Jenny Odell collects and organizes all kinds of things, from meticulously sorting digital finds on Google Maps to tracing the origins of everything she used, wore, ate or bought on one particular day in 2013.

Her work often pulls objects out of context, aggregating and arranging something like a set of pools against a neutral backdrop (as seen above) or taking an entire industrial complex and carefully stripping it of its surroundings (like the facility below).

On June 26th, she will join an assortment of other unusual, curious and brilliant creatives — experts in the realms of art, design, interaction and information — as a speaker at the annual Eyeo Festival in Minneapolis, MN.

Designer, entrepreneur and artist Nicholas Felton, creator of the famously detailed and introspective data visualizations, will be back this year as well to talk about his recent work. His numerous personal annual reports condense the events of a year into a tapestry of maps, graphs and statistics.

Artist and programmer Gene Kogan will bring his interest in “generative systems, artificial intelligence, and software for creativity and self-expression.” He has collaborated on various open-source software projects, working at the “intersection of code, art, and technology activism.”

Others include: a smell researcher and artist with a collection of over 7,000 scents, a designer and software designer pursuing machine learning and news automation, and dozens of other fascinating folks from all over the world.

Eyeo asks: “What data is, where it comes from, and how we utilize it, looks different than ever before. What can we do with it all? What can’t we do? Artists, designers and coders build and bend technology to see what’s possible. What’s next with interaction, what’s revealed by the data. Eyeo brings together the most intriguing and exciting people in these arenas today.” If you haven’t been, this is as good a year as any to go for the first time — it is a wonderful and unique experience. Get tickets here.

Featuring a combination of workshops, lectures, mixers and parties, INSTINT (from the makers of eyeo) brings together some of the most influential and exciting creatives dealing with interactive architecture, art, design and technology from around the world. With less than 60 tickets left, you would be wise to register as soon as possible and if you will be coming to Minneapolis from out of state (or country), be sure to start making travel plans today.

Attending the event last year, WebUrbanist’s founder and lead technologist were stunned by the high caliber not only of the presenters but the 300 attendees as well, all of whom had stories to share about their work in and beyond the realm of interaction design.

This year, WU is once again a proud official media partner of this amazing gathering. In addition to selected talks from last year (embedded above), more videos from INSTINT 2014 can be found on Vimeo – but keep in mind: at least half of the experience is simply interacting with others in attendance during and beyond the event, so the talks themselves tell only part of the story.

Frequently found at the bleeding edge of their intersecting fields, INSTINT’s various compelling presenters manage to show off a combination of stunning completed works while also sharing behind-the-scenes lessons for others looking to create responsive environments, interactive art or smart objects. Attendees will be inspired by the finished projects but also learn a great deal from the trials, errors and iterations described in honest detail as well.

Over three days and in addition to multiple workshops, lunches and mixers, this year’s 14 outstanding speakers include Rachel Wingfield from London, whose experiments with future scenarios combine biology with technology to create living architecture, as well as Nataly Gattengo of San Francisco’s Future Cities Lab who has won awards for robotics, responsive building systems and other developments around the Internet of Things.

More from the organizers: “Great ideas and technology create ever-new opportunities to bring projects to life everywhere and anywhere imaginable. Along with this opportunity comes the inevitable trials and challenges of physical and site specific work. One-off projects made for one-off locations can make you pull your hair out, and/or go broke in the process. The volume of variables, old and new, can be overwhelming: unpredictable environments, bleeding edge technology, custom fabrication, code, bugs, insects, greasy fingers, hackers, crashers, crashes, caches, spoilers, laws, landlords, curators, committees, workers, shippers, solder, electricity, sunlight, moonlight, fluorescent light, reflections, bad ideas, egos, feasibility, durability, production planning, scope, scale, budgets, and on, and on. What knowledge can be applied from previous experiences and what has to be learned on-the-fly, on a per project basis? INSTINT aims to arm you with insights and inspiration, and expand your ability to execute projects in this exciting, but complex, sometimes harrowing, and ever-shifting field.” Register today!

Modular, stackable and robust, these cargo containers may not look like much on the outside but provide surprisingly refined accommodations inside and can be packed and shipped cheaply and easily around the world to meet different demand.

Recently renovated, the newest Snoozebox models can be shipped by road, rail, air or sea, fully deployed within two days and configured in a variety of ways for festivals, remote events, emergency housing or perhaps even temporary cities of some other yet-to-be-imagined sort.

Making them appealing for off-the-grid contexts as well, “each of the units require no mains service – no provision for electricity, water or sewerage is necessary. each room is climate controlled and features a wet room, double bed, flat screen TV, power sockets, free wi-fi and a safe.”

These small-footprint shipping container modules allow for “two upper level units, each offering two bedrooms, can be placed on top of the lower level, accessed by stairs with a walkway leading to each dwelling. internally, each temporary residence has four stowed bunk beds, which can be readily and easily converted.”

The older models were a bit more bare-bones in terms of their cladding but still provide all of the essential basics, including flat-pack circulation structures and shade provisions for sunny and hot climates.

Hot on the heels of this year’s Eyeo Festival comes Leading Creatively 2012 with panels, workshops, films and tours exploring visual culture and digital technologies across various local Twin Cities venues from September 6th through the 8th. Two of WebUrbanist’s regional core creatives have requested and been issued press passes for this National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture event. While by no means exhaustive (see the full schedule on the NAMAC website) here are some of the highlights, followed by information on getting discounts and scholarships to attend.

Venues: For those not yet in the know, the Hack Factory and Soap Factory are, respectively, premier community-oriented maker and art spaces. The first will play host to a mobile Hacker Space at the conference itself, while the second is a stop on the must-see Twin Cities tour on Friday and exhibition opening on Saturday. And no arts event in the community would be complete, of course, with participation of the Walker Arts Center, site of last night’s epic CatVidFest.

Panels: Open Space Documentaries on Thursday tackles the evolution of traditional documentary formats to new forms of transmedia storytelling. Creators looking for funding will need to make a tough decision on Friday afternoon between theory and practice: Pennies from Heaven: Crowdfunding and Community-Supported Media/Arts and Grantmaker Speed Dating. Public Art: Engaging Communities, Claiming Space on Saturday will go beyond the classic notion of public art as abstract, large-scale, office-plaza sculpture, tackling less scripted (and sometimes un-permitted) creations.

People: The last panel mentioned above is where you will find the first person mentioned here: Steve Dietz, President and Artistic Director of Northern Lights/Northern Spark.  And those who chose the ‘theory’ over ‘practice’ option in the previous paragraph will get to see Stephanie Pereira, the Art Program Director of Kickstarter.com out from New York City (WebUrbanist is aiming to interview both, so stay tuned for updates!).

Films: With everything else going on, it would be easy (but a shame) to miss the two-day Film Festival with documentary screenings and associated pre-conference masterclass with day passes for just $15. Click here for more information and a full lineup of features.

Discounts: As conferences go, even the regular-priced, full-access tickets are reasonable, but for creatives on an even stricter budget: “NAMAC is offering incentives for Minnesota residents and organizations, including hotel and conference-registration scholarships, complimentary memberships to NAMAC, and discounted registration rates.” Visit NAMAC.org for more information on these and other options and opportunities, and feel free to say hello if you see a WebUrbanist editor or photographer at the event!

Swimming? Gazing at pretty marine life? That’s boring – compared to the bizarre and amazing things that some adventurous divers choose to do underwater. Why simply scuba dive when you could be ball dancing, playing a musical instrument, putting on a fashion show, carving a pumpkin, swallowing a sword or enjoying a fine meal? These 15 events and gatherings draw hundreds of people to the bottoms of pools and the ocean floor for strange submerged activities.

Underwater Dining for 500

(images via: lilo mag)

500 people set the Guinness World Record for the largest underwater dinner party in 2010, enjoying a meal of smoked salmon, vegetables and toffee apple while decked out in formal finery. The event took place at the swimming pool of the Park Club in west London, and the food was prepared in jelly to keep it from disintegrating in the water. Each bite was quite a process: guests had to remove their aqua lungs from their mouths, slip in the food, replace the aqua lung and press a button that purges water so they could breathe and swallow.

Key West Underwater Music Festival

(images via: lower keys chamber of commerce)

Musical instruments shaped like stingrays, starfish and sharks – not to mention over 500 divers and snorkelers – made their way to the bottom of the ocean for the 27th annual Underwater Music Festivals in the Florida Keys last summer, and in July 2012, they’re set to do it again. The event, which takes place beside America’s only living coral barrier reef, celebrates the marine life that the reef supports.

