Curated by Becky Koblick for Light and Wire Gallery
JULY 24 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2010In this project Ciocci and Crouse have redesigned Light and Wire Gallery’s characteristic website so that every time you visit a new page, a different layout or WordPress Theme is loaded behind the gallery’s usual content. Crouse’s code randomly loads 1 of 20 different Themes, while Ciocci has visually modified each one. Fundamentally, the WordPress theme system is a way to “skin” one’s website. Not only does this determine the look of the site but the WordPress themes can provide control over the presentation of the material on a website. As one clicks through each theme, this generic design platform that largely informs the aesthetics of the web is revealed for its amateur quality.

— DESCRIPTION FROM LIGHT & WIRE’S SITE

I wasn’t able to go to Miami, where it was used, but Jacob Milam took some videos and pictures.  A video of a runway show floats around the screen, following the users face, while the liquid simulation (thanks Memo! www.memo.tv/ofxmsafluid) in the background reacts to the users silhouette.

I’m now trying to figure out what I should release that would actually be useful for people.  I ended up making a kind of comprehensive ComputerVision class that does

1. smile detection
2. Face detection (using ofxCvHaarTracker)
3. optical flow (using ofxCvOpticalFlowPyrLK)
4. FERN detection
5. blob detection w/background subtraction

It’s all pretty well optimized, and easily configurable.  Of course, it can’t do all of these things at once — too much CV!  Eh – nothing special, but if you want it, it’s yours!

A prototype of a pair of covert stereoscopic video recording glasses I developed with Reggie

This residency would help me complete the first two steps, in which I will develop a series of performances with comedian and musician Reggie Watts utilizing projection, augmented reality and other computer vision techniques, speech-driven generative content, and a custom-made stereo vision device. The second step is a “summit” of comedians and programmers, the goal of which is to generate ideas around humor and software and start collaborations on new projects.

Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts does London

F_CK SH_T STACK

Reggie on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

[See post to watch Flash video]

Jeff Crouse

The World Series of ‘Tubing is a conceptual augmented reality game played in front of a live audience, combining the intensity of a high-stakes poker tournament with the world of sensational online video.

Invisible Threads is a mixed reality performance installation that explores the growing intersection between labor, emerging virtual economies and real life commodities through the creation of a designer jeans sweatshop in the metaverse Second Life.

Inside the Artist’s Studio is a radio program hosted by a robotic Chimpanzee named James Chimpton. Chimpton’s brain is powered by a markup language I created called ABSML, or A BullShit Markup Language. The result is rather absurd – a clothed robotic monkey, interviewing artists in the Biennial about their work, in a robotic english accent.

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 )

The project uses Mechanical Turk (mturk.com) to create your sexual fantasy. Mturk is an internet application that hires anonymous online workers to complete a set of tasks that are a few steps beyond automation – still requiring human intelligence. Workers get paid a small amount of money per task. Businesses list jobs and online workers get paid to fulfill the tasks requested.

For this first version of the project we want to find out how this global pool of anonymous workers interpret your sexual fantasy through image and video. You will be directed through a series of questions about your sexual preferences. It takes less than a minute. Your input will guide the workers as to what images and videos they should choose to represent your fantasy.

Once your input is submitted, it will be sent to MTurk. Through a division of labor, anonymous workers will interpret each one of your responses and search the internet for the image or video they feel best matches your response. When the job is complete your fantasy will be revealed. So why waste another minute – get started now!

It is used in a game called Slideshow Improv, where contestants must present the often-nonsensical but always hilarious generated slides as if they were part of a coherent presentation.

One of the manifestations of this research group for me personally is a class. Here is a rough draft of the course description.

Course Description

The premise of this class is that, like television, film, audio, and other traditional media, software can be a very effective medium for humor, which, in turn, can be a powerful tool for activism, editorial, and hilarious jokes. Beyond simply rendering our CG, hosting our Flash animations, or providing a target for nerd jokes, the computer can be exploited for its strengths (interactivity, procedurality, logic, networkability) to achieve the funny.

