(From the website) This Banff New Media Institute (BNMI)summit highlighted and facilitated the emerging dialogue on both artist-driven and socially conscious open source hardware projects. From prosthetic limbs to electronic hardware, the breadth of open source hardware projects and distributed models of manufacturing suggest that it is time for these disparate manufacturers, designers, artists, and engineers to come together to discuss the common issues of their practices.

Why it’s significant?

Because it’s one of the first centralized attempts at organizing all the hackers, phd’s, artists, creatives, interaction designers, experience designers, researchers, teachers, theorists, and studencts that work in open source hardware. While open hardware practices have led to the rapid development of a multitude of varied projects, no central organizing rules or practices exists for open hardware.

Open hardware brings excitement, a potential for real social effects, and a lightning-fast collaborative progress to the development of physical objects, but along with these benefits come a host of complicated issues. A central goal of the conference will be to bring to light these issues, in a multidisciplinary context that encourages exchange and collaboration.

Why does this matter?

‘Cause these are the people that are shaping the future of media experiences- for everyone. And we need to know what they are doing. These people are the ones that are inventing the next iphone, for free, for the sheer hell of it. They probably already have.

Why does this matter from a planning perspective?

Because good interactive design is social, and often experiential and progressive. And because these people are breaking down barriers and creating new ways to interact with their products, creating new kinds of products and totally re-working hardward as we know it.

Because this conference represents a core sampling of very different people all working in different ways under the framework of open hardware. Because they are not centrally organized, intentionally? and that represents an opportunity/platform for engagement with this audience on many levels- plainly speaking it means that they need help, guidance and support. They are growing communities of makers and they have to be service oriented in the social media space.

Following people and conferences like this that keep me inspired to do great work. The stuff I can learn in two days from a conference like this trumps hours of research. I got a first hand sense of the future of products, and design experiences by the people that are inventing tomorrow…

Wiki!

The wiki for the project is here: GOSH WIKI

Images

See Flickr.

He climbed Mt. Rundle and shot this video.

“this was a total of 6 hours; 4 or more hours up and then 1 to 2 hours down. i found the best place to park was literally at hole #1 on the golf course below; and this is where the trail head is ( you have to walk across the edge of the green near the spray river). the first portion of the hike is easy – to the big gully – from there it gets to be quite vertical to the top of the tree line. from the top of the treeline it is bare scree and strenuous although at least you can see your goal so that helps provide a sense of time. ”

I wanted to post some links to images from the final exhibit since I just got them.
I did my final thesis work on interaction design, the cyborgian state of our existence and socio-techno interaction in daily life. I looked particularly at the impact on craft, hacktivism, art and diy movements and discussed the implications on our sense of self and identity.

Our Best Machines are Made of Sunshine, Quilt 2009 by Paige Saez

I Made You a Wearable Computer, I Hope You Like It, T-shirts by Paige Saez 2009

My thesis Everyday Practical Magic brings together my research in social media, experience design, and anthropology, 
with my experience as a maker of material objects and hence, a facilitator of intimate exchanges 
between people, objects and the media. Through the work of Donna Haraway and Clay Shirky I 
outline the conditions of our political identity as cyborgs. I highlight the tremendous impact 
networked cultures (mobile and internet) have had on our understanding of social ritual. I describe 
three projects completed over the last four years that laid the groundwork for this paper and 
my thesis exhibit. 
Using Wittgenstein’s writings on meaning and use in his Philosophical Investigations, I point to the 
political power of language in shaping cultural understanding of different kinds of economies. 
I illustrate the work of two other like‐minded collectives; Superflex and The Center for Tactical Magic, 
and clarify what happens when art‐making, cultural activism, and communication technologies collide. 
Through Henry Jenkins’ work on Participatory Culture, I elucidate the hybridity of social 
media and art and describe the difference between interaction and participation. 
I rely on Jerry Saltz’ review of The Generational: Younger than Jesus to explain my and other millennial artists work as evidencing a trend towards anthropology, 
sociology and ethnography. Then I summarize the simplistic process, yet complicated context of the 
work I created for the Practical Everyday Objects exhibit. Finally, I  point out that art itself is a social 
media that emerged through use, and shapes the world around us.  

There are a bunch of images on my flickr account here: paige’s flickr

Like REALLY REALLY simple. Like this:

twitter.com/kissmehere

Kinda like a kiss. Yeah, just like that. Like a kissing booth! JUST like a Kissing Booth!

kisses!

The way this all works is that when you send a message to @kissmehere on twitter and you include the name of some people, it will send a kiss to all those people. For example:

@kissmehere go kiss @paigesaez @zephoria @soycamo @semaphoria @anselm

Kissmehere is no prude, you can kiss more than one person at the same time – or kiss only one person – it is up to you.

Kissmehere maps your kisses too!

MakerLab Kiss Map!

@kissmehere

How did I build it? This is just a riff on the same twitter code I have been using before. There are a few twists. First we have some pre-amble and we have a geocoding engine – thanks MetaCarta!!!:

require 'rubygems'
require 'dm-core'
require 'twitter'
require 'net/smtp'
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'json'
require 'dm-core'

#
# passwords
#
TWITTER_USER_NAME = "kissmehere"
TWITTER_PASSWORD = ""
METACARTA_USERID = ""
METACARTA_PASSWORD = ""
METACARTA_KEY = ""

#
# a very very nice metacarta utility to brute force discover location in text
#
def geolocate(location)
  location = URI.escape(location, Regexp.new("[^#{URI::PATTERN::UNRESERVED}]"))
  # location = URI.escape(location)
  host = "ondemand.metacarta.com"
  path = "/webservices/GeoTagger/JSON/basic?version=1.0.0"
  path = "#{path}&doc=#{location}"
  data = {}
  begin
    req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(path)
    req.basic_auth METACARTA_USERID, METACARTA_PASSWORD
    http = Net::HTTP.start(host)
    #if response.is_a?(Net::HTTPSuccess)
      response = http.request(req)
      puts response.body
      data = JSON.parse(response.body)
    #end
  rescue Timeout::Error
    # DO SOMETHING WISER
    return 0,0
  rescue
    return 0,0
  end
  begin
    lat = data["Locations"][0]["Centroid"]["Latitude"]
    lon = data["Locations"][0]["Centroid"]["Longitude"]
    return lat,lon
  rescue
  end
  return 0,0
end

We have a simple data model as usual to track our activity… again using datamapper which is a favorite of mine.

#
# Only send out 10 tweets at a time
#
twittercap = 10

#
# Grab a database
#
DataMapper.setup(:default, {
    :adapter  => 'postgres',
    :database => "kissmehere",
    :username => '',
    :password => '',
    :host     => 'localhost'
})

#
# here is our schema
#
class Kiss
  include DataMapper::Resource
  property :id,          Integer, :serial => true
  property :provenance,  Text
  property :uuid,        Text
  property :title,       Text
  property :link,        Text
  property :description, Text
  property :screenname,  Text
  property :userid,      Text
  property :location,    Text
  property :lat,         Float
  property :lon,         Float
  property :secret,      Integer, :default => 0
  property :friended,    Integer, :default => 0
  property :kissed_at,   DateTime
  property :created_at,  DateTime
end

We have the usual twitter gem code to peek at the twitter state. I am really starting to wonder how the heck twitter even stays up with the amount of traffic it is getting… In any case mine is not to worry but to do!

#
# Remember kiss requests
#
twitter = Twitter::Base.new(TWITTER_USER_NAME, TWITTER_PASSWORD )
twitter.replies().each do |twit|
  uuid = "#{twit.id}"
  kiss = Kiss.first(:provenance => "twitter", :uuid => uuid)
  next if kiss
  secret = 0
  secret = 1 if twit.text[/ secret/] != nil
  lat = 0
  lon = 0
  if twit.user.location && twit.user.location.length > 1
    lat,lon = geolocate(twit.user.location)
  end
  kiss = Kiss.create(
             :provenance => "twitter",
             :uuid => uuid,
             :title => twit.text,
             :link => nil,
             :description => nil,
             :screenname => twit.user.screen_name,
             :userid => twit.user.id,
             :location => twit.user.location,
             :lon => lon,
             :lat => lat,
             :secret => secret
          )
  kiss.save
  puts "Saved a kiss on twitter! #{kiss.userid} #{kiss.title} #{kiss.lat} #{kiss.lon}"
end

Next we want to respond to kisses in an intelligent way; telling everybody, friending new friends and all that kind of fun stuff.

#
# Pass new kisses onwards ( only do twittercaps worth )
#
@kisses = Kiss.all(:order => [:created_at.desc],
                   :limit => twittercap,
                   :kissed_at => nil
              ).each do |kiss|

  # tease each kiss apart for multiple receivers
  kisses = kiss.title.scan(/\@\w+/)
  kisses.each do |luckyduck|
    next if luckyduck == "@kissmehere"
    if kiss.secret == 0
      kiss.link = "http://twitter.com/#{kiss.screenname}/statuses/#{kiss.uuid}"
      gossip = "#{luckyduck} got a kiss from @#{kiss.screenname} - see #{kiss.link} "
      # if kiss.lat != 0 && kiss.lon != 0
      #  gossip = " - #{gossip} near #{kiss.location}"
      # end
    else
      kiss.link = nil
      gossip = "@#{luckyduck} got a kiss from an anonymous admirer!"
    end
    kiss.description = gossip
    result = twitter.post(gossip)
    puts "Told everybody #{result} of #{gossip}"
  end
  if kisses.length == 0
    puts "No love from #{kiss.screenname}"
  end
  kiss.kissed_at = DateTime.now
  kiss.save

  # friend everybody - could improve this
  begin
    twitter.create_friendship(kiss.screenname)
  rescue
  end
  kisses.each do |luckyduck|
    begin
      #if twitter.friendship_exists(TWITTER_USER_NAME,luckyduck)
      twitter.create_friendship(luckyduck)
    rescue
    end
  end

end

Finally we write out an RSS feed for Google Maps – thanks @ajturner for the quick tip. I wasn’t able to get ruby rss maker to do anything useful such as allow me to specify custom namespaces for the geo:lat and geo:long attributes so I wrote everything by hand! By doing this we can then make a map page which has all the kisses on it just for fun. I guess I won’t show this blob because it breaks the layout engine in wordpress… I will link to the original file however at agent.txt

That’s it. Have fun out there in the twitter verse!

