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Invented in 1994 and very popular in Japan for ages, QR codes* are increasingly being adopted in the UK by cultural institutions and corporate entities alike, signposting participants/consumers to additional ‘digital content’ accessed there and then on their mobile phone (typically a website or application providing further information).

QR codes were originally a tool devised for global logistics – the primary function of these markers is to reduce unique artifacts in ‘real space’ to mere place-holders for a meta-data doppleganger within a digital database.

I happen to think that QR Codes might be a rather useful thing, by the way, but I’m also interested in how such signs might be subverted or hi-jacked to tell alternative stories.

I thought that it might be interesting to use these codes (which are free of licence) and try to create an interesting poetic and conceptual feed-back loop for unsuspecting users:

Scanning the QR code below…

…takes you to a single page website (demo here.)

I made stickers ov the code…

…with the intention that these will be stuck over existing corporate and cultural portals wherever they may be found.

The stickers intefere with user-requests for more information and offer a re-direction service to the immediate ‘now’.

The reassuring ‘you are here’ red dot – typically a feature of tourist maps – is recontextualised as a kind of confounded statement; “but you are here?” “you don’t need anything else” “this is enough.”

I hope that the stickers can create some interesting temporary disruptions into otherwise smooth transitions away from our present moment.

You can download the template for those here: QRtemplatefinal.pdf

(use Matt White Waterproof Labels in laser printer.)

*QR CODES: Davey Smith wrote various posts about them/I’ve mentioned some uses of QR codes previously over here /and if you’re not at all sure what I’m talking about take a look at the the wikipedia entry /or take a look at a can of Pepsi!

Quick update on the Tilt-Tick-Tock (hourglass) concept outlined in the previous post – here it is!

The device translates the ‘turning over’ action associated with the traditional egg-timer into the revealed words ‘tick and ‘tock’ – archetypal (and now redundant) by-products of clock mechanisms.

Basically, an Arduino micro-controller has been pre-programmed to send alternate bursts of full and zero power to a DC motor from a 9v battery ONLY when the device is turned over (because the action of turning over is detected by a mercury tilt sensor).

See TiltTickTock in action below:

Full power is supplied for 3.4 seconds (a time established by trial and error) and this rotates the single aperture in the yellow acrylic ‘face’ around to the approximate position of the written words – ‘tick’ and ‘tock’.

It should be pointed out that a servo motor would give far better ‘accuracy’ in designating the exact position of the ‘face’ if that were desired.  The challenge here was to make something interesting with these quite blunt and clumsy components and actually, the inevitable inaccuracy of the DC motor solution (due to friction, difference of power, loss of power etc.) works well here as an interesting analogue to the the problems faced by the early manufacturers of the mechanical clocks in keeping to time (prior to the design of various escapement, containing and regulating the mechanism.)  If you observe carefully you will be able to see that the TiltTickTock runs slightly ‘fast.’

Another aspect of the device which is aesthetically interesting is the way in which the circular aperture of the yellow ‘face’ appears to eclipse the white ‘tick’ and ‘tock’ elements – indirectly invoking movements of the earth, sun and moon (by which we measure the passage of time).

Images of parts/process, various schematics (thanks to Fritzing) and arduino code below:

components/tools identified:

• Arduino microcontroller
• breadboard
• DC Motor
• mercury tilt sensor
• TIP120 transistor
• 10Kohm resistor
• 9 v batteries (for both arduino and motor)
• wires
• various circular lids etc. to test rotation
• clear plastic sweetie box is excellent for containing projects!

…add ‘tick’ and ‘tock’ circles (authentic typed and re-scanned from my typewriter) – ‘face’ simple vector cut out using laser-cutter:

//TiltTickTock by John O’Shea
//Monday 10th May 2010
//MRes. Digital Media DOING Module – Jamie Allen
//Newcastle University Culture Lab

// Arduino code allowing tilt sensor to trigger motor via transistor

// micro-project translating ‘egg-timer’ metaphor to ‘escapement’ metaphor
//via electronics and code

// constants won’t change. They’re used here to
// set pin numbers:

const int tiltPin = 7;     // the number of the tilt sensor pin
const int transistorPin = 9;      // the number of the transistor pin

