Making-of: VVunsch VVerkstatt
During the NODE 2017 Festival we will run the VVunsch VVerkstatt, a workshop specialized in making wishes come true. The following post documents our process of developing the concept and props for this performative and participatory installation.
Follow this process on Diaspora #vverkstatt >> https://diasp.org/tags/vverkstatt
Motivation
When we were kids, future technology had a flare of fantasy and magic. We genuinely imagined flying cars and TV phones to make part of our future lives. Now, technology became an everyday tool, and many of us use them in our creative process. And yet, our future does not look as fantastic and magical as we thought. Is it because we are not a child any longer, or did we lose the power to wish the world we want to live in?
The VVunsch VVerkstatt encourages everybody (and vvvv users in particular) to apply their skills towards making someone’s wish come true. During the NODE festival, the VVerkstatt will collect wishes from the festival-goers and the public passing through and post them on a VVish VVall. Inside the VVerkstatt, participants select and analyse these wishes, using their skills and knowledge to “make them come true”.
Questions
What roles do our tools and technologies play in the notion of wishing for something and making wishes come true. Why do we wish? What do we wish for? Do wishes “come true”?
In this workshop we will combine vvvv and wearable technology to open these questions up for discussion, whilst making wishes come true.
Wearable Tech is one of the most hyped technologies of recent years and we wonder what potential such technological hype holds for our hope of a better future (hype or hope). So we challenge the vvvv community to make their patches wearable and put them on the body, using mini computers, portable displays, tiny projectors, and hardware to interface vvvv with soft electronics, textile sensors & actuators. Imagine a suit that compiles to the beat of your heart, a hat that tells you how great you are, shoes that are rich…
VVVVerkkittel
The VVVVerkkittel will be uniform or workwear for people working with vvvv. Some elements are decorative to indicate the wearer is a vvvv user (colour, quad references….), other elements should be functional to support working with vvvv.
What should a vvvv + e-textiles + physical computing work uniform look like?
Ideas for features are most welcome, please email them to: diy@kobakant.at
or post directly into the matrix room (no login necessary) >> https://vector.im/develop/#/room/#vvvv:matrix.org
Features:
General Features:
– Busy/available indicator
vvvv Features:
– Wearable wrist support for typing
– Magnetic collar for storing screws when taking things apart:
– Padding on elbows for table-work
E-Textile Features:
– Pincushion
– Thread rack
Responses…
sunep (@sunep:matrix.org)
14:39Personally I don’t use much in the form of tools, but one thing that might be handy are relatively big pockets for wireless keyboards and such. And then pockets for USB-sticks and SD-cards, perhaps a 2.5″ USB drive
some times I work in hot conditions and other times in cold conditions, so something that can work in both environments would be cool (no pun intended)
perhaps a cooler version of a fishermans vest: https://www.google.com/search?q=lystfiskeren&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwif28mEw4PUAhWkFJoKHaXEAFUQ_AUIBSgA&biw=1920&bih=950&dpr=1#tbm=shop&q=photographers+vest
or photographers vest
14:42pockets with grommets so you can run cables through them
perhaps mesh pockets in the pockets for USB-sticks and such
14:47and perhaps something like or pockets suited for: https://www.cocooninnovations.com/grid.php
I mean the organizer should not be fixed, but removable
14:51organizer=grid-it
it could maybe function as a travel vest to beat carry on restrictions
Adrian Freed
sonic screwdriver, wrist multimeter and oscilloscope and signal generator
iorec
@plusea i’d wish for some kind of scheuklappen as part of the kittel
they’d be integrated in the kittel in a way that on demand i can easily unwrap them so that they cover ears and eyefields so i can concentrate on my patch in annoying surroundings.
another idea not sure if practical really…the radio-keyboard could be stored away on the back like a ninjas sword so i can get it out with a swift gesture
and the natural spot to store away the radio-mouse would probably be like:#
NM
Buttons
V-buttons….
Feature: busy or available indicator
Science fiction author Hugo Gernsback’s ‘the isolator’ (1925) to block out annoying ambient noise.
>> http://www.strangerdimensions.com/2014/12/09/strange-inventions-isolator-1925/
Becky Stern’s “Laptop Compubody Sock for privacy, warmth, and concentration in public spaces”.
>> https://beckystern.com/2008/04/14/body-technology-interfaces/
Hunting for Materials
Shades of VVerkkittel grey:
First Prototype
VVerkstatt toile:
First Sketches
Sketches of VVunsch VVerkstatt uniforms:
Materials, Tools and Equipment
Call to all NODE-goers: Please bring us your scrap electronics and old cloths and accessories!
