The Imagination Age

A Short Film Celebrating the Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher

2012-02-29T17:02:00.001-05:00

INSPIRATIONS from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

The beautiful art of M.C. Escher and its mathematical significance.

#SayYesKatie

2012-02-29T12:02:00.006-05:00

So I just noticed that a guy I follow on Twitter, @LenKendall, posted the tweet you see pictured here.

When I see the words "stay calm," in a tweet it makes me click over to the other person (In this case, @hollandersauce) to see what they're tweeting about. If Katie Holland knows that her boyfriend Len has proposed via BuzzFeed in "Help Me Convince Katie to Say Yes," then as of the time of this writing she has not yet let on.

This meme is either the ultimate in nerd romance or an alarming new dimension in mass scale pressure to "convince" someone to commit her existence to another human being. In his Twitter bio, Len says that the internet is his box of Lego blocks. He's using it to build his real life, which I admire, even if I'm a little worried for a total stranger named Katie Hollander right now.

Time will tell when Katie herself chimes in on the #SayYesKatie thread. I hope she makes the right decision, whatever it may be!

The Fantastic Pen and Ink Art of Mr. Mead.

2012-02-25T20:57:00.002-05:00

Mr Meads Captain James McWolfson. from tom mead on Vimeo.

UK Artist Mr. Mead is my new favorite discovery. His pen-and-ink drawings blend anthropomorphized animalia with a post-apocalyptic sensibility. The above video documents his artistic process creating the art for Captain James McWolfson, which is intriguing in scale and inspiring in beauty.

Mr. Mead sells limited edition prints on his website. In fact, I just bought one. Can you guess which one?

One of his intriguing creations is a re-imagined deck of cards, screenshot below.

Via @Zouchmagazine

Qui Sont Les Josettes Noires?

2012-02-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Marcia Baila qui dépote à Lyon - Janvier 2010 by lesjosettesnoires

For your post-Carnaval, post-Mardi Gras day, we offer you France's "Le Josettes Noires!"

Rare 1968 Radio Interview with Carlos Castaneda

2012-02-19T21:53:00.001-05:00

Here is a rare, edited 1968 radio interview with author and anthropologist Carlos Castaneda shortly after the release of his first book, "The Teachings of Don Juan." The interview is particularly interesting in that it was given before Castaneda was catapulted into best-seller stardom and launched his career as one of the pre-eminent spiritual authors of the late 20th Century.

Beautiful Mash-Up Music Video of Found Sounds

2012-02-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

This 2006 video by UK collaborative Coldcut and Hexstatic, of audio and video footage of mechanical objects like saws, stitched together into a techno-electronic wall of sound, is credited, in some ways, setting the standard for found audio/video mash-ups.
Via @neb

"No Ordinary Genius," BBC Documentary About Richard Feynman Now Free Online

2012-02-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

The BBC's sublime 1993 documentary about renown physicist Richard Feynman is now online in its entirety.
Among the many insights of the film are Feynman's fascination with the intersection (and contrast) of art and physics. And his effort to understand it by becoming a portrait artist. Be sure and watch to the end for historic clips of Feyman's public hearing investigation into the failure of the Shuttle Challenger.
"The game I play," says Feynman, "is Imagination with very strict limits."
The bittersweet ending about his own reflections on his impending death after a diagnosis of cancer, are poignant and moving.
Via @Brainpicker.
As a bonus. Here is Feynman from the same archival footage, discussing his philosophy on God.

"Stunning New 3-D Moon Map Made From Lunar Data"

2012-02-10T22:21:00.001-05:00

Wired.com's Dave Mosher has written about a new Kickstarter project to create a 3D version of the moon using new NASA data.

[Wired: "Stunning New 3-D Moon Map Made From Lunar Data" ]

Hoon Chung's experimental 3D printed heels

2012-02-09T23:46:00.003-05:00

We can print shoes now! Hallelujah! HC1 are my favorites.

Thanks, @scimomof2!

Needing/Getting

2012-02-05T18:20:00.001-05:00

Another spectacular video from OKGO.

Some robots in your not-so-distant tomorrow

2012-02-04T23:21:00.002-05:00

Students at the University of Pennsylvania have developed flying nano-robot helicopters that can fly in formation.

Take a few moments to contemplate the possibilities.

Paulo Coelho on how he balances Twitter and Writing

2012-02-01T15:39:00.000-05:00

Documented@Davos: Paulo Coehlo, Author from Michelle Laird on Vimeo.

Brazilian Lyricist and Novelist Paulo Coelho was recently interviewed by The New York Times while in Davos. The interview is a real gem. Coelho discusses his thoughts on the future of the publishing industry (books aren't dead but the publishing industry is adrift); why he loves ebooks (they're lighter -- he's reading a 1,000 page tome on his kindle); Why he loves his kindle more than his iPad; and finally, how he writes, why he loves Twitter, his and how he manages his Twitter interactions with his 3 million followers while still being a productive writer.

It's a rich little vignette of an interview.

Today in 1990: the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens

2012-01-31T22:52:00.000-05:00

Matt Novak, aka @Paleofuture just tweeted that today, well, today, January 31, 1990 was the day that McDonald's first opened its doors in the then-Soviet Union, now Russia.

As novel as that thought was, even more interesting is Arizona State University graduate student and attorney John Carter McKnight's flickr feed of his 1989 attendance of the USSR's first rock festival.

Put on your time travel uniforms and enjoy.

[The Soviet Union in 1988-1989 by John Carter McKnight]

Artist of Note: Chile's Fab Ciraolo

2012-01-31T22:20:00.000-05:00

The hot new artist of the season and the planet is sure to be Santiago, Chile-based Fab Ciraolo. Fab Ciraolo takes past-tense, seminal modern artists, performers, actors, musicians, et al (such as Frida Kahlo above, Salvador Dali and others) and mashes them up with contemporary artists. The above piece, showing Frida Kahlo wearing a Daft Punk t-shirt is a great example.

Whether or not you think Frida would actually wear a Daft Punk t-shirt today, is beside the point.

This guy is good. And his art will soon be for sale online, Fab told us via Twitter. His new website will launch at the end of February..

Chilean artist, Fab Ciraolo.

Beautiful Timelapse Video of São Paulo

2012-01-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

#SP458 Timelapses from Julio Brunet Rocha on Vimeo.

It's one of the most populated cities in Brazil with some of the worst possible traffic you can imagine. To wit, on a recent trip to Brazil, it took Rita J. King and me three hours to travel 30 kilometers (approximately 18 miles). But in this video you will witness at least part of the reason why São Paulo is considered the de facto capital of South America.

Via @lianamachado

Fibonacci Mathematical Theory Used to Disprove Spongebob's "Pineapple Under the Sea"

2012-01-24T18:34:00.000-05:00

This video warms my heart in ways I really can't, uh, quantify.

Khan Academy mathmusician, Vi Hart, has merged the beauty of the popular RSA animate style hand drawn stories, with the joys of Fibonacci's mathematical theorems, with the pleasure of one of the world's most insanely popular cartoon programs.

Via Audrey Watters.

Transport: A New Noir Short by Noah Kalina and Reggie Watts

2012-01-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

TRANSPORT from Noah Kalina on Vimeo.

Reggie Watts and Noah Kalina have released a new short film meditating on time called TRANSPORT. It's lush, noir and worth every minute you spend with it.

Beards are Forever

2012-01-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

Lest we forget, beards are now! To be sure, they've been trending for a few years, but this short film pretty much demonstrates for us the apex of the latest iteration of the movement. For more studies on the joy of beards see Kristina Weise's hirsute "Build-a-Beard."

How Well Did Stanley Kubrick Predict How Dave Bowman from 2001 Would Age?

2012-01-21T15:18:00.000-05:00

While in a conversation with Rita J. King about the scientific underpinnings of reality and Quantum Physics, I got to thinking about the prescience of Arthur C. Clarke's book 2001 and some of the more fundamental theories he was exploring in the fabric of existence.

Stanley Kubrick's re-telling of the story through film created an indelible associative list of images in my mind that have forever stayed there, such as when Dave Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) visits a version of himself in his 70s or 80s.

That got me thinking that this year, 2012, is forty-five years after the filming of the 2001, which was released in 1968. Keir Dullea, who was 30 when he played the role of Astronaut Dave Bowman is now about the age of the film aged him to.

So how did they do?

Clay Shirky on the Long War on SOPA

2012-01-20T15:26:00.001-05:00

After you've watched the above video from the Khan Academy explaining in simple and clear terms what SOPA and PIPA, are take another five minutes out of your day and read this important blogpost by Clay Shirky responding to David Pogue's recent assessment of the current political rhetoric surrounding SOPA.An important excerpt:

We should delight in the stand we’ve taken in favor of things like, say, notifications, and trials, and proof before censoring someone, but we should get ready to do it again next year, and the year after that. The risk now is not that SOPA will pass. The risk is that we’ll think we’ve won. We haven’t; they’ll be back. Get ready to have this fight again.

