culturge

Virtual voices: Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:16:00 +0000

Maybe it all started with 'Chocolate Rain', but there are now thousands of videos all over the net of people singing all manner of songs over their webcams. It was only a matter of time 'til video posting sites such as YouTube became bastions for self-produced, lofi music videos and mass-syndicated amateur singing, but amidst the torrent of tenors ad onslaught of altos, Eric Whitacre has decided to separate the wheat the from the chaff and create the world's first audition-based virtual choir.

It cannot be ignored that the project is to some extent a use of sensationalism and spectacle to advance Whitacre's career. The sound quality of the choristers' own recordings does not allow for sensitive control of choral blending or tuning, and there is also the question of the quality of Whitacre's arrangements in general. However you feel about the aesthetic or acoustic merits of the musical production, it is an exciting demonstration of the new types of independent musical collaborations that are enabled through the near ubiquity of webcams amongst computer users.

Aspiring singers can audition for the choir and represent their country in song. Best of luck to all the hopeful virtual choristers.

Resurfacing old facades: Nuformer's digital media magic

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:47:00 +0000

The custom made digital projections of NuFormer are progressively pushing the boundaries of creative layering images, identities and visuals onto the streetscapes of Europe. Previously the type of media work that would have been limited to stadium rockers and pop stars, the stunning knitting of futuristic CGI visuals into old architectural fabric both inspires and opens a wide realm of possibilities for communicating, entertaining and activating public spaces. I'd be very interested in seeing what they might do with archaeological sites or ancient architecture such as the Colosseum in Rome...

The First DJ Battle in the World: Timofei Levchuk's 'In the Ukrainian Steppe' (1952) Redubbed

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:37:00 +0000

The impact that You Tube has had on contemporary culture has been widely discussed (e.g. here). It's produced any number of average joe heroes and overnight celebrities. What also is produced are gems of remixed old media. Often giving new life to long forgotten music or film, the media archaeologists of You Tube dig up priceless bits of previous generations' culture which sometimes have hilariously resonant similarities to today. Below is one of my most recent favourites from this genre of internet creativity. A redubbing of the music track from a scene in Timofei Levchuk's 'In the Ukrainian Steppe' (1952) featuring:

1. Eazy-E - Only If You Want It

2. 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor - Mirror Of Love (Mastermindz Freaky R'N'B Club Mix)

3. 2 Unlimited - No Limit [moon project extended mix]
4. Captain Jack - Dream A Dream (Spacefrog Mix)

Beyond the priceless matching of the electro bass beat to the shoulder swagger and fist waving of the moustached protagonist, the scene itself in its original form illustrates how audio media conflict has a history spanning back well into the early 20th century.

Present absences: The Home Project

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:06:00 +0000

The street art stencils for The Home Project were completed this week on Clanbrassil Street in Dublin. Activating heritage, community, identity and public space, the powerwasher stencils will be in situ until the foot traffic of Clanbrassil Street erases them through the accumulation of new residues and traces. Why not have a walk down Clanbrassil Street and help build new relations as the work deteriorates.

The Home Project explores the concept of 'home' against the changing landscape of the past, present and future of the Clanbrassil Street area. The words for this project are taken from a series of creative writing workshops run by Ursula Rani Sarma with 10-12 year old students living in the Clanbrassil Street area.

In 2009, curator Ian Russell worked with Ursula to create a public art installation using extracts of the students writings about 'home'. A postcard was designed in collaboration with Zero-G (which can be seen here) and was distributed throughout Dublin, and in July 2009, a selection of statements about 'home' were chosen and stenciled onto both footpaths of Clanbrassil Street using a powerwasher and a lot of friendly help and support. See the final product here.

If you would like to learn more about the development of the project, there is an artist's statement available here: 'The Origins of The Home Project' by Ursula Rani Sarma.

