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fine art – PDN Photo of the Day
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(showing articles 1 to 20 of 20)
07/29/19--09:22: _A Card Deck Stacked...
08/02/19--12:39: _Looking to the Futu...
08/14/19--09:24: _Stephen Shore as Cu...
08/15/19--09:54: _South Koreans on Ho...
08/16/19--10:00: _Call and Response w...
09/09/19--09:00: _A Lyrical Ode to Am...
09/11/19--09:00: _An Anthem to the Earth
09/13/19--09:00: _Coffee, with a Spoo...
09/17/19--09:00: _The Elemental Power...
09/19/19--09:00: _Fine-tuning Your Ph...
09/26/19--09:00: _A Crucial Dose Of I...
09/27/19--09:00: _Sport As Muse
10/24/19--11:26: _Three's Not a Crowd...
10/25/19--10:47: _Little Ships in the...
12/02/19--09:01: _Duane Michals' Illu...
12/04/19--10:32: _Collage as a Radica...
12/10/19--09:00: _A Photographic Clim...
01/06/20--09:00: _Intimate (and Color...
01/10/20--09:00: _Ghostly Photographs...
01/15/20--09:00: _Between Photography...
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07/29/19--09:22: A Card Deck Stacked in Favor of Queerness
Pur·suit by Naima Green is a deck of 54 playing cards featuring queer womxn, trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people. The project, which "helps complete an image of the world that we live in," says Green on her successful Kickstarter page, is in the interest of of groups, such as those pictured on the cards, that continue to be marginalized and unseen.
The cards, she says, can be used for "games, as guides, for divination, or whatever else you dream up."
The project was conceived when Green stumbled upon Catherine Opie's Dyke Deck at the New York Public Library while doing research for her MFA thesis. Dyke Deck is a set of poker cards that playfully looks at 90s era lesbians in California. With Opie's blessing, Green "embarked on reimagining the Dyke Deck into a 2018 East Coast experience," she says.
A celebration of all queer communities, with Pur·suit Green also wanted to reflect her own queer community, comprised mostly of women of color, and how their "experiences are (or most often are not) represented."
Green, who lives in Brooklyn, feels fortunate to see queer families and partnerships on a daily basis. She acknowledges her neighborhood is an oasis from less diverse, accepting communities and hopes the cards in Pur·suit can serve as a type of refuge for all who use them. The cards also aim to act as a testimony to the existence of queer people and all the experiences, complexities, playfulness and love they embody.
Pur·suit
By Naima Green
Deck of playing cards with 54 photographs in an embossed box
3.5 x 2.5 in (8.9 x 6.4 cm)
Edition of 2,500
Eleven Books Spotlight Global LGBTQ+ Stories
Mariette Pathy Allen's Lifelong Tribute to the Courage of the Trans Community
A Pride Campaign that Features Gay Talent Behind the Camera, Too
08/02/19--12:39: Looking to the Future Inside Africa's Portrait Studios
A group exhibition tracing the legacy of studio portraiture in Africa is on view at Yossi Milo Gallery through August 23. The featured works range from the mid-20th century to the present.
Portrait photography has long claimed a central role in Africa's photographic history. By the early 1900s, European and African practitioners had established permanent studios in most West African capitals. By mid-century, the widespread cultural adoption of the medium had set the stage for the outpouring of artistic innovation that took place as many African countries gained independence in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
In African Spirits, images are on display by celebrated masters from West Africa's "golden era" of studio photography (1950s-80s), including Samuel Fosso, Seydou Keïta, J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, Malick Sidibé and Sanlé Sory. These photographers experimented with aesthetic vocabularies such props, painted backdrops and self-portraiture, to reflect the new ideas of identity emerging alongside independence.
Contemporary works in the exhibition address present-day audiences and concerns. For example, the importance of tying oneself to a global consumer culture can be observed in images by artist Hassan Hajjaj that demonstrate the international nature of popular culture, fashion and music. Queer-identified artists such as Kyle Meyer and Zanele Muholi "extend the revolutionary capacity of the photographer's studio to assert the independence, relevance and power of subjects facing harassment and persecution" states the press release.
As a whole, African Spirits highlights the ways the energies of groundbreaking forebears are revived and reinterpreted by contemporary artists. Then, as now, young generations look to a brighter future, whether by capturing their vibrant youth culture or holding power accountable.
African Spirits
Yossi Milo Gallery
Through August 23, 2019
A Riot of Color!
Changing the Narrative of African Photography
Giving Voice to a Silenced LGBTQ Community
Zanele Muholi's Memoir and Manifesto
08/14/19--09:24: Stephen Shore as Curator
Last winter Howard Greenberg Gallery contacted Stephen Shore with an unusual request: Would he be interested in curating an exhibition for the gallery that included work by his photography students at Bard College? Shore answered with a resounding, "yes," and the resulting collaboration pairs works by seven of Shore's recent graduates with photographs by renowned artists from the gallery's archives.
"Stephen Shore is a bridge connecting contemporary photography with the history of photography," said Howard Greenberg of the celebrated artist who is both an important part of contemporary photography and photo history.
Works by the Bard graduates—Jasmine Clarke, Madison Emond, Briauna Falk, Vanessa Kotovich, Jackson Siegal, Naomi Zahler, and Ying Jing Zheng—are paired with photographs by Dave Heath, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Lisette Model, Frederick Sommer, Stephen Shore, Joseph Sudek, and Minor White from Howard Greenberg Gallery's extensive holdings.
Bard X HGG
Curated by Stephen Shore
Howard Greenberg Gallery
Stephen Shore In Full
Heroes & Mentors: Stephen Shore and Gregory Crewdson
Shaping the Sofas, Birds and Knees of Photographic History in Play-Doh
08/15/19--09:54: South Koreans on Holiday
Better Days, a solo exhibition featuring work by Korean artist Seunggu Kim, looks at Korean spectacles and the way the people of South Korea enjoy their leisure time. Through photography, Kim "describes how we have acclimated to the social ironies of our times," states Filter Photo, where Kim's work is on view through September 14.
South Korea has developed rapidly over the past four decades, leading to social incongruities, such as the constant interplay between natural and unnatural elements in urban areas. Another irony of this new development is long working hours with short periods of rest and recuperation. During vacations and holidays, city dwellers spend most of their time visiting tourist destinations in nearby urban areas. As a result, the leisure places around Seoul and the surrounding suburbs try to entertain their customers with increasing degrees of novelty. This novelty often results in a blend of western and Korean cultures, which Kim highlights in his work.
Kim will give an artist talk at the closing reception on September 6th.
Seunggu Kim
August 16 – September 14
Closing Reception: September 6, 6 – 9 pm
Stories of Koreans Separated from their Loved Ones, Perhaps Forever
Existence and Identity in Korea
Only the Happy Koreans
Picturing Paradox in Korea
08/16/19--10:00: Call and Response with a 19th Century Archive
The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows (GOST Books, 2019) by Sophy Rickett is inspired by the life and work of Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn. A little-known 19th century Welsh photographer and astronomer, Dillywn Llewelyn left behind a sprawling family archive that Rickett responds to with her own photographs and texts.
Rickett's approach to the archive is thoroughly subjective. In the book, she attempts to establish links between Dillwyn Llewelyn's remote world of Victorian privilege and use of photography, and her own experience of life, work and photography, in 21st Century Britain.
The project, which consists of 41 photographic works, combines images Rickett made at locations associated with Dillwyn Llewelyn's life, studio based works, and other found images. In the text, historically accurate anecdote is combined with a strong sense of Dillwyn Llewelyn's own voice.
"Rickett develops her interest in archival practices and how the heritage industry functions, by staging certain entry points through which the past is made visible," states GOST in the press release. "Moving between photography and text, she explores the limits of these points, understanding the place where a trail goes cold – such as the denial of access, the withholding of permission – as being productive and generative in itself."
The publication of this book coincides with the exhibition Cupid and The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows, on display at the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea from September 27 – November 24, 2019.
The Curious Moaning of Kenfig Burrows
By Sophy Rickett
GOST Books
09/09/19--09:00: A Lyrical Ode to America's Heartland
Gregory Halpern has been photographing in Omaha, Nebraska for the past 15 years, steadily compiling a lyrical, if ambivalent response to the American Heartland and continuing the photographer's investigations of locations and persons that fly under the radar.
New images from this body of work will go on display at Huxley-Parlour gallery for the first time to coincide with the launch of his monograph Omaha Sketchbook, published by MACK.
Halpern's series explores notions of cognitive dissonance and unexpected harmonies, playing on a sense of simultaneous repulsion and attraction to the place. The series is ultimately a meditation on America, on the men and boys who inhabit it, and on the mechanics of aggression, inadequacy, and power.
Amanda Maddox of the J. Paul Getty Museum says this of the work: "Travelling to the nation's heartland – a vague construct increasingly synonymous with the Bible belt – Halpern continues to mine this idea of Americanness in a place bounded by prairie and steeped in pioneer history. His work in the Midwestern city of Omaha reveals America as pluralised, fragmented, and teeming with its own 'brand of hypermasculinity', as he terms it: adolescents on the cusp of promise or obscurity, land that seemingly leads to nowhere, a sense of unending time and a dark side to domesticity."
The exhibition coincides with the launch of the MACK publication, Omaha Sketchbook and follows on from his award-winning bestseller ZZYZX also published by MACK.
Halpern teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is a 2018 Magnum nominee.
— Samantha Reinders
"Omaha Sketchbook"
Huxley-Parlour Gallery, London
Published by MACK
Reflecting a Contemporary Midwest America
Capturing America's Enduring Love for the Fair
09/11/19--09:00: An Anthem to the Earth
For Doug Fogelson the photographs that make up Anthem, his solo exhibition at Klompching Gallery in New York, reflect "the altering effects that human activity has on our planet."
Anthem is the most recent installment of Doug Fogelson's extensive Chemical Alterations series. In his work the photographer raises critical – and timely – questions about humankind's relationship with the natural world by specifically combining the subject of nature, with the (de)construction of the photograph, to comment upon the human impact on the environment.
Fogelson's methodology begins with photographing biologically diverse landscapes using analog film. Back in the studio, the artist subjects the processed film to a range of common industrial chemicals—draining away and altering colors in the film's emulsion, and at times melting away the layers of dye coupler all the way to the film's plastic base. Through this destruction salt crystals, bubbles, dust, markings and patterns come to the foreground, while the original representational portions of the photograph all but disappear.
Serene compositions become inky remnants that reflect both the complex beauty of our living planet and the environmental degradation caused by human industry.
Despite the eight photographs in the exhibition being beautifully rendered abstractions, lush and bright in colour, they remind the viewer that the debate and discussion regarding the health of the environment is an increasingly urgent topic—in terms of economy, culture, politics and survival.
Doug Fogelson's (b. 1970) artworks have been shown in numerous exhibitions in the US, as well as internationally, including solo shows at the Goethe Institute in Chicago, SFO Museum and The Alpineum Produzentengalerie in Lucerne, Switzerland. His work is currently part of the official Bauhaus100 touring exhibition, Bauhaus and Photography–On New Visions in Contemporary Art. Notable collections holding his photographs include the MoCP, J. Paul Getty Museum, The Cleveland Clinic and Elmhurst Art Museum among others. The artist lives and works in Chicago.
Doug Fogelson
Klompching Gallery
Through October 11, 2019
Painterly Photographs of Finnish Woods, Inspired by Chinese Landscapes
Capturing the Shifting Colors of the Land and Mind
A Colorful Contemporary Twist on the Photogram
Chloe Sells's Search for Flamingos
09/13/19--09:00: Coffee, with a Spoonful of Nostalgia
"The New Amsterdam Koffiehuis" is a photo series about Amsterdam's last
traditional coffeehouses, of an era gone by. The photographs are hand printed with coffee from the actual coffeehouses where the photographs themselves were taken. You can smell the nostalgia and almost taste the past – not just Amsterdam's ofcourse. This phenomenon is global. Your mom and pop coffee shop is being replaced by the branded, hip, skinny-macchiato-with-a-dollop-of-foam branded store.
Before these meeting places disappear from the streets of Amsterdam, photographer Gijs van den Berg believes it's important to document them. Amsterdam used to feature many more small coffeehouses. Since the expansion of the city around 1900, Amsterdam coffeehouses have fulfilled a vital social function. Together, the owners and clientele create a warm, open atmosphere that is unique in the city. By photographing his subjects on a monumental scale, van den Berg captures an era as it passes, and creates a document for the future. He has photographed eleven coffeehouses: the authentic decor, the owners and their patrons.
The images are conventionally printed in the darkroom but instead of using regular developer Van den Berg uses a special recipe based on coffee from the actual coffeehouses. This homebrew developer (a mix of among other things: coffee, washing soda and Viatmin C, which he has dubbed cafenol) gives the photos a sepia-like tint. It also makes each print totally unique.
The work is making its way to New Amsterdam where a 20-foot container will be transformed into a temporary small Amsterdam coffeehouse during the Photoville NYC festival. Test strips at the back of the container showing the process even make the small space smell like coffee! Why "New Amsterdam" you ask? The title refers to the fact that Manhattan was once called New Amsterdam. In the 17th century it was a Dutch settlement that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. It was only in 1664 that the English took over New Amsterdam renaming it New York after the Duke of York…
