I express myself through my art...MAN!

The creativity is still flowing!  I have been interested in the Concept of "cloud computing" lately so I teamed up with my college Eric Fitton and we created this 3D visual representation.  I think its pretty awesome because 1) its low tech (No batteries needed) AND 2) the creative process took me back to my youth as a Lego maniac.

Cloud computing is concept of doing all of your work and play through the internet.  It focuses heavily on the idea of NOT storing anything on a personal computer.  All files/media/information is stored in the "cloud" that represents the internet.  Basically, it means that you store your photos on Flickr, your documents on Google Docs, your social life on Facebook, and you thoughts/opinions are on Blogger.  The great thing about mobile computing is its versatility.  You can access everything you want from any internet capable location on the globe.  It doesn't even matter if you are using a computer!  You could use a smart phone or any other internet ready device.  The bad thing is that security and infrastructure could potentially cause problems .  IF a server went down you could potentially lose everything that is important to you and that can be a very scary thing.  Tis is especially scary because you don't have any real control of the servers that you are putting your faith in.  I don't know the people who manage Flickr but I am trusting them to run their site effectively so that I can continue to enjoy their services.  This also raises security issues.  Cloud computers such as myself are relying on various companies to do a good job of keeping identity theives and internet predators away from our must sensitive information.  I personally trusting Mark Zuckerberg to keep my email address and birthday away from spammers.

So how does my tinker toy creation depict all of these complex ideas?  Well lets start from the bottom.  At the base of the creation is a newspaper picture of a very larger crowd.  This crowd represents internet using population of the world.  Its a BIG group and most of them utilize some sort of cloud computing during their cyber journeys.  The tinker toy structure represents the populations connection to the internet.  If you notice, the tinker toy structure raises up off of the newspaper and that is because Erik and I visualize the cloud as a very three dimensional concept that.  Also you may notice that there are multiple tinker toy legs connecting the population to the internet.  Theses different connections represent people's work computers, home/personal computers, smart phones, iTouch, etc. Also, you can clearly see a very radical looking Lego vehicle at the bottom of the structure.  This vehicle represents the mobility that cloud computing offers.  A person can use their home computer, their work computer, or even a mobile device while they are in transit between home and work.  At the top of the tinker toy structure there is a pile of spider webs which represent "The web" aka the Internet.  If you look closely, you will notice that the webs are not secured very well to the tinker toys.  This had to do withe fragility of the whole structure.  Their are hackers and predictors who could possibly tear down, abuse, or destroy the whole cloud computing infrastructure and cause a lot of head aches.