[Clay Shirky: "Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood"]

What Kids Want From Robots

2012-01-19T16:41:00.001-05:00

According to PopSci, kids want friendship and help with their homework from robots.

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

2012-01-18T01:04:00.004-05:00

The protest against #SOPA and #PIPA has begun. Wikipedia blacks out--but just a second after you see a enough of a teasing glimpse of what you came for to remind you what life would be like without it.

Wikipedia is offering access to some information, however--about SOPA and PIPA.

Computing: The Human Experience

2011-12-27T17:53:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Grady Booch for sailing past the Kickstarter deadline and raising $25,000 to support his transmedia project, Computing: The Human Experience!

Along with his wife Jan and dedicated group of supporters, Grady has been working hard on this compelling project. There are only a few short days left to support them at the onset. If you do, you'll be in great company with people committed to exploring the human side of computing. This is one of the most important issues of the Imagination Age, and Grady is one of the leaders who can help us understand the implications of our own creations.

Rita J. King on "Robot Wars" the latest episode of Al Jazeera's Faultlines

2011-12-26T19:02:00.002-05:00

Rita J. King speaks on "Robot Wars" the latest episode of Al Jazeera's Faultlines.
Rita J. King, Science House EVP for Business Development (and Futurist at NASA Langley's think tank, the National Institute for Aerospace) appears on "Robot Wars," the most recent episode of Faultlines, Al Jazeera's documentary series focusing on behind-the-scenes issues of our time hosted by investigative journalist Josh Rushing. King appears along with PW Singer, author of "Wired for War" and Spencer Ackerman from Wired's "Danger Room" blog.
Rita discusses the less-understood issues of the increasing ubiquity of robots among humans and in the military industrial complex.
"The accelerated pace of development," Rita says, "is such that it is inevitable that we are going to create machines capable of doing things that we cannot conceive of them doing."Watch the entire episode of "Robot Wars" on Al Jazeera's Faultlines.

Rare 1979 Interview with Philip K. Dick

2011-12-02T20:29:00.001-05:00

Rudy Rucker surfaces this amazing interview by Science Fiction author Charles Platt with The Original Philip Kindred Dick. Certainly merits one of my favorite adjectives, "sybaritic."

The interview is deliciously candid, describing his early days working in a retail store as a television repairman in Berkeley and how peculiar his co-workers found him for reading books. At times he drifts off reflecting on how absurd the normal people were and how they informed his books. He also describes how rebellious he was in university, refusing to follow the rules of his ROTC course, for example. He notes that the rebellion was not so much an opposition to war as it was an inability to interact with the devices and understand what people were telling him to do, such as assembling his M-1 Rifle.

Possibly the most visceral part of the interview was when he describes what first informed his novels: In high school geometry class when he realized it was likely that his teacher was, in fact, a robot.

"The greatest threat to humanity in the 20th Century is totalitarian movements."

The last 30 minutes are possibly the most powerful, wherein Dick discusses his occupation by what he perceived to be a female entity who helped to shape his last book VALIS. At one point he mentions that he didn't discuss this with anyone other than his priest. But that he had tried to reach out to Ursula K. LeGuin who thought he was crazy.

It's two hours of your life you'll be glad you spent listening to this.

[Charles Platt interviews Philip K. Dick, 1979]

Amazing Nokia Phone 3D Projection on Building

2011-11-29T17:29:00.001-05:00

In a recent release for a new phone, and an effort to compete with the increasing popularity of iPhones and iPads, Nokia projected a striking event on a London building. As Ian Hughes says, "This on building projection is getting really popular and is really a giant augmented reality application that requires no headsets. Projecting onto the real world in any form makes it a good shared experience and the project technology is precise enough now to allow for the surfaces of building to be taken into account.According to the youtube information “Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure”"[Feeding Edge: Nokia Lumia – Massive 3d projection]

Bre Pettis & Kio Stark Ask the Internets for Hats and Get ...

2011-11-28T22:44:00.001-05:00

When Kio Stark gave birth to her new baby, her partner Bre Pettis put out a call to the Internets for cool hats for their newborn. Look what they got!Check out the annotated version on Flickr.

Garden of Cosmic Speculation: Designed by Scientific Phenomena

2011-11-24T21:50:00.001-05:00

@PamMoran points us to this amazing article and collection of images about Scotland's "Garden of Cosmic Speculation."

The garden is in Dumfries in South West Scotland. According to Wikipedia "The garden is inspired by science and mathematics, with sculptures and landscaping on these themes, such as Black Holes and Fractals. The garden is not abundant with plants, but sets mathematical formulae and scientific phenomenae in a setting which elegantly combines natural features and artificial symmetry and curves. It is probably unique among gardens, and contrasts nicely with the historical and philosophical themes of the less spectacular but equally thoughtful Little Sparta."

[Design.org "A Garden of Cosmic Speculation: Where Science Meets Landscape Sculpture"]

Beautiful Animation of Brahms Concerto

2011-11-24T19:43:00.001-05:00

Beautiful music animation by music animation artist Stephen Manlinowski.[The music animation works of Stephen Malinowski]

Science House and the Imagination Age in Brazil

2011-11-22T11:15:00.005-05:00

Josh and I went to the National Biosciences Lab in Brazil this past week to discuss Science House and the Imagination Age. Let's just say they built their own particle accelerator on the site, and that's just the beginning...

"The Orphan" a Memorial by Steve Silberman

2011-11-13T19:01:00.001-05:00

Steve Silberman, science writer and veteran online journalist, has written a lush and visceral portrait of the death of his father that should be required reading for all.

[Orphans]

Beautiful Folding Chair Made from Single Piece of Cardboard

2011-11-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

A folding cardboard chair and desk. One sheet, no cuts.

I love innovations like this.

Via @JohnMaeda

Leonard Susskind on The World As Hologram

2011-11-07T18:14:00.000-05:00

Ever since I attended the World Science Festival this summer in which I heard Saul Perlmutter -- who would a few months later win the 2011 Nobel Prize for physics -- speak on a panel, I have been struck by the fact that he along with another group of high level physicists explained Saul's discovery that the expansion of our universe is inconsistent with Eintein's theory by saying that we must be living in a hologram.

Wow. I thought. Oh. Wow.

Since then I've been trying to learn more about how a group of reality- and logic- and empirical-data-grounded mathematicians and physicists could make such an assertion.Enter Leonard Susskind the renowned theoretical physicist at Stanford University speaking about the possibility that the world -- that is the earth as we know it -- is a Hologram.

Enjoy.

Via @Capnmarrrrk

Beautiful Elephant & Castle Remix

2011-11-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

Elephant and Castle mix - Xfm 29/10/11 by Mary Anne Hobbs on Mixcloud

Warren Ellis, broadly recognized as the Lord of the Internet, just expanded my world, as he is wont to do, with the above remix of an amazingly, delightful listen on MixCloud, a site for music mash-ups.

Meghalaya's "Living Bridge": Sustainable Living Architecture

2011-11-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

India's Meghalaya state region has a cultural tradition based on adapting and surviving in a radical environment: They train the roots of trees to grow into sustainable bridges that will adapt and grow over 500 years to create natural traverses for humans and will survive the torrential rains common in the region. via @pheezy

Spent: A sobering game about being broke

2011-11-05T18:58:00.000-04:00

"14 million Americans are unemployed" the game begins telling you, words quivering against the backdrop of a spiraling void. The somber colors and subtle movements well-evoke feeling that emulates the hopelessness of an out-of-work person can feel, desperate for a path out of debt. If you choose to enter the game you are presented with three job options: Minimum wage restaurant worker; factory worker; or Office temp. The office temp requires you to pass an actual typing speed test. Fail that and you are back on the street. Or you can get a job in a factory ... Easy enough until you have to decide whether to buy health insurance, which could take a third of your salary.This is a beautifully-designed game about the real challenges of finding work when you are on the edge.[Play "Spent"]Via @savasavasava

New Genki Sudo!

2011-10-27T00:48:00.001-04:00

What is this? A beautifully choreographed music video from Japan. Take a few minutes out of your day to take it in. Enjoy.Via @neb

The Sound of Fear

2011-10-21T07:10:00.000-04:00

Check out this chilling exploration by the BBC's Sean Street of what makes sounds chilling to us.

[BBC 4: The Sound of Fear]

via @aleksk

"Do Easy"

2011-10-20T15:27:00.003-04:00

In these complicated times of information and technology overload. We could all benefit from the words and philosophy of William S. Burroughs as captured in this 1982 Gus Van Sant short, "Do Easy."

Via @KatelanFoisy

Base, Interstitial Images of Russia by Vadim Savrayev

2011-10-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

EnglishRussia Magazine has posted a series of visceral images of Russia by photographer Vadim Savrayev. Described as images of moments that are "rarely noticed" it's almost more of a window into Russian culture that may never be seen by people who have never been there. The images are poignant, base, sober and touching.

[EnglishRussia: Moments That Are Rarely Noticed]

Via @sofia_henriques

Love and Life

2011-10-19T18:22:00.003-04:00

A couple died together after 72 years of happy marriage holding hands, and when the husband died first, doctors detected a heartbeat anyway because they were holding hands and it was her heart that came up on the monitor.

