LEDs...

Thinking of new ways to map out movement. Considering building an LED system - practising programming/arduino/electronics and possibly making something really interesting as I think I could program the lights to show a path flow through a space - perhaps multiple paths at the same time.

Some research images/projects....

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/projects/led-throwies/
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/

http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Light-Drawing-Pens-Tools-for-drawing-light-do/

http://www.devicedaily.com/misc/amazing-japan-winter-light-show-features-45-million-leds.html

http://www.scienceprog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006i/Dot_LED_Matrix/LED_Matrix_To_LPT_screen.gif

I also produced some photography in Year One using glow sticks which created some really interesting effect.

2 day film project

So, for a two day film brief i made this short 2 minute film around my project subject. It is a collection of moments where individuals are avoiding each others eyes while being in close proximity. It almost serves as an observation of my fascination of behaviour in a public space.

http://vimeo.com/18056983

Tutors commented how the film changes the reality of the subject that is filmed, and makes people appear like actors.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvp5Nk0kYa7Xdk6NDMuHkwPxgdIfTX3EfPxNty2qZLqPWHO40TPu4GzpvmJZpa4-TUSrFywTtY7pHGR-f8h29xhpdrDNePukbpPlhxuh_TJiCCRRX6u5FLhyphenhyphen_v3-rzhDdrGa9FJWFKEYEp/s1600/card1172.JPG

Idea makers

Well....during my lost afternoon I spoke to my friend who is a software developer about RSS feeds and he pointed me in the right direction. Tweeting has become a huge revolution in communication and giving the world your thoughts openly. I want to try and make one. See how hard it is. So.... I did some digging and found a way to extract twitter data into a spreadsheet - which could further be used for programming - if I find a way to translate the data. I also looked into extracting it onto webpages....Twitter has its own 'widgets' allowing you to extract particular tweets, which I have done as you can see on the right I made one to see what people are saying about the London snow. >>>>

This will be kept in mind. As my friend said: there are idea makers and the people who do it.
I want to be BOTH.


http://www.brelson.com/2009/11/using-google-spreadsheets-to-extract-twitter-data/

http://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets/widget_search

LOST (the awkward english silence)

Ok so...this week i am very lost. Last week during the FREEZING period prior to the snow I went and observed for three hours in London Bridge station doing sketches and taking ten pictures every ten minutes or so. I got around 200 photos, along with a number of videos showing the movement of people through the main part of the station. I did gain a much greater understanding to the way people move through this space compared to my rough guesses for my model:

I discovered there is a fast lane and a slow lane, and the waiting area in the middle. Some people stop on the edge of the waiting area for only a few seconds before continuing while others take a little longer.

Also the trans-fiction on the board, even though when they are waiting for ten minutes. I guess its a bit like the eye contact thing on the tube. Avoid small talk at all costs. Look at the board, look at the board, look around, look at the floor, look around - oo that's a nice coat - - oops caught someones eye, LOOK AWAY! (pretend to be generally looking around.....) and such like. Fair enough people may not feel like talking to complete strangers, but since when did people become SO uncomfortable. Its quite absurd. I have observed on several occasions complete strangers starting up a conversation about their lives on a train. I guy sat opposite me on a
train back from college and asked to play hangman. That felt very random. I also met an interesting guy who did market research in my local town and told me all about the jobs he did - such as getting people to taste test haagen daaz ice cream.

After consideration I would suggest the expectations and perceived intentions of a stranger scare people from ever talking to strangers. People expect a reason for the interaction, and it is very difficult for any interaction whatsoever when everyone tries their hardest to prevent it occurring. I think its fascinating how people in such close proximity try so hard to ignore each other. Perhaps there could be a way to give people a reason to interact....a game, comment about an event etc etc. I am quite a shy person in new sitatuions with new people, however I learned since coming to London that talking to people, even randomly to show an interest in them is much more interesting even if you are only with them for a short time. You never know what you might learn or hear about. Even if its boring as hell you can make an effort to leave. The awkward English silence.

David Cameron measuring nations happiness

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11833241


I think this is quite interesting given the state of things. However, as I have discovered there are actually many ways to measure the mood of the nation through pulling data from various social networking sites. I think Jonathan Harris's (Legend) project We Feel Fine illustrates this concept completely.

http://www.number27.org/wefeelfine.html

Data visualisation is a bit interest of mine and I think there is a lot of potential in this sort of data.

(http://simplecomplexity.net/visualizing-human-emotions-we-feel-fine/)

"Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”. When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved. Their database has several million records, and they collect about 20,000 per day."

Chromoroma

So I found this project last night which is supposed to be launched late 2010 - so any time now. Its looking quite nice. It constitutes an online game which records your oyster card data - which stations you've been through and the journeys you have made, and awards you points for certain stations and more for finding other routes/quicker routes and trying other methods of transport. I really like the visual mapping - see image below. I have registered to play, so I await its release!

http://blog.chromaroma.com/

http://www.chromaroma.com/blog/2010/11/the-view-from-the-visualisation-team/

Top Sensory inventions

A fantastic programme on BBCIplayer at the moment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wbw65/Wallace_and_Gromits_World_of_Invention_Come_to_Your_Senses/

"In London, scientists are creating prototype invisibility cloaks using metamaterials to bend light around objects, and we discover the science behind new technology allowing the blind to 'see' through taste using hi-tech sunglasses.

In Kentucky, USA we visit the small town where a local farmer invented wireless telephones over 100 years ago. Or did he? Finally in Tasmania, we meet our Inventor of the Week who, after being told it was impossible, invented and made his own unique prosthetic arm."

Their support website is encouraging inventions. I found this quite interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/wallaceandgromit/hands-on/remote-binaural-sensing-device/

For this you hold two phones the wrong way round on both sides of your head and correspond with a partner doing exactly the same - the effect is being able to hear what they are hearing. "Its like being inside your head!"

Building robots!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/wallaceandgromit/hands-on/hexapod-walking-contraption/

The Fun Theory and happy installations.

The fun theory (http://www.thefuntheory.com/) was a massive inspiration to me prior to the presentations, making me think about public installations that encourage normal behaviour eg. putting litter in a bin, or obeying the speed limit, and make it fun - so it might brighten up someones day. The projects are results of a competition held each year, where people post their ideas and the winning entry gets made by the team.

I think the projects are fantastic:













This encouraged me to look for other interventions/installations that have been done that make people happy. I found this artist who released giant foam smileys into the sky on Southbank to try and make people happier:



I also found this project by http://www.smileforlondon.com/  - a competition to design films to be shown on the london underground screens:

As silly as it sounds I would like to impact people by increasing their happiness and encouraging inspiration and curiosity.

Light painting with Ipads

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Nokia Ice Touch screen

Zoomable Map

Zoomable Map. I think this is a really nice product. Simple and easy to use.

One Dot Zero -Adventures In Motion Festival

So One Dot Zero and many collaborators had a festival "presenting the most exciting international moving image work, from the offbeat to the radical, aiming to push the boundaries of creativity, innovation and technological wonder."


Unfortunately I was not in London during its time - so I have looked up as much as I can online: 


http://www.onedotzero.com/onedotzero-adventures-in-motion-festival-2010-11/event/


Catalogue pdf: http://issuu.com/tcolondon/docs/onedotzero?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=FFFFFF&autoFlip=true&autoFlipTime=6000

Tron watches

The fact that these are watches is unrelated, I just really like the aesthetics of the neon strips on the black, its very striking.

Video of Arc Attack

The video of the guy taking electric through a suit. Its like Iron man or something. I really love the rippled lines of electric as it passes through the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdrqdW4Miao

People have even done it on Americas Got Talent!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBx2wkg9nhk&feature=related ....to quite an impressed reception!

Ferro Fluids - Magnetic Liquid

I came across this material after being told by a friend about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL8R8SfuXp8

It is really quite fascinating, and appears to behaviour like an biological organism as it reacts to the magnet and moves and builds itself up and around the object. Its interesting that it becomes spiked and looks quite intimidating.

Found this. Incredible!

"A daredevil inventor has created a shocking new image of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ – by shooting 500,000 volts of electricity down his body as he sat in the pose. (Pics)

Using a home-built Tesla coil pieced together from junk and bits from hardware stores, Peter Terren risked his life to make the electrifying image. He was also only protected from painful death by electrocution by a layer of cheap builders’ foil.

Terren, from Bunbury, Western Australia,said: ‘I wanted to convey the concept of the modern electrical age with the barrage of electrical interference in our lives. So much is happening and demanding our attention that it is difficult to “think”.

‘I decided upon a real life posture like the thinker with a lot of electrical activity around me with sparks onto my body.’

"The electricity fired from the Tesla rod, which is passed over him in a semi-circle, can then pass down the foil suit and safely out to the earth through his foot."

I found this really quite amazing - partly the fact that electricity is going through his body and not killing him while he is "thinking"; but also the aesthetics of the electricity. The way it moves through space is fascinating and beautiful, while also being terrifying and unpredictable.

http://www.impactlab.net/2009/04/23/peter-terren-recreates-rodins-the-thinker-with-electricity/

Tunnel Vision

A really interesting interview with a young female tube train driver.

Robyn Jiles applied to work on the underground on her 18th birthday. Photograph: Sarah Lee/guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/mar/13/tube-driver





This is really helpful for me to identify with tube train drivers and their day to day routines.

