Random Etc. Notes to self. Work, play, and the rest.
The Month Ahead and The Weekend Past
Last weekend, I attended day two of dorkbot Ghent's dorkfest. Due to a few people over-running and a later than expected start, I didn't actually speak for anywhere near as long as I had planned. I even missed out my tube maps in the rush which was disappointing. I hope to return and give a better presentation another day because I definitely liked Ghent and lots of things caught my eye.
Many thanks to Lieven and friends for inviting me, and to all the participants for showing their excellent and interesting projects. Highlights for me were Sven Koenig's sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ!, Heiko Hansen's overview of HEHE's work and the increasingly impressive NodeBox - think Processing meets Python plus lots more, sadly Mac OS-only right now but work on porting it is in progress.
This weekend, I hope to catch the end of the RCA Summer Show (particularly Interaction Design as covered by Tom at plasticbag) and the Bartlett Summer Show (alas I missed the MSc AAC show last weekend due to the clash with dorkbot Ghent). With luck, I'll also make it to Future City at the Barbican.
Looking further ahead, I'll be in Manchester for Futuresonic from 20th-22nd July. I'm taking part in a panel for the Social Technologies Summit with Stanislav Roudavski and Matt Webb entitled Iterative Architecture (Built On An Internet Of Things). The rest of the festival is shaping up nicely, I'm pretty excited about seeing Battles again on the Friday night.
One of my fellow EngD students at the Bartlett, Karen Martin, is helping to organise Why Wait? (a workshop on place, time and future technologies) to be held on the 27th and 28th July. You might also like Karen's blog, Mr. Watson. I'll be at the first day of the workshop before I leave London on the 28th for two weeks in Chicago, New York and Boston. If you've read this far and you live in any of those cities, let me know - we should probably meet!
Processing Blogs at Dorkbot 35
Dorkbot 35
Originally uploaded by rob.purdie.
Seriously though: cat pictures and gengerative art, what's not to like?
I'm told I gave good tube map.
dorkbotlondon #35
I'll be talking about some of my recent Processing work including Processing hacks and the travel time tube map at dorkbotlondon tonight. It's a Brick Lane one, so no excuses!
On Personalisation and International Arts and Crafts
I'm enjoying the first public fruits of Schulze and Webb's work with Nokia on personalisation, in particular their explorations with mobile phone design in wood and fabric.
Anne Galloway asks if this is "personalisation for the many or the few?" and this talk of personalisation, local manufacture and crafting leads me to revisit my thoughts following a visit to the V&A's International Arts and Crafts exhibition this summer.
I can't say that the products or design values of the movement weren't to my taste, and nor can I deny the influence and impact of the movement on current design. However, the ideals of the arts and crafts movement as told by the exhibition were seemingly at odds with the pieces on display and the works of the designers who most actively promoted it. Ostensibly the movement was aimed at making high-quality everyday items accessible to the masses, and a desired return to simpler values, natural materials, high quality craftsmanship and in particular the notion of house and home as work of art. Unfortunately it seemed to be composed of well-off city-dwellers whose desire for so-called simple life arose from a romanticised and fetishised view of the countryside. Save a brief nod to Gustav Stickley's desire for commercial viability it wasn't clear how ordinary people would ever attain the wealth required to live that lifestyle, but meanwhile the apparent worthiness and endearing qualites of handicrafts and one-off items were co-opted to design and furnish the houses of rich patrons of the arts in Victorian urban centres.
Perhaps I missed something and just neatly summarised a total misunderstanding of the Arts and Crafts movement, but sticking my neck out a little I can see the some of the same contradictions at work in Schulze and Webb's explorations. On the one hand, the assertion is made that personalisation and craft should be (and arguably are) accessible to everyone, but on the other hand the waters are muddied with talk of one-off/short-run bespoke and luxury items for a designer market. I'm pretty sure that arises because they quite rightly believe in the value both areas of design, but I'm interested to hear Jack and Matt's thoughts on why these areas are seemingly so easy to mix up, and I'm especially eager to see what comes next.
