Networked_Performance » tangible

Live Stage: Rachel Beth Egenhoefer [London]

jo — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:46:25 +0000

THURSDAY CLUB :: Rachel Beth Egenhoefer: Knitting Intangibles :: April 17, 2008; 6-8 pm :: Seminar Rooms at Ben Pimlott Building (Ground Floor, right), Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross :: FREE, ALL ARE WELCOME.

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer will be presenting work in progress from her residency that explores the motion of knitting and the motion of code. Some of the work includes a knit zoetrope, interactive virtual knitting, knitting with the Nintendo Wii and others. She describes the interactive virtual knitting as demonstrating the motion from the knitting actions are tracked and translated into a visualization of knit code displayed on screen (and eventually on the web). The action of engaging or knitting with the piece naturally produces a physical cloth, while it also shows that code is constructed from the same types of patterns to create a type of virtual cloth (or software). Visually the piece will reflect our bodily interaction with machines, tracing the circular motion of the needles to our body’s give and take of working at a machine. Cloth is often seen as an element of comfort and protection. Machines are perceived to assist us with advancing technology and communication while they are also harming our bodies with carpel tunnel syndrome, back pain, sore eyes, and other strain as we interact with them. This piece explores that delicate space in-between.

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer considers her Commodore 64 Computer and Fischer Price Loom to be defining objects of her childhood. She creates tactile representations of cyclical data structures in candy and knitting and is currently exploring the intersection of textiles, technology, and the body in contemporary art practice. Rachel Beth is currently working as an Artist in Residence at the University of Brighton, Lighthouse Brighton, and Furtherfield London as part of the Arts Council England Initiative, commissioned by Distributed South and curated by SCAN and Space Media.

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer received her BFA from the Fiber department with a concentration in Digital Media from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and was an MFA fellow at the University of California, San Diego where she also was a graduate researcher at UCSD’s Center for Research and Computing in the Arts (CRCA). Her work has been exhibited internationally in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) London, the Banff Centre for the Arts, ISEA 2004 and others. She formerly worked on the editorial staff of Artbyte Magazine in New York City, and continues freelance writing on art, modern society, and media culture.

The Reconfigurable House in Belgium Now

jo — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:44:49 +0000

Reconfigurable House 2.0 from haque d+r on Vimeo.

Tangible and Embedded Interaction

jo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:10:47 +0000

[Image: Reactable] International Journal of Arts and Technology (IJART) Special Issue: Tangible and Embedded Interaction :: Guest Editors: Eva Hornecker, The Open University, UK; Albrecht Schmidt, University of Duisburg, Germany; Brygg Ullmer, Louisiana State University, USA.

With technological advances, computing has progressively moved beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. As physical artifacts gain new computational behaviours, they become reprogrammable, customisable, repurposable, and interoperable in rich ecologies and diverse contexts. They also become more complex, and require intense design effort in order to be functional, usable, and enjoyable. Designing such systems requires interdisciplinary thinking. Their creation must not only encompass software, electronics, and mechanics, but also the system’s physical form and behaviour, its social and physical milieu, aesthetics, and beyond.

The new conference series “Tangible and Embedded Interaction” (TEI), which first took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2007, and 2008 in Bonn, Germany, demonstrates the international interest and the many dimensions of the work in this area. It has had a multidisciplinary audience with artists, designers, technology builders, ethnographers and HCI specialists, even touching upon robotics and interactive buildings.

We invite short (statements / works in progress / design sketches: 1000 words, plus figures, max. 2 pages) and long submissions on tangible and embedded interaction. Work addressing related HCI issues, design, use contexts, tools and technologies, and interactive art are all welcome. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary submissions across these themes.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

Case studies and evaluations of deployments

Analysis of key challenges, proposals of research agenda

Relation of tangible and embedded interaction to other paradigms

Programming tools, toolkits, software architectures

Novel interactive uses of sensors+actuators, electronics+mechatronics

Design guidelines, methods, and processes

Novel application areas, innovative solutions/systems

Theoretical foundations, frameworks, and concepts

Philosophical, ethical and social implications

Interactive theatre and cinema

Interfaces specific to particular cultures

Usability and enjoyment, aesthetics

Advantages and weaknesses of these kinds of systems

Learning from the role of physicality in everyday environments

Embodied interaction, movement, and choreography of interaction

Role of physicality for human perception, cognition and experience

Teaching tangible/embedded interaction design, and best practices

Submissions can either contain new original work, or be revised versions of previously published papers. Revised versions need to contain at least 30% new content, providing (e.g.) more details or extensions with follow-up research. Authors should provide access to an online version of the previously published version (to ease work for reviewers) and explicate how the new version differs. Each submission should be written in a way that is accessible to the multidisciplinary audience of the journal.

Notes for Prospective Authors:

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page.

