Rachael Brown & Nadja Cada Mouse Hack

'Love Your Enemies'

This project was inspired by the great baptist minister, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr and his speech 'Love Your Enemies' delivered on November 17th 1957.

His speech spoke of the basic philosophy of the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. This inspired us to look at the conflicts of the world today and how the words of Martin Luther King Jr. have not seem to had an effect after 54 years.

Our objective was to create a system that showed the issues of today that contrasted with Martin Luther King Jr. Speech 'Love Your Enemies'.

Together we developed two lever controlled podiums that interacted with a video montage we created as well.The video montage was composed of videos that dealt with the following conflicts/subject manner that have occurred between the years of 2009 to 2011:

- Afganistan War
- Terrorist booming at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia
- Protest in Bangkok, Thailand
- North Korea Warfare
- Kyrgyz ethic riots
- Rioting in Xinjiang Urumqui
- Kyrgyzstan riots
- G 20 Protest
- Protest in Egypt
- Gaza war

The video montage that you are first presented with is a black and white version of our video montage to make it seem it was of past wars.The podiums constructed activated the left and right click of the hacked mouse. When the left and right click were pushed together the video montage would change into its original colour state. Also when either podium is activated a light would be turned on as well to indicate the switch was activated.

The object of this project was to create a environment where corporation is necessary for the project to work.

Mouse Hack

Dean Park and Michelle Hua

Here is short clip of what our project looks like.

The intention of our project was to illustrate the revival of a teddy bear who is most certainly at the end of it's life. We started by manipulating the mouse - we extended the left click into two points that change the video being shown on the screen between an EKG flat line and a beating heart. The closed circuit can be achieved by placing the "paddles" on the bear's little wire "heart" which calls the beating heart video to start.

Enjoy!

Tamara's Touch and Immersion Project

For the past year I have been volunteering at the Toronto General Hospital and it has given me a new perspective on medicine. Working in the visitor's waiting room I have gotten to know patients indirectly through their family members and other visiting contacts. In this project I attempt to shed a new light on the patient. Instead of focusing the medical procedure, I highlighted the person (their memories, their places of origin, their family and loved ones) lying on the operating table. My reason for focusing on this subject stems from the dehumanizing approach by medical professionals. It is very common for doctors to neglect the beliefs and unique ways of life in favor of solving a physiological symptom. The result being that patients miss out of the psychological and spiritual healing process. In my project I had participants perform an operation on a faceless patient. Using an adapted mouse, they explored the inner abdominal cavity. When they pushed a shutter release button that extended out from the interior, different backgrounds of the patient were revealed. My artistic aim is to lead the way in developing a more holistic medical practice. One that is more sensitive to the idiosyncratic needs of each patient.

Rola's Mouse Hack

Description:

This project represents the difficulty of taking big decisions in our lives and how each decision has the power of changing our paths. Each door symbolizes a choice. According to what a person chooses by trying to open the doors, it will start playing a different audio. The first door from the left will play a sound of ocean and birds, which reveal that the person will have a calm and a happy life. The middle door will represent a lost life full with fear. The last one shows that the person will live a mind gaming life full with gambling, which will lead to losing everything he/she has.

Technical Use:

The three buttons in a mouse were extended and attached to a switch in the end of each extended button, which was attached to a door handle.

Here is the link for the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRraRf8jDwY

Mouse hack assignment by Nicole and Karen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifTchOZ576Y

Mouse hack assignment
Handshakes are used when meeting another person, closing a deal, or congratulating someone. However, originally handshakes were used to prove a person does not have weapons when meeting another party. Today this practice is not prominent, but weapons and war affect adults and children everywhere in the world. Mahatma Gandhi said, “if we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” Unfortunately, at present millions of children involved in wars and violence.
In our project we have taken the idea of a handshake to symbolize war and peace in the lives of children in any country. We took two pairs of gloves, one pair of gloves with the black strip represents war and another pair with the white strip represents peace. We created a processing code that plays a nursery rhyme “ The Grand Old Duke of York” which is a nursery rhyme about the war.
When two users interact by putting on a pair of gloves with the white strips and shake hands, “The Grand Old Duke of York” nursery rhyme begins to play in an upbeat tune and children’s laughter in the background can be heard. When users put the gloves with the black strips and shake hands the same nursery rhyme begins to play but in a depressing manner and children’s screaming in the background can be heard.
The rhyme is used to show that children don’t understand war, whether they are in a country like Canada or in a war torn country .

Nancy Johnson & Shea Al-Khair's Mouse-hack project

This project was constructed through a mechanism where the mouse used to play a birthday musical video by pressing a birthday card attached to the hacked mouse, using processing code to turn the mouse to a switch. Beside celebrating message of the Beatles' song played in this appropriated video clip, there is another warning message that ended the video; a portend into the future of drinking and driving . During the critique; the project didn’t operate due to a malfunction of the mechanic connection between the mouse and the birthday card.

Oscar's (slowly documented) Digital Self Portrait

Here a physical representation of my inner person. Although it does not represent every part of me, it does present a major aspect of my personality; Nerddom. Crafted from playstation controllers, 3d glasses and a small speaker, this little guy embodies what i believe to be my nerd side. Its audio is a composition of many different sound clips from science fiction and fantasy tv and video games, which when heard by people like me will remind them of the things they love. My own voice has a small role, in the form of Chewbacca's trademark roar. This represents the part of me that loves quoting and imitating these movies and video games, and knowing that the people I am with understand exactly what I am talking to (either with pride or shame).