Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
"This disturbing film records the successful experiments in the resuscitation of life to dead animals (dogs), as conducted by Dr. S.S. Bryukhonenko at the Institute of Experimental Physiology and Therapy, Voronezh, U.S.S.R. Director: D.I. Yashin. Camera: E.V. Kashina. Narrator: Professor Walter B. Cannon. Introduced by Professor J.B.S. Haldane."
(Moving Image Archive)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Environment Nexus: WATER, ENERGY, FOOD
"Nexus thinking is a new way of thinking that recognises the crucial interdependence of water, energy and food - a relationship that forms the core of the Environment Nexus project. This new IIEA video explores the deep interconnections between the three essential resources and highlights the need for nexus thinking to help meet the world’s needs, as it grows from 7 to 9 billion by 2050."
(The Institute of International and European Affairs, 20 February 2013)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Loom: Blade Runner style 4K short film by Luke Scott
"He is an acclaimed commercial director who has pushed through his work to step out of the shadow of his father, Ridley Scott. And now Luke Scott is transcending boundaries in video technology with a visually-arresting 20-minute short film, Loom. Shot in coordination with RED Camera, the sci-fi short features Giovanni Ribisi and Jellybean Howie, although cinematographer Dariusz Wolski just might be its star.
The film follows Ribisi's character Tommy - a lab tech who genetically modifies meat and begins a dangerous at-home experiment he struggles to perfect. It ends with a monologue taken from the conclusion of Darwin's Origin of Species, leaving many of the story's questions left unanswered. 'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved,' says Howie's character.
Visually, Scott - who directs for his father's production company RSA - gives nod to the filmmaker's 1982 classic Blade Runner, shooting the piece in the tone and style of the dystopian thriller. Constructed for 3D, the piece was crafted to test the limits of the colour range and exposure, allowing viewers to see fine details often lost in dark scenes.
RED initially presented Loom at the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters [NAB] Show this past April. The company has since continued to screen the film, and on Wednesday President Jarred Land released it online via REDUSER, with a disclaimer for cinephiles."
(Jennifer Madison, 31 August 2012, Mail Online)
Fig. 1 published on 28 Aug 2012 by ENTV, YouTube
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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: the first true science fiction novel
"What many might consider to be true science fiction began to emerge during the Enlightenment in the early 16th Century as the Western world's understanding of science blossomed. Others identify Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published in 1818 as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, as the first true science fiction novel. Today it tends to be seen very much as gothic horror, but it relies heavily on extrapolating then current scientific understanding to extreme fantastical ends."
(Lynne Hardy, 1 August 2011, Celebrating Science)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
NextNature: What is our concept of nature?
"Despite the global awareness of our fragile relation with nature and the countless projects initiated to restore the balance, almost no one has asked the question: What is our concept of nature? And how is our relation with nature changing? ...
This website explores our changing notion of nature. How nature has become one of the most successful products of our time, yet much of what we perceive as nature is merely a simulation: a romanticized idea of a balanced, harmonic, inherently good and threatened entity. How evolution continues nonetheless. How technology – traditionally created to protect us from the forces of nature – gives rise to a next nature, that is just as wild, cruel, unpredictable and threatening as ever. How we are playing with fire again and again. How we should be careful in doing so, yet how this is also what makes us human."
(NextNature.net)
Fig.1 Aaron Koblin (2008). 'Video capture of SMS visualization tool looking at the city of Amsterdam on New Years Eve 2007. Data from KPN Telcom.'
Fig.2 Julia Müller, Arjan Groot and Menno Wittebrood. 'Birthmarks tattoo', Identity Matters magazine.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