Ursula's artist residency in the Clanbrassil Street area was part of the Placing Voices - Voicing Places Project which was funded by a Heritage Council of Ireland INSTAR 2008 Grant, administered by University College Dublin, Create and Dublin City Council.

Turn any politician green: Guerrilla Gardening to recycle election posters

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:40:00 +0000

It's the time of year again when our streets are plastered with faces of the ambitious will-to-power types vying for a spot in national and European politics. Of course, it's important that people know how their representatives are and are able to recognise them, but there is an uncomfortable ecological feeling seeing all the paper and card and board being lashed to poles around our cities only to be later binned - all for the sake of head shots and party titles.

Putting aside the politics, a team of eco-warriors have proposed a new use for the throngs of political posters that adorn almost every corner of Dublin. Inspired by Guerrilla Gardening, the team from Unitedminds.ie have been converting political posters into ready-made window boxes for gardens. Putting the residue of excessive politics to good use, Mick Veale, one of the agent provocateurs behind the campaign, has put together a tutorial for how you can go out and turn any politician you want green...

Tiananmen Square 20 years on: The Brolly Blockout

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:08:00 +0000

It's not quite 'Singing in the Rain', but the use of umbrellas in Tiananmen Square by under cover Chinese police to block out international media does have a feeling of choreography about it.

Below is a short video of BBC correspondent James Reynolds in a dance with plainclothes police just opposite the square.

The egalitarian web: Internet pop culture

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:35:00 +0000

The internet has been around since the late 1960s when scientific researchers at UCLA and SRI in Menlo Park, California created a computer network (ARPANET) to enable real-time information sharing from their experiments. Since then, the chaotic relations of various comptuer networks grew, developed and eventually coalesced into what we know now as the internet. Initially guided by the National Science Foundation's backbone infrastructural investment of the early 1980s, the internet later was opened to commercial development and exploitation in 1988.

Today, we interact with the internet as a form of digital commons or hyper-agora. Where once priority was given to the information sharing needs of government bodies and universities, now a myriad of pop culture icons have emerged from the bundles of wires, lines of code and chaos of mouse-clicks. Though we might question whether the internet is indeed 'free' or a 'commons' (see Timothy Luke's papers on 'cyberculture'), the growing list of cybercult icons such as Numa Numa, the Dramatic Chipmunk, Fail Blog or I Can Has Cheezburger testifies to the ability of human agency to coalesce into viral and dynamic communities of interest.

Increasingly the internet-based media communities such as YouTube is shaping the media at large. With many of the topics in Greg Rutter's Definitive List of 99 Things You Should Already Have Experienced on the Internet having appeared within the content of newsbroadcasts, late night talk shows and in print media. It may seem somewhat antithetical to propose a difinitive list for internet experiences, but as you read through Greg's list, it becomes clear that that cyber pop-culture though egalitarian in formulation does lend itself to hierarchies of importance/significance.

Are we departing from an the myth of an egalitarian information sharing commons? Perhaps such 'definitive lists' of popular internet culture are a symptom of the underlying structures which define access and order of internet content. Does the assigning of significance to internet media content raise the more pertinent issue of the linguistic relationship between signs and signifiers and the structure of knowledge and communication? Should we question not just the structures of our engagement with the internet but also the method of coding that strucutre? Might we call for a 'linguistic turn' in our understanding of internet code and information architecture in general? Or is it merely a utilitarian space for infotainment?

Mapping the Buzz of NY and LA

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:06:00 +0000

In the recent report 'The Geography of Buzz', Elizabeth Currid of USC, LA and Sarah Williams of Columbia University have presented a new way of exploring the concentration and impact of the socialisation patterns of the arts communities of NY and LA. The project asserts the importance of the creative class to civic development, social cohesion and economic development. Mapping the location of thousands of photographs from the Getty archives from parties and events over one year (from March 2006-Feburary 2007) associated with key cultural sectors in the two cities, Currid and Williams developed a series of density maps based on arts medium, providing a striking illustration of the epicentres of elusive scenes.

