The Redactor

Artist Publication. Printed for and commissioned by Antony Hudek for the exhibition 'The Incidental Person' at Apexart, New York, 2010. One of a series of artist publications produced by Office of Experiments. The publication represents research into autonomous forms of research and individual artists dealing with research outside of institutions. In many cases this work seeks to examine information that has been censored or redacted, generating speculation and evidence as it does so . Artist were selected on the basis that they create their own structures - such as Rich Pell and his Center for Post Natural History. Office of Experiments is another example of this. Other featured researchers were involved with Office of Epxeriments own research projects and occupy a contested space between official research and secrecy. All have questioned the authenticity of institutions in relation to knowledge and the work is set in the context of institutional critique. The research reflects Whites work as a former Director of O+I, the group which took over from the Artist Placement Group and on whose ideas Antony Hudek used for the exhibition 'The Incidental Person'

Exploring Dark Places

Over the last 18 months, Office of Experiments, led by artists Neal White and Steve Rowell, have engaged in the Overt Research Project gathering together original documentation of sites of experimentation, intelligence and knowledge not normally accessible to the public. This research brings together a range of issues concerning the UK and its techno-scientific and military complex, and the role of the artist in an experimental society. The outputs of this work have been aggregated into a database, and the first version of this - 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition' was part of the larger exhibition that White co-curated at John Hansard Gallery in 2009-10. In addition to discussing the act of documenting sensitive sites such as Corsham Computer Centre, ISEEE and Porton Down, Neal White will also introduce the first archive to be obtained by the Office of Experiments as a part of this project. Donated by the campaigner and activist Mike Kenner, it contains catalogued material of over 30 years of personal research and requests for information to Porton Down, the Cabinet Office and others implicated in experiments involving the spraying of the public with alleged toxic materials. Kenner's work has been so sustained over such a long period, that his knowledge has in turn been co-opted by Porton Down administration, who forward awkward enquiries on to him directly. This tactic turns Kenner into part of the machine that he resists. The talk will reflect on the issues raised by the work of artists and activists operating as independent researchers in a broader context of examining experimental systems, and in a context of socially-engaged arts practices

Overt Research Project- 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition'

Directed by artist researcher Neal White, Office of Experiments collaborated with researcher and artist Steve Rowell a project manager at the Center for Land Use Interpretation for 18 months in an exchange of methods, standard and experimental, fieldwork and mapping processes. The development of a specifically named research method 'Overt Research' was used to label an inversion of the direction of technologies and techniques exploited in surveillance and security control, and was used in this research to document both the real and imaginary spaces of secrecy in the UK, initially near to Southampton. Using photographic and GIS data sites of experimentation, intelligence and knowledge not normally accessible to the public were brought together in a drupal database. With a taxonomy and vocabulary based on levels of transparency of sites the research output brought together discourse concerning the UK and its techno-scientific and military complex and the public imaginary in relation to these sites. 'A Fieldguide to Dark Places - South Edition' was a central part of the larger exhibition, Dark Places, that White co-curated at John Hansard Gallery in 2009-10. ORP was launched as an 'open project' that also engages members of the public and amateur enthusiasts, and now incorporates them into the research process through attendance of planned activities and events. Many works are also included in 'Critical Dictionary' (Blackdog 2012) and were also exhibited in an installation at Blackdog Gallery, London 2012. Featured extracts from the database appeared in a 6 page article as part of Blueprint magazine edition examining new topographies. March 2010. Critical excursions / mediated bus tours using the ORP have further been supported by ESCR (Experimental Ruins, UCL, London), Big Picture (Secrets of Portland, Portland, Dorset 2011) and The Heritage Lottery Fund (London Orbital Tour 2012)

The Highest Price Ever: The Great NYSE Seat Sale of 1928–1929 and Capacity Constraints

During the 1920s the New York Stock Exchange's position as the dominant American exchange was eroding. Costs to customers, measured as bid-ask spreads, spiked when surging inflows of orders collided with the constraint created by a fixed number of brokers. The NYSE's management proposed and the membership approved a 25 percent increase in the number of seats by issuing a quarter-seat dividend to all members. An event study reveals that the aggregate value of the NYSE rose in anticipation of improved competitiveness. These expectations were justified as bid-ask spreads became less sensitive to peak volume days

The Office of experiments: experimental research in the expanded field of contemporary art.

