Architec Tradure

Category: Uncategorized

  • 30JanZone of emergency – Networks, Tactics, Breakdown

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    Amber Frid-Jimenez is teaching a class at the MIT Visual Arts Department this spring on Introduction to Online Participatory Media: Zone of emergency – Networks, Tactics, Breakdown (4.366/4.381). The course is equal parts theory, art, technology and play, exploring the wild archive of the web. The class combines an overview of the historical “art for all” approach of early net-art and tactical media with an experimental take on the popular social web today.

    Time Mondays 7 – 10pm and Wednesdays 9:30am – 12:30pm
    Location N51-315 IEL

    The course introduces an overview of web-based platforms as means through which to explore the cultural, social, political, and economic impact of mediated communication. Hands-on design exercises and experiments are continually framed and examined by critical reflection and discussions. An overview of historical “art for all” and participatory art practices, of early net-art and current public art practices will show how digital communication and culture have altered the way in which collaboration occurs, changing conventional notions of authorship and giving rise to the collective elaboration of meaning.

    This seminar/workshop is taught in two parts. The Monday Night@VAP lecture series entitled Zones of Emergency co-organized by VAP Director Ute Meta Bauer and Lecturer Jae Rhim Lee will be open to the public, but will be considered a lab for the course. Lectures and panel discussions will serve to contextualize the theory of participatory design practices in times of emergency. This course is being co-organized with Jae Rhim Lee (4.391: Understanding the Problem: Research as Artistic Practice – FEMA Trailer Project).

    Students from various disciplines and backgrounds are welcome. Please
    contact Amber at amber [at] media [dot] mit [dot] edu for more information.

    Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. Limited enrollment of 12
    students. 4.381 Graduate Level H (12 units), 4.366 Undergraduate HASS-E
    (2-4-6 units).

    Instructor
    Amber Frid-Jimenez,(617) 869-9840, Office: N52-342, Hours: W 1–3pm and by appointment

    Teaching Assistants
    Kate Hollenbach, Course
    Cati Vaucelle, Lecture Series
    Lauren McCarthy

    About the Instructor
    Amber Frid-Jimenez is an artist, designer, and recent graduate of the MIT
    Media Lab, where she studied with John Maeda in the Physical Language
    Workshop. Her work confronts issues ranging from politics and surveillance
    to representations of women in media. Her recent work includes interactive
    video installations, performance-based participation from large-scale online
    audiences, and painting. She has presented her work internationally at
    institutions including Banff New Media Institute, Rhode Island School of
    Design, Cornell University, Harvard University, School of the Museum of Fine
    Arts (Boston, MA), Smithsonian Institution, American Institute of Graphic
    Arts, and at independent venues such as Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA),
    Upgrade! International (online), WMMNA (online), and DFN Gallery (New York)

    More resources
    Amber’s MS Media Lab thesis
    Course

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    ♥ Architectradure
    ………………………………………

  • 31JanTwirl the reactive skirt

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    Twirl    , created by Megan Galbraith, is a dynamic and reactive skirt that is controlled using a fuzzy logic reasoning algorithm, and programmed with a fuzzy logic controller, dixit Megan. This skirt has a bend sensor embedded along the seam of the back side, and it thus detects when the wearer is standing up straight, sitting down, or bending over. The sprinning flourishes alter their behavior based on the posture of the wearer.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    Architectradure

    ………………………………………


  • 31JanTwirl the reactive skirt

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!



    Twirl    , created by Megan Galbraith, is a dynamic and reactive skirt that is controlled using a fuzzy logic reasoning algorithm, and programmed with a fuzzy logic controller, dixit Megan. This skirt has a bend sensor embedded along the seam of the back side, and it thus detects when the wearer is standing up straight, sitting down, or bending over. The sprinning flourishes alter their behavior based on the posture of the wearer.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    ♥ Architectradure

    ………………………………………


  • 01FebCoded silverware

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    Organizing plane tickets, barcode, highway lines in term of their coded visualization, Rodolphe Dogniaux presents the visual common coded points between these objects. He proposes that if a weave pattern can be a structural element of a function, then he can use it to conceive objects. He starts by playing with a leather sofa under the principle of weave pattern. He ends up with two weave coded sofa!

    He applies this principle on silverware and thinks in term of geometrical zone rather than geometrical weave. He creates “couverts zonés codés” Coded zoned silverware

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    ♥ Architectradure
    ………………………………………

  • 01FebCoded silverware

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    Organizing plane tickets, barcode, highway lines in term of their coded visualization, Rodolphe Dogniaux presents the visual common coded points between these objects. He proposes that if a weave pattern can be a structural element of a function, then he can use it to conceive objects. He starts by playing with a leather sofa under the principle of weave pattern. He ends up with two weave coded sofa!

