There’s much technically about the photo that could be better, especially the focus, and maybe a tad of a bigger number (smaller hole) aperture to the depth of field not quite the shadow. But the joy was capturing this while perched on a chair, holding the camera up over the gutter, and blind aiming down […]
SPLOT! Hah. Blame Brian Lamb for the acronym (despite twitter banter, I like it) for an idea to frame some project ideas for my stint here at Thompson Rivers University. The idea is Simplest Possible Learning Online Tools, things that faculty or designers here could use w/o worry of south of the border servers and […]
creative commons licensed ( BY-NC ) flickr photo shared by Marco Colin The thing about Mike Caulfied posts is that they work their way into your mind (“Captain, he put CREATURES… in our brains”). In What Iterative Writing Looks Like (and why it’s important) he delineates (strongly) between the streaming flow of social media content […]
Technologies: Bluetooth modules, DAWN Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking Stack, iPac Pocket PCs with 802.11b and Bluetooth, microcontrollers, sensors, Umbrellas, UMBRELLA.net software
Current URL: n/a (no response for http://www.spectropolis.info/umbrella.php)
Wikibook Chapter: https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Jonah+Brucker-Cohen+and+Katherine+Moriwaki
A project conceived by Engineering PhD students Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki at Trinity University (Dublin), UMBRELLA.net experimented early with networks operating with real objects that changed based on proximity to other similar objects.
The umbrellas, connected via Bluetooth and what was then miniature PCs, and thus become a public performance art:
When a participant in UMBRELLA.net opens her umbrella, the computer seeks to establish a wireless network connection with other computer-equipped umbrellas in the area. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) illuminate the umbrella, indicating the connection’s status: red when trying to connect and blue when connected. The hand-held computers include a text-messaging application and feature a graphical interface that identifies participants by name.
These are certainly done easier today with smaller embeddable technologies and concepts of Internet of Things. Would the dynamic then encourage participants to see out others to connect with? What was the significance of the umbrella going dark?
The original URL http://www.mee.tcd.ie/~moriwaki/umbrella redirects to Kathleen Moriwaki;s current site. There is more information on the portfolio of Jonah Brucker-Cohen, described there as “Exploring coincidence-based network formation” including a photo of the hardware that fit around the shaft of the umbrella:
The “performance” is driven by a shared transient need to deal with rain (emphasis added)
In Dublin, Ireland, rainfall is frequent and unpredictable. Often individuals carry umbrellas with them in case they are caught in a downpour. It is common to witness during a sudden and unexpected flash of rain, a sea of umbrellas in the crowded streets sweeping open as raindrops first hit the ground. This collective, yet isolated act of opening an umbrella creates a network of individuals who are connected through similarity of action, and intent. The manifestation of open umbrellas on the street could be tied to a temporary network which is activated through routers and nodes attached to the umbrella, which operate only while it rains. While the coincidence of need exists, the network operates. When the necessity of action and intent ceases, it disappears. We believe these transitory networks can add surprise and beauty to our currently fixed communication channels.
The image of crowds and umbrellas took on a different meaning in 2014 with the Umbrella Movement spawned by the protests in Hong Kong — making one wonder how such a locative technology might have played a part in the actions in Hong Kong.
As another aside, this is one of five examples in the book where the original site (http://www.mee.tcd.ie/~moriwaki/umbrella) resided in the tilde space of an early personal web site. I thought there might be more in the 35 examples in this book but most of the sites are late 19902 early 2000s when web hosting had moved to more regular locations in web structures.
Umbrellas continue to be outfit with Arduino controllers that can change their color such as Leslie Birch’s FLORAbella
While the technology is more built into the device, the network effects of the original project still stand up over time.
Memento (nods to the Christopher Nolan’s genius) wants “establish a web that has a memory”. It’s part protocol / part browser tool that aims to make it easier to see a web resource at a past time of your choosing. In the video above I take a few steps back in time form 2014 through […]
Please, do not look. I told you. Twice. Thanks to some fun sponsored by Reclaim Hosting, I ended up with a new spiffy domain to play with. Let's play a game since the weekend is almost over. Find an *awesome* domain name and if I like it I'll register and give it to you. — […]
creative commons licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
For a break today, my first full day on campus at Thompson River University, I do the thing I enjoy most– wandering around with my camera.
I do cite a subtle and maybe overlooked tip for photography is “to look for the light.” This means much more than conventional wisdom of having your back to light sources, which often does work to best light a subject outdoors. But there is just as much beauty in breaking that, taking photos directly into the light, or using strong side lighting.
But I’d been thinking about something I probably operate at a more instinctual level, from experience with the camera, there is a feeling when I am in certain places, or noticing the way light is highlighting vividly, or when it is absent, or when shadows and light have interplay. I cannot pinpoint it, but its a gut feeling in those moments that there is interesting light at work. And that means I then amplify my awareness and look more intently as to where I might find it.
You see, most of photography is done by figuring out how to remove most of what you see, that is composition by cropping out with just the camera view finder.
The photo above was taken in a non descript location, the stairwell of the building Gardner Campbell works in at Virginia Commonwealth University. But when I looked up, as I tend to do, and scan around me, I got that feeling from the way the light was coming in the windows, the geometries of the elements, the shadow on the wall… it told me that maybe there was an interesting photo in that place.
I am seeing this now at almost 5pm in the student union, I am looking at the vivid last daylight strike a vivid streak across the valley, lighting up the city of Kamloops at the based of dark brooding mountains. There is a photo there (well actually it was better yesterday):
creative commons licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
I am not writing this just to whaffle about photography techniques, though I do really enjoy myself writing about the thoughts behind a photo as much as I like reading about the ideas of others, like Tom Woodward wrote last night on his photo of a couple’s kiss with a dog in front of a 7-11:
I was actually trying to shoot the dog here and the kiss started. The camera was extended at arms length and nearly on the ground. As a result, I wasn’t sure I’d got the shot until I looked later. You don’t often see zombies kissing so that was pretty fortuitous. The whole image tells a pretty interesting story with 7-11, cigarette ads, that big guy in the corner … it’s another version of Americana.
Photography is more than just snapping photos, damnit. Well to me it is.
But I have been noodling if there is a similar process at work when swimming among the firehose of information in a space like Connected Courses or the whole damn web in general. Is there a sense you get when just scanning, of something like “good” or “interesting” light in photography that takes you to interesting ideas?
Is it a clever title? a turn of a phrase? a provocative link? a vague link that does not indicate where it goes? The familiarity of the source url or the curiousness of it? What are the suggestions in the flow that help you clue in to what tends to be more interesting than not?
Because, I conjecture, if you can hone your senses for seeing nuanced suggestions of good/worthy/intriguing ideas out there in the information flow, you can get much more out of it than just getting soaked.
I don’t know. Play along with me. Tell me what clues your senses, if you really do have an attention span less than a goldfish, how well do you use it?
@cogdog wondering what u think of the "fact" mentioned around minute 1:50-1:57 (HT @taniatorikova blog): http://t.co/13SRy5Br8b #ccourses
— Maha Bali, PhD ??? ???? ? (@Bali_Maha) October 27, 2014
What I do know is my photos.
creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-ND ) flickr photo shared by [ changó ] Here I try to try to start trying to… think out loud about part of my project here at Thompson Rivers University as an Open Learning Scholar. One component is to work with Brian Long in help broadening the use of their […]
creative commons licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
From this perspective, actually laying down on Nevada highway 266, there is but one direction to go. I am the only person on the flickr using bellyontheroad as a tag; there is some sort of message there I won’t dwell too much upon.
This road, and others, was over 1900 miles to go from home in Strawberry Arizona to Kamloops, British Columbia, where I will be based through March 2015 as an Open Learning Scholar at Thompson Rivers University, an opportunity made possible by Brian Lamb (and many others I shall get to know soon). More on that story as it develops.
Here’s some notes from the road, a blurred experience coming on the heels of a 2 week trip to New Zealand that ended 5 days before I left again. On/Off/on/off the road. Go go go.
I thought briefly about maybe writing these experiences in a separate site. I do it solely because it helps me process on it, and remember it later, and work through a handful of many experiences that do begin to slide like grains of sand through the hands. While I have done written long trips in other spaces before, there is truly something about the comfort of one’s own home. Even as a blog home.
creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-ND ) flickr photo shared by caddymob It’s time to start issuing citations for pooping on the internet. The sheer irony of what came in via a trackback (still value among the flotilla of spam) to my still un-solved pursuit to find the source, the actual credible source, for the oft […]
