Interactivity1 Sp08

DRIP 2008 - Student Moving Image Festival

2008-04-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Our own Deke Weaver, is organizing the second ever DRIP annual student festival of the moving image. It is open to all undergrads from UIUC's School of Art & Design. Your work will be juried by Lissa Gibbs, Director of Contemporary Art Tucson (and former curator of San Francisco's Film Arts Festival), along with the work of studentts from Rensselaer Polytech and the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth.
Here's the skinny:
+ Videos must be 5 min or less
+ Work must have been completed after Jan 1, 2006
+ 2 submissions allowed per student
+ submissions must be in Quicktime DV-NTSC format
+ Deadline is May 7!

To submit download this flyer and submission form.

JUDGE DISMISSES MAIL FRAUD CASE AGAINST BIO-ARTIST KURTZ

2008-04-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Since we watched Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Strange Culture" this semester, and many of you now have buttons in support of the defense team, I'd thought I'd give you an update, fresh off the email presses.

Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz’ lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was “pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end.”

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz’ legal defense, said, “We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action.” She added that “this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place.”

Boggs Money

2008-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

So, Danny wondered what Boggs' money looked like. Here you go:

You can watch a video from PBS' Egg program here and see more pics here.

Artist/Designers Presentations

2008-04-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

We will resume the 5 minute presentations next Monday (4/28). Since there are only 6 left, this should only take 30-45 minutes. Refer to the general expectations in the event that you don't remember.
Here's the lineup: Daniel K (Futurefarmers), Maria (Jordan Crandall), Jesse (IAA), Elihu (Keith Piper), Michael (Helio Oiticica), Annie Mui (Allora/Calzadilla)
Remember, next Wednesday (April 30) is our last class and your social interactions will be presented then.

Forgot one thing...

2008-04-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

The reading. It's an article by Craig Saper (where the term "sociopoetics" comes from) titled "Networked Economies." You'll love it.

Wednesday's Class (4/16)

2008-04-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, we'll be meeting on the second floor (I believe room 236) for Lisa Nakamura's talk. Following that, we'll discuss the last project that people will be completing outside of class.

A Great Class Open in the Fall

2008-04-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

I think a lot of you would really enjoy this class and take away some important information regarding technology and society.

Play and Technology.
INFO 490 CSU / SPCM 496 CS* -- Prof. Sandvig, Fall 2008
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.

This course considers play and new media technology, with many examples drawn from electronic gaming. The course investigates play as communication, the history of mediated play, competing social scientific and philosophical theories of play, the structure of games, and the societal consequences of mediated play. Both children and adults are considered. The course is organized around competing theoretical understandings of play (e.g., play as development, fate/chance, power, identity, fantasy, self-fulfillment, nonsense), and will be illustrated with examples from technologies of play, including both historical and current examples. The final part of the course will consider the design of playful technologies. A final project is required. Open to all majors with no prerequisites. (* Graduate students must enroll in SPCM 496 CSG.)

For Next Week (March 31)

2008-03-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

To recap what everyone should be prepared for/with on Monday:
1. Partners
2. reading the text on low tech sensors and actuators - see the link to the PDF in the post below.
3. shopping/scavenging/finding - with your partner, look for and find some toys that you can hack
4. make sure you understand at least what we covered so far in Processing.
On Monday, we'll finish our basic tutorial of Processing and start the hacking and designing phase.
Have a great weekend.

Sensors and Actuators and Art, Oh My

2008-03-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

So, the work that we will be doing with Kevin's help will involve some programming with Processing and an open-source physical computing platform known as Arduino.
We will use some information from a workshop created by some artist/designers called "LOW TECH SENSORS AND ACTUATORS for artists and architects", including this PDF article.
Here's a zip file we'll use for a processing workshop.

Lecture - Thursday March 27

2008-03-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

This should be of interest to a few of you, and is especially relevant to the concerns of this class. I encourage those of you that can to go - if you write a 100+ word blog response, you'll even get extra credit.

SHAPING THE AGE OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT

Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology

Thursday, Mar 27, 2008, 11:00 am, 2405 Siebel Center

ABSTRACT:
In the mid 1990s, we began to ask some hopeful questions about the potential of the Internet to empower the individual: Can users become creators of content, rather than merely recipients? What can people learn through working on personally meaningful projects and sharing them online? If content creation is to some degree democratized, does this have broader cultural or political implications? This enthusiasm faded a bit by the dot-com bust, and many began to wonder: will it be business-as-usual after all?