And then right after I saw that, I saw @brainpicker posting on A Sky Full of Kindness (illustration, above, available on Etsy).

2011-10-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

If you spend one minute and 56 seconds of your day watching this video from the recent Assocation of Science & Technology Centers summit, it will be time well spent. This project developed by Tel-Aviv University demos quantum superconductors locked in a magnetic field. You can find more information at QuantumLevitation.com.

Lest you have any confusion, the future is now.

Via @ScienceCenters

Blog of Note: The Serendipity Engine

2011-10-19T09:15:00.000-04:00

Image credit: Aleks Krotoski. The creation of the Serendipity Engine.

Readers should drop what they are doing right now and check out the collaborative new project by researchers Aleks Krotoski and Kat Jungnickel called "The Serendipity Engine". What is it? In their own words: "The Serendipity Engine is a physical manifestation of theoretical and technological interventions that can be used to enhance serendipity on the World Wide Web. It is a working machine that uses bike parts, flower pots, cake, pulleys, lightbulbs and other concrete objects to articulate the processes that could be translated into digital “solutions” that will re-engineer the potential dystopian social trajectories of current (social) software trends*." The site is in its early stages but already has delivered some heady, intellectual stuff that is well worth a read. In a recent post, for example, they look at the 1958 Guy Debord concept of "Dérive"

In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.But the dérive includes both this letting-go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities. In this latter regard, ecological science, despite the narrow social space to which it limits itself, provides psychogeography with abundant data.

[Bookmark: "The Serendipity Engine"]

Hoping you're very happy out there, @MacTonnies

2011-10-18T18:28:00.002-04:00

A screenshot of @MacTonnies penultimate Tweet to @RitaJKing before dying.

Two years ago today the Internet lost Mr. Mac Tonnies.

Read some earlier posts on this blog remembering Mac Tonnies.

Also see:
The Atlantic: Finding Time, A Response to Rob Walker's Cyberspace When You're Dead.
NYT: Cyberspace when you're dead
A Digital Memorial for a True Transhumanist, by Rita J. King
My First Digital Death, by Rita J. King
What Sparks My Imagination, by Mac Tonnies

Cycling Cultures: Why Cycling Thrives in Some UK Cities

2011-10-18T17:55:00.000-04:00

Just discovered Cycling Cultures a fascinating research project by UK-based sociologist Kat Jungnickel examining why cycling thrives in certain UK cities. Her project examines four UK regions Hull, Hackney, Bristol and Cambridge, with accompanying blogs for each region. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. From the site: "Cycling Cultures is a multi-method sociological research project that focuses on four relatively high-cycling cities in the UK in order to find out why cycling thrives in particular areas."[Cycling Cultures]

Infinite Perspectives: Places I'll Remember

2011-10-06T14:10:00.004-04:00

Imagine if maps could pop off the page like the terrain they represent? When cartographer Jeffrey Ambroziak had that thought as a kid, he solved the problem by working on an algorithm that creates an Infinite Perspective.

Science House is curating a spectacular exhibit at UNDERLINE Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibit of three-dimensional topographic maps, designed by renowned cartographer Jeffrey Ambroziak, is based on a revolutionary technique that yields true three-dimensional maps in spectacular detail.

The exhibit is a stunning new look at the world – from the mountains of Yosemite to the canyons of Mars. The geographical sequence of the maps follows Ambroziak’s personal travel history. His childhood, steeped in the mystery and allure of the haunting face of Mt. Ranier, for example. The exhibit even shares a lasting memory of the rippling terrain of another world. “Mars hangs in the night sky,” Ambroziak says, “enticing the earth bound viewer with the possibility of realizing childhood dreams.”

Infinite Perspectives opens on October 15.

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind

2011-10-04T21:43:00.001-04:00

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo.

Via Fembot Hedonism Review

Making Sense of Privacy and Identity in an Age of Ubiquitous Connectivity

2011-09-26T10:24:00.000-04:00

It Becomes Public from KS12 on Vimeo.

It becomes public is an interesting round-robin discussion hosted by British Council Berlin about the impact of the ubiquity of social media on identity, privacy and culture. Features some good quotes by Ben Hammersley, WIRED Editor at Large.

Xtranormal Musings on The Ben Bernanke

2011-09-25T13:55:00.001-04:00

This Xtranormal video by Omid Malekan is a such a brilliant take on the contradictions in the US economic policies and a fantastic use of Xtranormal's storytelling potential. Congratulations to Omid for spinning this into a regular gig with The New York Times. His latest, "I.P.O Blues" can be read in the Deal Book section.

New Blog Revisits One Man's Role in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-04:00

Image credit: Wikipedia.

Forty years ago, Gordon Slaven currently Director of Global Partnerships in New York City for the British Council was a young British activist volunteering to provide humanitarian aid in what was then Eastern Pakistan during what became known as the Bangladesh Liberation War.

What happened to him was traumatic and important. Slaven is spending the next few months recording what happened to him as he experienced it during the months of August through December 1971. It's a pretty engrossing read so far and and important reminder of not-so-distant history of the human race on this tiny blue planet.

[1971 Again]

An Artist's Wry Vision Statement

2011-09-03T02:07:00.000-04:00

UK-based artist Charlotte Young offers a possibly sardonic but also quite compelling artist's statement

2011-09-02T22:30:00.000-04:00

Leonardo At The Museum from Greg Tran on VimeoHypnotic and beautiful study of how augmented reality, virtual worlds and museum experiences might transform with the evolution of current technologies by artist Greg Tran.

Cynthia Von Buhler's "Speakeasy Dollhouse"

2011-09-02T02:52:00.002-04:00

Artist Cynthia Von Buhler has posted a Kickstarter project to top all Kickstarter projects. It's a mafia murder mystery dollhouse theatrical performance all in one. Watch the video and support it. This looks to be an historic art event.

Roguelike: A Brilliant New MMO Podcast

2011-09-01T06:34:00.000-04:00

Screengrab of "Rogue" on an IBM machine via Wikipedia.

@MarkWallace pointed us to a fascinating new podcast dedicated to reviewing games in the "roguelike" genre. In this week's episode, Darren Grey, Andrew Doull and Scott Edgar talk about the game Cardinal Quest. It's a great window into the culture of gamers. The intelligence and focus of these gamers-as-reviewers defies many assumptions about the level of complexity with which gamers approach games (i.e. as a passive experience versus an intellectually active one). Even if you're not a gamer, I think people will find this an insightful and informative episode.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia offers this description:

The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many monsters, items, and environmental features. Computer roguelikes usually employ the majority of the keyboard to facilitate interaction with items and the environment. The name of the genre comes from the 1980 game Rogue.

[Roguelike Reviews Cardinal Quest]

Cornell Finds Out What Happens When Two Robots Interact

2011-09-01T01:35:00.000-04:00

File this under: Early Childhood Education for robots.

via @HeatherKnight

Jibberland: Documentary about the Imaginary World of an Eight-Year-Old Girl

2011-08-30T20:54:00.006-04:00

Jibberland (2010) from Inês Machado on Vimeo.

Jibberland, a film by Portuguese documentarian Inês Machado is a touching documentary about the expansive imaginary world of eight-year-old American girl, Marie. The film, listens to Marie as she describes in detail the order, people and places of Jibberland, which is evocative of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince" in its ode to the infinite capacity of human imagination to provide us a world complete and integral with our own. And yet not.

Documentary about the Open Source, Creative Commons Revolution in Brazil

2011-08-27T20:03:00.000-04:00

Remixofagia - Alegorias de uma revolução from FLi Multimídia on Vimeo.

The above documentary in Portuguese with English sub-titles, tells the story of the one of Brazil's most recent and interesting cultural revolutions: It's election of a working class president who appointed a counter-culture rock star as its Ministry of Culture who implemented policies to make the country more open source. And then, notably, after he stepped down, the country retracted the policies.

Animation within Animation: 500 People in Israel in 100 Seconds

2011-08-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

Israeli artist Eran Amir has made a beautiful animation within an animation compiling still images of people throughout Israel holding a still image, creating an animation within an animation.

Via @coilhouse.

Film Imagines a Post-Economic-Collapse America Owned by China

2011-08-25T08:33:00.001-04:00

Here's a trailer for a new film called "Ghosts With Shit Jobs," which imagines a US after massive economic default, fully and completely owned by China in which Americans are doing odd jobs for China like hunting for silk and making robot babies.

Via Kate Sherrod.

[Ghosts with Shit Jobs]

The Conet Project's Haunting Shortwave "Number Station" Recordings

2011-08-24T00:39:00.001-04:00

"Shortwave" Image credit: Nate Steiner.

Kevin Slavin directed us to the "Conet Project," a site that follows, well, read for yourself:

The Conet Project is a wildly popular archive of recordings of what are commonly called Shortwave Numbers Stations. The general patterns which are described for these recordings have been adapted to a codebase which broadcasts them to @cr_conet.

