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May 28, 2004 FBI abducts artist permalink
posted by bev
 i thought it was a joke when i got an email from RTMark about the FBI arresting Steve Kurtz for possessing biotech equipment on the morning his wife died from a cardiac arrest. a more elaborate story is here, where you can also give a donation for his legal defense. Steve Kurtz is a founding member of the radical, but benign, art group called Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), whose latest project is Free Range Chicken. these are some of the equipment (which are legal to obtain and possess) that i snatched from the project's website. i presume that's what he got arrested for. FBI field and laboratory tests have shown that Kurtz's equipment was not used for any illegal purpose. still, they would not release his art supplies, equipment, and his wife's body to him. May 25, 2004 smart furniture manifesto permalink
posted by bev
 Mike Kuniavsky wrote a Smart Furniture Manifesto for Metropolis mag. some very cool suggestions in there but the one i like best is, "The bed is a particularly good candidate for becoming smart, since beds are generally close to power outlets, don't move a lot, can hide a lot of technology, and are used for a fairly well-defined range of activities." righton, Mike! electron beam tomography permalink
posted by bev
 electron beam tomography produces very beautiful scans of the inner body that resembles old medical drawings. it takes just a few minutes and can even evaluate blood flow and other physiology. Gordon Gould posted his recent scans of his chest area. [via] May 21, 2004 bioluminescent chair permalink
posted by bev
 it's like sunbathing under an aquarium of live bioluminescent bacteria. this is the The Symbiotic Bacterial Light Project (SBLP) by Kathy Takayama and John Nicholson. i've experimented with bioluminescent bacteria before and indeed, they are very cool. it's quite hard to keep them alive for very long in small quantities but perhaps with this quantity, it won't be a problem at all. [via] May 19, 2004 metal velcro permalink
posted by bev
 learning from velcro, or geckos' feet perhaps, micro-sized projections on the surface of metals are made to strengthen adhesions to composite materials like glass and plastics. this technique could also encourage bone to grow onto artificial hips and make heatsinks of any size. the projections are made by melting the surface of the metal with an electron beam and pushing the molten metal to a point from several directions until a projection is achieved. New Scientist has the story. May 18, 2004 social toys permalink
posted by bev
 there seems to be a whole field of research and practice dedicated to using robotics to aid autistic children. the AuRoRA Project is using robotic toys to help autistic children with social skills. apparently, autistic children are more comfortable with robots. autism organizations are offering robotics courses for autistic children. Half-Life 2 facial expressions are used to help autistic children learn how to recognize expressions. Yale's Social Robotics Lab is using humanoid robots for the detection of vulnerabilities for autism in the first year of life. there was a recent article in the ny times about a 49-year-old just discovering that he is autistic. [via] May 17, 2004 access permalink
posted by bev
 Marie Sester's ACCESS project recently won a webby. it uses a robotic tracking system to spotlight someone anonymously via the internet. this is the interface for the controller. the way people act when a spotlight follows them like a puppy dog is pretty hilarious. check out the videos. [via] May 14, 2004 infinite city permalink
posted by bev
 Infinite City is an immersive installation in an upcoming show called Convergence: The Collision of Physical & Virtual Space in Digital Art. it surrounds people in the space with a 30-foot projection and multi-channel surround sound system while people can alter the visual and sonic surroundings with hand movements via ultrasonic sensors. [via] May 13, 2004 biopresence permalink
posted by bev
 Biopresence is an art project (and also a blog that i read regularly) that recently won a NESTA fund as a "company". they plan to "encode a human's DNA underneath the DNA of a plant cell, without affecting the resulting tree genetically or visually in any way. As a result, the person's DNA will live on as an integral part of the tree. These new kind of trees can be seen as 'Memorials for Life' or as 'Transgenic Tombstones'." May 12, 2004 octofungi permalink
posted by bev
 this is one of the most beautiful "legged" robots i've seen. "To interact with the sculpture, a person only needs to move his hands above the eight light sensors placed around the brain frame. Depending on the "aggressiveness" or "gentleness" of the participant, Octofungi will manifest different behaviors." [via] May 10, 2004 skinchip permalink
posted by bev
 L'Oréal, probably one of the most ruthless cosmetic companies in the usage of animals for research, is also (unsurprisingly) one of the most cutting-edge. their latest development is the SkinChip sensor, which is based on the biometric fingerprint recognition technology. it can capture an image of the skin's surface in 500 dpi and visualize a map of its dryness, as in this image. check out their other research projects, including skin reconstruction in vitro. [via] bionic shoe permalink
posted by bev
 Adidas's new bionic running shoes, named "1", is claimed to be the first mass-marketed shoe to contain electronics in it, more than just blinky lights. it has two buttons for harder/softer cushioning, a magnetic sensor to gauge the cushioning needed and relay the data to the microprocessor, and a drive train running from the motor makes adjustments. the funny part is, it comes with a cd-rom that just contains the instruction manual on how to change the battery after 100 hours. May 3, 2004 epidermic pistol permalink
posted by bev
 Dutch artist Joanneke Meester stitched a pistol with her own skin to protest against violence in society. a flap of her skin was removed from her abdomen under local anaesthetic and resulted in 16 stitches. her previous work also involved skin (pig skin to be exact), that she made "cuddly toys" with. i'm not sure what covering a gun shape with skin has to do with protesting violence but it sure made world news for her as an artist. [via] |
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