the astonishing adventures of kid neutrino

21st Century Macrame: Open Source and the Maker Movement

2011-07-25T13:26:00.001-05:00

i thought i would share the thesis statement for my lecture since i mentioned it in my first post on Kickstarter lessons. i will writing about the accompanying laboratory in this year's faculty exhibition pretty soon.

21st Century Macrame: Open Source and the Maker Movement
The re-emergence of the do-it-yourself culture as a social movement, cultural form, and genre.

In the latter half of the 1960's and throughout the 1970's, a group of independent artisans and everyday people shared a moment of intense creativity that sought to return to the 'handmade'. This group was motivated commercial culture; life had been subsumed by market, social, and industrial forms that arose post WWII. Heavily oriented around the then nascent Ecological Movement, this group sought to live closer to the earth, they encouraged the idea of sweat equity, and they desired to directly engage hands-on living. This generation spawned sewing circles, social justice movements, organic food co-ops, collectives, and communes around the globe following the Leary-ian mantra "Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Out". The Foxfire series, the myriad inexpensive 'how-to' publications form the era, and magazines like Mother Earth News are some of the artifacts that evidence the a desire for life without corporate mediation.

Today a new generational movement is flowering with many of the same goals of the 1960's and 1970's Love Generation. They are known colloquially as The Maker Movement; this group is motivated by many many of the same wishes of the earlier generation. They are decidedly anti-specialization and hands on, but they approach it with a very different set of politics—shaped by an increasingly interconnected world. Oddly enough this generation has weaved a relationship with factorization and corporations to achieve similar goals. They are at ease with any means by which they may create. The contemporary DIY peerage can comfortably outsource a new design to be manufactured via the miracles of print on demand technologies, create Frankenstein mashups of existent products, reapply older to ancient technologies as an option, or even ingeniously hack a commonly available materials to cobble into new, cheap, and functional fixes. Many of this generation's reverse engineers and hacks do this work as contemporary artists.

money in the 21st century fundraiser

2011-07-23T12:34:00.002-05:00

more lessons from kickstarter

so i saw a predicition sometime last week that within 10 years that wallets will be obsolete. now i can see this as possible because i use applications that securely fill in my data on webforms, but PayPal is not what this post is solely about. we will get back to them in a few moments.

an interesting flaw appeared in our Kickstarter campaign this past 6 weeks. Kickstarter contracts through Amazon Payments to do the accounting on the pledges. i haven't looked into who runs Kickstarter and their attachment to Amazon, but it is an issue. Amazon Payments only takes 'credit cards', now i know the saturation of the Visa and MC brands are extensive and it is rare to find someone without at least a debit card without that sanctification. i found out, though, that i have a close friend who doesn't participate in that, and it got me to think that Amazon needs to figure out some more ways to collect money.

Amazon Payments require linkage to a U.S. bank, creating another barrier also. additionally, you must make an account on Kickstarter to pledge. these points actually put up a barrier for a few more friends and family members who didn't or didn't want to grok the web interface. we considered taking donations from people who couldn't participate for whatever reason and then apply them to the campaign from our account, but this is an issue too. it is a violation of the TOS to donate to your own cause. so you have to go find someone to do it for you, complicating the process even further.

this all is a huge deficit in the system. i actually think that we lost a few hundred dollars because of these inherent prejudices and hurdles. last week i found a open source laser cutter, Lasersaur, that is collecting donations like Kickstarter campaign, but through PayPal on their own webpage. the downside is that you lose the high profile visibility of Kickstarter with it's very involved community and all the easy buttons to plug into the other social media.

i have come to the conclusion that a fundraiser needs to be a two prong attack where you do both. you really should be trying to funnel as many people as you can through Kickstarter to take advantage of the trendy high profile nature of the platform (and the all or nothing nature of the pledge model). additionally, you need a side channel. ideally, a close friend who can collect through PayPal for you and that can make a deposit in Kickstarter for you in the case you get pressed to the wall for for your goal, which is probably a TOS violation, but what can you do other than handle it discretely.

and you definitely need a PayPal donation page immediately after the campaign closes because less than 12hours from when we closed our campaign we started having 'knocks on the door' to still participate. ah i love the procrastinators.

the fees

2011-07-22T10:43:00.003-05:00

the continued Kickstarter analysis

so Amazon Payments is the vehicle for payment of donations in Kickstarter. the system charges a percentage to be the bank that allows people to pay by card. these are calculated off this schedule:

For Transactions >= $10:
2.9% + $0.30 for all transactions
Volume Discounts
2.5% + $.30 for all transactions for monthly payment volume from $3k-$10k
2.2% + $.30 for all transactions for monthly payment volume from $10k - $100k
1.9% + $.30 for all transactions for monthly payment volume over $100k
For Transactions < $10:
5.0% + $0.05 for all transactionss

plus Kickstarter applies 5% to the successful campaign. so in the wash we cleared $1813 from $2,078.66 or approximately 88% of the donations. you should definitely take this into account when setting up the goal of your campaign. We should have shot for $2250 or $2500 if 2k was a firm goal.

another NCOTB awesome entry

2011-07-21T10:41:00.002-05:00

NCOTB

a lesson learned from kickstarter

2011-07-21T09:29:00.009-05:00

i learned a boat load from our kickstarter experience. i am going to make posts over the next few days to get them down.

the model is good, but it is definitely geared toward product/business development. community development projects are a lot more ephemeral. i know that i am splitting hairs here; there are plenty of artists using kickstarter, but i see a big difference in those who are developing something like an album which is meant to be reproduced again and again by a manufacturing process and/or delivered by a retail method. i received a lot of messages that were serious and importantly asked "so what?". i do think this is a valid criticism to ask: "past the parlour tricks aspect of the device, what is it for?" business focused folks had a really hard time figuring out why we would ask for investment. i would like to share an email i got Monday. i have obscured the name for privacy:

Hello Thomas!

One of my friends shared your project with me. I watched your video about the glove and turning anything into a speaker. My question to you is "So what?". In other words: "What is the benefit of turning anything into a speaker?" "Why could this project be significant?" "How could it be used in the marketplace?"

I am not asking to be insulting but I am asking to help you help us non-techie people see the benefit and why it would be prudent to invest in your idea. If you could shed some light on that, I will be glad to share this information with all of my contacts.

Have a great day!
r.e.

in my reply i tried to decscribe why open source it vital for our world and told the person about another email i had recieved a few days earlier:

Hi R***,

These are all good questions and let me see if I can unfold it a bit and describe our motivations.

First a bit of background, James and I are developing this as an open source project, which is a concept that revolves around community development, strengthening an individual through 'know-how', and freely sharing information. It is a very academic pursuit which fits right in to my career as you can see. You may want to read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source or you might want to see it in action look here www.instructables.com/

Now to our madness, 'contact transducers' (the tech bits we are using), are indeed used in commercial applications all the time. They get used in fixtures like lamps or other objects at a shopping malls to turn those objects into a speaker to play background music or advertisements. Our projects seeks to use the tech for other audiences. One scenario could be for a group of actors who could show up and do a live impromtu performance at some public space activating sound effects, music, etc. This could allow performers to really open up their interaction with the performance space.

One other application comes from a local person who contacted me. She is a care taker here in Pensacola that uses the same technology to treat children with Autism. It sounds as if they have planted transducers into furniture that the children use to calm themselves. She has the intuition that the touch combined with auditory stimuli could expand her treatment options with the technique.

And that is the great thing about open source. It encourages innovation. It is quite likely that there are dozens of applications using the gloves that James and I haven't thought about. We are academics and artists, so we have a different take on the project. It is not our intention to be the inventors of ProductX. The Kickstarter campaign is really to help support us in building community/share the thought with the world. So that is the basis for raising money with Kickstarter.

BTW I will be leading workshops on building this, and talking about open source as a movement in November at UWF. I want to build community here also!

Don't hesitate to write back if you have other questions.

cheers!
t-

our kickstarter campaign was funded

2011-07-20T23:09:00.003-05:00

portraits from look art

2011-07-18T15:21:00.008-05:00

look art opens

2011-07-18T13:52:00.020-05:00

last week the project look art—a turbulence commission—opened and it even seems like it has been well received. it has taken me a couple of days to recover, because i was testing right up to the last. my insomnia payed off; i was able to stack up the gallery and extras in time. i will wait for another post to talk about the extras.

this first instantiation of look art is three artist's take on the classic multi-user gaming format. known as a Multi User Shared Halluciantation (MUSH) or Multi User Dungeon (MUD), these socially (and usually fantasy) oriented game environments thrived at the advent of our network culture. partially an expression of the need to communicate and partially because the computing of the time could only operate with very limited graphics, these environments were (& are) the domain of text. akin to today's fan fiction or that era's choose-your-own-adventure novels, this was(& is) a highly interactive platform that were shifted toward a high level of imagination rather than a suspension of disbelief.

i proposed to use the space to explore Lewitt's art and language methodologies. my work with geometries and pattern in the space bored me and i soon found it was much more interesting to work with portraiture. i began to incorporate the social aspect into the work by painting a series of colleague portraits. the process was challenging it required me to use photo processing, automated coding, and then i spent a considerable amount of time (sometimes hours) at the end on the portraits 'correcting' the ASCII characters to build better images. in the end it was much closer to my traditional painting process than i first imagined it would be.

the other two pieces in the show are very intriguing exploratory works.

Christopher Poff has created a interactive manifesto that burdens the players with the weight of Meaning and Purpose as well as Artist and Art. Alejandro Duque is using the work to prototype out a mixed realities type of piece where he wants to connect up physical interfaces with the MUD. this is definitely an intriguing idea and i will be watching his progress closely.

if you want to go in with a guide, i would be glad to play Virgil, just drop me a line.

a lecture proposal with dramatic Keanu expletives

2011-07-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

i will be doing a lecture for the Leisure Learning Society this October on the history of the Internetz and WWW from the perspective of an artist. after i sent it in, i found out that the guy who had encouraged me to lead a community ed. course actually served on the board of the non-profit company that ran the backbone for NSF.

<Keanu>

WHOA!

</Keanu>

and then he told me that he was one on the authors on the incorporation documents for Edunet.

<Keanu>

Dude.

</Keanu>

i have asked Bob if i can interview him and i will definitely have to do more homework! anyway... here's the proposal:

The Byzantine History of the Internet and the World Wide Web

This lecture is a detailed look at histories of the Internet and World Wide Web from the perspective of an artist and research academic. Thomas will examine the confluences of military, social, and technological advances during the 19th and 20th Centuries which led to our contemporary world of highly connected and intertwined information systems. Some (but not all) of the historic figures and institutions to be covered include: Optical Telegraphy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, DARPA, Paul Baran, Stanford Research Institute, Eglin AFB, Tim Berners-Lee, the National Science Foundation, and the W3C.

when it rains it pours!

2011-07-10T00:09:00.004-05:00

YAY (mini)Maker Faire is coming to Atlanta! ...while i am in Istanbul. Wow. That was one of the fastest let downs in history.