The sounds are ghostly, cryptic, haunting and fodder for anyone with a hint of Orwellian paranoia. On the other hand, they might be seen as pieces of art contructed by a desperate audio editing engineer who secretly dreamed of crafting the most amazing Numbers Station recordings ever.

Just listen for yourself [click].

[Conet Project audio recordings]

Delicate and Nightmarish Polymer Clay Sculptures

2011-08-23T14:16:00.000-04:00

Seoul-based Korean artist Choi Xooang has crafted a haunting stylized, anthropomorphic and yet dissolute series of polymer clay sculptures that both evoke visceral emotions and dreamlike reverie.

[The art of seoul-based artist choi xooang]

kaleidoscope of the day

2011-08-23T01:16:00.003-04:00

Daphne Guinness.

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin -- Online!

2011-08-22T01:48:00.000-04:00

Cyborg Anthropologist Luca Toledo directs us to the Complete Works of Charles Darwin -- Online!

The Future of Work

2011-08-21T22:02:00.008-04:00

I was invited to give a talk at the Department of Labor last week in Washington, DC at the Future of Workforce Leadership event. Here's what I said:

(Image by James Jorasch)

It is my pleasure to be here today at The Future of Workforce Leadership. Thank you so much, Kristin and Vinz, for inviting me.

I should start off by saying, I love work. I started working when I was 13. I would babysit, paint, write, wait tables, tutor other kids, make things that people wanted, work in the general store assembling newspapers, selling beer to hunters and slinging scratch off lottery cards.

When I get into something, I get into it. And I’m into hard work. As a young person, I started from scratch. I never had a nest egg to lose. So I understand the basic challenge faced by many young people today, because I’ve lived it. I also understand that the global culture and economy were different then than they are now. The new circumstances require a new approach. According to The New York Times, 56% of 2010 college graduates had a job by the spring of 2011, compared with 90% in the 2006/2007 class.

As an adult, I’ve worked in many regions around the United States. I’ve worked on both coasts, and I have a lot of experience with the rest of the country, spanning from the Canadian border down to Mexico. I worked for six months in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. I’ve worked across New Mexico and the Deep South. I’ve worked with educators in Iowa and social entrepreneurs in Detroit. I understand how people learn and work not just in the United States but in many countries around the world, and how they could learn and work smarter with the right leadership in what I call the Imagination Age.

The Imagination Age is a fleeting period of decades between two longer eras, the fading industrial era and a future era in which machines will surpass human intelligence. The research and development period of the Imagination Age was funded by foundations, think-tanks and companies, including IBM and ManpowerGroup. The Imagination Age, however, is no longer just a theoretical idea. Out of that highly collaborative period a framework for action has emerged. I’m here today to discuss that framework with you.

Because you are all in positions of leadership around innovation, my comments today will be focused on the leadership qualities required to succeed with this challenging mission in the next decade.

Engaging Others

The key to engaging others is to immerse them in a great story--a story with a mission, with interesting characters, a satisfying arc, delightful details and above all else, a chance for others to take part and shine. It’s difficult to know how to craft a great story. The debate about how to share on social media is only one small part of that challenge. In a larger sense, we are tasked today with the requirement to share our missions to attract collaborators. The stories have to be great and they have to be purposeful.

At Science House we have monthly pitch sessions. We fund early stage science, math and technology startups, so four or five founders a month pitch to us. In a few minutes, they have to communicate the story of the company--What is it? How will it market its products and to what consumer base? The first thing that grips us is the story.

Recently we were visited by a very young team in hot pursuit of funding for a medical gel company. The idea is that the gel, used in emergency situations, could stop bleeding more quickly and save lives. The tone at Science House is always respectful and friendly but we have an active business panel and some of the medical professionals at the pitch session went to town on these guys--ripping holes in various assumptions they were making about both the product and the reality of taking the product to market and eventually, into ambulances.

After the event we noticed that they were fuming, so we invited them to meet us for lunch the next week. Our entire Science House executive team attended the lunch, and we spent an hour helping the young entrepreneurs put their feelings into perspective and understand the path ahead. I’ve often been asked to give talks about so-called “millennials” and make recommendations for executives to deal with their constant need for feedback. This process isn’t a burden. It’s an honor.

It isn’t easy, and it can be time-consuming, but it’s how young people with passion and great ideas can best develop into productive, experienced entrepreneurs in a new global culture and economy. In engaging them, we learn what they’re thinking and we can tweak our own approach to creating a work environment that suits their mindset and needs.

The fact is that it’s hard to find the time to attend to such issues when the minutes, days and weeks get filled up with no breaks, even at home or on weekends. As long as you can feel your mobile buzzing, you’re still at work.

To thrive in this fast-paced, persistent environment, imagine yourself as a conductor.

You’re at the podium, at the edge of an illuminated semicircle filled with players and their instruments. Beyond all of you, in the darkness, is an audience--people who are there to see what’s going to happen because it involves them in some way. You’re playing for them, and you want them to emerge from the experience satisfied, to take a memory of that time with them into the future.

Ultimately, you want them to be moved, which will only happen if the players play well. It is your job to understand not only each section of the orchestra, each player and his or her contributions to the process, but the mission itself, the process as a whole, which is what binds you to the players and the audience. And this process is changing as the players are increasingly globally dispersed and not in the same physical space.

What is it that you’re conducting, exactly? It’s a process of creativity that permeates every aspect of your organization, including its ability to survive.

The good news is that creativity isn’t just a lightning bolt that comes out of the blue. There’s a process that can be followed to achieve results. The tedium of creativity, the steps that must be taken along the way, is where the action happens. This process can be brutal. A truly great modern leader understands how to help people get through it. Sometimes it’s a just a matter of taking someone to lunch, even if you have nothing but an ear to offer, and even if you expect nothing in return.

And remember, when you get pulled into someone else’s story, even if it’s just for a cameo, you need to make it memorable.

James Jorasch came with me so I made him a lapel rose out of pipe cleaners left on the tables to make us all a little more creative.

Make Changes in the Business Environment

Kristin and Vinz are going to make suggestions today that support the changes that need to be made in the business environment in order to move these ideas forward. In the meantime I can share with you an experience I had this week with a group of students at the American Museum of Natural History.

These kids are interested in working with technology, as programmers, designers or researchers, and are already looking for opportunities.

Do you remember making shoebox dioramas as a kid? Clumsily cutting out paper sharks to glue to the cardboard ocean? Those amazing little boxes are only one aspect of the multimedia approach to learning available to today’s children. Each camper chose an animal to resurrect an ancient, extinct creature and then focused on hyperspecializing in that animal’s behaviors, colors, flocking habits and texture.

The students at the Museum of Natural History eventually created a digital version of the animals they chose to represent. Science House worked with the Museum to create this virtual environment. First, however, they made simulacra on paper, out of clay and out of pixels. They did sophisticated research, not just from the Hall of Origins at the Museum but also out in the field, on a dig, where some of them found shark’s teeth and other fossils.

And then they taught multiple generations of their families what the animal might have been like based on conjectures, facts and inferences. Yes, this was a virtual summer camp. But virtual doesn’t mean dehumanizing. It doesn’t mean separate from reality. Today we are beginning to recognize the value of play in making sense of an increasingly complex world.

The program was designed to foster collaboration, not just between people but between people and technology to create a new understanding. The modern work environment also requires this balance.

Each day, one of the instructors said, the campers stood a little closer together in the pictures. Their imaginations had been sparked for science, technology, engineering, creativity and mathematics, but also for each other. They were engaged. By the end of the two weeks they knew stories about each other and about animals that had gone extinct millions of years before they themselves were born.

I interviewed some of the students at the end to learn that their perspectives had been radically changed as a result of the experience. Now that they’ve seen what learning and work should be, they won’t be willing to settle for less.

“I never thought I’d have a chance to get work experience at my age,” a thirteen year old boy told me. “This is what I want to do for a living, and now I know it’s possible.”

So how can you start to create the work environment in which they will be able to make a living?

Successfully Cultivate the Future Workforce

For the last couple of years I co-directed a project called Imagination: Creating the Future of Education and Work. My collaborator Joshua Fouts and I started off in the Cajun region, Lafayette, Louisiana, at a building called LITE. This building is completely out of place in its setting. It looks like an illuminated, futuristic egg. LITE is a $27 million virtual immersion facility. We were there to observe, record and participate in a week-long digital workforce camp for kids.

The kids had a mission: form teams and create games with social value around important issues such as obesity, police brutality, health, safety and unemployment. At the end of the week they would present to an auditorium filled not only with peers, parents, local celebrities and policy-makers, but also a panel of game industry professionals who were being flown in from Austin, New York and the Bay Area to critique the games created by each team.

The pressure was extremely high that first night. Nervous anticipation and raw fear hung in the air at LITE, just as it does any time any time a thrilling, high-stakes challenge arises. Just as it should in this room, as we discuss the characteristics demanded of a modern leader. Except nobody is going to grill you at the end of this event and pick apart your technique, your execution, your delivery. In Louisiana, these kids, led by visionary educators including Spencer Zuzolo, knew what lie ahead for them at the end of the week if they failed.

