Karolina from Flightphase made an awesome case study about the University of Dayton project. Watch me sound like a tool.

I went into the weekend thinking that I would just help out with a project that I found interesting, but instead I made the mistake of telling some people about an incredibly stupid idea Cass and I had (we tend to do that — ask me to tell you about Magnum Map some time if I haven’t already) to make a bar game out of postings from the Craigslist section, “Casual Encounters.”  If you’ve never been to that section, congratulations.  As the title suggests, it’s a place for people to meet others who want to have casual sexual encounters.  It’s split up into sections like “m4w” (man for woman), “w4w” (woman for woman), t4m (transexual for male), etc.  If you dig a little deeper, you even find categories like “mw4w”.  But the most important part is: people tend to post extremely explicit images, presumably of themselves “showcasing their wares”, so to speak.

The Erotic Photohunt game in all of its glory

The idea was somewhat inspired by the game called “Erotic Photohunt” that you find on these arcade machines in bars called “Megatouch”.  If you are around my age and sometimes go to dive bars, I guarantee that you’ve seen one of them before.

So Cass and I were trying to figure out how to “gameify” Casual Encounters.  At first we were amused by the idea of “Casual Encounters Roulette”, in which you would spin some kind of wheel that showed several pictures from Craigslist and whichever picture it landed on, your info would automatically be sent to the person who posted it. But we decided that that was too mean/risky. What we came up with was simple:  you are confronted with an image from casual encounters and the titles of 3 posts.  The photo came from one of the posts.  You have to guess which one.

So I told Kaho Abe and Amelia Marzec about this idea, and surprisingly, they liked it. Soon, Aaron Meyers and Jon Cohrs joined in and we had an awesome team.  I ended up being in charge of the API that scraped Craigslist, Kaho, Jon, and Amelia made a great physical interface with these big buttons (I’ll dig up some pictures eventually), and Aaron made the JavaScript front-end.

Below are some (“curated”) screenshots from the game.  But feel free to play yourself!

As per the rules of the Art Hack Weekend, the source is also available on Github.

Awesome new video made by Duncan Skiles of Waverly Films about the 3rd annual World Series of ‘Tubing, which was at Signal to Noise #2 at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Back in March I took part in a storytelling series called StoryCollider in Brooklyn. I was a little nervous in the beginning, but I think I get more comfortable after a minute.

You can also subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories just about every week.

I started a project forever ago called DeleteCity. It is a plugin for WordPress that finds videos that have been taken down from YouTube and posts them on your blog. Here is a (new and improved!) explainer:

I just got around to actually making it, so now I am looking for beta testers. If you have a WordPress blog and want to save the Internet, please get in touch! If you don’t have my email address, just leave a comment on this post. The deletecity website isn’t ready yet, but the plugin works, so if you just want the plugin and don’t want to be a beta tester, you can get it on Github!

more detailed description after the break

My bike.

See it also on Flickr. Notice the date (December 15, 2009), and the fact that the caption is “Jeff Crouse’s green and yellow Bright Bike.”  It wasn’t a super expensive bike, but I really liked it.  It was a Frankenstein bike made by a friend of a friend.  The lovely yellow retro-reflective tape was put there by Simon Jolly as part of Michael Mandiberg‘s “Bright Bike” project. I would often get compliments on it as I rode down the street because it was so distinctive and unique.  I have fond memories of trips to Coney Island and summer rides around Williamsburg on this bike, not to mention the daily trips to work when the weather was nice.

On December 4, 2010, the bike was stolen from right outside my 3rd floor apartment door.  The front door of my building — a thin metal gate — leads you into tiny mail/trash room.  This door doesn’t close very well.  The second door closes, but you have to kind of push it closed.  So my guess is that the front door was open, as it usually is, but someone (it could very well have been me, but I’ve lived here for quite a while and know the door situation) failed to push this second door closed when entering or leaving, and some asshole came in and took my bike.

