We are making final adjustments to our new blog which we hope to launch later today. Now a WordPress blog, it has been re-designed and has added functionality, most notably "Live Stage" (for events in real-time). And our comments will be turned on again!
Thanks to Mushon Zer Aviv - Shual.com (design) and Dan Phiffer (developer).
Thanks for your continued interest and support.
Jo and Helen
]]>Brenda Laurel writes: "[...] Rachel has described our interest in how people leave marks on places. We wanted to give people the ability to "mark" the virtual environments, and we arrived at voice as a convenient modality for doing so. Voice offered several advantages over writing or drawing. Through prosody, voice permits greater expressiveness and personalization than writing; it is also more immediate. Most people are less self-conscious about speaking than about drawing. While drawing would require that we build special virtual drawing tools, capturing voice was relatively easy to implement.
Where and how could voices be stored and re-played? We designed the Voiceholders as virtual record/playback devices. A Voiceholder would capture and store an utterance, called a Voicemark. A "full" Voiceholder (that is, one containing a Voicemark) would play its contents when touched. In order to encourage people to play with relationships among Voicemarks and between Voicemarks and landscape features, we made the Voiceholders moveable, exempt from gravity, and able to be placed anywhere one could reach. Voiceholders could be moved by grabbing them (closing the grippees while the points of light were "inside" the rock), dragging them to the desired location (they would stick to your hand), and releasing the grip.
]]>We wanted people to think of the Voiceholders more as tools or agents than as devices; machines (including tape recorders) were inconsistent with the fantasy context. We designed them as rocks with faces, using the facial expressions to indicate the state of the Voiceholder. This was as close as we came to an iconic or symbolic interface element..."Image: When a voiceholder was empty, its eyes and mouth were closed and it was dark. When a person touched an empty voiceholder, its eyes would open and it would light up from the inside (rather like a jack-o'-lantern) and a voice (emanating from the voiceholder) would say "I'm listening." If a person spoke when a voiceholder was in that state, their speech would be recorded. When the voiceholder became "full" (i.e., ran out of space in the sound file it was creating) the inner light flickered and then went out (rather like a guttering candle), the yes would close and the mouth would open to indicate that it was ready to speak. If a person touched a voiceholder in this state, it would open its eyes, light up and play back its contents, then it would "go to sleep" again.
From Placeholder: Landscape and Narrative In Virtual Environments :: ACM Computer Graphics Quarterly Volume 28 Number 2 May 1994 :: Brenda Laurel, Rachel Strickland, Rob Tow, Interval Research Corp :: Copyright © 1994 by the ACM. Videos available here.
]]>"Researchers from Illinois and Florida are developing a networking system which will create virtual representations of real people to improve our knowledge. They will use artificial intelligence and natural language processing software to enable us to interact with these avatars. The goal of the project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to give us the possibility to interact with these virtual representations as if they were the actual person, complete with the ability to understand and answer questions. We should see the results at the beginning of 2008 — if the researchers succeed." [via]
"The current technology for creating computerized avatars for human interactions is relatively primitive; we tend to be surprised if a computerized representation can perform even vaguely human behaviors. But in the latest issue of Science, Judith Donath of MIT's Media Lab argues that this situation is likely to be temporary. She suggests that as programmers respond to the demand for more realistic human behavior in avatars, they will necessarily create the technology to manipulate human trust via the results.
]]>Donath notes that even seemingly simple human behaviors are accompanied by collections of body language and expressions that can reinforce or undercut the messages we intend to send. For instance, she suggests that we signal our intention to engage someone in conversation by a complex suite of gestures, mostly nonverbal: "You carry out this goal not only by walking across the room but also by making eye contact, smiling, raising your brows, adjusting your clothes—a complex set of communicative behaviors that indicate your intention to start a conversation, allow you to gauge his willingness to do so, and show your level of determination."Right now, even the most sophisticated avatars accomplish only a small subset of these behavioral collections. But that's beginning to change, at least within the research community. Although putting all of the components of these behaviors under user control is viewed as too complex, Donath cites work in which entire suites of behavior could be controlled by a single command. For example, an avatar commanded to end a conversation can nod its head, wave, and break eye contact. Users of such systems found them natural and more engaging, and they found their conversation partners to be more expressive.
