Monthly Archives: September 2012

Coming of Age in the Milky Way – by Timothy Ferris

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In this book, Ferris takes us on the journey of astronomical thinking: Aristotle’s geocentric approach, the ptolemaic model, Newton’s laws of motion, Eisntein’s revolutionary e=mc2, Hubble Space Telescope, etc. Every chapter helps us understand that, as scientists develop their approaches, every small scientific step is but one giant leap for mankind.

Ferris explains us thinkers had to distance themselves from the perfectionist approach of Plato to go towards confronting ideas to facts and reality. Discovering the Earth is a sphere or understanding the distance between the Sun and the center of the Milky Way is done by the combination of two things: observation and concrete experimentation. This is where the book gets really interesting. We discover so many wrong ideas that dictated science until someone could prove by experimentation they were misleading. The main way to prove so is by using and developing technology. Thus, the book does more than only drawing the map of men’s knowledge on the skies. It is a book on how humans have always built themselves technical frames of thought to understand the world and deal with their own fragility.

Technology is the lens humans have always used to try to make sense of who they are and why they are here. Scientists have spent years developing telescopes lenses or mercury thermometers before they could use them to read reality properly and make sense with it. Until recently in history, humans were using technology mainly to try to understand the celestial word and nature. Nowadays, technology is not only used by scientists, it forms the daily framework of the majority of us. Almost every gesture we make now depends on it. In between the stars and us, it feels like there is now a meta reality that has been constructed with technology. We humans have now created a virtual interconnected celestial world and it is through this world we are now trying to live our lives. Is technology still helping us to comprehend reality or has it built a reality of its own? Ferris books does a great job at explaining how technology has helped us understand nature. But does technology still do so? Or is it bringing us further from it? I do not understand the mechanics of the universe, but I really appreciate I can navigate it though. Where is technology leading us to?

Defining physical interaction

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Physical interaction happens during a shared moment of a minimum of two actors (humans, animals, computers, etc.). They are related by conscious or unconscious intentions of gesture/action that create a context in which the sum of the actions and intentions builds an active relationship between them. The nature of the physical interaction can vary depending on the level of complexity of the intentions and of the possibilities of results that can emerge from the active relationship in between the two actors.

Crawford’s example of the refrigerator light is a good one. Opening the refrigerator door is interactive but at a very low level because the possibilities of results generated by the interaction moment are very limited.

I like to think physical interaction an ergonomics of space and time in motion. Ergonomics is an applied science that helps build equipment and devices that fit the human body and enhance its capacities. Physical interaction is the complementary side of ergonomics: it describes the gestures and interactions with something, the actor. The design physical interaction we need to consider various things:

  • Analyse the nature of the interacting actors: are they humans, animals, computers?;
  • Identify the intention of the gestures involved in the physical interaction: what is the interactive “story” that is being told?;
  • Identify the different steps and actions that can be accomplish by each of the various actors involved;
  • Compare and identify all the possibilities of interaction and results that can be generated by the physical interaction moment.
A good physical interaction is thus:
  • clear and obvious: the actors consciously or unconsciously understand they are interacting with each other;
  • fluid: the physical interaction actions are sequenced in a natural way for the actors. The actions uses the actors’ respective capacities;
  • creative: the physical interaction creates a result.

There are plenty of digital technologies that are not interactive. Most of them produced by the advertisement industry. For example, the Time Square ad screens. The technology they use totally changes the environment actors evolve in, but without any interaction possible.

Applications – September 9/11

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Some details on the speakers of the September 11th class:

Fred Wilson invests in networks that transforms industries. On the Board of NYU. 

Joanne Wilson does not invest in ideas and only once it gets moving forward. When we know where the company is going (35% in food).
Food52
Window Farms
everpurse
new media, other things. On the Board of the Highline.
Non profit organisations in education.

It is all about in the person. Strength. Ability to convince. You have to believe in them. Product-centered person. Salesmanship combined with product interest.
Formula: 25k to 50K. Expect at own 1%. Side letter she will continue to be able to invest. Crowd funding is a key component to show if the business is viable.

