Projects completed within the Connectivity Probes framework are listed below. These projects are experiments and challenges to existing network frameworks that attempt to emphasize their "sociable" potential. As the research develops, more projects will be added to this list.
BumpList:
An Email Community for the Determined (2003)
Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Michael Bennett
URL: http://www.bumplist.net
Description
BumpList was created to re-examine the culture and rules of email list communities. The main constraint of BumpList is that it only allows for a maximum amount of subscribers so that when a new person subscribes, the first person to subscribe is "bumped", or unsubscribed from the list. Once subscribed, you can only be unsubscribed if someone else subscribes and "bumps" you off. BumpList actively encourages people to participate in the list process by requiring them to subscribe repeatedly if they are bumped off. The focus of the project is to determine if by attaching simple rules to communication mediums, the method and manner of correspondences that occur as well as behaviors of connection will change over time.
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Screenshot of the BumpList Website (2003) |
Premise
BumpList is an example of an online community that was created to question the fundamental structure of online communities. The project takes a critical role at the traditional form and use of emailing lists by placing emphasis on the "act of belonging" to these lists so that users must constantly subscribe to stay active in the community. This challenges the notion of how digital communities maintain member's involvement and how the design of these lists impact users' behaviours.
Details
BumpList launched in May 2003 and has been currently running for 9 months. Over this period, BumpList has succeeded in maintaining involvement as users have generated over 66,000 total subscribes, resubscribes and bumps, 30,000 unique email messages, and millions of total hits. The website features a real-time "Hall of Fame" that ranks users activities based on total posts, bumps, and time they have managed to stay subscribed. Observed behaviours from the project range from participants creating personalized statistics pages, one member creating a yahoo group for people unable to stay on the list, attempted hacks of the systems such as auto-subscribe bots, and fierce competition over belonging to the list (currently about 12-20 people fighting for the 6 spots). The project attempts to rethink the formal assumptions that define online communities and eventually allow for these systems to be redesigned based on user-defined criteria.
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Sociability Software:
Status Play & PublicDesktop (2004)
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Status Play
URL:www.coin-operated.com/projects/statusplay.html
Description
StatusPlay is an experiment in adding sociability into the seemingly limited display characteristics of the status line in Apple's iChat instant messenger client. The StatusPlay suite of AppleScripts attempts to uncover how creating dynamic inputs into the status can affect relationships with other users of the chat client. So far there are four distinct scripts/systems including ChatPerson: displaying the name of the person you are chatting with, LiveSearch Status: displaying live search terms from the Internet, Public Status: including an online form where people can input any text as your status, and ClipBoard Status: displaying the contents of the clipboard as the status.
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Screenshots of StatusPlay in iChat (2004) |
System
Building off of the functionality of the freeware application, iChatStatus, which consists of a Mac OSX System Preferences control panel to update the status line of iChat, StatusPlay is a series of AppleScripts that augment the status line into a more sociable display of user activity and input. Although iChat is compatible with AIM accounts, the status line is OSX specific, thus excluding PC users from viewing its content.
*Note: All Status Play scripts and applications are freely available for download from the website.
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PublicDesktop
URL:www.coin-operated.com/publicdesktop
Description
PublicDesktop adds sociability to the Mac OSX desktop background by allowing people to input text online which then becomes the desktop image. The idea is to create a social space in the seemingly closed off desktop environment by creating a simple message board that emphasizes background awareness communication. If two people are running the main application, it becomes a desktop IM client of sorts. Future versions will include image lookups and other types of live inputs as desktop images.
Background
Public Desktop is a project that looks at expanding the seemingly closed off desktop background of the computer into a public one that can be annotated by anyone online. The idea is to add sociability to the desktop through a public web form that turns your desktop into a public graffiti wall where people can leave messages, post thoughts, or use as a chat client. The real aim of the work is to create a sense of connectedness among people in a background way where glancing at your screen might reveal a new message someone has left. This is different from conventional messaging systems since it requires no direct action of communication from the person who has the PD application running. They can simply install the project and watch as their desktop is annotated in real-time by people visiting their website.