Gijs van den Berg (1983) is an Amsterdam based artist. His works span a variety of media including video, photography and graphic design, depending on what fits best with the conceptual idea behind the work. His works have been exhibited at The Printspace London, Malmø Fotobienal, Format Festival, Kaunas Photography festival and others. Van den Berg is also creative director and partner of KesselsKramer, a creative agency with offices in Amsterdam, London and Los Angeles.
"The New Amsterdam Koffiehuis"
Gijs van den Berg
Photoville NYC
Through September 22, 2019
NY Perspectives: Amsterdam discovered by NY Photographers
George Tice's New Jersey Nostalgia
Picturing Vanishing Vermonters
09/17/19--09:00: The Elemental Power of Water
If you take three atoms, two hydrogen and one oxygen, and combine them, you get water. If you add a helicopter, a Hasselbad and Roger Fishman to this mix you get "Transformation: Water as Art" – one of the more striking exhibitions at this years Photoville NYC.
"Transformation: Water as Art" explores water as a symbol of our innate ability to transform our lives—and the world we live in—for the better.
Shot in Greenland and Iceland, the series shows architectural icebergs, abstract water and melting ice sheet compositions and calligraphic glaciers. This extraordinary perspective of looking straight down onto planet Earth eliminates any familiar visual context. It requires you to fully engage your imagination. The images are emotionally evocative and generate intrigue and engagement with the subject matter.
The images transport the viewer to—and perhaps transform them by—the world of water in all of its astonishing power.
PDN asked Roger Fishman a few questions about his exhibition.
PDN: What drew you to photograph water in the first place?
RF: For me water is the source of all life energy. We are created and essentially live in water for the first ten months of our lives. Our brain and heart are 70+ percent water. Our bodies 60+ percent water. Our planet is covered in about 70 percent water. Water and life are one. Yet our species treats water as a limitless commodity. So I wanted to elevate water, have us think about it differently. I wanted us to consider how we can transform ourselves and our behavior for the betterment of all life, and that of the planet.
Water simply fascinates me too. Its importance is biblical! The history of all cultures from the beginning of recorded time involve water. It is transformational in terms of its impact. It creates, sustains sculpts, and reveals… We live in water inside our mother and our society is born out of water based on its accessibility and availability. There is water where most commerce done in the world and almost all foods and products are created with it. So for me water must be prioritized.
PDN: The project is making a statement about water as art but with water being such a crucial global talking point right now, do you think that your images can also add to that discussion? Can art function in this way and if so – what are you saying?
RF: Water needs to be more then a global talking point. As fresh water is the source of all life, water must be elevated to a strategic, core and on-going topic of vital global and national interest. The underlying point of this project is to transform our own lives as water transforms in its' own creation and into different forms. My work is intended to have us understand and think about water differently…be educated about it power and importance throughout our lives and to have individuals change how they engage with water. Government policies need to treat water with the respect it demands and deserves.
PDN: These images are part of a four-part collection. Can you explain a little more?
RF: There are four forms of water that this series explores: Liquid, iceberg, ice sheet and glacier. And each form goes through its all transformational processes.
PDN: Can you tell us a little more about your process?
RF: I travel with just a pilot in Greenland. In Iceland I work with both a pilot and my colleague, Melissa Shoemaker. We fly with the door off. I prefer to shoot straight down so the visual context is abstract and requires one to feel and wonder about what they are experiencing. I shoot with a Hasselblad H6D. And the best trick I have is to make sure you are really strapped in and don't fall out when the helicopter – at your request – turns deeply and sharply!
PDN: What's next for you?
RF: More water… in its presence and absence! I will continue to expand this series in new geographies. Why the same? Because water is always moving…sculpting and revealing…so what I see in one moment becomes a memory…for that moment is constantly being transformed by its subject matter…water
"Transformation: Water as Art"
Roger Fishman
Capturing the Visual Rhythms of Industrial Spaces
Edward Burtynsky's "Industrial Abstract"
Tidal Abstractions
The Colors of Wind on WaterThe Colors of Wind on Water
A Bird's-Eye View of Louisiana's Disappearing Wetlands
09/19/19--09:00: Fine-tuning Your Photography at the Filter Photo Festival
The four-day 11th Annual Filter Photo Festival opens in Chicago today and runs through September 22, 2019.
Networking and furthering your education is the name of the game at this festival and nearly 30 photography curators, collectors, and critics from across the country will conduct over 800 portfolio reviews with aspiring artists and photographers.
Perhaps the highlight, though, are the varied photography workshops on offer. They explore everything from historical processes and creative production, to professional practices and career development by illustrious names such as Richard Renaldi, Sasha Wolf, Emma Powell, Richard Tuschman and Darren Ching.
The featured speaker is Rodrigo Valenzuela – and interesting inspired choice. Chilean photographer Valenzuela's work, at first glance, appears to that of a modernist sculptor. His works are large-scale, labor-intensive scenes, tableaux constructed of mixed media structures of paper, plaster, metal and paint. But don't be fooled — all of this is done in the ultimate service of photographs. Valenzuela constructs narratives, scenes, and stories, which point to the tensions found between the individual and communities. He utilizes autobiographical threads to inform larger universal fields of experience. Gestures of alienation and displacement are both the aesthetic and subject of much of his work. Through videos and photographs, he makes images that feel at the same time familiar yet distant, engaging the viewer in questions concerning the ways in which the formation and experience of each work is situated—how they exist in and out of place.
If that isn't enough there will be several artist talks (Cecil McDonald, Jr, Isa Leshko, Bob Thall, Louie Palu and Juan Fernandez among them), special receptions for three juried exhibitions featuring over 60 artists at Filter Space gallery, and a Portfolio Walk showcasing the work of nearly 100 emerging, mid-career, and professional photographers.
Although portfolio reviews and workshops are paid events that require advanced registration, all midday artist talks and evening programs are free and open to the public.
Filter Photo Festival
Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, Chicago
Shanghai's Photo-Focused Art Fair
Vogue Italia's First Photo Festival
Head On Photography Festival is Proudly Inclusive
The Globe Comes to Perpignan
Photoville Lands in Los Angeles
09/26/19--09:00: A Crucial Dose Of Inspiration
How does a photographic project or series evolve? How important are "style" and "genre"? What comes first—the photographs or a concept? PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice, edited and introduced by Sasha Wolf, is a collection of interviews with an incredibly wide range of photographers about their approach to making photographs and, more importantly, a sustained body of work.
The format of this book is simple – and it's an easy and rewarding read. It is structured as a Proust-like questionnaire—meant to elicit personal, truthful insights—in which photographers (Gregory Halpern, Robert Adams, Elinor Carucci, Catherine Opie, Siân Davey, Gillian Laub, Vanessa Winship, Manjari Sharma and many more) were each asked the same set of twelve questions, resulting in a typology of responses that allows for an intriguing and enlightening compare and contrast, and something you can really learn from.
Justine Kurland discusses the importance of allowing a narrative to unravel; Doug DuBois reflects on the process of growing into one's own work; Dawoud Bey evokes musicians such as Miles Davis as his inspiration for never wanting to become "my own oldies show."
In the forward to the book Wolf explains: "The deeper motivation for making this book emerges from my own past life as a filmmaker. I appreciate many of the anxieties photographers face as they begin new projects. My experiences with the artists I've worked with over the years, as a gallerist, curator, and editor, have been extremely fulfilling due in no small part to the many ways in which I can relate to their struggles and successes. I am very sympathetic to the torture of the proverbial blank page: the ways that infinite options can be the greatest source of anguish. One of the hardest things about being an artist is that there is no map to follow. You are like Lewis and Clark: you must draw your own. And that, of course, becomes a lot easier after you determine how the pencil feels most comfortable in your hand."
The questions Wolf asks were designed to provoke honest, unvarnished responses—the "truth" about each individual's unique process of making a body of work (rather than any one individual image). Examples of two such questions are: "What are the key elements that must be present for you when you are creating a body of work? (Social commentary, strong form, personal connection, photographic reference . . .)" and "Do you create with presentation in mind, be that a gallery show or a book?"
On a whole the photographer's answers are candid and honest. Because the list of photographers chosen to interview range dramatically in where they are in their careers – from solidly established practitioners across a range of genres (Dayanita Singh and Vanessa Winship, say) to slightly more emerging ones – the responses are wildly divergent, so there is something for just about every reader irrespective of where they find themselves in their career.
This book comes at a crucial time in an industry that is overwhelmed with talent, but much of that talent is struggling to make a living and many are loosing sight of the creative process in the continued hustle. It's useful to remember that there isn't one single path – just many perspectives and potential avenues for success, depending on how one personally defines that. This book can serve as much needed inspiration – especially if you're feeling a little adrift in your practice.
Sasha Wolf represents emerging and midcareer fine-art photographers as a private practice, following a decade of running Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York City.
PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice
Sasha Wolf
Fine-tuning Your Photography at the Filter Photo Festival
The Lessons and Influence of Great Photography Teachers: Joseph Rodriguez
PDN's 30 Photographers on Building a Career, and Maintaining Hope
09/27/19--09:00: Sport As Muse
A good sports photograph is often measured by its level of peak action – and with the speed that technology moves these days, and as cameras get faster and things like remote cameras more readily available, there's even more truth to this fact.
Anderson & Low's new exhibition "RITUALS – Spiritual – Physical" at Throckmorton Fine Art is something poles apart from peak action photography. In fact it makes you look at sport photography from a different angle…
The duo (Jonathan Anderson & Edwin Low), for whom sport is more of a muse, have been working together since 1990 and what you'll find here is a collection that is a greatest hits of several of their well received projects over the years. The work looks at human dreams, aspirations, hope, despair, endurance, determination and the perseverance of world-class athletes including those in the fields of gymnastics, surfing, and traditional Indian wrestling.
Included in the exhibition is their portfolio "X-PRINTS" which is drawn from their breakthrough projects and is made up of 10 platinum-palladium prints. The images include the series "Athletes", "American Athletes" and "Gymnast"s combined with early key images of the process of sport and the abstracted classical ideal of the athlete, as well as studies of the personality, iconography and physiognomy of sport.
According to the duo: "In our work we are looking at that process of training – the vocabulary and syntax that each different sport requires, the different physiognomy that each sport demands, the different mental state that each sport needs, as well as their common elements. We are also very interested in the iconography of sport, going right back to the statues of ancient Greece and Rome, and those seminal depictions of the "sporting ideal" which can be seen in some of our early platinum prints."
Anderson and Low were named the official artists for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and among other things have received complete, unrestricted, and uncensored access to work with elite Chinese Gymnasts training in Beijing. Their work resides in many public and private collections including those of MOMA, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The National Portrait Galleries of both the UK and Australia and many more.
—Samantha Reinders
RITUALS – Spiritual – Physical
Throckmorton Fine Art
Through November 16, 2019
David Burnett's Angle on the Olympics
A Seductive Look at 70s Skate Culture
Tennis, Abstracted
10/24/19--11:26: Three's Not a Crowd for Frank Ockenfels 3
The genesis of photographer Frank Ockenfels 3's creativity is "collision, collusion, and collaboration," explains the press release for the artist's new book, Volume 3 (teNeues, 2019). The images in Volume 3 follow in the footsteps of the work for which Okenfels 3 is renowned: portraiture that incorporates non-photographic elements. After being subjected to ink, collage, text, or paint, his portraits become a new form, often communicating a sense of disquiet and chaos, yet still managing to be aesthetically pleasing. As a whole Volume 3's images –– "a volatile mix of energy and imagery with dark traces" –– equal what Ockenfels 3 considers a journal reflecting his "daily encounters in the creative world."
Ockenfels 3's reconstructed images often convey something more powerful than the original image alone. With the emotions of the maker imbued in each tear, stroke and sketch, the works also provides a window into Ockenfels 3's mind and become a personal statement of how he sees the world. The dark yet vibrant images make it clear that Ockenfels 3 is not afraid to leave the imprint of his psyche on his work.
Portraits of personalities such as Spike Lee, David Bowie, and David Lynch, as well as models like Milla Jovovich, "Amanda," and "Viktoria," are molded into new objects that seem to live at the intersection of dream, fantasy and art. "The erotic, the sublime, and the violent collages are blended with portraiture that seamlessly complement each other," affirms teNeues in the release.
With the publication of Volume 3, Ockenfels 3's work has been in demand for over three decades. Don't they say good things come in threes?
By Frank Ockenfels 3
10/25/19--10:47: Little Ships in the Night