At first, they had no idea how to form teams for an activity unrelated to sports. Kids in the public school system in the United States are more or less educated the same way everybody in this room was, with an industrial age model that completely overlooks the collaborative nature of the emerging global workforce. The pitch session looming at the end of the week created a buzz as the kids worked with their teams and the guidance of the well-staffed program into the night.

Finally, the big day came. A team took to the stage to introduce themselves and the role they’d each played on the team. They pitched their environmental game, which included a level called Whack-a-Nutria. A nutria, for those of you who have never had the pleasure, is a giant river rat.

The panel came through with pointed questions. How could the team be sure they weren’t violating the copyright of a better known game, Whack-A-Mole? The student responded calmly with an astonishingly simple yet multifaceted argument about copyright law and fair use.

When the time came for them to rise to the occasion, despite their fear and excitement, they did it like champions. They set an example for the rest of us to follow. All we need to do to create the workforce of the future is watch them and listen to them. They will show us how they work. They will tell us. And in return we should offer them opportunities to develop their stories, to study math, science, engineering and technology, to practice creativity, and above all, to be the change they want to see in the world. If we are successful, they will be too. We owe it to them and to the future of humanity to dedicate ourselves to the mission at hand.

Buzzfeed Shows Off Some Journalism

2011-08-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

Buzzfeed, a massive collaborative blog about the weird, the bizarre, the salacious and anything else in between has been crafting some interesting journalism lately, with their latest report from Buzzfeed editor Matt Stopera. Matt went to the recent Juggaloo "Gathering," a four-day event where fans of Insane Clown Posse revel in face make-up, drugs and ... helicopter rides.

Rita J. King offered this on the subject: "People always say there are no new cultures in the world. But with this article, that's been proven wrong."

Check out 89 Things I Learned At The Gathering Of The Juggalos

Sighs and Whispers: A Collection of High Fashion & Design of the 1970s

2011-08-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

Sighs and Whispers is a great study in high fashion of the 1970s, amazing vintage images by @laurakitty. Makes the 70s look really cool!

Sighs and Whispers

Lush New Steampunk Movie Made in Australia for $1,800

2011-08-19T22:47:00.005-04:00

This newly-released HD film, "Aurora" is a lush, 30 minute Steampunk saga about an airship captain on the hunt to rescue slaves from slavers. Rescuing post-apocalyptic or other universe slaves a plot device lovingly revered and used by storytellers in this genre. But the filmmakers, who spent 3 1/2 years on the film, really deliver.

Enjoy.

Via @SteamPunkNews.

Warren Ellis as The Emperor Tarot Card

2011-08-18T22:23:00.004-04:00

Warren Ellis as The Emperor Tarot Card.

New York City artist Katelan Foisy has been working steadily on painting her own tarot deck. She's about a dozen cards in. The latest here is Warren Ellis, writer extraordinaire, cast appropriately as The Emperor. Musician Sxip Shirey is The Magician.

You can see follow the rest of the deck as it evolves here.

[Katelan Foisy]
[Katelan Foisy Tarot Deck]

Bulgarian Students Imagine the Dream School of their Future

2011-08-17T10:46:00.010-04:00

When Rita J. King and I launched "IMAGINATION: Creating the Future of Education & Work" earlier this year we made a decision not to release it as a book or a report, despite the 24,000 words that were written during our 18 months of research. As much as we love books, we realized that our audience would be best served if we took the digital culture on its own terms. So we rewrote the project and recast it as a website. As Rita J. King wrote in the introduction, we were going to try something new:

Rather than publishing results as a book or white paper, both of which are one-sided approaches to a subject that demands a conversation, an interactive site was chosen as the format.

This site doesn’t just present theories and ideas, but rather actionable solutions that can be immediately and easily implemented in service of a relevant education for American students who need to gain proficiency if not mastery of core subject areas while at the same time being prepared for the reality of future work. Imagination is a broad topic, encompassing everything the mind can conjure, so the findings in this report are focused on those that overlap with the changing world of work.

And so it was with great delight that we read the below letter we received from Elena Stateva a high school teacher in Bulgaria, who used the IMAGINATION website as a part of her curriculum, challenging her students to IMAGINE their dream school of the future. In Elena's words "Inspired by the "Creating Future Today" initiative, they imagined and constructed schools from words, challenging the accepted conventions during their summer school Philosophy classes."

We're publishing the student's ideas with permission below.

PROJECT: “JUST A DREAM”
Creators: Radoslav Asparuhov, Daniel Rashin
Just a Dream is a school made of technologies, but not only about technology. It places a very high value on the potential of technology to transform the ways we see education. As full-fledged citizens of our dynamic modernity, students at Just a Dream are extensively trained how to use technology in the most innovative and effective way. For example, sculptures and other three-dimensional figures are created on computers, thus enabling students to develop their spatial and analytical intelligences. Top-notch technological innovations render the school one of the pioneers of knowmadic thinking.

Furthermore, Just a Dream gives students the crucial opportunity to have a practical go at their field. Relevant internships at successful companies are provided to each student, through a wide a range of sponsors. The sponsorship by highly acclaimed names in the business makes it possible for the students to go to school and use their modern facilities practically for free. In fact, these companies often recruit graduates from Just a Dream as the most prepared professionals.
In addition, Just a Dream is a school which recognizes extracurricular activities, within and outside the professional field, as essential to students’ academic and personal growth. Therefore, school trips are regularly organized, featuring exciting destinations in the country and abroad.

PROJECT: “MY DREAM SCHOOL”
Creators: Victoria Ivanova, Magdalena Kostadinova, Blagovest Pilarski
My Dream School is a unique institution, notable for its out-of-the-box, ground-breaking philosophy. Using a student-centered approach, which values what really is best for the student (and not for the administration, for example), My Dream School incorporates a wide range of fundamental practices. Combining the arts and technologies, students experience a comprehensive headstart to their professional careers. All subjects are taught in a way, which does not stifle student’s ideas, but on the contrary – encourages students to have their own opinion. Thus, My Dream School stimulates its student body to be active citizens, able to think critically about the world around them, instead of following blindly the leaders of today.
Moreover, My Dream School defines the term “revolutionary”, with its grade-less system and robotized teacher collective. Originating from the notion of boosting motivation internally (as opposed to externally, which is often the case), My Dream School has removed assessment completely, allowing its scholars to pursue knowledge itself, and not just good grades. The replacement of teachers by robots has further contributed to the establishment of an objective, knowledge- and skill-oriented classroom, free of discrimination and favoritism. Thus, students can learn in a safe, conflict-free and thought- provoking environment.

In addition, My Dream School puts great emphasis on the connection between learning and nature. During the weekends, students can enjoy environmental activities, such as hiking in the mountains, which build up mind and body together. The beautiful parks surrounding the school are themselves a source of relaxation, inspiration and energy.

PROJECT: “ART SCHOOL”
Creators: Elena Kehayova, Dafina Nedeva
The name of this school – Art School – already speaks a lot about its fundamental values. And yet, the Art School is much more than a school about art. It is a school where students go not only to grow in the direction of their talent, but where they actually find their talent and grow as a whole person. At Art School only the core subjects are obligatory – Literature, Math, Foreign Languages. The other subjects are a matter of preference: each student has the right to choose every part of their education. This freedom allows the students to explore their interests, inclinations and talents, to strengthen them or create them. Creativity – this is the key word which this school emanates through all its elements – from its facilities, to its curriculum, and of course – its teachers. The teaching collective is distinguished with its sharp eye to talent, broad mind for creativity and liberal view on individuality.

In addition to its exceptional creativity, Art School prides itself with a policy which preserves equality and prevents discrimination. Everybody at Art School is regarded equally, as an equal member of the school community.

A site dedicated to cooking every single dish featured in George R. R. Martin's "Game of Thrones"

2011-08-15T22:04:00.005-04:00

Source: Cooking Ice and Fire.

A site dedicated to cooking every single dish featured in George R. R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" series. Pictured above: Veal Cutlets Blanched In Almond Milk.

As a foodie, I love fan movements like this.

[Cooking Ice and Fire]

A Recent Installation by Rita J. King

2011-08-11T08:47:00.003-04:00

A recent installation by Rita J. King. As Kate Sherrod described it, "Joseph Cornell would be proud." (Originally posted on "Unfolding at the Speed of Words," a Tumblr blog.)

New Article in The Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities: "Using Virtual World Journalism for Health Education"

2011-07-18T22:54:00.003-04:00

Readers may be interested in new chapter by me, which was just published today in the latest issue of The Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities called "Using Virtual World Journalism for Health Education" which describes Rita J. King's and my work with Larry Pintak (now Dean of the Washington State U Murrow College), Wael Abbas (renowned Egyptian activist) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as they tried to educate the global public on the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. JHSH is published by the Navy Medicine Institute for the Medical Humanities and Research Leadership in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. Our virtual newsroom project was funded by a grant from USAID while Larry Pintak was still at AU Cairo.

