An Open Letter to my ReBlog Groupies-

I am sad to say, today is my last day as the reblogger here on the internets.

We laughed, we cried and we all now must say goodbye. ..

Please come visit me anytime or stop by at one of our last open studios here at Eyebeam.

I leave you now with one final thought:

farewell my rebloggers,
until we meet again....

addie

The Touchkit multitouch interface project just released their hardware and software source docs for your downloading pleasure -

TouchKit is comprised of software and hardware components. For both we provide the source files and welcome you to use, study, and appropriate the code and schematics for your work or projects. We are interested in TouchKit being a plug-and-play solution for simple projects and an easily extendable base for experimental and cutting-edge endeavors.

[...]

The TouchKit API is implemented as an addon to OpenFrameworks. With "TouchKit API" we generally mean OpenFrameworks + ofxTouch. Together they form a powerful base for writing innovative multitouch applications. At the moment we specifically support Xcode (mac) and Code::Blocks (windows) with more IDEs following soon.

via http://jpgmag.com/photos/257827

via http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/07/fabric-love.html

via http://flickr.com/photos/23486869@N08/2257967441/in/photostream/

via http://www.whocollection.com/hapshash_&_osiris_posters.htm

News from the team at large: Worldchanging correspondent Patrick Rollens has signed on as an editor for the relaunch of GreanBean, a Chicago-based resource for green building news.

The website first debuted several years ago, directed by Erik Olsen (former head of Chicago's Green Permit Program). GreenBean tracked the windy city's quickly growing population of green buildings at all phases, from blueprints to finished projects. There's tons of pictures to look at, and even a cool map to help locate the spread of green buildings throughout the Chicago area. Now under the leadership of Wendy Berger Shapiro, the site will continue to present short articles profiling new green developments around the city. Their smart, connected team aims to become Chicago's best resource for local green building news, enabling a flow of ideas to inspire and inform others who are breaking ground on projects of their own.

Photo credit: flickr/snakeyes, licensed by Creative Commons.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by Julia Steinberger in About Worldchanging at 3:27 PM)

I recently ran across the portfolio of Architect Martin Zangerl. He is an Austrian Architect currently residing in New York City.

Zangerl's aesthetic is fascinating and I was quiet disappointed to not see him featured along the other works at the recent MoMa exhibition (currently showing) as it seems too obvious that some of the works there drew the majority of their inspiration and direction specifically from Zangerl's body of work.

Intervention F-1, Vienna. 2004

In 2006 he proposed a Center of Art and Technology which worked with the centralized theme being about geometric distribution that lead to the development of a prototypical unit of a spacial knot.

The final building consist of multiple variations of this basic knot creating big continuous exhibition spaces on the one side, shifting to an interwoven programmatic disposition of workshop and event spaces and further on to a smaller scale office space condition on the other side.

The facade takes up the continuity of the building volume onto a finer grain of scale.
Like a filtering Layer, the facade property changes the gradient, from very porous conditions for the working/office spaces to fully closed up situations for museum spaces.

You can see a brief overview of the rest of his work here.

I ran across this artist blog out of Oregon called Tomita Design's. Check them out at http://tomitadesigns.wordpress.com/.

I noticed they have recently done some really nice work recently here in NYC when they built a 80ft tall 10ft diameter bamboo structure at the All Points West Music Festival at Liberty Point State Park.

There are no mechanical fasteners- everything is held together in tension by woven bamboo slats-

really nice work!

Bright Idea Shade from Michael Mandiberg on Vimeo.

 The Bright Idea Shade is a project of the Eyebeam OpenLab, by Sustainability Action Group members Michael Mandiberg and Steve Lambert, with Simon Jolly, Peter Duyan, and Oscar Torres.
We are converting all of our silver tipped incandescent bulbs into CFL
bulbs (as they burn out.) The problem is a bare CFL bulb gives off
harsh light that sometimes prevents people from making the change. So
we set about designing a lampshade for the bulbs. We started with the Universal Polygon Lampshade
and made it fit a CFL bulb, built it out of heat resistant photo
diffuser material (found a diffuser material that could be laser cut,
and built a laser cutter template.)

