"I acknowledge that a man cannot perceive an object that does not exist; nor can he remember an object that does not exist; but there appears to me to be no contradiction in his conceiving an object that neither does nor ever did exist" (Thomas Reid, Essay 4 in Essays on the intellectual Powers of Man, 1785).

Lithuanian photographer and artist, Tadao Cern, created an interesting substitute for those who would like to see a photograph depicting Vincent Van Gogh. Based on one of Van Gogh's last self-portraits, Cern produced a digital simulation of a photograph of Van Gogh, a kind of digital Ersatz photograph, if you like.

Cern's work is both hyper-real and fictional. It mimicks the appearance of a photograph, going far beyond Van Gogh's paintings in detail and apparent realism, without being a photograph, at least not in the traditional conception of photographic images. Disorienting and fascinating at the same time, the work presents a spectacular, eye-catching simulation of what a photograph (in color) of the famous painter might have looked like.

The latest installment of MIT Press series Software Studies has an unusual title, at least for the non-coding population. It is a single line of BASIC that, if the code is executed, prints an infinite string of consisting of two characters, selected at random. The last instruction at the end of the program line (GOTO 10) instructs the computer to go to line 10 of the program and execute its instructions and generate and spit out another character based on the algorithm.

Written as a collaborative effort by ten authors, who point out that it is an unusual book “in its focus on a single line of code, an extremely concise BASIC program that is simply called 10 PRINT throughout.” The authors describe their approach and methodology as follows:

“The eponymous program is treated as a distinct cultural artifact, but it also serves as a grain of sand from which entire worlds become visible; as a Rosetta Stone that yields important access to the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture.”

The many connections the authors draw between this little piece of software and large, cultural themes are astonishing and--even though not always completely convincing--very stimulating. The authors connect the single line of code to Duchamp's droppages, to cultural memes like the figure of the maze, to the familiar screensavers. In the process, the authors provide an insightful and stimulating commentary on the evolution of programming languages and the cultural parameters in which this evolution took place.

In 1969, fourteen years old Jerry Levitan managed to sneek into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and persuaded John to grant him an interview. The animated short film I met the Walrus is based on the recording of the interview made by Jerry and features pen illustrations by James Braithwaite and computer animations by Alex Kurina.

To the music communities of the world,

We at the 11Eleven Project would like to offer you and your music community a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of an global creative-arts project. For 24 hours on 11/11/11, anyone who has access to a video camera, digital camera, microphone, mobile phone or email will be asked to create a snapshot of their day; to define their day in a creative way.

This is a chance to collaborate with artists all over the world, including our Grammy award-winning executive music producer, Imogen Heap.

If it’s the sound that wakes you, the song in your head, the words you’ve never put down on paper or the defining image or footage that paints your experience, we want you to share it with the world! This is your chance to be part of something big, REALLY BIG.

The footage, audio, text, visual and photographic material will be collated and used as the ingredients for a variety of 11Eleven Project initiatives, including a 2 hour cinematic documentary, photographic book and world music collection, all of which will be available worldwide.

The 11Eleven Project is completely not-for-profit and the sales of our projects and merchandise will go to support a variety of charities including The Hunger Project, Save the Children, World Wildlife Fund, Global Voices, Opportunity International and Hamlin Fistula.

The objective of the project is to plant a seed of compassion, to allow all people to gain perspective of our world as a whole. It is a time capsule, a human snap shot of life in the 21st century - a unique global perspective told by the people, for the people. By bringing the world together as one, we open up the opportunity for people to view our planet as a singular entity. 11/11/11 is an occasion to illustrate the commonalities amongst all people and to witness the shared experience amongst every human being living on planet Earth. With this representation may come an enlightened sense of global awareness, responsibility and recognition.

How YOU can get Involved:

Arte Laguna and the Italian cultural association MoCA (Modern Contemporary Art) are working together since 2006 on promoting contemporary visual Art. Main result of this collaboration is the International Art Prize ARTE LAGUNA. The main purpose is to support emerging and also already affirmed artists, giving them the possibility to show their artworks in high quality expositive settings around the World.

Born in 2006 from the collaboration between the cultural association MoCA (Modern Contemporary Art) and Arte Laguna, the Prize, over its five editions, has lived a structural evolution, becoming an established international prize supporting contemporary art talents and one of the most important events of the contemporary art scene. Over 15,000 international artists exhibited their artworks thanks to Arte Laguna and many of them now have a great career.

In his work Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer , John C. Lilly wrote:

"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less.

Despite the great varieties of programs available, most of us have a limited set of programs. Some of these are built in. In the simpler forms of life the programs were mostly built in from genetic codes to fully formed adultly reproducing organisms. The patterns of function, of actionreaction were determined by necessities of survival, of adaptation to slow environmental changes and of passing on the code to descendants."

Laurie Anderson incorporated some of Lilly's ideas, his ways of de-constructing dominant perspectives and explorations of human - dolphin communication in this short piece:

Culture Lab, Newcastle University announces RENDER 10: an exhibition featuring creative digital media works from the Culture Lab research community.

RENDER 10 presents the forward-looking scenarios of contemporary audiovisual experimenters from the Digital Media Masters of Research course, as well as members of the Culture Lab research community. Focusing on live media, performance, expanded reality, interactive video and sound installation, the exhibition comprises a range of new projects addressing technology and media with a critical, empirical and often playful approach.