My presentation at O’Reilly Open Source Convention 2008 dealt primarily with using Ubuntu as a platform for software-based (particularly web-based) works. In brief, it outlines the specifics required to turn a recycled PC running Ubuntu Linux into a presentation kiosk using Firefox to access either a local or web-based work for presentation in a gallery. It’s not the most glamourous of topics, in fact it is probably one of the nerdiest, but some sort of standardization in this fundamental area in the presentation of contemporary art could enable a whole generation of new works and artists to contribute to the conversation. Curators, we’re looking at you!

Here are the slides, based on my experience with presenting High Five and previous flash-based interactive works. You can download the full file here: Exhibiting-Software.zip.

There are very few artists that I meet who would delve into the nerdiness that is spending any length of time discussing Linux, but then again, there are few SXSW Interactive visitors that would care to dissect the finer points of Jeff Koons’ Inflatable Hulk installation at the Lever House (pictured right). So where in the social Venn Diagram do these disparate groups meet? For some, it will no doubt be the philosophy of the GNU/Linux project. For others, it will be the price (free) and the ability to recycle old computers into digital art projects. And for still others, the meeting point at which the Art world meets the Linux world will be when Linux can provide the platform through which exhibitions can have supplementary material more easily presented about more traditional forms of art.

Regardless of those potential incentives, I believe Linux will become integral to the exhibition of software in contemporary galleries as we move forward, if for no other reason than the fact that Linux can emulate almost all the operating systems that have come before it. For archival purposes alone, Linux is an attractive endeavor for the future digital curators among us who seek to present exhibitions that include older digital works that no longer function correctly on current machines. Many early net.art pieces relied on early web technology that simply won’t run on the latest crop of high-powered machines.

Is it just a Kiosk, then?

My talk will be very brief, as I do not have the experience of artists such as Zach Booth Simpson, Joshua Davis or Jared Tarbell. The focus of the talk will center primarily on my experience working with Ubuntu Linux to create a kiosk designed for the traditional art gallery environment to adequately convey the digital experience of the High Five project proposal (pictured at right). Namely, I will cover:

Technical Concerns

• Art is always difficult economically, Ubuntu allows for computer re-use, dedicated computer that is not the artist’s primary computer
• Free Software, so entire project is therefore available for redistribution, re-deployment, no license fees to sell it, exhibit it
• Show proper setup of wireless router / computer combo to insure access to web
• Show the proper configuration for a boot immediately into Firefox
• Firefox plugin that locks onto a single webpage, kiosk-like operation
• Firefox resets every 10 minutes, insures experience begins at correct place, removes possibility of excessive shenanigans
• Proper screensaver settings
• Uninterruptible power supply, automate the turning on of the work
• Linux has a strong track record of sustained uptime – used on many webservers for his reason

Gallery Ritual Concerns

• Art is predominantly Mac market – it will not replace this currently
• Wireless access is key, negotiations with gallery
• Proper concealment, locking down of computer
• Have slanted screen, or projector – more comfortable than flat-on-the-wall screen
• Have a mouse but no keyboard

If I have left something out or you would like to share your experience with software in the gallery and its failure or success, please add a comment, or send me an email. I am most interested in how the presentation/orientation/interface of the work effected its experience, and how to improve the presentation of digital works in traditional gallery spaces.

Exhibiting Software
July 22 2008 : 4:20 – 5:10p
Ubuntu Live – Oregon Convention Ctr – Rm 2
Portland, Oregon

tags: portland, oregon, ubuntu, linux, contemporary-art, software, kiosk, ubuntu-live

I no longer program from scratch what others have perfected. I am a gatherer, an installer, a customizer. My process grew simpler. It should come as no surprise to those in the industry, that I rely heavily on free website engines such as WordPress combined with custom templates and plugins. By using free software, I can spend more time creating beautiful layouts, discussing client goals, researching cost-effective hosting and ensuring that updates are not a pain in the neck.

The benefits of this approach were so immediate, I feel compelled to share my notes about what works.