Read the full report of 'The Geography of Buzz' here.

Here is a good article from the NY Times on the project.

Eco-animation: The Seed by Johnny Kelly

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Here's a wonderful example of corporation demonstrations producing great art and educational tools. Johnny Kelly's 'The Seed' was underwritten by Adobe (and made by Nexus) as a project to illustrate the uses of Adobe CS4. With music by Jape, the video illustrates the ecological relationship between seeds, trees, fruit, humans and animals in the continual becoming of the world.

Check out more of Johnny Kelly's paper craft here.

Making of 'The Seed' from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Grow your own fresh Air: Kemal Meattle at TED

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:55:00 +0000

With over 60% of the world's population living in buildings and over 40% of the world's energy taken up by those buildings, the importance of finding sustainable ways of engaging with prebuilt architectures is paramount. Kemal Meattle is just such a visionary.

He has discovered the correct configuration and ratio of three different plants that can grow all the fresh air one person will ever need and clean a large proportion of toxins out of the air as well. Meattle suggest that if you lived in a sealed bottle with just these plants, you would never need fresh air. So perhaps these three plants are our future astro-plants. If you plan on becoming a deep-space cosmonaut, I reckon you'd better get used to the sight of this greenery.

For one person you need:

Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) x 4 shoulder high plants

Mother-in-law's Tongue (Sanservieria trifasciata) x 6-8 waist high plants per person

Money Plant (Epiremnum aureum) x 1 plant

Wolfram Alpha: The world's first computational knowledge engine

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Last night witnessed the launch of the world's first ever knowledge computation engine. Wolfram Alpha is now officially available to the public to solve all your knowledge computation needs. The brainchild of Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram Alpha's ambition is to be the one stop shop for formal knowledge on the web. Built on the architecture of Mathematica, the algorithmic computational acrobatics of the engine pulls source material from a broad array of authoritative sources (census reports, the Oxford English Dictionary, and countless other online databases) to present a simple and elegant interface with the world's knowledge.

The idea behind the engine is that popular search engine's such as Google or Yahoo are utilised to discover informal knowledge and broad-based web content based on the tags and page ranks of web content. Wolfram Alpha, however, searches formal knowledge structures to provide formal information to users' questions.

Designed to answer questions, Wolfram Alpha utilises a free-form natural language user interface, and it makes assumptions about search intent - referencing other possible intentions in the knowledge results. A search for 'truth' is initially assumed to be a search for a definition, but one can redirect to explore the 'general concept', or a search for 'existence' initially returns David Cronenberg's film 'eXistenZ' which can be redirected to the concept's definition.

My initial concern in using the knowledge engine was that it was an overly clean and simplistic interface that obfuscated (disguised/obscured) the complex strucutres of knowledge creation. Asserting itself as a distilled source of authoritative information, the engine was elevating itself to the level of authority. The balance this criticism, on every query-response page there is a link to 'view the source information'. Here one can see all the varied resources utilised to create the knowledge document - a bibliography of sorts. It does not however footnote any single figure of piece of information, so there is a fair degree of trust involved in using the engine that the Wolfram Computation Engine does indeed call upon reputible sources in its knowledge computations.

It is a bold step towards enriching users' experience of the web, and for now, it's free. Although being built on theories of organic computational evolution, it is a far cry from Terminator's Skynet and sentient computing - though it is a step on that road...

Robots and the future of war: P.W. Singer

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:42:00 +0000

In an absolutely arresting talk at TED in February 2009, P. W. Singer has broadened our awareness of the frightening speed at which we are removing human arms from armed conflict. Exploring drone planes, robotic sentries and enhanced human battle technology, Singer fears the ethical and moral implications of warfare that is no longer counter balanced by lived human experience of conflict. The military-industrial complex has brought us towards tipping point where it is not longer humans who fight, but robots who fight for us.

