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Working between speculative fiction and documentary forms, duo Soda_Jerk explores Afrofuturism in a series of interrelated video installations. Excerpts from "Race for Space," "Destination Planet Rock," "Armageddon in Effect," and "We Are the Robots" are here on their site. The series seems a good supplement to the documentary by Akomfrah. Soda_Jerk digs further into histories of figures like Sun Ra and groups like Public Enemy, working as media archeologists or archivo-cyborgs, patching together new mythos using digital compositing and sound design. Soda_Jerk "Astroblack: Race for Space" 2010. Accessed February 21, 2014 http://www.sodajerk.com.au/video_work.php?v=20120921063755

Nick Foster (aka Fosta) explains his interest in exploring the banal everyday of future worlds, rather than the gee-whiz spaceship /laser gun tropes of sci-fi cinema. He elaborates on three characteristics: Background Talent (what do the paperclips, gardenhoses and tape dispensers look like in the future?), Accretive Space (technologies persist, new are mixed with old) and Partly Broken ( for every new gadget there is a constellation of spotty service, short battery life, and other 'broken realities'.) Foster also points to several science-fiction movies that make efforts to depict the mundane. Fosta. "The Future Mundane" Core77. Published October 7, 2013. Accessed March 7, 2014. http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/the_future_mundane_25678.asp

A micro-manifesto from Dunne&Raby, addressing historical predecessors to Critical Design, similar lines of inquiry, uses and abuses of this way of approaching design, too. Much of this FAQ text seems to have been elaborated on in their recent book, Speculative Everything. This is a fairly quick read that provides a fairly concise summary of the use of "speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life." (Dunne&Raby) Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Critical Design FAQs. Published 2011. Accessed March 7, 2014. www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/bydandr/13/0

Along with my other post, this one goes hand in hand with that. I felt that including this one as well would be good and would help elaborate in the stages of prewriting and preparing for the first draft. I know out of experience and from others that simply getting started can be terrifying and quite frustrating. This link offers that aid for getting started and offers simple solutions like the basic structure for developing a solid paper. Prewriting exercises such as "brainstorming, free-writing, listing and clustering" act as the catalyst for developing ideas, or points and ideas at least that can be expanded later. As applied to this essay, you might start with different net.art pieces that you saw, made an impact, and then further refine and discover richer ideas you want to develop a paper around. It's helpful not only for this class but for writing in general! University of Maryland University College, "Prewriting and Outlining." Last modified 2014. Accessed March 3, 2014. http://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/writingresources/prewriting_outlining.cfm.

This piece of design fiction by Cisco called "The Internet of Everything" is probably closer to a sci-fi movie than design fiction but I found it interesting to contrast with the BERG Cloudwash prototype that I posted. Its pretty ridiculous, but it would also be cool if some of these things became realities. Just watch it and you'll see. "The Internet of Everything." Cisco 2014. Web, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt5VulFqBm4.

Here is another article dealing with the questions I posed in my last post. This one is by Bruce Schneier, who, if I am correct, is a friend and colleague of Bruce Sterling. Schneier seems to be an expert on digital security and he goes over a lot of interesting points regarding security with the internet of things. Schneier, Bruce. "The Internet of Things Is Wildly Insecure - And Often Unpatchable" Wired. January 6, 2014 http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/01/theres-no-good-way-to-patch-the-internet-of-things-and-thats-a-huge-problem/

I wonder what opportunities for "electronic civil disobedience" might be uncovered in the IoT landscape?

In Bruce Sterling's excerpts from Shaping things, I kind of felt like he didn't spend enough time talking about privacy or security in a world of things that are always on and connected. So after searching "spimes" with keywords like "security", I found this article on an online magazine called "Government Technology" (of course). But the article did bring up some valid points about security regarding the "internet of things". My only question is how do we maintain privacy in a secure world of the "internet of things. Is it possible to have both? The idea of spumes is exciting and there is no denying the positive potential, but what do we have to sacrifice for convenience? Lohrmann, Dan. "Can We Secure the Internet of Things?" Government Technology. February 25, 2014 http://www.govtech.com/security/Can-We-Secure-the-Internet-of-Things.html

