newmediacuts

E-mail to art gallery in an instant

Coming in from the BBC ::

Artists from around the world are being encouraged to e-mail their masterpieces to be displayed in an East London art gallery.

Graphic artists, designers and film-makers are all being asked to contribute to the Hype Gallery, in London's East End, with their digital pictures or short films.

The idea was developed with print giant Hewlett Packard, which has installed a range of equipment, from huge laser printers to projectors, in the gallery.

When a piece of art is received, via e-mail or on a CD, it is printed out on huge machines, mounted, then hung on the wall for all to enjoy.

Source: BBC Online

2004 Predictions - hot and not

The clock spins again and these are the predictions coming down the line for the year ahead -- the year where the digital hub becomes a reality

1. -- a slew of extreme wi-fi and bluetooth devices will allow users to stream music, video and photographs from a central server in the house to the television, a music center or individual computers.

2. Early adopters run Linux [or Mac] servers in their homes to facilitate this.

3. Grid computing starts to happen - three, four or five computers in a home are harnessed to number crunch.

4. Several portals will emerge streaming engaging content - be it imagery, video or text, which changes regularly - almost like a tv channel. Think meta refresh on steroids. These engaging portals will not require direct interaction from the user to navigate. Voice navigation will emerge [hello Macromedia Central].

5. NASDAQ ends the year above 2750 - 35% plus

6. A video i-Pod - the v-Pod? appears.

7. Ireland will be well on the way to a change of Government.

8. Personal spaces become so much more important

9. UK sees video via 3G - Ireland still waits

10. I get my Canon 10d digital camera!

Mobile phones as remote controls

Mobile Phones That Interact With Buildings While we've all heard the stories of new interactive TV offerings that use mobile phones to "vote" and the vending machines that let you buy via your mobile phone - it looks like some are trying to get even more creative, and are actually constructing spaces that can interact with mobile phones. Forget the concept of the "waiting" room. At Vodafone and the BBC in the UK, the reception area comes complete with plenty of interactive choices - all of which can be controlled by your mobile phone. This isn't completely new, and the article details some of the earlier experiments, such as the building that was rigged up to display SMS text messages running along the side. However, more companies now want to embrace the idea of the mobile phone as a ubiquitous mobile remote control.

[via Techdirt]

RaLET Web Resource Online

The RaLET school now has a web resource - and it's a Typepad site - view it here.

The Educate Together movement is the fastest growing sector in Irish education, and there are now 31 schools in Ireland. The schools are non-denominational, child-centred, and democratically run between teachers and parents. Ross started there last week. His verdict so far? "Why don't I go to school on Saturdays Daddy?"

'Nuff said.

Turn off the options, and turn up the intimacy

Digital photography seems to excel in all those areas that I’m not interested in. I’m interested in the alchemy of light on film and chemistry and silver. When I’m taking a photograph I imagine the light rays passing through my lens and penetrating the emulsion of my film. And when I’m developing my film I imagine the emulsion swelling and softening and the little particles of silver tarnishing.

Ralph Gibson

[Source: Bermangraphics.com]

I recently spent three days working with what is possibly the most advanced recording console in the world, and I have to report that it was a horribly unmusical experience. The console, which has more than 10,000 controls on its surface and a computer inside, was designed in such a way that music-making tasks once requiring a single physical switch now require a several-step mental negotiation. My engineer kept saying "Wait a minute" and then had to duck out of the musical conversation we were having so he could go into secretarial mode to execute complex computer-like operations. It's as though a new layer of bureaucracy has interposed itself between me and the music we want to make. After days of tooth-gnashing frustration, I had to admit that something has gone wrong with the design of technology - and I was paying $2,000 a day in studio fees to discover it.

Brian Eno

[Source: Wired]