One of the things that I have pondered lately is the future of American democracy in the context of the increasingly ubiquitous internet. As it looks now, the United States is at the peak of its economic supremacy, and China is primed to take it’s position. Even though America’s faulty military industrial complex may pull down the government’s global economic/military rule, it is unlikely that America will cease to function as a global player. This concept becomes more and more realistic when we put the increasing importance of the global internet in the picture.

basic interface

The global nature of the internet based economic system will keep the post-National America afloat. If the entire United States global infrastructure failed, the world economy would fail with it. While many industries based on the value of the United States dollar may fail, and the National government’s international power may disappear, post-National America will need to find a new, efficient form of government.

issue navigation

The internet is proving itself to be a pervasive social interface that permits for efficient, widespread gathering of demographic data. Social networks such as ‘Facebook,’ ‘Myspace,’ ‘Freindster,’ etc simply conducts a voluntary poll to collect individual’s preferences in categories such as ‘Music,’ ‘Movies,’ ‘Television,’ as well as more subjective qualifications, such as ‘Interest’s.’ This system of data collection should be applied to a truly democratic internet-based democracy.

network

The Undiscovered Country is restlesseye’s prototype internet-based, interactive, democratic, voting system. The system attempts to create a transparent universally accesseble system to tally votes on individual issues. The text from restlesseye’s page about The Undiscovered Country:

1. Context
The method of interaction and information architecture within representative democracy has stayed unchanged for approximately 160 years. Although new technologies such as touch screens are beginning to be seen in certain nations for the act of casting a ballot, the mediated expression of a political opinion and casting that resultant vote have remained the same.

New information technologies developed over the past 20 years have profoundly effected how information is collected. Can it do the same for the input and aggregation of communal opinion?

2. What it is
The Undiscovered Country is a proof of concept prototype expressed as a web based application. It is a system for the non partisan, passive and reactive authoring and aggregation of political opinion. It includes, but goes beyond, options present on a ballot. It gives participating individuals an ability to give direct responses to current issues facing their governments on a selection of social scales. 3. How it works
This prototype seeks to join opinion into a seamless relationship between authoring and the final aggregation and vote tally.

The use hierarchy operates as a loop: seeking to impart an experience of editing and contributing to a much larger conversation. Citizen data is added as a new issue or as reaction to existing issues. The tallying of this information is completed on the fly and entered into a visualisation that represents an emergent group opinion.

4. Potential
In this non-linear, multi-user environment, the communicative and use concepts working within the interface are expandable to a community of any size. It is a tool for government and citizens to observe and interact with each other. In later iterations it could become basis for a parallel institution to representative government itself. Beyond that the system becomes integrated, perhaps even coming to replace individual representatives with issue based constituencies.

The Undiscovered Country
restlesseye

via information aesthetics.

Growing up, The Adventures of TinTin was one of the few graphic novels I read, and I loved it! In every album, Herge led TinTin, and his sidekick Snowy, around the world in a series of adventures. TinTin, supposedly a reporter, always found himself in the middle of a scheme and often saved the day with heroic action. A fan has compiled a chronological database of every car found in The Adventures of TinTin, and has found the real life equivalent of many of them. The collection is a great example of Herge’s style as well as a look at cars through the 20th century. Additionally, the author has provided examples where TinTin episodes have been changed over a series of publications, often due to political incorectness.

Packard coupé Opera from King Ottokar’s Scepter

Links within..

Land Rover type 109 from TinTin and the Picaros

Lincoln Zephyr Cabriolet from The Seven Crystal Balls

Tout’s les Autos de TinTin
The Cult of TinTin at TinTinologist.com
Wikipedia: The Adventures of TinTin
Buy TinTin: Kar’ikter The site appears to be down, but there is a shop in NYC at 19 Prince St, btw Broadway and Lafayette.

So I haven’t really been posting, have I… Gotten myself very busy with school, and suffering from a motivational lag. It happens. I’m going to work on posting here more often though, keep things moving. Keep posted!

