Urban Explorers - A Case Study

I tease no longer... The case study is now released:

Exploring Urban Nature: Learning to See the Invisible

Here's a sampling/trailer of some of the interviews



I'm really trying to figure out how one becomes a Native in an urban landscape, and how to scaffold people learning to observe, explore, and ultimately "see" the invisible. I'd like to engender an environment where empathy for the landscape (including the people that make up the landscape) can be discovered even in the city. Consider this the start of a dialog, and tell me what you do and don't like about it.

Violent Nature

One of my professors, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, has an art piece showing in L.A. during December. It really inspires me. If you're in the area check it out. Here's more info:
Violent Nature on the Fringe

Novartis Protest Press

The Novartis story has been getting a lot of press lately. For example Dan Rather Reports recently included this video to consider for their report, as well as WLNY-TV55 for their segment called "Changing the World". If you are a member of the press and are looking to remix this video


Then here is the original at high quality with no subtitles:
novartis-protest-video.wmv

Here is a press image pack:
novartis-images.zip

And here is the original video with subtitles (at higher quality than the youtube video):
novartis_subtitles.wmv

Please distribute. I am the original author: No copyright, no DRM, yes freedom.

Do-Good-ism, rebranding capitalism

I have been reminiscing about the word capitalism lately.

Let me break down the word capitalism to the best of my understanding. Not the concept but the word itself. Doesn't -ism mean "we believe in this above all else" or "the root word preceding myself is my doctrine or ideology"? So then capital is the doctrine, ideology, or that which is most important? But capital to my understanding means goods, or to use a less loaded word (perhaps bads?) let's call them things or stuff or items. So then things are my doctrine, or I believe in things above all else? Hmmmmmfffff! *My* world certainly isn't a capitalist one.

Well I have heard our "economy" is turning into a "service economy" (is that true?), so we are transitioning out of an industrial mode of producing goods into a mode of service. Service above all else then? Servicism... like goods but in action. Like doing good. I propose to rebrand capitalism. Isn't that a capitalist style idea?

Let it be heard across the hilltops: servicism and do-good-ism is the new ideology and the new economic mode of functioning.

After all, it's a do-good world
:oP

Drawdio - a video

And soon to come:
Drawdio.com

I've been taking video of people using drawdio for the last few weeks. Here's the compilation. I still don't have video of someone playing a song really well on it, though I've seen it happen. All in good time though.

A song my brother wrote about me

Check out This song that my brother wrote for me:

Variation on a Theme: Progression of a Life

Each part of it is supposed to represent a part of my life. I LOVE IT!!! Enjoy

Life Long Kindergarten...

This year's group looks like this (see photos)


LLK Homepage

"Ain't Got Time for Problems"

T.F.Willie wrote a new song, so I got together with him to do a music video. We generally operate on one principal -- try to do your videos in one take and on the first try. This way they feel more raw "as if" they're unpolished and real like a live performance. We can't always do it on the first try but this time we did.

Jodi's kindergarten party (for graduation)

(pic taken just after setting up the 4 "stations")

More Pix: Snack Station - Math Station - Reading Station

Jodi just graduated, and as much as she'd love to have an "Engineering PhD" themed party I talked her into a "Kindergarten" party. We will bring sipups and juice boxes. And there were plenty of fun activities.

THE SETUP

Everyone brought
- Their favorite kindergarten snack
- Their favorite book (other toys are allowed too)
- (at the most) ONE stuffy (stuffed animal)

The location was secret, and could only be uncovered by following Jodi in this interactive adventure
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jay/8453

