sp/su 09

On February 3rd in Chennai, India, Google India launched the “internet bus“. It is a mobile bus designed to share the experience of internet as tool for learning, with Individuals throught the state of Tamil Nadu (south India). According to the Google Internet Bus project site, the project is an attempt to educate people about what the internet is and how it may be beneficial to their lives by bringing the internet experience to them. The bus hopes to make the internet less intimidating and much simpler for new users. The concept of the Internet and its possibilities will be shared via videos that illustrate ways individuals can utilize the internet - i.e: grand parents keeping in touch with family members who have migrated to bigger cities via e-mails, or a student from a local school utilizing the web to search for information on a study subject; or a local traditional band using MySpace to share their talent with people all across the globe. .

Altermodernism, if I understand it, is international art that never quite touches down but keeps on moving through places and ideas, made by artists connected across the globe rather than grouped around any central hub such as New York or London. You might take the worldwide web as a model and think in terms of hyperlinks, continuous updates and cultural hybrids. It is most definitely postcolonial, transitional and to some extent provisional, but what it is not, I don't think, is anything as grand, or significant, as a movement.

It is worth paying attention to Nicolas Bourriaud if you are a watcher on the art promontory. He co-founded the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. And he came up with practically the only substantial theory of art in recent years - relational aesthetics, in which art is what you might call user-friendly, creating environments and experiences that are open to all kinds of human relationships rather than just the conventional one-to-one encounter of person with object.

Altermodern declares Postmodernism dead (in case you still had any doubt about that), and that a new form of art is emerging in the 21st century. Bourriaud christens it Altermodern! Altermodern, the 'alternative modern' is the product on non-stop communication, globalization and new forces that shape the way artists operate today.

If early twentieth-century Modernism is characterised as a broadly Western cultural phenomenon, and Postmodernism was shaped by ideas of multi-culturalism, origins and identity, Altermodern is expressed in the language of a global culture. Altermodern artists channel the many different forms of social and technological networks offered by rapidly increasing lines of communication and travel in a globalised world.

China's taste for good Scotch is causing a global shortage at the top end of the market, 12-year-old and older malt whiskies. So much whisky is being exported that distilling companies in Scotland have been forced to to ration supplies.

Worldwide sales of all whiskies in 2007 totaled 495 million liters. The rise in popularity of malt continued in 2008, with a 5% increase in worldwide sales and higher growth in China where sales are booming.

A trend is spreading through small towns across Germany. Tight budgets have forced hard decisions, including turning the lights out at night. No one is on the streets at night anyway, so why pay for the electricity to run the street lights? But residents have revolted. They fear an uptick in crime, or simply for their safety while stumbling through the dark streets to walk the dog or return from a late night out. Proving necessity is the mother of invention, a handful of clever solutions are being implemented; some with interesting consequences.

The solution seems to have started in the small town of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz in the Erzegebirge. Over one and a half years ago, the 900 citizens of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz were plunged into darkness each night, but given the option to turn the lights on by mobile telephone. Older citizens were concerned about their ability to master this new technology, but practice makes perfect. The town saves 4000 euros ($5300) per year.

Multiverse, a massive installation by American artist Leo Villareal that features approximately 41,000 LED nodes that run through a 200-foot-long tunnel in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..

As passerbyers move between the East and West buildings on an airport style people mover, the zillions of lights flickr on and off over head creating rhythmic patterns and abstract configurations. The custom designed software also has an element of chance built into it, so it’s unlikely that anyone will see the same routine twice. The project is Villareal’s largest and most ambitious work to date and will be on display through 2009.

Mobile Industry Review has a mind-blowing video of the Microvision Mobile Projector in action. We originally wrote about Microvision back in 2007, and their efforts have finally come to fruition. The projector is just a little bit bigger than a 3G iPhone, and the quality is incredible. The secret behind the bright display is Microvision’s special technology, which scans a laser beam to paint the picture pixel by pixel.

