public art app

This sounds so neat!  EpiCollect is an app for iPhone and Android that's designed so people can create their own projects and collect information about whatever they're interested in.  One user, Richard McCoy, an art conservator, has created what he calls the Public Art Documenter.  The idea is that users download the EpiCollect app, snap photos of public art wherever they see it, and then upload it to a database.  From what I've seen, the database works in much the same way museum cataloging software does--you fill in where you saw the piece, the medium, the maker, and its date of creation.

I'm interested in whether McCoy will outline what he sees as "public art," or whether he'll allow others to define it themselves.  I consider the piece in the above photo, which I snapped in Memphis a few years ago, to be art, but so far all of the objects in the database seem to be outdoor sculptures.  If you decide to partake, let me know what you think of it!  I don't have a smartphone, so I'm afraid I'm out of the running.

gimme, day 10

ipod touch

I've been an iPod girl for a good many years now.  I've been lectured by friends who are fans of the Zune and other non-apple mp3 players, but in the end, the iPod is what I know and I quite like it.  My friend Gloria has an iPod Touch, and I freely admit to lusting over it.  And this might be the geekiest thing I've said on this blog, but the thing I lust over most is...the calendar app.  Since I have a MacBook, I am able sync my ical with my little ipod nano, but I can't actually edit the calendar from my nano.  I have a moleskine planner which I adore, but 99% of the time, I am simply not organized enough to keep up with both of them.  Which is quite important for my job.

Also: it's really pretty, and since I started listening to podcasts more and more, I frequently run out of room on my nano.  I am not picky about memory size, internet.  If it's bigger than my old nano, I'm happy.

steampunk

The Urban Dictionary defines "steampunk" as "a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan 'What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner.'" While that's an accurate description, it doesn't allow for the influence steampunk has had on other areas, such as art and craft.

A little while ago, someone e-mail Neil Gaiman with a link to the website of Richard R. Nagy (aka Datamancer), the creator of some really awesome pieces of art/technology. Behold the keyboards below:The designs are based off of one by Jake von Slatt, who wasn't particularly interested in making many of them and let Nagy have at it. Von Slatt runs a website called The Steampunk Workshop, so anyone interested in steampunk projects need not look any further. He recently constructed a Victorian All-in-One PC that's pretty amazing.

My favourite of the projects done by these two is Nagy's Steampunk Victorian Laptop. You wouldn't believe that the photo at the top of this post was of a laptop, but it is, I assure you. Here's a better look:

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

This is the kind of creativity and craftsmanship that I love to see!