In the course of doing some research I was astounded and grieved to discover that Dr. Reinhold Grether had removed his amazing list of new-media links from his web site, Netzwissenschaft. I had come to depend on this extraordinary resource, and although I was hardly surprised to learn that Dr. Grether had tired of maintaining it — indeed, who wouldn’t? – I was shocked that his solution was to simply and deliberately remove this data altogether. Grether’s list depicted a meticulously compiled snapshot of hundreds of significant contributors to new media art in the decade 1997-2007. So that others can enjoy this list, I have archived a restored snapshot here.

Increasingly I’ve become sensitized to the critical importance of good leadership within an organization. (Maeda’s RISD blog has been an eye-opener.) Meanwhile I’ve also been more and more involved in what one might call strategic planning. No, I’m not about to get an MBA, but here for my own reference are a few tools which I hope I’ll be able to use well:

Peter Drucker’s Five Questions for An Organization:

• What is our mission?
• Who is our customer?
• What does the customer value?
• What are our results?
• What is our plan?

SWOT Analysis, a strategic planning tool used to evaluate, for an organization, its:

• Strengths (to use)
• Weaknesses (to stop)
• Opportunities (to exploit)
• Threats (to defend against)

I’m a lurker on the mailing list for OpenCV, a powerful open-source toolkit for computer vision. To judge from the wide range of posts on this list, the OpenCV community is extremely diverse — whether cut by geography, expertise, or occupation — and brings together people working across commerce, government, security, and the arts. The following two recent posts on the OpenCV mailing list caught my eye, both for the way they illustrate a glimpse of this diversity, as well as illuminate something else about the world we live in:

Subject: race classification
From: Benjamin Males
Date: 2008-04-14

Hello there
Has anyone had any experience with human race classification using
Haar classifiers? Is there any good source of images for training?
Cheers,
Benjamin

Meanwhile…

Subject: Detecting small impurity in food item
From: Habib Ullah Khan
Date: 2008-05-24

To all my respected Friends
I have attached an image which contain pastry “confectionary”, The pastry contain small round shape impurity I want to detect………..I shall be extremely thankful for your help….I need some technique……or any kind of help that can help me to detect these small tiny round shape impurities in the pastry. Once again I shall be thankful for your cooperation and help in this regard..
Alot of thanks
Habibullah

I’m delighted to announce another new degree program in my university: the “Master of Tangible Interaction Design”, spearheaded by Professor Mark Gross, who also directs the Computational Design Lab at CMU. I’ll be one of the professors teaching in this progam, primarily in the areas of computation, interaction, and graphics. Here’s the full press release:

Master of Tangible Interaction Design Degree Announced at Carnegie Mellon University

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University announces the establishment of the Master of Tangible Interaction Design degree, a new graduate-level program focusing on the speculative design of computationally embedded objects and places. The MTID degree is intended to bring together a community of talented and capable makers in all disciplines.

The MTID Program is a one-year course of study offered by the School of Architecture College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Carnegie Mellon. It draws on the university’s strengths in the arts as well as in robotics, software, and human-computer interaction. The MTID program aims to attract both computer scientists and engineers who want to exercise their know-how in creative and speculative design, as well as artists, musicians, designers, and architects who seek technical abilities to implement their ideas.

The new MTID program offers a environment to acquire these basic skills, drawing on the amazingly rich interdisciplinary learning opportunities at Carnegie Mellon. “Carnegie Mellon is uniquely positioned to integrate embedded computing and robotics in design,” says Mark D Gross, professor in the School of Architecture and director of the MTID Program.

The Master in Tangible Interaction Design is a studio-centered program with additional courses in electronics, programming, and the arts. The first semester’s “Small Things” studio focuses on embedding computational behavior into objects, furniture, and clothing. The second “Big Things” studio tackles interactive space at the size of rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.

“Recent developments in embedded computing, new materials, and digital fabrication enable anyone to design and prototype interactive artifacts,” adds Gross. “There will be remarkable opportunities for creative people who have skills and experience that cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries and who are comfortable making informed decisions about physical form, computational behavior, and human experience.”

Carnegie Mellon is now recruiting students for the first MTID class, which will enter in the fall semester of 2008. For more information or to apply, please contact Professor Mark Gross.

Worth clipping, here’s a quick re-posting of Yo-Yo Ma’s “Four Challenges for Future Learners”, via John Maeda. (Maeda’s full retelling is here, at his RISD blog.)

1. Make all communications memorable.
2. Realize passion-driven education.
3. Form disciplined imaginations.
4. Foster empathy for all.

I’m delighted to announce that CMU, where I teach, has just approved a unique new hybrid undergraduate degree program which combines Computer Science and the Arts. I had a hand in creating the new degree program, and I’ll be one of the principal academic advisors for these students.  Here’s the full text of the press release, taken from here.  

Carnegie Mellon Announces New Degree
Fusing the Arts With Computer Science   

PITTSBURGH—Beginning this fall, Carnegie Mellon University will offer a Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts (BCSA), a new interdisciplinary program that will equip students to explore and expand the connections between computation and the arts. Students enrolled in the program will work toward degrees that combine coursework in the university’s world-class School of Computer Science with complementary studies in its internationally renowned College of Fine Arts, which comprises the schools of Art, Architecture, Design, Drama and Music. 

The BCSA program is an “integrated double major,” which combines a sequence of full-strength computer science courses with a rigorous concentration in studio or performing arts.
   

“The unified Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts degree will allow a new generation of artist-technologists to create new forms of knowledge and influence culture at the highest possible level, by bridging fields in totally new ways,” said Franco Sciannameo, director of the BCSA, Bachelor of Humanities and Arts (BHA) and Bachelor of Science and Arts (BSA) programs. In creating the BCSA program, Sciannameo collaborated with faculty and administrators from the College of Fine Arts and the School of Computer Science.

Sophomore Alyssa Reuter, who will join the first cadre of BCSA students, highlighted some of the possibilities the new program could facilitate. “Computer science and art are already fused in fields like character animation, game design, electronic music, interactive graphics and information visualization and robotics,” Reuter said. “Meanwhile, new tools like rapid prototyping, motion capture and broadband Internet are spawning revolutions in architectural design, live performance and participatory culture. And computer science itself is increasingly oriented towards personal, expressive media. It’s exciting to have this chance to exercise both sides of my brain and the opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time.”
   
 

Eight Carnegie Mellon students are scheduled to transfer into the BCSA degree program this spring, while several first-year students are poised to enter the program in the fall. 

The creation of the BCSA degree closes a long chapter in my own life, since I chose not to attend CMU in 1989 when I learned that they had no such joint degree program. Happily, the new degree is already opening a new chapter in the lives of 8 young people at Carnegie Mellon.