Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 198

Showtime: Canzona, “Video Room 1000 complete mix”

*Nice glitch art.

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Uploaded on Jun 9, 2010

“This video is a complete rendition of the “I Am Sitting In A Video Room” project, showing highlights of the complete 1000 iterations of the video. If you’re confused, read below and click the link for for info.

“PLEASE CHECK OUT MY NEXT PROJECT!! ••• http://kck.st/bHJ7IY •••

“An homage to the great Alvin Lucier, this piece explores the ‘photocopy effect’, where upon repeated copies the object begin to accumulate the idiosyncrasies of the medium doing the copying.

“Full words: I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice as well as the image of myself, and I am going to upload it to YouTube, rip it from YouTube, and upload it again and again, until the original characteristics of both my voice and my image are destroyed. What you will see and hear, then, are the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.”

Please visit the VIDEO ROOM FAQ at:

http://www.ontologist.us/post/?blogID=96

And other pieces of curious music/video art:

http://www.ontologist.us

and this for more info about the original piece:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Sit…

       

Tech Art: Ken Rinaldo, “Fusiform Polyphony”

*One might think those hairy paparazzi robots might clout the heck out of somebody, but they’re made by Ken Rinaldo, so they probably won’t/

Fusiform Polyphony by Ken Rinaldo from Ken Rinaldo on Vimeo.

Fusiform Polyphony by Ken Rinaldo

from Ken Rinaldo 5 days ago

“Description of the project

“Fusiform Polyphony is a series of 6 interactive robotic sculptures that compose their own music with input from participant facial images. Micro video cameras mounted on the ends of these robots, move toward people’s body heat and faces while capturing human snapshots. These images are digitally processed, pixelated and produce constantly evolving generative soundscape, where facial features and interaction are turned into sound melody, tone and rhythm.

“These elements fused, manifest the viewer as participant / actor and conductor in defining new ways of interacting with robots and allow the robots to safely interact with humans in complex and natural environments. An important element of this installation is to see self, through the robots artificial eyes, as each robot tracks and captures images in the process of showing the nature of algorithmic robotic vision.

“These works are covered in human hair and explore new morphologies of soft robotics, an emerging field, where natural materials make the works approachable and friendly. The hair serves to point to a human robotic hybrid moment in our own evolution, where the intelligence of robots is more fully fusing with our own, in allowing new forms of robotic augmentation. Each robot has different colored hair creating individual character for each.

“The live camera based video of the robots is processed through MAX MSP and Jitter and projected to the periphery of the installation on 5 screens. When the robot is at head height a sensor at the tip of the robot is triggered and a facial snapshot is taken.

“This snapshot is held in the small area of the projected screen to the upper right. That snapshot is broken down into a 300 – pixel grid and the variations of red, green and blue data of each pixel is extracted and interfaced to Max MSP to Ableton Live a sound composition tool which selects the musical sample determining rhythm, tempo and dynamics.

“The robotic aspects of this work are controlled with 6 Mac Minis with solid-state drives wired to individual, midi-based controller to sensor and motor drive units. The Mac Minis are all networked to a Mac Pro Tower which processes the video of the 6-selected images, interfacing them to the Ableton Live sound program.
Changing pixel data constantly changes Ableton virtual instrument selection sets with random seeds coming from the snapshots. The robotic structures are were created with 3D modeled cast urethane plastics, monofilament and carbon fiber rod and laser cut aluminum elements supporting the computers microprocessor and motor drive systems.

“These robots structure, inform, enhance and magnify, people’s behavior and interactions as they auto generate a unique and a constantly evolving generative soundscape. They take the unique multicultural makeup of each person and create “facial songs” where those songs joining with 6 robotic / human soundscapes, creates an overall human polyphonic and video experience.”

       

The Directory of Commons-Based Peer Production

*One wonders why there seems to be only one such directory and why it’s not spread around the planet in a zillion little networked snippets.

http://directory.p2pvalue.eu

“Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP) means collaborative production and sharing of resources among peers under commons settings. From the initial cases, such as Wikipedia and FLOSS, recently there has been an expansion to other areas of activity, such as citizen science, product design, management of common spaces and open data sources.

“The mission of the Directory of Commons Based Peer Production is mapping the diffusion and hybridization of peer production by collecting and typifying digital platforms or projects that are Commons Based Peer Productions (CBPP).

“The directory currently holds more than 300 cases of CBPP such as platforms for collective research, citizen journalism, peer to peer financing, and hackerspaces. Projects that produce software, hardware, texts, images, videos, music or sounds, collaborative research projects that give access to the data, and produce resources for public use.

“The directory serves as a valuable tool for anyone interested on CBPP such as “commoners”, “prosumers” or researchers. It also aims to give visibility to the CBPP and support the networking among CBPP projects.

“The directory itself is based on collaborative production . Join the collaborative mapping of CBPP: Reuse and remix the data, insert new cases, send your feedback on the directory design, etc. The data contributed to the directory is published with an open license and accessible through our API or for downloaded in various formats.

“Data Jam 12th March 2014

“To celebrate the launch we will be hosting a P2Pvalue Data Jam 12th March 2014 , a collective effort to populate the directory and document as many examples of CBPP as possible. Additionally, on the day we will be having a live streamed program with introduction to the P2Pvalue project, and with instruction on how to use the directory and discussion around CBPP issues.

“How to join the Data Jam (12th March 2014)”

Directory: http://directory.p2pvalue.eu
Live streaming link: P2PValue or Youtube channel
Twitter: @P2Pvalue Hash tags #P2PDATAJAM and #P2PVALUE
Local Data Jam: Local Data Jam will take place in Barcelona, Madrid, and Quito (timetable and physical address availeble here) Organize a local Data Jam also if you like around your place!
Mailing list: http://lists.p2pvalue.eu/wws/info/dat...

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

***************************************************************************

Hangout Live Streaming program

11.30-12.30 pm CET

Introduction to P2PValue and the directory
Mayo Fuster (IGOPnet)@lilaroja

Coordination:@rubenmartinez (IGOPnet)

12.45-13.30 pm CET

Technical details of the P2PValue directory
David Rozas (University of Surrey)

Coordination:@rubenmartinez (IGOPnet)

13:45-14:00 pm CET

Presentation of Kune
Antonio Tenorio (UCM)

Coordination: Antonio Tapiador (UCM)

17.00- 17.45pm CET

Jaume Barcelo y Pedro on behalf Guifi.net

Coordination: Jorge Salcedo (IGOPnet)@jorgelsalcedo

18.00-18.45pm CET

Maria G. Perulero on behalf Goteo.org

Coordination: Jorge Salcedo (IGOPnet)@jorgelsalcedo

19.00-20.15pm CET

Discussion group: “Analizing value in CBPP experiences”

Michel Bauwens (P2PFoundation), Marco Berlinguer (IGOPnet) and Marcos García (Medialab Prado)

Coordination: Mayo Fuster Morell (IGOPnet)@lilaroja

==================================================

“The directory development is supported by the European Project P2PValue (Techno-social platform for sustainable models and value generation in commons-based peer production in the Future Internet), and promoted by a consortium of organizations including P2Pvalue project partner members (mainly: IGOPnet.cc (conceptualization and coordination of CBPP Directory), University of Surrey (technical development of the Directory) and P2P Foundation (dissemination of the Directory), and the contribution of the other partners of the project GRASIA – Complutense University of Madrid, CNRS and University of Milan), and the support of the Spanish Chapter of Open Knowledge Foundation, among others. If you or your organization would like also to join the effort around the directory, please contact us.

