this is the last one.

Designed to make us question the way our hearing system operates, these proposals slightly disrupt the normal ways in which our ears and brains deal with sound.

An idea for elevators with "eyes" and "ears", and stairs with "pets".

a video installation for two (or more) glass elevators

Dear class,

Ben Rubin has suggested four short readings for us in preparation for class on Thursday.

• Robert Irwin, a Dia:Beacon article by Michael Govan
• Simultaneous Perception in The Experience of Space by Tony Hiss
• The Mind's Eye, essay by Oliver Sacks
• Audible Information Design in the New York City Subway System: A Case Study in Proc. of ICAD (International Community for Auditory Display) '98 by Ben Rubin

Just thought I'd share a video showcasing about the indie game Fez (still in development).

Teaser Trailer here

Better demo video here, starting at 5:28

(The very cool Crayon Physics game, wherein objects you create by drawing immediately start behaving according to Newtonian physics, starts at 2:08 in the same video.)

[revised by agnes]
Hi all,

There are three readings for class discussion tomorrow, all posted in the syllabus. It might seem like a lot, but they are all pretty easy reads so you can read quickly and catch what interests you.

1. Body, Personal Relations, and Spatial Values in Space and Place by Yi-Fu Tuan
: 20 pages, with a few diagrams, but should be a relatively fast read. He discusses how spatial divisions and values originate from the human body, and how space and experience of spaciousness affects how we perceive more abstract things like competence or freedom.

2. Selections from A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander

The Good:
The temple was created near 537AD. Nearly one thousand years later, it becomes a mosque. Byzantine art exhibited in the interior was destroyed or completely replaced by Muslim-Ottoman inspired drawings.Since then it served as a model for many other Muslim mosques.
Some of the old byzantine work has been restored, and enables us to witness the spatial information design, the ways the building was intended to be, and some of the design can now be justified.
Major example includes an icon on top of the Sanctuary space facing east The whole space was--designed to introduce extra Information on this icon.

The Bad:
A Mystery sharp pyramid-shaped building:
Ryugyong Hotel Pyongyang, North Korea‐
dominates the skyline of the city.
Construction started in 1987, and in 1992 it was abandoned.
Building is empty, until December 2008 where supposedly construction started again.