Ianforrester

Art as artifacts of identity

Laura Sharpe my new girlfriend (yes I’m off the dating market now) made me this for a Christmas present. She was worried I wouldn’t like it but I think its flipping great. For me Back to the Future was the Starwars of the 80’s and is the definitive film of my generation and will always be. So very apt Laura picked it and what a great piece of Fan art to represent the greatest trilogy there has been? Honestly the only thing Laura could have done in addition, is added attribution to who ever’s work it is…

She really picked up on my drive to replace all my commercial art work with fan art.

I’ve been thinking for a long while about using FabLab for something but wasn’t sure what exactly. Well now I’m wondering if I could create more custom type things like this?

Up till now I’ve been mainly thinking about picture frames but maybe theres something more I could do? Always good to have someone to inspire you to think differently…

One of the projects I’m hoping to get off the ground is in the Creative Exchange cluster around making the digital Physical in a similar slant.

Transforming the digital space trapped inside screens and devices into physical experiences in the real world. In particular moving beyond the primarily visual experiences of flat screens towards ones that can engage all our senses so that the digital public space can also be felt, heard, tasted, smelt, or even worn. Drawing inspiration from research in areas such as: tangible and natural interfaces; perceptive and ambient media; augmented reality/virtuality; hacking and 3D printing the projects will explore how to create innovative prototypes that turn digital spaces into lived experiences.

Manchester remapped….

I do wonder how many Islington Wharf people walked pass the power lead going from block B reception into a usually closed door leading to the main retail unit? Well I didn’t and followed it through a number of doors and spaces before emerging into the main disused retail unit in Islington Wharf.

I found the Manchester remapping art/architecture project… Which was run by Manchester’s architecture college.

So if you not guessed the plan is to recreate most of the special buildings in manchester in plasticity and then start tweaking the shapes and forms. You can see media city below for example.

The students are doing this till Saturday. So if you want to go check it out for yourself you got a bit of time.

Get your turkey order in now

I know turkey is in huge demand over Christmas but this is just weird?

Thank you for placing your Christmas fresh poultry order with tesco.com. To ensure you receive everything that you’re expecting, please read through the information below: • Christmas fresh poultry is only available in deliveries between 20th and 24th December*. Please note that if you move your delivery outside these dates, you will lose your poultry order. • December 14th** is the final day for placing Christmas fresh poultry orders. You will no longer be able to add, remove or change these products in your shopping basket after this date. • Don’t forget that you can make amends and additions to the rest of your Christmas order until at least 11.45pm on the night before your delivery. If you do so, you will notice that the Christmas fresh poultry you have ordered will be marked with a message to say that you can no longer amend the quantity on the item. Please do not be worried by this – it is simply to show that your fresh poultry order is already in the system. Thank you for taking the time to read this message and we wish you a very Merry Christmas. Kind regards, Tesco Customer Service

If I don’t get my Turkey on the 23rd, expect a full twitter onslaught… 🙂

Perceptive Media in Wired UK’s Top Tech for 2013

Someone from the BBC’s Future Media PR pointed out to me that I was in the latest issue of Wired UK. The whole thing isn’t online yet but I’ve made a manual copy (thanks to Laura Sharpe for buying the ipad version on my behalf)… Till its up online

Advertising Displays, Television and consoles are hooking up with recognition software to second-guess our hidden desires. By Ed White

Televisions, computers and retail displays are increasingly watching us as much as we’re watching them. They are likely to be the catalyst for a shift from mass to personalised media. Broadcastsers, game developers and tech companies have long dreamt of knowing who’s watching, and then making content relevant to each viewer.

Cheap cameras and sensors are making “perceptive media” a reality. First was Microsoft, whose Xbox gaming peripheral Kinect, launched in 2010, has put a perceptive-media device into more that 18 million homes worldwide. By linking people to their Xbox Live identity using facial recognition, it has made the gaming experience more tailored. But perceptive media is wider than gaming. Over two years, Japan Railways’ East Japan Water Business has installed about 500 intelligent vending machines that recognise customers’ age and gender via sensors and suggest drinks accordingly. Intel’s Audience Impression Metrics suite (Aim) users data captured by cameras on displays in shops to suggest products. Kraft and Adidas are early adopters. The software will also monitor responses to improve brands’ marketing.

But the real winner will be the entertainment industry. Samsung and Lenovo announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show that their new TVs will recognise a viewer by using a camera incorporated into the set, and bring up their favourite programmes; Intel is working on a set-top box with similar capabilities. Face tracking software is also making our screens more intuitive. Japanese broadcaster NHK is experimenting with emotion-recongnition software which can suggest, say a more exciting TV show if it detects boredom. But where perceptive media gets really exciting is in using viewer data to change narratives in real time. US-based video game company Valve software is experimenting with biofeedback systems, measuring physiological signals such as heart rate and pupil dilation in players of Portal 2 and Alien Swarm. If the zombies aren’t making you sweat, the AI director can send in more. And television may follow, believes Ian Forrester senior producer at BBC R&D. Sensors in your TV would pick up who’s in the room and subtly change the programmes’s details, live: for example the soundtrack could be based on your Spotify favorites.

If that sounds Big Brother-ish, that’s because it is. Perceptive media’s biggest hurdle will be privacy. But advocates such as Daniel Stein, founder CEO of San Francisco based digital agency EVB, say that if brands can prove the value of data sharing, they’ll win people over. Here’s looking at you.

