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Force Field @ The ICA

I missed this at the ICA last night........ gutted :(

Force Field
21 Nov 2007
An exciting new performance installation from the internationally acclaimed sound artist Ray Lee. By interacting with the electromagnetic 'force field' that surrounds the theremin (the instrument you play without touching), Lee activates and controls a series of kinetic sound machines, creating music and movement from the ether. Somewhere between a Victorian illusion, a performance of electronic music and a scientific demonstration, Force Field is an exploration of invisible forces made tangible, audible and physical. This new work follows on from his highly successful installation performance Siren, which was recently featured at the British Council International Showcase in Edinburgh and at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz.

Running time 35 mins approx.

Unity - Nokia, Regents Street Xmas Lights 07

Christmas is upon us and the London shopping lights have been switched on and the frenzy has begun. This year Nokia as sponsored the Regents Street lights as part of a campaign to promote the opening of their new flagship store on the 14th December 2007.

Nokia have worked with their agency Wieden+Kennedy to bring to life this brilliant piece of Physical Space Interaction.

Unity [the Light Clusters] are designed by United Visual Artists, who have worked with the to create 14 of these 'bundles of light'.

What does it do?
well.... according to the PDF that I got from the W+K blog it:

•Interacts directly with you at the Nokia interactive window
•Changes with the ambient temperature
•Displays special performances throughout the day
•Reflects the strength and direction of the wind
•Responds to the level of crowd activity

Basically its bad-ass, and i'm so glad that big brands are becoming aware of digital campaigns beyond your desktop :) - I went to see it last night and its impressive reminded me of Usman Haque's - Sky Ear.

From the 14th December you will able to interact directly with the lights from the Nokia store's interactive window - watch this space. Their are special 'performances' on Christmas Eve - Evening, a different one for each of the twelve days, a boxing day one to mark the beginning of the sales, a count down to the start of the new year and a closing finale on the 6th January 2008.

Unity: Light Up Christmas Together
20 November 2007 - 06th January 2008
Regents Street, London, UK

UMPC - UltraMobile

Its the future.........


Products that are taking us towards this:
•Samsung's UMPC
•Asus R3 - Apparently Apple have been working with Asus on a tablet.

Smaller devices
•Nokia's N95 - With Its GPS feature (from what I have read its still a bit buggy though)

Other contenders if they GPS up:
•iPhone
•gPhone (soon to be released)
•Sony Ericsson P1i

This emerging attitude towards mobile computing has even got the guys at Nintendo thinking and has formed a part of a new business strategy focusing on more casual gamers and even non-gamers. Hinting at adding more features to the DS portable that would be useful in spots like "amusement parks" and "train stations" it even has a web browser on it.

There are many, many more devices out there that I have briefly touched upon the ones that came straight to my head. The role of these portable devices is important to the development of 'Physical Space Interaction'[Ubiquitous Computing "Ubi Comp"]. Before Physical Space Interaction fully kicks off there are a few things we need to solve/consider. It is probably worth creating another post on the subject of 'Privacy In a Ubi Comp World'.

I would love to here what you lot think about Physical Space Interaction / Ubiquitous Computing - any comment are welcome as this area is of great interest to me.

Nintendo Wii meets 'Minority Reports'

The release of the Nintendo Wii raised the HCI bar in relation to gaming. With such an innovative product, people have been captivated and have decided to hacked/mod the Wii remote. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Tracking fingers with the Wii:


and...

Wii Remote Controlled Robots:


Insights in to the creation of the Wii can be found here