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The secrets of syrian seduction
2008-06-04 22:20:00
Ayah Bdeir examines the role technology plays in cross cultural communication and attempts to create technologies that promote human rights. One of her latest work "Teta Haniya's secrets" is one of the most hilarious one -> pics here After decades of running her kinky Syrian lingerie store in the Hamidiya souk of Damascus, Teta Haniya has arrived in America bearing gifts. Drawing on more than 60 years of Islamic teachings on seduction, and updating it using her arsenal of kitschy technology, Teta Haniya hijacks the Western panty, triggering the sexual liberation of American women. Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
More About: Secrets , Seduction

Physical Heart in a Virtual Body
2008-05-30 21:37:00
My friend Amit Zoran, from the Ambient Intelligence group at MIT Media Lab, continued his work on structural innovation, re-designing acoustic musical instrument according to the abilities and characteristics of rapid prototype materials. Together with Pattie Maes and Marco Coppiardi, they created a new generation of physical instruments by tailoring wooden hearts. The wooden pieces are inserted in body of the guitar to give the instrument the desired sound identity.Watch the video of the resonator ->here<-Amit changing the physical heart of his guitar can traditional values be embedded into a digital object? in this project we implement a special guitar that combines physical acoustic properties with virtual capabilities. The acoustical values will be embodied by a wooden heart - a unique, replaceable piece of wood that will give the guitar a unique acoustic sound. The acoustic signal created by this wooden heart will be digitally processed in a virtual sound box in order to ...
More About: Body , Physical , Heart , Virtual

Imprint digital functions onto common everyday physical objects
2008-05-28 23:15:00
Amphibian allows users to easily imprint digital functions onto common everyday physical objects. Amphibian is a low cost, low infrastructure system that enables users to choose their own physical objects and imprint onto them almost any standard interface functions that take place on a GUI desktop. The goal of Amphibian is to create a system that the common user can implement and operate so that we may learn more about the digital-physical object relationships people will form.So basically, you take an object, put it on the amphibian scale, and it labels it automatically for you. You can associate data to that object through the Amphibian user interface. Anytime you want to retrieve the data associated with that object, you just put it back on the scale. As for applications, you can play music from your itunes library with forks and spoons, you can write am email by composing with color pens, e.g. a red pen on the Amphibian scale and you say "I miss you!". A very unique take on lab...
More About: Physical , Functions , Common , Digital , Objects

Calculator and simulator of loans
2008-05-28 19:26:00
I am thinking of getting a house and I am looking into options to get it right. Because I have never done it before, I ask a tone of questions around me about how to do an amortization for the loan. To get an idea on how to pay it over the course of the years is very hard, because there are so many parameters to take in consideration. I found this great tool that I recommend to everyone who is in my situation. A cool interface with a simulator that works as a loan calculator for getting to know how you can reimburse a house over the course of the years.It is just a calculator but takes into account Purchase price, Down payment, Mortgage term, Interest rate, Property tax, Property insurance, PMI, First payment date. You can then show the Amortization per month or per year. It does not offer any third party loan recommendation neither does it give an average of interests for specific loans, but it is a pretty neat free tool if you want a reality check on the next thing you buy. I hav...
More About: Loans , Calculator , Simulator

Electro plushy
2008-05-27 21:03:00
ElectroPlushies are a set of anthropomorphic plush electronics components consisting of a switch, battery, resistor, LED, and buzzer. Each component has a personality reflecting their functionality. Each component contains the actual electronics component and can be connected with magnetic snaps at the ends of flexible arm leads. Definitely a toy of the year idea!Watch the video of the project presentation ->here Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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The iRing
2008-05-27 20:52:00
The iRing, designed by Victor Soto, is the concept of a Ring that controls the Playback functionality of your iPod/iPhone device and this ... wirelessly! Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Independent media via telephone
2008-05-24 17:56:00
Dialup Radio is a tool that distributes human rights and independent media via telephone. Brief radio-style audio files are uploaded and managed via the Dialup Radio website. These files are immediately available to callers who phone the project phone number. The software automatically generates interactive voice response (IVR) menus that enable callers to navigate audio content using their telephone keypads. Dialup radio works with any telephone, and can be adopted for a variety of activist campaigns.Dialup Radio has been designed specifically to meet the needs of human rights activists in the developing world. The system can be installed locally or may be operated across national borders. Particular attention has been paid to system security and to minimizing costs of operation. You can play with the demo ->here Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
More About: Media , Independent Media , Independent , Telephone

