For this assignment, we were to read two readings and comment on three passages from them. The readings were:
Task: Find 5 examples of products that appeal to you from a design perspective and post images and descriptions of them. Discuss the elements that make them appealing to you. Be specific.
It has been far too long since the last post on this blog. Largely due to other aspects of Per and my lives, the updates have slipped by the wayside. In an attempt to revitalize the use of this space, we have made a decision to change it’s direction slightly.
I will be taking a course on speculative design in which one required element is blog posts. Since the content of the course is somewhat inline to what has been posted on intwo in the past, I will be updating intwo with the required posts for the class. As always, discussion is very welcome, we would love to hear what you have to think about the material posted.
Grids are a designers best friend. Trusting, working with, and breaking the grid are all things that you should be familiar with if you are doing communication design. In most graphics programs it is easy to set this up and there are many different ways to do it. When working with the web, though, there are not as many commonly known tools to achieve the pixel perfect results that you want.
Good Magazine has some of the best, most relevant content on the internet right now, and their videos often feature simple and intuitive information visualization.
Chris Neidl of Solar One is running a campaign called “I heart PV“. Inspired by science museum exhibits, they have built a prototype device designed to attract people on streets in high-traffic areas. It’s a cell phone charging station with a “preciousness” to it.
New Scientist writes about a patent filed by George Stetten, utilizing a miniature camera in conjunction with machine vision (algorithmic pattern recognition), to provide clues about the environment to partially or fully blind people. Spotting an obstacle, the fingertip-mounted device would give tactile feedback (vibration) to guide the user around it. It could also help the user locate switches and controls.
I think a new age is dawning for sensorially challenged people. In 2004, I worked together with an international group of designers to build a wearable device that deprived its’ user of her visual sense, and replaced it with auditory feedback. It was an experiment in pseudo-synaesthesia, but the technique could easily be applied to empower visually impaired people.
I visited the Austin Makerfaire this weekend. One day (with a late start) was not nearly enough to experience everything, or to participate in any workshops that were going on all around, but I did get a good idea of the makings and craftings going on around the U.S. and the world. Below, I’ve listed the people and projects that inspired me the most.
I want to make sure that the time I spend reading other people’s ideas is well spent. How do I make sure of this? Well, the one thing that I have, and that no one can take away from me, is AGENCY. If I do not act on new ideas that enter my mind, I deny my own humanity. The purpose of being human is to act, to make small changes in our collective history of the Earth.
What is ACTION? It can be something simple that you never show someone else. Draw a doodly picture, hum a made up song. But the most powerful actions are those that communicate ideas to other human beings, with the potential to change the way someone thinks.
It was probably two years ago that I stumbled across Folkert Gorter. I found him because I liked the work that he did, but I bookmarked his site for another reason. One of the sites in his body of work was named SpaceCollective. I clicked on the link and found a glowing orb with the words “Coming Soon”. When I provoked the orb with my mouse it subtly changed to reveal a log in form. I thought that this was quite peculiar.
Things used to be easy and unambiguous. You found advertisements in magazines and on billboards, art in galleries and museums, and people expressing themselves by means of graffiti and defacing of private/public property was thought of as a nuisance by most. This is an oversimplification, but bear with me.
Over the years, as the urban environment got denser, it also got more cluttered with ads, and street art took on a new poignancy and presence. Today, anyone in an urban environment is subjected to thousands of commercial advertisements, but also non-commercial messages per day.
