Viewing posts for the category PhD research

ARTiVIS "on fire" at ISEA 2011

September 15, 2011: presentation of the Play with Fire work in progress by me and Pedro Ângelo in the Sustainability panel at ISEA2011 in Sabanci Center, Istanbul.

Sadly Valentina and Nuno couldn't come and present the project with us, but overall the paper session and our Play with Fire presentation went very nicely. It started with Bin Jiang's presentation of his Ecotopia concept, a really thought provoking idea to build structures that host a countryside ecosystem inside a big city, fostering self sustainability and jobs for urban communities. Our presentation also fostered some interesting discussion on forest fire paradoxes, the unstable balance of nature without human intervention and some valuable references and figures to help consolidate the ongoing research.
It was good to get feedback on the project concept from Julian Oliver regarding facts and figures of forest fires and the effect of human intervention on natural cycles, and from Lindsay Grace later on regarding the concept's "interesting tension".
After the session we also met Lorenzo Taiuti, Valentina's thesis advisor in the Fine Art Academy (way back more than a dozen years ago) who dropped by to see his old student presenting, showing that ISEA's ability to attract a widespread community of digital art practitioners can be a forum to meet old friends too.
And last but not least we also had the pleasure of having Anna Barros dropping by our session to say Hi.

The rest of ISEA program was very good and it was really hard to balance it with all the unmissable historical locations, art exhibits and events vying for our attention in Istanbul.
Among the highlights were the fantastic keynotes by Oliver Grau, Roman Verostko and Sara Diamond, the two Art Market boat cruises on the Bosphorous for the networking and project presentations, and Jenny Leary's workshop on how to make magnetic latex impressions of your credit card.

It was also great to meet again so many friends from my recent stay in LA, like Jenny Leary, Sci|Art colleague Pinar Yoldas, and Melissanthi Saliba. It was also really nice to have the chance to meet personally Victoria Vesna's Art|Sci collaborators Roy Ascott, Sara Diamond and Christiane Paul.

The Portuguese participation at the conference was very strong, with really nice work presented by Ricardo Lobo from AZ Labs, Ana Carvalho, Miguel Carvalhais, Helder Dias, Margarida Carvalho, Maria Manuela Lopes and Paulo Bernardino, and the other Nuno Correia ;)

Overall we had a fantastic time at ISEA2011 and we hope to be a part of this community again next year in Albuquerque. Many thanks and congrats to the Artistic Director and Conference Chair, Lanfranco Aceti, for the excellent work and kindness during the event and also the whole process. As for Istanbul, it's definitely a city to return to someday to pick up on all the wonders left unseen.

Here's a flickr glimpse of what was seen »

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ISDT 2 Digital Transformation

Almost one week has passed since the start of the Gary Chapman International School of Digital Transformation [ISDT]. It is the 2nd time I am attending, and by now I am getting that feeling again that on the one side it has passed in a glimpse, and still it has been so intense as a full month of clues to explore further.

One of the ISDT extra activities was my proposal to go again this year to the traditional Tuesdays hackerspaces meeting. We were very well received by the AZ labs members who gave us a comprehensive tour to their new LCD installations. Here is their report on the visit »

And here are the references I mentioned at the time:
In what relates to the words "hacking" and its purported relationship with criminal activity, the term has had "an unfortunate history", as stated by Bruce Sterling in his book "The Hacker Crackdown" who points to the original sense.
A propos, here is the MCD (Musiques & Cultures Digitales) publication on the European medialabs, where we wrote the section about the AZ labs hackerspaces network.

As we wrap up, I am willing to share my subjective perspective with some visual notes that will then become our memories – and my mnemonics, too. Take a look at the flickr set and leave your comments, local info, or whatever you where thinking of by then or now »

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Take a look at the flickr set and leave your comments, local info, or whatever you where thinking of by then or now »

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Hug@ree demo at ArtropoCode | Santiago de Compostela

Hug@ree was demonstrated during the ArtropoCode – "1º Encontro de tecedeiras de código livre" (1st meeting of libre weavers), a digital art and open source software event organized by AZ Labs friends from Galiza, Beca, Marta and Daniel from Baleiro, and coordinated with Audiencia Zero and Olholivre.
This mini-hackmeet took place in Santiago de Compostela, from July 15 to 17. It was a very intensive weekend dedicated to the possibilities of free tools for creative programming. It was very fun, too :)

IMG_20110716_182533 IMG_20110716_183029

The demo version of Hug@ree was improvised with fallen leaves and branches from the park of the University of Santiago de Compostela, where Baleiro is located. In the most playful part of the meeting, the different tools where used in installations, performances and DJ-VJ sessions. Here is Pedro Ângelo's report on the Artropocode meeting »

In the chillout extension, Hug@ree became an extra entertainment during the night, grabbing surprising screenshots with the VJ performance and the participants dancing scenario. Moreover, Marta's face paintings where "estupendas" and lasted for the whole night!

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This is the link for the Flickr photos full set » and here is the Hug@ree demo timelapse:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/27435917 w=528&h=330]

This Hug@ree & VJ unintended jam triggered the idea of combining the RTiVISS experiences Hug@ree and Treeellucinations in the same setup – I can almost hear what my advisor would say about such Hug@reeellucinations idea at this time: "post-doc" (ie, concentrate, do not dawdle for now) – Got it ;) ?

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Hug@ree at UCLA: Sci|Art NanoLab 2011

All set for Hug@ree at the Court od Sciences at UCLA. Cant' wait to see the living foliage the UCLA stdents and visitors will create!

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"Bringing real-time visibility to Forests for Sustainability" at CHI 2011 Workshop

Great experience today CHI 2011 Workshop: Sustainable Interaction Design in Professional Domains :)
Congrats and thanks for the input #CHI2011 on my "Bringing real-time visibility to Forests for Sustainability"!

It was great to know the organizers – Daniela Busse, Leonardo Bonanni, John C Thomas, Eli Blevis, and Marko Turpeinen – and their approach on this theme. So sorry I couldn't meet Nuno Nunes again after TEI now in Vancouver, but I got to know another SINAIS project team member, Mary ... – hopefull, we will find some extra time to exchange ideas on our research projects!
Application of patterns. Here's the several groups outputs:
enjoy :)

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