DiMo workshop last Thursday, 8am - 10am

At SHARE, the Swiss House in Cambridge, MA, watching the interactive movie of Fulvio Bernasconi, Swiss Love, 2002 … The idea is that you choose which story to follow… It is about  four segmented stories of  four different characters (different age groups) that intertwine. There are 64 different combinations possible… Rather funny when it comes to all vote for which segment to watch next… A friend told me that when it was screening in Switzerland, spectators would, rather than voting, move from one space to another where one story would play in continuous…

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.

Students (architecture department) at Wentworth Institute of Technology taking an online test…

There was a test run previous to the day of the actual test: students had to log in, answer a question that read more or less like this: “Do you think you are the best student at Wenworth?” They score 100 points when answering “Yes”. No comment.

The trial tested if students could log in… but it did not go further than that: on the day of the test, many had problems seeing the images that were complementing the questions, a problem which could have been prevented.

The cool thing though is that students would get a random questionnaire… questions were shuffled or different, so none had the exact same test. Maybe this did prevent cheating. Someone had to check that they closed IM and iTunes (though the computer is theirs… even when standing behind them, which I remember it being rather uncomfortable, professors cannot see every click) and had to stay in the room while students were taking the test.

The test was 1 hour and 20 minutes long. Students could take it as many time as they wanted to, though only the first finished test counted. They received their grade right after completing the test. Automation greatly cuts down on the time professors spend grading, though preparing the test takes a little bit longer… and failing technologies, or panicking students not seing an image can greatly augment their involvement.

I hyperlinked to Origami Tessellations, Eric Gjerde’s musings on origami, tessellations, geometry, design, and art to find this post on an intriguing origami PC by Tomohiro Tachi (image from his website + manipulated):

The image brought to mind the topic of ubiquitous computing… and probably because I am working on a wearable… I think this image illustrates perfectly the idea that a computer does NOT need to be encased in a plastic/aluminum box… Material, material… Imagine having a blanket-computer?! Sure… I like origami art, because of the fold, portability, lightness…

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:

Picture I took on my way home… waiting for the train… I like the materiality of the yellow border signaling a ‘dangerous zone’, a boundary, in contrast to the immaterial shadow… Mobility implies both immateriality and materiality.

Jan in the foreground.

Ben’s presentation spurs some ideas: forced mobility versus false mobility?

To follow up on the relationship between dance and new technologies (previous post) find the article A Monaco, la danse a dompté les nouvelles technologies | LEMONDE.FR | 18.12.06 | Sylvie Chayette:

Cette année, deux grands noms de la chorégraphie, deux Américains qui n’ont de commun que leur immense capacité créatrice, se sont approprié ces nouveaux moyens : Bill T. Jones et Trisha Brown. Tous deux se sont également servis des compétences de l’Université d’Etat d’Arizona (Arizona State University) et de son département AME (Media and Engineering Program) qui a passé plus de trois ans à élaborer son programme “motione” avec les deux directeurs de troupes.

Find here the Monaco Dance Forum, program of Installations .pdf

Have a look at the portfolio in LEMONDE.FR

Screenshot LEMONDE.FR!

Screenshot, motione…