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O.K. Failure
Battery Battery
Zsuzsanna Ilijin
Hans Gremmen
Karl Klomp
second issue of O.K. Periodicals / winter|spring 2009 / NL 9,50 euro / www.ok-periodicals.com
Theun Karelse
O.K. Failure
Jacob Dahlgren
Jodi
O.K. Periodicals Second issue, Winter/Spring 2009 ISSN 1876-2395 O.K. Periodicals is published twice a year by O.K. Parking. Each periodical explores a different topic combining on- and offline media with a fresh crew and contributors. © O.K. Parking, Arnhem, 2009 All rights reserved. Nothing in this publication can be copied or reproduced without written permission by the publishers. The information in this book is based on material supplied by the contributors. While every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, the publisher does not under any circumstances accept responsibility for errors or ommisions. O.K. Parking Statenlaan 8 6828 WE Arnhem The Netherlands www.ok-parking.com www.ok-blog.nl Research, editing and Graphic Design William van Giessen Joost van der Steen www.ok-parking.com Bouwe van der Molen www.bouwevandermolen.com Translation Bouwe van der Molen Pim Verhulst Thanks Martijn, Roos, Karl, Theun, Martien, Laura, Boy, Zsuzsanna, Bas, Paul, Fokko, Jan, Patrick, Inge, prof dr Anke Bouma and all contributors Subscriptions 1 year (2 issues) €19,90 NL (including postage) Subscribe or order copies: www.ok-periodicals.com +31(0)26 3639030 / info@ok-parking.nl Printed: Ando Drukkers, The Hague, NL Paper: Munken Lynx 120 gr., FSC certified, sponsored by Arctic Paper Binding: Hexspoor, Boxtel, NL Tags source of inspiration, wide range of creative disciplines, graphic design, glitch, failure, magazine, cross-media, Web 2.0, crowdsourcing, visual, original, fun, eclectic international collaboration
Foreword Failure can be frustrating. Chance and error are out there waiting to annoy you, striking at the moment when you are least prepared. However, when you start to see failure as an option, you’ll be surprised what it can lead to. Away with perfectionism, come on over failure! After all, the imperfect human world is much more interesting than any perfectly rendered digital version. This magazine will show you how to appreciate (your) mistakes, and make them work for you. This is the second issue of the visually orientated O.K. Periodicals magazine, directly linked to O.K. Blog. As in the previous issue, a large number of people from around the world contributed material and articles to this magazine. This gave us the opportunity to make a publication with a wide range of subjects crossing various disciplines; an article written by neuropsychologist Roos Bijvelds about how our blundering brain makes us dazzle when seeing opart; great glitch images made by JODI, Karl Klomp and Ant Scott; scientific blunders; misspelled tattoos; government mistakes and even the effects of dementia on time perception. The magazine itself has been submitted to an accident-prone production process. The first 32 pages have been exposed to multiple print errors that make every copy of this magazine unique. Keep in mind: it is failure that guides evolution! O.K. Periodicals; William van Giessen Bouwe van der Molen Joost van der Steen
P.S. We are continually looking for interesting projects, exceptional work and people who want to cooperate in upcoming editions. P.P.S. Not a member of the O.K. BLOG yet? Shame on you! Sign up and share the stuff you love on www.ok-blog.nl
Adhesive Me Bastiaan de Wolff www.beng.biz
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Pixelfungi Jan Schaab www.janschaab.de
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Koe in de Weide David Smeulders www.koudzweet.nl
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The Pictures of the Scream Rougieux Maura www.myspace.com/mauramecadance
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gun blog id: 539
Dear Tony,
face blog id: 492
t-shirt blog id: 139
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I have to admit I was impressed with your determination [tenacity]. I remember how during your first big drug deal that Colombian put a gun to your head. You stayed cool and told him: “You just fucked yourself. If you steal from me, you’re dead.” When he started amputating your mates arms and legs with a chainsaw you still did not give up. No, you spat in his face . That was awesome, really. That your best friend Manny saved the day by mowing down the Colombians with an Uzi does not make it any less impressive. It gave you the opportunity to fullfil your vow. You chased the fleeing Columbian, and in full view of some screaming pensioners you put a bullet in his head. “Now its your turn”, you said, “die”.
Dear Tony, Martijn Brugman www.maeb.nl
People call you Scarface, but I’ll just call you by your name. Tony. Tony Montana. I saw a guy walking down the street wearing a t-shirt with your image on it. You wore a white suit and had a gun in your hands. A real gangster. He wanted to show he was not to be messed with. Just like you were not to be messed with. This is the reason people buy t-shirts, posters with your portrait, and Scarface-lamp shades mounted on plastic M16 machine guns. Yes, Tony Montana, you are not just a movie hero, you’ve become an icon. The icon of someone that you don’t mess with.
love blog id: 573
chainsaw www.shadowlandtoys.com/catalog/images/Texas Chainsaw Replica.jpg
cut to pieces www.osang.net
machine blog id: 1200
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But Tony, wasn’t this the moment it all went wrong? You felt victorious. Did you forget your friend was just cut to pieces , and you too almost died a gruesome death? You committed yourself to the cocaine business, and maneuvered yourself into the position of drug baron in no time. You could have known that money and drugs would not bring you happiness, but Colombians that attack you with chainsaws. Happiness can be found in other things. Love for example. You looked, but did not find it and then thought it would come by itself as long as you became rich and successful. But now, looking back, we can conclude that money and status only brought you hatred. And finally death. Tragic if you think about it. It was a vicious circle you were in. The more money you acquired, the less people loved you, he more money you thought you needed to be loved. You were looking in the wrong place. Because you were loved too when you were still washing dishes. Loved by your sister, by Manny and your mother. But you did not see. You felt you needed to to earn their love when you already had it. And so you went for money and status. But the more money and status you got, the less they loved you. This all had to end badly. Painful how you made your sister hate you. She did not give you her love,
and so you forbade her to love at all. That was egoistic of you. And lets be honest, Tony, that’s not how it works, right? What did you think, you could earn your sisters love by importing mounds of cocaine? That all you needed was a few big deals, and your sister would love you all of a sudden? No Tony. Your sisters love was not for sale. Ask Manny. He got it for free. And he received thankfully. But you were not even able to receive anymore. This became clear when you got wind of the love between Manny and your sister. You saw it in their eyes, the love, that was not for you. It felt like a Colombian chainsaw . You shot your best friend Manny dead and gained only the hatred of your sister. There was nothing left for you to do but shut yourself in at your villa where you hid your head in a big pile of cocaine. When the Colombians came, you emptied your machine gun on them. You yelled: “Say hello to my little friend”. And died with an M16 as your only friend. I felt sorry for you as you lay there bleeding to death in the fountain. Yours sincerely, Maeb
Urban Failure #1 Every square meter in the Netherlands is subject to regulations and urban planning. Years of preparation ensure the optimal functional design of public space. But the public is relentless, tracks appear where architects screwed up. Continuous traffic forms so called ‘desire-paths’.
Urban Failure Marieke Vromans www.mariekevromans.nl
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Variations on a Theme Jet van Zwieten www.jetvanzwieten.nl
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Urban Failure #2 Variations on a Theme When I was travelling through Germany I found these disordered street patterns. Who made these pretty compositions? Was it a drunk municipal worker? Or was it just his first painting? An abstract expressionist? Or a smart ass situationist telling us that one has to get off the beaten track sometimes?
