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Sensory Impact likes objects, people who design objects and people
who like people who design objects.
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10/25/2004
ID Magazine posted the winners of its annual 2004 Student Design Review on their website, and we dropped by to highlight some of the work that we liked:
The first one that caught our eye was a line of products by Andrew Coates, especially given that we touched on the subject of subverting objects.
Andrew calls them “Mental Comfort” – a line of products that were inspired by ergonomics from mundance objects, such as: “a shelf made from a steel bracket slipped inside a brown grocery bag; ornate adhesive poster corners cast in rubber from decorative wood accents found in hardware stores; vases cast from balloons; and a candle in the shape of a lightbulb”
Next is a Chinese Medicine Vending Machine Concept by Lo Ho Lung of China,(with Andrew Lam and Weng Chan) that dispenses nonprescription Chinese medicine to sleep-deprived students:
First, the stressed-out student places a hand in the pulse-reading cradle. The pulse data is recorded along with a photo of the student, which is printed on an ID card. After specifying symptoms on a touch screen, the student inserts payment and retrieves the appropriate medicine, in the form of a tea or a powder, from a drawer evoking those in traditional Chinese medicine shops.
And finally “Additional”, by Rüdiger Schlömer of Germany, a “parasitic” brand concept that I wouldn’t be surprised to see in a Prada store in the near future.
The concept brand “exists not through products of its own, but by adhering to, and changing the purpose of, other things”. What this means is that it alters or customizes objects and surfaces i.e. It comes with several kits like the textile kit, that contains red thread and labels that can be applied to store-bought clothing. Other kits include ironing tape to add extra folds, pockets and Velcro ports.
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If Freud was a product designer, he’d probably make this – The Penis Envy “Magic Cone” that allows women to urinate in an upright position. I’m not sure how practical it is, but for US $24.95 is sure is worth a try. (See animation)
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Name: Bigfoot
Company: STRANGE co
Status: Prototype
From the strange people at STRANGE co comes Bigfoot, their latest vinyl figure. It’s currently a prototype, but expect it to be available in November.
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Imagination Engines Inc claims to have developed a robot thats able to learn and dream>
According to its President & CEO, Dr. Stephen Thaler, the company has developed neural networks that can spontaneously connect themselves in a matter of seconds into the neural circuitry required for extremely ambitious robotic brains. This development is registered under the US Patent 5,852,815, “Neural Network Based Prototyping System and Method”.
Dr Thaler says that this resulting neural network architecture both resembles and functions like a brain, a collection of individual neural networks fused into a contemplative system that can form complete models of their worlds, consider alternative scenarios, and finally choose that alternative best suited to a given problem. Like human brains, they think, experiment, and automatically perfect their behaviors to produce downright unexpected results, what can only be called creativity.
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New Scientist talks about smart fabric patches that can be used to enhance your clothes:
Imagine a handbag that warns you if you are about to forget your umbrella or wallet, and which you can later turn into a scarf that displays today’s pollution levels. Or how about creating a wall hanging that glows if someone tries to use your home’s wireless internet connection?
All these bizarre objects could soon be possible thanks to a system of computerised fabric patches developed by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Each patch contains a functional unit of the system – a microprocessor and memory plus either a radio transceiver, a sensor, a microphone, batteries or a display. Put the patches together in different ways and you can create a variety of information-providing or environment-sensing objects, say developers Adrian Cable, Gauri Nanda and Michael Bove at MIT’s Media Lab.
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The 2003 Winner – The Crouching Lion
Once again, Peugeot is inviting people to design a “near-future car” (as opposed to the car of the future) where the winner will get a chance to have their design realized in a full scale version of their concept car at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show. In addition, the winner will also received a cash reward and possible employment. Deadline is December 8th.
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Name: Rolling Serving Dish
Designers: Gili Katz, Lee Oshrat
The Rolling Serving Dish is a ceramic piece on wheels that spin within the channel of an aluminum ring. When the ring rolls across the table, the dish remains level and doesn’t fall over.
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By now most of you might be aware of Skype, the P2P Telephony software, that allows you to make clear calls over the internet, but charges for access to a landline. Well, you won’t need to anymore with the CuPhone PPG (available in PCI or USB version for Price: $79) it allows calls to be redirected to a user defined telephone. Not only that, you can call in from the internet and use your local number to make any free local phone call.
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10/21/2004
Gadgetry Blog writes about the new Claro holographic TV (£14,999 plus £9,999 for matching speakers) that allows you to project video on a transparent display. Plus all other light is ignored which means you get a sharp image even in brightly lit environments.
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Architect Chad Dyner has created the Heliodisplay – a plug and play device that streams video and computer images into mid air from most video sources (TV, DVD, computer, videogame etc.) and lets you interact with it with either your hand or finger like a floating touch screen.
According to the website, air comes into the device and is then modified and ejected to produce the image. Nothing is added though, to the air so there isn`t any danger of harmful gas or liquid emitted from the device, and nothing needs to be refilled so its pretty easy to maintain. Currently available in a 15 inch version for $18,600.
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Mark Simonson writes about how he’s using Legos for his type project:
One of the font projects I’m working on is the revival of some of Phil Martin’s display typefaces from the 1970s. These were originally distributed as 2-inch film fonts for the VGC Typositor headline setting machine. The master negatives exist in the form of small spools of 2-inch wide negative film around 50 feet long. They are in very good condition, considering they are up to 35 years old, and I wanted to make sure they stayed that way when it came to scanning them.
The film could pass through a standard film holder on the scanner, but I needed a way to hold up the feed and take-up spools on either side. I pondered this for a long time, and when it came time to actually start scanning, it hit me: Legos! (link)
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What can $150,000 buy you?
A million happy people, according to musician Sarah McLachlan who donated the budget for her new music video to various charities around the world and then put together a great video about it for only $15. (Quicktime)
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10/20/2004
Projekt30, an online gallery, run by artists, designed to expose artists to “brick and mortar” art galleries which may be interested in presenting their work, is running a new Juried Exhibition this month with 30 artists that they selected from a large pool of applicants.
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Si readers Wai kit Chung and Renze Rispens write in about their new public product design forum:
The forum also gives the designers the opportunity to show their work (upload feature), finished or in progress, for discussion. There is a ‘tutorial’ section where all kind of tips for designing can be posted. Furthermore, everyone can create a portfolio thread to show their design work. There is also the possibility for design companies to post job offers or internships.
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In a bid to go beyond just traditional cultural jamming, Adbuster has launched a Blackspot project, where they’ll market a sneaker as part of an experiment to see if they could grab even a percentage of market away from Nike. While they’ve been planning this for quite a while now, It wasn’t until now that I noticed that they give you a share of the company for every shoe you purchase and you get to use your shareholder number to login and vote on major corporate decisions:
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