But then it started happening. On Wikipedia, thousands of volunteers collaborate to create a shared resource that, while not without flaws, is astonishing in its breadth and speed of adaptation. Furthermore, the process of writing this resource is truly collaborative to a degree that should make any Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) professional envious. On MySpace, teens create their own web pages, sharing snippets of html and expressing themselves in a quintessentially teenage fashion. Blogs written by ordinary citizens have become influential in politics and culture, almost just as envisioned by science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. User-generated content, it seems, has arrived.

Of course for every thoughtful photo essay shared by a budding young photographer, the Internet has a hundred self-broadcast photos of under-age drinking. What percentage of Internet traffic, one wonders, is devoted to flirting and gossiping? And how much have the last few years increased the world's stockpile of really bad poetry?

In this talk, I'll review the history of user-generated content on the Internet, and present current research in the Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) Lab at Georgia Tech that aims to help shape this phenomenon. Drawing on work in the fields of online community design, CSCW, and computer-supported cooperative learning, I'll discuss how we can design Internet-based environments conducive to creativity, collaboration, and learning.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Amy Bruckman is Associate Professor of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her Electronic Learning Communities (ELC) research group studies online communities and education. Amy is interested in ethical issues in Internet research, and was a member of the working groups on this topic organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association. Amy received her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab in 1997. In 2002, she was awarded the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies.

Processing + more

2008-03-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some the links Damon presented in class.
Jared Tarbell
Processing
Wiring
A good example of lots of different uses of Processing is RSG's carnivore project.
And Brendan Dawes.

Upcoming Events

2008-02-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Some things of interest for Monday, March 3.
1.
Who: CHRIS PECK - From Field Recordings to Recorder Choirs
When: 3-5pm Monday March 3
Where: Krannert Art Museum (in the Collections Research Lab - basement)
Brooklyn-based composer Chris Peck, known for his collaborations with
choreographers John Jasperse, David Dorfman, and RoseAnne Spradlin and
video artist Charles Atlas, discusses his practice as an improviser with the
computer and his compositions for large ensembles of untrained performers.
Come prepared to engage in undisciplined singing and unfamiliar ways of
listening. This overlaps our regular class meeting time, obviously, but I would encourage people to attend ONLY if you can be there starting at 3. You must also write a short blog post about the event.
If you do attend, come to class immediately afterwards, I will be meeting with people regarding progress on the spatial interfaces.
2.
Also on Monday March 3. The next "For Educational Use Only" screening will be performance, video and architectural artist Vito Acconci's "The Red Tapes". Acconci is a seminal figure in performance and video art, who has more recently been working within an architectural and public art practice. This is at 7pm in room 229 as usual.
3.
March 5:
11:00 AM to 12:50 PM - Visual Music Workshop I in CAMIL (rm. 5045 Music Bldg.) - LIMITED SEATING, email Scott Wyatt if you wish to attend [s-wyatt@uiuc.edu]
4:00 PM Composers Forum "Composing with Image and Sound"
rm. 1180 Music Bldg. [all are welcome]

March 6:
10:00 to 11:50 AM - Visual Music Workshop II in CAMIL (rm. 5045 Music Bldg.) - LIMITED SEATING, email Scott Wyatt if you wish to attend [s-wyatt@uiuc.edu]
7:30 PM Visual Music Concert, Music Bldg. Auditorium (rm. 2100) [all are welcome]
Dennis Miller received his Doctorate in Music Composition from Columbia University in 1981. Since that time, he has been on the Music faculty of Northeastern University in Boston where he heads the music technology program. He is also on the faculty of the Multimedia Studies program. Dennis was the founder and served as director of the League-ISCM in Boston from 1982-1988. His works have been performed on concerts and festivals throughout the world, and his music appears on Opus One Records and the Frog Peak Collaborative CD, among others. Miller is an Associate Editor of Electronic Musician magazine, for which he writes about music software and hardware technologies.
Since 1998, Miller has also been active as a graphic artist and 3D animator. His animations have been shown at numerous venues throughout the world, most recently the Ambient Electron show at the DeCordova Museum, the 9th New York Digital Salon, the 2001 Art in Motion screenings, immedia, Sonic Circuits, the Cuban International Festival of Music, VideoFormes, the Images de Nouveau Monde Film Festival and the 2001 Not Still Art screening. His work was also presented at SIGGRAPH 2001 in the Emerging Technologies gallery. Recent exhibits of his 3D still images include the Boston Computer Museum and the Biannual Conference on Art and Technology, as well as publication in Sonic Graphics: Seeing Sound, published by Rizzoli Books.
Miller's music and artworks are available at www.dennismiller.neu.edu.

