Interactive art idea of the day

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:26 pm

This being my first year, I'm not going to attempt a major art installation (no resources or money) - but I still get (IMHO

) neat ideas and don't like to see them go to waste.
Next year's theme being The American Dream gave me this idea:

A "Test Your Strength!" machine called "SEE IF YOU QUALIFY!" with various random credit scores from 300 to 850 (not in lowest to highest order neccesarily) and three different sized mallets with corresponding large dollar amounts on them ($5,000; $20,000 and $50,000 possibly). The idea is you can use any size mallet/money and the result of spending this amount still may not get you the credit score you need "to qualify". Someone who gets the 850 gets a gift of a wooden birdhouse or some other ridiculously insignificant house/car/credit card, etc.

(I work in the lending industry in case that wasn't obvious.)

Oh, and the barker should be dressed in a full suit and have a name tag that says "Senor Mort Gage". (Tribute to Homestar Runner).

falk · Post by **falk** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:19 pm

I like it. Lots of neon flashing dollar signs. Pictures of dream houses with June Cleaver standing in front of them like Vanna White.

Contessa · Post by **Contessa** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:34 pm

Yeah, get a daddy.
And two children.
And a mistress.
And her 9 children.

OOooh, that was cold hearted.

I like it, though! Congrats on your ideas.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:33 am

Then burn it.

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:56 am

Then burn it.

Agreed.

I had another idea that would be disturbingly simple. Anyone care to hear it? Is there any good reason for this thread to continue other than to fan my ego?

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:09 am

Just spit it out, I can't handle the suspense.

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:32 am

Take a huge corkboard (5' X 15' or bigger) and post (securely, mind you - this would have to hold up to the winds) one of a pair of socks. Completely cover the board in these lone socks. Post the board in a centralized area like center camp or even in the middle of the playa.

Have a sign above it saying, "Personals - socks seeking socks" or something like that to indicate that these are socks looking for their better half or even have ads underneath them like "You - long, black and cotton. Me - green paisley poly. Thought we had a connection when I saw you in the subway. Call me!" or some such.

Part of the set up for this will be taking the matching sock and hiding them in random places around various different camps. Have them be attached to guy lines or sitting at the various bars next to the absinthe, etc.

The participation aspect here is to see the sock, and bring it back to the board and put the two socks together. At the end of the burn, see how many socks get matched up.

Then burn it all.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Post by **mdmf007** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:36 pm

sounds cute

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:51 pm

Single sock puppets , looking for the same.
Sounds like a good idea, but don't use clean socks.
(DPW will steal em' and wear em')

Post by **mdmf007** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:17 am

do they wear socks?

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:22 am

I like it! Then one out of every 10 times, chase someone down who just got a birdhouse. Tell them their interest rate just jumped up to 28% and demand they give back the birdhouse plus their clothes and anything they might be carrying.

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:36 am

I like it! Then one out of every 10 times, chase someone down who just got a birdhouse. Tell them their interest rate just jumped up to 28% and demand they give back the birdhouse plus their clothes and anything they might be carrying.

And make them sign a forbearance agreement that's written in Urdu or some other remote non-alphabetic language.

Hey, if anyone else feels like joining in with their ideas, I'm not here to stop you. This thread wasn't meant to be "Mereth's Ego-fest".

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:40 am

Urdu is alphabetic. Chinese isn't, but Urdu most certainly is. maybe not the roman alphabet, but whatever.

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:42 am

Sorry. I meant Roman alphabet. Durrrr.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:43 am

Nuttin' wrong with an egofest. Have at it!

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:58 pm

Panhandlers

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:27 pm

Sayers of nay.

mereth · Post by **mereth** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:22 am

Toolmaker wrote:Panhandlers

As in Homeless Camp?

oneeyedick wrote:Sayers of nay.

As in people just going around saying Nay to everything - IN SPACE!

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:57 am

A voting booth. Anyone pitch that yet? Seems overly obvious.

People could nominate any candidate they wanted in a forum post and then at brc they could cast they vote.

I have an old laptop that I would sacrifice. It seems like a pretty simple script, a poll.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:31 pm

A laptop? Shit, a cardboard box, some pencils and some scraps of paper is all you need.

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:38 pm

BitterDan wrote:A laptop? Shit, a cardboard box, some pencils and some scraps of paper is all you need.

MOOP-EEEEEEEE!

I am with you but I thought it would be cool to try to get together with the guy that did the wifi phone and project results in real time on the web to the rest of the world.

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:44 pm

Nice thinking erri, how will it be powered?

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:54 pm

sputnik wrote:Nice thinking erri, how will it be powered?

Well batteries need to be charged, but laptops retain information even when without power.

Now this is where is am weak.

I would say:

Get a bicycle, a generator, a transformer, and a car battery and make a "Gilligan's Island" sort of thing.

So that is where I am stuck.

Also how did the WIFI Phone guy do it? Ideas?