¡you! yes, you. you need to go. unless you are accompanying me to Turkey this is a special thing, i was at Maker Faire 1 and 2. do not miss this opportunity.

http://www.makerfaireatl.com/Atlanta_Mini_Maker_Faire/Home.html

the Kickstarter campaign marches on

2011-07-09T23:37:00.003-05:00

i am discovering that fundraising is a game in the truest sense. it is not that i am specifically looking for loopholes to game Kickstarter. i have just come to the conclusion that the whole nature of raising money for a project is actually a quest based resource gathering system with tons of variables. I can compare it to a kind of puzzle quest that requires solving to unlock the next in the quest line. fundraising requires a balance of tone and honesty; no glory-hounding but not feel embarrassed about saying that we really believe this to be a cool project. and the way you say it is so different in formality and tone depending if you are addressing the Dean, a friend, or a philanthropic agency.

we are about 10 days from the deadline and very close to 50% which has raised our visibility on the Ks webpages considerably. i believe that if we can get a few more bucks from several people—can you spare a $10, friend?—that we will be well on the way to getting on the front page. we have pulled ahead of two CNC projects as of this week which is no mean feat because those project are very important right now.

so...
if you are one of my readers/friends even a $1 helps so please consider donating. here's the link

Super Mario Bros. acapella

2011-03-31T17:25:00.002-05:00

sweetness

to buy/contribute to the quake causes: http://itun.es/i6H67s

Jeff Koons Must Die!!!

2011-03-30T08:45:00.007-05:00

My awesome colleague Wayne Madsen turned me onto a video game project of Hunter Jonakin, Jeff Koons Must Die!!!. The project is an 80's style arcade FPS.

Besides the obvious fact that this is a little slice of awesome sauce, the JKMD is part of a fine Oedipal tradition in the Arts. The project is definitive exploration of the metaphorical slaying of a Father figure to transcend to the next level. The last work I can remember that evoked such a reaction in me was Erased DeKooning.

"What if you were locked in a museum overnight, with a rocket launcher, during a Jeff Koons retrospective?"

Jeff Koons Must Die!!! The Video Game from Hunter Jonakin on Vimeo.

Hunter is a recent graduate of Florida State University. You can see all his web presence here.

privacy bot

2011-03-16T11:34:00.000-05:00

Niklas Roy has definitely created one of the best physcomp projects I have seen in some time. Check out Privacy and Net Curtains

seeking performers & activists in Istanbul

2011-03-14T09:34:00.009-05:00

in a post from last week, i mentioned the Touchstone workshop project from Mr. Bricolage which was picked up by the curators of ISEA 2011.

the focus of the project is to build a platform/instruments and working with communities rather than making an artifact or specific performance. Stone and i want to release the idea to the world as a creativity tool at this phase.

we are seeking to partner with a Turkish or international performance or activist group who we could guide in building the low cost hacktivist sound generators. Mr. Bricolage is working on securing the funding for hardware and logistics of getting ourselves and materials to the conference and soon we will be announcing fund raising campaigns.

we specifically seek groups interested in using our design of wearable device for mobile and tactical sonification of the performance space. ideally, we would like to work with a local Turkish performers. if you know of some group who might be interested in an extremely low cost or no-cost workshop to build new sound tools for their work, please contact us at:

info [at] mr-bricolage [dot] us

happy PI Day

2011-03-14T03:14:00.007-05:00

PI Day kicks off quite an awesome week. this week's lineup: today is PI day, it is spring break, Rebecca's birthday on wednesday, and Ruth's birthday and St. Patricks Day on thursday.

and to celebrate the holy of holies, 3.14, we will have blueberry.

a pi day activity: you can see where your birthday comes up in the first 1.2million digits of pi here: http://www.facade.com/legacy/amiinpi/

counting the days to march 14, 2015(or 31415),
kN

three graphics ideas for the ISEA project

2011-03-13T18:17:00.000-05:00

another sub $3k abs FDM

2011-03-12T17:40:00.005-06:00

i am pretty stoked about the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic we will be assembling and using for my class this summer. whilst doing some, class prep, i found another FDM called UP! that retails just under $3000. it is distributed by Cool Components see: Check out A Technology to Change the World

Rozendall's Contract for URL based works

2011-03-12T10:41:00.001-06:00

Rafael Rozendaal has just published a contract for selling URL based works. This is very telling and interesting. It seems that animated GIF's were the toast of this year's Armory Show in NYC. SO how the hell do you sell URL based work? well here's Rozendaal's site or you can join the Facebook group open for public discussion on the matter.

project selected for ISEA2011 (Istanbul, Turkey)

2011-03-10T22:57:00.003-06:00

well now we did it! Our sonification project for ISEA International 2011 was accepted. We have proposed a workshop to work with activists and performers (or both) to develop wearable tech workshop to sonify the object the actors/agents touch. We are still working on a better title but for now it is code named 'Touchstone'.

from our proposal:

"Mr. Bricolage, Asmuth and Stone, propose a DIY wearable technology workshop at ISEA 2011 for activists, performers, and interested parties. The workshop will consist of demonstrations, discussions about strategies for use, and most importantly a hands on workshop to build Touchstone devices. The culmination of the workshop will be a local performance and/or action.

Touchstone is a mobile and tactical media broadcast platform worn on the hands of performers and activists. Touchstone is an strategy for contesting the urban/performance landscape rather than a product.

The technology of Touchstone is built upon audio exciter circuits embedded in gloves which transform the hands of an agent into broadcast transmitters. Touchstone agents activate objects as a temporary/ad-hoc public address systems, by simply pressing their palms against it. Touchstone is a discrete technology platform: (1) it is virtually invisible on the garb of a performer/agent and (2) it is light and flexible; agents or performers can easily move (or escape). Moreover, it is a cinch to produce; the system does not require advanced electronics knowledge and is easily assembled from surplus, inexpensive, and/or widely available consumer technology."

more images here

tv party tonight

2011-02-27T21:11:00.002-06:00

glitch art, a start to my image posts

2011-01-17T16:51:00.009-06:00

i want to start cataloging the interesting stuff i see, so expect more image posts.

glitch-art (aka glitch aka digital noise) is the observation of the world of the screen based livelihood. random, error filled beautiful anti-abstractions and unexpected results from our so reliable black boxes.

glitch can be linked to other art movements such as the sonic noise art movement that arose during Dada or earlier. Curt Cloninger has made several posts on a rhizome discussion post that show his day to day discoveries, including an image of a decaying icon painting of the Christ. though the vernacular of glitch is computational, this image underpins that noise art is actually part of even the 'analog' arts. glitch is the material failure of the medium in which creates a unique optical impression. this type of material 'failure' can also be compared to the patina on an antique which regularly increases the value of the object.

i am also reminded of the ideas of 'happy accident' regularly discussed by painters. the happy accident occurs when material skips or misses or exhibits some other bit of resistance to the manipulation of the draughtsperson.

vcu primer on glitch

"To err human, to glitch is machine." creators project brief guide to glitch

i am a avid fan of experimental music and i started to get very interested in optically based glitch in the MMORPG's i participate in. sometimes caused by bad network or slow connections, the spaces in between navigable space of the game and the transport can be very beautiful. here's an example from recent:

Birmingham continued

2010-11-23T11:07:00.002-06:00

i am very interested in returning to Birmingham to investigate the gallery culture. the seminar was held at Space One Eleven aka SOE, non-profit gallery devoted to the artist and non-traditional gallery experiences. i met Anne Arrasmith and Peter Prinz the founders of SOE, both generous, hospitable, and sharp people whose mission is to run a gallery that allows artists to exhibit non-commercially viable but vitally important work.

everyone was astounded that i had driven 4 hours to attend, but the seminar seemed perfect to keep me energized about my work and the next steps i need to take. the cost of the trip was around $250 for room, food, gas, and attendance fees. which seems affordable for the chance to network in the region. the drive was really easy, and I discovered that Birmingham in addition to being close to Pensacola, it really a nice central hub for the major urban areas of the (non-Florida) Southeast. it is within 3hours of 4 major cities (Memphis, Atlanta, Nashville and Knoxville).

i had the chance to talk to several other faculty about developing visiting lectures both amongst ourselves in the region and to bring in other high profile artists/theorist to out campuses through sharing of costs. most of the faculty in attendance were from Alabama with a few from GA and TN.

the trip yielded a new colleague, Sarah Marshall who is at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Sarah also brought a fantastic undergrad by the name of Patricia who is doing some high level aesthetics-data moshing around the culture of cancer. i was energized when Sarah shared her experience about marketing when the Apatow film that shares her name came out. i let her know that the ideas of identity is an important topic in my work, and we were fast friends.

a seminar in Birmingham

2010-11-22T08:46:00.010-06:00

i have mentioned earlier in this blog that i have been traveling the SE area to discover the things that would keep me energized and help me expand my network in the region.

this weekend i was in Birmingham AL, the largest city in Alabama (nearly 750k residents and 2.3million in the metro area), to attend a faculty and professional development seminar sponsored in large part by CAA at Space One Eleven.

i have recently decided that i need more representation even though i know that i will still want to make art that is hard to sell to collectors. i am eager to follow the Christo/Jean Claude methodology of selling ephemera/artifacts associated with my projects and thus works like my drawings (Study for My Past Life as Yuri) will fulfill the commercial side. they form a bridge into the more esoteric and less material regions of my projects. i see the opportunity for the drawings and similar work to become a type of advertisement to get exposure to encourage the further exhibition of the hard to market portions of my work into the museum/university/and experimental gallery system.

the first workshop was about resume/CV development and whilst i found that most of it was a refresher there were points where the speaker confirmed that he would have made a similar decision in how to list or organize the document. this session was led by Larry Jens Anderson and he is awesome despite the fact that he felt the language in my statement was too 'flowery'. it reminds me a moment when Shannon Wright told me that my application to a school was fine, but maybe i should tone it down a bit because no one was going to believe i talk in that fashion. then she said even though you do... sigh, it is the nature of this beast.

Larry is sharp and tells you immediately what he thinks; i was in awe by how he listened to people read their artist statements and could give an instantaneous critique! you go Larry! additionally, the work he does is fantastic. he dropped lots of amazing tips on all manner of things including how to get a brief sit down with the director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center to consult on your work. this was definitely worth the $20 cost of admission!

Studies for My Past Life as Yuri

2010-11-09T22:45:00.015-06:00

over the past two weeks i have been trying to return to my artistic roots and also influence it with an impression from early in my life. the artistic root is that of drawing; specifically i am doing a sort of self portraiture in graphite. and by sort i mean that i am choosing to influence the portraits with early impressions on my personality. recently, my obsession of the EVA (or spacesuit) and all things cosmo- or astronautical has been a real focus for me. i have motives for a very grand experiment that i am not quite ready to unveil publicly, but a way that this obsession has manifested is that i started to make avatars for my online life using the famous space pioneers. the twist and art in this comes from my treatment of the images. i have been compositing pictures of myself into the photos. through the magic of computer imaging i become Yuri Gregarin, Alan Shepard, etc.

i started doing this to riff on how to let the impressions of the 'space race' effect my art work; it soon became obvious to me that i am very interested across much of my work in identity and role play. the composite photographs of my face in the role of astro-colonialist created a really interesting way for me to consider what i want to do with these 'heavy' influences. the creation of this alternate reality, also gave me an excellent focus when i have had to do demonstrations of digital manipulation in the class room. i could talk to the act of fakery as an art, an art exploring roleplay, identity, and personality. i developed a nice an extensive narrative of my shadowy past connected to the early ballastics history of Germany, the Soviet Space program, and eventually recruitment to the NASA program as i built sample images and websites to demo the software for my students.

the photoshopped images were excellent foils for this discussion and a pleasant way to riff as i mentioned before. i examined them with a critical sense over the last few weeks, i saw that the composites had a sort of distance and flatness in the digital form. they seemed to be conceptually flat and distant; and i wanted to manifest these ideas in the real world in a real way. really get on the stage if you will allow me to extend the the acting metaphor a bit more.

i saw that they need to be made of whole atoms, not just electrical traces on the medium, so i remade the composites once more by drawing them in graphite and larger than life. i consider these two as studies in this roleplay. i have ideas on how to bring even more life to the idea and images which i may share at a future date. i told a colleague that the drawings are making the fake into reality for me. it is a complex relationship/process between the tangible material (paper, graphite) and the oversized format. it brings a life to my fantasy land, my youthful desire to be a rocketman.

