tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-324521112024-03-04T20:05:35.158-08:00i am aiactive ingredient adventures and researchaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-70188520684966289812011-08-10T05:46:00.000-07:002011-08-10T06:01:49.646-07:00Catching Up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjGqkKkn2rxJT_qaL8sqNR-hGMBgZyNzvhOtWRhXd1zUh3hRYaUYltkgoFNKrtTVUtUbAeo8wuBebKuOgBtKyJFnGzvuVY5LWxPOS8oSiLvuThMqED7k07VeEqpTn3djRouvw/s1600/room_web.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 229px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjGqkKkn2rxJT_qaL8sqNR-hGMBgZyNzvhOtWRhXd1zUh3hRYaUYltkgoFNKrtTVUtUbAeo8wuBebKuOgBtKyJFnGzvuVY5LWxPOS8oSiLvuThMqED7k07VeEqpTn3djRouvw/s320/room_web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639211465125783426" border="0" /></a>
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<br />It has been some time since we updated our AI blog as most of our activity this year is focused on <a href="http://hello-tree.com/news/" target="_blank">http://hello-tree.com/news/</a>
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<br />Things in the AI office are quiet... Matt Watkins has been focusing much of his time on Mudlark<a href="http://www.wearemudlark.com/" target="_blank"> activities</a> and <a href="http://www.chromaroma.com/" target="_blank">Chromaroma</a> in particular, from the Big Smoke (which is a little bit literal at the moment after this crazy weekend of rioting on the streets of London) although keeps the vision and ideas true to Active Ingredient's aesthetic and conceptual form. I share my time between AI's office and the Mixed Reality Lab at the <a href="http://www.horizon.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Nottingham</a> where I am also doing a PhD.
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<br />Rebecca Lee, artist, consultant and educator who has shared our office with us for several years has now officially come on board to support project management, public engagement and generally keep us all sane. Robin Shackford still makes it all happen with his amazing creative and technical brain power.
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<br />Silvia Leal is working with us from Rio and London, bridging and creating dialogues as well as adding her own artistic conceptual and strongly aesthetic ideas into the Active Ingredient mix.
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<br />Through my work now at the University of Nottingham I have linked up with Mark Selby and Mike Golembowski who are supporting A Conversation Between Trees, helping out with building our C02 scorching machine and new sensors to put in trees in UK and Brazil forests.
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<br />This period of time has become very much about dialogues with people and locations... ongoing conversations happening not only between the data collected from forests but also with scientists, Carlo Buontempo from the UK Met office; other artists; young people and teachers and visitors to our exhibitions.
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<br />Exploding Places is still on the back burner. Matt is keeping the ideas and funding opportunities ticking over in the hope that we can develop the game... it seems now a bit prophetic and all the more important to keep exploring the ideas around communities, their survival, their tipping points at this time.
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<br />Keep Watching...
<br />aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-15339349025092866532010-11-11T00:16:00.001-08:002010-11-11T00:16:40.105-08:00GUANABARA BAY INSTITUTE (IBG)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; "><p class="MsoNormal"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1527" title="ibg-1" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ibg-1.jpg" alt="ibg-1" width="800" height="533" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Today has been incredibly inspiring as Silvia had organised a visit IGB and Dora Hees who manages the institute and botanical gardens in Niteroi, across the bridge from Rio.<span> </span>This is a residential area, with fishing boats along the coastline, where the white UFO curved modernist modern art museum sits facing back to the view of Rio. Supposedly Carioca’s say the best thing about Niteroi is the view back to Rio. From our 2 short visits (to see Bruno and IBG) I would strongly disagree - although the journey is breathtaking.</p><h3 style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; "><span style="font-weight: normal; ">Today we had the EME van and so the journey along the bridge to the other side of the bay was by car this time and not ferry. We passed through the docklands, like our own docklands in London they are being transformed for the next Olympic Games after London 2012. Derelict warehouses and shipping yards. Here is an artist occupation that was also involved in one of the previous residencies Siliva has hosted, Flor do asfalto, Zona portuária, Rio. Along the bridge the views of Rio’s skyline, mountains, modernist and colonial buildings, and of course Christ looking down over the city, the bay, the water.</span></h3><p><span style="font-weight: normal; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1528" title="ibg-2" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ibg-2.jpg" alt="ibg-2" width="800" height="624" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">We arrived at IBG and set up, plugging electricity into the institute’s mains, opening the van up as a small installation and learning space.<span> </span>We Both EME and Active Ingredient wait for the stage of the project where we can find alternative energy sources to fuel our interventions with technology and the environment. Until that time comes we follow a fragile line between using these tools that need so much energy and then disappearing into the forest to explore and experience nature unmediated. The energy and mobility issues of the project are uncomfortable (diesel consumption and air travel), but is a process which we hope to resolve and approach as much as possible in an international collaboration such as this with alternative options as appropriate.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1529" title="ibg-3" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ibg-3.jpg" alt="ibg-3" width="800" height="266" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p class="MsoNormal">We had an hour with a visiting school group.<span> </span>3 groups of 10 children between 12-14 years old being introduced to the project, the mobile sensor technology, and the visualisation.<span> </span>We then walked with them to a part of the gardens that was a terrace surrounded by forest and ran the human sensor activity.<span> </span>The groups asked really intuitive questions and took their time with the process.<span> </span>The teacher said she was really happy with the project and the educational team filmed the whole process.</p><p class="MsoNormal">As the workshop took place visitors to the gardens walking past the van also stopped to find out what was happening.<span> </span>The van works so well as a new space to present art, a mobile installation, for interventions in public space.<span> </span>It has the potential to be developed in a flexible context. Sylvia talks about the potential for EME (Estudio Movel Experimental) to occur anywhere and with any type of mobility, even inside the fridge where the magnetic EME signs live when they are not on the van!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1530" title="ibg-4" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ibg-4.jpg" alt="ibg-4" width="800" height="533" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p class="MsoNormal">A teacher from another school who happened to be at IBG chatted to us and was keen to find out if we will return and if her school could take part in the project. The teacher in charge of the group that we worked with took the human sensor activity away with her and we explained the possibilities to develop it with a visualisation activity and she was keen to see how she could integrate it into her own teaching.<span> </span>This is perfect.<span> </span>If we can add a new perspective not just to the children but the teachers too, leave seeds of ideas of a different way of seeing the world and using technology to facilitate this alternative view, then I feel we have done our job as artists, researchers, interventionalists.</p></span>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-15079474489567212792010-11-11T00:13:00.001-08:002010-11-11T00:13:56.000-08:00CONVERSATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; "><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1523" title="schoolblog-2" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/schoolblog-2.jpg" alt="schoolblog-2" width="800" height="433" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – it is going so fast and we have got a bit behind on the blog.</p><p>We returned to the school on Monday, having finished the data maps, the felt was all glued and the circles framed by an ingenious idea of Silvia’s – hula hoops, that she managed to find in the centre of Rio. As objects, data maps, they are quite beautiful, the colours, layout and style (to use the language of Robin Active Ingredient’s programmer) were simple yet evocative representions of the data they collected as ‘human sensors’.</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1522" title="school-blog-1" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/school-blog-1.jpg" alt="school-blog-1" width="800" height="266" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>We went to the school and arrived in the middle of a birthday celebration so we joined in singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese (clapping along) and were treated to some very sticky chocolate cake.</p><p>The art teacher Silvia had worked with arrived and took us to set up the exhibition in the entrance to the school. Apart from a small computer room (the size of the one we had in the 1980s in London but of course with up to date computers) there is very little technology in the school and at this time hardly anything on the walls but outside there is forest, a small planted garden that was grown as part of the education programme with the botanical gardens. With 40 children in each class it must be very hard for the teachers, but pretty much all the children we worked with were attentive, focused and thoughtful about their work. Supposedly the school is one of the best state schools in Rio and they certainly have a wonderful resource next door with the botanical gardens.</p><p>The kids walking past were very intrigued and the class we seemed quite proud as we attempted to align the 5 data maps on a brick wall. Once we had hung all the data maps and notebooks from the original workshops Sylvia did with them we left, our intervention over - but with plansin place for the longer term exchange project with schools in the UK.</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1524" title="school-blog-3" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/school-blog-3.jpg" alt="school-blog-3" width="800" height="266" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>We then went on to the botanical gardens to meet NEA, the education team there in their beautiful resource centre. Carmelita and Marcia showed us the games and activities that they use to introduce the botanical gardens and the biomes of the Mata Atlantica to the groups they work with and then showed us round their inspiring installations about the history of the gardens and botany in Brazil. The gardens themselves are beautifully landscaped and ‘curated’, which is the word they use for the way the plants evolve in the gardens.</p><p>After a fantastic conversation with NEA we met Bruno for lunch and were also introduced to Ricardo, the garden’s curator.</p><p>And so continues our week of conversation with the people who work with the Mata Atlantica, and with the forest itself through collecting micro data in the locations we visit along our journey in the van.