Although these sorts of advances may make for a more appealing virtual experience, Donath suggests that they have some disturbing implications for issues of trust and credibility when future avatars are used for communication. She notes that we interpret many behavioral collections in light of what they tell us about the person who is doing the talking. For example, we tend to view someone who doesn't make eye contact as more likely to be lying, providing uncertain information, or simply uninterested in talking with us. A well-programmed avatar can be commanded to engage in behaviors that simulate honesty, regardless of whether the speaker is trustworthy.
Research is also revealing that other factors play into an avatar's trustworthiness and credibility. For example, simply making an avatar appear more human (including providing it with a clear gender) caused them to be rated more trustworthy. Other research has shown that trust can also be manipulated via more subtle techniques. Teams of people paid greater attention to an avatar that was created with a "team face," one that combined features from the members of the team. Individuals found political messages more persuasive when they were delivered by an avatar with a subtle resemblance to the listener's own face.
Donath specifically raises the disturbing possibility of, "a world in which you are bombarded with oddly compelling ad campaigns presented by people just like you." But she also suggests that current trends, if they continue, may leave us with avatars tailored to the contexts where they're used. After all, we demand detailed and elaborate avatars for our online fantasy games but will happily accept far less for what's billed as our "Second Life." It's possible that we'll actually wind up demanding less sophisticated avatars to deliver the most critical information in order to avoid the potential for manipulation. But only, of course, if we're aware of the danger." Future avatars will be adept at manipulating human response by John Timmer, Ars Technica. Related: Our avatars, ourselves.
]]>"[...] A Luddite argument is one in which some broadly useful technology is opposed on the grounds that it will discomfit the people who benefit from the inefficiency the technology destroys. An argument is especially Luddite if the discomfort of the newly challenged professionals is presented as a general social crisis, rather than as trouble for a special interest. (“How will we know what to listen to without record store clerks!”) When the music industry suggests that the prices of music should continue to be inflated, to preserve the industry as we have known it, that is a Luddite argument, as is the suggestion that Google pay reparations to newspapers or the phone company’s opposition to VoIP undermining their ability to profit from older ways of making phone calls.
This is what makes Keen’s argument a Luddite one — he doesn’t oppose all uses of technology, just ones that destroy older ways of doing things. In his view, the internet does not need to undermine the primacy of the copy as the anchor for both filtering and profitability.
But Keen is wrong. What the internet does is move data from point A to B, but what it is for is empowerment. Using the internet without putting new capabilities into the hands of its users (who are, by definition, amateurs in most things they can now do) would be like using a mechanical loom and not lowering the cost of buying a coat — possible, but utterly beside the point.
]]>The internet’s output is data, but its product is freedom, lots and lots of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, the freedom of an unprecedented number of people to say absolutely anything they like at any time, with the reasonable expectation that those utterances will be globally available, broadly discoverable at no cost, and preserved for far longer than most utterances are, and possibly forever.
Keen is right in understanding that this massive supply-side shock to freedom will destabilize and in some cases destroy a number of older social institutions. He is wrong in believing that there is some third way — lets deploy the internet, but not use it to increase the freedom of amateurs to do as they like.
It is possible to want a society in which new technology doesn’t demolish traditional ways of doing things. It is not possible to hold this view without being a Luddite, however. That view — incumbents should wield veto-power over adoption of tools they dislike, no matter the positive effects for the citizenry — is the core of Luddism, then and now." From Andrew Keen: Rescuing 'Luddite' from the Luddites [posted by Clay Shirky on Many-to-Many]. Also see "The internet's output is data, but its product is freedom".