Last week, a new exhibition by the artist duo Anderson & Low opened at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Known for blending fact and fiction, their latest project, Voyages, transforms ship models owned by the Science Museum in London into evocative and ambitious images.
When the artists discovered the ships in storage, they were struck by how ghostly and dreamlike the vintage models appeared wrapped in the translucent plastic meant to protect them. Through the simple act of not removing the plastic before photographing the ships, the humble objects become vessels of exploration and otherworldly voyages. "The models," explain Anderson & Low in the artist statement, "take on magical new forms, some like legendary vessels emerging from sinister fogs to stalk and surprise an enemy, others as if lost and drifting at sea…or caught in a terrifying storm."
Indeed the plastic acts as a prism, reassembling scale and context while highlighting some details and obscuring others. The misty haze covering the historic boats "suggests the thrill and anticipation of embarking on a new adventure," muses George Eastman Museum in the press release. Looking at the images, legends of ancient mariners come to mind; it's not difficult to conjure the feel of wet fog against ruddy cheeks and the haunting ring of buoy bells in the harbor.
Voyages also includes images selected by Anderson & Low from the Eastman Museum Collection that resonate with their work. In the artists' words, the common theme binding all the photographs on display is that, "Making true voyages of discovery does not mean seeking new landscapes, but using one's own imagination to view the world through new eyes."
By Anderson & Low
George Eastman Museum
Through January 5, 2020
Out at Sea
Tug Life: Photographs by a New York City Tug Boat Captain
Thomas Joshua Cooper on Long Island's East End
12/02/19--09:01: Duane Michals' Illusions and Delights
"Illusions of the Photographer: Duane Michals at the Morgan," on view at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City through February 2, 2020, combines a 60-year retrospective of the photographer's work with an exhibition he curated from the museum's collection. Together, the two shows offer a tour of Michals' mind.
Contemplative, confessional, and comedic, the art of Duane Michals exerts an appeal that transcends the conventional audience of photography. For him, photography is not documentary in nature but theatrical and fictive: the camera is one of many tools humanity uses to construct a comprehensive version of reality.
Since the early 1960s, Michals has worked past what he sees as the limitations of the camera: He writes in the margins of his prints, creates sequences of images that explore intangible human dilemmas (doubt, mortality, desire), and derives poetic effects from technical errors such as double exposure and motion blur.
"Illusions of the Photographer" is a full six-decade career retrospective (he's 87 now!) — the first on Michals to be organized by a New York City museum. It's also an artist's-choice show. The Morgan let Michals plumbs the museum's vaults for treasures both revered and long-forgotten.
Michals leads viewers on a tour of some of his heroes and mentors, including William Blake, Edward Lear, and Saul Steinberg. He's also chosen to show inspiring work by stage designers, toy-makers, and his fellow portraitists of the past and the present.
The retrospective portion of the exhibition is organized around animating themes in Michals' work: Theater, Reflection, Love and Desire, Playtime, Image and Word, Nature, Immortality, Time, Death and Illusion. It showcases his storytelling instincts, both in stand-alone staged photographs and in sequences.
The exhibition will be accompanied by screenings of short films—Michals' preferred medium in recent years. An audioguide narrated by the artist will complement a wide-ranging interview in the exhibition's catalogue.
"Illusions of the Photographer"
The Morgan Library & Museum
Duane Michals: 60 Years of Inventive Celebrity Portraiture
Duane Michals as Portrait Photographer
Duane Michals: Empty New York
12/04/19--10:32: Collage as a Radical Act of Healing
Serrah Russell's collages are deceptively simple. Most are made from just two images, cut from the pages of fashion magazines or National Geographic, then fused together. Yet a powerful narrative emerges from the layers and juxtapositions, one that feels overwhelmingly about drowning, but with flickers of hope and clarity.
There's water, yes, but the sense of going under comes from the fragments of women's bodies colliding with other matter. A slender arm reaches from the depths of ruby colored cloth; bright red lips face a black abyss; a different set of lips –– slightly parted and larger than life –– meet a soaring bird carrying a small branch. Full faces are rarely seen. A single eye cut in the shape of a diamond floats above a cloudy blue sky; in another image the outer edge of an eye circled in black makeup is dissected by a mass of green branches; a woman wearing a black turtleneck lacks a head, it's been dislodged by a bouquet of tall blooming flowers.
Russell began making the collages in 2016 after Donald Trump was elected president of the U.S. "Shocked and angry," as Rusell writes in the introduction to her new book tears tears (Yoffy Press, 2019), she turned to her studio practice to channel her grief. Soon, she was "transforming each day's experience into a nightly collage." The work in tears tears is the result of reconstructing the news and the outrage, the sadness and fear, of the 45th presidency into a single collage 100 times in a row. The daily routine "became an act of meditation, a ritual for reflection and a place to speak," writes Russell.
There's a reason almost every collage contains slivers of women. The artworks "explore the stifled reality of being a woman in this political era…multiple pieces refer to a voice being minimized or diminished," explains Frances Jakubek in an essay for tears tears.
In Russell's words, "The votes were in, and I was told she wasn't enough. And neither was I." The collages became a life raft to sanity, a pursuit of understanding in the aftermath of an election that favored Trump over Hillary Clinton, who would've become the first female president of the U.S.
Toward the end of the book an an image titled "Swallowing up the light" covers two pages. In it, we see a young woman's full face bathed in sunlight. Her shoulders are back and her eyes are closed; she's standing before the sea. Her chin is cupped by a gentle hand. Surrounded by the blue of the water she appears calm, ready. "This work is for you," writes Russell. "For those who cry, who rage, who question, who change…who endure, and for those who open up, when they have every reason to stay closed."
– Sarah Stacke
tears tears
By Serrah Russell
Yoffy Press, 2019
Three's Not a Crowd for Frank Ockenfel's 3
A Pioneer's Journey from Fashion to Collage
What is Collage in the Digital Age? Hint: No Scissors Necessary
12/10/19--09:00: A Photographic Climate Change Riddle
Photographer Christina Seely's new exhibition distills ten years of her travels to the Alaskan Arctic and Greenland ice sheet, and shows her artistic approach to using digitally manipulated photographs and science to address the disorientating nature of severe climate change. The exhibition, "Perdita, In Finding(s)," is on display through January 11, 2020, at San Francisco's EQUINOM Gallery.
The show's title offers the first clue about the project's aim to befuddle the viewer by posing a set of impossible riddles: "Perdita" is Latin for "lost."
In her excursions, Seely has personally witnessed the grave and far-reaching changes to landscapes at the northern reaches of the planet. As a response, she created work that "faces into the inherent tentativeness brought on by exponential change," as she explains in her artist's statement.
In her images, we see grids, graphs, and data points juxtaposed with soaring birds, glaciers and rock. At a glance, the project offers a satisfying sense of order and understanding. Math equations have solutions, right? Yet the images ultimately inspire a feeling of disorientation.
For example, a number of works in the exhibition, nicknamed "bird grids," originate from a trip to Alaska. The images show flocks of seabirds in the sky. Seely dramatically crops and rotates the images, and also overlays them and surrounds them with grids. The result is an "off-kilter" way of "seeing and of being that amplifies the chaotic-ness of lives caught in motion…viewers are left unbalanced, gazing into a bright blank sky," writes EQUINOM in the press release.
"Quantitare – glacies (Exponential Ice, Gully Breen / Svalbard Territory)," is a work comprised of 11 prints, picturing glaciers, that Seely mounted together to form a hypnotic, never-ending tunnel. In this image, and all the others in "Perdita, In Finding(s)," Seely establishes herself as an artist that is not bound by the history of photography. By combining her photographs with a wide range of media, particularly those related to science and math, Seely is making a statement about the "failure of photography to comprehend…the scale of change that is currently underway."
In "Perdita, In Finding(s)," writes Seely, photographs serve only as "symbols" of the natural world. "These 'symbols' are then set in conversation with familiar visualizations of measurement and organization associated with scientific and mathematical inquiry that tend to imply a sense of control."
Seely writes that "ideally" the work "activates a conversation about how we value, control and try to understand (for better or worse) the natural world…or our place within the complexity of the larger planetary whole."
"Perdita, In Finding(s)"
By Christina Seely
EQUINOM Gallery
Through January 11, 2020
Photographs to Stop a Meltdown
The Future of Sublime Landscapes
Photojournalist Tommaso Protti's Chronicle of Amazon Deforestation
01/06/20--09:00: Intimate (and Colorful) X-Rays
Most of us only see X-rays while negotiating airport security or during an uncomfortable visit to the doctor. The meddlesome, monochromatic images aren't something we typically covet or admire. David Arky sees something else in X-ray images – artistry. On January 9, Fremin Gallery will open "Sights Unseen," an exhibition of Arky's vivid X-ray photographs.
For Arky, one of a few photographers to see the potential of X-rays, "The discovery of the revealing contours and textures not yet examined by the naked eye unlocked a secret and intimate world that fascinated him," writes Fremin Gallery in the press release. In his latest series, Arky experimented with pink, blue, and gray color palettes, creating bold contrasts to routine black-and-white X-rays.
A union between art and technology, Arky's images confess a hidden world and invite viewers to see each object anew. A golf bag holding dollar bills in its depths; a woman's purse concealing a revolver; pill bottles, keys and iPhones revealing intricate innards. With shades of voyeurism, the photographs allow personas –– of people and possessions –– to be conceived from the inside out.
"Sights Unseen"
By David Arky
Fremin Gallery
The Devastation of Asbestos by Louie Palu
Seeking Harmony, from Yunnan to New York's Central Park
This is Your Brain on Charles Lindsay
Nick Veasey on X-raying a House
01/10/20--09:00: Ghostly Photographs Trace Former Berlin Wall
Klompching Gallery has extended "Berlin," by Diane Meyer through January 25. The 43-piece exhibition opened in November 2019, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's the first time Meyer's series, which was made over the course of seven years and traces the entire 96-mile path of the former Wall, has been shown in its entirety.
Applying her signature style, sections of the photographs have been obscured by cross-stitch embroidery, sewn directly into the photographs. In many images the embroidered sections represent the exact scale and location of the former Wall, offering a pixelated view of what would lie behind if the wall were in tact today. The colorful stitching "appears as a translucent trace in the landscape of something that no longer exists but is a weight on history and memory," writes Klompching in the press release.
Though Meyer's aim was to photograph locations with no visible traces of the wall itself, several of the photographs depict forthright evidence of its existence. For example, in "Former Guard Tower Off Puschkinallee," the graffiti reaching up the old tower halts at almost the exact height of the broken wall, or about as high as an arm can reach. In another image, colorful concrete blocks remain positioned in front of Meyer's embroidery to remind us that people had to use the blocks to communicate with friends and family over the disruptive architecture.
"The tearing down of the wall became emblematic of a changing world order–with the absence of the structure, as impactful as when it stood," notes Klompching. The exhibition is especially timely, as it echoes the current divisive political dialogue surrounding the barrier wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
"The wall today is almost ghostlike," says Meyer, "even though it isn't there, you can still feel it."
By Diane Meyer
Home Obscured
Artists Weave, Sew and Assemble to Expand the Photograph
Re-examining the Photo Memento
01/15/20--09:00: Between Photography and Sculpture
On January 17, Catherine Edelman Gallery will debut the work of international photographers Nicolás Combarro, Hannah Hughes and Lilly Lulay, alongside well-known Chicagoan, Aimée Beaubien, in "New Formations."
In a culture where digital photographs are ubiquitous and routine, artists are challenging themselves to find new ways of working with photographic images. The four artists featured in "New Formations" are "reinventing how photography is used to represent a place, object or memory," writes Catherine Edelman Gallery in the press release. "As the works become more complex, memories are fragmented, places are deconstructed, and objects are recontextualized."
Procuring images from diverse sources, Combarro, Hughes, Lulay and Beaubien cut, collage, weave and paint to reconstruct photographic prints. "Situated between photography and sculpture," writes the gallery, "the works in the exhibition go beyond the content of a singular image, introducing a new visual language."
Beaubien's colorful work is heavily influenced by her great grandmother, art history and gardens. To bring these elements together, she weaves photographs, drapes rope and suspends old photography books in large site-specific installations that aim to imitate plant growth.
In his series "Spontaneous Architecture," Cambarro, who lives and works in Spain, paints, collages and draws on architectural photographs. "By focusing on these shapes, he bridges the gap between architecture and fundamental forms found in art," explains Catherine Edelman Gallery.
After cutting repetitive shapes from glossy magazines, Hughes layers them to create photographic sculptures. The work in her series, "Mirror Image," alters the significance of the original page while "magnifying the beauty of color and form." Hughes is based in the United Kingdom.
In response to the sheer number of photographs made in cities and public spaces and the collective memory they create, Lulay, born in Germany, shatters this perspective by cutting and collaging found images into new landscapes.
There will be an opening reception at the gallery on Friday, January 17 from 5 – 8 p.m.
"New Formations"
Nicolás Combarro, Hannah Hughes, Lilly Lulay, Aimée Beaubien
Catherine Edelman Gallery
January 17 – March 7, 2020
Collage as a Radical Act of Healing
The First Light of Day
Ghostly Photographs Trace Former Berlin Wall