The publication is free to download here. My chapter, is on page 119.

[The Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities]

Tweet to tweet combat: @RitaJKing and @Josholalia

2011-07-14T14:41:00.005-04:00

Visual.ly showcases data visualizations and presently has one test you can do with your own data: see how you stack up against a celebrity. I chose to pit myself against @Josholalia. The results are intriguing!

I'm a "workaholic" (it's true, I'm like a pack horse) and he's a "techie" but we both have cheeky grins and there's evidence of each of having an "obsession" though thankfully, the infographic stops short of revealing what that might be. Our top shared interests include @KatelanFoisy and @wello.

Rita J. King in Scientific American: "Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media"

2011-07-06T17:54:00.002-04:00

Rita J. King has a new article on Scientific American, "Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media". Here's an excerpt:

The role of the media is not to find and repeat two binary views, neither of which is very helpful except for understanding the outer limits of an otherwise extremely complex issue, but rather to investigate to find the truth through gathering and contextualizing as much data as possible. This is very much a lonely, boots-on-the-ground experience, and it’s a necessary precursor to aggregation and curating news. Without the initial fact-finding process, there’s nothing to aggregate.

Over time, as data is gathered and analyzed, it is the role of the media to spot anomalies in the pattern and to contextualize, against the framework of an ongoing exploration, the implications for the people who are affected by technogenic disasters. Sometimes a disruption in the pattern is obvious, like when an earthquake and flood lead to nuclear meltdown. But often, the long, slow, cumulative issues related to the by-products of technology aren’t so evident at first glance.

Understanding how technogenic disasters affect people in the short and long term requires patience and the development of simple, reliable community hubs where people input their own stories and data. Achieving this will also require greater emphasis on science communication, which is currently my main professional area of focus, so that complex ideas can be clearly communicated to the people impacted by them.

[Scientific American, "Technogenic Disasters: A Deadly New Normal for the Media," by Rita J. King]

Hello and Goodbye, Len Sassaman

2011-07-03T19:06:00.006-04:00

The late Len Sassaman at the 27th Chaos Communication Congress by Alexander Klink.

It's always a strange feeling--Facebook recommends someone who has 43 friends in common with you and yet you've never heard of her. Or you first hear about someone because suddenly, the Twitter stream is filled with references to that person's tragic death.

Today, I first heard of Len Sassaman. I follow people on Twitter who had suddenly discovered that they'd lost a friend to apparent suicide. I learned the cause of death by clicking over to his wife Meredith L. Patterson's Twitter feed. I wanted to send her a message of condolence but what's the right thing to say to a complete stranger about the worst grief she may ever experience in 140 characters or less?

I don't know you, Meredith, but my heart is with you right now.

Since the death of my friend Mac Tonnies I've become an inadvertent spokesperson for the digital graveyard and its inhabitants. Like Mac Tonnies, Sassaman seems like the kind of person who had a lot of very philosophical and practical ideas about the relationship between humans and technology.

It's just strange to find out on Twitter that you've lost something you didn't know you had.

Kids Want to be Programmable Matter

2011-06-22T23:57:00.002-04:00

“Art is a lie that helps you get at the truth,” artist Shane Hope said at "Facts and Fiction: Discussing Science in Imaginary Worlds" at Science House this week. “Cheating is when you create a shortcut.”

Shane took out his iPhone to share his own art with the room. His pieces appear to have been created by children from the future deadpanning the reality of their splintered digital lives.

“The singularity came too late for mom and dad,” Shane read off the small screen, pausing for a split second. “Your mom is open source.” He looked around the room. “Kids want to be programmable matter.”

Maker in the USA: Scott Carpenter

2011-06-20T21:39:00.008-04:00

Many years ago, in another lifetime, it seems, I was in a restaurant in Cooperstown, New York, where I began my career as a journalist. I spotted a beautiful drawing entitled "Ava, Missouri." I asked about the artist and the owner of the restaurant said, "You have to interview him." He led me to a glass door through which an art studio was visible, small and bright from all the windows. The artist was not present but his spirit was revealed by the arrangement of his tools and supplies. The afternoon sun highlighted his neatly spooled thread.

I soon returned to visit the artist, Scott Carpenter (shown above). I realized he was the Person Doing Something I'd been spotting around town, cutting across the parking lot between the laundromat and Doubleday Field, visible from my kitchen window. He was always carrying a leather portfolio or cardboard tubes or some other accoutrement that could only belong to a Person Doing Something. I often wondered what, and this was my chance to find out.

We sat together in his small, golden, windowed studio, surrounded by trees and peered into by the occasional passersby. He held up a blue and gold sneaker that he'd made and told me how he'd felt as a child when people were literally getting killed over Air Jordan sneakers. He had started a story that would take him a couple of years to finish telling me in full. The gist for our purposes today: Scott Carpenter was on a mission to see his custom hand-made gloves used by professional baseball players.

The market, Carpenter noted, is dominated by large corporate brands who have a tight grip on players who are paid to wear their logos. His plan was to change that. His beautiful drawing of Ava, Missouri depicted the town in which the Rawlings factory is located. He explained his complex journey to understanding corporations and brands.

It was through my relationship with Scott Carpenter that I started to develop awareness of some aspects of the brute force of multinational corporations (which became the main focus of my journalistic work along with the nuclear industry).

Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was the obvious place to set up shop. The town is steeped in baseball.

The Ultimate Diamond
When I got a note from Scott this week to let me know that his dream had become a reality, I cried.

"Cooperstown is known for its history and for preserving the rich traditions of baseball," Scott said. "However, this is an account of a Cooperstown local breaking with tradition and pioneering a trend that will shape how baseball is played in the future."

His gloves are being used in major league baseball! Brian Gordon is the first player ever to use a non-leather glove in major league baseball. Ever since Doug Allison first wore a glove in 1870 all major league baseball gloves have been made with leather. Until now.

Gordon used this groundbreaking glove on June 16, 2011 as the starting pitcher for the New York Yankees against the Texas Rangers. Gordon converted to pitching after spending his first ten years as an outfielder.

He says of his Carpenter glove, “For the first time in my career I felt comfort and control on the field. I love it.” Gordon was born in West Point, NY and he is the only NY player using a glove made in NY.

The idea of a non-leather baseball gloves defies expectations of the traditional smell and feel of glove leather, Scott said. However, synthetic materials have already been a growing trend for several years. Star players such as Roy Halladay and Alex Rodriguez have already been using gloves that have some synthetic parts. Synthetics offer greater strength than leather while also being remarkably lighter. Carpenter synthetic gloves average 10 ounces lighter than comparable leather gloves, giving players a considerable performance advantage where speed is essential. Carpenter gloves are the lightest gloves used in professional baseball today.

Carpenter’s alternative approach to his business is as unique as his innovative baseball gloves. Scott Carpenter has never paid players and has never done any advertising or marketing beyond his website: CarpenterTrade.com. He makes all Carpenter gloves himself. The baseball glove is an American icon; Carpenter is proud to be the only glove brand used in major-league baseball that has never imported, never outsourced, and has always produced their own gloves in the USA.

A New Chapter for the Imagination Age: Science House

2011-06-14T22:01:00.010-04:00

The view, from any perspective, is always spectacular from Science House.

In February, I gave a talk about the Imagination Age at Science House in NYC. Something happened that night. I haven’t told you about it in detail yet, in part because the arc of the story is so wide that every time I start I realize I can only tell a part of it.

So here are the basics--starting that first night.

Science House has a banquet table laden with sushi, chocolate and refreshments, set amid river-to-river views of Manhattan, with a set of binoculars on the wide windowsill. Those binoculars magnify the details of the urban landscape and the people who inhabit it so much that when I tore myself away I couldn’t tell which of the endless glittering windows, restored to their regular distance, held the lives of the peered-upon.

I put the binoculars down and took a seat next to Katelan Foisy, who extended me the invitation. We went around the room to introduce ourselves. In such situations, in a room full of strangers, I sometimes mention other facets of my work or life but I always say that I work toward a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age.

This work has been developed individually and collaboratively by me and my collaborator Joshua Fouts. We have spent our entire careers and lives, in some way, shape or form, researching and exploring the most effective platforms, structures and core ideas on which to build a new global culture and economy.

When the founder of Science House, James Jorasch, introduced himself to the group, I learned that in addition to being a highly accomplished inventor, he’s a memory and chess champion and an improv comedian. The provocative conversation that evening was further bewitching, and I was done in by grasshopper brownies created for our pleasure by the Insomnibaker (AKA Megan Kingery, Science House Director of Operations).

As the night went on I realized that Science House successfully practices a complementary path to a new global culture (with science as a neutral foundation) and economy (by developing a strong global network and funding early stage science, technology and math startups). Additionally, the Science House Foundation works to spark the imaginations of kids all over the world by making science and math exciting.

Even the coasters at Science House are on a mission.

