The goal of this performance was to take on the role of a historian presenting the historical importance that was the prohibition of keyboards as a result of a culture heavily invested in the benefits of copy and paste as a method for creation. The presentation is given after prohibition has been lifted. However, much like the prohibition of alcohol, once the ban was lifted, regulatory measures were put in place to maintain a level of control.
This set of studies explores the relationship that we as user have with digital devices. Currently, we are forced to be quite delicate with digital devices for a variety of reasons. Mostly, this is due to the fact that the devices are fragile and expensive. But I’m interested in wondering what would happen if this wasn’t the case. What if you could interact with things in an emotional way? What if the physical manifestation of an emotional outburst caused a meaningful response from a device or system? I’ve explored this elimination of the preciousness associated with a device within the 3 studies in the video above and listed below.
1: Punching: Signal from the Noise.
A nostalgic exploration referencing a time when you could punch a television or radio in order to improve reception.
2: Throwing: Force as Instrument
An experiential exploration that looks at the force of throwing as musical instrument.
3: Shaking: Directional Nudge
The most specific of the scenarios, the shaking interface uses a mobile phone to look at ways in which provocative messages could be sent directly (and anonymously) from one device to another through the use of proximity and a sharp, scolding directional gesture.
This video documents our presentation of Situated Technologies Pamphlet #5, A synchronicity: Design Fictions for Asynchronous Urban Computing by Julian Bleecker and Nicolas Nova for our Media History and Theory class.
4 Presenters
1 Section each
5 Talking points per section
2 Images per talking point
Every 1 minute, the presentation system selects, at random, 1 of the four speakers and 1 of his or her 5 talking points to discuss.
Each talking point will have 2 images displayed for 30 seconds each. Images will be selected at random from the 40 total images.
This continues until all of the talking points are covered. No talking points will be duplicated.
The intent behind mixing the order of talking points and the sequencing of images is to explore the potential for new connections to develop between the different presenters’ topics for discussion.
Created in collaboration with Daniel Lara and Scott Liao, our SmashBot video is an investigation into a possible dynamic that could develop between us and the devices we use. The exploration looks at how a model of course correction could be used to manipulate the function and behavior of the objects we use. Imagine instead of fixing source code or updating firmware, you simply nudge, punch or smash a device in order to let it know that it is either doing something that it shouldn’t be doing or isn’t doing something it should be. Within this scenario, the relationship between us and our devices shifts dramatically form our current model of delicate use and precious protection.
This 1 week project came directly out of the combination of our 3 midterm projects. Scott Liao’s project is about multiplicity, Daniel Lara’s was about control and mine explored force as a model for interactions.
This project looks at how unhelpful a great deal of information will be when associated with mundane objects as corporations look to infuse every act with a chance for communication. Consider this inline with the today’s quality of search results and data aggregation. If unchecked or under-considered by designers, it is easy to imagine how our world will continue to present us with information that is of little or no value.
Daniel Lara and I decided to pair our projects together in order to explore how the ridiculous could become even more so. By taping into my sensor data, his system could know what he was touching. By accessing his sensors, I used the information from a person in the space to determine scale and audio volume of the videos so that closer meant larger and louder.
This exploration that I’ve created for the New Ecology of Things (NET) looks at ways in which normal use and gesture can become interface. The parameters of the project are to create a useless network that pokes fun at the idea of the information cloud in some clever or interesting way. This is not that project. This is simply my initial technical sketch to get my wiring correct so that it properly senses the individual touching of multiple objects.
The audio loops being controlled in this demo are some results from my bent keyboard experiment.
The earlier, fruitless version of my sensing setup:
Every sole tells a story. By collecting images of the bottom of people’s shoes along with some additional information collected form the provided survey, this inquiry looks to investigate the roll that footwear plays in our determining when and where to walk.
Using an Arduino, a proximity sensor, and an infared LED, I created this remote trigger to fire off my camera whenever the sensor determined that an object was within a few feet of the box.
Version 1: Maxbotix Ultrasonic Rangefinder
This one worked well indoors and gave a good long range however once outside, there seemed to be a lot of environment interference. The first on location test that we did for threshold investigation, the sensor was firing at not only proximity detection but also loud noises and vibrations.
Version 2: Sharp Infrared Proximity Sensor
Although the range of this sensor was much shorter, the results outdoors where much more accurate providing a greater amount of flexibility for the location in which we could use it. I was also able to get it to fire off both of my Nikon camera’s with the same burst using a small tripod and a mirror to deflect the IR LED’s signal.
