Interface 1 out of "Hellboy"

Interface 1 out of "Hellboy"
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Interface 1 out of "Hellboy", directed by Guillermo Del Torro, 2004. Revolution Studios Distribution Company L.L.C. At the bureau for paranomal research & defense, Newark, NJ. Part of the g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006, also part of a new collection / research on (computer) interfaces in films.

Interface 2 out of "Hellboy"

Interface 2 out of "Hellboy"
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Interface 2 out of "Hellboy", directed by Guillermo Del Torro, 2004. Revolution Studios Distribution Company L.L.C. At the bureau for paranomal research & defense, Newark, NJ. Part of the g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006, also part of a new collection / research on (computer) interfaces in films.

Interface out of "Hellboy"

Interface out of "Hellboy"
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Interface out of "Hellboy", directed by Guillermo Del Torro, 2004. Revolution Studios Distribution Company L.L.C. The search of an ancient documents location - an ancient document intepreter?. part of the g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006, also part of a new collection / research on (computer) interfaces in films.

Alberto Savinio

Alberto Savinio
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Alberto Savinio

Alberto Savinio
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Alberto Savinio, Mein Privates Lexikon. Aus dem Italienischen von Christine Wolter und Karin Fleischanerl, Hrsg. Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Die andere Bibliothek, Eichborn Verlag Frakfurt am Main, 2005. "Ich bin so unzufrieden mit den Enzyklopaedien dass ich mir diese hier fuer meinen persoenlichen Gebrauch geschrieben habe..."

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

J. Edgar Hoover, The Man and the Secrets by Curt Gentry, 1999. Portrait of J. Edgar Hoover - director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 - 1972. Research material on the legend of John Edgar Hoover for the current project: g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006).

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

J. Edgar Hoover, The Man and the Secrets by Curt Gentry, 1999. Portrait of J. Edgar Hoover - director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 - 1972. Among many books i have scrolled through on J. Edgar Hoover; the most interesting, extensive and might; - controversial book on the darker side of american politics. Research material on the legend of John Edgar Hoover for the current project: g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006).

Too Good to be True - Urban Legends

Too Good to be True
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Too Good to be True, Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand. Also research material on the "Alligator in the Sewer" legend for the current project: g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006).

Too Good to be True - Urban Legends

Too Good to be True
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Too Good to be True, Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand. Also research material on the "Alligator in the Sewer" legend for the current project: g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006).

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The Vanishing Hitchhiker
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Folklore scholar Jan Harold Brunvand assembles the best-known urban legends. The book includes legends as: "Roadside Ghosts", "The vanishing Hitchhiker", "The Killer in the Backseat", and "Alligator in the Sewer". The book is a culmination of twenty years of collection and research." Research material on the "Alligator in the Sewer" legend for the current project: g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, 2006).

Vier Versuche zu Aby Warburg

Vier Versuche zu Aby Warburg
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Seit langem gilt der Kunsthistoriker und Kulturwissenschaftler Aby M. Warburg als einer der bedeutensten Anreger saemtlicher Geisteswissenschaften, von der Historie bis zu Literaturwissenschaften und Philologie. Die Texte dieses Bandes ruecken seine Forschungen und Schriften in ein neues Licht. Anknuepfend an Ernst. H. Combrichs "intellektuelle Biographie" des Gelehrten zeigen sie Warburg als einzigartiges Verdichtungs- und Ausstrahlungsphaenomen: Kind seiner Zeit, ihrer Ideen und ihres Geschmacks, gelangt er doch zu Fragestellungen und Perspektiven von hoechster Orginalitaet und Aktualitaet. In Raulffs " Vier Versuchen" begegnet uns Aby Warburg als ein vielfaeltig von den Autoren und geistigen Stroemungen seiner Zeit Angeregter, der seinerseits zum fruchtbaren Anreger wird, und von dessen Intuitionen und Erkundungen wir bis heute zehren." hrsg.

