Quantum Computer presentation

It was announced as nothing short of a breakthrough in computing and although the developers at D-Wave Systems still need to fix some prototype issues, their version of a quantum computer that not only functions on paper is the closest I have seen so far.

Being intrigued by that topic ever since I came across the philosophical implications of quantum physics by the likes of Heisenberg and Bell, I was thrilled to find out a few years ago that you can use quantum entanglement as a method of key distribution of cryptographic systems by exploiting the phenomenon of perturbation by just observing (or, in that case, eavesdropping) a quantum system.

The quantum computer, however, is a whole different ballgame since its idea is centered around the phenomenon of superposition, most commonly known as the story of Schrödinger's cat. In a nutshell, a quantum computer yields its true power from the fact that it can calculate multiple operations simultaneously whereas any other computer based on the Von Neumann architecture (which we still use today) is based on linear calculation. This obviously means that in case the quantum computer will reach its commercial introduction, we would be able to calculate a lot of highly complex procedures a lot more efficiently and it would greatly benefit the sciences' quest for understanding the complexities of our everyday lives, such as genetic predisposition and -believe it or not- weather among thousands of other things (Do I sound too excited? Well, I am!).

Today's computers, like a Turing machine, work by manipulating bits that exist in one of two states: a 0 or a 1. Quantum computers aren't limited to two states; they encode information as quantum bits, or qubits. A qubit can be a 1 or a 0, or it can exist in a superposition that is simultaneously both 1 and 0 or somewhere in between. Qubits represent atoms that are working together to act as computer memory and a processor. Because a quantum computer can contain these multiple states simultaneously, it has the potential to be millions of times more powerful than today's most powerful supercomputers.

This superposition of qubits is what gives quantum computers their inherent parallelism. According to physicist David Deutsch, this parallelism allows a quantum computer to work on a million computations at once, while your desktop PC works on one. A 30-qubit quantum computer would equal the processing power of a conventional computer that could run at 10 teraflops (trillions of floating-point operations per second). Today's typical desktop computers run at speeds measured in gigaflops (billions of floating-point operations per second).

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Kittler at transmediale 07

Bad enough that I didn't have the opportunity to attend transmediale in Berlin for two years in a row now, but thanks to the avid documentation-frenzy of some of the attendees, the ones who weren't there and are whining about it in the same fashion as I do have the chance to get at least Friedrich Kittler's keynote speech on the last day of the conference online. Kudos to Rainer Kohlberger. Direct link to the video here. (German only, sorry...)

In his lecture, he [Kittler] presents his current research concerning theories of machine, media and music and asks for the meaning of reversibility and infinite loop-d-loop which is being re-processed, after its execution as long as this is not prevented by external influences. What power lies in the knowledge that is hidden in computers and their algorithms?

Christian Marclay at White Cube

Okay, I have to confess, I've never been to the White Cube gallery before and, what's even worse, I can't really explain why. I just guess it never happened that I was at Hoxton Square when it was open. Maybe also because there wasn't anything which interested me enough to go. Well, until now that is.

Having seen Christian Marclay's exhibition at the Barbican last year, I was intrigued by his wide range of working materials and his cunning wit and humor with which he puts his concepts into practice.

During the time when he showed at Barbican, I could see his piece Video Quartet (2002) and some time later again at Tate Modern.

Crossfire (2007) is his most recent video-piece and kind of a different interpretation of Video Quartet. Rather than having four screens in one row which seem to interact with each other, you now have 4 screens facing opposite to each other and the audience is virtually caught in the crossfire itself. On the screen you can see various clip samples from action movies, some of them famous, some of them not which all entail some sort of shooting. The piece itself is well orchestrated, as is everything else by Marclay, really, and goes from silent preparation to an ever intensifying gun-battle which, after its climax, slowly comes to rest.
The first analogy that comes to mind is that of sexual intercourse, at least by the intensity curve described above. And since sex and violence intermingle with each other psychologically in various forms of desire and the cinematic silver screen is one symbolic embodiment of that desire, it all kinda made sense to me in the end.
After all, what I like best about Marclay's pieces is that you can think about them for hours or not at all, but you will understand them immediately. So I might just leave it at that for now. Enjoy.




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Kinetica once more

Kinetica put on a new show since I last was there. This time, it's about "Visionaries & Luminaries", so all the works exhibited have something to do with light or its absence.

One of the works that struck me both with its simplicity and effect was Jim Campbell's picture of moving shadows.


As you can see, the method is achieved via an LED panel superimposed on a photograph, but the effect is stunning since the matrix of the panel can be addressed dynamically. The shadows look very convincing and vary in size, shape and movement.

There were also some pieces experimenting with fluorescent surfaces like this "lamp-shade" here:



The picture below is of a camera-obscura-style piece which works with strobe light. It's hard to document it with a single frame, so in case you like it, make sure to check it out for yourself.



Some more images below...










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RCA Interaction Design Interim Show

Last weekend I went to the RCA Interactive Design show which displayed several works in progress. Having attended the last two consecutive graduate shows which were held annually, I was curious to get a glimpse on future gadgets and conceptual ideas.

Among the works which really interested me was "Flat Future" by Miquel Mora which showed practical applications for super-thin microprocessors applied on tape to suit various everyday purposes. Whether it's labeling fruit, attaching speakers to a book you read at the moment or taking exact measurement via "smart tape", the possibilities are endless.



I was aware that Siemens are currently doing active research in the field of super-thin displays. The above project seems like the logical progression. While I would suspect that a lot of marketing experts would only deem these displays to have advertising on them all the time, Flat Future shows luckily enough that it doesn't at all end there.

The guys over at we make money not art also have a post about the whole show, for those among you who would like to check it out....

Next up was an Origami remote control. Nice one. Although I loved to play with the folded object which served as a model for the remote control, I wasn't able to fold one myself back in the day when I was a kid, as I focused more towards the perfection of the paper plane per se.



However, it is yet another example that new and exciting innovation with electronic media does not need to stem from more powerful hardware, as more hardware usually means that more things can break, lag or freeze, it is also more complicated. In the wake of Nintendo being the rejoicing third party while Sony and M$ are engaging in a console (and DRM) arms-race, this remote control not only shows that simple and effective is the right way to begin with, it might even have commercial success one day...

I also liked the emotoscope which gives you a vintage super-8 feeling while looking through it, along with the flickering and the sound.



Some more images of other projects below.












Pictures in this post are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland License.