</p><p>Despite our growing tiredness, due to the early wake up calls from Luis the fantastic driver and owner of the van, we went out to a launch of a book in a community near the docks.</p><p>Walking through the twisted streets with houses built as if they have grown organically interwined and interdependent, up a steep staircase that weaved to the side of the community, to the top of the hill with a large building and watch tower looking over the docks. The group of hackers organising the event are occupying an empty house here and transmitting a pirate radio station over Rio, alongside the launch of their book about their work. The book looks interesting although of course near impossible to read in Portuguese, it will be a good start to improve my vocabulary. They were distributing it as an e-book via pen drives. We met many of Silvia’s peers and collaborators and had some good conversations as people came and went. Standing in the street listening to music from the live radio transmission, drinking beer in the hot sticky night.</p><p>Matt ended up doing a DJ slot on the radio and filling Rio’s airways with his own unique DJ ChOw dubstep and two-step sounds of Nottingham.</p></span>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-45256844166897365292010-11-11T00:10:00.000-08:002010-11-11T00:11:33.182-08:00BRUNO’S BOTANICAL GARDENS<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; "><p>Active Ingredient are in full effect, well there’s two of us here now so we’re now kind of a force in Rio Today’s journey took us from the lush green hillsides of Santa Teresa across Guanabara bay to Niteroi where we were to meet up with an old friend and associate on the project, Bruno Rezende, botanist from the Botanical Gardens in Rio, who lives and works with the Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest).</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1510" title="bruno-blog-0" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bruno-blog-0.jpg" alt="bruno-blog-0" width="800" height="533" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>We managed to jump on board one of the old open air ferries, which I’m informed is a much more pleasant experience than the new enclosed ones that service passengers on a weekday. The expanse of city against jungle is awe inspiring and being out in the bay you can really get a sense of the scale and shape of Rio De Janeiro and it’s huge green nobbly landscape, from the lego bricked communities to the shimmer of the city skyline.</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1512" title="bruno-blog-41" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bruno-blog-41.jpg" alt="bruno-blog-41" width="800" height="267" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>Bruno rolled up and swaggered over from his jeep and we made haste over to his farm, new family home and what we were about to discover was an eden for flora and fauna from all over the world, side by side. He explained energetically en route about his passion as a plant collector and a botanist, detailing the many species he has on the farm. Such is his passion that we even stopped off to pick up a plant from a friend. Bruno is also an artist, experimenting with plantlife and man-made materials, planting germinating bromeliads into glass and cement structures and documenting the seemingly impossible manner in which plants adapt to their new plastic prefabricated environment and as their new home for growth. Some of his creations seemed to mimic the structures they encompass, like the vines growing down against gravity from three showerheads arranged on the exterior wall of his house; Or the huge metal sheeted sculpture which has become home to smaller clusters of plantlife winding their way up the white fragments to the sun and nutrients. There’s a real surreal, Dali-esque quality to the work, but it also stands as solid botanical research and a document to Bruno’s belief in a second nature.</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1513" title="bruno-blog-2" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bruno-blog-2.jpg" alt="bruno-blog-2" width="800" height="267" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>This phase of the project is all about conversations, not between trees but between us and the people who work with the trees and the Mata Atlantica. Bruno has a strong belief that nature can be advanced by technology, he says… “ Technology can make a second nature possible, a balance between what’s been here for millions of years and what’s moving up really fast. There’s lots of technology within my work too, look at the irrigation systems in my sculptures, they’re dealing with engineering problems, self compensating water emissions and pressure rates. Technology can make human life and second nature possible and sustainable.”</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1514" title="bruno-blog-5" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bruno-blog-5.jpg" alt="bruno-blog-5" width="800" height="600" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>The irrigation systems he refers to are there in his latest project, a huge conical cement and marble structure built from found materials on the streets of Rio and plants he has been given or found through his networks. He calls it his nuclear reactor under construction.</p><p>We were treated to a delicious lunch spicy shrimps, rice and the traditional manioc sweet fried potatoes I’ve come to know and love. Hats off to the chef (Obrigada Anette.)</p><p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1515" title="bruno-blog-1" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bruno-blog-1.jpg" alt="bruno-blog-1" width="800" height="267" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p>It was only when we were invited to take a guided walk through his incredible extensive collection of plantlife and around his sculpture gardens that I realised just how site specific his work is. He has started a life-long piece of work setting up the stage for this diverse range of plantlife and discarded man-made products to flourish in hamony together side by side. He sees his work as nature performing for him and it is very much one huge experiment where he is kind of curating his land and laying the foundations for nature to take root and it truly is a land art installation. It is something that would take 100’s of years in the temperate UK climate, but here in Brazil, such an intense, bright and humid place, you can already begin to see these sculptures come to life. I can see a link to our work on A Conversation Between Trees, as we set up the parameters for our sets of data, if the humidity rises, the image becomes more blurred or if the temperature rises more red hues etc. But we didn’t know what was going to happen when the data from the trees and its surrounding environment slowly fed into the system. It is very much nature performing for us too.</p><p><br /></p></span>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-40007553872871833962010-11-08T05:52:00.000-08:002010-11-08T05:54:07.546-08:00Felt data maps and down at the Cocabana<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LqsF-JPPbnCALE8bjib4y_O7sjzmGiRx-Q5hjTTs_3hWeFvxH6pf2WVmHEvWDDqFhQ9n1U1QVZXq9UJtvUnWPYc9ZtWKA_GAp8maJoXRfAR9nu4ygwIAT7kBXYFsZkTjwaFV/s1600/methods.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LqsF-JPPbnCALE8bjib4y_O7sjzmGiRx-Q5hjTTs_3hWeFvxH6pf2WVmHEvWDDqFhQ9n1U1QVZXq9UJtvUnWPYc9ZtWKA_GAp8maJoXRfAR9nu4ygwIAT7kBXYFsZkTjwaFV/s320/methods.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537176678357761922" border="0" /></a><br /><p><br /></p><p>Today was another early start. We got to the school sleepy eyed and ready to make the large data maps with the groups. Starting well with the first group (atmospheric pressure) they seemed to get the maps although the concept of interpreting the numbers from the data into felt symbols was a bit confusing for them.</p> <p>Method of interpretation:<br />1. Created a scale of 1 – 10 for each dataset (temperature, humidity, decibels, atmospheric pressure, light)<br />2. Ask 80 children to choose a number on the scale based on their memory, experience, what they see and feel in the forest<br />3. Add all the numbers together for each dataset<br />4. Calculate the percentage for each dataset e.g. the children collectively decided that the humidity was 20% in the forest<br />5. Create a data map interpreting the data calculation, using symbols and colours from work they did with Silvia earlier in the year<br />6. Layout the symbols on a circle of felt based on the digital visualisation we had created.</p> <p>The activity reflected the interdisciplinary nature of the project to encourage cross-curriculum learning, working with maths, science, environment and art.</p> <p>What worked best for me was the way the children worked together in groups, negotiated and led the process. We ended up having all 40 as the they didn’t have a teacher that day and set them up around the van to continue working on the maps as each new group did the introduction.</p> <p>One of my favourite moments was when I was helping one girl cut leaves out (for the light map), she was watching me to copy what I was doing and I asked her in my terrible Portuguese what size to make it and that it was what she wanted not how I wanted it to be (which involves strange noises, pointing and waving, some Spanish, French and an occasional word of the actual language – which the children found hilarious). She gave me a massive smile and explained how she wanted it to look and said she really liked the leaf I had made with real pride. Another great moment was when some of the other children came up and asked me what the sensor kit in the tree was. I said I was an English artist working in the school but I couldn’t speak Portuguese and some of the children we were working with rushed to explain the whole process to them with incredible enthusiasm, pointing out the visualisation.<br />Silvia said that some of the other children asked her what was happening and she said that the tree was talking to a tree in England, they all laughed at her so she asked our group if she was telling the truth and they all very seriously nodded their heads and said yes of course with total conviction in the concepts of the project.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><p>After we finished we were completely exhausted, we returned to the flat and I spent a lovely couple of hours in the hammock reading whilst Silvia popped to her Dads house. I then began the laborious process of sticking the symbols to the maps.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1480 aligncenter" title="hammock with a view" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hammock.jpg" alt="hammock with a view" width="303" height="539" /></p> <p>A wonderful meal across from Copacabana beach with Silvia and her mum, with the smell and sounds of the Atlantic Ocean (with the UK just across the water – and up a bit). Going to Copacabana and Ipanema makes me want to pinch myself, the names evoke such a Hollywood image of fantasy tropical world, I can’t believe I am here and working with such a wonderful project such as EME.</p>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-1964489621341419942010-11-05T13:32:00.000-07:002010-11-05T13:35:54.796-07:00Felt dust and forests<div id="photo"> <div id="photo-inner"> <p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1455 aligncenter" title="feltrolls" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/feltrolls.jpg" alt="feltrolls" width="585" height="329" /></p> <p>I didn’t manage to blog yesterday as it was a really long day. Fantastic but packed full.</p> <p>Morning we went searching for felt for the workshops. Visited Gentil Carioca, an independent gallery where Silvia showed her first set of work with EME. A lovely gallery, we went behind the scenes to see the amazing toilet that is an artwork and had a quick expresso with Incio who works there.</p> <p><img class="size-full wp-image-1454 alignleft" title="Gentil Carioca Gallery" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/gentil.jpg" alt="Gentil Carioca Gallery" width="425" height="239" /></p> <p>Got the bus to the botanical gardens to meet Bruno and popped into the school so I got an idea about what it was like. So many conversations about British / Brazilian education our experiences with the schools exchange.