Longtime readers of the Imagination Age, or those of you who found us through the Imagination project, can imagine how excited I was to discover imagination at the heart of Science House. In subsequent conversations with James, it was evident that we were going to be working together...but in what capacity? If I went to work for Science House, my ongoing collaboration with Josh would have been cut short. Proving yet again that timing is everything, Science House’s first employee, the wonderful Gabi de Wit, decided to pursue her PhD and would no longer be running Science House Foundation.

I am now the Executive Vice President for Business Development at Science House and Josh is now the Executive Director of Science House Foundation. Science House never sleeps (and neither do I, which I now know since James handed me some equipment and advised me to start tracking my sleep cycles. But that’s another story).

The eight-year old me who learned about quarks when her father took her to his physics class at Columbia University is overjoyed that the story has gone in this Science House direction. Also, we have toys. Lots and lots of toys. And magnets.

James has noted the serendipity of finding not just one but two new members of the Science House team who already work together. I feel the same way about having found James, Megan and the rest of the Science House family. The rapport has been natural from the start. We have a lot of motivation to keep it this way--the kids whose imaginations get sparked today may grow up to start startups of their own.

In addition to the usual mix here at the Imagination Age, stay tuned for cross-posts from Inside Science House, snippets from my sleep diaries, videos of kids and robots and glimpses of the world through the lens of a microscope.

Thanks for being an ongoing part of this adventure!

Kevin Slavin: "Twelve Reasons to Keep the Naked Eye Naked"

2011-06-13T16:59:00.003-04:00

Kevin Slavin gives a really compelling speech from a recent appearance in Amsterdam at the Mobile Monday talks. It sets the stage for reframing how we perceive the world especially in and around the current media excitement around Augmented Reality. It's an incredibly engrossing presentation that takes us from World World II radar translators who had to transcribe images backward to Piaget to uncorking the fallacy of how the movie The Terminator emphasizes the eye instead of the brain and on.

You should watch it.

Communicating Science

2011-06-10T16:33:00.003-04:00

Rita J. King has a new post on the Science House blog about Alan Alda's work teaching improv to scientists to help them better communicate their craft:

For over a decade, Alda has hosted Scientific American Frontiers. After interviewing over 700 scientists, he rejects the myth of the lone mad scientist in a lab coat. Scientists want to communicate their passion and work with the public, he contends–but they need to learn how.
He didn’t know much about science at the beginning but was “extremely curious in a freewheeling, completely improvised way.” Mostly, he would listen and ask questions, trying to get at the heart of the issue: How can scientists communicate with each other when words often mean different things within different fields, much less with the public at a time of rampant anti-intellectualism?
Clarity, vividness and personal anecdotes create a connection with the audience.

[Science House: "The Public and Science: A Blind Date" by Rita J. King]

GAMEFUL Challenge

2011-06-06T19:56:00.003-04:00

Sometime last year, I became the first Gameful Fairy of Jane McGonigal's "GAMEFUL, a Secret HQ for Worldchanging Game Developers" platform when I supported it on Kickstarter. In exchange, I would eventually get to establish an official Gameful Award, Challenge or Scholarship to bestow on the recipient(s) of my choice anytime in 2011, up to $1000 to support their ongoing efforts to make awesome games that change the world.

That time has come.

Today, I received a note from Jane McGonigal:

"Hello gameful fairies! WE HAVE AN URGENT MISSION FOR YOU. It's time for YOU to launch YOUR gameful challenge."

When I became a Gameful Fairy I knew the theme of the challenge I came up with would be related to science and the arts in education. I want to create the challenge collaboratively, however. For your review, here are links to three other challenges:

Operation End Boredom

Three Missions of Kindness

Make Lord Kelvin Proud

GAMEFUL says, "You can choose -- do you want to honor a game developer working to improve health? to be played on public transportation? to connect kids with their grandparents? to fix education? to help people dance more? to make a game for the city you live in? Your choice, your award -- YOU get to be the Gameful fairy. You will be honored by name, or anonymously, or on behalf of any corporation or organization -- with an optional photograph or a logo -- as you wish."

I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas about a challenge that comes with a $1000 prize related to the arts and sciences in education. Please pass the link along to educators, friends, parents, kids, game developers, anyone you know who might be able to think up a magnificent challenge. Thanks in advance!

"How to Destroy Young Minds with Decorative Learning"

2011-05-31T15:22:00.005-04:00

Image credit: Shortformvideo.

Rita J. King has a recent post up on the Science House blog about a salon on learning and the transformation of the economy, science and and educational system:

Cheap, Easy Recognition
Educator Dan Menelly teaches a philosophical curriculum to students from 119 countries at the United Nations School and serves as an Albert Einstein Fellow at the National Science Foundation, working to shape emerging STEM policy.
Since much of education policy is created by people with kids in private schools, the policies that result tend to be “just good enough for the neighbor’s kid.”
“Teaching should be approached creatively,” Menelly said, “and risks taken in your teaching. The sands are shifting.”
As more schools shift to online models or virtual components of education, Menelly noted that the “dirty little secret” is the mainstreaming of mediocre technology largely because it’s unclear what the best options are for education.
“Teachers can get cheap, easy recognition for badly engineered, decorative learning,” Menelly said.

[Science House: "How to Destroy Young Minds with Decorative Learning"]

Aaron Koblin: Google's Philosopher Artist

2011-05-23T15:59:00.004-04:00

We're big fans of Aaron Koblin and his work at Google as we've described in blogposts about his other projects here, here and here. His recent TED talk (above) from this past March is a great window not only into his projects, but his philosophy on art.

Stick through to the end for his crowd-sourced, phonemic-recreation of a Bicycle Built for Two, made famous in my childhood mind by the scene in which the HAL-9000 computer deteriorates.

Tiny Gray Planet with a Volcano

2011-05-23T12:33:00.004-04:00

The Atlantic Magazine has a great animation of the recent Icelandic volcano eruption. The image is a powerful illustration of atmosphere, size and scale of the tiny planet we live on.

[Picture of the Day: Icelandic Volcano Eruption from Space ]

Google Creative's New Immersive Music Video: Rome "3 Dreams of Black"

2011-05-14T21:46:00.006-04:00

Google Creative's Aaron Koblin in collaboration with music video director Chris Milk has done another amazing feat with music videos on Google Chrome. The latest entry is an immersive, videogame-cum-virtual worlds experience in which you, the viewer, travel along in the music stream with control and affect of the direction and images the song takes you through. (Similar to the Arcade Fire video they did, you can create and share your own experience.) The music is from the new album by Danger Mouse and Daniel Luppi called Rome.

So good.

Experience it: [Google Creative's "Rome: '3 Dreams of Black'"]

via Ben Cerveny.

Also see Google Creative experiments:
[Arcade Fire: The Wilderness Down]
[The Johnny Cash Project]

Teaching Science and Science Teachers in Afghanistan

2011-05-13T13:20:00.005-04:00

Rita J. King has a new article up on the Science House website about a fascinating talk by teacher, scientist, educator and teacher-trainer Marianne O’Grady who works in Aghanistan teaching science education to Afghan Science Teachers and administrators. It's an insider's account into a part and culture of the world that is not well understood by the the U.S.

“After the Koran,” O’Grady said, “science is the single most important body of knowledge that people in Afghanistan want. They need more content. They want more labs. In the United States there’s a conflict between religion and science, but there’s no conflict between Islam and science. The Koran talks a lot about science, and it’s just not a bone of contention as it is in the U.S.”
With seven million children in school (and another estimated 40 percent of the nation’s children not in school) the distribution of students is 40 percent girls and 60 percent boys. Afghanistan’s 171,000 teachers are divided along similar gender lines. 79 percent of those teachers aren’t trained, instead they’re often just students who complete a grade level just to turn around immediately and teach it.

[Science House: Teaching Teachers in Afghanistan, by Rita J. King]

Hala's Robot

2011-05-08T21:55:00.003-04:00

"We both loved each other," she says about herself and her robot.

Erin Kotecki Vest posted this gem of her daughter Hala reading her Robot Book.

Kids love robots.

Are YOU Creative?

2011-05-05T17:51:00.008-04:00

What is creativity? I've been researching this subject for Science House.

This afternoon I've been reading Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, by R. Keith Sawyer. While the book makes some compelling points, the author belabors his perception that no person alone can be creative alone. His goal is to destroy what he calls "creativity myths."

Sawyer contends that inspiration doesn't just happen in a flash, but rather in micro-increments that are then doggedly pursued, edited and developed through the prism of the individual's entire sociocultural dynamic, with little if no original thought. Instead, the best we can hope for is to add novelty, to make a tiny improvement in everything that ever came in our domain before us.

Artists from individualistic societies, Sawyer says, have completely different values from those who come from group-first cultures. Basically what he seems to be saying is that in the United States, artists are more focused on the mythological belief that the individual might actually be creative, while in group-based cultures there's no glamour at all associated with being novel.

It's a pretty binary view, and I would point out that the Ai Weiwei* situation subtly undermines Sawyer's point, but the author repeatedly makes it clear that drawing upon one's own epistemological impressions of reality (including any examples that undermine Sawyer's contentions) only reinforces the myths of creativity. Those examples, he believes, are so statistically improbable and even then, still provide no proof of individual creativity.

