Illustration
1: LED Throwie
Urban Parasites
Introduction
In the following, I will try to document my major project's conceptual background as well as the realized project. To begin with a short introduction of Urban Parasites which is not just one installation but an ongoing research project into the blurry field of art and technology. Urban Parasites aims mainly on the critical exploration of technology used in urban space by making use of artistic methods to reveal inconsistencies and/or alternative uses for the ubiquitous technological devices surrounding us. To allow to reach this aim, however, the project has to fulfil several other aims. First, it has to be a close inspection of technology that has been available, is available, or will be available. This means I consider technology situated in an evolving ecology where new tools are created, sometimes evolve, and sometimes become a dead end. Nevertheless, technology is mainly shaped by the dominating parts of the society making sure that the prevalent technologies support the preservation of their power. Therefore, it makes in my eyes sense to reconsider discarded technologies; not only because they open alternative usage of technology but also because they present stronger poetic vibrations as they have not been dulled down by a society striving for an efficient world of technological perfection. Second, to highlight the latter critique on a world of technological perfection, technology remains caught in a dualism between means of perfection (something that has been engineered to fulfil certain functionalities to the finest unit of measured specification) and a means of dysfunctionality. While technology as means of perfection rather allows the powerful to keep control dysfunctional technology opens up possibilities for the not so powerful by finding non-occupied spaces, uses, or functionalities in our society that (co-)evolves with(in) the technological environment. In other words, technology should be allowed to be generator of noise; to become a means of the unplanned, undesired, and unexpected by disturbing the ongoing flows and processes of the contemporary techno-social world we are part of. Technology has to become subject to hacking (the deliberate search of alternative functions within an existing system) and in my eyes intentional reduction to the bare functionality, as very often the true purpose of a tool is blurred behind a screen of many sub-functionalities. Third, the project should not only be critical reflection on the use of which technology and seen as a generator of alternative technological uses and functionalities (that would be open to the artistic, subjective, and poetic) but also as a generator of social exchange. As the restriction of access to knowledge and especially technological knowledge is used to preserve power a project of empowerment has to make knowledge accessible for everyone. Urban Parasites is therefore a project that privileges open source technologies to technologies that are made inaccessible as intellectual property. Aiming, additionally, to document the created project and used technologies well enough to make it accessible for others. In short: Urban Parasites has to make use of collaboration and shared knowledge to grow a knowledge base that will allow and inspire non-technical explorers (artists, interested, hackers) to make own projects which could again be added to the hopefully continuously growing knowledge base. Forth, I want to explain the project title “Urban Parasites”. The first part came naturally, the urban fabric is an human made environment that concentrates individuals and is deeply permeated with technology. The urban with its complex flows of matter and energy at various velocities make it the perfect base to grow and study technology. The parasite a notion taken from Michel Serres, however, needs some more explanation. To begin, I have to mention, that Serres' parasite has as French word three meanings: 1) as biological parasite, 2) as social parasite, and 3) as static or interference. [Serr07] Serres, uses of the third notion and states: “The parasite is a joker. It has at least two values, like the third man: a value of destruction and a value of construction. It must be included and excluded.” [Serr07; 67] Noise the parasite, becomes the enabler of communication (as signal has to be distinguished from a background of noise to become information), becomes the driving force of shaping systems (as a system has to adapt its interfaces to exclude noise to be caught in a loop as its new structure is affected again by noise), becomes what allows a medium to mediate. [Croc07] Here, I want to add that I see the urban parasites – the technological interventions in urban space – as media interfering with other media in the manifold media ecologies [Full05] that make the urban space. On the coming pages I will first describe several projects that are related with and/or inspirational for Urban Parasites. Followed by a concise explanation of the project's development of technical prototypes and the exhibited material. Finally I want to give space for a critical reflection of the achieved as well as an outlook of the future of the project.
I see my project not only as the cumulation of two years of intense engagement with the open source movements and new media arts but also as a experiment in progress. In the following, nevertheless, I will present a choice out of the influential variety of projects that either have been model or inspiration for Urban Parasites.
Graffiti Research Lab
Illustration
1: LED Throwie
Illustration
2: LED Throwies
As second project I want to mention the is the BEAM robotics project from Dr. Mark W. Tilden (http://www.solarbotics.net/) who describes it in the following way:
BEAM is a school of robotics, starting from simple reflexes, in a "bottoms-up" approach. The majority of BEAM robots are non-computerized (although simple CPUs can be used to drive them, in a "horse and rider" sort of way). Unlike many traditional processor-based robots, BEAM robots are cheap, simple, and can be built by a hobbyist with basic skills in a matter of hours. Because of this, BEAM is an excellent way of getting started in robotics, and of learning about electronics. (http://encyclobeamia.solarbotics.net/articles/beam.html)
Illustration
3: Solar Engine
Next to the last projects that have been most influential I want to highlight briefly several further projects or work of artists as they round the picture. Here, I want to mention: Firstly, http://www.instructables.com a web portal that allows users to post tutorials. Instructables, nonetheless, is not restrictive in the topic of the tutorial and is became therefore a knowledge base that covers how-to's for nearly all aspects of DIY, tinkering, hacking, and technological exploration. Making it interesting as many (inspirations for) alternative technological uses can be found there. Secondly, the Gearbox project (http://gearbox.mediashed.org) by Mediashed in collaboration with Eyebeam a web site that is similar to Instructables but focussed on the development and documentation of free media tools. Thirdly, Usman Haque and Adam Somlai-Fischer's work “LOW TECH SENSORS AND ACTUATORS - for artists and architects” (http://lowtech.propositions.org.uk/) that has been the research on how everyday electronic object such as toys can be hacked (or bend) to become low-cost components for interactive projects. Forthly, the work of Ralf Schreiber (http://www.ralfschreiber.com/) who makes use of low-tech robots (circuits taken from/inspired by the already mentioned BEAM project) to explore in his artwork kinetic and sonic values of technology. Lastly, the work of Gilberto Esparza (http://scottburnham.com/?p=75) who uses robots that are build out of old/waste technology for his interventions in urban space.
Urban Parasites
The city; already filled with and shaped by technology, could be occupied with an astonishing variety of blinking, sounding, transmitting, moving parasites, adding nothing in particular but more complexity. The project opens up and explores the use of technology in urban space, adding potential for creative expression in the city. Inspired by the parasite which takes, but not necessarily gives, urban parasites' sole aim is to ingratiate themselves with human hosts and reproduce. [project abstract taken from presentation material of the expo, see appendix for more information]
The project aims to provide a basis for a critical exploration of technology implementation in urban space. Making use of and adding to open-source technology and knowledge, it tries to define building blocks. Modules that are both well documented and designed to be made of every-day materials, reclaimed electronics, or parts that are at least easy to source. Every parasite, however, becomes a means of technology research in itself, since technologies involved vary widely. Nonetheless, a complete documentation of the technologies involved would become a dead end in the evolution of the urban parasite. Furthermore, its low-tech approach aims not to satisfy the expectations of commercial engineering, but to lower the entry barrier for the many others interested in (street) art or interactive architecture, and enjoy a city infested with artificial parasites.
After I had developed the concept I had to start to build prototypes that could be tested in the field. I wanted to keep a modular structure to allow the recombination of the modules to different Urban Parasites. As I am not an electronic engineer the production of the modules became a difficult task for me. While I knew where I wanted to go I had to spend a lot of time to learn more about electronic theory as well as the crafts of making electronics to be able to reach my goals. Soon, however, I realized that progress is further slowed down by massive gaps in my knowledge and even though the internet proved to be a good source for much of the missing knowledge I couldn't fill all gaps. In other words, the development of my prototypes (of which I will give examples later on) have been impeded by missing knowledge and skills that should in future be filled by the knowledge provided by the Urban Parasites project.
In the following I want to give several examples of prototypes that I either researched or developed. The first prototype has never been finished but worked with the idea to modulate radio waves in urban space. It compromised of a radio receiver, a circuit that modulated the radio signal in real time (an audio filter), and a radio transmitter that send the signal on a very narrow band back into the environment (see image 4). The aim was that the parasite would create a small area in the city were the radio signal has been audible warped while receiving a radio station. The development, nevertheless, stalled as I haven't been able to build an appropriate shielded antenna and the amount of technology involved (a cheap radio, a battery driven sound modulation circuit, a sound amplification circuit, a low power radio transmitter, and the missing transmitter antenna) became to much in scale (in potential created waste and invested money) to be used in an intervention in urban space.
Illustration
4: Radio Modulator
Illustration
5: Load Controller
After I decided that the Radio Modulator would be to elaborate to be used as Urban Parasite I shifted research to energy sources for Urban Parasites and experimented with laser pointers and LEDs to see how the could be used as tool for visual representation. I consider the use of renewable energy sources for the Urban Parasites as very important as this would lower their impact on the environment and make them independent of conventional power sources. Next to experiments with solar panels, which led me build a load control module (see image 5), that provides either the energy directly from the solar cells or at low light or night time from the batteries, I tried to build micro-harvester of wind and/or water energy. For those, I found a couple of potentially good solutions however had difficulties (lack of suitable materials, knowledge and skills) to realize a at least sufficiently working module. Experimenting with the laser pointers in combination with motors and mirrors, has been quite a success. By shining one laser light on a fast spinning mirror it is possible to draw circles and ellipses on surfaces. Making use of laser pointers in this way creates a nice module for urban parasites (see image 6). Another Prototype for an Urban Parasite has been to mount a battery pack and a couple of LEDs to spin all of it around to make use of the persistence of view to draw circle in the night sky (see image 7). The installation has been beautiful especially as the drawn circle is far from perfect as the wind and mechanics of the gear box add irregularities and dents to it.
Illustration
6: Laser Pointer Line Drawer
Illustration
7: Spinning LEDs
Lastly I want to introduce to a prototype that shows fully the idea of the modular Urban Parasite. The Stuttering Beeper (see image 8) is a sonic installation that takes energy from a solar panel to generate a square wave sound that is amplified to be played on a speaker. All used modules can be reused for/recombined to other parasites and are quite uncomplicated build out of materials that are easy to source. For the exposition I have chosen to show not only the prototypes in its various states but also the failed results of my research into micro-energy harvesting as well as printed posters (see appendix) and a slide show as documentation. As I hoped that I would be able to spark off some discussion about better possibilities. My stall seemed to be rather chaotic (see picture 9) but I think that this represented my project quite well.
Illustration
8: Stuttering Beeper
Illustration
9: Stall at the Expo09
Bibliography
[Croc07] Crocker, Stephen: Noises and Exceptions – Pure Mediality in Serres and Agamben in Kroker, Arthur/Kroker, Marilouise 1000 Days of Theory, 2007.
Online available on 03.08.2009 under http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=574
[Full05] Fuller, Matthew: Media Ecologies – Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture. The MIT Press, Cambridge MA., 2005.
[Serr07] Serres, Michel: The Parasite, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2007.
Appendix
On the following you will find copies of the documentation material provided at the Expo09.
Diagram
of the modular structure of the “Stuttering Beeper” Urban
Parasite