Trying to find an interesting project to blog about I stumbled upon this website that advertised this exibit. I’m not one of the proponents for the increased usage of cell phones, but I know that we as users dont really have the choice. Cell phones are quickly becoming personal computers and communication devices as well as art platforms.
So on Thursday, I finally made my way to the old Art School that was one of the locations on one of the Scavenger Hunts. I must say that if anyone out there hasn’t been there yet, you must go. It is the best place ever.
There need to be more urban environments like this. But I think the fact that there aren’t–or where they are is socially considered to be ‘off limits’–raises some interesting questions about our society and human domestication. This was touched on in other posts, but I wish to expand on it… What exactly are the reasons why places like this don’t occur more frequently? I suspect that they are primarily accessability and surveillance.
Rampantly overgrown plants obviously make access difficult, which is part of the fun (that first tree really held me back both going in and comming out). For those of us who have additional needs in term of movement–such as canes, walkers, wheelchairs, and enough space to maintain ballance–it would be problematic and somewhat unfair to have to squeeze through overgrown paths and we may even end up excluded. But surely this urban wilderness can coexist with established mobility concerns. For example, once you get past that first tree, the area opens up into a courtyard which is as navigatable as anywhere. I suspect it doesn’t even need a protective tree to create that sense of beauty and mystique. So surely even though this specific site was a challenge, accessability shouldn’t prevent it from occuring.
But perhaps the seclusion factor creates problems for surveillance. One could conceivably do many bad things under the cover of the foliage. This must be why plants do not seem to exist within urban environments, who knows what those birds are doing in their trees. When I was there, there was a bird chirping from some unseen vantage point; I looked but never found it. There was another bird that was sitting in a tree overhead… how weird is that? A bird in a tree? Haven’t seen that happen in a long time. So I figured, if some police officer were to come and try to fish me out of there, surveillance would probably be his reason for doing so. And as we all know, us humans must be constantly watched and always be under the cycloptic eye of surveillance. Always.
Of course, maybe this kind of environment can safely be out in the open. What are the art school’s main distinctions from other urban environments? There are leaves on the ground and walls of plants. There are trees and vines dangling from the roofs. It isn’t merely a blend of humanity and nature, it is humanity as nature. Isn’t it conceiveable that such an environment should be able to be recreated elsewhere? We could put planters on walls, grow vines on the roofs of buildings, and… I guess we have trees, but we could have more plants surrounding them. They wouldn’t be a problem to accessability if they’re all associated with the existing walls of buildings, nor would surveillance be a problem. Just think of the wonderful textures and colors of plants instead of the flat drab walls of buildings.
A developers conference was held on Thursday 3/6/08, in Cupertino, where Apple released its Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone. The SDK is freely available and will allow developers the same access to the iPhone’s features as Apple’s programs have. Apple also helped launch a 100 million dollar fund with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) for developing new applications on the iPhone or the iPod Touch.
During the presentation, the architecture for the iPhone was outlined, detailing some of the core services and media applications that would be available to use in your program. For example Core Location runs as part of the Core Services on the Apple iPhone. This is the service which enables the iPhone to triangulate where you are using cell-towers and wireless devices. And, Web View can be embedded into your applications, so that your application can use Safari’s browser natively.
Apple also said that a new App store would be relesed in June, that will allow users to download and install applications directly from the store onto their iPhone. And that, developers who create programs for use on the iPhone can sell their applications at a 70/30 split with Apple, which isn’t that bad if you consider the free advertising and product placement with Apple.
This is a great opportunity; here’s the link to the free SDK and info on the developers program with a link to 100 million dollars: Introducing the iPhone Developer Program.
After the class discussion on Tuesday, I figured it was time to put one of the locative projects to the test. So Thursday, I took off down the 5 freeway and participated in the Invisible 5 project. I just have to say that it was one of the most humbling and eye opening experiences of my life. During the 6 1/2 hour trip, I listened to many stories of heartbreak, misfortune, struggle, strength, and courage. The residents of the towns along the 5 freeway struggle with poverty and little education. Yet they are able to band together and stop corporate greed, governmental corruption, and political racisim. It was eye opening to hear these stories because some of them happened in my own backyard. I strongly reccomend that anybody who drives down the 5 freeway to participate in the Invisble 5 project, because it may affect someone you know or yourself someday.
Here are the artists and projects that I said I would but on the blog from class on 3/4
http://invisible5.org/
Janet Cardiff
sonic city is beautiful. Their measurement of feeling such as luminosity and wave of sound, were clear that other people can also participate in. It would be more interesting If I can hear the orchestra from far away like in the middle of icy wind in the Alaska or North Pole from those eskimo people while I can make my own orchestra. For example, I am cleaning my window, and making my own orchestra using their GPS instrument, and I can hear the sound from far away. I also want to put GPS on those letters that are thrown away, and what people were doing before. I like the piece of “finding home”. it is used to extend feeling in order to feel secure in a dangerous place. It reminds me of “the catcher in the rye”, the girl with gps is more aware to be in a real world to continue her life with more confidence and comfortableness in her own way. I want GPS for my own too so that I can be more aware of my skin, food, time, money, daydream, and every little intention and stupid “want”. I want to use GPS so that I can keep updating about my self in a certain extend.
After all that we have been learning about locative media I was really curious to experience a locative project. Im so glad that we finally did! Now I feel a greater connection and understanding of locative art. I think one of the strong points of the project was the variety of natural sounds and voices layered together. It was an all around enjoyable and educational experience at KQED. And what a nice surprise to meet Pico Sanchez and get a little of his story as a muralist in the Mission.
As for our classes scavenger hunts I had lots of fun! It was really interesting to see how different from one another they turned out. I think because we have a small class we have been able to get a peek at everybody’s personality and we all have something special to bring to the table in terms of creating projects. I had a blast and cant wait to see what we all come up with next time. Next project is going to be even better after we have the opportunity to smooth out all the potential kinks we found out this time.
Well, I had fun. What a perfectly legitimate way to get outside on such a nice day.
I wish we found that last location in the art school. When we were first tracking it, we went down that walkway right next to the student services building, and the trail led us promptly into a corner. We continued the long way around the building, then headed back up towards Humanities, but I supose that was the wrong way, too. I figured we needed to get inside the abandoned area somehow, but we didn’t succeed. Retrospectively, I think I remember seeing a way in, but it was so far from the waypoint that I hadn’t yet suspected that would be where to go.
That silly little tracking device was no good at determining orientation once the signal got weak when we were between buildings or when the clouds eventually came. I had to rely on the cardinal directions and my knowledge of the school’s orientation like some kind of primitive non-GPS enabled barbarian…
It’s interesting to see how people change when they become exhausted.
