Talking about moving… I want that:

Casulo: Mobile Living Furniture.

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

It happens in Yokohama. Dislocate 2008

More information on networked experience:

“Dislocate questions our notions of place and location in the face of perpetual motion through multifaceted environments. The velocity of this passage is accelerated through new technologies, but as a result how does this impact upon our encounter with place and our attempt to communicate this to elsewhere? Through an exhibition, symposium and workshop series Dislocate will examine this encounter and communication, taking a journey through surrounding spaces and exploring our transient connections.”

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…”

The deadline is approaching: submit your abstract by MARCH 1, 2008

New technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)construction of identity. Fred Dervin and I would like to invite you to submit abstracts (So far, we have received really good abstracts). He is the call for publication in French and English. Excerpt:

“L’hypermobilité physique comme virtuelle qui touche les individus contemporains conduit à multiplier les récits et discours sur les rencontres avec les autres, mais aussi avec soi-même. Qu’ils soient issus de migrants, membres de diasporas, réfugiés, personnes en mobilité à court ou long-terme, résidents virtuels, internautes, etc., ces témoignages sont transmis à travers différents média et espaces personnels et publics: du simple coup de téléphone au site internet et à l’e-mail, ou à travers des autobiographies, des témoignages écrits et oraux, des articles de presse, des documentaires, etc. L’avènement de nouveaux espaces relationnels tels que ceux proposés par les Webs 2.0 et 3.0 (weblogs, podcasts, vidéocasts, Facebook, Second Life, Youtube…) offre la possibilité à la fois de faire partager ses expériences de mobilité au quotidien et de construire son soi face à/avec des millions d’interlocuteurs potentiels et ce, de manière multimodale. La présence de ces témoignages de mobilité, qui s’apparentent à des actes de confession, donne accès à des données intéressantes et inédites dans plusieurs langues et cela, de façon illimitée. Ces témoignages méritent une attention particulière, de nouvelles réflexions et mises à jour car, selon les prévisions et les avancées technologiques d’année en année, ils vont être amenés à se multiplier.”

Excerpt from the article: Device Gives New Meaning to “Power Walking” | By Devin Powell | Science NOW Daily News | 7 February 2008

“The latest fad in self-powered wrist wear is the kinetic watch, a device that converts the momentum of a swinging arm into milliwatts. But researchers have unveiled a new accessory for your knees that puts the trendy timepiece to shame. Generating more than 1000 times more energy, the “Biomechanical Energy Harvester” may provide a green way to power the portable devices of the future.

Every time you take a step, you use two different groups of powerful muscles connected to the knee. The first group pushes to kick the lower leg out. Just before full extension, the second group pulls to put the brakes on. But for Max Donelan, director of the Simon Fraser University Locomotion Laboratory in Burnaby, Canada, and his colleagues, this braking process is just useful energy going to waste. His team has created a modified knee brace with a drive train that converts the mechanical energy into electricity. “A similar principle is used in hybrid cars to make electricity when you press the brakes; it’s called generative braking,” says Donelan.”

Info via inhabitat

Following Senator Obama’s campaign… Screenshots from Barack Obama’s official website, how citizens organize… and the various social networking platforms participants connect to… also the supporter-created video on youtube… just look at the number of hits! The Yes We Can song by Will.i.am. Check this site out: obamacycle created for “Reusing campaign materials instead of throwing them away!” So creative…

“In a comment on our disposable culture, fashion designer Helen Storey is using know-how from materials science to make a show of frocks that dissolve slowly in water. Her six dissolving dresses, made from biodegradable polymer threads, are being publicly drowned in LCF Fashion Space Gallery in London. Storey has long harboured concerns about our attitudes to waste and recycling, and during her career has woven plastic refuse bags and reused rags to make boas and evening gowns. To realize her idea of evanescent products, such as packaging that disappears as its contents expire, Storey contacted chemist Tony Ryan, of the University of Sheffield, UK, after hearing him on the radio. Their Wonderland collaboration has produced new textiles and several patented products, including a water-purification device, a biodegradable bottle and orthopaedic shoes.”

Reblog from nanoarchitecture.net
Showstudio > wonderland

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.