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Guerrilla Public Service
After the Camden council in London removed all the park benches because bums were sleeping on them, self proclaimed anarchists, The Space Hijackers, wearing bright yellow vests installed new ones in broad daylight.
This story reminds of LA artist, Richard Ankrom, creating his own perfect facsimile Caltrans sign to label an exit to I-5 back in 2001. The sign is still there; hanging on gantry 23100, on the northbound state route 110, just before the 3rd St. overpass.
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More Building Projections
The previous post got me trudging through my big file of clippings, and where I found this video of Obscura Digital‘s demo of their software for coordinating 7 HD projectors down at Mint Plaza.
Sure, it’s essentially an ad, but it is pretty cool.
Annoying previewless video after the jump.
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How It Would Be, If a House was Dreaming
Back in May, Urbanscreen, and Rossa & Rossa presented the video installation, “How It Would Be, If a House was Dreaming” at the Galerie der Gegenwart (Gallery of Contemporary Art).
This isn’t Urbanscreen’s first project, nor their first projection on the Galerie der Gegenwart, but it is their most popular to date.
On a technical note, Urbanscreen uses the free MXWendler software.
Makes me long for 01SJ, or I guess really ISEA, since 01SJ just wasn’t the same last year.
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You Only Live Once
Categories: animation / interactive / film
I play more than my share of flash games, most of which are only okay. Occasionally, there’ll be one that’s actually original, rarer yet, one that’s clever. Last year, John Cooney (JMBT02 Studios) released Achievement Unlocked, a commentary on the trend of creating dubious “achievements” in games. (Hell, even /. got into the act.) Which, judging by the comments on Kongregate, sadly, I believe flew over the heads of the majority of the players.
Now Raitendo has released You Only Live Once. A game that lives, up to it’s title, and unsurprisingly, has pissed off the majority of the Kongregation.
Via MeFi.
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BoingBoing Interviews Cassandra C. Jones
Digeratti Xeni Jardin for BoingBoing Video and the Chron interview (albeit separately) collage artist Cassandra C. Jones.
Cassandra finds amateur photos of the same thing (e.g. the moon, lightning, a sunset, etc.) and then combines them in novel ways. Such as taking photos of lightning to make the shape of a rabbit, or animating the phases of the moon from a hundred separate snapshots.
Cassandra’s show, “Send Me a Link,” opens this Saturday (Reception 4 pm – 7 pm) and runs through September 5th, at Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, 172 Minna Street, SF (11 am – 6 pm, Tues-Sat)
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Geisha Tokyo’s AR Figure
Categories: tech
designboom writes about Geisha Tokyo’s AR figure. The AR figure consists of a large cube with different codes printed on the faces, along with a smaller cube that also has codes on the faces. When placed in front of a webcam, the figure is displayed, and the smaller cube can be used to interact with (read “accost and molest”) her. (Video after the jump.)
The only time I’ve used this sort of AR was the last time I was at the LEGO store in San Jose. It’s kind of an odd experience, if you hold the box at the wrong angle, the image completely disappears; but I think the biggest thing is the lack of tactile feedback. Still, this kind of AR is something I find interesting, if for no other reason than novelty. Someday, in my copious free time, I’ll have to check out AR Toolkit and try my own AR project.
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Watermarks
Last February Chris Bodle Watermarks Project was a series of projections throughout Bristol, England that illustrated high-tide water levels if the Greenland ice shelf would melt.I really like BLDGBLOG thoughts about this project. How idea of projecting a different geography over the current geography. A kind of public augmented reality.
I would love for something like Watermarks to change people’s attitudes and motivate the radical changes that are needed, but it won’t. We’re doomed, by our own hubris.
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Panic’s Founders’ Room
Categories: architecture / furniture
I’ve always been fascinated with hiding places. When I was little, my dad put a wall safe in my room for me. To this day, it still hold my pirate booty, a small brass chest containing a variety of foreign coins, and a collection of uncirculated commemorative coins from the US Mint. But what I really wanted was a hidden room. The closest I ever saw the house my friend Josh and his mom moved to. All the bedrooms on the top floor were interconnected via doors in the closets. Kind of strange, but pretty cool, or at least it was cool to 12 year old Jonathan.
Portland OR’s (or “Portland West,” as I have just decided it should be known as) Panic Software moved into new offices at the beginning of the year. Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy, but the offices have a very stylish hidden room. The leather chairs, and the worn leather bound books just call out for drinking a sherry while wearing an ascot, french cuffs, a monocle, and a cigarette holder.
Colonel Noseworthy and the Haberdashery Campaign indeed.
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Robot Gardeners
The Play Coalition created Plantbot, a servo powered planter. The idea is that the planter continuously tracks the sun, ensuring that the plant get maximal sunlight.
My initial impression was that this was a really cool idea, but when I started thinking about it, it seems like yet another one of those ideas that are utterly impractical. I mean, do you really want furniture that constantly moves? Well I guess a dog is kind of like that, but it doesn’t immediately back to the same place. In all honesty though, that’s an engineering problem. An accelerometer to detect pickup and not move for some time after being placed back down. I guess the other thing is having it move back to its original position each morning. Well, I guess that’s just a search pattern. So, I guess none of this is that big of a problem.
Adafruit links to Peter Sand‘s Fast Planting. (Alas, the video is broken.) Fast Planting is a track mounted robot for tending an herb garden. The cursor moves across and grabs interchangeable tool heads to plant, water, and trim the plants. Completely over engineered. 😉