Created by Parag K. Mital and Evan Boehm, Untitled No. 1 is a video collage using only images collected from the previous 24 hour news cycle. The entire video was computationally generated from those images using corpus based artistic stylization developed by Parag K. Mital as part of his ongoing research.
Source: creativeapplications.net
I may sound very critical about a project that sounds great. In fact I think that 3 months ago I wouldn’t have thought about it this way. I wouldn’t have asked myself the same questions. The creators of the project describes it like this: “Lantern is an anonymous portable library that constantly receives free data from space”.
So it basically means that you can be everywhere on Earth and have access to the Internet. Yes it does sound great. Censorship ? “internet shields” ? You are lost somewhere ? Lantern gives you the opportunity to reach everyone you want. But now I ask myself: “why would we increase the ubiquitous computing phenomenon in parts of the world where we aren’t supposed to be connected?”. I Believe that we don’t settle in some parts of the world because it’s not made for humanity. Some people adapted to deserts or mountains and have that kind of lifestyle. But they live in synergy with nature.
The LANTERN device
Maybe we didn’t go to some parts of the world because we were cut off the rest of the digital world (no internet for example). So basically being able to have Internet everywhere is making mankind able to go everywhere without being afraid of having no connexion. Of course there are already satellites technologies that lead us to communicate with special equipments but it’s mostly restricted to specific actions and missions, justified actions. Here, it’s available for everybody, anybody. Does it mean some tourists could go on hostiles environment now because they always have signal and won’t get lost ? Or someone will always be able to find them ?
I don’t reject the benefits of this type of device because it can help people in need. And lantern doesn’t provide access to every content you want, it connects you to a database of content: music, videos, books, articles, etc. and you can request content. But I use this example to show that there are consequences to the power you give to people.
The Settlers of Cagran from Erika Cagrana on Vimeo.
“The project aims to establish the experimental approach of play as a strategy in cooperative planning processes as a participatory practice. By giving all participants the opportunity to collectively discuss and apply the rules of designing and using public space – and putting them to the test in a playful way – future conflicts between different stakeholders are supposed to be avoided”
I have spent 10 days in New York and took time to visit the MoMa. While looking at Matisse’s paintings and Dubuffet’s black & white work I also had the chance to discover the exhibition titled “Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities”.
The exhibition highlighted the fact that in 2030 we will be 8 billions people on Earth and Megacities will have more and more problems due to their respective growing populations. Some architectures studios worked on several cases concerning 6 cities: New York, Rio de Janiero, Mumba, Lagos, Hong Kong and Istanbul. Once again, I could see that this work of research and solution proposal was only realized thanks to the collaboration between different work fields and co-designing (the act of involving stakeholders in the design process).
The detail of the exhibition is available at this link. What was important to me was the way the informations were displayed: 3D sketchs, screens, datavisualisation on a giant wall. Even if the 6 case studies were treated separately, some informations concerned the 6 cities to compare them at the same time. You will find more details on the official website of the project.
I wrote 85% of my dissertation. Last week was very hard. Less than 6 hours of sleep at night so I could wake up at 5AM and go to bed at midnight or 1AM. Usually I do the opposite and work at night. But my friend Arthur told me that your brain works better in the morning, so I believed him and tried to change my old habit.
I’m spending Christmas with my family and on the 27th I’m going back to Paris, making my luggages thanks to a 3 hours break then rush to the airport with my friend Fabrice. Then I’ll probably sleep in the plane. I’m joining my french friends Florent [living in Boston] and John [living in Los Angeles]. We booked a reservation with airbnb, in a apartment in Brooklyn next to the Brooklyn’s bridge. Time to rest and discover another place in the United States.