” I’m a newborn bunny, one of a unique species of intelligent, smart objects. I’m 23 cm tall, I wriggle my ears, I sing, I talk and my body lights up and pulsates with hundreds of colours. Thanks to Wi-Fi technology, I’m always connected to the Internet.” source

Why do i blog this? Robot bunny reminds me to the networked interactive objects, which may blog soon, location-aware about itself as well as about other objects in the environment connected through “the internet of things” described in the paper by Bleecker …
d

what are the basic conditions to grow a culture of collaboration to bring togehter institutes of different disciplines with different learning and working cultures? Is there something like a culture of interdisciplinarity? Any examples of good practice? I am not speaking about the typical hierarchical sort of co-operation. A lot of questions…
d

I received this one today, just after I talked to a student on mobile, Mixed Reality games and locative media like “Can you see me now?” etc…

“It’s a love thing…

Across Nottingham, Leicester and Derby, Active Ingredient demonstrate their latest venture taking the computer game out of the bedroom and into urban spaces. Played on mobile phones, city walls and the web, Love City creates a moment of connection and a chance for 3 cities to fall in love.

Txt love to

07786 200 350

to register for free updates * or email

play@lovecity.tv

for more information”

http://www.lovecity.tv/

Back from a school visit in the context of mentoring an art student who currently carries out his internship at the elementary school of Klixbüll where he introduced a project to explore the opportunities of the PDAs in the framework of aesthetic research explorations of surfaces in the school environment. (I have never been to Klixbüll before I must admit. It is actually near Niebüll in Schleswig-Holstein, quite near the North Sea coast). However, it was worth going. Very impressive school in terms of pedagogical concept which Mrs Dahmani, the head teacher, explained to us very impressively.
The concept of the lessons includes so called controlled (“gelenkte”) as well as free work and learning processes. Learning contents are adapted to the individual interests and need of the child. Children are documenting their learning and thereby leave sort of a “learning trace”. Children work in age-crossing groups every day, and then split to 1st-4th grades individual learning groups. Basically influenced by the pedagogical approach of Montessori, the school is equipped with a variety of learning materials which facilitate processes of understanding, such as those related to maths developed by Montessori. They introduced thematic learning, that is, an overall theme is addressed in all learning groups, such as the current one which is “Inventions” (development and construction) as well as “information research and information processing/shaping with media”.
According to the head teacher, the keywords at the school are transparency as well as trust, the latter was addressed in the context of learning culture between the team of the teachers as well as between teachers and pupils. Instead of the classroom concept they have introduced the “learning landscapes” which reminded my to Papert’s idea of the introduction of a land of mathematics, where maths was spoken like a language, to best facilitate and understanding of maths, like you do in learning foreign languages by leaving for the country. Every room contains the materials to facilitate a particular subject best, such as materials for maths, language, and arts etc. (Very impressive: The speaking globe which responds after ticking a particular location on the map. May be interesting in the context of geography, mapping, open cartography, google earth and locative media).
daniela

Robo sapiens
Evolution of a New Species
Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio

“Around the world, scientists and engineers are participating in a high-stakes race to build the first intelligent robot. Many robots already exist — automobile factories are full of them. But the new generation of robots will be something else: smart machines that act like living creatures. When they are brought into existence, science fiction will have become fact.

What will happen then? With our prosthetic limbs, titanium hips, and artificial eyes, we are already beginning to resemble our machines. Equally important, our machines are beginning to resemble us. Robots already walk, talk, and dance; they can react to our facial expressions and obey verbal commands. When they take the next step and become fully autonomous, what will they do? Will we be partners or rivals? Could we meld into a single species — Robo sapiens?

In Robo sapiens, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio present the next generation of intelligent robots and their makers. Accompanying brilliant photographs of more than one hundred robots is an account of the little-known, yet vitally important scientific competition to build an autonomous robot. Containing extensive interviews with robotics pioneers, anecdotal “field notes” with behind-the-scenes information, and easy-to-understand technical data about the machines, Robo sapiens is a field guide to our mechanical future.

