Today, I published a piece on #drones for @conversationUK, which explores some of the new applications that are emerging and which were showcased at the Drones for Good international prize in the UAE last weekend. Here's the piece in full.
On 10th Feb, I will be the MC for an event run by the @UKTI in Paris looking tagged #FutureCity2015. In relation to this, I was asked also to make a film that would open the event, focusing discussion around new opportunities and foregrounding a number of technological changes to cities that are imminent.
Here it is:
The event is principally for business and will look like this.
09:30 Welcome by His Excellency Sir Peter Ricketts
British Ambassador to France
09:40 Current opportunities in France
Caroline Maurand, French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
10:05 Focus on the Grand Paris Project
Serge Dupont, Société du Grand Paris
10:20 Current opportunities in the UK
Dan Byles MP
10:45 Focus on London Regeneration Projects
Sue Vincent, Urban Design London
11:00 Coffee Break and Networking
11:30 Inspiring Case Studies in the UK:
Introduction to the Greenwich Automated Transport Environment (GATEway) project
Pierre Lefèvre, Greenwich GATEway project
Value from the Work of Many Hands
David Roberts, Igloo Regeneration
Paris-London – communicating vessels?
Michel Mossessian, Mossessian & Partners
12:15 Inspiring Case Studies in France:
French Placemaking British style – a collaborative hands-on approach
Kathryn Anderson, Barton Willmore
Grand Lyon
Gilles Vesco , Grand Lyon
The FFR Grand Stade – An urban catalyst
François Clément, Populous UK
13:00 Networking Lunch
14:00 Pre-arranged 20 minutes one to one B2B meetings between
French and British companies until 17:00
This month, I will have been using the photo sharing platform @Flickr for 10 years, posting nearly 1,000 photos per year. For a while, Flickr seemed to lose pace, as other new photo mobile applications like Instagram and even Twitter image came about. However, for a big screen, high-res photo experience, it is still the most beautiful place to visit and I am still 100% behind it. Here is a journey through that decade, with a few highlight images.
2004: At the Athens 2004 Olympic Games with my awesome friend Martin Yelling, athlete, commentator, genius.
2005: The Long March to Freedom, part of the Make Poverty History campaign, Edinburgh
2006: Who's Who in the World? Me, apparently lol
2007: No Nano, Grenoble - while there on a project about nanotechnology :)
2008: Human Futures at FACT, Yann Marrusich, Bleu Remix
2009: De Militarized Zone, Korea
2010: The Reactable, a curious musical instrument, used by Bjork
2011: Christchurch, New Zealand, after the quake
2012: The Scissor Sisters play the Tower of London, around London 2012
2013: West Kirby, home
2014: Sochi 2014 Olympic Games
2015: Rae Morris, Liverpool
Last night, I went along to shoot Rae Morris' first gig in her UK tour, which launches her debut album. It was an extraordinary night and she's clearly going places. A huge treat was also to hear Fryars, who are phenomenal, quirky, and all kinds of interesting. Here are some shots from the night.
Today, I am giving a talk at the #BETT2015 Show in London and also participating in a panel on social media in education. It's a huge event and I've never been before, so it will be fun to discover what it's all about. It's still early days for the Internet of Things in education, so there's a lot to talk about and I'll post slides here at the end of the day, summarising my talk and some of the discussions.
Tomorrow, I am compèring the Digital Utopias conference, an event curated by @ANDfestival and produced by @GoogleUK @ACE_NAtional @Hull2017 @theSpaceArts and @BritishCouncil It's an extraordinary programme. Here's the brief:
Digital Utopias is a one-day conference which will inspire and incite debate about how new technologies are enabling creativity across the arts. The conference aims to capture topical and diverse approaches to curation, archiving, collecting and creating from a range of art forms, from the visual arts to theatre.
The event will provide an opportunity to discuss new tools and emergent practice, whilst delegates will connect with international arts organisations and specialists in the field to unpick the creative and critical challenges facing organisations today.
and here's the programme:
Morning Sessions
Sessions in the main theatre will be compèred by Prof Andy Miah.
