Embodiment Labs

Computer Hardware, Sex & Philosophy

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Research Notes

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Playing with googles neural-network visualizations using this: https://dreamscopeapp.com/

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Printing with Bacteria

Silvia Saborio is a designer who recently completed her thesis on using bacteria as an artistic medium. She focused on using bacteria for printing. The idea was to create a process with which you, potentially, could manufacture large repeating patterns, such as wallpapers.  Together with Nurit Bar-Shai she hosted a workshop at Genspace sharing the method she had developed. I was lucky enough to be in NYC that weekend, so I gave this a shot. Silvia showed us how to make stencils which were placed on top of a nourishing fluid. Once the stencil was in place you would put a dab of bacteria onto the cut-out of the stencil. Then you wait for a couple of days to let the bacteria grow. Once the stencil is populated with bacteria of your desired color, you transfer it on to paper. The multi-color prints I made have multiple layers. The bacteria are E-Coli K2strands which were genetically manipulated to express the different colors. Apparently they are also a lot weaker than regular E-Coli.

I found it interesting that in Silvias workflow, the bacteria itself is the medium. I met Thomas Landrin a couple of years ago, who told me he was working on a project, cultivating bacteria to secrete pigment in order to eventually use it as printing toner.  Both approaches are pretty cool.

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Fractal projection on my ceiling last night.

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This one really caught my eye. Also by Kofta (http://kofta.com.ua/) also seen here: (http://odd-style.com/). I can't even put in words how this blows my mind. 

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Backpacks by Kofta (http://kofta.com.ua/) as seen at ODD (http://odd-style.com/)

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This has been floating around the internet. Rumor has it that the bird is actually simply collecting material for building a nest.

Animals using tools is a pretty old hat by now... however the idea of animals devising their own prosthetics really blows my mind. (Even knowing that I might be misinterpreting what I see...)

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Google Glass Prototypes: The one with the integrated prism (First two images) is by Thad Sterner, the others are prototypes built by Google

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Wearable input by Greg Priest-Dorman... and yes, he was wearing and using the leather model (or something very similar) at CHI 2014 

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This is fun and all - but - as of now I do not see any practical applications of BCI's except for rehabilitation purposes or as a tool for people with severe disabilities.  We are so good at using our hands and fingers - in fact it requires a lot less attention than using a BCI. With an interface as simplified as the one controlled through the BCI I could be doing multiple tasks at the same time with my hands. Using a BCI this is not possible (at least to me, with tech I know of...) Still this was really cool!

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http://www.amazon.de/Challenging-Presence-Anna-Felnhofer/dp/3708910818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394029999&sr=8-1&keywords=Kothgassner

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The coastline of a landmass is ill-defined: The apparent length of a coastlines increases with the detail of measure. The shorter the yardstick which is used to measure the coast, the longer the apparent distance between two arbitrary points on that coast becomes. 

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There is a fine line between prototyping and magic.

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I was in a copy-shop in NYC, making some prints for Christmas presents. This guy was doing the same, making little lo-fi books as presents. He gave me one of his prints (The top one). The bottom one I found in the trash. They are hanging in my room now.  You can find more of his stuff at: http://talktosherm.wordpress.com/

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A thing which moves.

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Recursive projection on my wall :-)