Fwd: alchemy, media & engineering?



Begin forwarded message:

From: Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu>
Subject: Fwd: alchemy, media & engineering?
Date: June 16, 2016 at 12:18:59 PM MST
To: Brenda McCaffrey <brenda@bmccaffrey.com>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu>
Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: alchemy, media & engineering?
To: Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu>
Cc: Byron Lahey <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>, Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>


Yes, I think there's some value in thinking biomimetically (is that a word?) about all of this.  I have some experience in this area also and have used biomimicry principals to create architectural models in Rhino.

I think it would be fine to loop around into the biomimicry folks.  I know my materials science friend, Ximin He, is very interested in this as well.

It's a fun thing to "reverse engineer" how natural systems solve problems.

No formal structure here so follow your impulses and see what happens.  Feel free to send notes, sketches, links, etc. to post@materiality.posthaven.com and let's continue this thread.

Thanks,
Brenda

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 11:23 AM, Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu> wrote:
Yes, I would be curious to know how the swarm of bees chose our orange tree as it’s place to rest. We have a huge swarm nesting in our tree right now. Crossing our fingers that they’re not satisfied and move along. :)



From: <nanozeit@gmail.com> on behalf of Byron Lahey <byron.lahey@asu.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 11:20 AM
To: Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu>
Cc: "Brenda McCaffrey (Student)" <brendamc@asu.edu>, Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>, Robert LiKamWa <roblkw@roblkw.com>, Todd Ingalls <Todd.Ingalls@asu.edu>, Adam Nocek <Adam.Nocek@asu.edu>, Lauren Hayes <laurensarahhayes@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: alchemy, media & engineering?

From my perspective biomimicry is a very natural dimension of this line of thinking. I speculate that a lot of things we might classify as metamaterials might actually be found in natural/biological forms. 

Along those lines, I heard a science new story the other day about bees being able to detect electrical signals from plants. The researchers could verify the ability but weren't sure how the bees used this ability in the wild.  It is not unreasonable to see this ability as a simple example of wireless, electronic sensing. 

Cheers,
Byron

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 8:16 AM, Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu> wrote:
Also, would this be an opportunity to connect in with biomimicry?

From: Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu>
Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 3:30 PM
To: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>
Cc: Byron Lahey <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>, Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu>, Robert LiKamWa <roblkw@roblkw.com>, Todd Ingalls <Todd.Ingalls@asu.edu>, Adam Nocek <Adam.Nocek@asu.edu>, Lauren Hayes <laurensarahhayes@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: alchemy, media & engineering?

Hi all,

A while back, I set up a Posthaven site for Materiality as a place to capture information.  


You can post to this site by emailing information to:


Please let me know if you're interested in being added to the email list so you can see any new posts that come through.

It's been a little while since I updated it so I'll bring it up to date in the next day.

Best,
Brenda


On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 2:52 PM, Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu> wrote:
Hi Brenda, and everyone interested in a fresh practical, theoretical, artistic approaches to new materials, 

Thanks for taking the lead in a fresh take on materials research here at AME.   

Conventional electronics, robotics, microprocessors and media processing  are well covered at AME, so can we look beyond “physical computing” and present day “DIY” approaches to electronics, and start instead from a more sophisticated alchemical / poetic / critical approach to matter ?

I’m eager to hear what you, Byron, Jessica come up with.

For an idea of where international discourse and practice are at, look at


And for some of the places to beat — or to diverge from — see:

Neri Oxman

Hiroshi Ishii

Mediated Matter

Bio-art and bio-mimicry are red herrings, I think, for reasons well argued in Stepney’s “The neglected pillar of material computation,” Physica D 237 (2008) 1157–1164.  (attached)


There’s a whole world of theoretical discourse labelled “new materialism" which is worth exploring critically, perhaps when Adam’s back in the fall.  Plus there’s a related but naive art scene thing under the label “new materiality.”  Most of that has little access to emerging materials science, membrane chemistry, analog and “natural” computing, macro-quantum technologies (like room-temperature superconductors and cloaking), etc.   AME can be the place to bridge and put radical fusion work on the world scene.

