March 25, 2005

Finalist at FITC Awards

Flickrgraph is finalist under the experimental category in the 2005 FITC Awards! go over here to vote for the 'Viewers Choice Award'

March 02, 2005

SHIFT cover

Made the cover art for Shift, which was published a couple of days ago.

update

The cover seems to be gone, but the interview is still up

February 14, 2005

new marumushi.com

After years of slacking I decided to finally update the old and rusty marmushi.com. There's some processing experiments, and a new toy app flickrgraph. So this is the plan, over there, you'll find a new newsfeed that I'm splitting now. This feed will be of a really loose character, and over there I'll try to stay as much focused in work as I can. I'm also featured in the cover of shift Sorry for the late post, I sent the link out to some friends, and left for Paris for the weekend. Now that I'm back I'm amazed on how the link to flickrgraph caught on, it seems to be all over the internet now. geez people chill out! he, well, no, really thanx a ton. the server was knocked out again a couple of times, but everything seems to be stable now.

February 09, 2005

presenting at fitc 2005

April 9-11th. I will be having a session in the upcomming FITC in Toronto. The list of speakers is impressive. I'm really looking forward to meet all my favourite artists, designers and developers there:)

February 08, 2005

a new marumushi.com

it was time for an update. things are not yet really finished, and not thoroughly tested, so if you find anything weird, please let me know. there's a bunch of new experiments of my first steps with processing, and flickrgraph, an app I've had in the works for a while, but never really had time to finish. I'm splitting also the news feeds, keeping www.marcosweskamp.com/blog a little bit more loose and, this feed mainly focused around work. aight, I hope you enjoy:)

January 30, 2005

a happy new year

2004, what a year. It first found me working in a skyscraper in Tokyo, took me to the suburbs of the city later, flew me to Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and moved me to Italy. Took me back to school, woke me up for the first time and made me fall in love twice with the same woman. Got me to the beaches in Uruguay and ended in the green lawns of Argentina. now I'm back in Ivrea, looking forward for another great year. Yes, do expect more activity here, there is a ton of ideas and projects in the pipeline. Let's rock 2005!

October 26, 2004

Researching into Music and Memory

Dider Hilhorst and I are currently working on a project that links music and memory. At this point we are collecting data to populate the database that will be used for the visualization. In a form we have put online we ask you to mention a specific song that you relate to a memory. Do you have a specific song that reminds you of your first girlfriend; that cool wedding of your best friend; a summer vacation? We are sure that you can find plenty examples! You can even sketch out your memory, among other things! It's great fun, really! http://www.nundroo.com/memory/form.php Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you! Feel free to send this form to other people too! Oh, yeah, and we would like to collect the data pretty soon, actually within the next 2 or 3 days. note: Your privacy will be protected, obviously, all the data used is collected anonymously and strictly used for internal academic purposes (not sold to others etc.) As you can see we do not ask for a username or email or any personal information. We are interested in the stories, and how music relates to memory.

October 12, 2004

Creative Code

I just got a copy of the newly published Creative Code by John Maeda. Very conceptual, tons of images and ironically, not a single line of code. "...This book presents the most fascinating work, arranged by themes that apply to today's digital design issues: programmatic space, living information, typography, tools, interaction design and education. Each section also features two essays by leading names in the field of interaction and digital design, such as Casey Reas, David Small, Yugo Nakamura, Joshua Davis and Gillian Crampton-Smith. Red Burns contributes a foreword. " amazon link

September 26, 2004

Researching into Music and Memory

Dider Hilhorst and I are currently working on a project that links music and memory. At this point we are collecting data to populate the database that will be used for the visualization. In a form we have put online we ask you to mention a specific song that you relate to a memory. Do you have a specific song that reminds you of your first girlfriend; that cool wedding of your best friend; a summer vacation? We are sure that you can find plenty examples! You can even sketch out your memory, among other things! It's great fun, really! http://www.nundroo.com/memory/form.php Your help is greatly appreciated, thank you! Feel free to send this form to other people too! Oh, yeah, and we would like to collect the data pretty soon, actually within the next 2 or 3 days. note: Your privacy will be protected, obviously, all the data used is collected anonymously and strictly used for internal academic purposes (not sold to others etc.) As you can see we do not ask for a username or email or any personal information. We are interested in the stories, and how music relates to memory.

September 16, 2004

newsmap goes squarified

I just updated newsmap to a new version fancying a squarified treemap layout algorithm, which tries to keep the aspect ratio of each cell as close to 1:1 as possible. That should make headlines easier to read. It's interesting to see how this new layout gives a different perception of what is big news today. Confused? The biggest news will always be on the top left corner inside each category, the smallest one on the bottom right. The placement of all categories and countries follow the same principle, when the sum of related articles for one story inside each country/category is the greatest, it will be shifted to the top left corner, the smallest ones shift to the bottom right. Of course you can always switch to the standard layout by selecting so in the bottom right of the screen. Use "permalink" to create your custom link for the view you selected.

