gravitymax in transition

Researchers from Texas A&M University have created an inexpensive multi touch system made of infrared sensors, similar to what’s found on television remote controls.

Unlogo is a web service that eliminates logos and other corporate signage from videos. On a practical level, it takes back your personal media from the corporations and advertisers. On a technical level, it is a really cool combination of some brand new OpenCV and FFMPEG functionality. On a poetic level, it is a tool for focusing on what is important in the record of your life rather than the ubiquitous messages that advertisers want you to focus on.

there are three ways to contribute to the project: you can either upload a video to help the system learn to recognize new logos, or contribute to its source code, or simply donate to the project’s kickstarter’s campaign.

An installation of casual movements of living creatures are captured to create live concerts that speak to the beauty of life, nature and the advancement of art. A quiet Ensemble combines art, technology and nature to create music. Intermission is over. Sit down and enjoy.

Quintetto won third prize at the “International Contemporary Art Prize – Celesteprize” in Berlin. Quiet Ensemble was founded by Fabio Di Salvo and Bernardo Vercelli in 2009.

just came across this insightful editorial piece by kosmograd from earlier this year (some would call this “pre-ipad’). in it, analogies between our current obsession with screen-based devices and the monolith in 2001 were drawn.

Unlike the computers of 2010, the computers in ‘2010‘ do not create space. The computers of the Leonov, and even HAL 9000 on the Discovery, are little more than tools or automatons, tactile and solid. Whereas HAL looked out into our world, today we look into the world created within the computer.

We’ve replaced the dreams of visiting other planets with the inner space of computer devices. Our focus has shifted from exploring outer space to the computer generated world of cyberspace.

as i see it, this trend could become problematic as we continue to ignore external investigations of the world we live in and focus on an internal escapism that diminishes impact on real social and economical problems.

MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL EUROPE 2010 will explore the networked possibilities of urban screens and media facades via internet and new technologies on a European level.
The format of the MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL reflects on the increasing presence of massive-infrastructures with digital visual elements in public spaces while investigating their communicative function in the urban environment.

The festival will show especially developed art projects in Europe-wide Joint Broadcasting Events which aspire to share dreams of the different cities and report about local issues and exchange peoples’ stories and ideas. The media facades will be transformed into local stages and open a global window for cultural and societal processes to create a dialogue and connect the local public virtually with the other places throughout Europe.

Its long-term vision is to be a catalyst for the creation of a sustainable and transportable structure where artists, cultural professionals, arts organizations, cultural institutions, governmental bodies, private and commercial businesses, media and the general public, within Europe and beyond, can interact through the development of a new cultural communication format in the public space.

joint broadcasting events from august 7 – september 12. finissage live streaming: october 2. more info here.

via transmediale.

Utopian and radical architects in the 1960s predicted that cities in the future would not only be made of brick and mortar, but also defined by bits and flows of information. The urban dweller would become a nomad who inhabits a space in constant flux, mutating in real time. Their vision has taken on new meaning in an age when information networks rule over many of the city’s functions, and define our experiences as much as the physical infrastructures, while mobile technologies transform our sense of time and of space.

wireless of the world 2 by timo. via touch.

via fashioning technology

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.