Plugimi (Sascha Pohflepp)

You get to be a band with your friends, and it really feels like performing. Some things are well designed these days. So now I got a real blister on my finger from a simulated experience (see below).

Agreed, just enter your del.icio.us username, and (given that you’ve dutifully tagged your bookmarks) Wordle creates an accurate map of your head.

This BMW is more interesting than any vehicle design I’ve seen in a million years. Imagine being able to change the physical appearance of something expressive on the fly. Long part of the discourse in architecture and wearables, this really convincing and finished thing seems to be coming from a somewhat unexpected direction. Best in video. (via Wired)

“A Japanese designer has proposed that women alone could walk in greater safety (though, in reality, Japanese crime levels are in decline, despite national anxiety to the contrary) by disguising themselves as vending machines:” Longer report here.

Via BB and kapony’s del.icio.us.

Ute Meta Bauer of MIT’s Visual Arts Program gave a very inspiring lecture at Tesla Salon in Berlin yesterday night. It was interesting to see how her being part of a mostly technology-oriented institution like the MIT changed part of her view on how things work as someone primarily concerned with the arts. Some of her points were very lucid and she had a sense of realism (and interest for understanding the motivations of the so-called enemy, see below) about her which people who are exclusively involved in the art world often lack.

Art, science and economy all rely on fiction – Art pieces, scientific theories and also things like business models really are models about how the world works.

There is no outside anymore – Critical distance is good and important but just as much, it is arguably a thing of the past. Art is a highly evolved market and as such part of the economy and uses the products of science (like the computer you’re currently sitting in front of).

The sets of theoretical tools are virtually identical – Talking about one of her students, Oliver Lutz who used to work at Wall Street for a decade before returning to art, she said that the was amazed to find that corporate economists often refer to the same theorists as artists do for their interpretations of the world.

(Critical) art can only work in cooperation with the sciences anymore. Otherwise it cannot get hold of the complexity of even the current questions.

Interesting also the reaction of those who actually mainly are part of the art world. Lots of criticism for her acceptance of working along researchers who work for the military etc. Fairly militant yet pretty naïve rethorics: “Know where the enemy stands”, “Alliances”, “Working in the heart of darkness” and so on.

Amazing that suddenly all kinds of spatio-temporal re-contextualization applications of photos seem to pop up:

First Google suddenly launch their amazing Street View (note: it’s obviously crazy practical, but what I actually find magical about it are the fuzzy transistions between the shots which obviously were taken at slightly different times and thus turn the whole thing into an enormous narrative. People and cars appear and disappear, light changes etc.) and now Microsoft come up with with Photosynth which, according to Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ presentation at TED allows you to actually recreate space from a multitude of (amateur) photographic perspectives. Kind of reminds me of this sketch from back at EuroLAB as well.

If this really works that well, it’s bound to make possible whole other uses of crowdsourcing and photography, because people would ultimately contribute to re-creating the world in digital when sharing their photos. And, there as well, the part where you see the person climbling the wall is basically creating a filmic, spatial narrative from isolated portions of time. Really struck me.

In other news, the coiner of momentography has been identified.

Labor union Ver.di yesterday night supported the strike at Telekom by laser-projecting to on the shaft of Berlin’s Fernsehturm.

Pretty cool and related to GRL’s Mobile Projection Unit but, ironically, way brighter and aesthetically closer to their green laser pen.

I’m certainly not the ultimate advocate of generative/behavioural design, but I must admit that today at OFFF, I’ve been so profoundly touched by the beauty of Robert Hodgin’s work that I recommend everyone to check it out – especially the Trentemøller-piece.

My coverage on WMMNA will probably begin tomorrow.