Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Computers and Meat

Garnet Hertz www.conceptlab.com

Garnet Hertz www.conceptlab.com

Galvanism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanism

The effect was named by Alessandro Volta after his contemporary, the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 1780s and 1790s. Galvani himself referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. Volta, on the other hand, claimed that the reputed animal electricity was due to an interaction between the metals used to mount and dissect the frog's leg, and in 1800, b
efore the Royal Society in London, announced the Voltaic Cell or pile, essentially the battery.

The modern study of galvanic effects in biology is called electrophysiology, the term galvanism being used only in historical contexts. The term is also used to describe the bringing to life of organisms using electricity, as shown in Mary Shelley's work
Frankenstein (which was influenced by galvanism) and people still speak of being 'galvanized into action'. Many Victorian scientists believed that if the right amount of electricity was charged into the brain, the corpse would come b
ack to
life.

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Organic Computer For Apple Macintosh 1996 David Hall

Brief

In this project we are going to take a very wide look at the concept of galvanism and the relationship between computers, Digital media and meat. This could be a computer literally controlling meat or it could be about basic human instincts and pleasure and how computers and media relate to this area. The output of this class and research could be

A – A physical working prototype
B – A film depicting a scenario of the concept
C – An installation environment

Example 1 – Muscle tissue that responds directly to audio signals “ The disco”
Example 2 - Electro stimulation love hotel
Example 3 – Physical computing, telepresence and teledildonics.

Procedure

Stage One ( One week ) – Introduction
Stage Two ( 3 weeks ) – Concept generation and research

Presentation Week five

Stage Three ( 3 weeks ) – Concept Development

Presentation Week Eight

Stage Four ( 4 weeks ) – Construction and realization

Stage Five ( Final output and presentation )

Note – As this is an unusal project I expect the research to be clear and thorough.
At each presentation I expect to see photographs, drawings and CG work.
Please do not present images from the web as research.