Peter Menzel is a photographer known for his coverage of international feature stories on science and the environment. His award-winning photographs have been published in Life, National Geographic, Smithsonian, the New York Times Magazine, Time, Stern, GEO, and Le Figaro. Together with Faith D’Aluisio, he is the co-creator of the books Material World: A Global Family Portrait and Women in the Material World; and is the co-author of Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.

Faith D’Aluisio is a former television news producer. Her documentary and news series pieces have won regional and national awards from the Headlines Foundation, United Press International, Associated Press, and the Radio-Television News Directors Association. Together with Peter Menzel, she is the co-creator of the books Material World: A Global Family Portrait and Women in the Material World; and is the co-author of Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. ”
source: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8522&mlid=569

Why do I blog? is an issue to think about. Am about collecting some answers to follow here. (In Germany, I only know from one colleague who is running a blog – and he is actually not German. I further know two of my students who run a blog. Need a survey here.
Also know that Régine Débatty can even (more or less) make a living on her blog .

Also just read on the mailing list of the German art educators that they are just about to discover blogs…seems to be sort of an indicator of the state of the art at German schools concerning digital technologies which are often seem to be stuck in the mid 90ies when the Internet was hyped and the school-to-the-Net-initiatives were pushed by the ministries, equiping schools without developing didactic concepts and content…However, most activities in German arts education in the field of digital media are still focused on using the computer as a tool (image editing) or a resource (archive, Web site), rather than on exploring the interactive medium. Big debate on the list whether there are blogs for German art educators. They came up with one on art critics – well, not a surprise really. So the debate takes place on the level of blog reviews to be carried out, seems to early to address the medium’s potential in terms of the future Web. The main lack in the debate about blogs in German arts education is, that they are not reflected in the context of the communication paradigms of the computer. There is no awareness of the current developments such as the disappearing computer and the net of interactive and intelligent objects which may both provide and disseminate content. Such objects are location-aware not only about themselves, but also about the environment of networked objects, which they perceive with sensors. They represent content providers. Blogs as a medium for Mixed Reality scenarios have to be addressed as they expand the concept of the Net and link it to the physical environment.
In the ArtDeCom and MediaArtLab@School project the approach of shaping Mixed Reality interaction spaces in a more performance-oriented way was introduced, mediating the digital technologies as programmable, constructable and shapable by integrating extended interfaces and Tangible Media.

so back to the question – why do I blog? Perhaps as simple as that: because one has something to say – I do not think it is vanity, but something to do with identification, e.g. professional identification. But there is something else, apart from the humans’s need of communication (and according to Flusser the very reason of human communication is to escape death).
Also I realised, I am checking the blog to find out where someone was…

I think it is also because we do not develop further creative ideas etc in a vacuum. To me blogging is all about connecting bits and pieces I have collected.

more answers to follow…

daniela

just came across the Semapedia article on the futurezone.
“Our goal is to connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the best information from the internet to the relevant place in physical space.
We do this by combining the physical annotation technology of Semacode with high quality information from Wikipedia.”
Another approach to link the physical and the digital spaces. Linking your mobile phone, google earth, Wiki etc. seems to open up a lot of opportunities for media arts projects. It will be addressed in the MR seminar as well.
d

The following Joint Declaration was presented on the

UNESCO WORLD ARTS CONFERENCE
Lisbon, March 6, 2006

“JOINT DECLARATION OF THE

international drama/theatre and education association (IDEA)
international society for education through art (InSEA)
international society for music education (ISME)

This is an historic moment in international arts education. After six years of preparatory meetings, IDEA, InSEA and ISME have now united to define an integrated strategy that responds to a critical moment in human history: social fragmentation, a dominant global culture of competition, endemic urban and ecological violence, and the marginalization of key educational and cultural languages of transformation.

In a visionary agenda in the aftermath of the World War II, UNESCO recognized the unique role that arts education can play in the creation of a culture of peace, international understanding, social cohesion and sustainable development. However, at that time, few could have anticipated the socio-cultural needs that would be generated by the accelerated technological change during the intervening decades; and today few can imagine the impact and challenges of technological convergence in the immediate future.

We believe that today’s knowledge-based, post-industrial societies require citizens with confident flexible intelligences, creative verbal and non-verbal communication skills, abilities to think critically and imaginatively, intercultural understandings and an empathic commitment to cultural diversity.