</p> <p>Silvia took me on a walk through the botanical gardens showing me the places they took the children and what they did. Stopped for a drink at the cafe to wait for Bruno - my first Pao de Queijo of the trip (bread cheese) and Gaurana.</p> <p>Had an amazing couple of hours with Bruno and Silvia at the stunning Parque Largo (the art school below the hill with christ on the top). Talked about science, astronomy, he showed us the amazing work he has been doing since last year building a botanical sculpture to regenerate the land (which was once Mata Atlantica) as a kind of surreal second nature.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1452" title="The school workshop" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/escola_day1.jpg" alt="The school workshop" width="657" height="239" /></p> <p>Today was a 5.30am start to get to the school for 7am. Here the children have morning school or afternoon school and 40 children in a class. We worked with 80 children in 5 hours but in the most peaceful stress free way. Groups of 6-8 children came to our mobile studio in the van and on stools made by Silvia outside in the playground. We introduced the project to the groups we hadn’t worked with before and showed the work from Djanogly to the group who Silvia had worked with earlier in the year.</p> <p>We did the human sensor activity with the children also using the sensor kits to compare their perception of the forest with the science.</p> <p>Returned home to cut felt. Felt dust in my mouth. Beautiful circles of coloured felt and symbols to build the visualisation from the human data collected by the children to create a picture of their experience of the forest on the edge of their school.</p> <p>Didn’t see any monkeys though.</p> </div> </div>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-89020154031841302662010-11-03T02:33:00.000-07:002010-11-03T03:04:33.170-07:00Preparing to go on board the vanThe first day was a research day, preparing for the schools workshops.<br /><br />I am going to the school that we worked with on the Dark Forest project on Thursday and meeting the young people that Matt and I worked with remotely and through the exchange with Djanogly School in Nottingham. It will be wonderful to finally meet them and the teachers and follow on from the beautitful work that Silvia and Alissa did with the group (see the <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?page_id=720">School’s</a> section)<br /><br />We have planned to run some sessions that introduces them to the next phase of the project - ‘A Conversation Between Trees’, present the work that Matt and I did with Djanogly in Sherwood Forest and then run an activity from the van in the school playground.<br /><br />Using eco felt (a sustainable felt material) we will create a visualisation based on the human sensor activity we did at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The young people will collect the data from standing under a tree in their playground (that is surrounded by the forest) and use the data to build an evolving data map made of felt objects. This data map will reflect how they perceive the forest in their playground on that day. It will be like a large fuzzy felt that can be remade and reformed by the group on different days, a way to visualise their perception of the environmental data we are collecting from the forest - based on the data groups they worked with earlier in the year (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, decibels and light). It is attempt to introduce to the young people the creative process of building a visualisation of scientific data based on their own perceptions of the world. The final artwork they generate together will then work in contrast to the visualisation we have generated digitally using the scientific data. The process will be filmed and recorded as a time lapse animation - as a performance of nature by the children - to investigate the forest environment around their playground.<br /><br />We are using felt as it is a thermal material, it reminds me of the fuzzy felt toy from when I was a child where you created landscapes by placing different people, trees etc… on a felt board. It comes in bright colours and will be movable using velcro, creating a physical manifestation of the digital visualisation we have created. This morning we are off to buy the felt and later we will create the symbols for each dataset (based on the drawings the group did earlier in the year) for the group to use to build the visualisation.<br /><br />The visualisation will then travel with us along our journey inside the van - so that we can present the work of the young people to the people we meet along the way and will be presented back to the school on our return.<br /><div id="photo-inner"><style type="text/css">.gallery { margin: auto; }.gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; }.gallery img { border: 2px solid rgb(207, 207, 207); }.gallery-caption { margin-left: 0pt; }</style> <div class="gallery"><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/tree_close.jpg" title="tree_close"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/tree_close-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/christ.jpg" title="Sunrise over the Mata Atlantica hills surrounding Rio"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/christ-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><br /><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/combovan.jpg" title="combovan"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/combovan-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/palmsinrio.jpg" title="palmsinrio"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/palmsinrio-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><br /><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/plane.jpg" title="plane"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/plane-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/senegal.jpg" title="senegal"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/senegal-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/tallpalm.jpg" title="tallpalm"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/tallpalm-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl> </div></div>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-39401757085097345112010-08-24T02:48:00.001-07:002010-08-24T02:49:39.820-07:00Second Week<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4aTtQpcz9PfM1xkDc0jbNmT00KasqZte9iZwUzqXoOB-cQn1a2j44tNVjQSIMB4RmsqiPhUFTLgw-Z3p8YR3ZF-f5DTXjZN8vUZ4y8El0iroPIt8Q7wD9equJmYzmosaJc7n/s1600/birch.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4aTtQpcz9PfM1xkDc0jbNmT00KasqZte9iZwUzqXoOB-cQn1a2j44tNVjQSIMB4RmsqiPhUFTLgw-Z3p8YR3ZF-f5DTXjZN8vUZ4y8El0iroPIt8Q7wD9equJmYzmosaJc7n/s320/birch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508911323771305314" border="0" /></a><br /><div id="photo"> <div id="photo-inner"> <p><br /></p><p>Back at Longside today.</p> <p>20 people</p> <p>Human sensors, asking people to note down the temperature, humidity, atmostpheric pressure and decibels around an oak tree.</p> <p>Making a stop motion animation based on the data collected from the visitors.</p> <p>Live data projected from the oak tree. The projection worked really well and looks very interesting when it is changeable weather, it was one of those sunshine and shower days, but with real horizontal rain and wind and then suddenly sunshine and blue skys. At one point the visualisation turned yellow with the sunshine, we’d not seen that before. The temperature as the rain came dropped by the minute and the humidity rose to 99 percent (although we wondered if that was caused by a build up or rain on the sensor).</p> <p>The activities seemed to work quite well and the animation is building up slowly.</p> <p>Our ideas are also solidifying. We still have a big gap between the visualisation and the concepts for a physical sculpture, being pulled between the ability to create a dynamic augmented reality on screen and being tied to a physical space when you create a sculptural experience, we’d like to make the augmented space physical… which we did with Chemical Garden, but I am still unsure what materials would create the ethereal experience that the projection is creating.</p> <p>Have been looking into CO2 as a solid substance and would like to create a tree out of it but it is lethal, can cause frostbite if you touch it and asphysixation in large quantities, sounds worse than the ammonia we used in Chemical Garden to create the salt crystal trees… I like it.</p> <p>But not for this, I think this is likely to be mechanics and light, but we are thinking this work will evolve and different outcomes, at the tree (the sensors and speakers that enable you to hear a tree in another location), in the forest (tracking your journey through the forest), in the gallery (visualising and interpreting the data as a sculpture).</p> <p>Our goal for the weekend is to redo the visualisation so that the parameters are more meaningful, to enable people to ‘decode’ the effect of the data on the image and also to enable people standing in front of the visualisation to interact with it.</p> <p>We will do some tests with audio to see how we can capture audio from the tree and what kind of sounds we can capture.</p> </div> </div>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-63054278172040774212010-08-22T02:42:00.000-07:002010-08-22T02:54:32.067-07:00Going Into the Second Week<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbPw_i2VmgkEs4ZXnHQ-DtKB8GohIscOk65vglMYC929JPzXnBZTaT2SNA2LtzuU4sjg3qLxOfYvF13P2S1_lUVYYSQDN1ij_imdjnm3ZPtgi65C0ilrMO4wLwMjkqcHPS6ta/s1600/oaktree.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 245px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbPw_i2VmgkEs4ZXnHQ-DtKB8GohIscOk65vglMYC929JPzXnBZTaT2SNA2LtzuU4sjg3qLxOfYvF13P2S1_lUVYYSQDN1ij_imdjnm3ZPtgi65C0ilrMO4wLwMjkqcHPS6ta/s320/oaktree.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508168809151705090" border="0" /></a><br />Tomorrow we will return to YSP, had a weekend off-ish.<br /><br />The last 2 days of last week, went well. We had 20 people on Thursday and 32 on Friday. The activities got some really interesting results and some great feedback. The thing that most stood out was a Forester who visited who spoke about the language we were creating through the visualisation of data and said he wanted to be able decode, or understand what the sensor kit was telling us about the tree. Like Carlo, when he saw the visualisations between Sherwood and the Mata Atlantica he said he could tell the health of the tree by the colour, light and it would be great to be able to read the other information too.<br /><br /><p>This led us to develop an exercise using our bodies as human sensors to decide how we see and percieve the atmosphere, based on our experience or points of reference. We will upload these to the map of the park tomorrow. When doing this exercise another visitor who was a nurse began to talk about some work she had done with patients perception of symptoms and the difference between what they percieve and what they could reveal through medical science. This was really interesting in terms of what we are trying to ‘interpret’ through the artwork as opposed to simply revealing the scientific data… also reflects back to our previous work Heartlands. In a way this project is the opposite of Heartlands, instead of revealing the invisible inner process as we walk through a landscape we are hoping to reveal the invisible external process and our affect as we walk through a landscape.</p> <p>Next week will be less reflective and more ‘active’. We will start playing with materials, designs, audio, the data…</p>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-70914530951489482542010-08-22T02:38:00.000-07:002010-08-22T02:42:18.330-07:00Day 2Documentation of the day…<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvTuKnzTgjOsvlPWvH0G56FiGoaZE7QCUfaXIIYST9XFwyYSi5LTq87luoW_YYTiQ1ZUthXIrY4EJ4sRghtZVkZFkquPqMvR6FxOAd_dTYNRdiTI_EHgw7ucB7pIyZULX8Ovf/s1600/studio.