A collection of looks into the future by a variety of voices. I find it strange that the future is both nothing like and exactly what we imagine it to be. The popular trends for future applications seem to remain popular enough to emerge but the ways in which they are executed tend to be [...]
This is a short narrative I wrote to describe a fictional environment in which my thesis ideas might exist:
“Just put it on Dad, I swear!” Gavin mumbled under his breath, sitting anxiously across the table from his father. Scott leaned forward slowly to accept the Dermatext bracelet spread long across Gavin’s palm. Scott attempted a [...]
Material Meaning: As creatures in the physical world, people are able to manipulate tangible materials to create and associate certain meaning with objects. This meaning is embedded in the object or material and the social context it lives in. For example, folding a note in half can mean the message on the note is confidential [...]
I found this project on the Organic User Interface blog. I think this is a beautiful application of a tangible display. Shade pixel, a project from KAIST, creatively uses material that communicates differently than a standard pixel. What this project lacks is that it is not meant to be held, felt, or manipulated as a [...]
Can tangible media be transferred digitally? Of course it can. The fax machine did so in a partial fashion. The Espresso book Machine by Google is a fair example of the transfer of material meaning. Both the original source and the duplicated expression are tangible media forms and so the expression is trying to transfer [...]
In my research I plan on emphasizing the use of the soma-sensory capability of human bodies. Marjorie L. Rand, gives a clear definition to what Somatic Tracking means in an article found in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, Vol. 5, 2002.
“Somatic means “of the body” (Greek soma) and attunement means to adjust or [...]
“Oobleck is a fictional green precipitation invented by children’s author Dr. Seuss in the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck…It has since been used as a title to describe a non-Newtonian fluid, or a fluid whose flow properties are not described by a single constant value of viscosity.” Cited from Wikipedia.
Question: What can shape-changing materials communicate?
Pranav Mistry from MIT’s Media Lab has invented a medium that interfaces with physical space and material. Using gesture, the user can direct a variety of media-based interactions in any environment and on any surface. Mistry explains how these interactions draw from intuitiveness that has been developed from living in the physical world. Mistry’s research [...]
In Phil Van Allen’s paper, Productive Interaction he states:
“Productive interaction is a recasting of the author/designer’s position in relation to the audience. Instead of laying out a linear narrative in an enveloping experience, the productive interaction designer frames an exploration of a meaning space, making sure the audience has the affordances to create their own [...]
I found this reference from a friend, who pulled it from Gizmodo. Katie Paterson, London-based artist created LP records out of ice by using a regular record to create a mold. The sound comes from recordings taken from three Icelandic glaciers and is more obscure as it melts away. Claudia Märzendorfer has done a similar [...]
I’ve been researching different visual codes as a way to embed data for physical experiences. Below are a few interesting references:
QR Code: Quick Reference codes, developed in Japan in 1994 are the standard for mobile devices today.
Chromatic Alphabet: Developed by C.C. Elian, it uses 26 hues which correspond to the letters of the alphabet. Interesting, [...]
I’m trying to land on a term that I feel accurately describes the type of social creatures I see us becoming in a world of crafted connectivity. The term, “social weavers,” seemed intriguing to me. “Weaver” assumes a active role in shaping a network of intertwined connections. Could the act of weaving serve as a [...]
Norman Klein and I have been frequently discussing how to define the technological era we have at present. It’s something everyone talks about, maybe because we share some distaste for the amount of surrender we have given to the digital domain. Many continue to debate between digital and analog, a longstanding feud. However, Norman recently [...]
1. “A Brief History of the Carte de Visite from The American Museum of Photography™,” http://www.photographymuseum.com/histsw.htm.
2. “About Google Wave,” http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html.
3. Montagu Stephen Williams and Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, Carte de visite (French, 189).
4. William Culp Darrah, Cartes de visite in nin[e]teenth century photography (W.C. Darrah, 1981).
5. S. M. Rojas-Drummond, C. D. Albarran, and K. S. [...]