Designer develops cocktail dress that actually makes cocktails (Wired UK)

This article was taken from the September 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

What does fashion lack? "Microcontrollers", according to Anouk Wipprecht, a 27-year-old designer from the Netherlands. Once you add them, wearable technology can go beyond just colourful LED displays. Wipprecht's DareDroid 2.0, a cocktail-making dress (pictured), is a case in point.

The dress, created with programmer Marius Kintel and artist Jane Tingley, is equipped with infrared sensors in the neck area that detect people at three stages of proximity: when there is a general crowd, when somebody enters the "personal space of the design" (between 46 and 122 centimetres) and when someone is within "intimate distance" -- closer than 46 centimetres. As they approach, the system will serve up a non-alcoholic shot....

Dead Inside: a zombie novel told in the form of found notes - Boing Boing

Excerpt:

"Last month I found myself in Palo Alto in need of an espresso. Yelp directed me to a place called ZombieRunner, which turned out to be a running shoe store with a zombie-themed espresso bar. The espresso turned out to be excellent, as did the selection of books, all of which were about zombies. One book caught my eye: Dead Inside: Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse...."

read more here:

http://boingboing.net/2012/06/23/dead-inside-a-zombie-novel-to.html#

Mysterious Game Lures Viewers to Tom Hanks Show

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Excerpt from Mashable.com:

"In preparation for the debut of its new post-apocalyptic web series in mid-July, Yahoo offered a preview via a covert online alternate reality game. The Electric City series is written by actor Tom Hanks, who also supplies the voice of the title character. The game, created by Pereira and O’Dell, is called Tap Joint, and served as an interactive version of a traditional movie trailer, The game was unbranded and only by playing it and blogging about it could users learn about the new web series.

Visitors to the game’s site get a first-person view of someone in front of a device similar to an old Morse code transmitter, with a written code key alongside. They can click on the device, or “tap kit,” to write coded phrases that unlock messages and video to figure out the story. Players share clues with each other through social media. For instance, by following #tapjoint on Twitter, users learned about a mobile workaround that allows them to enter typewritten commands using their smartphones.

Launched in March, the Tap Joint game created an almost instant community..."

read more here:

http://mashable.com/2012/06/25/tap-joint-tom-hanks-game/

Inconspicuous Consumption: Rob Salkowitz on the Business of Pop Culture < PopMatters

Excerpt:

By shathley Q 27 June 2012

PopMatters Comics Editor

One of the very worst things about grunge in its nascency, Dear Reader, has always been its unpluggedness. Commercialism is soul-destroying we were always reminded. And that, as Bryant Simon reminds us in his profound Everything But the Coffee, consumerism was just waiting to be redeemed by ethically pure brands. In the ‘90s we banked on Starbucks, because of the sound ethical stance of sourcing practices. We also, given its sheer size, banked on Microsoft becoming a more open, more ethically-pure company. But what underpinned these hopes was the idea that the very practice of consumerism could some how be redeemed from crass commercialization. That the industrial complex as it exists, need not be exploitative of third world production-oriented economies, and of ourselves. But for the most part, for your Targets and your WalMarts and your thousands of other brands, we simply needed to unplug.

If anything, media and business analyst Rob Salkowitz, addresses this concern head on in his new book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture. The issue at stake—why did we choose to “unplug” and how have be built an entirely new kind of world as a result. Salkowitz does this in a prodigiously novel way. Comic-Con leverages his almost unique position as business analyst and longtime comics fan. The book itself is a kind of travel diary of his and his wife Eunice’s trip to the globally recognized San Diego ComicCon in 2011....

How to approach digital engagement for museums | MuseumNext - Europe's big conference on social media and digital media for the museums

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"The Digital Engagement Framework was developed by Jasper Visser and myself as a simple to use roadmap to help the sector to approach digital media in a more strategic manner. Over the past six months we’ve used it with our clients and run workshops which have shared the methodology with more then 100 people from a broad range of institutions...."

Linda Hutcheon's A Theory of Adaptation: 2nd Edition, Afterword by Siobhan O'Flynn (so very pleased)

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I'm just so pleased - the cover looks terrific & it will be out on July 24th! For all those interested in adaptation, transmedia, and fan culture studies.

"A Theory of Adaptation explores the continuous development of creative adaptation, and argues that the practice of adapting is central to the story-telling imagination. Linda Hutcheon develops a theory of adaptation through a range of media, from film and opera, to video games, pop music and theme parks, analysing the breadth, scope and creative possibilities within each.

This new edition is supplemented by a new preface from the author, discussing both new adaptive forms/platforms and recent critical developments in the study of adaptation. It also features an illuminating new epilogue from Siobhan O’Flynn, focusing on adaptation in the context of digital media. She considers the impact of transmedia practices and properties on the form and practice of adaptation, as well as studying the extension of game narrative across media platforms, fan-based adaptation (from Twitter and Facebook to home movies), and the adaptation of books to digital formats.

A Theory of Adaptation is the ideal guide to this ever evolving field of study and is essential reading for anyone interested in adaptation in the context of literary and media studies."

Interesting. Gamers? Thoughts? Investment [Engagement Hierarchy] - What Games Are

Excerpt from a very interesting post:

"(Last December I started to write a series of posts about a concept called ‘the engagement hierarchy’. My thesis is that players engage with games in five distinctive manners, and that while all games get users who engage at all levels, there are clear clusters around one rung or another on the hierarchy that define largely what that game can be.)

Investment is what happens when players fantasize. Characters come to life, music is hummed-along-to, and the possibilities of the game world feel as though they extend beyond the boundaries of what the player sees on screen. Players imagine scenarios, moments, what-ifs, winning strategies, infer qualities of the game that the developers never actually included, and otherwise find the game magical in a way that they can’t quite express.

More than enjoying the experience, invested players participate in it. They resonate with it, become the influencers who connect other players and want to know its creators. An invested game is one that is important, and invested players feel as though they are a part of something.

The Art Brain
The play brain wants to learn, extend and master a game. It sees the frame of the game and comprehends the levers that permit it to take simple, fair and empowering action, and it wants to win. It is purely action driven. However a play brain is not the sum total of who a player is. Not by a long shot..."

full post here:

http://www.whatgamesare.com/2011/06/investment-engagement-hierarchy.html