Posted in 0 comments Posted by Jenny at 9:42 PM  

Was thinking that for the presentation we could make 4 lil mesobored books with all the images collated together to not only show our individual pieces but also the artwork that the general public have created and posted via flickr and youtube.

Posted in 2 comments Posted by Maya at 10:23 PM  

Well guys.. I am starting to get sick (twas a big weekend) I have checked out most of the work that you guys have done and I must say.. very impressive!!! I love Jenny's use of the metcards and Maya's vandalism of current media!

I just have to new promote my work.. and it comes in the form of a big brother style internet channel! I will be filming, uploading and editing my status to the world for the next 5-7 days live!!!! You can tune in and watch me throughout most of the day, read what I am doing and where I am, and even see updates every 15 minutes of the location that I am in. It all goes live from monday the 26ht (tomorrow) and 2pm!

visit kabanarama.com for more information!

on a side note of the project.. I have given out roles to Ben and Maya over the weekend Maya will be taking on the role of conceptual manager. Her task will be to make sure that all the teams are meeting the concept outline clearly through difference mediums throughout the project. he ultimate job is to make sure that people are on track to what we are trying to achieve. Ben will take the role of production manager. As production manager, Ben is overseeing all aspects of the product from team to team. He will make sure that time lines and schedule's are met with ease and will help organise and arrange any public displays of art etc.

We will have a chat more about this tomorrow!

Hope we all had a good weekend, cause this week is going to be busy as all HELL!!

Enjoy! :-)

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 11:32 PM  

Now with sound :D!!!!!

Posted in 0 comments Posted by BB at 7:38 PM  

Dont have a scanner, so had to take a photo.

Entire picture is made up of one line - starts in the top-left corner, and finishes in the bottom right.
A3 paper.
Click for big version :D

Posted in 0 comments Posted by BB at 2:02 PM  

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Jenny at 12:57 PM  

Me So Bored 1155 times today!

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Maya at 9:53 AM  

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Erin at 9:20 AM  

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6HHEftX8p4c

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Erin at 9:18 AM  

Yay I've made something!



This is what I wrote on the YouTube page:

The following is a recording from about 5pm to 1230 am, a piece to express modern boredom.

Notable bits:
*Sun goes down
*Movement of blind
*I eat chips (woop woop)

Just to be a little strange, it's all flipped horizontally. Intense.

It is currently not edited at all - I will probably speed up the clock part, it drags on for a tad too long.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by BB at 1:16 AM  

"Serotonin can control your state of mind and influence levels of
boredom."

Serotonin is naturally produced in the Pineal gland (via amino acids found in bananas, pineapples, plums, turkey, milk ) which lies deep at the centre of the human brain. The average adult human possesses only 5 to 10 mg of serotonin, 90 % of which is in the intestine and the rest in blood platelets and the brain.

Of the approximately 40 million brain cells in a human brain, most are influenced either directly or indirectly by serotonin. This includes brain cells related to mood, sexual desire and function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, some social behavior and boredom.

Low serotonin levels are believed to be the cause of depression which can lead to symptoms such as anxiety, apathy, feelings of worthlessness, fatigue and boredom.

Generally speaking when you are motivated, active and enthusiastic about something you are in a constructive frame of mind that subconsciously influences your behaviors, thus making you productive (increased serotonin levels). On the other hand, if you are in a bad mood, upset or tired you generally have no or little motivation to be active thus you unintentionally have placed your self in a state of mind which ultimately affects your productivity and vigor towards engaging yourself in current or future activities (low levels of serotonin).











Diagram of serotonin molecules

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Maya at 5:32 PM  

“Mesobored is the psychological state of the mind intermediately between stimulation and apathy. It is described as an opportunity for extended creativity that any individual may utilize, yet only a limited few are able to embrace this mentality.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Maya at 4:50 PM  

Hey Team!
Great session today. Really happy we got all that nutted out and we are now well on the way to getting some really awesome work created. Me and Nick had a chat after the meeting and come up with some really great cross media ideas which I will speak about on Monday during the presentation.
Just a reminder of the jobs you need to complete over the weekend for Monday:

Aaron - Complete Information and Style Guide Booklets. Compile Timeline for all teams.
Maya - Rewrite framework and Definition of Mesobored. Outline the concept (both areas)
Erin - Begin working on video presentation. Start drafting what we need to complete for this task and present to team on monday.
Ben - Work with video team for Madison script. Research into Mesobored main documentory style (video)
Jenny - Start documentation. Ask all team leaders to get their teams to send you all their research and overview of projects. Refer to style guide from Friday (16th) for layout information.

Posted in 3 comments Posted by Aaron at 6:45 PM  

Ok,
This week already seems like its been forever, but its time to really crack down on the concept. We have the framework of what we are trying to achieve (a positive state of boredom through embracing creative natures) but we now need to really settle on the approach and a way to verify our psychological stance within the project.

We have done all the research, we have the framework.. there is just 2 more areas that we need to think about..