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Baldwin effect and overcoming the rationality fetish
October 6, 2013 by Artem Kaznatcheev 23 Comments
G.G. Simpson and J.M. Baldwin
As I've mentioned previously, one of the amazing features of the internet is that you can take almost any idea and find a community obsessed with it. Thus, it isn't surprising that there is a prominent subculture that fetishizes rationality and Bayesian learning. They tend to accumulate around forums with promising titles like OvercomingBias and Less Wrong. Since these communities like to stay abreast with science, they often offer evolutionary justifications for why humans might be Bayesian learners and claim a "perfect Bayesian reasoner as a fixed point of Darwinian evolution". This lets them side-stepped observed non-Bayesian behavior in humans, by saying that we are evolving towards, but haven't yet reached this (potentially unreachable, but approximable) fixed point. Unfortunately, even the fixed-point argument is naive of critiques like the Simpson-Baldwin effect.
Introduced in 1896 by psychologist J.M. Baldwin then named and reconciled with the modern synthesis by leading paleontologist G.G. Simpson (1953), the Simpson-Baldwin effect posits that "[c]haracters individually acquired by members of a group of organisms may eventually, under the influence of selection, be reenforced or replaced by similar hereditary characters" (Simpson, 1953). More explicitly, it consists of a three step process (some of which can occur in parallel or partially so):
Organisms adapt to the environment individually.
Genetic factors produce hereditary characteristics similar to the ones made available by individual adaptation.
These hereditary traits are favoured by natural selection and spread in the population.
The overall result is that originally individual non-hereditary adaptation become hereditary. For Baldwin (1886,1902) and other early proponents (Morgan 1886; Osborn 1886, 1887) this was a way to reconcile Darwinian and strong Lamarkian evolution. With the latter model of evolution exorcised from the modern synthesis, Simpson's restatement became a paradox: why do we observe the costly mechanism and associated errors of individual learning, if learning does not enhance individual fitness at equilibrium and will be replaced by simpler non-adaptive strategies? This encompass more specific cases like Rogers' paradox (Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Rogers, 1988) of social learning.
The easiest way to get around the Simpson-Baldwin effect is to postulate that selectively significant environmental change is happening on a time-scale of a single organism's lifespan. This justification fares well in the age of industrialization and drastic human generated environmental change; it can even apply to other animals — like fishes — where humans cause a strong coupling between the ecological and evolutionary dynamics. However, it seems less relevant to the paleolithic human, and yet we attribute unique cognitive flexibility and learning to the development of early stone tools (although the uniqueness might be more physical and less mental) that characterize that period. Further, we usually attribute our learning abilities to our bigger brains and those are best explained by the social brain hypothesis. This suggests that we should turn our attention from external environmental pressures, to internal (to the species) social pressures. In other words, we should be using evolutionary game theory to look at frequency-dependent selection.
Smead & Zollman (2009) considered general strategic plasticity (learning would be a specific type) in a game theoretic setting. Given an arbitrary symmetric evolutionary game G, they introduce a new strategy L that learns how to play best-response dynamics to any strategy in G and a Nash equilibrium against itself but carries a small cognitive cost c; the resulting game is GL. They show that for all games G without a Pareto dominant mixed strategy Nash equilibrium (i.e. for any generalized social dilemma game), L is not an evolutionary stable strategy in GL. Not being an ESS means that we will never find a monomorphic population of learners, but it doesn't mean that learners can't exist as a fraction of a polymorphic populations — this is what we usually expect of social learners, for instance. However, they show that even this is possible only for Hawk-Dove like games where every pure strategy does poorly against itself. Specifically, if there exists a strategy s in G such that it is a best response to itself then L will go to extinction. Even if the cost of learning is not associated with development, but instead depends on the opponent. In such a setting, for L to be an ESS it must be the case that in a world of learners, it is more costly to be a non-learner than a learner. This might be possible for imitation, where it is cheaper than innovation, but it is typically not the case for more sophisticated types of learning.
As an ultimate relaxation, Smead & Zollman (2009) make the mechanism for strategic plasticity free with the only costs coming from mistakes during learning (nobody is perfect before they see any data). In particular, let be the proportion of interactions where L makes sub-optimal decisions, then among two-strategy games, strategic plasticity is an ESS only for games of the form where . That is part of the assurance and prisoner's dilemma section of cooperate-defect games. Further, to achieve this ESS the learner needs a pretty sophisticated theory of mind: the strategy needs to respond not to what other learners are doing, but what they are 'trying' to do.
To study the Simpson-Baldwin effect, Smead & Zollman (2009) extend beyound their analysis of evolutionary stability and consider dynamics. They simulate the discrete-time replicator equation in an inviscid population, and show that starting from a point far from equilibrium, the proportion of strategically plastic agents increases drastically as they are initially selected for in assurance and PD games. However, once they make up a large fraction of the population, the non-learning strategies achieve higher fitness and drive the adaptable agents to extinction. This is exactly what Simpson's three step recipe predicts. For Hawk-Dove dynamics, the effect is much less drastic, but sometimes present. Thus, for most games and reasonable costs of cognition, frequency-dependent selection is not sufficient to generate strategic plasticity at equilibrium.
What if learning is completely free, and there are many learning strategies present? What if the learner doesn't have to respond to individual opponents but can learn a global strategy? At least in this setting, can we use evolutionary game theory to justify rational learning rules? Harley (1981) and Maynard Smith (1982) thought so, and argued that the only evolutionary stable learning rules are ones that generate ESS behaviour. Smead (2012) shows that this is not typically the case. He assumes that learning is fast relatively to reproduction, and considers rules like Bayesian learning that are behaviourly persistent. A population of learners is behaviourally persistent if introducing a few mutants does not drastically change the behaviour of the focal population. Bayesian learning would satisfy this since if only a few mutants are introduced then interactions with them are infrequent and thus the agents beliefs about the world are barely changed from these few samples. Smead (2002) shows that if a population is an evolutionary stable state then it is not behaviourally persistent. The most interesting result for me, though, is that if you slow the rate of learning then you can make the learner stable against any invader that leads away from equilibrium (although an agents that expresses the equilibrium behavioral proportions without learning can still invade). I think it is relatively surprising to see a slower learning rate resulting in higher resilience to invasion.
The above invasions usually happen by neutral drift, and so behaviourally Nash equilibrium (NE) is still expressed, even if it is not evolutionary stable. Smead (2012) summarizes this nicely:
This means that there is reason to expect a population to play according to a NE, but that the learning rules used by individuals may not (on their own) take the population to a NE. Consequently, pointing to the evolutionary success of equilibrium-learning rules does not clearly support equilibrium behaviour any more than more basic evolutionary process that act on behaviour directly.
So, to answer the rationality fetish: no, Bayesian learning is not a fixed-point of Darwinian evolution. At least it is not in the most basic and intuitive model of inviscid dynamics. However, in the special case of social learning and Rogers' paradox, it is known that spatial structure can help learning strategies enhance the fitness of their bearers (Rendell et al., 2010). As such, it might be possible to achieve stability of general learning (maybe even under cognitive costs) in spatial populations. Of course, this isn't the only way around the problem. We could also follow Valiant (2009) and express machine learning and evolution in the same framework, and show that evolution is a strict subclass of general PAC-learning and thus some behaviours are learnable but not evolvable. In terms of Simon's three steps, this would be equivalent to saying that step two is not always possible. My preferred option, though, would be to look at rational learning not as superior to memorized strategies, but as a make-do mechanisms for when there are two many basic strategies to memorize. This would give us the perplexing view of rational learning as a consequence of constraints on our descriptive complexity and an artifact of bounded rationality.
Baldwin, J.M. (1886). A new factor in evolution. Amer. Nat., 30: 441-451, 536-553.
Baldwin, J.M. (1902). Development and evolution. Macmillan, New York.
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P.J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago Univ. Press, Chicago.
Harley, C.B. (1981). Learning the evolutionary stable strategy. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 89: 611-633.
Maynard Smith, J. (1982). Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Morgon, C.L. (1886). Habit and instinct. Arnold, London.
Osborn, H.F. (1896). A mode of evolution requiring neither natural selection nor the inheritance of acquired traits. Trans. New York Acad. Sci., 15: 141-142, 148.
Osborn, H.F. (1887). Organic selection. Science, 583-587.
Rendell, L., Fogarty, L., & Laland, K. N. (2010). Rogers' paradox recast and and resolved: population structure and the evolution of social learning strategies. Evolution, 64(2): 534-548.
Rogers, A. (1988). Does biology constrain culture? Am. Anthropol. 90.
Simpson, G.G. (1953). The Baldwin effect. Evolution, 7(2): 110-117.
Smead, R., & Zollman, K. J. (2009). The stability of strategic plasticity. Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Philosophy, Technical Report 182.
Smead, R. (2012). Game theoretic equilibria and the evolution of learning. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 3 (24), 301-313 DOI: 10.1080/0952813X.2012.695444
Valiant, L.G. (2009) Evolvability. Journal of the ACM 56(1): 3
Filed under Commentary, Models, Reviews Tagged with Baldwin effect, cognitive cost, cognitive science, evolution, Hawk-Dove, learning, Leslie Valiant, rationality, social brain hypothesis, social learning
23 Responses to Baldwin effect and overcoming the rationality fetish
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Adam Benton says:
The environmental complexity hypothesis is a relatively new approach that proposes humans developed large brains to "insulate" themselves from environmental change in the variable environment our ancestors occupied. It often claims not to replace the social brain hypothesis, but to be an additional force that drove encephalisation.
If external, rather than internal, forces played a significant role in the development of "rationality" would this change the results of these models?
The environmental complexity hypothesis is new? I thought that was what people thought before the SBH, that our big brains were an artifact of adaptations to better exploit our external environment: hunt better, protect ourselves from the elements better, etc. How is the new version of it different? Or am I confused in my history?
The two Smead models focused specifically on social factors, because it is relatively easy to build a variable environment model where learning is required. This is the sort of philosophy of "cut models apart to understand the essential features" instead of the "build models up to incorporate every subtlety we've thought of so far". I am a big fan of the former, and often very skeptical of the latter, especially if the results of the latter models are simulations and not analytic. I dwell on this a bit in the three types of mathematical models post. In particular, if you can convince me that your model is a good insilication and its parameters can be measured in the real world and output can be quantitatively tested with real world experiments or observations then I am all for building up complex models. However, if your model is heuristic (as almost all models in this field are) then I advocate for learning their essence instead of building up.
With all that disclaimer out of the way. I do think that some interesting things could be done with looking at environmental complexity. For example, a few posts ago, I looked at the work of Livnat & Pippenger where they show how to get interesting (and qualitatively similar to what we see in humans and animals) kinds of irrationality out of a model with a static environment of higher complexity than the brains of organisms are allowed to have. I think some of their ideas can be combined with learning to show that rational learning is actually a consequence of bounded rationality. I have the bones of a model worked out for this, but for now it will remain in my giant folder of "potentially cool future research projects". Could you point me to some references on the new environmental complexity hypothesis? Any mathematical models in particular?
ECT probably does have a history (I'm surprised you couldn't trace it back to Aristotle, like the brain cooling); but it has undergone a recent resurgence in popularity and maybe a slight reformation as well. The short story of it now is that large brains developed to allow us to adapt our behaviours to fit a changing environment, meaning we can adapt much faster than genetics would normally allow. This is thought to have been particularly useful in Africa within the last 3 million years or so, when Milankovitch cycles prompted periods of extensive climate variability. Hence why we became encephalised during this period.
Also the SBH happened, but doesn't explain all of our brain growth.
You make a good case for break down modelling, so perhaps the best bet would be to create a separate model that explores how a learner/innovator would do compared to a more static (but cognitively less expensive) if the fitness of various strategies was dictated by the environment. An environment that could then be varied.
I'm not aware of much of your sort of modelling that's been done on the subject, with most of the research attempting to investigate how strong variability selection has been over the relevant time frame. The most relevant ones to you I can think of is "Variability Selection in Hominid Evolution" (which attempts to model how a versatilist would flourish compared to specialists in a variable environment and "Change and variability in Plio-Pleistocene climates: modelling the hominin response" which attempts to identify if the sort of variable environment modelled in the other paper occurred, and what sort of effect that may have had on the selection pressures hominins were exposed to.
There is quite a bit of modelling of the sort you mention. These models are very general: they do not distinguish between learning and developmental plasticity, and apply to plants as well (or as badly) as to humans. You could start here:
How Learning Can Guide Evolution
Geoffrey E. Hinton & Steven J. Nowlan
and then the ~1000 articles that Google scholar says cite it…
Thanks for that reference! I feel ashamed to say that I wasn't aware of it.
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Thomas Shultz says:
Mutual shielding (of evolution and learning) is sometimes seen as the opposite of the Baldwin effect. If a species can learn x, it doesn't need to evolve x, and vice versa. Shielding seems important in evolution/learning interaction and relatively under-studied, although this paper by Griffiths gets pretty close: Innateness and culture in the evolution of language S Kirby, M Dowman, TL Griffiths – Proceedings of the …, 2007 – National Acad Sciences … Genes controlling strength of bias could therefore be shielded from selection …
Your link between Baldwin and Rogers is interesting and echoed in the Griffiths paper.
Tom Shultz
Sorry for the (extremely) slow response.
I think this might be a matter of evolutionary biologists and cognitive scientists having differing vocabularies. Learning for biologists would be just a specific type (a very teleological, goal directed variant) of phenotypic plasticity. The ability of phenotypic plasticity to 'slow down' or 'speed up' evolution and change the population's resilience to shocks seems to be relatively heavily studied. For example, see:
Price, T. D., Qvarnström, A., & Irwin, D. E. (2003). The role of phenotypic plasticity in driving genetic evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 270(1523): 1433-1440.
and some of the 560+ papers citing it. It would be interesting to see how learning (especially social learning) integrates itself into this literature.
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Abel Molina says:
uhm, interesting point at the end about learning "making sense" from a evolutionary point of view because of failure to convey enough information through genes (if I got it right)…
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Join Wayne Winston for an in-depth discussion in this video Using the exercise files, part of Excel Data Analysis: Forecasting.
If you're a premium member to Lynda.com you'll have access to the exercise files in this course. Download the zip file to your computer and place it on the desktop. Now to open the exercise files you can double click on it and you'll see it's organized by chapter. So for example, let's double click on chapter one. And let's say section 1.4. Basically what that means is chapter one video four, you'll see the files that you need. And you'll see there's a file trend start and trend final. The start files are files for you to follow along with me if you so desire.
The final files show the final product of each video. Of course you can follow along with the course on your own without using the exercise files.