We will explore what makes good humor in traditional media by looking at several comedy styles such as absurdism, prop humor, sketch comedy, improv, and black comedy, with special attention to parody and satire.  We will also look at some software artists who have already struck software comedy gold, including Cory Archangel, Max Goldberg (“YTMND”), Ze Frank, and Evan Roth. We will apply the ideas of game theorists and other prominent software gurus such as Ian Bogost, Chris Crawford, and Tim Berners-Lee to the styles of comedians such as Tim and Eric, Andy Kaufman, Yakov Smirnov, Douglas Adams, Stephen Colbert, Mr. Show, the Wondershowzen team, and Eric Fensler to produce funny software.  The final independent projects will be shown at a New York comedy club.  All of the example code will be provided in openFrameworks, but you may also work in Processing or Flash.

Prerequisite: you must be experienced with either oF, Processing/Java, or ActionScript.

Learning objectives:

1. To attempt to define humor in the context of software
2. To answer the question: Are there such things as funny algorithms?
3. To explore tropes and mechanisms frequently used in software – not just games, but software art and plain old software – that can be used to achieve a humorous  effect
4. To invent the field of software comedy in the same way that there are comedy writers, actors, and even singers

Art Fag City critic and series participant Paddy Johnson calls it, “The most challenging IRL Internet competition of the decade.”

“Blurring distinctions between performer, audience, and participant, this work exposes and makes fun of network culture.”
- Brian McCormick on “World Series of ‘Tubing”

The World Series of ‘Tubing is a conceptual augmented reality game played in front of a live audience, combining the intensity of a high-stakes poker tournament with the world of sensational online video. The competition consists of two players trying to out-do each other by presenting a series of YouTube videos (rendered as an augmented reality layer on top of a real card) to an audience in a series of fast-paced rounds. The competitors can manipulate the playback of the video in a number of ways by tilting or gesturing with their card. The crowd decides which video/card wins by shooting a target on stage with a laser, and the process repeats until a player wins three rounds. During the game, commentators provide a running commentary on the game much like during a football or World Series of Poker game.

The World Series of ‘Tubing brings televised competitive sport and game show aesthetics into the realm of participatory theater, complete with live commentators and stellar motion graphics. The everyday action of “favoriting” online media is expanded into a participatory game show. By blurring the distinctions between performer, audience, and participant, it work builds upon the inherent qualities of shared culture as it exists online.

The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is … a crowdsourcing marketplace that enables computer programs to co-ordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks which computers are unable to do. Requesters, the human beings that write these programs, are able to pose tasks known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), such as choosing the best among several photographs of a storefront, writing product descriptions, or identifying performers on music CDs. Workers … can then browse among existing tasks and complete them for a monetary payment set by the Requester.via wikipedia

Crowded is an as-yet unreleased radio show/podcast that is made up of segments of audio recorded by Mechanical Turk workers.  Each episode has a mechanism, such as:

1. Workers listen to a series of songs, choose one that reminds them of an event in their life, and then tell that story.  The stories are then combined and played on top of the song that they chose.
2. Workers are encouraged to call me and have an argument about a topic I give them.  I edit myself out, leaving only one side of the argument.
3. Workers are asked to call and tell a story/reminisce about something that never actually happened to them.
4. Workers are provided with a conference call line and a character to play.  Two or more workers call in and have to play their character.

The workers call in and are given, on average, $5-$8 to send an audio recording that fits the mechanism.  They are given the option of calling a US phone number and leaving a message, or recording themselves on HoundBite or YouTube.

After doing several projects using crowdsourcing, I wanted to do a project that was about the faceless people who are doing these tasks.  Who are they?  Where do they come from?  Why do they do these jobs?

You could argue that I am still just using them and not really humanizing them so much as exploiting their willingness to tell personal stories for a few bucks.  But you can argue a lot of things.

