Graffiti Research Lab’s Throwies at the Maker Faire

James Powderly sat down with me and walked me through the process of making throwies. They are easy to make and fun to throw on things. Graffiti Research Labs brought in a bus and they let people make throwies to throw on things. In this video (see original post), James explains that throwies are more than little lights to throw around. GRL takes it conceptually deeper by exploring political issues around prison time for graffiti artists and bringing those issues to communities in a gentle way…

Previous Throwie Articles: howto, throwie talkies, on/off tabs, and motion sensitive. Thowie instructions and interesting discussion is over at instructables and for subscribers, here is the Digital Edition Throwie Article. I used a few seconds of footage from two GRL videos that you can watch here and here. Both vids are great. Go watch them too! Click here to get the video (MP4) delivered automatically with iTunes. This video will play on PC/Mac/Linux/PSPs and iPod video devices - Link. Make Podcast. [Posted by Bre Pettis on MAKE Blog] Continue reading

Interview with Blendid

I’ve met several talented interaction designers and new media artists who have to accept jobs they are not exactly thrilled about in order to be able to “work on their own stuff” in their leisure time. Fortunately I’ve also met creative practitioners who were brave enough to set up their own practice and do not look back. David Kousemaker, Thomas de Bruin and Tim Olden from the interaction design collective Blendid are three of them. They met at the HKU (Utrecht School of the Arts) and over the past few years they have cooperated on a number of projects about experimental interfaces.

Among the works of the Amsterdam-based studio is Demor, an immersive outdoor game experience for visually impaired children; Robotract, an augmented reality game; TouchMe, an interactive installation that allows the public to leave a personal imprint in the public space. Experimenting with the whole body of a dancer as an input device they also created the Mocap Performance. Continue reading >> [blogged by Régine on we-make-money-not-art] Continue reading

Probability of Seeing Bono in Dublin

Stunned is pleased to announce the Bono Probability Positioning System version 2: Google Bono. We know that for a visitor to Dublin an important attraction is the possibility that they may see U2 frontman and international celebrity Bono.

Google Bono (beta) is a mashup utilising Dublin’s extensive surveillance camera network in conjunction with facial recognition software, Google Maps and advanced probabilty techniques to allow visitors to determine the probability of seeing Bono in any of the most probable locations in Dublin’s city centre in real time. [blogged by Joel Holmberg on Eyebeam reBlog] Continue reading

Autonomous Robots

Mawhrin-Skel–by Deanne Achong, Kate Armstrong, Joelle Ciona, David Floren, and Matt Smith, with help from Dina González Mascaró–brings together an eclectic group of local Vancouver artists, who work variously in new media, electronics, sculpture, installation and performance, to create autonmous robots that communicate with one another wirelessly via the internet.

The project–Sheryl [Crowbot] (DA), The Problem of Other Minds (KA), TangleBot (JC), Phono, Mono, and ChartBot (DF), RadBot (MS)–is based on a fictional character–”Mawhrin-Skel”–an intelligent drone that, having failed to meet the conditions of its original purpose, is decommissioned and left to wander aimlessly through a near utopian environment where it becomes a social nuisance and prankster. This character - invented by Ian M Banks in his 1989 novel “The Player of Games” - provides an interesting social and cultural entry point into the study of robots as both cultural artifacts and autonomous members of society. Continue reading

Authenticity as Consensual Hallucination

UBERMORGEN.COM’s ART FID [F]original - Authenticity as Consensual Hallucination: Hartware MedienKunstVerein at PHOENIX Halle; in the framework of medien_kunst_netz dortmund; in cooperation with [plug.in], Basel, and overgaden, Copenhagen.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags are small Â’passive radio’ tags equipped with silicon chips and antennas “to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver” (Wikipedia). In the very near future, they will replace the barcode and will play an enormous role in logistics, theft prevention and surveillance of individuals. In an installation consisting of a stylized conveyor belt, several large-format pixel paintings (ART FID, 2005) and a mass of RFID tags, UBERMORGEN.COM scrutinizes the promises of a “beautiful new world”. Continue reading

Container Culture

Panel Discussion: RHYTHMS OF URBANITY: MAPPING THE PUBLIC SPHERE THROUGH SOCIO-POLITICAL FORCES–Thursday, May 25 at 7 pm; Room 403, Vancouver Art Gallery.

This public discussion among artists Kate Armstrong, Bobbi Kozinuk, M. Simon Levin, Laurie Long, Leonard Paul, Manuel Piña, Jean Routhier, and curator Alice Ming Wai Jim will speak to “container culture” and the idea that the public sphere is rapidly being privatized and now reflects more on the movement of goods and capital than on the expression of individual rights. in[ ]ex, their interactive, city-wide media art project, will first be exhibited in connection with Centre A and the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, Canada in June 2006, and then in San Jose, California in connection with the Container Culture exhibition at ISEA in August. Continue reading

More than the Sum of its Parts

Abstract: This paper looks at some critical and technical issues of relevance to generative art. In particular, it examines the concept of emergence, looking at its historical origins and salient issues surrounding its classification and meaning for developing generative art. These issues include the hierarchy of levels associated with emergence, recognition and ontology of patterns, prediction and determinism. Each of these are then related to attempts to create emergent phenomena with computers for artistic purposes. Several methodologies for developing emergent generative art are discussed including what is termed in the paper “the computational sublime”. This definition is considered in relation to historical and contemporary definitions of the sublime and is posited as a way for artists to suggest their work is more than the sum of its parts.” Art, Emergence, and the Computational Sublime by Jon McCormack and Alan Dorin. [Related: Ekpurosis] Continue reading

The Future of Media Arts

Ally #1, Bruce Sterling, has laid down another phenomenal rant, this time on the future of media arts. It’s a lovely stroll through ubiquitous computing, how the Internet of things maps to the 3D world, and why the art world has a critical role to play in understanding how this new blending of smart places, spimes, and systems for making visible the invisible come together, an exploration of what art becomes when the actual is the new virtual. If you have no idea what we mean when we use these phrases, it’s even more worth your time.

You can listen to the entire talk here. [blogged by Alex Steffen on World Changing] Continue reading

Using Flickr for Participatory Architecture

Rahm Rechtschaffen, an architecture student at Catholic University in Washington DC, is using Flickr to run a participatory architecture project for his senior thesis. We’ve talked about applications of open source in architecture and design before, and the potential that OS could open for transformation in those fields.

“Unlike the software programmers that participate in open source design projects, the end users of most architectural projects are neither steeped in the guiding principles of architectural design, nor are they able to the use the tools required to create a design,” says Rechtschaffen in his introduction to the project, “Although architects often go back and forth between design and client, the architect always keeps the client management and the design process separate. In an open source project the client would be directly involved in the design process.” Continue reading

a Legacy Continues

“The history of most artistic disciplines is full of figures that fulfilled several roles at once, often out of necessity. When mediums or concepts are new and inaccessible to the writers, curators, and producers who can help solidify and critically frame a discipline, itÂ’s often left to the artist to explain the new thing. Here, Paddy Johnson surveys various New Media artists who, faced with chronic lack of institutional recognition, have proactively shaped the discourse around their medium through writing and curatorial work.” Discourse Is a Weapon: a Legacy Continues by Paddy Johnson, NYFA Current. Continue reading