10:00-10:20
Welcome from Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair, Arts Council England and James Davis, Programme Manager, Director, Google Cultural Institute
Main Theatre
10:30-12:00
Debate: After the future
Main theatre
After the future examines how art is changing in the digital age and how new behaviours and systems are emerging in the creation, exhibition, interpretation and dissemination of art. Through sharing recent and historical examples, the panel will examine the challenges of classifying a growing and chaotic field. Asking questions such as; What are the practical challenges and values, which should inform the future? And how can our media art history inform the sector?
Chair: Sarah Cook, Morgan Quaintance, Ruth Mackenzie (The Space) and Jon Thomson (Thomson and Craighead)
Or choose from the following sessions:
10:30-12:00
Clinic: What to do with your data?
Rehearsal space
Puzzled by Open data, big data and meta data? You are not alone! Led by CEO Gavin Starks and Art Associate Julie Freeman, this Open Data Institute session demonstrates what art organisations can do with their data and the small steps you can make right away.
Led by CEO of ODI Gavin Starks and Julie Freeman.
10:30-11:30
Showcase: Presentation and talk by James Davis, Programme Manager at the Google Cultural Institute
Studio theatre
Google Creative Lab UK will talk about their chrome web experiments, games and prototypes.
12:00-13:00
Lunch lower and upper foyer
Afternoon Sessions
13:00-14:30
Debate: Disruptive Innovation
Main theatre
This panel will unpick alternative models of “innovation” through examining production models and their cultural value. Interdisciplinary artistic practice can create new platforms, resources and art forms, but what are the benefits to artistic practice and how can cultural appropriation be avoided?
Led by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Curator and writer) Memo Akten (Artist), Lynn Scarff (Programme Director of The Science Gallery) and Jose Luis de Vicente (curator and researcher).
Or choose from the following sessions:
13:00-13:45
Showcase: Designing Performance (Performance & Interactivity)
Studio theatre
From sensory performances to projection mapping technologies, we invite The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Sarah Ellis, artists Marshmallow Laser Feast and theatre company Extant to discuss how performance is being enhanced by new technologies and the challenges of live performance in the flesh and online.
13:00-14:30
Clinic: Archiving & preserving in the Digital age
Rehearsal space
How do we ensure long-term access to digital information through collecting, archiving and preservation? This session gives hands on tips for museums, curators and collectors on both moving image and social media archiving.
Led by Dragan Espenchied, Rhizome and Luke Collins from Lux, Scotland.
14:00-14:45
Showcase: Copy and Paste (Literature & Publishing)
Studio theatre
Changes in technology have played pivotal roles in literature (from Gutenberg to GoogleDocs) and we invite showcases from writers, publishers and software developers who are looking at everything from generative writing, books as code and alternative distribution models.
Led by Jim Hinks, Comma Press and Joanna Ellis from the Writing Platform.
Afternoon break – 15 mins
Choose from:
14:45-16:15
Debate: Activate the Public Space
Main theatre
The public space is augmented with information, networks, forces, bodies, buildings and technology. How do we define the public space? How do we create work for a time where the distinction between being offline and online is harder distinguish. We hear from a range of organisations, who have opened up new social spaces, data and communities through gaming, networked objects and growing DIY communities.
Led by Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield) Prof Jennifer Gabrys (artist), MolMol (Yes Yes No) and Iain Simons (GameCity).
15:00-15:45
Showcase: Curating Networks
Studio theatre
Curating Networks showcases projects that rethink ideas of authenticity, ownership and authorship in relation to archives, collections and traditional formats and gallery spaces.
Led by Katrina Sluis (Photographers Gallery), and Irini Papadimitriou (V&A) and Hullcraft (Joel Mills and Hannah Rice) University of Hull.
16:15
Closing remarks
Main theatre
16:45-17:30
Showcase: Crafting Code (Art and Science)
Studio theatre
Crafting Code explores the role of new materials in art production and how data can be materialised, examining the interchangeable role of artists, engineers and makers. We invite presentations on the ‘algorithmic’ opportunities this expanding field is developing, from design, digital sculpture and science to 3D modelling & wearable technology.
Speakers include Karen Gaskill (Crafts Council), Gretchen Andrew and Matthew Plummer-Fernandez.
