Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Videos from Mike Wesch & Students
Before class on Thursday, March 27, please view these videos by cultural anthropology professor Mike Wesch and students of the Digital Ethnography program at KSU.
Welcome to "Cultures of EDP," Spring 2014
Welcome to our class blog! I'm posting some material here that I refer to in our class introduction. Please feel free to comment or ask questions in the space provided.
"Spongebob Squarepants 300"
Grumpy Cat & President Obama Memes
Here is the link to the class website with calendar, assignments, and links to other resources:
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Stranger Visions: Portraits of the Anonymous
As the technological and scientific world
have been rapidly developing and the tools and technologies that are now
available to us have immense capabilities, the mediums and possibilities for
artists are practically limitless. We live in an age where the art world is not
bound to the classical mediums of the past and can be seen utilizing the many
technologies available in the modern world. Heather Dewey-Hagborg project Stranger
Visions is an outstanding example of this.
It all began with a random hair stuck in
the wall that provoked the artist to wonder whom the face behind the hair was.
With no prior experience with biology or genetics Dewey-Hagborg got inventive
and came up with a proposal, which she presented to various residency and grant
programs, eventually landing her a gig with Eyebeam. She didn’t end up
finishing the project with Eyebeam, however they gave Heather all the necessary
training to start the project she had long envisioned.
The project was made possible by 3d
modeling software. The software, later created out of the bio lab Genspace, was
based off the facial recognition algorithms Heather Dewey-Hagborg and others
came up with from Eyebeam. The software analyzes sequences DNA and further
breaks down the DNA to find areas responsible for specific traits. Isolating
these areas and recreating them, Dewey-Hagborg is able to create hypothetical
reconstructions of the original proprietors of the DNA she collects.
So whom does Heather exactly decide to
create? Besides all the technical and scientific aspects of the project, the
creative element is really tied in with who Heather Dewey-Hagborg decided to
recreate, strangers; hence the project’s name Stranger Visions. By
turning to public places such as bus stops, restrooms, therapist’s office,
etc., the identity of some of the collected DNA remains entirely unknown.
However she did recreate herself. The results ended up being remarkably spot
on.
Although the Stranger Visions
project started as a clever idea, the possibilities opened from this project
and from the 3D modeling software that Dewey-Hagborg and the biologists at
Genspace, open up immense possibilities. Imagine how such a technology would
benefit the world of criminal justice, or the benefits this technology would
present to historians and so on. Softwares with these capabilities mark a
tremendous accomplishment in the modern world.
The problem arises culturally when we
have to decide how much credit to give to this technology. For example when
does the technology become more trusted upon than the person? We tend to over
credit artificial intelligence when there are faults and choices made by the
artists and forensic biologist when shaping the models. I believe as this
technology further develops, diplomatic problems will arise on the
accreditation of artificial intelligence in our society.
Stranger Visions started as a clever idea, and was
executed as a successful art project. The project stirs the viewer’s curiosity
of the faces behind the DNA strangers leave behind in our public spaces during
their daily routines. The project marks a contemporary development landmark
with the software development and algorithms that Heather Dewey- Hagborg
created during the project. Time will tell how this technology develops in the
future.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Sounds of Mission Control
The International Space Orchestra
is a part of a project called “Ground Control” started by French artist Nelly
Ben Hayoun. According to the
article published on the Creators Project website Ben Hayoun is known as an
experience designer. She is very much so equally enthusiastic about sound and
outer space and decided it was time to merge the two together in an authentic
way. Now based in Silicon Valley,
CA, home of the NASA Ames Research Center, she approached several members of
NASA about grabbing a noisemaker and re-creating the sounds heard in mission
control during various space missions.
This collective of scientists and NASA personnel, now turned “kling-klangers”,
have formed together as the International Space Orchestra with a mission of
playing purely for that which dwells in the cosmos.
The
notion of playing purely “for space” and not for humans has been going on
strongly before the International Space Orchestra. In the world of popular culture, experimental music
innovator Sun Ra had been doing this since he first let the hammer down on a
piano string. Although there is no
doubt that Sun Ra and his Arkestra were truly beaming sonic madness off of this
planet, from a scientific and physical perspective their message hadn’t truly
gone into orbit just yet. The
original idea for the ISO was to merge science and sound together to produce
something incredibly original.
Therefore, it made perfect sense to grab individuals who had a few tales
involving dealing with the outside world.
In addition to the NASA crew, Ben Hayoun snatched some unbelievably
creative, and cool musicians such as Damon Albarn from the British group Blur,
and more recently known as the mastermind behind the one-man project known as
the Gorillaz. Albarn definitely
seemed qualified, and someone who worked in a frame of mind perfectly
paralleling Ben Hayoun’s space crusade.
