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Complication of the Computer Mouse

Emma Norton

Complication of the Computer Mouse is a lecture that unpacks the shifts in computation and how gender is enacted through computation by exploring the history of the computer mouse as an object.

https://spaghettimeatballsbecomereallyfrightening.online/the-computer-mouse

Description

This project is a lecture in which I will present months worth of research through written word and visuals. What you see in the video is a sample of the lecture with the slides. I would like to argue that the invention of the computer mouse helped to shift perceptions of computation and how gender is enacted through computation. I believe the mouse to be powerful in its potential to reroute perceptions and create new meaning. The mouse can also be seen as a site of contradictions within the history of computing. I would like to leverage these contradictions in order to complicate its history so that I can retell its story while it’s still here and still ubiquitous. Since the early days of computing, there has been a shift from being “close to the metal” to coding software within and for software. From women as programmers to women as typists. From men as mouse users to men as programmers. Are programmers not just glorified typists? Perhaps, these shifts can be unpacked through a deep understanding of the mouse as an object. The 1968 invention of the mouse by Doug Engelbart did not appear in tandem with the technologies before it. Instead, it interrupted them. In step with theorist Sadie Plant, I see the mouse as unlike its techno-phallic predecessors, the joystick and the light gun. It is not deterministic in its shape. Rather, it is a shape that responds to your body. You do not hold it, but it holds you. From the keyboard. From the cyclical command and response of you to your computer. To move your hand onto the mouse, and then, off of it, and then onto it, again. Those seconds in between hold you. They are about your body and how your body sits in this world not the world you imagine in your screen.

Classes

Project Development Studio

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High School Party Simulator for Home Schooled Boys

Lisha Payne

A VR high school party simulator for home school boys (360-degree video) with themed booth installation.

N/A

Description

This is my final for Immersive Experiences. It is a 7-minute short 360 video shot with Ricoh Theta V. It's a comedy sketch written with my roommate and comedian, Martin Herlihy (Please Don't Destroy).

The video premise is that you have performed well in school, and now get to experience a high school party for the first time.

We might reedit/reshoot an alternate ending so that it ends with a temper tantrum instead.

Classes

Immersive Experiences (UG)

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Corpus Phallosum

August Luhrs

Corpus Phallosum is an interactive installation where 144 transparent dildos lit from within by LEDs act as switches that trigger different animations, sounds, and other functions. The default mode is as a MIDI piano with rippling animations, but to see what mode it's currently in, press one and find out!

https://augustluhrs.art/corpus-phallosum-ss/springshow

Description

Corpus Phallosum is an ongoing project I’m developing currently for the ITP Spring Show. After that, another iteration is going up at FIGMENT NYC on Roosevelt Island the first weekend of June, and the final iteration is an officially registered art installation at Burning Man 2019, where it will grace Deep Playa for over a week.

The core installation element is a wall with 144 transparent dildos lit from within by LEDs. Each dildo is a switch that, when pressed down, triggers an animation and sound, depending on the mode it’s in. The main mode when idling is a giant MIDI piano, where each dildo press signals a different note.

The current system uses a keypad/multiplexer type input sending signal to an arduino MEGA. The arduino sends the current presses to a raspi running processing, which controls the A/V elements.

I'm hoping to redesign the system this summer to become a modular/scalable (hoping for 4x as many LEDildos) setup that is more mechanically and electronically robust and better suited to the harsh environment of the desert, so if you have any ideas, please let me know!

Classes

Big LEDs, Collective Play

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Stonewall50: A Historical Look at the Washington Square Park Arch

Ryan Grippi

The Washington Square Park Arch was originally built to commemorate this country's founding fathers on the Centennial Anniversary of Washington's Inauguration. What better way to commemorate the founding mothers and fathers of the LGBT Civil Rights movement than to redecorate the arch for their own half-centennial anniversary.

https://

Description

This Projection Mapping on a scale size brings to life the past 50 years of queer history that has happened around the Washington Square Park Arch.

It is a symbol that has been there through it all: from the early marches to STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), the rise of ACT UP, the birth of voguing, the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, the loss of Pulse nightclub, the current discrimination against transgender men and women, and now the 50th Anniversary of that iconic summer night when queer people of all kinds fought back against a society that would not accept them.

Classes

100 Days of Making, Video Sculpture

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The Tuning House

Camilla Padgitt-Coles

“The Tuning House” is a voice-activated light and sound installation where you use your voice to choose a color and sound palette. The frequency of the participant’s voice is translated into a synthesized pitch and color, creating a personalized expression of chromo-synesthesia. Isolating color and sound pairings in this way highlights a simplified and subjective relationship between frequencies which are present all around us.

http://ivymeadows.net/the-tuning-house

Description

The idea behind this project is to customize sounds and related colors using something personal to the participant as an input. For this installation, the personalized input is the voice. It encourages humming, toning and actively using the voice to customize pitches and related colors. As the participant's voice is synthesized into minimalist color, light, and sonic tones, a feedback loop is created that can continue or be frozen to create a chord or meditative drone. This interaction can create joy out of thin air and/or quieten the mind and thoughts depending on the way the participant chooses to interact with it.

Classes

Thesis

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Sonic Cubes

Ada Jiang

A random music generation system that involves motion and spatial arrangement of 6 cubes

https://

Description

A random music generation system that involves motion and spatial arrangement of 6 cubes that trigger and manipulate sound in multichannel speaker setup

Classes

Sound in Space

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Crater Creater

Chenyu Sun, Carol Chen, Kexin Lin

Crater Creator is an interactive game designed for the American Museum of Natural History's Space Fest to educate people about moon craters in a fun way.

www.mooncrater.space

Description

Players can access the game by going to www.mooncrater.space, follow the instructions on the screen to create an impactor (comet or asteroid) and shoot it to the Moon on the big screen. The installation was intended for Space Fest, a celebration of the 70th anniversary of moon landing. Multiple players can stand in front of the screen that shows a simulation of a moon-like object in space, and go to the url on their own mobile devices to shoot asteroids at the moon. After shooting, they will see information about the craters they created on their own devices.

Classes

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Human Body as a Machine

Julia Rich

A disembodied heart that beats for you

https://

Description

As you move closer to the programmable air powered silicone heart, it beats faster as if it has a crush on you. It is a part of a larger experiment in integrating motors and sensors into my prosthetics work. My final steps with this project are to finish the stand in which it sits.

Classes

Project Development Studio

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bioplastic

Olivia Kung

An exploration of bioplastics and an unconventional application.

https://oliviakung.com/spring2019blog/wearables14

Description

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I made several pieces of bioplastic using gelatin, water, glycerin, food coloring, and activated charcoal. Using the bioplastic, I also made several copies of a small left hand using an existing mold. This is a small temporary installation using temporary materials.

Classes

Intro to Wearables

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Slow numbers

Nicolas Sanin

An automatic “artist machine” that rolls dice and creates a digital painting that visualizes the results of the continuous dice rolling.

http://www.nicosanin.co/category/thesis-slow-numbers/

Description

As part of my thesis project, this is an installation that consists of an automatic dice roller that rolls dice by triggering reggaeton sounds, shaking a container attached to the speaker, making the dice dance. Then it captures the result using a computer vision system, stores the dice result sequence, and also creates a “digital painting” with the resulting numbers. The viewers can also see the number of times the dice has resulted in each of the six numbers, and compare these numbers to the visual result on the projection.

Classes

Thesis