Regards,
Xin Wei

cc.  Other faculty who have related expertise and interests.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Sha Xin Wei, PhD • Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering + Synthesis
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts + Fulton Schools of Engineering • ASU
skype: shaxinwei • mobile: +1-650-815-9962
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

On Jun 7, 2016, at 9:27 PM, Byron Lahey <byron.lahey@asu.edu> wrote:

Yes. Count me in on the materiality studio research!

Looking forward to discussing further.

Cheers,
Byron

On Jun 7, 2016, at 2:02 AM, Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu> wrote:

Hi Xin Wei,

Thank you for the quick response.  I see the Materiality Studio ramping up in the Fall so I think we have some time.  I wanted to put this out there for discussion now so we can get ahead curve.  I'll touch base with Byron also to exchange some ideas about early materials experiments.  I'm also talking with Jessica Rajko.

We have had some conversations about materiality research ideas and I'm looking forward to pulling these threads together.  

In the meantime, I'll generate a detailed specification for what I think will be needed as a first phase of the work.  I'm committed to being 100% engaged on the iStage throughout this work.

Thanks,
Brenda

-- 
Brenda McCaffrey, PhD

Fwd: alchemy, media & engineering?


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert LiKamWa <rlikamwa@asu.edu>
Date: Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: alchemy, media & engineering?
To: Brenda McCaffrey <brendamc@asu.edu>, Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>, Byron Lahey <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>, Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu>, Todd Ingalls <Todd.Ingalls@asu.edu>, Adam Nocek <Adam.Nocek@asu.edu>, Lauren Hayes <laurensarahhayes@gmail.com>


Along the thread of physical/natural computing, it may be worthwhile to check out a few years of proceedings of UIST, the Symposium for User Interface Software and Technology. 
Video snapshot of UIST 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wXW6QhXIDc
ACM Proceedings for UIST 2015: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2807442

While most works do fall into the traditional bucket of conventional electronics with a DIY flavor, there are some interesting techniques and technologies for inspiration. 

All the best,
Robert

Fwd: resources and community for tangible media research: Karmen Franinovic (Zurich); Materiability Network



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>
Date: Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:31 AM
Subject: resources and community for tangible media research: Karmen Franinovic (Zurich); Materiability Network
To: "Brenda McCaffrey (Student)" <brendamc@asu.edu>, Todd Ingalls <TestCase@asu.edu>, Matthew Briggs <matthewjbriggsis@gmail.com>, Luke Kautz <Luke.Kautz@asu.edu>, Stacey Kuznetsov <kstace@asu.edu>, Christopher Roberts <cmrober2@asu.edu>
Cc: "post@materiality.posthaven.com" <post@materiality.posthaven.com>


Todd’s found some very interesting researchers in the US and internationally, who seem much more sophisticated in their practice and thinking than the standard “tangible interaction” crowd, perhaps because they’re starting from outside engineering design.  The critical question is who among them has a 
deeper knowledge of, 
access to, and 
scientifically informed critical stance with respect to
novel & emerging materials science
than the cargo-cult hand-me-down relation typical of HCI or design researchers and DIY?

Two acquaintances who are leaders in this sense are:

Karmen Franinovic
Professor for Interaction Design at the ZHdK. 
Leads Interaction research at Institute for Design Research (IDE)

Manuel Kretzer
Founder of Materiability Network 
as part of his PhD, CAAD, ETH

Check out the tutorials and materials to see what’s intended by Tangible Media ( ≠ Tangible Interaction! )


Fwd: alchemy, media & engineering?


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>
Date: Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 2:52 PM
Subject: alchemy, media & engineering?
To: "Brenda McCaffrey (Student)" <brendamc@asu.edu>, Byron Lahey <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>, Jessica Rajko <jessica.rajko@asu.edu>
Cc: Robert LiKamWa <roblkw@roblkw.com>, Todd Ingalls <Todd.Ingalls@asu.edu>, Adam Nocek <Adam.Nocek@asu.edu>, Lauren Hayes <laurensarahhayes@gmail.com>


Hi Brenda, and everyone interested in a fresh practical, theoretical, artistic approaches to new materials, 

Thanks for taking the lead in a fresh take on materials research here at AME.   