The group recorded a performance at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in
September and plan on having that recording translated into an Arecibo message
and sent to a satellite to tickle the aural senses of the vast, dark
universe.
The
International Space Orchestra Nelly Ben Hayoun has put together is strikingly
penetrative both technically and culturally. It is interesting to put an outlet such as sound generation
into the hands of the scientifically savvy folks over at NASA and
incomprehensible to think about where they could send those sound waves. There are many distinct and wonderful
sounds planet earth has to offer that could quite convincingly make a perfect
marriage with whatever sonic attributes the universe has to offer. Sound is the perfect medium to use as a
test subject for wide-bandwidth communication between humans and the mysterious
beings to the left, right, below and above us. There must be great level of enthusiasm not only from Ben
Hayoun, but also from anyone who is interested in sound, music, extraterrestrial
messages, and the cosmos. Many
times those interests occupy the same individual and there is no doubt that the
International Space Orchestra is a giant step towards the primal goal of one
day exhibiting and discovering rock n’ roll in outer space.
The Real Life Mario Kart
When you enter
what game designers call the “magic circle” you enter the world and abide by
the rules and procedures of the game.
Waterloo expanded the circle to include a real life track with
power-ups. The power-ups and go-karts were controlled by compact RIO (cRIO)
that receives the signals from the items and makes the according adjustments to
the control of the car. The items work
with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology; the items hold a
specific signal that activates a reaction when in the vicinity of a
go-kart. All the karts were connected
wirelessly via a router. Every kart’s
router was connected to a central wireless router, which held the variables
that each kart could use to share their information. The system was run on LabView, a graphical
programming language that allowed them to have one code for the acquisition of
signal on the go-kart and one for the running of the items on the main pc. They used this system to create a greater
game framework that puts the player in the “magic circle”.
The
jump that waterloo made was a demonstration of the advancement of augmented
reality over the past 10 years. The
technology needed and the ingenuity required to create a game in the real world
gives only a select few who could get the funding and the tools needed to
create the game. As such there aren’t
very many well-designed real-life games.
People on the Internet dream of bringing their favorite games into the
real world, such as the Internet sensation FreddieW who specializes in live
action videos. Many of his videos focus
on the world of gaming. One such video is
a creation of how Mario Kart would play out in the real world. Waterloo took this innovative to a new level
and made a working game. They broke
the boundaries because they adapted and used the technology that we have today.
Mario
Kart in real life is a massive technological innovation. Technology has seen exponential growth over
the past 30 years. In the 70’s the
government or companies mostly used computers.
In the late 70’s companies began to push the idea of a “home
computer”. Home computers began to sell
in the 80’s and were very limited in what they could do. Jump to the early 90’s and computers were
more advanced where they were able to run CD-ROMs (introduced in 85). Now in 2013 we are able to have small
handheld computer in our pockets. Video
games have evolved a long way from simple games on a computer to large
strategic games on new consoles. Home
systems were created and new ways of involvement in the games were created like
wireless and motion control. Now the
next step in innovation has come, bringing games to the real world where
players can interact with the game on a physical level. Yet there are some psychological and social
impacts we must consider. Referencing
the recent movie Gamer (a movie where
the characters are humans in real life that die), what is the next step for
first person shooters and other games with killing? Gamer
poses a problem that could occur in our society that may impact us
psychologically. Where will we draw the
line on human involvement? We as a
society will have to face this problem in the near future.
http://thecreatorsproject.com/blog/real-life-imario-karti-with-rfid-tagged-power-ups
http://thecreatorsproject.com/blog/real-life-imario-karti-with-rfid-tagged-power-ups
Global Twitter Heartbeat
Global
Twitter Heartbeat reflects the location of sentiments that are sent out via
Twitter during two specific timeframes: the 2012 US Presidential Election and
the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. While the project is not the first to offer a
map of what we are doing in the “Twitterverse” at any given point in time, it
is the first visualization that combines population, color tone, and geographic
analytics to create an animated heat map. Researchers Kalev H. Leetaru and
Shaowen Wang based at the University of Illinois use the SGI UV 2000 Big Brain
supercomputer at to power the project. According to a press release from SGI in
Hamburg, Germany on June 18, 2012, “the new design creates a level of
accessibility to large coherent memory systems for researchers while enabling
users to find answers to the world’s most difficult problems on a system as
easy to administer as a workstation.”
