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Hardware and Software Art 92

Posted by michael from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.
Lupulack writes "Worried about where your discarded obsolete technology ends up ? If it's lucky it might be at electronic-ouroborus.com/, where broken - down electronics are transformed into eye pleasing sculpture. Recycling can be art." And yaxu writes "The runme software art repository is now open. Share your favourite piece of software art; whether it be an algorithm, an irc bot, a software app misappropriation, a virus or sendmail exploit..."
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Hardware and Software Art More

Hardware and Software Art

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  • Tradeoffs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sneftel ( 15416 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:15PM (#5260380)
    Interesting... the former site has captured aesthetic elegance yet not functional elegance, and the second site has captured functional elegance but not aesthetic elegance. IMHO, true "tech-art" would need both of these qualities. Any takers?

    • Does this count? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Peterus7 ( 607982 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:27PM (#5260435) Homepage Journal
      I went to a halloween party as a crazy tech junkie scientist type and I had a motherboard strung around my neck. Well, it looked cool, and it was really functional.

      For some reason, all the girls there couldn't get their hands off my motherboard, and they kept on fawning about how it was so big and hard. A friend commented about the reason it was green was I had that string tied around it.

      But anyhow, that motherboard was how I met my most recent girlfriend. That's pretty damn functional, if you ask me.

      I wonder if I'm the only person who uses old hardware to be functional as pimpware...?

    • Re:Tradeoffs (Score:2, Insightful)

      by orange_6 ( 320700 )
      To be "art" (bag of worms in that definition) the work doesn't have to necessarily fulfill any criteria (other than someone deeming it "art" IMO)

      To be construed as "tech-art" though, wouldn't it just have to involve some aspect of the technology and not necessarily encompass the entire realm of all that is tech?

      For example, for something to be ceramic art, it would have to be comprised of a majorty ceramic material, even though it could also include wire, wood, etc.

      Later
      Josh
      • Gerard Ferrari [gerardferrari.com] does ceramic sculpture with other elements, but it still falls under the title of "ceramic" The works from the links would be of the same, the utilize the medium but not necessarily in it's entirity.

        Josh
      • Art has traditionally been produced with technology, though...pigments and fixatives, the lost wax process, lithography, what are these if not technology? The real argument is, which words is more vaguely defined? Technology, or art?
    • Like the DECSS Haiku [cmu.edu]?

      Funtional and poetic.

    • Re:Tradeoffs (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Sauron23 ( 52474 )
      Perhaps you want BEAM Solar art, robots, analog circuits.

      From the inventor -

      The science behind the idea stems from current concepts in artificial intelligence (AI), artificial life (ALife), evolutionary biology, and genetic algorithms. It seems that building large complex robots hasn't worked well, so why not try to evolve them from a lesser to a greater ability as mother nature has done with biologics? The problem is that such a concept requires self-reproducing robots which won't be possible to (if at all) for years to come. A solution, however, is to view a human being as a robot's way of making another robot, to have an annual venue where experimenters can let their creations interact in real situations, and then watch as machine evolution occurs. In other words, robogenetics through robobiologics.

      Mark W. Tilden

      Discussion:
      http://www.serve.com/heretics/discus/index.html

      Library:
      http://www.solarbotics.net/
      Purchase:
      http://www.solarbotics.com. (amongst a few others)

      random:
      http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6897/beam2.htm l
      http://web.archive.org/web/20010312171116/turtlete k.botic.com/begin.html
      Enjoy
    • Perl Poetry [perlmonks.org] anyone?
    • The first site is responding for me. Despite its name, the second site won't oblige.

      To have functional elegance, you must first function.

      I give the first site wins on both counts by default.

  • subjective (Score:5, Funny)

    by selectspec ( 74651 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:16PM (#5260382)
    eye pleasing sculpture

    If you find old computer junk glued together eye pleaseing. Don't sell your Picassos yet.

  • Not recycled (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 3ryon ( 415000 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:17PM (#5260390)
    Many of these components are clearly new. Look at the long wires on the resisters. These have never been on a circut board.

    This picture is especially revealing...
    http://www.electronic-ouroborus.com/ assets/images/ newwbg%20creatures/ksaur-eating-blue-1=-DSC040.jpg
  • if i were artistic, i would _SO_ do this...

    Sure, the people aren't going to make a lot of money, or become the biggest new artist of the year, but for giving things to people, this is cool stuff!

  • From the site (Score:4, Funny)

    by jcoy42 ( 412359 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:21PM (#5260414) Homepage Journal
    I will be away from my studio from Feb 7 to 20 ...


    Which makes this a nice time for a /. front page link. :)

    I wonder what he'll make out of the puddle of muck his server is likely to be when he gets back?
  • I donated an old full-length year-dot SCSI card to a friend once, and some other stuff, IO cards and things, and he ripped them to bits and used them in a sculpture thing he did. It was a head with a hole in it, meant to reference The Borg. Looked pretty damn good too.

    He really was recycling stuff in this case.
  • Modern art has always confounded me. This [tate.org.uk] is on display at the Tate gallery. I think I've seen this somewhere before... hmm....

  • Hard Disk Platter Art (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mrs clear plastic ( 229108 ) <allyn@clearplastic.com> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:26PM (#5260431) Homepage
    I have seen some interesting stuff done with the
    platters inside hard disk drives.

    There is a computer recycling organization in town
    where they take old computers, test the components,
    make new computers for those in need, and then
    recycle the defective components.

    One of the things they did was to dissasemble the
    discarded hard drives that do not work. They did
    this for two reasons. One of them was to ensure
    that the data on that disk remains confidential.
    Who knows what personal information (personal
    finances, surfed porn, love letters, etc) is
    left behind.

    The other reason they broke the drives down is
    to make mobiles out of the platters. Those hard
    disk platters were really beautifull. They are
    very shiny; as if they were made out of glass.
    In fact, I first mistook them for glass. They
    also ring nicely when they hit each other. So,
    a few of those hung on nylon fishing line swinging
    in the breeze, make a wonderful sound.

    I also heard a story where someone took a bunch
    of these and fashioned a skirt out of them. He
    attatched them together using monofiliment line.

    When he wore that skirt and did a twirl, it would
    be an awsome sight and the sound could be heard
    from quite a distance away.

    Mark
    • I also heard a story where someone took a bunch of these and fashioned a skirt out of them. He attatched them together using monofiliment line. When he wore that skirt and did a twirl, it would be an awsome sight and the sound could be heard from quite a distance away.

      Actually, I'd be mighty worried if I saw a GUY in a SKIRT made out of HD PLATTERS do a TWIRL...

      • You know, I read that and thought 'HE made a skirt?' Cross-dressing and computers just don't mix.
      • What is wron with a guy wearing a skirt.

        You should have seen the clear plastic wedding
        dress that I wore for gay pride last year.

        I even wore it to church the morning prior to
        the pride march.

        This is a full, three piece crystal clear plastic
        wedding dress.

        Perhaps I should have included disk drive
        platters within the outfit. Yes. I will do that.
        Clear plastic wedding dress with an inside liner
        made out of disk drive platters. I'll wear it
        at the next Slashdot conference
        • You should have seen the clear plastic wedding dress that I wore for gay pride last year.

          Horribly offtopic and absolutely NOT meant as a flame, but...

          Why?

          No, seriously, why? I don't have anything against gay people, so please don't think of me as a homophobe, but what is the use of participating in a parade which is considered degrading, humiliating, perverse and generally disgusting by most other people? Even by other homosexual people and couples that I know both online as well as for real. I'm for allot of things such as same-sex marriages that are officially recognized, the ability for same-sex couples to be equal to different-sex couples in legal terms and for generally breaking the taboo on homosexuality and get it to be more accepted by the general public... Then why destroy some of all that hard work, all the effort people do to be accepted and be considered equal, by holding one huge parade which immediatly re-affirms allot of the stereotypes and presumptions that are around about homosexual people?

          Note: Sorry for being so horribly off-topic... Just curious, that's all

          • I did this for two reasons.

            First of all, to celibrate gay pride. That is the
            fun part of it.

            The second, and most important reason, is to
            promote my business.

            Now that I can't find a decent IT job after one
            and one half years, I decided to go into the
            fetish clothing business.

            What better way to promote this type of business
            than to wear the stuff in public.

            Between wearing the dress during gay pride and
            wearing some of my other clothing at public
            function, I have received leads and work.

            Look at it this way. It's advertising. Is it
            any worse than the stuff you see on TV/Internet/
            Billboards/etc?

            Mark
            • I think this is the issue that the parent was trying to get at. Wearing fetish/opposite sex clothing in public is not how many gay people want to express their identity. Nor do many adults think it is appropriate. You never see black people marching around in loincloths to celebrate their African roots, because they want to be taken seriously, and because they want to disassociate from the stereotype that they're savages.

              For you to use it as advertising, sure, whatever, I don't have an issue. It's more a matter of, why are there all these other people, who DON'T have anything to sell, who seem to be trying to make it more difficult for the rest of the gay community to fit in?

            • I hope I dont offend anyone, BUT FUCKING STOP IT! Ok I honestly dont mind recomendations, but dont use a *NEWS* forum to sell stuff. I say this for the following reasons: 1) I'm looking to read news, not billboards 2) You pay nothing to slashdot in return for your advertising, so it is in no way like a bilboard 3) If i see advertising on slashdot I won't buy, PERIOD. I'm glad your proud, but don't whore yourself on a news forum, you're not going to make any friends. P.S. its sad that the IT market is smaller than the market for fetish clothing :(
              • I hear you telling me to stop advertising.
                I am not advertising. I am only explaining
                why I wear my clothing the way I do in response
                to another persons query.

                I have absolutely no desire to advertise on
                this forum or any other such forum.

                Mark
    • Not to knock making mobiles, but the best hard disk art I ever saw was afromans hard drive speakers.

      http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~hsakr/hdspeakers/hdsp ea kers.htm

      I think the story was featured on slashdot too. I actually made my own outta some old 5 1/4 full height maxtor drives I had laying around.

  • "Demoscene" (Score:3, Informative)

    by termos ( 634980 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:30PM (#5260448) Homepage
    Interresting about software art, because I tent to look at demos as art. The word is defined here [oldskool.org], and it is a mixture between different algorithms, graphics and music. They put it into a program witch renders pictures in real-time.
    For more demos you can look at scene.org [scene.org] or pouet.net [pouet.net].

  • The Only Eye-Pleasing Computer Art... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quaoar ( 614366 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:30PM (#5260449)
    ...is when a Windows machine is cleaved in twine with a battle axe.
  • Interesting (naked) use of a RedHat 6.0 box is here [theshoebox.org]

    --naked [slashdot.org]

  • Three algorithms that got me into computer science (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:37PM (#5260475)
    10 years ago, when I still thought CS was all about programming, I came across three algorithms that really changed my view of the field. Each of them was relatively short, completely non-obvious to me at the time, and a really elegant way of solving a problem:

    1) The merge sort solution to the closest pair problem (http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/course/cis6 80/cis680Ch18.html#QQ1-50-122) which I found in Sedgewick's Algorithms (now available in modern languages like C and Java but I had the Pascal version)

    2) The Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm for string searching (http://www-igm.univ-mlv.fr/~lecroq/string/node8.h tml) which was demonstrated to me on a napkin and introduced me to this guy named Knuth whose books I later bought

    3) Tarjan's linear time solution to the strongly connected components problem (http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~herb/cs410f99/scc.htm) that I found flipping through Cormen-Leierson-Rivest and led to an unexpected purchase just so I could read more

    (Not that anybody is going to be reading this AC post but I thought I'd share)

  • winner, best algorithm (Score:5, Funny)

    by frenetic3 ( 166950 ) <houstonNO@SPAMalum.mit.edu> on Saturday February 08, 2003 @05:39PM (#5260485) Homepage Journal
    /* inspired by chris rock */
    void get_home_from_work_talk_to_gf( void )
    {
    say( "how was your day?" );
    while ( 1 )
    {
    switch ( rand() % 10 )
    {
    case 0: say( "Get out of here!" ); break;
    case 1: say( "Go on." ); break;
    case 2: say( "I don't believe it!" ); break;
    case 3: say( "You don't say..." ); break;
    case 4: say( "Really?" ); break;
    default: say( "I told you that bitch crazy!" ); break;
    }
    }
    }

  • Been done better (Score:2, Informative)

    by rmarll ( 161697 )
    Beam Robotics guys have been doing this sort of thing for years.

    Ok, it's not the same, but it is robotics as artwork, and their creations actually do something.

    Chiu's BEAM site
    http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6897/bea m2.htm l

    Beam robotics tek
    http://people.ne.mediaone.net/bushbo/beam/mai n.htm l

    Solarbotics
    http://www.solarbotics.com/

    Enjoy.
    • ok some more links because ya'll apparently killed the other sites. :)

      http://www.nis.lanl.gov/projects/robot/

      http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/mattjasper/robotics /

      http://www.machinebrain.com/General_Robotics/BEA M_ Robotics/

      And a giant list of beam sites
      http://renewable.org/beam/list.php
  • The jackals [tangentlab.org] are one of the projects of the tangentlab [tangentlab.org] artist collective -- they scavenge and hack their way through technological detritus:
    There have always been jackals, there always will be jackals. We are the ones who put your tech to use, the ones who recycle the glut and make it useful in aesthetic glory. The technology is neither servant nor master, but merely our raw material, to gnaw, rework, shape and build.
    They also have awesome techno-jackal masks that use the same elements as the critters from the original post. The jackals were most recently seen lurking under a bridge as SIGGRAPH 2002. I have pictures from the jackal invasion of the MCA in Chicago last April here [annmariabell.com].

  • Favorite one liners approximating art (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sawilson ( 317999 ) on Saturday February 08, 2003 @07:05PM (#5260883) Homepage
    perl -MIO::Socket -e 'IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr=>"www.microsoft.co m:139")->send("bye",MSG_OOB)'

    ping -p 2b2b2b415448300d rockwellmodemuser.internet.com

    The source of the webpage for that NTY webpage hack
    a while ago was art also.
  • Perhaps instead of runme.org, a name like slashdotme.org would have been more appropriate... ;-)
  • Throughout university I had a friend who prided himself in being able to build the best inanimate, non functional circuits in the shape of dogs, cats, mice, people, you name it. I tried once build an insect but it just wasn't in my blood. I recall his Digital Dog v1.0 actually being used to pickup, ahh the days...
  • check out http://www.poppycockjewelry.com/ for some more neat recycled computer art.
  • $ cat /proc/kcore

    try it.

  • The hardware side, that is. I'm the guy who makes functional circuits at short notice to do "something"; dead-bug style is my favourite. Many times have I made a working circuit out of surface-mount parts, usually in three dimensions.

    It's actually a very good, robust technique for quick-n-dirty prototypes when there isn't the time for a circuit board (which is typically a two-week turn-around).

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