It was awesome. The best wedding I ever saw, a perfect example of the wonders of multiculturalism. And it was astonishingly well organized, I wish Ale's mother was working at my university ;)
2009/12/22
2009/12/19
Une histoire de Pasteques
| Une femme tire une remorque de pastèques bien mures et bien fraiches, pour les vendre au marche. Un homme en chemin lui propose de l'aider a tirer sa remorque en échange d'une pastèque. La femme accepte l'offre avec entrain, et ils tirent la remorque ensemble. | A woman goes to the market with a trailer of fruits, to sell them there. A man on the path offer to help her in exchange of a few of her fruits. The woman gladly accepts the offer and soon enough they pull the trailer together. | |
| Passe un kilomètre, la femme un peu fatiguée et considérant l'homme bien plus fort, se met à marcher à coté de la remorque: "après tout, je le paye, je n'ai pas a tirer la remorque, et il est bien plus fort que moi, je ne peux pas aider beaucoup". | One mile later, the woman feeling tired stops pulling the trailer and starts walking on the side: "after all, I am paying him and I am not strong enough to contribute much to the pulling, he is much stronger than me." | |
| Passe un kilomètre de plus, la femme trébuche sur un caillou et se fait mal. Après discussion, elle grimpe sur la remorque avec les pastèques: "après tout, c'est moi qui le paye, normal qu'il me tire". | Another miles goes, the woman fall on a stone and hurts her leg. They discuss a bit and agree that she can climb the trailer with the fruits. | |
| Trouvant le temps long au sommet de son tas de pastèques, la femme se mit bientôt a critiquer l'allure de l'homme tirant la remorque: "a ce train la on n'est pas prêt d'arriver au marché, les meilleurs emplacements seront tous pris, il faut aller plus vite si tu veux mériter ta pastèque!" | A bit bored in the trailer, the woman soon started to criticize the speed of the man pulling the trailer: "at this speed, we will arrive late to the market, the best slots will be taken, we should go faster if you want to deserve your fruits!". | |
| Entendant ceci, l'homme se mit en colère et abandonna la remorque, qui dégringola la pente, se renversa, déversant les pastèques explosées sur le sol autour de la mégère affolée. Et la mégère de se répandre sur la méchanceté de cet homme qui la trahi en rompant le marche conclut, et rompant son gagne-pain et sa vie en chemin. | Hearing this, the man got angry and left the trailer, which rolled down the hill, fell and spread its content on the floor, around the panicked fruit seller. Panicked fruit seller who soon started to cry and shout about the evilness of this man who broke the deal and destroyed all of her potential earnings in a single move. | |
| Mais je vous le demande, qui du servant ou de la maitresse est le plus à blâmer? Le servant qui accepte un marché puis le rompt quand il se rend compte que les conditions lui paraissent insoutenables; ou la maitresse qui conclut un marché puis en pousse les conditions aux limites, sans réaliser combien elle a plus a perdre si elle dépasse les limites? | But I am asking you: who of the servant or the master is the most to blame? The servant who accepted a market but broke it when he felt that its conditions had become unacceptable; or the master who concluded a deal and then proceeded to push its conditions to the limits, without realizing that she had much more to lose if she pass the limits? |
2009/12/17
Underwater pictures
Labels:
Photography
I took some pretty awesome underwater pictures at the swimming pool of Alejandro Salinger, in the country side. The water was much clearer than in the swimming pool of the university, even though it was a private one, in a summer house, and outside, making for some amazing light effects. More to come after I get the authorization of people to publish their picture on the web....
2009/12/04
Hearts
Une exposition en plein air que j'ai trouve par hazard et beaucoup aime: des coeurs paints par diverses association, en soutien pour une campagne de publicite pour les dons d'organes. Le detail des coeurs sur Flickr (il y en a beaucoup plus que sur cette photo!)
2009/11/23
Visite de Kat, Bennyben et Cami!
La semaine derniere m'ont visite Kat, Benny et Cami. On s'est bien amuse, Kat s'est fait une copine Allemande au Chili (on ne se refait pas), Benoit et Cami sont restes plus sobres, et ils ont tous bien bronze.
La prochaine fois, il parait que c'est a moi de passer a Paris et en Asturias!
La prochaine fois, il parait que c'est a moi de passer a Paris et en Asturias!