‘If connotation and personalization, fashion and automatism, all tend to focus upon those astructural features whose irrational motivations the logic of production seeks to control and systematize, this is perhaps also because man has neither clear will to transcend nor any great prospect of transcending the aformentioned archaic structures or projection; or at least that he has a deep-seated resistance to sacrificing subjective, projective virtualities and their eternal recurrence on the altar of concrete structural development (both technical and social); or again, to put it in the simplest terms, that man has a profound resistance to imposing rationality upon the purely arbitrary goals of his needs. This may well constitute a fatal turn for the modus existendi of the object, as indeed of society as a whole. Once a certain point in technical development has been reached, and hence primary needs have been satisfied, we may well demand a phantasied, allegorical and subconsious edibility of the object as much as, or even more that, an actual functionality.’ Baudrillard, The System of Objects pg.128

‘The objects dysfunctionality, its counter-purpose, is governed, by two parallel sets of determinants; a socio-economic system of production and a psychological system of projection. It is the reciprocal involvement of these two systems, their collusion, that we need to define.’ Baudrillard, The System of Objects pg.123

‘Man, for his part, by automating his objects and rendering them multi-functional instead of striving to structure his practices in a fluid and open-ended manner, reveals in a way what part he himself plays in a technical society that of the most beautiful all-purpose object, that of an instrumental model.
In this sense automatism and personalization do not contradict one another in the slightest, Automatism is simply personalization dreamt in terms of the object. It is the most finished, the most sublime form of the inessential – of that marginal differentiation which subtends mans personalized relationship to his objects.’ Baudrillard, The System of Objects pg.112

None of this is reprinted with permission, and as such will most likely get me into trouble. I wanted to just let you know that this stuff is mindblowingly cool to read and came out about 30 years ago. I am relying on his writings as a form of critique for the work that I am doing towards my final show.

here is a link to the book on amazon.com

Gary Wiseman at IGLOO Gallery December 2008

‘The creative individual, previously known as ‘Artist’ has an unprecedented opportunity to step out of the margins of society into the mainstream. This creative individual may choose to use his/her creative, critical, self reflexive thinking techniques (the artistic method) to effect change and development from within the multitude. The creative individual may drop him/herself as a creative “Bomb” into the wastelands of the suburban super culture.’

More here

Keywords for Gary:
* systems: of food/ * ecology / * basketball / * social landscapes / * social architecture / * co-relational design / * collaboration / * lineages / * ritual / * home / * family / * anthropology of food / * the use of aesthetics to create live images of proactive social possibilities / * indigenous flora and fauna of the Northwest USA

Rafter “Juicy” Music Video By Dax Norman from dax norman on Vimeo.

M83 We Own The Sky Music Video by Dax Norman from dax norman on Vimeo.

This Sunday, January 17, 2009 starting at 4pm.
Good Beer is the Best by Eric Steen
Eric Steen will be pairing beers together on hand-made serving trays for guests. Good beer makes for good conversation. Steen will also be screening sci-fi movies.

This Sunday is a POT LUCK! So please bring a dish if you can.
As always, bring a project, share a project..get help and help others please!

IGLOO Gallery
325 NW 6th #102
PDX, OR 97209

Hours & Location
First Thursday 6-10pm,
Saturdays 1-5
and by appointment.
Closed last Saturday.

And of course Sundays we chill.

But what about Zip files in the era of ubiquitious computing? Won’t Zip files begin to appear everywhere?

Well, now you can take YOUR OWN zip file everywhere with the new ZIP SHIRT!

That’s right…our new Zip shirts come in two different flavors — male and female! So whether you’re male, or your female…you too can have one of these lovely shirts…

Show the world how you zip! Or just show your social network! Zip shirts are made of awesome materials that hurt the environment 60% less than other shirts (of course, they still hurt the environment, so if you’re upset about that we apologize). They also contain 20% less fat!

Shirts will be sent to you two weeks after you order them. We hand craft them ourselves, so we’re sorry that our handicraft does not measure up to the Henery Ford assembly mode model you’re used to.

How can you purchase one? Simply comment below and we’ll E-mail you some cool stuff. Like prices — and we’ll ask for your address, probably your shirt size too. We only accept PayPal right now, which is cool and kinda safe, but mostly lame.