art-science and the FuturICT project

Dave Murray-Rust

dave@mo-seph.comwww.mo-seph.com

art-science and FuturICT

Musical AgentsModelling musical

communication with interactive software agents

http://www.mo-seph.com/academic/agentbox

ChaoDependantHarmonic motion, magnets, sensors, handblown glass,

interactive soundscape

http://www.mo-seph.com/projects/chaodependantwith Agelos Papadakis (http://www.agelospapadakis.com/) and Owen Green

(http://owengreen.net/)

InteracTablePlayful multitouch, multimodal search aggregation

http://www.mo-seph.com/projects/interactable

Mobecules

Virtual, geolocated moleculeshttp://www.mobecules.org

Why?(for me)

• For the joy!• Bring out “hidden”

relationships and processes

• People and technology are fascinating

• Putting them together helps understand both

http://www.mo-seph.com/projects/FieldRecordings

Why? (art-science)• Logics of interdisciplinarity:

– Accountability – making science accountable to society

– Innovation – fuels technological and economic growth

– Ontological – effecting change in relations between artists and scientists, their objects and publics

• Allowing “the public” to understand the science• Allowing scientists to reflect on their work• … but not taking science as a “fixed point” for

creation of pieces, but starting a dialogue• Alter the relations between artist and scientist,

and with the public

Born and Barry, 2010, ART-SCIENCE: from public understanding to public experiment, J. Cultural Econ

Thoughts for FuturICT

Narrative: (bridging techical/scientific and personal)• Science fiction as extrapolation of global sociotechnological

trends (e.g. Paolo Bacigalupi – calorie economy, genetic engineering[1])

• Social media as platform for collaborative, scenario based storytelling (IFTF, World Without Oil[2])

Embodiment:• ICT changes our sense of place, and of self• Thinking doesn’t just happen in the brain[3]• How does this change human behaviour[1] http://windupstories.com/[2] http://worldwithoutoil.org/[3] e.g. Andy Clark, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/out-of-our-brains/

Thoughts: Visualisation and Interaction– How to visualise interactions

between a billion agents? How to make sense of global datasets

– What does it take to make models and their outputs understandable to the public? Interaction? Interfaces?

– How to convey provenance, linkages, uncertainty

– Going beyond the visual: tangible and ambient interfaces

Final Thoughts

• Ensuring a dialogue between science and art• Public experimentation over public

engagement

Thanks for Listening

Dave Murray-Rustdave@mo-seph.com

www.mo-seph.com