Global Cafe + Object Theater: toward Media Architecture Biennale 2020

Hi Yanjun, Shomit, Christy, Haakon, (other interested folks welcome!)

Shall we build the Global Cafe and related works into a joint project  on augmented social refreshment space
the we can exhibit at world-level venue such as:

Media Architecture Biennale MAB 2020 Utrecht

Ingredients:

The local responsive objects as well as telematically mated objects have behaviors that are designed first 
with social & dramaturgical power (think experimental puppet theater), and 
with experiential research questions such as:

On Sep 13, 2019, at 6:00 AM, Christy Spackman <Christy.Spackman@asu.edu> wrote:

Imagine you are at a cafe. Three people are there. 
1) who are the three people whose interaction you want to prototype?
2) what might a "normal" script be for those interactions?
3) what new script(s) are you hoping to inspire?

• Global Cafe (project webpage coming)

• Apply for international exhibition July / Aug 2020

• Ecology of Things

• Theater of objects (Ri)


Yanjun — Do you know this biennale: MAB: Media Architecture Biennale
https://mab18.org was hosted by CAFA in Beijing
The general chair in 2018 was Prof. Chang Zhigang – CAFA, Beijing

Overall timeline:
Prototype Fall 2019
publish in DIS, CHI, Leonardo, etc.
Local Exhibit Emerge 2020
Apply for funding Spring 2020
Refine Summer 2020

practicum work (was Re: cafe (was: Portals / Table of Content, and boundary objects))

Hi Shomit,

Let’s kick off the practicum part of your semester by familiarizing with Max8 + the commonly used patchers from the  sc system …  in the context of creating scenarios for responsive environments  experimenting with Brandon’s state methods.   Do can set up a time with Brandon to learn his methods.

food
metaphorical ecologies 
ceremony
theater of things / ecology of things /
mobile trucks

Let’s capture good ideas the Google drive that Yanjun established (thanks!)
Xin Wei


On Sep 13, 2019, at 6:15 PM, Yanjun Lyu <ylyu16@asu.edu> wrote:

Follow up Xin Wei and Christy,

I think the Global Cafe Team should receive the notification of a shared Google "Cafe Project" folder.  If you are not, please remind me. 
I built a Google Project folder in which I uploaded all files, clips, a poster and a note(DRAFT) from my understanding and a summary based on Xin Wei and Christy's emails during these days for this project. I hope this is helpful for our Monday meeting (9/16, 3-4) and future communication. The Note named "notes for TEAM to edit" is a mutual place for us to share thoughts, suggestions, resources, even an online discussion space. I hope this helpful for teamwork and also for Xinwei, Christy, Lauren to edit any suggestion on here to us. 

Best,
y 




On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 1:10 PM sxw asu <shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Everyone, 

To follow up Christy –

Christy Spackman, Lauren Hayes and I think the social form of the meal / cafe gives a concrete “boundary object” in which to try out speculative, experimental artistic / computational techniques, as well as  conceptual questions.  It is rich enough to be a site for individual special research work, and simultaneously meaningful to people from any walk of life.  So let’s make the meal / cafe social form one of Synthesis focal research platforms.  (The other remains improvisatory events and participatory steering of complex systems in responsive environments.)

I’m hoping that this term, with Shomit, Yanjun, Ri, and Andrew R, Garrett, and 
supported by key Synthesis researchers, we can build a new generation of experiments that will lead to publications and internationally exhibitable work that can attract support from outside ASU, even outside the academy.

We’re very lucky to have faculty like Lauren and Christy interested in advising us in this work.
We are interested in helping focus the really exciting explorations into tangible iterations.

Yanjun, Shomit, Ri, Garrett, 
In order to make progress let’s propel this with the initial constraints and questions that Christy and I pose.  To repeat:

Imagine you are at a cafe. Three people are there. 
1) who are the three people whose interaction you want to prototype?
2) what might a "normal" script be for those interactions?
3) what new script(s) are you hoping to inspire?

In order to have impact, we’ll need to have an adequate production level : I will take responsibility for this — with Connor and Pete as “goto” experts, as well as Todd, Lauren, Brandon, and the Tech Team (Pete, Luke, Ozzie).   Remember the Tech Team are advisors but they have very limited time to actually fabricate solutions.   So it will be important to collanorate, recruit students, and pool skills.

Let’s talk today if we can .

I’ll Zoom in in about 15’ as soon as I get to a quite spot  and hang out near my zoom for a couple of hours as long as I can today.

