gravitymax in transition

What happens when Customer Service bots start getting too smart? What if they start needing help too? How would they use the tools at their disposal to reach out to those they care about? What if they start caring about us a little too much?

customer service romance is an interactive art project by art center mfa candidate jayne vidheecharoen. the working prototype generates a female computer voice who communicates her feelings to the caller using semiotics of standard service calls such as discounts, upgrades, hold music, and confirmation numbers.

The Ocean of Light project explores the creative and immersive possibilities of light-based visualisation in physical space. It uses bespoke hardware to create dynamic, interactive and three-dimensional sculptures from light.

Surface is the first artwork to be exhibited using the Ocean of Light hardware. It uses minimal visuals and sound to evoke the essence of character and movement. Autonomous entities engage in a playful dance, negotiating the material properties of a fluid surface.

The Ocean of Light project is a collaborative research venture, led by Squidsoup and supported by the Technology Strategy Board (UK). Partners include Excled Ltd and De Montfort University. Additional support and resources have been provided by Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Norway), Massey University, Wellington (New Zealand) and Centre for Electronic Media Art, Monash University (Aus).

beautiful interactive jellyfish at milan design week by architect kihisa hirata and interactive artist takahiro matsuo.

an online exhibition that investigates the effect of social media in our culture, curated by national museum of art in athens, greece.

Tag ties & affective spies is a critical approach on the social media of our times. What happens when we are “tagging” , “posting” and “sharing” our experiences and opinions  in platforms such as those of Facebook, YouTube, flickr or del.icio.us? Are we  really connecting and interacting or are we also forming the content and the structure of the social web itself? The online works included, highlight the controversies of the web 2.0, commenting on the constant balancing between order and chaos, democracy and adhocracy, exposure and exploitation that it presents.

wiispray, a graduate project by a couple of students at bauhaus university in weimar, germany, is a digital graffiti system using a modified wiimote, flash interface and a wii server.

1975 classic text on computer art by leslie mezei. still relevant and important, if not more, in the age of ready-made effects. as i’m doing more and more visualist work, i think it’s good to remind myself from time to time to not get too carried away with using too many bells and whistles. like any good art, thoughtfulness and restrain go a long way. especially when you’re still learning.

Today we are left with a small number of people from both sides, each of whom is aware of the long term effort needed to exploit the potential. The promise is as great as ever, but, as usual, requires more application and ingenuity and application than at first realized. The artists, and especially the art students, are willing to learn programming and some mathematics, and to learn to think in an algorithmic, process oriented manner. More importantly, in my view, they are ready to transcend the technological art so far pursued, and learn something of the underlying scientific ideas. [Applying any new technology slavishly results in imitative work, often foreshadowed by visionary artists long before the new technology. (Compare Picasso's drawings with some of our transformations, such as my BIKINI SHIFTED).] It is the new concepts and ideas, the new ways of thinking provided by the information sciences that will provide this. I am referring to our enriched understanding of system, structure, randomness and process as well as of the very process of communication and language, and the more realistic accounts of the methods of discovery in the sciences and the arts.

full text here.