Designing for Experience

Designing for Experience

For just about anyone working on a PhD (at least outside Science), the core of your research is a moving target. The ever-shifting ‘research question’ is frustratingly elusive, and despite beginning the process with what you feel is a pretty clear field of study in 

Dorkbot at COFA

Dorkbot at COFA

As part of a push to have more people doing interesting and way cool stuff at COFA, Dorkbot will be kicking off the 2014 season of ‘people doing strange things with electricity’ next week. If you’re not familiar with Dorkbot, it’s a worldwide memetic event, 

Discipline(s)

Discipline(s)

Recently I was given a bit of a hiding at my PhD Annual Review for not being clear about where my ‘contribution to knowledge’ is situated. For the majority of people who sensibly have no interest in postgraduate study; a PhD is essentially the creation 

If A System Fails In A Forest…

If A System Fails In A Forest…

I was asked at the beginning of the year to curate a show at 107 Projects in Redfern. I knew that ISEA2013 was on the near horizon in Sydney (I’m speaking at the conference, and will bore you with those details separately) and thought it 

The Code Barrier

The Code Barrier

Bret Victor has become a little bit of a hero for me. Previously an interface designer at Apple, it seems that Victor was successful at the tech giant, but realised that his vision and theirs didn’t quite fit together and he left in 2010. He’s 

Confirmed

Confirmed

This is probably the longest break between posts I’ve ever had on this site. But here’s why: Distilling the last 12 months of wildly tangental and strictly (self-imposed) literary research into something resembling a clear direction for the next 2-3 years in just 7500 words 

fastBREAK Cure

fastBREAK Cure

Last month I was asked to present at the fastBREAK event, put together by Vibewire at the Powerhouse Museum on the last Friday of each month. Each fastBREAK is built around a single topic and asks a group of speakers to present their own thoughts 

WordPress, CSS Hacking and The Admin Username

WordPress, CSS Hacking and The Admin Username

I’m posting this purely because I hope it will help someone else with a similar problem. I’d searched high and low online for a solution to a WordPress hacking problem I’d had for the past month or so, and it took a while to piece 

Methods of Research

Methods of Research

From what I’m told, this is one of the most difficult stages of PhD study: the literary review. The bounds of knowledge, whilst not infinite, are most definitely not discoverable; the more you seek, the more you realise is out there, waiting like a kraken 

This Is Not A PhD Proposal

This Is Not A PhD Proposal

…though I’m not sure what it is. It’s the beginning of an idea; one that I need to start speaking out loud before I either forget it, or it’s entirely drowned out by the snowballing, tangental research I’m doing at the moment in an attempt 

Plate VI-3

Plate VI-3

Following on from my last post, I recreated a couple more of Josef Albers‘ colour plates from Interaction of Colour. The following Processing sketches give the illusion that they are made up of just two colours. Clicking either will show that the overlaid shapes are 

Response: Who’s Afraid of Artistic Research?

Response: Who’s Afraid of Artistic Research?

I think it’s worth my time responding to some of the papers I’m reading at the moment. Not that they particularly need responding to because of any inaccuracies or points of contention, but I’m hoping that it might help to solidify my own position as 

IODA and Copyright on YouTube

IODA and Copyright on YouTube

In 2010, the Finders Keepers markets asked us (Eli Murray, Lukasz Karluk and myself) to create a promotional video of sorts for their talk at Creative Sydney. We used a segment of Eli’s music (otherwise known as Gentleforce) for the clip and I posted it 

Open Education Week

Open Education Week

Not much time for a full-length rant today: I’ve got to come up with an ingenious way to teach the kiddies about variables tonight. Big concept for those starting out with code, and a very important one. Something that popped up on my Twitter feed that I 

The Subjectivity of Data

The Subjectivity of Data

One of the best things about doing a PhD is being able to ‘audit’ classes. This means I can participate in just about any subject I wish, but I’m not bound to complete assessments and the like. Talk about bi-winning. One of the classes I’m 

Why Code?

Why Code?

One of the members of the Sydney Awesome Foundation, (the awesome) Steve Hopkins, has come up with the idea of blogging every day in March to try and get some creative juices flowing. My posting here has been lagging a little, though I’m not sure that 

twitterSpeak v0.2

twitterSpeak v0.2

Today I attempted an update to the twitterSpeak patch I created for MaxForLive a while back. Not entirely sure why I picked it up again, but Max is quite excellent at being a vortex that sucks in a good part of your day until you 

Share Sydney 2012

Share Sydney 2012

Some exciting news for those that came along to Share last year (and those that weren’t able to be there!): Share Sydney will be back in 2012, as an ongoing regular event at Serial Space in Chippendale. Starting in March, Share Sydney will be held 

Recording Eye Contact

Recording Eye Contact

I had an informal meeting today with a neuroscientist who looks at (amongst other things) brain development in people with autism. This is the second of these types of meetings I’ve had thus far; trying to find out where my PhD research will sit in 

The Land That Journalism Forgot

The Land That Journalism Forgot

I’m not upset – not even surprised, just disappointed. Daily Telegraph, you should try harder. I know your friends are all scraping the bottom of the barrel, making up headlines and sensationalising all but the driest of “news” just to sell advertising space, but it