2009/09/26
Danses Traditionelles a Rapa Nui
| J'ai pris quelques bonnes photos des danses traditionelles de Rapa Nui. | I took a few good pictures of the traditional dances in Rapa Nui. | Tome algunas buenas fotos de las bailas tradicionales en Rapa Nui. |
| Beaucoup de portraits. | A lot of portraits. | Muchos retratos. |
| Et quelques photos de groupe. | And a few group pictures. | Y algunas fotos de grupos. |
| Les filles ont tenu a poser pour des photos de groupe! | Girls asked to be taken in groups! | Las chicas preguntaron para las fotos de grupos! |
2009/09/21
Sometime we fall
| Il nous arrive de tomber... | Sometime we fall... | A veces fallamos... |
| On se sent submerge par les problemes. | Sometime we feel submerged by adversity. | Nos sentimos sin poder contra los problemas. |
| Au point de ne plus pouvoir respirer. | We can't breath anymore. | No podemos respirar mas. |
| Nos ennemis s'acharnent dans notre dos. | Our ennemies are on our back. | Los enemigos en la espalda. |
| Mais on reste debout, sous le ciel bleu. | But we still stand proud, under the blue sky. | Somos derecho, en el azul de cielo. |
| Ensemble on est plus fort. | Together we are stronger. | Juntos tenemos la fuerca. |
2009/08/31
Guitar Hero (Clone) Party
I bought a plastic guitar! (There should be a name for those "fake guitars". Any suggestions? I would go for "e-guitar" if it could not be mistaken for "electric guitar" instead of "electronic guitar"...
The model was advertized as compatible with Wii, PS2 and PS3, and came with a connector for the wii remote, a PS2 connector and a USB connector for the PS3. I hoped for the best and plugged it under Linux, it worked directly ;) Then I installed a clone of guitar hero, frets on fire ( http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/ ), and it worked almost directly as well (I had to tackle my sound settings a bit). I brought laptop and guitar to a friend's place and we played along, they loved it, I promised I would have more parties like this at my place, but I need to find out how to enter new songs into the game: so far I was writing and recording music on the Mac with GarageBand, which does not seem great to output MIDI: I will check the open source options to make music on the laptop.
I liked the concept of the wii as soon as I saw it a few years ago, and in particular of video games such as wii sports: it was due time for humanity to extend the limited range of digital peripherals (keyboard, mouse, screen and speakers) with some more (input and output, with the mindstorm lego kits becoming totally affordable). I was disapointed that it was sold as a proprietary peripheral, but it seems that nowadays the wii can be connected to any machine with bluetooth, and my guitar is supposed to connect to Windows and Linux alike. The potential for such peripheral is huge, and I think children might again have the incentive to learn how to program at home.
New innovative courses are surging everywhere, with university courses teaching how to program (and sell!) applications on the iPhone ( http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/20/iphone ), how to build a computer from electronic components up to the operating system and games running on it ( http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/ ), how to use 3d printers to prototype any invention in a matter of days ( http://fab.cba.mit.edu/), and the course I taught with others about how to program lego mindstorm kits ( https://wiki.dcc.uchile.cl/TallerMindstorms/doku.php ).
I hope I will teach someday a course about how to program pedagogic games and make them open source: the games I tested on http://www.lumosity.com/ are so simple that a second year student could program them (and yet learn things by doing so), and yet are fun (and expensive: 10$ a month for access!) and usefull (seems that psychologues help designing them and use the statistical data produced bu the users for their research), so that a student programming those games would fel usefull in addition to have fun...
As I wrote in an article recently submitted to some colleagues:
"As the access to high level technology is democratizing faster and
farther than ever, there is litle excuse left for traditional
courses where students are made to learn skills in a limited
theoretical way before entering the workforce where they will put
this knowledge to practice. Instead, students need to be *taught
to learn* through their own experience and reasoning, as they will
need to continue to learn a long time after they left the school
and university system, in a world where technological change has
outpaced the rythm of the human generations. "
Now, I just need to find the time to hack existing games to make them more pedagogical, to learn how to put them in Facebook, and let the world learn how fun it is to learn!!!
