Ratchet Up

[MIT Media Lab: Space of Collaboration]

I had a chance to tour the MIT Media Lab last weekend with a small group of academics interested in technology and education. [I was the guest of the Midwest Instructional Technology Center, whose bright lights are Nancy Millichap and Alex Wirth-Cauchon.] We got the full bore tour, including half-day hosting from charismatic faculty member David Cavallo, a chat with Executive Director Walter Bender, and demos from students working in a variety of research fields. Impressive.

I had heard about the MIT student mantra, "Demo Or Die," which reflects the fact that projects have to make themselves comprehensible and attractive to visitors if they're to earn continuing support. So most project areas have a ring of demos greeting visitors at the door, along with a graduate student drafted to do the run through. Which they all did with panache. All of the projects were interesting. Lots of breadth. And the place seems to have expanded significantly in recent years.

While I liked everything I saw, it's clear that the Media Lab idea, so powerful a decade ago, has escaped the coop in recent years. This kind of speculative work is now taking place in many labs, both academic and commercial, around the globe. [Example from the Royal College of Art in London.] This is no criticism, but rather recognition of their success. Still, I trust the strategic planning group is meeting weekly.

What I found particularly interesting was the place itself, the Weisner Building designed by I.M. Pei, and the way the Lab has realized its educational philosophy in architecture.

The Media Lab is all about collaboration. Grad students join a group working in a specific area—Things That Think, for example—and quickly begin their own project. They also work on group projects, and perhaps on that of their faculty advisor. There's lots of rapid prototyping, with immediate and continuing group critiques. Ideas are spilling all over the place, just as the wires are, and it's the mix that produces the juice. New Media projects are often necessarily done in groups, and the Lab understands this.

Another revelation: I realized that if I had a huge panoramic Macintosh monitor I'd probably be doing mega-genius level work too. Unfortunately my brain-pan measures a meager 17 inches.

[Google Bombing]

Google Bombing involves getting as many people as possible to click on a particular "anchor phrase" associated with a specific site. Enough clicks and you can ratchet something right up to the top. There are some more twists to this, but I assume you either understand how it works or really don't want the details.

I had mostly heard about Google Bombing as a commercial thing--trying to get your business link near the top in Google. Or as a way of coping with "in [cyber]space no one can hear you scream!" anxiety, as in blogs. But Google Bombing has now become something of a viral gang bang, a keyboard sport you can play yourself.

What a nice surprise to Google for "weapons of mass destruction" and discover that the top listing is a faux Error 404 message. Try it. [At the time of this writing the top result leads to: "weapons of mass destruction."]

"Miserable failure" leads to George Bush's official biography.

"Food nazis" is nearing the top as a link to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

So naturally I had to Google "ratchet up"...only to discover that it has earned it's top-spot the old fasioned way. So to all the people who have clicked on this webblog by mistake, many thanks. You still push up the numbers. I've put on my party hat to celebrate.

[Search Enging Watch]
[BBC]
[New York Times]

[Do The Robot]

Sony's Qrio is the latest in a long line of robots that stretch back to the Victorian era.

You have to love this movie of him dancing and pitching a ball. But before you get one for yourself consider whether he'll scare the cats.

Interested in more on Victorian Era robots? Be sure to check here.

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We send a mission to Mars, and tell the story in digital animation.

[Outrage Radio...The Left Wants To Be Angry Too]

Outrage Radio is the most recent attempt at Liberal Radio. Something, anything to provide an alternative to the massive network of Radio Right that's grown up over the last couple of decades. Another, more ambitious project is on the horizon as well. While the goal there is to purchase five terrestrial radio stations, Outrage is internet radio—that is, they've created a web site from which you can stream individual programs. It's a low-budget alternative to continuous broadcast programming like Pacifica.

"No sissies. No NPR snooze-a-thons. Liberals with attitude. Taking the airwaves back for thinking people everywhere. OutrageRadio.com is the voice of the agitated left, the voice of reason and outrage...

"OutrageRadio is more than just a radio program: it is a movement and a lifestyle. OutrageNation will be the section of the website designed to foster user participation, where they can vent in forums, chat, submit material for the programs and contact everyone from politicians to newspaper editors. The company is also developing OutrageGear, from T-shirts to hats to coffee mugs, in conjunction with fashion industry veterans. All products will be hip, made in the U.S.A. and feature the Outrage logo or the trademark “O”. They will be available in the 1st quarter of 2004."

