Computing Culture Group

Lira, Saoirse, Simon and Gemma participated in the art exhibition “Steal My Idea” at DeBalie in Amsterdam NL. The show featured Lira’s “Conversation Table”, Saoirse and Simon’s “Mechanism no.1:war” as well as Simon’s “Haptic Opposition”. Gemma performed “3×3” with help from both a live and remote audience. Select here to watch video of the performances.

On Friday May 20th, Ayah and Gemma participated in the seamless fashion show at the Media Lab. The mc for the show was none other than the group’s fearless director.

Ayah showed a prototype for <random> search, an undergarment which records, shares and analyses the search experience we go through at airports, sports games, concerts.

Gemma showed her kitty skirt, a wearable cat toy. The kitty skirt is a playful exploration of femininity, domestication, and the predator/prey relationship.

Networking or Notworking: Currents in Critical Netculture
Lecture by Geert Lovink
May 12, 6pm
MIT Building 4-270
The Media Lab’s Computing Culture Group is pleased to present Dutch media theorist, net critic and activist Geert Lovink. Lovink has been at the forefront of internet and media studies since the 1980s, and has had a hand in several seminal network arts and culture groups, including Adlinko and Nettime.
In this talk Geert Lovink will present the research agenda of his newly established Institute of Network Cultures, which is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. What is ‘critical Internet culture’ as outlined in his books Dark Fiber and My First Recession, and how does it relate to the current technology and business agendas? It has been liberating to have a good laugh about the organized stupidity and criminal energy of the dotcom generation. After 911 the hegemony of techno-libertarianism has faded away. So how does the Internet economy looks like today? Wikis, blogs and podcasting still seem to be extenstions of the nineties’ philosophy in which content producers are kindly asked to give away their work for free. Can artists and activists only adapt or are there alternative new media agendas in the making?

Compcult’s EuroDisko-End-of-Sponsor-week-Tea-Party.
Blue- da ba dee da ba die… Disco ball on pwm servo control, foam, Jaykdancing, tea a gogo…

Compcult Member Shifty/Noah Vawter exhibits a lighthearted version of his research in sculpture form at Art Interactive. This research is based on exploring the possibilities of 1-bit music, which were quickly trampled on when higher-fidelity audio reproduction and synthesis methods were discovered. The sculpture acts as a totem or altar where fans of this new/old style of music can take part in worship.
To respond to the many who have asked: “No, there is no laptop, or synthesizer hidden behind the piece.” The 5″x5″ board inside the small portal window generates all the music. Visitors to the gallery can worship the sound by listening to the music, laying their hands on the 8-foot resonating instrument body, modulating the sounds with the large, velvet knobs and congregating around it.
The decorations on the instrument body allude to the (admittedly remote) possibility that ancient people used drums made of copper, connected to vats of tomato juice to send high-powered pulses of radio energy in order to communicate with others, perhaps even their creator.

Source here.

January saw the official launch of the Director’s new project, Freedom Flies, a peaceful Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. While nearly all UAVs are developed and marketed for military applications, Freedom Flies is targeted for use by journalists, and is the logical extension of the 2001 Afghan Explorer research project. Test flights were conducted on the US / Mexico border, looking for evidence of anti-immigrant groups that are known to promulgate unlawful violence against political and economic refugees there.
While much has been made of using UAVs for “border security,” we believe the systems may also be used to keep our homeland safe by observing and reporting illegal proto-fascist activities. We will be open-sourcing both hardware and software designs for Freedom Flies so that indy media and non-profit groups can rebuild the system. Pictured is the system (crashing!) at the Center for Land Use Interpretation’s proving ground near Hinkley, California.