The model was advertized as compatible with Wii, PS2 and PS3, and came with a connector for the wii remote, a PS2 connector and a USB connector for the PS3. I hoped for the best and plugged it under Linux, it worked directly ;) Then I installed a clone of guitar hero, frets on fire ( http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/ ), and it worked almost directly as well (I had to tackle my sound settings a bit). I brought laptop and guitar to a friend's place and we played along, they loved it, I promised I would have more parties like this at my place, but I need to find out how to enter new songs into the game: so far I was writing and recording music on the Mac with GarageBand, which does not seem great to output MIDI: I will check the open source options to make music on the laptop.
I liked the concept of the wii as soon as I saw it a few years ago, and in particular of video games such as wii sports: it was due time for humanity to extend the limited range of digital peripherals (keyboard, mouse, screen and speakers) with some more (input and output, with the mindstorm lego kits becoming totally affordable). I was disapointed that it was sold as a proprietary peripheral, but it seems that nowadays the wii can be connected to any machine with bluetooth, and my guitar is supposed to connect to Windows and Linux alike. The potential for such peripheral is huge, and I think children might again have the incentive to learn how to program at home.
New innovative courses are surging everywhere, with university courses teaching how to program (and sell!) applications on the iPhone ( http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/20/iphone ), how to build a computer from electronic components up to the operating system and games running on it ( http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/ ), how to use 3d printers to prototype any invention in a matter of days ( http://fab.cba.mit.edu/), and the course I taught with others about how to program lego mindstorm kits ( https://wiki.dcc.uchile.cl/TallerMindstorms/doku.php ).
I hope I will teach someday a course about how to program pedagogic games and make them open source: the games I tested on http://www.lumosity.com/ are so simple that a second year student could program them (and yet learn things by doing so), and yet are fun (and expensive: 10$ a month for access!) and usefull (seems that psychologues help designing them and use the statistical data produced bu the users for their research), so that a student programming those games would fel usefull in addition to have fun...
As I wrote in an article recently submitted to some colleagues:
"As the access to high level technology is democratizing faster and
farther than ever, there is litle excuse left for traditional
courses where students are made to learn skills in a limited
theoretical way before entering the workforce where they will put
this knowledge to practice. Instead, students need to be *taught
to learn* through their own experience and reasoning, as they will
need to continue to learn a long time after they left the school
and university system, in a world where technological change has
outpaced the rythm of the human generations. "
Now, I just need to find the time to hack existing games to make them more pedagogical, to learn how to put them in Facebook, and let the world learn how fun it is to learn!!!
2009/08/12
Pollution on Santiago
Labels:
Moody
I am sick. I was very tired before I went to Pucon, and since I came back to Santiago I have headaches and pain in the eyes, and I feel exhausted, whether I sleep 6 hours or 10 hours a night, and I find it hard to concentrate on any non-technical work.
A colleague complains about having a cold, and points to several other ones having colds as well. I do NOT have a cold, my nose is not running, my throat is sore but without any glaires. And after asking my colleague for his symptoms, I don't think he has a cold either, it just seems that people cannot think that the pollution is making them sick, because that would make them think about leaving Chile and/or Santiago.
Typing "Contaminacion Santiago Chile" in Google yields various interesting articles (in Spanish), each of them mentioning that Santiago is the second most poluted city in Latin America, and one of the most polluted of earth, one of them (http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/07/04/info/1215188220_148075.htm ) predicting the worst for 2010, next year. Yet this is not a new problem: the sesarch returns also articles from 2006 with titles such as "Santiago de Chile: el peor aire de América Latina". I am supposed to go and visit some appartment in a less polluted part of Santiago, but I don't hope for major improvements: the place where work is polluted, the center where I go shopping is polluted, and moving to sleep to the east side of the city will not change the fact that I spend two third of my life having headaches...
A colleague complains about having a cold, and points to several other ones having colds as well. I do NOT have a cold, my nose is not running, my throat is sore but without any glaires. And after asking my colleague for his symptoms, I don't think he has a cold either, it just seems that people cannot think that the pollution is making them sick, because that would make them think about leaving Chile and/or Santiago.