Shark Submarine

Shark Submarine
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Shark (SS-08), right at the Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines, prior to World War I. Copyright: U.S. Naval Historical Center. Photograph NH 78670

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to main character Philo Dufresne and his submarine "Yabba-Dabba-Doo". g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Shark Submarine

Shark Submarine
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Shark submarines. (SS-08), and Porpoise (SS-07) on board the collier Caesar (AC-16) for transportation to the Philippine Islands, April 1908. Halftone reproduction, published in the book "Army & Navy", page 753. Copyright: U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph NH 42644.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to main character Philo Dufresne and his submarine "Yabba-Dabba-Doo". g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Street Sharks

street sharks
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Street Sharks was an animated cartoon about crime-fighting half-man/half-sharks produced by DiC Entertainment from 1992 to 1996. Like a number of children's cartoons, it was created to promote an existing toy line of the same name, created by toy maven David Siegel. An alternate version was produced in 1994, this altered many of the original characters and locations and added some new faces. This version only aired for a single season before being cancelled. In the first episode, a university professor named Dr. Paradigm tested his gene-manipulation techniques on Dr. Bolton, a fellow professor, who became an inhuman monstrosity and escaped. Paradigm later kidnapped Bolton's four sons - John, Bobby, Coop and Clint - to transform them into sharks. The brothers planned to capture Paradigm so that they could force him to return them to their human selves and expose Paradigm's genetic experiments. In subsequent episodes, Paradigm began to convince the residents of Fission City that the Street Sharks (as they became known) were vicious, deadly killers who were mutated by their father, Dr. Bolton. The brothers teamed up every episode to stop Paradigm and his deadly Seaviates from transforming the citizens of Fission City into mutants with no free will. One of the characters' favourite catchphrases was "Jawsome".

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to main character Meisterbrau. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Lincoln in Hall of Presidents

lincoln robot
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

The Hall Of Presidents is one of the attractions in the Magic Kingdom area of Walt Disney World, Florida. The attraction has been in existence ever since the park opened in 1971. It offers visitors a brief history of the United States from the writing of the Constitution, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the American Civil War. The show features a 20 minute film followed by a roll call announcement of all United States Presidents. The most unique aspect of this exhibit is a life like robot of Abraham Lincoln that rises to give an oration made up of Lincoln's actual words. Character actor Royal Dano supplied the voice of the 16th President. The original program remained unchanged for 22 years until 1993 when Columbia history professor Eric Foner persuaded Disney that a new one was needed. He completely rewrote the script to focus more on slavery in America and race relations. He also rewrote Lincoln's speech and added an additional one featuring a talking robot of President Bill Clinton. The new presentation were criticized, it was called too politcally correct and greatly inferior to the old one.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to characters as Robots and G.A.S., the main Artificial Intelligence produced by the Disney Cooperation. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Spacemonkeys Mission Jupiter 1958

mission jupiter
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

The PGM-19 Jupiter was an intermediate-range ballistic missile of the United States Air Force. It was a liquid-fueled (LOX and RP-1) rocket, with one engine producing 66 kN of thrust. Jupiter was America's second IRBM design, the first being Thor. Jupiter later served as a space launch vehicle. In September 1955, Dr. Wernher von Braun, briefing the Secretary of Defense on long range missiles pointed out that a 1,500 mi (2,400 km) missile was a logical extension of the Redstone. In December 1955, the U.S. Secretaries of the Army and Navy announced a dual Army and Navy program to create a land and sea based IRBM. Because of naval basing, the Jupiter IRBM was designed as a short squat missile to ease handling aboard ships. The Navy withdrew from the project in November 1956 in favor of the solid fuel Polaris missile. Despite the withdrawal of the Navy from the project, the Jupiter IRBM retained its short squat dimensions. As a result, the Jupiter was too wide to be carried aboard contemporary cargo aircraft.