    He applies this principle on silverware and thinks in term of geometrical zone rather than geometrical weave. He creates “couverts zonés codés” Coded zoned silverware

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    ♥ Architectradure
    ………………………………………


  • 03FebFinally I got an iPhone

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    This week end I bought an iPhone. I never bought a phone so far, I wanted to feel I could still be lost. As mentioned in an interview for neo-nomad, I did not own/use/carry a cell phone. I was exclusively on Trillian and Skype. It started becoming an handicap, friends want to organize things, my research group needs to reach me in a blink, I felt too unreachable!

    I am still working on the design of my own gear. Well, yesterday I tested the Apple Macbook air, it feels like two sheets of paper maintains the all thing together. Too fragile. Very light. The design is too beautiful to be touched, held, hugged and smashed. When design becomes a constraint, it kind of misses the point. After all, materials are socially constructed through a sensory education and tools.

    The iPhone, on the other end, looks beautiful and sturdy. The only inconvenient is its shiny screen that easily becomes a repository for oily molecules. Other than that, it is traveling in a brown sock in my bag. What better casing than a sock! It can protect anything, and I just slide the iPhone in and out of it and feels part of the smooth iPhone finger tip design! I could not help it: I took pictures of the Stuff-my-love and Terminally Juvenile-iPhone combo!

    The expected features are awesome. I spent an hour at the Apple store bombarding the salespersons with questions. I am satisfied. Now that I’ve used it, I love it. One of my fear to use the roaming data versus wifi is gone. It is fast enough! I can read my pdf on it if the data comes from the mail. One thing that bothers me is that I cannot import my bookmarks from firefox, I cannot download my pics/movie from the web, etc… So to fix that problem I looked at some third parties apps. I made a list at the end of the post. If you recommend some necessary ones, let me know. Apple lists the popular ones, but unfortunately not popular to my taste.

    Now the 2008 updates are pretty cool. I wanted to design a GPS system connected to an iphone. Well the map location works pretty well. The newest version of Maps allows you to find your approximate location using information from Wi-Fi networks and cell towers. Drop a pin on the map then drag it to a specific location to get directions and real-time traffic information and search for nearby points of interest. The new Hybrid map view lets you see major street names on top of satellite imagery.

    A few samples to code the iPhone.

    As a start I selected a good list of iPhone apps. My favorite ones so far are the Erica utilities, a collection of handy command-line utilities. picSnap snaps one picture (jpg) from the command line. sendFileByMail takes a file to send by mail. It opens the mail program, creates a new message with that attachment, snap2album snaps a picture of your screen and adds it to your Photos library on the iPhone.

    The essential one seems App.Tapp. It supports installing, updating and uninstalling applications from multiple sources.

    iFlickr is pretty neat too. This is an app to take pictures on your iPhone and upload to your Flickr account.

    I have aim and will now install MobileChat. Also not tested yet but IM+ for Skype is now available on the iPhone …

    Mobile-RSS is a native iPhone application which remembers all your feeds and give you an easy interface for viewing, adding, and removing.

    Also why not the Nes.app, a fully functional, feature-rich Nintendo emulator, or the Sketches, a way to sketch a simple diagram as a quick reminder. “Scribble your thoughts quickly, select a picture from your photo album to draw notes on top, you can even erase your drawing by shaking your iPhone, as if it were an etch-a-sketch!”

    And to finish by a pedometer, an experimental iPhone application to measure steps as you walk. SiffyTech author of this app, also provides us with their source code.

    Those will be my first try. Many more to test!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    Architectradure

    ………………………………………


  • 03FebFinally I got an iPhone

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    This week end I bought an iPhone. I never bought a phone so far, I wanted to feel I could still be lost. As mentioned in an interview for neo-nomad, I did not own/use/carry a cell phone. I was exclusively on Trillian and Skype. It started becoming an handicap, friends want to organize things, my research group needs to reach me in a blink, I felt too unreachable!

    I am still working on the design of my own gear. Well, yesterday I tested the Apple Macbook air, it feels like two sheets of paper maintains the all thing together. Too fragile. Very light. The design is too beautiful to be touched, held, hugged and smashed. When design becomes a constraint, it kind of misses the point. After all, materials are socially constructed through a sensory education and tools.

    The iPhone, on the other end, looks beautiful and sturdy. The only inconvenient is its shiny screen that easily becomes a repository for oily molecules. Other than that, it is traveling in a brown sock in my bag. What better casing than a sock! It can protect anything, and I just slide the iPhone in and out of it and feels part of the smooth iPhone finger tip design! I could not help it: I took pictures of the Stuff-my-love and Terminally Juvenile-iPhone combo!