A Health-Obsessed Robot for Health Obsessives
2008-05-20 04:08:00
After leaving us for London, Daisy Ginsberg now designs health obsessed robots at RCA! Daisy uses her Bio Spy concept to express that we develop irrational relationships with machines, mourning dead appliances or resisting unfamiliar replacements. How will we behave when robots are trusted with the most intimate moments of our personal lives? Will the master/slave relationship survive? Is symbiosis with a robot possible? And what are the consequences of offering our most personal data for surveillance? Her questions remind me of my post on jealous computers and the 80's electric dreams movie, with a special RCA's touch!For the hypochondriac, the BioSpy offers reassuring constant health surveillance, removing the nagging fear of illness. But would such a health aid induce unhealthy behaviour? The user and robot develop obsessive mutual dependence: the user only feels healthy when accompanied by the robot, sharing her most intimate information with it. Meanwhile, recording, storing...
More About: Health , Robot

Architectradure's blog moving ... onto a new platform!
2008-05-17 16:07:00
I recently migrated Architectradure.blogspot onto its own server and domain name. Please join us at Architectradure's new home! It has a new RSS feed as well, so update your bookmarks, feed readers, spider programs of all sort and welcome to the new participatory world of Architectradure!Check also my new blogs: Blog Jouons and Blog Maison !
More About: Moving , Platform

The Human Space Invaders
2008-05-17 15:58:00
Who does not remember Space Invaders, one of the very first video-games? With your spaceship, your task was to defend the Earth against squadrons of invaders coming from outer space... Well the Human Space Invaders is the second video performance of the Game Over project, directed by Guillaume Reymond.VideoFor the project 67 people sat for almost 4 hours in the theatre of the Espace Nuithonie. After they received colour t-shirts, they simulated the pixels of the game. For each of the 390 pictures, these human pixels moved or not, from one seat to another, following the specific rules they had been given according to their role (canon, spaceship, missile, bunker,...). All photographs were then put together into a short animation movie.Check also the Tetris, Pole Position and Human Pong! Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Living in a robot
2008-05-17 03:05:00
Victor Vetterlein's Reboot is a self-sufficient and eco-friendly house. The building is constructed with a space frame, and the outer skin increases structural strength through double curvature. The skin system consists of a vapor barrier, dense foam insulation, and metal sheathing where the exterior face is glazed in solar cell paint. The surface of the building serves as a solar energy collector.Supplemental electricity is provided by on-site wind turbines and energy is stored in batteries on Deck 1. Wind power is also used to pressurize a large canister to operate the hydraulic elevator and the water treatment system. The smooth outer skin of the building acts as a foil against adverse weather conditions, and the rooftop serves as a water collection surface where rainwater runs into a drain located above the resin laminated glass windows. The water is stored in holding tanks positioned below the Main Deck and managed by an in-house water treatment system on Deck 2. Natura...
More About: Living , Robot

A stackable electric city vehicle
2008-05-15 17:37:00
I had previously posted on cars that fly, swim or shrink. I mainly referred to the retractable scooter that Bill Mitchell showed us at the Media Lab Open House'08. It is an impressive piece of gear that I cannot wait to get!However the city car is pretty neat as well ...The City Car is designed by the smart cities group at MIT Media lab directed by Prof. Mitchell. The project is created by Ryan Chin, Wayne Higgins, Mitchell Joachim, Will Lark, Raul-David "Retro" Poblano, Peter Schmitt, Andres Sevtsuk and Franco Vairani at MIT.The City Car is the coolest idea: a stackable electric city vehicle for use in dense urban areas! Vehicle Stacks will be placed throughout the city to create an urban transportation network that takes advantage of existing infrastructure such as subway and bus lines. By placing stacks in urban spaces and key points of convergence, the vehicle allows the citizens the flexibility to combine mass transit effectively with individualized mobility. The stack receive...
More About: Electric