Important Dates:

Abstract (optional): 2 April, 2008
Paper submission: 21 April, 2008
Acceptance notification: 11 June, 2008
Camera ready papers due: 9 July, 2008

Editors and Notes: You may send one copy in the form of an MS Word file attached to an e-mail (details in Author Guidelines) to the following: Guest Editors: ijart2008 [at] hcilab.org with a copy to: IEL Editorial Office: ijart [at] inderscience.com. Please include in your submission the title of the Special Issue, the title of the Journal and the name of the Guest Editor.

ITP Winter show — highlights and video!

jo — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:05:11 +0000

The annual ITP show is a two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound and physical objects by the student artists of ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University). Here are some of our favorite projects this year, this is a giant post - scroll scroll!

Picture here, single white android.

The ‘Is our machines learning?’ machines 2.0
The ‘Is our machines learning?’ machines is a networked art installation in which test-taking robots behave according to how users engage with a website composed of questions from real U.S. standardized tests. The physical installation consists of machines that are mechanically capable of making marks on standardized test forms with a pencil. These machines rest on top of antique school desks, ready to pencil in multiple-choice bubbles on SCANTRON test forms. In a separate online space, visitors coming to a website determine which multiple-choice answers the machines in the installation select to fill in. At this website, users can watch the machines respond to their input via a streaming video feed from the installation - Link & more.

Pusher/Puller
Sound/Space is a architecturally-inspired physical interface for pushing and pulling sound — an interactive architecture prototype. The device is meant to both stand on its own, reacting to what it hears, and provide control over the audio environment for the users. By pushing and pulling the points along the shape’s exterior, users will be able to change the parameters of filters, delays, buffers, etc., allowing them to “play” the sounds around them as music- Link & more.

momo : a haptic navigation device
A haptic navigational device that requires only the sense of touch to guide a user. No maps, no text, no arrows, no lights. momo sits in the palm of your two hands and navigates you to an end location by leaning and vibrating. Akin to someone pointing you in the right direction, there is no need to find your map, you simply follow as the device gravitates to your destination - Link & more. The NYTimes got to this one just a few minutes before I did, ah well.

morgen: they’ll wake you up
Project is based on the idea that while many people hate their alarm clocks, few hate their mothers. Morgen is an interface that uses the connections between people to make waking up a more dynamic and meaningful experience.Via a Facebook application, friends and family can vie for the job of waking up the Morgen user on a particular day. They create a new message that makes its way wirelessly to one of Morgen’s nodes–an expandable system of networked objects that the user can place throughout the room. The user knows that each day, they will receive a new message from someone, but they will not find out whom until they walk over to their alarm in the morning. At the time the user wishes to wake up, one of the nodes begins to make sounds, which gradually increase in volume - Link & more.

Compass Ion Organ
Compass Ion Organ is a posture and meditation support belt embedded with sensors which track the curvature of the users spine, and provides feedback for the wearer in the form of visual and sonic information via a microcontroler to software(Max/MSP/Jitter). The belt has a calibration button which can be set for each user in order to give personal readings about their current state of spinal posture. The information coming from the user influences changes in realtime, to visual and/or sonic algorithmic compositions. These are displayed on a large flat panel LCD screen which the user is facing. The compositions for the belt will explore different mathematical principals about balance and order, such as Lindenmayer Systems and Fractals, as well as irregularities, dealing with atonal and chaotic patterns. The feed back of visuals and sound is meant to guide the user into proper alignment and help them maintain it once they have it. The algorithms are designed to reflect balance when the spine is straight and discord when it is not - Link.

Plink Jet
Plink Jet is a robotic musical instrument made from scavenged ink jet printers. The mechanical parts of four printers are diverted from their original function, re-contextualizing the relatively high-tech mechanisms of this typically banal appliance into a ludic musical performance. Motorized, sliding ink cartridges and plucking mechanisms play four guitar strings by manipulating both pitch and strumming patterns like human hands fingering, fretting, and strumming a guitar. Plink Jet is designed to play itself, be played, or both. The result is an optionally collaborative performance between both the user and Plink Jet, with the user choosing varying levels of manual control over the different cartridges (fretting) and string plucking speeds (strumming) - Link & more.

Afterimage - Mind Frame II
‘Afterimage - Mind Frame II’ is a visual installation where the audience discovers and recreates images in empty picture frames. Physical, mental, and emotional interactions all come together in this piece. Audiences see an abstract moving image composed of tiny white blocks projected in a picture frame placed at eye level in a gallery setting. After the array of blocks stops moving, an afterimage of a familiar image is revealed in the otherwise blank frame.The array of tiny, moving blocks forms a very vague representation of the original image and the afterimage it creates is not very clear. But regardless, the audience perceives a well-defined impression of the subject. This happens because the afterimage subconsciously invokes the original image from their memory, neurologically combining it with the afterimage from the eye. Therefore audiences don’t see just the afterimage, but a combination of the afterimage and the original image from their own memory which fills in the details more fully as they remember the original image. It’s a surprising experience, and created entirely in the mind from memories and a grid of glowing blocks! - Link.

