Accelerator, proposal for COLLIDE@CERN

Posted on December 20, 2012 by xDxD.vs.xDxD

Sometime ago we submitted our Accelerator project to Collide@CERN

This is the presentation video:

This is the project description:

“Accelerator” establishes a poetic, emergent parallel between the particle accelerator and the transformation of human communities around the globe due to the progress of sciences, technologies and of the planetary conversations which are triggered from them.

In the Age of Information, human beings experience flows of recombinant information in which “official” sources and peer-conversations interweave in the emergent creation of knowledge and awareness: languages form, relationships fall into place, words become commonplace. Conversations produce knowledge, in a planetary process which radically changes how people learn, work, relate, express, consume.

While fundamental science researches on how matter, space and time work, people’s visions, imaginaries and languages transform, expanding cultures and sense of possibility.

While particles are observed in accelerators their effects escape research labs, accelerating the transformation of people’s perception of their Universe.

People become particles in a planetary accelerator, receiving stimuli and signals (information about the results of fundamental science), moving (thinking and communicating), colliding (discussing) and transforming into other entities (transforming cultures, forms of awareness and visions for their future).

Accelerator is about this process.

A real-time info-aesthetic visualization in which a timeline of the news of the “things” which happen at CERN is compared to the emergence of words, conversations, debates, jokes, images and videos on social networks, all over the planet, across languages and cultures.

A “Human Accelerator” of the Information Age, a landmark accessible from the web and smartphones, and through a large-scale visualization to be placed at CERN, Ars Electronica and selected locations across the planet, to create planetary awareness about the transformation of human beings – and of their languages, visions, desires and perspectives – towards a new perception of possibility.

Accelerator @ Collide

VersuS at BIO23, Ljubljana Design Biennial

Posted on September 20, 2012 by xDxD.vs.xDxD

VersuS, by Art is Open Source, at BIO23, Ljubljana Design Biennial.

VersuS at BIO23 Design Biennial

BIO23, Design Relations
http://www.bio.si/

VersuS is a series of works about the possibility to listen in real-time to the emotions, expressions and information generated by users on social network and using ubiquitous technologies, and to publish them onto the cities which they are related to.

A scenario emerges according to which it becomes possible to realize information landscapes which are ubiquitously accessible and which change our experience or urban spaces.

These projects also suggest the possibility to use these methodologies and technologies to promote novel forms of participatory practices in urban spaces, for decision-making, policy-making and urban planning and design.

the video “Berlin_WantsToBeHere.mov” shows a full day of the city of Berlin as captured through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Google+). Message captured show when people used social networks to express that they wanted to be in the place they were in.

the video “RomaRiot.mov” shows a full day of the city of Rome as captured through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Google+). The video shows the city’s digital life during the violent riot of October 15th 2011.

the video “Rome_aDayInTheLife.mov” shows a full day of the city of Rome as captured through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Google+). The video shows a full day of the digital life of the city, in its completeness, with its cycles, patterns and routines.

the video “Turin_Love.mov” shows a full day of the city of Turin as captured through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Google+). The video shows 2012′s Valentine’s day as seen through social networks, with people talking about love, making fun about love and arguing because maybe their partner forgot that it was Valentine’s Day.

the video “Turin_Traffic.mov” shows a full day of the city of Turin as captured through social media sites (Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Google+). The video shows the full digital life of the city as people use social networks to speak about traffic: being stuck in traffic jams, suggesting traffic information or alternative routes, describing accidents and, in general, providing an idea on how much people use social networks in real-time to talk about mobility.

Knowledge is Natural, a workshop about DIY energy and augmented reality in natural environments

Posted on August 4, 2012 by xDxD.vs.xDxD

For Knowledge is Natural, we will be in the beautiful woods of the south of Italy to explore the possibility to re-appropriate sensibilities and knowledge about natural environments, using DIY, sustainable energy sources, Augmented Reality, Natural Interaction, Ubiquitous Technologies and the re-discovery of human relationships and emergent, peer-to-peer creativity.

Knowledge is Natural, August 19-25 2012, in Societing’s 3rd Summer School titled “Transmutation, the Next Mediterranean Way”.

The Summer School is created by the Mediterranean Societing Academy, Centro Studi Etnografia Digitale, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università degli Studi di Salerno, AOS – Art is Open Source.

in the woods

Most people living in urban contexts have lost connection to knowledge about natural environment.

For them, the beautiful wood in the image above would be, well, a beautiful wood, not a plentiful source of food, energy, medicines and wellness.

Or, more precisely, it could be that in their imagination natural environments could be perceived as being all of these positive things, but most of the time they would have no idea on how to exploit them or, even more, how to exploit them wisely, respectfully and sustainably.

People living in urban contexts have lost most of their knowledge about natural environments: for most of them nature is something defined as an administrative boundary (e.g.: the flowers and grass in the middle of a roundabout; flowers in a vase; a public park) or shrink-wrapped in a refrigerator (e.g.: the vegetables in supermarkets).

