22:53
Rich Hauck has just launched CodeTree, a new and ambitious project that, if successful, could become a gathering point for coders, artists and designers. CodeTree is a community-based depository where users upload pieces created in Flash and Processing for others to look at. If they like the work, they can download the source code and learn from it. Taking some cues from Flickr and del.icio.us, CodeTree lets registered users tag works as well as rate them.
From the about page:
CodeTree is an attempt to create a worthwhile dialogue between new media artists of different skill levels and backgrounds. The project’s objective is to offer a social network that facilitates learning and artistic expression—a place where coders can dissect, share, and expand upon one another’s code.
CodeTree is still in Beta, read the announcement blog entry for more details. To be successful, it will probably need more ways to include information about the works. The focus as it stands is on visual sketches only, for which it should do a far better job than the user-submitted section of Processing.org exhibition page. But code that solves particular problems will be more useful in the long run, whether they are simple hacks or actual libraries. It’ll be interesting to see how CodeTree develops.
Rich Hauck is a student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU. Link via REAS on the Processing.org forums.
13:45
Dezzie Dimbitsara: IPSE
Dezzie Dimbitsara: Monbelengin
Seems like there is interesting work going on at the Frank Mohr Instituut's MFA programme in Interactive Media and Environments. The IME web site states clearly that it is not a design programme, but rather aims to produce artists with a knowledge of programming as well as media art theory.
Karl Klomp was blogged a few days ago, this time it’s IME alumni Dezzie Dimbitsara. After studying graphic design art in Strasbourg, she went on to the Frank Mohr Instituut where she started creating installations and generative works. Her IPSE installation visualizes connections between people moving in a space by drawing rhizomatic networks between them.
Her site a bit thin on project descriptions, but features a series of works with a strong graphic influence. It’s interesting to note that she has experimented with different techniques and media, from photography and illustration to visual generative works like IPSE and hardware-based projects like Monbelengin (image above). Monbelengin is a mechanical etch-a-sketch, using a repurposed scanner to create an interactive drawing device.
Dimbitsara also has a blog over on dizzydezzie.blogspot.com, where she posts about media art.
19:10
More examples of why software patents are an obstacle both to developers and consumers:
1. Patent holding company NTP threatens to shut down RIM’s Blackberry operations over a patent involving wireless email. See News.com.
2. Creative Technology wants Apple to fork over money because they have been awarded a patent on navigation of music on MP3 players. Again, see News.com. This is after a Hong Kong company has already tried to make Apple pay 12% of all iPod revenue due to a DRM patent.
This goes nicely with the previous madness of the Eolas plugin patent and the Scientigo XML patent claim. Hands up anyone who thinks this use of patents fairly protects the rights of inventors? If your hand is now in the air, ask yourself if you think consumers and society in general should be made to pay for what is rapidly becoming an extortion racket?
In other news: Wikipedia sees more controversy over the accountability of its editors. First an entry on JFK accused a government official journalist of being involved in the assassination, until the official in question changed it himself. Then podcasting pioneer Adam Curry edited out credits to other podcasters from the podcasting entry. For now, Wikipedia have disabled the rights of anonymous users to create new articles, but they can still edit existing ones.
Update: CNN has a story on the bogus JFK assassination Wikipedia entry. Turns out it was posted by Brian Chase, an operations manageer at a Nashville delivery company to play a prank on a co-worker. Quote: “Chase said he didn’t know the free Internet encyclopedia called Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool.”
10:54
I know glitchy sounds and visuals are appreciated round these parts, so I couldn’t miss out on posting about Karl Klomp and partner-in-crime Tom Verbruggen. These hyperactive boys indulge in video bending, max/msp hacking, hardware repurposing and general sweet mayhem.
A student at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen, Karl Klomp (aka MNK) documents his hardware hacks and visual glitch on www.karlklomp.nl. Make sure to see the videos of his live performances, he combines drawn animation with video bending noise. Tom Verbruggen (aka Toktek) is part of the Sonido Gris band / art collective, and also does performance art, installation etc. I certainly hope they drop by Berlin sometime.