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Euroskeptic campaigners in Britain's forthcoming EU membership referendum are furious at the government for splashing more than £9 million ($12.9 million) on a pro-EU leaflet.
While government ministers are allowed to campaign for Britain to leave the bloc, the government as a whole is in favour of continued membership. A statement from Prime Minister David Cameron's office said that a copy of the leaflet would be sent to every household from next week in order to "help the public make an informed decision" in the vote, scheduled for June 23.
Arguments for continued membership outlined in the leaflet, which focuses largely on jobs, trade and on reforms to Britain's membership deal delivered by Cameron, will be familiar to regular observers of Britain's EU debate.
But pro-"Brexit" campaign Leave.EU said that "David Cameron is discrediting the referendum process with his taxpayer-funded dodgy dossier," while Vote Leave, another Euroskeptic group, said that Cameron was looking to distract people from questions over his tax affairs with the publication of such a controversial leaflet.
Brexit campaigners complain that the designated "Leave" campaign will only be able to spend £7 million ($9.8 million) during the entire campaign, and say the government had promised not to be a "lead campaigner" in the referendum.
But defence secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC's Today programme that the government was answering a legitimate demand for information. "Over 80 percent of the public feel they haven't yet got enough information," he said.


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Stay with the local Uros Indians on Lake Titicaca, experience the vastness of the Bolivian Salt Flats, visit vineyards by bicycle in Argentina and take in a Tango Show in the cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires. Whatever your tastes, this trip has something for everyone!


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We are helping to change the world one story at a time through God's love for people.
What is Christian leadership? What should a Christian leader be like? There is no finer example for Christian leadership than our Lord Jesus Christ. He declared, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). It is within this verse that we see the perfect description of a Christian leader. He is one who acts as a shepherd to those "sheep" in his care.
April 3 Ken Bailey preparing us for Holy Week: How does Christ as the Good Shepherd just turn everything upside down to make the world a place where ultimately love is the key in relationships and all that they bring to the human experience? Ken does a fascinating job of taking God's love for the world and seeing it through Christ's sacrifice as something that challenges us all. How is our being a leader a sacrifice in helping to care for others? When it is done out of love rather than duty, there are all sorts of opportunities, that are made available for ministry/mission.
April 10 Reflecting on Good Friday & Easter by Dr. Bailey … Shepherd as leader is suppose to be there for the flock. Right? Ken Bailey helps us deal with responsibility in the congregation of being a leader who serves others. Serve in what ways? What does it mean to suffer? How does suffering help to make us a better leader and closer to what Jesus shared about leadership?
We live in a Good Friday world and Easter (Resurrection Sunday) is coming!
Have a blessed Lenten season, Holy week, and Easter from your Presbyterian friends at PMM!


Celia Shortt Goodyear/Boulder City Review Dan Thompson works on a piece of glass art at Boulder City Florist, 1229 Arizona St. He owns the business with his wife, Kris, a master floral designer.
(Hali Bernstein Saylor/Boulder City Review) Tom Devlin's Monster Museum at 1310 Boulder City Parkway, has seen a spike in sales since the opening of Interstate 11 in August. The owners attribute part of that increase to appearing on a roadside attractions sign.
Celia Shortt Goodyear/Boulder City Review Kris Thompson, owner of Boulder City Florist, 1229 Arizona St., said her business has not been negatively impacted by the opening of Interstate 11.
Tom Devlin's Monster Museum, 1310 Boulder City Parkway, reported that its sales have increased.
Southwest Diner, 761 Nevada Highway, is also advertised on the blue amenities sign on the interstate, and owner Cindy Ford said the business is still open though her sales have decreased.
"It's quite a lot less than the year before, but we're not going to go out of business," she said.
Ford said she was worried the diner would close after I-11 opened Aug. 9.
"I'm very thankful it didn't, and I thank God every day. … I feel the worst has passed," she said.
To help increase business, Ford said she is advertising more and offering additional specials at the restaurant.
"My business has not been impacted by that at all … it may be up," said Kris Thompson, owner of Boulder City Florist, 1229 Arizona St.
Thompson's husband, Dan, is a glass blower and creates unique pieces of art that are sold in the shop.
Railroad Pass Casino, just outside city limits, has seen good things since the interstate opened, according to owner Joe DeSimone.
When I-11 opened, the Nevada Department of Transportation estimated it would reduced travel time to Henderson and Hoover Dam by as much as 30 minutes.
DeSimone also said all of the exits near Railroad Pass Casino are now open, and the number of vehicles going by has increased. Also, locals are more familiar with the exits, which has also helped.
Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Rowland-Lagan said the new interstate has brought an increased interest from out-of-state businesses that are interested in opening in town.
For Alpaca Imports, formerly located at 1603 Boulder City Parkway, the impact was different. The business closed in September and relocated to the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas in Primm.
Shortly after closing, several people who spoke with owner Kevin Devine, said the closure was expected and a direct result of I-11 opening.
"He works on sheer numbers, and the writing was on the wall with him," Rowland-Lagan said in September.
She said that through the Economic Vitality Commission, she, City Manager Al Noyola and several council members met with Devine, who told them he was negotiating for another location with more traffic.
The Boulder City Review reached out to other local businesses about the impact of I-11, but they either declined to comment or did not respond by deadline.


