the world's largest "robotic hospital" -- where medical students practice on everything from delivering a baby from a robotic dummy to injecting the arm of a plastic toddler. The robots are dummies complete with mechanical organs, synthetic blood and mechanical breathing systems.

El "hospital robótica" más grande del mundo -- donde estudiantes de la medicina practican en todo de entregar a un bebé de un objeto ficticio robótica a inyectar el brazo de un pequeñín plástico. Los robots son objetos ficticios completan con órganos mecánicos, sangre sintética y respirar mecánico sistemas

The "robotic hospital" larger of the world -- where students of the medicine practice in all to deliver to a baby of a robotic fictitious object to inject the arm of a pequeñín plastic. The robots are fictitious objects complete with mechanical organs, synthetic blood and to breathe mechanic systems

9/26/2005 10:46:00 AM|W|P|Mr. Romance|W|P|Two text items. One old, one new. This article from Salon's archive discusses recombinant music as the "the only outlaw sound left". It also directs us to the recombinant materials available through Detritus.net, which is sure to be one of our new favorite spots on the net. And this article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine posits the snake-oil salesman and the medicine show as appropriate models for the fake science behind today's the new trend of drinkable beauty aids. As both a historical correlative and an aesthetic theme, this may deserve some extended attention.|W|P|112774837931968009|W|P|Food For Thought|W|P|romance@recombinanthumandragon.com9/25/2005 02:03:00 PM|W|P|Mr. Romance|W|P|Here are a few pictures I took of the TV screen while watching a movie. The task of producing such images subjects the art-commodity (the rented movie) to several processes which disarm its commercial payload. On the most basic level, these images short-circuit the temporal aspect of video. What was once a moving image, a seamless depiction of narrative, is now a series of static images. The action that occurs between the frames must be (re)imagined. What's more, the mechanics of the camera require that the aperature remain open for a certain amount of time in order to process an intelligible image. In a darkened room, where the television screen is the only light source to speak of, that time is much longer than 1/24 of a second, the period which a single video frame remains on the screen. As such, motion on the screen is compressed in way that sometimes mimics the familiar motion blur from a moving subject (as in the first image), but sometimes leads to the melding of numerous shots and subjects into one another. This effect is evident in at last still. And who knows if the images are presented in the intended order. Finally, the audio portion of the medium has been completely removed, making the film's intended narrative all the more indecipherable. In effect, these stills are kidnapped from their original commercial context. In an artistic sense, they may be considered prisoners of war. How appropriate that images taken from video are often called "screen captures". You should, as usual, feel encouraged to use the materials presented here, and we would love to see any results. |W|P|112767472521562696|W|P|Captures|W|P|romance@recombinanthumandragon.com9/22/2005 01:57:00 PM|W|P|Mr. Romance|W|P|The has been a video clip circulating around the internet today portraying the emergency landing of a JetBlue airliner. The life-and-death-reality-video portion of the spectacle (as played out in television shows such as "Real TV") is fascinating and bizarre in itself, but what made me want to bring this to your attention was a CNN article which explained that:

The airliner circled Southern California for hours, crippled by a faulty landing gear, while inside its cabin 140 passengers watched their own life-and-death drama unfolding on live television.

What does it say about media culture when people aboard a failing aircraft look to television news for a live re-presentation of their predicament? Did the fact that they were on the news make the experience seem more real?|W|P|112741315183133602|W|P|Final Screening|W|P|romance@recombinanthumandragon.com9/30/2005 07:51:53 PM|W|P|Victor (from the "Recombinant"tribe)|W|P|They could see the plane from the outside, which is like watching yourself on a TV screen in an electronics store...sort of. It probably seemed more real, or perhaps "surreal," for several reasons. 1, the people inside the plane were participants in what could have been a plane crash, so the fear and tactile sensation were there. 2, they were able to see what the whole thing looked like to others watching the incident. 3, they knew millions of others were watching, so they felt like a part of the "mass consciousness" at the same time they were experiencing their own private feelings and the sights/sounds on the inside of the cabin (which nobody watching TV could see). 4, it's highly likely that more than a few of them picked up an airphone or a cell phone and called somebody they knew, saying "turn on your TV--that plane is ME," and then shared the same video experience with the person on the other end of the line, who was also then directly "connected" to somebody on that plane, in a way the average viewer was not. 5, by being the subjects of the news reporters' commentary, they experienced firsthand what it's like to be the subject of a news story (and have reporters speculate on what you're feeling and what's happening to you). They also experienced the realization that reporters get a lot of things wrong that you can only get when you become the subject of a news story. 6, as the landing approached, and the TV drama increased, the experience was probably magnified--how often does one get to listen to a play-by-play of their own life, coming from a person one has never met, describing your experience as if you were in a dramatic movie? 7, as the plane was touching down, the people on the plane probably didn't feel as alone as they might have had they been unaware that the whole world was watching. 8, instead of simply sitting in their seats and fearfully wondering what was happening to the plane, they were able to watch it happen on screen--this factor probably took away some of the fear, because they could see what it ACTUALLY looked like on screen, rather than just listening to the noise, feeling the the plane lurch and only being able to imagine what must be happening outside the cabin. 8, they could have been watching their own demise played out on international television--that would be a very strange sensation indeed.

I would not have wanted to be on that plane, but I can't help being curious about the jumble of sensations.10/03/2005 10:02:27 AM|W|P|Mr. Romance|W|P|What came to mind right away for me was your point #5. The incessant jabbering of news anchors speculating on the motivations and feeling of people involved in "the story". How odd it must seem to hear people making these inane statements about you and have no way to talk back (though in the case of these passengers, I'm sure it wasn't the first thing on their mind).

It's an interesting question - who is able to talk and who isn't when it comes to mass media.9/01/2005 11:58:00 AM|W|P|Mr. Romance|W|P|Are you a member of that virtual internet "community" known as MySpace? If so, we invite you to befriend us therein. Our profile can be found here. Also, we should presently have tracks available for listening on 15 Megs of Fame. If you're looking a this page, you've probably already heard our MP3s, but if you feel like spreading the word here or here, we would think warmly of you in our scaly, robot hearts.|W|P|112559056481378129|W|P|Web Presence, Webbed Presents|W|P|romance@recombinanthumandragon.com