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Roadworks Maaike van der Zee www.gotopica.nl
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The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Rev6
the quick brown fox jup m ed over the lazy dog Revsix-errorized
he beginning of wisdom would be above all an awareness of syetm ry betwen substance and accident instead of constantly dissiml u ating them
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REV6 William van Giessen ok-parking.nl
“The beginning of wisdom would be, above all, an awareness of symmetry between substance and accident, instead of constantly dissimulating them” ›Paul Virilio
The REV6 font is a result of a print errors, like this image shows. The Revsix-errorized font is the result of corrupting the REV6 font in the source code of the font itself. Available via: www.ok-parking.nl
Alien Blob Arnout Visser www.arnoutvisser.com
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Alien Blob Arnout Visser is a form finder and designer from Arnhem. The ideas for Visser’s designs are often initiated by physical or mechanical laws, such as Archimedes Hydrostatics Law. Experiments with production produce unforeseen results. An example is this beautiful, alien blob that was supposed to be a lamp.
Formula 1 Racer Jos Verstappen’s most memorable accident brought about an immediate amendment of the Formula 1 rules. He came in for a pit stop during the Grand Prix in Germany. The tanking did not go as planned and gasoline sprayed over his car.
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3M Post-It Experiments to find a formula for super strong glue only resulted in a glue that was less adhesive than anything 3M had ever produced. Further research was cancelled. Four years later, Art Fry, a colleague of the leading researcher Dr. Spence, was frustrated by bookmarks falling out of his choir book. He had a eureka moment and decided to use the concoction to make reliable bookmarks. The post-it was born.
Aromarama / Smellovision Systems that released odors during the projection of a film so that the viewer could “smell” what was happening in the movie. The human nose has a difficult time transitioning between smells until the molecules that triggered one smell are completely cleared from the nose. Scents would mix together, becoming muddled and nauseating.
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“The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project
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USA Challenger The mission was doomed by poor decision making before liftoff on a cold Florida morning.
Monsieur Franz Reichelt with his early parachute. An outstanding example of the way in which early aviators were as spectacular in their failures as in their successes. Reichelt was an Austrian tailor who sought to combine his interests in fashion and aviation by creating a garment to serve as both an overcoat and a parachute. In 1911, he decided to test his invention. Having told the authorities that he wanted to make a ‘dummy’ drop, he strapped himself in at the last moment, and with sublime confidence stepped from a platform off the Eiffel Tower, and fell to his death.
VIDEO2000 Although technically superior to both Betamax and VHS, Video2000 was never a success. A late launch and relatively complicated electronics were to causes of its failure. Speculations about further reasons this system never gained in popularity include ashort supply of pornography in this format. In contrast, VHS did not underestimate the power of the porn industry.
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on its way out.” Decca Recording Co rejecting the Beatles, 1962
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A special kind of banana, for left handed consumers - Total failure, no-one seemed to care about it. Manuele De Lisio
Earthquake, 1995, Kobe, Japan
Worldwide Financial Crisis, 2008 - present
Elvis Presley anonymously participated in Elvis-imitationcontests. He never won...
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Hindenburg Zeppelin
Pharmaceutical Company Pfizer tried to develop a medicine against angina, chest pains and high blood pressure. The research took six years. The medicine proved unsuccessful, but test subjects reported erections and restored potency as side effects. Pfizer drastically changed strategy and started testing the pills as a medicine against erectile disfunction.
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977
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Hurricane IKE Reporter covering the hurricane IKE story with ‘wildlife’ background
Smurf Record! The record these Croation people were trying to smash was the “most Smurfs gathered together at one time” record. Although they had managed to gather 395 Smurfs in one place, it turned out to be a waste of time. Shoddy research meant they believed they only had to get 291 ‘Smurfs’ in one place to clinch the prized record. However they managed to overlook one vitally important fact. A new record had been set by students at Warwick University the previous year, who had managed to round up a grand total of 451 Smurfs.
Polaroid Error Ralf Steegs
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The End is Nigh
An Assyrian clay tablet bears the words: “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end.”
2800 B.C.
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1st Century A.D.
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In Greek mythology, Cassandra was so beautiful that the god Apollo granted her the gift of prophecy. But when she refused Apollo’s romantic advances, he placed a curse on her. Cassandra was able to see the future, but was unable to change it, or convince anyone of her visions. Anyone who ever had an apocalyptic vision must have felt like they were in the same predicament. Although such revelations are firmly rooted in Christianity, they are not unique to it. Doomsday predictions are of all ages and cultures. Index nummer 1 William van Giessen url.nl
Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived.
Shown on this rough timeline is a selection of prophesies that have not come through (yet). Sources: A Brief History of the Apocalypse http://www.abhota.info/
389 B.C. Other Romans figured that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year, and so arrived at a different doomsday.
634 B.C. Early in Rome’s history, many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. It was believed that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus (one of the fouders of Rome) a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome. Some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years.
Jesus said: “Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28) This implies that the Second Coming would return within the lifetime of his contemporaries. The apostles expected Jesus to return before the passing of their generation.
ca. 70 A.D. The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, probably saw the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final endtime battle.
On Easter Eve, a Spanish monk named Beatus of Liébana prophesied the end of the world that day in the presence a crowd of people. The people, thinking that the world would end that night, became frightened, panicked, and fasted through the night until dawn. In the morning one of them said: “Let’s eat and drink, so that if we die at least we’ll be fed.”
German prophet Johann Jacob Zimmerman gathered a group of pilgrims and made plans to go to America to welcome Jesus back to Earth. He died on the very day of departure. The cult, known as Woman in the Wilderness, completed their journey to the New World. Jesus did not show up.
The End would occur by a flood starting in London, according to calculations astrologers made the previous June. Around 20,000 people abandoned their homes, and a clergyman stockpiled food and water in a fortress he built. As it happened, it didn’t even rain in London on that date.
April 6, 793
Fall 1694
William Bell claimed the world would be destroyed by earthquake on this day. There were earthquakes on February 8 and on March 8, he reasoned that the world must end in another 28 days. Londoners gathered in boats on the Thames. When the prediction didn’t come true, he was promptly thrown into Bedlam, the notorious nuthouse.
Februari 1, 1524 There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the first millenium. Legend has it that a “panic terror” gripped Europe in the years and months before this date.
Sabbatai Zevi, a rabbi from Smyrna, Turkey, used the kabbalah to predict that the Messiah would come in 1648, accompanied by miracles. The Messiah would be Zevi himself.
Januari 1, 1000
April 5, 1760
1648
ca. 1555 Around 1400, the French theologian Pierre d’Ailly wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year. His works would later influence the apocalyptic thinking of Columbus.
March 25, 970 Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on the when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified. Therefore, it naturally followed that the End must occur on this day!
The Montanists believed that Christ would come again within their lifetimes and establish a new Jerusalem. Montanism was perhaps the first real Christian doomsday cult. It was founded ca. 156 AD by the tongues-speaking prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla. Despite the failure of Jesus to return, the cult lasted for several centuries.
1697 Witch hunter Cotton Mather predicted the end of the world in this year. After the prediction failed, he revised the date of the End two more times.
