Auteur archieven: martinpot

IoT & Built Environment 2015

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On April 9th. 2015, the 4th. IoT, Built Environment & Smart City conference, now organized as a MeetUp, was held in Rotterdam, this year back on its original location, i.e. V2, Institute for the Unstable Media. Besides a fine line-up of speakers, among which Nimish Biloria (TUD-Hyperbody, Ben van Lier (Centric), Jan Belon (Buitengewone Zaken) , Floris Schiferli (Superuse), also one political party from Rotterdam (Nils Berndsen/D66) was present; which can only be admired, given the subject. Worthwhile in particular was the lecture (read by me due to her illness) from Cristina Ampatzidou; and especially the closing debate, moderated – like the whole event by Leon van Geest – delivered some interesting discussions and statements.

New Babylon

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Last September 28th. at the Illinois College of Architecture; a fascinating lecture by Mark Wigley on Constant’s New Babylon, preceded by a.o. a brief introduction from Trudy Nieuwenhuys-van der Horst, wife of Constant and founder of the Fondation Constant. Wigley shows in particular the relevance of New Babylon for our networked world and emphasizes it value where it concerns the – again – actual important of hospitality, given the increasing numbers of refugees worldwide.

actual: currently the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid offers a extensive exhibition of ‘New Babylon’, in close cooperation with Gemeente Museum the Hague and the Fondation Constant, until Feb. 29th. 2016.

tech & biology

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fascinating lecture by MIT’s Neri Oxman on ‘Design and the intersection technology and biology’ at TED-2015. Imagine the possibilities for our immediate environment when structure and materials merge and create a sphere which adapts and transforms; imagine the possibilities when this development is linked to the increasing internet of things/people connectivity and what this implies for our way of building. Do we need a built environment as the only way to provide shelter and privacy?

Metabody

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recently published: the Metabody Journal of Metacultural Critique, nr. 1. the Metabody project is an EU-supported project and will last 5 years, i.e. from 2013-2018. It covers various disciplines : music, dance, architecture, media, etc.; but above all “the context of the project is an unprecedented control society, with the onset of Big Data as new economy that aims to reduce all reality to traceable data” .(p.4) TU-Delft’s Hyperbody Lab represents the Architecture section. The Journal, accompanied by a dvd with works, prototypes and subprojects is available via the website.

Warren Ellis at ThingsCon

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Disruptive, fascinating, out-of-the-box, playful and, above all, a true attentive keynote from Warren Ellis at ThingsCon 2015 in Berlin. While using the house and its – assumed – internet of things connectivity as an example he illustrates that we need to think a lot harder to come up with real adequate solutions if we really want to add meaning to the place we call our home.

smog free tower

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After his first smog-project in Being, artist/designer Daan Roosegaarde – based in Rotterdam – now focuses on his own city. Supported by a crowd-funding action he plans and designed a 7 meter Smog-Free Tower in Rotterdam, to be completed in September 2015. After being presented in Rotterdam the tower will travel to other countries. Participants/partners that donate at least € 50,- receive an object containing the dust taken from the air; for € 250,- you can wear it as a ring: techno poetry………….. Let’s hope the tower will remain and/or others will follow……

cells

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Until August 2nd. this year nobody should miss the beautiful exhibition in Munich’s Haus der Kunst of Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Cells, Structures of Existence‘ , a series of intimate spaces created in a decade between 1998 and 2008, just 2 years before her death in 2010. The `Cells’ represent the remembrance of her life and – in particular – childhood. They show a remarkable ability to transfer memories and eventsIMG_0143 into spheres recognizable for many; with simple materials – in particular doors rescued from e.g. her studio – the  small spaces become a reference to  often lost experiences.

 

 

Engage Rotterdam

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Constructive meeting and – above all – breakout sessions – yesterday on the 14th floor at Central Post Rotterdam as part of Engage Rotterdam; organized by Hogeschool Rotterdam and Livework on Smart City-issues. Once again a call for ‘rethinking the future’ (Ingrid Mulder, TUD & HR) and various attempts to create real participatory projects, some of which will be added to the CityLab-010.

IoT-MeetUp on WW-IoT-day

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On April 9, 2015 , the 4th Internet of Things & Built Environment MeetUp was held in Rotterdam, after 3 years now back at V2. In combination with a parallel program at HR and WdKA in their own venues; we had an interesting series of presentations and debates on the actual issues concerning iot and smart city. See the recordings at https://vimeo.com/channels/908003/ and listen back.

smart or feel

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smart or feel

“There are many realities. There is no single world. There are many worlds, and they all run parallel to one another, worlds and anti-worlds, worlds and shadow-worlds, and each world is dreamed or imagined or written by someone in another world. “
Paul Auster, Man in the Dark

While my first article here originated from several more theoretically oriented issues concerning the iot and the built environment, it should be obvious that theory only will not provide the solutions needed to really achieve understanding, let alone real practical progress. When summarizing the Onlife Initiative discussion in 2013 it was chairman Luciano Floridi who stated that ‘we should write a Manifesto for mum’ ; illustrating that the Manifesto as discussed that day in July needed a transformation that would make it more accessible for the average citizen. The subtitle of the Manifesto – ‘Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era’ – points to the place and role of humans in a framework that increasingly becomes a mix of bits and atoms, of the digital and the analog, of the real and the virtual. Floridi again, later in his recent book: “the infosphere is progressively absorbing any other space”.(Florida, 2014) This, I would add, includes the ontology of the built environment, as discussed in my former article. Lees verder →