I was on my way to a holiday party when it was stolen.  The funny thing is, we took a car service to this party, and while we were in the car, I saw a dude on a green bike with reflective yellow stripes riding down McGuinness Blvd in Greenpoint, and I thought to myself: “Wow, that looks just like my bike!  But it can’t be.  My bike is safe in my building.”  When I got home, I realized that this wasn’t the case.

Back in September, I had my backpack (containing laptop, wallet, hard drive with tons of work) stolen in San Jose, CA while at the 01SJ festival.  I’ve had bad luck with theft recently.  I reported it to the police immediately, complete with the serial number.  While I was still in San Jose, I checked a few pawn shops, Craigslist, EBay, but gave up after a day.  I never got it back, nor did I expect to.  So, I don’t know why I didn’t report my stolen bike to the police — but it was probably because I had no serial number and assumed that the police have better things to do than finding stolen used bikes without serial numbers.

Today, I was having lunch at Saltie on Metropolitan Ave, and as I was eating my lovely Scuttlebutt sandwich, I noticed a bike right outside of the window, directly in front of  of La Bella Mariella Pizza II, that looked just like my bike but with black stripes instead of yellow.  This is what it looked like: (click for bigger versions)

Notice the yellow tape peeking through in this one.

They didn't even bother covering this tape.

Same exact brand.

Same shitty mountain-bike breaks with yellow piping.

Definitely my bike. Single speed, green bike with yellow tape.

Upon closer inspection, I concluded that it was *definitely* my bike. You can see the yellow reflective tape in some of the pictures, and in others you can see black tape sloppily wrapped over the yellow tape.  There is simply no doubt that this is my bike.  If you compare it to the top photo, you’ll see that it has different grips and pedals. This is because the grips were badly worn after a few years of use, so I replaced them this summer.  I don’t know who changed the pedals — probably whatever shop the thief brought it to.  You can see that it had cages (the little things you put your feet in), and the pedals were metal and somewhat small.  I imagine this isn’t ideal for delivery people (all of the other bikes at that rack belonged to delivery people at the 3 restaurants on hat block), so they replaced them.

I went home and (after posting the pics on Facebook, of course) called the 90th precinct police station in Brooklyn.  I realized that getting this bike back was a long shot, as whoever now owns it probably bought it from a shop and has no idea that it is stolen, and I never had the bike registered.  Literally all I have by the way of proof of ownership is a Flickr page from 2 years ago. I talked to a nice — if somewhat slow — police officer.   I clearly explained my situation and apologized for not registering my bike or reporting the incident when it was stolen.  I told him that I knew that it was kind of a long shot, but I just wanted to know if I should bother to come to the station and pursue this any further.  The officer asked me *three times in a row* how I knew it was my bike. He wasn’t confused or dissatisfied with the answer — it was as if he forgot immediately after I said it.  I patiently explained about the reflective tape, the color, the wear pattern, and the brand 3 times.  I told him repeatedly that all I wanted to know was whether or not I should even bother to come down to the station, but all he seemed to want to do was explain to me all of the problems with my situation.  About how it was really my word against whoever now claims the bike.  About how it’s probably not even the thief who now has it locked up, but someone who bought it in some shop.  And how I really should have had the bike registered, or at least reported it after it was stolen.  Finally, he said that I should come down to the station and at least report it.  It was a pretty frustrating phone call.

So I walked the mile to the station in the 15° weather. On the way, I was happy to see that the bike was still there. I was a bit paranoid that I had aroused suspicion by taking many pictures of it and it would be gone. I brought my own Kriptonite U-lock with me because I was considering throwing it on there before I went to the station, but didn’t want to do anything that might piss off the cops right before asking them for help.

I talked to a few officers who were genuinely nice and seemed to want to help. I showed them the pictures, and they agreed that it was definitely my bike, and they were ready to help me out.  One of the officers who seemed to be in charge said that, at the very least, I should go put my lock on it also so that it doesn’t disappear. Bingo!   So they offered to take me over to the bike rack in a car that was heading out on patrol.

