vertical progress is the blog and information collection spot of martin pichlmair. it deals with various aspect of contemporary culture and features no humour in the about article.

martin pichlmair is a media artist living and working mostly in vienna, austria. since he received his doctoral degree in computer sciences he works as assistant professor at the institute for design and assessment of technology at the vienna university of technology.

his art pieces were shown at various media art festivals and exhibitions. recent shows including ars electronica, ISEA and the microwave international festival for new media art.

in his research, he focuses on theory and practise of interactive art and design – from game design and physical interfaces to open source development models and community media.

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the concept of “vertical progress”

i first stumbled upon the term “vertical progress” in the book “frühstück am wegesrand” (“roadside picnic”, also published as “stalker”) by boris and arkadi strugatzky. the word describes sudden revolutional evolution. it is primarily used by null physicists. today, an incident of vertical progress would be called a singularity.

roadside picnic is a hilarious read (as all other strugatzky works). it is available as a free download here. there is also a free minimal music release at archive.org.

what am i trying to say when i call this weblog “vertical progress”? maybe the second line – building blocks for utopias – gives a hint…

technicalitites

embedding into the landscape