Recalling the call for ethics in robotics from Isaac Asimov, these current trends in military robotics are already creating disillusionment. From US military personnel in New Mexico flying drones and dropping bombs remotely who experience higher PTSD levels than foot soldiers in Iraq to other countries anger that the US army will not fight them as men, the technological acceleration of the removal of humans from war does present us with serious ethical issues which perhaps we need to take time to consider. Unfortunately, the current pace of production supported by the Pentagon may mean that there simply isn't time...

Robots who need your help!: Tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:23:00 +0000

Sometimes people are just so human-centered. Rushing here and rushing there. Never thinking about all the little robots out there that are struggling to make their way through the world.

Interventionist and robot-activist Kacie Kinzer is studying and hopefully rectifying this through her Tweenbots. Taking to the streets of New York, Kinzer's Tweenbots (human-assisted robots) struggle to overcome obstacles and avoid danger and need our help to make it through their journey.

Both deeply cute and intellectually insightful, Kinzer's Tweenbot project explores the social energy that can be activated through simple interventions and directed towards a single goal. As Kinzer rightly points out, it perhaps is supported by her robots being anthropomorphic (human-like), and it would be interesting to see if there was a different response to robots who looked less cute and approachable. That the robots are human-like and 'cute' did produce some perhaps unique anecdotes about human-robot interactions. Kinzer reported that at one point a man corrected the robot, saving it from a threatening path, saying to it - 'You can't go that way. It's towards the road'.

The first of Kinzer's adventurers recently completed a journey through Washing Square Park (see the video below). It took 42 minutes and 29 people intervening for the robot to complete the journey.

See future outings of Kinzer's robots here.

Public anonymity: Post Secret and anonymous publicity

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:58:00 +0000

In an age when privacies are being eroded continually through data-collection, taste-mapping and customer profiling (never mind actual government intelligence agency efforts), it might have seemed unlikely that hundreds of thousands of people would flock to broadcast their deepest personal secrets to the public. In 2004 though, that is precisely what began to happen.

Post Secret began as a local project by Frank Warren in Washington, D.C. Distributing post cards in local bars and cafes in D.C., Warren solicited people to post him their secrets. It quickly became a global phenomenon as people began to scribble down the deep and dark secrets, humorous stories and intensely personal and emotional stories onto all manner of paper products (and eventually on anything that could be posted).

For the last five years, Warren has been stewarding the Post Secret Community online, posting images of the post secrets he receives, prompting a global network of shared personal experience. Victims of abuse, long estranged family members and similarly tempered spirits have connected through the constellated web of relationships of Post Secret.

The fierce simplicity of Post Secret probably points to its success. Publicly broadcast secrecy provides an empowering way of meeting a society head on - which is at one time trying to breakdown privacy while simultaneously increasing social fragmentation through direct marketing based on private data. The resulting social cohesion through anonymously shared secrets is powerful and indeed life changing. It is moving to read the posts by people who have had lives saved by reading Post Secrets of others who have experienced similar traumas in life.

For a more in depth story of Post Secret, watch Frank Warren's recent talk at PopTech! 2008.

Compelling composites: Peter Funch's Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:37:00 +0000

'Memory Lane' & 'Times Square Pose' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

What if all those inconsequential actions we do day-in-day-out were suddenly shared moments en masse? Would we think differently about our actions, their implications or would we simply smile?

Peter Funch's Babel Tales series of epic composite digital photographs beg just these sorts of questions. Taking multiple shots of single locations around New York City (where he now lives), Funch extracted figures sharing the same action, object, emotion or intention. His behaviour-scapes are equally entertaining and terrifying. The images simultaneously create a sense of shared communities of agency and destroy the precious boundary of modern individuality.

For more images from Funch's Babel Tales, please see his website and the website of his V1 Gallery in Copenhagen.

