Andreas

In 2009, I bought my first iPhone, the 3GS, and although I had to pay hell of a lot of money for it, I was very excited. Everything was new to me, the touch control, the apps, the wireless mobile technology and of-course the widely renown Apple user friendliness and sleek design.

I’ve always been a Mac user and to a certain extend an apple geek (fanboy) but recently, since they have grown into the wider public, I’ve become more and more unsatisfied with their products and services. The iPhone gave me excitement for about 6 months because it was a new phenomenon, but 2 important factors made my overall experience negativ.

First of all the screen broke and splintered into pieces leaving me with a working iPhone that I couldn’t operate because I had to use the screen for that. Nothing like the days of the Nokia 3330 that you could throw into a brick wall and it would still work. Secondly, one day the iPhone asked to be updated. I was in hurry about leave, but mistakenly connected it and started the update not knowing how long it would take… and it took ages! As I said, I was in a hurry and couldn’t wait for it to finish, so I made the fatal error of disconnecting the iPhone without it finishing the update. After that the iPhone went into a coma and I wasn’t able to use it for a full day… Now imagine somebody had tried to contact me, and I had to explain that they couldn’t reach because my phone was updating…. what is that?

I got so fed up with the situation that is decided to kill it. Yes kill the iPhone:

iPhone Kill

Watch the full video at here

On a concluding note, I’ve now gotten an iPhone 4 and it is even worse than the iPhone 3GS. My God, I feel like a fool.

By some devious reason, we’ve had to learn the Perl programming language to get an insight in the wonderful world of computer languages and programming.

Having always had a geeky side to me, I’ve always known about programming languages, their importance and a general idea of how they work. But I’ve never been able to go further than that, since I’ve almost always been doing this on my own. That’s why learning  basic Perl programming, will increase my understanding of computer software and hardware greatly.

On Linux, there’s two editors available for writing Perl Scripts, Vim and Gvim. Vim is a non-graphical editor that can be accessed through the Linux terminal, whereas Gvim functions as a regular application similar to text editor. One of the main forces of Vim, is that because it is build into the terminal, it can actually be accessed remotely through a server, allowing a user to continue work on a script from a far.

Vim has some basic commands to navigate around. “I” enables “Insert Mode” in order to do the actual scripting, ESC disables “Insert Mode” and “:q” exists the program. To save a script, a similar command is used with colon “:w”. During the scripting process it is important to note the # character that is used to put down remarks and comments during the process to ease up debugging and understanding. Also, the script follows a number and line of code is placed numerically so an error is easier found during debugging.

Perl has 3 sets of variables: Scalars, lists and hashes. Variables are places in the script where values can be stored for later use. Strings, denoted by the $ sign, do not hold numbers whereas lists only hold numbers.

The first script everybody does is the “Hello World” script. Firstly, a perl script need be start with a comment, explaining the computer it is working with a Perl script and that it has find execute it with Perl. This lines is also referred to as the “shebang” line and looks as follows:

#!/usr/bin/perl

On the second line follows the command to write “Hello World” on the screen:

print “Hello World!”;

These two lines will make a script that will write “Hello World” in the terminal window when executed.

For the second part of the Datajam project, we had to decide on a concept for our intervention. Part of the class met for a brainstorm session where each member tried to come up with different concepts and designs. Several ideas had been on the table, but one thing seemed to re-appear, the idea of using the tidal force of the river as data to produce some sort of output. Different approaches were made including looking at sound, data-analyzation and electricity as a possible outcome of the river’s data.

For my part, I decided, together with Pari, to look at how electricity could be produced from the force of the river. The concept of producing electricity involved the ideas of green energy but also, in a sense, the idea of free media as using the Thames, a public area, as a energy source. Conceptually speaking, the energy produced could be stored and given to people in need of it.

We found a wood tower at the riverside near Bermondsey that would be suitable as it provided a platform in the river where we could attach our waterturbine at low tide. For the design concept we looked at using different parts of bicycles to create our waterturbine. We started out by looking at bicycle dynamos, that used to be fittet on old byscicles to create light. Consequently, most of the parts in our concept ended up being from bicycles.

The Platform @ Bermondsey

Different design were brought to the table:

Design Concept 1 with pison and floating wood frame

Design Concept 4 with watertanks and waterwheel

In the end we decided on design #1 as the most plausible way of producing energy out of the Thames. The implementation of the water turbine was an absolute disaster. First of all, I had the part assembled with chain at Jozefs Bicycle Shop in Peckham, two ours before we had to be at the river, and when I, finally, had to fit the dynamo, it did not work. When we came to the river at low tide, climbed the tower, I realized that I the tower had a set of wood frames that were blocking for our waterturbine. Therefore, the waterturbine was fitted on the wrong side of the tower and when we went to see it with the class and our teachers, it was not possible to see anything.

Nonetheless, We received good feedback from the class and our teachers because our of the clear concept of producing energy out of the river.

