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Ben Hamley
I am passionate about creativity, cognitive science, education and technology.
I specialise in not specialising.
Let's dance
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Posts
- May 10, 12
Pictured above – Anatomical Neon by Jessica Lloyd-Jones
http://www.jessicalloyd-jones.com/page19.htmIt’s called ‘The Cloud’ and its an experiment using Brain-Computer Interfaces to augment a physical space. I’ve become more interested in places over the last few years, particularly from a technological point of view. I’m particularly interested in how places and spaces will develop in the coming years as ubiquitous computing catches up to device based / cloud computing.
The concept for ‘The Cloud’ came together while I was researching the origin and evolution of ideas. One of the first and most obvious metaphoric influences is a term that’s been getting bashed in creative circles since the 50s – Brainstorming.
Influence #1 – A Brainstorm
The term ‘brainstorm’ was first brought into popular vernacular in 1953 by Alex F. Osborn (the O of the BBDO agency) only three short years after J.P Guilford’s presidential address to the American Psychological Association (1950) set tone for serious investigation into creativity. Osborn was an advertising executive, developing methods for creative thinking that hinged on two core principles; “defer(ing) judgement” and “reach(ing) for quantity”.
The result of a brainstorm is usually a collection loosely related ideas, fragments – all collected in one place for everyone to build on, add to, refine and develop into something new.
Influence #2 – Memory
“It is not possible to demonstrate the isolated localization of a memory trace anywhere within the central nervous system….” (Karl Lashly, 1950).
In our everyday life today, we deal with memory in two very distinctive ways. Our own, mental memories, and computer memory.
Our senses inform us of the detail in the world around us. Coupled with a complex biological system, these ‘raw inputs’ are contextualised by our mood, mental health and sometimes the quality of food we ate last night. These contextual markers leave impressions on our memories, filing them in our brain more like a story than a single file.
A complex series of connections, fragmented and spanning many regions of our brain. This ‘rub-off ’ is not isolated only to memories ‘going in’ and we often vividly remember a moment in our life while smelling an old cologne, or while walking down a street we used to live on.
Although neurobiology has made great advances in understanding the interaction of neurons within the brain, our fragile, vulnerable and living system of memory is still only loosely understood.
In contrast, computer based memories and stored files have traditionally been a system of indexing and journaling. Data is stored in a specific location, and a basic understanding of information architecture (folder systems, etc) is all that is required to able to retrieve them (as a user, using a device).
Over the last two decades, our lives have become increasingly connected with devices and mobile computing. As our businesses and our personal archives become evermore digital, our familiarity with computer memory has become symbiotically intwined with the ‘way‘ we now think.
Cloud Computing and its related services (hosting, file storage, etc) – in particular, Apple’s iCloud – has propelled this distinction between the computer memory and the biological system, allowing access to files across multiple platforms without distinctively ‘putting’ a file somewhere to collect later.
Everything revolves around the context in which it is used.
Access has become the first active ‘sense’ that computers use to store our digital memories. ‘The Cloud’ has another implication for our digital evolution – most of us don’t even know where it is. Unlike our brain – easily located between our neck and pillow – the cloud may store our information in a variety of physical and virtual locations.
As technology progresses towards ubiquitous computing technology, these ‘memory places’, the devices they service, and consequently us; the users, are becoming more closely intertwined.
The Hook?I am interested in using a real-time interaction between a human memory system (a brain – or mind, depending on your point of view) and a computer system, to see what comes from it.
The Cloud will – quite literally – become ‘a cloud‘ of digital memories, experiences, thoughts, emotions and interactions at The Edge.
The sculpture will converge as it approaches the entrance and foyer area, at its heart will be a Brain-computer Interaction (BCI) device. One of either the Emotiv EPOC or Neurosky Mind Wave
The brain activity recorded via will be programmed into the audio-visual and lighting elements of the sculpture using Arduino interactive-ware.
Over the coming months, I’ll be conducting some experiments in at The Edge on Thursday afternoons.
Feel free to pop in and plug your head into a computer – literally!
- May 09, 12
I’ve had a few people ask me ‘what exactly is a meme‘ recently.
Remember the ‘Shit ### people say’ videos?
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” as a description for a “self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.” They’re transmitted from mind to mind through writing, speech, gesture, ritual, or other means which can be imitated, replicated, mutated and implemented.
(Lifted from http://emergentbydesign.com/2012/05/03/birth-of-a-meme-the-rise-of-culture-tech/)
And if you have a little more time
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Hopefully that clears it up….
- Apr 25, 12
If you’re a bit of a mind-tech junky, you might have already seen the first reference in this piece. It is a study published towards the end of last year, by Shinji Nishimoto who undertook the intense task of attempting to recreate the activity within the visual cortex of the brain while it viewed a number of short videos. In other words – put the vision you just experienced back together, based on the activity in your brain.
