Artvertising Berlin, Transmediale 2010 from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.For my midterm, I was inspired by Julian Oliver’s Artvertising both technically and conceptually as a reimaging and reappropriation of public space. But how could be take this twist on Augmented Reality or as Oliver calls it “Improved Reality” to insert ourselves back into the space as an actor?
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In the future, machines will be grown on trees. Then they will eat us for eating them. After the cost of energy had made global shipping of raw materials and packaged goods unimaginable, only the rich could afford traditional, mass-produced commodities.Synthetic biology enabled us to harness our natural environment for the production of things. Coded into the DNA of a plant, product parts grow within the supporting system of the plant’s structure. When fully developed, they are stripped like a walnut from its shell or corn from its husk, ready for assembly.Shops have evolved into factory farms as licensed products are grown where sold. Large items take time to grow and are more expensive while small ones are more affordable. The postal service delivers lightweight seed-packets for domestic manufacturers.Using biology for the production of consumer goods has reversed the idea of industrial standards, introducing diversity and softness into a realm that once was dominated by heavy manufacturing. The product shown here is the Herbicide Sprayer, an essential commodity used to protect delicate engineered horticultural machines from older nature.
This is my cheap attempt at a Monome knockoff (a truly elegant media controller) and a sketch of my PCOMP final. Still have not determined how far I want/need to extend the functionality of the device: Do I restrict the media controller to 2 discs, modeled after a dj setup, or offer some capacitor touch screen or “virtual” photocell buttons? Must consider the range of applications for the media controller with specific use cases (e.g. dj, vj, Max/MSP, other PCOMP projects). I’m interested in having the Disconome (working title) communicate using firmware called SensorBox, which gets the input from all the pins on the Arduino and sends it over serial to a Max patch. From there, have the Max patch port over to Ableton Live that shows up as a MIDI channel dramatically controlling pitch of Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
Brian Crabtree was super awesome enough to drop by and speak about the origins of Monome as a sustainable, opensource company that makes amazingly minimal yet versatile, handcrafted instruments for the digital age. I really appreciated his “business” ethics and the fact that he was a fellow graduate of the ICAM program at UCSD, my alma mater. He began and ended the presentation busting out an improvised performance using a 8 x 8 monome using the opensource app (max/msp) mlr he wrote 
My aim is to create prototype of a larger installation piece that deals with themes recovery, redemption and resurrection. Design a tree that arcs through various stages of life, death and rebirth. The first stage shows a tree with paper leaves inscribes with sections from my diary. In the second stage, the leaves shake, ignite and fall as burning embers, smoldering. The third stage has a mist decend onto the tree from above. The mist acts to extinguish the leaves as well as a medium. The fourth stage has two revolving projectors casting an image of the tree in full bloom where the messages inscribed on the burnt leaves are finally revealed.
Pick a piece of interactive technology in public, used by multiple people. Write down your assumptions as to how it’s used, and describe the context in which it’s being used. Watch people use it, preferably without them knowing they’re being observed. Take notes on how they use it, what they do differently, what appear to be the difficulties, what appear to be the easiest parts. Record what takes the longest, what takes the least amount of time, and how long the whole transaction takes. Consider how the readings from Norman and Crawford reflect on what you see.
Everybody loves water fountains. They’re the one example of public art that works but in some ways they’re lacking. This photo was taken outside of Lincoln Center and although it isn’t “interactive” the modern sense of the word, it demonstrates the underlying need for more interactive water falls, fountains or installations. ”Hmm”, you might be asking yourself, “I don’t really know of any interactive water falls” and I guess that’s my point. How immersive cool would it be to play with an installation that’s reactive to your presence rather than just running off a predetermined timer controlling lighting and fountain size? Imagine you’re on a big date, you’ve both run out of things to say but you’re feeling the sparks. If only you had some really wondrous water fountain to play with to break the ackward silence, wouldn’t that be dreamy? Ok, by now I’ve veered way off onto a tangent of my personal fantasies but hey that’s what we’re here for right?
My first fantasies are ruminations of an unfinished thought exercise. I’m veering for the unpractical. They include:
A USB/memory stick lighter
A magical button that temporarily lobotomizes me for socially awkward moments or when I want to get my crazy on.
A magical button that lobotomizes all republicans on Earth.
A telephone that you can call in your dreams.
A way to record your previous night’s dreams into a soundtrack.
Glasses that let you see a person at their past, most intense, emotional states (e.g. rage, joy, climax, sorrow, etc…)
iSpan – augmented reality iPhone device allows you to peer through time giving the user a perspective on the scope of geologic time. When you hold the phone up, you see a split image of the current landscape juxtaposed with one from past or future. The camera’s “zoom” controls where you see in the future, e.g. +10 years forward or -1000 years back. The further into time you go, the greater the loss of resolution(color to grayscale, etc..). This device was inspired by Maya Lin’s Map of Memory and the Mannahatta Project.
Famed architect Maya Lin spoke in our seminar today! You may know her work because she designed the Vietnam Memorial when she was only a 21 year old architecture student. Her fifth and final memorial is a kinda new media tone poem focusing on endangered and extinct species caused by human destruction of their habitats.