Februari 14, 1420 Czech Doomsday prophet Martinek Hausha of the radical Taborite movement warned that the world would end on this day. How romantic!
1284 Pope Innocent III expected the Second Coming to take place 666 years after the rise of Islam.
1688 Napier was the mathematician who discovered logarithms. His doomsday calculation, based on the Book of Revelation was to occur in this year.
1658 In ‘The Book of Prophecies’, Christopher Columbus claimed that the world was created in 5343 BC, and would last 7000 years.
Index nummer 1 William van Giessen url.nl
2nd Century
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The skies in New England turned dark for several hours, causing people to believe that a biblical prophecy had come true and Judgement Day had arrived. In reality, the darkness was caused by smoke from large-scale forest fires to the west.
John Wroe, who in 1823 tried (and failed) to walk on water and underwent a public circumcision, calculated that the Millennium would begin in this year.
May 19, 1780
19th century Scottish astronomer and pyramidologist Charles Piazzi Smyth concluded from his research on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza that the Second Coming would occur between 1892 and
1911
1863 Jesus was to be re-born on Christmas Day, according to the 64-year-old virgin prophet Joanna Southcott, who claimed to be pregnant with the Christ child. Witnesses claimed that she did indeed appear pregnant. She died on Christmas Day, and a subsequent autopsy proved that she was not pregnant after all.
Dec. 25, 1814
Northern Paiute leader Wovoka predicted the Millennium beginning in 1890. This prediction came from a trance he experienced during a solar eclipse in 1889. Wovoka was a practitioner of the Ghost Dance cult, a hybrid of apocalyptic Christianity and American Indian mysticism.
The end of the world according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They saw World War I as the Battle of Armageddon.
Dec. 25, 1967
Oct. 1, 1914 In 1931, Wilbur Glen Voliva announced that “the world is going to go ‘puff’ and disappear.
Sept. 1935
1890
Oct. 22, 1844
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Rev. Samuel S. Snow, a Millerite, predicted the Second Coming on this day. The date was soon accepted by Miller himself. On that day, the Millerites gathered on a hilltop to await the coming of Jesus. The event became known as the “Great Disappointment.”
March 21, 1844
Index nummer 1 William van Giessen url.nl
Danish cult leader Knud Weiking claimed that a being named Orthon was speaking to him, saying that there would be a nuclear war by Christmas 1967 that would disturb the Earth’s orbit. His followers built a survival bunker in preparation for this catastrophe.
William Miller, leader of the Millerite movement, predicted that Christ would return before this day. He gathered a following of thousands of devotees. After the failure of Jesus to show up, the cult experienced a crisis of faith and in the confusion began reinterpreting the prophecy.
Nov. 19, 1795 Retired English sailor Richard Brothers, who called himself God’s Almighty Nephew, was convinced that he would lead the ten lost tribes of Israel.He was eventually committed to an insane asylum.
1967 May 18, 1910 Many people believed the arrival of Halley’s Comet would spell the end of the world. Some thought that cyanide gas from the comet’s tail would poison the Earth’s atmosphere. In Germany, one could buy postcards depicting apocalyptic scenes bearing the caption, “End of the World on May 18”. Quacks took advantage of people’s fears by selling “comet pills” to make people immune to the toxins.
A young Jim Jones, who later became guru of the Kool-Aid cult People’s Temple, had visions that a nuclear holocaust was to take place in 1967.
Dec. 21, 1954 The world was to be destroyed by terrible flooding on this date, claimed Dorothy Martin (a.k.a. Marian Keech), leader of a UFO cult called Brotherhood of the Seven Rays (a.k.a. The Seekers).
Dec. 17, 1919 Nov. 13, 1900 Over 100 members of the Russian cult Brothers and Sisters of the Red Death committed suicide, expecting the world to end on this day.
According to meteorologist Albert Porta, a conjunction of six planets on this date would cause a magnetic current to “pierce the sun, cause great explosions of flaming gas, and eventually engulf the Earth.” Panic erupted in many countries around the world because of this prediction, and some even committed suicide.
A doomsday cult from Karnataka in southern India claimed that much of the world would be destroyed by earthquakes on this day, and the Indian subcontinent would break off and sink into the ocean. After the destruction, Lord Vishnu would appear on Earth. The leaders of the cult claimed that El Niño and the chaotic weather that accompanied it was a sign of the coming destruction.
Leland Jensen of the Bahá’ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant predicted that Halley’s Comet would be pulled into Earth’s orbit and chunks of the comet would pelt the Earth for a year. The gravitational force of the comet would cause great earthquakes, and on he comet itself would crash into the Earth wreaking widespread destruction. Jensen rationalized the failure as follows: “A spiritual stone hit the earth.”
Dec. 31, 2000
March 8, 1998
Apr. 29, 1987 Heaven’s Gate suicides. The suicides occurred between March 24 and March 26, during a window of time that the cultists had predicted a UFO trailing behind Comet Hale-Bopp would pick up their souls and save them from the imminent Apocalypse.
March 26, 1997
On March 17, 2000, over 600 members of a Ugandan cult calling itself the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God sealed themselves into a church and were burned to death. It remains to be seen wither it was a mass suicide, or a murder by their leader Joseph Kibweteere.
The apparition of a beautiful woman appeared before George Washington saying, “Son of the Republic, look and learn.” He then saw the world as it would be in 1999. Black clouds with red lights in the center, representing invading armies, spewed forth from all around the world and poured into America.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of programmers, governments and companies throughout the world, the bite of the “Y2K bug” turned out to be mostly harmless.
Y2K
1999
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Lee Jang Rim, leader of the Korean doomsday cult Mission for the Coming Days, predicted that the Rapture would occur on this date. Lee was convicted of fraud after the prophecy failed. Lee’s cult was part of the larger HyooGo movement, which took Korea by storm in 1992.
2009 July 1999
Nov. 27, 1997 April 29, 1992 When the L.A. riots broke out in response to the verdict of the Rodney King trial, members of whitesupremacist group Aryan Nations thought it was the final apocalyptic race war they had been waiting for.
1973 David Berg (aka Moses David), guru of the Children of God, predicted in his publication The Endtime News! the United States would be destroyed by Comet Kohoutek in 1973.
According to Earth changes prophetess Lori Adaile Toye of the I AM America Foundation, a series of Earth changes beginning in 1992 and ending in 2009 will cause much of the world to be submerged, and only 1/3 of America’s population will survive.
Nostradamus wrote: The year 1999, seven months, From the sky will come a great King of Terror: To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols, Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.
According to the Sacerdotal Knights of National Security, “A space alien captured at a UFO landing site in eastern Missouri cracked under interrogation by the CIA and admitted that an extraterrestrial army will attack Earth on November 27 with the express purpose of stripping our planet of every natural resource they can find a use for, and making slaves of every man, woman and child in the world!”
May 15, 2003 A Japanese cult called Pana Wave, whose members dress in white, claimed that a mysterious 10th Planet would pass by Earth, causing its axis to tip and engendering devastating earthquakes.
Jan. 1, 2000 A Vietnamese cult headed by Ca Van Lieng predicted an apocalyptic flood for 2000. But doomsday came much earlier for the cult members: he and his followers committed mass suicide in October 1993.