Feb 25 and 27

2008-02-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

On Mon Feb 25 and Wed Feb 27 I will be at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and therefore not able to meet with classes as scheduled. There are lots of things to be done, and I expect everyone to use the assigned class time wisely. Here are things you need to do:
1. Familiarize yourself with Flash using the online resources provided (look below). Things that most need to focus on here are: working with multiple/nested timelines and basic actionscript/interactivity). For this project, people should be able to use movie clips/nested timelines and generate timeline-based interactivity (using buttons and movieclips to jump around the timeline).
2. Look at the border-interface links (in the last post) that I discussed in class on Wednesday, make a blog post that reflects on at least three of them and how you might incorporate some aspect of them in your own project. Maybe consider the relationship between the symbolic (what an interface might mean culturally) and mechanical (how an interface might function materially).
3. Work on the research presentation for your selected artist/collective - due March 5
4. In terms of the spatial interface, work out a plan of action - how you want to interpret the space as a screen-based, interactive design. One approach is to think of the project as an interpretive browser for your space, not unlike your book/map. If you accomplished something interesting with your book/map, how can that be translated? Drawings always help. The final projects are due March 10.
And, of course, feel free to email me with any questions or concerns regarding any of the above. I'll be in transit during class time on Wednesday, but can possibly set up a chat with anyone needing help during class time on Monday.

Some Things To Look At

2008-02-20T10:49:00.001-08:00

In terms of continuing on our course of looking at space, place and interactivity, one thing becomes increasingly important: how we interact with space is highly determined by how we create, perceive and react to boundaries. Spaces, and the devices we use to navigate them, are designed to enforce (and rarely avoid) boundaries of different kinds and in different ways. Examples as simple as walls, locked doors that require keys or password protected websites are easy to identify, but there are more coded interfaces present pretty much everywhere. Think of how something like a traffic light creates an effective boundary through a combination of legal mechanisms (like traffic police) and cultural codes (like the normative use of color). I'd like everyone to consider how your chosen space is defined and delineated by such boundaries/borders. Not just physical borders, but other forms of boundaries that can be identified with some thought.
To these ends, here are some examples for considering the complexity of borders/boundaries, and how such considerations can lead to different visualizations, and therefore different forms of interaction design.
Multiplicity is a group of Italian researchers across disciplines (art, geography, architecture...). Their Border Devices Project attempts to give names to different kinds of political borders (Roll over "Border Devices" and then select "Border Matrix")
Along similar lines, MigMap is a project by the Swiss group Labor K3000 that uses cartography as a visualization method for understanding migration in Europe. Abstract ideas and legal frameworks are given geographic form to understand overlaps and connections.
Worldmapper, produced by British and US scholars, changes the shape of world maps according to other data attached to nations, like "preventable deaths."
The artist Louisa Bufardeci creates maps that similarly rethink cartographic projections based on an interpretation of data. Look at the projects on the left especially.
A story about mapping in North America, told through a Flash movie by Jackie Goss.
Less obviously related to such mapping, but an interesting and related attempt to visualize the boundaries of the wireless, interactive space of mobile phones and RFID technology is Timo Arnall's Graphic Language for Touch. (download a PDF of his research)

Some Flash & Other Resources

2008-02-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

For those needing and/or wanting some more help with the basics of Flash, I have put together a list of possible recommended resources that can be accessed in various ways.
For those of you who like video tutorials: Adobe has a free, but limited "Video Workshop" - this link will take you to a video that covers the basics of creating a very simple, interactive file. If you close the video window and look to the bottom right, you can download the sample Flash files used in the video. (By clicking Play Video, you'll restart the video, but you can also browse from the other available tutorials in the middle panel, under "Title". All the video titles with the Flash logo under "Product" are for Flash)
For folks who prefer textual tutorials, I've reserved an online book about Flash registered with O'Reilly that you can access for just under $20 for 60 days. Start with Chapter 28.
For those of you who like paper books, you can always order a book like this one (good for people who like reference, non-linear help - under $20), or this one (better for those who like linear tutorials, just over $30) from Amazon.
We'll have a little time on Monday to check in, but I am coordinating a screening of a film (Strange Culture) at 5:30 in KAM, so we will only have an hour or so. So make sure to have any specific questions ready to go.