1) What are the origins of Mesobored or Misobored... we have 2 options here and we will talk about the positive and negative approaches the easy on thursday! but we can either take the greek (european) approach which can take us down the greek mythology path (meso) or the eastern culture from japan (miso). This is totally up to us, and WILL lead to where we are taking this project! I have told all team leaders that we will have confirmation on the pathway on thursday!.. so please start thinking about both directions and keep an open mind!!!!

2) We need to buckle down the cross media aspects of the project! I really loved the chat we had yesterday about the ways that each team was thinking.. and they WERE going beyond the box (isnt that what we are all about!?) We have to make this credible and embrace the many difference ways of life that are already out there through our media! We need to take our embracers on a journey and a way to get out there and expresses the me(i)sobored way! The video team is talking about creating many difference styles and types of videos to promote on youtube under different names and for difference events.. the web team is thinking about setting up an archive and teachings, finding and reports into the me(i)so bored way of life.. this fully gives credibility to the project and allows us to create our own path!.. the print team is exploring the ideas of introducing subtly the ideals of me(i)sobored through a simple print campaign that will lead them on a journey through sight and sounf both on and offline!!!!

Madison Woods is still alive on the web, and its time we embrace her! She now lives the me(i)sobored way of live.. these ethics and values have been installed with her from day one and she embraces every opportunity to let her creative juices flow... thats why she is constantly sharing herself to the world and therefore allows others to see her way of life!!!

We have to remember through our findings that boredom is taking on such an individual level.. everyone is bored, and everyone has been installed with me(i)sobored from the start of creation. Me(i)sobored is the term that describes the feeling of creative anxiety that each and everyone have to deal with. Its the mid point between continuing on your path within the individuals world, or going out on a tanget and thinking byond what the mind is cablable of in an ordinary state of mind. It is at its peak when creative inspirations take over.

Please have a think about this!!!!! Pease comment and tell me your thoughts! I think this is the right path to take with the meanings of why there is such thing called me(i)sobored... now its up to our team to work out how to embrace this state of mind through the implimentation of the cross media!!!... I am suggesting everyone on this team lets me know there feelings before thursday!!!!!!! And bring heaps of paper on thursday so we can start jotting down all information!

if you dont have Skype.. please download it NOW!! You are all about to start living on skype for the next 4 weeks!

Posted in 5 comments Posted by Aaron at 11:40 PM  

This image pretty much sums it up.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by BB at 12:27 AM  

Hey Concept Team
I have uploaded the presentation which will be presented tomorrow on the projector. please review and let me know your thoughts. all your sections are already added, you guys just need to complete the content.

Download the presentation here.

Cheers!

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 9:58 PM  

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Maya at 7:14 PM  

Hey Team
Sorry about the delay is trying to get all this information out to you. I am putting together the presentation for tomorrow's class, So i am just looking from the input into the 4 areas of research that we undertook for the project.

I know you all placed really awesome research notes onto the blog in the past week, so I thought we could just let the class know the research that us as a group undertook.

I have broken it all down into 4 areas.. each of you will speak about. This only has to be very short. 1-2 minutes, as every group has to talk at some point about the implementation of the project at some point.

what is bored/boredom, how can it be positive? - Ben
the psychological attitude of boredom. - Maya
boredom in the modern world. - Jenny
the state of mind of boredom.. group or individual? - Erin

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 1:50 PM  

Full article at: http://www.connectforkids.org/node/121

In medieval times, according to Spacks, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called acedia, a "dangerous form of spiritual alienation" that devalued the world and its creator. Who had time for such self-indulgence, what with plague, pestilence and the labor of survival? Acedia was considered a sin.

Then came the invention of labor-saving machinery, the valuing of the individual, and the "pursuit of happiness." Forget the sin, now we could afford the emotional state of boredom. And just in time, too. ''If life was never boring in pre-modern times,'' Professor Smacks adds, ''neither was it interesting, thrilling or exciting, in the modern sense of these words.''

At its best, boredom is the font of creativity. Just look what a little forced idleness has produced. If he hadn't been locked up, Martin Luther King would never have written "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." And O. Henry wouldn't have turned out his famous short stories if he hadn't been sent to prison for embezzlement.

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Erin at 1:20 PM  

We have just had a massive brain wave....

"Boredom takes life on a tangent which leads to unpredictability. Our lifestyle is to seek proactive stimulation...to find new situations and new experiences to be engaged. It is important to understand that the source of boredom is within your own mind, the consequences of not understanding this may lead to an individual not releasing their full creative, social and proactive potential."

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Maya at 10:32 AM  

Scientists are developing an "emotion sensor" to show if someone is finding your conversation interesting or not.
It is being developed to help people with autism, who tend to be less skilled at interacting with others. New Scientist magazine reports researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed the headset.

A camera on a pair of glasses is linked to a hand-held computer which "reads" the emotional reactions of a listener. The device uses image recognition software and emotion-reading software to decode the images. If the wearer appears not to be engaging with their listener, the software makes the computer in their hand vibrate.