Index nummer 1 William van Giessen url.nl
Oct. 28, 1992
Air Burst Ant Scott www.beflix.com
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GLITCH CATCH
horse www.horseartcollection.com
Karl Klomp www.karlklo
In search for the Unknown
Rev6 page: 19
Glitch Catch Interview with Karl Klomp conducted by William van Giessen www.karlklomp.nl
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“An excellent painter, despite his best efforts, had not been able to depict a lifelike horse. The artist was apprehended by a tiny detail. He kept on trying to paint the foam from the nostrils of the horse . In anger he grabbed a paint-soaked sponge that had been lying within reach and threw it at the painting in an attempt to destroy his work. The sponge, directed by fortune, hit he nostrils of the horse, and so created what the painter had intended.” Source: www.thelatinlibrary.com Everyone understands that there’s something wrong when a television shows only static. When a computer gets stuck, we restart. All around us is a digital world, and we accept it. Perfect images caress our retinas. We try to erase anything faulty, but these things are just as elemental. Exactly these faults are welcomed by glitchartists and designers in order to explore new terrains. Freed from traditional dogmas and pretentious ‘good taste’ developments are being made by giving chance and error a progressive role in method, concept development and the (re) production process. One of the reasons of the glitch art-scene might be to reach a more human state in arts with the use of instable technology.
Failure makes us and our technology human; without the ability to make mistakes we lose a sense of freedom. We need chance and error to develop and surprise ourselves with our own potential. Whereas oil-paint and other painting materials have remained the same for a long time, the advances in basic materials for glitch art are continuous. For this reason the glitch maybe called a unique polymorphic art form. The visual vocabulary are constantly changing, as digital techniques develop and become more advanced. KK: Karl Klomp (1979 - NL) is a media-artist and VJ. His focus is on live audiovisual expressions and he has a fascination for glitch-art dealing with video-bending. WG: William van Giessen (1980 - NL) is one of the founders of O.K. Periodicals and owner and graphic designer at O.K. Parking. He is fascinated by and experiments with glitch, chance and error in common design processes.
Tom Verbruggen www.sonidogris.com Cellular Recombomat blog id: 995
omp.nl
printer The Printers Music blog id: 758 circuit bending www.circuitbending.com
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Interview with Karl Klomp As soon as we sit down at the table, KK shows me some foto’s of corrupt video images. Like two fetishists we marvel at the beauty of these pictures. But the question immediately arises if this is ‘enough’; is it too simple, what is the concept? WG: Where and when? KK: In preparation for a VJ session to electronic and ‘clicks and cuts’ music I tried to find effects of video manipulation that appealed to me. Effects that stay close to the music are corrupted, distorted and interferential images. I was looking for pure forms of video; minimal composition and little colour. At one point I ran into Tom Verbruggen (toktek). He opened-up audio gear and started circuitbending (in this technique extra connections are soldered onto existing circuits, creating unexpected noises). I tried to do the same with video equipment. In doing so I stumbled upon awesome glitch images that were created by the apparatus itself. In live performance I use this to find electronic-connections that fit to my interpretation of the audio. WG: And this results in the Live-tools you create? KK: I noticed that I started taking function as a starting point more and more. Using existing
video-mixers, I made circuit-bend tools that I could use in a live performance. Rejecting the standard effects, every tool got its own unique tasks which created unique images. With minimal modification (making new connections in the apparatus) to existing technology I let the hardware create original visuals. WG: The video visuals are ephemeral. Do you ever attempt to grab them? KK: I record live-sessions on my computer. Afterwards, I look at every frame of the video in search of aesthetically pleasing graphical compositions. Doing so I can make the glitchimages timeless. I print the video images from a video printer. However, this often goes wrong. Just like my tools often short-circuit during experimentation. It really sucks when a machine dies before I was able to use it to its full potential. Searching for that perfect glitch image is very time consuming. Also because of the fact that I become more and more critical when selecting the right images. As soon as I’ve found a good composition, I try to print and the printer jams. I have to reset the printer and in doing so lose the glitch image. This is all part of the game: Glitch-Catching. All this is done in order to find a visual aesthetic. I often ask myself if there should not be more to it.
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Audio signal Visual music & Bibliodyssey blog id: 42 circuit layout MRI blog id: 1233
Ant Scott page: 34
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WG: Can the process itself be part of the concept? mixers have just one powerful chip that controls KK: It is a starting point. The creation and ‘catching’ everything. This makes variation difficult and the of instable images can cause euphoric moments! machines break easily. Older machines allow more direct combinations. I connected a audio Ant Scott once said: “A good glitch hits you signal directly to a video-processor for example. I between he eyes.” That wow-experience when did not expect anything to happen, but the sound finding a successful glitch; a line here, a cube was directly translated into image. This creates there, contrast, etc. I would like to share with incredible images live on stage and on print! everyone. But still there remains that feeling of being unable to account for my choices. Maybe it Website: www.karlklomp.nl would be better in an exhibition, then you could give reference and background information. More about glitch-art & design: ‘Glitch Aesthetics’; Iman Moradi WG: Kim Cascone (composer of electronic music, › www.oculasm.org/glitch USA) says that to the layman, the many forms of Website Ant Scott / Beflix (see pag 34) glitch are indistinguishable. Static is static; so to › www.beflix.com analise it and appreciate it you must be an expert. ‘Onvoorzien Ontwerpen’; William van Giessen To me it’s similar as with landscape-paitings. In › www.ok-parking.nl the end what matters is if the image appeals to you. To appreciate it fully, you need to place it at a time, in a context, and some knowledge of technique is needed. KK: Correct, this could be applied to circuitbending. Every analogue video-mixer (even if it is the same model) has a unique fingerprint. This makes the outcome so surprising. Older machines have a different kind of circuit layout ; they need more chips and relays. This allows more combinations and more stability. Modern video-
Self Portrait - Hoover Dam Noah Kalina www.noahkalina.com
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Lino Error Alice Marwick www.alicemarwick.co.uk
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Rainier Isendam www.isendam.com
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Op-art: Blundering Brains sky www.sky-catcher.nl
one hundred million en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen
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Op-art: Blundering Brains Roos Bijvelds
We all make mistakes. No one is perfect, and neither is our visual observation. The evolution of sight has allowed us to look for food, shelter, a companion or even an enemy, safely and from a distance. However, what seems simple at first – we open our eyes and, without even trying, see the world around us – is in fact an extremely complicated process. A process in which our eyes and brain make many mistakes.
Relatively Speaking The moon illusion illustrates a common visual misapprehension. Sometimes the moon seems gigantic, whereas a few hours later it appears a lot smaller. This all depends on its proximity to the horizon. Although in some cases it looks as though the moon is further away from the earth, this is of course never the case: we just make a wrong estimate. Whenever the moon is low we can try to assess its distance from the earth with the aid of environmental clues, like houses or trees. With all these things in front of it, the moon appears to be far away and therefore very big. If the moon is surrounded by the sky alone, we think that it’s actually closer by and thus smaller. It’s clear that our observation of reality doesn’t always produce a reliable image. Observing something is more than just looking at it: the eyes and the brain work together closely and take into account the observer’s surroundings, experiences and expectations.
