From personal experience, I prefer carrying all things with me when I go for a short business trip… (Global Nomad Experiment) I would not want to loose my business suit if I am going to a conference and even if I can track my missing suitcase with embedded RFID technology. Yet I would not care less about loosing my business suit if I could rent one at my hotel. Business models already exist for people to rent tuxedos, or furniture, and pushchair or all other material one need for his/her baby (Petits Nomades). So why owning an item that you only use occasionally (the business suit may not be the best example… but… losing a suitcase, or its arrival being delayed is rather frequent)? Why carrying with you encumbering items that you only need for a short period of time? This brings into mind the notion of ownership (... and frugality, concept I am currently developing). If neo-nomads move constantly, do they actually need to own (in the old sense) spaces and objects? “Shall we buy or rent?” is a question currently debated by the City on The Move. However this is some food for thoughts: the manifesto of the IS—not the Internationale Situationiste, but the Internationale Squattiste—claims for investing creatively, and for the purpose of creation—spaces that are temporarily not in use. Yet, why is the need to stick to an address, and why not move from empty lots to empty lots? That is a question I shall further develop…

Thank you to Eléonore and Kostas for your contribution!

Who said that nothing was happening in Cambridge, MA? Keep track of events at art interactive! and by the way, check the collision collective...

Few notes on the discussion on SENTIENT architecture (Interactive Architecture event held January 17, 2006):
The event was about proposing "possible futures" for architecture (Jeffrey Huang)!
Brian Knep: his art pieces are aware of who is in front of it; this involves a direct interaction + indirect interaction as people are essential part of the work
To check, Pattie Maes' Ambient Artificial Group projects at the MIT Media Lab, and especially the On the Move Interaction with Everyday Objects, a project on augmented objects using RFID tags; as you hold an object, your cell phone displays extra information through bracelet reader
Muriel Waldvogel, Principal, Convergeo: "sentient = a space private or public that can feel your presence"
Antoine Picon, Professor of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design: A. Picon mentioned the architect Cedric Price who already designed a house that could detect mood, even sometimes the architecture would react against the users... This, he says, gives space to chance, and the unpredictable, which is a concept even more interesting to explore today. "Space is a projection of the self... What happens when it starts reacting [different than responding] to us?"

Held January 19, 2006
In the jury with Kostas Terzidis, Associate Professor of architecture (this Kinetic class) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Sotirios Kotsopoulos, Assistant Professor at the Boston Architectural Center:








Pictures by Jie-Eun, Teaching Fellow of the class

Sympa :) Check les Brèves Chronos, Thema Chronos N°104:

"Yasmine Abbas est une drôle de gazelle : "My body is a hypertext", affirme l’architecte depuis son blog bostonien. "My body is a url", ajoute-t-elle. Nous ne sommes pas encore dans l’internet des objets, qu’elle est déjà dans l’internet des corps ! mais les opérateurs sont déjà sur ce terrain : Microsoft a déposé l'année dernière un brevet pour transmettre l'information à même la peau."

Mais bien entendu, il faut tout lire:

1. Trois femmes nomades
2. L'opérateur et l'interrupteur
3. Trois hypothèses pour l’extension de soi
4. "My body is a URL"
5. Digital Native, une net amélioration
6. Vêtements communicants & autres interfaces
7. Wearable Communications
8. Des lunettes pour entendre
9. Interfaces
10. Mon extension personnelle
11. Customisation
12. Le numérique comme 6e sens

Dezineo c'est:
• L'observation des styles de vie et des comportements émergents
• L'analyse des attentes des consommateurs
• Un décryptage des tendances socioculturelles et marketing
• L'étude de leur impact dans des applications actuelles ou futures de tous les secteurs d'activité.

Dommage... L'abonnement est cher! La newsletter (gratuite) nous met l'eau à la bouche avec des titres comme: La vie des choses - repenser l'éphémère, Le design hypersensoriel...

(copy/paste info)

Discussion on Sentient Architecture

Please join us for the first in a series of panels and informal discussions in conjunction with the 2005-06 Harvard residency of artist Brian Knep. This discussion is hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and presented in collaboration with Harvard's Office for the Arts and Department of Systems Biology, the co-sponsors of the residency.

Tuesday, January 17, 6-8 pm
Stubbins Room, George Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Refreshments will be served. Capacity is limited: Please reply to arts@fas.harvard.edu, subject line "Knep," to reserve your place.

Among the topics that we will explore:
1. How do computational systems, embedded into our surroundings, make the spaces more interactive, e.g., give them intelligence, history, sentience?
2. What happens when buildings become aware of the people who inhabit them: who the people are, where they are, what they are doing, where they come from?
3. How can buildings respond to this awareness, and reflect upon external environmental conditions such as weather, time and other flows?
4. How can buildings make people reflect upon how they interact with each other?

Presenters will include:
Moderator: Jeffrey Huang, Associate Professor of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Brian Knep, Artist in Residence, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, and Office for the Arts at Harvard
Pattie Maes, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Laboratory
Antoine Picon, Professor of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Masamichi Udagawa, Principal, Antenna Design, NY
Muriel Waldvogel, Principal, Convergeo; Visiting Lecturer, Visual and Environmental Studies Department, Harvard University

The Brian Knep residency is sponsored in part by the Provost's Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration. For more information about Brian Knep and the residency, visit http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ofa/programs/artists/pubart.htm

My new handbag, a original creation by Zipik (tailored for me); Zipik is a Mexican designer!!! ©Zipik 2004

A creation by Zipik! ©Zipik 2004

Great name, brand and work! Check Final Home... "survival, protection, functionality and recycleability" or at least their collaboration projects.... like the Home Room which is, I quote, "A minimal room possible to use indoors and outdoors came from the concept of 'a home in a home'. If you put emergency goods and food in the pockets of its nylon cover and hide yourself inside, it becomes a protective shelter where you can protect yourself from falling objects and also live in safety for 2 or 3 days. If you take it camping, it becomes a tent or a mobile house, which protects from rainfall and wind. A work in collaboration with the IDÉE interior shop"

I knew their suit with a double layering of pokets that can be filled with newspapers (for insulation, in case you become homeless)... I almost got one!... This suit project and few others were also in display at the MoMA, SAFE exhibit...