MyMap was awarded “best in show” at the student design exhibition Monday evening. It was a great event and a wonderful opportunity for some true cross-disciplinary conversation.

It was also quite exciting to share the project with the larger public for the first time. Some viewers were skeptical that it was a custom program. Some assumed that it was hand drawn. I was also struck by how unexposed this kind of mapping remains. While I (and others) have been immersed in the field for a quite some time, and can easily see precedent for my work, many viewers did not have that same knowledge of the precedents. It was gratifying to be able to give them a glimpse of the field.

For more info on the project, take a look here.

(note: more info @ here)

I recently submitted “My Map (A Self-Portrait)” to the College of Design’s All Student Exhibition. You will find the exhibition in the Commons Area at Ralph Rapson Hall (a map). On display for your enjoyment is a massive 44″x44″ archival print of my email corresopondence between May, 1998 and Jan, 2007.

Please stop by before the 6:00pm reception on Monday to cast your vote for “Student’s Choice Award”.

Here’s the my statement:

Email became an integral part of my life in 1998.  Like many people, I have archived all of my email with the hope of someday revisiting my past.  Of great interest to me is revealing the innumerable relationships between me, my schoolmates, work-mates, friends and family.  This could not readily be accomplished by reading each of my 60,000 emails one-by-one.  Instead, I created My Map, a relational map and alternative self portrait.  My Map is a piece of custom designed software capable of rendering the relationships between myself and individuals in my address book by examining my email archive.  The intensity of the relationship is determined by the intensity of the line.  My Map allows me to explore different relational groupings and periods of time, revealing the temporal ebbs and flows in various relationships.  In this way, My Map is a veritable self-portrait, a reflection of my associations and a way to locate myself.

Here’s a picture:

This website really is under construction. In fact, a complete redesign is coming soon. It will be much much simpler.

The first Urban Echo event took place at dusk on Friday night, October 6th. Between 7:30 and 10:00pm, participants contributed well over 200 unique voice, text, picture and video messages. Here are some initial images to help you get a sense of the visual landscape.

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We have started promoting Urban Echo … here’s our poster. Here’s the project page.

Here’s a link to our abstract.

Urban Echo (6 Sept, 2006) (Quicktime Video: 0.6 mb)
Here’s a bit of video from the first showing of Urban Echo (the working title). Urban Echo is a large-scale publicly accessible video project that is projected onto large urban façades. For this showing, I was able to present it on the side of the beautiful Barker Center for Dance. Passersby (and those located elsewhere) are able to send text messages that appear on the screen in chronological order. Presently, I am not asking the public to respond to any particular question, but rather allowing them to have their say uncensored. One can imagine the unsavory bits that appeared later in the night as college students in cars drove by. But, despite its unresolved nature (in my mind at least) it received a very positive response. I plan to show it again several times during the next few weeks. Here’s a brief video from the opening and mini-promo-card. By the way — this piece is part of a series of artistic experiments leading up to our 2006 Artsmosis piece. Keep an eye out for that …

I just purchased airfare to San Jose for the ZeroOne/ISEA 2006 conference. I will be reporting on the trip as it progresses.

There are a number of events, meetings, parties and gatherings that I look forward to being a part of. More later …

Both Walking (2006) and 27 May, 2003 will be showing at the Fallout Urban Art Festival hosted by the Fallout Urban Art Center from 22 July, 2003 through the end of August. An opening reception will be held Friday night, July 21st, 2006.

We were informed that our grant proposal for ArtsMosis 2006 was accepted and funded. Now we just need to pull a team together to make it happen.

I am currently researching the benefits/problems with our original projection idea — particular the resusability of the structures and the long term disadvantages of projectors.