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I've added a link to my performance project with Lego Mindstorms robotics in 'Projects'. Watch out, its not so much a proper page as a media dumping ground to be architected later.

Posted by cloo @ 05:41 PM EST [Link]

For one crazy week back in 1994, the newspapers in Southern Ontario seemed to have a disproportionate number of bizarre attacks by animals on humans. I began collecting them on the off chance the animials were finally wising up and overcoming their human oppressors. They're a bit odd: "Dog shoots man" (yup, its true! 5 dozen pellets!), "Animal writer savaged by flock of sheep" (it was James Herriot, author of All Creatures Great and Small), and finally "Bull kills women inside her home" (she was playing cards at the time). Now Steven Johnson, author of Emergence, reveals (from a NY Times article): "[Deer] are struck by cars, trucks and motorcycles more than a million times a year, with the accidents killing more than 100 people annually and causing more than $1 billion in damage. The human toll makes deer deadlier than sharks, alligators, bears and rattlesnakes combined." So don't rest easy just yet!

Posted by cloo @ 11:32 PM EST [Link]

A Closer Look at an old favorite: Soda

The famous Soda Constructor was created in the late 90's for the UK research/art/design group Soda (Soda Creative Technologies Ltd.). Its creator, Ed Burton, created it as a means of learning how to program Java. Although much has been said offhand in weblogs and website reviews about the addictive nature of the program, I'm taking a second look at the toy/art/experience for an interface design project-- and seeing some very interesting things I hadn't payed much attention to before. Specifically:

- Soda Constructor not only allows you to create your own design from component parts, it allows you to control the interaction of these parts (e.g. changing friction, kinetics), and even redefine the rules of the system (e.g. gravity off). Anyone who is interested in rule systems for games/toys may be interested in this aspect of the toy.

- Soda Constructor not only allows you to play with concepts of emergent patterns of movement (flow etc.), with the new Soda Race, the toy also allows you to experiment in AI.

- The interface is an excellent example of allowing for at least 10 minutes of direct play (by just diving in and dragging your creature around.)

- Soda Contructor creations hold the line between complete abstraction and life-like characteristics. We can recognize them as "creatures" through their remarkable organic movement, yet we are not distracted by overt organic characteristics (like this human skeleton-based example) that make their failure unnerving.

- Soda Constructor maintains a delicate relationship between basic elements and larger constructions. We can build larger creatings starting one component at a time, and see the relationship between this simple element and the system. More complex basic objects may separate users from feeling agency in a complex system.

Not bad for an experiment in Java programming that became popular as an addictive time-waster!

Posted by cloo @ 06:00 PM EST [Link]

According to Lego Mindstorms: The Structure of an Engineering (R)evolution, when Lego turned MIT's Programmable Brick into the basis for its Lego Mindstorms product line, it turned it from a gender neutral toy to a toy targetted at 10-14 year old boys (namely by choosing dark coloured bricks and gearing its kits and examples towards robots etc...). According to MIT, the original product appealed equally to both genders, but Lego's marketing department disagreed. What makes this even more unfortunate (well, aside from the fact girls now steer away from this fascinating tech product), is that its founding Constructionist ethic suggests this type of grounded, embodied programming may be a style more engaging for women.

Posted by cloo @ 05:51 PM EST [Link]

Can we use digital tools designed for building, manipulating and exploring to examine issues that go beyond math and science? Marina Umaschi Bers looks at A Constructionist Approach to Values through On-line Narrative Tools.

These days, I'm just a Constructionist fanboy.

Posted by cloo @ 07:45 PM EST [Link]

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