All you can eat!
2008-05-14 17:18:00
... and you can eat even more!In the spirit of eating your keyboard, your pencils, eating candies in the form of pills, drinking latte with laser printed patterns, up to making coded silverware ... the field of food products is quite large by now!I recently found a tie that is made of breakfast cereals by Bryony Birkbeck. The artist proposes a series of eatable ties exploring the redundancy of the tie in modern society by giving the garment a new set of functions! Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Crayons en chocolat / Chocolate pencils
2008-05-14 00:48:00
Following up on the work of Oki Sato (at Nendo), I found these chocolate pencils in his earliest work (2007). Nendo collaborated with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu, the mastermind behind popular dessert shops like Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H. So these pencils must be delicious indeed!!!The process: Tsujiguchi created a new dessert based on his impression of Nendo after their conversations, and the designers proposed new tableware for them, including plates presenting the the beauty of meals and desserts like a painting on a canvas, thus the creation of the chocolate pencils.Interaction: The "chocolate pencils" come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special "pencil sharpener" that comes with the designed plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert. Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil, but in this case, they're the star!Check also the chocolate keyboard! Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
More About: Chocolate

Portable Life Size Camera Obscura
2008-05-12 19:12:00
Passionate about photography, I am excited about this project, the perfect portable camera obscura designed by Allison Roberts also discovered on Zones of Emergency.Capturing large format pictures is the dream in photography. Making a lightproof "tent" to captures the life-size outdoor is a fantastic idea. Allison explains that this is meant as a solution for an urban gardener to still be able to have a greenhouse, or simply anyone else who wishes to do indoor gardening: this portable alternative to a permanent grow room can be assembled in about 25 minutes without any tools! Once assembled, you have an indoor greenhouse that is completely sealed and virtually light proof. Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
More About: Life , Camera , Portable , Camera Obscura , Size

DIY videos by young artists
2008-05-12 18:32:00
New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists that promotes youth voice, collaboration, and self-directed learning toward a lifelong creative practice. It provides studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual, performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts serves 125 high school students in the Providence Public High Schools and 15 artists each year. They have been named one of fifty premiere arts and youth development programs in the country for four consecutive years.Discovered on Zones of Emergency, New Urban Arts offers online videos for DIY explorations. For instance How to Screenprint? How To Sew A Ruffle? or How to make a silicone Mold (below): Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.......................... ......................................... ..........................Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Pa...
More About: Videos , Artists , Young

Happy mother's day
2008-05-11 17:16:00
... to all mothers and mothers of mothers of mothers!By Wikipedia:In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May ...
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New blog!
2008-05-11 02:02:00
I recently migrated Architectradure.blogspot onto its own server and domain name. Please join us at Architectradure's new home! It has a new RSS feed as well, so update your bookmarks, feed readers, spider programs of all sort and welcome to the new participatory world of Architectradure! Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.......................... ......................................... ..........................Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Passion

A chair to peel
2008-05-10 18:27:00
The Cabbage Chair , 2008Nendo designed the cabbage chair for XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake to commemorate the first anniversary of 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi, Tokyo.Miyake asked the designers to make furniture out of the pleated paper that is produced in mass amounts during the process of making pleated fabric, and usually abandoned as an unwanted by-product. The designers' solution to his challenge transformed a roll of pleated paper into a small chair that appears naturally as you peel away its outside layers, one layer at a time.Resins added during the original paper production process adds strength and the ability to remember forms, and the pleats themselves give the chair elasticity and a springy resilience, for an overall effect that looks almost rough, but gives the user a soft, comfortable seating experience.Photo by Masayuki HayashiSince the production process is so simple, the designers thought that eventually, the chair could be shipped as one c...

Biojewellery
2008-05-10 03:07:00
The aim of Biojewellery is to strike up a range of relationships with an audience over the issues that surround biotechnology, tissue engineering in particular. The collaboration is between a core team of a bioengineer and two designers. By using an invasive medical procedure to procure cells the creators of Biojewellery are then manipulating these living organisms to produce designed objects.A model of the ring using a combination of cow marrow-bone and etched silver. The inscription reads Ab Intra, "from within".Tissue engineering is one element of scientific study, which is beginning to have a profound effect on how disease and physical disorders are treated. What are the implications of medical research and how do we introduce the issues surrounding them? Creative responses perform a critical function in terms of challenging/raising public awareness, whilst engaging with the technologies themselves to create new methods of producing work. Biojewellery uses the device of a recog...