Previous research by the team has shown the device could detect if someone was agreeing, disagreeing, concentrating, thinking, unsure or interested from just a few seconds of film. Previous computer programmes have only been able to detect six basic states of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and disgust....

To finish this article visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4856050.stm

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Maya at 8:24 PM  

Just a reminder that we will be having a meeting at 9:00am Tomorrow. We have lots to work out, so this could span a good couple of hours minimum.
See you all there with your research.

Posted in Labels: General 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 3:57 PM  

Information technology is the key to modern boredom. What was once a fascinating hobby for a few dozen burnt-out hippies in the Bay Area of California has clouded over the entire globe with a haze of bits and pixels. With one hand it delivers us from dull routine: the Internet can be infinitely enjoyable, a source of constant titillation, jokes, games, instant communication and other diversions. The opportunity to use the Internet in the workplace is one of the most effective means of relieving boredom ever devised. It's sometimes hard to imagine how workers ever survived without it. But technology can wield a whopping great stick as well: the same machines make it possible for bosses to scrutinise how much work you are actually doing and how much time you spending amusing yourself and planning your escape.

It's not yet clear whether the forces of stimulation and entertainment will overpower such formidable opposition, but it does seem that technology is, on the whole, duller than it used to be. For example, early personal computers were infinitely fascinating little devices. The Sinclair Spectrum was a mysterious black box studded with multicoloured, multifunctional rubber keys; it emitted novel squeaks and buzzes and the determined mind could transform its meagre computational resources into games that are still remembered fondly by people who still don't go out, nearly two decades later. And what is the modern equivalent? The Playstation - a near-featureless black or grey box with a couple of winking lights but no means of getting inside and messing around with the incredible technology within it. Enjoyment comes in pre-programmed, shrink-wrapped games packages, examples of second-division creativity intended as profitable merchandise for the latest movie. There is so much less room for tinkering or unlicensed creativity.

The Wider Effects of Boredom

What of boredom's more nefarious effects upon society and the wider world? Crime waves are often blamed on disaffected youths who claim they cannot find or think of anything else to do. Mugging, vandalism, theft and fighting may be impulsive reactions to prolonged periods of blank tedium. Drink and drugs seem the only sure way to escape boredom for a little while. Peer pressure to do all of these things can be crystallised in the taunt "you are such a boring ****".

Apathy, or applied boredom, has brought the number of voters who elect to participate in elections to record lows: could it be because politics has become as boring and predictable as the technocrats and pedants who become politicians?

Boredom has been linked to illness and depression. "[It] is the major component in what we call world underload, an unhealthy state characterized by low job demand. When you experience underload, the result is usually anxiety, which can eventually lead to illness", says Dr. Michael J. Smith, Ph.D., research psychologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati.

A recent edition of the New Scientist magazine featured an article on evidence for boredom in animals kept in inadequate conditions. For example, the confines of a zoo's enclosure have virtually nothing in common with a polar bear's natural environment. Before long, the forlorn beasts begin to exhibit repetitive behaviour. They pace up and down the concrete, tracing exactly the same steps, swooping their heads from side to side. They look very disturbed, they are portraits of frustration. Examination of captive animal brains has revealed that when certain neural pathways are damaged, stereotypical behaviour can develop. These findings have brought into question a huge body of research using live animals - it was presumed that they had no capacity for boredom and it played no part in their behaviour. Lab rats, it seems, are bored out of their tiny rodent skulls.

This hints at a deeper truth for humans - if you find yourself bored you are probably in a situation where your behaviour has been artificially restrained and your potential limited. Boredom is a biological alarm bell that you should be doing something else and if you don't, the damage may be permanent. Resolving to quit a job on these grounds is as valid as deciding to move on because of poor pay and conditions, or stress. Flight from boredom is in fact a laudable strategy upon which to build a career.

http://www.i-resign.com/uk/workinglife/viewarticle_122.asp

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Jenny at 3:53 PM  

So we all know how it feels to be bored . . . but is it easy to recognize boredom in others? Sure, people can look bored, and at the same time boredom is something we accept affects humans. But it isn't just us.

Clicky

"The reality is that many pets are subject to boredom, loneliness and separation anxiety just as children are. Although it is difficult to rationalize the destruction of property, pet owners should be careful not to anthropomorphize (to ascribe human characteristics to things not human) pet behavior. It is essential to realize that animals need mental and physical stimulation to prevent boredom and loneliness. Pets enjoy the company of their fellow pack animals to alleviate loneliness, for example, and an owners patient and compassionate help in overcoming separation anxiety is critical."

"Researchers and veterinarians are not really sure what causes separation anxiety in some pets and not in others. Lately, the theory is that some pets have experienced a traumatic separation experience and/or may be genetically predisposed to anxious behavior. Animals that are separated from their mothers too early, or have been in and out of animal shelters, appear to be prone to anxious behavior. It is easy to understand why these experiences may dispose pets to continuing anxiety about becoming separated from those to whom they have formed attachments. Pets are creatures of habit, just as humans are."