On the Basics of Sound Recording

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Here are some important things to know/remember concerning audio recording:

Audacity:

  • save the project first. If not the files are saved at an obscure place on your hardrive
  • All the changes are destructive
  • it unifies the language of digital instruments
  • we can use midi as a controller
Garage Band:
  • take audio and midi tracks and combine them together

General:

On Piracy and real pirates – Response Week #1

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Boom. Beck did it.
Did what? The best thing that happened to the music industry since the invention of Internet. By publishing his next album only on music sheets, Beck is giving the industry majors the blow Web 2.0 had to give them one day. Anyone can preorder the album sheets and start working on their own interpretation of the artist’s compositions as from today (months before the release – of shows only). Although the idea of using and selling music sheets as the main materialization of a musical composition has been used for a long time, it gains a different meaning in our interconnected era.

The democratization of media tools (cameras, microphones, recording softwares, etc.) combined with the social potentialities of the Web 2.0, transform Beck’s idea into something revolutionary: using the social networks to enhance the everlasting desire of humans to reinterpret their own way a piece of art and make sense with it. Instead of considering the reuse/reinterpretation of his art as piracy, Beck invites his fans and any musicians to do it. The act of using his art IS part of his creative process. To hear Beck, go see his concert. In the meantime, enjoy the global online and archived concert made by his fans.

I agree with Jonathan Lethem when he says that after an idea has been expressed in an art piece, the reaction of the public cannot be controlled. Most of the time, the rights owners who want – and can – track down copyrights pirates are companies or rich people.
Paradoxically, I also agree with Susan Meiselas when she explains she would like her work to be clearly identified when used as a creative source by someone else. She comes from the documentary perspective and wants to make sure the social context in which she produced the image is understood. She did not want money. She wanted respect for a human struggle.

This means, the way we interpret the concepts of piracy and rights is complex because “copyright is an ongoing social negotiation, tenuously forged, endlessly revised, and imperfect in its every incarnation“. As long as there will be a legal framework shaping the way acts of creation and reinterpretation will exists, there will be conflits. (For an overview of those particular to our era, I recommend this great film by Brett Gaylor: RIP! A Remix Manifesto. Free to watch online, of course.).

For a long time, the industry has been considering the laws as the Truth. When confronted to the law, any act that does not fit into the framework is considered as piracy. But in the era of interconnection and self media, it is now time to assume that the act IS the the framework. That every tool, invention, gear, art, reinterpretation is in fact a response to made within a context, a response to a possibiity. In our case, acts by humans having acces to infinite content from a free worldwide database that runs 24/7.

Reinterpretations, resuses are gesture made by humans in response to the shape of their environment. Controlling those creative acts by imposing Dos and Dont’s does not make sense. Take the laws out of the equation and let people behave. Their Will to exist and express themselves leads to new forms of communication and storytelling (and fun), all of them originally unoriginal. It is on those that we have to shape the industry, not the other way round. (Although everyone unconsciously obeying the copyright framework every time they retweet and share via someone on social platforms which are still based on this concept. It is so important to make sure everyone knows we are intelligent enough to know where we can find the great ideas we do not have ourselves.)

In the meantime, if you happen to be here, and need help, call here.

Interactive photography project

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MARKET FLOWERS
An Interactive Photography Project – ISSP 2010 – Workshop “A Sense Of Place” with Peter Bialobrzeski

The Project
Markets are like ephemeral flowers opening in the morning and closing at night. Behind every closed door, there are colorful realities to discover. Each of the photocollages have been created using more than 45 images from the Ludza market. When opening the doors of every market houses, the vewer opens the shop and see what it looks like when its items are displayed during the market opening hours.

The Workshop: A Sense of Place
The workshop looked at the possibilities of creating a sens of a place, and explored the ability of the photographer to capture the mood of a space or the sense of a person. The question of the truth was integral part of the debate in the workshop – the extended possibilities of the modern digital image making, and the way it changes our perception of a photograph. Participants created projects on their personal perspective of a chosen place in the vicinity of Ludza. The teacher of the worlshop was Peter Bialobrzeski