http://www.radicalcartography.net/
Brendan Walker as Thrill Engineer at This Happened
http://www.aerial.fm/docs/home.php
Brendan calls himself a thrill researcher and engineer, and his design practice Aerial is "specialising in the creation of tailored emotional experience". This might sound a bit like standard lingo at first, but they actually mean it, since they're not looking at aesthetic pleasure from glitzy bathrooms or glossy interfaces, they're talking death-defying experiences, screams and cold sweat. This is an interesting subject for design since we are living in a time where often the emotional aspects of an object can be as important as the item itself, with people attributing cuteness to robots and such.
(from http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/biometric/)
Relevance: Walker combines art, design, engineering, and psychology, with such biometric tool as specifically Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) to create and understand emotional experiences. His practice is interdisciplinary and manifest as large installations, machinery, performances for the art/cultural and commercial audiences.
Biometrics, the body identity: new exhibition at the Cite des telecoms
http://www.francetelecom.com/en_EN/group/latest_news/cite-telecoms.jsp
"Biometrics represents the series of IT techniques used to automatically identify a person based on his physical characteristics: fingerprints, face, iris, DNA, etc.
The development of biometrics is being driven by technological innovations as well as comfort and security requirements. But is it promising us a safer and more practical world or a world where suspicion rhymes with surveillance? Everything depends on how it is used and what legal and technical precautions are taken in this area."
Relevance: Used for surveillance, identification, profiling... biometrics is a controversial 'tool' that aid in the identification of individuals using physiological and behavioral characteristics. For Biomapping, our intention is to repurpose biometrics and use its ability to visualize the corporeal as a way to create a new strain of dialogue with the body. By asking what are the socio-political implications of biometrics are, Biomapping will engage critically, to force the question of how can this tool be used to produce agency?
News Knitter
http://www.casualdata.com/newsknitter/
News Knitter is a data visualization project which focuses on knitted garments as an alternative medium to visualize large scale data.
It has been created by Ebru Kurbak, MSc, PhD Candidate, Kunstuniversitaet Linz, Space & Design Strategies and Mahir M. Yavuz, MFA PhD Candidate, Kunstuniversitaet Linz, Interface Cultures.
The production of knitted garments is a highly complex process which involves computer support at various steps starting with the designs of both the fabric and the shape of garments until they are ready-to-wear. In recent years, technical innovations in machine knitting have especially focused on the patterning facilities. The patterns are designed by individuals generally depending on the current trends of fashion and the intended target markets and multiplied through mass production. News Knitter translates this individual design process into a world-wide collaboration by utilizing live data streams as a base for pattern generation. Due to the dynamic nature of live data streams, the system generates patterns with unpredictable visuality.
News Knitter converts information gathered from the daily political news into clothing. Live news feed from the Internet that is broadcasted within 24 hours or a particular period is analyzed, filtered and converted into a unique visual pattern for a knitted sweater. The system consists of two different types of software: whereas one receives the content from live feeds the other converts it into visual patterns, and a fully computerized flat knitting machine produces the final output. Each product, sweater of News Knitter is an evidence/result of a specific day or period.
(from http://www.casualdata.com/newsknitter/)
Relevance: News Knitter is of interest to Biomapping for how it can potentially engage the body with large amounts of data. What is especially dynamic about News Knitter is how the information gathered is then visualized, processed and put back onto a garment that can be worn. It returns the information back to the body, perhaps as more abstract, but potentially more engaging, clear, dynamic.
BioMapping by Christian Nold
http://www.biomapping.net/
http://www.softhook.com/
http://emotionalcartography.net/
Christian Nold is an artist, designer and educator working to develop new participatory models for communal representation.
Bio Mapping is a research project which explores new ways that we as individuals can make use of the information we can gather about our own bodies. Instead of security technologies that are designed to control our behaviour, this project envisages new tools that allows people to selectively share and interpret their own bio data.
The Bio Mapping tool allows the wearer to record their Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is a simple indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. This can be used to plot a map that highlights point of high and low arousal. By sharing this data we can construct maps that visualize where we as a community feel stressed and excited.
How will our perceptions of our community and environment change when we become aware of our own and each others intimate body states?
(from http://www.softhook.com/bio.htm)
Emotional Cartography- technologies of the self
"Emotional Cartography is a collection of essays from artists, designers, psychogeographers, cultural researchers, futurologists and neuroscientists, brought together by Christian Nold, to explore the political, social and cultural implications of visualising intimate biometric data and emotional experiences using technology."