Study for My Past Life as Yuri(Number 0001) 2010 Graphite on paper. 36x25 inches.

Study for My Past Life as Yuri(Number 0002) 2010 Graphite on paper. 35x34 inches.
/p>

BEST robotics

2010-10-23T08:46:00.002-05:00

This morning I am at the UWF Field House to help judge the BEST robotics competition, a high school level games to develop a Robotics project. The theme/narrative this year deals with addressing production techniques and problem solving as well as the actual robo-games. The folks seem nice but seem a bit cautious. So it will be very interesting to see if they warm up to me.

damn! i was totally sucked in

2010-10-18T22:10:00.002-05:00

tonight Christina McPhee posted some research on the CFP for Placebos for Art. I was really thrilled and wanted to apply to this show but is truly appears to be a complete hoax; McPhee has uncovered many curious pieces of embedded information:

"--I checked the medical references. They appear to be fictitious. The institutes, medical schools etc mentioned do not seem to exist. The pharmaceuticals don't exist. There is a Dr. Kristina U. who is a prof at University of Puget Sound, they mustve picked her name out of random searches for a cool doctor name.

-- I especially appreciate how close 'Behring' is to 'Schering,' which does fund a lot of art in their own self-interest. It's also amusing how the title is "Placebos for Art" but is asking for "Art Placebos." The latter is certainly more innovative. The world is full of 'placebos for art.'

--They at least have enough funding to buy an e-flux ad...

--very amusing! now what if e-flux is yesman-ized...

-- was seriously considering entering the pharmakon library. i mean. Get down"...

This is brilliant and McPhee deserves high praise for the discovery of this!

spam art is the new black

2010-10-14T09:09:00.007-05:00

have you ever received a beautiful spam message? i have received examples that have been puzzling, engaging, clever, poetic, and even one supposedly from the Office of Homeland Security (bless those Nigerian scammers). yesterday a most comely example of spam came to my in-box. the filter did exile it to my junk folder, but because of the subject line that referenced twitter i felt the need to just check on it. i found a very attractive image built from text forms and underscores(only a few were links):

sure. that's right. it wanted me to go to sites which would have installed keyloggers onto my machine whilst it was selling me knockoff Viagra and Celebrex, but i am intrigued by this idea of the aesthetically pleasurable spam message. i started to think that this might be a good class assignment... spam art

mud + electricity = ??

2010-10-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

on Friday, my colleague Adam Shiverdecker and i started a workshop collaboration between students enrolled in the Architectural Ceramics class and the Digital Multimedia (read PhysComp.) class. the idea sprung from Adam's observation that i desired my students to think more about design, fabrication, and presentation and Adam's desire to see his students add kinetics and interaction to the methodologies he was teaching.

at 10:00, we jetted from the faculty meeting to start. Adam set up the teams; he had all members trade contact info with all their teammates I was of course assisted by my two trusty henchmen (ok... lab assistants) Dan McSwain and Juan Rodriguez. additionally Carleton Haack from the ceramics department jumped in form his side and they deftly assisted me in getting kits out to each student group and setting up electrical for the soldering.

the students were furnished with schematics, drawings, and keys to all the components of the Quickly bot^{1 2}. my PhysComp. students took the lead teaching their team members about soldering technique, circuitry, and components whilst Dan, Juan and i patrolled looking for questions and assisting in small ways. the group hummed with small conversations about the methods of using simple techniques to learn basic electronics.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

as the first hour and a half drew to a close, one or two teams (of 13) had a fully function circuit exhibiting the light following behavior. and after a ten minute break Adam took the reins and held a hour demo of the slip casting methods. it was the bomb! my students helped a bit when he needed and extra hand and they were suitably intrigued about the ideas about making a complex body for the Quickly. and they got a good idea of the process of going from model to mold to casting.

we ended the workshop with the blueprint of how we wanted them to progress. they have 4 weeks until the 2nd workshop:

by next Friday they will have a model of the structure they will use in the project.

they will make a cast of the design next weekend because the mold needs one week to cure before casting

on the 3rd week they will cast and fire slip castings from the mold

on the 4th week they will present a working model and we will do robot races :D

by finals week everyone of the team will have their own edition of the project

i believe our small experimental equation is going to bear out ceramics + digital = teh awesome, but we shall see.

TEDx

2010-10-10T21:38:00.012-05:00

this past weekend i was directed to the fact that the TED organization was offering the license to groups, schools, associations, etc to use there franchise/brand to TEDx or local symposiums. anyone/group can set-up a mini-symposium under the umbrella of the Ted brand. they claim that despite the fact that different event can be very sculpted to the particular community all of the TEDx events have certain things in common:

* TED's celebrated format: A suite of short, carefully prepared talks, demonstrations and performances on a wide range of subjects to foster learning, inspiration and wonder -- and to provoke conversations that matter
* TEDTalks videos: A minimum of two pre-recorded talks from the acclaimed TEDTalks video series will be shown (these talks are available free on TED.com)
* Bias-free programming: Lack of any commercial, religious or political agenda ¹

i am a huge fan of the TED programming. i have definitely been inspired by the speakers and presentations in the past. lately though, i have had a sneaking suspicion about the chatter about the altruism of the program. this spring i was dismayed with the way Sarah Silverman was treated by TED's self-titled curator Chris Anderson.

TED while full of great speakers with awesome world changing ideas and projects is also Anderson's ego project; how could he have not known what he was getting in the talents of Silverman. albeit Silverman's humor (a satire of ugliness and insult) is not everyone's idea of entertainment, but did Anderson really expect her to be on 'good behaivor' for the rich people who can afford to attend in person. it is actually more obscene to expect an artist to change their talent because the King has asked them to dinner. and Silverman reported that she was very hurt by the commentary because she was also a fan of the TED talks.

so this brings me back to the TEDx claim that it is "Bias-free programming: Lack of any commercial, religious or political agenda"... for reals?

the shame is that TEDx would be an awesome opportunity to frame a locally sourced, DIY, emergent symposium and have it benefit from the intellectual capital that has been built by the great thinkers of the TED series. i am so repulsed by the behavior of the curator to Silverman, that i just don't know if i can get on board. so i make a modest proposal:

i encourage those who have subjects which may be too tough for the mainstream to start using the TEDx brand. let's have a frank TEDx about Sado-Masochistic Sexual fetish, let's have a TEDx on Intelligent Design, let's have a TEDx on Anarchism, let's have a TEDx by the KKK...
and we will see if the TED management really believes in (and practices) the intellectual freedom they espouse or whether this is only for the politically retarded.

follow up 22:34 10/10/10
meer minutes after i sent this i found this blurb:

"TED does not grant licenses to those associated with controversial or extremist organizations. TEDx events may not be used to promote spiritual or religious beliefs, commercial products or political agendas. Hosts may not affiliate the TEDx or TED brand with other conferences, or with commercial endeavors."

sigh... i guess i got my answer: as long as it is ok with their political/moral views...

tripping to 01sj: a recap

2010-09-27T22:13:00.012-05:00

i am back from the 01sj biennial for a week and i starting again. 01sj was undoubtedly an energizing experience even with injury and insult that modern air travel is today(another post for another day). i met some amazing new friends caught up with old friends, marveled at what was done by all, and got to eat some damned good and inexpensive Mexican Food.

eleven highlights of the trip in no particular order of preference:
1. one on one interview with Miguel Palma, sculptor, installation artist, mechanical genius, and hell of a beautiful soul. Miguel and I shared some ciders and much discussion of the ideas, aesthetics, and ethics. the next day he met me for a continued discussion and private tour (and videoed) of his installation at the Thompson Gallery at SJSU.

2. performance by Zoe Keating—haunting, lyrical, absolutely beyond belief cello concert!

3. A Machine to See With—the new mobile device augmented reality game/experience from Blast Theory. WOW! WOW! WOW! truly fun, i deeply took on the cinematic, stereotype offered to me and with all due intensity scared the hell out of my 'partner' (a player who I met during the game play). honestly i was deep and intently playing the role, it was too much for the other person and they ran away. brilliant!

4. assisting, artist, Sarah Lowe assemble her ghost cones—just in time for the Absolute Zero street fest! eek!

5. i-Weather—another one-on-one with the artists! i-Weather is a realtime artificial acclimatization application to allow you to sync your circadian rhythms to a network of similar synced individuals. Christian Babski and Patrick Keller gave me an individual tour of the concept, structure, and the software used to build a multiple platform light generator that runs from orange to blue light in order to help you match bodily systems to the i-weather network.

6. touring South Hall with my in-laws–seriously amazing people with amazing insight and personal experience, it is always such a joy to share my understanding of art with their wisdom.

7. lunch with the folks of Leonardo—during a break in the Global Warning Symposium a Leonardo staffer invited me to dine with speakers and the board of Leonardo

8. SloDog—eating sausages made by the SloDog team and harassing the cyclers as they cooked the tubemeats

9. the countless others who gave me short interviews and laughed with me about my camera rig. and all i learned from my prototypes and using my new mobile device to broadcast. many new evil plans are a foot from the notes i have.

10. being asked to participate on a panel about gender identity from the Trading Voices team—i was asked to be part of the discussion panel on gender equality, role play, and transformation by the members of the TV team.

11. couch surfing the Casa Shatner with the Socks Inc team—partay, partay!

there was so much more! what a few days! i think i was up at 7-8am everyday and not to bed before 2am any of the days...

shouldrCam assembly & more testing

2010-09-11T01:19:00.004-05:00

I made good progress on the shouldrCam assembly today.

i am testing the voice to text option in my new droid

2010-09-10T08:21:00.001-05:00

i am testing my new droid phone. it has a voice to text option. this was 1 pass, very impressive.

This is the droid I hav been looking for

2010-09-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

It's here...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

it works!

2010-09-08T09:48:00.001-05:00

Servo pan/tilt update

2010-09-07T20:32:00.001-05:00

Pan/tilt rig is in. Here's the cam sat upon it.

CS5 reflections

2010-09-04T15:20:00.005-05:00

it has been slightly over 3 weeks since i downloaded the CS5 suite for my laptop and I am not too impressed with the performance on my relatively new Mac (less than 6 months old). i am running:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B05

the new suite really bogs my computer down even when doing simple things like making animated gifs. i also have had problems with the availability of tools common filters and tools (lighting effects for heaven's sake!) in the Ps 64bit version so i have had to down grade the performance to access them. and in my opinion Dw CS5 makes basic site setup less user friendly. it confused my mid-level students who had become quite comfortable with the Basic Tab; not a great idea Adopey!

i am going to suggest to my students that yes the content aware clean up tools are really sexy, but for day to day use I find that CS4 is a fine tool. it pretty obvious that we will need a few more hardware revisions to make this work smoothly, so my recommendation for the student is to go get a deal on CS4 for the mean time. or buy a really tricked out desktop.

more projection of shoulder cam

2010-09-03T18:50:00.003-05:00

so unfortunately it appears that my servo rig won't be here until Tuesday, gack! so i pulled out Sketch-up to get an idea of the appearance. i still need to add in a back pack and the wires are hard to draw. here are the current images.

