A walk in the Duchamp Outpatient Clinic

Basketball Drawing, 2001, Harlem earth on paper, found suitcase. Bouncing a basketball on this 10 feet tall sheet of paper, covers it with dirt from Harlem.

A little more on David Hammons

David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois. An African-American, he is a conceptual installation artist using his found-object media as a platform for Dadaist social commentary, primarily on racial themes. Hammons places himself as an artist between Arte Povera and Marcel Duchamp. He has risen to prominence while at the same time consciously avoiding the attention of critics, galleries, and museums, preferring to do things in the street.

David Hammons has been inspired by the Arte Povera, Art which is not an impoverished art, but an art with an emphasis on materials and processes. He also thinks the art audience is the worst audience in the word: "it's overly educated, it's conservative, it's out to criticize not to understand, and it never had any fun. Why should I spend my time playing to that audience?" - Interview with David Hammons by dept of Modern culture and Media at Brown.

Today I read The Walker by Peter Schjeldahl Rediscovering New York with David Hammons Issue of 2002-12-23 and 30. Having extensively studied in Paris contemporary aesthetics and philosophy of art, at some point in my life I felt a bit brain-washed by this idea that any form of expression must be controlled while 'passion' and 'feeling' should not drive any parts of the conceptual work. Reading this article was refreshing for that reason. I picked my favorite part from the article:

I didn't ask him what it's like being black in a profession that remains overwhelmingly white. But he volunteered, "It's like being a white man in the jazz world, like Chet Baker or Gerry Mulligan. They had confidence. I feed off the confidence of jazz greats like them." He disparaged the academic ironies of younger artists, including blacks, who pose as subversives. He said, "I'm the C.E.O. of the D.O.C.—the Duchamp Outpatient Clinic. We have a vaccine for that smartness virus that's been in the art world for the last fifty years." The cure may be expressive activity that is streetwise, heartfelt, and utterly matter-of-fact.

... so refreshing!

Painting Pixels

The pixel roller, from 2005, is to me another take on how technology influenced the creative process, and in this case the printing process. The combination of digital and a new materiality expressed with the digitial is impressive.

Made by rAndom International at RCA

PixelRoller is a paint roller that paints pixels, designed as a rapid response printing tool specifically to print digital information such as imagery or text onto a great range of surfaces. The content is applied in continuous strokes by the user. PixelRoller can be seen as a handheld “printer”, based around the ergonomics of a paintroller, that lets you create the images by your own hand.

Web Site for PixelRoller including press material and a superbe video!



Pixels are everywhere, from dishes to architectural home structures.
This series from Remake Design reminds me of the Tetris video game.

A usb key that can blow up

There is a tone of usb keys that are invented now. I chose this one for its potential to blow up.
The idea behind this usb key is that the size of the device changes depending on the data it contains. My main question is can the usb key actually blow up if there are too many data?

Made by Dima Komissarov.

Jabberstamp

I team up with Hayes Raffle to work on his invention Jabberstamp a tool that allows children to synthesize their drawings and voices.

Jabberstamp is the the first tool that allows children to synthesize their drawings and voices. To use Jabberstamp, children create drawings, collages or paintings on normal paper. They press a special rubber stamp onto the page to record sounds into their drawings. When children touch the marks of the stamp with a small trumpet, they can hear the sounds playback, retelling the stories they have created.

Children ages 4+ can use Jabberstamp to embed names, narratives, characters’ voices and environmental sound effects in their original drawings. Children’s compositions help them communicate their stories with peers and adults, and allow them to record and situate stories in personally meaningful contexts to share with others, before they have mastered writing.

Update about Jabberstamp ...



Jabberstamp's video

From Rubix cube to pixel picture

When the product meets the digital, a multitude of Rubix cubes becomes a mario brother pixel picture ...


By space-invaders

Process ...

Sweet Synthesizer

A cute example on how digital technologies can inspire our everyday creations: a cake synthesizer by Adam!

Digital technologies make us re-evaluate the physical world

For my PhD I research on how digital technologies make us re-evaluate the physical world. We perceive a new physicality through digital materials. This modification of our perception of the environment is developed through our experience with the digital. I am creating products that reflect this digital influence that I will post soon on the blog.

I am designing Jewelry in the form of arial patterns of a city. My vision is to have in miniature the multitude of patterns that one can see from a distance. The research implication/discussion is now that we constantly travel by plane, use GIS, google map, satellite imagery, our vision is expanded. We now consider differently objects, we have a different representation to them. As much as the car has influenced painting and the representation of space and movement, I want to show how the use of new technologies can change our way to design objects.

Today I found on Idealist an interesting related product to my research, and to a certain extent art work, The palm-size Tersumus eraser. This eraser made by artlebedev borrows its shape from the well-known key on a computer keyboard.

Nokia concept phone

This was the 1st prize project done for NOKIA 4G mobile concept competition. It incorporates a scrowlable lcd screen, with touchscreen technology and allows to adjust the space on screen to each function you want to use like video conference and internet navigation at the same time. One main button controls the primary functions. All others are acessible on the screen. Modeled in Rhino, rendered in Studio Tools.

By Hugo Danti

Found on idealist

New product development

Anne Bruseberg and Deana McDonagh-Philp (2001) New product development by eliciting user experience and aspirations International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 55, Number 4, October 2001, pp. 435-452(18)

Abstract Industrial design training is embracing the need for designers to elicit user needs in order to support the development of successful new products. This paper highlights the collaboration of an ergonomist and two industrial designers in the development of a range of mainstream domestic consumer products. It documents the experiences gained in applying and adapting focus group techniques to inform the designing process directly, and illustrates how a variety of techniques (e.g. product handling and product personality profiling) can be incorporated to elicit user needs, aspirations and emotions.

Emotional relationship with products

McDonagh D, Bruseberg A, Haslam C. (2002) Visual product evaluation: exploring users' emotional relationships with products. In Appl Ergon. 2002 May;33(3):231-40.

Abstract This paper discusses an industrial designer's approach to eliciting user perceptions and emotional responses to products through visual evaluation and stimuli. Whilst the authors accept that product functionality is crucial for product success, the appearance, use of materials, shape and form provide the most immediate product data for the user. Less tangible issues such as emotional bonding of users with products, cultural perceptions and social value systems, provide valuable insights for the product developer to help expand knowledge and understanding of the users' need beyond the functional. This paper presents product personality profiling as a new technique for design researchers/designers, and discusses it alongside other emerging approaches such as mood boards and visual product evaluation. The authors have used these techniques during focus group sessions with users to elicit individuals' needs and aspirations towards products. Such a user-centred approach is fundamental to applied ergonomics. Experiences, benefits, and limitations of these techniques are outlined as well as the opportunities for further development.

Paper