Old Town's Pipers Alley at 210 W. North, once filled with mind-expanding head shops, psychedelic lights and black-light posters, nowhouses "The Imagination Environment," an 8-by-4-foot technologyperformance art exhibit.
It features an array of nine flat-screen monitors mounted behind aplexiglas shield. The center screen plays a continuous feed of FoxNews. Taking the news reader's words from the closed-caption feed,the exhibit connects to Internet search engines. Pictorial searchresults are visualized in real time on the remaining screens. Thedisplay can be truly mind blowing.
"Because it uses search engines, sometimes the images are onpoint. Sometimes they are enlightening. Sometimes they are justbizarre," says Kris Hammond, director of Northwestern University'sIntelligent Information Laboratory, which created the exhibit alongwith Second City and Northwestern's Program in Network Arts.
"We can use technology to surprise and entertain," says KellyLeonard, Second City executive producer, whose new revue, "Show TitleDeemed Indecent by FCC," takes on censorship.
Leonard likens "The Imagination Environment" to Second City'simprovisation process: "It spits out pop culture. It is searching forthe most popular images that go with the words. That's what we do onstage when we create our shows. The times when our scenes work thebest is when they take an unexpected turn. That's what makes improvcomedy so interesting."
Adds Hammond, "People become transfixed. When people first look,they think it's random. Then they realize it's being guided by whatthe reporter is saying. They go, 'Wow!' It's an amplifier. It takesyou into a machine's notion of the world based on what we've createdon the Web."
Northwestern graduate student David Shamma designed the exhibit.It's worth a look.
Jellifish's riff on Chicago
Robb Hendrickson, founder of Oakbrook Terrace-based JellifishInc., a manufacturer of high-tech guitar accessories, has his eye onthe $1.5 billion guitar-products market. Using Chicago-based high-tech manufacturing techniques, Hendrickson hopes to transform theindustry and enable guitar players to create richer sounds.
His Jellifish product replaces a traditional guitar pick, issuingmore melodious tones through the welding of small metal strands thatwave across the guitar strings.
"We're using very high-tolerance injection molding and two Nd:YAGlasers for the welding, fusion and cutting of the sub-assembly," saysHendrickson. "Chicago has a unique array of advanced manufacturingtechnologies available on an outsourced basis."
Hendrickson drew positive feedback from a standing-room-only crowdat last week's Monday Morning Meeting, sponsored by the IllinoisCoalition, ARCH Development Partners and the ChicagolandEntrepreneurial Center.
The monthly sessions, moderated by Tom Churchwell, ARCHDevelopment's managing partner, offer entrepreneurs a platform forfeedback. Other presenters came from Dan Schramm, president, TopiaryCommunications, a local knowledge-management software company, andKrishna Jayaraman, CEO of Genomics USA Inc., which develops DNA andprotein microarray technologies.
Can CEOs and CIOs coexist?
Corporate technology marriage counseling is on the agendaWednesday at the Mid-America Club. Longtime rental-car-industry CEOWilliam Plamondon, who led Budget Rent a Car, Alamo Rent a Car andNational Car Rental, joins Dick Smith, his CIO, to talkrelationships.
"What the CIO wants is the most direct linkage to the business,"says Plamondon, who advocates CIOs reporting to CEOs.
CIOs are major corporate spenders who don't always deliver theresults they promise. Sparks often fly in these relationships, justlike many marriages. Gartner senior program director Henry May playsthe therapist role. The program is organized by the Society forInformation Management.
Bits & bytes
Chicago's zuChem raised $500,000 in Series A financing from theBiotechnology Research and Development Corp., ARCH DevelopmentPartners and a number of angel investors.
Merrill Lynch created a 26-company nanotech index. It includesfour Chicago companies: Amcol International (Nanocor), Nanophase,BioSante Pharma, and Cabot Microelectronics.
Michael Krauss is a Chicago-based tech writer and consultant, andsenior vice president for Hostway Corp., Chicago.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий