Final reflections and last links

Throughout the timeline of this course, one main idea or notion that has arched throughout my study of digital art and new media, has been that of hypertext. Or rather the ways in which (as discussed originally by Borges) the Internet represents a new way of comprehension. Instead of the linear layout of a book, the Internet is one of “forking paths” that weaves and links in any number of ways. It has been this notion, too, that has been behind the most captivating demos of this course. For example, I did not realize how narrow a camera lens until I saw the demo of the new panoramic lens for the iphone—much how this notion of linking via hypertext greatly expended and augmented the ways in which we see factual content. Similarly the whole notion of augmented reality is that of expansion and a reimagining of how it is we interact with certain content. So much of the material in this course has asked me to reconsider, how it is that I think about the information, visuals, and data of the world around me and so much of the knowledge I acquired in this course has come from this key reconsideration of my assumptions in regards to the digital world.

Some Final links:

I just read about Eric Rosenthal—imagineer at Disney and designer of the Times Sq studio which hosts ABC’S Good Morning America and other programs. He is possibly most famous for his 26-year professional relationship with ABC. He also is a professor at NYU and has a favorite hobby of ducking into the bathroom whenever he sees me coming (Just kidding, he has no idea who I am).

Finally, I did some research on the term, “Post-digital”, which is meant to relate to our forever changing relationship with “digital technologies and art forms” the following articles will give insight as to where things are going and how it is we will change certain technological frontiers within this post-digital age.

Back from the New Museum and other things on the internet

This Thursday, with my trusty Digital Art and New Media class, I headed to the New Museum to check out Carsten Holler’s exhibit. There has been a lot of buzz around this exhibit particularly around its interactive side: a mirrored carousal, a slide that goes through the floors of the museum, a bin of pills, and a sensory deprivation tank in which museum goers must strip down naked and then have the privilege to float around in a white tank filled with warmed salty water.

The exhibit definitely enlivened museum goers in a way that I hadn’t seen in other professional art spaces. In that way, I though that the exhibit was extremely successful; however, other aspects felt a bit gimmicky at times. The best experience, I had, by far, was my trip into the tank. It was just this wonderful and bizarre moment of calm (that I had waited for the upwards of 40 minutes to experience). The tank gives a feeling of weightlessness and was an absolutely absurd interlude into my museum experience. Definitely worth the wait, if you choose to venture to the museum.

In other news, Alice Rawsthorn wrote a compelling article on the Occupy movement that I read, see it hither. It basically remarks the evolution and growth of the occupy movement as it has spread rapidly across countries and pages of the internet and ways in which different groups have altered and personalized their participation within the movement.

Also check out this video with Mark Read who is responsible for the “99%” projection during an Occupy Brooklyn Bridge march. Read discusses how the idea came about and what it took to actually execute this display. The article is definitely worth a read as it is nice to hear how enthusiastic everyone surrounding the project was.

Speaking of projections, it seems as Saks had taken to 3D projection mapping for a slightly less important cause—the Holiday season. Check out the cool video of their display, thus proving that it seems as though all sorts of people are moving towards the Digital Art and New Media tradition.

Another cool thing I read about is the ways in which Microsoft is revolutionizes how it is it is developing its latest models of Kinect. Instead of keeping hackers out, Miscrosoft seems to be ushering them in and calling on their talents to aid Kinect’s development. Cotton states, “The goal of the project is to find 10 finalists who will enter a three month incubator program that will give these budding entrepreneurs access to key Microsoft talent, the VC community, plus all the development kits they need and that all important office space.”

Finally check out this article on the use of Music Blog content and how it can change certain “song discovery platforms.” It specifically references Shuffler.fm which is an app that takes music from music blogs and channels it via genre. The video is an interview with Tim Heineke, a Shuffler developer. Take some time to watch it or try the Shuffler.fm experience for yourself.

What's New at the New Museum and how Filter Bubbles are ruining the internet... sort of

Carsten Holler is shaking things up with his New Museum Exhibit, check out some articles on it thither, hither, thather, and tither. We plan to visit it next week and I am quite pumped.

Well Carsten Holler is not the only artist who is changing things up at the New Museum, Lali (Spartacus) Cetwynd also has an exhibit up. Spartacus is a performance artist whose work appears to be energetic, provocative, and definitively homespun. Check out the Times’ thoughts on her work hizi-here. From their description it seems like quite the experience.

