Everyday, a lot of spam inevitably arrives to our mailboxes, forcing us to lose time in discerning fake emails from good ones, so everyone agrees on saying that spam is frustrating and completely useless.

This is almost true, since Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet Sola have taken advantage of spam coming from the Internet (more specifically, those messages “donated” by Eindhoven people) to make a very creative art project: first, they have recycled spam to algoritmically create poetry and, then, they have sent the result to a properly Arduino-hacked knitting machine (Arduino has been used to emulate the typing of the commands required to load the pattern).

From the authors:

Concerning the concept, we are interested in bringing together digital culture and traditional handicraft. To be more specific, the idea is to experiment with the form and meaning of SPAM. We turn SPAM into a romantic, funny or even sarcastic poetry and present it in unusual tangible form as knitted garment. To be more specific, we call final result dysfunctional wearable, because it reminds a sweater but is not really a one. Like SPAM, our dysfunctional wearable does not have a purpose.

The result is really impressive and it has been presented at two exhibitions, at Eindhoven and Malmö. Several pictures of the events can be found here. More information about the project can be found at Mar and Varvara‘s homepages.

[Via: Mar's Homepage and Varvara's Homepage]

The end of the semester at ITP always brings interesting projects I haven’t yet seen, which is one of the things that makes working there so much fun. I am a sucker for good lighting projects, and this year’s class featured some really nice ones. Here are a few from this spring’s crop:

Avery Max’ Neon God is a giant El-wire mirror driven by two Arduino Unos. Here’s a prototype video, and here’s Avery with the final wall. If you like rainbow sparkle psychedelia, you’re gonna love Avery’s work in general.

Avery Max with Neon God

Sukmo Koo’s Hand in Hand is a lamp that requires friends to join hands in order to light up. In his final presentation at ITP, Koo managed to get the entire room, and his thesis advisor, all joining hands:

Sukmo Koo's Hand in Hand

Geetha Padapati’s Sunlight as Mediated By an Object is a lightbox driven by a camera focused on the sky above her apartment. UUsing Adafruit’s LDP8806 RGB Lightstrip and an Arduino, she created a beautiful abstraction of the subtle changes in skylight.

Sunlight As Mediated by an Object (images courtesy Geetha Padapati)

Emily Webster’s Cellar Door seeks to liven up the ubiquitous sidewalk cellar doors of Manhattan by lighting them from within. Force sensors beneath a sheet of structural plexiglas are tied to an Arduino that controls the halogen lights that light up the entrance and allow pedestrians to stroll over and peek inside.

Emily Webster's Cellar Door lights up the sidewalk (image courtesy Emily Webster)

The lighting project are only a tiny portion of the great work students did this semester; I’ll hopefully post about a few others in the coming days. Meantime, if you want to see them all, check out the ITP Spring Show 2012 site.

Il roBOt festival, giunto quest’anno alla sua quinta edizione, è un evento di carattere internazionale, promosso dall’Associazione Culturale Shape (e realizzato con il sostegno della Regione Emilia Romagna e del Comune di Bologna), il cui obiettivo è quello di mostrare “sul campo” lo stato dell’arte creativo, applicato ad ambiti quali l’arte, la sperimentazione e l’intrattenimento.

roBOt è terra d’elezione per chiunque metta in campo fortissimamente se stesso affrontando con spirito pioneristico ed innovatore le nuove arti contemporanee, quelle in grado di interagire con la tecnologia.

Il tema centrale di quest’anno riguarda “Il linguaggio del futuro”:

La moltitudine di sistemi non verbali e multimediali che rendono possibile lo scambio di informazioni, quindi la competenza comunicativa, di ogni singola entità all’interno della rete globale interconnessa.

Il roBOt festival è in cerca di nuove produzioni relative a installazioni, video, animazioni, performance, fotografia, design e autoproduzioni. Maggiori dettagli, così come il regolamento per la partecipazione alla selezione, possono essere trovati qui.

La deadline per la partecipazione è fissata per il 24 Giugno 2012.

