So this is my plan. I fell like I’ve been floating around a lot with very loose threads and without any real aim. But now I’ve come up with some more tangible tasks.
Network:
* investigate the different types of networks (computer, animal, social)
* how do they communicate?
* different structures, awareness of each other?
* input/output methods?
Interaction:
* find examples of asynchronous interaction
* delayed interactions or reactions
* in which context?
Deadline friday, feb 1st.
January 29th, 2008| No Comments »
January 23rd, 2008| No Comments »
January 19th, 2008| No Comments »
Quote from Logic and the Art of Memory by Paolo Rossi.
Really like the part on how the present can carry the past within it. Very poetic and with a lot of relevance to my own research since this is something I’m interested in as well.
| ‘even the study of fossils, as we know, can teach us many things—and not only about the past. It can teach us how ideas which were once vital and living can become culturally extinct, and how the present can carry the past within it, without anybody being aware of it’ |
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January 18th, 2008| No Comments »
These could be interesting books for my thesis theme, specifically on how our memory works.
| As a specialist in data visualization, essentially I strive to help people think and communicate more effectively. Consequently, I am always on the lookout for new insights into how we think and how thinking can be improved. For example, my library of books about critical thinking is quite large and always growing. In the last month or so, I have read two wonderful books about thinking and the brain that have now taken prominent positions in my library: The Accidental Mind, by David J. Linden, and Don’t Believe Everything You Think, by Thomas Kida. |
| Although Linden does not deal with data visualization, what he reveals about visual perception, learning, and memory provides important background that is useful to anyone who wishes to develop expertise in this field. |
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January 18th, 2008| No Comments »
Today I had a talk with Thomas about my master thesis project. It was quite nice to talk to him about the different ideas I’ve had. We mainly spoke about the networking aspects and the delayed interaction part. These last days or weeks I’ve felt a bit in no mans land but I think this talk gave me a push forward.
I presented some of the ideas I’ve been thinking about. Using a delayed camera feed to enable interaction between people, the networked motors that share driving patterns, but also my interest in using objects with a simple function connected in a network, either consciously of each other or not. I think it would be useful to sketch down the different ideas I’ve had so far, hopefully this weekend.
Anyway, the conclusion we reached was that it could be good to start mapping different input-output functions that can work together. These could then be applied to objects, and the objects are then left to interact with each other with their I/O possibilities. I think mapping out different I/O pairs is a good way to get started and move on with the project. I was actually thinking about this last term when we where working on the Kinetic Composition piece. I like the way of creating a self sufficient micro cosmos with objects that feed off of each other, and I think the results can be interesting. One nice aspect of this is that some objects might have an input that the visitor can interact with, this interaction could then be transfered further through the cosmos to other objects. I’m interested in this type of interaction that acts through a mediator and is not direct. It goes well with my thoughts about delayed interaction.
January 17th, 2008| No Comments »
So these past days I’ve been researching alternative microcontrollers to the Arduino. I have specifically been looking for something cheaper, smaller and less energy consuming for projects that don’t require as many I/O options as the Arduino provides.
Atmel has the ATtiny series which seems to provide a lot of options. I’ve also found a german supplier who carries a lot of the different versions at cheap prices. The downside to using these chips are that they are not supported by the arduino environment, yet anyway. But there is a lot of tutorials online on how to program and burn these chips, and you can even use an arduino as a programmer to burn the chips.
So, why not use the arduino?
Well, sometimes an arduino is just overkill, especially for projects that has a lot of different objects each requiring a microcontroller. If these objects has few and simple operations it makes sense to use something smaller and cheaper.
January 16th, 2008| No Comments »
January 16th, 2008| No Comments »