Umbrella.net

Created by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki, Umbella.net look visually at mobile computer networks that connect spontaneously between mobile divices. This piece features white umbrellas with mobile devices attached to the shafts of the umbrellas. These umbrellas were operated by various people at various events. When participants would open the umbrella, the bobile device would attempt to establish a connection with other computer equipped umbrellas in the area. The color of the umbrella was created by LED lights in the umbrella to indicate the connection status, red signified that the mobile device was trying to establish a connection with the and blue means that a connection has been made. The umbrellas were chosen for aesthetic reasons and the creators "... believe these transitory networks can add surprise and beauty to our currently fixed communication channels."

This project embodies New Media art in how it involved a group of people to create the final product. This collaborative effort brought together people from all backgrounds, from architects to engineers, as well as designers and artists. As with many New Media projects that I have come across, the idea came up in a context other than an artistic one. Umbrella.net came up in an engineering context but had an artistic charm to it which allowed it to express an idea in a different way.

What caught my interest with this project was the want to find out more about the colored umbrellas. I think that to better relate to connecting to a network, Green LED lights would have been a better color for being connected to a network than the blue LED. On everything that I have ever seen, green means connected and red means that there is no connection. This change would have allowed a clearer understanding of the umbrellas and the mobile devices attached to them being connected with each other. I did like the dotted lines between the umbrellas to show that all the umbrellas were connected to one another because it was visually easy to understand.

This project was found on Mark Tribe website and the site can be found HERE.