01SJ chicanery

2010-09-01T13:47:00.003-05:00

so i am setting up my rig for 01SJ and i showed the laptop carrying device i am going to use for transmitting my remote communications. I have decided that I need a front facing camera as i eluded to in yesterday's post. i decided this afternoon that will shoulder mount a cam with pan/tilt using Arduino and a Wii-chuck. i found a generous soul named Andrea Salvatore, who has uploaded his code and example here.

awww, who knows maybe I will put it on a hat, yet.

impromptu Glitch Art lecture in the lab on Monday

2010-09-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

the countdown begins

2010-08-31T21:22:00.008-05:00

t-minus 15day 2hours 32mins until 01SJ as i start this post. my objective or role is that of anthropologist/art historian/critic/art tourist this time around. i am trying to plan a live remote from the event on friday and i need to talk with my homies in the Ho to see what I can arrange. the plan is to use two easy tools the laptop suspension device called Connect-A-Desk and some rig to get a second shot.

Connect A Desk @ Yahoo! Video

i have been thinking about a helmet or shoulder mounted cam. my colleague Amy Ruddick pointed my attention to a lesser known Pedro Almodóvar film called Kika where they have this awesome rig for remote camera operation.

I have no idea if I can fashion such an awesome rig in time, but the sheer design of the telematic costume is stunning, and is accordingly designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

New shirt in; think I will wear it tomorrow

2010-08-31T19:27:00.000-05:00

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

2010-08-30T08:01:00.002-05:00

almost the whole of august

well this has been quite a ride, the promise to post everyday for the month of August. i almost made it except that the first week of classes ground me down and i was simply exhausted on last Friday and Saturday.

Rubaiyat: "wanna try another month? do you have it in ya? i find this very inefficient method of communication by sending you a message via my blog extremely fun(ny)."

2010-08-29T10:44:00.002-05:00

software and the bureaucracy

so the first week of classes has once again an amazing learning opportunity. i created some tension with the CAS technology support group by requesting a free software for the lab machines on the first day of classes. the support group is stretched thin and they thought they had finished for us. things worked out after i explained that it was an emergency, that i had 2 weeks until i absolutely needed it.

since that first day dust up, i have discovered that they did not include what my colleagues and i think are basics such as: Firefox and Filezilla. last semester we had requested and they had eventually given us an Admin account for urgent issues and this isn't there either :/
i don't mind installing Firefox, etc. it isn't a big deal.

the lesson is that we need to be very exacting about what we need each and every semester. i am pulling together a master spreadsheet to send to them with the message that we want to be good team mates, but we are still learning the best ways to work, sorry.

2010-08-26T20:58:00.004-05:00

!!!!Free!!!! Processing and Arduino course.

Online Course:
Processing and Arduino in Tandem
Creating Your Own Digital Art Tools

this is happening on Tuesday evenings Aug 30 to the end of Sep.

2010-08-25T20:20:00.001-05:00

first solder

tonight everyone of my 18 electronics novices successfully assembled a Blinkenlights kit! i am truly excited by the possibilities. i wrote a diatribe on the nature of public art, culture jamming, and intervention. i am tempted to publish the rant here.

2010-08-24T09:17:00.005-05:00

this could be very interesting

last night i started my re-striped phys. comp. class. this year we are not going to take it slowly, we move into micro-controllers right away. i borrowed heavily from the syllabi of a good friend Steve Durie from CADRE to make up the schedule and syllabus, in addition there is a cross class collaboration planned to have students of Arch. Ceramics and Digital develop final projects together.

don't go too slow, my last students handled the technical practice fine

you need your own tools, ya wouldn't expect to borrow a 00 watercolor brush in the other studios

have fun, cause mayhem

i gave IMNSHO was a stirring speech about the wealth of resources, the generous community around Arduino, and how cool it is to fail bombastically and gloriously. and i showed the trailer for the Arduino Documentary. i guess i will see what the enrollment is on Wed. if we do maintain most of the 20 students it will be one hell of a semester.

2010-08-22T23:53:00.000-05:00

fantastic idea

SAIC, one of my favorite institutions, has a 1.5 credit hour foundations program for all first year students called SAICWired. it teaches the basics of the Mac desktop, simple image composition and color correction through Ps, blogging skills, and simple web development mostly targeted towards gallery building. in other words, digital fundamentals for every student in the program, basic skills for participating in the contemporary digital society.

i try to compress this info into 2week period at the beginning of my classes and thus i lose 15% of my teaching time to basics. many students still need to pick up these basic skills, and it doesn't matter if they are going to be a painter or prosecutor, these are fundamental contemporary skills. the SAIC class is 90 minutes once a week for one semester. what a deal!

i will be borrowing from this! and i will be trying to get it written into our program!

2010-08-22T09:31:00.001-05:00

how honest is too honest

i like to think that i try to be transparent, i find that it is too cumbersome to try to measure out what i should and shouldn't say to people. this is especially important because of the contemporary and public fashion that i communicate on forums as unlikely as this and as pervasive as twitter/FB. i do occasionally withhold something if i think it will pain another in some way. all of these hypocrisies aside though, i still find the questions of how truly honest i can be, a perplexing question.

i have several goals to improve myself——my work, life, livelihood, etc——i am not satisfied with all, i really want to pursue these goals and see where they lead. i will be that way for a long time to come because i have been that way for a long time, period.

i am concerned (sometimes worried) about the way utter honesty will effect my relationships. if i share goals honestly there is a possibility that my employer will think i am brash. i don't want them to think that i can't imagine or don't have interest in bringing those high value goals to the current situation. but if it leads other places, well this is the path i have chosen to be on. the politics of it all!

just now, i see that this may be a source of a deep seated wanderlust in me. Herman Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund has a lot of brilliant philosophy about bring true to one's nature and one of them is a wanderer, i should pick it up again.

2010-08-21T21:54:00.002-05:00

a day to beat all

many days in the recent past, i have been simply stymied in my research of other classes that line up the intent i have for mine. i would look hour after hour for similar course syllabi and often i would find something that in name appeared promising only to quickly discover that the instructor teaching philosophy or methodology was at odds with my work.

this evening things have suddenly turned a corner. i found a site or two that was kindred and that of course opened a plethora of resources. in fact, i am tired. i am not overwhelmed, just so impressed and eager i have been consuming a lot of material quickly. one thing i would like to leave my readers with tonight is the teaching philosophy of David Kasdorf, an artist from Penn State Altoona. he offers this brilliant description of his teaching philosophy and advice to young artists at the top of his syllabus! go David:

1. Art is one of the hardest and most uncertain paths you can choose in life. I think often, students choose to pursue Art in college because they think, and rightly so, probably, that Art is an easy path through college. It is after graduation that it gets difficult. Let’s face it: You have no real marketable skills, few job prospects, and thus a very uncertain future.

2. As an artist, no matter what medium or media you choose to work in, be it writer, visual artist, actor, film maker, dancer, whatever, you are always at the mercy of other people’s opinions. Rejection is something artists must get used to quickly. To be an artist you better develop a thick skin.

3. In most professions in life one learns, - and in order to succeed - masters a specific set or sets of skills. Visual artists, and that is essentially what we are in this class, need to invent their own sets of skills. No one cares if you can paint a “Picasso."

4. There are many artists who have had long and successful careers without ever learning how to draw.

5. These days, many visual artists change and move between media as easily as they change their socks.

6. The one thing that artists most need to learn is the one thing that is impossible to teach. That is rigor in the studio. Forget “Inspiration.” To be successful one needs to work and work and work.

7. Work comes from work. Trust the process.

8. If you need to ask what your grade is you may not have the right temperament to be an artist.

9. When you go to New York it seems that everyone is an artist and it’s almost true. As a result, no one in the business - collectors, dealers, curators, gallery owners - cares about your work. People are jaded; they’ve seen it all and have been pestered to death. For some this is very difficult to deal with. Others see it as liberating. Since no one cares anyway, take risks, do what you want.

10. You’ve all heard the term, “avant-garde.” The only avant-garde left in this day and age is expression of self, what it is that makes you tick. We can call that “Personal Vision.” That’s what people want to see.

11. No one talks about how well things are done or the level of skill one possesses in any certain medium. That doesn’t mean it’s not important and we will talk about that in this class. It’s important to understand, though, that it’s just the first step.

12. No one cares either how an image is created. It’s the image itself people care about.

13. I like to teach. I like students, at least most of them, and I care about them; I want students to succeed. I like to give students good grades and send them on their way happy. When students are absent a lot or late, or when they’re not motivated and unprepared, I stop caring about them so much. It doesn’t mean I stop liking them. It just means that I put my energies elsewhere.

14. Art is always a matter of choice. The decision to be an artist is yours to make. The decision of how hard you work is yours, too. It’s your decision to sleep in and be late and it’s really up to you as far as attendance is concerned. If you need me to motivate you, I encourage you to pursue something else in life.

15. Grades are a fact of life. I would prefer not to have to grade students but that’s just not part of the equation. The grade you get in this class depends first and foremost on your level of engagement. That means that if you work hard, show up, be prepared, take risks, participate in critiques and discussions, you’ll do fine. The quality of your work matters too, of course. Somewhere around the middle of the semester I’ll tell you where you stand. You can talk to me anytime about your grade, although I realize that's not in keeping with #8 above. Don't worry, I didn't really mean #8 above. You can talk to me about anything, actually.

16. Computers are a tool. A very powerful tool but really, just a tool, like a pencil. And you need to know this: I do not teach software – I teach art. If you have enrolled merely to learn Photoshop, or to show a prospective employer that you have had college-level computer instruction, then you will doubtless be better served to purchase the software and sign up for a technical certification course.

17. I encourage deviation. If you don’t like the assignment feel free to do something else. If you want to do Flash animations, or video, by all means, do so. It would help me, though, if you talked to me first.

18. I consider critiques to be the most important in-class component of any course I teach.

2010-08-20T10:11:00.006-05:00

OH the research!

well i was in a pinch last night to find some materials and zing! a whole new set of artists, art, and inspiration unfolded from discovering some Canadian physicomp artist-nerds, notably Peter Flemming and Norman 'the NorMill' White. i have been inspired by one of Flemmings experiments and I look forward to sharing a prototype with you very shortly...

2010-08-19T11:46:00.003-05:00

the syllabi are coming together

and dates are aligning, just got off the phone with my collaborator Adam Shriverdecker, the workshop dates that i projected are good and we are green lighted. this is an unholy union betwixt Digital Media and Architectural Creamics, muhahahahahaa. i am really looking forward to this experiment. we have scheduled peer workshops where the students of each class will teach their focus to the students of the others to create a mini project. after the hybrid student teams will design and build a cross disciplinary project for the Final. i wish i was taking this class :D

2010-08-19T11:05:00.004-05:00

reaching out

i notice that i am engaged in quite a few moments reaching out this past month. i am very interested in developing my contacts in the SE region. this morning i dropped a note to the director of the AUX Festival. AUX is an Athens GA music, art, and technology festival that occurs in the spring. last year, i came across the listing for AUX 2 weeks before the event and i just could not organize a trip in time.

earlier this summer, i discovered an organization in Atlanta name Flux Projects who are supporting really interesting artist projects, on small to medium budgets. i am very keen to watch what they are bringing to bear as well as applying for a grant. i was very impressed with their director, Anne Dennington. during our chat she was advocating for artists to be paid a living wage for making art, w00t!

i have made contacts and started conversations additionally with hackerspace organizations in Dallas and Brooklyn (the outer limits of the SE ;) and as i listed a few weeks ago, i am proposing local art and technology workshops to generate community locally.

