exhibits

I did technology consulting for this visitor center designed by Picture Projects, in Frank Lloyd Wright's last building.

To highlight the special features of the building, 360 degree panoramas showing it in all its variability, in changing weather, over changing seasons, and different light, are shown on a Panasonic TC-P50G10 50" plasma screen with (Happ) trackball for interactive navigation. (Mac Mini drives this)

Centre Pompidou, with its radical inside-out architecture, has revolutionized the museum world with its core idea to popularize the elite culture of the art world, opening it up to the very heart of Paris. Twenty years after it opened, I was fortunate enough to help harness technology to stir up another revolution.

Across from the Pompidou, in a nondescript apartment building, Vincent Puig leads a team in conducting experiments at the intersection of art and technology, as part of the Centre's Institute for Research & Innovation (IRI). When I first met him in 2007, he was cooking up a way to give museum visitors a voice in the exhibition and interpretation of art — a way which transcended the banalities of mere 'user-generated content,' aiming for a more informed, intellectual discourse.

Results of a one-month test of live sensor data for monitoring plant growth outdoors, for implementation at Kew Gardens as part of of the research project Village e-Science for Life.

In my second time working with video artist Jennifer Steinkamp, I enlisted electronix guru Brock Craft (pictured here with the artist) to help install her piece Flora's Feast at the home of a private buyer in London.

Beautiful rendering of moving flowers plays on a two-story-tall LED screen installed in the wall behind a lift with glass doors. The flowers subtly move up or down depending on which way you're going in the lift.

Originally spec'ed for infrared sensors to detect movement of the lift, we managed instead to detect button presses from the lift electronics. We retained one of the Arduino Diecimilia boards shown here, for feeding the data into the PC which controls the animation (a Quicktime movie controlled in Director).

Part of the VeSeL project, this wireless sensor network collects data on soil and weather conditions and sends to the Internet and nearby Bluetooth devices. After testing for a few months at Kew it will go to rural Kenya as part of an integrated system including digital resource kits and activities which have already been sent. My role includes working directly with Kew, some technical work, conduct participatory research and design as part of a team, and general project management.

Featured in Make Magazine

Worked with teens to create the museum's first audio tour, as part of the MLA Youth Programme. I specified inexpensive MP3 player/recorders which the students used for their initial research, then I recorded the dramatic narrative they came up with, at our lab, on Minidisc. This was then edited with the students on my laptop using Audacity. The tour now available for download at the museum's site, or for free on the players at the museum!

Created mobile phone audio annotation system, hiring Shawn Van Every for programming of an Asterisk based exhibit voicemail system, to interface with the Pompidou's Lignes de Temps software. A local phone number from DID Worldwide connected invisibly to an Asterisk box in New York for tests. Thanks to Yves-Marie Haussonne, the museum duplicated our system on a local server. The system is described in further detail here.

Provided consultation on technology to Picture Projects for the exhibition In our own words: Portaits of Brooklyn's Vietnam veterans, running at least until Dec. 2008.

After a few years of research (along with scattered web/video/design work), I'm wading back into exhibits with this prototype for interactive table that recognizes visitors' phones, as well as handling artifacts. This was prototyped on my Powerbook using Director and video tracking. See photos here - see how laptop with camera pointing at screen makes for a nice impromptu interactive table!