Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Colorful Chips That Turn Plastic Into Music
The Tangible Color Music Instrument The designer, Ryan Raffa, explains the process of his experiment on his website, "A camera above the lit platform provides information to my openFrameworks application that is looking for specific data points of hue, saturation, and value. As a virtual “radar” passes over combinations of colors, users are able to compose through exploring sound and the visual.."
Video Link
Ryan Raffa
To Hell with Lamps, This Chair Lights Itself
Why use two things when you could just use one good one? The product displayed is just one of many produced by Nieuwe Heren. Nieuwe Heren is a team of are two guys in their early twenties that share a passion in creating things and do not plan on stopping anytime soon.
Nieuwe Heren
Photoshop Tutorial Rap
Having trouble learning Photoshop?; fear no more. This rap about Photoshop helps bring some ease to those weary first time users who are overwhelmed by all the features of Photoshop. Although the video is mainly for comedic purposes, it's actually quite informative.
Video Link
A Flashing Digital Wonderland in Russia
Whoever said Russia is cold and dull must not have gone to the right art festival! Russuin telecom firm Yota is throwing a two week long art festival featuring concerts, panels, and, most visually stimulating, some pretty spectacular looking high-tech art installations. The entire festival takes place inside a 200 year old castle in Saint Petersburg.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Anna Akbari
Anna conducted a personal experiment for herself that was both very interesting and enlightening. It was surrounded by the concept of Ethnographic Exploration: the study of a culture to understand a culture. In her experiment she dressed up in multiple stereotypical personalities and lived out that day as that person. These identities included a tourist, homeless person, prostitute, lesbian, etc. She found that this was an empathy building process because of how much people's reactions to each persona varied. It was a test for audience perception.
Putting on masks is simply, as Anna says, image management. Being in control of the way you are perceived by the world is not a bad thing. If anything, it gives you self-power and helps you to better understand social theories.
A good example of someone who completely understood the importance of image management is Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lifshitz. However, this waspy-Jewish was not going to work for the lifestyle he wanted to lead. So what did he do? He changed his name and took on the persona of this new identity: Ralph Lauren. His confidence in turn boosted his career and helped him to sell his lifestyle to consumers through clothes.
She concluded our talk by putting into perspective how influential image management can prove to be when it comes to being hired. When you strategically use self-presentation, your confidence will shine through, your positivity will inspire, and your professionalism will hopefully get you a job!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Pipe Lights
"Eric Liftin, principal of MESH Architectures handcrafts pipe lights in a variety of configurations including custom insalls. The fixtures are made from iron plumbing pipe and almost have the appearance of tree branches. The fixtures cast a low, soft light akin to candlelight, but unlike candles these lamps can be switched or dimmed with a simple touch."
Pipe Lines
Smart Fridge
Designer Ashley Legg designed "The Smart Fridge" for those who have shunted cooking to a hobby and rely more on designer microwave meals. The idea is to give you a fridge that is intelligent enough to come up with a healthy recipe, depending on what you stock in it. Not only that, it guides you with vocal instructions, spoon by spoon, till you dish out the perfect-wholesome meal. A touch interface door glams up the appliance, creating the desire to own a piece that’s futuristic but may not be what you’re looking for!
Yanko Design
The Creators Project
James Powderly is a designer specializing somewhere between New Media and engineering. One of his projects was to get a bunch of "LED Throwies;" one LED light with a magnet attached to it. He threw up one single LED and left more on the floor for others to throw it up. By the end of the night the building was covered in these various LED lights. In one of his videos, he showcases a street art designer, Tony Kwan, who was diagnosed with a disease that disallowed him to control anything in his body other than his mind and eyes. Powderely designed a pair of glasses for Tony that would allow him to write with his eyes for the first time in seven years connecting a computer to follow and record his eye motion.