13:46
Sound art is big in Norway. Now there is even a gallery dedicated exclusively to sound art, called Lydgalleriet. The gallery has no permanent physical space, but is unsurprisingly based in Bergen, which for now seems to be the center of the Norwegian sound art universe.
This Saturday 11 Dec Lydgalleriet will have a one-day exhibition / event at Landmark in Bergen, curated by Erlend Hammer and Steinar Sekkingstad. Artists include Bjørn Askefoss, Bjørnar Habbestad, Leif Inge, Jørgen Larsson, Nicholas Møllerhaug, Maia Urstad and Jana Winderen (producer for the Generator.x conf). Full announcement in Norwegian follows:
Read the rest of this entry »
09:43
Chris Robbins has posted a paper on the notion / nature of material in digital media. It was originally presented in Christiane Paul’s lecture series for Digital Media at Rhode Island School of Design. He describes the tendency to construct digital analogies of physical artifacts, and reflects on attempts to quantify digital material as semantic units.
Also enjoyable is a record of a chat between Robbins and his mother on the pseudo-science of morphogenetic fields.
10:10
The Physical Language Workshop has launched their OPENSTUDIO project in alpha version. They describe it as follows:
Using an online paint environment users can create artworks, which they then trade in exchange for “Buraks”, the currency of OPENSTUDIO. Records of trades are kept. By creating new works, users increase their potential capital and can in turn accumulate attractive works by other artists. The net result is a virtual economy trading in symbolic value. Much like the commercial art world, in other words.
Similar projects come to mind: Vectorama by Lehni, Lehni & Koch is still the undisputed champion of collaborative drawing works, combining technical elegance with designer style. There was also a project in the mid-90s where someone set up a monetary exchange system for artists, by which they could trade capital objects online for a virtual currency. Unfortunately, the name of the artist escapes me, but I believe it was developed at the Kunsthochschule in Cologne.
OPENSTUDIO is currently in testing, non-registered users can browse but not participate.
23:04
Some interesting posts are popping up in response to the Adobe takeover:
- Douglas Edric Stanley writes on Abstractmachine that he’s switching over all his workshops to use Processing rather than Director.
- Whatdoiknow posts about Adobe’s announced intention to integrate Flash and Acrobat Reader. Digital Inspiration says the new product is codenamed Adobe Apollo, and is already in the works.
- Jeff Schiller writes about potential issues threatening the SVG format, with a followup on an unofficial clarification from Adobe.
It seems that regardless of previous product loyalties, the developer/designer community is worried about the future of the software platforms and media formats that put food on their table.
This morning I got an interesting email:
I came across your sites by accident. My reaction: What gives you the right to call what you do “computational design”? The concept was developed by Prof. Dr. Dr. Mihai Nadin around 1994. THAT is computational design. I urge you to take a look at www.code.uni-wuppertal.de. You can only learn. And please at least give credit to the man who actually developed the concept… before you ruin it further.
(name removed for privacy)
Research Associate
antÉ – Institute for Research in Anticipatory Systems
University of Texas at Dallas
Not wanting to ruin the work of a man I have never met, I did a little googling. As the email says: “You can only learn.”
Professor Dr. Mihai Nadin (see also Wikipedia) is a computer graphics pioneer of Romanian origin who has worked with computer applications in art and design since 1960. Currently a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, Dr. Nadin has an impressive academic CV dealing with human-computer interaction. He started Computational Design as a field of study at the University of Wuppertal in 1994, defining it as follows:
Read the rest of this entry »
18:26
Robert Hodgin: Spirals
Robert Hodgin of Flight404 is celebrating the launch of Processing BETA 0098 and it’s newly included “export as application” feature. This allows non-Processing users to enjoy works that use features like OpenGL and video input, which would have been impossible to show in applet form.
Robert’s contribution (possibly one of the first Processing apps available for public consumption) is Spirals, a webcam-based 3D system of whirling shapes. If you liked his previous work with live visuals done in Processing, you’re bound to like this.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- ShareAlike 2.5 License.
This license applies to blog entries only.