Forever In Beta

Art & Technology

Spamtrap Selected to SIGGRAPH

June 3, 2007 1:51 am UTC

William Shackelford

I am happy to announce that Spamtrap is a finalist in the SpaceTime Interactive Competition at the 2007 ACM SIGGRAPH Conference.

Thanks SIGGRAPH, Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs!

Blogged

June 2, 2007 1:39 am UTC

William Shackelford

Please download Adobe Flash Player to access this content. Blogged - interactive installation event

1:25

"Blogged" is an interactive installation artwork and one day net event dealing with the concept of being 'blogged'. It attempts to pop 6 feet in diameter red balloon by using traffic from blogs linking to this page.

It first ran on Thursday May 31, 2007 live from The Ohio State University Art and Technology show "Digescape". During this one day event I suggested a link for consideration to this installation to a number of blogs in hopes that they would blog it on their sites and include a link back to this page (http://billshackelford.com/home.php5?page=/portfolio_blogged). My website then monitored the traffic coming from these blogs and ran an air compressor for 1 second for each visit, filling up and then popping the 6 feet in diameter red balloon live on the web. Visitors were be able to monitor the installation with a live video feed where they could watch the air compressor fill up the balloon and then pop. I turned everything on at 12:30 pm and notified several blogs of the installation shortly after. The balloon popped around 5:30 pm the same day.

The idea came from a previous experience when my artwork was fortunate to be blogged by several blogs. I found it interesting to see how quickly artwork spread from blog to blog. It was also interesting to see as time passed and the posts about my artwork would fade into the blog archives, that the traffic to my site dried up almost as fast as it arrived. I think Blogged expresses the joy I felt when my artwork was blogged by other sites with the filling of the balloon with air and then the dose of reality that hits when the traffic dries up with the popping of the balloon.

How It Works

Blogged works by counting a visit for each unique IP address and URL referral combination to this page. For example if you followed a link from the blog Bit Babble to this page, then your visit would be counted. If you went back to Bit Babble again and clicked a link to this page, then your visit would not be counted the second time. But if you where to click on a link to this page from a different blog other than Bit Babble, then that visit would be counted too. Other blogs that linked to this page during the event are listed to the right.

The visits are logged in a MYSQL database and then used to determine how long to run the air compressor based on the total number of visits. Then the Parallax Basic Stamp with a Netburner network adapter receives the running time from the database and then switches the air compressor on using a solid state relay for the given running time filling up the balloon.

Thanks to all the bloggers and their readers who popped the balloon!

Blogged Wrap Up

June 1, 2007 12:18 pm UTC

William Shackelford

Blogged was a success yesterday. The net event started at 12:30pm and the balloon popped at 5:30pm the same day. Thanks to all the bloggers and their readers who popped the balloon!

Images:

Announcing Blogged - A Web 2.0 Blogging Experiment

May 29, 2007 1:48 am UTC

William Shackelford

Announcing Blogged, A Web 2.0 blogging experiment that you can interact with live this Thursday May 31, 2007!

Blogged is an interactive installation that pumps a small amount of air into a 6 feet in diameter balloon live every time someone visits the Blogged project page of my site (http://billshackelford.com/content/art/blogged). A visit is registered by clicking on a link that leads a visitor to the page from another site such as a blog. As more and more people visit the project page the balloon expands.

I will have a live video stream of the balloon so everyone can watch what happens. Will the internet pop the balloon? We will find out this Thursday! Keep checking this page for more information.

Blogged

Reclamation

May 28, 2007 4:47 pm UTC

William Shackelford

Please download Adobe Flash Player to access this content. Reclamation - Putting everything back to normal.

0:53

Putting everything back to normal.

When I made this video I was thinking about the process of returning the land to its former natural state after a mining or oil drilling operation had closed down. I wondered just how natural we could really make it.

Recently Blogged

May 22, 2007 4:56 pm UTC

William Shackelford

This month I had the good fortune to be blogged by many blogs including:

Click here to see a full list of blogs linking to my work

Thanks to all the bloggers who blogged my work!

Video Type

May 20, 2007 12:19 pm UTC

William Shackelford

Please download Adobe Flash Player to access this content. Video Type - ASCII character video study.

0:40

ASCII character video study.

ASCII Character Self Portrait

May 19, 2007 4:35 pm UTC

William Shackelford

My self portrait converted to ASCII characters by asciiconvert.com.

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Collaborating with OgilvyOne worldwide

May 16, 2007 12:42 pm UTC

William Shackelford

I am happy to announce that I am collaborating with Ulf Schmidt, Uwe Jakob and Dirk Neugebauer from OgilvyOne worldwide's Frankfurt Germany office on a project similar to Spamtrap. This interactive installation will be used to advertise products and services for a client. More details to come.

Thanks Ulf, Uwe and Dirk!

Featured on the BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night

May 15, 2007 7:36 pm UTC

William Shackelford

Last night I was interviewed for the BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night.

Click here to listen to the audio of the show.

Thank you Chris Vallance for inviting me to be on to the show!