September 10, 2004

'till next year, ARS!

A little bit late, but here are some pics from ARS Electronica 2004, which finished 2 days ago. Some great reviews of the festival over here and at the NY times (login required: bypass through bugmenot) It's been great being here in Linz, we where treated really nice by everyone. On the day after the closing of ARS, we could spend some time chatting with Brad Paley and Jeff Han, exchanging ideas and discussing extensions for their project TraceEncounters, which I find fascinating. On the way out Brad gave me a signed print of Alice in wonderland visualized through TextArc. woha! Great times, and I'm definitively looking forward for next year's Prix. Dan left for Tokyo this morning, and I'm hopping on a train tonight headed to Ivrea, Italy, where my new home awaits. nervous? oh yeah!

August 25, 2004

sayonara nippon!

I'm sitting now in my couch, half my appartment is already packed but it still feels like I'm just beggining. After 6 amazing years in Tokyo, I'll be finaly making the big move next week. Starting this september I'll be pursuing a masters degree in interaction design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy. Yup, that's why the silence for the past month. It's been a little bit crazy, trying to finish with all my projects at work and catching up with local friends who, who knows when I'm going to see next. Giving up your work life to go back to school is not an easy task, and specially when you have an overseas moving ahead it might be a little bit stressing. There's so much stuff that I have to get rid of! But I'm really excited about this. Suddenly having so much time to be able to work on my own projects sounds so nice. Plus, Italy! my grand grand parents where italians but I've never been there before. Will have to learn italian, though probably jumping from spanish it shouldn't be that hard. So I'm leaving japan on September 2nd, headed first for Ars Electronica in Linz, where I'll be speaking a little bit right next to Lawrence Lessig in the Prix Ars Electronica Forum on September 6th. Hang out there for a couple of days, and later catch a train to my new home in Ivrea. This friday, I'll be having a small sayonara party in a bar in Omotesando. If you are reading this, YOU ARE INVITED. We start at 9pm with an excellent deal of all you can drink belgium beer for 1500 yen! drop me a line for directions mail[AT]marcosweskamp[DOT]com And for the rest who can't make it, well, expect a ton of stuff to come. I'll be renewing the site soon, still have the phidgets projects on the work, newsmap screensaver is almost out there, and a slick graph visualization engine are on the way. So, keep an eye on this feed! * update! due to the overwhelming ammount of people comming tonight I had to move the location to a bar in Ebisu. Still happening at 9pm. map over here. see you there!

August 16, 2004

Newsmap Goes Squarified

I just updated newsmap to a new version fancying a squarified treemap layout algorithm, which tries to keep the aspect ratio of each cell as close to 1:1 as possible. That should make headlines easier to read. It's interesting to see how this new layout gives a different perception of what is big news today. Confused? The biggest news will always be on the top left corner inside each category, the smallest one on the bottom right. The placement of all categories and countries follow the same principle, when the sum of related articles for one story inside each country/category is the greatest, it will be shifted to the top left corner, the smallest ones shift to the bottom right. Of course you can always switch to the standard layout by selecting so in the bottom right of the screen. Use "permalink" to create your custom link for the view you selected.

August 15, 2004

ciao italia!

Finally got settled down in my new *huge* apartment in Ivrea a couple of days ago. (it's at least 2.5 times bigger than what I had in Tokyo!). Going through school orienation now and getting some survival italian lessons. Classes start in two weeks. Unfortunatelly my mail client cought fire with a virus some days ago and Norton Antivirus destroyed my inbox where I had mail piled up for the past 5 months. I have no idea how that bstrd got through. (arrrgh!) I'd kindly like to ask everyone who hasn't got any reply from me for the past days to resend your email. sorry fot that:)

August 10, 2004

'till next year, ARS!

Here are some pics from ARS Electronica 2004, which finished 2 days ago.

Some great reviews of the festival over here and at the NY times

It's been great being here in Linz, we where treated really nice by everyone. On the day after the closing of ARS, we could spend some time chatting with Brad Paley and Jeff Han, exchanging ideas and discussing extensions for their project TraceEncounters, which I find fascinating. On the way out Brad gave me a signed print of Alice in wonderland visualized through TextArc. woha! Great times, and I'm definitively looking forward for next year's Prix.

Dan left for Tokyo this morning, and I'm hopping on a train tonight headed to Ivrea, Italy, where my new home awaits. nervous? oh yeah!