Blind to the Imperfections of the Eye Every attempt to explain the flaws of human observation will have to start with the design of our eyes. Light enters our oculus through the lens and then falls on the retina. This membrane, situated at the back of the eye, contains about one hundred million light-sensitive photoreceptor cells.
electric signal blog id: 926
ambiguous figures www.tinyurl.com/3a47sm
distorted image page: 2
detects movement blog id: 1027
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Every contact with light produces a chemical reaction, causing the cells to transmit an electric signal. Through the optic nerve these signals are then conducted to the brain. It’s barely noticeable, but the design of the eyes features several imperfections that affect our sight. First of all, there aren’t any photoreceptor cells in the area where the optic nerve leaves the eye, so that a small part of the outside world will always remain invisible to us. This is the so-called blind spot. Secondly, the function of photoreceptor cells is dependent on the presence of light. The chemical substance responsible for the electric signal takes some time to replenish after a lengthy exposure to the selfsame setting. This is why we’re temporarily blinded when we exit a dark theater. The receptors we use to see in the dark get depleted, whereas the opposite, unused receptors intended for daytime vision are fully charged and (over)responsive. A similar aftereffect can be witnessed among the various colour receptors.
Not Even Our Brain Sees the Light The already distorted image of the outside world continues its journey to arrive in the portion of the brain devoted to vision. Here, the image is complemented by experiences from our memory to
make an association with what we see. At this level, many things can go wrong. The perception of mere lines, forms and colours is of little use to us. Upon viewing an object the brain immediately decides what it is and whether the item is large, small, useful, dangerous, far away or close by. In this active process of interpretation the brain relies on all available clues to single out the best option. But in some cases there simply is no clear-cut solution that matches what we see. Ambiguous figures occasion multiple correct answers and, as it follows, perceptions. Normally, the brain is used to having just one possible interpretation for every object observed. As a result, whenever we’re confronted with an ambiguous figure, we can only discern one possible perception at a time. But if we look at the pictures a little longer, we will see images of both feasible interpretations taking turns. The possible solutions for a single observation engage in some sort of competition. Whenever an interpretation is exhausted, so it seems, the other one pops up.
Op-Art: Blundering Brains Our brain is so eager to interpret that it even detects movement , hidden figures, patterns or
Dazzle Otto Theun Karelse www.fo.am
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Victor Vasarely www.vasarely.com
Razzle Dazzle www. tinyurl.com/962hmg
The trick is to fail better. Mary Quant www.fashion-era.com/the_1960s_mini.htm
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three dimensionality in a plain surface. French artists considered this optical phenomenon as a challenge and started experimenting with it. A small group gathered around the HungarianFrench painter Victor Vasarely . Nowadays, he is considered the “father” of the Op art movement. Using black, white and lurid colours he painted many geometrical pieces, from which the concepts of optical movement and space originated. Other famous Op artists include M.C. Escher, Oscar Reutersvärd and Bridget Riley. Riley’s work also aroused a lot of interest in optical illusions outside the world of art. Fashion designers like Emilio Pucci and Mary Quant used Riley’s hard and contrasty images, in both colour and blackand-white, as a source of inspiration for their own collections. They employed Op art images to design clothing that expressed a seemingly endless chain of movement when worn. Another striking example of Op art is “Razzle Dazzle” , a camouflage technique designed by artist Norman Wilkinson. It was applied to vessels of the Royal Navy, mainly during the First World War. As it proved impossible to disguise ships in all weather conditions Wilkinson applied to them a paint scheme of complex patterns and geometrical shapes in contrasting colours. Their purpose was
to confuse the enemy. The distorted contours made it difficult to determine at what speed the ship was travelling and in which direction. Of course, many other applications followed. The intriguing and beautifully failing alliance between the eyes and the brain continues to inspire many creative fields, including photograpy (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Noorali Hirani) and graphic design ( Olympic Games Poster 1968 ), as well as psychologists with a knack for the visual (Akiyoshi Kitaoka). The trick is to fail better. Sources: Gazzaniga, M., S., Ivry, R.B., & Mangun, G.R. (2002). Cognitive Neuroscience. The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. Palmer, S.E. (1999). Vision Science. Photons to Phenomenology. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Seckel, A. (2005). Ongelooflijke optische illusies. Rijswijk: Uitgeverij Elmar b.v.
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I, the World, Things, Life Interactive dart board installation by: Jacob Dahlgren www.jacobdahlgren.com
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Time Out of Mind William van Giessen
Time Out of Mind The Clock Drawing Test is a simple task that is part of a neurological analysis for Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. The subject is asked to draw a clock, put in all the numbers, and then draw the clock hands specifying a set time. The test can provide information about general cognitive and adaptive functioning, memory, vision and the ability to process information. This test poses problems for people with Alzheimer disease, as can be seen in these drawings. Reality is the present, and what is perceived now. Past and future or anything else that can’t be seen does not exist to them. Hours seem like days, and the days fly by. There is no distinction between day and night which can upset body functions, and result in refusal to drink or eat. On the one hand, the test indicates the practical level; can the subject draw the clock? On the other hand, the drawing itself indicates if the subject can grasp the abstract notion of time. The drawings do not indicate the kind of dementia, or the stage of dementia the authors are in.
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Functional Visual Anarchism literature blog id: 1193
Tristan Tzara en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Tzara
image library www.foundmagazine.com
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Part 1: Context Failure is focused on finding an effective research method that could be the fundament for a potential visual solution/ouput, a kind of grammar that strengthens the discourse between visual content and textual content.
Functional Visual Anarchism Studio ‘t Brandt Weer www.tbrandtweer.nl
It is based on one of the parts of the DADA manifests from Tristan Tzara . (Tristan Tzara, sept manifestes Dada, société Nouvelle des Éditions Pauvert 1979. Dutch translation 1998 by Vantilt publisher and jan H. Mysjkin) In the specific part; “How to write a dadaistic poem” Tzara refers to a method known as “Top hat poetry” (poetry of coincidence) often used in the so called (low) secundary literature . Tristan Tzara was not the first who quoted this method. At the end of the 19th century, the french poet Leconte de Isle said; “ take a hat and put in it nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, conjunctions and prepositions, shake the hat and take out the pieces at random and write them down...” The method of Context Failure is based on the above descibed technique with some crucial additions. The project is not only focused on textual context but especially on visual context.
We took two pictures out of our image library at random. We analysed these images to find nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions inside the composition. We marked out a specific part inside the pictures and connected it to specific nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions related to the picture. Afterwards we implemented these specific parts into the other simular part of the second picture. The result is a very interesting visual output and contextual shift in image and word. The sentences that you can create are very surrealistic, dadaistic, surprising but on the other hand hyper-realistic. Functional (Visual) Anarchism is the research project of studio ‘t Brandt Weer.