The first step to get the cover off. Let me also say that I love devices made in a time where things could be taken apart. In order to disassemble this phone, all I needed was a couple different screw drivers. I didn’t have to break any seams or destroy any chemical glue bonds in order to get into the case. I just had to deal with a few decades of dust, rust and grime.
Once I got the parts separated, laid out, I cleaned off the layers and layers of built up… I’m not sure what it was. Compacted dirt and dust I suppose. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself it was just so that I can move forward.
This is the initial field test of our design probe that we will develop to investigate walking as a threshold. We are interested in developing an understanding of people’s motivations and limitations when to comes to walking as a means of transportation. We are not interested in walking as a method of fitness and this has informed the development of our various probes. For this investigation, we are specifically interested in information that can be extracted from the collection of scans of the bottom of various types and styles of footwear. For our initial field test we went to a nearby coffee shop to gather a variety of soles, including one barista who was gracious enough to take a short break to participate. Below is a collection of images form this location, people in our studio, and variety of other people from South Campus.
Our base threshold for exploration and research is walking. For this study, we were interested in exploring the act of walking as a way to generate marks. To test the feasibility of our initial idea, we performed this test ourselves by talking a stroll around the block with a sheet of paper a soft piece of charcoal hung from a string in order to compare our different movements.
I’m proposing a space where the performance is no longer a one-way transmission passively absorbed by a gang of viewers. Instead, each person becomes a participant, even if just by their presence, in the creation of an audio/visual experience. In this sense, the performer should be considered to be the algorithm – the system behind the scenes that is collecting, trimming, modifying and presented the content for output. The output, however, is determined by the decisions and actions of the participants within the space.
Real Space Sampling
While driving around the city of Los Angeles, I stumbled upon an area in the back corner of a parking lot where a hole had been in a chain link fense so that homeless people and transients could gain access to the protective area underneath a bridge over the LA river near a train yard. The most interesting aspect of this space of the city was the hidden and overlooked nature of both the location itself and the people who used it. In order to develop an audio and visual profile of the city, chose to documented some unseen elements within the space, more specifically, invisible typography with the location. While on-site, I used a radio scanner to record communications from the airwaves at the specific location. I then edited the sound down to only mentions of letters and numbers, including the ways in which police officers communicate letters by stating words. Visually I was attracted to the discarded memorabilia that was littered about. Much of it had been there for many years and was well ground into the dirt. I focused my collections on those items that contained small typography and interesting forms. I then explored these items back in the studio using macro photography.
The Location
Audio results of radio scanning the area for the typographic audio form
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Macro photography explorations of other-worldly textures and typographic forms
For the final prototype, we worked to address issues with accessing longer stories, further integrating the REader MIX module, and overall use and organizational issues. The “dots” branding was integrated throughout the different stories and sections and the content “filter matrix” was integrated into the “filtered” view in order to demonstrate the functionality of this widget.
Another final refinement for this stage was a slight alteration to how the type is displayed. For this final version the type family used changes based on the source in which the selected story was pulled from. Traditional news agencies are represented in the serif type face while stories collected from online-only sources as well as social media sites is displayed in the sans-serif.
For this final iteration, we decided to blur the line between the viewer and the viewed. This version includes the ability for the observer to press the button and here language common to the observed but in this version, we’ve also added a series of messages projected within the space that question the voyeurism at play. The projected animations are intended to sneak around the space and be the subtle movement noticed within the observed environment when the onlooker takes the time and care to be aware.
This image represents all the frames of the edited video assets used for the next phase of my critique. Below is one line per frame stacked vertically and blended using “overlay.”
Still from Processing sketch to generate noise assets.
For our 3rd on-location test, we wanted to build on the actions of the participant who begin using the stamp on our signs during our 2nd location test. By replacing the target on the balloons with the word “play,” we had hoped to remiind the participants that what would come after they pop the balloon is an opportunity to create. The box with the paper on the top was to be the canvas. Each balloon contained either a stamp or a crayon. What we discovered is that since we gave no real direction and posed nothing to respond to, the participants did in fact make marks but they weren’t meaningful. The marks were doodles, smiley faces, illustrated characters and the like. Not giving a framework for what to draw or make was a good learning outcome for us with this iteration.