]]>In 1980, on a November evening in Los Angeles, pedestrians who walked past the glass windows of the Broadway Department Store noticed something strange…they did not see their reflection. There were other people walking by, just not them. They ended up talking with the alien reflections and realized that they were in two different locations, indeed, on other sides of a country: the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and the Broadway Department Store in Century City in LA. This work, called Hole-in-Space, was created by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz.
Last year I was recruited to a group to consult on a project for the Australian communications company Telstra. I recommended that Telstra, given their core brand is (I believe) enabling people to communicate with each other (not tourism!), that they install a contemporary version of Galloway and Rabinowitz’s work. Using their substantial communications infrastructure they could link together two key and important communities: rural Australia with urban Australia; and Australians in the street with people in the streets of the online virtual world Second Life. The project has been put on hold indefinitely and since the future of the project is unknown and I wasn’t compensated for my advice, I’m sharing it here. But recently I came across a different iteration on the theme, and one that bypasses the corporate and art world.
]]>A few years ago Dr. Sugata Mitra, head of research and development at an IT firm in India, installed a computer in the wall of a slum area in India. He put it in to enable the children to use the computer and the Internet for free. He wanted to see what the children would do if they had unlimited and free access to these technologies. He called it the Hole in the Wall experiment. Within minutes, a Frontline segment explained, the children taught themselves computer literacy. Dr. Mitra has installed computers in many areas now and revels in the response. He is quite conscious of the immense impact of his cybernetic seed:
“If cyberspace is considered a place,” Mitra tells FRONTLINE/World, “then there are people who are already in it, and people who are not in it … I think the hole in the wall gives us a method to create a door, if you like, through which large numbers of children can rush into this new arena. When that happens, it will have changed our society forever.”
The segment told the story of the first boy to teach himself the computer and Net: Rajinder. He creates things using paint programs, plays games and browses the Disney website. His teacher notes that ‘he has become quite bold and expressive’.
When Dr. Mitra asks Rajinder to define the Internet, the doe-eyed boy replies immediately, “That with which you can do anything.”
And so, we move from people connecting with each other, to people tapping into possibility. The continuing theme, whether it is enunciated by artists, the corporate world or a single person who wants to heal the rift of the digital divide, is that of creating portals where once there where walls. It doesn’t matter if the wall, the ostacle is financial, cultural, geographic or technological, we’ll find a way to dissipate it. I’m so happy to have front-row seats to one of the most amazing times in Earth’s history.
Check out full Hole in the Wall article and video by journalist Rory O’Connor, and the amazing collection of Social Entrepenuers videos at Frontline/World. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for posting about it. [blogged by Christy Dena on Cross-Media]
]]>The 2nd part of Don Norman’s two part essay on “The Next UI Breakthrough” [RESTRICTED ACCESS] appears in the July/August 2007 edition of ACM Interactions. In it, he describes how physicality is now being re-introduced into the user interface for computers. He describes physicality as more extensive than tangible computing and “embodiment” (Paul Dourish’s explication of computing that is both social and tangible because the manipulation and handling of objects is always part of social activities.) For Norman, “physicality” is something new in that it is a return after a period of user interfaces in which mechanical manipulation of things like knobs and dials and switches was avoided in favor of things like the so-called soft switches. Now switches and dials have returned, as have more advance interface forms that can respond to gesture.
Physicality: the return to physical devices, where we control things by physical body movement, by turning, moving, and manipulating appropriate mechanical devices.
We have evolved as physical creatures. We live in a complex, three-dimensional world filled with physical objects. We are analog beings in an artificial world of digital devices, devices that abstract what is powerful and good from the physical world and turn it into information spaces, usually in arbitrary ways. These new approaches put the body back into the picture. They require us to control through physical action rather than virtual, which means through mechanical devices, not electronic or graphic.