Commuter Madness

From researching filming and projects involving the underground and public transport networks I came across this american series where they interview people about their experiences on the tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT_mk38ghIs&feature=related

Look me in the eye

(I found this a while ago) I was particularly interested in the commuter behaviour on the tube network, in particular the zombie like glazed look on peoples faces. Despite the hundreds of people moving through the small spaces on platforms and tube trains there is barely any conversation or much communication whatsoever. After speaking about my project to various people, they all came out with good/funny/bad/unpleasant stories to tell of their experiences - but what interested me was their particular surprise at the kindness shown by strangers on some occasions. One friend said she saw a guys arm get caught in a train door; and as the train began to move five men stepped up immediately together to release him. Others talked about the shared moment of a group of people after an experience - such as laughing or looks of disbelief. I think this is a wonderful thing, when suddenly you feel included in a group of strangers who otherwise would not try to make any contact whatsoever - even eye contact.

I did an experiment when I when out on the photography capturing task, where if anyone 'accidentally'
made eye contact I would hold it until they looked away. I also observed that to avoid this people look at anything they can: such as looking at shoes, around the carriage (avoiding eye contact), the adverts above the opposite line of seats was a particularly prominent task, often repeated or eyes fixed on the direction but perhaps thinking of other things.

I saw one advert in that space that contained an image - as on facebook if you don't have a profile picture/ clear identity - with a speech bubble which read:

"I am avoiding eye contact by reading this advert"

This is interesting as it suggests (as people behave) that they have their anonymity as long as they don't interact

Eye contact is a key social interaction, which is intensified while you are in a confined space, where you can't really help looking at people. Whereas in street environment, you usually wouldn't look at people you don't know for any length of time, unless you had a purpose on an intent. People don't like being stared at, plain and simple. It makes most people feel uncomfortable, and often suggests there is a reason for this interest.

I found (while thinking consciously about it) that it is quite difficult to avoid looking at the person sat opposite you on the tube, and at the same time they noticed the most if I was looking at them 'accidentally' before I flick my eyes back to the adverts.

2012 Time for change

I found the trailer for this film randomly on Itunes. I really really like the artwork. The idea behind the film is fantastic - looking at how we need to change our lifestyles to bring change in our environment.

 

"Its just our inital resitance to change, thats how we progress, we put ourselves out of the comfort zone."

The artwork is very illustrative and colourful with intricate detail. I'm quite interested in indian patterns for simliar reasons....Sari fabrics, multicoloured blankets and cushions, sequins, gold thread, silk...

I'm a big fan of colour. I don't know why, but I just love it, and I can't imagine a world without it. I think losing my sight would be one of the worst things for me. I wear a lot of bright colours - something i'm known for among my friends. I particularly love vibrant coloured paper and card - often investing in any I see. Paperchase is a goldmine for me. I can spend hours in there looking at paper. It is one of my obsessions.

I recently tried out laser cutting letters out of coloured card, loving the tactile feel of the little objects. I came across this work by Rob Ryan which I really love. The handcut, handmade effect gives the designs character and an innocence almost, allowing the person to be drawn into the little world thats depicted.

I really love the fairytale happiness, love and the little moments they represent.

This Poem - Elma Mitchell

This poem is dangerous it should not be left
Within the reach of children, or even of adults
Who might swallow it whole, with possibly
Indescribable side effects. If you come across
An unattended side effects. If you come across
An unattended unidentified poem
In a public place, do not attempt to tackle it
Yourself. Send it (preferably in a sealed container)
To the nearest centre of learning, where it will be rendered
Harmless by experts. Even the simplest poem
May destroy your immunity to human emotions.
All poems must carry a Government warning. Words
Can seriously affect your heart.

I really enjoy literature when I have time. I like poetry and lyrics and the way they can describe emotion indirectly and can have the ability to affect the way you feel. However "emo" this may sound I think words are a brilliant tool of expression. Articulation of emotion in media is quite wonderful - in visual and or verbal means.

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self blessing;
thogh sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words, and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self blessing.

By Galway Kinnel

Jonathan Harris

"Jonathan Harris (b. Aug 27, 1979) makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling"

http://www.number27.org/wffbook.html

http://wefeelfine.org/book/

An incredible project.

Ultimate Awesomeness

An incredible installation at London Design Festival in Trafalger Square.

http://www.outrace.org/

Fashion Concepts

I really enjoy the likes of Alexander McQueen's shows, really out there, quirky, unique and everyone in the fashion world would look forward to his shows. A brilliant man.  The designs, almost fairytale, extravagant, and costume like are really fascinating and make such an impact visually. His imagination is incredible and he really pushes his ideas to another level. I admire this greatly. RIP.

This is a collection I really liked - graduate fashion week