Balance Board
This project consists of two pieces: a platform with embedded sensors and a box giving feedback (via light) as to how a patient’s weight is distributed between the left and right feet. It can be used by a therapist to detect weight bearing & balance issues and track progress, by the patient to give feedback and positively reinforce correct weight bearing, or as an aid to exercises that help with weight bearing & balance. It was developed primarily for use by stroke patients - Link.

Jabberjockeys
Jabberjockeys consist of a pair of underwear (one male, one female) which discreetly inform a partner when the other gets aroused. By sensing subtle changes in temperature, moisture and pressure the undergarments detect arousal. The underwear automatically notifies the partner by activating vibrating motors sewn into the fabric of their underwear, thus enabling them to discreetly share their heightened emotions. The sensors that are sewn into the underwear are galvonic skin response sensors, pressure sensorss and a stretch sensor. The ouput consists of a grid of small vibrating motors. The controllers are Arduino Lilypads. Communication is achieved via bluetooth to the wearer’s cellphones - Link.

More:

Project listing - Link.
ITP winter show photos here - Link.
More about the ITP winter show - Link.

If you attended the show and have others you enjoy, post up in the comments! [posted by Phillip Torrone on MAKE]

Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the Screen [Berlin]

jo — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:12:15 +0000

Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the Screen - Workshop / Exhibition / Performance :: Call for Participation :: January 24 - February 2, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse [DAM] :: part of CTM.08 - Unpredictable - Festival for Adventurous Music and Related Visual Arts, Berlin.

Generator.x in collaboration with Club Transmediale and [DAM] presents Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the screen, a workshop and exhibition about digital fabrication and generative systems. Digital fabrication (also known as “fabbing“) represents the next step in the digital revolution. After years of virtualization, with machines and atoms being replaced by bits and software, we are coming full circle. Digital technologies like rapid prototyping, laser cutting and CNC milling now produce atoms from bits, eliminating many of the limitations of industrial production processes. Once prohibitively expensive, such technologies are becoming increasingly accessible, pointing to a future where mass customization and manufacturing-on-demand may be real alternatives to mass production.

For artists and designers working with generative systems, digital fabrication opens the door to a range of new expressions beyond the limits of virtual space. Parametric models apply computational strategies to the analysis and synthesis of space, producing structures and surfaces of great complexity. Through fabbing these forms may be rendered tangible, even tactile.

“Beyond the screen” explores these new types of spatial constructs in a hands-on workshop, bringing together artists and designers working with code-based strategies for producing physical form. The workshop will feature public presentations bringing the topics of the workshop to a broader audience, culminating in an exhibition of fabbing works at the [DAM] gallery. In a continuation of the Generator.x concert tour, “Beyond the Screen” will also include an evening of concerts, showing the use of generative systems in audiovisual performance.

Call for participants

We are looking for 15 artists, designers and architects who have an existing practice based on generative systems and custom software, and who are interested in investigating physical formats through digital fabrication. The workshop will be practical in nature, and will produce a selection of works that will be included in the exhibition at [DAM].

Participants will have access to an on-site laser cutter, and an introduction to this technology will be part of the workshop. The workshop is free of charge, but we will not be able to provide support for travel or accommodation. Participants are expected to have experience with programming software that will allow them to produce work suitable for production, such as Processing, VVVV or any other system capable of producing vector output. Previous experience with laser cutting or digital fabrication technologies is a bonus, but not a requirement.

Applications must be in PDF format and should including a CV and a short statement of intent, describing why you want to participate in the workshop and how fabbing relates to your existing practice. You should include a maximum of 5 images of relevant work, with a total file size of 2 megabytes. Feel free to provide links to web sites containing documentation such as videos or downloadable software, but please dont send such content by email.

Please submit applications by email to generatorx [at] clubtransmediale.de. The deadline for application is December 21, 2007, accepted participants will be notified at the beginning of January 2008.

Generator.x & Club Transmediale

Generator.x is a platform for generative strategies in art and design, founded in 2005 to produce the conference Generator.x: Art from Code at Atelier Nord in Oslo. Other events have included a travelling exhibition as well as a series of audiovisual concerts. The Generator.x blog promotes code-based work of an experimental nature, bringing a critical discourse to the field of generative art.

Club Transmediale 2008 is the 9th edition of this international festival for adventurous music and related visual arts, and takes place in Berlin under the theme “predictable” currently and cooperatively with the transmediale - international festival for art and digital culture. It is a prominent festival dedicated to contemporary electronic, digital and experimental music, as well as the diverse range of artistic activities in the context of sound and club culture. Characterised by the title Unpredictable, the 2008 festival investigates artistic concepts that imply the surprising and unforeseeable, accidents, mistakes and coincidences as a means to alter the dynamics of creative processes and to discover new aesthetic forms.

[DAM] Berlin has since its opening 2003 been a leader in the field of digital art, showing pioneers of new media as well as emerging contemporary artists.

Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the screen is supported by The Office for Contemporary Art Norway. We also thank our partners, Institut HyperWerk HGK FHNW and Lasern.

Marius Watz
Work: http://www.unlekker.net/
Blog: http://www.generatorx.no/
Play: http://www.evolutionzone.com/