While we were waiting for the patrol car to show up, a bunch of officers, including the two that I was going to ride with, were looking at the pictures on my laptop and kind of commiserating with me.  I was explaining how I had kind of given up on it, that I had already ordered another bike, but that it was frustrating that it was locked up 4 blocks from my house and I couldn’t do anything about it.  One of the officers that I was going to ride with (we’ll call him Good Cop) was totally on board and was assuring me that we were going to figure it out.  But his partner (Bad Cop) wasn’t buying it.  Like the officer on the phone, all Bad Cop seemed to want to do was explain to me, over and over, the reasons why  my situation was not good.  I politely reminded him of the pictures I had showed him, and that it was 100% my bike.  He snapped back: he didn’t care if the picture looked *exactly* like the bike.

“There are a lot of cars out here that look exactly like my car.  That doesn’t mean that I can just go take one!”, says Bad Cop.

But I was nice and polite and patient — I completely understood my situation. I wasn’t trying to question him or his assessment of the situation. All I wanted to do was see if there was anything that could be done.  But at that point, my spirits were sinking.  The car arrived and we headed over.   It was my first time in the back of a police car — those things have no leg room whatsoever. On the way over, he continued to explain the hopelessness of my situation.  He seemed to be getting more and more hostile — not mean, just clearly less concerned about me and annoyed that I would have the audacity to put him through this.

We parked across the street from the bike rack and walked over.  The officers wanted to talk to the restaurant owners to see if any of their delivery guys had bought a bike recently.  I asked the officers if I should put my lock on the bike, as someone at the station had recommended.  Bad Cop said that was a terrible idea, and that he didn’t care if a police officer had suggested it because it “didn’t make any sense.”  I wondered what I had done to earn his total lack of Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect.

First up, the owner of the pizza place — no luck.  None of the delivery guys claimed the bike.  In fact, one of them said that the bike had been there for at least a week.  Apropos of nothing I said, Bad Cop was very skeptical and said again that the only proof that he would accept was a serial number, but that if it was still there in 2 weeks, I should come by and cut it loose, adding “but I didn’t tell you that.”  Good Cop asked to see the photo again, and pointed out that the pedals and grips didn’t match the bike on the rack.  I explained that I had the grips changed, but I didn’t know about the pedals.  This was too much for Good Cop.  He was no longer on my side and told me that the picture actually did more harm than good in terms of proving my ownership.

So the officers went into the Thai place next door.  While they were inside, the owner of the pizza place told me that I should just put my lock on the bike and come back later and cut off the old lock.

It was about 3pm at that point — apparently the delivery guy at the Thai place was due to arrive any minute.  But the officers were through with me.  They said they weren’t “going to wait around here in the cold,” but encouraged me to wait and confront the delivery guy when he arrived.  I asked them what I should say to this guy if/when he shows up.

“Just ask him if he bought the bike recently”.

And then what?

“If he says he has, call us.”

Bad Cop warned me against putting my lock on the bike or trying to cut it free myself (presumably unless I wait 2 weeks first), and they left.

I waited for about 10 minutes, realized it was ridiculous, and went home.

The End.

The Rockwell Group

Starting in  November, I worked for 6 weeks with the Interaction Lab at the Rockwell Group.  It was loads of fun, and great to work with such smart guys.  I went to Portugal and Bristol, UK to install a project for Timberland, and worked on a recently launched installation for Cosmopolitan Hotel.  I was kind of a hired gun on both of these projects, brought in at the end to help them meet their deadline, but I’m glad I got a chance to work with them and I hope to work with them in the future.

Flightphase

Back in July, I did some work with Karolina Sobecka (who I met at my Minneapolis Art on Wheels residency) and Jim George for Infinity.  Like Rockwell, I was just a kind of hired gun, but the project turned out really well, I think.  I mostly worked on hacking OpenTSPS (not-so-coincidentally developed by the Rockwell Lab), optimizing the people tracking to make the interaction smoother.  The project was built in openFrameworks.  Another group who I hope to work with again very soon.