Later in November 1956, the Department of Defense assigned all land based long range missiles to the U. S. Air Force. The U. S. Army retained battlefield missiles with a range of 200 miles (320 km) or less. The Jupiter IRBM program was transferred to the U. S. Air Force. The Air Force already had its own IRBM, the Thor. The Air Force always looked on the Jupiter IRBM as "not invented here". There is some name confusion with another U.S. Army rocket was called the Jupiter-C. The Jupiter-C is a modified Redstone missile. Redstone missiles were modified by lengthing the fuel tanks and placing small solid fueled upper stages on them. These Jupiter-C rockets were used to perform reentry nose cone test flights and to launch the Americas' early Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 satellites. Jupiter-C rockets were also called Juno or Juno I rockets. See diagram at lower right showing a Redstone, Jupiter-C, Mercury-Redstone and Jupiter IRBM missile. The Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets were manufactured by using a single Jupiter IRBM rocket propellant tank, in combination with eight Redstone rocket propellant tanks clustered around it, to form a powerful first stage launch vehicle. The Jupiter IRBM was also modified by adding upper stages, in the form of clustered Sergent rockets, to create a satellite/space probe launch vehicle. This modified Jupiter IRBM was called the Juno-II.

Jupiter IRBM missiles were used in a series of suborbital biological test fights. On December 13, 1958, Jupiter IRBM AM-13 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a U.S. Navy trained South American squirrel monkey named "Gordo" onboard. The nose cone recovery parachute failed to operate and "Gordo" did not survive the flight. Telemetry data sent back during the flight showed that the monkey survived the 10 g (10 m/s2) of launch, 8 minutes of weightlessness and 40 g (390 m/s2) of reentry at 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s). The nose cone sank 1,302 nautical miles (2,411 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral and was not recovered. Another biological flight was launched on May 28, 1959. Aboard Jupiter IRBM AM-18, were a 7 pound (3.2 kg) American born rhesus monkey, "Able" and an 11 ounce (310 g) South American squirrel monkey, "Baker". The monkeys rode in the nose cone of the missile to an altitude of 360 miles (579 km) and a distance of 1,700 miles (2,700 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral, Florida. They withstood accelerations 38 times the normal pull of gravity and were weightless for about 9 minutes. A top speed of 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s) was reached during their 16 minute flight. After Splashdown the Jupiter nosecone carrying Able and Baker was recovered by the sea going tug, USS Kiowa ATF-72. The monkeys survived the flight in good condition. "Able" died four days after the flight, from a reaction to the anesthesia, while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. "Baker" died on November 29, 1984 at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Gordo, Able and Baker were just three of many monkeys sent into space.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to the character Borneo Bill. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

John Edgar Hoover

edgar hoover
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 - May 2, 1972) was the founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its present form and its director from May 10, 1924 until his death in 1972. Hoover was appointed acting director of the FBI by President Coolidge to reform and clean up the bureau, which was considered a haven for corruption. During his tenure, Hoover attained extraordinary power and unusual discretionary authority, while also feuding with many adversaries. Various accusations have since surfaced: that Hoover had links to the Mafia, that he gathered information for the purposes of blackmail, that he was virulently racist and dedicated to undermining the civil rights movement. To date, J. Edgar Hoover is the longest-serving leader of an executive branch agency in the United States, having served under a record eight presidents, from Calvin Coolidge to Richard Nixon. Hoover is credited with creating an effective law enforcement organization, but has frequently been accused of exceeding and abusing his authority in blackmailing notable public figures and engaging in unwarranted political persecution.

