October 2011
27 posts
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P. Comp: Observing Interaction
The blog assignment this week was to
“Pick a piece of interactive technology in public, used by multiple people. Write down your assumptions as to how it’s used, and describe the context in which it’s being used. Watch people use it, preferably without them knowing they’re being observed. Take notes on how they use it, what they do differently, what appear to be the...
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Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence by Donald Hoffman expands my own ideas of what experiences I could create. He describes our ability to create the what, where and when of what we feel. He emphasizes virtual touch as an area that we haven’t yet worked with extensively, aside from the games in video arcades.
I wonder where virtual senses place in the spectrum of our bandwidth of consciousness. Sight,...
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ICM: Midterm: Process
ICM Midterm:
Various iterations of actions and results:
1. Only wind. Send to Arduino. React somehow.
2. Wind -> Arduino -> analog input where if the wind is higher, the LED is brighter
Decision to focus on smoothing the Processing side such that more “children”* of the XML can be included and easily sent over to the Arduino without losing track of the...
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WatchFirst rough cut with Video+Sound group: Michelle Boisson, Phil Groman, Jee Won Kim.
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P. Comp: Design of Everyday Things (2)
In “Emotion & Design: Attractive things work better” Don Norman discusses the role of affect in design. He takes note of how tunnel vision and focus can come from a certain amount of anxiety and fear, while positive affect can make it easier for us to do difficult tasks. He writes, “Use a pleasing design, one that looks good and feels, well, sexy, and the behavior seems to go...
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ICM: Manipulating Video: Shawn Richman in Maui →
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ICM: HSB Play and Psych of Color →
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Re-posting according to course titles for easier...
I realized that if my posts had photos as their identifiers, most of my professors, classmates and other interested people would not be able to navigate my work…
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P. Comp: Fantasy Device
FANTASY DEVICE:
There are many movies of talking dogs. But what if… our dogs could talk to us in real life? Whenever they had something important to say?
The “Ultimate Dog Tease” video was rated number one on Youtube back in May: it got 5 million views. So I can’t be the only dog owner who thinks it might be fun to hear my dog’s thoughts.
How would...
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ICM: Sunrise Sunset
Claire Mitchell and I worked on a sketch for ICM this week that is based on the sunset. I thought of this children’s book (Norse / Finnish folktale) about a witch who steals the sun and the stars.
Here’s the link to the sketch on Open Processing.
Some of my sketch coding…
And the witch who stole the sun:
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ICM: Deer in the Forest
The iterative deer in the forest.
Arrays! Forests. Treetops. I took the colors for the trees from the fall colors last year. Initially Rose Schlossberg and I wanted to put a bunny hopping across, but that would be wrong for fall.
ICM: As We May Think
In the article As We May Think (The Atlantic, 1945), Dr. Vannevar Bush urges men of science to shift away from using science for warfare. Instead, he “calls for a new relationship between the thinking man and the sum of knowledge” as the Editor of The Atlantic Monthly writes. Bush argues that scientists should work on making our massive store of knowledge more accessible and helping...
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P.Comp: Design Meets Disability
Design Meets Disability by Graham Pullin
The chapter we read begins by describing the many pieces for handicapped people that have been designed with discretion in mind. They enable without attracting attention. Pullin contrasts this with fashion’s sensibility— looking good, feeling better, adding self-confidence through apparel.
However, eyewear has made the transition from...
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ICM: Science, Technology and Poetry
“Science, Technology and Poetry: Some Thoughts on Jackson Mac Low” by Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
Most interested in Jackson’s idea of “ego-less poetry” achieved through algorithms as well as his own happening upon ideas and inspiration in sources such as the Scientific American. I suppose our random function achieves some of the ego-less. But not very much because we...
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ICM: Cathedral and the Bazaar
Some of my favorite quotations from “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.”
“Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” On the other hand, suppose many people are trying trace paths in parallel while doing rapid releases. Then it is likely one of them will find the easiest path immediately, and nail the bug in a much shorter time. The project maintainer will see that, ship a...
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Video + Sound: The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster, is a disturbing portrait of a time when we no longer have to move to get anything we want. Or rather, to get anything we think we want.
The book covers a vast array of social ills that we associate with the onslaught of the machines. In fact, one of the presentations for the Applications class focused on this same question: how much do you control the machine,...
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P. Comp: The User Illusion
A few things that stood out to me from the chapter “Bandwidth of Consciousness” in Norretrander’s book, The User Illusion, published 1991.
Though there is a huge amount of information coming towards our senses, only a small portion actually enters one’s consciousness
The rule of seven: we can only take in seven items at once.
We are good at chunking— especially...
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