Underwater Chess

(images via: live in curacao)

Underwater chess is actually a thing. Not only is it an annual event in Curacao, where master chess players engage in tournaments on the sea floor, but chess enthusiasts sometimes even set up their boards in swimming pools. The 2008 event in Curacao was nearly derailed by a curious stingray.

Oxfam Climate Change Event

(images via: stop climate chaos)

Rising sea levels caused by global warming could mean that many coastal cities will be underwater within decades. To call attention to this troubling fact and mark the 100-day countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009, Oxfam International organized an unusual display at the Sea Life Aquarium in London. An ‘average family’ sat in a submerged living room next to a ticking clock that served as a reminder of how little time we may have left.

South Korea Underwater Fashion Show

A department store in South Korea held the world’s first underwater show of traditional Korean fashion in August 2010. The Underwater Hanbok fashion show had models twirling in brightly colored fabrics, performing water aerobics.

36-Hour Underwater Card Game

(images via: metro)

Scuba divers played a card game underwater for 36 hours straight in a bid to set a world record. The 16 divers worked in shifts so they could change oxygen tanks.

Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Great Barrier Reef

(images via: hungeree)

The Mad Hatter’s tea party got that much more chaotic when a pair of divers took to the floor of the Great Barrier Reef Oceanarium at the Sydney Aquarium in May 2012. The event was part of a fundraising drive called Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, which supports cancer research. Another underwater tea party was organized at England’s Deep Aquarium in Hull to celebrate its 10th birthday.

Underwater Hockey

(images via: wikimedia commons)

Underwater hockey isn’t just an occasional stunt that people pull for photo ops – it’s an actual sport of its own. Of course, it’s not exactly spectator-friendly, but that’s not really the point. Players strap on their masks, snorkels and fins and use sticks to shoot pucks into goals, just like the land-based version of the sport, but there’s no contact involved.

Submerged Pumpkin Carving

(images via: south carolina aquarium Facebook)

Why carve pumpkins underwater? When you’re a diving enthusiast, it just makes Halloween that much more fun. Competitions are held every year all over the United States including Florida, South Carolina and Nevada. Contestants take their pumpkins about 30 feet under the surface and compete against each other to carve the most impressive jack o’lantern – no easy task, considering that pumpkins are buoyant until you get them hollowed out.

Underwater Olympics

(images via: barbary coast divers)

Underwater World in Qingdao City, China held ‘Underwater Olympics’ in 2010 to mark the Chinese New Year. The events included fencing, shooting, cycling and gymnastics. Fencing competitors had to fight while balanced on a steel cable.

Underwater Biking

(images via:  cairo cyclists)

An Egyptian cyclist named Yasser brought his bicycle underwater and attempted to ride it along the ocean floor, with mixed results. Yasser wore his normal diving equipment and biking shoes, fighting to keep the bike from simply floating up. Yasser says, “The overall experience was so great. I enjoy diving in general, but having alien objects with you makes it more interesting.”

Submerged Sword Swallowing

(images via: underwater times)

Sword swallower Dan Meyer became the first person in America to swallow a solid steel sword while underwater – in a tank of live sharks and stingrays – in 2007. The stunt took place at Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and needless to say, it was a bit dangerous. The event was part of the aquarium’s “Pirates, Predators of the Sea” exhibit. Meyer swallowed a 30-inch-long sword while submerged 15 feet underwater with more than 80 sharks and stingrays swimming all around him. He wasn’t oblivious to the risks, of course – Meyer has previously been hospitalized with a punctured stomach after swallowing five swords at once.

Underwater Dancing

(images via: reuters)

Seventy-four scuba divers danced gracefully – if slowly – in a bid to set the world record for an underwater dance class at Sydney’s Olympic Park Aquatic Center in 2006. Divers strapped on scuba gear and danced simultaneously for ten minutes on the bottom of the pool.

Underwater Weddings

(images via: crusoe’s retreat)

Once a contender for the weirdest location to get married, underwater weddings have grown a lot more popular over the years as water-loving couples choose to garble “I do” into their scuba mouthpieces. The Guinness World Record was set in June 2010 when 261 divers took part in a marriage ceremony off the coast of Italy.

Underwater Tennis (With a Shark)

(images via: dunlop)

Sports brand Dunlop set a man versus shark tennis match on the bottom of the London Aquarium to show off its biomimetic tennis range, including an Aeroskin racket inspired by sharkskin.