• See the Instructable
• video on youtube
• Check out the images on flickr

Steal this idea:

The Bright Idea Shade is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Our goal is to get these kits into the hands of decision makers at
retailers and manufacturers like Target, Walmart, Kmart, Ikea, Home
Depot, Bed Bath And Beyond, etc. We have no interest in doing the long
term manufacture & distribution of this project. We are not
business people. The promise of the CC-BY license is that it can go out
in the world and be reproduce by others who have much better
distribution channels and manufacturing expertise.

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Joanna Raczkiewicz
212.937.6580 x233
press@eyebeam.org
www.eyebeam.org

EYEBEAM ALUM JAMES POWDERLY DETAINED IN BEIJING
No word from the American artist 24 hours after being taken into Chinese custody
Powderly was in Beijing to unveil a project made with pro-Tibet activist group

New York City, August 19, 2008, 7:30PM EST- Artist and Eyebeam alum James Powderly was detained by Chinese authorities in Beijing early Wednesday, according to a message received by Students for a Free Tibet around 5PM Beijing Standard Time, said an SFT spokesperson. The message, sent through the social networking site Twitter, read "held since 3AM", said friend and SFT board member Nathan Dorjee. Powderly has not been heard from since-more than 24 hours later-and his whereabouts remain unknown, he said.

"Freedom of speech has always been central to James' practice, and we support this commitment. Most importantly, we hope for his quick release," said Eyebeam Executive Director Amanda McDonald Crowley. Powderly was a fellow in Eyebeam's R&D OpenLab in 2005-2006, and a senior fellow in the OpenLab from 2006-2007.

Powderly is also co-founder of the Grafitti Research Lab, a project developed during his fellowship at Eyebeam. He was in Beijing collaborating with the activists to project messages onto the facades of prominent Beijing buildings using a laser beam and stencils. The artist was detained before the planned launch of the project-dubbed the "Green Chinese Lantern"-in which a beam of light would be used to display graphics and text on structures up to two stories high, said Dorjee. It is unclear how Chinese authorities learned of the plan.

Also today, five activists with Students for a Free Tibet were detained after displaying a banner that spelled out "Free Tibet" in LED Throwies, the open source technology pioneered by the Grafitti Research Lab and popularized online and worldwide. This brings the number of SFT protestors detained in Beijing to 42. In the majority of these cases, the individuals were heard from and deported within 6-12 hours of their arrest, said Dorjee.

Upon learning of the detention, fellow artist, collaborator, and current Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert said, "He's an amazing, entertaining, brilliant, and committed person. Not all of us have the courage to travel to China to make such a statement at a key time like this. He's a great friend and obviously, like so many others, I'm concerned about his well-being. I hope he's allowed to return home as soon as possible."

The L.A.S.E.R. Stencil technology is a modification of the GRL's L.A.S.E.R. Tag, which was featured in the 2007 Eyebeam exhibition Open City. This portable, updated version is the size of a flashlight, requires one person to operate, and is intended for use with homemade micro-stencils.

Students for a Free Tibet, a group with more than 700 chapters worldwide, has been staging protests in Beijing over the course of the past two weeks. According to Dorjee, who is also the group's technical advisor, GRL technology was an ideal fit for the spectacle of the Olympics, and called the GRL the "go-to group for open source urban expression".

For the latest information and images, please visit the website of Students for a Free Tibet: http://freetibet2008.org/

Additional images for download:

The Grafitti Research Lab, with images made using the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil (in the US): www.grafittiresearchlab.com

LED Throwies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_data/tags/ledthrowies/

Additional coverage:

Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/beijing-activists-de.html

The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081901287.html

###

Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its contributions to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution.

Eyebeam's current programs are made possible through the generous support of The Atlantic Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation, The Pacific Foundation, the Johnson Art and Education Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Dewar's, Deep Green Living, ConEdison, Datagram, Electric Artists Inc.; public funds from New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and many generous individuals. For a complete list of Eyebeam supporters, please visit www.eyebeam.org.

Location: 540 W. 21st Street between 10th & 11th Avenues
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00pm
Bookstore: Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00pm
Admission: All events are free to the public with a suggested donation unless otherwise noted.

Students for a Free Tibet tells Boing Boing they learned of Graffitti Research Lab founder James Powderly's detention by Chinese authorities in Beijing via a Twitter direct message that read "held since 3am."

