wesww

SAIC Fellowship Award Press

wesww — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:19:36 +0000

WESWW.COM mocap video

wesww — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:49:13 +0000

Thoughts on art.sy and mapping artistic taste

wesww — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:46:42 +0000

Preface: Having just read a very interesting article in wired magazine about a startup that is making transparent the complex work of art advisors using an algorithm that maps taste in paintings to an “art genome” (similar in concept to Pandora’s “music genome”), I decided that I liked the idea so much that I would like to give them a little free input about a potential direction for their service. Here is the message I sent them:

I just read the new Wired article about your site, and it sounds like it has tremendous promise!

In order to really ramp up the “art genome” system, you might consider the theory of gamification. Your designers and programmers could work to create an actively responsive feedback loop of input and reward so that the user will want to work to map their own taste, or “art genome.” Pandora already just barely works like this with their very simple “thumbs up / thumbs down” approach to a musical fine tuning interface, but I feel like their system is too opaque, and severely lacking in visible feedback (other than the immediate effect of a thumbs down removing the current track).

When the user is adequately “rewarded” by the system for their creative input, they will do all of the difficult mapping for you. Used properly there are actually very subtle, classy ways to achieve this effect which DON’T involve tasteless “achievement unlocked” popups, direct competitive ranking, spendable “user reward points,” or random rewards — all of which point to operant conditioning chamber style manipulative psychology.

If you could get a large, knowledgeable, dedicated community to actively participate in mapping art taste, the ideas here could become an invaluable resource not only for buyers, but also for educators and creators!

ADDITIONALLY, I also see a useful potential rift in the service that could be heightened and utilized. I speak of aesthetics vs content. When the user selects a work they enjoy, and begin a new search for similar works, it would be extremely useful to offer them an optional choice (perhaps with a simple slider bar interface) to show the system what point in the range between visuals and ideas they think their attraction to the work lies.

[Here is a link to the Wired.com article]

“Air Conditioned Tower” short play clip

wesww — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:01:42 +0000

8 seconds from level one (of two, recursive) of my HL2 source mod (made with Hammer Editor).

This is the “glass tower” level. THIS MOD IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO PLAY! You must have Steam and Half Life 2 installed to run this mod. Simply extract all files and copy the folder to SteamApps\SourceMods on your computer. If it doesn’t work or seems buggy, message me and I’ll upload the other versions (this should be the final version though).

Here’s the download: http://wesww.com/actwr.zip

“Air Combat” documentation video

wesww — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:50:55 +0000

“Air Combat” is an art mod I made for the I3 new media art festival in Chicago 2011, with a hacked Playstation console and the 1992 video game “Air Combat”.

In this mod you fly forever, with infinite fuel, zero weapons, and no control over pitch (so that you can’t crash into the ground). The normal soundtrack of endless guitar solos is replaced by soothing high-altitude noise.

If the game is left running long-term, there is a very slight possibility that the player might encounter one of two other planes in the world of this mod. Based on the map size I’ve estimated that this may happen approximately once a year, although with viewer control input this could of course vary. Of the two other planes, one is unarmed (just like you) and will try to evade and escape, and the other is a fighter jet that will try to kill you, and has an incredibly slim chance of being able to do so, which would end the artwork until it is reset.

!!MAKE THIS PIECE YOURSELF!!
If you would like to recreate this piece, here is what you will need:

- Playstation console (one of the original models with the Parallel I/O port in the back), modded to play burned “backup” cd-rom games (alternatively, google psx swap disk)

- an original Playstation controller that you are willing to temporarily destroy (this hardware hack should be repairable, but don’t blame me if you break it)

