Fashion? No…but yes.

Joanna Berzowska is an expert in soft computation, electronic tectiles and especially responsive clothing as wearable technology. She is the founder of XS Labs where her team develops electronic textile and reactive fashion projects, such as Skorpions.

Skorpions is made up of five different garments that seem to have a life of its own. These outfits move, pulse and change with the body in slow, organic motions. They are controlled by internal programming, and they use Nitinol to achieve the slow movements. The cut of the pattern, the seams, and other construction details become an important component of engineering design. All those elements are essential to create such interesting, sophisticated dresses as the XS Lab team realized in the Skorpions project.

 Many people call this project a ‘feast for the eyes’ and I completely agree. You don’t see something like this everyday. I hope artists continue to make garments that can move. It’s interesting to think of what your clothes would be like if they were alive. I personally think it would be fascinating to put on a dress that would look differently when I am done wearing it. This isn’t really fashion, but it can and will be!

The Wired Wizard

Steve Mann has always been interested in expanding the mind and body using technology. He is a living cyborg! (a person whose physical abilities are extended by machine technology) It is rare to see Mann without his Eye-Tap computized eyeglasses, which he invented. This device does not only cause the eye to function as both a camera-type imaging system as well as a display-type system, but it also corrects for things like visual memory deficiencies…pretty cool eh?

If you ever get lost, the Eye-Tap can help you find your way. Or, if you cannot put faces to people’s names, the Eye-Tap can also help you with that. Mann’s team hopes to overcome the challenges of living in an information-saturated world. Who knows… maybe in a few years we will all be wearing Eye-Taps…

Click Here to watch a video for more information!

Electoplankton

Electroplankton was created by Japanese media artist Toshio Iwai. It is best described as an interactive musical media and should be reviewed with the clear knowledge that it isn't a game. There are no goals to complete and no game overs to frown upon. In my opinion, it can be considered a work of art. By playing Electroplankton, users can create their own melodies. The term "play music" gets a new undertone by that.

This interactive musical media is made up of ten tracks (or mini-games as gaming presses call them) where you are to manipulate the planktons with your stylus, which in return will create music for your pleasure. It is a musical instrument of art. And like all musical instruments your ability to manipulate the instruments will either reward or dishearten you. However, unlike any old musical instruments, Electroplankton automatically rewards you with the sight of up most beauty of post-modernism abstract art. He deserves all the fame he got from this project: it’s great seeing interactive art getting this kind of wide release.

Click Here for Five Minutes Video Compilation of Few of the Tracks

The Tracey Fragments

                                                  Canadian director Bruce McDonald is recognized for his outstanding work. He graduated from the film program at Ryerson University and has had many successful feature films. In 2007, he created a risky and emotional piece called “The Tracey Fragments”. This film is visually captivating, but it takes us on a complete head-trip. Tracey Berkowitz, played by Ellen Page is not like your everyday teenager. Tracey is angry, insecure and filled with an unsettling self-loathing. She believes she “hypnotized” her 9-year-old brother, Sonny and convinced him to think he is a dog. After he disappears, she feels like it’s her fault and her responsibility to find him. This leads her to some dark and dangerous places, and ultimately naked under a shower curtain on the city bus.  Even though shooting the scenes took him only two weeks, Bruce McDonald spent nine months in post-production.

Tracey shares her emotional journey through “multi-frame” images of various sizes within the screen. She sees everything in pieces – some imaginary, some not. The shattered movie is constantly splitting into multiple shots, which helps us feel her crisis. Shaky camera movements and random zooming help to set a realistic tone to the motion picture. Ellen Page is great in every movie. On the other hand, the supporting cast is a little flat. Did I like this film? Yes. Would I watch it again? No.

What makes this film unique is that McDonald released the footage to the public so anyone can make his or her own remix of Tracey Berkowitz’s life. He is allowing everyone and anyone to edit music videos, trailers, or even an entirely new cut of the film. I have never heard of anything like this before, and I am going to make my own version of it one day. This creative film and piece of art allows the public to engage with it in ways no other film has ever done before. McDonald has gone above and beyond with this brilliant idea, and I am hoping to see many more from different artists, maybe even from me someday...