Typing "Contaminacion Santiago Chile" in Google yields various interesting articles (in Spanish), each of them mentioning that Santiago is the second most poluted city in Latin America, and one of the most polluted of earth, one of them (http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/07/04/info/1215188220_148075.htm ) predicting the worst for 2010, next year. Yet this is not a new problem: the sesarch returns also articles from 2006 with titles such as "Santiago de Chile: el peor aire de América Latina". I am supposed to go and visit some appartment in a less polluted part of Santiago, but I don't hope for major improvements: the place where work is polluted, the center where I go shopping is polluted, and moving to sleep to the east side of the city will not change the fact that I spend two third of my life having headaches...
2009/08/11
Pucon
Labels:
travel
I went to Pucon for a conference on Astronomia. I got some nice contacts, maybe I will start to work on some Astronomy problems and visit some observatories in the North. The weather was good while we were meeting indoor, and crappy on the excursion on Sunday: so I don't have too many pictures. I got sick when I came back to Santiago, puffy eyes, feeling exhausted: I guess I can blame the pollution.
2009/08/02
"Fractal" concert
I went yesterday to a beautiful concert from the band "Fractal" (http://www.fractal.cl/). I took many pictures, and selected more than a few on Flickr. I will go to Pucon for a conference on Astronomy next week, I expect to bring back some nice pictures: see you then,
2009/07/17
Mountaining soon?
Wednesday an undergraduate student from the CS department accosted me in the metro and started to chat with me: I had taught him how to juggle at last year's barbecue (in September 2008), but we almost never talked since, and it was the first time any Chilean student came to talk to me like this. We discovered a common interest in hiking and mountaining, he promised to invite me in his group of students who regularly go out (I missed this weeck trip to Machu Pichu :( ) It is a breaktrhough: no prof here seems into this kind of thing, tourists who stay long enough are too poor and tourists that stay a short time are too busy doing otherthings, and the students I had befriended sofar were more into heavy-metal than anything else (including studies). I am quite hopeful about this, I was starting to fear that I turned into someone like one of the postdocs I knew in Waterloo, who was always negative about everything with everybody trying to befriend him: but at least this student seems to have a good opinion of me, it might just be that things are more slow socially here than in Canada.
2009/06/08
Trip to Valdivia
This WE I was in Valdivia for Camila's birthday. With a 9h trip back and forth, I tried for the first time sleeping in a bus with bed, it was very comfortable! In Valdivia I taught juggling with fire, glass etching, and about taking photographies to a bunch of 15 year old girls and boys. It was a lot of fun!
2009/05/29
Paparazzi
| Durant mon voyage au Nord du Chili, j'ai pris quelques photos d'une inconnue qui mangeait a une autre table dans le meme restaurant avec sa famille. A son depart je lui ai montre une photo, et lui ai demande l'autorisation de publier mes photographies, afin qu'elle puisse les telecharger. Elle a accepte et je lui ai donne une de mes cartes de contact avec l'adresse de mon site de photographies. Aujourd'hui elle m'a envoye un gentil courrier pour me remercier. J'adore quand je me comporte de maniere un peu deviante, et que tout le monde en est content a la fin. Une victoire de plus pour le non-comformisme! | In a recent trip to the North of Chile, I took some pictures of a girl, that I did not know, who was eating at another table in the same restaurant with her family. When she left I showed her one picture, and asked her autorisation to publish those pictures, so that she could download them. She agreed and I gave her one of my nice contact cards. Today she sent me a nice email to thank me. I love it when I behave like the weirdest of the weirdo, an original of sort, and everybody is happy in the end. One more victory for non-comformism! | En el viaje al val del Elqui, yo tome algunas fotos de une chica bella, quien estaba comiendo en el mismo restaurante a una otra mesa, sin su autorización. Cuando ella salio del restaurante, yo la mostré una foto y pedi su autorizacion para publicarlas, de maniera que ella podria descargarlas. Ella agrego, y recibí unas de mi tarjetas de visita. Hoy recibí su linda respuesta en correo, Me gusta de ser loco, cuando hace la felicitad de otros. Una otra victoria para la non-conformidad! |
je t'ecris pour les fotos et en verite elles sont tres belles, elles ont un cachet distinct et le nom surtout me plait beaucoup... La belle fumeuse... au revoir, bonne continuation | I write to you for the pictures, and truly they are beautiful, they have a distinct style and I especially like the name ... Beautiful Smoker... Bye, fare well | te escribo por las fotos y la verdad que estan muy lindas tienen un toke distinto y el nombre sobre todo me encanto... Bella Fumadora... adiozz ke estes muy bn |
Group Picture
| Cherchez moi! | Search for me! | Busca me! |
| Photo du Departement d'Informatique | Picture of the department of Computer Science | Fotografía del Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación. |
2009/05/27
Teaching Arts and Sciences Together
I never heard someone who expressed better one of my core belief and motif of grief for current behaviors in academia. This was in 2002. Did anything change since then?
