Paul May's Blog
Recent Articles
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Thesis Weeks 1 & 2: Off to a Good Start
For my thesis at ITP I am collaborating on a design project with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world's leading centres for cancer research and treatment. My project is to to understand and design improvements/interventions related to bone marrow transplantation; one of the most challenging forms of cancer treatment currently available to patients. In the first of my weekly updates I've written a bit about how the collaboration came about, what I hope to achieve with the project, and what I've been doing in the last few weeks. -
Forever
Forever is an immersive experience for one person; created with Lily Szajnberg for the Recurring Concepts in Art class at ITP -
Pilot
A write-up of my final project for the DIY Health class at ITP. Pilot is a wearable device that gives swimmers real-time feedback on their form in the water, helping them to swim more efficiently. -
ITP Winter Show 2011
I have three projects in this year's ITP Winter Show; MetroChange - a charitable donation system that uses New York subway cards, Pilot - a wearable device that helps people swim more efficiently and Forever - an immersive experience for one person. -
Project Proposal: Swimming System
A project proposal for a self-care system that monitors a swimmer's form in the water and offers instant feedback. -
Alignment of Private, Personal and Public Data
An unexpected alignment of two data sets. -
Getting the Most from MetroCard
If you've ever visited or lived in New York City you'll be familiar with the MetroCard. These little cards are used by millions of people each day to access the subway and bus system. In this project, Stepan Boltalin, Genevieve Hoffman and I have broken apart the MetroCard pricing structure with some interesting results. Short version - don't buy the $10 MetroCard. -
Manfred Mohr: Réflexions sur une Esthétique Programmeé
A response to the Manfred Mohr retrospective "Réflexions sur une Esthétique Programmeé" at the Bitforms gallery in New York, written for the Recurring Concepts in Art class at ITP. -
DIY Health: Physical Geography
A few very quick sketches related to the idea that we don't really understand what happens inside our bodies and that information we receive about our bodies should encourage dialogue. -
Alain de Botton: On Pessimism
A response to Alain de Botton's talk "On Pessimism" at the School of Life in reference to some projects to design self-care and wellness systems/devices at ITP. -
Goodbye to IrishData.org
After 12 months of operation, I've decided to pull the plug on my homemade repository of Irish statistical data. It has been fun. -
Systems and Layers: Narrowing Focus
We observed Union Square. We thought about the people there, moving through the space. Now, we're narrowing our focus.
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Systems and Layers: Observing Union Square
I spent the morning observing a potential location for a new project. The location is at the North side of Union Square in New York. In the next couple of weeks I'll be working with Genevieve Hoffman and Stepan Boltalin to intervene in this location (or another location, should this one not prove hospitable) using networked technology. In this post I describe some of my observations from the exercise.
