Mark Bolas

Mo mo mo mobile

GRAZER geo-data

Grazer writes Geo-Data from a GPX-file into the exif header of your digital pictures and can be downloaded now.
GRAZER will allow you to sort pictures dependend on "place where they were taken" in the future.

Input Format for Geo-Data is "GPX". If you got any problems or suggestions concerning our software please drop us an Email.

Currently we are working on cooperation with Magic Maps to allow you a virtual flight through your digital
photos, tagged by Grazer.

Synectics and Loving Design Lecture

These are notes from a lecture I just gave for Stanford's ME101 class on Synectics and Loving Design.

Download file

William J.J. Gordon - Synectics

Notes from "Synectics" by Willian J.J. Gordon, Harper 1961:

Synectics, from the Greek means the joining together of different and apparently irrelevant elements.

The aim of Synectics research (since 1944) has been to uncover the psychological mechanisms basic to creative activity. Observational methods were used.

Spring/Altimeter Example (page 16):

1a) Detachment
1b) Involvement
2) Deferment
3) Speculation
4) Autonomy of Object

Basic Synectic Process:

1) Make the Strange Familiar
Understand the problem - analytical phase. Understand the problem until you are at home with it.

2) Make the Familiar Strange
Distort, invert or transpose the everyday ways of looking and responding.

A South Sea Islander's pigeon-English description of a three-masted, screw steamer with two funnels: "thlee-pieces bamboo, two-pieces puff-puff, walk-along inside, no-can-see"

Techniques to Make the Familiar Strange
a) Personal Analogy - see yourself as the spring
b) Direct Analogy - use animals or other devices
c) Symbolic Analogy - use constructs or symbols
d) Fantasy Analogy - invent something that could be used as an analogy

Intuition, Deferment, Empathy, Play, Use of Irrelevance, Involvement; Detachment - these are abstract and thus difficult to teach. The four mechanisms outlined above can lead a person toward these key, abstract, psychological states.

Play and Irrelevance:

In Synectics theory, play with apparent irrelevancies is used extensively to generate energy for problem-solving and to evoke new viewpoints with respect to problems. Play generates energy because it is a pleasure in itself, an intrinsic end.

Play
While it may be true that final sanction for artist, scientist, inventor is public accpetance of the end-product, overemphaiss on the success goal masks the gratification in the creative process itself. Synectic theory implies that not all play is creative, but that all creativeity contains play.

"Play" in the creative process means the activity of floating and considering associations apparently irrelevant to the problem at hand. Play in this sense involves the constructive use of illusion, conscious self-deceit, daydreams, and of associations in gneral which seem to imply no immeidate benefit.

Irrelevance
1) Irrelevant Perception, Ideas, and Generalities - sustain a dynamic balance between distraction and learning. Page 133 - Ant Distraction Example.

2) Hedonic Response: An Irrelevance Filter - if it begins to feel good, keep going.

Synectics theory holds that there is an excitement and feeling of pleasure accompanying the selection of and signalling a valid intuition, and that people can be taught to watch for thie feeling of excitement within them. It is termed a "Hedonic Response"

3) Autonomy of Object - when the solution begins to have a life of its own

4) Accident - effectively irrelevance in motion

A Social Application - Choosing People to Work With:

1) Metaphoric Capacity
2) Attitude of Assistance
3) Kinesthetic Coordination
4) Risk (constructive vs destructive)
5) Emotional Maturity (integration of childishness into constructive acts)
6) The Capacity to Generalize
7) Commitment
8) Non-status Oriented
9) Complementary Aspect (does the person fit within the existing group)

IAGER Meeting On Campus

Just to remind everyone that there is a first formal meeting of IAGER International Association for Games Education and Research) this Weds morning (18th) on the USC Campus, which is just down the road from the LACC for those attending E3. Full details on how to get to USC are on the IAGER website (www.iager.org), and the event starts with an 8am breakfast followed by a 9a-10:30am meeting. We will be discussing among other things the timing of our annual conference to commence 2006 as well as gaining feedback as to what members would desire from an academic association focused on games education and games research.

Tim Langdell
President
IAGER

Los Angeles Resource Guide

So, I would like to invite all to post addresses, phone numbers and other contact information of Los Angeles area based vendors and resources that might come in handy for those in the midst of making actual stuff for their IM projects.

Just post as comments for now. Thanks!

My first Entry will be for a neat old-style electronics store on Washington Blvd. It had the null modem convertors I needed *and* the really itty bitty flat head screwdrivers I needed to tune up the Boom head. It is:

Mar Vac Electronics
12453 Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
310-391-6763
www.marvac.com

I needed two pieces of 8" by 36" by 1/8th mirrored plex on a Saturday a few weekends ago to build two parabolic reflectors. . . lo and behold, Hastings Plastics had the material and cut to spec. What more could I ask for?

Hastings Plastics Company
1704 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-829-3449

(By the way, they do not laser cut on site - now we know what more I could have asked for)

Nick's New and Used on Imperial Highway between Bellflower and Woodruff
Rutex
Cleveland Wrecking Company
dakeng.com x= long, y=cross

Flat Fun

Paul Haeberli, formally of SGI is doing this now:

Lamina 1.0 makes it easy to fabricate large scale free-form structures from planar (sheet) materials like plastic, metal, or plywood. This fabrication technology can be applied to interior design, building architecture, lighting, signage, clothing, and sculpture.

Lamina 1.0 uses computer methods to build precise physical structures in the real world. Your 3D model is approximated by a number of 2D parts that are numerically cut and attached to fabricate the final structure. Laser cutting, abrasive waterjet cutting and plasma cutting services are widely available and make creating parts inexpensive and fast.

http://laminadesign.com/index.html

Some interesting Paper Folding sites:

http://www.sgi.com/misc/grafica/fold/page001.html

http://www.sgi.com/misc/grafica/huffman/index.html

http://www.scheib.net/play/paper/index.html