John Edgar Hoover references in fiction:
1. The character of J. Gander Hooter in Disney's animated television series Darkwing Duck is inspired by Hoover.
2. Hoover is featured in the television series Red Dwarf as in an alternate timeline, assuming the office of President of the United States when the heroes of the show accidentally kill Lee Harvey Oswald before he can assassinate President John F. Kennedy. In the end, the previous timeline is restored, and history reverted to its previous state.
3. Hoover is a prominent character in James Ellroy's novels American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand.
4. In the 1971 movie Bananas by Woody Allen, Hoover was played by an African American woman.
5. In the 1997 novel Underworld by Don Delillo, insight into Tolson and Hoover's personal life is featured.
6. In the 1997 film Gattaca, FBI agents are referred to as Hoovers and J. Edgars. Hoover also references the vacuum cleaners they use to find traces of DNA.
7. In the 2005 video game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Hoover is depicted as leading the raid on the fictional port city of Innsmouth, personally leading agents and the player into the Marsh Gold Refinery.
8. Hoover appears as a major character in the second book, Designated Targets, of John Birmingham's alternate history series Axis of Time. His rumoured homosexuality and mafia links are emphasised.
9. In the 1992 film Chaplin, Hoover is shown hounding Chaplin continuously as a result of his false belief that the actor is a member of the Communist Party.
10. Hoover plays an important role in the movie Nixon.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Based on character John Edgar Hoover. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Donald Trump

donald trump
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946 in Queens, New York) is a business executive, founder and CEO of Trump Organization of the USA, mainly involved in the premium American real estate segment. Trump is of German and Scottish ancestry. He has recently enjoyed a great deal of publicity following the success of his reality television show, The Apprentice.

Donald Trump was initially known for his name and its association to a lifestyle and several buildings, bearing his name, which he has developed on Manhattan. He is popularly known by his nickname "The Donald", given to him by ex-wife Ivana Trump. He is also known as "A Schoolboy's Dream" and "A Competitor's Challenge," partly for his self-styled definition of a prolific American business executive. Due to his outspokenness and media exposure, he is an easily recognizable public figure whose distinctive comb over is the subject of humor by comedians David Letterman and Regis Philbin. Starting with the renovation of the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt, he continued on with Trump Tower and several other residential projects. He would later expand into the airline industry and Atlantic City casino business. Much of news about him in the early 1990's involved his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples and the resulting divorce from his first wife Ivana Trump. The late 1990's saw resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001 he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations complex. That same year, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump also has an undisclosed stake in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use ( hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. He remains a major figure in the field of casino/hotels in the United States and has become famous on American television for his role on the reality show The Apprentice.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to main character Harry Gant. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Teddy May

teddy may
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

Sewer alligator stories are part of an urban legend that date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s. They are based upon reports of alligator sightings in rather unorthodox locations, in particular New York City. The urban legend may have originated in the Byzantine Empire. Crocodiles were thought to have dwelled in the city sewers of Constantinople. It was not until February of 1935 that a large alligator was reported in a New York City sewer. According to the story, printed in the New York Times, several teenage boys were disposing of snow into a manhole when they spotted an alligator, allegedly 2.1 m long, that had gotten stuck in icy water. The male youth then dragged the trapped reptile to the surface. After the alligator snapped at one of them, the teenagers beat it to death with their snow shovels. That same year reports were given to the city's Superintendent of Sewers, Teddy May, that swarms of alligators were thriving beneath the city. May, convinced that the men filing the reports were drinking on the job, took the suggested sightings lightly. It was not until he found that there was no real drinking of alcoholic beverages taking place in the sewer that he followed up the claims. To his shock, he witnessed a large number of alligators, most only about 61 cm, to be living in pipes that emptied into the trunk lines below major streets. Following the reports of sewer alligators in the 1930s, the story has built up over the decades and become more of an urban legend. Many have even questioned the extent of truth in the original stories, some even suggesting it to be fiction and that Teddy May's creative mind may have contributed to the tales. However, the story of the 'Sewer Gator' in New York City is well known and various versions have been told.

(Cultural reference out of the book "G.A.S.". Related to main character Joan Fine. g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Sewer Gas & Electric by Matt Ruff

sewer gas & electric by matt ruff
Originally uploaded by Sigorski.

g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary and database research project based on the cultural references of the book "Sewer Gas & Electric" "The Public Works Trilogy" by Matt Ruff, 1997.