There’s an ominous all black new storefront on Lafayette Street near Soho in NYC. Large dark wood doors are flanked by windows covered in black and white photographic murals lit by giant film-set style lights. Not a sliver of the interior can be seen from the sidewalk but its obviously an apparel store, seemingly a clone of Abercrombie & Fitch. But hidden inside is a surprise, one of the most successful racing cars ever produced.

Nice (like 6/10) expo in Montreal if you'Re stopping by. If not, u can check it out on the web, it's basically the same thing.

The Canadian Center for Architecture is exhibiting Tools for Action: What You Can Do With the City through April 19, 2009.

Andy Kaufman VS Joaquin Phoenix

Andy Kaufman VS Joaquin Phoenix

Ryerson University’s Centre of Learning Technology and the Science of Music, Auditory Research and Technology (SMART) Lab have been working on the Alternative Sensory Information Displays (ASID) project to develop a ‘musical chair’ precisely made to induce vibrant emotions to deaf people thanks to music

In other words, the ‘Emoti Chair’ as they call it is built to bring musical pleasure to the deaf and the hearing impaired. The chair has a multitude of build-in speakers and vibrating devices delicately calibrated to “translate music and sound into movement. Whether it be rocking or vibrations, the music can be heard through the movement of the chair, expressing to the person sitting, the emotion heard in sound”. Music becomes the medium and the vibration became the generated art form (I remember citing a similar sentence in my post on Daito Manabe’s facial experiments, also extremely related to that audio-tactile realm of manipulating sounds and music)

The main reason however is the first one - to prevent others from being infected with ones germs. This poor chap in the photo above is being a good citizen and wants to keep his germs to himself - he wears the mask all day until he gets home. And for those who don't like masks - they choose something like the product below to plug up their nostrils.

“I am not anti-museums. But I think they have been taken over by corporatization and commercialization.” Homelessness as a social condition is used as a foil to contrast the realities of struggling artists and less influential art-appreciators against the excesses and exclusivity of the art/museum culture.

WORD.

It has been reported that tired drivers now cause more deaths on European roads than drunk drivers, and yet whilst it has become socially unacceptable to be drunk behind the wheel or in the workplace it is almost a matter of pride that we believe we can function properly when tired.

Off the Hook Montreal Pop-up shops

Great simple retro book cover redesign for Harry Potter series. It only lacks a bit of fantasy …

Microsoft Corp announced plans Thursday to open its own chain of branded stores as it looks to catch up with rival Apple Inc's successful move into retailing.

The world's largest software company, which also makes the Xbox video game console and the Zune digital music player, did not say how many stores it was looking to open, or when, or which of its products would be on sale.

8 MP Phone Camera. Damn.

This one won't be a mystery for too much longer but, for now at least, Nokia is more than happy to tease out its latest high-end cameraphone right up until the official announcement at MWC. What we do know is that the above picture was taken with said cameraphone, and that the EXIF data revealed a couple more details in addition to its 8 megapixel nature. The most notable of those is that the phone will apparently come equipped with a Carl Zeiss lens which, judging from the sample image, certainly seems to be capable of producing some decent results.

haha? i dont know what to think about that.. is space getting too crowded?

Yikes! A commercial Iridium communications satellite and a "presumably-defunct" Russian Cosmos spacecraft smashed into one another on Tuesday, more than 490 miles above northern Siberia. It's the first ever sat-on-sat collision, SpaceFlightNow.com reports.

Today at 6:31 EST the unix time in seconds will be 1234567890. Celebrations will be held in parent's basements through out the world with the washing of hair and beards and all night MMORPG campaigns.

GreenDepot, a new retail concept aiming at making buying environmentally friendly products for the home simple opened today in New York City. The 3,500 square foot flagship store is designed to be consumer friendly, informative, and unique. The Bowery store itself is a model for what can be done with eco and recycled products. GreenDepot has applied for platinum level LEED certification. The location originally served as New York City’s first YMCA. Customers shopping in the front half walk on the original basketball court floor.