Inspired by distributed computing projects such as Folding@Home and SETI@Home, Praying@Home is the name given to a suite of technologies developed by The Institute for Faith-Based Technology, or InFaBat™, innovators in the field of technologically-aided spirituality.  The first development is the PrayerRecorder™ – a USB device that plugs into any PC and allows the user to capture her unique Prayer Signature®, an ultra-frequentic resonance that is “broadcasted” by the human body while praying.  The user simply attaches the InFaBat Senso-Cap to her temples and forehead, presses a small InFaBat Prayer Paddle™ between her hands, and prays on a particular subject.  Meanwhile, the PrayerRecorder captures and records the PrayerSignature to the users’ hard drive.  Then, using the InFaBat PrayerBroadcaster™, we can broadcast her Prayer Signature, somewhat like an FM radio station that only God can hear!  Unlike humans, who need to take breaks from praying to fulfill biological needs, computers need no breaks, resulting in 24/7 prayer output.  Additionally, the PrayerBroadcaster unit is equipped with a SPU (Standard Prayer Unit) Amplifier, which increases the strength of your prayers by up to 54%.  These technologies truly represent a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of Digital Prayer Technology.

Our display at the Expo consists of a small, tastefully decorated booth – 8 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 8 feet tall, containing a solid white prayer bench facing a white computer screen on a white altar and hundreds of pure white candles: a mix between a confessional and a blood-giving station. An attendant in a white lab coat and a priest’s shirt and collar stands by to help users. Choral music plays from speakers positioned in the far corners of the booth.  Adorning the proscenium of the booth is a large glowing sign that displays the number of Standard Prayer Units (SPUs) that we have collected over the course of the Expo. Our goal for the Eyebeam Mixer Expo is to collect 375,000 SPUs, focused on a variety of urgent problems faced by the world today. Above the SPU meter is a glowing sign with the words “Institute for Faith-Based Technology: Come Experience The Amazing New Digital Prayer Enhancement Technology”.  Atop the booth sits an InFaBat PrayerBroadcaster, which looks a lot like a large set of rabbit ears.  Inside, the both is adorned with religious symbols and imagery.  On the prayer bench is the InFaBat PrayerRecorder with the InFaBat  PrayerPaddle and InFaBat Sens-o-cap.

Visitors are invited to come into the booth and kneel down on our prayer bench facing the computer screen.  A soothing voice leads the user through the initial setup process, explaining how to put on the InFaBat Senso-Cap and position the InFaBat PrayerPaddle properly.  The voice will explain that in order to get a perfectly pure PrayerSignature, un-Christian thoughts must be kept at bay because they can disturb the prayer recording process. The voice will suggest that the user get all un-Christian thourhgs out of their system before starting the recording process.  The voice will then go through a brief explanation of how the technology works, and instruct the user to start praying. Meanwhile, the InFaBat PrayerRecorder senses and records the peaks and valleys of the users Prayer Signature as they whiz by on the screen on the altar.  If, at any time during the process, an un-Christian thought is sensed, an alarm sounds and red lights flash, and the user must start over.  On average, this happens to 1 out of every 3 users.

Once recorded, the Prayer Signature and a 2-frame animated snapshot of the user are uploaded to our InFaBat Worldwide Prayer Visualizer. The visualizer is displayed in the form of a large projection above the prayer booth. Participants who have contributed their Prayer Signature are represented inside the visualization by a bubble-like avatar featuring their animated snapshot and prayer signature. The avatars float in a sparkling stew of ephemeral prayer-related iconography. As their prayer is digitally replicated in the InFaBat Mainframe, participants will be treated to dazzling animations of the SPU’s emanating from their avatars and then projected into the heavens.

When the user is done, they are given a readout of their Signature, a sticker to tell the world that they contributed their Prayer Signature to a good cause, and a pamphlet will be available that describes the technology behind the system and give users information about how they can purchase the Praying@Home PE system and optimize their prayer output by using unused computing cycles on their home PC.