  After reading Alexander Galloway's Countergaming chapter from his book, I wanted to see some examples of artist-made game mods. I Youtubed video game mods and discovered a Youtube channel called 'Vsauce'. Vsauce is run by internet personality Michael Stevens who posts videos that discuss and answer questions about scientific topics, gaming, technology, culture, and more. The video I found about game mods was called Top 7 Video Game Mods: V-LIST #6. As a person that doesn't do a lot of gaming, I found it pretty interesting to see the mods in action. The coolest thing in the video was a guy who is building a working 16bit arithmetic computer. I don't know if it can technically be considered a mod at all, but it is pretty impressive regardless. The implications of stuff like this brings me back to the Galloway reading which ponders the future of video gaming and a as of now unrealized independent gaming movement. "Top 7 Video Game Mods: V-LIST #6 " Posted by Vsauce. Sep 30, 2010. Accessed March 19, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaTsPvyTCLQ

This piece of Design Fiction is imagined to exist in a world where products are developed to the point where they almost have lives themselves. When thinking in terms of Spime, "Brad the Toaster" is a product that plays into the idea of discontinuing the process where products of today's consumer culture are built, and then soon become obsolete due to new technologies arising. Brad and his fellow Sprimes might be the answer to all environmental sustainability problems. Sprimes would be sent out into the world, their every move being trached. Every interaction that they have with people will be tracked, and stored in a database, ready to be accessed by developers. If these developers can study these interactions, what does work with a product, and what doesn't, then their Brad 2.0's can be the best possible product, without having to create a series of upgraded products, only to be obsolete when a new need is discovered. Vanhemert, Kyle. "A Toaster That Begs You to Use It: Welcome to the Bizarro Smart Home." Wired. March 14, 2014 http://www.wired.com/design/2014/03/addicted-products/

Thanks, this intersects with a number of rich topics within realm of New Media and, as you note, spimes in particular! There's also a funny variant here of anthropomorphized machines and notions of sentience. The video for Brad the Toaster is another compelling example of a diegetic prototype

This story covers the "human power movement." These ideas were created as a push back against the convenience of many technical advancements. Although convenience and efficiency are generally good things, some believe that it makes the body (the fleshy human one) become weak and soft. The story highlights different bizarre ways folks are approaching this design problem. Sharpe, Jennifer. "Rejecting Tech, Some Opting For Human Power." NPR.com, September 7, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112622695

On October 24, 2013 Julian Bleecker, James Bridle, Nick Foster, Cliff Kuang and Scott Patterson participated in a round table discussion during Near Future Laboratory's event, "Design & Fiction". In this link, there is the full video of their discussion (lasting about and hour and a half) as well as a synopsis and several key points from the discussion put together by the host site, core77.com. Each participant in the discussion brings up really interesting ideas and it is nice to have the option to watch or listen to the discussion in full, or just get a brief overview through the written synopsis. Ray, . "Near Future Laboratory Presents Design & Fiction (A Near-Past Event Recap)." Core77 (blog), February 21, 2014. http://www.core77.com/blog/strategy_research/near_future_laboratory_presents_design_fiction_a_near-past_event_recap_26484.asp (accessed March 12, 2014).

Thanks! This is indeed a great resource, concise and legible overview of core concepts from some of the key figures involved with this mode of design. The section with James Bridle provides strong echoes and parallels with Sterling's concept of "Spimes," too!

As I was reading the Cyber Space Alarm article at term struck my interest, "Cyber-Democray." So I Googled it and I found this very interesting article written in 1995 which discusses a lot of the key points that we have been addressing in class. Everything from the technology to the political involvement of the internet. This article also discusses MOOs and the internist as a "public sphere." All of these topics are addressed with the explaining the "cyber democracy. Poster, Mark . "democ.htm." democ.htm. http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/democ.html

One of several excellent online collections of Data Visualization endeavors. Browse the many different categories, keywords, authors and approaches to comprehending 'big data'. Along with aesthetic variation along the metaphorical to modernist continuum, there are many new media trends covered. Those of you exploring social media in your final research paper may well find this useful reference, too! Visual Complexity. Last updated February 19, 2014. www.visualcomplexity.com/vc. Accessed April 6, 2014