THE HAPPS

Seth Frey brought a stuffy that was two stuffies in one, so he kind of cheated but Jodi said it was allowed. Romie didn't get invited (on accident) but he still came (kind of rude no?). Lieb was talking about some philisophical stuff that got Frey to read the Dr. Seuss book to everyone "Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?" Then Frey climbed some trees, shot almonds at people with his sling shot and hid in the bushes. We tried to lure kids over to paint pictures with us. They lingered by the sidewalk chalk and then Mikey said "I don't know what to draw next on my horsee, will you help me? And then they came over only to be called away to a Barmitzfah minutes later. Romie brought the best snack ever - the handisnack pretzel with cheese dip. There were also yogurts, cupcakes, honey cashews, and more sipups than you could ever drink. Romie made an iguana from some new-age extra light clay stuff, and Magic Seth and Cullen came early and read and played "set" at the math station with Pablo. Everyone passed, even the people I didn't mention by name. Check out the snack station picture linked above to see Mikey's over-the-top peanutbutter apple extravaganza

I have a new sister

My brother got married on Sunday. The ceremony was a few minutes long. The whole party/ceremony was awesome right in my dad's back yard.

Yogaville

I went to Yogaville a couple of years ago, and I just read my journal again today. After reading and reflecting on how my life has changed since then, I can see how big of an impact it had on me.

Read Yogaville Journal

I also went to Yogaville a second time for a farm internship, so I hope to write about that sometime soon too.

Logan's Birthday

Today is Logan's Birthday, and I'm missing him a lot. Try to help him get his birthday cake and dodge the tacos in

the Logan Birthday Game:




The new guestbook on Logan's website is now up and running too.

1 Million Feet Under

Here is a perspective on the casualties in the Iraq war. It's in the form of a virtual fishtank.
It is my latest Scratch project.

Click on fish to find out what they represent.

INSPIRATION
This project was inspired by a few things. First, I was reading online about how many casualties there were in the war between USA and Iraq and I was really shocked at how many people had died. Then, a fellow student of mine, Alyssa, made a project called Cherry Blossoms about civilian casualties in Iraq. Also, it's almost tax day in the USA.

EXPLANATION
Each black, white and red fish represents about 30,000 Iraqi casualties. Each red, white, and blue fish represents about 3,000 USA casualties. The numbers are counting from March 2003 to March 2007. The numbers aren't exact, but it gives you the idea.

Scratch is available for you to try

MO-blog MO-daily thoughts

I started off this blog with tons of pictures uploaded from my cellphone. This gave me a chance to organize my daily thoughts, or at least a part of them. But slowly I changed the way I felt about making random comments to myself and my friends. When I posted an important article or update, it didn't seem right to drown it out with a picture of a building. So now there will be two seperate tracks.

MO-blog MO-daily thoughts (jaysmoblog.blogspot.com) will have its own place, and will consist mostly of me uploading photos and videos from my mobile phone.



While this blog will remain the same for more important updates.

7 people, 1 car, 10^23 ice particles

We used the local wild life as indicators for where the good sledding hills were -- we followed some naive looking kids with their sleds. We tested to see if the "snowball effect" really works, and we had a round of sled jousting between me and Romie.

See all the sledding pictures



Participants: Jay, Jodi, Seth, Romie (aka Ryan), Maya, Nadav, Hui

Novartis, Stop It

Today, valentine's day, we presented the CEO of Novartis with the Broken Heart Award for greed in response to Novartis' legal move to stop Indians from getting AIDS medicine. The legal issue involves a patent, but practically speaking it's an issue of life versus corporate profit. Check out the video.



Flickr photos are posted here

After we got home from the demonstration, I immediately edited the video and posted it on You Tube. An organizer from Philadelphia called me and helped me revise the video. Same day I posted a second version, and this version, along with the still photos, went out to press right away. So far I only know of one site that has reposted the video, fightglobalaids.org. Some people were pretty surprised to learn that I filmed it on a Canon digital still camera and edited it in Movie Maker. I don't like to use fancy tools if they slow me down. Gotta get the video up and running.

Workshops in Guadalajara

I've been facilitating some workshops using digital building blocks as well as a new programming language that lets you create interactive art, stories, and games by snapping together lego-like bricks on screen. I just finished documenting the workshops in Guadalajara in video format. In just a few hours the participants created some pretty awesome projects.

Here's the Videos I made

Pico Crickets day 2:
Download High Quality




Scratch day 2:
Download High Quality



Pico Crickets day 1:
Download High Quality