Make: Online: Culture jamming Archives

Archive: Culture jamming

November 13, 2009

The EyeWriter

I'm thrilled to share the EyeWriter with you all:

Behold the latest ocular assault weapon from the Graffiti Research Lab, openFrameworks, The Fat Lab and The Ebeling Group: The EyeWriter. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus + custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.

The goal of the hardware component of the EyeWriter project is to make the most simple and inexpensive eye-tracking head-set possible to use with the "EyeWriter" software suite. Obviously, there are numerous ways to make eye-tracking hardware. Many of these designs, especially those produced for academic research projects (Open Eyes ), have already been published openly on the internet.

Our functional design specifications are as follows:

1. The EyeWriter should be as inexpensive as possible
2. The fabrication and assembly of the system should require only common hand tools
3. Whenever possible components and parts should be available for purchase locally versus online
4. The camera should produce 640 x 480 NTSC video
5. The camera should be sensitive to near-field IR light
6. The camera should not auto-iris (or auto-iris should be disabled in the camera's driver).
7. IR LEDs should be used to illuminate the pupil

Beyond that its up to you... this instruction set details a solderless variation of the EyeWriter that uses a hacked PS3 Eye and a pair of stunnas we bought on Venice Beach and suggests other possible EyeWriter configurations.

Yes, that's right, watch TemptOne tag buildings (with light) even though he can only move his eyes. We live in the future, and this project makes me feel so warm inside. The whole project is open source.

November 12, 2009

Ego search visualizer

Pretty much everyone has googled themselves to see what the internet has to say about them. However, if you're particularly active on forums, blogs, twitter and so on, you'll end up with so many hits you can barely process it. A web application called Personas created by MIT doctoral student Aaron Zinman attempts to generate a visual representation of those hits, creating a bar chart breaking the subject down by interest. At the same time, the project doesn't merely create a pretty picture, it raises awareness of the capriciousness of algorithm-driven data mining.

In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer's uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

Try it on personas.media.mit.edu/.

Via

November 11, 2009

How-To: Pirate TV

Jon Cohrs writes:

Tired of the blocky, JPEG-like resolution of digital television? Do you long for the days of RF modulation and regulated-yet-unregulated content? Do you simply have the desire to toss your converter box out the window and make use of those rabbit ear antennae that are just lying around? If so, then you might be interested in becoming a savior of analog television! This Instructable will show you how to create your own fully-fledged low-power analog television channel, with any video source(including your computer) as a source of content.

We created one that went live the minute analog tv went dead. We're still the only analog station in NYC, but please join us in making more!!

October 31, 2009

Pinwall facade pinball marchine

Turning the front of a building (via projections) into a pinball machine.

UrbanScreen

October 26, 2009

Graffiti marker disguised as cigarette

I recently ordered some refillable paint pens from Art Primo, and this was in the box as a freebie. It's the exact size, shape, and color as a cigarette, and among a dozen real cigarettes in a pack it'd likely pass any search completely unnoticed. It took me a minute to figure out its nefarious purpose: If you get caught in the vicinity of a fresh tag, after all, it's best not to be found with a marker on your person. They're manufactured by Germany's On The Run, but you won't find them on their website. The one I got was gold; the silver ones below were photographed by Flickr user $30,000.

October 22, 2009

Mud graffiti is fun, eco-friendly

I'm not normally a huge fan of graffiti, but I like Jesse Grave's this technique of using mud stencils to make temporary graffiti. It seems like a nice, low impact alternative to moss graffiti, plus you get to play with mud! He seems to be getting good results, however I wonder how well it holds up as it dries out. Anyone else try something like this? [via inhabitat]

October 9, 2009

1W TV-B-Gone in a flashlight

Here's the translation of a page about a DIY TV-B-Gone inside a flashlight/torch, looks great! [via adafruit]

October 8, 2009

You say "looks like somebody has too much time on their hands"

Pt 2225
You say "looks like somebody has too much time on their hands"...

Previously:
3228218938 7Dc3B3683B B
Your time vs Jason's time...

Happy Friday, what are making this weekend?

Public staircase turned into piano keyboard

If you're impatient with the preamble and want to see it work, scan forward to about 0:39. [via Hack a Day]

September 28, 2009

TXT a beaver - Amphibious architecture

Nycriverb
Amphibious architecture, I TXTed a beaver in the East River, neat... You can too, just text "EastRiver" or "BronxRiver" to 41411

Amphibious Architecture is a visual interface floating on the water’s surface, a veritable looking glass into the aquatic ecosystem. This manufactured point of connection submerges ubiquitous computing into the one element that covers 90% of the Earth’s inhabitable volume and which envelops New York City but remains under-explored and under-engaged.
Installed at two sites along the East and the Bronx Rivers, this project is a network of floating interactive buoys housing a range of sensors below water and an array of light emitting diodes (LEDs) above water. The sensors monitor water quality, the presence of fish, and human interest in the river’s ecosystem, while the lights respond to the sensors, creating feedback loops between humans, fish in their shared environment. Additionally an SMS interface allows homo-citizens to text-message the fish and receive real-time information about the river, contributing towards the collective display of human interest in the aquatic environment. The aim of which is to simultaneously spark a larger public interest and dialogue about our local waterways.

Distinctly moving away from the pervasive ‘do-not-disturb’ approach to urban environmentalism, the project encourages curiosity and engagement. Treating the river water as a reflective surface to mirror our own homo-image and architecture, establishing a two-way interface between the terrestrial and the aquatic. The project thus creates a dynamic and captivating layer of light above the surface of the river, making visible the invisible through real-time mapping of the new ecology of people, marine life, buildings, and public space.