Why?

Praying@Home is a parody of Christianity’s attempt to validate itself in the scientific academy, as seen in “scientific” studies about the effectiveness of prayer, creationism, intelligent design, and faith healing.  Our fictitious group – The Institute for Faith-Based Technology – claims to be interested in finding a link between technology and faith, seeming not to notice that their attempts undermine the very idea of faith – namely that it doesn’t care about evidence.  They believe that praying is a purely mechanical task and should be dealt with like any other task that is such a waste of human effort – by mechanizing it.  In so doing, not only do we save time, but we take advantage of the added efficiency, tirelessness, and networkability of computers to multiply the worlds prayer output infinitely, thus solving all of the worlds problems and creating a utopia on Earth.

The Institute will invite visitors to try out their PrayerRecorder and PrayerBroadcaster technology at the Expo in an attempt to get them to buy the home version.  As a marketing scheme, the Institute has announced that they will try to collect 375,000 “Beckells“, or “Standard Prayer Units” (discovered by Fredrick Beckell in the 1970s) during the Expo.  Each user who volunteers to kneel down in the booth and use the PrayerRecorder contributes a varying number of Beckells depending on the purity of their thought and the strength of their unique Prayer Signature.

The Institute also displays a not-so-subtle favoritism towards Christianity, simply assuming that the Christian God is the “correct” god to pray to, while also imposing their on values on the users by warning them against thinking any un-Christian thoughts while operating the PrayerRecorder.  This very dystopic attitude betrays the fact that the illusion of utopia often hides a darker truth.

In society today, criticizing a persons religion is often seen as un-PC at least, and completely taboo at worst.  Religion is given special privileges in most areas of public life, from politics to casual conversation, where other beliefs, like non-religious pacifism, are not protected by the law.  People treat religion as if it is something immutable, like race or sex, rather than as a choice that a person makes for themselves.  Through this parody, we hope to open a debate that is often enthusiastically avoided by forcefully insisting that religion should be open to criticism just like any other belief.

When installed properly, GodBlock will test each page that your child visits before it is loaded, looking for passages from holy texts, names of religious figures, and other signs of religious propaganda. If none are found, then your child is allowed to browse freely.  But if religious content is found, your child receives a page that states simply:

Blocked for religious content.

“Please refrain from devoting your life to imaginary supernatural beings until you are at least 18 years old.”

No filter is perfect, and false positives are an unfortunate reality.  But isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?  Make the world a better place.  Protect your impressionable kids and students from harmful ideas so that they don’t grow up to spread hate, fear, and shame.  Allow them to hold onto their natural reason, compassion, and acceptance without being polluted or destroyed by some self-serving or delusional fanatic.

Install GodBlock today!

For the past year, we have been developing the Ecosystem Engine in openFrameworks, although I am once again looking at Ogre3D and a few other engines as a good foundation for Ecosystem.

Another team of volunteers (again, recruited from the communities mentioned above) would write documentation about the process of creating animations for the Ecosystem Engine and creating a website where it will be available for download for all major platforms.  Our hope is that we can eventually attract animators to use Ecosystem and showcase other artists’ projects on the site.

In 2007, I was a finalist for a Rhizome grant for the project. Check out the proposal here.

The Finger Olympics started out as an idea tossed around at Eyebeam between Friedrich Kirschner and Zach Lieberman, and eventually turned into a playable computer vision project.

For more information, go to fingerolympics.com

ABSML is a markup language that is used in a variety of problems incluing Inside the Artists Studio, Befriend a Recruiter and MadLibs Karaoke, and the winner of a 2008 Turbulence grant.