This description—which sounds like a lift from their press kit, even though it appears on Press-World—suggests the way identity and community have become key strategies in cultivating loyal audiences for radio and alternative media. Young, tech-savvy idealists + new media = Howard Dean.

If you navigate to Outrage, you'll find on the left a link to their first program, "Homeland Insecurity." Give it a try. I'm ambivalent.

Apart from liberal content, for which radio is desperate, the format of the program says a lot about what talk radio has become. The show's makers put it up front in the title: Outrage. The show starts with a super-heated intro that seems like a parody of Radio Right. Shock-jock voices croon in a rhetorical style that pokes the audience with a stick, over and over, until it's riled up. And engaged. It's all about getting the audience pissed off. And enraged. Mad as hell, till they won't take it any more.

As for me, I'm frustrated as "H, E double toothpicks" and don't want to take the format any more.

I have occasion to spend time with friends who are regular listeners to Radio Right, and the first thing I notice is not simply how quickly they want to roll conversation over to politics, but how angry they are about it. It's like they've just been waiting for some liberal to chew on with their thousand angry sound-bites. See me and they're finally able to "talk back," but mostly in the language of outrage.

Political talk radio has become a discourse of anger and outrage, and its voices, diction, rhetoric, self-celebration and other-demonizing have become [essential?] elements of its format.

The format assumption at Outrage seems to be that the way to beat 'em is to join 'em. New lefty wine in old right-wing bottles—in this case an old chianti bottle that's broken off, jagged, and ready to pick a fight. No doubt there's an audience for Radio Angry On The Left. But "Here's the always-angry-about-something James Lincoln" doesn't strike me as a winner if the goal is to create an engaging debate about politics and contemporary life.

We shouldn't bail out of Outrage on the basis of a first show. Programs have to find their voice, and I trust they will. Everyone's experimenting. But for me at least, this first show puts one more item on the "to do" list for Radio Left: find the money, find the listeners...and find the format. The ideas you've got.

Speak from your heart, not from a format.

[Giles Revelle: Bug Scans]

Giles Revelle has created some spectacular scanned electron micrographs of insects that push digital scanning and reproduction to the limits.

"As a starting point, each insect is plucked from obscurity in a garden, field or park. Then it is preserved, fixed and dehydrated, before being coated in gold and placed in an electron microscope. Here, electrons bombard the specimen and gradually generate images of the insect of up to several hundred scans. The scanned images are transferred to the computer where they are meticulously sewn together, digitally re-mastering the shape, form, and texture of the organisms. Subverting processes of microscopic documentation, dirt and deformities are removed, revealing the sculptural and textural qualities of the insect, and the beauty of its form in its perfected state. Thus, Giles connects photography, science and sculpture, and builds on a long tradition in the history of art in which hidden wonders within nature are exposed.

In the final stage of the process, the images are printed to the highest resolution currently possible using state-of-the-art ‘quadra-black’ print heads. The structure, engineering, symmetry, functionality and economy of nature’s design come alive in Revelle’s digital images, and transform the insects from everyday objects to exquisite forms." [Scicult]

Lots of other interesting work at this site as well.

[Digital Ears]

BBC: "The Australian-based Tissue Culture and Art (TCA) project is growing a third ear fashioned out of the skin and cartilage of Stelarc, a performer who plans to implant it on his forearm...

Not simply a wearable prosthesis, but one constructed to be a permanent addition, the new ear has so far been grown to quarter-scale; a half-scale version will be built later this year.

Though surgical techniques for ear reconstruction have been around for quite a while, the artist has spent close to six years trying to get reconstructive surgeons to help...

While the chosen position initially was in front of and beside the right ear, this was discarded as being unsafe.

It will initially be implanted under the skin of the forearm and will be "sculpted" after the cartilage fully grows with an ear lobe being cosmetically added.

'Constructing the ear on the arm also means I'll always have something up my sleeve,' says Stelarc with a grin.