Now entering its fifth year the 2016 All Wales Comic Verse Competition continues to offer some of the largest cash prizes for any poetry competition in Wales, comic or otherwise.
Appealing to a wide cross section of poets, previous entrants have included those short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year and the John Tripp Award for Performance Poetry as well as those writing purely for their own pleasure.
Wrexham and West Wales to compete. Taking place in the beautiful grounds of the historic Priory Hotel, as in previous years broadcaster and former "Newport Town Poet", Goff Morgan will host the live performance final ably supported during the judging interval by 2014 Costa Poetry Prize winner Jonathan Edwards.


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text:
Thursday, Sept 22, 2016
HPP Post-Congress Day
Venue: Fleur de Chine Hotel, Sun Moon Lake, Nantou
Moderator: Gilbert S. Omenn (Chair, HPP)
07:30-08:30 Joint B/D- and C-HPP EC meeting (TBA)
08:30-09:00 HPP Update Session.
Moderators: Gil Omenn, Young-Ki Paik, Jennifer van Eyk
Highlights from Congress and Discussions on B/D-, C-HPP, and Resources Pillars.
Introduction of Gilbert Omenn is available in pdf format here.
Summary of HPP HUPO day from Young-Ki Paik is available in pdf format here.
Report presentation of B/D-HPP is available here.
09:00-09:30 Bioinformatics Hub, JPR Special Issue 2016 and Future, Experience with HPP MS Guidelines v2.1
Eric Deutsch and Christoph Overall
Summary of HUPO Bioinformatics HUB and experience on HPP MS Guidelines v2.1 by Eric Deutsch is available in pdf format here.
09:30-10:00 Open discussion about recent strategic successes and strategic planning for next year and for 5 years: aims, directions, changes and deliverables
Gil Omenn
Lung Cancer Genomics (With Cancer Cluster & CPTAC Group)
Dr. Sung-Liang Yu, NUT, Taiwan
10:50-12:30 Reports on the Cluster Group Meetings (C-HPP and B/D-HPP)
Leaders of Each Cluster Group will present highlights of Joint Cluster Meeting held on Sunday (9/18)
Cluster Group
(1) Cancer (report is available here) Siqi Liu, Ed Nice, Hui Zhang, Chris Kinsinger, Jacob Kagan, Shengtao Zhou B/D-Cancer (CPTAC), + more Chr. 1, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20 Sun, 9/18/2016 12:30-15:20 (lunch included)
(2) IVTT (In Vitro Transcription/Translation Platform, report is available here) Gyorgy Marko-Varga, Joshua LaBaer HAI, Protein Std, + More (open to all HPP groups) Chr. 5, 10, 15, 16, 19. This presentation is available in here. Sun, 9/18/2016 12:30-15:20 (lunch included)
(3) Reproductive Biology (report is available here) Charles Peneau, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh Model Organism and more (open to whole HPP groups), Chr. 2, 14, X, Y Sun, 9/18/2016 12:30-15:20 (lunch included)
(4) Membrane Proteins Daniel Figeys, Yu-Ju Chen Open to all HPP groups Chr. 3, 4, 6, 7, 18, 21, Mon, 9/19/2016 07:30-08:30
(5) Neuro-degenerative Disorders (report is available here) Jong Shin Yoo, Andrea Urbani HBPP, Autoimmune, open to all HPP groups, Chr. 1, 6, 11, 12, Mt. Mon, 9/19/2016 07:30-08:30
*The term "cluster" can be defined as an informal grouping to facilitate communications between the formal groups (i.e. B/D-HPP, C-HPP, Pillars, CPTAC and related HPP groups) that the HUPO membership and general public see it as a way to organize sessions and workshops rather than setting up a parallel set of groups (Chris Overall) (Appendix 2)
Summary of SRM cluster by Alexander I. Archakov in pdf format is available here.
12:30-13:30 Lunch (Report Session continued, if necessary)
13:30-14:30 HPP Strategy Session
Strategic Evaluation by members of SSAB, led by Cathy Costello, Naoyuki Taniguchi, Mathias Uhlen and John Yates
HPP Operations & Communication matters (Pineau, Borchers)
Resources and Funding
14:30-15:30 Communications, Publications, Resources
Publications, including assessment of 2016 JPR special issue and plans for 2017
HPP Operations & Communication matters (C. Pineau, C. Borchers)
HPP Resources and Funding
Upcoming Workshops and Meetings: Brazil, 10-12 Dec 2016; C-HPP WS, Tehran, Iran, May 2017; C-HPP WS joint with EuPA (June, 2018, Santiago, Spain), C-HPP WS St. Malo, May, 2019
16:00-18:00 Boat Tour with Informal Discussion
Venue: Fleur de Chine Hotel. Address: No.23, Zhongzhen Rd., Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi Township, Nantou County 55546, Taiwan, R.O.C. Tel: +886-49-285-6788
Registration for HPP Workshop in Sun Moon Lake (USD 100)
Hotel Reservation in Sun Moon Lake: Visit website for hotel reservation: You may download the reservation form, fill-out and send it to hotel by fax (or email) (See Appendix 7)
How to get Sun Moon Lake: The congress will arrange the shuttle bus from Taipei International Convention Center to Fleur de Chine Hotel, Sun Moon Lake, Nantou. Be sure there at 17:30 on 21st of September:
How to get back to Taipei from Sun Moon Lake: You need to make your own arrangement by making reservation for High Speed Train (or Bus). On the evening of September 22 (Thurs), the congress LOC will arrange the district shuttle bus from Sun Moon Lake directly to the Taiwan High Speed Rail Taichung Station. You need to get train-tickets at the rail station by yourself or make a reservation by online ahead of time, by visiting Taiwan High Speed Rail. There is also bus back to Taipei which should be arranged by each participant. LOC will provide the shuttle bus from Fleur de Chine Hotel to THSR Taichung Station. The Shuttle Bus (transit between FDC hotel and Bus station)
Schedule as follows: (A) 20:30, September 22 the Fleur de Chine Hotel -> THSR Taichung Station and (B) 17:45, September 23 the Fleur de Chine Hotel -> THSR Taichung Station


