Sam Kinsley
In 1990 Motorola produced a video depicting a Ubicomp type vision that was a little more conservative than some other ‘vision videos’ being produced around the same time but has many of the usual constituent elements. What is striking is that the use of mobile phones must have been ‘futuristic’ then but one can’t help considering it banal now…
I am indebted to Paleo-future for these videos, it seems to be a gold mine of an archive!!
One of the examples of ubicomp like technology that was referred to the most in my interviews in California last year was the diegetic prototype [see slide 29] gestural interface in the film Minority Report. This was predominantly the brainchild of a chap called John Underkoffler who was the “scientific advisor” on the film, and has since been an advisor on several other films including Iron Man. According to a paper by David Kirby, currently in-press, Underkoffler’s work at the Media Lab was noticed by the production designer and prop master for Minority Report and was brought in as primary science consultant. For Kirby, Underkoffler’s interface is a prime example of a diegetic prototype, a prototype realised in fictional narrative and image to persuade audiences of a technological need, as Kirby suggests of the gestural interface in the film:
These technologies not only appear normal while on screen but they also fit seemlessly into the entire diegetic world. In these cases audiences will accept as true that characters still use these technologies even when they are off-screen… To achieve the sense of an extraordinary techonlogy appearing as ordinary within the diegetic space Underkoffler established the gestural interface as a “self-consistent technological entity” that adhered not only to the rules of hte diegetic world but also to its own internal logic and the constraints of real-world computer technologies.
And, indeed, that diegetic prototype has become a “real-world computer technology”, as demonstrated below.
g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.
I don’t really blog about my other obsession, which is coffee. By coffee I don’t mean the poor excuse of an insipid brown liquid one brews from the rubbish found in supermarkets but what is frequently referred to as ‘speciality’ coffee. I will be forever indebted to my friend Frank of Twoday Coffee Roasters who has taught me pretty much everything I know and opened out an astonishing variety of tastes and experiences that this amazing drink can bring. Please check out the great mugs Frank and his wife Petra sell online.
Now, Stephen Leighton of Has Bean Coffee, one of the biggest importers in the UK if not Europe, produces an interesting vlog called ‘In My Mug’ and during a recent visit to Guatemala interviewed the owners of the ‘La Perla‘ farm, which was ranked in the Cup of Excellence programme in the last couple of years. This interview is a fascinating opportunity to get to know something of the people who are producing incredible coffee. Hats off to Mr Leighton for this.
Part 1
In My Mug La Perla Special from Stephen Leighton on Vimeo.
Part 2
In My Mug La Perla Special pt 2 from Stephen Leighton on Vimeo.
NTT Docomo have created a few vision videos (but this one is easily accessible via YouTube), many seemed to target the end of this decade. The video below uses yet another schmultzy storyline full of pathos in which to situate (and thus ‘humanise’) apparently futuristic everyday technologies. NTT Docomo depict a rather unsettlingly monolithic future of technology, in which everyone and everything is connected together and monitored. A prime example of the apparently easy trade-off between privacy and seamless integration of systems without any consideration of political repercussions…
Liz Goodman pointed out this peculiar ubicomp style vision of the apparently everyday being disrupted by disaster. I would echo Liz’s criticism that it (rather poorly) depicts a pretty awful future. Another (recent) ‘past computing future’ video to add to the list though.
The Ambient Life from Buro Knapzak on Vimeo
The at-best amoral (and probably, at worst, deeply unpleasant) use of a disaster that bears striking resemblance to various recent tragic events is astounding. I would hazard, to animate is not only cheaper but it retains the almost clinical cleanliness of (usually) anodyne ‘future vision’ videos. The narrative is facile to the point of being slightly offensive: the producers use this disaster imagery just to set up quite boring and glib analysis of communications infrastructure. That aside, the graphical aesthetic is, I suppose, interesting. As Liz says:
Do, however, watch it for the moment when an epileptic jogger recovers from an almost-seizure (monitored in real-time by the sort of highly paid doctor who wouldn’t be caught dead doing real-time monitoring in the US) just before a plane (!) rams into a skyscraper and the scenario turns to disaster in a busy city. Crowds running wildly, people checking their mobile phones (?) as debris rains down on them.
The above video, entitled “The Ambient Life“, was apparently made for the Freeband Communication research initiative, which is a Dutch national programme of research in and around ‘ambient intelligence’ (a largely European synonym for Ubicomp).