    The expected features are awesome. I spent an hour at the Apple store bombarding the salespersons with questions. I am satisfied. Now that I’ve used it, I love it. One of my fear to use the roaming data versus wifi is gone. It is fast enough! I can read my pdf on it if the data comes from the mail. One thing that bothers me is that I cannot import my bookmarks from firefox, I cannot download my pics/movie from the web, etc… So to fix that problem I looked at some third parties apps. I made a list at the end of the post. If you recommend some necessary ones, let me know. Apple lists the popular ones, but unfortunately not popular to my taste.

    Now the 2008 updates are pretty cool. I wanted to design a GPS system connected to an iphone. Well the map location works pretty well. The newest version of Maps allows you to find your approximate location using information from Wi-Fi networks and cell towers. Drop a pin on the map then drag it to a specific location to get directions and real-time traffic information and search for nearby points of interest. The new Hybrid map view lets you see major street names on top of satellite imagery.

    A few samples to code the iPhone.

    As a start I selected a good list of iPhone apps. My favorite ones so far are the Erica utilities, a collection of handy command-line utilities. picSnap snaps one picture (jpg) from the command line. sendFileByMail takes a file to send by mail. It opens the mail program, creates a new message with that attachment, snap2album snaps a picture of your screen and adds it to your Photos library on the iPhone.

    The essential one seems App.Tapp. It supports installing, updating and uninstalling applications from multiple sources.

    iFlickr is pretty neat too. This is an app to take pictures on your iPhone and upload to your Flickr account.

    I have aim and will now install MobileChat. Also not tested yet but IM+ for Skype is now available on the iPhone …

    Mobile-RSS is a native iPhone application which remembers all your feeds and give you an easy interface for viewing, adding, and removing.

    Also why not the Nes.app, a fully functional, feature-rich Nintendo emulator, or the Sketches, a way to sketch a simple diagram as a quick reminder. “Scribble your thoughts quickly, select a picture from your photo album to draw notes on top, you can even erase your drawing by shaking your iPhone, as if it were an etch-a-sketch!”

    And to finish by a pedometer, an experimental iPhone application to measure steps as you walk. SiffyTech author of this app, also provides us with their source code.

    Those will be my first try. Many more to test!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    ♥ Architectradure

    ………………………………………


  • 05FebDIY music box

    Traditional musical boxes normally have a single tune (unless you have an advanced version with different cylinders). But in this case, the music box, which is hand cranked, has a strip of paper that passes through it, and the little holes in this strip determine the tune. The Music Box comes with one strip of paper already punched with the tune ‘Brahms Lullaby’. There are then 2 blank strips of paper and a hole punch, which will allow you to create tunes of your own! It makes for a fun and interactive way to learn and create music. The Music Box has a two octave range, and can play chords, not just single notes.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle

    ♥ Architectradure

    ………………………………………


  • 05FebInsect telepresence

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    Suppose we can make a miniature camera whose motion can be controlled by a human. Put this camera in a colony of insects, and the human will gain a whole new perspective on the insects and their biology. Blow up the image to scale down the human appropriately, and amplify the insects sounds as well, and you have a complete telepresent experience that is incredibly exciting and educational at the same time. Technically, camera technology, optics and manipulation are well up to the task. A complete insect telepresence exhibit is now being constructed for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s entrance, in collaboration with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, by Stacy All, Angela Demke and Ben Shamah at the Toy Robot Initiative.

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    ♥ Architectradure
    ………………………………………


  • 06FebIntense things happening in World of Warcraft

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    Ok some intense things are happening in the virtual world. As if controlling a level 70 character was not enough trouble, these guys (and girls) control *five* 70 characters at the same time in 5 boxing setups on their own. An example:

    I am speechless, all that stuff said about my little virtual identity expressed through physical means is a piece of coconut compared to the mental strength required to visually maintain and control 5 avatars running quests and killing bosses at the same time.

    So if someone is up for running a 25 men dungeon on his own, there is still this possibility:

    This raises interesting questions for the future of human computer interaction, because Blizzard allows you to run multiple copies of WoW on the same computer, we need special joysticks, probably new interfaces for elbows to control 2nd class characters, the feet to control the mages (they are our DPS after all they need sone action), and of course I would leave the hands for the tank warriors. Some speech recognition would be also of great help to switch stances.

    A new class of displays and controllers is on the way.

    More online discussion about WoW and more discussion about multiboxing!

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle
    Architectradure
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