Just as other elements of the natural environment, plants have moved to the periphery of our field of view. Their life is almost purely aesthetic, with very few information about their function, benefits and roles in the ecosystem: a wealth of knowledge which remains hidden to most urban dwellers.

There’s more.

The problems which menace our planetary communities, the practices and habits which embody our difficulties in achieving wellness and a balanced life with nature and cultures different from our own, are often connected to the fact that rhythms, procedures, strategies and approaches of our daily lives are not the product of awareness and consciousness.

They are the result of a synthetic building process, created as a function of consumism and a general standard for “comfort” which is more oriented to having us purchase products and services than it is to allowing us to take a step back to enlarge our field of vision onto societies and living environments, allowing us to embrace approaches which are more holistic and relaxed in the ways in which we relate to the planet and fellow human beings.

Luckily human beings start becoming aware about the disequilibrium between what we perceive about the world and what the planet really has to offer, if only we manage to connect to different scales of values, rhythms and modalities.

Awareness and consciousness are obviously about information and knowledge, and on the perception of the possibility to build, share and disseminate them, transforming them into usable knowledge.

Ubiquitous networks and technologies will play an important role in our near future.

Traditions, visions and emergent approaches are an enormous richness for our planet.

It is now possible to imagine social and technological systems which will allow people to embed digital information into the world, using peer-to-peer dynamics and making them usable and accessible to an enormous variety of human beings.

Strolling through a wood is, for an urban dweller, an experience which is substantially aesthetic.

Using ubiquitous technologies we can imagine populating these spaces with information which could show us, for example, how to produce food, energy, spaces for relation and communication, modes and opportunities to heal and obtain wellness.
We can imagine adding our creativity to the natural environment and the knowledge which we produce, making both accessible to other people.

An unknown type of bush magically becomes a medicine. Trees become a source for food. Knowledge about the life-cycle of a certain environment transforms it into a highly sustainable source of energy.

augmented woods

Answers? No! Questions!

With Knowledge is Natural we start a discovery process, trying to collaboratively imagine scenarios which could represent possible answers to a series of important questions.

How is it possible to create ubiquitous networks in natural environments, taking into account the lack of energy, connectivity and infrastructures, and measuring their sustainability, accessibility (divide, inclusion) and usability (alphabetization)?

Which forms could these networks assume? Made through computers and mobile devices or in alternative ways which are able to create bridges between analog and virtual worlds?

Which practices can facilitate and enable these approaches? Which needs are we able to satisfy? Which types of people can benefit from access to ubiquitous knowledge produced by multiple sources and peers in natural environment?

Which types of information could/should we make ubiquitously accessible through these practices and technologies? From the past (traditions), present (real-time, through the expressions of people and organizations) and (near) future (vision)?

How can this information be used in urban contexts? Gilles Clément’s Third Landscape perfectly describes nature in urban spaces: nomadic, interstitial, temporary, able to grow between the cracks of walls and along train tracks. Currently, Third Landscape is the main responsible for biodiversity in our cities, and represents an incredible, unused wealth for our well-being. And, even more, it inspires critical practices such as Guerrilla Gardening. Clément declared the need to train our gaze to recognize the Third Landscape and the opportunities it offers us.

How can we relate to nature in cities in different ways? How can we transfer innovative practices from rural to urban contexts?

The Workshop

The workshop will last 3 days in which we will collaborate in different ways to design and realize scenarios in which each participant will be able to elaborate a significative perspective on these questions.

We will work within nature. Our lab will be an innovative camp in which we will give life to novel forms of collaborative study and relation, throughout the day. The woods will be our classroom.

We will build a DIY sustainable energy source.

We will learn how to use it to power up laptops, smartphones and custom electronics.

We will create various forms of in-wood peer-to-peer networks in both technological and non-technological ways, allowing us to exchange information, publish it in natural environments and propagate it onto the Internet.

We will disseminate digital information in nature, harvest it, share it on the web and on social networks.

We will augment reality, in analog and digital ways, creating accessible, usable, inclusive and interconnective practices.

We will observe human and non-human activity in nature, using networks and custom electronics.

Who is the workshop for?

The workshop has no pre-requisites: anyone can join in.

If you never touched a smartphone, never written a line of programming code, never opened up a browser: you are welcome! And you are the right people for the experience!

From start to finish you will learn how to create usable knowledge, and how to share and disseminate it in natural environments.

If you are a hacker, designer, architect, artist, inventor, maker, camper, traveller: welcome to you too! We will work together to create the most sustainable, useful and inclusive, peer-to-peer knowledge ecosystem.

What will we use?

Lots of different things, like:

Computers, smartphones, tablets
Solar cells
Knives and other cutting tools
Rubber, plastic, wood, stones and anything we will find laying around
Some electronics and sensors
water
paper
wind and sun
Networks which you already know about, and some which you don’t

How to join

write to us at info@artisopensource.net

Redesigning Urban Communication in Trieste

Posted on July 25, 2012 by xDxD.vs.xDxD

a workshop in trieste

We will be in Trieste from July 27th to August 2nd for “Insegna Trieste” a workshop to imagine and design the future of urban information and communication for the city.

