Tags: animationNo Comments.
ITP eating club
September 21st, 2008 by
Respond
Here we are at lee-seans for the ITP eating club. Check out ze menu!
Also, take a gander at this smorgasborg of delectible delights…
Tags: ITP · social2 Comments
Tech-retard, it’s not your fault
September 15th, 2008 by
Respond
For Physical Computing, Hyejin and I went to Kinko’s to observe people using technology. Our focus quickly turned to the Sony picture printing kiosk. The interactions people had with the machine were varied. One person using the kiosk seemed to be experienced at it. The efficacy with which she accomplished her task was impressive. Another, more interesting case was a man who was having a lot of difficulty. After failing to get one kiosk, he eventually moved to another where he began slowly progressing through the interface. After about ten minutes, I approached him. He was still in the process of selecting photos to print. I asked him about his experience with the machine, and he responded “I am retarded with these kinds of things” speaking presumably about technology in general. This was a curious response, since the first machine he had used was in fact dysfunctional. So it wasn’t a problem with the user, but rather with the tool. Nonetheless he blamed himself.
I think this is a common response to failure with technology. We assume that the technology is effective despite our experience. In this case, a more intuitive response might be dissatisfaction or frustration, from my perspective.
There is a alternative design solution that may have alleviated the man’s difficulties with memory cards. Instead of trying to accommodate as many card types as possible and cluttering the terminal, the designers could have created a single mini usb connector, a connection that is ubiquitous in digital cameras.
Tags: usabilityNo Comments.
love-o-meter stage 1
September 14th, 2008 by
Respond
Senses proximity and indicates the programmed comfort zone or “personal space” of the sensor through a series of LEDs.
[Read more →]
Tags: analog · sensorNo Comments.
Light switch combination lock
September 10th, 2008 by
Respond
Tags: arduino · sensor · switchNo Comments.
Light switch
September 8th, 2008 by
Respond
Making light of the artist
July 5th, 2008 by
Respond
The Lumiere Manifesto expounds on a vision of online media that emphasizes authenticity of experience, for creator and consumer alike. Its tenets are based on the characteristics of early film, e.g. brevity and lack of editing. For the authors, these qualities enhance the integrity of the experience, and stand in stark contrast to most contemporary video, especially broadcast and cinema.
In an effort to promote their ideals, the authors “curate” an online video gallery whose content must meet prescribed guidelines that approximate the limitations of early film:
- 60 seconds max.
- Fixed camera
- No audio
- No zoom
- No edit
- No effects
Having read the manifesto and viewed some of the submissions, I recognize the power of the restrictions they’ve devised to facilitate aesthetically and conceptually appealing pieces. However, I find a contradiction in terms in ruling out both editing and audio. Sound recording is usually enabled by default in contemporary video recording devices, so I suspect that for at least some of the submissions, audio was edited out. Clearly this is a trangression of the manifesto’s ideals. Even in cases in which audio was never present, the creator must have taken extra measures to disable audio recording. I see this is a form of on camera editing, and an impediment to spontanaiety.
Deciding to record something is choosing not to record something else, and is thus already an editorial decision. Post-production editing is merely an extension of that process. Editing allows the artist to distill content to correspond with his or her experience of the moment. The exponents of Lumiere Video ignore the merit of artistic vision on the grounds that it limits the free choice of the viewer. I argue that the medium, by virtue of its bandwidth limitations, requires editorial vision to restore its degraded content. Our level of trust dictates whether or not we value the artist/editors vision. Sometimes the creators don’t merit our trust, but when they do, the experience is more worthwhile than watching purportedly “raw” footage.
Incidentally, the my vlog debut comes close to the requirements of Lumiere video.
Concering my voice
July 5th, 2008 by
Respond
Voice can be a window or a closed door.
Tags: identity · podcastingNo Comments.
