[new-context-likeOne]

Diane Thomas

Because art always allows a multitude of contexts, I believe it must be symbiotic with computing and technology, else we may leave behind a profound conduit to something essentially human--communication with the self.

http://www.dcthomas.net/Diagram.html

Classes

Networked Objects, Programming from A to Z, Final Project Seminar

Keywords

cognition, cognitive, art, java, physical computing

Description

Will technology simplify and connect our experience to the extent that our cognitive process truly mirrors computing?

I mean to impress that art is necessary, and a worthwhile outcome from computational and technological work-- that it is important to use technology in abstract context to subvert the the paradigm of modular cognition.

LikeOne was inspired from Psalm 22:14-- passage I read over 20 years ago. To me, it has always been an exquisite expression of amalgamation, rather then a cry of pain.
The physical piece is a response to my thesis; my thesis is a call to designers to leave gaps-- to make and allow New-Context.

Personal Statement

Before coming to ITP, I had recently completed an independent study in cognitive experience in built environment. I was keenly interested in how people recognized others and themselves in public spaces. I did a lot of reading about cognitive theory.
But now reading cognitive theory, after 2 years at ITP with some understanding of programming languages, I found a context in those papers I hadn’t understood before... I was stuck by coincidences in the writing.

Background



Audience

Any one willing to notice.

User Scenario

Over time, a brain cast from bees wax melts. the wax drips and flows (depending on heat from the element)into a hollow plastic heart beneath it. The heart sits on a contrasting wax pillow, eventually, the heart overflows onto the pillow. The project can be re-made, titles will be "Like One" (for the 1st) Like Two (the second), etc.
I would like the piece to be noticed now and then so that the change is apparent.

Implementation

Using the Lantronix XPort, a socket is opened through a java script that sits on the NYU server. The script runs a spider, or scraper program that parses the web for the word "like". Whenever a web page is found to contain the word "like", the number of instances from that page is modulated by 4 to return a value between 0 and 3. That value is sent back to the XPort and out to the micro-controller which engages a homemade linear actuator and turns on the heating element. The process should take about five hours.

Conclusion

heating elements are easy to break.
linear activators are hard to make.

Additional Documents