The city gets some help from Eyebeam
It looks like Mayor Bloomberg is endorsing current Eyebeam resident Andrea Polli’s proposal (a project she began four years ago) to create wind turbines for the spires of the Queensboro Bridge. Working with the NASA Goddard Climate Research Group, technical designer Markus Maurette and videographer Morgan Barnard, Polli produced a short video promoting the installation of working turbines as an art project on the bridge that would provide enough power to light the necklace lights, which were turned off by Bloomberg a few months after 9/11 in order to save money. Polli’s project was inspired by the darkening of the necklace lights and by the Northeast blackout of 2003.
Polli’s project has been presented widely througout New York City, nationally and internationally. Looks like the inspiration is mutual-during the 2003 blackout, Polli remembers listening to the mayor speak of the need for innovative solutions to the energy issue on the radio, and began work on the project the very next day.
For more information visit: http://www.andreapolli.com/queensbridge
Posted on August 29, 2008 at 04:10 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
In development: An open source app that visually corrupts images & photostreams of idealized ‘nature’ images using dynamic air pollution and visibility data from selected U.S. national parks. Commissioned by Turbulence.
Co-founded in 2005 by Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint, EcoArtTech works with digital, networked, and sustainable technologies and contemporary environments to create art about the environmentality of modern life.
Posted on August 25, 2008 at 11:33 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
13.5 billion in tax breaks for oil companies
Put this ad on the air
There was a vote to decide if $13.5 billion in tax breaks for oil companies should go into oil alternatives, like solar and wind. 60 votes were needed to prevail, and 59 of them were in. But John McCain ducked the vote. As a result, instead of powering millions of homes with clean energy and building next-generation solar technology, ExxonMobil and other companies are getting billions in tax breaks at a time when they’re already making record profits.
Source: “Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007,” U.S. Senate Roll Call Vote, December 13, 2007
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00425&long=1
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 01:31 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Graffitti Research Lab founder James Powderly detained by Chinese…
International Artist Detained in Beijing for Planning Pro-Tibet Free Speech Exhibit
Students for a Free Tibet Notified of Detention by Twitter Message
Internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early this morning while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a “twitter” message received today by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown.
The image below was shot in New York City in July, shortly before James departed for Asia.
Learn more about this…
http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/jamespowderly
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/grls-james-powderly.html
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?p=161
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 12:11 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Google launches Free the Airwaves - Bring wireless Internet to everyone,…
via http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-to-free-airwaves.html
http://www.freetheairwaves.com
From the website:
About freeing the airwaves
One of America’s most valuable natural resources is our “white spaces”—the radio airwaves, or spectrum, that have long carried analog TV signals. Three-fourths of the white spaces are completely unused today, and—especially once TV is broadcast in digital only starting in 2009—could be used to kick-start a revolution in wireless technology, including universal wireless online access and numerous new products and services that can’t even be imagined today.
This fall, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will decide whether to make this spectrum available for anyone to use. At Google, we think more open access to the white spaces is essential, not only for companies like ours, but for society in general. But this outcome is far from certain, so we’ve joined a broad coalition of public interest groups and industry peers who are working to convince the FCC to free the airwaves and unleash the next generation of Internet innovation. We hope you’ll add your voice to the debate by signing our petition (links to 3.0 Take Action) and helping spread the word about this campaign.
Posted on August 18, 2008 at 12:57 PM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
COMPUTER BEATS PRO AT U.S. GO CONGRESS
Go (wéiqí) is an ancient strategic board game dating back to the 4th century BC and originating in China. The game has long resisted the efforts by engineers to construct a Go-computer than can beat a human Go master.
In a historic achievement, the artificial intelligent MoGo computer program defeated professional Go player Myungwan Kim 8P Thursday by 1.5 points in a 9-stone game. MoGo used 800 processors, at 4.7 Ghz, 15 Teraflops on borrowed supercomputers.
The Singularity Is Nearing
Posted on August 13, 2008 at 11:02 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
MISSPENT YOUTH OR : WHY I SPENT MY SUMMERS INDOORS
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| By David Merten "It’s an epic meditation on intangibility." - Patrick Bateman "It stinks on fucking hot ice." - Cheech MISSPENT YOUTH OR: WHY I SPENT MY SUMMERS INDOORS is a collection of 200 re-purposed film stills designed to juxtapose the similarities of very different films. Pick up a copy @ GHava{Press} | ||||
Posted on August 13, 2008 at 10:25 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
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Darkening is an attempt at a return to immediacy. After many years obsessing about and carefully laying out pages for book projects as well as over thinking client driven work, Randall Lane felt an urge to create something with as little second guessing and editing as possible. To use a beloved old school independent publishing platform, the zine, as the outlet for some random photographs and doodles.
Pick up a copy @ GHava{Press}
Posted on August 12, 2008 at 03:38 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
I just bought some bees wax for some new art I’m working on and it reminded me that bees are dying.
is.gd/1mXX
is.gd/1mX4
is.gd/1mX7
is.gd/1mXr
is.gd/1mYx
is.gd/dZi
Posted on August 11, 2008 at 10:40 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
FontStruct is a free font-building tool that was designed to be self-explanatory so that anyone, without any type design or technical experience, can get started right away. Once you’re done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application. You can keep your creations to yourself, but it’s encouraged that users share their “FontStructions”. Explore the Gallery of fonts made by other FontStruct users and download them or even copy them and make your own variations.
Posted on August 10, 2008 at 03:02 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
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CUM SERIES
30 x 40 inches, The series is made out of 9 images, lambda digital color prints mounted on masonite. Edition of 5 plus 2 artist’s proofs. The full boxed set holds all 9 images in 16 x 20 inch format.
NYC based artist Ashkan Sahihi’s confrontational imagery deals with issues of sexuality, advertising, drugs and cultural normalities.
Posted on August 10, 2008 at 01:32 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
A followup to Hurling Earth into parallel universe?
CERN announced that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made on 10 September. Once stable circulating beams have been established, they will be brought into collision, and the final step will be to commission the LHC’s acceleration system to boost the energy to 5 TeV, taking particle physics research to a new frontier.
The event will be webcast through http://webcast.cern.ch
Will Barras is responsible for the beats. The rapper Katem Calpine has a day job as a science writer.
Posted on August 10, 2008 at 12:32 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
By Jared Tarbell (cofounder of Etsy) using the Peter De Jong system based on code by Paul Bourke
The Sand Traveler
J. Tarbell, June, 2004, Processing
“a rendering of 1,000 traveling particles, each in pursuit of another”
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions.
Check out the Gallery of Computation for more.
Posted on August 10, 2008 at 08:22 AM | Comment (2 comments) | Digg
“The Elizabeth Kent Story” circa 2002
We are now offering a free PDF download of our very first self-published book, The Elizabeth Kent Story. Compiled and designed between 1999 and 2002 the book is a collection of pages, both individual and collaborative, from the members of GH avisualagency, formerly Graphic Havoc. The Elizabeth Kent Story was originally offered as a limited and numbered edition of 1000 and has been sold out for years.
Download the file and enjoy a glimpse into our early publishing endeavors.
The Elizabeth Kent Story
Posted on August 01, 2008 at 04:04 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
The Journal of Urban Typography
Above photos by Bryan Collins
http://tjout.tumblr.com
Posted on July 15, 2008 at 09:03 AM | Comment (2 comments) | Digg
the decapitator “Untitled 23” T.O.D: 7/05/08 @ Old Street / Shoreditch Hight Street
Posted on July 11, 2008 at 03:14 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Interactive Timeline of Virtual Worlds
http://www.dipity.com/user/xantherus/timeline/Virtual_Worlds
An interactive, collaborative timeline of the history and development of virtual worlds.
Posted on July 06, 2008 at 03:09 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Bringing together 24 street artists from all over the world, Electric Windows is a semi-permanent installation of large-scale work exhibited on the exterior windows of a 19th century blanket factory in Beacon, NY. We traveled to the small town earlier this year to meet some of the artists and watch them make “urban art” in a not-so-urban setting. We also interview one of the organizers, Daniel Weise, a vet of the NYC street artist scene who recently moved to Beacon and co-founded Beacon’s Open Space gallery there.
via: http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/07/electric_window.php
Posted on July 05, 2008 at 12:20 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
“My Life as An Avatar” 06-08 by Annie Ok
“My Life as An Avatar” 06-08
Machinima of Xantherus Halberd in Second Life.
Part of ongoing “My Life as An Avatar” series by Annie Ok.
Song: TAIGA, “Savia de mil heridas”
Posted on July 04, 2008 at 08:08 PM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
Graffiti Research Lab: L.A.S.E.R. TAG @ BAM Thu, May 29 & Sat,…
http://bam.org/sundance/frontier_2008_LASER.aspx
http://graffitiresearchlab.com
From the website:
Graffiti Research Lab: L.A.S.E.R. TAG
Thu, May 29 & Sat, May 31L.A.S.E.R. TAG is a Weapon of Mass Defacement (WMD) that gives individuals the power to communicate their thoughts on buildings, using a 60-milliwatt laser and a big-ass projector. On Opening Night and on Saturday, May 31, the G.R.L. will “bomb” the outside of BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp Building.
The Graffiti Research Lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists, pranksters, and protesters with open-source tools for urban communication. Thousands of clandestine agents have been trained, via the web, and have used G.R.L. tools and techniques to create their own public actions in cities all over the world.
Graffiti Research Lab: the first season
Sat, May 31 at midnight
Free!Meet the G.R.L. and watch a free screening of their documentary about their experiments with technology, urban centers, and random encounters with people on the streets.
G.R.L. The Complee7 First Season (Trailer) from fi5e on Vimeo.