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvTuKnzTgjOsvlPWvH0G56FiGoaZE7QCUfaXIIYST9XFwyYSi5LTq87luoW_YYTiQ1ZUthXIrY4EJ4sRghtZVkZFkquPqMvR6FxOAd_dTYNRdiTI_EHgw7ucB7pIyZULX8Ovf/s320/studio.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508166530460609042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />16 visitors<br /><p>Narratives and Tree Stories themes<br />6 stories added<br />The morning involved discussions around narrative and the external experience.<br />Walked to the oak and birch woodland area near Longside Studio.<br />Talked about tracking visitors journeys in the forest area, GPS, audio or not, visual or not.<br />I had an idea about using a phone around your neck to track your journey, light and colour, sound and GPS, to give you audio feedback based on the data from the trees, where you are (shade or open sky) and how close you get to the trees with the sensors on. Using the technology to create a communication between your sensor data and the trees.</p><p>Talked about narratives informing the work. Linear narratives such as stories about trees, wrote stories about tree memories and asked members of the public to tell us or write their stories and added them to the wall.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-I1AXbRi3z9Bvkl0kqug_4yHKSkPjvYUX4Y7BzgKMrCllz6ogPZyoQzi-MdjIKsjOPg__ji0QJ6KR1Kw5O1zyiacsMd421eqdQh7BSEWukehjX8st9_cwqlfVC3kR70ljpc_/s1600/introroom.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-I1AXbRi3z9Bvkl0kqug_4yHKSkPjvYUX4Y7BzgKMrCllz6ogPZyoQzi-MdjIKsjOPg__ji0QJ6KR1Kw5O1zyiacsMd421eqdQh7BSEWukehjX8st9_cwqlfVC3kR70ljpc_/s320/introroom.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508166797843062226" border="0" /></a></p><p>Stories felt too linear and didn’t really answer our questions about the ‘experience’ but maybe could inform an audio trail. Not abstract enough, but maybe this is something you can whisper into the tree, a memory of a tree from a time gone by?</p> Was told that the work had charmed one man and had a discussion about the performance of us as artists presenting the ideas of the work, he was very interested in this as an experience rather than just looking at an artwork.<br /><p style="text-align: left;">Some of the stories were about smell, particularly interesting when talking about memory.<br />One couple sat for some time and wrote their stories for us.</p>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-11614955691973600842010-08-17T15:23:00.000-07:002010-08-17T15:25:14.768-07:00At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park<p>The first day of A Conversation Between Trees (pictures to come).</p> <p>Today was a baptism of fire but a good one. Thanks to all the visitors to the park who came and visited us at the Longside Studios, we meet some really interesting people who engaged with the ideas through talking to us, took the flyers to take photos and map the locations where they found trees and made photographic evidence of the things you don’t normally see in the park, the temperature, humidity, sound, light etc…</p> <p>We had some great drawings done today, a family spent some time escaping the drizzle and making some beautiful drawings and mapping the trees they could see and imaginary trees based on the themes of the project. We will add these to the map in the morning.</p> <p>We placed the sensor kit in an old oak tree next to the visitors centre but showed the recorded data from our exhibition in Brazil when we linked a tree in the UK to one in Brazil, as this was a good place to start the project. To see the data collected from the tree <a href="http://kerouac.mrl.nott.ac.uk/darkforest/web/index.html?pageNumber=1&pageSize=12&deviceID=sherwood" target="_blank">click here</a></p> <p>Tonight after some drinks in a local pub with the technicians who have been alot of support today and a rather dubious plate of stodgy pub food we spent quite a while playing a not very delibrate game of find the big ASDA in the countryside using the GPS on our iphone and half remembered directions from the technicians.</p> <p>Having stocked up for the week we went back to the idyllic B&B were I am now - to take over their front room and discuss the schedule for the week and begin to really get our heads around what we want to acheive in terms of developing the new artwork, experiments with the public and on site and also activities for the public. It is strange that it was really hard to get any real ideas of how this would evolve before we arrived, now we are here on site and in the environment with the weather and the quiet and the mix of sculptures, woodland and park we are beginning to really get a grip on what this project could be.</p> <p><strong>Ideas:</strong><br />We have been talking tonight about the imaginary space that we want to create both externally in the woodland area and internally in the gallery space. This is potentially a set of narrative clues whilst you are out in the environment that are controlled by the data, and a visual, physical installation that is an imaginary world created by the data.</p> <p>How this will look and be experienced will be revealed over the next few days.</p> <p><strong>Planned Schedule (likely to change):</strong><br /><em>Wednesday</em> - starting a chalk animation that visitors can add to and change, visualising how our bodies can act as a sensor, collecting memories of trees and tree landmarks from ourselves and visitors to begin to plan the narrative and adding them to Google Maps, working on visualising the ‘imaginary space’ created by the data. What could this look like, what would the experience feel like? Adding photos and drawings to the map of the park. Live link to a tree close to the Longside Studio.</p> <p><em>Thursday</em> - thinking about the indoor experience, what materials we might use and how it might work, continuing the chalk animation with visitors, drawing imaginary spaces and forests, taking photos of things that look fantastical, magical or unreal in the park. Live link to the old oak next to the visitors centre.</p> <p><em>Friday </em>- thinking about the outdoor experience, what will the sensor look like in the tree, how can people interact with it? Designing the new sensor kit, writing narratives and designing how this will evolve. Asking visitors for stories, fairy tales, myths and legends they know about forests. Adding these to the map of the park and other places on google maps where they think they could come from.</p><p>more information about the project at: <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv">www.thedarkforest.tv</a><br /></p>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-87013733597388529032010-06-09T22:31:00.000-07:002010-06-09T23:07:54.277-07:00Atenir - Greece<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR_vCnrETpvBNnJwz5AkH3y1nJ-2pNTj3c_btFn05dqqZTLITpYHXMvTi6A0bPdXVC9pnkww4NOtlf4E5L7-7_ntdTWh2FMQrBsXUizeAR8TPNkmjOw4ILQeXo593JY2OKZHb/s1600/iphone+047.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR_vCnrETpvBNnJwz5AkH3y1nJ-2pNTj3c_btFn05dqqZTLITpYHXMvTi6A0bPdXVC9pnkww4NOtlf4E5L7-7_ntdTWh2FMQrBsXUizeAR8TPNkmjOw4ILQeXo593JY2OKZHb/s320/iphone+047.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481020816578688450" border="0" /></a><br />The conference has been a good if not a slightly random one.<br /><br />The panels I attended were really fascinating on the whole with such diverse subjects as the history of the Black Arts Council in the US, Screenplay methods (Jools from Nottingham), lots about practice research which is really good for my PhD arguments and the wierdest last one that I attended because it sounded completely crazy and involved a huge attractive Texan Professor talking about Sky Diving, Scuba Diving and the sublime, referencing Jonathan Living Seagull. I thought i'd gone into the wrong conference and ended up in a marine equipment convention, which was fine by me...<br /><br />Our session on Tuesday went well I think, lots of good feedback although I was terrified of how to merge my normal presentation style of talking generally, however it comes based on my chosen selection of pretty pictures and the seemingly accepted style of reading from the paper. I attempted to merge the two and after two minutes when I thought I was going to choke and the audience die of boredom I managed to get into the swing of it. People said it worked well so i'll trust it did and lots of people came up and talked about the project, was very interested in the climate change stuff and generally met a bunch of really lovely, interesting people from it.<br /><br />The rest of the panel was great, although a wierd selection of digital arts type stuff. Una was fantastic, talking about her project with Marina involving posting animals (particularly Raccoons) into Google Street View, looking at how animals are reinhabiting cities. It was humourous and interesting to find out more about her work looking at animals.<br /><br />Kathy (who I had great chats with yesterday) from Philidelphia presented some really cool software that she is using to teach about fashion design, costume and textiles, she is a wonderfully interesting person and I really enjoyed sitting in the bar and chatting with her on the greek islands yesterday, comparing corporate horror stories and chatting about romance, life, being one of so few woman in a world of male geeks.<br /><br />After the panel me, Una and Shonu (Una's daughter) went to the roof lounge and celebrated with extra large gin and tonics overlooking the Pantheon at midday, bliss. We then returned to the hotel for a sleep and I had a wander round.<br /><br />The afternoon involved a wonderful walk round the Pantheon, we explored the ruins and laughed at the rusty engineering littered about and admired the AMAZING views. They felt practically religous but not quite, you could see what the Ancient Greeks were trying to. We've had lots of talks about Atheism, Communism and Richard Dawkins over the last couple of days.<br /><br />The evening ended with Retsina (fizzy red wine, whats that about??) and a meal in a taverna where my vegetarian option never came.<br /><br />Yesterday was heaven, a cruise around 3 islands Hydra, Aegina and cant remember the name of the first one. Lots of sea, sun, rocks, pistachio trees, olive trees, bars, Ouzo, seafood, pina coladas, Ouzo, mythos beer, Jools Ska dancing to Greek Music, greek elvis, dancing greek man with a strange foot fetish, lounging on deck and talking incessantly about stuff, great chat about performance with Kevin and Suzanna from Philidelphia, good talks about Prussia with Ana from Riga, such lovely people. The day ended with a takeout from the vegetarian restaurant eating on the roof with one last pina colada overlooking the Acropylis with Jools, Una and Shonu. A great day.<br /><br />On the way home we walked past the Bank of Greece as a van of riot police was emptying out, there was hardly anyone there, but it's definately a reminder that all is not heaven and bliss here or in the world.<br /><br />Time to come home.aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-86946367837795504662010-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:002010-06-07T08:37:36.210-07:00AI on their travels again...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9RPAKqNxGQMgMNj4RbfITER_mTWf2FK3q17PAHbb91mSyrYZZZcqxyrrG7L9LW7cohmXnoZxB1R6wfxL_2O5aaNqBWoUinSzerSUuiViPuq5BdeM_cu0A_fSOKuL3LLiuO8v/s1600/iphone+002.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_9RPAKqNxGQMgMNj4RbfITER_mTWf2FK3q17PAHbb91mSyrYZZZcqxyrrG7L9LW7cohmXnoZxB1R6wfxL_2O5aaNqBWoUinSzerSUuiViPuq5BdeM_cu0A_fSOKuL3LLiuO8v/s320/iphone+002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480053893256220770" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mm</span><br /><br />It's been awhile since we have blogged and as normal I'm taking advantage of the being on the move to write and contemplate. AI Hq these days is pretty hectic, with lots of changes occurring and us all in and out all the time, what with my PhD at Nottingham University and Matt working alot of the time in Birmingham with Mudlark.