Week Summary:

 
This week we received the brief, after presenting our Cycle 1 projects to the class (and an amazing international lunch with the whole PG MA/MSc cohort.) 

The project splits us all up into our predetermined teams by major. 

I‘m in Interactive Digital Media which places me with Richard and KP, and as Wearable Futures only has one student, Yifei has joined our group. 

To be honest none of us really touched this much during this week because we’ve had our “Learning Plan” and “Manifesto” due today for PG01.

However Richard KP and myself promised each other we’d chat on today (Tuesday) once presentations were done about the kind of work we’d be interested in pursuing for the brief so I’ve included some highlights here for posterity’s sake.

We’re looking forward to speaking with tutors tomorrow and getting started. 

The nature of the project really appeals to all of us. 

Boston Dynamics

KP and I can’t stop watching these videos. 

Boston Dynamics is a robotics company founded and based back in my old stomping grounds. 

https://www.bostondynamics.com/

ABOUT:

“We began as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where we developed the first robots that ran and maneuvered like animals. Now we are taking the next step, combining the principles of dynamic control and balance with sophisticated mechanical designs, cutting-edge electronics, and software for perception, navigation, and intelligence.  Boston Dynamics has an extraordinary technical team of engineers and scientists who seamlessly combine advanced analytical thinking with bold engineering and boots-in-the-mud practicality.

We pride ourselves in building machines that both break boundaries and work in the real world.” 

This MIT born and bred team is doing some really cool stuff. It’s incredible watching the bots move and successfully accomplish very human and animal-esque tasks. 

It’s of course also terrifying and makes you want to hide a bit. 

I’d be lying if I said it was only professional curiosity that brought us here... mostly we can’t stop laughing at the way they “test” these bots by constantly (excuse my french) fucking with them.

Someday when robots take over they’ll see these videos and punish humanity for our cruelty, surely.

Until then, enjoy:

Today we learned about this in PG01 but we discussed how it’s applicable to the type of work we may look at for this next brief in PG01. 

Gartner’s Hype Curve is a visualization of how emerging technology breaks on the scene, blows expectations up high, only to swing back down when inevitable time drain and complications come into play, and then eventually climbs back up a bit, to plateau out in a steadily productive technology. 

I found this article: 

https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-trends-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2017/

Which is applying Gartner’s curve to emerging technology in 2017. Well we’re at the end of 2017, this was written this summer.

“The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2017 focuses on three emerging technology mega-trends: Artificial intelligence (AI) everywhere, transparently immersive experiences and digital platforms. Enterprise architects and technology innovation leaders should explore and ideate these three mega-trends to understand the future impacts to their business.“


Since we’ll be doing a fair amount of DIY innovation this round, it seems likely we need to be really aware of the kind of technology we want to improve on in our respective fields. And in this day and age, we all know you have to be YEARS ahead to really make a dent, isn’t that so? 

Interesting read. 

This happened last week before we were assigned the brief; again I have PG01 to thank for the experience, because Dr. Katz brought us here. But I found this piece by Ryoji Ikeda at 180 the Strand to be really moving; as far as “immersive” experiences go, this is up there for me. 


The auditory aspect was both jarring and mesmerizing, the sound really rattling you around. It makes me think i’d like to dabble more in audio for this brief. Music has always been a huge part of my life. 

I’ve spent a bit of time on Ryoji Ikeda’s site now looking at the rest of the work and am really sold. I have to keep track of this artist. 

http://www.ryojiikeda.com/

Especially this immersive data project: 

http://test.ryojiikeda.com/project/datamatics/#datatron