Posted on May 21, 2008 at 12:59 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Who is Bozo Texino? by Bill Daniel
Photo by poohka
From the website: http://www.billdaniel.net/who_is_bozo_texino/
THIS SPECTACULAR TRAVEL ADVENTURE FAITHFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED IN REALISTIC BLACK AND WHITE FILM AT CONSIDERABLE RISK FROM SPEEDING FREIGHT TRAINS AND IN SECRET HOBO JUNGLES IN THE DOGGED PURSUIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLY CONVOLUTED STORY OF THE HERETOFORE UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE CENTURY-OLD FOLKLORIC PRACTICE OF HOBO AND RAILWORKER GRAFFITI AND THE ABSURD QUEST FOR THE TRUE IDENTITY OF RAILROADING’S GREATEST ARTIST WILL LIKELY AMUSE AND CONFOUND YOU IN ITS SINCERE ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND AND PRESERVE THIS ARTFORM.
Who is Bozo Texino?
by Bill Daniel
56 min. black and white, experimental/documentary
Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti-- a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino"-- a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists, Coaltrain, Herby, Colossus of Roads, and The Rambler. Shooting over a 16-year period, Daniel rode freights across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex. During his quest he discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions as both a sub-cultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity. “I was drawn to the subject by the universal graffiti impulse and the classic, corny notion of freight train blues escape.” - BD
Posted on May 19, 2008 at 10:25 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
AN AMBIGUOUS ANIMATION PAINTED ON PUBLIC WALLS
Made in Buenos Aires and Baden
Animation and Editing: Blu
Producer: Mercurio film
Soundtrack: Andrea Martignoni
via: http://www.blublu.org/blog
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 03:01 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Norwayweb by Bjorn Magnhildoen
Norwayweb was originally part of a series called Protocol Performance realised in 2007 with the support of the Norwegian Cultural Council, section for art and new technology. This work uses specific data collected from a source or sources originating from the national system’s database. The information is scraped from about 4 million Norwegian tax payer’s databases. As soon as you visit the web page, you automatically trigger off the action of collecting the data. On the left side of the interface figures cascade down the page before your very eyes, which gradually evolves into what Magnhildoen calls a carpet. The term carpet is a reference to the textile based craft of weaving.
When opening the web page the viewer becomes a participant in the collection of the data, each number represents one singular individual which is added as you watch it in real-time. It stops when you close the browser and starts all over again if you return. Once the total of the numbers reach 3943077 the carpet is completed. If you leave the browser open on the page of the Norwayweb artwork for I minute, you will have triggered off and received information equivalent to 60 people. The whole work itself is complete once there has been 555 hours of viewing of it. By taking part in the process of web-scraping we become affiliated as peer scrapers in the accumulation other people’s personal tax details based in Norway.
Bjorn has mentioned that he is aware that collecting such data could be ethically questionable and is not clear himself how real it is that a law is actually being broken. As a kind of opt out clause or fail-safe he suggests that, visitors to the artwork could also be peer criminals due to the fact that they are (or we are) going through the systematic process of collecting this information and are not necessarily just passive observers. The complexity of acting out a simple thing as clicking onto a web page and becoming a co-conspirator without the intention of criminal intent, poses some confusing questions. Not only regarding our liberties in respect of are we really to blame for someone’s work of art by just viewing it? But it also begs the question that if Magnhildoen unintentionally (or intentionally) broke the law and involved other people visitors to the work, surely he is the main culprit. Like a drug dealer who peddles drugs, perhaps he is peddling illegal information, by actively setting up a system in sourcing it and then distributing it to others to potentially use. My guess is that all is fine if the Norwegian Cultural Council funded and supported the project.
Bjørn Magnhildøen uses network media for creation, distribution, exhibition, and documentation of his works. His main practice is analog and digital net media and covers a period of twenty-five years ranging from mail art to net art. His work might be characterized as marginal, fleeting, transient; changing, casual; unstable, deviant; ironic, contextual. Many of his recent projects deals with net art books, writing machines and software implemented on the net, live or performative writing and programming, codework, hypertext, and e-poetry. He’s the author of more than fourty books, many of them collaborative and generative works, and also publishes books concerned with net art and net writing.
In the eighties he got involved in mail art. These activities migrated into the emergent electronic networks in the nineties, as did his academic interests, from philosophy, via language, logic and information, to computer science. He has supported himself as a system developer, later as freelance programmer and artist within the field of art and new technology.
via: http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=295
Posted on April 28, 2008 at 10:33 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks
[...]Researcher Johnny Lee became a YouTube star with his demo of Wii Remote hacks -- bending the low-cost game piece to power an interactive whiteboard, a multitouch surface, a head-mounted display ... [...]
via http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/204
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 02:46 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Apparent Horizon, Derek Lerner 2008 Digital video 01:30:00 minutes 720 x 405 pixels
Posted on April 13, 2008 at 04:51 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Permalink | Digg