Click on the above pictures for a close-up view. Critter Heads are available in two sizes: large or small. Small are available in a baker's dozen, large can be individually ordered.
All pieces are handcrafted, electric fired porcelain. Critter Heads are for display purposes only.


text:
Q: Why does fuse blow up sometimes? Sometimes once in a year, either one of main fuses or a fuse in room blow up due to something. What is the cause of this? Why do we even use fuses? Is it because the voltage doesn't stay at 220V all the time?

A: IMPORTANT:

*

*It is far far better that a fuse sometimes blows when there was no need for it to, than for it to sometimes fail to blow when a fault condition exists.

Blowing a fuse.  The term "blow" will be used here for the fusing of a fuse - the act of melting the fuse wire and breaking the electrical circuit. Terms such as "it blew a fuse"  and "why did the fuse blow?" are common here. The term "blow" in this context may be less common in some countries. Using "fuse" which is correct, as in "the fuse fused", is liable to be too confusing :-).
Why do they blow?
Should they?
 The purpose of a fuse is to protect equipment and wiring against the damaging effects of electrical faults which cause excess currents, and to disable equipment which is faulty. The fuse "blows" when the current carried exceeds the rated value for an excessive time. The higher the overload the shorter the period before the fuse blows. So, equipment which is meant to "draw"  10 amps but which has a short from phase to ground, so it draws, say, 100 amps, will blow its fuse in milliseconds. But, a piece of equipment which draws say double the fuse's rated value, may take many seconds to melt the fusewire and to blow the fuse. The ratio between trip times(time to blow) and "overload to rated current ratio" vary with fuse design and can to some extent be controlled by the manufacturer. This is a complete subject in its own right, but assume that a fuse will blow "after a while" at 2 x + overload and will blow almost immediately with say 10 x +  overload.
A piece of wire can only be so smart ...
 Because a somewhat complex task is being carried out by a deceptively simple piece of equipment (ie a piece of wire) and because the fuse is not always optimally dimensioned for the equipment used, the fuse sometimes "blows" when there is no significant or long term fault condition present.
To blow or not to blow ? - that is the question.
 Dimensioning & surges.
 Assume that a fuse will blow "after a while" at 2 x its rated value then we can expect it to run indefinitely at its rated value.
If we have a household circuit rate at 20 amps and a number of outlets rated at say 10A then it is possible to connect more load that the rated fuse value. If we connect say a 10A fan heater, a 5 amp one bar radiator (maybe in the next room), a 400 Watt plasma TV (about 2A), and some plug in mood lighting at say 1 A or less then all SHOULD be well. 10+5+2+1 = 18A. If somebody then turns on an electric jug rated at say 8A current rises to 26A. More than the 20A nominal value but less than the 2 x 20A = 40A we have said it will blow at. But if the plasma TV is off and is turned on suddenly the power supply input filters amy present a nearly pure capacitive load to the mains. The mains will be at random phase at TV turnon and usually a current spike will cause no problems. But on some random lucky (or unlucky) day the mains may be at the very peak of the mains cycle at turn on.   The capacitor may have stored charge of opposite polarity from last turnoff leading to an even greater current spike. Add a possibly high mains voltage (as happens) and some heavy switching spikes from a nearby factory, or even domestic equipment (treadmill, welder, drill, sander, router, planer ...) Then load + capacitor spike + high mains + switching transient may lead to a very high short term load. And the fuse may decide enough is enough and melt. Or may not.
*Unlikely?*Is all the above likely to happen at once?
 No. But as reported, the nuisance blowing happens only a few times a year. Ij the order of what is expected.
We could make the fuse rating higher (more amps)!
 Yes. That is one solution. But the ability to react to moderate overloads is lost. Along with lack of protection may go loss of insurance, if the insurance loss assessors find a still intact 2 x 20A wire fuse in the smouldering ruins of your workshop.

A: Might want to see what the rating is, and check what you have connected. High current draw devices (like your microwave as you say above) can and will blow fuses/trip the breaker regularly. Try to put it on an alternate circuit if possible.

A: Every fuse has a number of important ratings:

*

*The amount of current which a fuse is guaranteed to let flow indefinitely without any possibility of it blowing.

*The amount of current which is guaranteed to cause the fuse to blow within a certain period of time.

*The amount of current and voltage which the fuse is guaranteed to safely prevent from flowing once it blows (in some cases, the fuse's resistance once it blows will be sufficient to limit current to a safe limit provided its voltage rating is not exceeded; that is not always true, however, in the absence of external resistance).

If the amount of current that flows through a fuse is slightly more than the fuse can handle, the fusing material will slowly heat up to the point that it melts away, whereupon no more current will flow.  If, however, the current that flows through it is much higher, some of the metal fusing material may vaporize.  The metal vapor will itself be somewhat conductive, and the current flowing through that metal vapor may generate enough heat to vaporize more metal, increasing the current flow further.  Given time, the metal vapor would dissipate and the circuit would open.  The more current is driven through the fuse, however, the more heat will be generated before this occurs.  If enough heat is generated, the pressure of the gas inside the fuse may increase sufficiently to cause failure of the containing material, sending pieces of it flying.
If the resistance of the circuit in which the fuse is placed exceeds the resistance of the vaporized metal, then an increase in the concentration of vaporized metal in the fuse will temporarily increase the amount of power dissipated in places other than the fuse (which might not be a good thing) but decrease the amount of power dissipated within the fuse itself.  The fact that the fuse would be continuing to conduct might be a bad thing for the circuitry the fuse is supposed to be protecting, but reduction in power dissipation within the fuse would decrease the rate at which metal vaporized, reducing the likelihood of the fuse exploding.  On the other hand, if most of the effective resistance in the circuit is within the fuse itself, the decrease in resistance caused by the metal vapor will increase the power dissipation within the fuse, thus causing more metal to be vaporized and reducing the resistance further.

A: It depends on the type of fuse.
In all cases the fuse is to weak.
A "cut out" or "savety fuse" gets older of time and the wire gets weaker and weaker. It heats up and shrinks. So after a while the wire is to thin to stand the current.
A "automatic circuit breaker" has to parts an short term magnetic trigger and a long term thermal break. If the load is always on the limit the thermal break will break the circuit.
Thats what I guess in your case.
Sorry for my bad english.

A: As stated by @RussellMcMahon, the fuse, although extremely simple in construction, is very useful and can prevent a lot damage and a false positive is preferrable to a false negative. Beside the protection for the equipment you have in your house, it can also protect you from electric shock in the case of ungrounded devices.
The reason why a fuse blows can be really manifold. Here are just a few, off the top of the hat:

*

*The fuse is designed for too small a current and does blow as it actually should at the given current.

*You have a device in your household that introduces extra spikes that make the fuse give up. (Check for large consumers, e.g. air conditioning, washing mashine, very old fridge or boiler, power tools, etc. If the fuses blow when these are turned on, then they are very likely to be the culprits.)

*Faulty wiring. This can be especially the case if your wiring is very old. In case it's older than 30 years, it might make sense to rip everything out of the walls and have the cables installed again.

*Simply a faulty household appliance. Happened to me before. One of my lamps had the insulation gone off on a tiny section of the cable, right where it entered the lamp, under the gasket, so I couldn't see it. It produced a spectacular short which blew the fuse on that outlet and the fuse for the whole appartment...

*Bad quality fuses... (not impossible)

*Spike propagating to your fuse box from the outside (e.g. from neighbours... in such cases there isn't much you can do about it...)

*Other :)
IMPORTANT: In any case DO NOT try to circumvent the fuse box! This can be extremely dangerous! I also discourage you from using fuses with larger current rating, unless you know for sure you have a load inside your house that draws that kind of current. Make sure the reason is not an undetected fault! If it happens frequently without any apparent reason and an electrician can't find anything, maybe you should replace the fuses with appropriately rated circuit breakers. Then all you have to do is flip a switch when the lights go out again.

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