// variables will change:
int tiltState = 0;         // variable for reading the tilt sensor status

void setup() {
// initialize the transistor pin as an output:
pinMode(transistorPin, OUTPUT);
// initialize the tilt pin as an input:
pinMode(tiltPin, INPUT);
}

void loop(){
// read the state of the tilt sensor value:
tiltState = digitalRead(tiltPin);

// check if the tilt sensor is activated.
// if it is, the transistor is open and the clock programme runs:
if (tiltState == HIGH) {
// turn transistor on:
digitalWrite(transistorPin, HIGH);
delay(3400);
digitalWrite(transistorPin, LOW);
delay(1000);
}
else {
// close transistor (clock circuit off):
digitalWrite(transistorPin, LOW);
}
}

/*
this code is a hybrid of:
Button
2005 by DojoDave <http://www.0j0.org>
modified 17 Jun 2009
by Tom Igoe
This example code is in the public domain.

http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Button

&
High Current Loads @ ITP Physical Computing

http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/HighCurrentLoads

with reference to Arduino site:

http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/TiltSensor

*/

Continuing in my consideration of intuitive (physical) interactions* I am developing a demonstration piece using Arduino which takes as its principle metaphor the extremely basic action of turning over an hourglass.

This piece emerged out of the DOING class where we were asked to simply build an electronic circuit between a sensor and actuator which is controlled using a micro-controller.  I selected various movement sensors (including one of the kind used in pedometers – piezo vibration sensor) and my tutor, Jamie Allen, also loaned me a mercury tilt sensor “to get started…”

Immediately the tilt sensor became the focus of my attention because I wanted to get a sense of what it was that differentiated this sensor from a mere mechanical switch or digital trigger.  (See above my tilt switch test based onthe circuit at this arduino site tutorial)  The tilt sensor can be used to discern physical orientation in a way akin to how we understand the liquids of the inner ear to function.  Utilising the earths gravitational force, the liquid metal mercury acts as a switch by making or breaking the circuit.

Below is an illustration of a concept I would like to develop:

I’d like to use the ‘turning over’ action (typically used to commence an hourglass) to trigger an arduino programme which can control power to a DC motor – alternating between FULL and ZERO.  A perforated circular disk attached to the motor will reveal the words “TICK” and “TOCK” alternatively.

“TICK” and “TOCK” are the traditional onomatopoeic by-product of the mechanical clocks escapement (for more on this see I AM A WATCHMAKER.)  In translating the hourglass ‘turning over’ action into the words ‘tick & tock’ the piece will be, in a sense, a ‘mechanical metaphor mixer.’

More on this piece VERY soon – for now I’ll leave you with Jayne Mansfield…

* some examples where I have previously considered the nature of intuitive physical interaction either by building a prototype to test or exploring thru writing/dialogue on this blog:  SIMPLE TWISTING INTERFACE, NOTHING UNLESS SHAKEN and PHYSICAL PETITION (this list is not exhaustive.)

- Jayne Mansfield image used without consent of copyright owner (if you are the copyright owner please get in contact.)

I attempted to do a search using my favourite search website today – Scroogle Scraper – only to be redirected to the following post on Scroogles homepage:

We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. It depends on whether Google is willing to restore the simple interface that we’ve been scraping since Scroogle started five years ago. Actually, we’ve been using that interface for scraping since Google-Watch.org began in 2002.

This interface (here’s a sample from years ago) was remarkably stable all that time. During those eight years there were only about five changes that required some programming adjustments. Also, this interface was available at every Google data center in exactly the same form, which allowed us to use 700 IP addresses for Google.

That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time. It didn’t show the snippets unless you moused-over the links it produced (they were there for our program, so that was okay), and it has never had any ads. Our impression was that these results were from Google’s basic algorithms, and that extra features and ads were added on top of these generic results. Three years ago Google launched “Universal Search,” which meant that they added results from other Google services on their pages. But this simple interface we were using was not affected at all.

Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google’s main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible.

Over the next few days we will attempt to contact Google and determine whether the old interface is gone as a matter of policy at Google, or if they simply have it hidden somewhere and will tell us where it is so that we can continue to use it.

