Offf part deux

The second day at Offf offered up some great inspirational surprises. Gmunk and Motion Theory were great but I would like to focus this entry on Shiftspace, Dr. Leonard Shlain and Amit Pitaru.

Shiftspace is a collective that emerged from NYU's Media Research lab. They are developing an open source tool that allows users to create comments, links and switch images on top of existing web pages. This very interesting idea is an attempt to make a true public space on the web. One of the members of Shiftspace explained that since all web pages are owned by someone they only give the illusion of being a public space, much like the courtyard of a shopping mall which seems like a public space but in fact is not one at all. If you try to engage in some activity that is not approved of in this space you'll quickly see how private it is as the security force escorts you out of the building. This software layer, the Shiftspace program, becomes a truly public space that anyone can interact with and no one owns. Wiki to the extreme perhaps?

Dr. Leonard Shlain made a compelling argument tracing the parallels from the world of art to breakthroughs in the science of physics. A simple example of Shlain's thesis is comparing Einstein's theory of relativity to the cubist works of Picasso and George Braque. The disintegration of one point perspective is the visual equivalent of Einstein's theories. Check out his book, Art and Physics, I plan to.

Amit Pitaru creates custom software that can be used for a variety of applications. One of his works was an interactive musical tool. In another he revamped the video game Tetris to make it accessible to individuals with physical disabilities using a variety of different input devices. It was quite touching to hear him speak about people he worked such as those who could only move one finger or had to manipulate the input devices with their nose because they have no use of their extremities. Often this simple gesture of making these games accessible had a profound impact on the physical therapy of the subjects. Technology in the service of humanity, how great is that?

I have a couple of students who are attending Offf as well. I hope they are as inspired and reinvigorated as I am. This has been a great experience and it's been great to be back in NYC. There will always be a big part of me that considers this place home.