videoAlchemy

code for computational divination

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##Contents:

####/controller // Arduino Code and Touch OSC layouts for three control devices:

1. RadianceController // output = comma separated info from 7 potentiometers and 4 buttons - Mode_0 // all lights on

2. FP-13-Controller // output = comma separated info from 10 potentiometers

3. iPadAlchemyController // output = touchOSC

####/rota-Fortunae // Processing Code for the divination software and related diagnostic tools.

• SystemCheckApps: // Diagonistic Processing Sketches

  1. QA-RadianceController // diagostic tool for checking serial inputs from RadianceController
  2. QA-FP-13 // diagostic tool in for checking serial inputs from FP-13
  3. QA-iPadAlchemyController // diagnostic tool for checking touch OSC inputs from iPad

• rota-Versions: // organized by controller type

  1. rota-Radiance
  2. rota-FP-13
  3. rota-iPadAlchemyControl

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###Photo Galleries: [Emblems of Video Alchemy: A Pattern Language] (http://www.flickr.com//photos/jaycody9/sets/72157627964989306/show/ "Flickr Gallery")
[Video Alchemy @ Radiance Gallery : Sketches, Mockups, Install // Aug - Nov 2012] (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/90rs9db1xebfejy/bbzPMPqx-5)
Radiance Gallery Exhibition // Nov - Dec 2012

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###Projects:

• Video Alchemy at the Radiance Art Gallery:

  • emblems of interactive divination technologies a multimedia exhibit by jason stephens

    Oct 27 - Dec 10, 2012 278 4th Street, Oakland CA Artist Reception Nov 17th 3-6pm Grand Finale: Dec 7th 6-10pm

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###TODO:

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###Related Notes:

• On VideoMancy: from Video: The New Wave part 2 of 6
  • “…the complex hardware demanded by this area gives it an aura of technological utopianism. Sometimes indeed it aspires to a mysticism more often encountered in the drug culture than in the precincts of high-technology. While its much publicized potential is there, it has rarely been fulfilled; its critics call it moving wall paper; its partisans see in it, signs of a universal language.” Video: The New Wave | Part 2 of 6 – YouTube.
• On computer generated divination: from the essay: Theory of divination
  • Depending on the details of one's interpretation of synchronicity, it may or may not be appropriate to use automatic random oracles under a synchronistic interpretation. These are computer programs which shuffle the computerized cards or roll the digital dice themselves, with no opportunity for human intervention or for actual randomness. Shuffling a physical deck of cards is a good approximation to a truly random process, because shuffling involves millions of variables few of whose values are known. Computers don't generate truly random numbers; they start with a "seed" number and perform complicated arithmetic transformations which turn it into another number, which becomes the seed for the next pass. The pseudo-random numbers generated by deterministic computer programs are not a good approximation to true randomness. If your idea of synchronicity implies non-determinism through a chaotic process like shuffling, then automatic oracles are not for you. If your idea is a more all-embracing mystical notion, then complete automation should make no difference. However, automatic oracles tend to be excessively distancing; the diviner does not feel involved in the process. For that reason, Tarot software should require manual influences on the fall of cards, much like physical shuffling. The user could, for instance, decide where to cut the deck, and the two stacks can then be riffled together. This brings the user into the process, and it should be compatible with any positive theory of divination.
• On the MAGICAL ALPHABET [Pattern Language] of Dviniation: from the essay: Theory of divination
  • Divination delivers information from some source to the conscious mind. To accomplish this, any oracle must communicate in some more or less intelligible language. Looked at another way, any systematic oracle is a language in itself. By various combinations of the symbols of this language, all manner of things may be communicated. This sort of language, such as the language of the Tarot or the Kabala, is sometimes referred to as a magical alphabet. That a magical alphabet is invariably vague is its chief objection among skeptics. The argument is that since the symbols of various oracles are so diffuse, there is no real evidence that they communicate anything -- all the meaning is built up in the mind from the random outcome of the oracle, and various tactics of "cold reading" are used to add a layer of apparent meaning. This theory is addressed under Order from Chaos. The symbols of a magical alphabet are worthy subjects for meditation. Aleister Crowley held that reading Tarot cards in oracles is a lower method than simple meditation on their meaning. R. G. H. Siu said the same of the I Ching, even declining to give the instructions for divination, which had to be added in a publisher's preface. However, divination may, as Crowley also suggested, be the best way to learn the alphabet.
• On the ROTA FORTUNAE from wikipedia
  • The Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortunae, is a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy referring to the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel -