Beta is a fictional prototype by Lukas Franciszkiewicz addressing media influence and the decision making shift from individual to computer. Lukas divides interaction with the computer into three needs: finding and consuming information, the use of communication and mediation, and the automation of processes. The three objects represent these, handing over decision making to the computer in the particular sphere of operation. In addition, the objects plays a part in this relationship, how it’s interacted with and the primitive instincts it promotes.

If we assume that the amount of information we feed into the grid, the computer increasingly carries more power of decision, we give up control of the technology. Output, input and process are the functions of the object and refer to the formal characteristics of the blocks. The reduction of concrete and transparent structures constitutes the possibility of the occurrence of this relationship. Motivated human irritation open the demand for a change of perspective and awareness to make restrictions. The physical change of the screen is both a break and brings with it new freedoms, but offered only a replacement of one paradigm against the other.

The project film will be exhibited at the “Körpersichten” Exhibition from 01.06. – 24.06.2011 in Kiel (www.muthesius.de).

Project Page

See also We Play Bodies [Inspiration, Objects] – ‘Behaviouristics Test Lab …

In cooperation with Christien Meindertsma, Nils Völker developed an installation for Christien’s exhibition at the MU in Eindhoven (Netherlands). The exhibition was called “Makers & Spectators” and was about the human perception and the way we look at things.

The installation consists out of two parts. A viewing box with replaceable Images of a range of different objects like a chicken, a slice of bread and much more. While the visitor is looking at one of these images an eye-tracker within the viewing box records the movement of the eyes. The second part is the robot, hanging on three ropes from the ceiling on top of a large pile of paper sheets. It reproduces each point the visitor has looked at with a thick marker on the Paper by moving the same way as the eyes did.

There are two Lego NXT (Mindstorm) bricks on this robot, one for the movement and one controlling the pen. Both communicate via bluetooth and are powered by rechargeable batteries, permanently plugged to battery chargers from the ceiling. The process is started as soon a visitor is looking long enough at an image of an object that is inside a viewing box. An eye-tracker records the eye movement into x/y-coordinates. Then this data is saved into a txt-file and sent to the robot via a very long USB-cable. The program on the robot, written in NXC, reads the txt-file and moves to appropriate coordinates.

See + read more at Nils Völker – Robotics – Dotje.

(via @isaac_topo)

Temporary.cc is the latest online project/app by Zach Gage. Part bot, part website, part visualization, for each unique visitor it receives, Temporary.cc deletes part of itself. These deletions change the way browsers understand the website’s code and create a unique (de)generative piece after each new user. Eventually, like tangible media, Temporary.cc will fall apart entirely, becoming a blank white website. Its existence will be remembered only by those who saw or heard about it.

Virtual data isn’t subject to decay like traditional media. Despite this, we can still lose personal data to disk failure, viruses, or accidental deletion. Unlike personal data however, data on the internet has a seemingly infinite shelf-life. Between search-engine caching, cloud-hosting, re-blogging, plagiarizing, and the way-back machine, the net collects and eternally stores vast amounts of information.

Temporary.cc was inspired by Jonah Bruker-Cohen’s work on distributed network art at coin-operated.com. Music by Edwin Morris from gratisvibes.com

Zach Gage is a digital mixed media and installation artist currently residing in New York City. You can see more of his work on stfj.net

(via Temporary.cc – CreativeApplications.Net on Vimeo)

WhatTheFont is an iPhone application and a service provided by myfonts.com. New site, currently in beta has become, for me, first place to go and check out new fonts.

WhatTheFont is a service that lets you submit an image of a font and they will find the closest match from their database.

The iPhone app does exactly the same. If you come accross a font you would like to know what it is, snap a picture, load to their site and the app will ask you to associate some characters in the photo to letters. The app will browse WhatTheFont database and return a number of results of what that font might be.

It has taken me couple of months to finally download the app. A must tool in your pocket for any graphic designer. WhatTheFont site is as useful. If you come accross a site that uses fonts you like, just pop a link to the WhatTheFont online webapp and the site will give you results.

One more thing is worth mentioning, the app is free, making it even more the must download.

See also The Typography Manual for the iPhone

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.1
Cost: Free
Developer: myfonts.com

Continue reading.... Cells [Mac]

Continue reading.... Automaton [iPhone]