Accidentally in Code

Tag: art

  • Melbourne, August/September 2013

    Melbourne, August/September 2013

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    September is always a stressful time of year at work, and in addition it turned out to be my last month in Sydney, so two friends and I went off to Melbourne for a fabulous girly weekend before all the craziness, featuring lots of delicious food, and an inordinate amount of art.

    We stayed at the Crown Metropol, which was nice and spacious enough for the three of us to share a room, and has a gorgeous pool as well. Great location too, and everywhere we went was in walking distance. Our room did have one of those odd bathrooms which isn’t entirely enclosed, which was a bit weird! But it afforded much more privacy than the Standard in NYC, at least!

    The food in Melbourne is amazing, and it’s so much cheaper than Sydney. We had brunch at two amazing places, The Hardware Société and Dead Man Expresso, which had super weird and delicious donuts – I called the raspberry lychee which was amazing, whilst my friends were more adventurous for that early in the morning, and split the chocolate tabaco and the maple bacon. We had some tasty sushi but the culinary highlight of the trip has to be Burch and Purchese and their divine deserts.

    We found a cute little market, selling artisan products, behind a coffee shop, and went on the Old Melbourne Jail tour where they lock you in a cell and yell at you, but left early because the guy in charge was being really offensive, completely ignoring the socio-economic factors of criminal behaviour.

    Our art explorations were much more successful. We checked out some smaller niche places, including the fantastically named Utopian Slumps, the Diane Siinger gallery, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, which is smaller than you would think. The highlight was the National Gallery of Victoria. The gorgeous water feature outside, the awesome floating bowls in the lobby, the awesome stag made from shiny baubles, and the Monet exhibit, which was beautiful. There was also a cool installation featuring two fans and some magnetic tape, which my friend and I sat and stared at for ages.

    We took a wonder through the botanical gardens, beautiful even in winter. I could see why people prefer Melbourne to Sydney. It’s not as beautiful a city, but I can see it being a more fun place to live in some ways.

    Mario at Out and About Travel in Sydney organised this trip for us.

  • Tokyo, August 2013

    Tokyo, August 2013

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    Photos on Flickr

    I had had a couple, all too brief days in Tokyo on my way back from North Korea. I hadn’t been to Tokyo for a while (since 2009), and I was excited to see it again, although note to self, it’s a short amount of time to be there considering how long it takes to get downtown from the airport (an hour going through customs, then a long wait to buy a train ticket, then at least another hour on the train, then a short cab ride to the hotel).

    I stayed at the Citidines hotel in Shinjuku. Good location, I could see a good amount of Tokyo walking, which I like (better for exercise, and exploring, and public transport in Tokyo is baffling. A system rivalling the London Underground in size, and with different operators and tickets). With the little time I have, I’m happy to constrain myself to that area, and after the constrains and so much time on busses in North Korea, it’s nice to wonder freely.

    I don’t have much time that evening, and I’m tired and still slightly under the weather, so I just get some dinner at the Brooklyn Parlour (nice enough) and have a bit of a wonder.

    I meet up with Narelle the following day, and she takes me to a fantastic shopping mall in Harajuku (the fashion district), La Foret. Some of my favourite accessories come from my last trip to Japan, so I’m keen to explore, although not expecting the clothes to fit me. Surprisingly, I find a ton of clothes that look great on me, and buy quite a few dresses, including one that I adore in 3 colours (grey, turquoise, and brown). I also find a cool bag, a belt, and head to the Nike store to see if there are some cute and colourful sneakers. I find some pink ones that I like, but they are mens sizes and don’t come small enough to actually fit me. Disappointing! I also stockpile socks, for me and a friend who also adores socks.

