pic source: http://www.erational.org/netart/recallme/ news source: www.newsday.com The ubiquitous presence of the mobile phone can be a nuisance during class, meetings, concerts, the movies, etc. USA company NaturalNano claims to refine and market a radio-frequency shielding paint that can block signals in spaces treated with the paint. It ca also be used to create private networks inside spaces. The technology works at the nano-level, of which I cannot say anything informed, but apparently leaves open some sort of selective access control, which means that some signals can be allowed through while others are being shielded. Legal problems may arise, as blocking […] Read More
Is the mobile phone becoming more and more of a device for pastime? It seems many mobile phone operators and content providers think that way. The BBC has an interesting article on new developments in the mobile phone industry, following the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. The industry is pushing the mobile phone more and more towards a ubiquitous device that offers much tighter integration with internet-based services and content, and brings you entertainment wherever and whenever you want. The mobile phone, originally marketed as a means for business and work, can now still be used when work is done. […] Read More
With web 2.0 approaching, at least if we must believe the hype, the mobile world is lagging behind. I read this piece on mobile 2.0 in which the author, a mobile phone marketeer/consultant, sees the advent of a new era in mobile communications in which anything is possible. No clues on what mobile 2.0 will look like, only that the user is central. In a reply to this article, I wonder if ever this can be done in the same fashion as web 2.0, without moving to more open source platforms on the mobile: What I see as a hindrance […] Read More
Things are getting busier now: I have said yes to several opportunities of presenting a paper before a group: March 15: I will present a preliminary paper about mobile communication as gift culture in the P.I.G (‘Playful Identities Group’, as we have appreciatively dubbed ourselves…) March 20: paper about mobile communication as gift culture in the “AIO overleg” (PhD meeting). May ??: present second draft of this paper in the ‘Vakgroepoverleg’. September 18: a presentation about technology & theory (we will separate identity, play and technology as the 3 main domains to focus on in our literature studies). Finish this […] Read More
VPRO’s digital television channel HollandDoc is broadcasting a couple of really interesting documentaries this week about the history and development of the internet. From January 30 until February 5 2006, these series will be visible both as a LIVE! stream and on demand, under the title “Internet, hopes en hypes: Uitzendingen over het verleden, heden en toekomst van de nieuwe media”. Check it out here (Dutch only…).
NWO programme “Transformaties in Kunst en Cultuur” (Transformations in Art and Culture) (website poorly updated) is starting a science-art project (Geestesoog NWO #3 Sept. 2005 3-5 PDF file in Dutch) to research the interplay between academic study of new cultural developments and art. Academic research that receive sponsorship by NWO, have been invited to contribute ideas. Our research project ‘Playful Identities’ too has been asked to come up with one or more science-art proposals. While I was looking for projects that have something to do with mobile technologies, science and art, I found a couple of results that can be […] Read More
According to Textually.org, a student has won a price awarded by Motorola for a competition to make the world “seamlessly mobile”. Student John Finan has written an essay (PDF) about a ‘mood phone’ that would be very useful for someone with e.g. the Asperger sydrome, a mild form of autism that makes it difficult to assess non-verbal clues. This raises some interesting questions, e.g. whether human emotions are attributable to machines (yes, I think, to some extent), and how this transforms ‘the medium into the message’. More info in this Herald Sun article.
On the right hand side, you will find an increasing number of links to other research projects I’ve come across. Many of these are in the form of a weblog too. This makes it easy for me to keep track of them by adding them in a really nice RSS reader I have just found for the Mac: Vienna. And it’s open source too! An interesting one I just found is Torill Mortensen’s blog. She has written a little piece about work vs. play: Work vs play Make tea not war (wonderful name) in Wellington comments on our effort to […] Read More
Came across the website of Ludicorp today, the business responsible for creating and developing social software like Flickr. I think their “corporate philosophy?? – which they take from Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action and the Cultivation of Solidarity by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores & Hubert Dreyfus (MIT Press 1997) – reflects quite a bit of what our research will be about: Business owners do not normally work for money either. They work for the enjoyment of their competitive skill, in the context of a life where competing skillfully makes sense. The money they earn supports this way of life. […] Read More
I have recently bought a bunch of anthropological classics, works written by well known anthropological oldies. These works I consider interesting for my research, because they introduce and elaborate concepts I think can be usefully applied – in moderated form perhaps – to the use of new technologies. Not only that, I think using older concepts and theories balance the tendency to see current (technological) developments as “radically new” and “revolutionary”, a “complete breach from everything we ever knew before”. Utter rubbish of course, most would agree 😀 Yet still the tendency is there to over-stress the newness of it […] Read More
On new years day, I traditionally go to see a movie to recover from my hangover. Yesterday it was Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog. What a great movie! It’s a tale about Timothy Treadwell, who lived closely among grizzly bears in Alaska for 13 years, and ends up being eaten by one. It’s a basically a tragical story about a guy who tries to escape from the chaotic world outside of him and tries to become a better self. Treadwell tries to take his destiny into his own hands, but at the same time becomes more and more trapped in […] Read More
Last thursday, December 8, the full Playful Identities Group (P.I.G.) got together at Waag Society for a meeting amongst ourselves and later with a couple of people from Waag Society. Eva Nieuwdorp, the third AIO of the group, joined us starting December 1st 2005, so all 6 of us were there: Jos de Mul, Valerie Frissen, Joost Raessens, Jeroen Timmermans, Eva Nieuwdorp and myself. We introduced ourselves to the others and talked about some practical matters. At 14:00 Waag Society joined in, chaired by Henk van Zeijts, head of the division Creative Learning. First, we introduced the research topic, and […] Read More
Vibrating jacket can transmit sensations of being touched via the internet.
