[spectre] Turbulence Commission: "My Beating Blog" by Yury Gitman

[Turbulence]

July 3, 2006
Turbulence Commission: "My Beating Blog" by Yury Gitman
with technical assistance from Benjamin Bacon
http://turbulence.org/works/beatingheart/blog/

"My Beating Blog" is an attempt to take the journaling aspect of blogging
into a surrealistic future in which the author literally and metaphorically
bares his heart. For three weeks, a series of posts contextualizing
heart-rate visualizations, GPS-maps, and personal journal entries will give
online users a rare entrance into personal medical-grade statistics,
stalker-level location tracking, and the private thoughts of the blogger.
Inevitably, issues regarding privacy, exhibitionism, and voyeurism playfully
emerge as the blogosphere is infused with biofeedback and location
technology. Rather than play into a dystopian or Orwellian future, blogs and
biofeedback are given poetic license, reframing our awareness of our own and
each others' beating hearts.

"My Beating Blog" is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts,
Inc. for its Turbulence web site. It is supported by the Jerome Foundation
in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the
valuable contributions of artists to society.

BIOGRAPHY

Yury Gitman is a designer, inventor, and award-winning artist. He has
exhibited at the Biennale of Electronic Arts, Perth, Australia; Isle de
France, Paris; Ars Electronics, Austria; and Eyebeam, among others, New York
City. Gitman was one of the first people to use the Internet from inside the
New York subway. He did this by employing a network of his "Magicbikes"
("wireless bicycle hotspots"). He was awarded the Ars Electronica Golden
Nica for Net Vision in 2003. In 2005 he opened Banana Design Lab, a product
design company focusing on lifestyle designs to entertain the soul.

Gitman has worked with non-profits such as NYCWireless, the Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council, and the Downtown Alliance to promote open Internet policy
and New Media Art practice in New York. He teaches an Electronic Toy Design
class in the Design Technology MFA program at the Parsons School of Design.
He received a Masters degree from New York University's Interactive
Telecommunication Program and a Bachelor of Science in Science, Technology,
and Culture from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Gitman's work has
featured in local, national, and international media including BBC, The New
York Times, Newsweek, NPR, New York 1 TV, Tech TV, CNET, ID Magazine,
Readymade, Village Voice, Adbusters, and Utne Reader.

Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org
New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856
Turbulence: http://turbulence.org
New American Radio: http://somewhere.org
Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog
Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade