The work of Liu Bolin. Via Isaac Mao’s rss feed leading to a post by 56minus1. ( + Check as recommended the work of Desiree Palmen).
Find more of Liu Bolin’s work on flickr.
Makes me think of… the invisibility cloak.
Alright… A brand new installation at home… the heating system, the “eco radio system”, has replaced the older one (You know… you would see the fire of the boiler). All seems good, until you realize that when all lights are blinking… that means there is a problem that you can’t fix by yourself (At least when the fire was off, you would have a clue about what to do). Now you have to call a specialist… The situation talks about the meta_architecture of storage spaces that accompanies technological home improvements.
Also… few links concerning intelligent homes (Info via Archistorm issue #34):
The Philips Research… Homelab
The Dombox of Delta Dore: .pdf
The software Domovea by Hager + Microsoft
In One de Legrand
Via Wired science. A smart home made from recycled materials… The consumption of energy/media is monitored.
Again another cool article in PingMag: Masaru Tatsuki’s Decotora Photo Op showing the decotora, the Japanese truck decorated with lights. The photographer, a photo-ethnographer in fact, stayed 10 years with truckers before producing his book.
Majestic! Elegant! Pretentious!? Make way for the King of the Road. From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki | My home is my castle: A portable parlour with all the comforts of home on the highway. Cosy! From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki
Tatsuki says in the article:
“About two or three years into the project, I realised that the trucks rather than the drivers were being overly emphasised in the photographs. Because if you don’t define your subject, the subject defines itself. So I started going to meetings where large numbers of truckers would gather. They were all very outgoing, and I gradually felt welcomed into their community. Then, I started to discover things I respected about them - and things I didn’t like. For the first time, I felt I really knew the truckers. I realised that they possess a sense of masculinity that is dying out in Japan. I could also understand their feeling of wanting to decorate the tools they use for work.
People are surprised that I spent ten years on this project, but it simply takes time to really understand something. And I wanted to really understand the things I wanted to express. That is why it took so long.”
This is also something that I do: immerse with the subject. Don’t know if I can call myself a “psychosociologue” (Currently reading Georges Perec, Les choses, 1965 where the author speaks about people conducting open-ended and structured interviews…)
Anyway, decorating a standard vehicle is a matter of appropriation, and we see this phenomenon throughout the world, in India for example… Taking a cab in the Middle East is also particularly interesting… As if you were to travel in a living room.
FYI, my friend Alexandra Ginsberg is showing her work done in collaboration with Oliver Froome-Lewis:
Touching the City is a design research unit that explores the ways in which we interact with the city. Observing the private life of small public spaces, we consider and exchange views on their potential and make proposals for their transformation.
This exhibition documents progress on our first project - the identification, interrogation and stimulation of benchspace and marks the launch of our web site, touchingthecity.com.
I am currently working on a graphic representation of mobilities, physical, digital, and mental. This graphic shows how, when place changes, the social network multiplies, shrinks, evolves, so is the feeling of belonging. Sometimes belonging stays strongly linked to the place of departure (grows even, if we “long in belonging”)… It also explains the notion of displacement, physical and mental, and how digital networks participate to it.
I had students of the Digital + Mobilities seminar read an excerpt of Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: identity in the age of the Internet (New York: Touchstone, 1997) and bring in visuals to complement the readings so to further the discussion/debate. As I was googling to look for the “if you don’t have it, you’re a loser” image (I like the sarcasm) that P.K. brought to our attention as it triggers a reflection on identity mediated by the machine, I came across this still photograph of the movie Garden State, 2004*:
Which triggers even more ideas about ubiquitous computing, identity and the electronic/electric influx…. And that reminded me very much of the practicables of Coucou Bazar, an “animated painting” by Jean Dubuffet:
A neo-nomad scenario developed in my thesis… Neo-nomads embody spaces remotely. Via the Internet they customize their hotel room in advance, bringing in the complementary piece of home, the last piece of the “home” puzzle, with them, their luggage, and transitional objects.
In the HOmeTEL, a user can by Internet choose the color of the walls, the configuration of the room, the food he can get in his in-room fridge. The room will not go back to its neutral state once the user is gone. The other user will improvise based on the previous configurations. One can thus say that the space is dynamic, based on chance, and fosters the emergence of new spatial configurations. The next users could reconfigure it on the basis of how it had been left by the previous user. Hence space can hold traces. This relates to a certain “memory” of the place. The new technologies augment the dynamism of the space by offering a greater possibility of change, thus the potential to satisfy more individuals. What these technologies do is enable a greater combination of elements.
On that note, I would like to point at an article fowarded to me by Eléonore (I have really amazing supporting friends!!!): Le monde virtuel d’Habbo Hotel devient en partie réel
Illustrations produced for the Doctor of Design defense presentation, held May 15, 2006. The illustrations have been created manipulating material found online (by Googling “blinky-thumb” and “Mac Icon”)
Check this: http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/
Follow links and find the RemoteHome project by Tobi Schneidler (smartstudio) which is (I quote interactive architecture dot org) “A flat share that will exist in two distant cities at the same time: London and Berlin. Both spaces are electronically connected through the Internet, to turn furniture and architectural elements into tangible and sensual means of communication. Sensory and kinetic devices, as well as an interactive light installation allow for the exchange between this remotely living group of friends. A mobile wireless artefact, in the shape of a transforming interactive bag, can be taken on journeys to stay emotionally in touch with the RemoteHome.”
