Contexts

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Quiet But Not Quiescent

<img src="“/> Judge not the less yammer-y state of the studio blog to indicate that there is nothing worth yammering about. It’s just that the clang of steel caressing code has been going on and that in great measure, too. … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

The Urban Internet of Things 2010. An International Workshop

Coming up is an exciting sounding workshop on the “urban internet of things — programming the real-time city.” Some more opportunities to get this one right..or at least human. ** As more people move to cities, it becomes increasingly challenging )) … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

iotaSalon: The City @ UCLA

This sounds like fun. May 6, 2010, 7pm Experimental Digital Arts at UCLA. iotaCenter’s mission is to inspire both new and existing artists in a historically dispersed and constantly changing technological environment. The theme for our next iotaSalon is THE … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

Fake for Real

Found in a small toy/novelty store in Jeju, South Korea. Two forms of fakery. On the left, a faux Lego set using all the cues and clues of the real, Danish deal for a Lego build set of the Space … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

Microsoft Social Computing Symposium 2010 – Notes

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer var so = new SWFObject(“http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf”, “PictoBrowser”, “500″, “500″, “8″, “#EEEEEE”); so.addVariable(“source”, “sets”); so.addVariable(“names”, “SCS2010″); so.addVariable(“userName”, “julianbleecker”); so.addVariable(“userId”, “66854529@N00″); so.addVariable(“ids”, “72157623066738659″); so.addVariable(“titles”, “on”); so.addVariable(“displayNotes”, “on”); so.addVariable(“thumbAutoHide”, “off”); so.addVariable(“imageSize”, “medium”); so.addVariable(“vAlign”, “mid”); so.addVariable(“vertOffset”, “0″); so.addVariable(“colorHexVar”, “EEEEEE”); … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

A Curious Crosswalk Clarification

A curious inscription left by someone to clarify which button expedites which crosswalk signal. Someone has written with an indelible marker “B” and “W” on each button (for Broad Street and Watchung Avenue respectively), as well as writing an abbreviation … Continue reading

© 2009 Julian. All rights reserved.

Beyond Public Toilet Maps — Prehistoric Augmented Reality Devices

A small collection of historic augmented reality devices, found during a rake through a flea market in Paris with fellow Urban Scout Nicolas Nova last Saturday. Mostly bashed up, broken things — but evocative devices that, when run up against … Continue reading

© 2009 Julian. All rights reserved.

Design Fiction Chronicles: Urgency and Emergency, Notification and Warning

Tsunami Evacuation Route on Washington Boulevard at the border — basically 60 degrees North-North-East, directly opposite the coastline in the other direction, but essentially only a few meters above sea-level for a good couple of miles. Last week, when there was … Continue reading

© 2009 Julian. All rights reserved.

Brand Obama

In the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, where every other store-keep on the main drag is trying to measure a tattered, soaked urban scout for a new suit, this garment was spied — a rather natty, silky, shiny shirt with a monogrammed … Continue reading

© 2009 Julian. All rights reserved.

Interoperability

A curious interoperability protocol, wherein the address for some weird place in Seoul has been found on an iPhone and must now be entered into the GPS of the taxi. A simple affair, with minimal bumps often enough, particularly because … Continue reading

© 2009 Julian. All rights reserved.

Designed for Transparency

New York City. Knife shop. Madrid, Spain. Two curious examples of “everything-ness.” The first is this “Everything Electrical” company which does, well — everything having to do with electrical installations and so forth. They also have these interesting trucks which are … Continue reading