ARCHITECTURAL COLLABORATION NETWORK

Call for Entries: Graphic Work: Imaging Today’s Labor Movement

by admin on February 1st, 2007

The American labor movement has an amazing history of graphic
production, creating some of the most effective political images in the
history of this country. However, work and workers, along with the
labor movement, are often depicted as experiences of the American past:
photographs of children in factories in the early 1900’s, paintings of
Joe Hill or Rosa Parks, historic […]

Urban Modular Furniture

by admin on November 12th, 2006

Enzi is a set of 114 identical multifunctional objects developed by Austrian architects PPAG.
The modules can be arranged and rearranged according to the situation or need and may be used for sitting, playing, sleeping or as decorative building blocks. They come in different colors - pink, green and blue.
Enzi was designed to be used at […]

Ian Haig’s brain tumour helmets

by admin on October 26th, 2006

I have to admit that I am a great fan of project about visualizing electromagnetic waves. That’s why I like Ian Haig’s Brain Tumour Helmets with microwave:

Exploreing the impact of microwaves and electromagnetic energy and their role in producing brain tumors as a form of body mutation, as in technologies such as mobile/cell phones. The work also explores the notion of the television as a form of ‘haunted media’. Consisting of two specially designed helmets with infared headphones and a large video and sound installation and an assortment of antennas.

Why do I blog this? I find intriguing this idea of “the head as an antenna”. As Regine reported it “The work addresses the impact of microwave technologies, not in order to highlight the evils of microwave technologies in society, but to engage notions of technology, which is potentially modifying the structure of our bodies, in this case through the brain tumor, as a catalyst of human/machine evolution/devolution“. The project is a bit old but IMO more and more relevant.


Originally
from pasta and vinegar

by Nicolas


reBlogged

by Radoya

on Oct 26, 2006, 3:14PM

IN_TENTION: Emerging Contemporary Performance Art Practices

by admin on October 19th, 2006

stevenlam.png

Steven Lam

IN_TENTION :: October 25-November 4, 2006 :: Tyler Gallery, Elkins Park, PA :: OPENING Thursday, October 26 2006, 7-9 pm.

This exhibition explores emerging contemporary performance art practices, and is curated by the student group Produce. The project will include work by five artists from across the country. A two-week exhibition will present ongoing performances by David Howe (GA) and Steven Lam (NY), and there will be three one-night performances by artists Quentin Davis (PA), Benjamin Kinsley (OH) and Nelson Loskamp (NY). In addition, a panel discussion will be led by philosopher, critic and artist Tom Zummer, and a workshop for students will be offered by Benjamin Kinsley from the Poke Orchestra.”

Steven Lam’s project (in the Main gallery) will consist of an alternating suite of videos and a pirate radio transmission. Pulling from cybernetics/systems theory, apparatus theory, post-modern dance, and historical video art, the project is dialectical in nature; it re-uses discarded clips from an earlier library splicing them with new footage.

For the past few years, Lam has been interested in video as a medium that recodes, archives, and transmits. A new suite of videos will be introduced periodically within the duration of the exhibition. A perpetually evolving archive, the exhibition, ironic and deadpan, will be an experiment for me to toy with “distributional media.” Additionally, Lam will transmit an audio project on a local AM radio band of me reading the entirety of Friedrich Kittler’s “Gramophone, Film, Typewriter.” This will be broadcasted and accessible 24 hours a day during the exhibition. The AM band will be announced shortly.


Originally
from networked_performance

by jo


reBlogged

by Radoya

on Oct 18, 2006, 12:30AM

GPS System to Raise the Confidence in the Ability to Travel

by admin on October 11th, 2006

GPS systems has been used for several years by blinds and visually impaired people to raise their confidence in the ability to travel. Some coin it as “one of the most significant changes to a blind person’s mobility“. GPS complements existing aids. It could never replace a guide dog or white cane. Indeed, GPS can’t help getting around construction or the two-by-four sticking off the back of a truck. However, it fills in the blanks for a blind traveler on what they can find in an unfamiliar town. An example is Humanware’s Trekker. Input is done with an integrated tactile keyboard. Directions are given by a synthetic voice. Audio output was a design challenge, because blind people use their hearing to pick up subtle environmental sounds, and they also use high frequencies to detect surfaces (echolocation). A video of the Trekker is available here.

Update: Technology review has an article on Georgia Tech’s System for Wearable Audio Navigation (SWAN). (via Anthony Townsend)

Relation to my thesis: It seems that a navigation system, more than delivering directions, provide confidence to their users (not exclusively blind people) in unfamiliar environments. Humans use “echolocation” to detect their environment.