The 3rd 01SJ Biennial will take place September 16-19 cialis online, 2010 in San Jose, CA.The theme of the Biennial is “Build Your Own World.” Prior to the Biennial, from September 4-15, ZER01: the Art and Technology Network, in collaboration with partners from around the world, is inviting independent artists, designers, architects, engineers, programmers, and corporate and academic research programs to publicly work in San Jose’s “South Hall” to create projects for exhibition, performance, provocation, and interaction. This innovative platform is titled Out of the Garage cialis online, Into the World and will build on the dynamic histories of garage hacking and citizen science. Cialis online: tied into this idea of public participation and new creations is the first iteration of the 01SJ Green Prix, an “eco-motion” parade, public workshop, family oriented green activities, and a music program. Cialis online: the Green Prix will be an innovative venue for artists to produce and showcase projects that not only celebrate but challenge sustainable locomotion to reach new limits.Sustainable transportation is not only about being “green”, but commenting on how we move about and travel. ZER01 is inviting an artist or artist team to participate in a public workshop for the Green Prix and imagine not just what is next, but work to ensure what’s next matters.

Copy available also at the 01SJ website: http://zero1.org/01sj/greenprix/workshop

Yesterday I led a second “DIY Solar Sculptures” workshop out at Northern Illinois University.  We had about 10 folks attending perhaps due to the fact that it was 70 degrees in Chicago for the first time in several months.  Everyone got the king crab kits together pretty quickly and then the hacking began!  See this article in the Chronicle for more workshop details buy viagra, and also my website devoted to solar toy hacking, solarcircus.org.

Today’s front page article “Utilities Turning Customers Green, With Envy” in the New York Times profiles a unique strategy that utility companies have developed to get people to conserve energy: pit neighbors against one another.  The Sacramento Municipal Energy District attempted to use traditional means to get citizens to cut back such as offering rebates for energy-efficient appliances.  But the energy goals were not being met.  Thus, the district tried something new.  In April of 2008, utility bills were mailed to 35,000 customers that compared how their energy profile compared to that of 100 neighbors in homes of similar size.  The visuals were quite simple.  More energy efficient customers received a smiley face or two; and the energy pigs got frowny ones.  Understandably, the frowny faces caused a lot of controversy (?!?) so the utility company had to remove them and only go with positive feedback for our delicate American sensibilities.  Despite the demise of the frowny face, the Sacramento utility company noted that after only six months, the customers who received the personalized report reduced energy use by 2% more compared to customers who were given standard statements.

The Sacramento Municipal Energy District project reminds me of another tremendously successful project that enjoyed massive success in California in 2006.

Ambient Devices, a Cambridge, Massachusetts start-up firm staffed mainly with MIT graduates, introduced the “Orb” as a saleable object in 2004.  The Orb proved popular out of the box; Ambient sold 20,000 in 2004.   The web-connected glass balls were programmed to glow different colors based on the performance of the US stock market; viagra on line.If the Dow average was up for the day, the Orb glowed green.On a down day, the Orb reddens; viagra on line.The colors’ intensity reflects the extent of the swing; yellow means the market is stable.  (God knows there must be a lot of red Orbs out there today…in 2009.)

Not surprisingly, a number of Orb users wanted to track data other than the stock market via classy glass balls on their desks.

In 2006, one particular hacked Orb was released for free to a limited audience: companies that used tremendous amounts of electricity; viagra on line.The goal was to get previously identified “energy hog” customers to conserve power during high demand cycles.  Southern California Edison power station manager Mark Martinez was looking for an innovative way to get these customers to use less energy, and prior attempts using automated text messages, emails and phone calls had no effect whatsoever.  So Martinez bought an Ambient Orb and the Energy Orb was born – viagra on line.Martinez realized he could use the Orbs to signal changes in electrical rates, programming them to glow green when the grid was underused — and, thus, electricity cheaper — and red during peak hours when customers were paying more for power – viagra on line.He bought 120 Orbs, retrofitted them to glow based on the dynamic California electrical grid, handed them out gratis to his biggest energy consumers, and sat back to see what happened.