Here is an example of what some ABSML code looks like:

<sentence id="q-art-14" >Have you considered <pickone>creating, making</pickone> <pickone>more, less</pickone> <library>modifier</library> <library plural="true"><get>medium</get>_outcome</library>?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-15">You had an exhibition at <organization><source><get>website</get></source></organization>. Some say this was a turning point in your career. <pickone>Do you agree?, but I have my doubts, I'm curious what you think.</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-16">Do you ever <pickone>wonder if this is all, wonder if this could be considered </pickone> all just a big shaam?  and - why do you think so?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-17">Tell <pickone>me, our listeners</pickone> about your exhibition last year at <organization><source><get>website</get></source></organization>.</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-17"><pickone>I will let Alfred know., Alfred sometimes makes mistakes., I will speak to Alfred about this.</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-18"><pickone>My youngest son - Alfred, Alfred- my youngest son</pickone> <pickone>is a fan of, enjoys </pickone> <pickone>your earlier work, early work, the work from the beginning of your career </pickone> in <city><source><get>website</get></source></city> <pickone>personally I am not a fan - however, but he is young and has childish tastes </pickone> - <pickone>for the benefit of our listeners, for the radio audience</pickone> <pickone>please tell us, do tell us</pickone> <pickone>about, of </pickone> your early career.</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-19"><pickone>Tell me more about, Let us discuss, Let us return to </pickone> your relationship to <city><source><get>website</get></source></city>, <pickone>which, which I must say </pickone> <pickone>is one of my favorite cities, holds a special place in my heart, is near and dear to me.</pickone>.  How do you feel about it?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-20">What about your <pickone>most recent, latest</pickone> <library plural="false"><get>medium</get>_outcome</library>?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-21" >But is that really art?<pickone> or something else entirely?, or a <library>modifier</library> fantasy?</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-22" >Tell me about your teaching practice at <organization with="University, College, Academy, Institute, school"><source striptags="true"><get>wesbite</get></source></organization>.</sentence>

See the roadshow site for more information.

Delete City uses the ridiculous storage allotment of web hosting services like Dreamhost to cache large amounts of user generated content from sites like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc. and then monitors to see if any of this content is subsequently taken down. When it finds removed content, it automatically posts the content to your WordPress blog. The nature of the content can be customized by the user by site, keyword, and other criteria. Devious? Maybe. But also one step in the fight against censorship.

The DeleteCity plugin is currently in development and should be released in November.

I ended helping Andrew Mahon with his project, “Digitally Fit”.  You can read more about it on Andrew’s site.

2632201710_62190df13f_o digitally_fit_person digitallyfit_header1

While I was a production fellow at Eyebeam, we worked with the artist and geographer, Trevor Paglen, on an exhibit called “The Other Night Sky.” I took part in the initial planning and worked on some of the data parsing.

Download the exhibition brochure (PDF).

With Chimpton (and ABSML), I once again returned to the theme of generative text. The operator (or “puppeteer”, as we called them) would enter into the software the interviewee’s name, website, and medium, and based on that information, a set of interview questions would be generated. The puppeteer would then use the software interface to trigger the questions.

After the break, I have posted all of the Chimpton interviews, courtesy of Neighborhood Public Radio

Joe Delappe
Michael Triglilio
unknown
Lewis Schwadron
Julian McCullough
Joan Wasser
Stephanie Diamond
Steve Lambert
Friedrich Kirschner
D Lanzilotta
Sara Cook
Mazeav Marsha
Julia Schwadron
unknown

chimpton 2319915858_3f3f6524ca 2319915966_1a42f96054 2204716607_da1ec30535_b 2296486655_47b08be219_o 2318389665_aa11402e09_b 2360528556_5573a8f464_o 2360528858_fba6757298_o 2675650061_5acd3c978f_b

With the creation of BoozBot, Eyebeam Fellows David Jimison and Jeff Crouse have now added the bartending robot to that list of creative roles for automatons. The birth of BoozBot opens a fresh chapter at the intersection of technology, human interaction, and the science of personality. BoozBot converses with the wit and wisdom of your favorite corner barkeep, pouring drinks, monitoring sobriety, and engaging patrons one-on-one.

