There are many ways shopping has evolved during the pandemic, from curbside pickup to online grocery and contactless payments. But it’s Amazon’s latest retail experience–a high-tech clothing store that is slated to open later this year in Los Angeles–that is perhaps the clearest manifestation yet of how much consumer behavior has changed since March 2020….
State Farm aired its first-ever Super Bowl ad in 2021. This year, it would rather spend game day hanging out with you online. Instead of splurging on guest appearances by Drake and Paul Rudd as it did a year ago, the insurance provider is forgoing a traditional Super Bowl ad in favor of the #TeamStateFarm…
With AB-InBev dominating the airwaves through its long-held exclusive rights to advertise alcohol in the Super Bowl, Miller Lite will take to the metaverse this year for its own Big Game party. The Molson Coors-owned brand will host what it calls an “authentic, communal bar experience” during the Big Game inside the virtual world-building platform…
Cupid may want to consider putting his bow down and picking up a smartphone instead, as Snap Inc. shared some data related to how Snapchatters celebrate Valentine’s Day on its platform. Snap wrote in a blog post, “Snapchatters love Valentine’s Day, but since the holiday only lasts a day or two, timing is everything. Advertisers…
The Los Angeles Rams celebrated their victory over the Arizona Cardinals Monday night in the Wild Card round of the National Football League playoffs with a new lens for Snap Inc.’s next-generation Spectacles camera sunglasses. The new lens is the first to be built for Spectacles in partnership with a professional sports team, and the…
Snapchat introduced four new messaging features, which will roll out to Snapchatters “in the coming days” on Android and iOS. Chat Replies enable users to respond to individual messages in an ongoing chat by holding down on a message and tapping Reply, with Snap Inc. saying the new feature helps users keep conversations on track…
Meta saw a revolving door of departures from its C-suite throughout the course of 2021. Based on the new Best Places to Work in 2022 (https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm) list from Glassdoor, a provider of insights about companies and jobs, the rank and file are less satisfied, as well. After finishing at No. 11 on the 2021 list…
Between mood-altering wearable devices and metaverse fashion, this year’s pared-down version of the Consumer Electronics Show still managed to feature plenty of the flashy glimpses into the future for which the trade show is famous. At a virtual event hosted in conjunction with the Las Vegas convention, Omnicom broke down what the agency giant saw…
This past summer, the Ford Maverick went places where few trucks have gone before: a tray of crudites, an apartment roof, a laundry room counter. It even found itself as the object of desire for an eager Yorkie. The secret sauce? Augmented reality and TikTok, which helped a new Ford pickup truck defy the laws…
What’s in a name? Plenty, if the name is Spectacles, and the parties arguing over the moniker are Snap Inc. and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Snap filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Wednesday, claiming that the PTO was wrong in denying its trademark application for…
Messenger released a new Group Effect in the Messenger and Instagram applications inspired by the Heads Up! game from Ellen DeGeneres. Users can activate Group Effects during video calls with two or more people. Heads Up! is a party game that challenges players to help someone identify objects or phrases written on cards that they…
Colle McVoy is a masterful designer of holiday cards. Every year the Minneapolis agency sends me something new and every year I marvel at the idea and the elegant execution of the idea. This year a small package arrived. Inside the package, I found four beautiful holiday-themed coasters that also act as ornaments for the […]
My guest in the studio will be Ghislaine Boddington is an artist researcher, dramaturge, curator and thought leader specialising in body responsive technologies. Ghislaine is also recognised as an international pioneer in full body telepresence. and the reason why i invited her in the studios of ResonanceFM is that Ghislaine is also the Creative Director of body>data>space, a collective of artists and designers that looks at the future of the human body and its real-time relationship to evolving global, social and technological shifts.
In this episode we will talk about experiences in telepresence, digital culture in London and gender (im)balance in tech careers (believe it or not, we’re still there!) continue
Un film produit par Keiichi Matsuda pour sa dernière année de maîtrise en architecture à Londres, et pour son projet de fin d’études autour des nouveaux médias et de la réalité augmentée. Un travail vidéo présentant également les conséquences sociales de notre société consumériste.
Une structure “N Building” située à proximité de la station de Tachikawa et au milieu d’un quartier commercial. Imaginé par Terada Design, il s’agit d’une façade entièrement habillé d’un code QR, permettant de l’information complémentaire lisible sur un téléphone mobile.
Une belle initiative de la société Esquire avec l’agence The Barbarian Group qui ont intégré ensemble de l’interactivité dans la dernière édition papier du magazine. Un numéro spécial “Augmented Reality” en kiosques, avec un design et des élèments d’animations 3D par Psyop.