Ed White is a senior writer and consultant at contagious communications, a London-based marketing consultancy

BBC FM 2012 Christmas Party mix

Its the season for Christmas parties and the BBC is no different. Yesterday (Friday 8th) it was time for the BBC North Future Media Christmas party at the Deaf institute. To change things up we had a different DJ every 30mins. Of course the Dj’s were from the BBC Future Media (FM) staff.

I was 3rd from the end and threw down a mix of some dance right up to proper trance via some tech trance. Because I was doing this on the pacemaker device (seems a lot of people thought I was using my phone on stage) I was able to record the mix at the same time.

Hardly my best mixing or best choice of tunes but it was right for the time as the dj before was playing commercial house. I was in two minds about some of the tunes but by the end of the 30mins, I decided screw it, here comes the trance.

The playlist is short as you expect in 30mins…

Watch Out (Dirty South Remix) By Ferry Corsten
Shifter By Timo Maas
Shnokel By Miki Litvak & Ido Ophir
Café Del Mar (Marco V Remix) By Energy 52
Out Of The Blue 2012 By System F
Uncommon World By Bryan Kearney
Ecstasy By Eddie Makabi Feat. Einat

Bbcfm2012xmas-partymix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Goodbye IT Conversations…

IT Conversations has ceased producing podcats

Since it’s inception, IT Conversations has published over 3300 audio programs. After ten years of operation and six years with me at the helm, all that is coming to an end. Those of us involved in the day-to-day operation and management of the site have decided that IT Conversations has run its course. We will continue to publish shows until around December 1, 2012. We’re going to get the very best of what’s left in the queue out the door before we turn out the lights. You can read Doug Kaye’s announcement and more of my thoughts.

Our goal has always been to publish good, quality shows that will stand the test of time and we’ve always envisioned them being around for a long time. I’m happy to report that the shows we’ve published will continue to be available through an agreement with the Internet Archive. We appreciate your support over the years.

Its a sad day and its fitting for IT conversations to go out with a podcast.

When Doug Kaye created IT Conversations in 2003, most people didn’t know what a podcast was and why they should care. Yet the idea spread and today, all kinds of people and organizations regularly release content to people throughout the world. Doug joins Phil Windley to bid farewell to the Conversations Network. They discuss the background of why Doug chose to be a podcast pioneer and how the network helped revolutionize a new way to distribute interesting content.

ITC and the conversation network was simply amazing and I even got a interview from Jon Udell in the past on to the network along with a early Thinking Digital session.

It will be a shame to see it go and passing all the media on to archive.org makes so much sense, you couldn’t have wished for a better solution. If only all sites would consider something like this when shutting down… I even considered joining Team ITC at one point way back when I was working for the BBC WorldService in 2004. Not for the money, but just because I wanted to help as I was getting so much out of each and every podcast. On top of that, ITC model was what I recommended the BBC should do way back in the early days of BBC podcasts.

Recently I have to say I’ve not listened to a ITC podcast for a while and when I did I tended to skip through it as it was usually not so interesting. I use to spend Sunday evenings listening to them in one go while reading and blogging that got replaced with TED talks. But its worth mentioning ITC bringing PopTech to my brain for the first time. Way before TED had even consider videos, PopTech was making there recordings available via ITC and frankly I was blown away. It might be why I still have a love for PopTech deep down.

IT Conversations brought all these great things to me and anyone who wanted to subscribe or listen.

DougKaye I have nothing but joy and respect for what you created and your decision to stop it and transfer the media. Total respect for everything you’ve done over years… And thanks for feeding my mind with the best of the best. Don’t know how you did it but so glad you did! I know you inspired many of us including the likes of Leo Laporte of the Twit network. You were an inspiration to many… You can hold your head up high forever more…

Parody videos – the start of a remix

Hugh pointed at the importance of parody videos as the start of an important conversation.

I was speaking to a group of students at Salford University earlier this month about the cultural value of parody videos. Even the terrible ones. I made the arguement that the really terrible ones may be more important than the really good ones.

Let me explain.

As I pointed out yesterday most people are waiting for permission to make their moves. As social creatures we take our cues from those around us. We are a nation that needs nudging. We like to copy. Mark Earl talks about this in his book ‘I’ll Have What She’s Having‘.

I explained to the students that for every terrible parody video on Youtube there will be hundreds of super talented viewers saying to themselves “I can do better than that”. The terrible parody video is what it took to kickstart their creative career.

He’s right…

Growing up in cultural revolution of Acid, House and Rave. Not only were these forms of music demonised by the mainstream (can never forgive BBC Radio 1 for not playing Rave music). They claimed there was no talent involved and it was simply pressing buttons.

This may have been true in some cases but frankly it inspired a whole generation of other people to give it a try and write their own tunes. Some of them were successful and others just had fun.

So no matter how much I hate the gangnam style stupid dance. Hopefully it will encourage others to do there own thing instead of just jumping on the bandwagon.

The remix is one of the most important trends we have and it does fit with hugh’s people are waiting for permission too.

Travels with pacemaker is back…

The firmware update test mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Really good to know the pacemaker device (as its now called to make the difference from the pacemaker app) is back! For quite a while, the only way I could record mixes a level of reliability was to record the output on an external device like my computer. This problem only really started when I upgraded the pacemaker device to the new found firmware which was found in the wild. It wasn’t official and now looking back was the cause for all my on device recording woes. Yes hindsight is always 20/20!

This mix seems to confirm the new official firmware has not only new features but has fixed the recording problem. Meaning I can record while on my travels. Great news for Trance fans…

Dara has the right idea

Ok its not exactly #perceptivemedia but its certainly got elements of perceptive media… Trying to remember who posted it to me? Maybe I’ll add credit later, for now Dara can take the credit.

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