Look at a bio of Spartacus here and more on here exhibit there.

I just read this great article on the new smart app “Scenetap.” It utilizes “cameras with facial detection software to scout bar scenes.” The app then uses the info it acquires to publish info like the average age of the crowd, male-to-female ratio, all to help someone decide where it is they want to go. Wow, if this is as practical in practice as it is in its conception, I think the bar scene is in for a big digital makeover. But then again, what do I know? I don’t pick bars on such criteria. What do YOU think?

The next thing I want to discuss is “filter bubbles”. In fact, Eli Pariser wrote a whole book about them, called, “The Filter Bubble: What the internet is hiding from you.” Basically filer bubbles are ways in which sites and the internet tailor information to your interests based on your previous searches, amount of time spent on certain pages, and other of your web searching habits. However this way of editing content, Pariser, points out can keep you from the information you need in favor giving you what the system thinks you want.

Check out this video or head over to mashable to see what else is up.

The company, DuckDuckGo, seems to be offering a solution to the filter bubble; which is to say they advertise themselves as a filter-free search engine. I have not yet used their services but perhaps I should because the last time I googled “Iran”, the internet just showed me pictures of people running. Time to duck me up.

For those of us who like a little filtering in our lives there is a thing called HUNCH, that makes personalized recommendations for you based on the stuff you already like. Basically they have a hunch, you’re going to like something. See a demo here, a wikipedia article there, and the official website right here.

Also on the list of things I want right now: THIS PANORAMIC CAMERA FOR THE IPHONE! It is all kinds of cool, check out this neat link on it.

Qudditch Etc.

Kansas-city-hey-hey-hey, we just had a great guest lecturer in class, Michael Strickland! Now this dapper twenty-something is responsible for the making of the Quidditch World Cup website!

You can visit the website thither.

He also does some pretty cool things in terms of data visualization—that he admits to partially ripping off from similar projects that were involved in the Soccer World Cup—whatever that is called. I follow non-fictional sports… I swear. Anyways I was thoroughly impressed with the work this up-and-comer is doing and I think you will be too!

Attention! Everything you know and love about that little smart phone buzzing in your pocket is about to change! Check out what the techies are talking about round’ town hither.

Yes, not only will our smart phones of the future be augmented, projected, and super-protected, they may also be BENDABLE. Say what? I can see how that would enhance the smart phone experience and engineers are even saying it could lend itself to a FOLDABLE model in the next couple of years. What says you, internet audience? Would YOU get one?

4. Hacking the Drug Cartels:

Yep, those invisible internet super heroes are at it again, Anonymous is hacking its way into the world’s drug cartels—rejoice? Already there is a certain level of doubt surrounding the hacker’s allegations, see for yourself and read this Wired article. Either way, both sides are similar in the sense that they may never really let you know what’s going on.

5. History of the Guy Fawkes Masks concerning Occupy Wall Street:

Either way, it’s clear that anonymous has provoking a certain level awareness amongst others out on the streets—specifically Wall Street. Check out this article on the history of the Guy Fawkes Masks at the protests.

Long story short, Fawkes was some British dude (no fears, he was a Catholic) that wanted to do away with the Protestant King James in the 17^th century. Well he was found out, tortured, and then hung, drawn, and quartered… sexy, right? Well this is the fifth of November that has been celebrated since in England.

The masks at the protests have more of a hacker history, dating back to the start of anonymous himself. Check out a more in-depth her-story HERE.

6. Quantum Levitation

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the possibility of quantum-levitation! Check out THIS article on how our future cars may have a new spring in their step in the coming years.

Actually check out this article on the latest in quantum levitation, the effect is caused by a “coated thin superconductor layer on a sapphire wafer which is then penetrated by discrete flux tubes. The superconductor strongly pins these tubes, allowing the wafer to float, or achieve "quantum levitation."

Honestly I feel like I already saw something like this involving trains, but if the internet says its new and cool then hizzah for this! Forget about my rollerskating trains (reference to the Comedy Bang Bang podcast—check it out!)

7. Hacked Kinect -- Projection Device

Finally, check out this nifty new Kinect device that lets you project a screen interface practically anywhere! Say what? This of course hints towards future developments surrounding mobile phone devices and computers. It seems like a fun novelty, I just don’t know how I would enjoy it practically.