16:45-18:00 Clinic: R&D as serious play
Rehearsal space
This session will bring together representatives from a selection of recent R&D projects to discuss how to design and manage a process that is playful and serious at the same time. Facilitated by a representative from the Digital R&D Fund, each representative will share their experience, before moving into a panel discussion and workshopping ideas with the audience. Creative technology projects are not just about delivering an end product - managing a R&D process which is creative, useful and rewarding for all parties is where the magic happens.
17:00-18:00 Networking Drinks
Foyer
18:00-18:30
Performance: The Measures Taken
Main theatre
The day will finish with an immersive digital art work. ‘The Measures Taken’ is a collaboration between Marshmallow Laser Feast and Alexander Whitley Dance Company. Both a dialogue, and a duet between human movement and the digital world, this performance promises to be visually striking and kinetically charged.
- See more at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/jobs-and-conferences/conferences/digital-utopias/programme/#sthash.ymmObLsu.dpuf
Credit: Karl Andre Photography
GoogleGlassGoodbye
Today, I received an email from Google Glass, telling me that it's over! Here's what they had to say:
and I am also posting the 'memories' file they sent us - 'Volume 001 as they put it (how many volumes are expected?!). I will write a piece about this over the next few days, but what I find most fascinating is the sense in which this may be seen as a failure by critics. Certainly, we expect anything new to stick around for a while - even though we change our iPhones every couple of years hmm. Ok, well, maybe Google Glass for 2 years isn't so bad - but it's only been 6 months or so in the UK. That's a bit too brief.
It will still work of course, just no further development. But, so what? Does that matter? IT does enough as it is is and I can't imagine needing much support. Although, my first Glass did break due to overheating and the reflective foil of the projector bubbling up and rendering it unusable. The did send another one though, quickly. hmm, I don't know how to feel. Abandoned? Let down? Disappointed. Or, the owner of what will become a cult object - the first wearable camera, kind of.
Truth be told, I have had nothing but fun with this device, and the people who have tried it out have loved it. Here's the video I made from the IAAF World Junior Championships last year. This was typical.
So, I think I will stick with Glass for a while, but then RideOn just contacted me about these. Next..
This question frames a @BBC5Live debate tomorrow night I took part in @MediaCityUK . The show was in front of a live audience and went out on @BBC1 'red button' and Twitch, where it had 83,000 concurrent viewers. You can also tune in through the BBC Radio 5 Live channel. If you are nearby and would like to come to the live show, email me and let me know. I can put you on the audience list.
Here's the full brief and deets:
We have a special programme tomorrow night which you can hear on BBC Radio 5 live and watch via the BBC Sport website and Twitch, as we explore Gaming, and the Rise of the Cyber Athlete. With computer game events now attracting thousands of spectators, the industry has teams, managers, star players, they compete in the X Games, and there's even a transfer window - so is it a sport? We'll be debating that question with those involved in eSports on Thursday 15 January from 8.30-10pm.
We’ll be broadcasting from the Blue Room at Quay House in MediaCity, Salford, in front of a live audience. It’ll have a Top Gear feel to it – with refreshment provided to all
Take a look at this cool new tech from RideOn, which I mentioned in the prog, showing how augmented reality is fusing with real world sport experience to create a hybrid gaming experience.
Back in the summer of 2014, the International Amateur Athletic Federation brought me in to give some social media training for their athletes at the World Junior Championships. The others involved were the extremely accomplished Olympians Ato Boldon, Joanna Hayes, and Charmaine Crooks. While there, I conducted this interview with Ato Boldon, to give people an insight into a career in sports broadcasting. The interview focuses on what Ato did while he was competing to start making his way into this highly competitive industry.
By the way, in case you are wondering about the t-shirt, the back story is from the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, when the Opening Ceremony ring display failed to open. It became a bit of a meme online, so there is an interesting story in terms of social media and sport behind it. Read more here
The #REF2014 results came out, but the details are still unpublished. I led the Unit 36 submission for the University of the West of Scotland, which managed to achieve a 25% growth in 3-4* research activity. We were particularly successful in our Research Impact evaluation and the two case studies each related to my work. Until the full documentation is made available, here's a snippet of what was submitted, along with my research output details.
Research Outputs
- Miah, A. (2011) Bioarte: actuación transhumana y posthumana, Technokultura, 9(1), 85-104 (full translation available)
- Miah, A. (2008) Engineering Greater Resilience or Radical Transhuman Enhancement? Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2(1), 1-18.