Since I'm no evolutionary expert, I shipped Slate's data to Lauren Ancel Meyers, a biology professor at the University of Texas who models the spread of infectious diseases mathematically. Meyers says that around Day 39 of Fig. 1, we see the "classic exponential growth of an epidemic curve." (Day 39 in this graph is Jan. 8.) She also explains that "25 Things" authors can be seen as "contagious" under what's known as a "susceptible-infected-recovered" model for the spread of disease. Think of "25 Things" authors as being contagious for one day—the day they tag a bunch of their friends. Meyers found that, for that one day, the growth parameter of the "25 Things" disease during its ascent phase (roughly until the beginning of February) was 0.27. This means that, on average, each "25 Things" writer inspired 1.27 new notes.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.

Need proof? For Seth Godin's Alternative MBA program, this week the nine of us came up with 111 business ideas each. But ideas are only valuable when someone (like you) makes something happen.

The Google PowerMeter software will analyse the consumption information captured by "smart meters", and translate it into easy-to-understand information to help people see where they could cut back.

Users will be able to monitor the PowerMeter through their computers and other web-enabled devices using a special widget embedded on their personalised iGoogle homepage.

"It may not sound like much, but if half of America's households cut their energy demand by 10 per cent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road."

This is a little speculation about cultural cycles of revival and neglect. This is about how the present feels about particular parts of the culture of the past.

The battlefront is the area right at the edge of the goldmine — the place where the acceptable and lucrative revival era meets a time which is currently repressed, neglected, and a-slumber. What's so interesting about the battlefront is that the process of reassessment is so visible here, and the revaluation is so daringly and consciously done. An elite of taste-leaders and taste-formers unafraid of ridicule are hard at work here, foraging for bargains, bringing an unacceptable era into fresh acceptability. There's a kind of shuddering repulsion for long-neglected, long-repressed artifacts, and yet something compellingly taboo about them. Their hiddenness makes them fascinating — it's as if their very sublimation has given these cultural objects some kind of big power over our unconscious.

I had a recent conversation with friends, in which we basically debated how far actors could go without losing their popularity. For example, Britney could do some crazy shit and still came back and sold a shitload of albums. This was outlined as being particularly relevant as the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident happened this week.

This piece by PSFK shares a similar subject on sport stars:

Then there’s public opinion of what’s right and wrong, which is arguably more important than what is technically allowed or not. This is based in large part in our perception of intentionality. Steroids are taken more seriously than marijuana in the public’s opinion. The rationale is that steroid distorts who A-Rod is as a baseball player, while smoking pot doesn’t change what Phelps accomplished in the Olympics.

Self described “undercover photographer” JR has created a giant photo exhibit in Kiberia, Kenya. The photos taken of women from the slum cover 2000 feet of roof tops, as well as being wrapped around the local train service (which completes the image twice a day). The exhibit, which also doubles as a second roof for the shacks it covers, is part of the photographers 28 Millimetres project.

It worked like this. You logged on to
your Facebook account and had CNN's
broadcast of the inauguration ceremony
live-streamed to your computer: TV on
your computer. But instead of having the
CNN experts comment on the
proceedings, you could comment on
what was going on yourself by changing
your status bar, opt to see what your
friends were saying, or opt to see what
everyone was saying.
The result was a very different media
experience. For me, it was certainly much
more rambunctious. You knew exactly
what people thought of the incoming and
outgoing administrations, in real-time. It
was also funnier, messier, more
immediate, and slightly less informed
than what you'd normally get on CNN.
It was also far more demanding as a
viewer. It meant that you had to listen
hard, think clearly and speak up.

This March sees the return of Havana Club’s 100 Pieces initiative, which brings artists from around the globe together to create pieces inspired by the Cuban rum brand.

(please see Secret War for more info on this artsy project)
However! in a neat live twist, this year Havana Club will join forces with the Secret War art crew for ‘100 Minutes of Havana’, in which two teams will go head to head a live, one-off art battle at East London’s Village Underground on March 4th. Each team will have 100 minutes to create their very own interpretation of Cuba using only coloured acrylics on a 200ft white wall. The freestyle masterpiece will be created without the help of sketches or pencils, and must be completely improvised on the spot.