He's right on one level, in that creativity isn't just a magic moment but rather a very structured process that can be designed to result in maximum benefit for the participants in the creative system. A creative result always comes from the entire evolution of a domain and field. The great beauty of the Imagination Age is that new domains are arising at the edges of older domains, and new fields of experts are being formed. The new fields of experts have access to a much richer and more diverse talent pool from which to choose the memes that will enter the cultural memory. Here's to creating the future together!

*Want to help get the story of Ai Weiwei's life out there? Check out this Kickstarter project.

Planetary: Stunning iPad Music Viewer

2011-05-04T06:59:00.001-04:00

Planetary (voiceover) from Bloom Studio, Inc. on Vimeo.

Ben Cerveny and his team have at Bloom Studios have just released a very cool app for visualizing your iTunes music library. If you don't have an iPad, they've produced the above video to show you what it looks like. I love this.

Review: Sxip Shirey's "Sonic New York"

2011-05-03T08:09:00.001-04:00

Sxip Shirey's song "I live in New York City" from his album "Sonic New York."

Earlier this week at Science House I met New York City musician, artist and performer Sxip Shirey who shared his recent album, Sonic New York. I highly recommend it. The album is an acoustic love letter to New York City that travels through back alleys, into long subway rides, and out onto romantic Sunday afternoons in the park and at the market.

Shirey employs a visceral mix of found objects, traditional instruments, layered voices and electronica to create a tapestry of sound that moves you from neighborhood to locale to moments in time.

Songs like "Bergen and Grand," which is evocative in its use of organ grinder sounds of Harry Nilsson's "Think About Your Troubles," from The Point! (my favorite album of all time) transport me to a New York City of yore. The "Brooklyn Bridge Song" is sweet and plaintive and poignant.

I highly recommend Sxip Shirey's Sonic New York -- a wall-of-sound experience and a journey into the narrative mind of music.

[Sxip Shirey's Sonic New York]

Design Observer: "Educating for a Future Within Our Sight"

2011-04-28T15:31:00.005-04:00

Maria Popova, better known as Brainpicker her nom de plume for her popular blog, Brainpickings, has a nice new interview with Rita J. King on Change Observer, a blog about design and social innovation about the "Imagination: Creating the Future of Education and Work," project. It's by far one of the most perceptive interviews on the subject and a great read. Excerpt:

"Pluralism is always practical," famously declared Nabokov. By that measure, Rita J. King, journalist, nuclear expert, virtual worlds scholar, VP of business development at Science House and IBM Innovator-in-Residence — is a bastion of postmodern pragmatism. Her latest project, a collaboration with Joshua Fouts, is the product of more than two years of research, exploring the future of education and work through a concept King calls the Imagination Age — a fleeting period between the industrial era crumbling behind us and the technological hyper-reality glimmering ahead of us, in which we have the rare chance to reimagine our culture, our economy, our world and our place in it.

IMAGINATION: Creating the Future of Education and Work explores how we can harness the unique opportunities of this new age and reshape the education system. The project offers a portal of resources for educators spanning a wide range of media, disciplines and potential applications. Maria Popova sat down with King to talk about the scope of the work, the role of imagination in academia and the cross-pollination of disciplines as a key enabler of creativity.

[Change Observer: Educating for a Future Within Our Sight, by Maria Popova]

"Brasília: Contradictions of a New City"

2011-04-27T16:18:00.005-04:00

João Pelles Jr, who I call my "Brazilian Brother" because I lived with his family as a Rotary Exchange student in 1983, shared these two stunning old documentaries about the intent, design, construction and economic and cultural impact of creating Brazil's Capital city, Brasília, a work designed by famed Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and created in the middle of the jungle in just four years (from 1956-1960).

The videos are in Portuguese, but the images should be of interest to architecture and urban planning students everywhere.

The first video (above) describes how every piece of the city was designed intentionally. From restaurants and stores built in the apartment buildings with discreet entrances and exits to allow busy residents to both enjoy and socialize as well as manage busy lives.

The second video (below) offers a more dire take on the the construction. It features interviews with the many poor workers who helped build Brasília and moved there in hopes of finding employment. One dismayed new resident describes how he is desperate to leave since the work he thought he would find has not manifest.

The videos are a fascinating time-traveling snapshot to a window of time in Brazil that was both tumultuous and dizzying in its fervor to manifest a dream.

[Also see: TIME Mag's "Twitter in Brazil" Misses Key Points

Read other articles on The Imagination Age about Brazil and digital culture. ]

The Future of Facebook and Digital Graveyards

2011-04-26T11:18:00.009-04:00

"The future lies in the creation of thriving small businesses"

The Future of Facebook Project, which we blogged about earlier when it was seeking funding on Kickstarter, made its funding goal and has begun to release longer videos of some of the interviews they conducted. Four of the first videos this week are of Rita J. King discussing what the next Facebook might be, the future of Facebook (above). And the role of Facebook as a sort of digital graveyard and what Rita J. King believes is a core issue for those in charge of Facebook(below).

Joi Ito to direct MIT Media Lab

2011-04-25T23:52:00.003-04:00

In addition to being a global citizen and all that, Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab's new director, won my admiration with his constant, informative tweets about Fukushima--an impending disaster that he documented for ten years before the recent catastrophe.

I saw Joi Ito this summer at Foo Camp and I captured this video of DJ Patil showing him a chart of his social graph. Colored circles connect his network in Dubai, Japan and the United States, with other circles here and there, each representing the life of a person who has come to know Joi in some way:

Below is a short video from the trip to Foo Camp: random shots around town, egrets, art, the shadow of a palm on pavement, and of course the Death Star Watermelon by Noel Dickover (who loves carving pumpkins SO MUCH. Look at his Twitter avatar!)

Arabic Calligraffiti

2011-04-24T17:05:00.004-04:00

Recent developments in the Middle East have given the "creative class" a chance to be more expressive in the streets. Calligraffiti: "traditional handwriting with a metropolitan attitude."

via @jhagel

What is Creativity?

2011-04-21T15:08:00.002-04:00

Rita J. King has a thoughtful new piece up on the Science House blog exploring the role of creativity in imagination, work and science.

New ideas don’t just come from “thinking outside the box,” but rather understanding what the box (or the domain) is, how the people who have occupied it before you, or currently occupy it (the field) have worked within or around it, as well as what your own role as a link on the continuum might be. Creative ideas, then, are largely grounded in what you already know.

Simply doing things differently is not in and of itself creative. It’s a necessary characteristic in a rapidly changing world. True creativity, the way it’s defined by Csikszentmihalyi, leaves a lasting impression on the cultural matrix, with memes sticky enough to change the culture itself for the future people who occupy a particular field and become knowledgeable experts in a specific domain.

[Science House: What is Creativity? By Rita J. King]

"Sugar: The Bitter Truth"

2011-04-19T13:57:00.003-04:00

The New York Times has a good write-up and review of Dr. Robert Lustig's 2009, viral video explaining the detrimental and misunderstood facts about sugar. By sugar, he elaborates, he means any kind from the much-demonized High Fructose Corn Syrup to the more common sucrose (aka sugar) we are told lately is the better form of sugar.

In a riveting 1 hour and 29 minutes Lustig takes us through the chemistry of how sugar is broken down (or, in this case not broken down) by our bodies. The case he makes is a serious one: In our zeal to remove fat from foods and make them taste good, we have replaced fats with sugars. The only problem is, sugars are not better than fat and the volume and pervasiveness of sugar as a central ingredient to almost all foods makes it much more dangerous.

It's an important piece to watch.

Also see:
[The New York Times: Is Sugar Toxic?]

Projected Path of Japan's Radioactive Cesium 137 Cloud Over the United States

2011-04-18T11:56:00.006-04:00

The Norwegian Institute for Air Research has an animated map of the projected path of the Radioactive cloud of Cesium 137 from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan and it's anticipated course over the United States. See their Fukushima page for more detailed maps of the entire planet.

Also see: [Rita J. King in Scientific American: Failure of imagination can be deadly: Fukushima is a warning]

Via SciTechHeretic

WIRED: 7 Science-Education Battlegrounds of 2011

2011-04-18T11:40:00.003-04:00

Wired's Dave Mosher has a great visual and textual article highlighting how top 7 science-education battlegrounds in the United States. It's pretty shocking to consider that the US has an increasing number of regressive policies with regard to science education. The article cites bills in 11 states including Tennessee, the state that held the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial," which is now introducing legislation to reverse it 85 years later. It's a sobering and important read.

[WIRED: 7 Science-Education Battlegrounds of 2011]

Battle Power for Boys, Perfect Love for Girls

2011-04-13T01:42:00.005-04:00

Check out this fascinating blog post about language in commercial toy marketing to boys contrasted with language used to market to girls.

I was the kind of girl who walked around with a plastic pistol in a shoulder holster, but I also loved dolls.