Updates from Ben Dalton RSS
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07:28:51 am on March 19, 2011 |
Hidden Trajectories – Artists’ use of aviation and network mapping, Ben Dalton
Viewing Area is a weekend conference on Saturday the 19th & Sunday 20th of March 2011 for aviation enthusiasts at at Cork International Airport, Ireland
Using an ideal glazed vantage point on the first floor of the old decommissioned Airport Terminal, overlooking the runway and air traffic control towers, a series of informal talks and events explore how people engage with aviation through technology, art and society organised by artist Ross Dalziel.
Keep track of the Conference’s research links and conference programme content here
Terminal Convention is an internationally significant art, film, music and discursive event featuring some of the worlds leading and emerging international artists, musicians and academics taking place 17-27 March 2011, and is set in the former Cork International Airport Terminal, Ireland and Cork city centre music venues.
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06:22:05 am on February 12, 2011 |
The Passive Multiplayer Online Game (later called ) did a good job of digitising experience points and merit badges via a firefox plugin for general web browsing. I’d like a something that would work for education across more than one web platform for tracking exercises and tasks completed. I imagine a list of tasks, and ‘embed’ code for each task, that could be added to work while it is being created and act as a call back to the system to update what had been completed in someone’s todo list.
A tutor log-in or peer voting layer would allow for feedback and confirmation of completion to be added within whatever page the badge was embedded. A QR-code generator could allow badges to be added to physical work, again to allow comments to be added directly.
Anything like this exist?
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03:57:16 pm on January 25, 2011 |
Some quotes and context around technology and art teaching, and the history in Leeds.
An understanding of contemporary media and the means of production, informed by a sense of digital technology, aesthetics and ethics.
Process & materials. Mechanisms of communication.
“In a field that moves so quickly – where today’s innovations may be obsolete tomorrow – students need more than just technical skills. They need an understanding of the underlying structures that fuel the dynamism between technology and creativity.”
, Artistic Director Media and Visual Arts, Director of Research, The Banff New Media Institute
“… if technology and the ability to be connected disappear further into the background, what will occupy our foreground? A bit of the humanity we’ve always valued in the “real world.” Legislators who are currently fixated on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education as the key to innovation will realize that STEM needs some STEAM–some art in the equation. We’ll witness a return to the integrity of craft, the humanity of authorship, and the rebalancing of our virtual and physical spaces. We’ll see a 21st-century renaissance in arts- and design-centered approaches to making things, where you–the individual–will take center stage in culture and commerce.”
, John Maeda (2010)
“Innovation is born when art meets science.”
, President, RISD
Leeds City Mechanics’ Institute- 1824 – Leeds Mechanics Institute founded.
- 1845 – Leeds College of Commerce founded.
- 1846 – Leeds College of Art founded.
- 1868 – Leeds Mechanics Institute became the Leeds Institute of Science, Art and Literature, later renamed Leeds College of Technology
- 1874 – Yorkshire College of Education and Home Economics founded.
- 1907 – City of Leeds College of Education founded (part of City of Leeds Training College)
- 1933 – Carnegie Physical Training College founded
- 1970 – Leeds Polytechnic was formed from the amalgamation of Leeds College of Technology, Leeds College of Commerce, part of Leeds College of Art and Yorkshire College of Education and Home Economics
George Birkbeck (1776-1841), held a degree in medicine. When he started his lectures in 1799 he found it necessary to have a good deal of apparatus, and while this was being made under his instructions he became acquainted with a number of Glasgow artisans. He found them so intelligent and so eager to learn that he resolved to start a course of lectures and experiments in mechanics ‘solely for persons engaged in the practical exercise of the mechanical arts, men whose situation in early life has precluded the possibility of acquiring even the smallest portion of scientific knowledge.’ The lectures proved a great success. After Birkbeck removed to London in 1804, the lectures were continued by the next occupant of the chair; and finally, in 1823, the members of the class organised it into a ‘Mechanics’ Institute’. Its purpose was defined as ‘instructing artisans in the scientific principles of arts and manufactures’.
: “A skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. A person who displays great dexterity.”
- open, free, course of lectures on the ‘mechanical arts’
- mix of classes, library, reading-room, and apparatus for experiments
- lectures on mathematics and its applications, and on natural and experimental science and drawing
- “threw into relief the connection between material advancement and the necessity of education to take part in its advantages”
- funded by benevolent groups and individuals, businesses and small rental fee
- provided free light on two evenings a week from the local Gas Light Company
[in] 1955 [Harry Thubron] became Head of Fine Art at Leeds College of Art. During his ten year tenure in Leeds he helped to revolutionise art education in England by establishing the Basic Design Course, a programme inspired by the German Bauhaus college and the theoretical writings of Herbert Read. In this programme, art and design students were not taught specific skills for any of the disciplines of art and design, but visual literacy in the use of colour, establishment of form and construction of space. Out of this, and similar experiments undertaken by Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at Kings College Newcastle, a new introductory course for art, design and architecture students emerged, called the Foundation Course, which went on to became the standard degree course-entry qualification for art, design and architecture students … He also helped to create a prototype for Britain’s Polytechnics by sending his students to work on collaborative projects with engineering students from Leeds College of Technology, out of which Leeds Polytechnic was formed.