Challenging established academic and techno-scientific enclosures of interdisciplinary or boundary research between art and other disciplines, the thesis provides an analysis of a series of critical research projects undertaken since 2004. The author argues that through critical forms of artistic research, new forms of knowledge production are possible that operate beyond current enclosures. Using Office of Experiments' (est. 2004) publicly exhibited works, research databases and publications, a body of evidence is described that represents a sustained contribution to artistic and academic discourse through collaborative and collective practice. This research and the formation of The Office of Experiments by White, provides the basis for the argument that artists are becoming engaged in ‘instituent’ forms of practice (Raunig) that are indirectly beginning to challenge the monopoly of established and hegemonic institutional spaces; the Museum and the University, gallery and the archive. In the context of interdisciplinary research, the concept of boundary objects (Gieryn and Borgdorff), an expanded field of art (Krauss), are discussed in relation to the author's concerns with critical and social practices. Using examples such as Artist Placement Group and The Center for Land Use Interpretation, it is argued that there needs to be a greater consideration and concern afforded to knowledge production developed in rigorous forms beyond the academic realm in order to fully interrogate emerging contexts of technology and science, new moral and ethical dimensions, new politics and antagonisms. It is argued that in essence, stemming from a frustration with limiting processes in academia, the published research of The Office of Experiments led by White provides examples of critical knowledge as developed by a new form of parallel institution. It is argued that such practices, when critically engaged with existing institutions of knowledge and culture, create new antagonistic spaces in which productive epistemic encounters can take place. In addition to the written thesis, the published research is presented through a browser to allow the reader to navigate documentation and traces of exhibitions, digital archives and artist publications, along with the full text of referenced citations of these works from major catalogues and published articles and journals. The database itself reflects a key dimension in the critical research practice that has attempted to present knowledge within an open model for dissemination purposes

Some assembly required: assembly bias in massive dark matter halos

We study halo assembly bias for cluster-sized halos. Previous work has found little evidence for correlations between large-scale bias and halo mass assembly history for simulated cluster-sized halos, in contrast to the significant correlation found between bias and concentration for halos of this mass. This difference in behavior is surprising, given that both concentration and assembly history are closely related to the same properties of the linear-density peaks that collapse to form halos. Using publicly available simulations, we show that significant assembly bias is indeed found in the most massive halos with $M\sim 10^{15}M_\odot$, using essentially any definition of halo age. For lower halo masses $M\sim 10^{14}M_\odot$, no correlation is found between bias and the commonly used age indicator $a_{0.5}$, the half-mass time. We show that this is a mere accident, and that significant assembly bias exists for other definitions of halo age, including those based on the time when the halo progenitor acquires some fraction $f$ of the ultimate mass at $z=0$. For halos with $M_{\rm vir}\sim 10^{14}M_\odot$, the sense of assembly bias changes sign at $f=0.5$. We explore the origin of this behavior, and argue that it arises because standard definitions of halo mass in halo finders do not correspond to the collapsed, virialized mass that appears in the spherical collapse model used to predict large-scale clustering. Because bias depends strongly on halo mass, these errors in mass definition can masquerade as or even obscure the assembly bias that is physically present. More physically motivated halo definitions using splashback should be free of this particular defect of standard halo finders.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to JCA

A high school physics instructor\u27s website: Design, implementation, and evaluation

In order to test the ability of the Internet to supplement classroom instruction, an instructor-authored WWW site crashwhite.com was developed for two Berkeley High courses: Advanced Placement (AP) physics, and college-prep physics class. The website was intended to supplement classroom instruction by making classroom materials available to students and parents outside the classroom, and to facilitate increased teacher-parent, teacher-student, and student-student communication