Online platform to trade concert tickets!
2008-05-10 02:49:00
Finally a site that works as a ticket hub between buyers and sellers of concert tickets, sports tickets and theater tickets. How convenient to have the info gather into one site, especially when the platform invites seller and buyer of tickets to trade with one another. I have not tried to get some tickets there yet, but I wonder how hard it is to get some tickets for Wimbledon.This online exchange is for Europe only, so this site can be especially useful for the ones of you who live in Europe, and I wonder if there is a similar service for the United States. I still find difficult in Boston to know what's going on and an online system to trade tickets for shows, concerts, art events is a fantastic approach.The viagogo web site sponsors the following weekly UK events list:Rock and Pop Concert Tickets :· Celine Dion Tickets · Boyzone Tickets · Bruce Springsteen Tickets · Foo Fighters Tickets · Nickelback Tickets · Madonna Tickets · James Tickets · Queen tickets · Paul Rodge...
More About: Trade , Online , Platform

Mini tech in fashion
2008-05-09 22:28:00
The Masai dress!Discovered via Stumbleupon, Studio 5050 makes really cool products: from a dress that generates musical patterns as the wearer moves, to the moi "a light to wear, a light to share!Inspired by Masai wedding collars, this dress salutes both our global provenance and our desire to create our own soundtrack as we move in mysterious ways. With every step, strings of hand-formed silver beads that hung from the collar brush against conductive threads sewn into the dress, generating a series of sounds. A leisurely walk or a night at a cocktail party turns into an improvisational performance.A long asymmetrical swoop in the back of the dress recalls Balenciaga’s famed wedding dress – an homage to a maestro that visually and aurally blends cultures, traditions and emotions. The dress comes in a luscious deep-sky blue silk jersey and white nourishing Sea-Tiva (75% cotton, 25% algae).The company also design modules, a series of electronic building blocks for creating systems...
More About: Fashion , Tech , Mini

International PhD Studentship in Tectonic Textiles!
2008-05-08 18:54:00
An announcement for the good cause. I know how hard it is to find a great PhD in a field that you love! Here is a call for an international PhD studentship in tectonic textiles between the Centre for IT and Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, and the Textiles Future Research Group, Central Saint Martins, College of Art and Design. The position will be based in both research environments so as to make full use of the expertise and equipment available. The applicant will be expected to move between the institutions placed in Copenhagen and London, respectively. The position is offered as a 3-year contract under the regulations of the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Federation of Professional Associations, AC. This Ph.D. application will be administerd by CITA. Click ->hereThe deadline for application is 23 May 2008. Material received by CITA after this time will not be taken into account. A bit of research context for the studentsh...
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Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and T
2008-05-08 04:18:00
July 2008 I have authored a chapter in the book Fashion able Technology , edited by Sabine Seymour! I present my work on fashion garments designed in the context of technology -including the Touch Sensitive apparel developed with Yasmine Abbas. The book just came out and is available for pre-order on Amazon -> hereAbstract: The interplay of electronic textiles and wearable technology, wearables for short, and fashion, design and science is a highly promising and topical subject. Offered here is a compact survey of the theory involved and an explanation of the role technology plays in a fabric or article of clothing. The practical application is explained in detail and numerous illustrations serve as clarification. Over 50 well-known designers, research institutes, companies and artists, among them Philips, Burton, MIT Media Lab, XS Labs, New York University, Hussein Chalayan, Cute Circuit or International Fashion Machines are introduced by means of their latest, often still unpublish...
More About: Science , Design , Fashionable

Keep in touch: a tactile-vision intimate interface
2008-05-07 19:08:00
Keep in Touch designed by Nima Motamedi at Simon Fraser University, Canada, is a networked fabric touchscreen designed to support and maintain intimacy for couples in long distance relationships. To achieve this she created a novel sensorial interface by combining the visual and tactile senses together. Each partner is presented with a blurred digital projection of their lover. When they touch their partner's body, the image comes into focus revealing their features.In the paper presented at TEI in 2007, the authors describe how this sensory mapping creates an expressive and emotional interface allowing couples to communicate through touch, gestures, and body language.See also her paper: The aesthetics of touch in interaction design!See also Mutsugoto by Tomoko Hayashi, Stefan Agamanolis and Matthew Karau. Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.......................... ......................................... ..........................Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Passion
More About: Interface , Vision