& finally i am trying to cook up a proposal for the Receiver festival in Charleston SC; the only bummer is that it is scheduled just before our Spring Break this year and i am trying wrap my mind around what kind of project i could unpack and set up in a few hours to a day maximum.

2010-08-18T15:19:00.000-05:00

manifestos!

what happened to the manifesto as a form of art? the form: manifesto, is a counter culture anti-academic relief valve to the obscenities of life. it is theory that takes more the shape of poetry than rationality and logic. is the manifesto dead because of the consumerist post-utopia we live in?

i suspect that this is because manifestos are dangerous. they are compelled question the authority of systems to which we grow dependent and blind. they compel us to criticize the criticism and critic! i think i will require my students to include a manifesto in their portfolio websites this semester. extra points for obscenities and irrationality.

viva la MANIFESTO!

2010-08-17T14:28:00.003-05:00

800x art

the Justin Bieber teenpop anthem Smile apparently is the source material for Echoes Across the Astral Wastelands by Photon Wave Orchestra, a beautiful haunting 35 minute soundscape.

apparently, pwo applied a 800% slowdown to render their work. Burkazoid, a user on Audioboo, seems to have put the nail in the coffin publishing what he claims is 800% speed up of Echoes... of course, i am downloading my own copy to slow and verify and before the take-down notices appear :)

the questions here are explosive and a fascinating test of IP law and authorship. it is pretty obvious that the two pieces have completely different base audiences. i think one could even make the argument that the new piece is going to drive the consumption of both materials. i, for one, would have never listened to the poptart's song if it weren't for the discovery.

so if we were manipulated by leaked information to drive an internet meme, the music industry wins because they got me to listen to the consumerist lament(not to mention the free advertisement they are getting right now)! if the source of Echoes was never discovered, it would be a niche piece; listened to and appreciated by those of us who listen to the ambient genre.

my opinion: i believe Echoes Across the Astral Wastelands is a separate entity, influenced heavily by the pop music, and the existence of which 'economically' and popularly benefits both pieces by the popular noise it is creating. brilliant!

2010-08-16T15:30:00.003-05:00

power

i was wrong about the transformer last night. a branch weighted by the rain & wind touched the power lines. no wonder that i smelled oak bbq.

Test by MMS

2010-08-15T21:38:00.001-05:00

2010-08-15T20:53:00.003-05:00

Test of post by email

i have never had a good reason to use this system until tonight. our transformer to our house exploded at about 7PM. i made a post earlier but might as see if i can do this.

2010-08-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

stupid fun club and current tv

i was thinking about old friends the other day and i remembered a fun event James Stone and i helped coordinate last year with Mike Winter, a principal with the Stupid Fun Club(SFC), a Berkeley entertainment-gaming-think tank. Mike had made an interrogation machine known as the docuBot which would ask you questions culled from interrogative methodologies.

DocuBot was unveiled during the regular Tuesday night openings at the SJSU School of Art and Design. it was a great time. we had a room which we had draped the room with all black fabric, the bot had an impossibly bright light which shown at the interrogated subject from what you would call the 'face' of the machine.participants could only enter one at time for the DocuBot ran the 2min sessions.

Ali and i dressed as agents of (what i dubbed) the 'Dept. of Homeland Robotics'—black suits and shades and he had a SRL to take pictures of the crowd! we DHR agents also handed out invitations to be interrogated (i need to find out if Ali has picture of us in our disguises). it was a stunning success and we had a line all night.

fast forward to the recent past(last week sometime)
i was checking in on the SFC website. they now have a manifesto (which i need to write about soon) and they have an email to sign up to beta test SFC projects. of course, i signed up. a few days later, i was invited to join the beta event code named "the Creation Project", a crowd sourced narrative that is being made into a high value television production for the Current TV network. they are going to start shooting the pilot this week, so i am a bit of a late comer, but i am really intrigued by the concept. they have designed a small social network to develop the entire program. the characters, setting, plot lines, costumes, artwork has been a crowd sourced project where they directly respond to the input, creativity, and feedback of the membership. i am finding the niches where i can contribute and there are some really interesting questions being posed such as: how the voting effects the actual production and whether good writing will be subsumed by the 'noise' of the crowd.

2010-08-14T20:55:00.008-05:00

i lurve Adium

i was intrigued by a post on the Lady Ada* website. the note referred to a technique of using IRC for the UStream chat/back-channel. i am a huge fan of Ustream and have been known to use it occasionally. one of the drawbacks is the chat. the video and chat running in the same browser winder grinds my machine cycles. when i was reading about the IRC settings the tutorial was using Pidgin and i was clued into the fact that Adium is built on the same programming backbone, purplelib, too bad they don't(didn't) support IRC. oh well it was worth a peek to see if things have changed...

wooot! the Adium beta has IRC! praised be! let the trumpets sound! did i say woot? here's a link to the beta if you wanna try it.

so i tested the suckah and it did great. pop out the UStream video channel on a browser winder and fire up IRC. my anecdotal evidence is that there were 100 plus people on the stream and i had maybe 20 sec lag. W0000T!

*Lady Ada for those of you who are uninitiated is one of the coolest proponents and geeks in DIY hardware and Phys Comp. they do a Saturday night show on UStream called Ask An Engineer. check it some time. her sites are ladyada.net and adafruit industries

2010-08-14T08:55:00.003-05:00

confessions

i must confess my sins, now that this blogging experiment is almost half way done. about two weeks ago i pondered if i was interesting and fastidious enough to continue the professional bent of this blog and not let it mire in trivialities of my personal life. i have already discovered that i have good writing days and poor writing days. i have found that i sometimes overflow with topics to make short commentaries about and other days i struggle to figure tap out 5 or 6 sentences for the day(which adheres to my aforementioned wishes).

on the days in which i can write about myriads of things, i have seen a trend develop. i am writing pretty well developed drafts and scheduling them for future publication. this way i can let a bit of time pass and check the draft for competency, edit, etc.

the most so far is four posts in one sitting. one for that day and three scheduled for later. it seems to me that columnists and professional writers must do this as well. i pose a question to you, Rubaiyat(as I know you are my most regular reader and the progenitor of this damned challenge): is my 'pre-loading' the blog a cheat? or simply a gaming of the system that makes sense?

okay i will take feedback from any other reader too... hmmm, i need to jet. another post idea is coming to me :D

2010-08-13T20:40:00.002-05:00

recommendations

it is a strange day. not a bad day but just one of those days that feels that it has a different rhythm to it. today, i followed up on writing a recommendation for a colleague. out of the blue one of my former students from SJSU made contact and wrote a lovely recommendation of my work teaching Art74 Introduction to New Media. it was awesome to hear now that more than a year has passed. and now back to prepping for my classes.

2010-08-12T20:59:00.001-05:00

a reunion?

every CAA is an awesome event; i get the chance to reunite with my former colleagues and discuss our progress, opportunities, and challenges. it seems that every year there is a discussion that we should organize some kind of reunion. tonight i was on a web chat with one of the principals at Alpha One Labs, a Brooklyn Hackerspace; i have been looking to visit A1 Labs and plan to try to schedule time to visit the space during my trip to CAA in NYC this February.

as we chatted and bounced ideas, i mentioned what i do and that i would be in town with some colleagues. he then hit me with an offer: "if we want to have an event at A1, we just need to ask." bingo! wouldn't A1 be a cool place for a CADRE/SJSU reunion/party? imagine a bot building-beer bash with Brooklyn geeks and hackers. just the thought makes me smile.

2010-08-11T22:22:00.005-05:00

my recovery from the sleep i missed has been slow so this will be a short post. the semester begins on Monday the 23rd this year! i am in the process of reworking the websites for my classes with a heavy focus on simplifying the material. i looked close at what could be combined today with small reworkings of the design. here's my progress so far.

2010-08-10T12:01:00.001-05:00

new Dali museum

on Sunday we attempted to go to a Thai temple for brunch, but life got in the way and we missed our 'window of time'. instead we ate at a seafood dive in St. Pete and drove around looking a lovely houses. in the Salt Creek neighborhood there is an artist collective that i need to try to visit the next time i am down.

there was a nice surprise was as we drove around the waterfront: a peculiar and striking piece of architecture stood out. i got to drive by the new Salvador Dali Museum construction site; last week images from the site and the new building were posted on the flickr pages and current events blog of the HOK architectural firm.

spectacular!

2010-08-10T10:37:00.002-05:00

i missed Monday postings, i was focused on driving back to the p'cola, a few last minute visits with family before i left, and saying goodbye. meh.

2010-08-08T10:04:00.001-05:00

agents, sheesh!

my lovely Bride attended the performance i mentioned a few posts back by herself since i have made a last minute run to the land o' lakes. Rebecca volunteered to help close down the gallery, but before they had finished three or four young military guys wanted to take a look around the show and they were given about 10 minutes to see.

Rebecca said that they were really excited by the space, which is cool; i don't normally think of early career military people being into the arts. i like when my expectations are blown up as much as i like to explode other peoples' preconceptions. it seems before they had left she had signed up three volunteers for gallery sitting and she had pimped me out—at least one of them got vocal when she told them about the electronics workshop i have proposed to run at the gallery—and business cards were distributed.

pimp, agent, advocate, whatever... i am going to give her half of my cards when i get back to town.

2010-08-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

spambots :P

an Asian spam bot tries to log sex chat lines here twice a week on my comments. i am not angry, nor even frustrated, just a little perplexed o.0 the mail comes as a totally foreign language, all the links are Asian domains... can it actually pay them anything? they will never get accepted by this blog. i should collect them for a week and see if the links change. maybe it is just an auto sender.

2010-08-06T21:25:00.007-05:00

the Burden Identity

yesterday i visited the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) at USF; the show which closes in a few days is Broadcast, an introspective on the nature of artist utilization of the old mass media. how did the one to many model shape us? what strategies did artists use to circumvent the gauntlet of FCC, advertisers, and affiliates? there were many excellent projects that create interesting documentaries of the beginning of the McLuhan global village against staid nationalistic perspectives. Other projects portent the fragmentation of old media central command by introducing methodologies that deliver the means of production to anyone crazy enough to use them such as a pirate radio station set up in the gallery and live so that the public may sit down and use the equipment at will. Or TVTV/Top Value Television's projects where the artists develop their own network to engage the methods and gain access to the leadership of the world.

another formative piece in culture jamming/DIY culture is a reel of 4 Chris Burden videos known as Four TV Commercials, 1973-77/2000. the compilation of work was originally developed and aired on Los Angeles and New York market broadcast stations in the 70's. the collection includes: T.V. Ad: Through the night softly, Poem for L.A., Chris Burden Promo,and Full Financial Disclosure. The video which has been relatively left in it's native quality of the time was shown through a 20 inch CRT. abundant amounts of the video interlacing, static graphics, and low resolution reflected a distinct aesthetic experience of the pieces, even though i fully believe the intent of the artist was indictment of the market system, advertisement, and mass media. nostalgia and a creepy feeling about high definition and 3d which has been growing within my psyche recently, reinforced the attention i paid these seminal pieces. crumbweb has a copy of the statements on the reel, here.