My role in the creation of BoozBot was to write the software that controls him. I also did a bit of the building.

2611974996_e5b4e7e1cd_o 2564440163_5b50ca6949_b 2564441325_fc69f286ee_b 2564447839_61155d908a_b 2565262764_1cc113ce5e_b 2565274462_9ec0d84214_b boozbotsquare

The first Dirt Party took place at the Eyebeam 10th Anniversary Benefit, where the output was a series of dynamically generated tabloid covers.

For more pictures from the installation, check out the page on the Digital Situations site.

awbh awbh_melissa awbh

Gearbox is the outcome of twelve-months development work between the MediaShed and Eyebeam Art and Technology Centre in New York, to create a resource for low-budget filmmaking. Comprised of “how to” step by step examples, Gearbox shows people innovative ways of recording footage using unusual combinations of found resources (such as CCTV Video Sniffin’ or Spy Kiting) and low-budget methods of reproducing professional film making techniques (for example, achieving a crane shot using a fishing pole).

Delete City is a WordPress plug-in that operates in the background of your personal blog. Every day, the plug-in conducts searches on sites like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc. and automatically downloads large amounts of content. With companies like Dreamhost and Bluehost offering ridiculuous amounts of storage space to lure in new users, a growing percentage of people with blogs have more storage than they could ever use, which is perfect for DeleteCity. These searches can be customized to download the kind of content that you want. For instance, if you are interested in puppies, then DeleteCity will only download movies and photos about puppies. Right now, we are focusing on movies and photos, but in the future we might extend the plug-ins to include PDFs, MP3s, and more.

This video used to live on YouTube. But not any more!

After the content has been downloaded, the plug-in returns to the site where the content was found at a set interval to see if the content was removed or taken down by the administrators. This is a very frequent occurrence on sites like YouTube. There are many reasons why content could be taken down, from large-scale government censorship, to companies like NBC trying to protect their property, to the author simply deciding that they don’t want the content online any more. For instance, try to watch this video of the Alexyss K. Tylor show, Penis Power. I’m not sure why this particular clip was taken down, but it very well could have been because Alexyss herself complained, or simply because it was flagged as inappropriate by enough users.

When the plug-in finds that a piece of content has been removed, it automatically retrieves it from the cache that was previously downloaded and posts it to your WordPress blog. It then emails the author and invites them to come to your blog and comment on why the content was taken down.

This site was inspired by sites like YouTomb and DelTube (which seems to have been taken down). In fact, you could say that DeleteCity is simply a way for anyone to have their own customized YouTomb or DelTube. The fact that DelTube is down perfectly illustrates why DeleteCity is needed. Large companies can take down single sites relatively easily. But once something is decentralized and hundreds or thousands of people all over the world are running a caching program, it is much harder to take something down from the web.

Production Timeline and Project Budget

DeleteCity is nearly complete, but needs some serious user testing and web design. I would like to pay 5 testers $500 each to test the site for 1 month and report any bugs to our GoogleCode site. I would also like to hire a web designer to create an attractive site for the plug-in. I estimate that this would cost $1500. That comes to a total of $4,000.

The plug-in will be ready for testing in July. At that point, I would distribute it to the 5 beta testers for their 1 month trial. At the end of this trial, we would need another 2 months to work on bugs.

Meanwhile, my designer will be preparing the site. The final version of the plug-in will launch in September, 2010.

