Category Archives: art

Ars Electronica Festival 2017: Artificial Intelligence

This years Ars Electronica Festival theme is the all present topic of Artificial Intelligence. The Ars Electronica Festival 2017 theme “Artificial Intelligence – The Other I.” focuses on the cultural, psychological, philosophical and spiritual aspects of AI.

As an media and art festival by definition that often uncovers the philosophical background of popular trends and hypes, this years Festival takes up the challenge of looking behind the cultural aspects of the ever-present topic of AI.

The discussion on AI, as the festival title already suggests will bring us a critical discourse on our own identity and existence.

Is AI killing our jobs and taking over many of our traditional working domains, similar to the industrial revolution in the 18th century?
How do we deal with digital personalities or with the social impact of smart machines handling many parts of our daily lives?
The Ars Electronica Festival also questions the acceptance of such super machines and if humans will ever be able to accept them?
Visit the festival in POSTCITY Linz, September 7-11, 2017.

Read more about the principles of AI and machine learning, refer to following Kindle eBook on ‘Applied Artificial Intelligence’.

Android Paint and Draw for your Kids

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Over the last years I kept asking my now 5 year old daughter how she would design a simple painting App and how this Painting App should look like. We discussed about the background color as well as how to change and choose colors, the absolute requirement to add the color pink and how to change the brush thickness. The design of the paint and drawing App went completely without the need to read a single piece of written text or menu. We came up with a very simple and intuitive way to touch-draw images for children and to store these images as .png pictures. You can find your free Android Painting App for Kids and Children in the Google App store.

Submit your Arduino Projects to the Maker Fair in ROME

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Maker Faire Rome - The European EditionSave the date for the European Maker Faire that takes place from 3 to 6 October in ROME, Italy!

Massimo Banzi, one of the inventors of Arduino, is promoting and hosting this cool Make Event in October. It will be the perfect event for meeting the community of DIY activists and Makers all over Europe. The deadline for submitting your own Make projects and creations has been postopened until end of June. Submit your own Arduino projects here.
Maker Faire showcases the amazing work of all kinds and ages of makers—anyone who is embracing the do-it-yourself (or do-it-together) spirit and wants to share their accomplishments with an appreciative audience.
Topics for the Maker Call are: 3D Printing, Robot, Education, Design, Fashion, Arduino, Crafts, Science, Digital Fabrication, Green, Transportation, Interaction and Young Makers (under 16);

I-Wei Huang Talks about his Amazing Collection of Steampower Robot Designs

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In this video I-Wei Huang shows a guy from the Wired magazin his amazing collection of robot designs. I-Wei Hung’s has a special interest in steampowered robot designs, as you can see in some of his robot designs. I-Wei Hung designs adorable cool robots, watch this video to get a glimpse on his robotic genius! Also refer to the original Wired Interview here.

Adorable Lean Product Design: Activity Tracker Misfit Shine

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Misfit Shine personal activity tracking device

Misfit Shine personal activity tracking device, image source: www.indiegogo.com/misfitshine

Its no surprise that the adorable lean product design of Misfit’s Shine personal activity tracker catched so much public attention that its Indiegogo pledge for funding reached nearly  $700.000 and exeeded its target value by around 600%! Misfit Shine is designed as a waterprove, durable and very light personal device that you can wear even if you go hiking or swimming. Shine is carved out of solid steel within one piece and wirelessly transmits your activity information onto your iPhone. In order to sync your devices data, just lay your Shine on your iPhone.

Misfit Shine offers a lean interaction design by just showing a circle of tiny leds that indicate your potion of activity for your day. The Misfit Shine personal activity tracking device now also is shipped in sleek matte black, which gives it an additional exclusive touch.

Book – The Human Face of Big Data

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Did you ever wondered what the Big Data Hype means to us in reality? Information and communication technology, advanced network bandwidth and intelligent data analysis and prognosis enable fantastic insights into our modern society. No matter if you are collecting data within urban areas, such as the different ways Pizza delivery is taking in Manhattan on a Friday afternoon or analyzing the crop in large agricultural facilities. Within the book The Human Face of Big Data, the authors Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt present the human and society dimension of this new hype on analysing and prognosis of all kind of information.

The Human Face of Big Data captures, in glorious photographs and moving essays, an extraordinary revolution sweeping, almost invisibly, through business, academia, government, healthcare, and everyday life. It’s already enabling us to provide a healthier life for our children. To provide our seniors with independence while keeping them safe. To help us conserve precious resources like water and energy. To alert us to tiny changes in our health, weeks or years before we develop a life-threatening illness. To peer into our own individual genetic makeup. To create new forms of life.  And soon, as many predict, to re-engineer our own species. And we’ve barely scratched the surface . . .

The Human Face of Big Data

Urban Graffity Tagging – done by a Pole Climbing Robot

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Urban Graffity Tagging Pole Climbing Robot

Watch this amazingly cool pole climbing robot, that is able to create urban graffity art  taggings on public poles. The climbing robot is drawing while climbing up and down the pole. AKIRA, the author of the video who studied computer science, art and cultural studies at International Christian University Tokyo, calls his projects ‘experiments in urban intervention’, which means to tactically hack into your urban environments to create urban art. At the moment AKIRA is working as a freelance coder, engineer and artist in Tokyo. You can find more of his fantastic work on his site Ampontang.com.

electree+ the green and renewable energy bonsai tree

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electree+ green solar charge bonsai tree

electree+ green solar charge bonsai tree, image source: Kickstarter.com

electree+, a recent Kickstarter project, plans to build a really stylish solar bonsai tree for your home or office table, that can charge your smart mobile devices. It’s tiny solar leaves collect the power of the sun and directly route it into your iPhone. The electree+ harvests solar energy through 27 high-quality amorphous-silicon square solar panels, each ~3.7″ wide. Its branches extend vertically to an apex of ~16″ high. Energy is stored in a 14,000mAh internal battery capable of recharging an iPhone5 over nine times, a Galaxy S3 ~seven times, or an iPad2 twice without light exposure

Part sculpture, part appliance, the electree+ challenges preconceptions about the role of artwork by dissolving the barrier between aesthetic and pragmatic.

Philips Hue Connected Light Bulbs

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Philips and Apple’s ambilight technology appeared on the market already some years ago and despite it’s incredible cool design Philips and Apple are going a little bit further by introducing Hue light bulbs. Hue light bulbs are directly connected and can be controlled by your mobile iPhone or iPad. The user is able to create light settings based on favourite photos, or to choose from expert light recipes to help you relax or concentrate, or even set timers to help you wake up and pace your day. According to it’s direct control and its flexible lighning settings there will surely be countless application possibilities for this new Philips Hue bulbs in a makers home. All you need to start connecting your home’s lightning scenes is to buy a Philips Apple Hue Starter Kit which comes with a bridge and three bulbs and costs 199$ within the Apple store.

Philips Apple Hue Light

Bicymple : Crazy simple bike design

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Do you know Fixie bikes, the bikes that remove a gear from the overall design of a bike? Well if you like Fixie bike designs, you definitely will love the Bicymple bike design which does not only remove the gear but also the chain as well 😉 The pedals are directly attached to the rear wheel, which is quite similar to the once known historic unicylce…

Josh Bechtel, the inventor of this cracy piece of bike design says:

More than just a stylish concept bike, the bicymple is comfortable, easy to ride, and brilliantly simple to maintain. The lightweight design and short wheelbase make for a nimble ride. The optional rear-steer mode is reminiscent of custom “swing bikes” and allows tighter turns and “crab-riding”.

Well despite the fact  that this is one of the most amazing bike designs i have seen in years, i would not dare to try this bike on our Austrian mountain roads :), in that case i would prefer the Faraday Porteur electric design bike that was presented some weeks ago at kickstarter.