Aesthetic democracy: the source of ubiquitous computing

“Aesthetic Democracy,” poet Walt Whitman thought, is “a popular sensibility through a poetic depiction of the people as themselves a sublimely poetic, world-making power.” This is becoming a reality with the open access to the internet. Only an open environment for creativity for everyone will foster Aesthetic Democracy and support Ubiquitous Computing.

Further inspired by Mondrian and Malraux’s commitment to democracy and social justice, we have developed a self-empowerment program called “Clouds for Computers.”  Clouds for Computers fosters creativity and literacy with technology for an ongoing transformation of new media learning in underprivileged communities.  The program includes a social media curriculum that introduces and engages students with computers in an effective educational and social way to bridge the digital divide.

Clouds for Computers’ art applications, which transform the way students learn with technology, is collaborating with a new liberating technology called fliing. Fliing introduces a fresh approach to motion based interfaces that brings together people and communities. Fliing encourages people to go outside, stay connected, and live beyond the cloud.

This new freedom of motion-based connectivity allows users that are unplugged from the constraints of traditional user interfaces to interact in ways that go beyond social networking. Come explore the opportunities.

Presenter(s)

Peter Shaw has a BA from the College of Environmental Design, University of California at Berkeley, cum laude. He has been a working artist in the San Francisco Bay Area for 35 years, making studio art (abstract painting) and environmental art. Shaw has exhibited his work in California, New York and internationally, and has won numerous Art and Design awards, including the University of California at Davis International Environmental Art Competition in 1991. His New Media Abstraction work "100 blue" premiered in Amsterdam in 2003. His work in painting and environmental art, converging with state-of-the-art technology, laid the foundation for "Clouds for Computers."

Peter Teriete is a Research Consultant at CM2 Technologies Inc., where he has been closely involved in the development of the Fliing technology and shaping the first product. Peter gained his undergrad degree in Biochemistry at the University of Leeds in the UK and a PhD from the University of Oxford, working on a cell surface receptor involved in inflammatory diseases. His list of publications range from this early work to studies on allergy, as well as cancer and tuberculosis. His scientific expertise in the field of biophysics and computational biochemistry have enabled him to be part of the early development of an international organization (CCPN) promoting the implementation of a uniform data model for the exchange of scientific data and have let to collaboration with companies such as Sanofi Aventis as well as world renown research institutions such as The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.  He is currently employed at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, and prior to that worked at the University of Oxford, UK.