural gas released through hydrofracking, would then behave much like any other gas source, flowing upward through permeable (porous) rocks, until it reaches a "trap"- a layer of rock it cannot penetrate, which it is then trapped under. Provided that the aquifer is above this trap, there should be particular risk of contamination, unless of course, a weakness in the rock, such as a permeable fault, allows, the gas to exit the trap. For this reason, I think that it's important to have both geological and geophysical datasets on the public record, to ensure transparency in the decision-making process.