defining space in imaginary places

TouchKit Version 2.0 on Vimeo.

Sorry. its been awhile.

I’ve been really busy with the TouchKit. In the process of launching the API, multiple workshops and getting the hardware out to as many kids as possible.

Upcoming talk:

Tuesday, July 8: New Tools for Collaborative Practice. Presenters: Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert; Mushon Zer Aviv and Dan Pfeiffer; NOR_/D: Eyebeam Production Lab fellow Addie Wagenknecht with Stefan Hechenberger.

• Subversion (SVN): a version control system used to maintain current and historical versions of files for source code, web pages, and/or documentation-like a wiki, but for code.
• Shiftspace: an open source layer above any website. It seeks to expand the creative possibilities currently provided through the web, allowing for the creation of online contexts built in and on top of websites.
• TouchKit: a modular multitouch development kit with the aim to make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion. Learn the basics of how to set up your own multitouch system, the supplies you need and where to get them. We supply the open source API, schematics, source code and demo applications.

Come check it out. 6pm.

Be there, all the cool kids will be.

I read today in the news that Oprah is going vegan for 21 days.

In some ways, I find this a sign perhaps the wouldn’t isn’t ending.

Oprah has the power, if anyone does, to turn mainstream soccer moms into vegans, which might just be the change the world needs.

a detailed shot of the shadow project

the boards came in on Monday via FedEx. 40 man hours later, we have about 4 pieces left to add to them before they are ready for testing with the motors (which we are shooting for by Thursday).

Assuming all remains smooth, the project should be live by Saturday.

let us pray.

Michael Naimark writes: Hi All. The Ars Electronica FutureLab search for new hires is almost certainly the biggest hiring spree in the history of media arts. They’ve asked me to help with shaping the announcement and spreading the word.

JOBS @ ARS ELECTRONICA

Ars Electronica Futurelab is hiring artists and researchers

- artists /software engineers (openGL, C++)
- artists / hardware engineers (sensors and programming)
- artists / modelers (3D, real time graphics)
- technical planners (software and/or hardware and CAD)
- project managers (software, exhibition)
- designers / architects (exhibits and media in architecture)

Ars Electronica Futurelab, the R&D division of Ars Electronica founded in 1996, is an atelier/lab for media art, design, research, and production. Members of the Ars Electronica Futurelab represent a broad variety of different disciplines and nationalities, working in such areas as computer vision, sound analysis, mobile computing, generative graphics, computer controls, and computer networks.

Ars Electronica is embedded in the activities for Linz, Austria. As the European Capital of Culture in 2009, a continuously growing, vital cultural environment is guaranteed both in the city and as the working environment at the lab.

Ars Electronica Futurelab is hiring 12 to 20 new members to be part of the creation team of the new exhibits at the Ars Electronica Center as well as other projects. We are seeking both junior and senior level team members. Partially academic, partially production oriented, experts share their knowledge in workshops we call “LabAcademies,” thus we are seeking both experienced teachers and avid students.

Interested persons should prepare to stay for a period of at least 12 months in Linz Austria. There is a possibility for some positions to stay even longer or become permanent. The languages spoken in the Lab are English or German.

Ars Electronica will assist foreigners to obtain work permits for Austria. Contracts may be either for employment (”freier Dienstvertrag”, includes insurance packages) or as contractors (”Werkvertrag”). Annual wages vary according to experience but will generally be 23,000-30,000 Euros ($36,000-$50,000). Linz is a medium size, picturesque city located on the Danube, with typical housing costs for a one-bedroom apartment of 400 Euros ($550) per month.

Please email your CV or resume and a short letter (including references) to: Horst Hortner; futurelab(AT)aec.at
For more information, please check out: http://www.aec.at/jobs

side cut of current installation plan:

mounting plate for motors and boards, final version vs. prototype:

mounting plate detail fresh out of laser cutter:

laser cut .ai files will be available online after May 6 (I’m just too busy until then).

In the meantime, stay tuned for a lot of possible drama, which may or may not include hits such as:
“oh crap, I have no money”
“the shipment ended up where?”
“what broke?”
“how much is that going to cost”
and Everyone’s Favorite:  “who have I pissed off now?”

rough sketch of possible installation build for may 6 event.