[Via: roBOt festival]

Per il secondo anno Discienza organizza l’Arduino Day, un giorno di incontri e scambio su progetti, pratiche, e smanettamenti vari fatti con Arduino. Alle 17:00 il nostro speech mostrerà alcuni prodotti e progetti su cui Arduino sta lavorando.

Arduino Day 2012 è una giornata dedicata a Arduino e alla community dei suoi utilizzatori, un evento in cui verranno presentate le novità
2012 più importanti del settore, e dove un grande open space raccoglierà i migliori progetti di appassionati e professionisti.
Nella sezione dedicata alle scuole e alla didattica sarà possibile richiedere informazioni per l’attivazione di corsi di formazione su Arduino.
La mattina sarà aperta con una conferenza dedicata a studenti e docenti per discutere insieme dei progetti di didattica della robotica e stimolare un confronto attivo.
Per tutta la giornata sarà attivo uno spazio aperto con esposizione libera di una selezione di progetti di istituti e appassionati e nel contempo sarà
possibile assistere ad una serie di Mini, brevi speech di circa 15 minuti in cui verranno presentati alcuni progetti Arduino based

prenota e partecipa, e porta a vedere il tuo progetto!

BetterNouveau is organizing a promising workshop about circuit milling with Roland iModela in Turin. Massimo is going to walk you around milling your own shield.

[...] you’ll learn to design and create your very own Arduino shield (‘shields’ are boards that can be plugged on top of the Arduino extending its capabilities). We’ll start from schematics, create the layout and make real prototypes on-site: become a pro Arduino user and learn to design circuits with the Eagle PCB software and make your own Arduino Shields using the Roland iModela desktop milling machine. D.I.Y shields are the best way to move your project from a breadboard-based approach into a professional prototype.

The Workshop is held on February 17-18-19.

via [Better Nouveau]

[Rave Rover's Chris Williamson] made a portable DIY dancefloor, sharing instructions and schematics.

Like with many projects similar to this, an Arduino board controls pretty much everything. The floor is dominated by powerful LED lights, which respond to a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). A small computer is also inside (complete with Wi-fi), along with a car radio hooked up to speakers. Oh, and thanks to additional wheelchair motors, the floor can be wheeled away to wherever it’s needed.

Chris managed to build the dance floor in just one month, and documented how to do it on Instructables for anyone who wants to make their own. And now you’ve seen this, would you really want to throw a party without one?

via [PCworld] source [Instructables]

TriggerTrap, is a very interesting product developed by Ziah Fogel & Haje Jan Kamps. Arduino-based & open-source, is now on preorder. What does it do? (Watch Video)

(With TriggerTrap) your camera will be easily controlled in a number of ways either by sound, by breaking a laser beam, time or any other method you can think of using its built in a Aux port.

TriggerTrap comes in the well designed, finished product and with the TT Shield (75$). More info soon.

via [GeekyGadgets] source [TriggerTrap]

Cool drawing robot from So Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi, from “UTOPIA no OSHIRASE” exhibition in Tokyo.

Senseless Drawing Bot is a 4-wheeled graffiti machine, with a pendulum arm, arduino and spray cans to create random strokes as it moves up and down the gallery space.

via [creativeApplications]

[Elvia Vasconcelos] developed a very simple yet interesting installation based on PureData and Arduino. The main goal is change / remix (and therefore innovate) the approach toward domestic appliances:

To re-purpose an object is to manipulate its construction. I believe there is nothing natural about the way objects behave and therefore in their potential to be reinvented. It is in the artistic domain to liberate these objects from the settings in which they have become predictable and accepted. For this installation I am looking at objects from the Home. I present a fan, an extractor, a light bulb and a vacuum cleaner that are pretending to be toasters. They are controlled by the viewer via a telephone. My work is guided by a desire to hold onto things but not exactly to hold them in place.

via [PSFK]

Gianluca Martino presenterà Arduino e le molteplici applicazioni della scheda ad Ancona, in un evento promosso da Loccioni.  Per partecipare all’evento iscriviti qui.

via [Loccioni]