The project was commissioned by Hush Studios.  There are some additional photos on Flickr.

Listings Project

Listings Project is a free weekly email of living and workspace for rent, sublet, swap, and sale focused around our arts community.

I signed up for the list a few years ago when I was looking for a place to live, and recently I was put in touch with Stephanie Diamond, who runs the list.  This was one of those situations where a little work on my part could save Stephanie a ton of work, so it just kind of made sense.  I have made the submission process database-driven, and we will continue to work on more improvements in the coming months.

Globes iPhone app

Marshall and Nora , aka Ligorano/Reese, are two great artists who I met while at Eyebeam. One of their projects is a set of snow globes that feature a single word, including all of the seven deadly sins, and a special “Fuck” globe.  I am working on making an iPhone version of the globes using openFrameworks, the Bullet physics engine, and a OBJ loader made by Bill Dudney.  It’s been a bit of a struggle, seeing as how I am still slightly above n00b level with OpenGL and I have never worked with loading OBJ files before — much less with the restrictions of OpenGLES — but I’ve just about got the flakes flying around like real snow inside the globe.  Stay tuned!

FlyingLotus
Almost a year ago, I started working on computer vision project for the musician Flying Lotus.  Originally, I was writing a server-side demon for matching submitted images.  In fact, it’s the same daemon that I used for the POP Magazine app.  But recently, I discovered some pretty amazing work by in-spirit.  Eugene used the Alchemy Project to compile a SURF algorithm into ActionScript, and the Apparat framework to optimize it, resulting in a totally real-time matching algorithm in ActionScript, ASSURF.  Using ASSURF, I was able to write a little Flash app wherein users could hold up albums, cds, and printed artwork, and “lock in” the matches at different angles. When you get the right combination, it triggers a download of a secret track or other special feature. It was supposed to launch in November, but it still hasn’t launched for some reason, so until then, here is a demo that I made for the Warp guys:

It will be very embarrassing if it fails again.

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157624931182725"]

http://eyebeam.org/events/unlogo-workshop

Please spread the word!

note: filtered videos are not watermarked. That would be pretty ridiculous, right?

I just launched the Unlogo kickstarter campaign.   Please be the first (or the next) to contribute!

Why do I need a kickstarter campaign?  As nice as it was to have Eyebeam pay my rent for the past 4 years, I’m out on my own now.  I’ve been working on this project pretty much full time for the past 2 months, and I’d like to continue working on it *and* not get kicked out of my apartment!  I know — it’s a lot to ask, but at this stage, it really requires full-time attention.  I’ve also been hiring programmers such as the wonderful Michael Schieben and Michael Droese.

“Source Companion” team, originally uploaded by jefftimesten.

Ayah, Aaron and I take a night off to have a drink at Cafe de Prague in Hamra. She described this as “a total hipster bar,” which is, of course, why she took us there.

Esse, Nosse, Posse

common wealth for common people

I wish I could take credit for putting this into some form at some point, but I honestly don’t remember.

Thank you and good day.

Oberlin, oh coordinates 41.2751, -82.1782

Reno, NV, Coordinates. 39°31′38″N 119°49′19″W (shot by Joe Delappe)

by Marina Zurkow

by Travis Janssen and Alex Lopez
37.726418°N, 89.22027°W (Carbondale, Illinois)

More after the break.

Lat: 51.43346414054374 Long: -0.5098342895507812

india, tamilnadu, trichy

Daytona Beach – 29° 11′ N 81° 3′ W

Chakdaha,INDIA – 23°05′N 88°31′E / 23.08°N 88.52°E

Latitude: 17.41 N Longitude: 78.56 E

RANAGHAT, INDIA ( 23°11′N 88°35′E / 23.18°N 88.58°E )

Gary is Coming