NMS2014

Here's a great essay by Carrie Lambert-Beatty on Parafiction. She discusses the "Nikeplatz" work we saw in class along with several other works by various artists. Parafictional endeavors negotiate context collapse as strategic asset for opening up dialogue and debate. As noted in class, this particular genre of contemporary art has many similar goals and intentions as Critical Design. Carrie Lambert-Beatty "Make-Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility" October 2009 129, 51-84

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

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

Here is the amazingly rich, detailed and resource heavy presentation by designer Tobias Revell. A graduate of the Design Interactions program at RCA, Revell charts a survey of pre-cursors and significant features of Critical Design as well as myriad components of Design Fiction from corporate to speculative futures thinking, including:Diegetic Prototypes, Future Mundane, Agents of Fear, Materials, Synthetics -- each section filled with insight and contextual links! Highly recommended primer! Tobias Revell. Critical Design/Design Fiction Lecture Finally Written Up. (Looooong) Published December 2013. Accessed March 8, 2014. http://blog.tobiasrevell.com/2013/12/critical-design-design-fiction-lecture.html

Wired article debunking Amazon's Prime Air marketing ploy. Behind the seamless and seductively realistic design fiction video, numerous questions from fuel costs to air traffic congestion, unidentifed flying accidents, airspace regulation and so on hover on the periphery of this otherwise alluring prospect. Include a link to the actual video from Amazon. Watch it again after contemplating the externalities, or hidden costs, of such a seemingly seamless operation. It's little wonder what such high definition, cinematic realism affords Amazon. An intensification of scrutiny is needed from the viewer, a critical media viewing, to short-circuit blind faith in the realities promised in such depictions of the future Marcus Wohlsen. "Even if the Feds Let Them Fly, Amazon's Delivery Drones Are Still Nonsense" Wired: Business. Posted December 2, 2013. Accessed March 8, 2014. http://www.wired.com/business/2013/12/amazon-drone/

Design Fiction by Portland based designer Laura Allcorn. Here, as part of an exhibit called Human+, she explains her Human Pollination Project, a miniature tool set constructed to facilitate pollination tasks in anticipation of colony collapse of honey bees. The combination of meticulous craft, background research and an implied preposterous scale of the task in question position this work in the realm of critical design, opening up new questions alongside possible answers. Laura Allcorn. Human Pollination Project. Human+, Science Gallery Published April 2011. Accessed March 8, 2014 https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/humanplus/human-pollination-project/

Bruce Sterling providing a summary of Design Fiction. What it's about, some key figures who have developed the practice and examples of works that fall into this mode of design. Spends time discussing the background theories of 'diegetic prototypes' and drawing parallels with corporate 'vaporware' and military R+D promos. A short introduction to Design Fiction, a starting point. I'd recommend coupling this one with more in-depth articles and examples to build a thorough understanding. Bruce Sterling. "Patently untrue: fleshy defibrillators and synchronised baseball are changing the future" Wired UK: Culture. Posted October 11, 2013. Accessed March 8, 2014. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/10/play/patently-untrue

Tim Berners Lee answers questions from all comers on topics ranging from surveillance to kittens.

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.

This short essay by Julian Bleeker talks about exactly what is insinuated in the title design, science, fact, and fiction, and how all of these components come together in order to form what we know as design fiction. This short essay is not very short but there are a lot of interesting points and picture about how and why design fiction functions. Bleeker, Julian. Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact, and Fiction. http://drbfw5wfjlxon.cloudfront.net/writing/DesignFiction_WebEdition.pdf (accessed March 20, 2014).

Here's the website of artist Gabriel Shalom. He was the artist giving presentation in lightning talk mode on hypercubism. Here he has an elaboration on hypercubism, speaking both to the early 20th and 21st century in terms of influences, intersections and techno-cultural tropes. Gabriel Shalom "An Introduction to Hypercubism" n.d. http://www.gabrielshalom.com/theory/

This very, very recently available app by PNCA prof Stephen Slappe is another example of the continued cultural continuum of the spatial fourth dimension in art and culture Using an actual Google street view camera to facilitate production of an extensive non-linear narrative project, EIGHT transforms the app into a portal to several inter-related 'dimensions'

This is an NPR Fresh Air interview with an author regarding the current status of the internet in the United States. She makes some good observations, likening our highway and interstate systems that would not be in place if the government had not been a part of the project to the government's need to be more involved in ensuring and improving the infrastructure of high speed internet services in the US. The difficulty is that mega-corporations, such as Comcast, that provide internet and cable have little financial incentive to invest in improved internet. These mega-corporations operate in direct opposition with some sites on the internet, including Youtube and Netflix. Internet service providers/cable TV companies like Comcast make the connection to these internet sites slow as way to make sure subscribers will not cancel cable to watch online content instead. "Author: When It Comes To High-Speed Internet, U.S. 'Falling Way Behind'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

The FCC has ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Comcast and Verizon, are permitted to charge internet companies (Netflix and Youtube, for example) a fee to enable high-speeds for their users. The FCC has determined it is legal for an ISP to determine the amount of bandwidth given to websites. The implication to this ruling is that these websites will be forced to pay additional fees to ISPs in order for their websites to have continued or improved streaming speeds. Unfortunately for consumers of the Internet (i.e. everyone on earth), the costs websites pay for improved bandwidth will be passed on to them. The FCC's ruling gives mega-corporations the ability to censor, control and influence the Internet. The open Internet as we know it is dead. Net neutrality is dead. Wyatt, Edward. "In Policy Shift, F.C.C. Will Allow a Web Fast Lane." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

The new science of social networks is demonstrating how personal interconnections can affect our health. Ideas and habits that influence health for better or for worse can spread through social networks in much the same way that germs spread through communities. Komaroff, Anthony. "Social networks can affect weight, happiness." Harvard Medical School. December 16, 2011.

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

Michael Wesch delivers a powerful message regarding how we educate ourselves in the classroom. Wesch uses several examples of the psychology of learning in the modern world and how we can take steps to correct the outdated patterns of teaching. His critique of higher education is on point and easily understood. His biggest message is that we need to consider alternative learning environments that utilize new media in ways we have not yet seen. We should challenge the notion that critical thinking is the linchpin of education, and look to enhance and augment how we learn.

"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

An echo of early net.art initiatives, the contemporary INC was established in Amsterdam in 2004, in effort to extend research "to design, activism, art, philosophy, political theory and urban studies and [it] is not confined to the Internet alone...the INC maintains that the Internet can only be understood at the conjuncture of these various fields and lines of inquiry." This site is an amazing resource for research and reflection on new and emergent network cultures. The politics of search engines, Wikipedia, social networks, bitcoin, Internet of Things, Gaming and more! The ongoing conferences are backed with anthologies of related essays, most made available for free download on their site. Institute of Network Cultures "Publications" n.d. accessed April 25, 2014. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/