- Miah, A. & Rich, E. (2008) The Medicalization of Cyberspace. London & New York: Routledge.
- Miah, A. (2008) A Critical history of Posthumanism. In: Chadwick, R. & Gordijn, B. Medical Enhancements and Posthumanity. Springer
Impact Case Studies
“Bringing Science to Society”: Influencing Public Engagement with Bioethics
Professor Andy Miah’s research on the ethics of human enhancement has transformed the working lives of three principal professional communities: curators of UK flagship festivals and exhibitions (Abandon Normal Devices festival, the Wellcome Trust, Edinburgh International Science Festival); journalists (coverage on doping); and politicians and civil servants working on technology policy (European Parliament, World Anti-Doping Agency). His pioneering research has led to the creation of new artistic work, shaped policy directions, contributed to public engagement with bioethics, and advanced debate on the ethics of digital and biological technology.
“We Are the Media”: Enabling Media Citizenship
Research from the Creative Futures Institute (CFi) has generated original understandings of how social media has triggered change within the practice of journalism. The evidence shows how findings from 3 inter-related projects were a catalyst for skills development and generated new contributions to both civil society and the creative community. Impact is demonstrated across 15 organizations where new community media collectives were developed around the Vancouver 2010 (W2 Centre & True North Media House) and London 2012 Olympics (#media2012 & #CitizenRelay). UWS research led these organisations to invest £115,000 additional funds and implement these findings in their current work.
There are a lot of people to thank beyond the researchers involved in the creation of the impact case studies. For legal reasons, their names are omitted from the final documentation, but institutions include Abandon Normal Devices, London 2012 Creative Programmer in the North West, FACT Liverpool, CamGlen, Media Trust UK, Wellcome Trust, STV, and the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
In my first article for @ConversationUK I focus on the hypershort video format as an art work. This paper was stimulated by a talk I gave for the Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol. Take a peek Here's one I made earlier (from China)...
This week, a new book of mine was published by the Russian International Olympic University. Co-authored with Alexander Zolotarev and Prof Lev Belousov, the book is published in Russian and covers such areas as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the Sochi 2014 context, and how the International Olympic Committee is re-orientating itself around new and social media.
On Wednesday 17th December, I will host a webinar event for the International Olympic Committee MOOC on Sports Media, which will feature British Olympian Samantha Murray. Register here
Here is the overview:
Dear Athletes and Learners,
Do you know how to use social media to enhance your sporting career?
Are you prepared for the tough questions from the media that come straight after competition?
Have you thought about moving into the media after your stop competing?
Join Prof Andy Miah, Chair in Science Communication and Digital Media at the University of Salford, as he talks exclusively to Modern Pentathlon Olympic silver medallist and reigning world champion, Samantha Murray.
Following her Olympic success, Samantha has been exposed to a level of media attention she could never have imagined. From radio interviews, magazine articles, television shows and personal appearances, Samantha has done them all – hear exactly how she has dealt with her new found fame and hear her tips on how you can do the same.
Plus learn from Alex Trickett, Head of Sport for Twitter UK about his top tips for athletes who want to actively use social media platforms.
This live event will also include interactive polls and give you the opportunity to ask your own questions in a dedicated Q&A session towards the end of the event.
Limited spaces available, register now to reserve your place.
Best wishes
The IOC Athlete MOOC Team
This week, I judged the regional final of @FameLabUK with contestants from Manchester and Sheffield. It was a fantastic display of the talented science communicators around England's North and the winner was @Benstutchbury with a 3 minute whirlwind through 'Mucous'! It was great to be involved with this and I really look forward to growing this network in my new role.
Yesterday, I spoke for @arma_UK about everything social. Here's my @prezi #ARMAyork
This week, I've launched the 'International Drones for Research Network', an initiative that emerges from my thoughts around Project Daedalus, but also from the many conversations I have had with colleagues over the year about the utilization of drones for a whole range of research projects. Personally, I am curious to learn about new projects and want to share experiences and knowledge about how drones are developing and how they might be used. The network starts of as an email group, we will see where it goes from there.
