Hugging my furniture

A landscape designed for the body. These livingstones, "les coussins galets" created by French designer Stephanie Marin, remind me of Ernesto Neto's work. I stumbled upon these and I love them. I can now embrace my furniture, discover the spaces inside, around and between my body!

See also the felt rocks by Molo!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle
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A button to learn electronics

If electronics for dummies does not work for you, there is a button that teaches you electronics.
The Digg button works as a beginner electronics that teaches how to solder and program microcontroller. The link with Digg is that each time you push the button, the button flashes "Dug" and increments the counter up to 999 "diggs". The Digg kit was created by Phillip Torrone from Makezine, Kevin Rose from Digg and Limor Fried aka Ladyada from the MIT Media Lab.

The project is open source, and documented with parts list, schematics and code available.

NB: For every sale of the Digg button kit the designers are giving $1 to the EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation.



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Useful inventions

By graphic artist David Aja.

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Tell me a story about computers ...

These pictures are part of an awesome book Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers by by John Alderman.

Today with my three fellows from the media lab - Nan Wei, Amit and Seth - I just passed my final physics 123 exam at Harvard University.
I am now qualified to connect the world of analog electronics to the digital one using... a beautifully vintage 8051!!! If you want an easiest way to make things talk, Tom Igoe's book might be the way to go!

Don't forget to check the computer history museum and the post by 37signals showing outstanding computer pictures. We never get enough of seeing all their buttons and the magic of their mechanics.


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Pictograms

Screenshot from the symbol serie building

I love pictograms. IIT Bombay offers graphic icons for signage systems to be used for your design works in .eps format: Hospitals, Railway/Bus stations and Public building environments. Enjoy!


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Human sculptures

The gigantic modern bronze figures of taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming are inspired by the ancient Chinese martial art of tai chi chuan. His sculpted bodies in action remind me of the playstation statue-like forms of people playing with playstation. Our next step is to create 3d sculptures of people playing second life and exhibit them in second life!

Thank you Nan Wei for introducing me to the work of Ju Ming!

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A personal fitness coach

The Personal Robots Group at MIT researches on social affective touch for robots and designs robotic teddy bear! Recently Cory Kidd completed a PhD from the group and started a company: Intuitive Automata Inc.

Intuitive Automata Inc. creates robots that can help you in your everyday life. By applying new research in sociable robotics, the company is developing robots that can talk, see you, and help you in many ways.



Their first product is Autom™, a robotic weight loss coach, designed to help people who are trying to lose or keep off weight. Autom helps by encouraging you to stick with your diet for long enough to create long-term change and keep extra pounds off!


Autom the weight loss coach! - Photo © Intuitive Automata Inc. 2007

The research that led to this product started at the MIT Media Laboratory in the Personal Robots Group. Their earlier results in controlled Human-Robot Interaction studies have shown that a robot can be seen as more credible and informative than a character on the screen. Hence, there is reason to believe that a robot may be a more effective mechanism for conveying the behavior change message. Results showing that a robot can be more engaging than an animated character lends itself to the possibility of creating a set of longitudinal interactions, or a relationship, that is longer-lasting than previous techniques and therefore also more likely to have the opportunity to create long-term behavior change.

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Physical visualization

Mount Fear Statistics for Crimes with Offensive Weapon South London 2001-2002 (2002) corrugated cardboard 2.3m x 1.85m x height 1.85m

After tactile videos or high touch visual, data visualization becomes sculpted and physical. Artist Abigail Reynolds works with materials to bring fugitive knowledge and connections into the immediacy of physical experience.


130 layers of 10mm polystyrene with sprayed finish

In this work, she generates data sets relating to the frequency and position of urban crimes. Each individual incident adds to the height of the model, forming a mountainous terrain.


MOUNT FEAR Statistics for Violent offences 2001-02 Central Manchester (2003) Scale: 1:22,000 (1cm:22m) Relief: 1:24 (1 layer represents 24 offences per km2) Fits a 4x8ft x 70cm plinth. Height 203cm (including plinth)

The imaginative fantasy space seemingly proposed by the sculpture is subverted by the hard facts and logic of the criteria that shape it. The object does not describe an ideal other-worldly space separated from lived reality, but conversely describes in relentless detail the actuality of life on the city streets.

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Participation Art Online

Amber Frid-Jimenez, member of the Open Studio team, focused on the emergence of online art communities for her master thesis.



She designed WikiPhone, a system in which multiple participants collaborate on soundtracks in real-time, modifying existing online videos; OpenBrand, a system that allows participants to rewrite advertisements; Emma On Relationships, a video blog inviting participants to call in for love advice; and several other projects, exploring aspects of creativity and collaboration.

For her thesis she examined the commonalities within these systems to define design principles governing the creation of participatory media, and to explore the potential of these systems to effect social and political change.

You can download her thesis!

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The Den Den Mushi

Have you ever thought of inventing a new fruit? The type of fruits you find in anime can be inspiring. Slugs, insects, monsters can also be a source of inspiration for new design objects. I remember loving the Den Den Mushi, the Transponder Snail Phone, a snail that works as a portable phone in One Piece.


A physical representation of the One Piece "den den mushi" - Photo by MJ Reyes

Well not far from these electro-snail ideas, designer Peter d'Alessandro invented a fruit, sketched a cannibal one, a fruit that cooks another fruit by working as a solar oven. This is particularly self-contained and sustainable!


The plant cooks the fruit by working as a solar oven


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