mechanical tumor from Mio I-zawa on Vimeo.
All people who have a digitally related job tend to develop a unique relationship with their computer. The machine is often humanized and referred to as a living creature. Depending on the day it could be a "good girl" who is in perfect shape and behaving properly, or a bad boy who doesn't want to work. The computer suffers imaginary illnesses as well. In the world of interactive media artist Mio I-zawa our machines develop a "mechanical Tumor". Mechanical Tumor is a biology inspired device that consists of a shivering chunk of fleshy organic-looking material that expands and contracts depending on the amount of stress your computer is experiencing. Equipped with a series of motors and pneumatic actuators, the mechanical tumor pulsates gently when the CPU load is low. When the CPU load is high, the tumor's air compressor is activated, causing the lump of flesh to inflate, giving the user a very tangible reading of the computer's stress level. When exhibited at IDD gallery in Shibuya people were invited to touch and feel the "skin of your computer". Still, it is hard to say if this is a metaphor describing the consequences of work addiction or if it is just a creepy example of data visualisation.
Valentina Culatti
http://i-mi.org/
Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture (Trailer) from Ezra Winton on Vimeo.
A new breed of revolutionary stands poised along our information highways waging war on logos and symbols. They're "Culture Jammers" and their mission is to artfully reclaim our mental environment and cause a bit of brand damage to corporate mindshare.
sample swarm from Daniel Bisig on Vimeo.
Interactive Swarm Space (ISS) explores the application of swarm simulations for the creation of interactive and immersive spaces. It aims to develop tools and strategies for establishing meaningful relationships between swarm behavior, interaction, perception, as well as musical and artistic expression. The project focuses on issues of multi-modal feedback and audio-visual spatialization which we deem central for a creative engagement with autonomous, self-organized and spatially distributed systems. This project is part of a research direction that explores the possibilities and challenges that artificial autonomous systems pose for artistic practice and performance.
We believe that in order to exploit the artistic potential of such systems, novel forms of interactivity, creativity, and aesthetics need to be found.
http://swarms.cc/
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This is my steampunk record player. Details available here:
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/2010/11/30/a-steam-punk-record-player
This is a small steam engine I made, mainly from bits of junk around my garage, playing a Sex Pistols punk LP. The engine speed is controlled by a throttle being driven from a servo controlled by an Arduino. The RPMs are measured by a coil detecting the passing of six magnets in the edge of the platter and the approximate revs are displayed on an analogue meter. I am using the PID controller library to do the work out how to control the servo based on the input speed. The safety valve is making the whistling noise at the start as steam pressure is built up. A small flick of the platter will start the engine and then the Arduino takes over trying to maintain 33 1/3 RPM. At the end the meths burner runs out of fuel so the steam pressure, and therefore the speed, drops. You can see the Arduino trying to throttle up to maintain the speed right at the end.