Today saw the launch of the International Olympic Committee MOOC on Sport and the Media, which I led. We have some of the world's leading media pros in the course, including the IOC's Heads or Communications, Media Operations, and Social Media. We also have ABC Broadcaster Tracey Holmes, photographer extraordinaire Nick Didlick, awesome video journalist Yuval Lion, and athlete Jonathan Edwards MBE. The course is free to access and is designed to guide athletes towards a career in the media, after they conclude their life in competition. Subjects covered include broadcasting, writing, photography, video journalism, corporate communications, social media, and future media developments. Something for everyone!
This week, the New York Times published an article written by Ian Urbina, titled 'The Secret Life of Passwords'. I have been talking with Ian about this article for a few months now and a lot of research on his part has gone into this extensive, fascinating investigation. I am quoted in the piece a couple of times, but I thought it might be worthwhile publishing my entire responses to Ian, as a supplement. So, here they are, pulled out of emails, slightly edited for clarity.
Dear Ian, what a very interesting line of inquiry.
You are right, this is not something I have focused on specifically in my published work, but I have given some thought to this in the course of my research. In particular, I have two comments to make, one around the prevalence of data mining for passwords and the other related to the future of verification. Here are some thoughts which may or may not be useful. Feel free to quote anything or seek clarification, if useful/interesting.
I agree that passwords are a very interesting gateway to personal life stories and what we has been meaningful in our lives. I think we could quite reasonably say that the passwords we choose relate very closely to the things that matter in our lives. They are our secret autobiographies.
Unfortunately, mattering is a problem vis a vis security. This is because what matters to us, increasingly, is also embedded within our extended digital lives. Consider an anniversary, the date of which could be tagged in Facebook. Previously, someone might have used an anniversary as their password - perhaps their mother's birthday - but these dates are much more public now and so these meaningful passwords are much less desirable. In fact, if you look at the most secure systems, randomized, temporal, unique codes are the preference. The best passwords, it would seem, are those which are devoid of any meaning and impossible to guess.
Furthermore, it has become preferable for these passwords to be valid only within a fixed temporal period. The platforms which host our content ask us to change them regularly, sometimes every time we login, as is the case for things like online banking. In this sense, the concept of passwords as being closely tied to what we care about is disappearing, as the number of places where we need to verify who we are expands. Instead, verifying ourselves is becoming a matter of series of having a unique string of zeros and ones - almost like our DNA - as more and more of our semantic selves is shared online. It seems that the more public we become, the more vulnerable we are.
So, in terms of the future, I think it is very interesting to reflect on present systems of verification, beyond passwords. For example, the Captcha verification system utilizes a kind of primitive Turing test to verify we are human, by requiring us to demonstrate we can understand letters, words and place them alongside each other. Yet, even here, one can envisage improvements that, for instance, take into account our character on a computer - how fast we type on the keys, the pressure we exert on them. This kind system would get closer to something like a unique digital signature.
Did you see that Google just acquired SlickLogin - which verifies id using sound waves? That's a nice example of how I think passwords will become a thing of the past - in your terms - part of our digital memoirs. I think one crucial element of this debate is the fact that passwords have, for a long time, been chosen on the basis of what we are able to remember, so they do, as you suggest, access aspects of our personal psychology in a very intimate way. What we choose is closely tied to our memories of the things that mattered most to us.
This is changing also as verification becomes a matter of biometric measurement. Already, the iPhone 5 uses a fingerprint verification and we have been aware of retina verification as a way of authenticating ourselves for some time now. So, the erosion of memory as a means of verifying who we are is, i think, inevitable. After all, it is a matter of reliability and our memories are more fallible than our biology.
In terms of academic research on this, in my studies, I have come across a great deal that talks about personality and choice over passwords. For instance, some research discusses how, what we choose as our passwords, reflects what sort of people we are. We might choose meaningful people in our lives to whom we have emotional bonds, or we might choose things of which we are fans, for instance, a football player's name. In some cases, these choices may be relatively subconscious, they say something important about ourselves, even if we don't consciously identify them as such. What appears salient to us in terms of memory may just reveal itself to us, without much in-depth thought or consideration.
In my view, we have also to take into account two life courses when thinking about this. The first life course relates to our actual age; where we are and what we've gone through. If you are 13 and starting a facebook account, you are less likely to choose a meaningful anniversary than a favourite popband or sibling birthday perhaps. If you are older, your range of memories from which you can choose will be far greater. The second life course is our journey through technology.