Mini Flash Assignment (Due Feb 20)

2008-02-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

We will start a mini Flash project that will facilitate both experience in Flash as well as starting to think critically and imaginatively about its potential to create and interpret interfaces.
The assignment is to create a two part Flash animation that interprets the notion of inside/outside or micro/macro as you can relate it to your chosen space.
Conceptual parameters: your file will have two animated interpretations of your chosen space, one from a macro or exterior perspective, another from a micro or interior perspective. You will create a simple interactive transition between the two. Think of the way that interfaces function as membranes - permeable barriers between spaces or information. How does your space govern movement in and out of it? How can that be simulated or interpreted in Flash, with what we've covered so far? How is one's perspective changed depending on which side of the barrier they are on?
Technical parameters: With Flash, you will produce one file that uses the animation and interactive capabilities covered in class (as well as any previous knowledge you bring to it) to achieve the conceptual parameters above.
To recap: you will produce one Flash file that uses images and animation (and maybe sound) to interpret both an exterior/macro and interior/micro aspect of your space, as well as an interface that allows a "user" to move from one to the next.

A Brief Philosophical Statement (or a love letter to a class)

2008-02-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

In case anyone looks at this over the weekend, or before we meet for class on Monday, I wanted to make a couple of general philosophical remarks reiterating what this class is about. Not for any reason other than to make sure that I'm communicating the intentions and expectations clearly and consistently. It's all in the syllabus, but I know how that document gets left in the dust of our memories pretty quickly.
So, hopefully it's clear that this class is about "interactivity" in a broad and inclusive sense related to art (or maybe it's safer to say "related to symbolic representation and action" since "art" is more than a little vague). In trying to do so, we will be covering a small sample of processes (including software) that have been used to produce "interactive" art, sorry "interactive symbolic representations." We will not, certainly, cover them all... that would be impossible as the options are practically innumerable, and not limited or bounded by software applications.
In this class, we will think of software not as a tool that can simply be applied to solve a problem, but as a set of constraints and opportunities - as part of the problem to be solved. As the Johnson reading was meant to help show (perhaps unsuccessfully), software (or any technology) isn't a neutral platform or tool, but a mediator for a set of values (sometimes competing ones). Flash, for example, isn't something that can be simply employed without first accepting certain limitations as acceptable, convenient or useful. In other words, choosing Flash as a platform makes Flash part of the problem being solved, not just a means to solve the problem. Of course, all solutions to problems are mediated, and one of the goals of this class is to interrogate the relationship between interactivity and its mediation as a problem, and to understand (or at least try) what is lost and gained in solving that problem.
This is why we are going to spend as much time on process and methodology as on actually using software. So that we can try to look at the problems through different forms of mediation and maybe see what happens when that problem gets translated across media.
Hopefully this will be interesting and engaging for everyone and we can all learn something. This class is an experiment in interactivity in itself, and we are all both subjects and scientists simultaneously. Because of this, it is extremely necessary that we all have patience (with the tech and each other) and show some consideration and respect for everyone in the class. I don't expect this to be a problem, but I want to emphasize that there are different sets of experiences and skills within the body of the class. Not everyone is a new media major or has studied various techno-histories, for example, so don't assume that "we all know this" when it comes to something discussed in the class. Those with more technical abilities and familiarity with some aspects of the class, help others in the class and push your own ideas and abilities rather than coasting. No one likes a coaster.
I also want to stress that the readings, discussions and examples, even when historical, are rarely designed to educate you on the "facts." I'm not a historian, and this isn't a history class. Historical readings/screenings in this class generally serve two purposes: one is to illustrate how something was viewed at a certain point in time and had an influence on artists. The second is to introduce some poetic/metaphoric/analytic perspective on something related to what we're doing in class at that time. If you're reading something and only responding, "Gee, I know how the desktop works, and besides, 1996 was 12 years ago, I'm using Leopard." I would encourage looking beyond the "fact" value of what's being said. It's not necessarily important if the facts being presented are new or not, but how they're being interpreted or used to make a case for something. Sometimes, this requires reading between the lines a bit. You can find the point dumb, banal or unsubstantiated, of course. I don't expect that everyone will be interested in every aspect of everything, but I do expect a basic level of respect for the work of others and especially for your peers.
For those of you reading this and thinking, "Um... OK, but how will I be evaluated?"
That's a good and valid question. You'll be evaluated based mostly on visible effort. Sure, there are some expectations for actual, technical output, but the expectations are weighted on method and process (remember, that's the focus). If you already know Flash, for example, you are only at a very minor advantage.
For those of you reading this and thinking, "Um... OK, but am I going to learn Flash?"
That's an understandable question, though the syllabus explains that fairly well. The answer is yes for some, not-so-much for others. As said above, we will learn Flash as part of the problem-solution combination, and everyone will use it to some degree. But learning Flash, as an expert platform, is beyond the scope, goals and philosophy of the course. That said, I am there to help those willing and able to move beyond their current abilities in realizing something with it.
For those of you who made it this far and are reading this and thinking, "Um... OK, when is this post going to end?"
Right now. Well, one more thing. I recently came across a debate about the use of technology in education for Generation TXT (in case you didn't know, that's what us old people are calling you). It was the result of a video produced by an anthropology professor in Kansas.
Here's the original video. Here's a response in the form of a video. And here's a discussion about them.
See you on Monday.