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:00 pm

The bicycle thing might work, but it's a lot of work to generate power that way. I found some links a while ago to how to set this up. It's not hard to do. What works best is an old bike, an alternator from a car, a deep cycle battery and an inverter to convert the DC to AC.

Wifi is marginally available on the playa. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not. Last I heard the wifi was being sent via microwave to Gerlach where it transitioned to a landline.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:03 pm

I've thought about the bicycle power thing as well. For something like this you could have 3 or 4 bicycles which would generate plenty of power to charge the laptop. I saw a video of a guy with a homemade bicycle generator and he was powering a television directly from pedaling.

You could even have a sign that says, "Help power the American Dream!"

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 12:25 am

BitterDan wrote:I've thought about the bicycle power thing as well. For something like this you could have 3 or 4 bicycles which would generate plenty of power to charge the laptop. I saw a video of a guy with a homemade bicycle generator and he was powering a television directly from pedaling.

You could even have a sign that says, "Help power the American Dream!"

Years ago I saw Ed Begley Jr. talking about an idea in half joking matter that stuck with me. Why don't gyms hook up generators to stationary bikes to the offset the cost of the power. If you pedaled enough you could pay off your membership or something.

But back to the bike power. The laptop will run at least for 20 minutes on battery but the heat would probably drain the battery faster, so maybe 10 minutes?

The rest is just a website.

For the actual nomination of a candidate part. That could be done before the event. I can't afford to buy a website just for this but I can put it on a site I have that has no advertising.

The user would Nominate a candidate
Then have the option to second someone else's choice.

The Winner would be President and the biggest loser would be Vice President, second place would be Secretary of State and so on.

This opens the door to a lot of posters as well along the way on the eplaya.

If someone says go, I will start on a poll design. And this is for fun right? No puppets in the design process right?

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:40 am

Erri,

You're the one who has to say go, since this is your idea. I think you can make it work.

Concerns:

1) Internet connection required - I would design this as a standalone application on the laptop that connects back to the internet to dump data when it is available, otherwise people will get frustrated with not being able to run it.

2) Theft/destruction - might happen, you may want to somehow protect the laptop

3) Laptop screens are notoriously hard to read in sunlight. Either this needs some sort of shelter in order to make the screen readable, or maybe it's only a nighttime thing.

4) Usability - the application needs to be foolproof. Perhaps the best way to do this is with some sort of external interface with simple buttons to press and just have the laptop do the data processing and connecting to the internet.

5) Power - discussed

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:28 am

sputnik wrote:Erri,

You're the one who has to say go, since this is your idea. I think you can make it work.

Concerns:

1) Internet connection required - I would design this as a standalone application on the laptop that connects back to the internet to dump data when it is available, otherwise people will get frustrated with not being able to run it.

2) Theft/destruction - might happen, you may want to somehow protect the laptop

3) Laptop screens are notoriously hard to read in sunlight. Either this needs some sort of shelter in order to make the screen readable, or maybe it's only a nighttime thing.

4) Usability - the application needs to be foolproof. Perhaps the best way to do this is with some sort of external interface with simple buttons to press and just have the laptop do the data processing and connecting to the internet.

5) Power - discussed

GO!!!!

1. Internet app up until the event. Javascript to text file at the event.

2. If someone steals it they probably needed more than me anyways right. I will be pissed until I am distracted by something else like an explosion or a beautiful face.

3. If it doesn't work that makes it even more like the real thing.

4. I kind of like the idea that it is not fool proof, I kind of like the idea that you may end up voting for "Mothra" or "Little Lulu Go Fuck Yourself" Since the results don't matter. Although I am going to try to design it to work as best as possible. ADA compliant and all.

5. That is what scares me, I need someone I can trust to bounce questions off of. I don't want anyone to get hurt. Laptop batteries have been known to explode when treated improperly.

DREAM ------

What I have in mind a 150 cc Scooter, I want to try to build a BRC Taxi/Voting booth.

Reality ----

I will have the laptop available in my camp for voting 247.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:34 am

5. That is what scares me, I need someone I can trust to bounce questions off of. I don't want anyone to get hurt. Laptop batteries have been known to explode when treated improperly.

We bring laptops and have never had a problem with the batteries. Our laptops typically hold MP3s or VJ software but they've worked just fine on battery power. That and we would get at least an hour from a full battery charge.

erri2000 · Post by **erri2000** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:55 am

BitterDan wrote: We bring laptops and have never had a problem with the batteries. Our laptops typically hold MP3s or VJ software but they've worked just fine on battery power. That and we would get at least an hour from a full battery charge.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I have started on the nomination process and will probably have it running online next week.

You will get to nominate a candidate and second someone else nomination.

Question? I want to be able to except bribes and let people buy votes before the "Election" (JUST LIKE THE REAL THING!) But that brings up the question of what to do if so one actually does send money? I am not here to make a living, I am doing this for fun. (Additional thought: the BMorg seems to be doing fine financially)

Suggestions?