Very promising exhibit at the MOMA, NYC: Design and the elastic mind!

Image from Nokia. The Morph Phone Mode: “A nanotechnology concept Morph demonstrates the functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics, self-cleaning surfaces, ability to observe local environment and harvest energy”.

Découvrir morph (et autres produits) et lire: Morph est symptomatique de la fusion de la technologie avec le corps humain. Court entretien de Michel Puech, Professeur à la Sorbonne par Julien François pour L’Atelier BNP Paribas.

Extrait:

“L’Atelier : Voyez-vous ce type de produits - dotés de matière flexible, intégrant des nanotechnologies - remplacer à moyen terme les appareils mobiles actuels, plus fonctionnels et moins ergonomiques ?

MP : Impossible d’anticiper l’appropriation par les utilisateurs, qui passe par du symbolique, du ludique, de l’émotionnel, et pas seulement du fonctionnel, de l’ergonomique. Si ces objets souples, transparents, multifonctionnels et très adaptables, y compris physiquement, ces objets avec lesquels on a envie de jouer, supplantent les technologies mobiles actuelles, ce sera sans doute parce que le gain de fonctionnalité est aussi un enrichissement existentiel, une nouvelle expérience physique, psychologique, relationnelle. C’est comme cela que nous sommes passés des téléphones fixes et cabines téléphoniques aux mobiles, des ordinateurs de bureau aux ultra-portables, aux baladeurs MP3…”

Screenshot from businessweek

“To create Adour’s virtual sommelier, the first high-profile example of an interactive tabletop menu, Rockwell hired a much smaller outfit, Potion Design, a New York firm started by two graduates of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Media Lab. Their system uses high-end projectors, computers, a Web-based database, and a vision-sensing system, all tied together with proprietary software. The technology has been installed before in office spaces and museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Asia Society. But, Potion partner Jared Schiffman says, “this is the first time we’ve used this in a restaurant or service setting.” Total cost of the project: about $250,000.”

In relation to previous post: ‘robot’ bar

Royal College of Art students were set the challenge of designing a mobile phone to “outperform, outsmart, and outmanoeuvre everything on the market.” Read the BBC article.

Via Yanko Design… An inflatable mouse for ultra portability! Mais où va le monde? :)

Pictures from website

“The Jelly Click takes mouse portability to the extreme. All the electronic circuity lives on a small flexible board. The body itself is just soft plastic. Whenever you need a mouse, blow up the Jelly Click, attach the USB cable and you’re good to go. As a bonus, it’s a total floaty for you swimming challenged people.

Designers: Bongkun Shin, Heungkyo Seo, Jiwoong Hwang & Wooteik Lim”

Again another cool article in PingMag: Masaru Tatsuki’s Decotora Photo Op showing the decotora, the Japanese truck decorated with lights. The photographer, a photo-ethnographer in fact, stayed 10 years with truckers before producing his book.

Majestic! Elegant! Pretentious!? Make way for the King of the Road. From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki | My home is my castle: A portable parlour with all the comforts of home on the highway. Cosy! From the “Decotora” photo book. © Masaru Tatsuki

Tatsuki says in the article:

“About two or three years into the project, I realised that the trucks rather than the drivers were being overly emphasised in the photographs. Because if you don’t define your subject, the subject defines itself. So I started going to meetings where large numbers of truckers would gather. They were all very outgoing, and I gradually felt welcomed into their community. Then, I started to discover things I respected about them - and things I didn’t like. For the first time, I felt I really knew the truckers. I realised that they possess a sense of masculinity that is dying out in Japan. I could also understand their feeling of wanting to decorate the tools they use for work.

People are surprised that I spent ten years on this project, but it simply takes time to really understand something. And I wanted to really understand the things I wanted to express. That is why it took so long.”

This is also something that I do: immerse with the subject. Don’t know if I can call myself a “psychosociologue” (Currently reading Georges Perec, Les choses, 1965 where the author speaks about people conducting open-ended and structured interviews…)

Anyway, decorating a standard vehicle is a matter of appropriation, and we see this phenomenon throughout the world, in India for example… Taking a cab in the Middle East is also particularly interesting… As if you were to travel in a living room.

The art center summit 2008, in Pasadena CA.

“The second Summit has an ambitious program. The Art Center Summit: Systems, Cities & Sustainable Mobility will look at the big picture: the broad systems thinking and systems integration needed to create a better future for society. How can design encourage large groups to rethink how they move from Point A to Point B? How does one design attractive, efficient and financially viable solutions for new communities? How can new systems be designed for existing environments? How should the design process integrate with cross-disciplinary systems and teams”

Weare™ is a 2007 scarf, a co-created fashion… by Moving Brands.

Screenshot from the website

“Last Christmas we set up a screen made of fairy lights in the Moving Brands window.”

“We then invited people to send messages and drawings, via a simple web-interface, to be shown in sequence in the window. The window was captured by webcam and broadcast live to the internet.”

“We stored everything sent to the window in a gallery, and the full sequence has been used to create this scarf.”

PS: I have entered 3 drawings and ordered leggings :)

The creators are Adam Mack, Brian Mason, John Lai, Paul Silberschatz and Eleanor Morgan…

“The Aquaduct is pedal powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a carbon filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary. The Aquaduct is the winning entry in the Innovate or Die contest put on by Google and Specialized. Please see the website: www.innovate-or-die.com for more details.”

Prof. Sangmin Bae and his team (Lim Yuree, Stacy + Sohn Seongki + Jeong Huikyung + Park Hyejin) from ID + IM Design Lab have designed clothTag, an “RFID tagging for your clothing life.” The team is the red dot award winner of 2007:

“Clothing could be a lot smarter with clothTag – a clothing tag that stores and communicates information about the clothing to which it is attached.

clothTag uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) technology for identification and interaction with other objects, such as smart mirrors in shops, as well as with washing machines, steam irons, closets and clothes hangers, as shown in the illustrations. Beyond these devices, clothTag has unlimited possibilities for application.

The information stored and communicated is helpful to the user, and includes general laundry treatment, colour, size, material, and colour codes. clothTag is also designed to give the user information even if the user doesn’t have a reader device; the circuit of the RFID tag can form four traditional laundry icons. The water washable icon (1), acid washing icon (2), ironing icon (3) and size icon (4) are available. The form of the circuit gives the outline of each icon group and the manufacturer can print out corresponding details of each icon on the tag.

clothTag also gives information about materials used in the cloth. The bottom bar indicates name of materials and percentage of each material used. A colour chip is provided in the middle of clothTag. The main colour and exact colour code of the cloth is printed on the tag, so the user can choose the exact colour he or she wants.”