~e; EIU: Limelight, Eric Paulos

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

[i must have signed up for the experimental interaction unit
list and received the following announcement as a result...]

Subject: EIU: Limelight at Chelsea Art Museum (14 Sept-16 Oct)

LIMELIGHT FEATRUED AT CHELSEA ART MUSEUM IN NEW YORK

The anxiety of our new world demands our vigilant attention.  We are 
drawn into the spiral of constantly filtering and interpreting the 
breaking news from across the globe, monitoring the state and 
activities in our local habitats, and drawing pragmatic conclusions of 
the current threat based on our findings.  The solution is a personal 
tactical system capable of diligently and automatically monitoring 
complex local and global threat conditions, constantly updating its 
awareness of these hostilities, and presenting an ambient display to 
the local user of the current threat level: Limelight.

Limelight is a personal tactical system that removes the burden of 
anxiety associated with our continuous worry of emerging global and 
local threatening conditions.  Using a collection of embedded sensors, 
local measurements of radioactivity and RF signals are continuously 
scanned for hostile patterns.  Similarly, remote precursors of threats 
such as the appearance and frequency of specific keywords and 
discussions by various military, news, and independent sources are 
continuously monitored.  The collected data is carefully analyzed and 
summarized as a visual output where various threats are mapped across a 
spectrum of illumined and pulsing colors.

(Eric Paulos) http://www.eiu.org

[see specifically: http://eiu.org/experiments/limelight/
it is quite an impressive conceptual idea and quite a humorous
and also full of social/cultural commentary about things today.
funniest is the video: http://eiu.org/experiments/limelight/video.htm
which is as vaporware as any pulsing sculptural object could said
to be able to do absolutely anything, until someone actually uses it.

what is particularly intriguing is that this device is chock-full of 
sensors,
of every kind and that is why the feasibility aspect is questioned: is 
it
really possible to make this (on an artist's budget? no less). though,
as a futuristic device, it would seem to be a talisman  of things to 
come
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:talisman&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
that may someday actually be part of an infrastructure of such devices,
an ideal 'big brother' interface so that what was locally known here as
'the weather ball' (when the weather ball is red.. storms are soon 
ahead)
is now 'the terror ball' (or in this case, some kind of soft plastic 
rocketry).
brilliant in its presentation and the sensors in such a device are 
telling
of all the missing dimensions which actually do threaten, some moreso
than others, now, maybe others moreso than others, at another time.
be sure to check out the website, very intriguing... (if it actually 
worked
i'd be amazed-- so if it does, please correct my assuming it is a 
concept.)

part of a museum show:::


September 14 - October 16
Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street, @ 11th Ave
New York, NY 10011 USA

Opening 14 Sept 6-8pm

http://chelseaartmuseum.org/projectroom/2004/passageofmirage/

	'The exhibition The Passage of Mirage explores concepts surrounding 
the "virtual object" and the issues of representation that have been 
raised by it.'



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