The Creators Project
Design Chairs by Ronen Kadushin
Ronen Kadushin's latest exhibition, Recent Uploads, is a collection of raw cut, exposed material open design chairs at the Appel Design Gallery in Berlin. The chairs on display are laser cut from a 6mm aluminum sheet, then bent and assembled by hand.
Says Kadushin, "Bending a piece this thick is made easy using a hallmark detail I formulated a few years back; the integral twist hinge, which makes it possible to plan an exact bending position in a computer drawing, and retain the structural integrity of the chair, as part of the cutout."
The collection of chairs is a design exploration into the opportunities that Open Design presents.
MoCoLoCo
Special Problems
Special Problems
Campbell Hooper and Joel Kefali draw on their combined backgrounds in graphic design, fine art, film and music to present unique creative concepts, always inspired by the subject.
As a directing team Special Problems are adept in both live action and animation, and are immediately involved in all aspects of the production process.
The link below is for a music video they produced for a New Zealand band, The Naked and Famous.
Music Video
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Victoria Monsul
Life: Post Graduate
Growing up, Victoria always found herself doing creative activities; from directing plays to experimenting with arts and crafts. She was curious to discover the world outside her small town, so she applied to schools in New York City. When she arrived at Pratt University, she felt more at home than ever before. The university was full of creative, curious individuals like herself and now she had plenty of people to explore with. She realized very early on that having a group of people she enjoyed spending time wuth helped her grow; her great ideas were influenced by friends around her and helped bring her ideas to the next level. When you're around people you understand you, it's easy to be yourself, and more importantly, you don't worry about making a fool of yourself. Victoria explained to us that it was her failures in life that allowed her to learn and grow the most. "If you;re not failing every day, then you're not setting high enough goals.
She left the class with a very powerful idea: The Power of Manifestation. When you have a thought, you can create it, as long as you seriously believe in yourself, anything is possible. you and you alone hold the key to your future, it just takes confidence, a positive attitude, and knowing how to fail
Growing up, Victoria always found herself doing creative activities; from directing plays to experimenting with arts and crafts. She was curious to discover the world outside her small town, so she applied to schools in New York City. When she arrived at Pratt University, she felt more at home than ever before. The university was full of creative, curious individuals like herself and now she had plenty of people to explore with. She realized very early on that having a group of people she enjoyed spending time wuth helped her grow; her great ideas were influenced by friends around her and helped bring her ideas to the next level. When you're around people you understand you, it's easy to be yourself, and more importantly, you don't worry about making a fool of yourself. Victoria explained to us that it was her failures in life that allowed her to learn and grow the most. "If you;re not failing every day, then you're not setting high enough goals.
She left the class with a very powerful idea: The Power of Manifestation. When you have a thought, you can create it, as long as you seriously believe in yourself, anything is possible. you and you alone hold the key to your future, it just takes confidence, a positive attitude, and knowing how to fail
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The New-Age Message in a Bottle
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Pimp My Life
Anna Akbari spoke to our class about the different personas one plays out throughout their day-to-day life. Psychologists refer to this as "wearing masks" and each new situation you enter, new friend that you talk to, or country that you visit requires that you put on the appropriate mask. Some argue that this is skewing your identity and are somehow loosing yourself. But Anna disagrees.
To support her stance, she put together a collage of all the different hairstyles she's had throughout her life. She shows herself with big hair, short hair, curly hair, straight hair, and each picture looked like a fairly different person than the next. However, its still the same Anna in all of the pictures. So for those who feel like putting on a mask is somehow loosing yourself they would also have to agree that the hairstyle one choses to have defines that person; and to me, that just seems silly.
Putting on masks is simply, as Anna says, image management. Being in control of the way you are perceived by the world is not a bad thing. If anything, it gives you self-power and helps you to better understand social theories.
A good example of someone who completely understood the importance of image management is Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lifshitz. However, this waspy-Jewish was not going to work for the lifestyle he wanted to lead. So what did he do? He changed his name and took on the persona of this new identity: Ralph Lauren. His confidence in turn boosted his career and helped him to sell his lifestyle to consumers through clothes.
