A kitchenette for neo-nomads

Tonight I will attend Yasmine Abbas' talk about her neo-nomadic research, this at the Graduate Schoold of Design for the Critical Digital conference. Today I also discovered this work, that I think Yasmine would particularly love, the DoubleSpace Kitchenette designed by Jeffrey Warren!

The DoubleSpace kitchenette caters to those with a taste for unique, compact living. People living in crowded cities such as New York can appreciate the value of flexible, efficiently used living space. This roomy easy chair converts easily into a countertop with two electric burners.

I personally love compact and modular structures where one can transform a furniture into another one. Not only it is convenient for someone who lives in a crowded city, but it also allows you to move your belongings in a more "compact" way, question that Yasmine investigated throughout her ethnographic research on neo-nomads. It also invites for a more playful relationship to your interior!

Pleasure with champaigne and glasses

I am working with my friend Marisa Jahn on a new project. It will be super fun, artistic and hopefully design noir! More soon... but in the meantime I want to share her latest creation with Steve Shada, "Pleasurecraft".



A kit for any klutz who wishes to woo a potential lover, ‘Pleasurecraft’ is a vehicular kit that choreographs gesture and landscape to produce an outting full of splendor and romance. The potential lover wil find PleasureCraft's luxurious pullows and easy-to-reach champagne cooler irresistable. Suitors will love PleasureCraft for its easy-to-use instructions that make Romance easy - one, two, three!

The suitor begins when he/she steps in the boat and first begins to read the operator's manual. Pictures indicate what to do next--comb the moustache, don the bowtie, bust out the TicTacs -- then uncork the champagne, what tempo to follow, etc.

Often, a clumsy serenade can be attributed to an overwhelming amount of details and a failure to attend to the right ones in the right order. But PleasureCraft solves this problem through its built-in water wheel, perfectly callibrated to the RPM of the River Seine. By listening to the music and glancing at the operator manual, the suiter knows what cues to follow and when.

(‘Pleasurecraft’ questions the human agency in constructing the pictoral imaginary and an ethnographic examination of our species’ mating rituals.)










Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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Jabberstamp awarded by I.D. magazine!

Jabberstamp earned an honorable mention as one of the 23 finalists from over 2,500 entries to I.D. magazine's 2008 Student Design Review! Working on Jabberstamp with Hayes Raffle and Ruibing Wang was exceptionally fun and inspiring, I am glad it won an award!!

-> The I.D. review <-



A child playing with Jabberstamp and me in the background blurred by the magical photoshop touch!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Iced Chest

I had designed a system to cool down the body for mental health support. It is always nice to see how such system can be used in another context such as the Nike Lab that designs innovative garments for athletes. One of the product, that I found in the Print edition of Fast Company Magazine, is a jacket that cools down the body. Discovering that performance falls off drastically when core body temperature hits 103 degrees, the Nike lab designed a vest that slows the rise of core body temperature. It is simply filled in with water, then frozen overnight. The vest is meant to be wear an hour prior to competition.


Screenshot from the Nike designer story

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

My contribution in the field of fashionable technology!

I had previously mentioned the book Fashionable Technology, edited by Sabine Seymour in which I present my work on fashion garments designed in the context of technology -including the Touch Sensitive apparel developed with Yasmine Abbas. The book is available on Amazon and I recently received my copy!

Here are the pages of my contribution and the book itself features outstanding designers. I will try to report about them soon !!!

Abstract: The interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, wearables for short, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or article of clothing. The practical application is explained in detail and numerous illustrations serve as clarification. Over 50 well-known designers, research institutes, companies and artists, among them Philips, Burton, MIT Media Lab, XS Labs, New York University, Hussein Chalayan, Cute Circuit or International Fashion Machines are introduced by means of their latest, often still unpublished, project, and a survey of their work to date. Given for the first time is a list of all the relevant information on research institutes, materials, publications etc. A must for all those wishing to know everything about fashionable technology.

->Buy the book<-

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Physical Heart in a Virtual Body

My friend Amit Zoran, from the Ambient Intelligence group at MIT Media Lab, continued his work on structural innovation, re-designing acoustic musical instrument according to the abilities and characteristics of rapid prototype materials. Together with Pattie Maes and Marco Coppiardi, they created a new generation of physical instruments by tailoring wooden hearts. The wooden pieces are inserted in body of the guitar to give the instrument the desired sound identity.

Watch the video of the resonator ->here<-



Amit changing the physical heart of his guitar

can traditional values be embedded into a digital object? in this project we implement a special guitar that combines physical acoustic properties with virtual capabilities. The acoustical values will be embodied by a wooden heart - a unique, replaceable piece of wood that will give the guitar a unique acoustic sound. The acoustic signal created by this wooden heart will be digitally processed in a virtual sound box in order to create flexible sound design.

His research will be presented at Nime 2008 this summer.
His paper is ->here<-
His presentation is ->here<-



Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology

July 2008
I have authored a chapter in Fashionable Technology, book edited by Sabine Seymour!

I present my work on fashion garments designed in the context of technology -including the Touch Sensitive apparel developed with Yasmine Abbas. The book just came out and is available for pre-order on Amazon -> here<-

Abstract: The interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, wearables for short, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or article of clothing. The practical application is explained in detail and numerous illustrations serve as clarification. Over 50 well-known designers, research institutes, companies and artists, among them Philips, Burton, MIT Media Lab, XS Labs, New York University, Hussein Chalayan, Cute Circuit or International Fashion Machines are introduced by means of their latest, often still unpublished, project, and a survey of their work to date. Given for the first time is a list of all the relevant information on research institutes, materials, publications etc. A must for all those wishing to know everything about fashionable technology.

->Buy the book<- Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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A little bubble and a little LED

Tri-Color LED, Tilt sensors, 1.5" diameter sphere

Bubble Bobbles by James Clar are water-resistant floating globes each embedded with a tri-color LED. Tilt sensors are placed in each Bubble causing it to change colors depending on which direction it's tilted. Used in multitudes Bubble Bobbles can be placed in a pool or lake, causing ripples of colors with each splash and wave.



-> Movie <-

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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Gesture and shape define the state of an object

Switch by Radi Designers.

Gesture and shape both change the reading and functioning of the object; to cut the power one needs to break the object to interrupt the wire continuity on which it is integrated. It is the shape of the switch that makes sense as much as the sensation of breaking. The gesture is reversible and the switch takes two shapes: straight or bent to define the states: open or close -the usual schematic representations.


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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