<br /><br />Anyhow i have the pleasure of sitting on a balcony in Athens, overlooking one of the main streets, and if I stand up the Acropylis and Pantheon. Its amazing, and hot (despite the BBCs warnings of rain). Im at an art and creativity conference organised by Atenir. After months of computer science, engineering and geospatial engineering studies (or avoidance of studies!) it is a relief to be back where my heart is, in intense art discussions.<br /><br />I arrived last night to a a chaotic city, no demonstrations, all seems calm and where I am staying not very skint at all. I am sure away from the main streets and amazing array of posh and high street shops it is a completely different story. The rich continue to shop whereever you are in the world in these days of global captialism.<br /><br />I had a report to finish for uni last night so stayed in the hotel, couldn't find much more than cheese on toast, so got drunk on the free very potent spirit left in the room and then tried to write stuff. It was lovely when I went to the rooftop bar and sat facing the Acropylis all lit up at night, drinking G+T and working on my laptop. I am one of those sad workaholic world travellers sitting with their laptop for company... like an arts carpet salesman... The life of a mobile artist, I have been thinking alot about the discussions at the Tracing Mobility event last week, and this new world that is part of our locative practice where artists, fly around the world talking, meeting each other and living partly in transit, part virtually, bridging virtual collaborations such as the one with Silvia Leal and part at home in Nottingham with my friends, never mind the travel to and from London. It often feels so disconnected. Technology and connectivity definately makes you more disconnected until you get txts from friends wherever you are in the world.<br /><br />Today I went to the conference, finally finding Una who is also staying at the hotel with her daughter, she is chairing the panel I am presenting in and has been in email contact through Gabriella who led the paper and is sadly not able to come becuase of the BA strikes.<br /><br />The conference is really interesting although the panels are huge and strangely diverse (not well curated), I am unsure about this arts academic practice of reading the paper out loud as a presentation and am very surprised that artists would do this. I am thinking about how to give that paper justice and feel comfortable with reading the paper.<br /><br />I am presenting a paper written by Gabriella, Myself and Steve Benford about the Dark Forest project in context of other performances of nature, within nature, about nature...<br /><a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/">www.thedarkforest.tv</a> . Una is presenting about represtentations of climate change which I am really looking forward to hearing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYOP2ReNyOn6Tsa4EZ5W0q8zrKvgPZgvObALjWymlUSv66oz_0rFEOsztt2WnUtAuu52X5uZTau_vksYTC530QGd3vdD534NxUgrFGZkGtEK57tmksJA9NPG4n-x1caCDYGMK-/s1600/IMG_0475.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYOP2ReNyOn6Tsa4EZ5W0q8zrKvgPZgvObALjWymlUSv66oz_0rFEOsztt2WnUtAuu52X5uZTau_vksYTC530QGd3vdD534NxUgrFGZkGtEK57tmksJA9NPG4n-x1caCDYGMK-/s320/IMG_0475.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480054917583328226" border="0" /></a>Found an old friend here, Jools from Nottingham Trent so it all feels a little less lonely and im looking to the Greek Night tonight, whatever that is, should be fun. Hopefully I will get more than cheese and bread (there is a theme to my travels). Eat pig by accident again in the vegetarian pizza things at lunch (another theme of these travels) although managed to gracefully spit it into a serviette without too much drama. Found an amazing vegetarian greek cafe across the road from the conference venue, bought a delicous vegetarian slice of yummy stuff, spilt water all over it, accidently dropped it in the bin and am therefore starving... gonna lose some weight this trip I think if things carry on like this!aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-16455949329247448362009-12-07T03:59:00.000-08:002009-12-14T04:28:50.380-08:00Woolwich Workshops<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2743/4170214146_4733588faf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2743/4170214146_4733588faf.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2685/4169456199_e9e522231d.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2685/4169456199_e9e522231d.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />A couple of weeks ago we went down to London again to run some workshops at Woolwich Poly and continue our research for the game.<br /><br />We are working with a really inspiring art teacher at the Poly called David Fischer who has alot of interest and excitement in citzenship, community and also gaming. A perfect match for us.<br /><br />The first session was run by Matt with BTEC students. The aim of this workshop was to introduce our work and the game and begin to look at developing art games, based on location. The idea was to introduce the concept of locative art games to the students, begin to get them thinking playfully about where they live and who they are, and to work with them on some game ideas.<br /><br />For us it supports our understanding of the area, build and test some ideas and as we develop our ideas hopefully the students will develop their own, eventually they will test the game for us.<br /><br />The second session was with Key Stage 3 students, this concentrated on location and identity. Using maps of the area we slowly worked with the students to create maps of the area based on their perspectives, the locations that were important to them, their journeys, their territories. Places they liked or avoided. Eventually we ended up with a set of maps of the area around Woolwich for each individual student and a shared map built up in Google Earth in the interactive screen, that showed the key areas for the whole group and the connections between the locations.<br /><br />The final session went back to the BTEC students to begin to build 2 board games based on Woolwich. Looking at games like Ludo and Monopoly to create a playful set of rules, scoring points and the board design. This brought up alot of issues of territory and the ongoing issues of gangs in the area. They are now developing two games that are looking really great, telling interesting stories about the area that we would have never discovered from just wandering about and reading research.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2625/4170222418_a7b036e502_m.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2625/4170222418_a7b036e502_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>As a final session for this stage we met with Said from the Somalia Parents Network to talk about involving this group in the project and to find out a bit more about some of the current issues facing the biggest immigrant community that now lives in Woolwich. It was a very interesting chat and we very much appreciated him taking time out from dealing with the pressing issues that face the community on a daily basis. We hope that the young people he works with and the families take part in the development of the game, and play when the game is finally built.aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-25696665783981542752009-12-07T03:27:00.000-08:002009-12-07T03:59:28.584-08:00The Woolwich Game<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJDu9cITfMVhvvuTZjojB9Vh4kVCiQ2ECcwdK9Gw0Oyw6gdgx4NRZKfE6DmSJhC3HGXaTO-yCMzrlf5HN6hdy1OUKd2YksZ9gwTEehTg7L_osKP1d_-lvKCKgs5xBJenoEbpL/s1600-h/velvelweddingjpg.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJDu9cITfMVhvvuTZjojB9Vh4kVCiQ2ECcwdK9Gw0Oyw6gdgx4NRZKfE6DmSJhC3HGXaTO-yCMzrlf5HN6hdy1OUKd2YksZ9gwTEehTg7L_osKP1d_-lvKCKgs5xBJenoEbpL/s320/velvelweddingjpg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412458932471262130" border="0" /></a><br /></div>In the summer we were commissioned to develop a new mobile phone art game for a Greenwich based arts organisation <a href="http://www.streamarts.org.uk/" target="_blank">Stream Arts</a><br /><br />A couple of weeks ago we went down to London to start work in Woolwich and work with Woolwich Poly art department, working with Key Stage 3 and BTEC students.<br /><br />One of the reasons we are excited about this project is that I have my own personal connection to Woolwich. It has always been part of my family's story that once upon a time my family lived over the river (I was brought up in North London). The myth was that my great grandfather lived in the Woolwich Arsenal and was rich enough to buy shares in the original Arsenal football team.<br /><br />Some years ago, these Arsenal shares revealed themselves, my great Aunt Pearl was found to be in possesion of the shares and finally they were indeed shared out amongst my family members. Triggering family reunions (and some debate) and a growing interest for my father in the family tree.<br /><br />Since then my father has followed many of his generation in their retirement years, to explore the family tree. A connection to the <span class="snippet">Grodzinskis</span> family, who own a famous Jewish Bakery chain in London, revealed more about the family history, chased back to the days in Woolwich.<br /><br />Between my Dad and his fellow investigator they discovered a large family that lived in Woolwich from 1895. The family owned a fruit and vegetable shop on Thomas Street, one of the main high streets in the centre. A beautiful old photograph we have shows a wedding party in the back yard of a Victorian building. The wedding is of my Dad's great uncle Velvel. My grandfather is probably the moving child on the left hand side, his many sisters are sitting crossed legged on the floor and my great grandparents are at the end of the second row to the right.<br /><br />Our first step to begin the research involved my Father and I taking a trip to the Heritage Centre to follow up these leads. With our Arsenal shares documents, this photograph and the Census research with details of the roads, dates and where in Poland my family had come from, clasped in our hands we met with with the wonderful Francis at the Heritage Centre.<br /><br />After trawling through documents, books and the small folder about the Jewish community of Woolwich we found some amazing things. Firstly, we found records of my great grandfather's tailor business. Maximillian Jacobvitch was a master tailor for the Arsenal. We think we have discovered why the family came to this small area on the edge of London rather than the East End, where the rest of the family and the majority of other Jews went to when they arrived from the East.<br /><br />The small file Francis had been building up contained a gem that began to set the ball rolling... a newspaper clipping from 1905 described the first Jewish wedding to take place in Woolwich, it was the wedding from our photograph with the names of my family, describing the ceremony and party afterwards at the fruit and veg shop on Thomas Street, where the photograph was taken. The myth was beginning to come alive!<br /><br />...and so begins the story.<br /><br />Rachelaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-550166465072933502009-12-07T03:18:00.000-08:002009-12-07T03:26:54.004-08:00Active Ingredient goes to Brazil, this time Rio too...Rachel and Matt Davenport went to Brazil in November as part of the Dark Forest Project. Another amazing trip, involving the first exhibition of the Dark Forest which is an ongoing collaboration between Active Ingredient, Mobilefest, the Mixed Reality Lab and the collaboration has now extended to working with the artist Silvia Leal and the botanist Bruno . It has been written up on the Dark Forest website: <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?page_id=387" target="_blank">http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?page_id=387</a>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-53882709006259128712009-05-22T23:49:00.000-07:002009-05-23T00:20:49.151-07:00Spanish, Open Source, Spanish, CitilabMy head is still ringing from yesterdays onslaught of Spanish. The conference has no translation although Flavio and Alberto have made a big effort to sit next to us and translate but I have a feeling we have missed quite a bit.