/**
*	Represents one Craigslist page.
*	Can either be a page of results or a single listing page.
*/
class Craigslist extends PlacemarkSource {

private $url;

private $type;

const url_pattern = "/craigslist/i";

private $regexes = array(
/**
*	This should match the URL of any single Craigslist listing page.
*	They will look like
*	http://montreal.craigslist.org/sub/298262212.html
*	http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sys/299139631.html
*/
'single_listing_url' => "/craigslist\.[a-z]{2,3}\/(.+).html/i",

/**
*	This should match the URL of any page with multiple Craigslist pages
*	These pages may look like :
*	http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/bik/brk?query=&minAsk=min&maxAsk=200&hasPic=1
*	OR
*	http://montreal.craigslist.org/sub/
*	http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/bik/
*	BUT NOT
*	http://montreal.craigslist.org/sub/298262212.html
*	http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/sys/299139631.html
*/
'multiple_listing_page_url' => "/craigslist\.[a-z]{2,3}/i",

/**
*	This should match the URL of any Craigslist listing feed.
*	These pages should looke like:
*	http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/apa/index.rss
*	http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=&minAsk=&maxAsk=200&bedrooms=&addTwo=purrr&addThree=wooof&hasPic=1&format=rss
*/
'feed_url' => "/craigslist\.[a-z]{2,3}\/(.+)(index\.|format=)?(rss)/i",

/**
*	This Regex should match 1) URLs of listing pages 2) Titles of listings
*/
'get_listings' => "/<p>(.*?)<a href=\"(.*?)\">(.*?)<\/a><font size=\"-1\"> \((.*?)\)<\/font>(.*?)?<\/p>/i",

/**
*	In the pages of most Craigslist listings, the city that you are exploring is in a link at the top.
*	<a href="http://philadelphia.craigslist.org">philadelphia craigslist</a>
*	or
*	<a href="/"> new york craigslist</a>
*/
'city_in_title' => "/<a href=\"(.+)?\">(.*?) craigslist<\/a>/i"
);

/*
*	The constructor for a Craigslist listing.
*	Most times, if you are parsing an entire page of listings, you will know the city
*	for every posting and the title along with the url before you construct them.  So if you
*	provide them, the constructor will go faster.
*/
function Craigslist($_url, $limit=null) {

$this->url = $_url;
$this->limit = $limit;

// First we will figure out what kind of page we are dealing with.
if(preg_match($this->regexes['single_listing_url'], $this->url)) {

$this->type = "single"; // an actual listing page.

} else if(preg_match($this->regexes['feed_url'], $this->url)) {

$this->type = "feed";	// A feed of listings

} else if(preg_match($this->regexes['multiple_listing_page_url'], $this->url)) {

$this->type = "multiple";  //  a search results or browse page

}
}

/**
*	Takes a relative URL from the current page and turns it into a full URL.
*/
function unrelativize($relative_url) {
$u = parse_url($this->url);
if(substr($relative_url, 0, 1) == '/') {
return "http://".$u['host'].$relative_url;
} else {
return "http://".$u['host'].dirname($u['path']).$relative_url;
}
}

/*
function parsePlacemarks() {
foreach($this->placemarks as $p) {
$p->parse();
}
}
*/

function getPlacemarks() {

switch($this->type) {

// It is a single listing, so just parse the current page.
case 'single':
$this->placemarks[] = new CraigsListing($this->url);
break;

// If if is a page of many listings, get all of the URLs.
case 'multiple':
$content = HttpClient::quickGet($this->url);

// The city appears in a link at the top.
preg_match($this->regexes['city_in_title'], $content, $matches);
$city = $matches[2];

//assert('$city!=null');

preg_match_all($this->regexes['get_listings'], $content, $matches);
$listing_urls = $matches[2];
$titles = $matches[3];
$locations = $matches[4];

foreach(array_keys($listing_urls) as $i) {
$listing_urls[$i] = $this->unrelativize($listing_urls[$i]);
}

if(count($listing_urls) == 0) {
trigger_error("Earthify couldn't find any listings on the page you provided.");
}

// Loop through all of the matches and make placemarks from them.
$max = isset($this->limit)
? min(count($listing_urls), $this->limit)
: count($listing_urls);

for($i=0; $i<$max; $i++) {
// Check to make sure the link exists first
if(HttpClient::url_exists($listing_urls[$i])) {
$listing = new CraigsListing($listing_urls[$i]);
$listing->setTitle($titles[$i]);
$listing->setCity($city);
$this->placemarks[] = $listing;
} else {
trigger_error("{$listing_urls[$i]} returned a 200 or 302 status, which means that it doesn't exist.", E_USER_WARNING);
}
}
break;

