Experimental Capture – Fall 2024
Computational & Expanded ███ography
Button Stealer is a Chrome browser extension that I discovered. This extension “steals”/captures the buttons you interact with on the websites you visit. As you browse, it builds a collection of all the buttons you’ve clicked on, allowing you to track your interactions across different sites. While it’s not like a typical capturing tool, I find the concept intriguing and worth exploring.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/button-stealer/iiikidmnimlpahbeknmkeonmemajpccj?hl=en
The project Breeze is a device created by the artist to capture and visualize wind using wind data and a robotic arm. Developed during the covid 19 lockdown, the artist sought to bring the outdoor weather into an isolated indoor space. I find the idea of visualizing wind through the swaying of plants particularly compelling. The use of a typically indoor plant to represent outdoor wind is an interesting contradiction, reflecting the artist’s experience of isolation during the lockdown. This parallel between the indoor plant and the outdoor wind highlights the tension between lockdown and the natural world. Since this project involves just a single device, I think it would be even more impactful if multiple devices were used together, potentially forming an indoor garden. This might create a more immersive experience. This project kind of reminds me of Janet Echelman’s installations as they both attempt to capture the forms and directions of air and wind.
The project “Eternal Blue” by Richard Vijgen visualizes malicious packets caught by the university’s firewall in real time, inspired by a significant cyberattack that the university experienced. I find this project fascinating because it reveals the often unseen danger of cyberattacks, which can have severe consequences without our awareness. The concept of making the invisible visible is powerful and thought provoking.
The artist visualizes the country of origin of the attacks using different colored pixels, with each intercepted packet logged as a single colored pixel. While the article does not specify how the colors were chosen to represent each origin, I see potential in further exploring the color representation aspect, which could add another layer of meaning to the project. This project shares similarities with the wifi signal visualization project we discussed in class, as both reveal the continuous unseen processes happening around us.