You are invited to...
Wireless London: Future Urban Infrastructures #3: Social
Exoskeletons
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The last in a series of three lectures at the Architectural Association.
Talk: Tuesday 15th March, 2005, 6:30pm-8.00pm
Title: Social Exoskeletons
Speakers: Ben Russell (see below for bio) and a special guest
mystery speaker.
Location:
Architectural Association
36 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3ES
0207 887 4000
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk
To be followed by an open show and tell session: 8.00pm -9.30pm,
AA Restaurant. (see details below)
All talks are free, but places are limited. Please arrive early to avoid
disappointment.
This month's theme: Social Exoskeletons
The last of talk of the Wireless London talk series will look towards
the future of urban infrastructures and how these might effect and
develop new forms of social exchange, which in turn effect economic
and political change. With a sophisticated wireless infrastructures in
place, what might be the consequences and effects this might
bring? How might this begin to effect social interaction and
cohesion?
Speaker Ben Russell writes:
"Humans are social beings, their evolutionary success rests on
cooperation, and not just cooperation within groups, but cooperation
between groups manifesting in many forms, from physical trade to
intangible information exchange. Traditional business mantras,
efficiency, competitiveness, and aggressiveness are increasingly
applicable to decentralised, devolved cooperative structures. For
example, open source software and peer to peer file sharing.
Collaborative tools that far from slowing things down, speed things
up. As location and localisation emerges in internet applications
and more physical things are formally described, local physical
inventories will be amenable to the new collection aggregation
methodologies (ad hoc distributed neighborhood libraries etc).
As media systems become more about distributed, discrete, and
described elements and systems which process them, they
become increasingly and diversely functional. Data is becoming
more described and discrete, and control functions that feed off that
data are becoming more sophisticated, distributed and
interdependent. We may see the emergence of a new kind of real
time civic cooperation, helping your fellow citizens unintentionally
and immediately through the structure of these systems."
Biographies of this month's Speakers
Ben Russell
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Ben Russell is the author of headmap (www.headmap.org), a
blueprint for wireless location aware devices. One of the founders of
the Locative Media Lab (www.locative.net). Part of the original
management team of UK game physics startup Mathengine
(Mathengine physics is used in 'A list' games including 'Enter the
matrix', 'Unreal', 'Planetside' and 'Rainbow Six 3'. The core
technology was recently acquired by Electronic Arts). Recent
speaking engagements have included ISEA 2004, MIT, Banff New
Media Institute at the Banff Centre, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam,
Transmediale 04, Architectural Association, Next 5 Minutes. He is
currently working for the newly formed Pervasive and Locative Arts
Network a new international and interdisciplinary research network
in pervasive media and locative media has been funded as part of
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Ben Russell links: headmap.org | locative.net | open-plan.org
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Open Show & Tell Sessions/Discussion
Each Wireless London talk event will run between 6.30 and 8.00pm
with speakers and discussion, immediately followed by an open
'show and tell' session at the AA from 8.00 to 9.30.
The 'show and tell' sessions are informal and open for anyone
to bring along and showcase projects. finished or work in progress,
that are relevant to this field. These sessions are an opportunity
for practitioners, students and professionals involved in free
networks, arts, wireless technologies, architecture, urbanism,
education, communications policy and local government, to meet
and discuss current and future projects.
If you would like to come and showcase your work, please
let us know by emailing -> [log in to unmask], or just come
along (with your own equipment) on the day.
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