"A pet that suffers from loneliness, separation anxiety or boredom may display only one undesirable behavior. It is just as likely, however, that your pet is reacting only when you are not home. And unfortunately, this behavior is wreaking havoc on your relationship with your beloved pet. Observe your pet for signs of impending trouble as you go about your morning routine. A dog that is exhibiting signs of separation anxiety will often whimper or whine when they sense you may be preparing to leave."

Of course, this is somewhat abstract from humans, as pets will often destroy things instead of create things when they are bored.

More research to be posted later, I'm going to go take my dogs for a walk.

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by BB at 1:26 PM  

Boredom simply means that we are not interested. The situation, the way things are, is of no interest to us. We say we are bored, or most often we say, "This is boring. This is a really boring place. This is a boring movie. This is a boring talk. This is a boring book. That is a boring person"... and so on. We keep pointing out there. The quality of being boring is seen as something external. This is the first thing I would like to challenge. I disagree with this statement that the quality of being boring is something external. "There is nothing boring" is a correct statement, as is "everything is equally boring." They are both correct statements in accordance with reality. 
Boredom results from nothing other than one's own mind. There is nothing boring, but there //are// bored minds. The mind is bored. This is very important for us to appreciate and consider, otherwise we will always be saying, "This is a boring place, something is wrong with the place. This is a boring book, something is wrong with the book, let's get another one. Fix up the boring book by throwing it out and getting another, more interesting one." That is how we approach life. We treat boredom by changing the circumstances, trying to make them more interesting. We never really address the true cause or essence of the problem. 
Boredom is subjective 
To illustrate this I will relate an experience of mine. As I've sometimes mentioned, I am fascinated by science fiction. I was watching a science fiction movie on television, and I was really enthralled. The movie was so stimulating, the adrenaline was flowing and I was fully awake and alert. Then I noticed the man sitting next to me - he was dozing off! How could he possibly fall asleep? The movie was so interesting, but he was bored. That is a very interesting thing, isn't it? It shows that it is not the object that is boring, but the mind that is bored, the mind is not interested in that situation, that condition, that experience. Boredom is a very subjective experience, a very personal state. You will find that this is true of most things. You read a book and find it interesting, but someone else can't get past the first page. "It's so boring, how can you possibly read this?" 
So what is boredom? It is a subjective experience that occurs when the mind is not interested or stimulated, and doesn't like what the present contains. You want something else, you are bored. You say, "This is boring. This is not boring", but it would be more correct to say, "The mind is bored." The mind is bored because it doesn't want this situation, it wants something else, it wants to be somewhere else; it wants to have something else, to experience something else, someone else, somewhere else... 
It is very important to understand that the source of boredom is within your own mind. The consequence of not understanding this is that you will forever be trying to avoid boredom by finding new situations and new, exciting experiences. 

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Jenny at 7:59 PM  

full article visit:

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Jenny at 6:23 PM  

Boredom is a state of malaise, close to anxiety, characterized by a feeling of emptiness. Its origin is attributed to objects that the subject claims are boring, in other words, odious (inodiosus) in the etymological sense of the word.

Boredom (languor, neurasthenia) was one of the dark humors of ancient medicine (boredom was associated with the spleen, and melancholy, with the liver). It became the ailment of the era during the Romantic period, as typified by Françpois-René de Chateau-briand in René and The Genius of Christianity (part 2, book 3).

Sigmund Freud did not see boredom as a specific symptom. He noted that the idleness of young women created a state of reverie dissociated from reality and susceptible to hysteria (1895d). But he saw their lassitude as normal, since other objects cannot occupy the place of the primitive lost object, the penis (1910h). Sándor Ferenczi in "Névrose du dimanche" (1919/1974) saw a link between the development of anxiety and the absence of exterior censure associated with a need to work.

With the introduction of the notion of the withdrawal of libidinal cathexis, psychoanalysis provided significant insight into the concept of boredom. Without libidinal cathexis, one loses drive and an ability to make demands, except for a need for a change associated with a miraculous arrival of an object that would again give life to one's activities. This feeling of a loss of interest in things is, in fact, a loss of libido. Otto Fenichel assimilated boredom with a type of depersonalization in which the subject feels that he must do something but does not know what. Heinz Kohut pointed out the link between the analyst's boredom and the feeling of exclusion that the patient provokes in him by withdrawing emotionally. Ralph Greenson saw boredom as a defense against fantasy activity or as a result of one's unconscious perception of one's resistance.

The analysis of boredom reveals a kind of phobicobsessional fluctuation between withdrawal of libidinal cathexis and ardent desire driving impulsive acts that provide an outlet (Mijolla-Mellor, 1985). As with inhibition, boredom is not simply a lack of movement but a pointless stagnation, to which is added an enduring hatred of time. It is a defense against a phobic anxiety over a primary, but undifferentiated, investment in objects.

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 8:55 PM  

As per group discussion this afternoon, each of our teams is required to undertake an element of research. This research may be conducted in whatever manner that you wish. Each group has been allocated a particular research area. This information has also been placed on your teams blogs.