2009/05/25
Écrire
Toujours avoir avec soi de quoi écrire.
Garder, archiver, chaque bout de papier.
L'oublier, y repenser et y revenir.
Rassembler ses idées, les classifier, les publier.
En faire bénéficier les autres, leur enseigner.
N'est pas toujours évident ce qui vient naturellement.
Le transcrire, pour le partager, ou pour la postérité.
C'est de la que vient tout enseignement.
Jérémy, Spa Cochiguaz, Chile, May 2009
http://www.cochiguaz.com
http://www.valledeelqui.cl
2009/05/18
Pedagogical Technology Center
Here is my answer to Luis von Ahn's question of the day on his blog:
Question of the Day If you had $100 million, how would you use it to improve a university? I'd like a solution with maximal impact.Depends of what you start with (the level of the university before using the grant), and what kind of impact you want (increased popularity, increased enrollment, increased scientific output?) and whether you aim for the short or long term. I would use it to fund my favorite project: create a center similar to the Entertainment Technology Center (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/), only for pedagogy, with project oriented courses for undergraduate students, where they have to collaborate in order to develop pedagogical material of their choice (paintings, comic books for the art students, video animations, video games for the CS students, etcetera) for courses they took in the previous year, and to submit each project to a competition where the students having to learn the related material vote the material they prefer.
- The students designing the pedagogical material will
- relearn material they saw before, understanding it enough to explain it;
- practice media production (painting/drawing/animating for art students, programming/animating for CS students, telling History through a story for History students, describing/summarizing the Geography of a full country or continent through a virtual world for Geography students);
- produce usefull content (as opposed to the Reversi game I was asked to program in undergrad, which was very frustrating as there were already many instances available)
- The students judging the pedagogical material will
- see the material they have to learn in a different light. Same content, different support, helps to motivate learners.
- will have to ponder the differences between projects and explain why they prefer one to the other, making them think about what is taught.
- will get new material each year.
2009/05/13
Re: On marche sur la tête !
Un ami americain (Jason Hartline) a travaille dans un papier de recherche sur les encheres digitales ( Competitive Auctions, with Andrew Goldberg, Anna Karlin, Mike Saks, and Andrew Wright, Games and Economic Behavior, 2006.), ou l'artiste (en general, le producteur d'un document numerique, ou l'equipre productrice incluant l'editeur et les artistes impliques) fixe le prix TOTAL P de son oeuvre (i.e. prix de production + benefice desire), et met aux encheres sur Internet le droit d'acces et de copie pour une date fixee (et fait une pub minimale, par exemple en relachant gratuitement un extrait de son oeuvre, ou une version en basse resolution, ou en redifusant gratuitement des oeuvres passees). Chaque acheteur potentiel indique combien il est pret a payer pour une copie de l'oeuvre. A la date dite, on calcule un prix seuil p de maniere a ce que le nombre de gens ayant propose de payer plus de p, multiplie par p, donne le prix total P. Il est important que les gens ayant propose plus de p ne payent que p pour encourager les gens a etre sincere, et que les gens ayant propose moins de p ne recoivent pas de copie de l'oeuvre.
Pour moi les principaux interets de ce systeme, itere dans le temps sur plusieurs oeuvres d'un meme auteur sont les suivants:
- Les acheteurs font la publicite. Plus il y a d'acheteurs, plus le prix baisse. Pas besoin de payer des affiches, des pages de pub a la tele: les acheteurs ont INTERET a faire la publicite de l'oeuvre qui va etre vendue aux encheres.
- Les acheteurs n'ont pas interet a difuser la copie qu'ils ont achete immediatement apres l'enchere. A contrario de la situation quand on achete un CD a prix fixe, et ou on ne perd rien a en diffuser une copie; diffuser une copie achetee aux encheres immediatement apres l'enchere encourage les gens a ne pas participer a l'enchere suivante, ce qui fera monter les prix.
