Mediated Social Serendipity is a report describing mobile-phone services and applications that enable users to “stumble into” friends despite being apart physically. It develops in four concept-categories for social serendipitous mobile-phone experiences.
One of the most astonishing idea presented in the report is “Nudge”, a system that recognizes patterns of everyday life and detects if a user has not send news to a friend for a long time and acts on his/her behalf accordingly. For instance, Asa’s phone registers that she is far away from home. It gathers surrounding information and will generate a text message to a good friend of hers who she has not called in several months.
The automated message would be:
Hi! Right now I’m about 3142 kilometers south-west from where you are. Felicia, Per and I are walking along the beach in Tarifa, Spain. It’s 25°C and the sun shines. We hear seagulls and waves breaking. Speak to you soon! /Asa
As she walks down to the water to dip her toes in the ocean, her phone automatically sends a message to her friend. One can immediately sees the pros and cons of such system, but what strikes me the most is the desire to have an automatic scriptwriter who kind of takes care of forgotten friends. Imagine the friend receiving an automated SMS that is kind of saying:"I am having fun at the beach, I have not contacted you for 5 years, I really don't have time to send you any news, I don't even think about you because my phone does the job for me, have fun in your gray Paris!"
Wouldn't that be an awesome insulting SMS?! I seriously think this system has to be implemented and connected to Orkut, Facebook, MySpace or any social networks. This could be a new generation of text messaging system who takes care of all your social network pseudo friends. At the end of the day for a lot of people (but not me!) most of these contacts are not really your friends, you are not really honest with them, so you can take care of them in a semi-automated way. You don't really receive news, they are not really interesting and personal, they are just Spam version 2, the kind of spam you don't know what to do about. I am not sure what to think about it, but it is a very daring idea! This report was really exciting to read with a lot of funny, clever, and realistic visions on what mobile technology could mean within various social contexts.
Don't forget to check another way mobile technology tries the impossible in a funny way!
More information on the report that also surveys existing systems:
Formo, J. (2007). Mediated Social Serendipity. Master thesis. The Institute of Industrial Design at Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
[PDF]
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Mediated Social Serendipity: a new SMS system for taking care of your Facebook friends
Friday, January 11, 2008
Gun Powder
Space No.1 1988 - Tokyo, Japan by Cai Guo-Qiang. Materials: gunpowder, paper, light & glass
The Dragon Has Arrived! 1997 - Venice, Italy.
Materials: Salvaged wood from sunken boat, Chinese flags, electric fan, lights
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
GPS tracking and goggle earth navigation
I've looked for GPS - Global Positioning System- recently. Wouldn't that be awesome for the iphone to have GPS technology integrated while being connected to Google Earth? All in one certainly! One product, the GPS Tracking Key, is a pocket sized device that receives signals from the twenty-four Department of Defense GPS satellites orbiting the earth. And it is ... Google Earth compatible!
"The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the only fully functional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Utilizing a constellation of at least 24 Medium Earth Orbit satellites that transmit precise microwave signals, the system enables a GPS receiver to determine its location, speed, direction, and time. Other similar systems are the Russian GLONASS (incomplete as of 2007), the upcoming European Galileo positioning system, the proposed COMPASS navigation system of China, and IRNSS of India. - Wikipedia"
As you might already know, the internal computer accurately determines the GPS location of the device within 2.5 meters and records this data every second. In this GPS tracking device, the Data can be downloaded and view in Google Earth simply by plugging the Tracking Key into the USB port of a computer. It seems that connecting it to the iphone wouldn't be that hard!
Here are a few links shared by Aaron Zinman on samples to code the iphone:
MobileScrobbler -- Last FM client with lots of UIKit use, iPod access & monitoring, Calendar Integration
doom ported
nes emulator home page
svn repo
MAME ported over SDL
bluetooth/wifi access/cell tower
video conferencing
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................
Is this a land made for you and me?
Is this a land for you and me 1 by artist Paul Ramirez Jonas.