// If this is the RSS feed from a particular kind Craigslist page, just parse the RSS
case 'feed':
$content = HttpClient::quickGet($this->url);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($content);

// The city name appears in the channel title.
preg_match("/<title>craigslist \| (.*?) in (.+)<\/title>/", $content, $matches);
$city = $matches[2];

//assert('$city!=null');

// Loop through all of the matches and make placemarks from them.
$max = isset($this->limit)
? min(count($xml->item), $this->limit)
: count($xml->item);

for($i=0; $i<$max; $i++) {

$link =  (string)$xml->item[$i]->link;

// Check to make sure the URL exists first.
if(HttpClient::url_exists($link)) {
$listing = new CraigsListing($link);
$listing->title = (string)$xml->item[$i]->title;
$listing->city = $city;
$this->placemarks[] = $listing;
} else {
trigger_error("{$listing_urls[$i]} returned a 200 or 302 status, which means that it doesn't exist.", E_USER_WARNING);
}
}
break;
}

return $this->placemarks;
} // end getPlacemarks()
}

/**************************
*
*	Serializer.php
*	Turns an array of Placemark objects into an Earthify KML script.
*
*	Written by Jeff Crouse at Eyebeam
*	February 8, 2007
*
***************************/
class KMLSerializer {

public static function serialize($placemarks) {

// Create the XML document and the root tag (kml)
$dom = new DomDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
$root = $dom->createElement("kml");
$dom->appendChild($root);

// Create the Document tag
$doc = $dom->createElement("Document");
$root->appendChild($doc);

// Add a Earthify tag to the document tag.
$doc->appendChild($dom->createElement("name", "Earthify"));

// Make two folders within the document.  One for locatable items, one for lost ones
$found = $dom->createElement('Folder');
$found->appendChild($dom->createElement("name", "Earthifyable Listings"));
$doc->appendChild($found);

$lost = $dom->createElement('Folder');
$lost->appendChild($dom->createElement("name", "Un-Earthifyable Listings"));
$lost->appendChild($dom->createElement("description", "Items whose coordinates could not be geocoded."));
$doc->appendChild($lost);

// Loop through all of the listings and add them to the document.
foreach($placemarks as $placemark) {
if($placemark instanceof Placemark) {

// Make the placemark tag in which all of this shit will go.
$placemark_dom = $dom->createElement("Placemark");
$placemark_dom->setAttribute("id", $placemark->getId());

// Make the name tag for the Placemark
$name = $dom->createElement("name", htmlspecialchars($placemark->getTitle()));
$placemark_dom->appendChild($name);

// Make the description tag for the placemark.
$description = $dom->createElement("description");
$cdata = $dom->createCDATASection($placemark->description());
$description->appendChild( $cdata );
$placemark_dom->appendChild($description);

// If we can't find any coordinates, add this item to the "lost" folder.
if($placemark->getCoords()) {
// Make the Point element for the placemark
$point = $dom->createElement("Point");
$coords = $dom->createElement("coordinates", $placemark->getCoords());
$point->appendChild($coords);
$placemark_dom->appendChild($point);

// Add the placemark to the "Found" folder
$found->appendChild($placemark_dom);
} else {
$lost->appendChild($placemark_dom);

}
} else {
trigger_error("KMLSerializer received something that wasn't a Placemark.", E_WARNING);
}
}

return $dom->saveXML();
}

This document is the written portion of my MS defense at Georgia Tech. It is a survey of artworks that use live information sources, and a study of how emerging web technologies can encourage this type of art. Finally, it proposes Switchboard, my library for real-time art, and discusses the design and implementation of it.

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