I also found a great selection of dynamic rubber and nylon threading at Toho Shoji.  All parts have been ordered and I will now live off of oatmeal and ramen for two months.

thank you and good night.

detail of nesting box

front view (wouldnt have any translucent quality in next version)

side cut looks like a giant sperm, but its getting there.

thoughts?

the wall’s motors with spindle which I fabricated yesterday is in beta.

the houses are growing. soon there will be some life in there.

 My most recent masterpiece is now up for review:

http://minivansandothersignsoftheapocalypse.com/

suggestions, additions or words of my brilliance, as always are welcome.

For those of you who missed my installation in Chelsea last week, its been documented on flickr and a spiffy video will be up soon too.

motion study built in openframeworks of kinetic wall being built for event in May. Actual wall is being built using a translucent nylon with small light like pieces seeded into string to mimic bioluminescent bays.

rendering of nesting house by catherine tai

what if we learned to live with ‘rodents’,
harmoniously.
they did us no harm, and we did them no harm?

we save millions a year, and stop killing them off
and we plant trees and flowers around our avenues instead of poison and traps?

They Were Here
March 27 – April 3
Location: Clement Clarke Moore Park, 22nd and 10th Ave.They Were Here is an installation by Addie Wagenknecht, a fellow in the production lab,
taking place March 27 through April 3, in the Northwest corner of Clement Clarke Moore Park, located at 22nd and 10th Aves.

A flock of stark, white, static two-dimensional birds inhabit a tree. The birds’ physical negatives were modeled on the actual species that once inhabited Manhattan. According to a recent Audubon Society report, 20 species of birds are declining at arae of 68 percent.

The installation will be on display March 27 – April 3.

I’m trying to understand the romantic pull of decay– the more I look at the more it seems that it appeared very different from the inside that it does from the outside.
A lot of the miserable details are left out.
We all feel guilty for not suffering enough.
Suffering isn’t art, it’s what happens to artists when the cultural currents of a nation turn their back on urban centers, reject density and diversity and embrace the suburban soma.

A flock of stark white static two-dimensional birds sit in branches in a single tree to suggest an absence and mass extinction of the natural within the New York City environment.

I’m interested in the deconstruction of controlled unnatural green spaces in a physical manifestation of the negative form to suggest the impact we have on our environments. The birds’ physical negatives were cut from actual forms of the species that have inhabited Manhattan at one time.

Twenty species of birds average decline is currently sixty eight percent, according to a recent Audubon repot. Forty years ago they estimated there to be approximately 31 million bobwhite birds and currently there are 25.5 million birds missing. The concern is it is unknown as to what caused their deaths and what brought down 25 million is likely to bring down the rest.

Scientist say this is how extinction happens and soon all that will be left are static representations of what was.

At it’s most basic, your whole life is just a collection of moments. sweet moments, happy moments, long and bitter ones, moments in the rain, ones that you’d rather forget, moments that send a shiver down your spine, moments that never happened like blown kisses that never got caught. and those moments, those memories, they never really have any order to them. they’re scattered across the vast plain that sprawls endlessly in the back your mind. but in the mess and the haze, there are always beginnings, where it all started, and it’s not until you’re given a little time to absorb it all that it suddenly hits you, that you can say, hey, that’s it, that’s where it all began.

” In semiotics, the concept of a code is of fundamental importance. Saussure (1857–1913) emphasized that signs only acquire meaning and value when they are interpreted in relation to each other. He believed that the relationship between the signifier and the signified was arbitrary. Hence, interpreting signs requires familiarity with the sets of conventions or codes currently in use to communicate meaning.”

I also have been reading a lot of text in neurosciences and recently read some research on the mirror neuron. I’m interested in their importance in language acquisition, meaning, and how these may relate to semiotics in our everyday behaviors.

Whats interesting about them is their role in relationships. See, stronger EEG responses (related to the mirror neuron system) have been recorded in women compared to men. This finding is consistent with the idea that women tend to be more empathetic, that the mirror neuron system is related to empathy, and that weak responses in the mirror neuron system could be linked to a masculine mind and to autism. Women are four times more likely to cry then men, perhaps because men needs physical signs to sense pain while women are able to pick them up in a much more slight level of nonverbal communcation. If women did not exhibit tears, its quite possible men would go often without notices their pain. The mirror neuron system is not about imitation however, it is about understanding other people, and why they do what they do or don’t do.

If men need more physical signs to recognizes a reaction or communcation, without using emotions, what would those signs look like?