monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993.
Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a system that helps deaf and hearing-challenged users communicate using video chat efficiently and at low cost over 3G networks. With video chat, they can use American Sign Language, just as they do in face-to-face conversations. Link
Going Down? 6fuc in San Francisco, USA @ Arse Elektronika 2010 October 2, 2010 In the age of data mining, a person’s sex life may contain less embarrassing details than their web search history. Does it make sense that the former is a tightly guarded secret while the latter is shared with anonymous corporations daily? … Read more
Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution–and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it–occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn’t industrialization make the whole world rich–and why did it make large parts of … Read more
Institutions progress but human beings don’t, and their capacity for cruelty and violence is infinite. A pessimistic thought, to be sure. But British philosopher Roger Scruton is rather optimistic about pessimism. Indeed, in The Uses of Pessimism he prescribes “a dose” of that very tendency as the tonic for the kind of utopian thinking indulged … Read more
Mr. Sargeant posted a nice review of monochrom #26-34… An epic at some 500 pages long, the weight and length of this volume is like a fucking telephone book. Do you remember journals / ‘zines’ such as Vague or Semiotext(e)? This has the feel of publications like that. And amongst many other pieces, it features … Read more
The field of law, as a consumer of scientific knowledge, should be of particular interest to those who study science and argue about the role of values in scientific work. In agencies and legislatures (and in administrative and committee hearings), science is used to produce or support policy decisions; “scientific” conclusions about risk or harm, … Read more