The project is proposed and chosen within the framework of the 2006 Programs Theme "Media and the Chronology of Stagnation" of the ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. "Media and the Chronology of Stagnation". is initiated by the Graduate Research Program on "Media Historiographies", at the universities of Weimar, Erfurt and Jena. This projects' research goal are the question on: how is a history of media as such possible and in what way do media and media techniques provide the conditions of their own historiography as well as reflections on the last few years debates about how the media stage and enact historical events and how various media encode historical situations and processes. The G.A.S. project will be focused on a new documentary / database / encyclopedia called based on the references and main characters of the comic-, science fiction novel: "Sewer, Gas & Electric" "The Public Works Trilogy" by Matt Ruff, 1997. This documentary /database looks deeper into the main characters' (hi)stories and makes its own assumptions and new fragmentary combinations of the novel. The documentary is based on following main items: Donald Trump, real estate tycoon / millionaire and his buildings; other real estate millionaires and their buildings; Ayn Rand and her pop philosophy and novels of the "heroic man"; John Edgar Hoover former FBI president; Walt Disney; the history of the submarine; US Media giants; broadcast stations and newspapers; urban legends of the sewer in New York and the correlations between these items. The database will be constructed and organized based on the same main principles as the as we may think database and also stored in the same management software, but this database will have a different textuality due to the different fabric of the main source. In this work I want to work out a slightly different approach as to figure out diverse modularities and aesthetic possibilities within the frame of the medium "database" and "hypermedia".

(Note, g.a.s. (sewer gas & electric) documentary / database research project, ACC Weimar Galerie, Weimar, Germany. February - Mai 2006)

Tyro Farrago File

Note 1 Hypertext & Hypermedia

The term "hypertext" has been used, over the last 30 years, to describe an extension to the traditional form of "flat" or linear text. For example, a book can be described as being linear because it is usually read from the beginning to the end. Recent developments in computer systems, however, have allowed programmers to develop new ways in which traditional text can be viewed. This type of text is called nonlinear text or hypertext because the path through the document can branch-off to other documents via these references. Three of the main contributors to the area of hypertext were Vannevar Bush, Douglas Engelbart and Theodore Nelson.

1.
Bush's Memex system. In 1945 Vannevar Bush predicted a rapid growth in the amount of scientific literature and the need to create a way in which this large body of information should be browsed. In his article, see Bush, Bush describes how the human mind works by associating related pieces of information. He applied this concept to a machine, called the Memex, which allowed the user to tie two relevant pieces of information, from two separate documents, together. This idea of association is credited as being the first attempt to describe hypertext.

2.
Engelbart's oN Line System (NLS/Augment). In 1963, Engelbart described a computer system that would augment man's intellect, by allowing the user to interact with the system using special cooperative devices. As a result the amount of information that a user could manipulate and understand would steadily increase, effectively "amplifying" the native intelligence of the user. The NLS system was implemented five years later at the Stanford Research Institute. It allowed users to create any number of links between elements within a document and between the documents themselves.

3.
Nelson's Xanadu System. During the development of the NLS, Ted Nelson was also developing his own ideas about augmentation. Nelson's system would only allow the storage of documents in their original format and any modifications made to these documents, e.g. a different paragraph etc. By using links between these modifications and the original documents, previous versions could be easily reconstructed. New links could easily be created between different bodies of text and therefore new pathways could be formed through the material. It was from this system of linking large bodies of text together that Ted Nelson created the term "hypertext".

The term hypermedia can be described as an extension to hypertext. Hypertext systems allow users to author, edit and follow links between different bodies of text. Hypermedia systems, however, are similar to hypertext systems, except that the user can use other forms of media as well. For example, the authoring of links between an audio file and a body of text.

(Note 1 Hypertext & Hypermedia is a series of Notes of the "Tyro Farrago File" i have started based on many "explainatorial sessions" and disputes. The "Tyro Farrgao File" is a document which collects notes to explain and describes certain background information and interests in my work - based on the realization that still a majority of people are fairly unfamiliar with common technics, their history and concepts.)