Fox News (yes, I know) is reporting that a digital road sign in Austin, Texas was hacked recently. The impish hackers changed the sign to read “Zombies Ahead”. Heh, zombies.
Foxnews.com says that:
“According to the blog i-hacked.com, some commercial road signs, including those manufactured by IMAGO's ADDCO division, can be easily altered because their instrument panels are frequently left unlocked and their default passwords are not changed.”
The speculation is that it was the work of university students, which is the digital equivalent of drunkenly stealing a street sign for the dorm room.
In addition to reminding me to watch L.A. Story and Land of the Dead again, it made me think about what happens when digital information is more widely dispersed among our real, physical environment. Will it take the ‘true-for-now’ tendency of the web out into the wild?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Flying the Squirrel Flag
Another new coffee shop opened up in my area recently, called-ahem-Coffee Shop. It's so new, I can't find it online, but it's right by Clafouti, across from Trinity Bellwoods Park. Nothing much unusual about that; every time you walk down that strip of Queen Street there's something new opening up, or--more and more often, it seems--closing down.
What I noticed about it, though, was the clever sign (sorry, didn't have my camera) which combined the generic "Coffee Shop" name in a generic white font, with a white silhouette image of a squirrel. Trinity Bellwoods Park is locally famous for its population of white squirrels--I imagine they have a form of albinism. So, the uber-generic name was matched with a kind of hyper-local signifier of local neighbourhood pride.
It's not the first time I've seen the image. Fleurtje had a purse with one on for a while; one of the neighbourhood shops had t-shirts with a white squirrel logo. I'm intrigued by this hyper-localism. Is it just a reflection of the fact that we're a bigger city now, and so the population base supports it? Is it because so many people in this city were born somewhere else that it's feeding a desire for place, for settlement? Or perhaps it's a reaction to a broader sense of rootlessness. I talked about it on the podcast with Cathi a while ago. Any thoughts?
What I noticed about it, though, was the clever sign (sorry, didn't have my camera) which combined the generic "Coffee Shop" name in a generic white font, with a white silhouette image of a squirrel. Trinity Bellwoods Park is locally famous for its population of white squirrels--I imagine they have a form of albinism. So, the uber-generic name was matched with a kind of hyper-local signifier of local neighbourhood pride.
It's not the first time I've seen the image. Fleurtje had a purse with one on for a while; one of the neighbourhood shops had t-shirts with a white squirrel logo. I'm intrigued by this hyper-localism. Is it just a reflection of the fact that we're a bigger city now, and so the population base supports it? Is it because so many people in this city were born somewhere else that it's feeding a desire for place, for settlement? Or perhaps it's a reaction to a broader sense of rootlessness. I talked about it on the podcast with Cathi a while ago. Any thoughts?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
McLuhan Fer Ya
A guest I interviewed today for Spark reminded me of a great McLuhan quotation: "We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future."
We're always looking at technological change in its immediate technical impacts, but with very little sense of all the social organization that surrounds it. The way the social changes with new technology always seems to catch us by surprise. Reminds me of another great bit of McLuhanism: "As long as we adopt the Narcissus attitude of regarding the extensions of our own bodies as really out there and really independent of us, we will meet all technological challenges with the same sort of banana-skin pirouette and collapse."
What would it mean to look at our technologies, those 'extensions of our own bodies' as imbued with culture, and embedded within culture?
We're always looking at technological change in its immediate technical impacts, but with very little sense of all the social organization that surrounds it. The way the social changes with new technology always seems to catch us by surprise. Reminds me of another great bit of McLuhanism: "As long as we adopt the Narcissus attitude of regarding the extensions of our own bodies as really out there and really independent of us, we will meet all technological challenges with the same sort of banana-skin pirouette and collapse."
What would it mean to look at our technologies, those 'extensions of our own bodies' as imbued with culture, and embedded within culture?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Life in the Perpetual Future
I saw this cool post at New Scientist, suggesting that we no longer have a clear sense of when "The Future" is, in the way that we once would have said 'the year 2000' or 'the 21st century'.
I wonder whether it's actually that we now live in a time of perpetual almostfuture. In the way that we have ennui about technological innovation, and lack surprise, hope and delight about the future. We seem perpetually not in the present, always in the almost tomorrow.
I wonder whether it's actually that we now live in a time of perpetual almostfuture. In the way that we have ennui about technological innovation, and lack surprise, hope and delight about the future. We seem perpetually not in the present, always in the almost tomorrow.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
First One is in the Can!
We just put the first episode of the new season of Spark to bed. We've been working with Chris Kelly from CBC Radio 3, while Dan has been working elsewhere for a little bit.
It's amazing how much more exciting it is when you actually hear it as audio, rather than as a bunch of scripts. A kind of alchemy, really. Now only another 41 to make!
It's amazing how much more exciting it is when you actually hear it as audio, rather than as a bunch of scripts. A kind of alchemy, really. Now only another 41 to make!
Monday, August 25, 2008
More Animals With Weapons
Following on my last post, Trendhunter points out these silhouette images of animals fused with weapons. It's a bit more ambiguous than Ludo's images. Is it making the point that humans are engaged in a kind of warfare on wildlife, or is it a more ambiguous and Ludo-esque evocation of wildlife's retaliation--kind of, wildlife-as-suicide-bomber?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
File Under Weird Art
Lately, I've been thinking about cyborg chic. If we are inching towards a cyborg reality in medical innovations, perhaps we are also moving towards an aesthetic of obvious human/machine crossover. For instance, consider the cell phone ads featuring hands made up of cell phones, or the hot rising star, the deliberately cyborg-esque singer Janelle Monae. The weirdly bloated, waxy effect of today's injected and implanted cosmetic procedures dovetails nicely with this celebration of obvious artificiality.
An interesting spin on this is the work of Paris-based street artist Ludo, who has been making a series called Nature's Revenge. He creates images of plants appended with weapons or electronics, a symbol, I guess, of the other side of our war on nature. (via Design Boom) If there is such a thing as cyborg chic, what is it telling us about our relationship to nature?
An interesting spin on this is the work of Paris-based street artist Ludo, who has been making a series called Nature's Revenge. He creates images of plants appended with weapons or electronics, a symbol, I guess, of the other side of our war on nature. (via Design Boom) If there is such a thing as cyborg chic, what is it telling us about our relationship to nature?
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