What's next for fitness centers?

I read an issue of Art in America -featuring the amazing work of Janine Antoni on the cover and discovered a past work of Antal Lakner: home transporter (from the passive working devices series).

Skewering a vain leisure society that "labors" pointlessly on exercise equipment, Lakner designs workout machines like the "Forest Master" (a saw) and the "Home Transporter" (a wheelbarrow). Each is accompanied by a didactic photo of a worker using the prototype tool.

I find this work actually very marketable as a neat idea for making fitness centers more fun! I know it is not the point and the work is remarkable, but it is also an amazing interface design for transforming fitness centers. Instead of trying to hook up a rowing machine to a virtual boat in a video game, why not connecting the actions with meaningful activities!





Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Organic prosthesis

Grow On You by LucyandBart.

LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.

Playing with suggestive photography for high impact, they seem obsessed with the body metamorphosis. I call their work organic prosthesis, because they mainly use organic material in their body extension. For instance, they grow seeds on a fabric, which gives the impression of a body grown of grass and soil. The following pictures show the germination from day one to day eight.



I love their work with foam. The foam transforms the body in a gentle way. Here the artists embrace the prosthetic impulse ...




Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Blogging in Motion

I met Diana Eng at the seamless fashion show in 2006 when my team and I presented Taptap: the scarf that hugs you back! She was showing an impressive inflatable dress, a gown that fits the body to later inflates ...

Photos from the rehearsal & Photos from the show that I took during the event.

One of her newest project, Blogging in motion, is a purse which involuntarily blogs your day. Each time the wearer walks 30 steps, the purse takes a photograph and automatically uploads it to a blog online. Time and GPS location for each photo can also be added to the blog. At the end of the day, blog readers can trace back through the wearer's footsteps by viewing the photographs taken during the day.



Project by Diana Eng, Emily Albinski, Audrey Roy, Jeannie Yang and Yahoo Research Berkley.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Pepper ghost mannequins

Created for the Musée de la mode et du textile, Paris 1998, Radi Designers created a beautiful exhibition design that integrates 98's technologies such as projections of portraits. The exhibition consisted in a retrospective on graduates work from FIAMH (Festival International des Arts et de la Mode, Hyères) where moving heads animate mannequins and produce ghost like pictures.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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Video scenarios of tech-enabled behaviors

Mobility platform videos for Intel by Ideo.

Visualizing high-tech's human-centered future by Ideo.
Tapping into the growing broadband access around the world, Intel has innovated a series of chipsets and mobile platforms that enable smarter, more efficient laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs. While these offerings represent new possibilities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it's not uncommon for OEMs to need an added push to invest in unproven technology. To bring to life the potential of this technology, IDEO worked with Intel to visualize what user behaviors might be enabled by the offerings. The work, which culminated in the form of three videos, points to Intel's larger shift toward human-centered technology innovation.



In looking at Intel's next-generation products, IDEO had a clear sense of the emphasis on mobility. From a design perspective, the offerings were each exciting, offering new ways for people to live and work, but lacked the cohesion of a system. To integrate the platforms, IDEO developed user scenarios that merged product, interaction, and experience as they related to such behaviors as hands-free communication, social networking, and purchasing. These user scenarios were then fully storyboarded and scripted for video production.

In depicting user behaviors through video scenarios, IDEO created a unified vision for Intel's offerings that has served to foster alignment within Intel as well as to communicate product value to OEMs and service providers.

By Architectradure

Flying video-taking pet?

Would you like a flying video-taking pet that follows you around? Here is a fun visionary video on the future of mobile technology for teenagers by Microsoft found on RoomWare


Video: Career in Computer Science - MS Research

The futures of textile

My friend Jane Harris, the director of the Textile Futures Research Group at Central Saint Martins just invited me to this awesome salon on Textile Futures at the ICA. So if you are in London, you should check it out!

TEXTILE FUTURES SALON (ICA and University of the Arts London collaboration)

20 March 2007, 6-8pm. Textile Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London in collaboration with the ICA presents the Textile Futures Salon. The first in this series of seminars and workshops will ask the question, “What is the Future For Textiles?”. Fashion designer, Katherine Hamnett; founder of the Future Laboratory, Martin Raymond; architect, Ian Ritchie; textiles author and curator, Sarah E.Braddock Clarke; and interaction & textile designer, Rachel Wingfield will be in the hot seat to respond, chaired by Dr Jane Harris, member and director of the Textile Futures Research Group.

Photo © Ian Ritchie

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