Here's a collection of the NSA slides, revealed by Edward Snowden by way of the Guardian news. The slides detail the various pervasive and invasive methods of surveillance, tapping into phone and social media networks, as orchestrated by the National Security Agency. This is the internet-of-things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Also, as discussed in class, the layout and design of these slides is often horrendous, complicating or obstructing clear communication of information. "NSA Prism program slides" The Guardian News. Published Friday 1 November 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/prism-slides-nsa-document. Accessed April 6, 2014

When I typed "meta-reality" into youtube, what I found was not exactly what I was expecting. These glasses are not using the term in the same way as the assigned readings, but they function in a fascinating way. The cyber reality functions similarly to how we navigate our touch screens, but rather than being confined by the screen, this product gives the illusion that it's projections are a part of one's 3d landscape. Globetrendy. "Trying on meta-reality glasses." Youtube, 14 November 2013. Web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rj9nMJq1Vk

In this recent article, Ian Wallace explores the aesthetic of Post-Internet art. He examines the role of new websites, such as Tumblr, and discusses how this new era of art brings online elements into the real world and vice versa. There are a lot of post-internet artists mentioned in the article, along with links to other articles about them, which I found helpful in getting a better idea of the Post-Internet aesthetic. Wallace, Ian. "What Is Post-Internet Art? Understanding the Revolutionary New Art Movement." Artspace. http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/post_internet_art (accessed April 17, 2014).

Paper commenting on the effects that Social Media might have on children. The paper seems to focus on the lack of development children have emotionally, coupled with the act of participating, sharing and communicating through social media. These types of interaction at a young age have the potential to cause embarrassment and regret. Clinton, Chelsea and Steyer, James. "Is the Internet Hurting Children?" Cnn Opinion. http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/21/opinion/clinton-steyer-internet-kids/

My research paper will be dealing with The Internet of things. Specifically, I am interested in the many obstacles in the way of everything actually becoming connected to the Internet. "7 Big Problems with the Internet of Things" takes a skeptical and realistic look at-you guessed it-seven of these obstacles. 1. The first problem is the many new security challenges that will be created. Getting a computer virus is bad enough, but giving hackers and criminals access to everything in your daily life is a whole other ballgame. 2. Another issue is that with the increasing amount of incoming data, it will be more and more challenging for businesses to perform their normal processes because of availability requirements. 3. The next issue, which many skeptics are worried about, is privacy. This one is linked to the security issue and already is becoming a problem with connected devices today. 4. Data storage is something that has already become an issue for large Internet companies like Google and Facebook. If everything is connected to the Internet, where will we store all of that data and can the existing infrastructure even handle that kind of overload? 5. Making all of this extra data available to everyone all of the time is a data management problem that may be hard to navigate. 6. Businesses that are managing data from a multitude of devices will have to significantly upgrade their server technologies. 7. Storing data at a single location will probably not be possible. Bandwidth requirements will exceed existing data centers. Though the article didn't cover all of the issues, it provided a good list of issues for me to look into as I move forward with my paper. Roe, David. "7 Big Problems with the Internet of Things" CMS Wire. http://www.cmswire.com/cms/internet-of-things/7-big-problems-with-the-internet-of-things-024571.php?pageNum=2

"Do we need an Internet of Things? Or, when your fridge gets on your nerves" Brings up a really interesting and valid point about the Internet of Things (IOT). Will it be truly useful to have everything connected to the Internet? For many of the proposed IOT products, there are real world solutions that we don't need to be tapped into the Internet for. Matthias Poppei thinks, "…it's time to distinguish between an 'Internet of Things' and an 'Internet of useful Things'." I for one couldn't agree more. I do think that the IOT will create some really useful and life-changing opportunities in areas like healthcare and energy, but I also think that a lot of tech businesses are gearing up to take advantage of the hype of it all. Consumer beware: how useful will these products be? Poppel, Matthias. "Do we need an Internet of Things? Or, when your fridge gets on your nerves"ECN. http://www.ecnmag.com/blogs/2013/10/do-we-need-internet-things-or-when-your-fridge-gets-your-nerves

A PDF of Program or be Programmed Douglas Rushkoff "Program or be Programmed" 2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/47990572/Rushkoff-Douglas-Program-or-Be-Programmed-Ten-Commands-for-a-Digital-Age