Organized by the City Administration of the City of Trieste and by ISIA Design Florence, and with the collaboration of the Regional Administration of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Trieste, ISIA Urbino, IUAV University and the University of Nova Gorica the workshop will gather students to explore the city of Trieste from a new point of view, and trying to answer the question: “What is the information architecture of the city, as interpreted from a variety of cultures and points of view? How is it possible to define strategies and methodologies to design a system of signs, technologies and methodologies to represent it in meaningful ways? What is the future of urban signage?”

Urban signage is the street-interface for the city’s Information Architecture.

Information Architecture is a heterogeneous combination of different processes, including organization, categorization and the creation of navigation schemes in an Information System.

In the current scenario we can imagine to extend the set of techniques, methodologies and technologies which were classically used to design urban signage, and to include a wider, holistic, set of considerations into the discourse.

Ubiquitous technologies, tagging, augmented reality, urban screens and other technologies can be used to radically transform our experience of cities, as we navigate through streets, landmarks, businesses and opportunities for socialization, entertainment, culture, information and relation.

It is possible to embrace a holistic approach by taking into consideration the passage from Data, to Information, to Knowledge, to Wisdom.

from data to wisdom

Data, in city navigation, is composed by the positions of landmarks, streets and buildings, by the opening times of venues, by the presence of toilets and services. Or, in general, by discreet elements telling us what we know about the various things which are found in the city.

We can analyze elements of data to find relations among them. By interconnecting data in network of relations we can describe information. Information is a structure of data, a set of relationships among its elements, forming a network according to a certain strategy.

But we can go further. We can observe how data relates to other data to form information according to a series of recurring patterns. This is a valuable process, as it allows us to become aware of these patterns and to have a more useful point of view on reality, being able to understand information. This process is commonly defined as knowledge.

By understanding the principles according to which these patterns occur, we gain an even deeper understanding of reality, which we common refer to as wisdom.

Usually, urban signage refers to the domain of information. A series of scenarios and use cases are envisioned and, thus, the needs, desires and wishes of different types of users are evaluated to try to understand what information is more useful, and how it can be conveniently visualized onto signs, in accessible, usable ways: “A tourist is on the street in a certain city location, searching for the next landmark to visit.” Signage is designed in order to be visible, perceivable and understandable, allowing users to visually navigate the information domains of the city (mobility, environment, tourism, services, administration, regulations etcetera).

Now, specific technologies and methodologies can be used to assess the other two, valuable, scenarios of Information Architecture: Knowledge and Wisdom.

For example, in the touristic scenario, Knowledge could be represented by patterns of information, such as “the network of best landmarks for contemporary art lovers”, or “the accessible city”, or “the city’s venues, prioritized according to how my Facebook friends rate them”.

And Wisdom could be about understanding how people having similar cultures, contexts, tastes and needs have achieved their goals (for tourism, business, entertainment, sociality) in the city, and providing this as a service.

In our navigation through cities we mostly operate through visual queries.

What we see and experience in the city – and the way we interpret it according to context, culture and personal history – defines affordances for the use of public space.

Wether we operate in a task-based mode or wether something we see/hear/smell/touch in our environment synchs with our culture or sensibility of the moment, we perceive symbols, colors, shapes, and spatial layouts which suggest what is possible/impossible, suggested or advised against, promoted or prohibited in public space.

Affordances in public space are defined at visual, cultural, administrative and political levels, allowing us to experience a very complex set of stimulations coming directly from the urban environment.

Mobile, ubiquitous, devices – such as our smartphones – radically transform our experience of space. Though these devices we constantly experience a potentially infinite number of different, augmented, layers of information which fill the environment. Wether they come under the form of a call or a text message, through a geo-located social network element, via augmented reality, via the internet of things or via other digitally active object/space/architecture present in our surroundings, spaces transform in our perception thanks to the situated availability and perceivability of these elements of digital information.

Furthermore, these layers of information can be related to complex experiences, inventing entire new usage grammars to read, experience and perform public space.

This is what we will explore in the workshop.

The possibility to integrate Ubiquitous Publishing, Urban Sensing, Social Networking, Knowledge Ecosystems with Visual Design, Urban Design, Visual Thinking – and not forgetting to assess issues such as Digital Divide and Digital Inclusion – to reinvent the ways in which data, information, knowledge and wisdom are created, disseminated and shared in public space.

We will explore the city and try to understand people’s diversity and needs, and, thus, the information domains which are more relevant to them, as well as their needs for visual navigation systems at global, local and contextual levels.

We will then explore the ways in which digital technologies and networks can be used to go one step further, making richer forms of information accessible and usable, and also making Knowledge and Wisdom accessible, participatory, engaging for citizens and other forms of city dwellers.

We will turn all these insights into a proposal for a new Information Architecture for the city of Trieste, and for its interface: a novel, innovative signage system, across visual design and Ubiquitous Publishing.

Stay tuned for a report after the workshop.