A friend of mine recently told me that Transitlab.org was quite random in its choice of subjects, and I agree that it is random in an eclectic way, but understandable if you think of it as this.

Transitlab can be expanded to the trans word: transitional. But if we think of a transitional space as one that is passed through bidirectionally, then it becomes a space in which exchanges are possible between genres, schools of thought, ways of life. Now, of course this site is not that wide, it bounces between the ideas of “research as art practice” “research as science” “technology as driver and follower of research” “serendipitous discoveries” “losing small but frequently(iterative learning through small failure)” and “winning big but rarely”(and yes I have just read the Black Swan).

They are building on the wiimote hacks of Johny Chung Lee (johnny lee.net/projects/wii/), to make the prototype electronic grafetti friispray(http://friispray.wordpress.com/).  What is wonderful about this technology it gives to people an intuitive canvas on which to start drawing.   The innovation is modifying a spraycan so that it can be used as an infrared drawing device. This coupled with a rear projection screen, a wiimote , a data projector and some software that they have made produces a cheap whiteboard drawing system.  They have had audiences of all abilities, showing in situations from schools to nightclubs.

One of the amazing opportunities they have had is workshopped this technology with childen with disabilities. These children cannot express themselves using pens and paints. In this instance they made a different infra red stylus that was easy to hold. The no mess/pigment means that Friispray is also applicable to teaching situations where vulnerable people are prevented from using normal pens and paints because of risks to them and others.

 Friispray is an example of open innovation, by publishing the information on the net, they have seeded or inspired other people to ‘go crazy’ with the idea.  For example Derrick Welsh. He has been running a project around sketch messaging, and has been using nokia tablets in collaborative electronic sketching. When he saw friispray at the MakerFaireUK, he ran with the idea, buying a wiimote and hacking a remote control to make novel drawing styluses. Each day his children suggested something else that he should change into a drawing object and he ended up making wonderfull styluses around paint brushes, fishing rods, & childrens toys. Derrick has also worked out how to sketching on his mobile phone using the wiimote.

 I look forward to seeing many more exciting innovatotions coming out of the Jam jar Collective and also  Derrick Welsh.

• lesson of the wiiMote: a piece of technology that is not crippled, has amazing functionality and is cheap +  a community of developers means that we all can make Epic Shit if we want to

Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino, TinkerIT called on us to:

• consider technology as a tool, rather than something to consume. She argues that we are in a similar place to the pre-industrial time, where ‘ordinary folks’ are making things that help solve there own personal problems, or fulfill desires. (see t!pot a weighing device that tells you when the teapot is empty so you can decide whether you want the last cup)

Originally uploaded by sctv

On Wednesday the 13Th I attended the Show & Tell: Gadget DIY session at Thinking Digital- Digital University
A number of different speakers with compatable relationships to technology (coming from the Maker/Hacker ethic of If you cant understand it, take it to bits, you dont own it)

JS New Institutionalism, trying to generate documentation that does not exist, based upon what else is known of the piece.

Mappings, putting yourself on a 2d map of how do you describe your research area and your methodology.

They also described the aRt&D triangle classification by

Anne Nigten at http://www.processpatching.net/triangle/

Following this was small group discussion and filling in of the 2d matrix. Our group talked about the appropriateness of the map of digital research and methods, and how it needs have some focus on audience. However this may have been hidden in the terms used. For example physiology/user/audience may all be applied to the same concept in curator, hci and other fields.