I’ve been thinking more about the use of thermal imaging from within Arch-OS since my last blog wich was about half an hour ago.
I’ve started to think about the project almost as a reverse CCTV. As in, images of a social environment recorded as part of the buildings fabric and then projected back out to the public through the green screen visualisation in an attempt to transform their narrative by showing the public THEIR OWN actions:
Since last blogging I tested out some bluetooth stuff in portland square. My main reason for this was to see how active the bluetooth activity was, particularly around the iDAT office where the Green Screen rendering machine is set up. As it turns out the activity is fairly minimal even with a 100 metre bluetooth dongle and I don’t think much activity would be picked up. At this stage my alternative is to take advantage of the Arch-OS thermal imaging system. I’m not sure if it’s currently turned on however VVVV is able to import this data for the potential of some visualisation. I’m still working towards a simple low resolution block/colour/size visual ffor the green screen to pick up and hopefully pick up well. Here is a screen grab of how things currently look:
One of the main tasks is now to get block size correlating with activity within Atrium A of PSQ. This will still be representative of an ever transforming public narrative and hopefully should still have a social narrative altering effect on those who see it.
I’ve been having a nightmare-ish time recently trying to think of an idea for my BA project. I have to weigh up each idea I have with my own skills and technical know how to make sure it’s theasable and on a number of occasions it seems as though my choice of dissertation has backed me into a wall.
Regardless of this I’m very passionate about the area of sustainability and technology and think that the two areas hold much more relevence to each other than is often percieved. I continue to research into green technology hoping that I can find some inspiration:
The Sustainable cardboard PC is a fascinating example of innovative and green construction.
The tower is sustainable not only through the use of cardboard as opposed to plastics, but also in the time it will take to construct and the easier the materials will be to dispose of when the computer ultimately reaches the end of its lifecycle.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/recompute-a-closer-look-at-the-sustainable-cardboard-pc/
I’m still interested in the system that the University of Plymouth is currently setting up which will record and have the ability to export raw data taken from things like water usage, power use etc.
I’ve been working with vvvv this evening to see how far I can begin to programme a grid that can be further altered using outside input…namely bluetooth. I’ve been able to programme a grid that currently alters the size of each blocks depending on the position of the mouse cursor. What remains to be tested now is if I can get some bluetooth input to do the altering for me.
Just had a quick talk with Mike. Regarding the visualisation of the project and the live collection of data. The Green Screen still apppears to be a viable solution to get as much public attention as possible. The collection of data could now be selected from those within the area of the screen via bluetooth. The measurement would therefore be the amount of time spent within the zone. Four V still seems like a good piece of software to use so I’m now going to see Chris Saunders about the Green Screen set up and do some further research on the level of bluetooth activity in the area.
In my research into different methods of visualisation I’ve started to learn the real-time toolkit, VVVV. It’s immediate advantage to me over other forms of multimedia application such as flash is that motion graphics can be created using a visual programming structure like that of Max MSP and it’s open source equivalent; Pure Data. Another potentially huge advantage is that it’s extremely flexible and has a huge community creating patches with support for Flash, After Effects and most other multimedia tools. It can also have data in putted and used to alter rendered graphics which is what I’m interested in. Here’s a screen shot of my cutting edge colour grid slider….It’s progress…
I’m now aiming to continue gaining more VVVV skills and hopefully find some more inspiration while looking through other developer patches.
So my quest to think of a way of collecting and visualising time continues and more recently i’ve been thinking of existing methods of data collection storage. If I were to think about this lost and gained time as a collection of data not dissimilar tocomputer memory then some possible ideas occured to me.
Computers visualise the storage structure and de fragmentation of memory in coloured blocks like so:
Maybe the time gained through each persons perspective of their activites could be visualised in a similar way, ready to be hypothetically accessed and used at the users choice? Or moved about…….hmmmm
I’ve been spending some time developing some test graphics for the Green Screen to display the universities eco data. Following the criteria for designing for a screen with such low resolution i’ve been thinking about symbols that have been historically very effective and clear on low resolution screens such as mobile phones. I decided to look at gauges and battery symbols with two examples of the outcome below:
I can hopefully get these both tested on the screen in the next few days in order to see if any alterations need to be made for the purpose of clarity and effectiveness. Once graphical issues have been dealt with I will then start to looking at getting some kind of actual uni data inputted into them so they react and change depending on the statistical information.
http://www.slowdesign.org
http://leohickman.wordpress.com/
I’ll get into these tomorrow…
Origins
The ideas that I’ve started to form with regards to my project have been a long time in the making with the majority of my inspiration coming from the issues I’m planning writing about in my dissertation. It will discuss the arguments for and against the development, use and effectiveness of technology from a sustainable and ecological point of view and in support of the paper I knew my Project would be heavily informed by these issues.
I want to take a techno-progressive stance to develop and create some technology that is an effective method of disseminating ecological data in a cutting edge way that can be reached publicly. This transparency of information could certainly be considered a positive step not only for the university but also become a prime example of an effectively light green use of technology.
Oberlin College Campus Resource Monitoring System
Oberlin College has developed a website that uses real-time data taken from each of their dormitories and presents the information in a user friendly way that is easy to interpret and compare. Electricity and water consumption is shown through a series of pressure-like gauges and charts with colour co-ordination and a campus resource monitoring system:
http://www.oberlin.edu/dormenergy/
The Arch-OS system in Portland Square already has a large number of data feeds that have the potential to be recorded and visualised in a similar manner so it’ll be important to focus the initial stages of research and development in creating some simple low-resolution graphics that show some of the University’s consumption. Not only will this give the university a starting point with which to develop these visualisation ideas further but I can also begin to gauge how effective the screen is by getting some community feedback.