Planning

• Mockup Phase
  Use Fireworks, use pen and paper, gather content, talk alot to establish shared aesthetic language, discuss within boundaries of open source projects / hosted web apps to save cost
• Good Hosting
  Choose reliability and speed over cost and features. Always searching for that perfect host. Install roundcube for webmail.
• Backstage admin area
  WordPress, osCommerce, Drupal, Shopify, Django, Ruby on Rails
• Integrated Search
  WordPress, Yahoo, Google

Content

• Beautiful, unique character
  There is still no substitute for the emotional response to professional use of colors, space, author’s voice, multimedia and design elements, Embrace accordingly
• Easy image management
  Flickr, iPhoto-Flickr integration, WordPress, Auto-generated page icons
• No nerd needed
  Markdown Extra, Flickr Photo Albums, phpIcalendar, Custom WordPress plugins
• A bit of hi-fi
  Lightbox, SiFR-based typography, YouTube, Quicktime VR
• Accessibility constantly improving
  Alt tags for images, 508, Talkr, Alternative larger text, Hidden “skip to content” links, Video transcripts
• Cross-platform
  Looks great in IE 5.5+, Firefox, Opera (if possible) and Mac’s Safari, Degrades gracefully on older browsers

Structure

• Web craftmanship
  Nice typography, Effective writing, Simple URL’s, “Looking for Something” error page, robots.txt, Use 4 corners as natural areas of functionality, Use conventional interface elements to enhance usability, Favicon
• Contemporary code architecture
  XHTML and CSS-based, Use customized templates, RSS available, Microformats, Subversion controlled
• Secure
  Seperate development from deployment code, Input-filtering, XSS attack awareness, Daily backups, Strong passwords
• Reciprocal Development
  A proportional amount of custom code is contributed back to the open source projects that reduced client’s cost/time-to-market

A website is part newspaper, …

Often required to communicate the goings-on, while archiving past content and creating an intuitive yet beautiful experience, a contemporary website has many areas in which to fail. Perhaps the website represents only an individual, perhaps it represents an entire company. Both, on varying scales, must function like a newspaper, delivering recent news and establishing online credibility, and must do so within severe limits on typography, formatting, bandwidth and code. For many designers, these are new assumptions. So where do we turn to create the optimal web experience? For starters, the ephemeral nature of newspaper design is a good candidate for web translation because, as is often true for websites, newspaper development is distributed and continuous.

Fear not. With very few exceptions print layouts can be replicated online. However, these image-heavy sites, will be as hard to update as their prehistoric paper daddies. So it must follow, that contemporary website quality is based on how well the web developer chooses to build upon the web’s assumptions and within the web’s limits. In real terms, the design is not complete if it is hard to add content.

Therefore, web developers are responsible for knowing about new services that improve website management and integrate them appropriately. At minimum, site owners are empowered to update their text content. At best, site owners feel in complete control of picture-scaling, paragraph-styling, and page layout all while avoiding the majority of hand-coding. Newspapers call this workflow and your website needs it.

… part museum, …

Due to the web’s immediate affinity for delivering content regardless of age, a reasonable system of organizing your client’s content into a searchable archive is a responsibility not a feature.

Some clients will surely want to create some intentional mystery by diligently “cleaning house.” Question their intentions, but be open to the general idea while gearing up to preserve the high-grade older content. Having a well-curated archive is in your client’s best interest. As the global reliance on instant information continues to grow, each site must communicate the client’s present realities by organizing open access to their past. And it is an easy and reliable way to establish an initial level of trust. For the incessantly practical sitting in the cheap seats, however, a quick Alexa submission will satisfy this general notion, preserving some historical record for you automatically. Call it archiver-friendly.

… and part mountain climb.

Creating a solid backstage admin area makes updating less of a chore, allowing the website to function efficiently through sustained growth. Check.

But, with all the well-conceived templates in the world, browser-based editing, Flickr integration, new-fangled web engines and liberal use of Markdown in place, your well-built website remains unfinished until those responsible for the content walk through the updating process.

Adjustments will be made, new code will be written, but this is not a problem for technology alone. This can only be solved through real hands-on instruction, cheatsheets and an open phone policy when something goes wrong. Demonstrate how to create interior links, walk through image uploading and write down how to add pages. Be considerate of others that don’t speak the geek. A strong investment in education always yields the best results.

Did vs. Done

You probably noticed the self-promotional screenshots accompanying this essay. These are the best of my summer work. I am sure that you are just dying to see how well I practice what I preach, so here are some handy links…

From top to bottom:

• Factory People
• Rupert Neve
• Auger Down Records
• Art Palace
• Shaune Kolber
• Okay Mountain (not pictured, spring ‘06 launch)

As always hit the comments with your feedback and thoughtful criticism, but please bear in mind, this is my house.

tags: wordpress, webdevelopment, freesoftware, webdesign, php, archivers

These portfolios relied on a system of loosely joined free services and software:

• Firefox web browser
• flickr
• WordPress
• My modified flickr to WordPress plugin
• Markdown Extra WordPress plugin
• My portfolio WordPress template

Open Source Portfolios

The system and setup is described step-by-step in my Open Source Portfolios presentation. We used flickr to organize all of their images because it handles uploads well, has interesting community-based emergent effects, and does automatic scaling. We used Wordpress as the content manager and site organizer because it allows posts and pages, integrates with flickr in a one-click way, has a people-friendly HTML code generation and can be easily templated. Wordpress works well because it gracefully handles the “craft” aspects of website design. Elements of this craft include people friendly URLs, integrated search, RSS feed generation, commenting options, plugins, and standards-support.