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Charles Leadbeater: Perspective
This talk by Charles Leadbeater floored me. It makes me want to push myself and to reconsider some comfortable perspectives. If you have 30 minutes to spare, maybe watch the talk and tell me what you think. -
Five Ethics For Design Research
Design research is not always necessary, but where it is necessary, I think it should be done ethically and fairly - in a way that gets to useful conclusions without hurting people. In this article I've tried to boil down my point of view down into 5 ethics for design research. -
Systems and Layers: Observing People
Today I continued my observation of the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Park Place and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. Last time, I was looking at objects around this intersection which interact with a network of some kind. Today, I was observing human activity; it was a fascinating exercise. -
Systems and Layers: Network
As part of the Systems & Layers: Urban Experience in the Network age I'm carrying out a series of close observations of an intersection in Brooklyn. Over the next few weeks I'll be looking at different layers of human activity - documenting what I find in advance of making some sort of intervention in this space. This week I'm looking at networked devices, and devices that communicate information to the street in some way. -
Fantasy Self-Monitoring Devices
This week in my DIY class health we were asked to sketch devices that could, at some point in the distant future, help monitor some aspect of our physiology or experience - fantasy self-monitoring devices. These are my quick sketches. -
Year 2 at ITP: A Quick Update
I am heading into my third week of year 2 at ITP, so it feels like a good time to stop, take a look around and talk about what's next. -
I Don’t Miss You, iPhone
We shared some great times, but things are so much simpler now. Let me explain. -
We Are Working On It
We are Working On It is a representation of 1.9 million scientific journal articles related to cancer research from 1980 to 2010, accompanied by audio interviews with researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. We Are Working On It was my final project for the Data Representation and Collective Storytelling classes at ITP. -
What’s Next - Why and So What
Thinking ahead to year two of ITP and the why and so what of my work. -
What’s Next - Process
Summer has been moving along nicely; my work at Frog is going well and I've started to turn my thoughts to the coming year at ITP. In this quick sketch I talk about something close to my heart; the process of design. -
Destinations
Destinations is a game of global travel and strategy designed by Steve Klise, Paul May, Natalie Be'er and Spike McCue as our final project the ITP Big Games class. -
TEDx: Data Representation and Personal Narratives
While I wait for the video from my TEDx talk to be edited (I'm told it'll be ready in a couple of weeks) I thought I'd post my own notes from the day. This text is basically the framework I talked around on the day - so it's likely to be a bit different from what I say on the video (this is code for "on the day I was very nervous and lost my way a bit"). The talk was about some of my own work to analyse and represent large sets of data as well as the process of data representation. -
Vito Acconci - Expression, Failure, Analysis, Refinement
Vito Acconci came to speak to us in September 2010. He is quite a character and even his early work is still provocative.
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Dennis Crowley - Just Build Stuff
Dennis came to speak to our class in September 2010 - his talk was really inspiring for me; keep making things, keep trying - even when people tell you you're crazy and/or wrong. -
Sharon Chang - If I Can Dream
I had to leave this talk a bit early to go to work (yes - that is actually why I left); apparently the Q&A got a little testy. I can see how that might have happened; Sharon Chang's work was cringe-inducing and her talk was drivel. Contemporaneous notes offered as proof.
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Douglas Rushkoff - Born Tripping
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Jaron Lanier - Genius
It's the end of year 1 at ITP; I am writing up work from this semester, and starting to reflect on the things that I've learned. First; Jaron Lanier is not insane - he is, in fact, a genius. -
Global Nuclear Proliferation
Global Nuclear Proliferation was a 5 day long augmented reality game created for the Big Games class at ITP. Four players race to aid/stop an international conspiracy to smuggle a package of dangerous nuclear secrets. -
30 Days of Earthquakes as Sound
Experiments in representing earthquake data as sound. -
Memory Palace
A short audio piece in response to visits to the Brooklyn Historical Society, The New York City Reliquary and the Tenement Museum. -
From Over Here
From Over Here is a physical representation of articles from the New York Times from 1992-2010. Each card represents a month of articles about, or related to Ireland. The size of the card represents the numbers of articles from that month. The people and topics mentioned in the articles are etched on each card. -
Cancer, AIDS. 1981-2010
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Portraits of Brooklyn’s Vietnam Veterans
Today we took a trip to the Brooklyn Historical Society's exhibition In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn's Vietnam Veterans. -
Cancer, AIDS, Malaria, Obesity
New York Times articles featuring the words cancer, AIDS, malaria or obesity from 1981-2010. -
simpleSlider
A little UI component (slider) built in Processing; a tiny part of a larger project I'm working on for Data Representation. -
Contactability as Probability
Mobile devices allow diverse groups of people from all along our social graph to contact us wherever we are, but offer only rudimentary ways for us to control our contactability (toggling between available or unavailable). As mobile devices play a bigger and bigger role in our lives, I believe we'll need to add more control/granularity to this experience. In this sketch I propose a more probabilistic way to manage contactability - a kind of semi-permeable barrier with rules we can tweak and change to suit our lifestyles. Contactability as probability. -
Audio Story: Swimming
This week in Collective Storytelling we were asked to make a short piece of audio that tells a story in three parts. Mine is called Swimming. -
Big Cynical Games
A lot of the talk about games makes me queasy. -
The End of Format
This week for my Evolution of Post-Print Media Class we were asked to discuss a trend affecting the "traditional media industry" (yes, that old chestnut). I've chosen to write about the end of format; the fragmentation of the ways in which we gain access to information, analysis and entertainment. This isn't a subject I have massively clear thoughts on (foreshadowing vagueness). -
Failing Completely at the Hourly Comic
Today I was *supposed* to draw a comic each hour I was awake based on the previous hour. I failed - pretty comprehensively. -
Shaking off the Rust - Data Representation
This week I've been working on a few experiments to represent the names and, in some cases, family relationships between the current and past members of Ireland's parliament the Dáil. -
Big Games - Headrush
Big Games - Headrush from Paul May on Vimeo.