Anna conducted a personal experiment for herself that was both very interesting and enlightening. It was surrounded by the concept of Ethnographic Exploration: the study of a culture to understand a culture. In her experiment she dressed up in multiple stereotypical personalities and lived out that day as that person. These identities included a tourist, homeless person, prostitute, lesbian, etc. She found that this was an empathy building process because of how much people's reactions to each persona varied. It was a test for audience perception.
She concluded her presentation putting into perspective how influential image management can prove to be when it comes to being hired. When you strategically use self-presentation, your confidence will shine through, your positivity will inspire, and your professionalism will hopefully get you a job!
To support her stance, she put together a collage of all the different hairstyles she's had throughout her life. She shows herself with big hair, short hair, curly hair, straight hair, and each picture looked like a fairly different person than the next. However, its still the same Anna in all of the pictures. So for those who feel like putting on a mask is somehow loosing yourself they would also have to agree that the hairstyle one choses to have defines that person; and to me, that just seems silly.
Putting on masks is simply, as Anna says, image management. Being in control of the way you are perceived by the world is not a bad thing. If anything, it gives you self-power and helps you to better understand social theories.
A good example of someone who completely understood the importance of image management is Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren's real name is Ralph Lifshitz. However, this waspy-Jewish was not going to work for the lifestyle he wanted to lead. So what did he do? He changed his name and took on the persona of this new identity: Ralph Lauren. His confidence in turn boosted his career and helped him to sell his lifestyle to consumers through clothes.
Anna conducted a personal experiment for herself that was both very interesting and enlightening. It was surrounded by the concept of Ethnographic Exploration: the study of a culture to understand a culture. In her experiment she dressed up in multiple stereotypical personalities and lived out that day as that person. These identities included a tourist, homeless person, prostitute, lesbian, etc. She found that this was an empathy building process because of how much people's reactions to each persona varied. It was a test for audience perception.
She concluded her presentation putting into perspective how influential image management can prove to be when it comes to being hired. When you strategically use self-presentation, your confidence will shine through, your positivity will inspire, and your professionalism will hopefully get you a job!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
What are they testing on rats now!
Well actually, this design is pretty innovative, and doesn't seem to be doing too much harm to the rats. Its a test that will one day hopefully allow paraplegic and other disabled (eventually human) beings to use their minds to control their wheelchairs. The RatCar controlled by electrodes implanted directly into the rodent driver's motor cortex, unlike other devices that use non-invasive sensors. In the test, they had the follow a track and note its travel path. After it moved around freely for awhile, they attached the rats limbs to the car and turned on the car in to "neuro-robotic mode." 6 out of 8 rats seemed to adapt to the car very well, but there's still some speculation as to how much the rats were using their mind.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Brand Brainstorming
South Africa
fast = vinnig
Thailand
skateboard = sagaytbod
Czech
fun = zábava
Visava
fast = vinnig
Thailand
skateboard = sagaytbod
Czech
fun = zábava
Visava
Sunday, September 12, 2010
A Camera For Lego Lovers
Taking pictures of the family while playing games was always fun; but now, you too can play games while using your camera. The new Pentax Optio NB1000 has optical zoom and 14.1 megapixel, but most importantly, the exterior of the camera is a Lego board, so you can attach anything you want to it. to take a The camera also can record videos up to 720p. Oh, and it's front face is like a Lego board so you can attach anything you want on it.
The Pentax Optio NB1000
DTV Shredder
ATVs are out and DTV's are in. THE DTV Shredder, is a militarized skateboard with two revolving traction tracks. It reach up to 30mph, can handle slopes up to 40-degrees, turn around in four feet, and be remotely operated. In action, it just looks like a whole lot of fun. In the video, they also show how DTV's can be used as a new vehicle in rescue. By attaching a back wagon equip to transport a person in need, DTVs might be transforming life for EMTs and people alike.
DTV Shredder
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