La réalité augmentée est une discipline récente visant à intégrer de façon très réaliste des objets tridimensionnels dans une vidéo acquise avec webcam. Une nouvelle expérience par Mike Clare, avec cette fois-ci un marquage sur plusieurs cookies. Explications dans la suite.
I’m back from Asturias which was as lovely as ever. We even had real vegetable to eat this time. The LAboral Art and Industrial Creation Centre in Gijón was opening Banquete_nodos y redes, Interactions Between Art, Science, Technology and Society in Spain’s Digital Culture, an exhibition initiated by Karin Ohlenschläger and Luis Rico.
View of the LABoral shop and of the inauguration party right above it
The press conference started with a string of surprising figures listed by LABoral’s Director Rosina Gómez-Baeza Tinturé. In its 14 months of activity, the centre -which has given itself the mission to foster the interaction between art, society and technology- has hosted the work of 261 creators (45 of them come from the region of Asturias), 54 workshops given by some 90 teachers to more than 3000 participants. Add to that many concerts, conferences, debates and other activities. Amazing, even for a space that covers more than 14.000 m². Which reminds me that it would be good to come back one day on the design and architecture of the centre. The public bathrooms only are worth the visit, i feel like stepping inside 2001: A Space Odyssey each time i enter there.
LABoral bathroom and a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey
Banquete_nodos y redes presents more than 30 digital and interactive works that critically and creatively explore the notion of Network as a shared matrix, not just from a technological perspective but also from a socio-cultural perspective. I’ll be back with a lengthier overview of the exhibition and a small interview with its curator, the art critic Karin Ohlenschläger, later on but right now i wanted to share with you one of the best projects i saw in Gijón last week.
You’ve probably read about Clara Boj and Diego Diaz before, either in some media art catalog or on this blog, i interviewed them a few months ago about their project AR Magic System, their Lalalab studio and their interest for the visualization of wifi networks.
For the LABoral exhibition, the Valencia-based duo developed a sightseeing telescope named Observatorio (Observatory).
Observatorio builds upon Boj and DIaz’ 2004 project Red Libre Red Visible (Free Network, Visible Network) which was born in an optimistic time when it seemed possible to achieve an utopia made of wireless, open communication networks managed by social groups offering services to the local community. At that (not so distant) time, several city governments offered free access to the WiFi network, sometimes in the entire city. The CMT (Telecommunications Market Commission) denounced those city governments for unfair competition with telecom companies, the free wifi municipal projects were canceled, and grassroot groups started installing, maintaining and extending open WiFi networks throughout Spain.
Today, some companies have adopted new tactics based on the deceptive slogan “Share your WiFi”. Companies like FON, and commercial projects such as Whisher and Wefi exploit the current infrastructure of access nodes to the Internet in urban space to provide coverage to the whole city if it were an open, shared structure.
Obervatorio reflects on this scenario by informing viewers about the current state of wireless networks located in the area where the device is installed. The sightseeing telescope, installed on the Laboral tower, tracks and shows where Gijon’s wifi networks are located in real time. You can visualize them on the screen of the telescope, swing it around and see which areas have a denser wifi coverage, and get additional data such as which ones among these networks are open or private. Because Observatorio is programmed to try and connect to any open network available in the area, it can send the information from the observation tower to the exhibition hall, where it is displayed on a big screen. If there is no open networks detected in the area, Observatorio remains separated from the main exhibition space, located in another building. A modification of these networks is also offered, showing an ideal configuration in which the local residents of large areas in the city could gain or share access to it.
Image courtesy LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial
After having installed Observatorio, the artists discovered many more open nodes than they expected. While testing the project at their studio in Valencia, they couldn’t find more than 5% of open networks. In Gijón the percentage is higher, around 30% in the LABoral area.
From the tower Observatorio can reach theoretically almost the whole city of Gijón. The device comprises a high power uni-directional WiFi antenna with a 30º aperture, able to detect wireless networks within 1 to 4 kilometers depending on the number of obstacles encountered; a video surveillance camera with a telephoto lens with the same aperture as the WiFi antenna; and a viewer which, like a periscope, offers a real time image taken by the camera, with the WiFi networks detected by the antenna placed geographically on it.
Banquete_nodos y redes runs at LAboral Art and Industrial Creation Centre in Gijón, Spain, until November, 03, 2008. The exhibition will then travel to the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Kartlruhe, March-July 2009.
More sightseeing telescope: The timetravel telescope, the Jurascope and the Elastic time and space telescope.
Also related: Wifi Camera Obscura.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