]]>I’d speculate that part of the return has to do with the fact that the old metaphors of turning a knob, for example, are effective and meaningful. But beyond just switches and control inputs, Norman seems to be speculating that the return to physicality will present opportunities for new kinds of interaction, beyond just switching things on or off, and, hopefully, for interaction beyond typing. Despite Norman’s observation that we’re returning to physical controls, one form of physical control — the keyboard — has never left. I’d be interested in forms of user interface that didn’t even touch the kinds of computing models that keyboards enforce. Can there be a form of computing that relies entirely on physical movement rather than tapping on little plastic squares? [blogged by Julian Bleecker on techkwondo]]]>The 5th Biennial San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival :: July 14 - 22 :: The San Francisco Sex Worker Festival was established in 1999 to provide a forum for the accomplishments of sex worker artists and filmmakers and to show work about sex workers and sex industries from around the world. The Sex Worker Festival provides an opportunity to recognize and honor prostitutes, dancers, porn performers and other sex workers who have historically been a dynamic part of arts communities. The Festival includes performance events, parties, art exhibitions, film screenings and educational discussions and seminars. Visit our website for full schedule and event details, and come join in on the fun!!
1. Asian Sex Worker Film Screening at Ar+Space :: July 20, 7-9 PM :: Location ar+space gallery (1286 Folsom Street (nr 9th) :: Sliding Scale $5-$20 (no one turned away for lack of funds).
We, Asian Sex Workers is screening videos by sex workers from San Francisco and from around the globe. We are proud to have the opportunity to present the premiere screening of "Memory of Mrs. Guan," the story of the leader of the sex worker movement, Guan Xiou Qin (of COSWAS in Taiwan) who committed suicide recently as a culmination to her political struggles. These videos range widely from this very political memoir to the experimental work "Whore's Diary : Pornography made by me & my client by BuBu de la Madeleine. Miss Erochica's Burlesque Diary explores a background of images through which burlesque artist, Erochica Bamboo, constructs her persona. This collection provides a unique view of Asian women in the sex industry, usually portrayed as victims and slaves, here portrayed as strong, often political, proud and sexy individuals with a range of goals and struggles.
]]>2. We, Asian Sex Worker Exhibit: Migrant Sex Work Forum and Discussion in conjunction with 5th Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival :: July 18, 7PM :: ar+space gallery (1286 Folsom Street (nr 9th) :: Prices: Sliding Scale $5-? (no one turned away for lack of funds).7pm: Migrant Sex Work Panel and discussion - Panelists include local experts in issues of sex worker and migration. Topics include the underside of 'rescues,' adverse impact of US trafficking policies, migrant rights and more.
8pm: Urban Justice Center presents "Taking the Pledge" USAID money, anti-prostitution pledges and migrant sex work presentation/discussion. Taking the Pledge by Melissa Ditmore & Erin Siegel (Network of Sex Worker Projects) - 13 min - Powerful activist detailing with interviews spanning the globe, addressing the impacts of new US funding restrictions under the Bush administration.
9pm Melissa Gira: Report Back from Cambodia - Representing Desiree Alliance, the Ms. Gira recently attended a consultation in Cambodia held in conjunction with The Sexual Health and Rights Project of Soros' Open Society Institute to organize cross cultural efforts to support sex worker rights.
3. Roaming Hookerfest: Outdoor Video Projection Roaming the Streets of San Francisco in conjunction with the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival :: July 20, 9-11PM :: 1st screening at corner of 16th and Folsom (route to be posted at website) :: Free.
The Roaming Hookerfest is a traveling outdoor caravan of sex workers bringing the films to the street. This first-ever Roaming Hookerfest was developed by Festival co-director, Erica Berman (AKA Fabulous). Fabulous wanted the festival to reach out past the usual crowds so she created this guerilla art event. On Friday night of the festival we will be driving a movie van with films and safer sex materials to alleyways throughout San Francisco. We will be showing a half hour of excerpts and short films highlighting the festival. We will post the locations and the list of movies at our site.