'Following Followers' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

'Helter Shelter' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

'Loving Lovers' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

'Blood Code' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

'Screaming Dreamers' from Babel Tales by Peter Funch

Palaeo-Futures: Futures that never were

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:40:00 +0000

Blade Runner, the 1982 sci-fi drama, depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in the year 2019 kitted out with flying cars and a race of disenchanted Androids bent on homicidal reprisal. The film is a classic; however, when I watch it, I find it hard not to find it amusing how dated the fashion, design and technology is. We're 10 years away from 2019, and neither flying cars nor androids are anywhere near realisation as mass produced or consumed goods.

Much of the dated quality of science fiction is due to the history of design and the intense fluctuation and change in fashion. The multiple iterations of Star Trek uniforms are a good example of the changing fashion/design of future fashions which will never be.

The 23rd Century: Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

The 24th Century: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)

The 22nd Century: Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

The vision of the future in Blade Runner (and other Sci Fi trojan narratives such as Battlestar Galactica) say something more deep and universal about human life and creativity than about any specific temporality. Blade Runner's future is an antiquated future. It's a future that was dreamt up in 1982, and it's unlikely that it will come to pass in 2019. Much like the future painted by Orwell's 1984 (written in 1949) which did not come to pass in the year 1984, Blade Runner and other palaeo-futures are evidence of the ways previous generations envisaged, hoped or feared their futures (or legacies) to be. They are insights into the minds and dreams of times gone by which provide both humorous anecdotes and chilling lessons.

Artist Bruce McCall (see video below) has been skillfully playing with our palaeo-futures for years. Producing many wonderful paintings, illustrations and and covers for the New Yorker and other publications, McCall explores humanity's wonders and ambitions for its futures, playfully evoking insight through humour, irony and enjoyment of our heritage of faux nostalgia.

So what do you wonder about and hope for the future? Why not write down or document some of your personal futures for posterity? If you need inspiration, our friends at Paleo-Future have an ongoing project to drag up and reshare some of our collective future-thinking that perhaps we wish might have just slipped comfortably into oblivion.

The Sixth Sense: Living with data

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Kraftwerk foretold of a world of pervasive computing and data-driven lifestyle. Their 1981 release Computerworld featured ominous (yet enjoyable) tracks titled 'It's more fun to compute' and 'Computer Love'. Although they claimed to be the operators with their pocket calculators, the recent debut of Sixth Sense by Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry at TED has rendered Krafwerk's 'Pocket Calculator' obsolete.

Sixth Sense is an ingenuous user interface developed using only off-the-shelf tech that creates a data-enriched mediated environment between the user and the objects with which she interacts. Evoking something of the tech-vision of Minority Report (see below), Sixth Sense creates an immersive, two-way media interface that transforms objects and surfaces in the world into dynamic TUIs (tacticle user interfaces). Books become the screens upon which information and reviews can be projected about the book, and as the pages are turned, the new data relating to the book is explored.

Another striking element of Sixth Sense is its use of commonly used human gestures to activate applications and data collection. For example, a frame made using your tumbs and index fingers (framing a landscape) is interpreted by the interface as the intention to take a photograph.

Although utilising human gestural communication and object-interaction to create a dynamic and data-enriched environment is not quite the actual sixth sense (or extra-sensory perception), Mistry's and Maes' invention certainly is data-enhanced sensation and perception, and it is an exciting step towards the dawning of tactile user interfaces.

Cat food ecologies: Sustainable animal feed

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:58:00 +0000

We spend a significant amount of our eco-debating time talking about how the food we as human's eat can negatively impact the environment. Substantially less time is spent engaging with other modes of consumption that we facilitate. In discussing sustainable seafood, we focus on our direct consumption of fish, often ignoring that over 50% of the forage fishing industry goes to feeding pets and livestock.