I just spoke to the SFT representative who has been Powderly's closest contact, and this person says Powderly has now been held for more than 19 hours with no further word.

So far there's no acknowledgment from officials in Beijing that Powderly is being held. Here's SFT's announcement about the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil art protest project Powderly was planning -- he was also writing an "instructable" about it yesterday:

Internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early this morning while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a “twitter” message received today by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown.

“James is a unique voice in the world, who lives and breathes art and technology for the purpose of promoting and enabling freedom of expression for all,” said Nathan Dorjee, Director of Technology for Students for a Free Tibet. “His trip to Beijing, in support of the Tibetan people and all people around the world whose voices have been silenced by their governments, is a small piece of his portfolio as an artist who won’t back down in the face of authority.”

The work, “The Green Chinese Lantern,” uses a 400 milliwatt handheld green laser with micro-stencils to beam simple messages and images up to three stories high on surfaces such as billboards, buildings, and bridges. The Laser Stencil technology was developed in conjunction with Students for a Free Tibet.

Powderly’s direct experience with censorship by Chinese authorities furthered his commitment to highlighting the Tibetan cause during the Beijing Games, in partnership with the efforts of Students for a Free Tibet. Powderly and other members of the Graffiti Research Lab were dis-invited from Synthetic Times, a new media art exhibition at Beijing’s National Media Art Museum of China, due to their uncompromising stance on freedom of expression.

Students for a Free Tibet has staged six protests in Beijing over the last two weeks, placing the issue of Tibet’s occupation front and centre as China hosts the Olympic Games. The protests have included a dramatic banner hang near the Bird’s Nest Stadium; a display of Tibetan flags near the Bird’s Nest just before the opening ceremony began; a symbolic die-in at Tiananmen Square; a protest by a Tibetan woman with flags outside Tiananmen Square; a blockade of the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park; and “Free Tibet” banner hang outside the CCTV headquarters. Thirty-seven members and supporters have been detained and deported, not including those detained today.

James is proud to have been kicked out of the Synthetic Times new media art exhibition in Beijing because he wouldn’t censor his little art project. James wonders why organizations like the MoMA, Parsons, Eyebeam, Ars Electronica and many other arts and cultural institutions around the world who claim to support free speech and expression would participate in a show like this. But they did! It was after being kicked to the curb by the show’s curator that James connected with Students for a Free Tibet and decided he would go to China anyway and do what he though was right in support of Tibet, Taiwan, free speech and the people of China. James lives, if indeed he is alive, in the County of Kings, Brooklyn, and teaches at the Communication Design and Technology program at Parsons the New School for Design. I am James Powderly and I approve of this message.

An update on the pro-Tibet tech-art protests happening in Beijing: Students for a Free Tibet tells Boing Boing that a group of five pro-Tibet activists displayed an LED Throwie Banner near the Olympics site in Beijing, and were promptly detained by Chinese authorities.

From SFT, via email to BB:

This was inspired by GRL's "Throwies" project, and the building and implementation of this was done by a complete separate group of Tibet activitists. They combined a traditional protest banner with over five hundred throwie lights and batteries sewn and taped onto the banner.

Here's a snip from the SFT press release about today's action:

Five pro-Tibet activists unfurled a banner spelling out “Free Tibet” in English and Chinese in bright blue LED “throwie” lights in Beijing’s Olympic Park tonight. The five were detained by security personnel after displaying the banner for about 20 seconds at 11:48 pm August 19th. Their whereabouts are unknown. The detained activists are Americans Amy Johnson, 33, Sam Corbin, 24, Liza Smith, 31, Jacob Blumenfeld, 26, and Lauren Valle, 21.

"The Chinese government is desperate to turn the world's attention away from its abuses in Tibet as the Olympics take place, but the creativity and determination of Tibetans and their supporters has once again ensured that Tibetan voices are heard and seen in Beijing despite the massive security clampdown," said Tenzin Dorjee, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "The Chinese leadership must realize that the only way it can make the issue of Tibet disappear is to acknowledge the demands of the Tibetan people and work with them to bring an end to China's occupation of Tibet."