Out-take from Christopher Burstall’s BBC documentary A Question of Feeling 1970. Day one with students on the reconstructed . © Garth Evans
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03:47:53 pm on November 26, 2010 |
Made with
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10:46:40 am on November 6, 2010 |
I made a series of hand illustrated paper angels as a christmas present a couple of years back.
Without access to a last minute printer, my solution was to load this paperangel.svg up on the screen and then trace round it before filling with patterns I traced from a google image search. Then simply cut out and slot the two slits together to make it stand.
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07:09:14 am on November 6, 2010 |
You know that numb sensation you get when you are somewhere away from the internet, and you can no longer just find out the things you would normally have at your finger tips? You may not, perhaps this is an indication of just how much of my time is mediated by the web (I’m not an addict … but I do keep some extra internet hidden down the back of the sofa for emergencies).
Anyway, I have a similar sensation when using someone else’s web browser – my senses feel dulled, my reaction time slowed by the subtle differences in a web interface that I am unfamiliar with. One thing in particular I miss when away from my own browser are Firefox’s .
My most used are
?for wikipedia,herefor searching the website I’m currently viewing,mapto see where things are on a map,img&vidfor google image and video searches, and various searches for my flickr, delicious and friendfeed accounts to help me recall things I’ve seen.Keyword:
?
Location:Keyword:
??
Location:Keyword:
here
Location:javascript:void(location.href='http://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=site:'+location.href.split(%22/%22)[2]+'+%s&sourceid=firefox')Keyword:
map
Location:Keyword:
img
Location:Keyword:
vid
Location:Keyword:
flickr
Location:
(you’ll need to look up your own id to use here)Keyword:
del
Location:|noii|
(dito)Keyword:
ff
Location:
(since selling themselves to facebook, friendfeed’s search has been super slow and shitty)A few others:
Keyword:
last
Location:Keyword:
hype
Location:Keyword:
whois
Location:Keyword:
sch
Location:Keyword:
boing
Location:Finally, for some sites like , you’ll need to go and right-click in their search box by hand to generate the correct keyword search.
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08:31:30 am on October 30, 2010 |
Technical advisor for the touch screen art commissioning residency.
Digital Media Labs offers ten chosen artists a week-long residency as part of a commissioning process for a touch screen art work for the new multi-million pound NHS Hull Wilberforce Health Centre. This commission and Lab will be a key part of their innovative and ambitious arts programme for the new city centre multi-use building. –
Ran a series of workshops and talks throughout the week demonstrating the potential and limitations of touch screens. Worked with other resident artists to help them produce functional demos of touch-screen pieces. Predominantly used .
A talk notes.
Most useful Processing code snippets for touch screens are:
noCursor();size(screen.width, screen.height);and remembering that you can run in presentation mode full screen on the second monitor if you change
run.displayin the preferences file linked from the processing preferences page.void mouseMoved() { }was also handy, as touching the screen often triggers a move rather than a click.
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02:31:29 pm on October 6, 2010 |
Ran across a folder of stuff from a 24 hour run by Maeda during my time at the Media Lab. These team logos still make me laugh.
The topic was email and the secret ingredient was Play Doh. Our project proposed an email system that was military-grade encrypted and only revealed each message by printing it in to soft Play Doh. This allowed the reader to instantly squish up the message. Perfect for love letters most intimate. Carlos, Limor and I built the printer, a Play Doh pixel font and the code to run it in the course of the night.
SerialControl.java
MailReceiver.java
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12:32:24 pm on October 2, 2010 |
This summer I had the chance to use a vacant shop space in Leeds Plaza thanks to from . My aim was to play with some projections and generative works around the topic of paths. I was also keen to try some of the simpler blob tracking methods in combination with live video feeds. I’ll get some of the code up if I have a chance. In the mean time, here are some photos and (and a version without noticeable compression).
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02:14:47 pm on September 28, 2010 |
I posted two consecutive unrelated images that appealed to me through the interface a while back. It was only when reviewing the site later that I noticed a similarity.
I’ve seen this happen a few times before with flickr favourites – I star several images over a few days, and then favourites update on friendfeed, and the different photos are juxtaposed to create new meaning. Nice.