2010-08-05T21:09:00.002-05:00

a funny thing happened on the way to the inter-library loan

a colleague shared a title that he uses for his classes the other day, whoich i wanted to look at it before i commit to the $75 book. a quick jump to worldcat(oh! i love thee!) revealed that the State University System aka Union, had half a dozen hits at other campuses including two major schools only a few hours from the p'cola. i also noted that USF which is close to my mom's house had a copy. since i am on the road for a few more days i assumed, "cool i can look at the USF copy while they ship one of the closer copies to my campus". can you hear the fail horn coming?

yep they shipped the USF copy, or i assume so because it is due now in early November, obviously a faculty checkout. only 2.5 weeks until fall semester! eeeek!

2010-08-04T20:26:00.008-05:00

prophecy

i am visiting family before the grind of the semester begins anew. one of the benefits to being in this household is the insane numbers of subscription networks on the old boob tube. my grandfather has access to this googolplex of narrowcast networks because it is tied to the programming bundle that contains the western/cowboy sub-genre of American tv and film which he favors. i avoid subscription tv in my day-to-day life so this is fun to look at the niches all of these groups are trying to carve out.

one such narrowcast network is the Science Channel and i spent the last hour watching 'Prophets of Science Fiction' a documentary on the predictions and work of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. sure this program was pulpy, contained cheesy historical reproductions of the science labs, and was large on hype, but the thesis was compelling. the show recounted of the predictions that Well and Verne had made in the pursuit of the art of writing. and doubly compelling as it pointed out political/moral differences of the 19th c. techno-deterministic utopianism of Verne versus the 20th c. Modernist disaffection and social concern of Wells. both writers engaged set the bar for speculative fiction as well as assuredly inspired the engineering and science by blueprinting the ideas of the submersible research vessel, time travel, and nuclear weapons. once again a fine example of the vital contribution and necessity of the arts to drive culture, not just record it.

2010-08-03T15:16:00.006-05:00

electronics meet ceramics

i met with Adam Shiverdecker today. Adam has proposed that we combine certain elements of his sculptural ceramics course and my phys. comp. course. i am truly excited that this seems like a great opportunity to teach my students about physical construction and Adam is interested in expanding his students' awareness of using kinetics, communication, and HMI in their projects.

we talked about putting together teams of students from both sides to design and fabricate a culminating project for each team. we discussed many different sources: Tim Hawkinson, Natural Born Cyborgs, Hertzian Tales, and Art & Today

this will be a really interesting experiment.

2010-08-02T19:19:00.010-05:00

advice for the undergrad on the C grade

one day last week, i had a rather interesting chat whilst on a popular medieval fantasy MMORPG (bet you can figure out which one). as i got pwnd just outside the Westpark Workshop the conversation turned to how to decide whether or not to go to grad school. in itself an excellent question and posed in quite an interesting social venue.

that being said, the one thing that has stayed with me is a curious intricacy of my friend's timetable. my friend has to take a dreaded freshman course during senior year. it is one those 'prep' courses where i believe you only get 1 credit and you have to listen to different speakers every week and do a fair amount of composition. the issue is that m friend put it off, but the class is a requirement. no exceptions.

"When you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave."

or recieve a BFA as it is.

i am curious as to what the reaction from my teaching colleagues will be to the advice i freely offered. i told my friend to be blunt and honest with the professor.

i am a senior, i am here to fulfill the requirement, and i want XX for the grade.

i find it liberating to have a student say "I want to get a C, that is my objective." i know right from that moment the amount of time to expect that this person will put forward and i know the amount of time i should spend on counseling the student. the goals are clear.

one thing that i learned from the past year is that while teaching undergrads at the state level, i will be extraordinarily lucky if 15% of my students want to pursue 'my type' of career in the fine arts. i will still require myself to teach at a high level, the work will still be geared to the para-professional who truly wants this as their career. the damned fact is: that it is hard to be in this profession. so if a student sets the goal with me and they want to try to hit 85% of the material with some aptitude, well hell yeah let's hit it. a C shows aptitude, not mastery and it is a fine grade. however, if you want a professional mark then step to it.

hmmm, what do you other college teacher types think?

2010-08-01T08:25:00.002-05:00

venue

i attended the opening of Munch-Key Business at Artel Friday night. and i give the curator, artists, and gallery kudos; it is a very good show. I think this maybe the 5th or 6th show in the new space at the old county courthouse. beside having the stately ghost of history embedded into the marble, it is just a beautiful open space. each one of the events and/or openings has drawn several hundred attendees. and in comfortable fashion. i know it has been said many times before, but this is a wonderful step up for the organization.

it allows all manner of new possibilities, such as the workshop I am proposing. next Friday, one of the active Artel members is organizing a performance. i traded cards and briefly discussed the possibility of this becoming a part of an ongoing venue for noise art as one of the performance methodologies.

i have wanted to bring the SHARE organization to this area, there are at least 2 students working in experimental sounds at UWF. one of them is a performer and maybe we can start a P'cola SHARE. so i am assuming there are some others close by. i will attend the performance art event next Friday will hopefully get this ball rolling too.

2010-07-31T13:51:00.000-05:00

Tuttle LIVES!

ZOT!! i had an epiphany while listening to a quiz show about quirky current events. the report is that the cap that has finally worked on the Macondo Well was inspired/designed by an 'anonymous plumber'. for those of us that believe, it is an obvious sign that Archibald "Harry" Tuttle, plumbing outlaw (and dare say Ninja) lives!

viva la Tuttle. fuck the 27B-6!

i knew this whole oil well problem reminded me of a familiar dystopia...

2010-07-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

workshop proposal

as part of an evil plan to develop my community down here, i am proposing a workshop to introduce basic electronics as an aesthetics of citizen science, participatory culture, sharing, and play. my proposal is to use the awesome Darwdio circuit as an example an instrument that crosses the disciplines of drawing and electronics. additional coolness is the fact that Jay Silver's Drawdio project was designed as a open source and re-mixable project :D

if you haven't seen Drawdio please look here; essentially it is a pencil turned into a Theremin (you might know i have a love of drawings that are literally functional circuits). another paragon of the participatory culture Lady Ada has made a Drawdio kit in collaboration with Silver. this is awesome because i can order kits ready to build from the Adafruit website

the evil part of the idea is to make me very conspicuous in the community and perhaps find some local maker culture people. a local art organization known as Artel(those of you in the 'Ho think of Works) has shown interest. so i only need to get the approval of the Board to get this going. i modeled the proposal using a form from another community arts application. i have attached the proposal and will gladly take advice from any colleagues who may read this.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>proposal starts here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PROPOSAL TITLE:
DRAW A JOYFUL NOISE:  a course in basic electronics
INSTRUCTOR: Thomas Asmuth
ADDRESS, PHONE, FAX, EMAIL:
edited out for web

WORKSHOP SYNOPSIS: The world of citizen scientist and tinkerer appears to be enjoying a renaissance. Evidence includes social networks such as Instructables, publications like Make, and community oriented workshops/play spaces called Hackerspaces. These resources provide a low-risk entree for the novice who would like to expand their technological creative skills regardless of profession. Contemporary artist around the globe employ the creative methodologies of the tinkerer as a tool for production of artistic expression.

Participants in this workshop will be taught the basics of electronics circuit building using the DrawDio Kit, an instrument that straddles the worlds of electronic music/sound and drawing. Also students will get an introduction to Do-It-Yourself(DIY), electronics resources on the web, tools of the field, and practice in electronics fabrication. This workshop is a fun way for the absolute novice to get their feet wet in the field of electronics, but would also appeal to those who have experience in electronics and technology.

TIME FRAME FOR WORKSHOP: This is a 1-day, approximately 6-hour workshop. There is a 1-hour break for lunch. Saturdays or Sundays are best for instructor.

MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 8-12 participants

SKILL LEVEL REQUIREMENT OF PARTICIPANTS: Although this workshop is designed for novices (to teach the basics of soldering and electronics), it would be useful and/or enjoyable to students at all skill levels.

AGE REQUIREMENT: 14yrs to 114yrs.

TASKS TO BE COVERED:
Students will participate in a series of exercises, including the following:
short intro to basic electrical theory introduction to though hole electronic components intro to web resources intro to basic tools to do DIY electronics soldering like a pimp assembly of project kit ************

MATERIALS NEEDED (SUPPLY LIST) OR PRE-WORKSHOP REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPANTS:
• notebook, pencil/pen Optional: laptop computer or mobile device with internet access
• Students may use their own tools (tools will also be provided by instructor). A list is below in the recommended readings/materials section.
• $20 per kit, funds required at beginning of workshop. Instructor can only take cash, please bring correct change (do not assume instructor will have change).

MATERIALS TO BE PROVIDED TO PARTICIPANTS AT WORKSHOP:
Instructor will bring toolkits that can be used by participants. Students may use their own tools (see note in last section).

TERMS:Applicable Reimbursements:
The financial structure of this proposal is negotiable, the following reflects a structure from another arts organization. In this plan, Artel will reimburse me for buying the materials.

Workshop Fee, Honorarium: 
Total Amount: Gratis 
Materials(list with amount to be reimbursed):
TOTAL: up to $300 (see details)
Drawdio Kit from Adafruit Industries $20.00 per kit, up to: $240
Two Drawdio kits for instructor prep and practice: $40
Printed materials (handouts for class): $20

Artel expected to provide:

Equipment, Special Display Aids: A board to make notes on: an easel and pad, a chalk board, or dry eraser board to write on. Also chalk/dry marker pens and erasers to use. Projection screen or clear wall.

Handouts, Supplies, Materials: none if instructor is purchasing materials (see section above)

Room Set-Up preferences: Ideally, I like to work in the round or in a U-shape, but I can adapt to the limitations of the room. I will need a 4-foot table behind me to lay my props and supplies on.

Electrical: room/space needs electrical sockets. Extension cords and powerstrips will be required. Ideally the cords will be taped down for safety during the extent of the workshop day.

Seating/spatial requirements for participants: Participants will need slightly more than an average amount of space. They will need to work at a table or desk.

Other:

Access to sink to dampen sponges.

Insurance

References:

Thomas Asmuth CV

Thomas' Site

Drawdio site

Drawdio Kits @ Adafruit Industries

Instructables

Make Magazine

2010-07-29T19:43:00.001-05:00

hmmm, do I have enough to say

a few days ago my dear brilliant friend and collaborator, Rubaiyat, challenged me to blog every day in August. he will be doing the same challenge, his blog is A Musing. i thought well nothing like the present and that night i fired off a post about the materials i found to hopefully weather proof a project. now it has been 4 days and i have had time but not blogged until now. will i be able to do it? the goal is to try to do a little significant writing every day. this is going to be a big challenge because I want to keep this channel very professional and about my work. we shall see...

2010-07-29T19:36:00.000-05:00

the stuff is in

the CorrosionX is in (see last post) now I just have to find a couple of victim to try it out on.