Conventional electronics, robotics, microprocessors and media processing  are well covered at AME, so can we look beyond “physical computing” and present day “DIY” approaches to electronics, and start instead from a more sophisticated alchemical / poetic / critical approach to matter ?

I’m eager to hear what you, Byron, Jessica come up with.

For an idea of where international discourse and practice are at, look at


And for some of the places to beat — or to diverge from — see:

Neri Oxman

Hiroshi Ishii

Mediated Matter

Bio-art and bio-mimicry are red herrings, I think, for reasons well argued in Stepney’s “The neglected pillar of material computation,” Physica D 237 (2008) 1157–1164.  (attached)


There’s a whole world of theoretical discourse labelled “new materialism" which is worth exploring critically, perhaps when Adam’s back in the fall.  Plus there’s a related but naive art scene thing under the label “new materiality.”  Most of that has little access to emerging materials science, membrane chemistry, analog and “natural” computing, macro-quantum technologies (like room-temperature superconductors and cloaking), etc.   AME can be the place to bridge and put radical fusion work on the world scene.

Regards,
Xin Wei

cc.  Other faculty who have related expertise and interests.

Compressive Sensing

http://inviewcorp.com/applications/compressive-sensing/#.VzIcTLx-yrU


The image being captured passes through a spatial-light modulator which allows the camera to measure the total light energy in half of the image. This measurement step is repeated a number of times, and the series of measurements is used by the camera to reconstruct the image.

http://spie.org/x90372.xml


Material Inspection

Use an InView SWIR imager where composition discrimination and high resolution are of interest. Make measurements of areal concentration, morphology, porosity, and grain sizes.

Silicon crystal defects, saw and polish defects, poor lead contacts, and thin film PV processing variation can be seen through Electroluminescence and Photoluminescence (EL & PL) imaging techniques. The emission peaks of  PV cells  are typically centered in the SWIR making  a SWIR imager the optimal choice.  Specifically within PV analysis and testing, engineers check powders/mixtures for composition, contamination, and moisture content.

Art and Documentation: Examination & Forgery Detection
Using SWIR camera, researchers can identify alterations, erased markings or overwriting of restorations on certain inks, removals by abrasion or bleaching and other forgery methods. Though intentionally unseen in the visible many changes are apparent in the SWIR due to the unique hyperspectral behavior of materials.


1. M. A. Herman, et al., “Recent results in single-pixel compressive imaging using selective measurement strategies,” Proc. SPIE v. 9484, 9494-09 (2015). 
2. J. Tidman et al.,"Compact opto-electronic engine for high-speed compressive sensing ", Proc. SPIE 8856, Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXVI, 885616 (September 26, 2013). 
3. M. A. Herman, et al., "A higher-speed compressive sensing camera through multi-diode design ",Proc. SPIE 8717, Compressive Sensing II, 871706 (May 31, 2013). 
4. M. Herman, "Compressive Sensing with Partial-Complete, Multiscale Hadamard Waveforms," in Imaging and Applied Optics, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optical Society of America, 2013), paper CM4C.3. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=COSI-2013-CM4C.3 
5. L. McMackin, et al., "Low-cost, High-resolution Shortwave Infrared Microscope Camera Based on Compressive Sensing," in Optics in the Life Sciences, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optical Society of America, 2013), paper NTh2B.4. 
6. L. McMackin, et al.,"A high-resolution SWIR camera via compressed sensing", Proc. SPIE 8353, Infrared Technology and Applications XXXVIII, 835303 (May 1, 2012). 
7. C. Li, et al., "A Compressive Sensing and Unmixing Scheme for Hyperspectral Data Processing," Image Processing, IEEE Transactions on , vol.21, no.3, pp.1200, 2012. 
8. T. A. Russell , et al.,"Compressive hyperspectral sensor for LWIR gas detection ", Proc. SPIE 8365, Compressive Sensing, 83650C (June 8, 2012). 
9. Baraniuk, Richard G. "Compressive sensing." IEEE signal processing magazine 24.4 (2007). 10. Baraniuk, Richard G. "Single-pixel imaging via compressive sampling." IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (2008).