One good example, is that the structure of WordPress allowed each artist’s latest post to be syndicated on the Club Arthouse homepage. By focusing on free web browser-based services and software I hope to instill a decentralized and evolutionary design perspective on working with the living web. Make the tools simple and the content accessible so that new forms will develop.

tags: wordpress, opensource, portfolio, template, flickr

I’ve started research on an xhtml-based text-messaging application microformat called cphn and pronounced “see phone.” Instead of cramming the web onto small-screened, bandwidth-limited cellphones, we can take advantage of a cellphone native technology (text messaging) to create interactive experiences tailored for these small devices while retaining tie-ins with our web-based databases of information. This open microformat uses a limited subset of xhtml, providing the ability to integrate web-based applications into an interactive text-messaging model.

Currently my research includes:

• cp.hn Website & Collaborative Wiki
• Bill Payment Application Example

Example

text message derived from this document:

wlcm to cphn. go?
(p)ay
(t)ransfer funds

Pretty simple. In its proposed state it is functional only through imagined server-side parsing, but I am working on development of LAMP-based tools.

Initial Concerns

• Simple device neutral format based on existing standard
• text-messaging microformats could help alleviate vendor lock-in of cellphone services, where wap/wml has failed.
• single application file/stack for cell + web transactions
• allows for state-based transactions through server time-outs based on time between responses
• integrates with all text message devices
• writable by humans, parsable by machines
• tantek’s thoughts on xhtml-based microformats

Text-messaging community values

These should serve as design principles for text-messaging based applications:

• make me type as little as possible, because typing is on small awkward devices
• use text message for non-essential communication (i.e. plan-making/confirming or in this case bill-paying)
• each txt msg = $
• require me to send as few text messages as possible to get it done
• don’t ever be redundant
• but, when money is involved ask twice.
• fill one screen, no scrolling unless really neccessary
• be fast to respond, or respond with reason for being busy

tags: microformats

Linux’s true promise has been overlooked

Well-meaning companies such as Mandriva, Novell/SUSE and Linspire try to shoehorn Linux into the broader desktop computer market as a direct threat to the aging Microsoft Windows. The marketing that accompanies these attempts obscures Linux’s true social power out of commercial neccessity. Let’s just say I don’t blame them, although I prefer the decidedly non-commercial environs of Ubuntu. The standard line goes something like “Linux is feature-packed, looks as good as the Mac, can do everything that the evil Windows can do and all the included applications are free, so just think of the savings!” The other more nuanced arguments concern people’s right to Free Software (Richard Stallman et. al).

But these arguments, although true and important, speak directly to the forward fringe of programmers already involved, tending to forget the pedestrain expectations of the untechy user.

People choose what nearby people choose

Clearly, Windows is standard not because it is the best or the easiest, but because it has historically had the largest population of users, estimated at somewhere between 90% and 97% of the total computer market. This population’s self-perpetuating effect is illustrated when parents interested in buying a computer for a college-bound son choose a Windows machine because it is standard on the college’s computer labs. You can’t really fault the parents because their choice is based on a desire for the most compatible experience for the child. With these factors occuring outside of the software itself, Linux must not get distracted by minscule gains in a quixotic quest for desktop dominance . Linux as an idea should strive to be above that.

Linux on everything

Guaranteed for reproducibility through the fearlessly free GPL license, Linux’s ability to run on all future and present hardware is inevitable. This combined with software’s ability to emulate past systems will make Linux a natural choice for recycling the machines of this ongoing Cambrian Explosion of digital technology. It will be twisted and tweaked into every nook of technology available, be it game consoles, cellphones, or that new hybrid you’ve been eyeing.

Another man’s trash…

I believe that Linux’s largest disruptive effect is represented by the countless high-performance machines that will be obsolete in 10 years. As has been the norm associated with Moore’s Law, computers will be thrown out as part of large corporate system changeovers. Those who have grown accustomed to using a computer as part of their business will settle into a 5-10 year buying pattern. Every couple years, out with the old and in with the new. All computers lose value as increasingly immersive experiences are developed to lure an increasingly tech-savvy consumer base to purchase new machines.