<br /><br />Citilab is pretty impressive, a large old factory made into a technology lab that has as its remit a commitment to work with local citzens (that seems to much more of an empowering word than "community" which feels spoilt by years of soft touch community arts in the UK), conduct research, a conference programme, workshops and a huge amount of resources including large touch screens and arduino and lego mindstorm robot areas to play and develop. They seem very well funded and have only been going a year which explains some of the lack of organisation i have experienced and also the small audience yesterday.<br /><br />The event is interesting (what I understand of it) and as often with these gatherings is held together by the high qaulity of the speakers. Flavio from Ars Games (I am learning not to giggle like only the english seem to at bottom, fart and poo references) and Alberto from Movilfest (a mobile phone film festival) are really interesting and knowledgable and are leading some very exciting stuff here in Spain. I didn't realise Spain spends the least money on culture in Europe and Barcelona the least of the Spanish cities, not what you would expect from a city full of sculpture, architecture and renowned for its beauty, music and well culture...<br /><br />It seems the games industry in Spain has been stopped just as it was starting due to the economic situtation but investments such as Citilab must have great potential to support a new generation of innovators, artists and developers.<br /><br />The speakers included Hernan from "the industry", who created a virtual world KTK with Telefonica, very early on. He has a Uruguyaun accent and speaks very fast and heated and i can't understand a word he says but he is also the vitality of the event. Yesterday evening involved pizza and a huge shouting rotating arguement about open source versus commercial enterprise, it was hilarious despite only understanding 20%, Leia kindly translated the key shouting matches and I attempted to throw some things into the bag, all in good humour. Being in Spain reminds me of my family and Jewish tempermants, the loud politicial shouting matches i grew up with so I am right at home.<br /><br />Next was an interesting psychologist who is looking at game players behaviour, he did touch on gender but I felt he needed to make the gender issue much clearer from the start as you can't make general statements about gaming behaviour without taking on board who the majority of (video) gamers tend to be, mind you I was only cathcing 75% of this talk so maybe I missed this. One interesting point he made was about men's identity (and maybe more so in Spain) and the ability for men to define their identity in society is much more limited than for women, therefore they respond to the profiling, pretending you are something else, role play, play within games as a release of this constraint they have.<br /><br />I was next and it seemed to go ok although my laptop failed me and crashed hopelessly half way through which made me speed through some of our projects in a vain attempt to get my flow back. So I think people were a little confused, i think it was brought back by questions and Matt Davenport joined in to save the day which was really good and nice to have a fresh view as ever of our work.<br /><br />The final speaker was Joan Leandre who I know from the really inspiring <a href="http://www.opensorcery.net/velvet-strike/">Velvet Strike</a> he comes from an old school hacker (although he says hacker has now been assimilated by the main stream) open source activist tradition but his research and work with shoot em up / war games is still or even more so incredibly valid and interesting. Had some ideas for education games based on real world events as a response to the horrifyingly cynical <a href="http://www.kumagames.com/">Kuma</a> reality war games.<br /><br />The day ended with a networked wine tasting event upstairs as part of an Innovate Camp for the Mediterranean. This is how I like my technology. Lots of very good expensive wine to taste, cameras streaming the event and laptops to twitter your views... and lots of delicious smelly local cheese. Heaven.<br /><br />Matt D was exhausted as Kat had kept him up all night talking so he returned to Barca and Maria and Flavio kindly offered to pay for me to have another night in the hotel so I didn't need to cart my bags across town. They have offered to try and change my flights so I dont miss the conference this afternoon and I really want to hear Rebecca Cannon, creator of <a href="http://dlux.org.au/mobilejourneys/rebeccakaren.html">Killing Yourself </a>and Artbase in Melbourne talk.aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-30036997347778426302009-05-22T23:43:00.000-07:002009-05-22T23:49:49.219-07:00day 1The hotel here is smart, with a pool and large bathrooms. We dropped our bags off and headed back to town to meet Kat and her dog Wimbo. We walked through old streets looking for a restaurant terrace that would accomodate a vegetarian, a vegan, a non veg and a vegan dog. eventually convinced a particularly narky pizza restaurant owner to give us a table and avoid little Wimbo getting eaten by a very large terrotorial dog. Had amazing pizza and wandered back to flat.aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-32693481607010587002009-05-21T03:42:00.000-07:002009-05-21T03:59:46.166-07:00Mobile Cell, BarcelonaI am amazingly off again. This time we are in Barcelona, although Matt is back at HQ, left in the on/off Spring of the UK whilst Matt the 2nd (Davenport) and I are living it up in one of the most beautiful cities of Europe... and my is it pretty and hot. I am a little confused about the conference where I am due to talk and was told the wrong dates which has happily given us a day off in the sun, to be tourists and go to the beach! Finally we get the day on the beach promised to us in Brazil and never realised!<br /><br />Woke up to a perfect day. Slept at Matt's friends house in end last night as I missed the last train back to the hotel. Sitting on balcony watching seagulls swarm around an ancient church tower. the bell ringing every 15minutes. Waiting for Kat and Matt to return with a Spanish breakfast of tomatos, garlic olive oil on toast. There the bell goes again, the seagulls respond with their calls and swallows have now began to swarm. Like our <a href="http://www.wearemudlark.com">Mudlark</a> logo. They are beautiful and simple and they sqwark in tuneful rounds competing with the reggae playing in the flat, the TVs and music from the many balconies surrounding the yard below.<br /><br />Yesterday we arrived to sun and warmth. In his excitement Matt decided we should tour the centre with luggage in tow. Was beautiful but hot work with wheelie case and heavy bags. Drunk cerveza and milk shake at the harbour and then found the metro to Playmobile ville, an appropriate vista for an event called Mobile Cell. Complete with sticklebrick style trees and boxes made of ticky tacky. this new urban sprawl is in complete contrast to the old centre of Barcelona with it's ornate decorative iron work, magnificant art deco, gaudi mosica, sculptural gargoyle laden edifices. Modern art, graffiti, bikes, skateboards, old wealth, new punk feel.<br /><br />Cornella feels like America as new towns do. Since Parralelo I have been noticing more clearly the emergence of the Next Nature concept. The metro hear plays bird song piped into the artificially lit air of the train. As you become older does the present become more like science fiction? Are we preparing ourelves for a time when only artificial birds swarm overhead as we eat processed food supplements for breakfast grown from GM crops?aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-48413909792892105382009-04-07T13:51:00.000-07:002009-04-07T14:14:32.106-07:00Running Rings - The SqunkeyWhile listening to the talks at the Paralelo conference, Brazil. I started to draw these little figures, which refers to a mobile game project that I have been thinking about over the last few weeks. The premis of the game is about creating rings. So I started to think about circles and then an avatar came to mind that is composed of circles and moves in circular way. This made me think of the loping rounded walk of apes. So a sort of ape came about, but then I developed it further and it also started to take on undersea elements. Like a sort of squid, with a bit of monkey in it - A squnkey.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf5eXQ8ZsDebjwZhvBHrPkf_8-uw0kg1-EP33IEnLmrd8F2aqzuTQ4nkfj4rWLE2XlxZIzQYW1jT8eEywmPqMGkuwVw5j5kIskkZUhONp3BCOgbqKKOPVvQ-M1EZg3LvK6kPx/s1600-h/07042009184_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 298px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf5eXQ8ZsDebjwZhvBHrPkf_8-uw0kg1-EP33IEnLmrd8F2aqzuTQ4nkfj4rWLE2XlxZIzQYW1jT8eEywmPqMGkuwVw5j5kIskkZUhONp3BCOgbqKKOPVvQ-M1EZg3LvK6kPx/s320/07042009184_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322057643904523810" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieB6PhO_lFy9jhwbU-5vHKE3eqz_D0BN8sSsLLkIJhwWRUEKSeQamkLU-OHU5QZLtvj7P3J4f_yK_WELKNoZJ5CqfMBy2_pvObC4lN91nWwSqYWGuc3UO7kBSOSW4kU79SYbAc/s1600-h/squnkey.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieB6PhO_lFy9jhwbU-5vHKE3eqz_D0BN8sSsLLkIJhwWRUEKSeQamkLU-OHU5QZLtvj7P3J4f_yK_WELKNoZJ5CqfMBy2_pvObC4lN91nWwSqYWGuc3UO7kBSOSW4kU79SYbAc/s320/squnkey.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322057647351708994" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXg-mT7utyCVWtOuqRdc23FIY3QS3IQ0N8Hh2_bJZnLYlhBzcBEaykLU1TJeQ_cjPl6GEfY-zEmKH6oeD8Ig3ZCsGWLc2ccrF0UUPPzBaS8UKnPJeQ5FM105YxM-5nRaxcYole/s1600-h/07042009183_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXg-mT7utyCVWtOuqRdc23FIY3QS3IQ0N8Hh2_bJZnLYlhBzcBEaykLU1TJeQ_cjPl6GEfY-zEmKH6oeD8Ig3ZCsGWLc2ccrF0UUPPzBaS8UKnPJeQ5FM105YxM-5nRaxcYole/s320/07042009183_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322057643416571778" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLC7vKfwLAaFy4632JzH_fYn9Q-Vw5nJpy8ffFxI9fFe4mNqV6DDN5QaWKuG7aEeq_sBjeuBJjipl57zhF1X-jEDTwXx8sSnEYjNjdpvk28zmFzu1sH5BEf_aI-f8TuOO_zZP/s1600-h/07042009182_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLC7vKfwLAaFy4632JzH_fYn9Q-Vw5nJpy8ffFxI9fFe4mNqV6DDN5QaWKuG7aEeq_sBjeuBJjipl57zhF1X-jEDTwXx8sSnEYjNjdpvk28zmFzu1sH5BEf_aI-f8TuOO_zZP/s320/07042009182_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322057637414468114" border="0" /></a>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-62223963196190578442009-04-04T07:18:00.000-07:002010-03-25T07:22:23.996-07:00Week 1 - Sao Paulo (Brazil)<div class="post" id="post-122"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Last Day At Paralelo</span><div class="entry"><p>After the dinner at the house of the head of the British Council here in Sao Paulo we went in search of a night club. after some group mind discussions our splinter group (the rowdy ones as someone named us) discovered a samba club playing live samba and we danced the night away. Again we returned to the hotel and some of us went to the pool and ended up in the sauna. we attempted to watch the sunrise over the skyscrapers but got too tired and in the morning realised we were facing the wrong way anyway.</p> <p>The next morning was a round up of the workshop and the beginning of the goodbyes with the wonderful group of people that made up paralelo. Lots of collaborations and new ideas have been discussed and good friends made which I hope will continue in the virtual world. I hope that Paralelo can continue as a way for artists around the world to meet to discuss environmental change and the way artists approach, intervene and respond to these changes. It feels very important and a real priveledge to be part of this community and certainly given us a deeper level of understanding of what we can achieve with our work.</p> <p>I am sure Matt will write about the crazy interview for a brazilian online tv channel, the impromptu visit to the cartoon house and our day with our friend (ex colleague) Capra who somehow manages to turn up wherever we go in the world - so far he has turned up in Singapore, Paris, Cambridge and came with us to San Francisco and Finland… things are always hilarious when he’s around. Him and Matt are swimming in the pool now as I type.