“Perception, in whatever sensory modality, is the result of the brain’s cartographic skill.” Antonio Dimasio

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) invites you to propose a hybrid net art project for Turbulence.org – Augment it Yourself (AiY). Projects must use both the World Wide Web and a physical site :: Deadline: July 1, 2014 :: Commission Amount: $6,000 :: Commission Date: July 2015.

• The behavior of all particles is contingent on the presence of a conscious observer.
• Our internal and external perceptions are inextricably connected.
• Reality is the perpetual enfolding/unfolding of autopoiesis (self-making), in relationship with others and our environment.

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The digital market has more options than a physical store, but consumers have shown that they want convenience and good prices, this is why they’re always in the lookout for lowe’s coupons.

Still, e-commerce has shown a “modest growth” of 13.4 percent year-over-year in the U.S. overall, according to the market research firm, with retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co. gaining a lot of market share.

But the growth remains moderate, and Hickey said it would be difficult for the market to double in the next four years if it does not see significant further innovation.

The second part of the survey, which covered e-commerce’s growth in each of the country’s 50 biggest metro areas, found that the industry continues to lead metro areas’ e-commerce businesses.

E-commerce companies have made tremendous strides in the past year, but some consumers are still hesitant to buy online or don’t want to risk a trip to a brick-and-mortar store to buy something online. One of the biggest reasons customers aren’t shopping online is the cost, the report found, which makes it harder for retailers to compete in the online space. “Online shopping has made online shopping an accessible option, but a lot of them don’t know how to use it because they have never done it before,” said Hickey. The survey found that 37 per cent of consumers didn’t buy online because of cost, while 16 per cent bought online because they hadn’t found a store with what they were looking for.

Another 15 per cent found a product they loved at a lower price online. The report found that the majority of people who didn’t shop online did so because they felt the quality of products and services at brick-and-mortar stores was too low. Hickey said retailers had to step up their marketing campaigns and “we do need to do a lot better job at reaching out to younger consumers.

Turbulence Commission: INTERP by Jeff Thompson:

INTERP is a series of digital sculptures generated by blending 100 unrelated photographs, placing them into simulated three-dimensional space, and importing them into photogrammetry software, tricking it into thinking that the photographs were of a single object. Thompson is interested in “useless” and culturally-derived data sets, so rather than use an arbitrary archive of photographs (a Google image search for a particular term, for example), it seemed more natural to use a finite set that he had generated himself (approximately 12,000 images when he began the project in 2012). Every photograph was used. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: Empire State by Steve Klise [To observe, visit after sunset EST. To create, visit anytime]

Empire State transmits camera flashes from the Empire State Building’s observation deck in New York City to the virtual observation deck of your computer screen. It also provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a LEGO replica of the iconic building, which lights up every time a visitor takes a photograph of Manhattan at night. Empire State is a continuous feedback loop of physical and virtual architectures (building/model/code) and of the perceptions of sightseers both on-site and on-line. The actual is recorded, translated, transmitted, and received. The observers are the observed. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: Shadow Play: Tales of Urbanization of China by Lily & Honglei [Download Second Life for desktop and Layar for mobile devices]

Over the past few decades China has been urbanizing at an astounding pace. In 2013, the People’s Republic unveiled its plan to relocate 260 million people from China’s countryside to one of 21 “mega regions” by 2020 (cbsnews.com). Such a significant shift will undoubtedly transform China’s national character, which has been predominantly agrarian for millennia. Shadow Play weaves three interfaces, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Physical Reality (PR), and combines the past and present — through time-honored imagery, paint, “shadow play,” and new media technologies — to immerse participants in the realities of contemporary China. Continue reading