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Katherine Dillon

Ecstatic Computation

Michael Allison

Ecstatic Computation is the union between human and machine (when thought becomes bit) explored through a mythopoetic lens that includes virtual reality rituals, mystical infographics and other computation related artifacts.

Description

As I become a cyborg though corporeal and mental appropriations of computational tools, what then of my metaphysical relationship to these new "bodily" members?

Through my research I've encountered many religious, spiritual and scientific practices that seek to make sense of the relationships between our minds, bodies, spirits and the universe. Some practices contain the notion of ecstasy, which in existential terms means to achieve a state of being outside of one's self. Using virtual reality, my project explores the moment of Ecstatic Computation: the merging of consciousness and quantum energy in the physio-chemical registration of state within the computer's memory. The moment when thought becomes bit and electrons become ideas.

Kathy Wilson

Networked Dinner

Michael Milazzo

Networked Dinner is a TV Dinner re-invented for the twenty-first century. It provides an opportunity for users to produce a meal from start to finish, soil to table, with everything they need in one convenient, non-industrial box.

Description

Networked Dinner is a new kind of meal-in-a-box that can be used in the home of a user. When they open the box, which is branded with a satirical twist on the design of the original TV dinner, they'll find a "tray" that looks similar to a traditional TV dinner. In the place of a pre-cooked meal they'll find nursery pods holding a protein, starch and vegetable. The laser-cut tray will be assembled into a planter, to which they'll add soil, their seedlings and water. Over the course of the growing period, they'll monitor their meal's status with the help of a detailed guide that is customized to fit the crops that are included. When the crops are ready, users will harvest and prepare their meal, to be enjoyed in the company of loved ones.

Nancy Hechinger

The Interactive Lamp

Marlon Evans

The ability of having light anywhere in your room without having the footprint of a lamp.

Description

The lighting fixture is mounted in the center of the ceiling, protruding from the round diameter is a square telescopic tube with a light at the end. It moves anywhere in the room over head and is controlled by a user's commands. It will be used primarily in small apartments, offices or rooms where the need for space is an issue. The lamp turns 360 degrees and extends to the furthest part of the room. The lamp comes in bold colors that contrasts with the ceiling it is installed on, making it visible in a room. I foresee anyone that appreciates beautiful products using the lamp.

Gabe Barcia-Colombo

Jewliebots: open-source programmable jewelry

Maria Paula Saba

Jewliebots introduce software education to teenaged girls in a way that is appealing to them. It is a set of neat jewelry and wearables that girls can program to change their appearance and behavior while they seamlessly learn programming.

Description

Jewliebots is an open source library of wearables that allows users to customize their own electronic jewelry through a graphical interface. The main goal is to engage and increase teenaged girls' interest in the workings of technology by showing them that programming can be also beautiful.
Jewliebots is fashionable and attractive for the target group of 13+. The hardware include LEDs, buttons and sensors that might significantly change aesthetics of the jewel according to the code. The jewel can be customized by generating the algorithms through a block-programming style language, like Scratch, that should be uploaded to the jewel. Circuits are embedded in 3D printed cases, baked polymer clay and laser-cut parts.
http://jewliebots.com

Gabe Barcia-Colombo

Google Made Me Do It

Mary Fê

My goal was to create an alternative way of PLAYING (as in actor play and as in game play) in an immersive live editable performance, where audience and performer could interact and interfere on the outcomes in real time at a collective space.

Description

I combined new media and improv elements to find the interactive mechanics of live scene story telling. If we can navigate through different content online and discover new approaches on information, would an audience be able to modify live plots as well by using search engines?
Google Made Me Do It was performed at The Silent Barn on April of 2014.
Voice Search Hot Word engine listened to shouts from the audience (a tradition on improv) to jump start scenes. Professional actors on stage could signal for audience help at any moment by wheeling an umbrella as in a frozen computer monitor. Shouts of Ok Google triggered word search during the scenes to flip plots. Who should we point for the results? Google made us do it!