Thank you for your support during these past five years. Check back in a week or so; if we don’t hear from Google by next week, I think we can all assume that Google would rather have no Scroogle, and no privacy for searchers, at all.

— Daniel Brandt, Public Information Research, scroogle AT lavabit.com

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi

- accessed 10:10am, Tuesday May 11th 2010

If, as suggested above, this really is the end of Scroogle, then this change marks a sad day.

What was important for me about the Scroogle Search, was that it offered an alternative (parasitic?) reading of Googles search algorithm, providing results free from paid advertising and also without granting Google an IP addressed search record as exchange currency.

I have to admit that I won’t miss the hokey cartoons and seemingly abject anti-Google paranoia which prevailed on Scroogle, but my internet experience will be poorer without their regular and healthy dose of skepticism toward Googles globally dominant infrastructure.

The example set by the Scroogle Scraper offered the potential for alternative and critical readings to flourish online, taking datasets and information provided by major institutions as ’source material’ rather than ‘finished product’.  Without the option for ‘interfacing’ with the information, that potential is diminished: it wasn’t ‘the vandals took the handles‘ after all.

(Please add comments below.)

I wrote a new piece ov fiction drawing a comparison between the evolution of clock mechanisms and the workings of the Law.  It has been published and beautifully illustrated in an excellent new e-Zine from my long-time collaborators – Mercy – read it here:  I am a Watchmaker

Writing a fictional narrative was a completely new departure for me and was actually really helpful for working thru aspects of my current understanding. To quote the Watchmaker:

‘Seeking Law in the relentless stutter of parliamentary acts and decrees is like searching for Time in the mechanism of a clock.’

Deadbeat Escapement gif used under CC Licence – Wikimedia Commons

Link to a blog post I wrote outlining Re-Docks current dialogues with the AHRC/BT Digital Heritage Network:

• http://www.re-dock.org/#/blog/?id=81

Of course – another strategy for making information/data and concepts more ‘tangible’ or ‘graspable’ when exhibiting in the public realm, is to re-present the information using a ‘loaded’ material, (as this example from a Liverpool Museum demonstrates…)

How to visualise data/information, in a tangible way, in the public realm?

Back in November I had a look at this work, DEATH COUNTER by Santiago Sierra, which was installed on the front of Hiscox Insurance HQ in central London, for the course of 2009.

The giant LED, reminiscent of the digital clocks and information boards seen throughout most major cities, tallies (in real-time) the total number of human deaths worldwide, starting from zero at 00:00:00 on the 1st of January 2009.

In terms of ‘visualising data,’ there is a simple reciprocal relationship between a binary conception of life OR death and the counter-intuitive representation of these concepts as ‘one’ (death) and ‘zero’ (life), accumulating on the huge display.  Despite the potentially emotive subject matter, and the high value placed on individual human lives, the presentation is unspectacular in the extreme:

business as usual…

One quite remarkable aspect of the Sierra work, is the way in which it was funded – through a legal contract. The work was loaned to Hiscox for the duration of the exhibition, in exchange for a €150,000 life insurance policy, which would be payable in the event of the artists death.

Through a contextual balancing of an art-market value and an insurance value of the artists life, the work highlights and makes explicit the core component of the insurance industry – careful translation of the perceived, constant, risk of catastrophe into bankable capital.*

* As well as providing insurance for major banks such as Lloyds of London, Bermuda based Hiscox, provide cover in the event of kidnapping, hurricane and financial disasters. They posted pre-tax profits of £320.6m for 2009.

London Evening Standard (9/11/2009) / Insurance Daily

In considering gesture, interaction, sound and public space intervention the organ grinder (and his monkey) are springing to mind…

The wikipedia entry in this case is really excellent and says more than I could say – some highlights:

They apparently were not interested in keeping their instrument in tune or cranking at a rate suited to the music which was “programmed” in their barrel organ.

Many cities in the United Kingdom had ordinances prohibiting organ grinders. The authorities often encouraged policemen to treat the grinders as beggars or public nuisances.

the disappearance of organ grinders from European streets was in large part due to the early application of national and international Copyright laws.

(Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

(for info regarding this, see previous post.)