Abstract
Pengo is an australian student of biology, amateur photographer and
software developer.
Island State
they say
no man is an island. and i am no man, for i am but a
flightless-bird.
therefore, as i am no man, if you follow my logic, i must be an island.
no, really? i grew up in sydney
with no dog, one elder sister, two parents, a few cats, and many
computers. after school i worked with computers in the contexts
of a law firm and a web shop. i have since moved to melbourne and
now study biology full time and Auslan (australian sign language)
part-time. i enjoy taking photos of living things.
i hang out around uni with my younger peers (i'm old for my year
level), and some older peers. when i'm not at uni i'm usually
online or out with friends.
Student of Biology
for me,
biology is an
intellectual substrate for creative
development. when your creative tool of choice is a software
compiler, your craft means the architecting of structures. i
could
not imagine having a more cherished catalog of patterns to draw
inspiration from than that of the limitlessly diverse ecology of the
natural world. nature offers no guide on how to read her, but
after 3600 million years of continuing evolution we find within each
organism's birth an ocean of interweaving threads of structure.
when i refer to nature, i usually refer to only the biological, living
world of nature. i often ignore the stars, the mountains and sand
on the beach, whose lessons are perhaps less subtle than the biotic
world, although perhaps more profound.
i am a student of biology. nature surrounds us, nurtures
us. in nature we find rich foods to eat and for thought. in
nature
we find ourselves.
Amateur Photographer
a tourist
will take many snaps to bring permanence to their brief
travels. the world is transient and forever changing and my time
here will be measurable in dozens of years (only two so far).
photographs offer a way of capturing a tiny slice of the space-time
continuum and placing it into the seemingly permanent digital world.
idealism aside, photography is a minimal expenditure, creative outlet
with fast and powerful results and requires little skill. as a
student of biology it also allows me to document my study without being
particularly skilled at drawing. it also lets me document my
life.
i often remind myself
that even digital photographs are ultimately impermanent.
Software Developer
i am working on a project called Qubero. you'll find a link to it
from
my site.
|
fun facts about the island of
pengo
population
|
1
|
mean
age (2000)
|
21
|
| urbanisation |
95% |
languages
spoken
|
English
(official), Auslan
|
library
books per capita
|
3*
|
electoral
system
|
self
dictatorship
|
exchange
rates
|
highly,
i like exchange
|
energy
|
the
human body uses about
100
watts while at rest
|
television
sets
(per capita)
|
nil
|
* i'm returning
them tomorrow
|