The Highest Price Ever: The Great NYSE Seat Sale of 1928-1929 and Capacity Constraints

A surge in orders during the stock market boom of the late 1920s collided against the constraint created by the fixed number of brokers on the New York Stock Exchange. Estimates of the determinants of individual stock bid-ask spreads from panel data reveal that spreads jumped when volume spiked, confirming contemporary observers complaints that there were insufficient counterparties. When the position of the NYSE as the dominant exchange became threatened, the management of the exchange proposed a 25 percent increase in the number of seats in February 1929 by issuing a quarter-seat dividend to all members. While such a "stock split" would be expected to leave the aggregate value of the NYSE unchanged, an event study reveals that its value rose in anticipation of increased efficiency. These expectations were justified as bid-ask spreads became less sensitive to peak volume days after the increase in seats.

Deep freeze (commissioned art work, with Neal White)

Deep Freezer I worked on a new commission for Objectif, in the basement space. The new work further develops my on-going interest in bitumen, and its temporal qualities. Drawing on the work I made with Neal White, A Quantity of Easing we created two bitumen forms, taking open cast diamond mines as a starting point (Antwerp being a capital of Diamonds in the world). Situated on a plinth with an interior visible along the perimeter of the top surface, these forms collapse through holes into the bright space below. This inversion of the extraction process, sees the bitumen slowly unfold onto the negative void of the casts. From above, the forms simply dissolve into the plinth upon which they are placed. The link between oil, the basis of the bitumen, and mining or drilling of resources, waste and the void, is implicit. The plinth itself is shown in a darkened space accessed through a Kiosk placed in the courtyard outside of the gallery. Visitors slowly lowered themselves down a ladder in to the darkness below. Facing them was the plinth, and around them the resonant audio of open source seismic data taken from a global array of sensors - developed by Anna Troisi with the Office of Experiments. Far to the left in the bottom of a liftshaft, a video plays back captured materials from diamond displays. Exiting, the visitor leaves up a stairwell to an upstairs space, which is lit by orange fluorescent tubes. A text taken from Robert Smithson text on Spiral Jetty, alluding to land art and media, is the only other element in the space. There is no access to the gallery and visitors leave via the roller door half opened to the courtyard. Going through the main entrance to the gallery upstairs, the Speedie Telstar – a work commissioned by TULCA Galway and on loan from the Museum of Computing and Communications, Galway was exhibited among works made by White that reflect on recent projects and fieldwork concerning key issues of time, with the ideas of global communications and global resource extraction. Project Elements: Deep Freezer Two bitumen casts approx 40 x 40 cm. Custom made white plinth with floating top. LED lights, wood . Speedie Telstar Sculpture; Original Front page of the New York Times following the Speedie Telstar Launch 1962; Assorted informational videos and propoganda on DVD. The Speedie Telster is a sculpture in aluminium and steel with a range of recent technologies and traditional techniques used to finish details, from 3d printing to watercolour for the solar panels. The sculpture is approxiamtely the size of the orginal at 30 inches diameter

Tuning the Hyperdrone

The HyperDrone is an instrument that generates acoustic waves taken from the data generated by seismic sensors across the surface of the entire globe. The data here is supplied by the Atomic Weapons Establishment Blacknest, Reading UK, which is part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) which monitors the ground for nuclear-scale explosions. This data is now contributing to other systems, such as early warning earthquake and tsunami alerts data.The entire network acts as a 'hyper' object, that is, a form which is too large (in scale of space/time etc), or too small in scale (of visibility etc), to be perceived by humans without the use of scientific systems. Data is arranged to be played back to generate resonance - a hyper 'drone' through the radome panel itself. The panel has been developed to work with a resonating geometric ‘tensegrity’ structure which was designed and made from aluminium and steel by Rob Smith during his artist residency at Wysing, where the Hyper Drone is currently located