Currently, these purchase-influencing experiences include operating system upgrades, web applications, full-motion HD video, and internet connection standards such as bluetooth and wi-fi. As these new technologies become industry standard, your current computer becomes increasingly non-standard and out-of-date. Think of the TI 99/4A which taught me how to program BASIC and shoot space invaders or the Mac LCII which gave me a first glimpse at BBS’s and the internet. Both now are little more than thrift store fodder.

By imagining the trickle-down effects of mass amounts of discarded high performance machines for poor communities, social internet applications and scientific research simulations, Linux becomes less about dethroning Windows and more about bridging the digital divide.

Imagination’s microscope

Linux and its brethren BSD, represent an ability to salvage this future glut of cast-out computer resources. To be sure, the power consumption of these digital dark aged machines will cause us much guilt, but it won’t stop us from fashioning indie grid computing in bedrooms with leftover 64-bit machines. The aggregate effect of these decentralized and homegrown super computing resources, combined with emerging software’s ability to run complex simulations will produce a scientific revolution akin to the discovery of the microscope.

These disparate machines linked by Linux will churn out an infinite array of datasets by working together as a team . Map the universe and collide it in reverse, visualize world hunger as stats get updated online, sequence your sister’s DNA, imagine the structure of nano-particles too small for the naked eye, or chart the dances of the honeybee.

With plenty of available processing and Linux’s intimate connection with the internet, the knowledge harvesting from these simulations will define decision-making and scientific research. As scientific problem-solving evolves from the physical restrictions of the lab into limitless simulations run on recycled computers, the promise of Linux comes true.

Related:

• Purdue University’s Scrap-Iron: 1,008 recycled PC’s as super computer
• How to build a lionux cluster
• What happens to Industrial Light and Magic’s old computers?
• Recycling of Hardware
• The Green Operating System: Linux
• Digital Dinosaurs: What should you do with your old computer?
• Linux supercomputing grid unveiled for science use, 2001
• High-End Linux Clusters Will Serve Scientific Applications, 2001

This summer, a powerful gesture covered all commercial signage on a Viennese shopping street with bright yellow blocks.

Public art can only engage directly with commercial space, as long as its ephemeral, right? But, two weeks provides lasting images of a work about the coordination of a large group of people who would not have covered their signs on their own. And a work of cooperation is a different work indeed. Anyone could produce this piece in almost any commercial setting because the site isn’t babied, it’s used. If it has to be ephemeral then why at least can’t it be traveling?

The Migration Patterns of Words

Migrating laura’s writing and pictures from the proprietary Movable Type platform to the free Wordpress platform brought all of the unwanted advertising which had plagued our original design. There was no method within Movable Type for blocking these software programs from repeatedly posting ad links. The software worked to increase the poster’s google rank by submitting advertising as comments. The poster knows that google’s rank increases as the number of sites that link to the poster’s products increases. These comments help someone sell more.

So after splitting the 90 meg Movable Type text export (82 megs of comments) into 5 different text files and importing each into Wordpress as “import.txt,” I am ready to delete them. All something over 80,000 of ‘em. Wordpress presents a ‘Mass Delete Mode’ for comments that allows you to initially delete 20 at a time. So I find the code and change 20 to a 100. This helps for a while, but feels crude. Down to 78,000…only a one-time marathon…must keep going. Can’t you just delete all the comments about texas holdem and penis enlargement? There are patterns here after all, it is only software. 76,915 left.

Getting into Specifics

Different day, I dig into the webhost’s install of phpMyAdmin and find the wp_comments table. I choose phpMyAdmin’s SQL menu item to receive an area to type in and a “go” button. I delete the statement in the text box and type:

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_content LIKE '%holdem%'

Deletes 21,035 comments that contain the word holdem in the comment.

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_author_email LIKE '%gigiduru@yahoo.com%'

Deletes 8,546 comments that have gigiduru@yahoo.com as the comment poster’s email.

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_author = '%penis enlargement%'

Deletes 3,869 comments that have penis enlargement some where in the comment poster’s name.

I use the Mass Delete Mode in Wordpress as a monitor for my progress, refreshing it after each SQL command that I type and press ‘go’ on. I keep a list as the comments start shedding like Brian’s dog:

• ‘%penis enlargement%’ 2510 as content
• ‘%Phentermine%’ 2937 as content

Conclusion

In two hours I am down to 12,986. Although still repetitive, it’s an appropriate approach to selecting deletable comments because it adapts easily to the behaviour of the comment-posting software. Effective ad filtering within website comments requires this ability to mass-delete if they match a given word. Mass-delete helps writers quickly recover from large floods of unwanted advertising, including those Movable Type refugees that may wash up on Wordpress’ shore. Build it in.