Decode: Digital Design Sensations Exhibition, V&A until 11 April 2010

V&A Decode generative identity from postspectacular on Vimeo.

Decode: Digital Design Sensations showcases the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small, screen-based, graphics to large-scale interactive installations. The exhibition includes works by established international artists and designers such as Daniel Brown, Golan Levin, Daniel Rozin, Troika and Karsten Schmidt. The exhibition features both existing works and new commissions created especially for the exhibition.

The exhibition explores three themes: Code presents pieces that use computer code to create new works and looks at how code can be programmed to create constantly fluid and ever-changing works. Interactivity looks at works that are directly influenced by the viewer. Visitors will be invited to interact with and contribute to the development of the exhibits. Network focuses on works that comment on and utilise the digital traces left behind by everyday communications and looks at how advanced technologies and the internet have enabled new types of social interaction and mediums of self-expression.

In a near future we will take decisions in physical space based in real time digital information.

Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry: Unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech
Pattie Maes is working on newly founded Fluid Interfaces Group, part of the MIT Media Lab. This group aims to rethink the ways in which humans and computers interact, partially by redefining both human and computer. In Maes' world (and really, in all of ours), the computer is no longer a distinct object, but a source of intelligence that’s embedded in our environment. By outfitting ourselves with digital accessories, we can continually learn from (and teach) our surroundings. The uses of this tech -- from healthcare to home furnishings, warfare to supermarkets -- are powerful and increasingly real

Golan Levin: The truly soft side of software

Engineer and artist Golan Levin pushes the boundaries of whats possible with audiovisuals and technology. In an amazing TED display, he shows two programs he wrote to perform his original compositions.

Cutting-Edge Cloth

Today this event in Dana Centre explores the relationship between wearable technology and future fashion.
"we use renowned designer Hussein Chalayan’s 2007 collections as a springboard for discussion and hear from those involved at the cutting edge.
Future-fashion guru Suzanne Lee shares insights into the role wearable technology has to play within the field of fashion. Is it destined to remain on the catwalk? Or is there a way into the mass market for creations like those in the Hussein collections? Are they purely inspirational?
What do engineers have to do with fashion? Ask Rob Edkins, whose company 2d:3d worked with Hussein, putting together a series of mechanical dresses. Chat with someone who runs a ‘renaissance’ workshop… and find out what organisations like this do for future creativity.
Electronic engineer and designer Moritz Waldemeyer shares his experience of working at the interdisciplinary interface. What does the process of concept realisation look like in practice? How is technology being used to enhance methods of interaction with spaces and people? And where does fashion come into it all?"

Softspace - Contemporary Interactive Environments

This Saturday I attended “Softspace” conferences, in Tate Modern.
"Softspace deploys new spatial systems including wearable computing, wifi, RFID and custom-designed digital software incorporating light, heat, sound and electromagnetic fields. These not only rely on people’s individual ways of interacting with them, but are enriched by narratives people contribute, creating new metaphors of use."

I was very impressed with the work quality of Jason Burges Studio.


Jason Bruges Studio, founded in London in 2001, creates surfaces, spaces and large scale interventions involving architecture, installation art and interaction design. Innovative technologies are adapted from a variety of industries and coupled with materials and fabrication techniques from the construction industry. http://www.jasonbruges.com

ClickSneacks

This work of Despina Papadopoulos is "part fantasy, part irony, the ClickSneaks subvert both the traditional attributes of a pair of shoes, and expose the multi-layered relationship we have with our clothes and accessories.
For the ClickSneaks the sound of the inspirational high heels has been recorded, only to be activated on each step the revamped sneakers take. Surface mount technology makes it possible to fit the necessary components in the sneakers: the original “click” sound is recorded on a voice chip, while a speaker, amplifier and an accelerometer acting as a “switch”, transform these seemingly normal sneakers into a flighty performance". http://www.5050ltd.com