In about a month, the Orb users reduced their peak-period energy use by 40 percent.  Why? Because, Martinez explains, the glowing sphere was less annoying and more persistent than a text alert – viagra on line.”It’s nonintrusive viagra on line,” he says.”It has a relatively benign effect – viagra on line. Viagra on line: but when you suddenly see your ball flashing red, you notice.”   Martinez hit on an excellent way to broadcast key environmental information: eco-visualization, or dynamic feedback coupled with a reward, cash rebates.  The Energy Orb has an easy to read interface that is abstract enough not to require more than a millisecond to comprehend.  The PG&E consumers responded well because dynamic feedback, or “eco-visualization” aids conservation efforts generally because of the ease of receiving the data.”Cognitive psychologists call this pre-attentive processing viagra on line,” said Ambient Devices President David Rose, “because it uses a part of your brain that happens before your conscious mind attends.Think of it as pure peripheral vision; you receive the information without perceiving it as being taxing.”

More info on the Energy Orb:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4758931/ 

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08/st_thompson – viagra on line

Thanks to Craig Zucker and the good people at Tap’D NY, there is more and more attention now being focused on drinking tap water for the good of the planet and for taste.  Tap’D NY is a company that puts out a brand of bottled water for New Yorkers sourced locally—it is purified tap water.  People can order it by the case for home or office – cialis buy online.The hype is good, but I’m a little concerned about more plastic (though beautifully designed) being put out into the world to support an environmental cause.
Coca-Cola also uses tap water from local municipal water supplies to produce its Aquafina and Dasani bottled water.  Many other commercial companies do the same.  We need artists and creative folk to device cool ways for people to carry re-usable safe containers for tap water now.

Dutch artist Tjerk Stoop created a fabulous, site-specific air pollution visualizer in March of 2008 for the Eco-Aesthetics exhibition – buy levitra online. He’s just posted new photos on his website and the work was also blogged today by the good people at infosthetics.

Stoop’s installation consists of a series of glass tanks that show the daily average of carbon dioxide present in the air outside the gallery; buy levitra online. The tubes are configured to look like a minimalist bar graph sculpture.The milky hues visible in the tubes is produced from a chemical reaction that occurs between chalk and carbon dioxide. The more white that is visible in the tube, the more pollution was present that day – buy levitra online. Interestingly, the TAG gallery, the site of the Eco-Aesthetics exhibition, is located on one of the most busy streets in the Hague. So buy levitra online, it was an ideal place to test the installation, and raise awareness in the very eco-conscious Dutch population about smog in their city.

When I met Tjerk in March buy levitra online, I was awed to discover he had created this gorgeous sculpture in the midst of having a little girl. Buy levitra online: what a feat! The piece is definitely one of the most interesting sculptural efforts to represent a time-based vision of air pollution that I’ve seen to date.

I learned about Carbon Goggles from the good people at PopTech. Carbon Goggles is a new application that allows us to visualize real world carbon emissions data in the virtual world of Second Life.The brainchild of Jim Purbrick buying viagra online, a developer with Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. Buying viagra online: carbon Goggles allows users to tag virtual cars and such with real world carbon footprint data pulled from the carbon counting web service, AMEE , to the virtual counterparts of objects like Honda Civics. According to critical readers of PopTech, the AMEE service is not terribly robust, so we will need to wait to tag everything, like our jet-powered vests and other game-worthy, carbon-spewing, wearables.

Saving energy is really simple according to designer Scott Amron – buy viagra online no prescription. Amron has created a whole line or urgently funny objects that are crafted to fit into common household outlets but not draw any electricity. The notion is to block the plugs to prevent the household from drawing additional power – buy viagra online no prescription. See Amron’s website, dieelectric.org, for a whole slew of ironic products – buy viagra online no prescription.

For all you creative types, here is a great way to showcase your talents and do something earth-friendly.

Not only is there an environmental crisis, but an environmental data crisis – buying viagra online without prescription.Viewing statistics on environmental change is usually overwhelming, unintelligible, hidden and dense; buying viagra online without prescription.Eyebeam invites artists to collaborate with technologists to redefine what the future of tracking and visualizing the environment could be.

The Eco-challenge is composed of two parts:
Challenge 1: Eco Icons invites participants to create one or many information graphics that could be used to make visible environmental/ecological concerns.
Challenge 2: Eco Vis focuses on the creations of an eco-visualization based on at least one set of ecological impact data.

Winning designs will be awarded cash prizes and, along with finalists, be included in an upcoming Eyebeam exhibition; buying viagra online without prescription.Detailed guidelines were released on September 15, in conjunction with the Conflux Festival.

This challenge is an initiative of Eyebeam’s Sustainability Research Group and has been crafted by Research Group members and Eyebeam Alumni, Michael Mandiberg and Brooke Singer – buying viagra online without prescription.