- a second fully functional Playstation controller

- a small phillips head screwdriver

- a Parallel I/O port Gameshark (programmable) card

- rubber electrical tape

- scissors

++ IF YOU HAVE ALL OF THAT ++
First, open up the first controller and put small pieces of electrical tape over each of the contacts for every button except for left and right turning. That is the extent of the controller hack. Next, use the gameshark to program all the appropriate variables. You do this by enabling a search, returning to game, changing something in the game (e.g. fire a missile or lose health), and then returning to the gameshark code to see what numbers changed. You can then override those numbers so that they are different, or make then never change. Last, change the audio. I’m still working on swapping the actual game audio files, which is pretty complicated, so I just disabled all the game sounds and played ran separate discrete rca cables from an exernal source. In the future I’d like to get everything onto one disk, our use the swapdisk method to trick the console into playing cd tracks, or at least splice in my own lines with a little sound card soldering. There have been a lot of audio card hacks to turn the ps1 into an “audiophile quality” cd player, and even into a dj deck, but I have yet to figure out a functional way to actually swap out audio files for my own (e.g. the “pew pew” mod of hl2) without getting a black screen when trying to load the game. If you have any information on how this might be done, please contact me.

good walks

wesww — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:59:28 +0000

uncanny valley

wesww — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:24:56 +0000

Can’t speak for anyone else, but personally I find this moderately terrifying.

technology and human thinking

wesww — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:46:28 +0000

So I am taking a practice computerized GRE practice exam for practice right now, and the system offered me a terrifically interesting statement:

“As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.”

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree withthe statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing andsupporting your position, you should consider ways In which the statement might ormight not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Anyways, I finished my short response with a few minutes left before the system kicked me over to the next screen so I had some time to copy/paste the exact body of what I wrote. I kind of enjoyed my response, so here’s (unedited) what I got up to in 25 minutes of speedy writing about this topic!:

While true that numerous technologies exist that take over the roles of basic human tasks, tasks that no longer need be understood or addressed individually, I would utterly reject the idea that technological advancement debases independent thinking. In fact, by removing the mundanities of smaller tasks, more and more technological advancements actually increase the amount of data that must be processed and considered by the human user. This is compounded by increasingly networked technologies, and devices which speak to each other — more even than they relate information back to humans. Furthermore, the statement that technology decreases “the ability of humans to think for themselves” assumes a certain value system of thinking. Certainly technology has ameliorated the need for a vast majority of users to acquire the basic components necessary to their own daily survival without reliance on incredibly complex human infrastructure systems. However, in navigating these increasingly complex systems, I argue that humans are undoubtedly thinking MORE for themselves, in conjunction with each other.Furthermore, this question shows an extreme cultural bias favoring duallist philosophy based on Socrates, Descartes, and Kant specifically, as well as Christianity generally. The Cartesian idea that the mind (read: soul) exists separately from the system that sustains it; including but not limited to the body and the infrastructure surrounding it, is a problematic idea that has caused a severe rift in human satisfaction. It is only in the belief that humans exist in some sort of isolation from each other and the systems we build that we could even begin to ask questions of how our reliance on technology may be deteriorating our ability to think. For indeed, what is any thinking at all if not a way of maximizing the value of our role in all of our surroundings, both physically and emotionally.

To play devils advocate however, I enjoyed the philosophical implications of M.T. Anderson’s novel “FEED”, in which all human are implanted with a digital interface at birth which connects directly to their brain, optical nerves, and general nervous system. In Anderson’s near-future semi-dystopia these digital implants are used exclusively for shopping and entertainment, as education has all but been done away with when it was taken over by the corporate entities. Human community is in this situation literally moved almost entirely to the digital realm, and artificial intellegence software designs the optimum sales pitch for our brains to keep us shopping perpetually. Humans no longer pay attention to anything that isn’t networked and “fed” to them digitally, and so we are using up all of our resources and dying off. While futures like these are interesting and important to consider, I can’t honestly believe in such a setup coming into fruition.

Putting science fiction aside, NO, technology will never deteriorate humans ability to think for themselves.

“Shrink” by Lawrence Malstaf

wesww — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:26:31 +0000

I recently experienced the sensation of being shrink-wrapped in a giant plastic apparatus. Here are some images.

It is VERY different to be on the inside. You think it would be torture, but it is actually an extremely peaceful world inside of there. Until you get muscle cramps from the full body pressure, anyway.

KEEPON

wesww — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:32:13 +0000

This is a my newest robotic friend slash dancing partner. It is called Keepon. Search it up, it is well worth your time.