If you have had to renew your work email password every 12 weeks for the last 10 years, you may well have exhausted your most memorable moments, but there again, what an interesting thing it would be to examine all of those passwords over the years and build a picture of somebody's life. I think it would be a wonderful window to their world and their lives.
We also have to take on board how universal passwords are being generated now by logging in with large social media applications, like Twitter or facebook. This again changes how we project our sense of history and identity - in this case we tie those memories increasingly to the lives we have lived within these social media platforms.
I hope some of this may be useful, but happy to dialogue a bit more, if that's useful.
best wishes,
Andy
Some additional quote sent subsequently:
"If passwords do become a thing of the past, there is something that we will lose as a result. Our daily encounters with personal memories, which have no place to be recalled elsewhere in our lives will cease to be present."
"Passwords are a window to what matters to us in a most personal sense. They are not like anniversaries or like significant public landmarks in our lives like weddings or children being born. Instead, they are the things that may matter only to us. And so it is a loss of intimacy with our past that we sacrifice by ceasing to remember."
"While their demise will not change the fact that these things will still happen to us, we may stop thinking about these moments in the same way."
"In some small sense, we will lose part of our selves and, as a result, we will need to renegotiate our personal histories in the process."
This week, Salford University launched a number of studentship calls, one of which would be under my supervision, focusing on the role of science festivals in society. I am really excited about this position for a number of reasons. I think there is a need to investigate the value and contribution of science festivals to society, so we can make the most of them and understand what else needs to be done develop critically engaged citizens, who are mindful of the complexity of science and compelled to invest themselves into its development. I am also interested in the range of events that fit into the category of 'science festival', which is surely more expansive than the term often denotes. For instance, there are many festivals that provoke a lot of engagement around new creative technologies, such as Burning Man where the focus is on participation and inhabiting the festival, and where there is a lot of experimental technology developed and discussed.
Alternatively, there are hundreds of science festivals, which link with science funding bodies or the media to deliver science communication events and opportunities for public debate. Great examples of this include Manchester Science Festival, an organisation which we would expect to work closely with in fleshing out this project.
Having worked around a lot of scholars who focus their research on festivals, I think there is something distinct about the science festival, but I am not yet sure what it is or which functions they serve, or how effectively their impact across policy or public understanding can be measured.
This PhD will explore some of these dimensions but its theoretical contribution will speak to some of the broad questions that confront humanity today, such as trying to unpack the limits of democratising science and the implications of this for how societies organize and progress. Science festivals find themselves at an exciting time in human history where the kinds of changes that are on the horizon are potentially species altering and certainly environment altering. There seems no more important time in human history than now that the entire population needs to tune into some of the decisions which are affecting our future.
The successful candidate will have a great time in this role discovering the wide world of science festivals. The methodological underpinning will rely on social scientific approaches, but there is an opportunity also to shape this and an understanding of science policy processes, critical theory, media studies, and a desire to inquire into the role of science in society are at the heart of the project.
The role will be located within the School of Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Salford, Manchester. It is a really dynamic and exciting place to work with huge investments and partnerships, a lot of ambition, and this PhD is the first kind we have advertised. It will be a unique context for someone who has aspirations to work within the field of science communication and public engagement, whether or not they have a background in science. Many of us are hybrids in this school and even more of us believe in studying the cross over of disciplines to really make sense of the world.
If you are interested in applying for this fully funded PhD studentship, please find all the relevant info here. If you are interested in providing financial support for the PhD, either in match funds, or supporting additional placements, please contact me directly.
Photograph from the Marcus Coates 'The Sounds of Others', part of Manchester Science Festival
Over the last few months, I have been traveling the world wearing Google Glass, giving demos to people, seeing their reactions, documenting the journey. One quirk I have noticed over this period is that, now and then, the device would take a photograph without my intending for it to do so. It would just snap away and I am left with a collection of accidental photos...at least, I presume they are accidental. I suppose it is possible that this is actually a design feature of Google Glass. Perhaps Google is deciding when the device takes a photo. Are there Google employees in the basement of the HQ all monitoring what each device is seeing and pushing a big red button when they want a photograph to be taken? I hope so :) Here's the first set of from this autonomous photographic device.