Tuesday, October 04, 2005
A brief overview of the history of the cubes
I am eagerly awaiting to hear that my new hosting arrangements are ready for the Light Cubes web site - as for several months I have not had sufficient space to upload what now amounts to about 25 megabytes of web pages and images - with a good amount more in various stages of development.
It has been almost nine years since I first became aware of the existence of the virtual light and colour cubes. It was in November 1996, a few months after Habitat II, the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements, a short time after Dr. Wally N'Dow had asked me to come up with ideas for a Journey to Istanul + 5 - the five year review of Habitat II - and he had suggested using colours to highlight the roles of the many non-governmental partners whose role would be vital in creating sustainable cities and adequate shelter for all.
Until then, I had made very little use of colours on the web sites I had developed - including what had become the official web site for Habitat II. Much of my attention was on the role of participatory web sites - and more generally of participatory online processes - and the opportunities they could offer to strengthen and expand broad-based opportunities for participation in global - as well as local and national - policy and decision-making processes.
Meanwhile a colleague - Mike Gurstein - with whom I had worked in exploring the uses of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - had been preparing a conference in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for which provisions were being made for real time remote participation in the conference using IRC, and I noticed that the conference web site incorporated tables in which the cells had different colours.
This inspired me to play around with variationss of the background colour - using <td background="#rrggbb"> for the various cells - and created a number of pages that I used to explore some spectra created by systematically varying one or other of the r, g and b parameters.
More later.
It has been almost nine years since I first became aware of the existence of the virtual light and colour cubes. It was in November 1996, a few months after Habitat II, the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements, a short time after Dr. Wally N'Dow had asked me to come up with ideas for a Journey to Istanul + 5 - the five year review of Habitat II - and he had suggested using colours to highlight the roles of the many non-governmental partners whose role would be vital in creating sustainable cities and adequate shelter for all.
Until then, I had made very little use of colours on the web sites I had developed - including what had become the official web site for Habitat II. Much of my attention was on the role of participatory web sites - and more generally of participatory online processes - and the opportunities they could offer to strengthen and expand broad-based opportunities for participation in global - as well as local and national - policy and decision-making processes.
Meanwhile a colleague - Mike Gurstein - with whom I had worked in exploring the uses of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - had been preparing a conference in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for which provisions were being made for real time remote participation in the conference using IRC, and I noticed that the conference web site incorporated tables in which the cells had different colours.
This inspired me to play around with variationss of the background colour - using <td background="#rrggbb"> for the various cells - and created a number of pages that I used to explore some spectra created by systematically varying one or other of the r, g and b parameters.
More later.
Dedication
Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim
In the name of Allah,
Supremely Compassionate, Supremely Merciful
All Praise be to Allah,
the Sustainer and Cherisher of the Worlds
Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
Lord of the Day of Judgement
Thee alone do we worship;
Thine aid alone do we seek.
Reveal Your direct path
The path of those who surrender
to Your sublime Guidance,
Not of those who stray from the path;
Nor who are subjected to Your Wrath
Al-Fatiha - Opening verse of the Holy Qu'ran
In the name of Allah,
Supremely Compassionate, Supremely Merciful
All Praise be to Allah,
the Sustainer and Cherisher of the Worlds
Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
Lord of the Day of Judgement
Thee alone do we worship;
Thine aid alone do we seek.
Reveal Your direct path
The path of those who surrender
to Your sublime Guidance,
Not of those who stray from the path;
Nor who are subjected to Your Wrath
Al-Fatiha - Opening verse of the Holy Qu'ran