CLASS SIX BLOG POSTS

We visited Ken Perlin’s lab today! It was great to see the man behind the blog, not to mention a super-secret section of the Gallatin building. Ken politely answered my question on which coding language he prefers (java—duuuh. I’m a python kind of girl myself) and showed us some neat animation demos that he has been working on. He even showed us a program he wrote to help teach kids about the color wheel—something I need to know as it is time to re-dye my green hair (you use the color wheel to figure out how to reach your next desired shade….)

Also, when I wasn’t being entertained by Ken, I was reading an oddly copious amount of articles on Occupy Wall street:

1. Articles on Occupy’s history:

hither, thither, and thather

Summary: Basically the occupy movement consists of individuals who are protesting the “negative corporate influence of U.S. politics” and overwhelming greed and manipulation of the “1%” with little concern for how their actions will effect the “99%.” The occupation began 9/17/2011 and was initiated by the Canadian activist group, Adbusters.

There is also this article on the ways in which the movement canonized some 928 offshoots on the networking site, Meetup, and another article that discusses the progressive digital factor behind the movement (which has led to hackathons and new means of data assembly).

Further more, Twitter, has played a huge role in the Occupy movement as it has allowed for a live dialogue to take place throughout the movement. However, there is controversy as “occupy” was allegedly censored by twitter as a trending topic. The internet has certainly opened the floodgates for the occupy movement, with footage seemingly everywhere. There is this article and footage on arrests made in Washington Sq. Check out the Occupy Together site, for more information on the movement and check out different ways in which you can help.

Furthermore, this attention to occupy wall street has led to whole new kinds of data visualizations. Check out this map here and another one heerreeeee. Now you can see where in the world are those politically active folks are hiding. Also for those who doubted the Occupy Movement would get much of a following, check out this article about how the OWS Newspaper raised $54,000 on Kickstarter.

CLASS FIVE BLOG POSTS

OOH EM GEE WE SEE KEN PERLIN'S LAB TOMORROW/TODAY/SOON TO BE DISTANT PAST

THOUGHTS ON MOST RECENT NEW MEDIA READER :

CHAPTERS 48 AND 49 691-709

CHAPTER 48: "You Say You Want a Revolution? : Hypertext and the Laws of Media" by Stuart Moulthrop, May 1991

THOUGHTS:

- At the start of this article, hypertext was just emerging as a concept to the public, despite it having been theorized decades earlier by Theodor Holm Nelson (Teddy Nelson, to us familiar folk).

- Hypertext didn't start to get popular until 1987. Even Apple Computers was distributing a "hypercard".

- However Hypertext is forever struggling for popularity? To quote, "Possibly Hypertext, like Job's sophisticated NeXT computer, represents an idea that hasn't quite come to the mainstream of postmodern culture, a precocious curio destined to be dug up years from now and called 'strangely ahead of its time.'" How clairvoyant, Sir Moulthrop.

- Another potential name for this article, "Anything would ever want to know about hypertext and more". This class has made me go from knowing nothing about it to knowing all too much. I fear for my dreams tonight.

CHAPTER 49: The End of Books by Robert Coover, June 1992

Will give a full blog report telling you how the lab visit went--hip hip hurrah!

CLASS FOUR BLOG POSTS

THOUGHTS ON THE NEW MEDIA READER READINGzzz:

147- 176: Six Selections by the Oulipo

- The Oulipo stands for "Ouvroir de Litterature Potentille" or rather "Workshop for Potential Literature"

- This is seen as a "knitting circle" for writers resulting in not literature but potential literature

- The result is a fun mix of elegantly crafted phrases with an air of randomness while retaining a cohesive quality. From the pages of excerpts you do get the sense that these are writers playing with one another on the page.

183-189

Prose and Anticombinatorics by Italo Calvino

- Idea of Anticombinatory character is that when "among a larger number of possibilities, the computer selects those few realizations compatible with certain constraints"

THOUGHTS ON THREE THINGS DEMO-ED IN OUR CLASS:

We read THIS wonderful article, on the possibility of neutrinos being able to travel faster than the speed of light-- not true it turns out, back to work scientists.

Use THIS website/labyrinth of genres for a fun way to find new music!

Or if you want to do none of that, get into a psychedelic mood and watch THIS music video by Blockhead