For the Social Media and Creative Flow project, some elements are still looking pretty open ended and although the ideas are flowing, nothing is formalised for either the group Creative Flows project or my individual project. As I’ve been researching I’ve been bookmarking articles and sites of interest via Delicious.com.

Using this blog post, I’ve organised these findings into relevant section to try and organise my thoughts and inspirations on Social Networking in an attempt to solidify my research into a workable idea. Links marked with the * I found to be particularly inspiring for the forthcoming projects.

To communicate the concept, public engagement (collaboration/interactivity), data visualisation and a strong aesthetic using the exploration of colour/colour psychology have become strong themes throughout research. In order to deliver the concept augmented reality, using webcams and mobile devices to interact with the environment both on and offline are fascinating concepts that would definitely warrant further investigation for the Creative Flows project.

Collaboration

Google Chrome Logo

Google Chrome Project - Using people in the real word to submit their Google Chrome Icons to the Google Chrome Project. I like the idea of mixing real with online projects.

Creative Commons License – share, remix, reuse – legally

Wiki – “is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems” Source Wikipedia

Google Wiki is also simple but useful. It’s a browser sidebar that enables you to contribute and read helpful information alongside any web page.

Kollabor8 – (actual website unavailable) is a virtual gallery displaying individual sequences of digital photo-montage, an ever-evolving collaborative work of art. Exploring the transitory nature of internet content and the capacity for spontaneous creative synergy between unassociated artists, the images are displayed sequentially like threads in a forum, automatically archived and viewable as part of the process.

Swarmfest Collaborative Sketch – another collaborative visual canvas for online, distributed design: each week a popular search term is chosen to become the sketch subject. Collaborators can then vote on the opacity of the line submitted by other users.

*Wallright – is a live public painting community platform, that allows several people from around the globe to draw on a physical wall at the same time.

Digital Technology & Environment

Image by Panda Yogourt

Digital Cities: ‘Sense-able’ urban design – a Wired.co.uk article discussing the effect of digital technologies on the urban environment. I’m specifically interested in using mobile technology in the real world environment and its effect.

The digital revolution did not end up killing our cities, but neither did it leave them unaffected. A layer of networked digital elements has blanketed our environment, blending bits and atoms together in a seamless way. Sensors, cameras and microcontrollers are used ever more extensively to manage city infrastructure, optimise transportation, monitor the environment and run security applications.

*Visualizing Memory in Architecture – “While standing between the two screens, viewers will see themselves along with visual memories of that place. Continuously washing over one another in painterly portraits of individuals and the surrounding environment, these images relate past and present in uncanny ways, creating a non-linear impression of history.”

Augmented Reality

James Aliban has fantastic examples of augmented reality, as well as processing and generative art on his blog. Also check out his Augmatic website for more of his work.

*Motion Trails v01 is particularly inspiring using web cams and Processing.

Motion trails v01 from James Alliban on Vimeo.

BMW – just have a go!

Data Collection

Google Trends – compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time.

Data Visualisation

Hint FM -

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg are research scientists in IBM’s Visual Communication Lab. The two became a team in 2003 when they decided to visualize Wikipedia, leading to the “history flow” project that revealed the self-healing nature of the online encyclopedia. They are currently exploring the power of visualization as a mass medium and the social forms of data analysis it enables.

I particularly like Luscious which is a celebration of colour.

It’s Been Real WWWords Project – Stefanie Posavec explores methods of visually representing text and visualises the differences in writing styles of different authors.

Twitter Perceptions of Google Buzz – Social media monitoring and analytics company Viralheat put together this graphic that shows the initial positive response to Google Buzz on Twitter, followed by shifts in opinion based on events in the developing privacy story.

ColorSpinner – ColorSpinner is a web interface to a database of over 3000 words and their associated colors and shades using the Prism algorithm.

The colors algorithm (workname Prism) matches a color palette to any given subject. It retrieves colors for apple (which would result in soft greens, yellows and reds) with the same ease as retrieving colors for jealousy (which would result in bright yellows and sickly greens).

Generative & Interactive Art – 2D & 3D

*Processing - a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts.

Alchemy – a way to explore and experiment with alternative ways of drawing

NodeBox – allows you to create visual output with programming code. The application targets an audience of designers, with an easy set of state commands that is both intuitive and creative.
And Finally…

Another concept I’ve come across is geo-networking. An exciting concept in social networking using digital technology and social media based on real-world patterns to “unleash your digital footstream”. Check out Wrrrl to find out more.