A game for 4-52 people, created in 20 minutes for the Big Games class at ITP. Take a card, stick it on your head and organise into suits without talking or (obvious) gesturing. A lot of fun :) -
The Wisdom of Crowds
An exercise in collective guesswork in Jer Thorp's class on Data Representation. -
Collective Storytelling - 6 Word Story
A short story in 6 words, written for Collective Storytelling class with Marianne Petit. -
Collective Storytelling - 55 Word Story
A short story in 55 words, written for my (will I get into the class, won't I get into the class) Collective Storytelling class with Marianne Petit. -
Abacus
A little bit of digging into one following the publication of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). -
Dinosaurs No More: Newspapers Evolve
Traditional media outlets are floundering because they’ve forgotten what once made them great: efficient distribution of compelling information (with a sprinkling of advertisement thrown in for good measure). For some titles like Guardian and the New York Times, the ship is slowly starting to turn. (Originally written in March 2009 over on the Front blog) -
The Value of Information
Noodling on the value of information to a political process. -
Terracotta Warriors, Dublin, 1987
Today was my first (and possibly last) class in Interpretive Exhibition Design with David Harvey; head of exhibits at the American Natural History Museum and Senior Exhibition Designer at the Metropolitan Museum.
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Photo+
Photo+ is a system designed to extend the capabilities of printed photographs. With Photo+ you can record the stories and feelings evoked by your printed photographs. At any time in the future, you can retrieve these stories using the Photo+ kiosk or a mobile device. Photo+ was created for the Intro to Physical Computing class at ITP.
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Lost Generations
The number of people on the Live Register in Ireland for the month of August 2010. Each figure represents 100 people. -
Value is Relative
The average price of new and second hand homes in Ireland in Euros. Prices are represented as a percentage of the maximum value seen in the period; i.e. if a price is the maximum price seen since 1980 the period it is 100% white.
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Money for Nothing
The value in millions of Euros of house loans approved in Ireland, per quarter, since 1980. -
10 in 10 - Big Games
I've just heard that I got into the Big Games class at ITP; which is exciting. I am going to spend the next 10 minutes funneling that excitement into 10 ideas I could explore in the class. Ready? Go! -
While at the Museum
We visited Washington DC last week; it was a lot of fun - our first Thanksgiving in the US. While we were there we visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (which is outstanding), and I made a few notes about the ways people interacted with the exhibits; it was quite interesting.
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ICM - Final Project Proposal
A summary of my work in the last four weeks to deliver an API of useful Irish data, then visualise that data - and a few notes on what's left to be done. -
Photo Plus - Video Prototype
A very quick video prototype of my final project for the intro to Physical Computing class at ITP. More information on the project is over here.
Archives
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Paul May is a designer and UX consultant from Dublin, Ireland; he is currently a student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Feel free to email him directly (or you can use the contact form). You can also get him on twitter or flickr. Paul enjoys writing in the third person.