Katy Beale

The Queen’s Colour Chat: a year of the her outfits. 29% blue, 13% floral, 11% green and so on… from @britishvogue

London CityDashboard http://citydashboard.org/london/ created by the @CASAUCL research lab, an interdisciplinary research centre dealing with digital technologies in geography, space & the built environment, at University College London.

The live data dashboard for the city pulls in TfL data, RSS feeds from BBC London news, geographical information from OpenStreetMap, weather data from Google, trends from Twitter, traffic cameras and water levels along the Thames. It also includes data from UCL’s radiation detector.

Based on a concept developed by Oliver O’Brien, Andrew Hudson-Smith and Richard Milton, here in CASA, developed and built by Duncan Smith and Oliver O’Brien.

via @purplesime

More mapping our worlds…

hackneyantics:

The Secret History of East London documents a shared history of Hackney and beyond, showing glimpses of previous lives, temporary spaces and urban landscapes. So far pinned are Manor Gardens Allotment, now bulldozed and underneath the Olympic Park, warehouse raves across the borough, art installations and pop-up restaurants.

Via Dazed Digital.

Why NYC is hosting a Hackathon #reinventnycgov. 10 reasons from @RachelSterne, Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York:

1. It will bridge sectors and connect the government and technology communities around a shared challenge.
2. It will encourage collaborative problem-solving and a more open government.
3. It will create a mechanism for the public to share feedback and ideas.
4. It can serve as a model for other governments, helping to affect national and international change.
5. It will introduce creative and innovative concepts that could help to evolve government to be more efficient and effective in serving and empowering citizens.
6. It will provide both individuals and teams with face-to-face access to governments decision makers.
7. It creates a precedent and platform for evolving government through open innovation and participation.
8. It will serve as the first step in a transparent design process.
9. It helps remove subjectivity from the design process by clearly showing what the public wants and needs.
10. It equips developers with the internal data they need to make user experience decisions.

Join in.

Via Mashable and Open NASA

The making of ‘turntable rider’: “the bike wheels become jog wheels.The handbrakes become sound pads. Mix and scratch at will.”

Free Network Foundation: the movement against a centralised Internet. VICE speaks to Isaac Wilder, the 21-year-old co-founder of the a non-profit, peer-to-peer communications initiative striving to liberate the global Internet from corporate and governmental interference.

via @motherboard.

World Class Brass: Kinetika Bloco recorded at Notting Hill Carnival 2011 by Nightjar for BBC Radio 2.

The Kinetika Bloco is a young group of brass, woodwind, percussion and steel pan players, plus amazing dancers. Young people can join them for their Spring or Summer Schools.

Radio 2 calls them a “unique new British Carnival sound with a decidedly London edge”. They draw their influences from the Caribbean, Brazil, West and Southern Africa, New Orleans jazz, Funk and Hip Hop.

They’ve performed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival, London Jazz Festival, Thames Festival, The South Bank and at the Unveiling of the Nelson Mandela Statue at Parliament Square. 

I used to work for Kinetika and ever time I hear the Bloco it sends shivers down my spine! They are absolutely amazing to see live.

Tree tents! @tentsile designed by architect and treehouse designer Alex Shirley-Smith. via @itsnicethat

“Technology should enable magic, not hinder it”: @shilo1221, creator of the Khoya storytelling ipad app.

.@hackneyhear launched in the itunes app store last week. Created with Amblr, the app triggers audio via GPS-location.

Hackney Hear: London Fields, allows the explorer to discover true stories of local residents, local celebrities and archive, along with new commissions from award-winning artists in the area and includes:
* Iain Sinclair unravels the layers of history in his beloved local park
* Performance poet Shane Solanki performs ‘the Lido’ at Hackney’s outdoor swimming pool
* Photographer Tom Hunter tells tales of the 1980s squatting scene
* Local residents tell the secrets behind their neighbourhood, from first kisses to gang etiquette

Shortlisted for TechCon Technical Innovation Award 2011

Supported by Arts Council England, Hackney Council and the Guardian

.@Flowmill : by @owlproject and @wna. A floating millhouse + waterwheel on the River Tyne, powering a series of mechanical musical instruments. Opens March 2012.

An ethereal,  floating cloud inside a gallery. ‘Nimbus’ is a new installation of Amsterdam-based artist Berndnaut Smilde in the HMK { HotelMariaKapel }, an artist residency programme in the Netherlands, with a presentation space in a 15th century chapel. He created the installation by ‘combining smoke, moisture and dramatic lighting’. Literature says, “Be on time, the experiment only lasts for a few minutes.” 

Via helloyoucreatives and Design Boom.

Hacking the urban experience: John Locke @gracefulspoon and his Department of Urban Betterment think people should read more. So John has created guerrilla libraries around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries.

In the style of Book Crossing, John hopes that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace them the next day with favorite books of their own. Of the two guerrilla libraries that the artist has fashioned, one is still intact, the other has had its contents and shelves repeatedly stolen.

via Atlantic Cities and Design Boom.

Makego by Chris O’Shea turns your iphone (and lego) into a toy vehicle - an ice cream truck, race car or river boat. Select your vehicle within Makego, then interact through animations and sound. Created with Open Frameworks.

Cryoscope haptic weather forecasting device that lets you *feel* the temp outside (perfect for those too lazy to open the door).

And for cynics, “…the best trick of the Cryoscope isn’t its ability to hit a perfect temperature, but its ability to hit the perfect perceived temperature. Due to the ‘cold’ nature of metal, the temperature is adjusted to match human perceptions of hot and cold,” writes inventor Robb Godshaw of Syyn Labs.

via @michaelshorter

Greek artist Petros Vrellis creates an interactive version Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, through the use of open source C++ toolkit openFrameworks. The painting’s brush strokes are animated and the user can temporarily play with and change the painting.

Creepy? Or er… seedy?

helloyoucreatives:

Seed faces from http://www.etsy.com/listing/84586371/25-seed-faces

The Biscuit Nativity “with the baby Jesus as an iced gem, and a pink wafer for Mary” says the Present&Correct blog. Other gorgeous highlights on their site include primary coloured wooden block dinner sets, how to make cut-out 70s nativity scenes and vintage graphics wrapping paper.

“Feed your kids The Arts” :: USA positioning culture as a nutritionally sound breakfast cereal.