The Green Screen urban LED matrix
The Green Screen located at atrium A of portland square would be an ideal technology to develop for and reach a large audience. The LED matrix has a relatively low resolution but this welcomes new challenges and nuances that will need to be addressed in the design stages.
Early this morning while trying to get to sleep I was thinking about the time based direction I was going in for this module when I came up with some potential ideas that had to be scribbled down before I forgot them again. Studies of time perception generally show that time travels faster for someone when they are entertained or are generally enjoying their time and travels much slower when they are bored by a task or whatever it is they might be doing.
So, based on the example of ‘what might seem like five minutes to someone actually turned out to be ten because they were entertained in some way by what they were doing, and that the other five minutes of actual time had been lost somewhere’, I want to find a way of finding out the average amount of time that someone loses or gains depending on their enjoyment factor.
On finding these average times a mobile or net based application could allow you to record if you’re currently bored or entertained and adjust your personal time accordingly.
By making these recordings at various times in the day your personal mobile clock will adjust and change your time from everyone elses taking into account the time that perceptually you lose or gain depending on the activities you are taking part in. Flash could be the ideal way of developing such an application.
Ok. So my 4D idea has been bouncing around my head and changing shape alot having researched time perception and spoken to Mike. My original thoughts focused on the transformation of the viewers narrative rather than creating a piece which altered it’s own. I began looking at ways of representing time differently in an attempt to alter a persons current actions and therefore transform their narrative. I was having trouble thinking about how I could actually represent time in such a way that it would have this effect on the viewer and for a period of time, I was using the Green Screen as a possible platform to reach a large audience.
Mike suggested that I look at perceptions of time for inspiration and how an experience can seem longer for one person and shorter for the other. More scientifically, what gauges this alternating length of time? I found an interesting article online that talks about St Augustine, a philosopher and theologian, Augustine explored time and came up with the following problem:
when we say that an event or interval of time is short or long, what is it that is being described as of short or long duration? It cannot be what is past, since that has ceased to be, and what is non-existent cannot presently have any properties, such as being long. But neither can it be what is present, for the present has no duration. In any case, while an event is still going on, its duration cannot be assessed.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-experience/
Augustine concluded that when we measure time we are measuring memory, something from the mind. Taking this into account I then started to think past this time created by our memory. What about the time that is lost? If a memory that you think lasts ten minutes actually lasted for only five where has the lost five minutes gone and in what state did it exist to that person?
This kind of perception is common amongst almost everyone but is also completely different for each individual person and what their memory measures of the moment in time. (I’ve tried desperately not to confuse myself here)
My focus is now on this lost time, and finding some way of researching how broadly people percieve time and if this lost time can somehow be recorded and visualised.
Just had our meeting with Mike Phillips, our project tutor. Proved really helpful and was good to hear other people’s ideas and progress with a cance to input and help each other out.
From talking further about my initial proposal and the subject of my dissertation, I now must think more about the platform that I will deliver my project on. My initial thoughts stemmed from an installation piece to making use of the Green Screen urban LED. Both options our aimed at reaching as large a number of people as possible in public spaces. An installation could potentially fit in with the end of year art show that is due to accomodate several i-DAT projects but using the Green Screen might get a larger audience.
The idea of data dissemination is also on the table and if so what kind of data should be used, and how should it be presented making best use of the technology I choose. Mike suggested I talk to a placement student called Sam who is currently based at the Immersive Vision Theatre. He is currently working with data sets in the dome environment so this could be really helpful.
I also had an interesting conversation with Darrel Fox about a sustainable creative commons, they may have already got the jist though…
‘Green License’
“The following was originally contributed to the predecessor of this wiki by anonymous trolls in 2004, except for sections in italics. Related pages are peace license and science license, and a more current related proposal is a human rights license. Since 2004 many eco-label standards have been promulgated to mark low ecological footprint, carbon-neutral, no old growth and other kinds of green labels. Licensing works only to those who satisfy such audit criteria has accordingly become very much easier and more likely.
A green license forbidding ecologically destructive use (including perhaps military and some police uses as per peace license) is a potential candidate for a future Creative Commons Public License. What follows is speculative content:
While it would seem difficult to enforce it may not be: there are many efforts out there trying to uncover unsustainable or outright anti-ecological activities all over the world and it would not be long before anyone making use of something would be discovered. A civil copyright suit would be perhaps a minor discouragement but it would help to document the facts and help organize boycott and other activities to stop the damage. In some cases the right of discovery under a copyright suit might exceed that under an environmental complaint and be of great use to filing future complaints.
A company that violates copyrights might also be easier to portray as uncaring or abusive of “the little guy” and this may achieve attention to its more important abuses. It would be just one arrow in a quiver but perhaps an increasingly important one. Remember, Al Capone was only ever convicted for income tax evasion!
Also, there are quite organized groups such as the Global Greens who represent the hundreds of Green Parties, and already extant efforts to apply the Creative Commons Public License regime such as the Green Party of Canada Living Platform Terms of Use. Accordingly it would probably be very easy to assemble the expertise to debate the way such a license could be defined and also enforced. If you satisfy such picky people with such legalistic minds as Green Parties, you can probably satisfy any less legally or politically involved environmental group…? ”
