Two installation works which employ two computers each to generate a dialogue.
Taiwa-Hensokuki (image above) by Yuko Mohri is an installation consisting of two computers which converse. The computers:
each equipped with speech synthesis software and speech recognition software, interact: the text that one computer reads aloud is analyzed by the other, which reads out the results for the other to analyze. That process is repeated throughout the day, during which the text gradually mutates.
Permanent Vacation (image above) by Cory Arcangel consists of two computers which endlessly bounce auto-replies to each other saying their user is away. The audience are not permitted to see the emails themselves just the inbox’s of the users who every so often hear the hear ding of a new email arriving. Marisa Olson’s review on rhizome questions:
Could this exchange go on forever?
It seems it could continue until the network connection is broken, the computer runs out of space or is shut down however what I’m curious about is how did the exchange start? Surely it was initiated by one user at one of the computers? So is this a statement about the break down of user communication or the lack of any real intelligence in automated systems?
Some related personal work, Video Network #1: Dialogues, while not text/language based does create a dialogue between two parts of the installation.
is an urban intervention designed to engage people in actively marking up public space.
Created using the labs own NextText Java library (which is also available for Processing):
The project reconfigures private communication technologies into private-to public (p2P) tools. Our motivation for providing a public outlet for privately-produced messages is driven by an interest in addressing the ongoing media reconfiguration of shared urban spaces which favors commercial global consuming culture over personal or local points of view. Our targets are the large-scale LED screens that are increasingly found in Western urban cores. Cityspeak provides a means for urban inhabitants to talk back to these giant screens.
Users can send messages to the public displays from mobile devices or desktop computers (see diagram above) effectively reappropriating the city for every day users through a number of individual broadcast strategies.
PEIR (image above) is a Personal Environmental Impact Report system which allows its user to leverage existing technology on their mobile phone to explore and share how they have an impact on the environment and how the environment impacts them, essentially revealing the network between us and our environment.
Below is a video explaining how PEIR works. PEIR was recently exhibited at Wired NestFest, at the bottom of this post is a video tour of PEIR by it’s creators for NextFest.
Two works pointed out to me in a comment which are similar to Blogbot and Blog Bot Platform are Twittgenerator (images above of the generator and resulting Twitter account) which is granted very recent and Net.art.box (images below) which is now an amazing eight years old.
Both works are by Yann Le Guennec (Net.art.box is in collaboration with Grégoire Cliquet) and seem to fit nicely into the artists collection of network programming art intended to automate art or the role of the artist (see also). Yann also is one of surprisingly few artists who are using the longer running open source tools/environments making much of his work with php, mysql and associated libraries such as gd.
Net.art.box was a temporary installation which consisted of an open IRC channel to:
receive definitions of net.art. The IRC log is printed in real time and a webcam film [sic] this printed log and shows it on the net. The device is a feedback loop between real and virtual spaces.
As it says the installation was a feedback loop to the internet where text comments passed from the ‘virtual’ to be printed in the ‘real’ and were then streamed back to the virtual as an image in effect rendering users thought as visual art. This is not just a technical loop but also an artistic one of perception, interpretation and reaction (see Interactivity and MultiMedia Interfaces for notes on interactive feedback loops).
Twittgenerator, when entered by a user recovers users text searches from search.live.com. These are then rendered as potential twits by an imagined user, most probably the artist, which can then be logged on twitter or not.
Whats interesting about both of these works (and Blogbot) is that while automated to an extent they all need to be triggered by a user who may or may not be conscious of what is happening when they simply go to the works webpage. Blogbot Platform is the exception of the four in that it’s user, most probably a plant or animal, is not your typical network user and most definitely not conscious of the result of their ‘actions’.
Network Notebooks #2: The Internet of Things has just been published in print and pdf form by The Institute for Network Cultures, Geert Lovink’s media research centre within the School of Interactive Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (Amsterdam Polytechnic). The publication is one of (very few) which looks at aspects of The Internet of Things. The blurb on the back reads as follows:
Cities across the world are about to enter the next phase of their development. A near invisible network of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) is being deployed on almost every type of consumer item. These tiny, traceable chips, which can be scanned wirelessly, are being produced in their billions and are capable of being connected to the internet in an instant. This so-called ‘Ambient intelligence’ promises to create a global network of physical objects every bit as pervasive and ubiquitous as the worldwide web itself. Some are already calling this controversial network the ‘internet of things’, describing it as either the ultimate convenience in supply-chain management, or the ultimate tool in our future surveillance. This network has the power to reshape our cities and yet it is being built with little public knowledge of consent. Here Rob van Kranenburg examines what impact RFID, and other systems, will have on our cities and our wider society; while also ruminating on what alternative network technologies could help safeguard our privacy and empower citizens to take power back into their own hands. It is both a timely warning and a call to arms.
The institute has published a steady stream of publications including two of the most important network related publications of the last few years, Uncanny Networks and Dark Fiber (all of the institutes publications are listed here).
As with the the first Network Notebook (and a few of the other publications), this edition is free in print form to order from the website. Mine’s in the post but I’ve already had a look at the pdf version and it is definetly worth a look.