Nishimoto, Shinji (11/10/2011). ”Reconstructing Visual Experiences from Brain Activity Evoked by Natural Movies”. Current biology , 21 (19), p. 1641.
Today, I discovered the photography of Pip Ventosa who’s ‘Collective Snapshot’ series. It rang a very similar bell. These are all real photographs, layered on top of each other until a somewhat blurry by no less distinctive vision of a famous landmark emerges.
The Hook?In Nishimoto’s study, the central issue seemed to be one of resolution, among an almost inexpressible number of technical barriers in the use of fMRI and motion-energy encoding. But looking at Ventosa’s work, I can’t help but think perhaps the visual cortex is busier than we give it credit for… if the act of seeing involves even the minute possibility of invoking a memory… perhaps we’re seeing more than we think when we look at our visual cortex ‘in the act’
- Jul 29, 11
I’m working on a public art project in Brisbane, Australia at the moment. We’ve been commissioned to breath new life into a series of urban thoroughfares that have recently fallen into a rather uninspiring state; Half ‘antigraffiti orange’, half hundred year old concrete bridge.
This week we’ve been on location, collecting information about how these places are used and by whom. It’s not been easy, but it has been rather promising. Almost every vistor doesn’t not stop unless they’ve dropped something – or need to tie their shoes. If we get just one person to stop after we finish – that’s a 100% improvement!
I’m interested in the significance of developing these places; for locals, tourists and the identity of the area. I’m curious about these in-between places, places that people don’t normally stop for – but sometimes pause in. In France, there is one particular example of these pause places; in Dijon. Along Rue de la chouette (Owl Street) there is – surprise – an Owl. This sculpted owl, no bigger than the size of an average hand span has become a thing of myth and local folklore. It is believed to bring good-luck to any passer by; simply if they rub the owl with their left hand while making a wish.
Testament to this belief is the Owl’s appearance….
La Chouette; ‘The Owl’ is a small carving, etched out of one flying buttresses of the Nortre Dame Cathedral in Dijion, France. It is believed to be either the trademark of a master stonemason or the cathedral’s architect – I’m not ruling out old old old school street art though… and – there appears to be no definitive source of information on the origin of this tiny sculpture – however I’m still looking…
I’m curious about these tiny adjustments – these seemingly insignificant additions to a public place that can turn walking to work into something a little more enchanting and memorable.
More of La Chouette here:
- Jul 26, 11
I’m interested in serendipity ~ the experience of stumbling upon something of immense value, in an unexpected or seemingly irrelevant place. I also quite like the word too – despite the ice-cream magnetized movie by the same name.
This moment of inspired discovery has long been revered in the uncontrollable realm of fate and luck, even it’s word suggests something of a magical quality. But increasingly, serendipity is creeping into our day to day lives in a number of different ways. Apple, Netflix and Amazon are a couple of widely cited examples; offering their users recommendations based on previous purchasing decisions and user records. The value of this is fairly self-explanatory – but analytical recommendations are still confined to logical reasoning; if you liked that, then you’ll like this.
In a slightly less enchanting way – insurance companies are hard at work trying to analyse the likelihood of your serendipitous encounters with their bottom lines
The problem is… Human’s aren’t calculators
I’m interested in curating serendipity. I want to know what the conditions that turn a seemingly random encounter into something ultimately valuable are. I’m curious to see whether it is possible to put in place guides or structure that promote these serendipitous encounters.
At the heart of this idea is value. How it’s created, and what people get from it. But I believe that real serendipity is something a little more than just value. It relies on an understanding of what direction you’re travelling in at the time of the encounter, a sticky problem at work, perhaps even a idea that you’ve had bubbling away for a new flavour of ice cream.
Real serendipity is a deep seated idea, hunch or feeling responding to external stimulus that may have existed in your network for years, but you seemed to just bump into it by chance. We always know serendipity once we’ve encountered it, but predicting it is something of a grey area.
However it does push the case that if we know it when we see it, serendipity is essentially visual. We experience serendipity, because suddenly connected the dots between our sticky problem, and our random chance encounter.
But - if our brains are essentially just awesome pattern detectors - the idea of serendipity becomes even less enchanting (maybe we are calculators after all)
So – can you curate it?
Discovr use a recommendation style with a twist – the added feature being a visual network that links up your recommendations in a glance-able and scalable way; stronger connections, tight knit clusters.
At a more structural level – behind the scenes – PageRank and it’s cousin EdgeRank are constantly plotting out the relevance of our enquiries and relationships, a good visual example (though not as practical) is LinkedIn’s In Maps. Beyond that – PeerIndex, Klout and others are working away at understanding the way we share as nodes in our networks. Soon we’ll be meeting Likeness a subjective search engine.
But does understanding what we share, with whom and how frequently get us any closer to showing us exactly what we didn’t know we were looking for?
