1/3 I am fortunate to be attending the Eyeo Festival, a three day event focused on design and information, interaction and display.  It’s the first one ever and it’s happening in Minneapolis right now. Because there was so much good today, I’m going to chronicle my highlights for future reference and reflection. At the end of his talk,Truth and Beauty, Moritz Stefaner quoted Buckminster Fuller who said, “When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty.  I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”  I love the thought that truth is beautiful, and trusting that we have an innate ability to know and recognize beauty.  Also, Moritz has created visualizations of argumentation and debate through Wikipedia’s “Keep or Delete” conversations that may inspire some of the ways we look at visualizing the discourse analysis we’re doing on blog posts. In a later talk, Nick Felton and Jer Thorp discussed data and identity in a panel, Auto/Biography: Data, Identity and Narrative.  As Nick talked about his most recent annual report chronicling the life of his father, he mentioned that without the receipts that his father kept for years, he wouldn’t have had access to the data he used to tell the story of his life.  Later, Jer talked about Open Paths and XML archives of email on your Mac laptop and how ownership of data is important and interesting.  I found the two concepts related and wonder who is educating folks about ways to keep the “shoebox of receipts” version of our accumulated data, especially since so much of it is owned by for-profit companies. In a very nerdy* talk, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz spoke about computational biology and using it to design everyday objects like jewelry, lamps, plates and cups with 3-D printers and other maker-friendly fabrication equipment.  I instantly thought of the educational potential using biological processes to design everyday objects could have in informal science learning. After lunch and much internal debate about which workshop to attend next, I chose to explore Arduino ProtoSnap with SparkFun.  In the workshop, we connected to the panel and programmed it to blink and fade LED lights based on input from light sensors.  We also toyed around with using the buzzer to make sounds that respond to various inputs.  Towards the end, we saw a processing script that interacted with the arduino in a simple, but impressive way (push a button to draw new circles and change their color depending on how much light was available in the room).  It was a great introduction to the hardware and software environments of arduino and the best part was that we got to take home a ProtoSnap for a $20 donation to one of my favorite science museums. Natalie Jeremijenko began the evening sessions, speaking about the complexity of our environment and how we impact and interact in it. I’d never seen her work and found many of her projects inspiring, particularly from a science museum-y point-of-view. Her work with hacking robo-dog toys to sniff out pollutants, the importance of wetlands, and the potential reality of personal flight, are all readily explorable within my science museum’s community. It’s possible, however, that the reason I’ve found Eyeo so great so far, is because the day ended with such a compelling and inspiring presenter.  Golan Levin spoke on Gestural Computing and Speculative Interactions, showing examples of computers with senses like vision and hearing.  I found his work relevant and progressive in a way that instantly opened my mind to new ways of thinking.  Perhaps more than anything, Levin helps me better understand what I want to be when I grow up. Circling items in tomorrow’s agenda is just as fraught as today’s and I’m sure it’ll be as rewarding.  ’Til then. * Meant only in the very best of ways.

1/3

I am fortunate to be attending the Eyeo Festival, a three day event focused on design and information, interaction and display.  It’s the first one ever and it’s happening in Minneapolis right now. Because there was so much good today, I’m going to chronicle my highlights for future reference and reflection.

At the end of his talk,Truth and Beauty, Moritz Stefaner quoted Buckminster Fuller who said, “When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty.  I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”  I love the thought that truth is beautiful, and trusting that we have an innate ability to know and recognize beauty.  Also, Moritz has created visualizations of argumentation and debate through Wikipedia’s “Keep or Delete” conversations that may inspire some of the ways we look at visualizing the discourse analysis we’re doing on blog posts.

In a later talk, Nick Felton and Jer Thorp discussed data and identity in a panel, Auto/Biography: Data, Identity and Narrative.  As Nick talked about his most recent annual report chronicling the life of his father, he mentioned that without the receipts that his father kept for years, he wouldn’t have had access to the data he used to tell the story of his life.  Later, Jer talked about Open Paths and XML archives of email on your Mac laptop and how ownership of data is important and interesting.  I found the two concepts related and wonder who is educating folks about ways to keep the “shoebox of receipts” version of our accumulated data, especially since so much of it is owned by for-profit companies.

In a very nerdy* talk, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz spoke about computational biology and using it to design everyday objects like jewelry, lamps, plates and cups with 3-D printers and other maker-friendly fabrication equipment.  I instantly thought of the educational potential using biological processes to design everyday objects could have in informal science learning.

After lunch and much internal debate about which workshop to attend next, I chose to explore Arduino ProtoSnap with SparkFun.  In the workshop, we connected to the panel and programmed it to blink and fade LED lights based on input from light sensors.  We also toyed around with using the buzzer to make sounds that respond to various inputs.  Towards the end, we saw a processing script that interacted with the arduino in a simple, but impressive way (push a button to draw new circles and change their color depending on how much light was available in the room).  It was a great introduction to the hardware and software environments of arduino and the best part was that we got to take home a ProtoSnap for a $20 donation to one of my favorite science museums.

Natalie Jeremijenko began the evening sessions, speaking about the complexity of our environment and how we impact and interact in it. I’d never seen her work and found many of her projects inspiring, particularly from a science museum-y point-of-view. Her work with hacking robo-dog toys to sniff out pollutants, the importance of wetlands, and the potential reality of personal flight, are all readily explorable within my science museum’s community.

It’s possible, however, that the reason I’ve found Eyeo so great so far, is because the day ended with such a compelling and inspiring presenter.  Golan Levin spoke on Gestural Computing and Speculative Interactions, showing examples of computers with senses like vision and hearing.  I found his work relevant and progressive in a way that instantly opened my mind to new ways of thinking.  Perhaps more than anything, Levin helps me better understand what I want to be when I grow up.

Circling items in tomorrow’s agenda is just as fraught as today’s and I’m sure it’ll be as rewarding.  ’Til then.

* Meant only in the very best of ways.