Analysis picture 1
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verb: to grab
article and noun: the suitcase
preposition: between
article and noun: the handle
adjective: coloured
verb: to play
Analysis picture 2
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verb: to walk
article and noun: the cleaning machine
adjective: metallic
article and noun: the (shop-window) dummy preposition: underneath
Parts picture1 implemented on correspondent parts of picture 2
the (shop-window) dummy
the handle to walk
to grab to play
between
the suitcase
coloured
underneath
the cleaning machine
metallic
Between the cleaning machine playing underneath the coloured suitcase and the walking shop-window dummy grabbing the metallic handle
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The Life of VladimĂ?r KreĹĄjova Marieke Vromans www.mariekevromans.nl
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Metro Antwerp Arno van Tilburgh www.arnofotografeert.be
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trash bags blog id: 1197
Grands Travaux Inutiles
Ryugyong Hotel www.esquire.com/the-side/DESIGN/hotel-of-doom-012808
metronet www.tfl.gov.uk
Rusty shoppingcarts, trash bags , a bumping horse, a scooter and a matras are the current inhabitants of a disused metro station in Charleroi, Belgium. End sixties, a 52 kilometer long metronet with 69 stations was conceived. Eight arms of the net reach out from the city center to the suburbs. Ever rising costs and growing fears of low returns on investments brought this project to a premature halt. Only two of the eight arms are in use, the other six lie hidden in the earth, connecting obsolete stations. Escalators roll in the dark, moving nothing but stale air. This metronet is just one example of the many Grands Travaux Inutiles (unused or unfinished public works). There are defunct reservoirs, bridges, viaducts, polders, sluices, railways, highways and hotels whose construction cost billions everywhere. Many such projects can be found in Belgium, but there are hundreds all over the world: Route A4 Midden-Delftland and the Naardermeer polder in the Netherlands, the Kabalebo Railway in Surinam, Kalkar nuclear plant in Germany, the Ryugyong Hotel in North-Korea and the Arctic-circle railway in Russia. Sources: Technische Mislukkingen, Lex Veldhoen & Jan van den Ende Wikipedia.org Nuttelozewerken.nl
To the right, Metro Antwerp, by Arno van Tilburgh
Grands Travaux Inutiles Joost van der Steen
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I Can’t Dance Zsuzsanna Ilijin www.ilijin.com
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On Course for Failure scanning page 5
puppy blog id: 247
success www.tinyurl.com/mq46v
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This proved to be an effective way of sticking my head in the sand for many years. I would commit to something I wanted, and if I failed at the test, job interview, or relationship, it had nothing to do with me. No way! However, this comfortable illusion has started to crumble in the last few months. I made mistakes at work once in a while, and it could not be all the fault of ‘the other’ that the umptieth relationship had run aground. I had to face up to it: even I failed sometimes.
Recognising the problem is the first step, resolving it is a second. I dove into the world wide web , When I care about whatever I’m doing it’s a different looking for a solution. Scanning the courses “Fear story. Success will be mine one way or the other, of Failure”, workshops “Learning-to-accept-thefailure is not an option. One example is the political real-you-through-yangsing-meditation-in-thehistory exam I did while studying journalism. mudbaths-of Mongolia”, and self-help books “In Never-ending passages on which ministers search of my absolute me”, my eye was caught by sabotaged each other in what cabinet, had to be the ten week course “Dealing with Failure.” Just learnt by heart. Like a good little student I crammed what I was looking for! for the exam. Great was my disappointment when our teacher gave out the marks: an F! I furiously I’ve just attended the first class. There are ten of us. contested my grade with the principal. I had Most of the others don’t recognise their problems studied so hard and still did not pass! How was this yet, so I’m at least one step ahead of them. And possible: I had failed! My classmates snickered even though it is in the distant future , I’m ardently which infuriated me even further. The exam was studying for the exam. Not passing this exam is not ridiculously difficult, how else was it possible that an option. an “F” brandished on my paper? No way this could have had anything to do with my capacities…
On Course for Failure Inge ter Schure
I can’t stand failing. I positively hate it. Never mind the failure of others, this is about me. Luckily I don’t aim to be the best at everything. I am very aware of the fact that I can not sing, for example. When I sing I sound like a terrified puppy . Whenever I cheerfully start a song, someone shouts: “Hey, I like that song by Shakira/James Blunt/Robbie Williams, stop ruining it!” Of course, destruction was never my intention. All the same, I continue to torment my colleagues and friends with my mangled versions of pop songs. Just because I like to sing. And to drive people up the wall.
Fieke van Berkom www.fiekevanberkom.nl
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blogspot.jodi.org JODI www.jodi.org
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software oss.jodi.org
WRONGBROWSER.ORG / software
OSS/****
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A Passive Love Drama Christel Ooms www.christelooms.nl
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Serendipity The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: a fortunate stroke of serendipity | a series of small serendipities. Origin 1754: coined by Horace Walpole, suggested by ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of. A book edited by graphic designer Hans Gremmen with a selection of ‘test prints’ found at the silkscreen workshop of Paul Wyber of WyberZeefdruk in Amsterdam. ISBN 978 90 77459 29 4 www.romapublications.org
Serendipity Hans Gremmen & WyberZeefdruk www.hansgremmen.nl
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On and Off the Map Cartography - the art of omission
On and Off the Map Boy Timmermans
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Nowadays, thanks to satellites and aircraft, we can make even the smallest detail of the earth’s surface visible. This overview on the world was previously only possible thanks to the work of surveyors, explorers and cartographers who put their findings on paper. They extended the limited human horizon. The fruit of their work – beautiful maps, atlases and globes – offer a look at the knowledge of the world, and the skills of mapmakers long ago. t
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man made www.laylacurtis.com
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The world summarized Maps and floor plans are wonderful examples of the ingenious human ability to make the world synoptic. Clarity can only be achieved by making the necessary information visible and leaving everything else out. This is what makes maps abstractions of the more complex reality. Cartography is by definition a craft which is characterized by choice, omission, simplification and exaggeration. Cartographers show their perspective on the world; the purpose of a map determines what will be depicted. It is, for example, not very helpful to show the complete hinterlands on a sea-chart. But for a long voyage by ship things like the profile of a coastline, anchorages and ocean depths are essential. The choices that mapmakers face can also cause problems. The cartographer might consciously or unconsciously make mistakes that remain unnoticed. Or subsequent users interpret a map in a whole different way than its creator had in mind. In short: maps are man made , and that goes hand in hand with errors and misinterpretations.
Different times, different views Many medieval maps seem very primitive to us. This is because we do not interpret them correctly; we are often unable to look at them in their original frame of reference. We judge the maps
interpret www.ilijin.com
exclusively on their geographical qualities while many medieval mapmakers also wanted to tell a theological story. For this reason we should not just look at the practical applicability of these maps, but also at the function they served at the time of their creation. In the Middle Ages the idea that God created the world with a certain intention was widely spread. Medieval scholars studied the world map to get an idea of the divine plan. On many medieval maps the Holy Land – with the city of Jerusalem as its absolute base – is central, and heaven (usually above) and hell (below) often also have their place. Mythical animals such as unicorns and dragons swarm these atlases. These wonderful fantasy creatures had spiritual and moral significance. Unicorns – which could only be caught by virgin maidens – were a symbol for the purity of the Christian faith, for example.