- Dans une perspective a plus long terme, les acheteurs ont d'une certaine maniere interet a diffuser la copie qu'ils ont achete durant l'enchere pour l'oeuvre SUIVANTE, de maniere a assurer un maximum de publicite a cette nouvelle oeuvre, et un maximum de participation a l'enchere associee.
- Cout de distribution reduit et partiellement reporte sur les acheteurs qui veulent s'organiser. Si plusieurs acheteurs se groupent pour faire une seule offre plus importante (et accroitre leur chance d'optenir une copie, qu'ils se diffuseront parmis eux-meme), ca n'est pas de la triche et est integre au systeme: ces acheteurs ont seulement pris sur eux-meme le cout de distribution de l'oeuvre (reduisant le cout en bande passante sur le site distributeur). Si un acheteur se propose de graver des CDs ou d'imprimer des BDs et de les vendre a ceux qui n'ont pas pu participer a l'enchere (soit qu'ils ont oublie, perdu, ou ne connaissaient pas), c'est dans son droit, et il profite a l'auteur en gerant une distribution locale (supprimant les prix de stockage). Dans l'interet des acheteurs ET des vendeurs, le site de distribution de l'auteur peut proposer d'indexer ceux des acheteurs qui proposent de stocker et redistribuer les copies, avec leurs prix.
Je ne vous cache pas qu'il y a des inconvenients (dites moi si vous en voyez d'autres).
- Le plus important, est que l'auteur doit accepter un prix fixe pour son oeuvre, plutot qu'un prix croissant avec le nombre de ventes, et doit estimer a l'avance combien il peut tirer de son travail. Ca n'est pas si nouveau, tout modele commercial comprend de telles estimations, et il me semble que certains auteurs vendent deja parfois les droits sur leur oeuvre pour un prix fixe. Ici, la meme chose, mais ils le vendent directement a leurs fans, et obtiennent en retour un potentiel de publicite illimite.
- Un second inconvenient, qui me semble plus illusoire et paranoiaque mais neanmoins reel, est qu'une grande companie X peut ruiner la dynamique de ce systeme avec un budget relativement limite: il suffit de participer a toutes les encheres et de redistribuer gratuitement immediatement apres les encheres les copies de chaque oeuvre. Les acheteurs auront alors perdu de l'argent par rapport aux non acheteurs, et seront encourages a ne pas participer a l'enchere suivante, jusqu'a ce que soit l'auteur ne puisse vendre son oeuvre (pas assez d'acheteurs a un prix raisonable) ou ne la vende qu'a la companie X, qui se retrouvera avec le monopole de l'oeuvre, pourra cesser sa politique de distribution gratuite et fixer son propre prix. Une maniere de contrer cette strategie adverse serait de voter une loi autorisant l'auteur a fixer une borne superieure au prix auquel une copie de son oeuvre peut etre vendue. A contrario des lois Hadopi et autres, cette loi ne peut s'appliquer en pratique qu'aux grandes companies et sera donc appliquee un nombre limite de fois (a contrario des lois regissant le comportement des internautes, autrement plus difficiles a appliquer).
Quelle que soit la validite de l'approche decrite ci-dessous, il me semble clair qu'il faut developper des modeles alternatifs de distribution, et que les reseaux de distribution existant (note: je ne parle pas des editeurs) n'ont pas de raisons financieres a le faire au profit des acheteurs de base et des artistes (ou equipes productrices).
Je crois personellement que c'est le role des chercheurs publics (i.e. dans les universites, ou dans la communaute open-source) de definir et de comparer divers protocoles alternatif, le role des artistes d'etre pret a les tester en pratique (et essuyer quelques echecs retentissants, aka Gibson et son roman en ligne), le role des utilisateurs de garder l'esprit curieux et ouvert a ces experimentations, dans l'espoir de reinventer une maniere plus saine d'encourager la creation et de la distribuer.
Meme si le systeme universitaire Francais (et, dans une moindre mesure, mondial) pousse les chercheurs a chercher les profits directs, il est dans la tradition de la recherche academique de viser un profit indirect a la societe: c'est la difference fondamentale entre la recherche privee de la recherche publique.