For this semester, our main project was to do a DataJam Project. Harwood explained that the essens was to find a place in London that would be suitable for analysing its media ecology. From the results of this analysis the aim was to come up with a concept for an intervention that would demonstrate how the specific media ecology could be used. Harwood decided that we would use the River Thames as a starting point and suggested three places that we could use: Deptford Creek, Vauxhall Bridge and East Tilbury. So the first thing to was to visit them and decide on which one to use.

Deptford Creek

Deptford Creek was a pretty interesting place, lots of rubbish and garbage is let into the creek via the tidal force of the river, but in the end we did not use this locations as the group did not find it that interesting.

Second choice was the riverside in central London and Harwood suggested that we should head out to Vauxhall Bridge early in the morning to inspect the area. What happened was a bit unexpected, but nonetheless a very thought provoking experience.

After having spent approximately 20 minutes at the place, our group was confronted by 6-8 police officers, fully equipped with armoured vests, guns and everything. Apparently, the place is very sensible, because it is infront of the MI6 intelligence unit’s head office, and therefore they were suspicious of our activities. After explaining our motives and our project, they were satisfied but we still had to leave the area and give up our personal information because we had been stopped.

This episode generated quite a lot of discussion amongst the class members, some were offended, some were intimidated and some did not really care. Harwood found the episode especially interesting since we were in a public space and as such not doing anything illegal. The whole episode made it clear, that we would not use this location for the DataJam project.

An Exiting day in East Tilbury

Finally, we went to East Tilbury in the outskirts of London. The interesting place in that area was the port of East Tilbury that would provide and interesting frame for collecting data about containers going in and out of London; the bloodline of the commercial high streets in London. Unfortunately we quickly realized that gaining access to the port would be just as hard as arguing with the policemen at the MI6 building. Therefore, this place was also discarded for the project.

Consequently, the class was divided into groups according to interests and each group found a specific location at the Thames riverside for each project.

Gazing at the Views of East Tilbury

One of the best project we had to do during the course was creating a Free Media Tool.

Graham explained how he had worked with this concept in different situations and referred to the Free Media Tool website for inspiration and reference to the definitions of a Free Media Tool.
Basically it can be said that a Free Media Tool has to simple enough so everybody can recreate it and it cannot have an expenditure of more than ₤50.

I thought long and hard about this and came up with a concept of working with LED in public space. Initially, I wanted to waterproof a couple of LED’s attached to a battery and throw them in some water to create light spectacles, but it did not work out as planned:

Free Media Fail

So I had to come up with a different concept. I had to come up with a way of arranging the LEDs so that they by their formation would be able to convey some kind of signal. Living in Peckham, South London, at times it can get a bit intimidating walking the streets at night so I though I would create something a bit cozy and I came up with the idea of creating an IMIANT smiley face to put on the walls:

IMIANT Smiley Face

I went out at 10 pm and found a dark and intimidating alley way where I put it up:

IMIANT Smiley in Operation

Generally, I had to good feedback on my Free Media Tool. While I was putting it up, one person said: “that’s class art, mate!”. Do not know if that meant as a joke or if it was serious, though. In class, I received pretty feedback as weel, although one person noted that the Smiley Face looked a bit intimidating itself. Well, I guess that is Irony.

IMIANT Smiley Portrait

Defamiliarizing technology has been an concurring theme during the course and Harwood have always tried to teach how to not look at piece of technology as i.e. a computer or a smartphone, but to look at it as a machine with different sets of machines inside, that each perform different tasks and functions that can be manipulated, isolated and so forth.

I used this technique to find inspiration for my Free Media Tool, where I dissected a lot of scrap technology from the lab:

Defamiliarized Technology

My original idea was to stick pieces of random technology together without having any idea of the outcome. Unfortunately  I did not have time to get any results out of this experience, I continued to play around with how to defamiliarize myself with the technology I am surrounded by.

My biggest aim is to hack my old iPod Nano or to try and hack or jailbreak my iPhone. I would like to defamiliarize my self with my Apple products, since they, in particular, are very closed and difficult to make free.

Our second experiment in Practical Methods was based on trying to navigate through the city of London without no specific aim; hence the title of the experiment: “Aimlessness”. Becoming aimless in a city like London is sometimes very easy, when you don’t want it to happen, but when you actually wan’t to get lost and become aimless it can actually be very difficult.

We agreed to meet in the center of the city, more specifically, Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square is unofficially seen as the heart of London and has through time and history been used for various public demonstrations and other demonstrations, such as the firstly public display of the electric bulb.

Ilias did a random spin and pointed out a direction we decided to follow. This quickly led us into China Town, where we decided to jump on a random bus. The bus direction was decided by flipping a coin and off we went to an unknown destination. At the end of the bus line we went for a beer at a local pub before wandering about the in the area. People we’re asked for direction and we ended up at St. Pancras Kings Cross, were we decided to split up the group and end the project each person leaving for each’s aim.

I thought the project was really quite difficult to perform as London if full of signs that constantly remind you of where you are. Entering the bus, I tried to ignore the bus’ information to suspend my belief, until a member of my group stated where we were. I therefore found it quite difficult to completely forget everything I know about the city to become endless, and I think that if I were to redo the project I would do it at night from sun dawn til sunrise.