A recent op-ed from Paul Greenberg at the New York Times made me aware of the issue. Since then I've learned of amazing new age food companies offering vegan cat food, vegetarian pet food and dynamic movements to revolutionise animal feed. If you're interested in more information on the current state of animal feed regulation, there's an interesting primer here.

Google Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Ever dreamed of visiting another world? Well, the new Google Earth 5.0 gives you just that chance with its' Mars feature. Providing the first publicly accessible 3D composite of satellite images from NASA of the red planet, Google Earth 5.0 allows you to fly into and out of high detail satellite imagery of the ravines, hills and valleys of Mars. It also features an intellectual history of Mars geography with navigable maps from Giovanni Schiaparelli and others.

Beyond its evident educational applications, this is just the tool to check up on your Martian real estate from Marsshop.com and the Lunar Embassy.

Tactical engagements with civic space

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Searching for the abandoned tunnel under Phoenix Park with Paddy Bloomer, Dublin, March 2009

Exploring the gaps in urban fabric, the Tactic Project in Dublin has been exploring forgotten spaces and creating new gaps for social activity. Recently completing a residency at the Lab on Foley Street, the group has been reflecting on their productivity and impact on Dublin city.

From the group's mission statement:

"Tactic is a cross-national laboratory for tactical art making: investigation, intervention, discovery, testing and application. It is a space for activists and artists to meet in Dublin and inform each other's practice, develop projects and engage a public."

“Tactics... are isolated actions or events that take advantage of opportunities offered by the gaps within a given strategic system, although the tactician never holds onto these advantages. Tactics cut across a strategic field, exploiting gaps in it to generate novel and inventive outcomes.”

Philosophically basing their activism within the thought of Michel de Certeau:

“These "ways of operating" constitute the innumerable practices by means of which users reappropriate the space organized by techniques of sociocultural production... the goal is to perceive and analyze the microbe-like operations proliferating within technocratic structures and deflecting their functioning by means of a multitude of "tactics" articulated in the details of everyday life;... to bring to light the clandestine forms taken by the dispersed, tactical, and makeshift creativity of groups or individuals already caught in the nets of "discipline:" Pushed to their ideal limits, these procedures and ruses of consumers compose the network of an antidiscipline..”

Contextualising the groups aspirations within the work of more familiar art-agonists K Foundation or the NSK, there is always a question or criticism of to what extent such initiatives actively engage with urban communities or whether they skate along the surface of the city in indulgent flaneurie. Whichever the case may be, the energy, enthusiasm and initiative is something to be embraced and supported critically.

Street intervention by Paul Hickey, Dublin, March 2009 (photo by Ralph Borland)

Inventing the not too distant future: The Distance Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:50:00 +0000

In a far away and distant place in the Scottish Highlands sits a buzzing hive of new mediators, creatives and tech heads busily working on inventing new and innovative ways of keeping us all connected to eachother no matter the distance between. The Distance Lab is the brain child of MIT Media Lab grad Stefan Agamanolis, and the multi-disciplined, patchwork team under his direction has pioneered some of the most endearing, entertaining and enabling tech of the last few years.

With a remit to 'bring together digital media technology, design and the arts to redefine and overcome the disadvantages of distance in learning, health care, relationships, culture and other domains', The Distance Lab's team sets itself the ambition of radically creating innovative futures of distance-related technology. Mobilising the whimsical, intimate and social, the Lab occupies a new space between the sometimes detached agency of the academy and the usually overly commercial intention of industry. With an extensive and growing list of projects and prototypes, they are quickly earning international notoriety and a reputation for designing and developing some of the most creative kit going.

For example, exploring the theme of health and social distance, Remote Impact [seen in the above video] is a dynamic TUI (tactile user interface) allowing internationally dispersed pugilists to battle it out in a digitally connected ring. Punching, kicking or throwing themselves at a shadow of their opponent projected on a plush wall, the system of sensors registers not only hits but also intensity and awards points accordingly. A step up from the Wii, the visceral physicality of Remote Impact finds businessmen in suits, young children and grandmothers alike exerting themselves in direct competition. Allowing the purging of aggression, the system has been suggested as a way of promoting emotional health as well as an entertaining way to build teams and break the stress of the traditional teleconference environment.

