This new project by Jonathon Keats may be of interest to several Rhizome
readers…
Marisa
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Jonathon Keats <[email protected]>
Date: Oct 23, 2005 1:55 AM
Subject: Invitation to an Art Project (Public Reception & Expert Calibration)
To: [email protected]
You are Cordially Invited to
BUREAU OF STANDARDS
an Art Project by Jonathon Keats
Public Reception & Expert Calibration
Thursday, October 27th
5:30 to 8:00 pm
Modernism Gallery
685 Market Street
San Francisco
415 541 0461
Refreshments Will Be Served
* * *
Advance Press Release
METRIC SYSTEM TO BE CUSTOMIZED FOR U.S. MARKET
Conceptual Artist Offers Consumers Personalized
Kilogram, Watt, Calorie… First Revolutionary Change
to Weights and Measures Since 1793… Major Victory
for Democracy in the 21st Century…
SAN FRANCISCO - Following several years of
highly-secretive privately-funded research, conceptual
artist Jonathon Keats announces comprehensive
improvements to the metric system, anticipated finally
to make the meter a viable unit of measure in the
United States. The system will be introduced to the
public at Modernism Gallery, in San Francisco, on
October 27, 2005. Mr. Keats will be available to
provide expert calibration.
"The metric system was developed in the 18th Century
as an alternative to measurements based on the
dimensions of kings' fingers and feet," explains Mr.
Keats. "It was a decisive break from monarchy, but it
wasn't decisive enough." The trouble is that one
totalitarian system was replaced with another. "We did
away with Louis XVI and Henry VIII, only to chain all
measures, of everything in the universe, to the
circumference of the Earth."
More specifically, the standard meter is 1/10,000,000
of the quarter-meridian, redefined by the Conference
Generale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM) in 1983 as the
distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a
second. What Mr. Keats has proposed is an approach as
rigorously mathematical as the metric system, that
will prioritize the individual rather than the planet.
His modification is simple, yet the consequences are
profound: Instead of using the earth's spin as the
basis of time, he's elected to use people's heartbeat.
"Galileo timed his experiments with his pulse," Keats
notes. "If it was good enough for him, surely it's
good enough for us."
Mr. Keats's system makes everyone's clock personal.
Because his own heart beats 1.1 times faster than the
terrestrial second, for example, his day is a mere
21.816 terrestrial hours long, and his year is nearly
33 days shorter than you'd see on a calendar (except
in leap year). From that, it's a straightforward
calculation to derive the length of a personal meter,
the distance traveled by light in 1/299,792,458 of a
heartbeat. Mr. Keats's meter, for instance, is 0.909
meters international, or approximately 2.982 feet. The
length of others' meters may differ. (For example, Mr.
Keats recently determined that Craigslist founder
Craig Newmark's meter is a more compact 0.833 meters
international.)
A liter is the volume equivalent to a cubic meter, a
kilogram is the mass equivalent to a liter of water,
and units including the watt and calorie can likewise
be mathematically derived (as can conversions to
imperial system units such as horsepower). In
consultation with mathematics professor David
Steinsaltz of Queen's University, Ontario, Mr. Keats
has developed algorithms to facilitate the calculation
of personal standards such as these. At Modernism
Gallery, individuals will be invited to commission
customized conversion tables, as well as engraved
brass meter rods and clocks that beat at their heart
rate. A member of the National Conference on Weights
and Measures (NCWM), Mr. Keats will be on hand with
stethoscope and adding machine to ensure that all
measuring instruments and charts are accurate.
"In this day and age, everyone has an iPod, and most
people have TiVo," Mr. Keats argues.
"Mass-customization is the cutting edge of democracy.
By taking this personal approach to measurements – to
standards of time and space and energy and power – we
can each become completely autonomous."
Mr. Keats is widely known for his rigorous approach to
art. Most recently, he attempted to genetically
engineer God in a petri dish, in collaboration with
researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of San
Francisco. He has also previously copyrighted his
mind in the interest of attaining immortality
(offering futures contracts on his brain to fund the
operation), and petitioned Berkeley to pass a basic
law of logic – A=A – a work commissioned by the
city's annual Arts Festival. For more information,
please see sample media coverage at the following
URLs:
http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2004-08-18/news/feature.html
http://www.kqed.org/spark/artists-orgs/jonathonke.jsp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/10/20/god.DTL
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65066,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3217423.stm
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60757,00.html
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/March-April-2003/scene_marapr03_slater.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/13/BA200448.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/16/DD58324.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/31/DD25908.DTL
. . .
Modernism is located at 685 Market Street in San
Francisco. The phone number is 415/541-0461. Gallery
hours are 10:00 am to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through
Saturday. For more information, see
http://www.modernisminc.com/artists/Jonathon_KEATS/ or
contact Mr. Keats directly at
[email protected].
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