#inst-int

Are you going to eyeO Festival? EyeO? eyeo? EYEO! 

It’s next week already, can you believe it?

eyeo is a conference in Minneapolis held at the Walker Art Center.  It’s the “place-to-be” for creative technologists, data visualizers, interactive artists, and anyone who’s interested in tech art.

The best of the industry give talks about their process, inspiration and upcoming projects. Beers are had over inspirational chats on collaboration, and nights are spent brainstorming with amazing people you just met. All the attendees are terrifically smart. I remember coming back home last year exhausted, struggling to digest all of the knowledge I had taken in while nursing tech-talk hangovers. It was amazing.

This year it’s on June 1 - 4th. Tickets sold out within 10 minutes. (lots of techie heart attacks while breaking our fingers on the refresh button)

If you’re interested, I’d highly recommend checking out past talks at their Vimeo Channel (Robert Hodgin’s 2014 talk is particularly entertaining).

If you weren’t able to snag a ticket this year don’t worry-- it’s sister conference, INST-INT, is right around the corner. 

INST-INT is cheaper, more intimate, and focuses on interactivity and installations. 

The second ever INST-INT kicks off tonight, and I'm very excited to return to soak in as much as I can, meet a ton of inspiring individuals, and get inspired by the killer lineup of speakers.

Explained best on their site, INST-INT assembles an international roster of acclaimed creators to explore the intersection of art, technology and interaction.

I was fortunate to attend for the inaugural year and wrote a blog series reflecting on what I learned (which was a lot):

INST-INT 2013 Recap/Reflection Series

This year I was on a tough search for sponsors, grants, patrons... any sort of funding that could help cover costs of passes/hotel/travel, with no luck.

A couple weeks before the conference I tweeted for help, and I was very fortunate to have someone randomly reach out to donate in support of my trip. A few emails later, he shared that he's sending in memory of his close friend Zach Watson, talented data-visual designer/coder, who sadly passed away after being involved in a car accident in SF a little over a month ago.

I met Zach last year at INST-INT, we actually hung out a fair amount throughout the conference. He was always smiling, positive, great guy to talk with. After the conference we lost touch, but I didn't forget him.

He worked at Stamen Design, then Exploratorium, and has created some great projects that I've admired even before meeting him, like his beautiful watercolor maps, and climate change water level simulator, Surging Seas.

I'll say a few brief words as part of my Show & Tell, but look into his work and take a moment to think of him.

Camp Light was a massive hit at Art Hop this weekend, and I had a blast. Thanks for everyone who came out!

Mike Deedy (who also filmed illuminimal) got some fantastic footage of interactions from the hundreds of viewers, which included kids, parents, teenagers, dancers, shadow puppet enthusiasts, selfie addicts, dogs, and more.

It was incredibly rewarding to see how everyone reacted to the project in different and exciting ways. Many aspects of this project were inspired by things I picked up from attending last year's INST-INT:

Plan for multiple users. Allow breaking the rules. Use the whole body. Use all senses.

—Tom Igoe, NYU; Arduino

Digital light as a semi-material, a suspension within physical space.

—Elliot Woods, Kimchi & Chips

Make something photogenic.

—Jared Ficklin, Frog Design

If you're interested in more about INST-INT, I wrote an INST-INT 2013 Refection Blog Series, or you can go to INST-INT 2014 9/25-9/27!

Part 3/3 of my recap series inspired by attending INST-INT last year!

As children our imaginations run free, in awe of the world around us. Magic is rampant because, hell, we don't know anything. As we grow up and learn more about the world, the magic around us tends to wear off.

A large part of what inspired me to pursue experience design is the ability to create these magic interactions through blending physical and digital mediums. What I'm finding is people respond in various ways.

The curious majority will try to figure out how it works, to "fool the magician," while others will feel isolated by technology they don't understand. It goes right over their heads, and instead of feeling awe as intended, they're left out of the loop.

So, how do you engage the group that's left out of the loop, without revealing how the 'magic' works? After all, a true magician never reveals his trick, right?

This compelling balance between hiding the technology or revealing the seams was a theme that spanned a compelling spectrum expressed by speakers at INST-INT.