Another touching project is SeamuSays. The team is developing a doll that can record and replay messages from parents or other loved ones. Different ways of interacting with the toy would trigger different messages to be played, and it is intended that future versions would be able to accessed by remote, allowing parents to update and leave new messages for their children while they are away.

And for the more adventurous or sensuous among us, Mutsugoto is a remote body drawing interface that allows couples separated by distance to share intimate creative experiences. Mutsugoto will feature at the upcoming Edinburgh Arts Festival and will be seeking three long-distance relationships that are willing to beta-test the prototype. More information on the search for couples can be found at New Media Scotland.

Pop-Up Landscapes: Mediating landscape intra-action

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:47:00 +0000

How do landscapes change? How are we involved in their becoming? If they are just abstract concepts or human projections onto the world, how can we better mediate those projections to negotiate our ecological interactions?

These are some of the questions that the Pop-Up Landscapes project is raising through its year long series of workshops, installations and happenings. Headed by Teresa Dillon, Tuomo Tammenpää and lok Arquitectura, the project seeks to explore the becoming of different landscape forms in urban, rural and natural environments in Spain, Portugal and Finland. The project will realise an interactive media-installation or playspace where people can dynamically alter and ship digital triptychs through their physical presence.

The year long series of workshops and installations have already begun with the construction of prototypes in Barcelona at Hangar. For more information on the becoming of the project, you can follow it here.

Audiences and activities: Rethinking museum space

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:15:00 +0000

The recession has hit many sectors hard. The effect on arts and culture institutions have been particularly acute. Even before the full impact of the recession, museums and galleries were already under significant difficulties financially. The bail out of LA's MOCA, the closure of the Rose Museum at Brandeis University, and the liquidation of 18 archaeological research staff at the University of Pennsylvania Museum all point towards broad-based problems in relation to the position of museum and gallery institutions within contemporary society.

In an effort to address waning visitor numbers and to rearticulate the relevance of museum spaces to contemporary society, many institutions have begun to rethink the traditional solemn view of how one should conduct themselves in relation to art and artefacts. Where once it was social convention to walk through galleries and stand, observe and appreciate art, some institutions are beginning to allow for more dynamic and active ways of engaging with art spaces.

Museums such as the Ackland Art Museum or the Baltimore Museum of Art have instituted yoga programmes, inviting visitors to attend meditation classes within the exhibition halls of the museum. Some yogis have branded this as a new movement of 'art yoga', and for Education and Outreach Officers of museums, it is the first step in opening up dogmatic understandings of how the public should best interact with art to different possibilities.

Another strategy has been deployed at UCLA's Hammer Museum where they run bike-centric evenings which allow patrons to cycle into the museum courtyard with valet parking for the bikes, outdoor film screenings and other events.

Amidst all of these new initiatives, the Brooklyn Museum deserves a special mention. Their First Saturday programme has been running for a few years. The first Saturday evening of every month features a late opening of the museum with live music ranging from concern orchestras to cutting edge DJs. Patrons can buy wine, dance and view art until 10pm.

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Further reading - Carol Vogel's article from the NY Times (12/3/09)

East of New Eden: Alban Kakulya and the borders of the European Union

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:45:00 +0000

A soldier stares out across a vast and expanding horizon. His presence marks a line, a border between the European Union and beyond. Without his presence, would this merely be another beach, another vista?

Borders and boundaries are human ideological constructions - ways of ordering the world to help establish systems of governance, control and exploitation. As human constructions, they require constant human vigilance to remain present - a continual cycle re-remembering the lines which we agree divide us.