Example devices, Latte Panda, Philips Pico Pocket Projector
VVish VVall
The VVish VVall is open to all kinds of wishes/desires. It is not constrained by the tools/technology we will use to actually “realize” these wishes.
The VVish VVall is not just a place for collecting wishes, it’s existence invites the viewer to wish for something, and to contribute something personal and individual to a collective expression.
Unlike traditional wish-making opportunities and rituals (throwing a coin in a well, blowing out candles on your birthday cake, seeds off a dandelion, an eyelash…) where wishes are not even spoken out loud (or else they won’t come true), the VVishVVall is an public display of personal and possibly private wishes.
How do you make a wish/ rituals around wish making
Shooting star
Blowing birthday candles
Blowing a dandelion
Blowing an eyelash when it falls
Wishbone
Throw a coin into a well
Tie a wish on a tree (July 7th in Japan, wish tree project by Yoko Ono)
Wish wall
Wish fence
Wish wall in Israel (stick a paper with wishes written on it into a crack on a wall)
Santa Claus
Discussion!
“how do we know what we want” in the Philosophy Magazine 2014, Rolf Dobelli and Robert Pfaller (https://www.robert-pfaller.com/)
“Menschen beharren heute also zu sehr auf der Eigenheit ihres Wunsches. Sie lassen nur Wünsche an sich heran, von denen sie glauben, es seien ganz und gar die eigenen.”
“People today insist too much on the peculiarity of their desire. They only accept wishes, which they believe are entirely their own.”
(Robert Pfahler)
“Das Begehren ist das Begehren des Anderen.”
“Man’s desire is the desire of the Other.”
(Jaques Lacan)
Q: Wie erkenne ich ob mein Wunsch wirklich meiner, und wirklich tragfähig ist – oder eben nur eine weitere Flause?
“Nicht im Nachdenken, sondern allein im Tun. Das Tun als Scheinwerfer in der Dunkelheit. Das Tun ist die einzige Prüfung.” (Rolf Dobelli)
Installation?
installation at the far end of Naxus-halle
inspiration for the installation, Fabric Architecture from Shu Doho, Wearable Studio Practice by Hannah Perner-Wilson
WISHLAB installation in south korea 2013&2014
WISHLAB wish wall in south korea, “Before I die….” installation
Making Wishes:
VVerkstatt installation in the exhibition space?
Location?
Photos of NODE 2015 >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/node-forum/albums
Hope?
Quote from the NODE website:
Hope. It drives us to cross borders, to risk our lives for an idea.
It inspires us to wager fortunes investing in the next big thing.
But who has the power to design the imaginaries that drive this very human confidence and by which means?
NODE17 sets out to investigate the role of code, technological infrastructures, artificial intelligence and anonymous content managers in the mediation of ideas for a better future. Are we the inventors, makers and performers that shape the dreams and aspirations of our generation? Or: who is designing hope?
References
WishLab 2012 & 2013
>> http://www.kobakant.at/?p=566
openFrameworks Lab
festivalgoers submit their ideas for works of art, artists encode these submissions and endow them with physical forms—they produce something.
…This is where the OF Lab comes in, with their team of talented programmers ready to grant wishes to any visitors of the OF Lab…
http://blog.fabrica.it/2008/09/08/openframeworks-lab-at-ars-electronica/
http://90.146.8.18/en/archives/picture_ausgabe_03_new.asp?iAreaID=501&showAreaID=566&iImageID=67109
>> https://vimeo.com/oflab/videos/page:1/sort:date
an Strahlen – urban screening on improvised screens
Joreg said Florian did this a few nodes back and it did not run so well.
http://node13.vvvv.org/program/an-strahlen-urban-screening-on-improvised-screens/
Fixperts
>> http://fixperts.org/
Is fixperts a company or a network? No, it is a social project. An open knowledge sharing platform.
Why did we start this project? We believe fixing is a valuable creative and social resource and we now know that people all over the world feel the same. Fixperts creates content that encourages people to use the power of fixing to solve everyday problems and that’s awesome.
Do we make money? No, this is a labour of love. However, as the project grows it will be important to generate resources to support Fixperts.
New American Sweatshop (2015)
>> http://www.ameliamarzec.com/trainingmodule/
New American Sweatshop: Training Module simulates the workflow and economics of a fictional electronics cooperative in a dystopian future. It trains citizens to barter and use electronic waste to create simple circuits that will form new communication devices. This will allow us to have ownership over our telecommunications infrastructure in cases of political unrest or disaster relief.
Maker Library Network
>> http://design.britishcouncil.org/projects/makerlibraries/
Open Design
>> http://www.ronen-kadushin.com/
Photo Requests from Solitary
http://solitarywatch.com/special-projects/photo-requests-solitary/