New land by mistake Columbus came to the idea that by sailing west he would end up in the east. He actually fullfiled this plan effectively. But Columbus estimated the earth a fourth smaller than it is in reality. That is why he found America exactly on the spot where he had expected Asia. His mistake was not unusual. This perception of the world was widespread since classical antiquity. It came from the Greek
To the right, Ortelius’ map of Iceland, 1587
perspective blog id: 432
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Dutch cartographer Johannes Vingboons’ map of California shown as an Island, The United States Library of Congress’s: 1639. A lot of the early maps of the North American continent show California as an island. This fiction persisted for well over hundred years.
seas blog id: 1223
America blog id: 660
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geographer Posidonius who made a calculation of the earths circumference that, we now know, was only three quarters of the actual distance. The most well known geographer of the antiquity, Ptolemy, took the views of Posidonius, and thus, this idea remained influential until well into the Renaissance. Columbus assumed this calculation to be correct and used maps that were based on this worldview. That explains why he arrived in America instead of Asia but did not notice this mistake at all. He even called the local inhabitans ‘Indians’ because he thought he had reached India. Moreover, one can argue that it is a lucky coincidence that Columbus had used inaccurate maps; if he would have known the actual distance between Europe and the east coast of Asia, he probably would never have dared to navigate that distance.
Mistakes and deliberate deception The craft of mapmaking has been practiced for centuries and has always been accompanied by mistakes, misinterpretations and inaccurate copying. There are countless examples of sixteenthcentury maps with obvious mistakes caused by copying. More than once the map image was not in accordance with reality. In the Netherlands, sometimes a parceled polder was already placed on the map where there should have been a lake, and sometimes it was exactely the opposite and one
would see a lake where there was already dry soil. This kind of persistent errors, once made, caused confusion for decades and were difficult to erase. These kinds of mistakes were usually not made deliberately, but were due to the commercialization of cartography. At that time cartographers often had to rely on outdated, third party cartographic information. Most of the time, new surveys were far too expensive for commercial publishers. As a result, few new maps were published. Copying was easiest and also relatively cheap. Over time, in addition to unintentional errors, false maps where brought into circulation intentionaly. The Dutch East India Company (United East India Company or VOC) – which dominated the world seas in the seventeenth century – used maps of the far East which were not completely filled in. The coastline of Australia was often only partially indicated to make it more difficult for competitive countries (particularly England) to get correct information. Strategic cartographic information was kept secret, as it was extremely valuable. In times of war it was, and still is, very commom to intentionally change and falsify maps. [Remember Colin Powell showing us the weapons of mass destruction in Irak?] Maps can be used as a propaganda tool, and to mislead the enemy. In the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany both techniques were frequently used.
Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis, 1621, Digital Library of Rare Books, University of São Paulo, Brazil. St. Brendan (c. 484 – c. 577) was an Irish monk. According to medieval legend, Brendan embarked on a seven-year voyage through the Atlantic in search of the Garden of Eden. The legends recount Brendan’s amazing adventures, including his encounter with a whale upon whose back he held communion. Brendan and his band of monks eventually discovered a brightly-lit land through which flowed a great river. After wandering the land for 40 days in an unsuccessful search for the farthest shore, they filled their ships with precious gems and returned home. Brendan died soon afterward, but his fabulous island became a standard feature on maps for the next millenia. The earliest surviving version of this story dates from the 11th century.
weapons blog id: 587
deformed buildings blog id: 895 GPS blog id:1227
Cartographers in the Soviet Union were employed by the governement to fool domestic as well as foreign enemies. On their maps, they moved and deformed buildings , highways, railways, even complete villages, industrial areas and rivers. This kind of deception took place in Adolf Hitlers Germany as well. But the Nazi’s also created maps that were especially designed to make citizens support Hitler’s plans. Many maps were manipulated to victimize Germany, inorder to justify the tactics and military actions against its enemies. We must remain critical when dealing with maps today. People often blindly assume that maps show us the truth. Despite their schematic and scientific appearence deception remains a possibility. GPS data can be false, or out-dated, and if you search for places like royal palaces, military bases, aerospace installations, weapons factories and nuclear installations on Google maps, you wil probably only find blind spots.
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blog id: 1308
blog id: 1314
blog id: 1319
Simons en Boom
Floortje Bouwkamp
Sibyll Kalff
Case, hat faced based. A hilarilous Dutch poem written with English words and read by the computer.
Capture of the accidental destruction of an 8mm film.
Selection of 57 rejection letters of one person from the last years.
GO TO: WWW.OK-BLOG.NL
blog id: 1309
blog id: 1315
blog id: 1311
JODI
Sebastian Schneider
Jaap van Keulen
asdfg.jodi.org
Once I tried to fold a paper plane with a candy wrapper. I failed. The result was a cross between a boat and a plane. When I later took part in an illustration-workshop, I returned to this project and made a swarm of planeboats.
A composition of failed sound files called F16 files.
Battery Battery www.battery.nl
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Failures as Portals of Creative Discovery
rejected page: 84
20th century blog id: 1094, 1095
blogs www.1post1der.blogspot.com
Failures as portals of creative discovery Bas Ruyssenaars en Paul Iske www.brilliantfailures.com
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The Irish writer and artist James Joyce, best known for his landmark novel Ulysses, discovered the virtues of failure during the early years of his career as a writer. It started in 1904 with an essay about his own development as an artist and writer called Portrait of an artist. He submitted it publication but it was rejected again and again. After this initial disappointment he started on a new novel. After writing 900 pages he decided that it was too conventional and destroyed most of the manuscript. He started all over again and spent ten years writing a novel which he finally called A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. When he published the complete version in 1916, he was hailed as one of the most promising new writers in the English language. Joyce expresses the lessons he learned in a marvellous way with his quotation ‘A man’s errors are his portals of discovery’. And it was not by chance that Joyce’s friend, fellow-writer and poet Samuel Beckett described just another wonderful self-learned lesson on failure: ‘To be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail... Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ These lessons of life from early 20th century creative professionals seem to be universal and very topical in our turbulent times. Our global connected world and its new technologies make creative expression accessible for hundreds of
millions of people. There are more than 100 million blogs today, with 120,000 new ones being created every 24 hours. With low-cost cameras, editing software and websites like You Tube, Facebook and E-bay, everyone can create, buzz, market and sell their creations. More people than ever can participate, share, collaborate and create. On the one hand, our global connectedness makes it easier to explore uncommon ground and find new inspiration for our creative expressions. But on the other hand, it might take some extra effort to really stand out from the crowd and create something new and meaningful. If it’s your ambition to go beyond the conventional, you might need to experiment more, take more creative risks and make more failures than ever. The Institute of Brilliant Failures wants to bring about a shift in the way we view failure. It promotes a positive view of failure, as a portal of discoveries, through the use of stories, film, interactive workshops and roadshows. It is our tribute to inventors and those who had the courage to try something different, and our way of laying down a challenge to the rest of us. The Institute is a brainchild of Dialogues, an initiative of ABN AMRO. Dialogues’ mission is to stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour (in the broadest sense of the word) by encouraging people to develop new
Hsieh-Yi-Lin, Creative Commons Licence Left: James Joyce 1882-1941 Right: Samuel Beckett 1906-1989
ideas and enabling innovators to turn ideas into reality. However, these efforts could be wasted in a culture where failure is considered unacceptable and few are prepared to take the necessary risk. The Institute of Brilliant Failures aims to change this culture.
What is a brilliant failure?
www.brilliantfailures.com
·You do all you can to avoid unnecessary errors: failure through poor preparation or silly mistakes is not a brilliant failure!