What I gained from this experience relates to using Harwood’s concept of defamiliarize something, in this case the City of London, to learn about the history of it. Coming to a new city like without knowing more that the commun touristic areas, the city can be overwhelming and scary but also exciting and intriguing at the same time. Therefore, I have used the experience from the Aimlessness project several times in London by walking around my neighbourhood without a specific route to try and learn more about where I am living.

Along site the main courses at Goldsmiths, there is always a lot of workshops and seminars happening at Gollege. One of the workshops I found time to attend was the workshop in Radio Hacking Workshop by Nicolas Collins. Collins works with hacking adios and other sound producing devices into synthesisers and instruments by reverse engineering them on his knowledge of electricity and acoustics and utter craziness.

Radio Hacking Workshop @ Goldsmiths

The first experiment we did was making a speaker into a simple drum synthesizer or percussion tool. This was done by connecting a speaker module to a 9 volt battery via crocodile clips. When the clips touch the battery, the speaker module reacts accordingly and makes a sound.

Speaker Drum Machine Module

To see and hear how it actually works, use the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE1zTCQ8lO4

Moving on to the radio, Nicolas Collins explained how by splitting a normal battery powered radio, it is possible to reverse engineer it into a analog synthesizer by performing a very simple hardware hack: He opened up the radio, wetted his fingers and placed them on the backside of the circuit board thus creating a squeaking high pitched sound that reacted to the movement of his hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX8yfFvXvo0

The workshop gave a fair deal of inspiration. First of all, it introduced me to the sort of intuitive craziness you have to have to do reverse engineering. Using fingers and saliva to manually hack a radio into an analog synthesizer is something I have never ever seen before and I do not think I would ever had expected it would be possible.

Hardware Hacking at its Best

For our outdoor experiment, we had to go to Telegraph Hill near New Cross, and work with acoustic audio enhancers. The technology comes from mid world-war I and was used to locate incoming aircrafts by the noise of their engines.

Here is a Japanese version of acoustic locaters:

Japanese acoustic locaters

In our experiment, one person had to wear a pair of acoustic locaters and the group would go further and further away from the person to see how a verbal message would transmit. Here it is our Italian guinea pig with our acoustic locaters, looking slightly like Mikey Mouse.

Italian Guinea Pic with Acoustic Locaters

We found out that using the Acoustic Locaters actually enhanced the hearing capabilities of our guinea pig, but we also found out that there were a lot of other forms of noise in the park. For example, the kids in the park quickly started yelling out our messages confusing our guinea pig.

Experiment in Process

At the end of the day, I do not think that the experience was about the media ecology of the park and how it contributed or worked against our experiment. For me, this experiment was a part of Harwood’s idea of looking back in history to the most basic technologies to defamiliarize ourselves with our perception of technology.

At the practical methods course all of our work s based around using the Linux operating systems. The idea behind this is exploring how the computer can be used as a machine, rather than as a computer. The first thing I wanted to do was to install a linux system on my Macbook Pro and in doing this, I learned some valuable knowledge about working with Linux in general and about my machine.

First of all, the Ubuntu flavor of Linux is a generic system meaning that it is not build to work on the Macbook Pro as the Mac OS system is. Therefore, a lot of features are not working automatically, or out-of-the- box, as you would say. To make things work properly on my Macbook pro, I had to do some tweaks myself.  Some were successful, others were not. For example, I got the wireless working pretty quick, but I had a lot of trouble making the touchpad work as intended.

During the process, I searched a lot of different online sites to find tutorials on how to tweak Ubuntu, and I quickly realized that it was important to know what type of machine (Macbook Pro 5,2) and what operating system (ubuntu 10.04 lucid). The best source of reference I’ve found so far is the ubuntu help forum.

Mac Ubuntu & Cappuccino @ the London Particular

Unfortunately, the peace was temporarily as after one week of installing Ubuntu, I was meet by the tragic message “file system error” upon booting Ubuntu. Not wanting to look into boot-loaders and firmware DIY, I decided to perform a clean install and start over.

Despite this infortunate episode, I have been pretty satisfied with Ubuntu on the Mac, as it broadens my perception of what is possible to do with my machine and it has opened my awareness of the fact that I can tweak and customize my machine and make it perform as I want.

Later on in the term, my MacBook decided to die on me. Since I knew that my computer was essentially a machine that can be split apart into different machine, all I actually needed was access to my files. Therefore I took out the hardrive, put in an external hardware enclosure and booted one of the iMac’s in our lab from it. By working with Linux on my Macbook, I had learned the technique of booting a Mac from different operating systems by pressing down “alt” at startup and I could continue working with my data as if nothing had happened.

In a sense, what this episode did was that it freed me from being bound by my computer. Earlier experiences with MacBooks breaking down, I have found it frustrating being without a working computer for 3 weeks because it was being repaired. Now, I know this will not happen again because I know all I need is access to my data, so the most important thing for me now is Back Up.