Arch-os vs Crystalpunks
I'm at the Crystalpunk Workshop for Soft Architecture, and yesterday the lovely Arch-OS folks introduced us to the streams of sensor data they collect from their building.
Here's a quick sketch which maps the temperature of their "Atrium B" floors onto the floors of the office block which houses the Crystalpunk Workshop. Wilfried calls it coloured goo, and who am I to argue?
Design Engaged 2005
Composed in equal parts of heroes, friends and people to Google, Design Engaged in Berlin this weekend looks and sounds like it's been a whole lot of fun.
Technorati searches are looking a little anaemic so far, but Timo Arnall has the photos, Chris Heathcote has the buffets, Matt Jones has the snooping, Matt Webb has the notes, Caterina Fake has the people and Fiona Romeo has the women. Hoping to see more soon though.
I'm sad to have missed Eric Rodenbeck and Mike Migurski's talk "Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich? Wattenberg Wattenberg Wattenberg Wattenberg." (Matt Webb's notes). Guys, look me up if you ever come to London, please?
Inspiring Crystalpunks since Sept 2005: 11, 12 & 13 November
Almost at the same time, I read Paul at dataisnature's blog post about this and Wilfriend Hou Je Bek at socialfiction sent me an email about it. It looks so much fun, it would be rude not to spread the word, so here goes.
Next weekend there's a Crystalpunk Workshop in Utrecht which gathers together a great collection of people/ideas/things/activities, including a Processing/Wiring workshop with Manuel Dahm. From the Crystalpunk page...
A Crystalpunk Workshop for Soft Architecture Event
The Crystalpunk Workshop for Soft Architecture will from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 November be open for crystalpunks and public to work, learn and discuss what is needed to develop soft architecture. During this period we will be open for extensive amounts of time, while we will also provide for some inspirational juice open for the general public with these two events:
Program:
Saturday 12 November 15.00-18.00
Processing & Wiring Board Primer by Manuel Dahm Processing is a scripting tool, designed for teaching the basic of programming using a visual environment, that has become rapidly popular over the last 2 years. Making use of the fact that processing is open source other applications have extended its use. One of the examples being the Wiring boards, of which the workshop possess 5. These are easy to use tiny programmable interface boards that allow you for instance to read sensor data.In true Crystalpunk fashion this primer will be hands-on, allowing complete novices to learn from the more experienced.
This workshop is free, but you might want to bring your laptop (and install the software before you come) if you have one.
Manuel Dahm is the best interaction designer in the world.
http://www.dr3.dehttp://processing.org/
http://wiring.org.co/Sunday 13 November 15.00-18.00
Making It So - presentations by Pete Gomes, Paul Prudence, Inga Zimprich, Jo WalshPete Gomes is the best filmmaker in the world. He teaches Film and Architecture at the Architecture Association London, and has undertaken many experiments in physical GPS annotations of visible and invisible objects. When Pete talks other people listen http://www.mutantfilm.com
Paul Prudence is the best designer in the world. His blog Data=Nature is one of focalpoints in the developing genre of generative art. Recently his graphic work took Majorca by storm. He will show his VJ work as well as discuss the importance of images for crystalpunk [anti]theory. When Paul is on the jazz the audience wiggle their toes in admiration.
http://dataisnature.comInga Zimprich is the best artist in the world. Currently she is a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academy, prototyping Think Tank, a speculative approach to social software. If the van Eyck academy didnt exist already it had to founded for this purpose.
http://www.thinktank.con-gress.netJo Walsh is the best semantic web developer in the world. Apart from being an excellent programmer her background in literature pays off in her capacity as a software critic. Currently she is working on Nodal, a framework for collaborative knowledge management and information distribution making use of semantic web technologies. Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW for her. ">http://frot.org
Perhaps I'll see you there (to be confirmed) but if not - let me know how it goes!
dorkbotlondon
img050720-2112
Originally uploaded by piotch.
There was quite a buzz about our maps at dorkbotlondon last night. It went down very well.
Catch us at Open Tech, or catch Steve and Ben at What The Hack if you want to know more.
← Back to Home
© Random Etc.. Powered by WordPress using the DePo Skinny Theme.