Xin Wei

PS  Thanks Garrett, Shomit, Yanjun Andrew’s for earlier ideas…
Can someone — Yanjun? — start a a Google project folder + notes doc for the “cafe” ? 
We may want a more inclusive name for the social form / genre of collective meal / refreshment in common space 


On Sep 13, 2019, at 6:00 AM, Christy Spackman <Christy.Spackman@asu.edu> wrote:

Yanjun, Shomit, Ri (and Garrett),

I met with Xin Wei yesterday, and we wanted to add on one additional task for all of you. We think that the possible interactions you could explore are quite large, so we invite you to constrain it in the following way:

Imagine you are at a cafe. Three people are there. 
1) who are the three people whose interaction you want to prototype?
2) what might a "normal" script be for those interactions?
3) what new script(s) are you hoping to inspire?

Please plan on being able to present this information to us in person during Synthesis lab's open work hours in a week. Please let us know which of the drop in hours you will make.

Best,
Christy and Xin Wei

Christy Spackman, PhD
Assistant Professor
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
School of Arts, Media, and Engineering
Arizona State University

@christyspackman



_________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_______________________________________________________





From: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>
Subject: FW: You’ve been added to the shared drive Global Cafe
Date: September 13, 2019 at 5:49:42 PM PDT
To: sxw asu <sxwasu@gmail.com>

 
 From: Yanjun Lyu (via Google Drive)
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 5:49:37 PM (UTC-07:00) Arizona
To: xsha1@asu.edu
Subject: You’ve been added to the shared drive Global Cafe

Global Cafe 

Yanjun Lyu has added you to Global Cafe.
You can add, edit, move, and delete files in this drive.

Shared drives is a space where teams can easily store, collaborate on, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Folder for Global Cafe Team

Open shared drive
Google Drive: Have all your files within reach from any device.

Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
You received this email because you were invited to a shared drive.

cafe (was: Portals / Table of Content, and boundary objects)

Hi Everyone, 

To follow up Christy –

Christy Spackman, Lauren Hayes and I think the social form of the meal / cafe gives a concrete “boundary object” in which to try out speculative, experimental artistic / computational techniques, as well as  conceptual questions.  It is rich enough to be a site for individual special research work, and simultaneously meaningful to people from any walk of life.  So let’s make the meal / cafe social form one of Synthesis focal research platforms.  (The other remains improvisatory events and participatory steering of complex systems in responsive environments.)

I’m hoping that this term, with Shomit, Yanjun, Ri, and Andrew R, Garrett, and 
supported by key Synthesis researchers, we can build a new generation of experiments that will lead to publications and internationally exhibitable work that can attract support from outside ASU, even outside the academy.

We’re very lucky to have faculty like Lauren and Christy interested in advising us in this work.
We are interested in helping focus the really exciting explorations into tangible iterations.

Yanjun, Shomit, Ri, Garrett, 
In order to make progress let’s propel this with the initial constraints and questions that Christy and I pose.  To repeat:

Imagine you are at a cafe. Three people are there. 
1) who are the three people whose interaction you want to prototype?
2) what might a "normal" script be for those interactions?
3) what new script(s) are you hoping to inspire?

In order to have impact, we’ll need to have an adequate production level : I will take responsibility for this — with Connor and Pete as “goto” experts, as well as Todd, Lauren, Brandon, and the Tech Team (Pete, Luke, Ozzie).   Remember the Tech Team are advisors but they have very limited time to actually fabricate solutions.   So it will be important to collanorate, recruit students, and pool skills.

Let’s talk today if we can .

I’ll Zoom in in about 15’ as soon as I get to a quite spot  and hang out near my zoom for a couple of hours as long as I can today.

Xin Wei

PS  Thanks Garrett, Shomit, Yanjun Andrew’s for earlier ideas…
Can someone — Yanjun? — start a a Google project folder + notes doc for the “cafe” ? 
We may want a more inclusive name for the social form / genre of collective meal / refreshment in common space 


On Sep 13, 2019, at 6:00 AM, Christy Spackman <Christy.Spackman@asu.edu> wrote:

Yanjun, Shomit, Ri (and Garrett),

I met with Xin Wei yesterday, and we wanted to add on one additional task for all of you. We think that the possible interactions you could explore are quite large, so we invite you to constrain it in the following way:

Imagine you are at a cafe. Three people are there. 
1) who are the three people whose interaction you want to prototype?
2) what might a "normal" script be for those interactions?
3) what new script(s) are you hoping to inspire?