Award-winning photojournalist Alban Kakulya has taken the subjectivity of the European Union's borders as his study in his project East of New Eden with Yann Mingard. In 2002, Kakulya took a documentary journey along the eastern borders of the European Union. Somewhat in response to the period of expansion of the European Union in the early 21st century, the photo-essay reminds one of the intangibility of borders - that they are abstract concepts that can yield perverse concrete structures. The ecologies of the world (both human and environmental) undercut and transcend these structures, often rendering them irrelevant.

In the past, borders often hugged natural boundaries such as waterways or mountain ridges. Even these borders in many ways were as undercut by human activity. Rivers for example were highways that connected people, rather than simply boundaries that divided people. It was quicker and safer to move goods along rivers than overland.

Kakulya's study reminds us of both the long traditions of undercutting borders and also the tangible heritage that results from the regular reiteration of borders. It leaves one with the questions: where are the EU's boundaries? Are they physical? Or are they only ideological?

Art and advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Russell) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Hiroshi Sugimoto's photograph as used on U2's album 'No Line on the Horizon'

Art has always had a tight relationship with commerce, economics and the market place in general. Back when the Church controlled the purse strings, artists readily explored themes and stories dictated by the highest ecclesiastical bidder, and art has always been readily at the service of states from medieval kingdoms through to 20th century European dictatorships.

Recently though, contemporary artists have been selling rights for their works directly to advertising firms and other media conglomerates. Unshocking yet unfortunate was the sale of one of Hiroshi Sugimoto's Seascapes for use on U2's latest studio album 'No Line on the Horizon'. Unshocking because it follows in the tradition of musicians utilizing contemporary art work for their album art such as with Ornette Coleman's 'Free Jazz' which featured a painting by abstract painter Jackson Pollack. Unfortunate since U2's use of Sugimoto's image was base and literal for its form rather than an artistic synergy as with Coleman and Pollack. Sugimoto's image depicts a horizon line, but the series of seascapes are more of a meditation on the genesis of life and the mythological relationships between water and air. U2's appropriation of the imagery is unfortunately (or ironically) linear in its intent. Coleman's synergy with Pollack captured the zeitgeist of the 1960s. Coleman's deconstruction of musical form in 'free jazz' or 'fire music' paralleled the meditative deconstruction of artistic form in Pollack's abstract splatter paintings. Perhaps though, in this sense, U2's use of Sugimoto is equally in the zeitgeist of commercially driver 21st century consumer culture - sound bites, linear communication and limited subtext.

Nicky Veasey imagery utilised in a current Lucozade advert

Another recent example is Lucozade's licensing of Nick Veasey's x-ray photographs. Veasey's portfolio is is an arresting array of high definition x-ray images taken using industrial x-ray equipment such as what is used in airport security screening. Veasey's work is something of a sensation. The 'wow' factor of large-scale x-rays is certainly central to his success, but at a deeper level, many of his works communicate a fragile intimacy with the oft-forgotten internal worlds that make the world what it is. Lucozade's use of the artist's imagery is, again, linear though - using the artists image as a canvas or template upon which to place their product, brand and marketing construct 'energy inside'.

I would not argue that these artists selling their work for profit is inappropriate, but critically, I think it does point to a trend in our current commerce-centred society where indie bands such as Architecture in Helsinki feature in a Sprint advert, Prototypes feature in BMW adverts and Iggy Pop features in a Swiftcover car insurance adverts. Perhaps it suggests that the capitalistic marketing engine has run out of good ideas, or it may echo the ambiguous zeitgeist and aesthetic relativism of contemporary art, punk and rock and roll. Perhaps Iggy Pop captured this best in a declaration at the opening of one of his recent concerts - 'Do whatever the f*** you want!'

Sprint & Architecture in Helsinki's 'Souvenirs' from Fingers Crossed (2003)

BMW & Prototypes' 'Je ne te connais pas' from Prototypes (2006)

Swiftcover & Iggy Pop