Design a multi touch pad in 15 min
2008-05-07 16:23:00
I love this type of video tutorial. Here is a tutorial on how to make your own multi touch pad in 15 minutes using a web cam, cardboard box, a piece of glass and software. I think some regular ambient light is needed! Also the next step, not the least difficult, is to have the software running. The idea is when you place you fingers on the surface, you create shadows with your fingers. The webcam detects these shadows, sends the image to the tracking software to track the shadows as they move around.Below are some basic info to start:Materials * Cardboard Box * Piece of Clear Flat Sturdy Material (ie. Glass, acrylic, plexiglas) * Paper (ie. printer paper, tracing paper, almost any paper) * Webcam or Video Camera * Computer * Optional Picture FrameFinger Tracking Software * Touch lib Beta v2: - Written by David Wallen * Download, unzip and copy the config.xml into your touchlib directoryMore by AudioTouch - Via. Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.................
More About: Design , Multi

Three days in Vancouver, Canada …
2008-05-05 18:39:00
Granville IslandI was off for a few days to Vancouver city, the town that brings together the mountain, the ocean and the forest. I was here to give a talk at Simon Fraser University for the 25th Anniversary of the Faculty of Business Administration. The department will make a DVD of the talk (for education purposes only).My trip to Vancouver was delightful! My hosts: Dr. Judy Zaichkowsky (Research Director and Marketing Area Co-ordinator) and Dr. Olga Volkoff, professor MIS, were fantastic. From my stay in a lovely hotel (Four Seasons Hotel), walking, driving trips throughout Vancouver, boat tour to reach the Island where all you find is handmade craft work as well as houses floating on the water, to the most delicate restaurant: Le Crocodile, I never felt so empowered in giving a talk!!! The crowd was enthusiast and receptive: a combination of business & art & tech professors and students with business attendees. The research we do in our group was embraced and according ...
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The new Ars Electronica Centre, opening January 2009
2008-05-05 07:40:00
The new Ars Electronica Centre , opening January 2009*********** JOBS @ ARS ELECTRONICA ***********Ars Electronica Futurelab is hiring artists and researchers. artists /software engineers (openGL, C++). artists / hardware engineers (sensors and programming). artists / modelers (3D, real time graphics). technical planners (software and/or hardware and CAD). project managers (software, exhibition). designers / architects (exhibits and media in architecture)Ars Electronica Futurelab, the R&D division of Ars Electronica founded in 1996, is an atelier/lab for media art, design, research, and production. Members of the Ars Electronica Futurelab represent a broad variety of different disciplines and nationalities, working in such areas as computer vision, sound analysis, mobile computing, generative graphics, computer controls, and computer networks.Ars Electronica is embedded in the activities for Linz, Austria. As the European Capital of Culture in 2009, a continuously growing, vital ...
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Attachments to artifacts: Collect to connect to construct
2008-04-30 01:17:00
I am thrilled! My proposal for book chapter titled Attachments to artifacts: Collect to connect to construct has been accepted! It will be part of the first Franco-English book that will tell you all you ever wanted to know about new technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)constructions of identities.In this book chapter, I explore the psychological trade-off between what we call virtual and tangible “attachments”: I focus on people’s attachments to things, and through things, their relations to people (virtual and digital). I address the digital object collection mechanism in relation to the way we gather artifacts in the physical world.Edited by Fred Dervin, Senior Lecturer, Department of French Studies, University of Turku, Finland and partner in crime Yasmine Abbas, Doctor of Design, Harvard, USA, ReD Associates, Denmark. The book will be published in Autumn 2009.More info ->hereSYNOPSIS extraits/excerpts, in both French and EnglishL’hypermobilité physique comme v...
More About: Connect

New interaction technique for timeline control in video scenes
2008-04-29 23:01:00
Dragon is a research project by Thorsten Karrer, Malte Weiss, and others at the Media Computing Group, RWTH Aachen University in Germany.Objects on video scenes are used to control their trajectories in time, basically any object that appears in the video becomes a slider that can control the video timeline. The project is meant to be a "more" frame-accurate in-scene video navigation than usual systems and during studies users found more natural the use of this video navigation "slider" than traditional timeline sliders. It seems to me a great WYSIWYG for video!->Video AbstractWe present DRAGON, a direct manipulation interaction technique for frame-accurate navigation in video scenes.This technique benefits tasks such as professional and amateur video editing, review of sports footage, and forensic analysis of video scenes.By directly dragging objects in the scene along their movement trajectory, DRAGON enables users to quickly and precisely navigate to a specific point in the vide...
More About: Technique , Timeline , Control , Scenes