Please plan on being able to present this information to us in person during Synthesis lab's open work hours in a week. Please let us know which of the drop in hours you will make.

Best,
Christy and Xin Wei

Christy Spackman, PhD
Assistant Professor
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
School of Arts, Media, and Engineering
Arizona State University

@christyspackman



_________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_______________________________________________________

Portals / Table of Content, and boundary objects

Hi Yanjun, Shomit, Ri, 

Yanjun’s already seen this table portal project.
Here’s the video of a Portals  project called Table of Content
collaboration between TML and Synthesis  2014-15

The key is that we focus on mating furniture and objects on the table and stay away from video-conferencing.   It’s hard, but how about we try to avoid representing people telematically, at least not use video.    Suren, Seth and I are pursuing a stream on alternatives to ocularcentric thought and technology.  A profound reason is that the heavier the tech we throw into representing people telematically, the more people tend to be glassed-off from one another, resorting to cliche expressions.   Less can be more.

So, let's focus on objects that "exist in two places at once" serving as boundary objects* between not only locations but cultures.

Garrett was a principal member of the team on the Synthesis side, with Evan Montpellier in TML / Montreal.  ( Byron was one of the heroic fellow travellers :)

In this light, Yanjun’ss work with the cafe and our sociological study with Christy take on extra significance.    With Ri and Shomit, let’s strongly pursue the enchantment and theater of objects, with the added dimension of telematic mates, remote doppelgänger glasses, plates, foods and flavors and aromas.

There were many directions and questions left unexplored.   It’d be nice to build "on the shoulders of giants” and get a bit further with present techniques.

Xin We

*   Susan Leigh Star famously introduced this as a more subtle and supple concept in
"The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving", in M. Hubs and L. Gasser (eds), Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence 3 (Morgan Kaufmann, 1989).





Xin Wei

_________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab
_______________________________________________________

NYTimes: Restoring Forests Could Help Put a Brake on Global Warming

NYTimes: Restoring Forests Could Help Put a Brake on Global Warming

[A study led by researchers at ETH Zurich, suggests that] … the planet could support nearly 2.5 billion additional acres of forest without shrinking our cities and farms, and that those additional trees, when they mature, could store a whole lot of the extra carbon — 200 gigatons of carbon, to be precise — generated by industrial activity over the last 150 years.

A handful of countries could make a very big difference. The researchers found that Russia could restore 373 million acres, or 151 million hectares, of forest. That was followed by the United States, with 255 million acres and Canada with 193 million acres.Other large countries like Australia, Brazil and China also have large areas suitable for forest restoration.

iStage

More detailed overview  of iStage attached and in Dropbox.


The School of AME’s Motion Analysis Lab / Intelligent Stage is a research lab and performance space + theater-grade hardware + custom software dedicated to responsive immersive environments and studies of whole experience.  This blackbox space has multiple infra-red and visible light tracking cameras; microphone array; standard, short throw and floor-scale projectors; 8.2 Meyer speaker system, hardware matrix for video and sound (Dante).  We optionally use integrated Optitrack motion-capture system and custom wearable sensors. The blackbox is equipped with a 32’x 48’ AeroDeck Harlequin sprung floor.  The grid, 14’ above the floor, allows for easy access to the equipment for quick changes for a collaborative environment.

The computing platform consists of 4 Macintosh workstations and a suite of Mac laptops and minis for standalone installations, plus the SC software framework (based on Max/MSP/Jitter/GL+Javascript and OSC) that allows researchers to build a wide variety of experiments that can map to a variable configuration of hardware.


Also in
Dropbox\ \(ASU\)/Synthesis/Synthesis-Operations/equipment/iStage.pages

aerial work

Thanks Luke, It’s now in Synthesis/equipment/Space 3.0

+ 
(a daughter of my tgarden, tg2001, and grandaunt to sc :)

trapeze-artist-aides strapped visitors of all ages and shapes into harnesses.
they were slung into the air…some laughing like crazy

while we beamed the data from accelerometers sewn into their translucent tails 
to max+nato/jitter+supercollider 



+ 
circa 1990 I saw Project Bandaloop do wonderful aerial work back near Capp Street Theater int he Mission in SF 
during the Street Performance festivals

+ 
there were lots of aerial dance works since there were so many climbers in SF who were also dancers when they weren’t up in the Sierras .
but one of my friends was part of the support team at the tragedy with Sankai Juku  in Seattle a few years before…

+  Einsteins Dream overhead cam looking down 23 feet onto the sand
with  visitors wading as if underwater through the projected ripples to the umbrella: