EyePet?

Kids nationwide, if not globally will no longer have to face the sheer trauma of being told no when asking if they can have a pet. Thanks to the new EyePet for Sony's PS3 system.



It seems like a very interesting and, from the E3 previews at least, a very polished product. However I guess this is Sony and there are moments in the video above that could shatter the magic that Sony seem to be selling to anyone evenly remotely impressionable.

Using the new generation augmented reality, the EyePet appears like a fascinating idea but in a way kinda gimmicky. That said it is clearly a stepping stone to bigger and better things to come.

Oh and when I said no more trauma over pets....thats if the parents agree to forking out for a PS3, Playstation Camera and the game...

Hand From Above

Walking through Liverpool city centre last week I came across this most unusual sight. The BBC screen being used in a slightly less than factual manner.

"New commission Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, Chris O’Shea reminds us of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed. What if humans weren’t on top of the food chain?… We will soon find out."

An interesting concept and nicely presented though I have to admit its nice to see something thats less focused on the final presentation and has abit of an edgier almost unfinished appearance. By that I mean it doesn't 'look' as though it was made for such an enormous screen; more like a project thrown together in the back room of an enthusiastic amateur.

It certainly seemed to catch the attention if not the minds and maybe even hearts of the passers-by.

Marketing Innovation Group

Just a quick blog to comment on my recent, it has to be said, short term placement at MIG, (Check them out here). That is short term of my own decision as I found the work did not represent what I wanted to achieve from a work placement.

I undertook just over a week of placement work at the Marketing Innovation Group in Knutsford this summer, where I found myself being asked to build the sort of email adverts/newsletters many of us are likely to recieve regularly from various companies/brands, (details ommitted to comply with confidentiality disclosure agreement).

As well as building emails I was asked to create animated GIF images. Oh the giddy highs of design work. I had no problem with the work I was asked to do, and it has to be said I learnt alot but I do feel it isn't the work for me.

Now I understand it was only a short term placement and perhaps not the best representation, with regards to relevance of the work offered, to my course discipline but I have since as a direct result of this experience decided to explore other avenues of work in more detail. Primarily as I found this method rigorously structural and regimented. Albeit effective as a business practice I don't think this is the sort of work I would wish to seek employment in after graduation.

Droppings....

BallDroppings that is.



Odd title but uncannily accurate. BallDroppings is a processing-driven application almost musical in its nature. Musical in the sense that by drawing lines, you are able to turn a series of 'blink', 'clink' and 'dink' noises into something remotely musical...just don't expect to make the charts anytime soon.

All in all a seemingly simple, yet addictive concept, with alot of potential in the right context.

See it in action here!

NIN goes Interactive

Featured recently in both Creative Review and Wired, are American industrial rockers NIN, (aka Nine Inch Nails). However this has nothing to do with their music...as such.

The band's latest tour, 'Lights In The Sky', the band have gone all spontaneous; and have achieved what I think is a first in live music.

"For the band's current Lights in the Sky tour, Reznor has not only raised the bar for what's possible in an arena tour, but has also produced what could arguably be one of the most technologically ambitious rock productions ever conceived. Unlike most rock shows, the visuals for about 40 percent of the show (including "Only") aren't pre-rendered. There's no staging, no pantomiming by band members: It's all interactive, live and rendered on the fly.

With more than 40 tons of lighting and stage rigging, hundreds of LED lights, a daunting array of professional and custom-built machinery running both archaic and standard commercial VJ software, three different video systems and an array of sensors and cameras, the tour is nothing if not a lavish display of techno wizardry."

See the full article at Wired.com here.



Personally I find this indicative of the advance of interactive art, and perhaps a resurgence in its popularity. This idea of using computers for spontaneous expression. Perhaps NIN has opened a door, I suspect other artists/bands may well be inclined to follow them through it. I guess whether interaction on such a level will make any difference to the performance or its appeal is yet to be seen. Maybe this is the future and it will become the norm for musicians to take complete control of their on-stage performances.

Boundary Functions

Through research for my upcoming dissertation, (and the much closer dissertation proposal presentation) I have been feverishly researching and discovering as much new interactive works as time deems possible. Through such I have discovered an interactive designer known as Scott Snibbe. Who is responsible for a work called Boundary Functions, (see below).



Snibbe works primarily on the floor...that is to say a large proportion of his interactive works centre around an area of flooring that in someway reacts to analog input from users, passers-by, etc.

I found Boundary Functions to be of particular interest as true to the nature of 'interactive art' it explores analog human traits in a digital environment. That is to say Boundary Functions effectively creates a digital representation of something about us as individuals that, in this instance, may otherwise not have a physical presence as such.

Boundary Functions, to me, visualises that idea we all have about personal space. As can be seen from the demonstration above, this 'space' or 'boundary' adapts and changes depending on variables such as the number of people in the space, contact with these people and of course the relative position of said individuals. A simple yet intrigueing piece of visual interactive art that is, I think, capable of provoking thought in even the most casual of participants in the piece.

Data Representation

Hows this for a visual representation of data? Found in the Wrexham Tourist Information Centre, people are invited to place a pin on this map to indicate where they are from. The result is.....well its a map with pins attached in different places, but over time this begins to show patterns and trends in the origins of the visitors to Wrexham.