Legible City

Jeffrey Shaw is a leading figure in new media art. He initiated the creative use of digital media in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, immersive visualization, and many more. His work includes performance, sculpture, video and countless interactive installations. One of his most remarkable works is Legible City, in which the viewers must actively participate in order to make the interactive installation work. The visitor has to ride a stationary bicycle to navigate through the simulated city streets of Manhattan with buildings made of letters, words and sentences that are projected on a big screen. The architecture made of letters corresponds to the actual plan and scale of Manhattan. The user is able to control the direction and speed when travelling the city with the handlebar and pedals, just like a normal bike. The visitor chooses where to go in their journey, making Legible City a three dimensional book which can be read in any direction. The virtual world in which the bicyclist is travelling truly simulates the experience of bicycling in the real world.

Wii Sports came up with something like this- the Cyberbike. The game has 18 different courses that users can ride and has an eco-conscious theme. In the game, the rider is helping to clean up the planet by clearing the roads of trash and sources of pollution. The exercise bike is included with the game and as the rider progessed new accessories are unlocked.

I’m watching you

Have you ever heard of ‘Very Nervous System’ by David Rokeby?  This brilliant Canadian artist was one of the first people to design a reactive system that can track your movements. He handcrafted this whole interactive installation so humans can have a direct relationship between body, sound, space and technology.

For this installation, Rokeby wired up a space the size of a dance floor. A video camera is used so that the computer can observe the physical gestures happening in front of it. These gestures are then translated into music, in real-time. The viewer can communicate to the computer through the use of video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers and a sound system. Movements are read, interpreted, and turned into many layers of sound. The 13 years that Rokeby spent working on this exceptional installation pay off when he wins the Petro Canada Award in Media Arts in 1988 and the Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in 1991.

One of the 3 16 x 16 pixel hand-built cameras in 

Very Nervous System at the Venice Biennale in 1986

What is very interesting about this piece is the notion of interface. It is invisible and it occupies a large volume of space, whereas most interfaces are definite. Thus, the purpose is initially unclear, but it quickly evolves as one explores and experiences. When the spectators clue in that the mechanism is responding to their unique movements, they communicate to the computer in many different ways – by their different actions.

Participants in interaction with the Very Nervous System (1986-1990)

Many people, including me, are not musicians. If I play an instrument, nothing worth hearing comes out. Rokeby gave these people a chance to create their own music, by being their own instrument. The purpose of this piece of art is so that instead of the body following the music, the music is guided by the movements of the body- something we’ve never seen before! Each instrument is an action. Everyone has a unique experience, based on the way they move. This interactive installation basically watches you and it makes something out of you. The music created is music that you want to listen to.

David Rokeby in Very Nervous System in the street in Potsdam in 1993

Not So Big After All…

         There was a time when the only way you could communicate with loved ones far away was by sending them letters. As time went on, different forms of communication were developed, such as Morse code, telephones, instant messaging, and something called Skype. Skype makes it possible to call anyone around the world for free as long as there is an Internet connection. Hundreds of millions of people use Skype to do all sorts of things together, such as holding a meeting or celebrating a birthday. I believe that Skype is one of the best methods of connecting one space to another physical space through interaction, but have you ever wondered where it all started?   

         About 30 years ago in Los Angeles, pedestrians walking past the same old window of the Broadway Department Store noticed that instead of the same reflection they gaze at everyday, was another’s. A stranger that was nowhere near them was looking right back with the same confused look on their face. Not long after, they realized that they were on two different sides of the country- the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and the Broadway Department Store in Century City in LA. These life-sized images of people could speak back and interact with strangers as if they were there right next to them. In the course of 3 consecutive evenings while this installation lasted, boys started picking up girls, new friendships were blooming and individuals that have not seen their loved ones in many years now had the chance to set up a time and meet each other on the street. This installation piece created by new media artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz called ‘Hole in Space’ was the first telematic installation working with NASA.

         This is personally my favorite telematic installation piece because I can relate to it. Having the opportunity to talk to your friends and family across the globe and especially being able to see and interact with them as if they were right in front of you is an amazing opportunity. I can only imagine what those people felt on the street, mingling with loved ones they haven’t seen in years. My family is all over the globe, and I use Skype very often to contact them. We wouldn’t have this if it weren’t for this spectacular piece of art that started it all.

         I think artists should continue with installations like this one. It is a great way to learn about other cultures and see what is happening at that exact same time in a place on the other side of the world. If I was walking home from school and I passed by Dundas Square and there were life sized images of people from a small village in Spain, I would most definitely stop and look. The art of this illusion can make a large world feel so small.