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Photo of computers running PublicDesktop (2004)
Screenshot of PublicDesktop (2004)
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*Note: PublicDesktop is freely available for download from the website.
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Forward Compatible
(2004)
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
URL: http://www.coin-operated.com/projects/forwardcomp.html
Description
Forward Compatible (FC) is a parasitic object meant to be attached to a Wi-Fi or fixed network router. The device monitors network traffic and when packets are sent, they are converted to audio, in the form of a 2400 baud modem dialing up and connecting, and played through the device's on-board speakers. The focus of the project is to historically inform the way we think about network connectivity in public spaces by disrupting the supposed serenity of modern technology with a reminder of the past. FC is the first of several parasitic network devices I am currently working on.
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Forward Compatible device
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Background
Most people believe that older technologies are inferior. Mass media and advertising hypes a techno culture that is striving towards the latest gadgets, newest upgrades, and streamlined software and hardware efficiency. The current trend in Ubiquitous Computing is to envision a world where computers are infinitely powerful, context-aware, extrememly cheap, invisible, and deployed everywhere. This approach places value on optimization and performance and often disregards the evolution of how people used and perceived computers and connectivity from its beginnings. Forward Compatible is a reaction to the streamlining of computer technology by imparting an audible memory of the past in the form of a modem connection signal whenever data passes on the Local Area Network (LAN). This is an attempt to bring awareness to users of the network how the data they are sending might have existed in the not-too-distant past.
System
The project is built from a simple audio recording circuit controlled by a photo-transistor. The transistor detects light from LEDs that blink from data traffic on the outside of the router. This simple detection method allows the device to be parasitic and be deployed on any WiFi or fixed router system.
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Alerting Infrastructure
(2003)
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
URL: http://www.coin-operated.com/projects/alertinginfrastructure
Description
Alerting Infrastructure is a physical hit counter that translates hits to the website of a physical space into interior damage of the physical building associated with the site. The focus of the piece is to amplify the concern that physical spaces are slowly losing ground to their virtual counterparts. The amount of structural damage to the building directly correlates to the amount of exposure and attention the website gets, thus exposing the physical structure's temporal existence.
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Picture of drill connected to building wall (From installation at City Arts Centre - Dublin, Ireland 10/03)
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Background
The proliferation of websites as virtual representations of physical locations has reached a saturation point. Despite the massive surge of bricks and mortar spaces (such as schools, businesses, organizations) maintaining online presences, there is still little connection between the people simultaneously inhabiting these spaces. Alerting Infrastructure addresses this by connecting the physical space of the a building to its online counterpart (www.someorganization.com) by scanning access logs of the website for new unique visitor "hits" and translating each new site hit into physical output in the form of activating a large, pneumatic jackhammer.
With each new virtual hit, the jackhammer slowly destroys the walls of the physical building. Since websites and virtual interfaces can garner an almost unlimited amount of "virtual hits" without showing any visible signs of decay or extended use, the project attempts to illustrate a fundamental reversal in role of physical spaces losing importance and relevance to their virtual counterparts.
System
Alerting Infrastructure exists as a simple PHP based hitcounter on the main page of Dublin, City Arts Centre's website. On a local PC situated in the space, software reads the incoming hits from the site and sends serial output to a microcontroller for a specified time period. The microcontroller switches a TRIAC (AC current relay) to turn on and off a Pneumatic Jackhammer held up by steel cable from the ceiling of the space, and aimed at the wall. With each new hit to the site, the jackhammer is powered on and the wall is slowly chipped away. Since the exhibit will be on display for three weeks, a considerable amount of damage will occur over time to the space. On the website, a readout indicates to visitors the amount of damage they have caused such as: "Your visit has contributed to 0.00113% of the destruction of the organization's physical building. Thanks for visiting!"
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