Jun 06
Digital Remains
In the past people would store the letters they sent each other in a box and they would order the family pictures in a photo album. After their death, their children would keep and browse through those remains to remember the moments with the deceased person. Today most of us don’t write letters anymore but exchange emails. What happens to the emails and other digital data when we die?
Michele Gauler’s graduation project at Interaction Design RCA is concerned with the role data plays when we remember deceased people. Digital Remains assumes a world in which our data is stored on the network creating digital archives of generations of people.
Personal access keys are used to log on to the digital remains of a person and receive their data on our own digital devices. These keys, when placed next to a mobile phone, MP3 player or computer, establish a bluetooth connection with the device and trigger a remote log-on to the digital remains of the deceased person they are linked to, allowing a person to access the dead person’s data. Based on data tags and meta data, search algorithms dig through a deceased person’s data, presenting the content that is most likely relevant to us. For instance, a photograph from a holiday we spent with the person 10 years ago, or the person’s favourite piece of music which they typically listened to while writing e-mails. The system may bring up emails the deceased read and re-read or it might suggest their own particular way of moving around the keyboard, of naming files and structuring folders. Someone who’s not a close relative, for example, would get only a partial access to the deceased’s data and anything you don’t want others to know of would become crypted after your death.
Michele Gauler’s project suggests a way to evoke the presence of the dead person in a very unique way. New forms of technology might engender new ways of mourning.
The project page has three video scenarios
(Via we make money not art.)
May 08
I started looking at RFID when I was a student at ITP, during the spring of 2006 for my thesis project, which was about object annotation (description). I was interested in how we relate to things, what these artifacts say about us, and how they often serve as proxies for relationships with people. I was taken by the idea that there is a story behind every object. We make and collect physical things — artifacts– that we attach a lot of meaning to. These objects often serve as memory triggers. I was looking at the role of objects (memorabilia, souvenirs, etc.) in storytelling and how digital media can mediate the retelling of memories. I was trying to “embed” personal histories into inanimate objects.
I’m more interested in the narrative — qualitative than quantitative information. I’m more prone to remember a good story than facts and figures. My personal view is that of all the data we record, the most precious ones are stories. These are impressions — real, reconstructed, or imagined memories — that are a trace of our human experience. Ultimately, the network of things, that they both write about, is connected to a network of people.
Via We Make Money Not Art
May 08
shrine | sh rīn|
noun
a place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, typically marked by a building or other construction.
• a place associated with or containing memorabilia of a particular revered person or thing : her grave has become a shrine for fans from all over the world.
• a casket containing sacred relics; a reliquary.
• a niche or enclosure containing a religious statue or other object.
verb [ trans. ] poetic/literary
enshrine.
ORIGIN Old English scrīn [cabinet, chest, reliquary,] of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schrijn and German Schrein, from Latin scrinium ‘chest for books.’
May 08
altar |ˈôltər|
noun
the table in a Christian church at which the bread and wine are consecrated in communion services.
• a table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, esp. for making sacrifices or offerings to a deity.
PHRASES
lead someone to the altar marry.
sacrifice someone/something on/at the altar of someone/something cause someone or something to suffer in the interests of someone or something else : no businessman is going to sacrifice his company on the altar of such altruism.
ORIGIN Old English altar, alter, based on late Latin altar, altarium, from Latin altus ‘high.’
Also see here
Nov 27
This movie requires Flash Player 8
This movie requires Flash Player 8
This one with added glitch effects from YouTube!