September 15, 2009

"Umbrellas for the Civil but Discontent Man"

Umbrella 1
Umbrella 3
Umbrellas for the Civil but Discontent Man designed by Bruce and Stephanie Tharp of Materious... via Core77.

In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud contends that aggressiveness is a fundamental human instinct whose inhibition is a necessary obligation of social life: “Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but that a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment.” Fundamentally there is a tension between the freedom to gratify these natural desires and the conformity demanded by civilization. What results is a muted, guilty, and ultimately a discontent populous in which the possibility of a more complete happiness has been traded for a degree of security. Umbrellas for the Civil but Discontent Man combines a symbol of gentlemanly refinement—the full-sized, dark umbrella—with an element of more manly sword-bearing times. The umbrellas offer brief psychological respite from the dictates of social amiability; aggressive fantasies are allowed and encouraged on the daily commute to the office. The effete civilian’s grasp of the handle takes him into the world of the masterful samurai, the medieval barbarian, or the triumphant cavalryman.

September 8, 2009

New York City Garbage by Justin Gignac -- Thank You for Littering.™

Pt 2138
New York City Garbage by Justin Gignac -- Thank You for Littering.™... Limited edition garbage.

September 5, 2009

Never too early to start modding

Mod
A MAKE reader sent this is with the title "never too early to start modding" !

September 3, 2009

Eyeborg

Eyeborg Press Parts2
This was making the rounds a couple months ago, but I don't think we posted it on MAKE - Rob Spence is a filmmaker who lost his eye and decided to replace it with a wireless video camera...

September 2, 2009

How-To: Moss graffiti

Over at CRAFT, Goli posted up this moss graffiti tutorial by Helen Nodding, featured in CRAFT Volume 04. It's a fun way to spread some green around the neighborhood.

August 26, 2009

Intern's Corner: Making my own magazine

MAKE: Intern's Corner
Every other week, MAKE's awesome interns tell about the projects they're building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they'll make next.

By Ed Troxell, photo intern

When I landed my internship here at MAKE it was my real break into the magazine industry. I remember telling myself that if I could just get my foot in the door, the rest would fall into place. Well, it did. Since joining MAKE over a year ago, my life has not been the same -- not only have I worked at a great magazine, I've launched my own magazine, MIX IT UP.

I was hired a MAKE editorial intern, which really helped me get a sense of what goes on when putting together a magazine: finding topics to write about, finding writers, assigning deadlines, making sure people meet those deadlines, fact-checking articles, proofing them, all while having staff meetings and conference calls with those who work in other locations.

While learning all this, I was finishing up my studies in communications at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., where I was photo editor on the school newspaper, The Star. About 6 months later, I was switched over to become MAKE's photo intern, which turned out to be perfect since I was already doing photography.

Read full story

August 25, 2009

World's smallest pistol - Austria 2mm pinfire miniature guns

There are many like it but this one is mine...

Originally made by Austrian watchmakers as decorative pocket watch chain fobs or as cufflinks, these miniature pinfire pistols are now prized collector's items. These are some from my own collection dating from 1904 to the 1970's. All of them fire 2mm blank pinfire cartridges. The revolvers are the world's smallest working double action blank firing pistols. They measure just 38mm in length and are smaller than the famous Swiss Mini Gun which measures 55mm.

August 19, 2009

New TV-B-Gone works all over the place

Hate having to flash your chip to bring your TV-B-Gone to Europe? Well, cross it off your packing to-do list, the new TV-B-Gone turns off TVs in North America, Europe/UK, and Asia.

More:

August 14, 2009

Elegant wooden bikes by Renovo

A family-owned and operated company, Renovo sells custom-built frames forged from two halves of hollowed out wood that are bonded together. The result is strong and absolutely stunning!

From their website:

Some folks view these frames as works of art, too nice or delicate for daily use, but they aren't your Brigitte parks oh-so-carefully ... mom's dining room table. We chose wood for it's ride quality and sustainability, and got beauty as a bonus; but it's not a weakness. An impact that will dent and ruin a butted metal or carbon frame merely bounces off the Renovo frame leaving a small dent.

Wood is tough stuff; a good example is the walnut stock of the 1903 Springfield rifle. Used in warfare from WW1 through the Korean conflict, they were thrown from trucks,dragged through sand, rivers and hell, used as pry bars, clubs, crutches and occasionally, rifles. But after the wars, civilians bought these battle-scarred relics and refinished the stocks into gorgeous sporting rifles.

Calling them Functional Art is fine with me.

Renovo (via Inhabitat)

More:

Long Live the Bicycle

Wooden Bike

Wooden Bicycle from China

August 12, 2009

Skateboard stools

I spotted these nifty stools on the Inhabitat blog and immediately had two thoughts -- these are super cool(!), and there's gotta be a way to use the 6 or so skateboards scattered in my yard to make one myself (or a close facsimile thereof).

After these thoughts, I immediately went to the maker's website to see how much one of the stools, just as a fallback you understand, would set me back. After all, the seat on top looks a little tricky to fabricate. I thought the $199 price tag was extremely fair for the workmanship involved, but it was just high enough to make me carve out a few hours in the coming weekend to do some experimenting. If I bring myself to actually cut the end off a couple of decks, I'll report back in the Comments. And if I prefer, I can always send my old boards to Deckstool for a custom job (and a 20 buck discount).