Meet us at 16th and Folsom at 9 PM for an elegant soiree on the streets. Dress up or dress down! Join our caravan afterwards for a party at Lipo Lounge, Red Lit Dance Nite with DJ Bent in Chinatown. Drink, eat Chinese food and discuss 'sex worker sinema' with sex workers from around the country.
The movies we will screen focus on entertainment for sex workers on the street including The Aphrodite Project by Norene Leddy which presents magical hooker platforms, designed for the street hookers of the future, and Jyanta Meetei's Street Survivor a precious portrait of a Taiwanese street hooker, her time and the cop who arrested her.
4. Red Lite Dance Nite-Afterparty for the Roaming Hookerfest :: July 20, 2007; 11pm :: Venue: Lipo Lounge, 916 Grant (nr Washington) :: $5-20 sliding scale; free for ho's with no dough
An incredible nite of booty beats, reggaeton rythms, and more music than you can imagine at the Red Lite Dance Nite!!! An extremely rare West Coast appearance by the infamous DJ bent - spinning reggaeton, funk carioca, hip-hop, baltimore club, miami booty bass, reggae/dancehall, and a whole lot more.
This is the after party for the Roaming Hookerfest, so drink, dance, eat Chinese food nearby and discuss 'sex worker sinema' with sex workers from around the country. This party supports Sex Worker Arts & Film Festival and this fall's National Sex Worker Activist Trainings.
Media Contacts: 310-562-8201; 415-751-1659
Telephone number (public): 415-99-ASIA-9 (415-992-7429)
Glowlab seeks volunteers to work with the fourth annual Conflux Festival, taking place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn from September 13th-16th. We're looking for volunteers in a variety of areas: tech support, audio / video / photo documentation, general installation, sales, event staff. You'll have the opportunity to assist national and international artists, work with local venues and get hands-on production experience. Previous event production experience is preferred, but not required.
About Conflux: Conflux is the annual New York City festival where visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and the public gather for four days to explore the physical and psychological landscape of the city.
Volunteer Requirements: You must: have a working mobile phone; be available for at least one full day of the festival; be able to attend a short volunteer meeting Monday August 20th and / or Monday September 10th from 7pm-8pm. For more information, contact Sarah Pace: pace[at]confluxfestival.org
]]>1001 NIGHTS CAST News: THE THREE-QUARTER MARK; YOUR SAY; MOVING TIMEZONES; LONDON WORKSHOP.
THE THREE-QUARTER MARK: Sometime between tonight's performance (#750) and tomorrow's I will pass the three-quarter mark of the project. Since the two-third mark back in April, I'm very honoured to have performed stories by these new contributors to the project: Jordan Peimer (LA), Peter S. Petralia (London), Catherine Lord (LA), Adrian Heathfield (London), Sara Jane Bailes (Bristol), Karen Christopher (Chicago), Rinne Groff (NYC), Rebecca Schneider (NYC), Tony White (London), Geoffrey Batchen (NYC), Trevor Smith (NYC), Kate McIntosh (Brussels), Michael Grosberg (NYC), Hannah Chiswell (UK), Angela Piccini (Bristol), Lina Saneh (Beirut), Thalia Field (Paris), Alisa Lebow (London), Jane Gleeson-White (Sydney), Robin Bale (London), Branislava Kuburovic (Prague), Lara Pawson (London), Matias Viegener (LA), Kathryn Ryan (Sydney), James Tierney (Portland), Linda Dement (Sydney), Agnes Kocsis (London) and Nicholas Royle (London).
YOUR SAY: There is a new feedback section on the site. It's called Your Say. If you want to make a comment about a story, a performance or the project in general, please Have Your Say. You can choose to have it published on the site or to keep it private. If you want to see the published comments, hit the What You Said button.