While it cannot hear, with an implanted sound chip and a proximity sensor, the ear will be able to speak to anyone who gets close to it. The artist also has plans to couple it with a modem and a wearable computer so that it doubles as an internet antenna, able to broadcast RealAudio sounds to supplement the local sounds that the actual ears hear, thus scaling up the body's senses.

'It's not so much about enhancing the body but rather constructing, experiencing and being able to articulate alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with technology - ultimately exploring alternate kinds of embodiment.'" [BBC]

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Now here's a nightmare. Your whole global team listening in on your meeting via a tiny microphone on your lapel. Stuck for an answer? No problem, they'll whisper everything you need to know right into your ear. A spiraling babble of corporate-speak guaranteed to impress the customer. Or a free pass through that Astro Physics final exam.

Accenture: "Imagine sitting in an important business meeting. You’ve been introduced to several new customers and are in the middle of making your presentation. Suddenly, the person on your left asks a critical question outside the scope of your expertise. Answering it correctly could mean a big sale for your company.

With help from the Accenture Personal Awareness Assistant—a wearable computing device—you simply draw upon the knowledge of your extended team, all of whom are listening as the meeting unfolds, but working in various locations around the globe. Via wireless networking and a microphone earpiece, one of your colleagues provides you with the answer. You respond smoothly to the client and continue with your presentation." [Accenture]

It's also meant for "memory augmentation" where you continuously record your environment with audio and video. It's a bit like Tivoing your life. When something important happens, you simply push a button to record or review it. It's the killer app for busy executives--and generally anyone over 50.

Here are some perky kids with a short movie about the future.

Think of all those hours at night logging your day. Anything for the name of that potential client.

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Saddam has grown an ear, too. In a contest at 'Worth 1000', someone has 'shopped him into a Jewish physiognomic stereotype. Uncomfortable.

[When Snapping Becomes Mapping]

Check out this web demo of the World-Wide Media eXchange, a project from the Interactive Visual Media Group at Microsoft. It's a monster database of visual images submitted by everyday photographers that are indexed by location, date, GPS coordinates, and other criteria.

The site features a travelogue-authoring tool that you can download. [This will give you an idea of what it looks like once you install it.] The Media eXchange allows you to "create your own online travelogue out of photos, text, and optional GPS tracks. You just add the items--the tool puts together a web page with a map (with or without your travel path) and photos linked to their locations on the map." You can even add "pop-tag" annotations to any photo you see, and create map-and-text annotated stories and photo albums. Jo Walsch described this as: "a square pinhole through which to attempt to view a potential wild and vivid world."

In the not too distant future cameras will stamp snaps with GPS coordinates as easily as they print the date today.

Snapping becomes mapping. The world in a box, tagged for ready access.

[World's Tallest Virtual Building Now In Germany]

MrWong And here's a dream bedroom workshop in which to craft your pad.

[Mars 360]

If you haven't discovered Hans Nyberg's panoramas made using Quicktime VR, you're missing a real treat. Thanks to the viral curiosity of the web, word about his work is out.

This 360 degree Quicktime image of Mars has to be some kind of a landmark in photography, taking its place in a line that goes back to the great landscape photographers of the American west. Posted, ironically, as a new form of digital image display in the same week that Kodak announces it will no longer make traditional film cameras for the US market.

Naturally, the maker of the Mars photo didn't hide out in the wheelwell of the Rover; this image shows signs of being digitally stitched together. But that too is a noble tradition for the knights of the lens.

Another image from this site has been widely circulated of late, Jook Leung's panorama of last New Year's at Time Square. Since we were in New York at the time, wife Elizabeth and I took son Wiley and his friend Evan to Time's Square for the Millennium. This picture is the only one I've seen that captures the enveloping excitement of the event.

[Home Video Of The Birth Of The Hyperlink]

"Wired" recently published a very nice interview with Doug Engelbart by new media writer and artist Ken Jordan. Engelbart's 1968 mother of all demos inaugurated "virtually all that would come to define modern computing: videoconferencing, hyperlinks, networked collaboration, digital text editing, and something called a 'mouse.'"

Unfortunately the article doesn't include a link to video of the actual demo, which survives and is chunked out online. So I'm including a click to the image and words of the man himself--a moment that's flat out thrilling.

You'll find several clips from the talk here. I'd suggest starting with the demo of the hyperlink. It's still wet with amniotic fluid.