Protagonists   |   Stories   |   Spimes   |   Artist   |   For Sale   |   Materials   |   Contact Spimes In two thousand and four, writer, futurist, inveterate neologist and general genius Bruce Sterling proposed the concept of the spime. The spime is an object that is thoroughly trackable in space and time. Sterling generated a lot of content on the subject. From the Viridian article/SIGGRAPH speech, to the astounding speech at Max Weber's and elsewhere. The basic idea is that a spime is a object which can tell its own story, thanks to the convergence and ubiquity of tracking and other technologies. Sterling gave a landmark address at Max Weber's academy in 2004 (there's a copy for download at right). In it he identified the six convergent trends as follows: Interactive chips that can label objects with unique identities Local and global positioning systems that can determine the locations of objects in space and time Powerful search engines 3-D virtual design of objects, virtual models of objects Rapid prototyping production of objects, computer fabrication of objects Cradle to cradle recycling, zero emissions manufacturing, design for disassembly, a new kind of death for objects. "Now the key concept in all this is the very first part, the identity. It's identity that enables the whole transformation. My suspicion, my theory is that we are about to give identity to almost everything we make. And once we name things, then we can track them through their lifetime. And if we can track them, from cradle to cradle, cradle to grave, then we can subject them to manipulations much more sophisticated than any we ever managed before. "Eventually we'll learn to think about physical objects in a new way. In a way that was previous unthinkable. We will have a new class of objects with new properties and new behaviors." A spime is an object that is subjectified. Whereas in our usual experience of the world, our objects have roles in life and meaning making inasmuch as we give them those roles, and then when we lay them down they revert to objects. Bruce Sterling from Innovationsforum on Vimeo. urSpimes But we're not there yet. We're not up to spimes right now, because the ubiquity of these technologies hasn't kicked in. However, we have the ability to know things about objects. We have the ability to transform objects into subjects because we know how to make meaning with objects and we know how to tell stories of objects and we are able to think of objects as the protagonists in their own stories. We have the ability to think of objects as the stars of their own stories and we do it all the time, whether handing down beloved heirlooms, or imagining the travels of a haunted violin or mythic sword. We can conceive of spimes in mythic space/time. Subjets d'art This site seeks to be a home to art objects that have been subjectified, to collect the stories of the creation and disposition of these as subjects, as protagonists. Until we have ubiquity and cheap technology, coupled with effortless skill, I propose we may still have art that tells its own stories, with the help of people who interact with these works of art. This site respects the concept of the spime. But until they come, we are content to create the proto spime. The urspime. »A spime is a    protagonist. . .« Bruce Sterling, 2004 Urspime clearinghouse Other places that have inspired the concept of the urspime, by making it themselves. •  Where's George - the great money tracking site which inspired urspimes most directly. •  Cambridge's Coffee Pot Camera - the first webcam transformed a pot into an urspime. Sure it didn't go anywhere, but by God it was a protagonist. •  Traffic Land - speaks to the tracking of places more than of objects. It's a kissing cousin to our work. •  Webkinz - your children already have very active urspime lives with their favorite stuffed animals. •  MILK - the journey of milk on a Europe that is just Europe. What does the logo mean? Creative Commons Licensed 2010