Because Puma thought about Train Away, I swang by their store (just before a meeting to prepare an interactive event at Mobile Monday Boston)… To find out about their ‘cook’ your shoe ‘kitchen’ counter: you can feel the material, choose and scan it; an interface shows the progress, i.e. how is your shoe looking like. Once the shoe is ‘cooked,’ you can send an e-mail of the final product to yourself or buy it then! Try the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ…

To follow up with the my body is a hypertext, find an example of permanent shotcode tattoo (Thanks D.H.). Melissa says: ” it did scan on Friday, with some patience and careful positioning of my head! It didn’t point to exactly the right url (something about Sprite, in Spanish..).”
I guess I like the (nomadic) idea of being able to take it away, hence the laser temporary tattoo paper I use for my tattoo (and it leads to interesting ‘happenings’ such as ‘exchange my tattoo,’ ‘wear my tattoo, I wear yours…’ :)

How to Build an Invisibility Cloak… Read the article. Recalls notions of “disappearance” realted to digital culture…Recalls the Optical Camouflage project, which does not implicate the inherent nature of the material worn.
Below is an illustration showing the “[…] properties the material would need to have to divert light around it.” taken from the article How to Make an Object Invisible

Presenting: Jonah Brucker-Cohen; The woman in the front row is Anne Galloway…
(Excuse the low quality of the moblog: cell phone picture was taken on ‘night mode.’ If you are interested in sponsoring a new cell phone… GREAT ;)

Great venue, and speakers, fantastic organization and much food for thoughts… I liked the fact that you could ‘react’ online, by sending text messages to feeback@situatedtechnologies.com, or by commenting online while the debate was proceeding (seen before, but still… I am curious to study what it brings to the debate; it helps keeping the ideas we have on the fly; but we do, when taking notes in a traditional way, discard some of them, ‘curate’ our thinking. Sometimes we hope some of these comment and ideas on the fly do not appear. I think it would be useful to TRACE at which exact moment they have been posted, SO TO RELATE them to the context, i.e. maybe record the voice, and see the reaction at the moment in time, reacting to a word or sentence… Another project to work on with Cati ;). I had left my computer at my HOmeTEL for a change. Questions have shown that there is a need for more of these events to update the public about contemporary thinking and research. My point of view (regarding some questions): categorization and sticking to boundaries of disciplines do not advance debates on digital culture and the urban environment.

Some notes, en VRAC:

Anne Galloway > The more mobile, the more controlled: individuals become dividuals. Pet = “non-human companion.” rfid-cat = human-machine, organic subject, free to roam the world and completely controlled [doesn’t it ring some bell?]… Deleuze said: “They become nomads because they don’t want to disappear.” We create certainties in time of uncertainties, and ‘techno’-social assemblages that manage these risks.
Jonah> shows as example of information overload the rsstroom reader… Interested in displacing information and context; how does a website relates to a physical space? Shifting methods of network representation. [Jonah’s work recalls Nam June Paik’s]

Eric Paulos, Sheila Kennedy, and Kazys Varnelis…

Stanford Kwinter introduced Negroponte, who is to my belief, a future Nobel prize winner! The most fantastic thing about the $100 laptop, is that is for non profit, i.e. for HUMANITARIAN purpose… Here are my notes, en vrac!!

As opposed to the “next billion users market”, Negroponte wishes to address the “last billion users.” “Scale [building that many] is important” because if you have scale, you can argue for a change of corporate strategies says Negroponte. “They will do things differently.”
The ideas are “(1) to use technologies to learn learning, not to learn something [.ppt or .xls]; (2) teaching is one but not the only way to achieve learning; (3) leverage children themselves.”
“The problem of technology is not the problem anymore.”
“Teachers say about it: (1) attendance has gone up; (2) discipline has gone down; (3) teaching is more fun; (4) parents are more involved; (5) teachers get more e-mails at night from students needing help.” :)
“The first prototype had a crank… […] it shows that human power is important.”
“What about gray market issues [reselling parts]? […] No white Volvo is stolen in South Africa because there is no market for it!” “We hope that it is sufficiently unique.”
There is a concept currently under consideration… “If you buy a computer, a child gets one free.”
“Side effects? Linux, NO CAPS LOCK key, peer to peer everything, learning by doing, no bloated software, power consciousness, viral communications…” “Sharing, [the more together the more power] is deeply rooted in its conception.”
“A censored Internet is better than no Internet at all.”
“When you close it Bill [Gates], it WILL go off!” [Laughs]…
“You know the English expression “you never watch a rented car?” “By giving ownership of the laptop to the kids, the maintenance can happen locally.”
“There is STILL [wants to reduce the number] 75 people on the assembly line, though the laptop contains a 1/3 of a regular laptop.” “When the laptop arrives at a school, it comes with a person that stays a month…”
“Launch countries: Brazil, Nigeria, thailand, Argentina, Libya; in discussion with: China, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, Palestine…”

Today Thursday, October 19, Room 34-101, 6:30pm
Nicholas Negroponte, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT presents: “One Laptop per Child”

“Nicholas is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child non-profit association. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor Media Technology. A graduate of MIT, Nicholas was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. Conceived in 1980, the Media Laboratory opened its doors in 1985. He is also author of the 1995 best seller, “Being Digital”, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Nicholas serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.”

Concerning this endeavor, I wrote in my thesis (p. 29) that the “aim of reducing the digital divide certainly speaks in favor of a consistent belief in technology and its inexorable spread.” I am also convinced the one laptop per child is a fantastic pedagogical tool. (Image from the website)

I had [ interview ] answered Rudy De Waele…:

- What about Mobile TV?

I like too much observing people for watching movies or programs while on the move, immobile in a moving train. Yet I recall that summer inviting friends over for diner in the backyard, hanging white sheets, a mobile computer plugged to a projector and speakers. Someone in the yard nearby shouted “you are the best neighbors ever”! So I guess, Mobile TV, if it can allow their usability/spatial extensions for times of rest in any spatial setting, without having to carry much…

On the top stories of Wired News today… the post: Tiny Projectors Make the Video iPod Make Sense… and if you hyperlink… Digital Doodads Debut in NY. You read:

“LEDs also last far longer than regular bulbs — up to 10,000 hours, according to Jane Poon of Toshiba. “By then, probably, laser projectors will be coming out,” she said. The LEDs are not terribly bright: They produce just 20 to 25 ANSI lumens, versus 2,000 for a standard projector such as Toshiba’s equally priced but far larger TDP-S35U DLP. But the microprojector was powerful enough to illuminate its included 23-inch fold-up screen, even under the intense lighting at New York’s Javits Center. And in a dark room, it can project an image measuring up to 68 inches diagonal, according to Poon.”

images from the tui-shop website.

“No matter where you are in the world, the “Monaco Bag Hotel” provides a cosy place to sleep in seconds, complete with genuine down duvet and pillow. Just blow it up with the electric air pump and slip inside. Compacts down to a handy 55 x 25 cm; overall weight 8,5 kg.” Swiss Magazine 10.2006 | 6 _ Travel Companions. (Thank you Edith for the page; Same page as the sakku messenger bag (thank you Adri ;))

It disappears… Like a henna tattoo on one’s flesh, but in a flash because of the inherent property of the paint… Yesterday I brushed the effect/affect of graffiti… I was happy to discover we-make-money-not-art’s post on “The Temporary Printing Machine, one of the latest works by Random International, [which, in this time of surveillance] highlights the ephemeral quality of digital data.”