</p> <p>(Rachel)</p> </div> </div><br /><small><a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?p=104#respond" title="Comment on days in pictures"></a> </small> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Days in Pictures</span><br /></p><p>due to lack of sleep caused by trying to watch the sunrise over the sci-fi skyline of sao paulo and more late night swimming on the roof.. i will just upload some photos from last night, the dinner at the head of the British Council which was like a ferraro rocher advert and then samba dancing all night.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Presentations and Caiprinhas</span></p><p>Paralelo has been very intensive and exciting. Full of heated discussions, fascinating presentations and giving us a big leap forward with ideas for the Dark Forest.</p> <p>I haven’t written for 2 days and so will try and catch up. On Sunday we were introduced to the open workshop process, it is quite basic and in some ways a bit too “free” as some things dont ever happen or get missed out, but in fact it has provided fantasic opportunities to hear about the other projects and artists work as well as discuss some key topics. I kicked off by joining the “How to Love the Future” discussion about what positive approaches artists can have for the future and how maybe it doesn’t need to be all doom and gloom. The is quite a challenging view amongst people here, of accepting were we are and how the environment will be destroyed and looking towards creating “new nature”, how we live in this changed place. It is interesting and fits into the way people appropriate technology to work around changes but I am not ready to admit defeat for nature as it should be as opposed to how we have changed it and I also feel it is difficult in some ways to discuss without ecologists and I am slightly surprised about how few artists are here from a more rural background, particularly amongst the brazilian artists and think these discussions are difficult without this representation.</p> <p>I wont describe too much more of the discussions as they will be documented elsewhere.</p> <p>In the evening at the last minute Paulo invited us to go to a launch of the Insitituto Claro. A very strange experience. Me and Dominic went and Matt stayed for the the talks at Paralelo. I was totally under dressed and unprepared for this incredibly smart event in the new museum in the train station, a museum of the Portuguese Language. We walked in and it felt like the scene from Batman when Bruce Wayne hosts a civic event for all the rich people of Gotham City. I kept on expecting the joker to appear, although felt like maybe that was me, standing in the middle of this elegant place in jeans and flip flops. The Minister for Art, Technology and Culture and the Mayor of Sao Paulo were there. We were introduced to lots of important people (including the Minister) and by coincidence had our sensor kit with us so we tested it there and also showed people the funny prototype in a box file (as it is now). Everyone infact appeared very excited about the project and we have 2 meetings next week to present the project in more detail.</p> <p>Yesterday was mainly spent preparing for our presentation in the evening in the public programme. I took part in one workshop based on the Dutch artists Edo and Luna’s ideas they call <a href="http://www.conditionaldesign.org/" target="_blank">conditional design</a>. Their work looks very beautiful and the practical activity was good fun.</p> <p>The presentation went pretty well I think, although with a restriction of 8 minutes it was hard to talk about anything in any depth. Dominic did a very concise presentation about MRL’s collaborations with artists and then we presented Heartlands in terms of how we work with the academic partners and then build towards engaging public audiences.</p> <p>After the presentation our exhaustion was transformed by a VJ mix by a Brazilian performer/VJ that was great and firmly put me back into the real world with some banging techno and hilarious mixes about british people celebrating climate change because it will give us a warmer climate, soft porn, pac man, a mix for cockroaches and germany in 1945, random and funny.</p> <p>We went to a bar and found all the other artists there, ate a vegetable salad full of Palmitos (palm hearts…mmm) and then began a Caiprinha marathon which ended with several of us stripping to our underwear and jumping in the pool on the roof of the hotel (under the stars) and then spending a drunken hour in the sauna. Lots of networking with new people, in the best possible way and some important research into the different types of Caiprinha available… coconut, passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry and melon. Which we shared round each other to the background of samba.</p> <p>Unsurprisingly, today i’ve been useless although still managed to see Esther’s performance tracking cows and cowboys, which was really nice and also we hosted a session on sensors and interpreting data which sounds dry but wasnt at all mainly because Gisella, Fillipe and Wapke were good fun and had some great ideas. And I drunk Horse Milk!!! Wapke Feenstra’s work looks at farming and villages and her family have a farm producing horse milk that is meant to be good for health, so she gave me some to drink to help my hangover. Strange, a bit like chewing on a piece of grass.</p><div class="gallery"><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=90" title="020420091049"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/020420091049-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=91" title="010420091035"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091035-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=92" title="010420091037"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091037-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><br /><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=93" title="010420091039"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091039-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=94" title="010420091040"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091040-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=95" title="010420091041"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091041-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><br /><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=96" title="010420091042"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091042-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=97" title="010420091043"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091043-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=98" title="010420091044"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/010420091044-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl><br /><dl class="gallery-item"><dt class="gallery-icon"> <a href="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/?attachment_id=99" title="020420091048"><img src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/020420091048-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a> </dt></dl> <br /> </div><p>Our first day in Sao Paulo (going back a bit already) was a fantastic Sao Paulo day. It pissed down with tropical rain and so Paulo and Marina decided to take us to a restaurant for feijoada in the rain and enjoy Paulista life with food and many Caiprinhas. We sat and talked in the restaurant on the corner, opposite an empty Starbucks (supposedly it hasn’t taken on here which is good to know) it was a busy busy day. The food was amazing as I remembered, black beans, deep friend banana, manioc flour (farofa), rice, hot chilli sauce. As ever the company was great, and lovely to see Marina again.</p> <p>We finished the day off (after many caiprinhas) with a drive through Sao Paulo at night, which was exciting, but such an endless city of tall buildings and small buildings and Padarias (cafes on street corners that are more like greasy caffs with lots of people sitting eating and drinking inside and out on the streets). Old men on chairs sitting on the street watching the world, graffiti, traffic jams…</p> <p>By the time we got back to the hotel and found the other artists that had arrived during the day we were drunk and sleepy, meet up with Dominic (Mixed Reality Lab) and had a sleepy coffee before going to bed. despite the short time difference we are all confused by time, particularly with the onset of british summer time back home.</p> <p>Next day was an easy-ish 10.30 start with a bus drive (like a school bus) to the museum of image and sound. A beautiful minimal white modern building housing screen based and interactive artworks. we began with an elegant looking brunch (no vegetarian food but im having a break from pure vegetarianism and eating fish with some difficulty) and chatting to people. some really interesting artists from brazil and holland and the uk, some uk people i have wanted to meet for a long time.</p> <p>after an exercise finding out how we are all connected we returned to the small no vegetarian buffet. Marcelo arrived back from his trip with Esther, tracking <a href="http://www.milkproject.net/" target="_blank">cows and cowboys</a> with gps in the centre of brazil.</p> <p>Paralelo kicked off with a panel discussing environmental arts activity in brazil, quite theoretical to start but a good grounding for the context of the workshop, some interesting debates touching on the indigenous cultures of the Amazon and Mata Atlantica and some potential conflict about difference, across Europe and Brazil as well as internally. It felt quite an urban centric discussion, looking out at nature as opposed to from it. Maybe most artists are working from the cities?</p> <p>The next panel was lighter but still quite intense, with artist presenting a diverse case study of work, including Koert’s theory on Next Nature, Janet Prophet’s beautiful interactive work and 2 very interesting eco artists residency and living projects in Brazil, from <a href="http://flaviavivacqua.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Flavia</a> and Alexander. Also <a href="http://www.zomaar.info/" target="_blank">Rombaud</a>’s amazing energy neutral alternative to using lifts in high rise buildings.</p> <p>A semiconducter film ended the session and a long discussion about where to go for food, the guys getting very desperate to eat immediatly. We were sent off on a strange bus with curtains hiding the driver and in fact got locked in. Finally arrived at a restaurant and squeezed 20 of us in. the waiter was the most effecient calm waiter i have ever seen and managed us all and got food to us in no time, including the biggest salad i have ever seen.</p> <p>a good meal. nice chance to talk to new people.</p><p><strong>Day 1</strong></p> <p>We are here. It is hot, finally after that big cold winter we have had in the UK! It is familiar here for me as I have been before, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting.</p> <p>The journey was long and boring. Iberia is not the best airline ive ever flown on, a bit like time travelling rather than world travelling, back to 1992. a flickering telly that i could only just see above the seat in front (and i sat on a cushion) played Australia and Happy Go lucky and the sound crackled in and out. Was happily consoled by Gin and Tonics and Matt was equally happy with his flight ritual vodka and coke. Gave us some time to think a bit clever about our work that is something we have needed to do for awhile, rethink our presentation and prepare for the coming 5 days of arts speak which feels so exciting since we have been working more and more in the “media” and games world. Nice to be able to wear our artists hats firmly on our heads and have time to reflect.</p> <p>Last night we were picked up from the airport by Rodirigo, he found us (!) and also met with Orla from Probocis. The journey through to Sao Paulo was long, and Rodirigo go a little lost in the endless traffic. We seem to be in quite a cool district, not quite as posh as where I was last time, lots of bars nightclubs and also endless tall apartment buildings with secure gates and palm trees, mixed up with older Sao Paulo buildings.