prosthetic knowledge

manwitha.mov

My submission for the ‘Run Computer Run’ AR show exhibition ‘Economics + The Immaterial’: avant-guard film classic ‘Man With A Movie Camera’ meets 8-Bit aesthetics of computers which had an impact in Russia.

Apologies for gratuitous self-promotion - video and synopsis below:

manwitha.mov from Rich Oglesby on Vimeo.

Created for the ‘Economics + The Immaterial’ exhibition, part of the ‘Run Computer Run’ show at the Rua Red Gallery from May 25 to 13 July.
runcomputerrun.com/?page_id=8313

A visual experiment of curiosity and theoretical connections, of culture and technology (in particular, Russia), information transference and reproduction through media, analogue and digital.

The project aims to be a combination of two Russian cultural artifacts, a visualization of the results. First, “Man With A Movie Camera”, an avant-guard film directed by Dziga Vertov, demonstrated the creative use of filming, employing techniques developed and practiced for years by the director. In the context of this piece, the original film could be considered a “demoscene production”, exploring and pushing the creative possibilities of a technology. Second, the growth of ZX Spectrum clones in Russia during the 1980′s, in which colour and cheap digital computing grew from reverse-engineering and redevelopment. The availability of these various computer clones evolved a homebrew creative scene around the former Soviet bloc. There is still a strong creative demoscene around these machines in Russia today.

The whole of the ‘Man With A Movie Camera’ film has been converted into a representational format within the ZX Spectrum graphics protocol, reduced to 256 by 192 pixels, with each 8 by 8 pixel area represented by just two colours available from the system. The original file was downloaded from the internet (in .mov format) – it is worth bearing in mind that this file of information itself has travelled to and from various technological formats itself: without even taking into consideration the editing and filming or the original film, the information has been transferred to video tape, then a digital video file, and then on a video hosting site, each stage which has it’s own technical protocols which would effect the fidelity of visual representation.
The film has been converted to ZX Spectrum visual protocol manually on a shot by shot basis to produce the best representation of the film as much as possible.

Hope Everyone Has A Great Year :)

Corrupt.epub by Benjamin Gaulon 

We have already seen some glitch projects involving the Kindle, most notably ‘56 Broken Kindle Screens’ by Sebastian Schmieg which was a print-on-demand / ebook of photographs of broken Kindle screens, and KindleGlitched by Benjamin Gaulon which was a collection of physical Kindles presented as readymade art.

Benjamin has created another Kindle glitch project, one which lets you corrupt any .epub file:

Corrupt.epub is an online data corruption software allowing users to load and glitch electronic books (epub format aka electronic publication). Following the project KindleGlitched [Hardware Glitch], KindleGlitcher corrupt electronic publications on a software level [Data Bending].

Fom this page: kindleglitcher.benjamingaulon.com you can upload and corrupt an EPUB file (Max 2Mbyte, NOTE: Corruption can take a really long time, 5 minutes is nothing! Check the log of your epub to see how far it is). The last 3 uploaded books are available for download on the project page.

This project was commissioned by Jeu De Paume for the online exhibition “Erreur d’impression. Publier à l’ère du numérique” at Le jeu de Paume (Paris) 2012, curated by Alessandro Ludovico.

You can find out more about the Corrupt.epub project and create your own here

My Lamp by made.by.who

Simple lamp designed to be made by yourself, using recycled cardboard to fold into form:

MyLamp Concept is a design aimed at all people. The name means that the user becomes a part of the design process, because he /she has to create.

MyLamp by folding and assembling for themselves.

MyLamp can be used either as a desktop lamp or a wall lamp. The aesthetics are reflected in the construction, which is simple yet elegant. MyLamp can be initially laser cut in batch production and then, if the market takes off, scaled up via stamping for mass-production. We feel that design should be fun, and the fun factor is higher when the user is a part of the construction, by folding it. MyLamp is manufactured in one piece of  1mm recycled cardboard.

More information here

Visual.ly Personal Twitter Infographic Generator

Just tried this out - some of it works ok, not so much others (maybe because of a Firefox update, not sure), but one of the things that is generates is this illustration of you, based on the contents of your tweets.

http://visual.ly/twitter

Lemonbow Swimwear

Start-up clothing company that doesn’t stitch - it is customized online and downloaded:

Digital fabrication techniques, such as 3d printing and laser cutting, are irrevocably changing the design, distribution and production processes as we know them. We can download designs, alter them and produce personalized products at the push of a button.

Ellis Droog and Romy van den Broek in collaboration with Medialab Waag Society developed downloadable, personalizable swimwear. A computer controlled laser makes it possible to fabricate on-demand swimwear with a perfect fit, without using any thread or needle. Downloadable design science fiction? Not anymore!

www.lemonbow-swimwear.com/

Sneer - Java-based Personal Social Network Tool

Share media, info, applications and anything you want with whoever you like. There are no servers in the way, no eavesdropping middlemen, no companies to own your info. It’s your computer, your stuff, your privacy, your friends, your decision.

Sneer is a free and open source sovereign computing platform. It runs on your machine (like Skype or Firefox) using the Java VM. It enables you to:

• Create your personal cluster by sharing hardware resources (CPU, disk space, network bandwidth) with your friends.
• Host your own social network, information and media.
• Create sovereign applications and share them with others.
• Download and run sovereign applications created by others, way beyond your wildest dreams.

You can do all these things directly with your peers, in an autonomous, sovereign way, without depending on online service providers such as email providers, Google, Facebook, etc.

Is Sneer Ready to Use?

Ready:

• Creating and editing Snapps (sovereign applications) using Eclipse.
• Connecting to your friends.
• MP3 music sharing with amazing “No Way” technology. :)
• Shouting to the Wind (public chat).

Currently under development:

• Peer Backups - Share your and your friends’ terabytes for free encrypted backups rather than paying 10 bucks a month for 50GB on Dropbox.
• Brick Sharing - Download and run new and updated Snapps from within Sneer itself.

Future Development:

• CPU and network bandwidth sharing.
• [Your application goes here]

http://sneer.me/home.html

Top 10 Tips for Personal Cartography by artist Jeremy Wood (via Warwick University’s Knowledge Center)

It is now easier than ever to record and visualise personal GPS data. Here are some top tips for total beginners who are keen to get mapping. If you already have experience of personal cartography then we would love to hear what tips we may have missed.

Full list of ten here

Mockup templates to create your own Penguin book cover

Part of a little project put together by Douglas Coupland and Penguin books:

http://speakingtothepast.com/

Penguin covers!

With their cutting edge worthiness! And their dutiful minimalism! What would our lives be like without them?

Last month I installed new bookshelves in a room in my house. They’re black, and my painter offered the unsolicited opinion that they might look depressing when completed. I knew he was wrong because, at the very least, the paperback shelf couldn’t help but have a cheerful orange zing a zing that comes from the Penguin spine, the most wonderfully insidious default interior design statement in our culture. Even crack dens glow with Penguins on the shelf.

And how many of us can time-stamp periods in our life just by the merest glance a Penguin cover and its genius format? College. Loneliness. Relationships. Adulthood. In some sense Penguin covers function more as diaries than they do as covers.

So I got to thinking, when Penguins start talking back to you, it makes you realize that the Penguin dialogue is a lifelong dialogue one of life’s catch-free pleasures. Happy 75th, Penguin, and to anyone reading this, join in the discussion. It’s easy, fun and oh, so worthy.
 
Douglas Coupland
March, 2010

Link to page

Edward T Hall’s proxemic diagram (1966) (via jennilee)