Since then I have scanned most of the faculty and want to do a relief of the faculty faces to install next to the Art Office.

Since then I have scanned most of the faculty and want to do a relief of the faculty faces to install next to the Art Office.

The proposed installation is a complex set of props and actors a la trade fair exposition stationed with players of the Maelstrom Accord. These agents will recruit new WoW players and distribute propaganda, quests, and achievement / trinkets as rewards for completing humanitarian deeds. Work stations in the installation will allow new and returning recruits to carry out mixed reality questing. Methodologies from passive resistance to anarchical actions in game will be coupled with real world forums about liberty and tied to charitable causes positioning the player as a multi-dimensional agent of change.

sousveillance

the connected data streams of this world have hyperlinked all manner of data. it has connected all of us and the landscape has been transformed as well. gps, cell tower triangulation, and geolocative services have made the terrain searchable and available. services like Google’s Street View make streets and addresses visible from a networked browser. geotagging is comonplace, one only need to look at flickr or Twittervision to witness the transition of attitudes about private and public space.

with stories like the secret at&t surveillance room in downtown san francisco coming to light in 2006, i decided that there is no way to avoid being seen so i should make it easier to find me.

it is not that i have an overinflated ego and believe that i should be watched or that you would ever want to track me. instead, perhaps if we flood the infosphere with our appearances, the individual may once again fade like trees into the profile forest. to this end i first started with a service called plazes.com to broadcast my connectedness and now i am onto the Google Latitude and foursquare. click the image to look for me, trace me, lord knows the nsa can already…

i have started another collaboration with James Stone, we have ‘formalized’ our relationship by registering mr-bricolage.us. we have proposed a new phys comp project workshop for ISEA2011 in Istanbul. it item is wearable tech that sonifies objects that are touched by the actor. we see this as a platform for performance and activism.

the proposal:

Mr. Bricolage, Asmuth and Stone, propose a DIY wearable technology workshop at ISEA 2011 for activists, performers, and community members. The workshop will consist of demonstrations, discussions about strategies for use, and most importantly a hands on workshop to build Touchstone devices. The culmination of the workshop will be a local performance and/or action.

Touchstone is a mobile and tactical media broadcast platform worn on the hands of performers and activists. Touchstone is an strategy for contesting the urban/performance landscape rather than a product.

The technology of Touchstone is built upon audio exciter circuits embedded in gloves which transform the hands of an agent into broadcast transmitters. Touchstone agents activate objects as a temporary/ad-hoc public address systems, by simply pressing their palms against it. Touchstone is a discrete technology platform:  (1) it is virtually invisible on the garb of a performer/agent and (2) it is light and flexible; agents or performers can easily move (or escape). Moreover, it is a cinch to produce; the system does not require advanced electronics knowledge and is easily assembled from surplus, inexpensive, and/or widely available consumer technology.

Asmuth and Stone eagerly hope to collaborate with performance and activist groups from Istanbul or the adjacent regions. The team would appreciate any help from the ISEA community in locating organizations that would be interested in utilizing this platform.

Keywords: body; sound; broadcast; collaborative;  hacktivism; low tech; wearable; DIY; tactical media; performance
Authors: James Stone, Thomas Asmuth
Email: info@mr-bricolage.us

Go to mr-bricolage.us for more details

circuit design is a field concerned with optimization spatial and electrical relationships of the formal plane. the pictorial space of these planar antennae paintings is less concerned with optimization of the engineered space and is an attempt to create an aesthetic experience in the transmission of the network. certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design in decidedly non-engineered as the optimal utility of the spectrum. these device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics.

James Stone is collaborating again with his class called Augment Teddy, in which we will create cyborged teddy-bears.

on Tuesday we are taking advantage of the school holiday to build a small simple bot that can follow the brightest spot of light (what i refer to as ‘moth behavior’), the Quickly-bot. here’s an old blog post about the device & a followup

you can follow our Ustream simulcast and recordings at:http://www.ustream.tv/mybroadcasts/clips/diwo%3A-mechanics-of-community

the classes and worshop is open to all SJSU students, faculty, and staff and there are no charges for the classes but there is a small charge for the kits ($10 or less).

mechanics of community is a DIWO project created community and transforming the most public gallery at San Jose State’s Art & Design School into an open workshop on electronics. artists were taught how to use small electronics & robotics in their work and practice. James Stone participated as a guest instructor with a project called Augment Teddy, in which we will create cyborged teddy-bears.

on Tuesday we took advantage of the school holiday to have an all day workshop to build a small simple bot that can follow the brightest spot of light (what i refer to as ‘moth behavior’), the Quickly-bot.