I believe that curating serendipity is about enabling people to see the connections between their interests, ideas, exisiting work, relationships and resources – and connect the dots for themselves, a few steps ahead. Serendipity factors might one day become part of scenario planning?
I’m curious about the impact curating serendipitous encounters will have on inspiration and productivity. If we can curate it, will we all be better off? Or ultimately distracted in a permanent spin-cycle of discovery?
- Jun 17, 11
Welcome. This is not my first blog – however – it’s not a very new blog either. This is a result of a few interests of mine; futures, creative intelligence and social business. I’ve only recently found the motivation to start curating this blog in the way I originally intended. I’ve been toying around with it for so long that I almost forgot to start doing it.
So here we go – let’s begin shall we.
What is a Hook?
- A Hook has got the capacity to catch you (or your imagination)
- A Hook is usually a good indication that there is a change in direction coming
- Good Hooks are usually out of place (in the water – not the tackle box)So what?
I’m very interested in these hooks, I believe they offer some insight into the way things are shaping up in our immediate sphere of possibilities. This site will be a record of the ones I find interesting enough to share. If they’ve caught my attention – chances are they might have caught yours too.Enjoy!
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Tweets
- Wack... #illusion http://t.co/BX9TI60P
- @Lissy_Phillips next weekend... Checkout my mans-bestmans friend! http://t.co/gREDc2Yk
- “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” —Albert EinsteinMay 18, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- I just earned the Nice Listener badge on @khanacademy http://t.co/6G83H62Q
- You've gone too far scientists http://t.co/nV3ffGNm cc @hsm_ausMay 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Introducing the Google Knowledge Graph http://t.co/mHyPT20oMay 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Hovering over the 'on' toggle for my Vacation Auto-Responder.... 48hrs leftMay 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- May 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- I've often wondered how many people are born on which day... http://t.co/QnGpZPcOMay 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- My @Streak is broke... anything wrong with your servers or is my gmail just freaking out?May 16, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Interesting / Cool http://t.co/a1t5KYCJMay 15, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- You don't resolve conflict by starting your argument with "you should've"
- Check out WKENDRS | Where do you want to go? http://t.co/82xDvWap
- aawwwwww!!! Dammmn! http://t.co/qWytVuP2May 13, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @jhouseparty this mix into 'business time' is the exact same as last week #weak
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Speaking
- Speaking
Ben is one of the Foundation for Young Australians 'Young Social Pioneers' for 2011. He is an advocate for engaging young people in the development of solutions for social issues and has eclectic professional experience including fine arts, integrated marketing and communications and interactive entertainment.
He is an engaging and energetic speaker and can present talks on a variety of topics including:
- Creativity & Culture
- Leadership and Social Action
- Technology Futures
- Strategic vs Tactical Foresight
- Social Media & Engagement
Ben is also an experienced workshop facilitator and specialist in using Human-Centred Design and Design Thinking processes to engage audiences of all ages.Contact Ben via the contact form or:
ben.hamley@gmail.com
+61 (0)401 396 485
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Photos
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Info
- SummaryI would like to preface this by saying; I have never had a particular job in mind to be the cornerstone of my career. My mission in life is to promote the understanding and integration of creativity in society.
In doing this, I wish to see a new form of education emerge that is based in economically sustainable and collaborative work. As a result, I wish to live in a world where sustainable business can flourish, and citizens enjoy a life which is not delineated by work vs personal boundaries. I believe that this is 'a big ask' -but at least its a fun one.
To achieve this mission, I am committed to continually challenging young people and using real world issues to develop their skills. My key rolls in this mission are as:
A Catalyst: I actively support and integrate new work into the direction of changing trends
A Communicator: I enjoy sharing a vision and message with a broad team and stakeholders
An Experimenter: I often work with new teams and test new approaches.
I am also interested in demonstrating how the examination of entertainment offers new avenues for studies of culture with a particular concern in developing new paths for interdisciplinarity.Experience- Nov 2011 - PresentStrategic Advisor / JosephmarkBen (B2) is the man with the plan. Having recently set up the (triple-faculty) Entertainment Industries degree for QUT, B2 spends his time at JM developing kick-ass creative strategies for clients and internal projects alike. As well as indulging in the very civilised pursuits of playing chess, reading philosophy texts and smoking a pipe, B2 yearns for a library of leather-bound books. His ultimate life goal, however, is to be a 'Mufasa-like' role model for his future children. Awww.
Education-
2008 - 2008Queensland University of TechnologyGraduate Certificate of Business in Integrated Marketing Communications
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2004 - 2006Queensland University of TechnologyBachelors of Fine Arts in Technical Production
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1999 - 2003Coorparoo Secondary CollegeSenior School Certificate
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:Creative Intelligence, Thinking, Digital Strategy