Information about the fundamental structure of the concept will be available tonight.

Please complete this element of research by 12:00pm on Thursday the 8th May.

Concept - Research the concept behind Boredom. What is Boredom in a psychological and philosophical way? Is Boredom just an emotion or a state of mind? Effects of Boredom on individuals as well as groups. Causes and Effects.

Posted in Labels: General 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 8:22 PM  

Being bored is the new lifestyle trend, boredom fuels creativity and we aim to celebrate and promote boredom as positive.

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 3:28 PM  

With the development of the new concept this afternoon, I thought we could start with the overall definition of boredom.

Boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods of lack of activities or when an individual is uninterested in the activities surrounding them.

But what is Positive Boredom?

What exactly is boredom and why is it considered a negative emotion? Boredom is apparently the scourge of a self-satisfied society that has reached a certain goal of financial independence, (such as in middle to upper class America). We no longer have to spend most of our waking lives struggling for our survival – this is amply taken care of in the traditional forty-hour work week (though many of us work much more...or feel like we're working much more!). Freed from a certain level of economic slavery, we have time, money, energy to spend in our pursuits of happiness and enjoyments.

But in societies such as in America, where plentifulness abounds (for some of us, at least), the endless rounds of pursuing interests, hobbies, passions, addictions, goals, plans, diversions, distractions and a whole lot of TV couch-potatoing often leads to periods of boredom and angst, an uncomfortableness that just won't let go. Somedays, nothing is satisfying or enriching – the drive for diversions is just not there and one is stuck with oneself, and that is suffering. Big time. You just can't get it up for anything, and it all seems so empty (wink, wink, nod, nod!).

So the popular conception of boredom: that it is about a lack of something, (such as fulfillment, peace, satisfaction, etc.) is misguided – it is more about the fullness of something and that is the fullness of the experience of the pains of one's own mind forms, and the inability to distract oneself from them. There is a fidgety, unsettled feeling that often characterizes boredom, a sense of wanting to bolt, to be anywhere but where one is exactly standing in the moment. So really, nothing is actually lacking; simply stated, one is full of the torture of one's own karmic patterns, in the form of mental anguish, and uncomfortable and unsettled bodily feelings, to one degree of another. (Of course, wanting to bolt out of one's life situation is not a monopoly of boredom).

Many years ago, a friend's brother did a retreat with a Buddhist group. He was instructed to meditate in a small booth/cabin that had nothing in it, save a meditation pillow. And he had to spend a long, long period of time in this structure. The instructor told him, “You're about to face what is driving you crazy”.

It can be said that the entire thrust of people's lives is precisely the avoidance of being faced with their own karmic patterns, the endless rounds of distractions brought on by a commercialized and entertainment oriented society that keeps people's attention on all sorts of pleasurable objects, be they movie stars, sports heroes, the latest high tech gadget, etc. And whether a person is an active participant in hobbies, interests, passions and diversions, or a passive TV watching observer, the underlying strategy of avoidance of one's own painful karmic burden is exactly the same. We are all burdened not only by their physical weight, but subtle weights of all kinds that often seem excruciatingly heavier than our physical burden. Simply stated, boredom is just another face of suffering, limited to a certain portion of the human population in industrialized countries for the most part (animals seemed to be spared of boredom simply by the nature of being an animal). Boredom is a reminder of the prison of self-contracted, karmic existence, and we do not want to touch that at all, the third rail of high society. And as long as there is a core belief inherent that there is a substantial self in which to be bored, boredom will surely occur, among other things!

On the other hand, boredom can be characterized by lack, and this lack is different based upon one's position in the spectrum of consciousness. For most folks, boredom arises from the lack of distractions, when one's attention is no longer entranced into concentration and identification with pleasure objects of perception (or even not so pleasurable objects, if one gets off on sadism or masochism, for example).

And that is why for many spiritual traditions, slack time is vitally important – one is given time to simply become sensitive to one's own patterns of suffering, via meditation, to confront boredom face to face by placing oneself in situations that are free from distractions. Boredom is a very large and menacing lion at the gate of spiritual progress and freedom – we all must face it, and either bolt for a box of See's Candies or sit with it until a transformation takes place. And this may take months, years, or decades, perhaps.

"31 percent of the American people wonder if heaven will be boring."
-William Shulz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

So in a sense, boredom can be an ally, a tool, and certainly a barometer of one's condition. When boredom arrives, notice what form it comes in, what exactly are the physical, mental, emotional and other subtle feelings or forms that you are labeling as boredom. Simply be aware of what arises and is imputed/assumed as boredom. But don't try to do anything about it – notice that 'it too shall pass' into some other state. It is the noticing, the awareness of it, and the non-violent stance of simply being with it, not trying to change it or transform it, that is often the most direct and powerful way of transforming it.