Katherine Dillon

Visual Sound Synthesis

Louise Foo

Visual Sound Synthesis is a series of image-sound explorations of the meeting between graphic design and a program that turns the iPhone camera into an optical synthesizer that plays what it sees.

visualsoundsynthesis.com

Description

With roots in research about historical optical sound devices like the ANS synthesizer, Oramics, Sound-On-Film techniques and the Pattern Playback Synthesizer I asked myself – how can I experience this image-sound translation myself today with the technology available to me? and how can I share this with others? Through a process of programming, interface prototype design, listening to images and looking at sounds and finally through collaboration with a graphic designer – the final outcome is a series of 'scores' played back by the viewer with the camera in the iPhone. The installation of those 'scores' explore how in many ways the visual and audible senses are related, but not necessarily synchronized.

Kathy Wilson

Gowanus Creek Nature Hike

Katie Adee

A mobile web app for identifying, cataloging, and mapping the flora of the Gowanus Canal Area. By looking at current species, we can begin to imagine the future Gowanus as an ecosystem, not just an environmental disaster or real estate investment.

http://gowanusflora.herokuapp.com/

Description

Gowanus Creek Nature Hike is a web tool for scientists, students, and Gowanus enthusiasts to explore the species that have managed to survive and thrive near our local Superfund Site, the Gowanus canal. A user spots a tree, answers a few questions about its appearance, and is presented with a catalog of possible species, including hand-drawn images and interesting facts. Once a species has been identified, a user can report the plant type and location. This data is then presented as a web map, catalog, and as a GeoJSON API for others to explore or use in their own research and artistic ventures. Participation in the reporting process will hopefully increase knowledge and awareness of one's natural surroundings.

Heather Greer

CARDIO

Kang-Ting Peng

Quantify your heartbeat. Display it on the road.

Description

"CARDIO" is a pulse detector on the steering wheel in your car to measure the driver's heartbeat. After receiving and quantifying the driver's heartbeat information, "CARDIO" sends the information to the LED strips mounted outside the car. By syncing the person and the machine, "CARDIO" makes the car a way to communicate on the road. "CARDIO" is a tool for quantifying the driver's emotions and assists other drivers in detecting situations such as road rage. In this way, "CARDIO" attempts to connect drivers and road users in a more personal visual way.

Katherine Dillon

New Circuits for Dancing with Light

Justin Lange

A study of the history of objects that extend human limbs in dance, their problematic LED corollaries in contemporary EDM ("electronic dance music") culture, and the creation of a new Light Instrument that affords dancers artistic choice.

Description

LEDs wands, poi, hoops and other "light-up" instruments and toys constitute a desired aesthetic in EDM culture, but as tools for individual movement-based expression, they are no more expressive than a flashlight. Most LED devices have only two states ("on" or "off"), or offer preprogramed sequences. Several state-of-the art POV ("persistence of vision") devices allow custom images to be uploaded, but none allow immediate control over LEDs' expressive potential, such as luminance or hue. To encourage light dancing that is not simply pretty but also expressive, I created a new hand-held kinetic instrument with onboard sensors and controls that allow dancers to spontaneously generate and display novel light patterns while dancing.

Kathy Wilson

Hello Rabbit!

Ju Young Park

"Hello Rabbit!" is an interactive storytelling book for children, aged from 6 to 8, to play with programming logic. My purpose of thesis is to let every future citizen know programming by learning computer science logic at early age.

Description

"Hello Rabbit!" is an ipad book application for children, aged from 6 to 8. It is an animated interactive book that allows young users to play and learn with computer science logic including mathematics concepts such as x and y variables, if-else statements, loops, and etc. This app is designed to let users control and alter animated illustrations of the book by simply putting computer science logic inside the story. For instance, animation of a rabbit jumping once can be changed to jumping infinite times by embedding 'conditional statements' inside the story. The purpose of this activity is to create user experience with programming logic at early age, so that younger generations can grow up as future computer scientists.