Only a few hours remain before the final deadline to submit my documentation for The MFA in Computational Art that I have been immersed for the last two years. I am left to consider where this leaves me.
The delightful company, the ideas, the camaraderie of fellow students and tutors, the thoughts and the preoccupying questions that bubble up: “what must I do now…?” these have all come to an abrupt stop.
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Orgcon 2019
Following my visit to IFSEC I spent the day at Orgcon 2019, organised by the Open Rights group. Meeting was held at the modest premises of the Friends Meeting House in Euston Road. Contrast this with the enormous IFSEC exhibition held in the Excel Centre in June. I’ve already written about IFSEC and recall how Tony Porter the information Commissioner ridiculed the efforts of the likes of Open Rights Group in the opening keynote session (during his question and answer session).
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With my usual bout of insomnia, I read the obituary of Peter Fonda who has died, aged 79. Fonda was made famous by the film Easy Rider. Just now, an old friend, Tony sends me a WhatsApp message this morning. Tony, like me, a keen motorcyclist and lifelong friend. Tony co-ran London’s largest motorcycle showroom in 70’s; we grew up together riding motorcycles. Tony writes: “another style icon of our youth Peter Fonda is dead; he is more responsible for you riding a motorbike than you think”.
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It’s already seven days beyond my tutor’s deadline. I am recompiling for the umpteenth time dlib and opencv after multiple attempts. I have to clear my mind I am surrounded with detritus from the last 10 years in my workshop. I find bottles of tomato chutney from 2011 and noxious homebrew essences from previous production runs, dating back from five years ago. I collect together the various coloured alcoholic liquids of various colours to re-distil them and bleach the distillation apparatus, running clean water through it.
…I have assembled the breadboard to test out a JQ6500 sound module. The module is capable of storing five different MP3 files that playwhen a connection of the pushbuttons is madr, situated on the intercom. The switches include lifting the phone cradle.… More...
The days click by at an alarmingly fast rate, up at 8 o’clock bed at midnight.
My aim is to use the modified intercoms I have already prepared, incorporating facial recognition to produce a new exhibit, using the familiar Raspberry Pi concealed inside the phone in conjunction with asmall concealed camera using Python Face recognition.
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“Join the conversation #CameraDay2019!”
– I attend the keynote speech on 20th June by Tony Porter at IFSEC at the Excel in London.
My interest and surveillance drove me to register early on for this three-day event “bringing together more than 27,000 security professionals” the exhibition addressing threats like terrorism and cybercrime and exhibitors showing the latest surveillance products under one roof.
On with my tweed jacket and tie, jump on my motorcycle and ride down there.
…It is now halfway through the summer and I nearly about to complete my MFA in computational art in September. I have certainly learned a lot more then I had ever imagined, and I have not only surprised myself at what I can achieve but also how deficient I am in so many areas as well.
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Fortunately I do not live far from the Barbican; it was an easy to make the short journey to see it.
As I complete this post I am using speech recognition on my laptop. This in itself seems something we would take for granted now but made possible by AI.
My student colleagues had already being to visit the exhibition and they had warned me already of its shortcomings. Their main criticism was the show had too many exhibits which could have been seen online.
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Motorcycle Lift and How I fixed It
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