East Asia

Recreating pre-war Nagasaki in 3D, Ars Electronica 2009, and A Brief History of GPS Drawing

Audio: Play | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

I think the word “eclectic” would be a good way to describe this week’s podcast. Of course, “freaking cool” would also be another way to describe our stories this week. Rebecca Bray and Britta Riley, right, are a case in point. WTP’s own Cyrus Farivar ran into Britt and Rebecca at this year’s Ars Electronica 2009 festival in Linz, Austria. The theme for the festival this year is “Human Nature,” and it doesn’t get much more human or natural than, well, waste. Britt and Rebecca, you see, were in Linz to show people how to turn their urine into fertilizer. They’ve got a DIY system to do just that, and they’ll walk Cyrus, and you, through it on this week’s podcast. Oh, and if you think the urine to fertilizer story fits the Human Nature bill, wait until you hear the other story Cyrus unearths in Linz. It’s called The Earth Angel, and it’s proof that the need to go green has pushed into new territory. In this case, the erm, “adult sex toy” industry. Oh, let’s not be prudish. The Earth Angel is a wind-up vibrator. Cyrus and fellow tech reporter Sonja Bettel, an Austrian herself, give it (a very platonic) test run on the podcast.

A couple of podcasts ago, I told you about a cool project by some cyclists in San Francisco. They’re using GPS and other technologies to map out routes around San Francisco. Not just any routes, though. When they ride the route, the software draws that route on a map. The drawing, if done right, turns out to be, in this case, some well known Atari characters. In my excitement, I may have made it seem like this is something new. Not so, and long-time listener Brett Stalbaum let me know it. Brett teaches computers in the visual arts at UC-San Diego. So, I invited him on the podcast to give us the low-down on the great mash-ups between GPS and art. Brett’s done some really cool stuff himself, as you can see. Thanks to Brett for agreeing to be on the podcast, and for setting me straight.

And we end with the beginning of the podcast, actually. Reporter Akiko Fujita tells us about a student project at the University of Nagasaki. Students and their professors are collecting the memories of those who survived the U.S. atomic bomb strike in August of 1945. The idea is to recreate, in 3D, what the Urakami neighborhood of Nagasaki looked like before the war. Here’s the video I promised:

Remember, we’re on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed!