T. F. Peterson: Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT (2003/2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · education, hacking, technology
An MIT “hack” is an ingenious, benign, and anonymous prank or practical joke, often requiring engineering or scientific expertise and often pulled off under cover of darkness—instances of campus mischief sometimes coinciding with April Fool’s Day, final exams, or commencement. (It should not be confused with the sometimes nonbenign phenomenon of computer hacking.) Noteworthy MIT hacks over the years include the legendary Harvard–Yale Football Game Hack (when a weather balloon emblazoned “MIT” popped out of the ground near the 50-yard line), the campus police car found perched on the Great Dome, the apparent disappearance of the Institute president’s office, and a faux cathedral (complete with stained glass windows, organ, and wedding ceremony) in a lobby. Hacks are by their nature ephemeral, although they live on in the memory of both perpetrators and spectators. Nightwork, drawing on the MIT Museum’s unique collection of hack-related photographs and other materials, describes and documents the best of MIT’s hacks and hacking culture.
This generously illustrated updated edition has added coverage of such recent hacks as the cross-country abduction of rival Caltech’s cannon (a prank requiring months of planning, intricate choreography, and last-minute improvisation), a fire truck on the Dome that marked the fifth anniversary of 9/11, and numerous pokes at the celebrated Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center, and even a working solar-powered Red Line subway car on the Great Dome.
Hacks have been said to express the essence of MIT, providing, as alumnus Andre DeHon observes, “an opportunity to demonstrate creativity and know-how in mastering the physical world.” What better way to mark the 150th anniversary of MIT’s founding than to commemorate its native ingenuity with this new edition of Nightwork?
Revised edition, originally published in 2003
With a new essay by Eric Bender
Publisher MIT Press; in association with the MIT Museum, 2011
ISBN 0262515849, 9780262515849
232 pages
Kinema Ikon catalogue (2005) [English/Romanian]
Filed under catalogue | Tags: · art, digital art, experimental film, film, hypermedia, media art, romania, video art
Kinema Ikon is the oldest active experimental art group in Romania. Founded in 1970 as a multimedia atelier at the art school in Arad it is currently hosted by the Arad’s History Museum and Art Museum. Coming from the various fields (art, literature, architecture, photography, music, programming), its members created in over four decades an astonishing variety of works ranging from experimental film, video art, through hypermedia to interactive installations.
The catalogue accompanied the Kinema Ikon retrospective exhibition held at the MNAC, Bucharest in October-December 2005, curated by Raluca Velisar and Stefan Tiron. The first volume covers the experimental films and videos produced by the group, the second volume features hypermedia works, and the third volume is dedicated to Intermedia magazine published since 1994.
Editor Kinema Ikon
Concept and design by Calin Man
Publisher MNAC – The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Museum Arad; Centrul Cultural Judetean Arad
102 / 104 / 48 pages
authors
Kinema Ikon on the Monoskop wiki
PDF (Volume 1)
PDF (Volume 2)
PDF (Volume 3)
View online (Issuu.com, Volume 1)
View online (Issuu.com, Volume 2)
View online (Issuu.com, Volume 3)
Eric Gordon, Adriana de Souza e Silva: Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · facebook, gps, locative media, mobile technology, privacy, social networks, sousveillance
Provides an introduction to the new theory of Net Locality and the profound effect on individuals and societies when everything is located or locatable.
– Describes net locality as an emerging form of location awareness central to all aspects of digital media, from mobile phones, to Google Maps, to location-based social networks and games, such as Foursquare and facebook.
– Warns of the threats these technologies, such as data surveillance, present to our sense of privacy, while also outlining the opportunities for pro-social developments.
– Provides a theory of the web in the context of the history of emerging technologies, from GeoCities to GPS, Wi-Fi, Wiki Me, and Google Android.
Publisher John Wiley & Sons, 2011
ISBN 1405180609, 9781405180603
200 pages
PDF (updated on 2013-2-6)
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