Upon entering the exhibition space the public encounters short bases each supporting a hand bell. All the hand bells together form a song. Meaning, for each note in the melody, there is a hand bell. In fact, the bases are a blow up of the song's score, cup up so that each note is isolated. The only notes that remain grouped are the chorus. Members of the public are invited to take one bell/note, take it along, and ring it as they see the show. On their way out, they would place the bell back on its pedestal. The song is thus fractured and dispersed in the space. There is a slim chance that the public, either by chance or through cooperation, could perform the melody.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Upcoming design competitions
Baby-Travel.com invites designers, students & inventors worldwide to design a product relating to the world of traveling with babies, toddlers and their parents. Deadline 31st March 2008.
Pdf. with details
You are invited to investigate the future design of the work environment! Deadline 30th June 2008.
Other design competitions
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
The subtle vibrations
Duncan Wilson created Otto with Manolis Kelaidis at the Royal College of Art.
OTTO (Greek for ‘ear’) is a device that makes hidden sounds audible. This is achieved via a thin polymer piezoelectric contact that senses weak vibrations and plays them as a sound through an integrated speaker. OTTO can be positioned on almost any surface through a combination of suction and magnets. By placing several units on different objects, one can select and create a new sonic experience and a form of ambient music appreciation, thereby utilising our space as a multidirectional audio platform.
Every object and surface in our environment has a whisper; subtle tremors and vibrations that are usually undetectable to the human ear, produced by the activity and movement of daily life. What if these sounds were audible? How would that change our aural awareness, perception of space and attitude towards objects? Would it be possible to ‘compose’ our own soundtrack using our walls and objects as a new form of instruments? Madsounds is a proposal for a different appreciation of our environment, space and objects by making it possible to identify, combine and manipulate these sounds.
More projects from the RCA.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Transformation
Freeze by Akiko and Masako Takada. Picture from Champ Libre.
The twin sisters Akiko and Masako Takada transform plastic packing into a urban landscape, gradually covered with white frost. The plastic objects were actually covered and crystallized by salted water. In other words, the scene captures the moment of natural transformation.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Monday, January 07, 2008
Haaa typography ...
Helvetica Bold, 36 point --1956-1957 by Edouard Hoffmann and Max Miedinger. Lead and wood tray, 1 7/8 x 10 5/8 x 24 3/4" (4.8 x 27 x 62.9 cm).
A recent acquisition of the MoMA. Gift of Lars Müller and Stampa Didot, Switzerland.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Breathing Spirulina
There is this place in Paris, Flood -58 rue de Chateaudun et 1 rue Danielle Casanova- where one can eat air made of Spirulina. Created by Mathieu Lehanneur, an aquarium rests in the centre of each area containing over 100 litres of Spirulina Platensis, an algae I have been eating since my teenage years. By photosynthesis, these microalgae produce pure oxygen. A fresh, living material, rich in proteins and with a taste resembling tofu, next time I am in Paris, I will have to try this place! 
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
Therapeutic objects
Having researched and designed haptic devices to support psychotherapeutic treatments, I am fascinated by French designer :) Mathieu Lehanneur's work on therapeutic objects he conceived with psychiatric consultants: Bernard Lachaux, Patrick Lemoine and model makers: Alban Danguy des Deserts. These objects are part of the permanent collection of the MOMA, NYC.
He proposes a series of objects not only as an attempt to bring design into the medical sphere, but essentially to design medications from the perspective of the patient and his/her illness relationship.
His scenario envisions: the placebo effect, a participation of the patient in his/her treatment, making the medication a communicative and sensory object, debating on the mechanistic approach of modern pharmacology, playing on emotions of attraction, desire, fear and repulsion towards a device or a particular form using gestures, usage practices and rituals.
Therapeutic felt-tip pen, 2001.
This analgesic for chronic pain is a systemic medication, which acts on all symptoms together. All that is required is to write on the painful area of the body each day and to remove the used cartridge at the end of each day. This transdermal product is coupled with a user-friendly ink that disappears after several minutes.
The Third Lung, 2001.
This project consists of a base treatment for asthma. The patient who refuses to accept his illness will reject even more the idea of taking medication unnecessary. The idea behind this therapeutic object is to establish a relationship of dependence.
But in this case the medication is dependent on the patient. Between two doses, the volume of the medication increases, this displaying its own physiological problem and indicating to the patient the urgency of taking the medication. Once the dose is administered, the volume decreases and returns to its normal level, only to expand once again until the next dose is administered.
The First Mouthful
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