2010-07-24T21:33:00.000-05:00

the summer's big research question, perhaps answered

as you might already know from a march post, i have been building autonomous little singing robotics. since our relocation, i have (naturally) been re-inspired by the pernicious environment of Florida. so much so that i wish that my artificial life-forms take place in the outdoors. which in turn, brings the question of how do electronics survive in a place where the humidity is so thick that metal will egregiously oxidize from contact with the air itself. i have several tools that I have owned for 15 or more years which never showed any corrosion that have turned completely rusty in the year we have lived here.

the obvious solution is to encase the the structures in a protective box, but i felt hesitant to employ this solution. there are formal sculpture qualities emerging from the component architecture which i find stunning. likewise, immersion of my babies(!) into blocks of resin seemed to cheapen the contours and assemblages of circuitry. and both of these ideas present all manner of problems to mounting of the piezoelectric transducers, the voices of my bots!

after a little web crawling i have discovered a likely solution:CorrosionX, a product used by the marine industry and RC hobbyists for waterproofing their electronics. the bonding technology sounds good, water and corrosion resistance seem to have a long life, promises dielectric properties up to 20Kv, and an invisible coat. the order has been placed and i look forward to my tests of the product. if this works well, i may realize my vision of truly embedding the critters into the environment for somewhat of a feral life.

2010-07-02T16:53:00.000-05:00

mission control office

today i stepped back into reality; I used the day to get together the office of Mission Control in order to move my electronics workshop inside. i have enjoyed using the garage and even relished the romance i know about garages as laboratories for big things. the reality of a southeastern summer has hit though nd it is simply too humid & hot to consider working out there. got significant amount of the reconfiguration done today. looking forward to finishing in the next two days. too bad I can't move my fabrication shop indoors also.

kN

2010-06-25T09:33:00.000-05:00

hello New Wave

dear New Wave it is so good to hear from you again. it has been so long, but you sound wonderful! i do hope you will stay in touch, we missed you.
-kidN

this has been a few very musically oriented days! New Wave seems to be making a a big comeback if my experiences this week are any indication. i _could_not_ be more thrilled.

DEVO releases a new album—Something For Everyone. the single Fresh delivers what the title promises. the track is true to the band's pop-punk mirthful criticism. i bought Fresh and listened many times over; it inspired me to go add much of the DEVO back catalog to my iTunes collection. for the DEVO aficionado, SFE has a back story of the band infiltrating corporate music to milk the system for all it is worth, including a weekly 'reality' show chronicling the birth and release of SFE.

some Fresh for you (all of you):

now if that weren't enough to make a nerd's week, i also discovered this band this morning which nearly made me weep with joy that the synthpop post punk sound is poised to make a big comeback. ladies and germs, please take a listen to Hussle Club:

HUSSLE CLUB "Good Morning Midnight" from Project Fathom on Vimeo.

and to round these finds for me are a new video and amazing sounds of The Death Set, who I am so happy to find via a link by the exceptional bootlegger Eve Massacre.

The Death Set "Far Weathered Friends" from Project Fathom on Vimeo.

i can't resist one either.

2010-05-20T20:53:00.000-05:00

a /hug update

i am at the school studios late tonight finishing up a resize of one of the /hug vids. we were invited to exhibit the /hug training video: a message from /hug at the Salisbury University Electronic Gallery. the invite describes it as a

"special summer show is an invitational single channel exhibition of artists working outside the video genre, whose work will be featured in video formats."

this may be my all time favorite collab. it brought together so much good stuff. here's a link to the video in the case ya want to watch.

credits

videographer
- Liz Solo
script
- kidNeutrino
actors
- Kyungwha Lee
- Liz Solo
- Ali Sajjadi
- James Morgan
- kidNeutrino
- Mez Breeze
editor
- Liz Solo

2010-03-27T09:37:00.000-05:00

here comes the sun

i want to introduce two new autonomous circuits i have built and added to my e-beastiary. the circuits are variations based on the solarsoundmodul by Ralf Schreiber. the critters are photovoric singers that employ a Schmitt Hex Inverter IC, resistors, capacitors, piezo buzzers, and a photovoltaic cell. the modulation is slightly different on each output pin from the varied combination of capacitance and resistance. they range from creacking to screaming, lilting to terse. the lovely thing is that they change as the environment changes, of course chief is the angle of the sun to the solar cell, but unexpectedly and pleasing are other variables like movement, wind, fluttering leaves and branches which all effect the output. this produces a direct response to the environment reinforcing the autonomy of the critter.

my next goal is to embed them into the landscape. i have a fortunate opportunity that my current employment site is in the middle of a nature preserve. to be continued...

2010-03-22T00:14:00.000-05:00

Ars Virtua Closes: Gallery Burns to the Ground Amongst a Hail of Gunfire

Shocking video and stills from last night; apparently virtual terrorists burnt down Ars Virtual New Media Center during the closing ceremonies.

The following images may be disturbing to some viewers. Parental discretion is advised. The following are raw images from the events late last night.

Closing Performance at Ars Virtua Gallery from kid Neutrino on Vimeo.

2010-02-27T18:09:00.000-06:00

Second Life Collab?? & Remap Berlin Closing Day

i had a promising meeting with two faculty from the CS department yesterday. some decisions were being fleshed out about the use of the UWF campus in SL. while they want to also explore other options like Open Sim and Croquet we had an exciting moment where it was suggested that we work together on a cross-departmental project in SL. in the meantime i am going to try to connect these folks with the likes of the Ody Project folks, some of my colleagues using Open Sim, and drop some links (like the totally awesome Aesthetic Computing Classes at UF) to them. and it looks like i will be relocating the New Traditionalists Gallery to the UWF campus. this could be really good.

today i attended the closing reception for Remap Berlin at Odyssey. marco Manray has a very interesting intersection between Google Map's Panoramio and a MUVE called Twinity which simulates Berlin, Deutschland. Manray has been adding Twinity shots into the geolocative photo recording API of Panoramio & Google Maps. essentially Manray haas been adding the 'simscape' (hmm i like that!) snapshots to the Google Maps of Berlin in a recontextualization of the territory. here's the essay marco wrote on the project. and a few snaps from the closing party:

2010-02-17T15:56:00.001-06:00

more noise!

another 20 seconds of nonsense from kid Neutrino on Vimeo.

2010-02-16T20:58:00.000-06:00

tweet tweet nope, not twitter

for sometime I have wanted to make some physical computing projects to accompany the electronic noise art jams in which i occasionally participate. i wasn't sure about what to do, but i have grandiose thoughts about performative robotics which execute to sensor data from the musicians. additionally, i am working with a BEAM design originally published by Ralf Schreiber called the solar sound module. the sound module is uses a schmitt trigger inverter to generate waveforms from which the piezoelectric buzzer can squeal and buzz.

i was working on a Schreiber inspired 'squeaker' circuit today when a new call for a jam on the 26th came across my mailbox. currently, i am designing a sound environment/sculpture from these inspirations, but when the call came though I was testing a sound module on my breadboard and it hit me: ??why can't i build and play the critters live/in real time??'. the jams are an improvisational method as is testing all these differing component combination on the Schreiber circuit. i will use a bread board and components as well as contact mics and a mixer to port in my 'music' to the jam.

playing with my work/improvisational physical computing from kid Neutrino on Vimeo.

2010-02-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

as usual I come to party late, but what a party it is. i discovered afrotechmods last week and nearly wasted an entire day being awed, fascinated, and learning the electronics and comedy stylings of afroman.

his techniques go from hyper-ridiculous to downright epic tutorials for the electronics geek. afroman you are my new hero!

2009-04-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

fluoxetine gets nicknamed 'fluffy' by museum staff

i happen to be in Ohio at this moment, (it is a long story... there might be a job opp here). right before i flew out i decided to see what was the date for the opening of Molecules That Matter exhibition at the College of Wooster Art Museum. Unfortunately they had been closed when I could make a call. today i was able to make that call and fluoxetine is 'standing' tall and proud. the curator's have taken a shine to the piece and it is affectionately known as 'fluffy' at the museum. the show runs through May 10 if you happen to be in the neighborhood. to the left there is a shot from the gallery.

2009-04-24T19:23:00.000-05:00

CADRE tshirts 3.0

I have posted this so we can vote web style on the next gen of our shirts.
This is Vera's design and we are looking for a tagline. Below is the list of the tagline options, please vote for your favorite tagline by 5pm, Wednesday, April 29.

Submit your envelope with a T-shirt request to Bruce Gardner by 5pm,
Wednesday, April 29. Cost per shirt - $10. Please include your name, phone #, quantity and size. You can slip the envelope under the door, if Bruce is not in his office. Thanks!
-Vera

Click Here for Poll Online Survey
| Website Polls
| Email Marketing

| Crowdsourcing
View MicroPoll

2009-03-12T10:18:00.000-05:00

the big gallery week

the show is installed at SJSU and i have added to my former comments in statement below. i was replacing the statement printout when i found this on the outside of my gallery. http://twitpic.com/25oa6

planar array antennae paintings
thomas asmuth March 2009

This project is an exploration of non-optimal aesthetic design theory as proposed by Anthony Dunne1. I have used a fractal/self-similar formula known as the 'dragon curve' to draw the formal linear element and a planar antennae. These elements are packaged in the form of a painting, a merged idea of aesthetic and communicative value. The linear element in each painting utilizes gold leaf for it's symbolic and conductive properties. The length of each segment is 'tuned' to a quarter wavelength of a particular channel of the 802.11 standard and allows the work to merge with the local network and become part of the delivery of the network.

There are multiple points of view to situate this project into a historiography of art practice. First, through the implicit connection between circuit design and drawing, we can develop a rubric for formal analysis of the object. Drawing and the linear form is integral in this work and in any circuit trace. The process for making a Printed Circuit Board(PCB) traditionally utilizes the method of etching; indistinguishable from the techniques used to make a printmaking plate. Etching is also reductive process of removing material to reveal something else largely akin to carving as a sculptural process. The technique in these pieces is a direct (additive method) application of the conductive material to establish the mark or drawing.

Antennas are transducers; that is, a class of

"...devices by which variations in one physical quantity (e.g. pressure, brightness) are quantitatively converted into variations in another."2

The term coined in the 1920's by the telecommunication industry is derived from Latin for 'to lead across, transfer’. The connections to art are multitudinous but, I have drawn parallels between antennae and liturgical or icon painting for their ability to facilitate lines of communication. in icon painting gold leaf is prized for its ability to shine as if it is lit from within as a demonstration of the light of God. Today along with the exceptional spectral reflectance in wavelengths above one micrometer, gold is also particularly important as an excellent conductor and thus gold is a very effective media to build a transducer. Thus by use of the gold leaf for these works I am paying homage to historic and exploring contemporary methods of communication.

The theme of communication ties this work to Conceptual Art. Multiple layers of systems are embodied in the work. The linear element in each is the result of a rule set which calls for a mark of one length followed by another mark of one length made perpendicular to the first. The final complexity of the form is dependent on the number of iterations in which this rule set is executed. Each object is symbol and agent in establishing a site for communication analogous to Beuys' Rose für direkte Demokratie (Rose for Direct Democracy). In the 'Organization for Direct Democracy through Peoples Referendum', 1972 Beuys used the rose in a graduated cylinder to consecrate sites of discursive contact and as an institutional critique of the gallery/museum complex. Symbolically these paintings stand as objet d'art or sites for aesthetic or scopophilic discourse and gateways to the discourse of the network. This conflation is a purposeful attempt to make these two aspects converse echoing the spirit of Bauhaus or Droog design.

