Vague Terrain 16: Architecture/Action :: The latest of edition of Vague Terrain presents a timely and nuanced consideration of ubiquitous computing. Guest curated by the American artist/programmer Joshua Noble, the issue provides a window into the practices of several leading researchers. Given the arrival of gestural interfaces and preliminary deployments of augmented reality technology and “intelligent” architecture, it is an important moment for thinking about the relationship between technology and the body. Noble on this current milieu: “All technologies reshape the body and the space around the body, from the bow and arrow to the steam engine to the telephone. It may be that we are beginning to truly see how computing and ubiquitous devices will once again reshape our bodies and our conceptions of ourselves in space.” Continue reading

Toward the Sentient City —
An exhibition critically exploring the evolving relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture and urban space :: September 17 - November 7, 2009 :: Opening Reception: September 17, 6:00 - 9:00 pm :: The Architectural League of New York, The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.

Organized around five newly commissioned projects distributed throughout the city, Toward the Sentient City aims to catalyze public discussion on the design and inhabitation of near-future urban environments. With projects by: JooYoun Paek and David Jimison :: The Living Architecture Lab and xdesign Environmental Health Clinic :: Haque Design+Research :: SENSEable City Laboratory :: Anthony Townsend and the BREAKOUT! team. Continue reading

DATA browser 04: Creating Insecurity — art and culture in the age of security (2009):: edited by Wolfgang Sützl & Geoff Cox:

‘Today we are facing extreme and most dangerous developments in the thought of security. In the course of a gradual neutralisation of politics and the progressive surrender of traditional tasks of the state, security imposes itself as the basic principle of state activity. What used to be one among several decisive measures of public administration until the first half of the twentieth century, now becomes the sole criterion of political legitimation. The thought of security entails an essential risk. A state which has security as its sole task and source of legitimacy is a fragile organism; it can always be provoked by terrorism to become itself terrorist.’ Continue reading

The following “interview” with me appears in the July/August 2009 issue of Interactions magazine, the ACM’s journal on interaction design. I say “interview” because it’s basically an edit on the sprawling chat Tish Shute had with me for her site, back in February of this year; as we know, even minor editorial alterations can produce disproportionate shifts in tone and emphasis, and that’s certainly the case here.

I should say from the outset that I don’t have much use for the ACM, and in particular greatly dislike their stance on access to publications, which flies in the face of my own conviction that the point (and power) of knowledge is to share it. Accordingly, I’m republishing the piece in its entirety here. For the sake of accuracy, I’ve left the editorial characterization of me and my work intact, but you should never, ever construe this as an endorsement of same. As ever, I hope you enjoy it. Continue reading

2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art Parallel Programme — e‐MobiLArt / European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists :: Exhibition: May 20 – June 10, 2009 :: Symposium: May 21-22, 2009 :: Center for Contemporary Art - Warehouse B1, Thessaloniki Port, Greece.

The 11 exhibited interactive installation artworks are the result of collaboration amongst 33 participating artists, supported by a team of established theorists, artists and scientists, active in the intersecting fields of art, science and technology. These artworks involve the use of interactive media, ubiquitous computing, communication networks, mobile and locative media technologies. Continue reading

Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City, edited by Alessandro Aurigi, Newcastle University, UK and Fiorella De Cindio, University of Milan, Italy — There have been numerous possible scenarios depicted on the impact of the internet on urban spaces. Considering ubiquitous/ pervasive computing, mobile, wireless connectivity and the acceptance of the Internet as a non-extraordinary part of our everyday lives mean that physical urban space is augmented, and digital in itself. This poses new problems as well as opportunities to those who have to deal with it.

This book explores the intersection and articulation of physical and digital environments and the ways they can extend and reshape a spirit of place. It considers this from three main perspectives: the implications for the public sphere and urban public or semi-public spaces; Continue reading

Situated Technologies: Toward the Sentient City - An exhibition critically exploring the evolving relationship between ubiquitous / pervasive computing and urban architecture; curated by Mark Shepard.

In September 2009, the Architectural League will present Situated Technologies: Toward the Sentient City, a major exhibition that will imagine alternative trajectories for how various mobile, embedded, networked, and distributed forms of media, information and communication systems might inform the architecture of urban space and/or influence our behavior within it. Continue reading

Intelligent Agent Magazine Issue 9.1: Art in Virtual Worlds & The Age of “All at Once” :: Call for Scholarly texts, essays, artist’s works and missives :: Deadline for Proposals: February 15, 2009.

Since the turn of the millennium, an increasing amount of effort has been placed in the exploration of art in virtual worlds from first-person shooters to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft and worlds such as Opensim and Second Life. Even in the last year, Artists like Cao Fei and Stephanie Rothenberg have exhibited Second Life works in the Venice Bienniale and Sundance New Horizons, to name a few. Continue reading

The Internet of Things - Network Notebook Launch :: October 28, 2008; 5:00 pm :: Waag Society, Theatrum Anatomicum, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam :: Free entrance, send an email to reserveren [at] waag.org if you want to attend.

The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks. It’s a critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID by Rob van Kranenburg. Rob examines what impact RFID and other systems, will have on our cities and our wider society. He currently works at Waag Society as program leader for the Public Domain and wrote earlier an article about this topic in the Waag magazine and is the co-founder of the DIFR Network. The notebook features an introduction by journalist and writer Sean Dodson. Continue reading