*What a nice manifesto and clear declaration of authorly intent. I hope this guy can keep that up.
http://www.currentintelligence.net/columns/2010/7/1/some-assembly-required.html
Some Assembly Required
by Greg J. Smith
THE TONE OF THE MAJORITY OF technology writing on the web falls within a narrow spectrum of gee-whiz "this will change everything" bewilderment at one end and brand-loyal fanboyism at the other. It is somewhat difficult to find online publications that facilitate critical engagement with technology, let alone allow for ruminations on how new tools and techniques shape the social realm. Clearly the only logical response to a blogosphere teeming with commentary on technology and software is to add more content to the mix - albeit analysis with a slightly different agenda.
(((Or, logically, you could stop reading the Internet, and go invent some kind of crucial device that actually changed people's lives, but never mind – nowadays, we use the Internet to crowdsource out an effort like that.)))
This is the first instalment of "Some Assembly Required", a column that will be published monthly here on Current Intelligence. I'll be tracking a range of emerging technologies including (but not limited to): DIY manufacturing, robotics, urban informatics, interface design, sensor technology and developments within related, rapidly evolving fields. (((Gets interface to robotic, urban informatic popcorn.)))
The topics slated for discussion here won't be tethered to product release schedules. It's also highly unlikely that I'll use this space to conduct video autopsies of highly anticipated consumer-electronic devices designed in Cupertino, California.
Instead of focusing on overexposed products and locked-down platforms, "Some Assembly Required" will consider the implications of raw (but honest) prototypes hatched at leading academic and artistic venues such as ITP (US), ETH (CH) and Medialab-Prado (ES). In terms of fuelling speculation, there is greater merit in the untapped potential of an earnest, exploratory research project than in a tool or application that is being focus-grouped as it gears up for third stage venture capital funding.
Why not deploy art and engineering experiments, and the homebrew assemblages of the maker community, as crude seismographs for mapping the trajectory of emerging technologies? (((Why not indeed.))) It seems both natural and intuitive. (((Couldn't agree with you more.))) As multimedia artist Golan Levin (((Golan Levin, A-OK guy for 2010))) has noted, many new media artworks prefigure commercial ventures and ubiquitous, everyday experience (one only need look to his example of the similarities between Aspen Movie Map [1978-80] and Google StreetView to demonstrate this point).
In addition to consciously focusing on prototypes rather than products, three other themes will shape this column:
Free and open source software (FLOSS) is an important counterpoint to proprietary, closed platforms. Contemporary artists and technologists often release code, schematics and tutorials related to their research, as a public resource. How does this ethos lead to communal innovation (Brian Eno calls it scenius), and how do we consider strata of research versus individual practices?
Design fiction...
