Hanging out, catching up on some reading, listening to music, and digging through favorites I’ve stashed for chill out evenings like tonight. Found this infographic for The Neurology of Gaming. A lot of the positive and negative effects of gaming are relatively common sense but “parts of the brain activated” by game play make the graphic worth perusing. I can’t wait to delve into arts and tech research. Game design and theory has piqued my interest lately. My goodness, so much to read. For now, an infographic will do!
OKFocus created ART or NOT, which is a way for you to rate whether something is art or not. Quite honestly, it was challenging for me to rate anything because much of the art experience depends on context. The environment and space around a work is just as important. Or, is it? With so many works of art across disciplines and mediums, anything is art. Right? Well, here’s your chance to pass judgement. ART or NOT allows you to rate works (or non-works) and see what percentage of the population believed whether it was art or not. You will find, soon enough, that you question what you believe and perceive as art. Quite the mental exercise if you ask me. Make it a family activity, if you want to avoid the awkward obligatory holiday conversation, this will definitely be a good discussion topic. Enjoy!
Talk to Me: The Design and Communication between People and Objects
An incredible exhibition of new media and interactive art at the New York Museum of Modern Art. I took an insane amount of photos but wanted to share the pieces that stood out. All of the works were impressive but this would be a ridiculously long post. Please feel free to comment and/or ask questions start a dialogue. Enjoy!!!
SMSlingshot, 2009 ~ Team: Christian Zollner, Patrick Tobias Fischer, Thilo Hoffmann, Sebastian Piatza, and VR/Urban
SMSlingshot was made from the following: high-frequency radio, Arduino board, laser, batteries, plywood, and ash wood. The SMSlingshot marries a traditional weapon with text-messaging technology, projecting digital information onto building facades and other surfaces and turning them into public screens. The battery-powered device is a wooden slingshot with a display screen, keypad, and laser. Users type text messages and then release the slingshot to “blast” them onto nearby surfaces, where they appear within a splash of color and linger as long as the writers decide: at the same instant, the text is transmitted globally via Twitter. For the designers, the SMSlingshot is a tool for reclaiming and occupying increasingly commercialized urban space.
~ Text Source: New York MoMA Exhibition Plaque text
Engaging work by Jaakko Tuomivaara
Hide & See by artist, Jaakko Tuomivaara
A constantly ringing phone doesn’t delight anyone – especially when you have guests around. A discreet cue showing incoming calls and their relative importance gives you the chance to ignore anything that can wait and make your excuses when something can’t.
Every call shows up as a dot, with the red dots around the lips reserved for important numbers. This way the owner of the piece can quickly decode both the number and relative importance of the calls.
~ Text Source: Artist Site (Please click on the image above to learn more about Hide & See and other works by Tuomivaara)
Growing up Catholic, this piece absolutely intrigued me...
Prayer Companion alerts the nine Poor Clare nuns cloistered at a monastery in York, England, to issues that need their prayers. The nuns, whose everyday lives have changed little since medieval times, take vows of enclosure, and presently their connections to the outside world are occasional and limited. Designed to be understated and unobtrusive, the Prayer Companion – the nuns call it “Goldie” – sits on a table in a well-traveled hallway, scrolling a ticker tape of current issues sourced from RSS news feeds, social networking sites, and blog entries aggregated by the website We Feel Fine (which compiles the emotions of anonymous strangers who have posted the words “I feel” or “I am feeling”). The nuns report that Prayer Companion “has been valuable in keeping (our) prayers pertinent”.
Had a great time with friends at the Hotel Stanford off Broadway Avenue! Lively discussion ensued. In particular, a new friend introduced me to Cleverbot. For some of you, I might be ridiculously late. As a surveying student of an Intro to Artificial Intelligence online class, I’m curious and willing to learn new methods utilizing Artificial Intelligence.
Trying to have a Cleverbot conversation using my iPhone | Please Note: The blue text is Cleverbot. ~ Image Source: Cleverbot
Below, you will find a screenshot of an early morning dialogue with Cleverbot. Not the most clever but it was entertaining. Trust me, I’ve heard some really unintelligible conversation between human beings! Lastly, just because Cleverbot doesn’t necessarily offer me the answer I want, does it mean it’s unintelligent? Think about it, from a GPS navigation system to Google Translate, artificial intelligence doesn’t always give the answer we’re looking for or hoping for (hope is such a human thing too). So, Artificial Intelligence isn’t so bad I guess? After all, it was developed and created by humans…hmmm.
Yet another chat with Cleverbot. This time, from my laptop. ~ Image Source: Cleverbot
Dorothy R. Santos 