]]>MOVING TIMEZONES: The project moves to London on Tuesday July 17. That night, performance # 757 will be webcast at 9.10pm. That is: 10.10pm in Paris, Madrid and Prague 11.10pm in Jerusalem, Beirut and Istanbul 4.10am, July 18 in Perth, Hong Kong and Manila 6.10am, July 18 in Sydney 7.10am, July 18 in Auckland 4.10pm in New York, Toronto and Bogota 1.10pm in Los AngelesLONDON WORKSHOP: Ten writers from the UK will join Barbara Campbell in London on July 20, 21 and 22 to write a three part story for the project. The writing workshop is part of DIY 4. DIY 4 is a collaboration between the Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin, and New Work Network, and is being developed with Nuffield Theatre/LANWest, New Work Yorkshire, Fierce Festival, Colchester Arts Centre, The Basement Arts Production South East, and Dance4. DIY 4 is part of Joining the Dots, a Live Art Development Agency initiative supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
"ABSTRACT: A projection screen in the shape of a tent provides children with a shared immersive experience of a virtual world based on the metaphor of camping. RFID aerials at its entrances sense tagged children and objects as they enter and leave. Video tracking allows multiple flashlights to be used as pointing devices. The tent is an example of a traversable interface, designed for deployment in public spaces such as museums, galleries and classrooms.
Keywords: Virtual environments, immersive and traversable interfaces, RFID, video tracking, single display groupware.
INTRODUCTION: Pitching a tent and spending the night under canvass, with friends, a rucksack, a flashlight, surrounded by strange shadows and sounds, is an exciting experience for most children. It is also often the closest that many come to the wilderness, a primitive unfamiliar place that is far removed from their everyday world...
]]>THE TENT AS HCI: As an interface, the tent reflects several current concerns within HCI. First, it represents an example of a traversable interface that provides the illusion of crossing into and out of a virtual world. Previous examples have included fabric curtains, sliding doors, hinged screens and even water sprays [3]. The tent demonstrates an alternative in which participants enter a space that is defined by the screen, but where unlike CAVE-style immersive interfaces, the space outside the screen is also part of the experience." From Camping in the Gigital Wilderness: Tents and Flashlights as Interfaces to Virtual Worlds by Jonathan Green, Holger Schnädelbach, Boriana Koleva, Steve Benford, Tony Pridmore, Karen Medina (CHI 2002). [via pasta and vinegar]]]>"Dual reality" is the concept of maintaining two worlds, one virtual and one real, that reflect, influence, and merge into each other by means of deeply embedded sensor/actuator networks. Both the real and virtual components of a dual reality are complete unto themselves, but are enriched by their mutual interaction. The Dual Reality Media Lab is an example of such a dual reality, as enabled the Plug sensor / actuator network that links our actual lab space to a virtual lab space in the Second Life online virtual world. [MOV]
SLIDE 7: Virtual Worlds >> Many attempts, many failures >> Potential to be as revolutionary as the WWW >> Example: Second Life by Linden Lab >> Key attributes: – shared immersive experience – persistent state – market economy – creative medium.
SLIDE 8: Taxonomy of Reality >> Virtual Reality (all simulated) >> Mixed Reality (some real, some simulated) >> Reality (all real) >> Augmented Reality (all real, some simulated) = mono realities. ALL OF THE SLIDES [PDF]
]]>Gadgets may help merge virtual reality with real life by Mark Baard, Globe Correspondent, July 9, 2007: That hipster you always see talking into his Bluetooth headset might soon be able to use a similar device to leap into Second Life without even stepping out of line at Trader Joe's.
The company behind Second Life, Linden Lab, hopes to introduce hand-held and wearable systems that act as gateways between the real and virtual worlds. Linden Lab and other virtual worlds also are developing versions that run on existing mobile phones.
Researchers at a recent virtual worlds conference at MIT said that special eyewear, display "badges," and speakers worn about the neck will allow us to live more fully through our avatars -- those idealized versions of ourselves that typically boast better proportions than the saggy originals.