During
the Hurricane Sandy Tweetbeat, the colors on the map are representative of the
way Twitter users were feeling, according to the tweets that were posted. The
color red was representative of a more negative sentiment, whereas the color
blue represented of a more positive sentiment. Every tweet is therefore
analyzed to assign location in the processing of the text itself. In the case
of the presidential election however, blue represented pro-Barack Obama tweets
and red for pro-Mitt Romney tweets. In a video that captures the election
through Tweetbeat it must be recognized how much blue appears on the US map
when Obama gives his victory speech. It is apparent that these maps are not
telling us anything that we didn’t know (Obama won the election and people were
concerned about Sandy…so what?). What then is the point of this project then,
when “the world’s largest data-mining machine” can be doing other productive
projects like “ingesting the entire contents of the U.S. Library of Congress
print collection in less than three seconds?”
This
new technology allows for us to peer into the heartbeat of our society that
revolves around social media and sharing. With this new “telescope,” it is
expected that it will be used for other informational needs, especially
advertising. With the ability to collect a general consensus on most topics on
Twitter, we will not only have access to our own country’s ideas, but others as
well. The development of Twitter was initially intended for media users to
“follow” everything from news to specific individuals who are found to be the
most compelling and interesting. It later grew to become a way of advertising
and promoting for businesses towards their followers. One can see photos,
videos, and full on conversations and is thus exposed to news within seconds.
With just a simple Tweet, millions of people are notified when a major event
has occurred in one area of the country, however it is a lot more personal than
hearing it from the news. The Global Twitter Heartbeat project demonstrated how
scientists, and eventually marketers, can use high performance computers to
track real-time unstructured data.
Popkin, Helen. "Supercomputer Uses Twitter to Tell How
You're Feeling." Technology on
NBCNews.com. NBC News, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/supercomputer-uses-twitter-tell-how-youre-feeling-1C7073314>.
Monday, February 4, 2013
ComputerPAINT!
Is finger-painting truly an
art form? What about digital finger-painting? Microsoft’s ‘Paint’ application
stands alone as one of the first artifacts for creating such digital canvas
works. Artist Michael Manning first began implementing such a practice into an
ongoing piece entitled “Microsoft Store Paintings”, which exist online only,
for any computer user to view. The work utilizes the current version of the
software on the newly released Windows 8, which introduced a more versatile and
dynamic version of the software, with more creative abilities and room for
artistic exploration/expression. These paintings represent a contemporary
development in the public conception of ‘fine art’ as well as how art is ‘intended’
to be viewed. Manning does not physically own any such device, and instead uses
the new ‘Fresh Paint’ application and a Microsoft touchscreen, all housed
within the physical Microsoft retail store. These works are then uploaded via
social media outlets and Manning’s website, enabling an instant and almost
‘art-world’ incompatible representation of works of ‘high art’.
Instead of
forcing viewers into a gallery space, Manning allows the Internet to exist as
his vehicle for the dispersal of his works to the public. This suggests a new
relationship emerging between the corporate defined digital parameters within
software, implementation of such software into the public sphere by such
corporations, and the in-between of users and developers, functioning and
utilizing the software within such a ‘defined’ parameters. Acting as an
involved consumer rather than a passive one, Manning’s use of Microsoft’s Paint
application, technical hardware, and physical business space for creating
digital artworks successfully breaks the mold of both how users interact with
such remedial design programs, as well as how contemporary digital art outlets
are challenging public conceptions of what the internet is used for, how users
interact and function within a digital corporate-defined reality, and
especially how society defines the correct way for exhibiting and viewing
artworks.
Once a single user,
digitally contained and ‘lo-fi’ software, such artworks would never be widely
viewed or understood after completion on a user’s PC. This implementation of
such a tool attempts to push our conceptions of both how artwork is created,
what tools are kosher to use, as well as how it is distributed and consumed
after completion. Manning creates digital representations of physical paintings
utilizing only tools provided by a major corporation, suggesting a play between
the defined ‘creative’ corporate control written in the program and Manning’s
own artistic abilities and understanding of the digital medium provided to him.
Originally conceived and implemented with the first versions of windows, MS
Paint introduced many first time computer users to the idea of painting on a
computer. Not to say there were not such applications before, but many were
designed with professionals in mind rather than for a consumer market. As technology
developed, so did the program and its functionality. Users could originally
paint simple colors on a single page, with only a few options for brushstrokes
and artistic effects. Later developments included many photoshop-esque features
such as artistic brush strokes, alpha layers, 10 undo’s (rather than 3), and
even a grayscale, pushing conceptions of professional/consumer design
practices. Michael Manning was not the first MS Paint artist, but his
implementation of such work via social media, as well as its conception and
creation within the physical Microsoft stores suggest a contemporary
development in a once private and widely under-represented creative practice.
If more users learn Paint, will they eventually also learn Photoshop?
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/jan/24/painting-numbers/
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/jan/24/painting-numbers/
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