The multiple references and aspects of this project create a complexity that needs to be reconciled. It is a sort of transgenic genealogy that comes with penalties producing morphologically challenged entities. The visual structure yields nothing immediately identifiable as icon painting nor engineering design project. This is not a hybrid; the notion of hibridity suggests a confluence of form that is somehow compatible.

These objects reflect the ‘monstrous’ ritually assembled from widely variant materials such as industrial paint products, electron microscopy supplies, Medieval painting technique, late 20th century romanticism, and the piety of gilding as a symbol and messenger of light. Like a discussion between the three heads of the Chimera of
Arezzo,3 these forms are the assemblage of products, techniques, and which can be seen as a reflection of desire to facilitate a multilateral discourse.

The efficiency of the product in engineering value is murky as well. These objects give over to “How design can improve the quality of our everyday lives by engaging the invisible electromagnetic environment in which we live.”4 Circuit design and engineering are fields concerned with formally optimized spatial and electrical relationships. The pictorial space of these planar antennae are less concerned with optimization of the engineered space than the aesthetic experience through image plane, self similarity algorithms and in the transmission of the network. Certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design is decidedly non-engineered as to the optimal utility of the spectrum. These device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics while maintaining reasonable functionality in engineering.

1. Dunne, Anthony. "The Electronic as Post-Optimal Object." Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical Design. Cambridge: MIT, 2007. 1-20.

2. "Transducer." Oxford English Dictionary. 16 Mar. 2009 .

3. "Chimera of Arezzo." Scholars Resource. .

4. Dunne, Anthony. "The Electronic as Post-Optimal Object." Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience and Critical Design. Cambridge: MIT, 2007. 1-20.

2009-03-02T00:55:00.000-06:00

the fundamentlism in futurism or how those who didn't become robots turned into grey goo

a review of two analyses of the seemingly unavoidable cybernetic revolution

The apocalyptic analysis of Bill Joy's "Why the future doesn't need us." is an interesting explanation of all things futurist and pessimistic or as he put it, "...Murphy's law - "Anything that can go wrong, will." (Actually, this is Finagle's law, which in itself shows that Finagle was right.)" Murphy's purportedly exact statement "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way" is not nearly as dire as Finagle's interpretation. Murphy is pointing at good design as the ability to make a standard which cannot be misused or incorrectly installed. Joy's transmission of this translation bungle actually opens a stress fracture in his logic's fuselage that will eventually cause it to fail.

Joy's statements are based in a priori of Moore's Law as well as assumptions that the all systems can be modeled via computation. Although computing statistically can give us a good range of answers and sophisticated computing can narrow the tolerances of the range it is still a ideal reading versus an actual result.

I see the loss of skepticism as the fuel of Joy's pessimism. Jaron Lanier supports this idea in his article "One Half a Manifesto" written six months after the aforementioned Joy article. Lanier labels the aficionados of Moore's Law, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary psychology as "cybernetic totalists". The disconnect for me and Lanier is ideological adherence to an idealist misinterpretation of theory. A dogma that purports theory as reality and as the path that the future will certainly unfold. It is a real irony that these ideals that are the results of studies such as complexity theory but, they have have become dogma and stultifyingly singular. It displays (learned) ignorance of the body of practical observation of diversity, character, processes, and form in the universe. Lanier concurs:

"In nature, evolution appears to be brilliant at optimizing, but stupid at strategizing. (The mathematical image that expresses this idea is that "blind" evolution has enourmous trouble getting unstuck from a local minima in an energy landscape.) The classic question would be: How could evolution have made such marvelous feet, claws, fins, and paws, but have missed the wheel?"

Both quote Moravec's "Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind" (which I highly recommend, no, you don't have to be a computer scientist to read it). In the treatise he optimistically imagines a day of decision in our lifetime or the next generation's lifetime where it will be highly possible to transplant our consciousness into a synthetic body. Moravec is projecting a future where technology has become completely transparent and where to the best and worst of our empathetic and fuzzy logic and semantic reasoning which define humanity can instantaneously merge with high-powered computational calculation. A time where mental note becomes discrete and retrievable. And a time where when I stand up I am not plagued with arthritic pain in my back and knees.

How outrageous? No. It is a simply an extension of the practices of today's life. As I write this document the laptop marks my mistyped words with better than fair recognition and my iCal reminders pop up just before my phone jitters with the aide-mémoire for the same appointment. My dentist has installed many permanent prosthetic devices and a colleague this summer is replacing her coxal articulation (hip joint) with a ball and socket made from titanium and polyethylene. If I can replace my knees so I can walk on the surface of Mars or Pluto (or further), I do believe I will get in that line.

Moravec and others suggest a potentially exciting and pivotal fold in history of humankind. To confuse any futurist prediction as the road to perdition though, seems to ignore the fundamental aspects of good scientific practice about objectivity. Quoting Lanier again: "In general, I find that technologists, rather than natural scientists, have tended to be vocal about the possibility of a near-term criticality. I have no idea, however, what figures like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett make of it. Somehow I can't imagine these elegant theorists speculating about whether nanorobots might take over the planet in twenty years."

Do any of us really know about the consequences of this transformation we think we see in the near future? Of course not but, I am highly contentious about the medieval attitude that some things are too scary to intellectually know. Once again, I find myself at the crossroads of the dilemma and my analysis is that some people are lacking in empathy and have a horrifying character; the tools they decide(d) to use were merely tools. I believe the human spirit is not necessarily diluted by these transformations; changed yes, weakened no.

2009-03-01T17:30:00.000-06:00

802.11 planar antennae paintings

is a project in non-optimal aesthetic design. the straightforward premise is to use fractal/self-similar lines as a formal pictorial element and as a planar antennae packaged as the form of a painting. the 'dragon curve' is the drawing element that represents this merged idea. each segment is tuned to a quarter wavelength of a particular channel of the 802.11 standard and allows the work to merge with the local network and become part of the delivery of the network.

i continue to make new associations between all the concepts of this project. the latest are the implicit connection between circuit design and drawing. the linear form is integral in this and an any circuit trace. the trace could be directly thought of as an art making process. such as etching; leaving a trace or to make a printmaking plate. etching is also reductive process of removing material to reveal something else largely akin to carving as a sculptural process. the technique in these pieces is a direct (additive method) application of the conductive material to establish mark-making or a drawing.

circuit design is a field concerned with optimization spatial and electrical relationships of the formal plane. the pictorial space of these planar antennae paintings is less concerned with optimization of the engineered space and is an attempt to create an aesthetic experience through self similarity algorithms and in the transmission of the network. certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design in decidedly non-engineered as to the optimal utility of the spectrum. these device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics and functionality in engineering.

i maintain a ustream channel in which you may see me constructing these devices. there is documentary footage available for 'off-air' periods. please follow this link to the channel. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/painting-happy-fractals

2009-03-01T17:12:00.000-06:00

/hug

/hug |sla sh·həg|
noun [treated as sing. or pl. ]

/hug is the latest interventionist act of Third Faction, a non-factional guild/performance World of Warcraft group. /hug (prounounced: slash hug) is a Non Governemental Organization modeled after Red Cross/Crescent. /hug provides comfort and aid to all entities of the endlessly war torn world of Azeroth regardless of faction, allegiance, species, or creed.

/hug will be presenting a project space at the Laguna Museum of Art for the exhibition named: WOW: Emergent Media Phenomena, June 14 – October 4, 2009. the exhibition space will two parts. First is a theatre showing documentary and training machinima and the second section is a field work station where new recruits can immediately begin humanitarian aid missions in world.

/hug is a wordplay and represents a non-factional communication form that all players of WoW and all of humanity can understand, the hug.

Third Faction is a project-collaboration founded on Valentine's Day 2008 by members of the Ars Virtua, the acclaimed virtual worlds critical practice.

2009-02-15T17:59:00.000-06:00

one amateur's opinion on Curatorial Practice

The week after next, I will be meeting Preston Poe at our weekly seminar. Preston Poe is a video sculptor/sound artist, professor, and director/curator of The Electronic Gallery at Salisbury University. After reading three articles (1, 2, 3) from Steve Dietz, Christiane Paul, and Rudolf Frieling I had this musing on curatorial practice in new media:

Curatorial practice is enormously important at the present time. Ignorance of this form of representation by some of my contemporaries always strikes me as very queer and unfortunate because it is a near impossible practice to avoid. Professionally speaking the requirement of an artist to maintain a web presence is no longer a point of debate. Even as an amateur act: uploading video to a You-Service, writing an entry in a blog, or simply hosting a html page with a documentary image is the act of curation. Thus naivety towards the profession of curation is a political choice of ignorance to the social order of my world.

Derrida discusses the relation of the archivist (please read curator for this opinion) brilliantly unfolds the socio-political history of the archivist in Archive Fever.

"We will not commence with the commencement, if I have your consent, nor even with the archive. But rather with the word *archive* and with the archive of so familiar a word. Arkhé, as you know, names at once the commencement and the commandment. We have here, apparently, two principles in one: the principle according to nature or history, where things commence (physical, historical or ontological principle), but also the principle according to the law, where command, authority, social order are exercised, the place from which order is given (nomological principle)."

Thus the archive is a institution of the authority assembled by the keepers of the pearly gates of culture. The fate of the selected work is sealed; a sort of death of the object by extraction from it's native habitat(see Derrida again).

This is not a claim that (all) curators are malfeasant manipulators hell-bent for leather—indeed if you follow my first point that would condemn me as well—trying to set the record for all eternity. The cultural attitudes toward curatorial practice comes with this unfortunate baggage urging us even more to understand the role of the vocation.

Is it possible to have a critical practice without making a selection, that is to say curate? Steve Dietz points out that it is unavoidable to classify:

"The desire to understand--to ratify what one has seen through naming, classifying, formalizing--is not limited to "professionals," of course. It is human nature."

It is the nature of the beast to rationalize the world. Which is, why at the moment of our euphoria—to eliminate the confines and authorial control of the museum-gallery complex by exploitation of telematic ubiquity—the authority of curation still holds sway. Just one tension formed around curation is the reality of telematics. The system is in fact a database and whether it is used as simply a documentary tool or as a purely aesthetic form(not just a symbolic one), it is a form that can be automated and again begs the legitimacy of the archive/archivist.

Despite some overwhelming neo-Marxist utopian sensations, I believe curatorial practice deserves a large measure of respect. It is crucial to have centers of significance such as the museum, where one can immerse in the very best of humanity and nature even though the collection is an authoritarian act. It is the responsibility of the consumer to validate the collection's merit and start a better example if they possess the wit.

The tensions (perhaps dangers) in curatorial practice of the media arts make it a compelling place of experience. These forms referred to as 'new media, distributed, experimental' are a constant institutional critique because of their nature to live outside the curatorial domain of the traditional archive/classification. The curator is riding a fine line of developing platforms to allow these overwhelmingly temporal and ephemeral works to shine fulfilling the role as Arkhé without becoming the graveyard attendant. Indeed, many of us are riding this line as well.

derive photos

2008-10-07T04:09:00.005-05:00

derive photos
Originally uploaded by kidneutrino

derive photos

2008-10-07T04:09:00.003-05:00

derive photos
Originally uploaded by kidneutrino

derive photos

2008-10-07T04:09:00.001-05:00

derive photos
Originally uploaded by kidneutrino

derive photos

2008-10-07T04:01:00.013-05:00

derive photos
Originally uploaded by kidneutrino

derive photos

2008-10-07T04:01:00.011-05:00

derive photos
Originally uploaded by kidneutrino