Michael Ang

I’m a few months late with this post but I saw some butterflies in the Mission here in San Francisco just a few blocks from my house. The bush that they were so into has since been trimmed back. I’ve seen a few more butterflies up on Bernal Heights Hill and at Holly Park. Also three not-so-wild racoons in the Haight. San Francisco has some wildlife!

(If anyone can positively identify the butterfly species, please let me know!)

I got a Suzuki SV650 a few months ago. Quite a nice ride! Lots of torque and very friendly. A little too friendly as I managed to low-side it exactly 10 days after taking ownership. It was a wonderful day in the hills and alas my reality got checked at the end of a vigorous ride. No harm to rider and nothing more than cosmetic damage to the bike. About the softest I could have come down all considered.

Been riding quite a bit easier since then. Be careful out there in the rain and debris-strewn corners!

The Three Drops installation that I worked on last summer is featured on the Nanoscale Informal Science Education ArtNano website.

I worked for Sona Research last summer and am now (as of 6 months ago… wow) Senior Immersive Media Engineer at Snibbe Interactive. We have quite an amazing lineup of projects we’re putting out.

Already worked on and installed 3 pieces at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as well as a few projects that aren’t launched yet!

If you’re an engineer or computer scientist with an aesthetic sense perhaps you’d like to work with me.

This past July I drove from San Francisco to Anchorage and beyond. Spent Canada day on a beach outside Vancouver and did a three day kayaking trip through icebergs in Prince William Sound.

I took a prototype GigaPan unit with me and took a few rather large panoramas.

mangtronix GigaPan page

I moved back to San Francisco (though currently in Vancouver en route to Alaska… see the next post). Had the chance to take Strange Attractor to a meadow full of wildflowers in Northern California. The meadow was filled with several species of butterflies. There were white butterflies (positive ident forthcoming) feeding on the minerals in the mud at the edge of the meadow. I installed Strange Attractor and several butterflies came to visit over the course of a few hours. The white butterflies seemed to prefer the white laser cut flowers. The preference of the butterflies for the flowers seems to vary with the species but more tests would be needed to confirm this.

Aside from the “results” it was interesting to see the flowers out in a natural setting and wonder what role technology has in a mostly wild location.

Flickr photo set

Natalie Jeremijenko and I released two dozen butterflies in the OOZ garden. We helped them feed from some watermelon in the Strange Attractor artificial flowers then observed their behaviour. The Monarchs stayed at Strange Attractor longer and were more likely to leave, fly around the garden a bit and return to the flowers. The Painted Ladies were less likely to return once they took off. The flower design seemed to matter, with the laser cut acrylic disks being more popular than the inkjet printed designs. The blue, orange and red laser cut disks appeared to be more enticing than the white one.

A robotic Monarch was employed to see if it would attract or repel the real butterflies. They seemed mostly indifferent, but longer observation is needed as the effect is most likely to be seen as butterflies approach from a distance.

Flickr photo set

My Blue Flower was featured in the Art Work column in MAKE Issue 10. The article is called Illuminated Circuits and focuses on artists who use electronic circuits for both their form and function. I’m in there along with Peter Vogel (one of my personal heroes).

Wow, the ITP Show just keeps getting better and better. Haven’t had a chance to really go through the projects yet, since I’ve been docent for my Strange Attractor.

Rhizome calls Strange Attractor a highlight and it’s nice to be in the company of the other projects they mention! Been very happy with the response to the work so far. People seem drawn to it and really interested in the deeper issues of human interactions with ecosystems.

Here’s the picture Phil Torrone (of MAKE Magazine) took of the installation:

One day left of the show. May 9 5-9PM at 721 Broadway. Come check it out!

There was a great writeup in the New York Times about ITP this past Sunday. The core of ITP is its open and collaborative atmosphere.

I’m quoted in the article Interactive design blooms in NYU hallways on CNET a few weeks ago. They also quote Clay as calling ITP “the center for the study of the recently possible.”