Saturday, November 19, the 27th Dutch/Flemish Philosophy-day took place. The motto was “Thinking without Borders: challenges for philosophy in the 21st century” (Grenzeloos denken: uitdagingen voor de Filosofie in de 21ste eeuw). It was the first time I attended. The programme started at 10:00 in the morning, which I of course didn’t make quite on time… I’m not that much of a morning person, especially not on a weekend day :). After seeing the last part of the plenary session I attended the breakout session “Man & culture” chaired by Jos de Mul. The papers presented by both Flemish & […] Read More
What: opening exhibition “Alter Ego” – photo’s of gamers and their online avatars Who: British artist Robbie Cooper Where: Home Gallery, Prinsengracht 548, Amsterdam When: 9 – 24 november 2005 (Thursday – Sunday), 13:00 – 19:00 URL: www.alterego.net & www.seeingtakesasecond.com. Wednesday evening, November 9, I was at the opening of the exhibition “Alter Ego” at Home Gallery. I was kinda late, supposed to meet my GF there at 21:30, but got stopped along the way by a police woman for cycling without light. She gave me a ticket, what a bummer… }:-(. Anyway, the gallery is located in a nice […] Read More
The Inquirer published an interesting article today about a new step made by Philips in ambient awareness in computer games. It is the development of amBX: From the Inquirer article: ——————- Philips pushes ambient gaming Including heat, light and air currents… an indoor outdoors By Marc McEntegart: Monday 07 November 2005, 11:37 PHILIPS has introduced what it claims to be a “light year leap” in ambient experience by controlling the environment in which games are played. Due for release in May 2006, Philips new environmental gaming device will be amBX. The aim of amBX is to allow games to control […] Read More
Last thursday Willem – a friend of mine – and I attended a lecture by Lev Manovich at the V2 “Institute for the Unstable Media” in Rotterdam. Quite a number of people showed up, so finding a good place to sit turned out to be problematic. There were two nice seats in front still free, some cocktails on a table next to it, so Willem suggested we sit there ;), but we ended up behind a pillar. Following Lev wasn ‘t always easy, as he spoke a bit incoherently from time to time. Nevertheless, I found his main point interesting: […] Read More
I am just home from a really interesting mini-seminar in Eindhoven, organised during the Dutch Design Week 2005. The meeting was about Ambient Intelligence and ways in which artist make use of these tools. The organiser René Paré had invited a couple of interesting speakers to tell about their work: Elmo Diederiks from Philips Media Interaction, Edwin van der Heide, an autonomous artist that explores the relations between architecture and sound, and Alex Vermeulen, an artist working on the faultline of technology and art. Especially interesting was a remark made by Edwin that he tried to avoid the notion of […] Read More
Friday October 14 2005, I attended an small meeting organised by the Cyberspace Salvations research group. There were 6 people present: Peter Pels & Stef Aupers (Cyberspace Salvations), André Nusselder (AIO EUR), a masters’ student and an AIO in theology at Leiden. André was invited to tell about his promotional thesis. Below the notes:
Just a coupe of loose reflection on ‘play’ in contemporary culture…. Saw an item about a week ago on local TV channel AT5 about a festival of BMX cross-bike subculture, called ‘flatlanding’. Young guys doing crazy stunts on BMX-ses. A lot of these subcultures, e.g. skating, surfing, rollerskating, etc. – could be called ‘playfull’ or ‘ludic’. (Mostly) youngster creating an own identity around a game. This brought to mind another thing I saw lately: more and more people are attracted by and involved in historical plays: e.g. medieval fights that are being performed by true armies dressed with harnesses, lances […] Read More