Beautiful photographs by Roland Lebrun, straight out of Belgium.

You really, really should buy some prints. Support independent art, give Andrew presents. I will love you, swear!

Messy.
Messy Blog.

Mitsukoshi, a Japanese department store, has released an RFID-interactive shopping experience in their womans shoe department. To keep everyone on the same page, RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification Tag. Basically, when an RFID chip is passed near a reader, it broadcasts a string of data, most often an identification number. Due to its small size, RFID is commonly used in inventory tracking applications, as as a pet-identification implant. Following a designer jean store, each shoe has a tag with an RFID chip embedded. A touch screen computer with an RFID reader is positioned in the middle of the department. A customer can take a desired shoe to the computer, scan the tag, and be presented with a list of sizes and colors in stock, or similar styles. Salespeople carry handheld devices with similar software.

RFID tags are found in EZpass devices, all new United States passports, and implanted in VIP clubgoers in Barcelona and Rotterdam allowing them to identify themselves and pay for drinks. While RFID has found many applications, it is wonderful to see applications where the end user is responsible for and aware of its use.

via( PingMag )

also see:
Wikipedia: RFID
Mitsukoshi

more RFID to come!

The Breadboard Band is a synthesis of livecoding and diy electrical engineering. The Japanese group uses breadboards to freely construct electronic circuits to perform music. A breadboard is a grid of connections easily allowing electronic components to be connected and disconnected. The groups four members each has their own circuit that they modify during a performance. Each board is connected to a central mixer. One of the member’s arsenal of components includes a video out board allowing him to synchronize video to the performance. The result is a glitchy abrasive electronic sound.

links:
BreadBoard Band

via( neural.it )

Lichtenstein 1977 320i Racecar.

Beginning in 1975, with an Alexander Calder 3.0 CSL, BMW has produced a series of production and race model cars decorated by high artists. The original 1975 art car was transformed by racer Herve Poulain shortly before he was scheduled to race in 24 Hours of Le Mans. The concept grew over the years and included artists ranging from Andy Warhol to Rauchenberg and most recently, Jenny Holzer, who decorated a V12 racecar with one of her trademark truisms. The collection of cars rotates between museums including Le Louvre in Paris, the Royal Academy in London, and the Whitney Collection in New York, but a number of them can be seen year round at the BMW Zentrum building in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Stumbled upon all this while attempting to study for intro to Contemp Art, how fun.

The Original: Alexander Calder’s 1975 3.0 CSL

Robert Rauschenberg’s 1986 635 Csi

Jenny Holzer’s 1999 v12 LMR

links:
BMW Zentrum: Art Cars
BMW World’s Art Cars
World Car Fans Article

The Rectable, is a “state-of-the-art multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface.” The system is designed to be easy to learn, interactive, multiuser, and sonically interesting. A camera below the glass surface of the table is linked to a custom piece of software, reacTIVision, which determines the type and position of ’synth chips’ on the surface. Each chip is printed with ‘fiducial markers’ that reacTIVision can read and interpret. Each marker represents a different element from a traditional modular synthesizer. The marker’s rotation and proximity to other markers determine the synth value, and its connection to other synth elements.

fiducial markers for reacTIVision.

A projector below the table continually tracks items on the tabletop and provides a display of their current state. Additionally, the rectable is designed to interface over a network allowing for spatially separated collaboration.

much more information on both the rectable and recTIVision software available at the Rectable Home Page @ Pompeu Fabra University

Xrez is a growing collection of gigapixel images created utilising high-resolution digital cameras and computer controlled mechanics. The group of digital artists behind Xrez is committed to exploring the artistic boundarys of super high resolution imagery. Super high resolution, they argue, elicits a hightened response out of the viewer, a new sense of realism. Additionally, these images play to ones voyeurist side, allowing the viewer to get close to the action, from seemingly so far away.

from boston.

Xrez.

you happen upon all this money, and THIS is what you do with it??!

full Metropolis Magazine article.