</p> <p><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-50" title="290320091010" src="http://www.thedarkforest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/290320091010-300x225.jpg" alt="290320091010" width="300" height="225" /></p> <p>The hotel room attempts to be more like a flat, with a kitchen, living room and bathroom in one, i could live here… although it is mainly a largish room STUFFED with furniture that you have to squeeze round. I am not complaining though it is luxury and I cant wait to discover the swimming pool and sauna on the roof. I love it here!</p> <p>Last night we wandered down the road for food and an attempt to use our brazilian portuguese which after only 2 lessons is very shaky. The Waiter insisted on talking English, and 3 large bottles of beer later we weren’t sure what we were speaking. (Rachel)</p>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-16043558458297373272009-03-02T03:21:00.000-08:002009-03-02T07:27:24.636-08:00Playing Together -Thoughts on Them & Us WorkshopOn Friday we spent a day at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">MRL</span>(Mixed Reality Lab) using the <a href="http://www.ubisense.net/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Ubisense</span></a> location technology to explore the potential of game play and interactive <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">experience</span> for a group of people in one internal space.<br /><br />We looked at how to create the desire to play, at how to make the user interact with both real space and virtual(screen based) space. We wanted to build a dynamic of interaction between the negotiation of real space and how this conflicts with the requirements of the digital space. Where do these distinctions become blurred. This first video shows us playing a simple game on screen of herding virtual objects around on screen.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QJXLZYotx2c&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QJXLZYotx2c&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />The second video shows us (the players) trying to get the objects. You can see we are constantly trying to move things on screen but having to be aware of the objects in a lab crowded by chairs tables wires and computers.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0KrupB7jhfo&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0KrupB7jhfo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />We wanted to look at how to encourage group and individual play so we also added the feature of the players on screen appearing to "blob" together when very close creating a sort of visual bond between the players encouraging them to explore their proximity to each other. How close would they want to be to each other? Maybe if there was an incentive they would cooperate as a group.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yEnrvD164lk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yEnrvD164lk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-90683387532730961042009-02-27T08:55:00.000-08:002009-02-27T09:17:40.075-08:00Brazilians, old oaks and geeks at play...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLV2sDnVrEjpulKwr3vipZX-cyY_w0my_pDIZpvSiPVfEwGtw_TYZjGsiGDjAfw4XmIKEMPJVh_i_nsVvzYqzv-crTBc8emQQ3qJbsOLiJdozhsu9vVx0u4FpV5rTvqicVPpoM/s1600-h/22022009953.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLV2sDnVrEjpulKwr3vipZX-cyY_w0my_pDIZpvSiPVfEwGtw_TYZjGsiGDjAfw4XmIKEMPJVh_i_nsVvzYqzv-crTBc8emQQ3qJbsOLiJdozhsu9vVx0u4FpV5rTvqicVPpoM/s320/22022009953.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307526546039532786" border="0" /></a><br />Its been a long but exciting week here at AI HQ.<br /><br />Paulo and Marcelo from Mobilefest / newTV came over from Sao Paulo to begin work on the Dark Forest project, and plan our visit to Sao Paulo next month that will also include taking part in the Paralelo workshop - a British Council and research council exchange event, all very exciting with artists from the UK, Brazil and Holland coming together to look at international exchanges and artists working with the environment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQyDVImzdppVTHjN3-c_KEgzxf1HoD_L4F90aIJvpr9wbohhJ_o8xKyu6NYdlmKD68UbY2vR2zR37WjfmHc-nAW1HkMrXpfWo5IAE-xUQKjPafaypBmBi6gM2W1FbC95OzHkP/s1600-h/24022009958.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQyDVImzdppVTHjN3-c_KEgzxf1HoD_L4F90aIJvpr9wbohhJ_o8xKyu6NYdlmKD68UbY2vR2zR37WjfmHc-nAW1HkMrXpfWo5IAE-xUQKjPafaypBmBi6gM2W1FbC95OzHkP/s320/24022009958.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307526550072161522" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lots of talking and planning and i think the highlight for us all (apart from pancake day party at my house and the making of over 60 pancakes with the help of Janet from mm...deli - thanks!) was a trip to Sherwood Forest to meet the top ranger (Site Manager) who seems very excited about the project. She took us on a tour through the birch and oak forest, and showed us the heathlands and work they are doing there. I think we all fell in love with a particular oak tree (as most of them over 800 years old) called twister. Which will be spot where we aim to put our forest probe and to connect old twister up to a tree in the tropical atlantic forest outside Sao Paulo.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47SdjlS84qZ26EprVdCv3ycnFN__T36yKOYQXFOmvICNlCcnBhVpzQUt5INqe9E774q3VuSqIiUrtsM2X1pqvtIjNxlYujUrLDJr_HCbQarptT18hztsh58ICcRcy1Yl95Zxq/s1600-h/27022009995.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47SdjlS84qZ26EprVdCv3ycnFN__T36yKOYQXFOmvICNlCcnBhVpzQUt5INqe9E774q3VuSqIiUrtsM2X1pqvtIjNxlYujUrLDJr_HCbQarptT18hztsh58ICcRcy1Yl95Zxq/s320/27022009995.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307526562479643666" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Today we ended the week back with Them and Us, preparing for our workshop at Kingston University, now postponed until June. Geeks at play we have finally managed to get the technology to work well enough to be able to play a new social game, a bit like people snooker... where you use your body to herd virtual objects into a box... watch this space, its actually really fun but current prototype involves wearing a computerised tag on your forehead so you tend to look like a right knob/tag head. Got alot of work to go but we had an afternoon of sneaking around the Mixed Reality Lab with tags on our head trying to capture red dots and move them into the big green blob...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCi1UcuhkWUQnvipphVNSPE7de_BfTPEgEVRn13g0p_eboy0KpDdSOvfYT7G4Q-SDrOOqAzLRNm30zSo3zfeuFBD8wlmRn8iDfp32-H_ddUho0tN70n1ewBz2NJbqK55nb8CDf/s1600-h/27022009989.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCi1UcuhkWUQnvipphVNSPE7de_BfTPEgEVRn13g0p_eboy0KpDdSOvfYT7G4Q-SDrOOqAzLRNm30zSo3zfeuFBD8wlmRn8iDfp32-H_ddUho0tN70n1ewBz2NJbqK55nb8CDf/s320/27022009989.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307526564830410162" border="0" /></a>aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-16128939087210748362009-01-19T12:02:00.001-08:002009-01-19T12:11:24.404-08:00Done...Today was C4 day. Started with a cup of tea at the pret a manger across the road from the flat, a quick chat about questions they may ask us and then over to C4 HQ and the 4IP floor to set up and do some final runs... all appeared to be working fine...<br /><br />We had lunch in the cool and cheap C4 canteen, great building although supposedly very leaky. Had carribbean stew as Gok Kwan and various other slightly familiar media-y TV types sat down to their own media lunch.<br /><br />At 2pm 3 members of the committee arrived excited and it seemed quite nervous about plugging in, sadly Claire was poorly and so wasnt there. We set them up with our prototype kit in all it's glory and clunkyness and took them out. Little did we know that 2 of them were marathon runners and the other equally as fit, they had to work really hard to get their heart rates into optimum but it was a close game, pictures will come along soon.<br /><br />They returned without a hitch and seemed to enjoy themselves and the game, despite the low heart rates between them. We discussed the issues around it, the hardware and the possibilities of building new heart rate monitors or plugging into existing proprietry hardware and talked about the opportunities for development.<br /><br />The result of the demo is still quite vague and we are left with no idea when we might hear... but as far as we could see it went as well as we hoped and the rain missed us, despite the dark thundery clouds that gathered as we were setting the game up.<br /><br />So fingers crossed all round...aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32452111.post-81201477444950840922009-01-18T12:47:00.000-08:002009-01-18T13:05:44.339-08:00We're Back... at Channel 4<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqhBPx4x_KG3anT53rMiQeEbDnTdXAfgxeRNGOdlDcI15Y5f3n40ztMLNZOi4JzO3YvuT_rwyM0GQp7QdxvWE6nKWEcWnR2LYAz4_v41mtx-M7bRRKGlZ0Bz7a3Phr_2KSUhX/s1600-h/18012009920.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqhBPx4x_KG3anT53rMiQeEbDnTdXAfgxeRNGOdlDcI15Y5f3n40ztMLNZOi4JzO3YvuT_rwyM0GQp7QdxvWE6nKWEcWnR2LYAz4_v41mtx-M7bRRKGlZ0Bz7a3Phr_2KSUhX/s320/18012009920.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292742790037720178" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevTZtuk2hfBxhM-Xf2ivw-RS6FLnaiCO8bEk2MLxjn2lwZ62CB-p0oB8PZk9jZNSHKrRM_Y1W0wx3QfWsVSbdZ2uByxApHYuw_zM-qXvgXQI48tS92eJqJ147e7IQl4prupM3/s1600-h/18012009919.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevTZtuk2hfBxhM-Xf2ivw-RS6FLnaiCO8bEk2MLxjn2lwZ62CB-p0oB8PZk9jZNSHKrRM_Y1W0wx3QfWsVSbdZ2uByxApHYuw_zM-qXvgXQI48tS92eJqJ147e7IQl4prupM3/s320/18012009919.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292742487525565970" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnm0U4mTsmRj7oWcpHo15gMBrZ7866-dGFM6NOL1mALTChcpLwbTw_yXhm6HgsTJOfN3quq3OmgMHDx4FtReKWHYbFK03dDuYlt3O9SbWN8uMb_CTxhRNs4BaonFvDs8uAN82S/s1600-h/18012009918.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnm0U4mTsmRj7oWcpHo15gMBrZ7866-dGFM6NOL1mALTChcpLwbTw_yXhm6HgsTJOfN3quq3OmgMHDx4FtReKWHYbFK03dDuYlt3O9SbWN8uMb_CTxhRNs4BaonFvDs8uAN82S/s320/18012009918.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292742282952411922" border="0" /></a><br />Think it is time we did a new blog entry.<br /><br />It's been awhile as last year involved alot of development work and not so much travelling and exciting things.<br /><br />Today we are in London, in my aunt and uncle's flat near Channel 4's HQ, preparing to show Heartlands to Channel 4 people, as part of Mudlark, our new company, in an attempt to get investment in the game to take it to market. Tomorrow is the big day and we have spent the afternoon checking the map works in the area (the heart of London, Westminster - round the corner from the houses of parliament) and sorting out what we thought was the cold affecting the heart rate monitors but was something way more easy to sort out. Sods law that no matter how much the game is sorted out the last time we looked at it there is always something new that arises! But playing today round the streets of power in London is the best we have ever seen it. S fingers crossed for tomorrow.<br /><br />Aside from this, things are going well with AI, we are pleased and excited to announce we have received funding from the Arts Council to work on the Dark Forest, a project in collaboration with Mobilefest in Brazil, a cultural exchange and artwork between Sherwood Forest and the Amazon Rainforest that will result in an expedition along the BR 163 road through the Amazon this summer.<br /><br />So, today we worked on the game and finished early and amazingly chilled out, having wandered the streets between the flat and Horseferry Road, we then went looking for food, and found a great Turkish Restuarant where we are Meze and the best Haloumi i've ever had ( a plateful of haloumi kebab mmm...), Matt had some meat thing he was much impressed with.aihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01315513536732032093noreply@blogger.com0