But done as a goal, even if successful, it is a limited form of self-manipulation, which may serve to actually empower boredom (or any other 'negative' state) and guarantee its eventual return. You can end up with an even greater fight on your hands. So if you are truly committed to spiritual growth, you will eventually see that winning little battles in order to feel good is a limited strategy – one has to take a stance just like a long-term investor in the stock market – just ride the ups and down, don't get too neurotic about it. You're in it for the long haul. Take the long-term view. Ups and downs come and go, ad-infinitum ad nauseam, and as you go along they're less of a concern, for you begin to understand that it's not about perfecting 'you' – it's (initially) about the wisdom of seeing that there is no substantial, solid and independent you to prevent from being bored or unhappy. Seeing that the propping up and perfecting of a 'you' is a folly is a doorway to freedom.

Boredom can also be defined as the inability to simply sit still, to rest at any one time – the desire to be somewhere or someone else is one way to point to a larger than life icon that is boredom. And the appearance of boredom may be considered a grace, a boon – you no longer can be trapped, entranced, identified or distracted by objective forms – it may signal the time of spiritual initiation, when you now have the opportunity to transcend your forms, and simply Be.

Boredom can be expressed in terms of the lack of native freedom, the capacity to enjoy Being, simply Being without any particulars of attribute or characteristics. Of course, this capacity does not come overnight (except for the exceptional among us). But eventually it is possible to simply be, without the necessity of distraction. And when that occurs, the scourge of boredom may be finally put to rest. Enjoyment of the nature of existence replaces the avoidance of one's patterns in existence.

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 3:25 PM  

The human mind is something that the science community always has and always will strive to understand further. Having said this, we know very little answers to the mysteries of the brain, what it is capable of, and how it works. My name is Benjamin Butler, and I represent MrF, an advanced biological research group funded under the Australian Government’s $230 million Healthy Futures fund 2007. We believe that we have discovered a breakthrough in knowledge of how brain signals work, and a gateway to nearly unlimited further discovery.

We all know that every human brain reacts differently to certain input. Whether it be how someone reacts to a different style of music, a place, or an emotion, everybody interprets the happenings in their lives differently. In the past, science has attributed this to psychology, and simply concluded that past experiences, the circumstances of upbringing and growth are what decides the personality of an individual. We at MrF stand before you today to dispel that theory.

We were originally funded by the Federal Government as one of two teams to try and develop a bionic eye. While the National ICT Australia (NICTA) Victoria Research Laboratory came up with a working prototype that sends basic signals to the brain, allowing the user to recognise basic shapes and forms, we were much more specific in our work.
We wanted perfection.
Not content to waste time with a working prototype that would garner newsworthy but shallow results, we set about figuring out how the brain interprets signals sent by the eye’s retina, with the mantra that if we could crack the code, we would be able to perfectly replicate vision for the blind.

These signals has long thought to be impossible to find, or access for study, let alone de-code. Half way through our funded timeline, we believed that we were going to fail. No matter how specific our CAT scanning equipment and techniques were, the human brain was just so mind bogglingly complex, we believed we had no way of finding and singling out the information that we wanted.

But then we had a breakthrough. Our computer science technicians had created a program that was to be used to sort all of the information our scans picked up. Working on a hunch by one of our head doctors, Dr Meredith, we managed to isolate two sets of data from two test subjects. While they seemed completely different, using the same stimuli test on the vision of the subjects produced results that were similar enough to be considered a match by our percentages based matching system.

We had potentially found the stream of signals within the brain that determined the calculation of data received from the retina of the eye. While in the past it was thought that processing streams in the brain did not have a fixed position, thus making them impossible to decode, the repetition of results proved that they were indeed fixed. But why had science come op with the theorem of jumbled positions in the first place?

Because the streams were different between subjects. On further testing on various subjects, results for the same stimuli were different for each individual. This development, while rather significant, however left us in a paradox. How were we supposed to artificially create this data to send to the brain if it was for the same image to be seen by the bionic eye different in each case? This lead to our most stunning theory - that everybody sees different things to those around them.

Let me clarify. The human eye receives patterns of light, that lets say represent reflections of light off of a box. The light is interpreted by the eye into signals to be sent to the brain. But once they get to the brain they are then processed completely differently by every individual. So the brown box I see may look, say, pink to somebody else. But that separate person sees . . . A brown box. They have grown up accepting that cardboard boxes are that particular colour, and that that particular colour happens to be called brown. If this person was to see a box that looked to them the way I have always seen them, it would appear absurd.

But what if it went even further? Every person on the planet could see completely different colour spectrums! That is, my red may be as seen to your mind a colour that doesn’t even exist to my own knowledge. The colour spectrums we know are limited by the light waves they are carried by - the only colours that can possibly exist are defined by wavelength, etc. But there is nothing that limits how the brain may decide to show these colours to an individual’s sight. If this theory is true, than everybody on the planet lives on a completely different world visually, six billion different colour spectrums, that none of us could ever see. Due to our own brain’s interpretation, we could never even imagine that they exist. But we at MrF believe that they do.

