Add an eventdConstruct 2012 schedule
Friday 7th September 2012
-
Opening Remarks
by Jeremy Keith
-
The Flower, the Field, and the Stack
The interconnectedness of all things, or finding compassion in TCP/IP.
-
Cure for the Common Code
by Jenn Lukas
Breaking down the barriers of web publishing by embracing the rise of code education.
-
Beyond Mobile: Making Sense of a Post-PC World
by Scott Jenson
Native applications are a remnant of the Jurassic period of computer history. We will look back on these past 10 years as the time we finally grew out of our desktop mindset and started down the path of writing apps for an infinite number of platforms. As the cost of computation and connectivity plummets, manufacturers are going to put 'interactivity' into every device. Some of this will be trivial: my power adaptor knows it's charging history. Some of it will be control related: my television will be grand central for my smart home. But at it's heart, we'll be swimming in world where every device will have 'an app'. What will it take for us to get here, what technologies will it take to make this happen?
This talk will discuss how the principles of the open web must apply not only to prototocols but to hardware as well. How can we build a 'DNS for hardware' so the menagerie of devices has a chance for working together?
-
The Hacker's Guide to the Galaxy
Don't panic: the next big science revolution isn't just for asteroid miners or CERN scientists.
Just as science fiction has often shown the way to future inventions, the act of hacking is now generating prototypes that act as footholds for future explorations, discoveries and epiphanies in science. This presentation takes you on a tour of our universe (from black holes and dark matter to exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and shows you how you can actively explore the final frontier through getting excited and making things.
-
Pixels, Play and People
Seb is known for large scale installations and events that bring people together using technology, like his interactive digital fireworks, glowstick voting, and PixelPhones - a system that connects all the smart phones together, turning each member of the audience into a single pixel of a huge pulsating display.
Hardware and software is evolving so fast that creative coders can barely keep up, and we've just scratched the surface of what depth sensors, projectors and smart phones are capable of.
In this down to earth session, Seb will explore how technology can create huge interactive playful events and encourage a sense of community rather than everyone having a private experience with their own screens.
-
Imagined Futures
“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. Those who can’t imagine the future are doomed to fuck it up.”
Lauren Beukes explores how fiction is a model our brains run to explore other lives and possibilities, overcome issue fatigue and fire our cultural imagination.
-
The Save Button Ruined Everything: Backing Up Our Digital Heritage
by Jason Scott
Jason Scott is a man on a mission — save all the things.
But what does “save” mean in the modern world, in the waterfall of personal and private data, and where do we even begin? Turning on the history-o-matic, Jason provides a backdrop to our attempts to “save”, what has been done, and what we can do. The talk will be fast-paced and loud, like a hard drive at the end of its life.
-
Making Friends: On Toys and Toymaking
by Tom Armitage
Toys are not idle knick-knacks: they allow us to explore otherwise impossible terrain; fire the imagination; provide sparks for structured play. They do not just entertain and delight; they stimulate and inspire. And always, they remind us of the value - and values - to be found in abstract play.
Toymaking is not an idle habit. Toys are a fertile ground for creators to work in. They offer a playful space to experiment and explore. They are a safe ground to experiment with new techniques, skills, or ideas. Though they emerge from no particular purpose, they expose purpose and meaning through their making. Toymaking ranges from making realistic simulations of life to producing highly abstract playthings. And everyone who makes things - out of paper, wood, metal, plastic, or code - has something to gain from making them.
Trying to draw a thread through what, it turns out, has been a lifetime first shaped by toymaking, and then spent making toys in idle moments, Tom will take in (amongst other things) woodwork, Markov chains, state-machines and fiddle-sticks, to examine the values of toys and toymaking to 21st-century creators.
-
Admiral Shovel and the Toilet Roll
by James Burke
James Burke takes a quick look at the last two million years, and the next fifty, and concludes …the future isn’t what it used to be.
Schedule incomplete?
Filter by Day
- Friday 7th 10