CYBORG FUTURES CYBORG FUTURES CYBORG FUTURES
TEAM GLASS
Introduction As a team, we were curious about how we sense light through our vision, and especially how to create a new sensory experience through the use of glass. Some initial thoughts we shared on the first day of class: Exhibit ideas: - program as an exhibit as part of pioneer works - social history of cybernetic extensions - AI Body augmentation fear growing - how do you get outside people involve. - process oriented experiment to bring together people to create a cybernetic sense. - How do you approach to world in a completely new manner - How do people reposition themselves to create these new senses. - creating new creative outlets to experience the world and create art - creating sensory augmentation organ to create new tools to understand and create art - “our brains are not rigid� they can be used to create new art or experience the way art is created - show how people will want a new sense to better communicate with people and explore the wold better - inspiration can come from nature, animals, phenomenological experiences of animals - cybernetics reintegrating into the world around it to individualize the way we create sense. - Near networking - how are different people approaching their work
GUEST SPEAKERS
3
4
Neil Harbisson- Catalan raised avant-garde artist and cyborg based in NYC. Co-founder of Cyborg Foundation. Known for being the first person to hae an antenna implanted into his skull that uses audible vibrations to measure sound.
Moon Ribas- Artist and cyborg activist who grew up in Spain. Co-founder of the Cyborg Foundation. Known for developing a seismic sensor in her arm that helps her sense when earthquakes are taking place, via vibration. Has been wearing the sensor since 2013 and has incorporated it into her dance performances.
Liviu Babitz- one of the first users of North Sense, an artificial
sense organ that vibrates when the user is facing north. He is one of two people using the technology. Co-founder of Cyborg Nest.
Trevor Goodman- Involved in BodyHacking Con, a convention revolving around wearable tech, cybernetics and prosthetics, health, fitness, nootropics, and body modification.
Oryan Inbar- creative technologist and industrial designer. He focuses in on interactive installations, mobile apps, computer vision, product design, as well as physical computing.
Vicktoria Modesta-Latvian-born English singer-songwriter performance artist and model. Has a below-the-knee leg amputation to improve her mobility.
5
WEEK 1: January 24th On our first day of class, we Parsons students were introduced to the course and the visiting participants. Course instructor Ellen Pearlman talked about her past experience as a designer and artist, and shared her excitement about the semester. The class was split up into three teams: Glass, Radiation, and Haptics. We got to interact with cyborg artists Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas via Skype. They both introduced us all to their practices, passions, and goals for the course. After hearing about each group’s interests, Parsons students were able to decide which team they’d like to join. After forming our individual teams, we all shared our own specific skillsets as designers / makers, and developed a better understanding of everyone’s past experiences.
6
WEEK 2: January 31st Our second meeting consisted of dialogue revolving around the senses and how we experience them. We studied articles about artificial skin that detects temperature changes. We also considered astrological wavelengths and data from NASA that we could use to change how we experience senses. We watched David Eagleman’s TED Talk: Can we create new senses for humans?
7
WEEK 3: February 7th This week consisted of us exploring memory and the information we recieve through our senses. We wanted to think about how senses affect memory, how they can aid them, and the limitations of the two. Memory is usually created through the information we recieve through our senses. Iconic Memory - for visual stimuli Echoic Memory - aural stimuli Haptic memory - from touch Olfactory bulb and cortex - most associated to memory because of how it interacts in the hippocapus and amygdala which are involved in the memory process. Memories of smell may be longer lasting and persist with out re-consolidation. So how will any new senses we develop create memories? How will it change the way we percive and therfor atain information. We are not only creating a sense for the coolness of being able to percieve something too, but hopefully to learn and retain new kinds of information. How then will these senses create new kinds of memory.
8
9
10
via camila
WEEK 4: February 14th This week we primarily focused on different forms of spectroscopy and how we can measure light frequencies. Physical Manifestation of Senses on the Body Research Glass Sense - Physical Manifestation on Body Ways of Receiving Light on the body, what form of touch will it take? Heat: - The blind with color heat - Temperature mapping Pressure: - Using the pressure to relieve something on the body, move the energy in your body Where will the reception happen, area of the body? (Non -visual) Acupuncture points on body - what will it do to your body? Places that you don’t usually feel things on, Places on the body you don’t usually use, safe, not sensorially activated -Knees, elbow What form will the output take? Performance Connected to other sensor users to create mass databases Externalize live to people around you (changing lights, reflecting something off the body) What materials to use to express it Glass on body Fiberoptics Collection of sketches to express how the information will arrive on the body
11
via camila
WEEK 5: February 21st This class we discussed how creating new senses essentially means we are also creating new indentities. We questioned how we should define these changes and how much they impact the technology we’d like to build. We took notes on language and how it affects how we speak about these new indentities.
12
13
WEEK 6: February 28th It was in this class that we discussed how we could incorporate space into our project. We began to look at NASA’s Software Catalog, Spaceweather, different National Climate data, etc. We also began to question how we can use light (possibly from the sun) to see inside the human body.
14
15
WEEK 7: March 7th This was an exciting meeting because we got the opportunity to do some in class exercises to draw inspiration as a team. Anna brought some sketches she had done while reading Haraway- because she as fascinated with a quote from the Cyborg manifesto. She states “I wanted to make bodies that are not opaque. It turned into painting lovers. The best way to illustrate their non-opacity is to have them overlap, and if they are to overlap, why not embrace each other?
16
17
WEEK 9: March 28th With this meeting, we continued with the in class exercises to draw inspiration as a team. By referencing Anna’s drawings from last class, we decided it’d be helpful as a team to think about where our design would take place on the human form. We decided to do an exquisite corpse exercise to liven up this discussion. We focused on the head, shoulders/torso, hips, and legs.
18
19
Here are some photos of our group brain storming on how we were going to place or sense on the body. We played with the idea of an exquisite corpse, figuring out what would our sense look like on different parts of the body. This helped us realize we would more likely want it on the uppoer body due to the nature of our sense interacting with the sun. Then, we had to figure out: What was going to be the point of input and output? What would the input and output look like on the body? Depending on the area we wanted to place it on, what materials would adhere to the skin and how would body movement affect it? Would we want it to be exposed all the time or in an area that could be both hidden and revealed? Where would the devices energy come from? As we wanted it to reflect light we questiones: How should the light be reflected? We really liked the idea of gradiation and how that would reflect on the body. Also taking into considerations the data we were getting, one of our team mates created a program to reflect the inputs as patterns that could be projected thorugh led lights.
20
21
WEEK 10: April 4th Via Anna: Hi All, Kyle and I met today at the Codes and Modes Symposium-- an excellent presentation this morning on the ‘politics of light’ and green screen work. We spoke further about the idea of the body becoming a sphere-- as I mentioned above-- the bodying losing recognizable human form in trying to become a ‘sun’. I have been reading a book called “Vibrant Matter” by Jane Bennett-- and there is a quote about the body that I like-- “...it is easy to acknowledge that humans are composed of various material parts (the minerality of our bones, or the metal of our blood, or the electricity of our neurons). But it is more challenging to conceive of these materials as lively and self-organizing, rather than passive or mechanical means under the direction of something nonmaterial, that is, an active soul or mind.” Something about ‘self organizing’ ‘self gravity’ ‘self creation’ are all rolling around in my head-- then skips forward-- “These vital materialists do not claim that there are no differences between humans and bones, only that there is no necessity to describe these differences in a way that places humans at the ontological center or hierarchical apex.” This made me think-- if a human body is trying to become a sun body, which are both made of active (vibrant) material-- this is eliminating the hierarchy to which Bennett refers. These are infant thoughts in my head but I wanted to throw them out in case anyone has a response--
22
And Kyle and I did an exquisite corpse exercise just to get some tangible forms started. For those of you who don’t know the exquisite corpse exercise it is a surrealist drawing game where (among its many variations) you fold a piece of paper. One person begins a drawing and then passes it off to the next person, who continues the drawing without seeing what the first person has drawn. I think that this action/process would be generative for us to create body-forms. And I think the fact that it creates a composite body ties the process back into cyborgism.
23
WEEK 11: April 11th Today we measured the areas of the body we’d like to work on. Anna brought the latex we plan on working with and we experimented on how it lays on the human form. Tavi served as our model for our digital renderings and we brainstormed a few different shapes the prosthetic could take.
24
25
WEEK 12: April 18th Today some of us met at NYU’s ITP center to work on a further iteration for our body piece. We first soldered the LED to wire so that we could encase them into the rubber material Anna bought. We did multiple iterations that varied in size, depth, and ratio of mixture. Our experiment was successful because it allowed us to learn more about how the material lays and sticks to the body.
26
WEEK 13: April 25th These are prototypes of the way the thin layers of latex in this case could lay on the body. We want to keep the shapes very clean and minimal.We are trying to let them naturally mold to the body of the person wearing it, for them to feel comfortable and as if it were a natural extension to their body. The different materials we tested with were vinyl, latex and sylicone. These three materials would give us the transparancy we are looking for. We want to embed the material with led lights to output the celestial sygnals we will be transmiting and also for it to show all of the system that is hapening within it. The areas we focused on the most were something close or around the chest and heart, the shoulders as a symbol of power and keeping it wraped around the body form to maintain balance.
27
via camila
28
WEEK 13: April 25th Today we checked our progress and updated the team on the form our prosthetic is taking. We were unclear about the gold flakes, and may switch to silver to make it less “flashy�. We were happy with the overall look and feel of the piece, and would like to make a larger mold for it to be more structured. We all agreed to meet at ITP again for another casting, this one more specific to the mold we modeled a few classes ago. This shape would easily fit the shoulders, where we eventually decided would be the final placement for our piece.
29
WEEK 14: May 2nd We met at ITP once again, to do a second and third casting of more specific forms and shapes. The pieces came out very nicely, and look much more polished than our original prototypes.
30
31
WEEK 15: May 9th Our final class! We will be presenting all of our progress, our finished prototype, as well as a initial app to analyze the Live Satallite Data.
32