Eric Brockmeyer of Disney Research explained how Disney hides their seams with incredible precision, and embrace the magic, grounded in story. On the other end, Michael Szivos of SOFTlab embraces seams in his work, proudly exposing simple clips that hold together complex structures, and Elliot Woods of Kimchi & Chips shares his progress open source as he creates entirely new projection systems and methods.

Matt Cottam, founder of Tellart, stated simply "too much magic obscures the experience."

Stuart Wood of rAndom International said their Rain Room was assumed by some to be some sort of complex projection or hologram. Nope. It was simply a load of actual water falling in a torrential downpour.

Personally, I fall on the side of magic; strive for seamless, shadowless, the technology disappears, and you're clear to enjoy an experience without barriers.

Alex Beim of Tangible Interaction suggested his elegant solution:

Simplify an experience down to its most basic mechanics, and make people feel empowered by knowing exactly how something works.

INST-INT opened my eyes to the beauty of blatantly showing the cogs in the machine, which influenced how I approached my next project at the time, ZX Concept. Our primary focus was exploring color in a 3D space, augmented with a complimentary soundscape.

Magic v. seams aside, it all comes down to simplicity through a clear focus on one single goal.

Take a moment to assess whatever you're currently working toward, whether it's a project, product, business, career, anything... identify the single aspect you're trying to strive for and execute that one focus super well.

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In case you missed it:

PART 1:

PART 2:

INST-INT is a conference about interactive installation in minneapolis. I was there last winter. Here are some of my notes.

Referencing the utopian visions of 1960’s architecture practice Archigram, Walking City is a slowly evolving video sculpture. The language of materials and patterns seen in radical architecture transform as the nomadic city walks endlessly, adapting to the environments she encounters. Walking City by Universal Everything.

Last autumn I was lucky enough to see Mike Tucker speak at INST-INT. I was blown away by the projects Universal Everything crafts with creative code.

During his presentation, Mike showed a different iteration of this video in which this walking figure shifted between different more natural, organic media like stone and fire.

This is part 2/3 of my recap series inspired by attending INST-INT last month!

Alex Beim of Tangible Interaction shared this simple graphic in his talk that made a huge impact on me. It visualizes the history of screen size/distance over time:

Alex discussed how we used to consume media in large groups in the theater on large screens. Then we brought home televisions for smaller groups of family and friends. Since then, media consumption has become an increasingly intimate individual experience, with screens shrinking down from computer, to laptop, to tablet, and finally to phone. The next step toward intimacy is to actually integrate them with our vision through VR tech. 

He stated that our technology is growing faster than we can understand it, isolating and disrupting our physical human experience.

Whether or not you think this is a good thing, it's certainly an inevitable future with so many VR consumer products hitting the market: Google Glass, Oculus Rift, OMNI Treadmill, Steam's rumored VR innovation... these are all products that are augmenting, and even replacing, reality.

Sure, VR tech has been around since the 60's and its popularity ebbs and flows, but the difference this time is that the world is actually ready. We've been primed for this by gradually closer and more intimate screens.

As screens get closer to our face, we see less of the world around us.

The concerning part is losing reality, because... well, real life is important. Entertainment began with stories told around campfires, performers on a stage. Very human connections. The human experience is important... but the human experience is also becoming digital. 

Finding new ways of accentuating physical space with digital content (and for that matter, providing digital content a physical space) can ease more people into considering (and accepting) the possibilities of virtualizing reality.

To do this we need to stimulate more senses than sight and sound alone, and some people already are. In Eric Brockmeyer's talk, he shared how Disney Research developed a digital surface that gives different texture, and tactile response. Eventually we'll need to tackle all of our senses, and smell and taste will also need to be considered to create complete immersion.

Too future? Probably not.

Looking at how flavoring is artificially formulated for food, and aromas are synthesized for perfumes, I imagine creating the "RGB of taste" or "CMYK of smell" isn't too far off.

These are all exciting doorways to create entirely new human experiences. Let's just be sure to remember the importance of that human part.

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In the third and final part of this series, I'll dive into my favorite theme that emerged at INST-INT: magic, and the balance between a polish-perfect illusion and a drawn-back curtain.

Stay tuned for PART 3: Magic vs. Seams.  If you missed it, here's PART 1: Break, Embrace, Repeat.