    We stop briefly for a snack at an amazing dumpling restaurant, where I discover some kind of miso paste, that is amazing and unexpected, as I don’t like miso soup. Later on, I head to an electronics store to buy headphones (totally normal to buy 4 pairs of headphones when in Japan, am I right?), and cute phone covers. Sadly they don’t have anything for my Nexus 4 (isn’t available in Japan), but the selection of iPhone covers blows my mind. I’m tempted, but stick to the sturdy ones, as I’m prone to dropping things. I like the speck covers (Amazon), so I buy another one in purple.

    My flight leaves the following day, but late enough that I have some time to explore, so I head to the National Museum of Modern art. It’s a nice walk, I appreciate the attention to detail of Japanese culture. Where the sidewalk is repaired with tarmac, it’s exactly lined up alongside the paved tiles. The museum contains some beautiful pieces, and I stay longer than intended, meaning there is no time to explore the nearby park before I need to head back to the hotel. I hadn’t allowed time for eating, or getting lost, but the sushi place I found nearby was tasty, and inexpensive. I eat more sushi at the airport, do a little more accessories shopping (gorgeous belts!) and stockpile the divine Royce chocolate before flying back to Sydney, via Singapore.

    Mario at Out and About Travel in Sydney organised this trip for me.

  • Review: 40 Days of Dating

    Review: 40 Days of Dating

    40 Days of Dating

    Sometimes I feel like we’re two aliens, from different planets with different languages, trying to communicate via Skype without electricity. Sigh.

    I spent a few hours over the break reading the 40 Days of Dating project. Two designers, friends with opposite attitudes to (and problems in) relationships conduct an experiment in dating each other, for 40 days. The visuals are gorgeous, I can see it making a lovely coffee table book. It’s an interesting concept, applying constraints to life (as you do in design) and making art out of it, and is also a commentary on modern dating – the pressures we create for ourselves, the fears we have.

    Every day, they fill out a questionnaire which includes the questions “what did you learn about yourself”, “what did you learn about [the other person]”. I love this. The day by day appreciation of growing closer to another human being, and the day by day realisations about one’s choices and behaviour, and how they effect relationships.

    As the time goes on, both play out their fears and habits, but it seems like the strong friendship and the nature of the experiment forces them to continue to see the other person as a human. It’s so easy to objectify, dismiss the concerns and humanity of someone who upsets us, but they keep coming back to the friendship they have, the desire to preserve it, and the commitment to the experiment.

    On commitment-phobia:

    It makes me think of Dave, a former boss of mine I had right after high school. He eventually became an important mentor and a great friend. He has all these phrases he goes by, stuff like “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” and “never put your hands in your pockets, it’s a sign of laziness.” Anyway, one phrase he says that particularly rings a bell in this case is, “never say ‘I can’t.’” When will I stop saying ‘I can’t’ when it comes to relationships?

    On Disneyland:

    I have mixed feelings about this place. On the one hand, there is something fascinating about Disney World. There is a high level of detail to every aspect of the operation and the experience, from the hand painted signs and the technology behind the projections and holograms, to the large scale coordinated shows that happen like clockwork. Yet, as Prince Charming passed by us waving, and I watched the little children squeal in excitement, I couldn’t help but think there is something twisted about this place. This whole place just plants expectations in children’s minds that make them think they will grow up to meet the perfect person who will make all their dreams come true. While this kind of storybook love is a positive and a seemingly innocent notion, it’s nearly impossible to live up to.

    It’s interesting to think about how this kind of true love is a relatively recent concept in human history. Marriage unions used to be treated in a much more practical manner, often as nothing more than a business arrangement between families. It was only in the last few hundred years that we saw this birth of romanticism throughout culture.

    On love:

    What does it even mean to love someone? It seems almost impossible to universally define such a complex state of mind since we all experience life so uniquely. I guess love is something you just have to experience and define for yourself. On a whole, I’ve experienced it as being committed to someone I am passionately interested in. Someone who helps me discover aspects of myself I didn’t see before and for whom I can do the same. Someone I trust, respect, and share experiences with. Someone I can be my kind of weird with.

    I loved it. It’s realistic, but still heartwarming. Sweet without being saccharine. It reminded me of all the reasons why I can’t really be bothered dating right now, of why relationships I’ve had have failed, and yet also somehow also of the reasons why it is worth trying.

  • Sydney 2013: Sculptures and the Sea

    Sydney 2013: Sculptures and the Sea

    I had a brief stop in Sydney between Bali and Barcelona, mostly spending quality time with friends, but I also got in some cultural activities. The Ansel Adams exhibit at the Maritime Museum is small but stunning (open until December 8th), and of course, Sculptures by the Sea (ended November 10th, but will be in Perth next March), which was gorgeous – Bondi beach is very pretty and I love modern sculpture. I was so disappointed to miss last year (discovered it’s existence a day after it ended), so I was really happy that I managed to catch this one on my way out of the country!

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  • Art Adventures!

    Art Adventures!

    My friend Diana and I went to the White Rabbit Gallery. It was really cool – they have some really interesting pieces, and a great cafe featuring delicious dumplings! My favorite was the balloon, which I was restrained from investigating further as it is a “really dangerous machine” – of course this just enhanced it’s appeal for me!

  • Art, Life, and Programming

    This December, the University of Ottawa is holding some events to get children (7-10) interested in Engineering and Computer Science. I got the email and was inspired, because this is something I do.

    My full CV is on my LinkedIn, but suffice to say the past 3 summers I’ve been teaching programming to kids. 2007 in St Paul (Minnesota), 2008 in St Paul and Seattle, and this past summer in Shanghai. I’ve also worked on the Java curriculum that was taught across the US (and that I taught in Shanghai). I’ve done this rather than take better paid jobs, or internships, and I’m not 100% sure why. But here’s why I think I do it…

    Programming is seen as boring, 1’s and 0’s. It’s not as exciting as making a website, or a video game. But – talented programmers are how the applications we use to make websites and video games are made in the first place. When we use an application, we’re limited by what the application designer thought we would want. But when we code, we’re limited by the speed of our computer, the size of the memory… and our own imagination. Bear in mind, the first two limitations get less limiting by the 18 months (says Moore’s law).

    I find that really inspiring. And, if I take that mindset and look at the things I do, day to day, hardware designers and programmers have changed everything. Here’s some of what I’m interested in: usability, search engines, social networking, programming as art… OK, computers have been about for a while, but if I were 10 years older? I never would have made it in Computer Science. It would have been too much about the hardware, for me. There’s a long story as to how I wound up in CS, but the short story is – it was kind of an accident. But there was enough there that I liked to keep me at it, and I doubt that would have been the case 10 years earlier. And now – I love it. I love to code, I love what I do. Seriously, I’ll talk about it to anyone who’ll listen. I’m excited to explain it to people who aren’t techies, because I’m excited that we’re finally getting there – where the stuff programmers create in their darkened basements is something real people use, and could even understand if we would just take the time to explain it to them without using obscure acronyms and unexplained concepts. I’m excited by the fact we don’t need to live in darkened basements anymore, too.

    So, my theory in teaching is – learning to code, the constructs, thinking logically… can be pretty dull. But what we can create is really exciting. So I focus less on constructs, more on possibility. I talk about Open Source, and the browser wars, extreme programming, and I create stuff. And I make sure that every child I teach has the option to go home with something graphical. This year, we used processing and it was awesome. We made fractals, block breaker, snake (like the game on the Nokia phones), tetris, and a game the student called “dodgeball” (I’ll put these all up when I get my website done). And this was on top of the “frameworks” I’d created in the curriculum – hangman, noughts and crosses, blackjack, and Pacman, which were done using Swing. Frameworks mean the GUI was done for the student, and they fill in the Logic.

    So, back to the presentation. I’ve uploaded the slides here, so please take a look (and let me know what you think – first draft). It’s supposed to last an hour to an hour and a half.

    My Presentation centers around 3 Themes: Art, Life, and Programming.

    Theme 1: ART

    Art is no longer just paintings, or sculptures, or even photographs. Technology has given us new mediums to create with, and new means to distribute. Code is like a paintbrush, and the internet is the worlds biggest art gallery.

    Examples

    • The Twitter “Fail Whale” – an example of how a popular web service can make an image iconic. The “Fail Whale” now has it’s own range of memorabilia – have a look here.
    • We Tell Stories – a digital literature project. 6 authors, 6 stories, each given a new form using the internet. You can follow the story of 21 steps through Google Maps, but my personal favorite is Fairy Tales where you can control how the story goes.
    • One and Other – an installation, or “living monument”. For 100 days, one person every hour spends their time at the top of the plinth doing whatever they want. Broadcast over the internet, it’s attracted millions of page views and hits from around the world.
    • New Yorker cover in May drawn using the iPhone application Brushes.
    • PostSecret – a community mail art project. People send in post cards of their secrets, which are then posted on a blog each week. A mix of old and new technology. Running since 2005, the 5th book is shortly to be released and thousands of secrets have been posted online.
    • Pixel City – a YouTube video of the creation of an entirely computer generated city.
    • I Want You To Want Me – an interactive installation at the Museum of Modern Art, New York created by Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris. It pulls data from dating sites, and displays it in different ways. Visually stunning, and profound it “explores the search for love and self in the world of online dating”.

    These tools are recent.

    Fractal – Art, or Math? Or both?

    Theme 2: LIFE

    Inventions that have changed humanity: the printing press, electricity, the combustion engine, fire…

    Computers and the Internet are another such invention, and we’re living through the period of change. Who knows what 2010 was like? Parents upbringing would be unrecognizable to the way we live now.

    In the West, people aged 30 and under are the first generation to grow up with the internet being “normal”, and everywhere. This gives us a significant advantage in the 21st century. However, less than 24 people in every 100 worldwide have access to the internet, which was only invented in 1989. Much information – medical records are a good example, is not yet digital.

    Blogging is a new medium, the Blogger service was launched in 1999, and bought by Google in 2003. Services like this made it possible for not techies to “blog” (previously, blogs were just websites which required more knowledge to create). The concept of sharing your every day life in public, as it happened was new. Now, Blogging is also used as a way to communicate with your customers – important announcements are made on the company blog (Google is a great example of this).

    Blogging may have been the start of the concept of “ambient intimacy”, where people stay connected by following each others lives on the internet, rather than through active communication. It’s also something that newspapers see as a threat to their business model.

    Newspapers: Prediction, the paper version will be obsolete, and soon. Why? Because the way we live is changing, because their business model has been undermined by services like CraigsList. Because the world will be different in 5 years than it is now, and a lot different from how it was 10 years ago.

    What’s Next? Google Wave, the Apple tablet computer, table computing, house-cleaning robots… and other things we haven’t imagined yet.

    Theme 3: PROGRAMMING

    People used to program using 1’s and 0’s. A card with holes punched into it, that you’d insert into a computer (when it was your turn) and wait for the result to come out the other end. We’ve come a long way since then, and can code visually using things like Alice (upcoming 3.0 release uses The Sims) and the Warcraft World editor. Often, though, we use something in between such as C#, Haskell, or Java.

    Remember the fractal? It’s Java – created using Processing.

    Conclusions

    • Technology has changed our lives considerably relatively recently
    • New and impressive “hardware”
    • Creative and innovating programming
    • More to come!
    • Technologists – hardware designers, programmers – are at the center of what we will achieve next

    Final Thoughts

    • Look around – changes are happening rapidly
    • In 15 years, you could be talking about what’s happened in your lifetime
    • Be inspired! Human innovation is INCREDIBLE!
    • Push boundaries! Be limited only by your imagination.
    • Experiment!