The Moonlit Flower is a DIY project that combines tech to sewing skills.
As you close the flower' snaps, the flower lights up! Proposed as part of the tech DIY web site, the project teaches basic knowledge of electricity and circuits and how to make a shiny and twinkle]y-twinkly “Moonlit Flower"! The site offers many other DIY tutorials combining technology to crafting. So everybody (including boys), enjoy!!!
This work reminds me of Elisabeth Sylvan's research in 2005 on Ejewels. Participants used a combination of basic electronics materials and basic craft materials to create jewelry with lights that glow, flash, and change color.
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Blog Jouons 
Monday, March 10, 2008
Techy flower
Transgenesis
Transgenesis
In 2000 I had the chance to meet Pavel Smetana at Avignon Numérique, in France, and interact with his Room of Desires that he created in 1995. In this project I was connected to brainwave and heart-rate sensors in an empty room, with video projections of pretty relaxing pictures and music. As soon as I would become excited with an image, the system would generate new images and sounds, based on my biofeedback. The audience could witness these changes and understand what imagery would trigger a certain kind of emotions. After a while I would be able to control the system, in a way "controlling my emotions" and also what the audience would see as a result.
Recently Pavel Smetana in collaboration with Ivor Diosi and Ivan Acher revisited this past work and created transgenesis, a set of virtual environments the audio and the visual parts of which are changing in real-time in dependence on data received form sensors capturing brain and heart activity of viewers. Each viewer enters those and only those virtual landscapes which his or her physical and mental states lead to. Landscapes vary in audiovisual styles ranging from horror-like hyper-realistic atmosphere up to geometric or organic abstractions.
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Blog Jouons
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Wanna get an old new-mac?
Me with my PowerBook G4, on the road from San Francisco to San Diego
Being a big fan of Tim Mott's concept of guided fantasies with the need of rigorous user testing for designing user interfaces, I find Apple computers being all about user's needs.
I recently repaired my old Power Book G4 to give it to my grand ma, who had almost no computer experience. After testing with her different platforms, she prefers working with a trackpad than a usual mouse. She loves the drag and drop and prefers it to the open/close menu. In sum, the mac interface and the macbook pro seems perfect for her. Teaching her using my old mac was so nice combining my knowledge in usability to the love for my grand ma. Now she is on Skype regularly and I can talk and chat with her!
Apple iMac G4
You can get Apple parts for old computers online. DV Warehouse is an avid reseller of used mac. It proposes a wide range of Macintosh computers and individual parts. They have pretty good deals, have a lot of Apple parts, and also nostalgic pieces such as the Apple iMac G4 or the iMac G3. The Apple community needs this kind of single source for used Mac and used Macintosh computers parts. So you can start designing, repairing and hacking old macs!
The Apple iMac G3
I could not find the Apple I, Apple's first product! "Sold as an assembled circuit board, it lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case."
Apple 1 with an added keyboard and a wooden case. Photo taken by rebelpilot
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Blog Jouons
Spam drawing
Apparently artists find spam inspiring. After spam architecture, Marian Bantjes creates spam drawing!
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.............................................................................................
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Blog Maison Blog Lesson
MIT to be tuition-free for families earning less than $75,000 a year
Pretty insane news! I am proud to belong to MIT when I know that nearly 30 percent of MIT students will soon have all tuition charges covered! The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced its financial aid program for 2008-2009. Increases in financial aid will make it possible for a larger fraction of MIT students to have their tuition and fees completely covered. Here is an excerpt of the newsletter I received from the MIT alumni association:
Under the new plan, which will take effect in the 2008-2009 academic year
Families earning less than $75,000 a year will have all tuition covered. For parents with total annual income below $75,000 and typical assets, MIT will ensure that all tuition charges are covered with an MIT scholarship, federal and state grants, and/or outside scholarship funds. Nearly 30 percent of MIT students fall into this tuition-free category. (...) Under this provision, for example, students in this income group who participate in MIT's paid Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) each semester would be able to graduate debt-free.
For families earning less than $100,000, MIT will eliminate home equity in determining their need. In determining the ability to pay for college, MIT will no longer consider home equity for families with total annual income below $100,000 and typical assets. On average, this will reduce parental contributions by $1,600. For families who rent, rather than own a home, MIT will provide a comparable reduction in the expected parental contribution.
Total financial aid budget is one of the highest per enrolled student in the nation. Building on this commitment, MIT will increase its financial aid budget to $74 million. MIT's total financial aid budget is one of the highest per enrolled student in the nation. Sixty percent of MIT undergraduates receive scholarship aid from the Institute's internal resources. Fully 90 percent of MIT undergraduates receive financial aid of some kind, from a range of sources. While MIT focuses assistance on those with fewer resources, it also provides aid to families with incomes well above $100,000 who demonstrate need--for example, because they have more than one child in college at a time. In fact, approximately 38 percent of our current MIT scholarship recipients come from families earning more than $100,000.
"We will continue our longstanding financial commitment to students and their families in the years ahead," Hastings stated. "That we can welcome to our campus such extraordinary students, regardless of their economic background, is due to our historic dedication to need-based financial aid."
More news & letter to the MIT community!
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Blog Jouons
Costumes for Domestic Oppositional Training
atHABITAT: Costumes for Domestic Oppositional Training, 2007
Kate James focuses on interests of the body, it’s habits, movements, and dynamic sectional relationship to it’s surrounding structures. She hopes to question and complicate the interfaces between the corporeal and the environmental — those objects, surfaces, and systems that mediate the body’s experience within an environment and fuel the habitual kinesthesia of everyday life.
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Blog Jouons
Friday, March 07, 2008
A village on the ice
Antarctic Village by Orta Studio is a symbol of the plight of those struggling to transverse borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape political and social conflict.
Dotted along the ice, the tents formed a settlement reminiscent of the images of refugee camps we see so often reported about on our television screens and newspapers. Physically the installation Antarctic Village is emblematic of Ortas’ body of work, composed of what could be termed modular architecture and reflecting qualities of nomadic shelters and campsites. More on Orta's web site.
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Coloring book
I love this coloring book and sticker kit idea by Sanithna Phansavanh.
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A ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch
TosPom is a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch created By Izumi Yagi and Mitsuyoshi Kimura.
When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display. With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch. Moreover, the photographer can draw out a more natural and relaxed expression from the object.
Video
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