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The Department of Amphibological Research is now open for submissions!

Here at the Department of Amphibological Research, we take image recognition on new expeditions in the natural world and tease out the limits of artificial intelligence. We invite you to collaborate with our team by providing new inspiration for our amphibological experiments.

How to get involved:

Submit a specimen for analysis by photographing something in your environment and running it through an AI image recognition software (like this or this e.g.) and sending us the results. We’ll use these to create new amphibological studies for the archive.

As a token of our appreciation, you’ll receive one of our snazzy official patches (below) and a credit on the site!

Additionally, we’d love to hear from participants that have expertise in machine learning and any artists interested in creating amphibological drawings.

Yours in ambiguity,

Pamela + Matteo

Dept of Amphibological Research

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AUV flyby

flyby.mpeg 

Minor change of plans: instead of running a mission (list of waypoints), the AUV was programmed to swim laps at minimal depth; this way it would always remain in visual contact from the kayak.  This change was needed because the acoustic tracker broke and lost a channel (became mono) so was useless for tracking.  Given the strong currents and murky waters I felt this was prudent.

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Brian Huang

Dates: June 8 – June 18

Education Engineer / Founding Center Director @HackSchool

My Project:  I have so many ideas!  My project will likely center around data collection and data visualization. As a math / science / engineer, I’m always curious about setting up distributed networks of data sensors. My plan is to create a network of temperature, humidity, pressure, and light sensors to distribute around the jungle and create a data visualization that can become a learning module for my class. I’m also curious about setting up a camera trap to see what kinds of wildlife we can capture. I’ll be bringing our my standard hack-pack of sensors, microcontrollers, etc… If you’re interested in collaborating, let me know!

My Why (About me…): For the past five years, I was the Education Engineer for SparkFun Electronics, an open-source electronics education company. I started my career as an electrical engineer. After 8 years working in the industry, I fell in love with teaching and working with students. I left engineering to pursue a second career as an educator, earned my Masters in Education at CU Boulder, and worked as a high school teacher for 5 years teaching physics, engineering, and mathematics.

My hobbies / interests: I love running, exploring, climbing, baking, gardening, cooking, and just building stuff.

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Biobang! 0001 – Khan+Quitmeyer with Pearl Ryder, Craig Durkin, + Gus (feat DJ Dez)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week’s podcast we discuss cells, snakes, ecosystem, foraging technology, and merperson tinder dating.

Hosts:

Tasneem Khan

Andy Quitmeyer

Featuring:

Pearl Ryder,  Craig Durkin, and Gus

Music by:

Dj Dez (https://dezmediah.bandcamp.com/album/beep-boop)

and JPOM (https://jpom.bandcamp.com/)

You can also get it on itunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/biobang-the-digital-naturalism-podcast/id1393912055

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An Underwater Studio Practice

Hannah Perner-Wilson (+C, KOBAKANT)

During my 7 days at DiNaCon I want to build myself wearable studio gear that will allow me to go into the ocean to spend time there fishing for materials, diving for details, weaving with water and etching salty circuits in my datasheet-swimwear.

By trying to realize this unlikely combination of moving to stay afloat while moving to make, I want to see if I can dive deeper into the experience of what it means to be able to “make while moving through the world”.

Precisely because this endeavor may sound silly, it appeals to me. I have hopes that by distancing myself from reason – in this case “reasonable modes of making” – I can create an opening in the fabric of optimized experience to slip through and experience the other side. Looking back at our lives shaped by optimized experience I might catch a glimpse of something one can only see from underwater.

Underwater Studio Practice sketches
Underwater Studio Practice sketches
Underwater Studio Practice sketches
Underwater Studio Practice sketchesUnderwater Studio Practice sketches

A Wearable Studio Practice
This work is a continuation of my Wearable Studio Practice, a project I started after returning from an expedition with Andy in Madagascar in 2015. Since then I’m becoming ever more interested in applying my skills as an e-textile craftsperson to explore “making as a means of experiencing the world”.

Join me!
I have no idea where this initial idea for A Swimming Studio Practice will take me, but if it appeals to you, or if it does not, feel welcome to join.
Since I probably can’t spend all my time in the water, I will also be very interested to observe and study other people’s “dry studio practices”. Collecting ideas ideas and sharing these with you. If you would like me to follow you around for the day to study how you work in the wild, let me know, I would love to.

* * *

An Underwater Studio Practice lead me to write this tale of Crochetteering:
>>> https://www.dinacon.org/2018/07/24/crochetteering-a-tale-of-fishy-innovation/

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DinaSound is live!

Pearl Ryder is a cell biologist who came to DinaCon with the goal to explore the natural world to revitalize her life as a biologist and to learn more about creating audio stories. She has created DinaSound to collect her stories and sounds of the jungle. So far you can listen to an audio diary and a fun conversation about weaver ants. Stay tuned for interviews with participants and lots of “stumbled upon” conversations at DinaCon!

Follow Pearl on Twitter @pearl_ryder for more stories from DinaCon and glimpses into the life of a scientist in training.

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Hiking Hacks: Designing Interactive Systems Paper – Andy Quitmeyer

During our Digital Naturalism Conference, I will actually have to go full-on meta-conference  and present my research about the workshop model for Hiking Hacks at DIS 2018

http://dis2018.org/111-sessions-tuesday.html

Here is a full “pre-print” downloadable copy of the paper i will present

DIS_Hikinghacks_Revised_Final_PREPRINT

 

Hiking Hacks: Workshop Model for Exploring Wilderness Interaction Design (Preprint) – Andrew Quitmeyer by Andrew Quitmeyer on Scribd

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Vanessa Rosa

Dates: June 5 – June 26

Vanessa Rosa is a Brazilian visual artist and art historian. She creates projects that mixtures public art, community activities, technological experiments and historical research, usually having painting as her main medium. Currently she has been developing a research about ethnocomputing/ethnomathematics, studying the algorithms embedded in traditional arts from worldwide cultures. Vanessa has worked as project coordinator for different organizations and is an illustrator and art director for Viajante do Tempo publishing company, being one of the company’s owners. She has done mural paintings, residencies, exhibitions and other projects in different countries across South and North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

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Rupesh Bhattarai

Dates: June 3rd-June 14th

Project: Rupesh will be working on a children’s’ storybook project. The storybook features true stories of local individuals in Kathmandu working in technology.

Bio: Rupesh is an educator and a writer living in Kathmandu.
A primary school classroom is one of his most favorite places to be in. Rupesh started reading child magazines in kindergarten, developed a love for writing in the second grade, an unquenchable awe and enthusiasm to learn science when he was a fourth grader.
His interests have pushed him to become an educator working to foster modern thinking skills in his students through STEAM education, with “Karkhana”.
He is a part of the “Word Warriors”, a local spoken word poetry community in Kathmandu. He performs in local poetry gigs, and experiments with different aspects of poetry with “Kavindrapur”, a little poetry collaborative that he co-founded.