“The P2P Data Jam coordination Team are: Ruben Martinez (IGOPnet.cc) ruben@leyseca.net @RubenMartinez, David Rozas (University of Surrey) david.rozas@gmail.com @drozas, Kevin Flanagan (P2P Foundation) kevin@p2pvalue.eu @flgnk, Mayo Fuster Morell (IGOPnet.cc) mayo.fuster@eui.eu@lilaroja, Jorge Salcedo (IGOPnet.cc) @jorgelsalcedo and Antonio Tapiador (UCM) atapiador@ucm.es @atapiador”

)

       

Digital Life in 2025 by Pew Research Center

*It’s not bad, as such things go.

http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/03/PIP_Report_Future_of_the_Internet_Predictions_031114.pdf

John Markoff, senior writer for the Science section of the New York Times, wrote, “What happens the first time you answer the phone and hear from your mother or a close friend, but it’s actually not, and instead, it’s a piece of malware that is designed to social engineer you. What kind of a world will we have crossed over into? I basically began as an Internet utopian (think John Perry Barlow), but I have since realized that the technical and social forces that have been unleashed by the microprocessor hold out the potential of a very dystopian world that is also profoundly inegalitarian. I often find myself thinking, ‘Who said it would get better?’”

       

More architecture-fiction by Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet

*I wouldn’t mind a Paris full of augmentation and orange suburban geodomes.

http://www.nkmparis.fr/actualites/carnet-campagne/couverture-peripherique

       

Spime Watch: Kinoma Create

*Wow, what a California look-and-feel these guys have.

*We’re in for an epic cyberindustrial struggle of intranets-of-things-by-the-majors vs/plus things-randomly-internetted-through-disruption-without-permission. It’s gonna be wrangle, wrangle, wrangle for years on end.

)

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kinoma-create

       

Street-brawling weapons of the Ukrainian Revolution

*It’s a grim business when civil society is reduced to this condition.

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2014/03/ukraine-diy-weapons#x

       

Musica Globalista: FACT mix 430 — Slowdive (March 14) by FACT magazine

*If you can’t find something to like in this compilation, you and I probably have no musical commonalities.

http://www.factmag.com/2014/03/10/fact-mix-430-slowdive/

Tracklist:
1. Sonic Youth – Silver Rocket
2. Can – Mother Sky
3. The Byrds – 8 Miles high
4. My Bloody Valentine – Clair
5. Dinosaur Jnr – Let It Ride
6. AR Kane – Haunting
7. This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
8. Bert Jansch – Come Sing Me a Happy Song to Prove We Can All Get Along the Lumpy Bumpy Long and Dusty Road
9. Swans – Saved
10. Brian Eno – The Big Ship
11. The Cocteau Twin – Pink Orange Red
12. Phillip Glass – Floe
13. Yo La Tengo – Sugarcube
14. Taylor Deupree – Img_0083
15. Kitchens Of Distinction – The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule
16. Nick Drake – Riverman
17. Bark Psychosis – Nothing Feels
18. The Smiths – How Soon Is Now
19. The Stooges – Search And Destroy
20. The Cure – Cold
21. Spiritualised – Run
22. Syd Barrett – Terrapin

       

This Gigantic 3-D Printer Can Create an Entire Table

*Well, now we’re talkin’.

*So, who wants a gnarly, all-plastic table, with many fused and deposited flaws and oddities, that costs $150 in plastic filament alone, and takes about five days to print, while it functions less well than a table you could buy from Ikea at one twentieth of its price? Well, me, maybe. Yeah, I could live with one of those. I’m in a restless mood.

http://www.wired.com/design/2014/03/gigantic-3-d-printer-replace-ikea/

(…)

“Its aluminum frame is just over five feet in every dimension and the build area is a robust 45x39x47 inches. Oehmigen named the original prototype “Le Big Rep” in honor of Pulp Fiction, though his new 440-pound, $39,000 printer has been anglicized to the simpler BigRep….”

BigRep – Full Scale 3D Printer from BigRep Fullscale 3D Printer on Vimeo.

       

Design in Motion: the new frontier of interaction design

*If you’re gonna hook up a bunch of cheap motors to a bunch of open-source software, it’s probably a good idea to back off for a while and think about the issues some, first.

*Or you could do some re-thinking later, once you realize through lived experience that all your haywire effort has delivered an awful mess. Maybe you could do the one approach on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the hands-on hacking on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You’d learn a lot in a hurry.

Design in motion. The new frontier of interaction design from Antonio De Pasquale