We are standing on the brink of a new ubiquitous computing and
communication era, one that will radically transform our corporate,
community, and personal spheres. Over a decade ago, the late Mark
Weiser developed a seminal vision of future technological ubiquity, one
in which the increasing “availability” of processing power would be
accompanied by its decreasing “visibility”.
As he observed, “the most profound technologies are those that disappear…
they weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are
indistinguishable from it”.

Early forms of ubiquitous information and communication networks
are evident in the widespread use of mobile phones: the number of
mobile phones worldwide surpassed 2 billion in mid-2005. These little
gadgets have become an integral and intimate part of everyday life for
many millions of people, even more so than the internet. Today,
developments are rapidly under way to take this phenomenon an important
step further, by embedding short-range mobile transceivers into a wide
array of additional gadgets and everyday items, enabling new forms of
communication between people and things, and between things
themselves.



an elephant RFID location collar



a roach ??

Making art with living systems

The idea of making art with living systems is not new; you might even
consider a garden or a goldfish pond to be biological art. What is new
is the degree of control over biological systems and materials
contemporary technology offers us. Topics on the organism weblog
include technical, practical, aesthetic, and ethical issues related to
making art with living systems. Artists, scientists, engineers,
students, and anyone else with an interest in this area are invited to
contribute.

In this next project the Singing Plant



"a plant is wired up to a theremin, through custom software, triggering
various samples based on the theremin's pitch. sensor system detecting
users approaching the plant and then dimming up a spotlight placed over
the plant."

Plan a Sonic Journey + Share Sounds



SoundTransit is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field
recording and phonography. On this site, you can plan a sonic journey
through various locations recorded around the world, or you can search
the database for specific sounds by different artists from certain
places. If you are a phonographer, you can also contribute your
recordings for others to enjoy. The Creative Commons Attribution
license encourages the sharing and reuse of all sounds on this website.

Phonography is the art of recording sounds from the environment around
us, with an emphasis on the unintentional sounds which often go
unnoticed in our daily lives.

On the "Book" page, users can create a SoundTransit by choosing a
location of departure and arrival, as well as several stopovers along
the way. Based on your selections, an intinerary with details about the
selected sounds and a soundfile are generated, which can be downloaded
as an MP3 or sent to friends.

Random Screen is a mechanical thermo dynamic display which does not
rely on any electricity.

Each of the 12 by 12 cm pixels is built as a seperate module. A tee
candle lights and controls each pixel. The rising heat of the candle
turns a modified beer can which turns the pixel on and off. Each pixel
has its own frequence. The more bright a candle shines the faster is
the rotaion of the can.

Plants that generate their own wind...


machineARIA invites the viewer to contemplate a hybrid ecosystem
natural and artificial of electromechanically modified plants. The
augmented plants contain the source of the wind that sways and caresses
them.

A custom circuit with a PIC microcontroller is connected to five
motors with their propellers and LEDs, each one grafted to the trunk of
a bamboo plant. The motors and LEDs are being turned on and off
sequentially: the resulting motion simulates a delicate wind blow.

In Getting Your Body (And Soul) Wired, Newsweek Magazine reports about
Finger Whisper, a wristwatch-phone that transfers voice signals via
your body:



"In his gadget-filled office at Tokyo Medical and Dental University,
Prof. Kohji Mitsubayashi tells a visitor to touch a transmitter with
one hand and a receiver with another. Voila! A jaunty TV jingle blares
from a pair of attached speakers. Surprised, the visitor releases both
gadgets, and the music stops. The simplicity and strangeness of
becoming a human circuit—with electrical signals coursing through one’s
body from fingertip to fingertip—is so fascinating that visitors
usually repeat the act. “Fun, isn’t it?” says Mitsubayashi, grinning.

Not just fun. Japan is abuzz over the potential of such body-based
technology as the ultimate wireless networking tool. A string of
Japanese companies are experimenting with systems that use the human
body to conduct electricity—some manipulating weak currents that pass
through the skin itself (as body-fat scales do), others taking
advantage of electrical fields on the surface of the body. Associated
products are on the way. The question is whether this represents a
paradigm shift in the way we think about wires."

A video about life among robots.
Directed by 1st Ave Machine.

Print club stickers from Seoul.



What other spaces are adorned by the content they help create?
If you could embed additional information in each of these images what would you want to embed?
as someone coming across these photos what questions would you want answered?
What are the different needs between the user(s), the provider, and the consumer(s) of this information?
If these photos were all digital what would the service/space it look like?

Given that all this can be digital why isn't it?

Are you interested in other peoples/cultures gameing environments? Plenty of video games-related pictures here: http://games.textamerica.com.




I find this of particular interest when considering how other people use and interact with video games, how people sit, what other objects they use, whether they are with friends or solo. The ‘user experience’ is essential when considering immersive environment content.

Check out this work by Erik Sandelin & Magnus Torstensson of unsworn, whom I met whilst participating in the Pixelache Festival last April. they have created what they call a Breather. A solar-powered electronic devicemade from a solar panel, a small circuit, and a speaker. When put into a container and attached to a south-facing wall, it converts solar light into chirping sounds.



Breathers is part of a Desearch and Revelopement programme - that recontextualises technological progress into meaningful artefacts through workshops and interventions on the theme of recycling, reappropriation and de[con]struction, the Breathers project imagines that in the future not only the radio frequencies but also the spectrum of visible light will be available for licensing by private companies.

The Breathers are some kind of sonic grafitti that could be used by free-spectrum activists. By subtly parasiting the private frequencies of the solar spectrum - thus subverting the business model of solar filtering companies - the Breathers articulate a resistance of the commodification of the energy spectrum.

"I've seen a great deal of techno-optimism and even -utopianism around
ubicomp, including a fair amount from people who should know better.
But despite a deep folk understanding of some of the risks involved -
Philip K. Dick was writing stories featuring recalcitrant doors and
dilatory automated taxis in the late 1950s, and we've all heard of
HAL9000 - there hasn't really been much in the way of people pushing
back against the idea of ubicomp, in a measured and knowledgeable way.
And so I've started to make some noise about what I see coming down the
road, describing the reality I see lurking behind the marketing hype
that's already beginning to build about the ostensible "conveniences"
that await us."
-Adam Greenfield interview on Studies and Observations.



Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing by Adam Greenfield:

From the RFID tags now embedded in everything from soda cans to the
family pet, to smart buildings that subtly adapt to the changing flow
of visitors, to gestural interfaces like the ones seen in Minority
Report, computing no longer looks much like it used to. Increasingly
invisible but present everywhere in our lives, it has moved off the
desktop and out into everyday life–affecting almost every one of us,
whether we're entirely aware of it or not.

"Everyware" aims to gives its reader the tools to understand the next
computing, and make the kind of wise decisions that will shape its
emergence in ways that support the best that is in us.

Cuckoo IP is a voice messaging system. The clock's answer phone can be dialled from mobile or landline. Leave a voice message, select a time for the delivery of it. At that time, the cuckoo will emerge from the clock and broadcast your message.

The device uses networking protocols to communicate with a server. Every minute, the clock asks the server if there's any message for that time-slot and request the sound file.



created by the artist Tobie Kerridge

Bluring the Boundary Between Gaming and Reality

"At the same time as people are diving into game worlds, the games are starting to invade the real world. You're moving through the streets of Melbourne stalking your quarry. A phone call on your GPS mobile phone tells you your target is only a few streets away. A direct kill means boosting your team's score. And in this game, winning is everything. Welcome to the world of "real-life" games that blur the boundary between gaming and reality.

Last year the classic arcade game Pacman came to life on the streets of New York. A player dressed as Pacman ran around Manhattan collecting virtual "dots" while trying to evade four players dressed as ghosts. Each player had a human controller back at base who monitored their progress online and phoned through strategy and advice.

A few months later, a lab at Singapore National University had developed a version of the same game using GPS and motion sensors to track players through the city's streets. This time, players could see the game overlaid on the real world through special goggles called augmented-reality headsets." Continue reading Street games by Fran Molloy, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Recently arrived back in the UK after a successful week of max/msp programming and general audio visual mayhem Oslo Style. 'Making Sense' was a week long project hosted by Peter Votava AKA DJ PURE and Erich Berger. I was part of a group of artists and musicians who had travelled from as far as Paris, Canada, Austria, Berlin and beyond to participate in the event.
Each artist had arrived with the intention to solve at least some of their intended project, ranging in content from a web activated dildo by audio acoustic duo Decker and Reiter, to an alcohol breathaliser kit / sound manipulator from pile artist
Ian Campbell



Everyday was spent in the muted grey windowless confines of ATELIER NORD sliding around in our socks whilst the minus eight degrees and blue skies saturated Oslo with health given ions. Each night with a numb head from too much on screen activity we checked out the nightlife. Our first stop for a drink at spasibar. where DJ Pure, Erich Berger, Decker and Reiter presented some live audiovisual manipulation.



This was enough to put a halt to the that disco loving friday feeling and left some of the locals with their fingers in their ears, especially to the nosebleeding shell sounds coming from Erich, who'd of thought it? too look at Erich appears quite a nice man really.

One more night out amongst similarly pleasant looking folk at an independantly run artschool that turned out to be infact a Death Metal Rocker Festival, had me ducking and diving from the pints of gozz the flying bottles and dead animals, under the pretense that there was going to be some interesting electronic wifi-beatery and visuals. Bands with names like 'the Darkside of the Force' 'Lydia laska' and 'Diary of a lustful Turkey' continued to insult the crowd, who apparently just couldn't get enough.

Went to a few art openings, all the work is pretty messed up, its no wonder really what with all that death rock.

Pong returns!!. A year has passed since I created this seminal videopiece and now what at first started out as a joke has become an everyday obsession! Festivals and events are very fond of it, fortunately this provides me with the occasional opportunity to visit alternative media spaces throughout Europe and meet other far more interesting makers

Next on its list is the Computergame Museum of Berlin. They are planning on including it within their exhibition PONG:Mythos The show that tells the story of Pong by spanning a bridge from the area of game history over game/pong art and through to science.



I owe this break to a whizzkid low tech enthusiast who goes by the name of CyberNIKLAS
Check out his Pongmechanik a fantastic remake of the analogue game converted into wires pullys and levers!

During my stay in Liverpool I happened to meet Josh Nimoy through mutual connections at FACT The Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology. His work balldroppings has been chosen for the show too. Its so addictive, likewise are his interestingly addictive workshops and seminars.



Connectivity -
Work that gives me that same feeling of 'connectedness' as I get through surfing the internet, yet through a completely physical act.
I guess this is similar to the butterfly concept or like making waves in the bottom of a teacup.

- How I lost two cell phones in one week.



The Internet was supposed to bring us all together. Just ten years ago, the world was awash in bold predictions: The Web would obliterate race, gender and nationality. It would break down social barriers. It would usher in a new era of classless communication and interpersonal understanding.

well then? what happened?

"The Net is still a confused social space," says Andrew Shoben, founder of British artist collective Greyworld "and for most of us, it's still a very private experience."

In the meantime, however, diverse artists and engineers have been hard at work implementing networked technology into real world form and function. Incorporating the use of cell phones, GPS Systems, Stamp Technology. C++ with more mundane everyday objects. These artists seek to subvert technology and embed it into a more physical future.

'What can I do other than sit you in front of a computer and show you art?' - Where does it begin? How can I translate the actions and feelings of 'connectivity' associated with the world wide web, into real space, out on the street, in my own backyard?

What starts off as a disruption of the everyday with creative pranks, or simply the investigation of meaning in messages from nowhere. Usually results in interesting and unexpected outcomes.



Take the artist Thorsten Knaub, his latest project GPSdiary is an online archive in which the artist recorded his daily movements over the course of a year by carrying a Global Positioning System(GPS) receiver on him.

To get technical for a minute -
GPS utilises special satellites in the earths’ orbit to record the change of a tracked position on the surface of the earth. Therefore any kind of movement will be charted according to the latitude and longitude grid system, e.g. a walk to the local shop results in a small 'drawing', a day spent at home will be recorded as a dot only but a journey on the London Underground results in a straight line between the tube station where he is out of range of the GPS satellites.

Check his site out, it's a fascinating linear pictograph of the artists day to day movements.

Ironically, lost within this ever expanding multiverse of rapidly increasing networks are two mobiles belonging to JAYGOBLOOM Two phones in as many weeks! it's a bit of a pain but hey, I am enjoying the thought of being constantly engaged.

Just got back from FACT the foundation for creative technology, situated in the heart of buzzing Liverpool! Aside from scouting around the city centre distracted at wanting to form a band and checking out the many KARAOKE bars that seemed to be alive with the sound of tone deaf scousers, I did in fact have an objective. I was to participate in a fantastic masterclass run by the Troika Ranch dance group. Dawn and Marc the companies directors had flown in from Canada especially for the showcase and we received excellent firsthand experience in the uses and application of ISADORA, their unique physical computing software / tool that enables its user to shift activity away from the desktop and into a more organic form. Expect some examples soon and if you can check out one of their performances.