. Spinning .

“Narrative structure is a sequence of events with a cause and effect relationship happening in space and time.” (credit: New Media course handout, Professors Ersinghaus, Kluba and Timmons, Tunxis CC)

Right now, it is pouring rain from a northeasterly direction into my space of the backyard.

This involves Automation–something out of my control in the space I have created, and in so doing, creating a cause (rain) and effect (running inside to close the windows on that side of the house) situation.

Variability comes into play, in that the rain was not present in a prior visual version of this space, nor is this rain seen by anyone else but me right at this moment.

Modularity would likely be the fact that this rain has come, has stopped, without affecting the rest of the space, therefore maintaining a separate identity that does not permanently affect the rest.

Numerical Representation can only be achieved by bringing in another variable, that is, a digital camera that can in effect capture the scene in numerical representation and transformed into computer graphics.

Transcoding, blending human with computer; I’m not sure I can do anything with this one.

Not sure either that I’m applying nor understanding these principles correctly, but it’s something I just wanted to get down in writing quickly. Also, credit for definitions (the correct ones) and five principles of New Media belongs to the above mentioned gentlemen involved in the course, as well as Lev Manovich’s “The Language of New Media” as referenced by them.

This is going to be a free-thought entry, as determined by broken sleep patterns that in waking moments, came as wondering and fretting. Sans benefit of Roget’s or Webster’s, herein is an evolving personal interpretation of space.

Space is a measurement, both of time (nanosecond to eternity), distance (millimeter to infinity), and substance (area, two or three dimensional—square inch, cubic inch) bounded only by the labels of segments within (time—minute, etc., distance—inch, etc.). This brief essay, as I said, is personal observation, so accuracy is not guaranteed.

While some measurements are standardized, i.e., an inch is an inch, different units of measure are often used by different people, (European scale vs. American). Throw one more kink into the theory: Perception changes the viewpoint: distance judging being one, and the more obvious which even as individuals we are at odds about within ourselves, judgement of time: Fifteen minutes before an exam is very different than fifteen minutes before our favorite TV show comes on.

Let’s start with one of my favorite spaces, my backyard. It is part of a larger space called Burlington and is included all the way up through various levels to being part of a galaxy and beyond. But let’s keep it small, to within my visual range (bordered by sight). This space also includes on one side, a small portion of my neighbor’s backyard, otherwise it is bounded by my house to my back, and by trees to my right and facing me. Thus, my neighbor’s space becomes part of my visual space, so I would assume that spaces can overlap. Birds fly into my space, as do airplanes in the upper portion that is considered as extending into the infinity of sky.

This is starting to get complicated. I’m going to stop here for now, because I’m either onto something, or it’s just simple common knowledge, or I’m making no sense at all. I suspect the latter, or last of explanations. There’s also the question of how long this event took place, how long it took to write down, versus how long it will take to read, bringing the space of time into the question and the quest.

Do I even need to waste your time (reading) and my time (thinking and typing) with any of this? After all, this is not unchartered territory. I can better use this time reading what’s been said about this by them that know, instead, and therefore learn the easy way rather than follow my own twisted path to discovery.

There now, isn’t this better than my political postings of the past couple days?

Every now and then I pick up a piece of white paper 1″ x 13″ that was handed out in our New Media class. I have since drawn a curvy inkline on one side just to make it more obvious and exciting. I have twisted it over once and brought the edges together to form the Mobius Strip, and if I’d had one of these to play with when I was a kid instead of a Barbie Doll or dropcloth to make an Indian tent, I’d probably be a philosopher or scientist today.

It’s endless. It’s endlessly fascinating. You keep your finger on one side of the strip, run it around and end up on the other side. If it were a path in life, it’s eternity while seeing both sides of the path. It’s fun, it’s inspiring, it’s irrationally rational.

It does remind me of something that bothered me for years that I finally asked someone about and received a credible answer. I’m a doodler, and one of my favorite doodles is just making an endless line that curves around and over itself many times, then meets at its starting point. Then I would color in alternating spaces–those that didn’t touch. It always came out in perfect checkerboard pattern. This bothered me. The answer supposedly is that the line actually represents a closed figure and that the crossing over each other of lines was bringing the outside into the inside or something like that.

With such complexities of life available in such simple things, who has time to create new ones? Or do new ones even exist? Most likely they are not new, just undiscovered or unanswered; or their purpose and intricacies has not yet been applied to all the aspects of life that they can be.