Paul Iske is Chief Dialogues Officer at ABN AMRO Bank. He is director of the Dialogues House and the Dialogues Incubator, focusing on entrepreneurship and radical and open innovation. Paul is the founding father of the Institute of Brilliant Failures. Bas Ruyssenaars is co-director at The Beach company and uses a nonlinear ‘design’ approach to create new perspectives, strategies and concepts in collaboration with both private and public organisations. He works on a freelance basis on the Brilliant Failure project through FCTB, innovation & change.
A brilliant failure meets the following four criteria: ·Your goal is founded in good intentions (i.e. not at the expense of others or society at large).
·You do not achieve your original goal; if the actual result was not intended, but has value for the individual or society, then we can officially classify it as a brilliant failure! ·You learnt something from your failure; even if you didn’t learn what you intended, you learnt what not to do; above all, your experiences, courage and perseverance can serve to inspire others.
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Colophon & Foreword; O.K. Periodicals editors Adhesive Me; Bastiaan de Wolff My digital camara was broken while making a selfportrait with a big adhesive plaster on my nose. Pressing and twisting the camera changed the structure. Pixelfungi; Jan Schaab Basically its a typical computer error. The Preview in the Mac Os Finder was not able to display quicktime files properbly. So the video was viewed in a distorted way. I dont know why and sadly now this beautyful malfunction is gone. I took a few screenshots and worked them in photoshop, to my surprise pixelfungi grew out the edges. Koe in de Weide; David Smeulders Controlled failure with homemade scan camera; Out of a fascination towards movement I’ve been investigating ways to show movement within 1 image. First I’ve started with pinhole cameras and long exposure times, off course you will see some movement, or better to say, you see that things moved around. But one key part was always missing. The legibility of these movements. Therefor I’ve started experimenting with other ways of exposure, in the beginning with the shutter, and later with the backsides of the cameras. The Pictures of the Scream; Rougieux Maura I got disturbed by working 2months in a videogame production. I was’nt familiar with this world at all. I guess i got the job because I was on a terrible mood during the interview. I first had to translated a complete video game from german into french, from the legal disclaimer to the dialogues of the druid. And then: it went online, and NOW: I have to take care of 30 000 gamers (sick). Monday, i started at 9 o’clock, having 80 “problems” mails : FFFUUUUCKKK!!!! i’m hanging around on forums and chats with FREAKS - I have to help them, controle them, be nice to them, ban them, delete them-, and I have to find “trustable” moderators (most of them are loosers, working in an office, or COPS )). I miss the test-world 1. I enjoy even more beiing back home. I love sunday. Yesterday was a nice day, like every sunday i cooked my “sunday” fish. It was nice. After this I had a nice cup of tea and when to bed. The alarm clock. I quit the job. Dear Tony; Martijn Brugman Urban Failure #1; Marieke Vromans Variations on a theme; Jet van Zwieten Roadworks; Maaike van der Zee Rev6; William van Giessen Alien blob; Arnout Visser Random failures A variety of all kinds of human, technical, environmental & economical failures. Polaroid Error; Ralf Steegs Doomsday; Bouwe van der Molen Air Burst; Ant Scott At the instant of nuclear air burst above a city, the buildings are X-rayed, the uniformly intense light blots out the sky and the sun becomes a nightmareish saturated hue, reminiscent of Missile Command on an old 8-bit games console. Ant Scott is a glitch artist from the UK. He started taking screenshots of digital errors and data in 2001. Today he makes photographic exposures with less involvement of the computer, and interprets the glitch more widely. He is co-editor of ‘Glitch: Designing Imperfection’, which is due to be published in May 2009. Glitch Catch; Karl Klomp Self Portrait - Hoover Dam; Noah Kalina I am not sure I call this one a failure, it is more serendipitous. It wasn’t intentional, but it worked out perfectly. It was the last photo of a series of self portraits I was doing in Las Vegas. I thought the ultimate way to end it was to do a picture at the Hoover Dam. It is a tourist location people who visit Las Vegas go and visit to get away from the city. Naturally it is overcrowded.
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O.K. Periodicals is a project by O.K. Parking in special collaboration with Bouwe van der Molen Graphic design: O.K. Parking, www.ok-parking.nl & Bouwe van der Molen, www.bouwevandermolen.com Ilustrations: Battery Battery, www.battery.nl & Zsuzsanna Ilijin, www.ilijin.com
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When I was taking this picture a man walked right into my frame. I think it perfectly sums up the Las Vegas tourist experience. 41 Lino Error; Alice Marwick 43 Untitled; Rainer Isendam The skater who is missing in the picture was part of the world championship skateboarding in Rotterdam. Obviously people fall when attempting stunts in ramps like these. I thought the lone skateboard suspended in the air was a funny and strong image of failing, the one who failed is invisible as a result of his failure, but his high flying intentions are still visible through the board. 44 Op-art: Blundering Brains; Roos Bijvelds 46 Dazzle Otto; Theun Karelse 48 I, the World, Things, Life; Jacob Dahlgren 52 Time Out of Mind; William van Giessen 54 Functional Visual Anarchism; Studio ‘t Brandt Weer 58 The Life of Vladimir Krešjova; Marieke Vromans 60 – 67 Metro Antwerp; Arno van Tilburgh 62 Grands Travaux Inutiles; Joost van der Steen 68 I Can’t Dance; Zsuzsanna Iljin 69 On Course for Failure; Inge ter Schure 70 Untitled; Fieke van Berkom 71 blogspot.jodi.org; JODI 72 OSS/**** & WRONGBROWSER.ORG; JODI 73 A Passive Love Drama; Christel Ooms 74 Serendipity; Hans Gremmen & Wyber Zeefdruk 78 On and Off the Map; Boy Timmermans 84 GO TO: WWW.OK-BLOG.NL 85 Research in print; BatteryBattery This illustration is part of Battery’s search for the limits of modern printing techniques. Are moiré, gradients, overprint and layering still problems you need to take into account as a graphic designer? Previous research was published in ‘Proef NPN’, printed by NPN Drukkers, Breda, The Netherlands. 90 Failures as Portals of Creative Discovery; Paul Iske & Bas Ruyssenaars 92 Content 93 Invitation to Launch Party; February 20th 2009 @ TAPE, Arnhem, NL 94 Promotional flyer; O.K. Failure magazine 95 Content (continued) 96 The O.K. Periodicals Mailbox Fails to Keep Spam Out; magazine@ok-parking.nl
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THE OK PERIODICALS MAILBOX FAILS TO KEEP SPAM OUT Van: “Ellen Franks” <qbfrjx@brandchannel.com> Datum: 26 september 2008 13:14:31 GMT+02:00 Aan: <magazine@ok-parking.nl> Onderwerp: Marvellous Book Hello Friend, Your new book has brought a lot of excitement to our editorial staff. It’s certainly this year’s best in its genre. You seem to never going to quit surprising us. We have made a contract with you and guarantee that the first edition will total at least 10 million copies. Enclosed is the approved and edited copy of your amazing book. Thank you for this paragon of beauty. Please get in touch with us at your earliest convenience. See you later Approved.exe (21.9 KB)
Christel Ooms
Jan Schaab
Beng | Bastiaan de Wolff
David Smeulders
Beflix
Alice Marwick
ISSN 1876-2395
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