]]>Second Lifers wearing the gadgets will be able to attend "in-world" parties and gallery openings, whether they are sucking down beers at Cornwall's or stuck in Fenway traffic. Motion detectors and other sensors in the devices will also show your virtual mates what you are up to in the real world.It might sound like public safety officers will need to shift focus away from the risks associated with driving while chatting on cellphones to the inherent dangers of operating in two realities at the same time. But conference participants said such concerns are premature.
"It's like you're not going to be allowed to be in a virtual world while driving in the real world," said Robert Sutor, vice president of open source and standards at IBM.
Linden Lab vice president Joe Miller described one of the early products that will bridge the two worlds as a wearable box that creates a "3D sound field" that allows the wearer to hear voices from his virtual world without completely shutting out the real people around him.
The prototype speaker device presented to Linden recently by a developer "is not ready for prime time yet but it's working pretty well," said Miller, speaking at "Virtual Worlds: Where Business, Society, Technology & Policy Converge," sponsored by MIT and IBM.
Linden is encouraging open source developers to create client software for mobile devices. And Blizzard Entertainment, creator of the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft, is hiring developers with experience in Symbian and Adobe Flash Lite for its mobile interface initiative.
Conference participants said cellphones are likely to be the first mobile devices to create two-way connections between real and virtual reality.
"The idea of cell phone as sensor has started to catch on in the sensor network community," Joseph Paradiso, leader of the Responsive Environments Group at the MIT Media Lab, wrote in an e-mail last week. "They're much heavier platforms than usually seen in sensor networks, but they are certainly ubiquitous!"
ResEnv has produced a prototype "tricorder" -- inspired by the information- synthesizing gadget from "Star Trek" -- that gathers data from real-world surroundings and translates that information into virtual desks and chairs.
In a video at the ResEnv website, media.mit.edu/resenv, grad students demonstrate how the tricorder's sensors can detect someone swiveling in a desk chair and typing on a computer keyboard. The device can also show the user what is happening in the virtual space he or she is helping to create.
It will take some retooling before virtual worlds can accommodate all of the data streaming from ubiquitous sensors.
"We're talking with Linden Lab [about creating] more efficient pipes of sensor data into their environment," said Paradiso. "I can certainly stream video, but I can't efficiently input diverse sensor data."
]]>"Leah DeVun: You were an early advocate of crowdsourcing in the area of fine art. How did you first get involved in crowdsourcing?
Andrea Grover: Part of my interest in this is related to creating non-commodity-based artwork. I have a lot of personal affection for work from the mid-1960s and early 1970s, happenings and actions such as Gordon Matta-Clark’s Food in New York, which was in a sense a crowdsourced work -- an artist-run establishment where everything, from the cooking to the eating, was a part of the artwork. I also have a lot of fondness for early video collectives like Top Value Television, Videofreex, and Raindance. Video cameras and editing equipment were so cost-prohibitive that the only way to make a work was to do it collectively. So my interests in what’s happening now are to some extent born out of the socially-driven, collaborative works from that period. I first found the term “crowdsourcing” in Jeff Howe’s article in Wired in 2006. I think it gave people language to talk about something that they were seeing but didn’t really have a word for. I think one of the original terms people were using was “relational art” – in other words, crowdsourcing is a new term to describe something that already existed before the term was in common use, but the word gave people something to organize around, and it gave some shape to newer trends." Read the full interview here.
]]>JAMES DODD | SPEAKEASY + UBERMORGEN.COM | WORK 1999-2007 :: 13 JULY - 18 AUGUST :: OPENING THURSDAY 6PM 12 JULY :: EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION, ADELAIDE SOUTH AUSTRALIA :: James Dodd Artist's talk: FRIDAY 17 AUGUST, 4PM ::
JAMES DODD uses images and logos from popular, sub, and outlaw culture to construct his artwork. Rock'n'roll, commercially and individually applied street cultures, and their modes, are all constants in Dodd's practice. Political comments and seemingly inane social observations come together in densely presented groups of work that offer critical analyses of Australian culture. The work explores critical examinations and applications of design and subculture inherent in non-disciplined graffiti. Speakeasy is a a major installation that has painting, sculpture, video and aural elements. The installation references the American prohibition era practice of running illegal and secretive booze establishments as an analogy for the political concept of sedition that we currently experience as Australians. Speakeasy is presented in association with 2007 SALA Festival.
