loca lab

"In the inverted logic of the post-Orwellian city, Loca agents, software and human, decrypt the hertzian passages of its own inhabitants. For better or for worse?" - Steve Dietz, Artistic Director, ZeroOne, via localab

projection bombing tutorial

"Outdoor digital projection in urban environments is a great method for getting your content up big before the eyes and in the minds of your fellow city inhabitants. This tutorial comes out of trial and error and it works. But please be careful. Helpful comments on safety and alternative methods are encouraged. The majority of this tutorial is aimed toward using a 2500 lumen projector (or smaller), if you have access to something more powerful you might want to skip straight to step 6." via instructables

free visible network

"Spanish researchers Clara Boj and Diego Diaz are working on the Free Network Visible Network (04),, an augmented reality project which aims to make visible the exchanged information between computers of a wireless network. First marks in the facades of the buildings will indicate the presence of a node, thus the possibility of connecting to the net, and at the same time to see the 3D representation of the information that we are interchanging with this node in real time." via wemake$

augmented reality

"Based on an augmented reality system, AR_Magic System allows users to exchange head with their neighbours. You stand in front of the computer screen, next to one or more persons and after a few seconds, your head appears on the shoulder of someone else and you get a new face yourself." via we make $

public space

"Atomized spheres of influence: This street, bus stop, and library in San Antonio have no relation to each other except for a shared sense of emptiness. But if we look upon these elements as interrelated components of a single place, we create more opportunities for local people to collaborate and jointly create a vision of what's best for the community. How can the street, park, library, and businesses support and strengthen each other?" PPS Placemaking

urban play

"The Stadtlounge's red surfacing flows over benches, tables, and art objects throughout the Bleicheli. (A playground-style surface is used in pedestrian areas, while car routes are paved in bright red asphalt.)" St Gallen Visitors...

metropolis now

“The minds that had conceived the Tower of Babel could not build it. The task was too great. So they hired hands for wages. But the hands that built the Tower of Babel knew nothing of the dream of the brain that had conceived it. One man’s hymns of praise became other men’s curses.” From Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” 1927. (via A.O. Scott, nytimes)

brainwave tracking

"A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought." Anne Eisenberg, NYtimes

set pixel

"Untitled Mirror is a Processing based program that reads incoming video from a camera and triggers particles from points of the video frame that have changed by a certain level. The result is an image that is fairly representative, yet disappears within moments. An important part of this work is the fact that it keeps completely "silent" while no one is interacting with it: the screen remains white. In a sense, if there is no viewer, the work is invisible, and irrelevant. Thus, the role of the viewer is a fundamental one.

constructing situations

“The construction of situations begins beyond the ruins of the modern spectacle. It is easy to see how much the very principle of the spectacle — nonintervention — is linked to the alienation of the old world. Conversely, the most pertinent revolutionary experiments in culture have sought to break the spectators’ psychological identification with the hero so as to draw them into activity. ...The situation is thus designed to be lived by its constructors. The role played by a passive or merely bit-part playing ‘public’ must constantly diminish, while that played by those who cannot be called actors, but rather, in a new sense of the term, ‘livers,’ must steadily increase.” —Report on the Construction of Situations