Research increasingly shows that these personal attributes are acquired through the process of learning and applying artistic languages. We welcome decisions by governments throughout the world to place educational reform and cultural development at the heart of their agendas. However, we know that there is not always the political and professional will to integrate the arts into an effective ‘education for all’, as vital instruments for learning human rights, responsible citizenship and inclusive democracy.

Drawing membership from more than 90 countries, our global alliance of arts education organisations involves leading practitioners and promotes innovative practices in arts education internationally. Through our national affiliations and individual memberships, we draw on the experiences of more than one million dedicated and courageous teachers, artists/performers, researchers, scholars, community leaders, administrators and policy makers who themselves are in touch with formal and informal educational communities throughout the world.

Our three organisations are uniquely positioned to advance professional practices and policies in the visual arts, music and theatre/drama education. We provide:

* effective channels for international communication and the exchange of policy and pedagogical resources;
* national, regional and world forums which debate and disseminate innovative educational theories and practices;
* conceptual and professional structures to preserve tangible and intangible artistic cultures (particularly in the developing world), that are threatened by globalization;
* models of intercultural analysis that explore aspects of traditional and new media and enable diverse pedagogies to be demonstrated and exchanged;
* research into pedagogies for personal and social transformation; and
* critical investigation into the educational, socio-economic and cultural impacts of the arts.

Together, we will advocate new and appropriate paradigms of education which both transmit and transform culture through the humanizing languages of the arts that are founded on the principles of cooperation, not competition. For more than half a century, our associations have contributed significantly to the development of curricula and teaching approaches. We are now ready to respond proactively to the diverse social and cultural needs of our world. In response to the urgent crises of our times, we embrace the challenge to make our exceptional resources available to governments and educational communities across the globe.

In the visual arts, critical and reflective pedagogies and new means of artistic production offer students opportunities to explore their multicultural, multi-technological visual worlds. Through the performing arts, educators are transforming classrooms into theatres of creative dialogue, equipping young people to enact solutions to contemporary social needs and challenges. In music education, the new technologies provide astonishing opportunities to develop intercultural awareness and collaborative production.

Collectively the arts offer young people unique opportunities to understand and create their own cultural and personal identities. They stimulate interdisciplinary study and participatory decision-making, and motivate young people to engage in active learning and creative questioning.

Our three organisations have formed an alliance for strategic action based on principled and sustained dialogue. Our primary aim is to accelerate the implementation of arts education policies internationally. We want to collaborate with all governments, networks, educational institutions, communities and individuals who share our vision.

We challenge UNESCO to fulfill the responsibilities of its founding mandate by joining us to make arts education central to a world agenda for sustainable human development and social transformation.

Viseu, Portugal
March 4, 2006″

Source: http://www.insea.org/ [19.3.2006]

getting more and more into blogging, and currently reading a lot of exciting papers on top of usual workload, I definitely need a good floor cleaning robot as soon as possible…Well, the floors are the easy bid of it, I must admit…need a robot which organises and archives all the bloody papers and collected items which lie about everywhere around, all over the place.
PS (No, I will not publish a photo here – would not be a good idea I suppose

The cleaning robot required is a bid of a challenge for the students who are in robotic development. Will work on the functionalities required…and discuss it with the colleagues of the department of didactics of technology. Perhaps some sort of simple cleaning level might be achived …

The teacher training offers linked to the MediaArtLab@School project have been postponed and will be published on the IQSH web site as well as on the MediaArtLab@School Web site on

2007
We will run a teacher further training entitled “Ästhetische Zugangsweisen als Lernprinzip” – may be translated as “aesthetic approaches as a learning principle, performance-oriented processes of drama pedagogy are brought together with the digital media in the framework of extended interfaces in human-machine interaction in Mixed Reality-learning spaces”. It will be held over Mo, 5th February 2007 to Mi, 7th February 2007. Co-operation partners Dr. Daniela Reimann, Dr. Gabriele Lieber, Gießen und T. Wenzel, Bremen.
Venue: Akademie Schloss Rotenfels, 76560 Gaggenau-Bad Rothenfels Detailed information to follow.