J'inclus les commentaires de Bruno (que j'ai legerement edites sans les detourner de leur sens, voyez les originaux sur son blog en cas de doute).
eh bien en gros voilà : je ne suis pas 100% partisan de l’auto-édition, qui revient à mélanger plusieurs métiers, alors qu’il y a des gens qui accomplissent très bien les tâches complémentaires à celle de l’auteur, et qui n’ont aucune raison d’être privés de leur boulot. L’autre grosse objection, tu l’as soulevée toi-même : la solution que tu suggères impose un revenu (hypothétique) fixe, alors qu’il est légitime qu’un auteur, qui le plus souvent ne vit pas à la hauteur de la valeur de son boulot, puisse espérer qu’une de ses oeuvres “décolle” et rapporte de quoi compenser les travaux déficitaires antérieurs. Souvent, par exemple, on bosse pendant des mois sur des projets qui finalement ne donneront rien. Si un jour un projet “cartonne”, eh bien c’est la surprise, mais ça vient aussi compenser le manque à gagner. En outre, il ne faut pas négliger la fonction “banquier” de l’éditeur. Une BD, par exemple, demande une bonne année de boulot. Les grandes maisons d’édition peuvent verser aux auteurs des avances sur droit, de quoi bouffer le temps de faire les pages. Un auteur auto-édité ne peut réaliser son oeuvre qu’à condition de vivre chez ses parents ou de gagner au loto… Encore un truc auquel ne pensent pas ceux qui pensent que l’Internet peut “libérer” les gentils auteurs des méchantes maisons d’édition… ;)
Admettons que le principe n’empêche pas la collaboration avec une maison d’édition, mais j’ai peine à croire qu’un éditeur acceptera l’idée d’un rendement fixe, alors qu’ils en sont déjà tous à essayer d’équilibrer leur catalogue entre les oeuvres qui se vendent “moyen” et celles qui compensent par de bonnes ventes. En BD c’est typique : beaucoup de trucs sont publiés et rapportent à peine de quoi payer l’impression, alors que les bonnes ventes permettent, justement, de financer les “expériences”, les trucs qui ne vont pas forcément être rentables. Avec un système auto-financé, on tendrait à ne publier que les choses rentables (idem pour un auteur auto-publié, d’ailleurs). La notion de risque disparaissant, les auteurs seraient poussés à faire des choses qui ont le maximum de chances de plaire au public, ce qui tend à minimiser la créativité au profit du “commercial”. Là encore, je ne crois pas que ce soit une bonne solution pour la culture… ;)
Deux commentaires personnels:
- Je suis bien d'accord a propos du rendement fixe. Mon espoir c'est qu'une oeuvre qui cartonne, meme si elle ne conduit pas a un revenu plus grand, conduit a une publicite plus grande, qui permet de fixer un prix total bien plus eleve pour l'oeuvre suivante: la notion de revenu variable est toujours la, meme si un peu decalee dans le temps et plutot basee sur la reputation (d'un editeur aussi bien qu'un auteur d'ailleurs).
- Pour les risques, je ne sais pas: il me semble qu'en reduisant de beaucoup le prix de distribution (plus exactement, on le reporte sur le public, de maniere a ce qu'il soit proportionnel a l'impact de l'oeuvre), on encourage justement les editeurs a financer des oeuvres originales, en limitant l'investissement au cout de production. Bien sur, ca limitera les debutants sans reputation a des oeuvres a faible cout de production, et n'encouragera que les producteurs (artistes ou editeurs) qui se sont fait une bonne reputation a investir dans des oeuvres a fort coup de production. Mais n'est-ce pas deja le cas, et une necessite de tout systeme de production?
2009/05/12
Art
"Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." Amy Lowell
This was one of the famous quotes that Afsaneh put at the end of her emails. She did not put the author usually, but a quick Google Search indicated that this one is from Amy Lowell, an American woman from the previous century. So maybe this is the reaction of my personality to the world I am living in. Or maybe it is just me exploring variations of a concept explored in a previous drawing.
Even when I can't focus on work, I am able to focus quite well on drawing: since I feel the urge to DO something and am unable to do any work, at least drawing gives me an outlet and a reason to be happy of what I did with my day (outside of waiting in lines for visas and police reports...)
As a consequence I started drawing more regularly, and inking old drawings too: -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lejyby/sets/72157617866553342/ I would like to find someone to give those some colors...