]]>James Dodd is active as an arts practitioner, co-ordinator and teacher. He has spoken as a representative of street art culture at the National Gallery of Australia and in forums in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Dodd's work appears in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and many private collections. He is currently a full time Masters candidate at the University of South Australia. Dodd is repr esented by Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane. James Dodd on EAF website; also http://www.ryanrenshaw.com.auUBERMORGEN.COM is an artist-duo created in Vienna, Austria, by Lizvlx and Hans Bernhard, a founder of etoy. Behind UBERMORGEN.COM we can find one of the most unmatchable identities - controversial and iconoclastic - of the contemporary European techno-fine-art avant-garde. Their open circuit of conceptual art, drawing, software art, pixel-painting, computer installations, net.art, sculpture and digital activism (media hacking) transforms their brand into a hybrid Gesamtkunstwerk.
UBERMORGEN.COM's work is unique not because of what they do but because of how, when, where and why they do it. The computer and the network are (ab)used to create art and combine its multiple forms. The permanent amalgamation of fact and fiction points toward an extremely expanded concept of one's working materials, that for UBERMORGEN.COM also include (international) rights, democracy and global communication (input-feedback loops). "Uberm orgen" is the German word both for "the day after tomorrow" and "super-tomorrow."
Lizvlx is a Vienna and St. Moritz based artist, designer and technologist, producing both artistic and commercial work for companies, collectors and institutions. Using technology and computers as a medium since 1994, she has exhibited her net.art works in venues like Ars Electronica (Austria), Konsthall Malmoe (Sweden), the NTT ICC Museum (Japan), ARCO (Spain) or the Lentos Kunstmuseum (Austria).
Hans Bernhard is a Vienna and St. Moritz based artist working in the fields of digital and fine art. Using technology, computers and the internet as a medium since 1994, he exhibited and performed in venues like the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Japan), Ars Electronica (Austria), Konsthall Malmoe (Sweden) and the SFMOMA (USA). Ubermorgen.com on EAF website
Ubermorgen.com is presented with the assistance of Pro Helvetica, Swiss Arts Council.
For further enquiries contact EAF Program Manager: Design & Publicity, Teri Hoskin at: info[at]eaf.asn.au or phone 08 82117505
The EAF is assisted b y the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and by the South Australian Government through Arts SA. The EAF is also supported through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION
LION ARTS CENTRE, NORTH TERRACE [WEST END] ADELAIDE SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
11-5 TUES-FRI; 2-5 SATURDAY | +61 8 8211 7505 |
Evidence of Movement :: July 10-October 7, 2007 :: The Getty Center :: Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery.
In the collecting and display of art, performance has posed strong challenges to established notions of both the art collection and the archive. Unlike painting or sculpture, performance-based art exists without an original, tangible, and self-contained object. Because of this, archival material such as documentary photography, film and video, and artists' notes and sketches are often studied, collected, and exhibited as works of art. Nearly every medium imaginable has been used by artists to document performance work, including photographs, videos, audio recordings, notes, drawings, paintings, scores, posters, prints, books, objects, and sculptural remnants.
Drawn primarily from the collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, this exhibition surveys the great variety of creative means by which artists have used durable and traditional media to document performance-based art. These attempts to transpose the dynamic and experiential qualities of performance into documentary and archival media have influenced the field of art as a whole, and have opened vital avenues of exploration. Artists featured in the exhibition include John Baldessari, Gunther Brus, Allan Kaprow, Mike Kelley, Suzanne Lacy, Paul McCarthy, Hermann Nitsch, Robert Rauschenberg, Carolee Schneemann, Tony Oursler, Yvonne Rainer.
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