The lights used on the banner are blue 10 mm light-emitting diodes (LEDs) powered by small batteries, commonly known as “throwies.” Throwies are open-source technology attributed to OpenLab and Graffiti Research Lab, developed as a means of creating non-destructive graffiti and light displays. This is the first time ever that they have been used on a banner. James Powderly, free speech activist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab (GRL), was detained in Beijing early this morning (see http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/jamespowderly).

Previously: GRL's James Powderly detained in Beijing for planning pro-Tibet "L.A.S.E.R. Stencil" art protest

Unfortunately there isn't any information on the maker of this car, but the pictures are cool. If anyone knows more about this build, please post it in the comments and I will update the entry. If you can't afford a Lambo, make it!

Checkout the rest of the photo set

When the Space Shuttle Discovery glided home a few days ago, one of the electronic components which made it possible was the humble Intel 8086 processor.

Some of the chips powering support systems for the shuttle were purchased from a motley variety of suppliers including sellers on eBay. The New York Times told the story six years ago:

Civilian electronic markets now move so fast, and the shuttles are so old, that NASA and its contractors must scramble to find substitutes.

In the past, NASA procurement experts would go through old catalogs and call suppliers to try to find parts. Today, the hunt has become easier with Internet search engines and sites like eBay, which auctions nearly everything.

The 8086 processor just celebrated the 30th anniversary of its release. The space shuttle program just celebrated the 27th anniversary of the maiden shuttle launch.

Image of the 8088 processor, sibling to the 8086, courtesy of Intel's Microprocessor Hall of Fame.

“Argumented Sculpture Series”, 2007 by Pablo Valbuena. (Video)

via http://www.everyoneforever.com/content/2007-03-12/animaris_rhinoceros/

via http://www.colorbunch.com/index.php?/project/camouflage/

via http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/07/31/peekskill/

via http://kubicki.deviantart.com/art/60538-75903969

“71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?

This project is a study into different ways of bringing play back into public space. It focuses on ways of incorporating incidental play in the public realm by not so much as having separate play equipment that dictates the users but by using existing furniture and architectural elements that indicate playful behaviour for all.

It asks us to question the current framework for public space and whether it is sufficient while also giving permission for young people to play in public.

Play as you go…” Bruno Taylor."

(via)

(Thanks, Joel)

We've been unabashed fans of JR's for years, but this latest project, shot in the flavelas of Rio is our favorite. The manner in which the photographs blend in with the landscape is absolutely stunning.

More here.

Artist: JAYBO

via fredseibert, vixeninthecity, chanett:

Inspirational design posters from designer/illustrator Frank Chimero. via swissmiss.typepad.com

via http://thinglink.org/thing:503uym

via http://www.pietermaes.com/_/generique3.html

via http://www.designboom.com/snapshot/gallery.php?SNAPSHOT_ID=12&GALLERY_ID=623&PHOTO_IDX=7

These Australian guys conducted an experiment and videotaped it: Can you beat the lines at a club and get in by wearing a record bag and pretending to be a DJ?

Guy 1: Alright AJ, it's been a long night but we've proven some truths about the record bag. What are they?

Guy 2: I've proven I can get into any club I like, skip any queue, pay no cover charges, go up to the DJ and pretty much take over their job.

via http://www.larsvandenbrink.nl/default2.asp?s=3

If you're too lazy - like me - to meticulously plan out a pixel masterpiece on your wall and paint it, you can now resort to shelling out cash for a quick 'n' easy vinyl version. Not as lovely and dedicated as hand-painted, but we can't all be crafty geniuses.

That'll do. $75 at Thinkgeek.

SPACE INVADERS cupcakes boxed up 
Originally uploaded by hello naomi.

Yums!

TouchKit Version 2.0 on Vimeo.

Pandamonium is a costumed, roving, street party, apocalyptic, dance, rock, battle. Saturday August 16th, Meetup 8:30 pm Union Square NYC!

This comes from several trusted sources. Everything else about it is secret. Have some fun on Saturday before summer ends and it’s too cold to roam around the city dancing in a panda constume with your boombox tuned to pirate radio. More info.

via http://www.belowtheclouds.com/2008/07/20/stapelbara-mobler-fran-magis/

via http://www.j