TOROLAB

A group called Torolab created this project in the early 21st century by using a series of GPS transmitters and specific Torolab-designed clothing to explore logistics of the daily life of Torolab members over a 5 day period. The members were all from the twin border cities of Tijuana and San Diego of which a map was included in the animation of the raoming lab members. The idea behind the project which they called, The Region of the Transborder Trousers, was to use GPS systems to accumulate data which would be entered into a computer and analyzed by a program which they had altered. From the data that was input, a piece of art was born. Along with the GPS data to show where people have been, there were different colored circles to represent the location of the Torolab members with the diameter of the circles to show the amount of fuel that remained in their tank. This successful design was presented as an installation at an art show in Madrid known as ARCO.

This project, though it was not meant to be used for this purpose, takes a look at one of the busiest borders in the world. By tracking only a handful of people in the Tijuana/San Diego area, one can get an idea of the amount of activity surrounding the border. By releasing this in Madrid where they may not know about the area, I feel like more can be pulled from the projection than by those who understand the area and may overlook the activity of the Torolab members in the region. The Spaniards will analyze the projection and may be able to compare the region to one that is around them. By releasing in other parts of the world, cultures are connected, compared and related in different ways than how they would be through looking at data points of similar circumstances. The installation feels much more personal that data.

I really like this piece because it is a different way of looking at people from a different region and where their like takes them. It give a personal account of their life which can be understood by all cultures, young and old. There are no barriers for understanding this installation. I feel like that is important with new media because much of it is shared between people of different backgrounds and cultures. Without barriers it is all for anyone, not just for those who received background or those that know a little about the region. Thought this was a great piece!!

This was found on the Mark Tribe Website HERE.

John Klima's - Glasbead

John Klima's online art, Glasbead, is an interactive 3-D interface that allows 20 people to make music collaboratively. The interface is a 3-D translucent blue orb with stems that look like pistils of a flower radiating from the center of the orb. There are two types of stems, bells and hammers, which can be moved around the orb with the mouse. The bell stems are for participants to compose music and upload the file to the stem. By moving the purple rings around the bell stems, one can control the pitch and volume of the music. The music file saved on the bell stem plays when the hammer stem comes in contact with, "strikes", the bell stem. The idea behind the Glasbead came from a Nobel Prize winning novel by Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game. In the novel Hesse talks of a futuristic game where "cultural values are played like notes on an organ..." and requires input from people based on their background and knowledge. Klima created a spin off of this idea when making this piece creating a futuristic musical instrument requiring collaboration from different people.

This online art form is a very interactive piece which embraces the idea of New Media Art. By allowing people to simultaneously create music by themselves or with the help of others online, it brings people from different backgrounds together for a cause and to create art. While this interface allows people to create music/art, it also allows the other people on the system to analyze it and try to understand it. You don't have to be a composer to be creative on this system and have your "voice" heard by a lot of people. Klima is trying to bring people together to combine their ideas and provoke the creation of art that would otherwise not likely occur.

This interface is meant for bringing people together but it is art in itself. The orb and the stems are aesthetically pleasing and very cool to look at and interact with whether you are making music or just spinning the orb and moving the stems. I enjoyed this piece because I feel it encompasses all that New Media Art is. The piece is art in itself but it goes further than just that to being an interactive program for all people to enjoy!

I found this on the Mark Tribe website which can be found HERE.

Amalgamatmosphere

A group named the Radical Software Group (RSG) created CarnivorePE (Personal Edition), a new version of Carnivore which a digital wiretapping software application used by the FBI in the 1990's to monitor the traffic flowing through the servers of internet service providers. This new version of Carnivore is similar to the original version in that itis able to see what is going on on the internet servers. The program does not spy on emails or chatrooms, as the original version did, but rather turns what it sees on the server into different forms of art. One abstract from CarnivorePE is Amalgamatmosphere. The information that is collected by CarnivorePE represents each active user on the network as a brightly colored circle. The color of the circle reflects a specific activity and the size of the circle is reflects increased activity.

This new version of Carnivore came as a response to the high-tech form of state surveillance used by the Government in the 1990's. Many of the clients of CarnivorePE emphasize the political implications of network surveillance. These pieces of art show how in depth Carnivore can get into other servers and ordinary civilian computers. In an artistic way, you can see the different applications that are seen by the program via the large number of different colors. I like how this program brings the secrets of the government out into the light where people can see what capabilities our government has. While it is somewhat comforting to know the abilities when they are being used against our enemies, these capabilities were and may be being used against everyday civilians.

I enjoyed this piece because it is taking a very complicated computer spying software and creates an art piece that is easy to understand. By making this so easy to understand, those of us that are not as computer savvy can understand how extensive the Carnivore software can look into the internet servers by simply analyzing the different colors and sizes of the circles. Great piece of art and very interesting!

A few pictures.

Remote Sonar Drawing Device

This is a link to the article on Rhizome:
http://rhizome.org/object.php?o=49127&m=1042811

This is a link to a video describing the project:
http://www.dwbowen.com/remote_sonarmovie.html

Remote Sonar Drawing Device

David Bowen, an artist who is involved in a variety of electronic works, designed a project which involves the interactions from people in Minnesota and Spain. In each of these places Mr. Bowen set up robotic devices to draw by the direction of people from the opposite location. The device is composed of a sensor and a robotic drawing arm. Via the internet, sensors are sent to the drawing arm in the other location. Because of this set up, drawings are created in Spain by the people in Minnesota and vice-versa. It was encouraged for the people of each location to partcipate in the drawings taking place on the other side of the globe.

This art project really shows hows connected the world is. It shows that connections between people are limitless. While this project is similar to facebook and twitter in how it connects people from all over the world, it goes a step further in creating physical actions in another location as if they were there. This idea is known as telepresence and is a fast growing idea. David is advancing the connections between people in places all over the world and this is only the beginning of the idea of telepresence.

I think the idea behind this project is brilliant in gaining insight on the different views and ideas of art in different locations of the world. With the increasing need and use of video chatting and video conferences, this idea is another step in making the process that much more personal. I wish the article went more into detail about the process of submitting signals through the internet. This would have provided for a better understanding of the designs that were being drawn. Overall though, I liked how technology was involved in the creation of art but still using the creative minds of the world to input the designs on the paper.

Cool Pic

Thought this was a pretty cool piece of art and thought it might make my page look more colorful. First post down many more to follow.