Reading and Project 2

2008-02-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

Things due and coming up:
Feb 6
Discussion of Steven Johnson's The Desktop.
Bring in initial ideas for interactive spaces for Project 2 (see project parameters)
Feb 11
Paper prototype/map for Project 2 due
Feb 20
Project 2 Flash files due
(img from Christian Nold's "Point of Sale" poster)

This page has most of the skills you need for project 1

2008-01-30T16:25:00.001-08:00

It's annoying, so be warned.

Mid-term Presentation Project

2008-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

Each person will be responsible for a short, 5 minute presentation on an artist/group from a list provided below. These presentations will be delivered on March 5 and must be assembled as a slide presentation (as a compiled PDF, Powerpoint or Keynote) with at least 5-10 images. You should be able to give us the context for the artist's work and a description of some specific examples of their work.
THIS IS NOT A BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST - context means what their work related to, what was going on around it, what kind of audience it had, etc. Put this in your own words, don't just cut/paste writing from somewhere else that you can't explain yourself.
There can be no repetition in the presentations, so everyone is to select their desired subject and make a comment to this post with your name and subject (such as: Ryan G. - Lygia Clark). If the one you wanted is already taken, you must pick another or negotiate with that person.
Your selection must be made by the end of this week - Friday Feb 1.
The list:
Lygia Clark, Critical Art Ensemble, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Lynn Hershman, Fluxus, Heath Bunting, Keith Piper, Natalie Jeremijenko, Natalie Bookchin, C5, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Antonio Muntadas, Knowbotic Research, RTmark, Mongrel (the British art collective, not the server technology), Jordan Crandall, Julia Scher, George Legrady, Situationist International, Laurie Anderson, Eve Andree Laramee, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Mel Chin, Carsten Holler, Andrea Zittel, Center for Tactical Magic, Keith and Mendi Obadike, Helio Oiticica, Adrian Piper, Futurefarmers, RepoHistory, Jennifer Allora/Guillermo Calzadilla

Where you should be now...

2008-01-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

In case you're wondering where you should be in terms of progress on the first project and what we've been covering in class... as I said in class on Thursday, your web-based project is due February 4. With your concept map in hand and the 40 elements for each of your 3 systems, you should be ready to start planning and designing the web documents.
Here are some of things you should start doing, and what we'll discuss on Tuesday.
1. Designing a site map - this is literally a map or plan for your web site (a site is simply a series of web documents, or pages if you like, linked together). It shows how one "page" connects to others. Remember, you'll have a total of 40 pages, each containing 3 elements representing each of your 3 systems. (your pages will have to be recycled in the scheme of your map)
2. Sketches (digital or otherwise) for your 40 pages. This is page layout - what are your three elements and what will they look like on each page?
We'll continue with CSS/XHTML, and other techniques in order to realize your plan. Other techniques we'll cover that can be employed: custom pop-up windows, scrolling divs, hidden divs.

Oh - and send me a link to your blog.

2008-01-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

So I can post it to the class site.

First week and beyond

2008-01-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Jan 16: Bring in your 3 interrelated systems that will be the subject for the project 1 hypertext
Monday Jan 21: ML King Jr. Holiday
Wednesday Jan 23: Project 1 concept map due (see requirements) + discuss Vannevar Bush's As We May Think (read and make a 100 or so word response to your blog before class)

Welcome to Interactivity 1

2007-12-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

You will find news for the class here, including information about reading assignments. You should check this at least twice a week, ideally the day before class meetings. As a general rule, you will be told any updates in class, but changes to our schedule and information related to readings and projects will frequently be posted here.