SANDPIT: TOTeM Tales of Things, Electronic Memory

该研究项目的主要目的是提供一个平台，让记忆能够附着在世界上已经存在的物体上。该项目确定了数字经济新兴方面的一个重大差距，即所谓的“物联网”，随着新对象被标记，旧对象将不会有真实的危险。TOTeM项目关注的是“旧”对象的内存和价值。有人建议人们用1,000到5,000个物体包围自己。在这成千上万的物品中，许多可能没有得到真正的照顾，最终被扔进垃圾箱或储存起来。但对于每一个拥有者来说，几乎每个家庭都有一系列能引起重大共鸣的物品，这些物品已经将它们与记忆和意义的互联网联系起来。人类的一个内在特征是将意义灌输到物体上的过程，以便它们提供与人，事件和环境的联系。壁炉架上的艺术品成为过去发生的事件与未来的人们之间的管道。这些物品成为家庭和社区之间的重要坐标，以支持讲述故事和传递知识。TOTeM项目位于被称为“物联网”的新兴技术和文化现象中。该术语由麻省理工学院的Auto-ID研究小组于1999年提出，国际电信联盟在2005年的联合国网络峰会上发表了一份同名报告。“物联网”一词指的是随着社会向无处不在的计算形式转变而预期的技术和文化转变，在这种计算形式中，每个设备都是“开着的”，每个设备都以某种方式连接到互联网。具体提到的“东西”指的是这样一个概念，即每一个新制造的物体也将能够成为这个扩展的互联网的一部分，因为它们将在生产过程中被制造商标记和索引。还可以设想，消费者将能够通过使用移动的“阅读器”“读取"标签，并使用与物体连接的信息，以告知他们对物体的购买、使用和处置。物联网对生产和消费的影响是巨大的，并将改变人们购物、存储和共享产品的方式。长期以来，模拟条形码一直是商店库存系统的哑加密参考，将被一个开放平台所取代，在这个平台上，每一个制造的物品都将能够从摇篮到坟墓，从制造商到分销商，到购买后可能与之接触的每一个人。此外，每个靠近另一个对象并且在读取器范围内的对象也可以被记录在数据库上，并用于查找所有者和应用程序之间的相关性。在一个依赖于制造商和消费者之间通过商业街商店的线性供需链的世界中，物联网有可能改变我们对待物体的方式，关心它们的来源并使用它们来寻找其他物体。如果每一件新物品都触手可及，那么一切都是可搜索和可找到的，随后购物体验可能永远不会相同，扔掉物品的概念可能会成为过去，因为其他人会发现旧物品的新用途。Spimes是制造的物品，其信息支持是如此广泛和丰富，以至于它们被视为非物质系统的物质实例。Spim以数据开始和结束。它们首先是虚拟的物体，其次才是真实的物体。布鲁斯·斯特林，《塑造事物》，2005年

The principle aim of the research project is to provide a platform to allow memories to be attached to objects that already exist in the world. The project identifies a significant gap in the emerging aspect of the digital economy known as the 'internet of things', which as new objects are tagged there is a real danger that old ones will not be. The TOTeM project is concerned with the memory and value of 'old' objects. It has been suggested that people surround themselves with between 1,000 and 5,000 objects. Of those thousands of objects many of them are probably not truly cared for and end up in rubbish bins or in storage. But for every owner, in almost every household there are a selection of objects that hold significant resonance, and will already connect them to an Internet of memory and meaning. An intrinsic human trait is the process of imbuing meaning onto objects so that they provide connections to people, events and environments. Artefacts across a mantelpiece become conduits between events that happened in the past, to people who will occupy the future. These objects become essential coordinates across families and communities to support the telling of a stories and passing-on knowledge.The TOTeM project is located within the emerging technical and cultural phenomenon known as 'The Internet of Things'. The term is attributed to the Auto-ID research group at MIT in 1999, and was explored in depth by the International Telecommunication Union who published a report bearing the same name at the United Nations net summit in 2005. The term, 'internet of things', refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves to a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is 'on', and every device is connected in some way to the internet. The specific reference to 'things' refers to the concept that every new object manufactured will also be able to part of this extended Internet, because they will have been tagged and indexed by the manufacturer during production. It is also envisaged that consumers will have the ability to 'read' the tags through the use of mobile 'readers' and use the information connected to the object, to inform their purchase, use and disposal of an object.The implications for the Internet of Things upon production and consumption are tremendous, and will transform the way in which people shop, store and share products. The analogue bar code that has for so long been a dumb encrypted reference to a shops inventory system, will be superseded by an open platform in which every object manufactured will be able to be tracked from cradle to grave, through manufacturer to distributor, to potentially every single person who comes in to contact with it following its purchase. Further still, every object that comes close to another object, and is within range of a reader, could also be logged on a database and used to find correlations between owners and applications. In a world that has relied upon a linear chain of supply and demand between manufacturer and consumer via high street shop, the Internet of Things has the potential to transform how we will treat objects, care about their origin and use them to find other objects. If every new object is within reach of a reader, everything is searchable and findable, subsequently the shopping experience may never be the same, and the concept of throwing away objects may become a thing of the past as other people find new uses for old things.Spimes are manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They're virtual objects first and actual objects second. Bruce Sterling, Shaping Things, (2005)