After fully coming to terms with the implications of these discoveries, we wanted to know more. The bionic eye had become the excuse for us to use the funding we had received. But we wanted to do further research - if the brain interprets something such as sight differently, does it do the same to the other senses? Do my apples taste like your apples, do my roses smell like your roses?

We decided that audio signals were a way of continuing our testing in a way that we could replicate the stimuli perfectly. We set up further testing that built on top of our sight related findings, and through a lot of hard work eventually isolated the nerve centre of the brain responsible for the processing sound signals sent from the ear drum. Lo and behold, we very quickly deduced the same results for this sector of the brain as for the vision.

At this stage, after countless hours of study, calculations and testing, we had hit a wall in our research. We had deduced that every individual human being lives in a completely different world. There was not one person who saw what you saw, heard what you heard. The implications and possibilities that branched off of this were phenomenal. But having said that, would we ever be able to explore this any further? We could prove it existed, but each brain is not capable of accessing or even imagining the data that another would. We felt as though each person was trapped within their own set of sense-related rules.

At this stage of our research, the project was unexpectedly shut down. NICTA Victoria Research Laboratory had created their glitzy prototype, and it was hailed as a breakthrough on the world’s scientific scene. So why did we not expose our findings?

The government had funded two teams for one reason; they wanted results regarding a bionic eye. Theories that would require years more money and work to find information on an impossible sounding concept that would win them no votes was considered not important, and we were shut down. In the creation of the project terms, we had signed large waivers that gave the minister responsible for regulation of the project full rights to the information that was found. With these full rights came full choice of what was to happen with the information.

Under jurisdiction from a higher minister, it was deemed not only a waste of resources, but we were slammed with the threat that exposure of the information to anybody other that the particular politician had become illegal. We were left with a bombshell, one of the most amazing scientific discoveries of the century, but we couldn’t tell anybody because it wouldn’t win votes for the federal party like a bionic eye would.

However, we seeked legal advice. After reviewing the documents provided, our legal team found a loophole. We weren’t allowed to advertise our findings, that we had worked on the project, or project information on the project in any media. But it seemed as though if people came to us, wanting information, we could give it to them, just so long as they did not specifically ask for the findings of MrF, or anything similar. We had to find a way of making people want to find out more about a subject they were told no details of to begin with.

Thus we created a public game, a set of events that would leave people coming to us for information, which we could then exploit to voice our findings. We wish to make this a rich and exciting experience for the user, as a game that only leads to scientific data would not be followed with passion by the average user. As such a mixed media journey for the user was necessary, not to mention that fact that beginning the game would be completely voluntary, as decided by the legal limits.

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 11:00 AM  

Some may think that the retina is responsible for interpreting visual stimulus such as the picture above others believe that the eye is simply a physiological process that does not actually process the signals it receives instead the job is left to the brain, for individual interpretation…
So why do humans have a sense of perception? And why is my perception different to others? I see what’s in front of me, but is it really what I see or have I just become accustomed to it through societies influence and/or my own preconceived ideas? This is what we as humans find asking ourselves on a regular basis.

The word perception means "receiving, collecting, and action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses.

Psychologists are divided between two theories on perception. Some believe that perception relies directly on the information present to the stimulus whilst others believe that the perception process are dependent on the perceivers expectations and previous knowledge as well as the information available in the stimulus itself.

These two theories are seen as Active (Gregory) and Passive (Gibson)

Active: dynamic relationship between description (in the brain) ↔ senses ↔ surrounding.

Example: Gregory believes that prior knowledge and past experience, are crucial in perception. When we look at something, we develop a perceptual hypothesis, which is based on prior knowledge. The hypotheses we develop are nearly always correct. However, on rare occasions, perceptual hypotheses can be disconfirmed by the data we perceive.

Passive: surrounding → input (senses) → processing (brain) → output (re-action).

Example: Gibson argues that there is enough information in our environment to make sense of the world in a direct way. Sensation is perception: what you see if what you get. There is no need for processing (interpretation) as the information we receive about size, shape and distance etc is sufficiently detailed for us to interact directly with the environment.

...yet we have grown accustomed to our environment and our surroundings so therefore anything that we see, hear or touch we would already have preconceived ideas about...it would be natural for the brain to associate the matter with past experiences or knowledge...would it not? But what if this wasn’t the case...And so this is what our teams aims to discover.

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 9:27 PM  

In February 2007 fans discovered that a new Nine Inch Nails tour t-shirt contained highlighted letters that spelled out the words "I am trying to believe".This phrase was registered as a website URL, and soon several related websites were also discovered in the IP range, all describing a dystopian vision of the fictional "year 0000".Digital Arts later reported that 42 Entertainment had created these websites to promote Year Zero as part of an alternate reality game. Rolling Stone described the fan involvement in this promotion as the "marketing team's dream". Reznor, however, argued that "marketing" was an inaccurate description of the game, and that it was "not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form".

Part of this promotional campaign involved USB drives that were left in concert venues for fans to find during Nine Inch Nails' 2007 European tour. Messages found on the drives and tour clothing led to additional websites and images from the game, and the early release of several unheard songs from the album.Reznor told The Guardian:

The USB drive was simply a mechanism of leaking the music and data we wanted out there. The medium of the CD is outdated and irrelevant. It's really painfully obvious what people want — DRM-free music they can do what they want with. If the greedy record industry would embrace that concept I truly think people would pay for music and consume more of it.

On February 22, 2007 a teaser trailer was released through the official Year Zero website. It featured a quick glimpse of a blue road sign that said "I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE", as well as a distorted glimpse of "The Presence" from the album cover. One frame in the teaser led fans to a URL containing the complete album cover. In March, the multitrack audio files of Year Zero's first single, "Survivalism", were released in Garageband format for fan remixing. The multitrack files for "Capital G", "My Violent Heart" and "Me, I'm Not" were released on April 26; "The Beginning of the End", "Vessel" and "God Given" were released on June 12.Initially formatted for Garageband and Logic Pro, WAV files for other applications were later distributed through BitTorrent.In response to an early leak of the album, the entire album became available for streaming on Nine Inch Nails' MySpace page on April 10.

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 3:12 PM  

In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment promoted the return of Chris Jericho with a viral marketing campaign using 15-second cryptic binary code videos. The videos contained hidden messages and biblical links related to Jericho, although speculation existed throughout WWE fans over who the campaign targeted. The text "Save Us" and "2nd Coming" were most prominent in the videos. The campaign spread throughout the internet with numerous websites, though no longer operational, featuring hidden messages and biblical links to further hint at Jericho's return.

Posted in Labels: Research 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 3:09 PM  

Another sneak peak at our concept.

At this stage, after countless hours of study, calculations and testing, we had hit a wall in our research. We had deduced that every individual human being lives in a completely different world. There was not one person who saw what you saw, heard what you heard. The implications and possibilities that branched off of this were phenomenal. But having said that, would we ever be able to explore this any further?

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 2:51 PM  

The basis of this upcoming project is to create an alternative reality, in either the form of a game or a fictional narrative.... or maybe both?
Getting your head around the concept of a ARG is not an easy task. To just understand the backstory some times takes hours and hours of playing these so called games. For some, these games control their lives, as they seek to ultimately find the answers to all the questions that the puppet master is providing.

I thought I would give you a rundown on what is a ARG and some basic examples that have existed out there in the real world.

So, what is a ARG?

An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

The form is typified by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants' responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium.

ARGs are growing in popularity, with new games appearing regularly and an increasing amount of experimentation with new models and subgenres. They tend to be free to play, with costs absorbed either through supporting products (e.g. collectible puzzle cards fund Perplex City) or through promotional relationships with existing products (e.g. I love bees was a promotion for Halo 2, Iris promoted the release of Halo 3 and the Lost Experience promoted the television show Lost). However, pay-to-play models are not unheard of.

ARGs are now being recognized by the mainstream entertainment world: The Fallen Alternate Reality game was recently awarded a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement for an Interactive Television Program.

Some great Xbox Examples:





The most famous ARG's of our time:

• sfgate.com
• Cross promotion of 'The Blair Witch Project'
• Nokia Game
• I Love Bees
• The Beast
• Fat Cow Motel
• Cloudmakers
• Perplex City
• Cathy's Book
• World without Oil
• Tomorrow Calling
• Lonleygirl15
• Vanishing Point

and the list can go on... and on.... and on.... and on.....

About 42 Entertainment

42 Entertainment is a Pasadena-based creator of alternate reality games (ARGs) founded by Jordan Weisman in 1993. It is known for running some of the highest-expose ARGs for big name companies, such as Microsoft.

Their most famous ARGs are "The Beast", to promote the Steven Spielberg film A.I., I Love Bees to promote the Xbox game Halo 2, and Year Zero, to promote the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero. They are currently involved with the alternate reality game and viral marketing campaign for the upcoming film The Dark Knight.

Click Here to Visit Their Website

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 1:55 PM  

As the project begins the film team can work along with the print team to promote the public accessing the website. To promote the website they could create such things as projections of the website onto buildings, or possibly create advertisements to be displayed on screens, like that of the one at federation square.

When the scientific experiment commences a short film can be placed on the website as an introduction to the experiment. However throughout the experiment film can be used again to possibly provide clues on where to go next. It could also be used on the website to progressively give information to the player about our company.

To motivate the players in the experiment the films could cut short, and then say Collect new code, to see what happens next


Throughout the experiment company members could also film different players, as to help with the gain of information about the experiment.

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by Aaron at 1:53 PM  

. . . by the concept team!!

Here's a sneak preview:

". . . At this stage of our research, the project was unexpectedly shut down. NICTA Victoria Research Laboratory had created their glitzy prototype, and it was hailed as a breakthrough on the world’s scientific scene. So why did we not expose our findings? . . ."

Ooh, mysterious!

Posted in Labels: Concept 0 comments Posted by BB at 3:51 PM