This was one of the famous quotes that Afsaneh put at the end of her emails. She did not put the author usually, but a quick Google Search indicated that this one is from Amy Lowell, an American woman from the previous century. So maybe this is the reaction of my personality to the world I am living in. Or maybe it is just me exploring variations of a concept explored in a previous drawing.
Even when I can't focus on work, I am able to focus quite well on drawing: since I feel the urge to DO something and am unable to do any work, at least drawing gives me an outlet and a reason to be happy of what I did with my day (outside of waiting in lines for visas and police reports...)
As a consequence I started drawing more regularly, and inking old drawings too: -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lejyby/sets/72157617866553342/ I would like to find someone to give those some colors...
2009/05/08
Morning Art
| I had a stupid nightmare, I was stuck in a world with my clarinet, supposed to have a fight with someone I did not know. I wanted to escape but could not, when I woke up. I had this drawing in my mind when I woke up, and drew it even before taking breakfast. While uploading it there was an earthquake, the building oscillating for five good minutes. Another thing I will have learned here, to ignore the small worries such as this one, an earthquake so minor people don't even talk about it in the newspapers. If I publish this drawing it should not worry people: I just am better when I put on paper what I feel. Also, I find it beautiful, and I wonder how many people will recognize themselves in it as much as I do... | |
| This morning I was supposed to go early to administrative offices to renew my visa. I woke up at 7am, it is now 10:30am, I am still in pajama in front of my computer, I did not see the time fly as I drew this, as I cooked a full breakfast, ate it, thought about the earthquake and wrote a note to someone who might never read it, because I might never send it, because I hate when I send her news and she does not answer. I had another drawing in my head, the same as this one, but with curtains over the jail, curtains made of fake hair, so that people cannot see nor hear the little guy in my head. Now it is 11:11am and I drew it, now I will finally go take my shower and go to wait in line to renew my visa, and go to the university to see talks, trying to hide as I can the little man trapped inside my head... |
2009/05/06
Chili
Je suis de retour au Chili. J'avais trois places pour moi tout seul dans l'avion, j'ai bien dormi. Il faisait beau en arrivant au dessus de la cordillere, j'ai pris plein de photos des montagnes, des nuages. Il commence a faire froid dans l'appartement, j'ai sorti le chauffage electrique, c'est l'hiver qui arrive un peu tot. Je n'ai pas repris le sport, je vais essayer d'aller me faire evaluer Samedi a un gymnase, et m'inscrire pour des cours de Yoga et de Kapoera. J'explore de nouvelles manieres d'organiser mon travail, remplacant mes listes de choses a faire sur papier par un grand fichier de projets (org-mode sous Emacs). J'ai invite des gens a une soiree crepe, il faut que j'achete une nouvelle poele! Bises a tous, prenez soin de vous, Jeremy
2009/05/01
La faim du tigre
Rene Barjavel, "La faim du tigre", 1966
Et ca n'a jamais ete moins vrai depuis!
2009/04/27
Je sais qu'elle m'attendra
J'ai rencontre la mort, eternelle.
C'est une jeune fille, une demoiselle.
Elle m'a souri, elle etait belle.
Je l'ai caressee, elle etait impatiente.
Moi j'etait prudent, elle me trouvait si lent!
Je lui ai dit, tu sais, il me faut du temps.
Du temps pour aimer, du temps pour apprecier,
pour voir la vie dans tous ses reflets,
pour clarifier, planter et voir pousser.
Elle a compris, je crois.
J'espere qu'elle ne m'en veut pas.
Je sais qu'elle attendra.
Jeremy LeJyBy, Avril 2009
2009/04/26
Underwater pictures
I had a very good photo session with Nicolas and Sophie, the swimming pools of France look definitely cleaner than those from Chile!
2009/04/05
Concert de l'orchestre symphonique de l'universite du Chili
J'ai ete a un concert de l'orchestre symphonique de l'universite du Chili, qui jouait le Bolero de Ravel, un de mes morceaux de musique classique favoris (et un des premiers que j'ai joue en orchestre). J'ai ete agreablement surpris par les pieces precedent le bolero, et notemment par un clarinetiste soliste Polonais tres bon, qui "parle" avec sa clarinette (pareil que moi, mais en mieux!).
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