Another device for distant non-verbal interaction (similar to Feel Me) is Kissenger by Dr. Hooman Samani. Created under a the research umbrella Lovotics (Love and Robotics) at Keio-NUS CUTE Center, a collaborative artificial intelligence lab between the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Keio University of Japan, the Kissenger are a pair of devices you use with your loved one to transfer a kiss over distance. Kissenger:

provides a physical interface enabling kiss communication for several applications facilitating intimate human tele-presence with the real and virtual worlds…With the aid of digital communication media and advanced robotic technology, the system takes the form of an artificial mouth that provides the convincing properties of the real kiss.

The system propose and enables three modes of possible kiss interaction:

1. Human to Human tele-kiss through the device: bridges the physical gap between two intimately connected individuals. Kissenger plays the mediating role in the kiss interaction by imitating and recreating the lip movement of both users in real time using two digitally connected artificial lips.
2. Human to Robot kiss: enabling an intimate relationship with a robot, such technology provides a new facility for closer and more realistic interactions between humans and robots. In this scenario, one set of artificial lips is integrated in a humanoid robot.
3. Human to Virtual character physical/virtual kiss: provides a link between the virtual and real worlds. Here, humans can kiss virtual characters while playing games and receive physical kisses from their favorite virtual characters. Further, Kissenger can be integrated into modern communication devices to facilitate the interactive communication between natural and technologically mediated environments and enhance human tele-presence.

This is an interesting concept but is essentially drifting into the area of teledildonics. It’s not unique as I’ve seen devices similar to these before from the very serious to artistic parodies however I’m not sure what the thinking is behind making it look like a cute pig.

Originally seen on Valentina Tanni’s weblog.

Feel Me by Marco Triverio is an iPhone app that attempts to connect people through a form of digitised touch and natural intuitive gestures. Mobile phones prioritise language and sound, what if we could touch people through these technologies?

Based on the finding for which communications with a special person are not about content going back and forth but rather about perceiving the presence of the other person on the other side, Feel Me opens a real-time interactive channel.

When two people are both looking at the conversation they are having, touches on the screen of one side are shown on the other side as small dots. Touching the same spot triggers a small reaction, such as a vibration or a sound, acknowledging that both parts are there at the same time. Feel Me creates a playful link with the person on the other side, opening a channel for a non-verbal and interactive connection.

The concept videos for the app are worth a look, Transmissions, reverberations, connections and movements.

Originally seen on the Creative Applications Network.

I’m in Paris at the moment trying to see as many exhibitions and conferences as possible. The best work I’ve seen all week is Videodrones (image above), an audio-visual installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at the Collége des Bernardins.

The work uses live video feeds from five cameras placed in the street outside the gallery to generate constant drone audio within the space. The imagery is unmodfied however projections of the videos are placed out of order making it difficult to follow movement in the external space and in a sense abstracting it across all five projections. Movment / changes in light controls the audio, passers-by become unknowing participants in the work. The installation closes today the 15th of April so if you’re in Paris go see it without delay.

I wasn’t aware that I knew of this artist however Les Oiseaux de Céleste (video below) shown at the Barbican in 2010 does look very familiar.

Many thanks to Frédérique Santune for taking me to see this installation.

Selfsurfing by Jonas Lund is a Google Chrome extension for networked performance. The extension:

creates a self-surfing, auto-updating clone of my browser in real time. My browser has a server extension installed which transmits the current state of my browser to a intermediate server, which holds all relevant information. This information is then picked up by Selfsurfing extension.

Originally seen on Trianulationblog.

For related work (extensions for Firefox) see Disorganiser and Shiftspace.

The following are a selection of four networked works by artist Winnie Soon from the last three years. The first two works employ mobile phones while the last three use Twitter creating some shared concerns and methods of presentation.

5-stars’ identity (image above, video below) is an interactive installation which uses mobile phones as ready made objects to create a connected work. It is the first of two works where mobiles play an important part in the work. The works purpose, research led, is to:

express the notion of transmediation, examine the properties of dynamic complex system in association with readymade object. The new aesthetic possibilities is explored by having the inter-relationship of technology, media and objects, leading to a hybridization in sensorial transformation.

The project starts with scanning the various Internet websites of news and blog, those content that is related to Chinese’s Identity will be translated into different language versions and send to the mobile device. The five mobile phones perform with different behaviors and this is subject to political and environmental events. It constructs a continuous and dynamic autonomous system.

Jsut Code (image above, video below), a collaborative work with Helen Pritchard, is an interactive installation using QR Code, mobile phones and Twitter. It is the first of three technically related work which uses live information from Twitter as its basis. The work prompts users to explore and browse online texts written by a combination of human and non-human writers.

Statements on life and death are gathered in real-time, from the social media site twitter and displayed as geometric images. Viewers encounter a continuously updating feed as the machine translates language to image and twitter message to QR code, each image “carries” a language of pattern and meaning, which is activated by the reader…We see code as a call to action, a call for execution. The playful activity of reading in ‘jsut code’ is a collaborative performance between human, machine and code. The installation explores a continuously evolving and mutating text which moves beyond and between language.

Net.Portrait (image above, video below), a collaboration with Sam Norgard also uses live information from Twitter as its basis. Net.Portrait is:

a live and network-based installation combined with fine-art painting, kinetic sculpture and collective network data. While you are watching the piece, the artwork is also dynamically watching you by having different emotive eyes painted on a collection of wall mounted cocktail umbrellas. The live happenings of happy and sad smiley faces from Twitter are being transformed from a text, static and virtual medium to a kinetic and physical sculpture. Every bit of spinning action amplifies the network behavior, resulting in a continuous and flowing net portrait.

Datascape (image above, video below) is an interactive installation / performance which is created through the latest text and emoticons from Twitter.