[iDC] Symposium Day Two

[Dave Chiu]

"Buckle up!" begins the afternoon session, as Trebor Scholz  
introduces Sheila Kennedy to a packed room.

Temperature note: today the room is much cooler than yesterday  
evening, perhaps contributing to the staying power of the audience.  
Or perhaps we can attribute the crowd to the allure of the  
afternoon's speakers...

It seems that the microphone gremlins plaguing the audience earlier  
in the day have leapt to the speaker's podium, but they are (perhaps  
temporarily, hopefully permanently) resolved by a microphone fairy.  
In other technological news, Sheila receives the prize for first use  
of a laser pointer in her presentation, and also receives a spirited  
round of applause as she finishes her talk.

Did you know: Jane Jacobs lived in the same building as  
Serpico...Eric Paulos gets the prize for the first duplicate slide,  
with an image of mobile phone use during a Madonna concert, which is  
somewhat appropriate considering his talk covers the cell phone as  
the center of future networks and hackable culture. (The laser  
pointer also makes a brief appearance.)

Microphone gremlins have been replaced with computer ones, but a  
quick switch to Keynote solves all for Kazys Varnelis. The freaks and  
geeks in the audience are a forgiving bunch, perhaps cowed by the  
knowledge that friends are becoming more precious, seeing as they're  
currently on the decline. I personally find myself enthralled by the  
Hole-in-Space project.

Charlie Gere begins his talk with the eucharist (not literally), but  
in doing so brings into jarring relief (at least for me) just how  
much of a Eurocentric focus this symposium has. Whether this is  
simply an unavoidable reflection of geographic areas of expertise and  
development, or whether this speaks of some larger issues which are  
missing from the discourse is not for me to decide. But I'm struck by  
Sheila Kennedy's earlier presentation which involved traditional  
weaving techniques with nanotechnology, and I'm surprised that it  
appears the exception, not the rule. (I'm glad to see that this topic  
is at least broached during the panel discussion.)

I wonder who's going to come up with the first "Wonderment Inside"  
logo... As the questions continue, a few people leave, but most  
remain to continue discussions outside of the conference setting.

Looks like there are quite a few photos available on Flickr: http:// 
www.flickr.com/photos/situatedtechnologies

Cheers!
Dave