Hi Johannes ,
A few brief responses.
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee first contacted me while researching the
story in mid October, predating the dance tech wearable thread by
quite some time. In fact, he was sending final fact checks to us
about the same time our thread was occurring. He came upon the
participants primarily (i think) through a series of papers written
for a special session at the last Computer/Human Interaction
conference in Seattle entitled "New Instruments for Musical
Expression." The writer is a "science writer" who writes for many
popular scientific magazines.
We never had any direct contact, he sent a series of questionnaires
such as this:
--
Could you provide some brief comments on what impact wearable musical
instruments could have on the performing arts and on popular culture
in the years to come?
Who are likely to use them?
How will they change the relationship between audience and performer?
What kinds of musical communities might these instruments help to
create? Etc Etc.
--
I gave him links to videos and soundfiles but he never indicated
whether he had checked them out.
It was a rather strange interview experience for me, but some of my
colleagues tell me it is pretty common. This "questionnaire" form of
research is something we see quite often on this list, and I think
the approach is inherently flawed - certainly for the kind of
artistic depth Johannes would like to see ("I'm doing research for my
thesis on xxx, could you please answer these ten questions by next
weds..."). This approach, I think, contributes to the "laundry list"
of short quotes with little interconnection in the Times article.
Its clear that Yudhijit does not normally cover the arts, music or
dance. But, this article was for "Circuits" in the Science and
Technology coverage of the Times, and I think rather then flawing
them for reaching out to our community we should question why it is
so difficult to have the dance and music writers cover more work with
technological components. In our case, many people that would not
have otherwise heard of our work have contacted me and said they
would love to see it. Perhaps this is just one more step in gaining
wider approval and exposure for work of this sort in general.
best wishes for the holidays,
Curtis
>hello all,
>
>
>yes, indeed, wearable computers.
>
>It seems that after Scott deLahunta's critique of the New York
>Times-Dave Kehr article on digital technology/animation, the NY Times
>has been listening in on our discussions here more carefully, and picked
>up our recent chat on wearable computers.
>
>How sweet to see Tomie Hahn - in blue whig and accelerometer gear, her
>PikaPika costume - smiling at us in front of a dance studio mirror. Her
>work with Interface (Dr Curtis Bahn, Dr Dan Trueman), along with Dr Todd
>Winkler, Dr Kazushi Nishimoto (Kyoto), Dr Joe Paradiso , Michael
>Gurevich, and Stephan von Muehlen, & Laetitia Sonami received honorable
>mention, also Dr Trevor Pinch (science and technology studies,
>Princeton)........all of the above are mentioned as doctors (science
>researchers), in an article featured in Thursday's "Curcuits" section.
>Unfortunately, what does this popular culture/pop sci culture reporting
>imply? The article tends to take a downward spiral, near the end.
>Interface design is eventually questioned and mesasured against "true"
>musical instruments, and the writer, besides the point, quotes
>Gurevich:
>
>"we will never be able to pack the intrigue and expression afforded by
>real instruments like saxophones and guitars into a wearable device..."
>
>
>Artists still need to have something interesting to express, Laetitia is
>quoted to sum up what went before. What has this got to do with the
>interface design and interactivity? And if this was the writer's
>concern, why doesn't Yudhijit Bhattacharjee address the
>work/performances that are done? It would interest me to hear, from our
>colleagues Tomie, Curtis, Dan, Todd, Joe at al (who all came to the last
>IDAT, if I am not mistaken), how the interviews were conducted and
>whether the NY Times writer saw any of the concerts?
>
>
>greetings
>Johannes Birringer
>OSU/AlienNation Co.
>http://www.aliennationcompany.com
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