Design Fiction (book)

"It is a book of "design fictions." By deliberately creating objects that cannot exist -- because the material is not yet available, or the business plan, or the manufacturing process, or the infra- structure to support it, or even the human sensibility -- it becomes possible to explore the meaning of design at a more profound level and to think more richly about what is and what might be.

The principal objective of the book is to stimulate thought: What is an object? Why do we desire what we desire? Why has "functionality" been defined in such a historically narrow way? What is beauty? Nonobject is an attempt to free the imagination by disengaging it form the constraints of utility, economy and technology."

nonobject

EMF Dog Helmet (POO)

Another Post-Optimal Object from Rob Knecht. The EMF protective dog helmet is designed for family canines that may be susceptible to prolonged exposure of Electromagnetic Fields. Wireless networking, electrical appliances, and in home wiring may inhibit your pet's health. The helmet is constructed from fiberglass and EMF shielding fabric to prevent any stray magnetic fields from reaching your dog's brain. A nylon collar is fitted with a EMF detector to alert the pet owner of any dangerous EMF fields.

Digital Design Futures (exhibition)

Automake and Future Factories: Digital Design Futures is an exhibition that explores the significant role of digital design in the creation of contemporary craft and design.

Automake presents the work of Justin Marshall, a craftsperson/maker whose research investigates the integration of a range of digital technologies into ‘traditional’ art and craft practices, leading to the creation of innovative new work.

FutureFactories presents the work of Lionel Theodore Dean, who has acted as a consultant to the transport and interior products industry for twenty years. His research is based around the use of rapid prototyping for the mass individualisation of products.

The exhibition is at The Hub (national centre for craft & design) in Sleaford, Lincolnshire from 3 May - 8 June.

Photos of the show on Flickr.

Digital Media 1.0 (exhibition)

rootoftwo exhibits 12@30° as part of a v1b3 (video in the built environment) program. Shown during Digital Media at La Nau in Valencia, Spain 17 April - 18 May, 2008, this video program investigates the theme of "navigation and habitation of spaces". The program will be projected on the side of a building during the exhibition.

Product Scotland (book)

A book has been published (ISBN 978-0-9558468-0-9) as a way of recording and sharing the results of the 4 Product Scotland workshops held at the end of 2007 (more information here). There are lots of pictures, participant comments and some essays in it. These are:

'Design Ethnography for the 21st Century' by Paul Rodgers & Mike Anusas.
'I Love Digital' by Jon Rogers.
'Ontologies of Production: 21st Century Transformations in Manufacturing' by me.
'Creativity - Preaching to the Converted' by Craig Whittet & Alex Milton.

I'm not sure how the book is being distributed but if you have to have a copy, contact:

Dr Paul A. Rodgers
Reader in Design
School of Creative Industries
Napier University

inter_multi_trans_actions (event)

On Thursday 26 June, 2008 there will be a one-day symposium that I helped organize at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The symposium is titled:

inter_multi_trans_actions
emerging trends in post-disciplinary creative practice

This one day symposium will bring together a number of leading practitioners from the fields of art, architecture and design who each share a common desire to exploit the latest computing technologies in their creative practice. The invited speakers will reveal their cutting edge work that blurs the traditional boundaries of the creative disciplines.

Emerging trends in post-disciplinary creative practice highlight the interplay of conventional boundaries. Speakers:

Moritz Waldemeyer
is at the forefront of mechatronics, a combination of mechanics and electronics, that helps create innovative design ideas for concept cars, smart weapons and washing machines. Over the past few years, Waldemeyer has worked with the likes of Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad and Hussein Chalayan who have all availed themselves of his expert technical know how.

HeHe
Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen, the HeHe duo explore the territory that is the common ground for designers and artists. They have developed a concept of Cultural Reverse Engineering, that raises political, economical and sociological questions: to study a device or a software in order to modify its initial function is a way of re-appropriating the technology, in a world where most of us have no idea of the way everyday objects actually work nor how their cultural position has changed over time. The workshops they organize to “teach basic of DIY technologies, to students, artists and designers”, can be seen as a concrete application of that concept. HeHe is clearly related to the Lo-Fi philosophy (and it happens to be the title of one of their works), with its playful, yet serious, issues.

Usman Haque
has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and mass-participation performances. His skills include the design of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. He has been an invited researcher at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, artist-in-residence at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Japan and has also worked in USA, UK and Malaysia. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

the POOCH
explore non-navigational spaces and interfacelessness. They use less technology, not useless technology and they like extreme prototyping. thePOOCH also prefer to build rather than blog. thePOOCH is a young company with a wealth of experience in computer programming for mobile applications, interactive art installations, advertising and live events. thePOOCH’s team of programmers has 40+ years combined experience in software engineering, user interface design, computer networking and hardware development. thePOOCH work one-on-one with clients and end-users to design, develop and build interactive installations that are tailored for specific target audiences.

TROIKA
is a multi-disciplinary art and design practice founded in 2003 by Conny Freyer, Eva Rucki and Sebastien Noel, who met while studying at the Royal College of Art. Our backgrounds in graphic, product design and communication allow us to engage in work that is at the intersection of the three disciplines, thinking of design as communication art. We develop a variety of self-initiated and commissioned projects that are both engaging and demanding to the user, from printed matter to product design and custom installations. Our approach focuses on the contamination between the arts and design disciplines and is born out of the same love for simplicity, playfulness, and an essential desire for provocation.

Greyworld
In 1993 Andrew Shoben founded Greyworld in Paris. Greyworld’s goal is to create works that articulate public spaces, allowing some form of self-expression in areas of the city that people see every day but normally exclude and ignore.

Jason Bruges Studio
is a Shoreditch based studio producing a diverse range of work that includes interactive light sculptures, interactive environments, events and screen-based installations. We explore the use of interactivity with the public and environment through the use of highly imaginative technologies. Jason Bruges Studio specialises in 'interactive light environments', from installations on the streets ofNew York to London's South Bank.

The Owl Project
make sculpture, music and sound art, notably the Log1K, Sound Lathe, Sound Chair and iLog. Drawing on influences such as woodworking, hobby style electronics and open source software to create music-making machines, they take a craft-based approach to designing their own interfaces and objects. The result is a distinctive range of musical and sculptural instruments that critique human interaction with computer interfaces and our increasing appetite for new and often disposable technologies.

Lucy Bullivant
is an architectural curator, critic and author. Lucy has worked internationally with leading museums, galleries, cultural institutions, publishers and corporate bodies since 1987. Her latest book, Responsive Environments: Architecture, Art and Design (V&A Contemporary, 2006), explores the hybrid discipline of interactive architecture and design. She regularly contributes to Domus, The Plan, a+u, Volume, Architectural Record and Indesign, some of the world's most authoritative international architectural magazines.

Thursday 26 June, 2008
Faculty of Engineering, Computing, and Creative Industries
Napier University
Merchiston Campus
10 Colinton Road
Edinburgh EH10 5DT

Places are limited and cost £20.00 each (which will include a publication of the speakers’ essays published after the event).

Triolin

Alex Sobolev - one of the participants in my Post-Optimal Objects class at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design has made a fully functioning three player violin as his thesis project. The Triolin was made with a combination of hand and digital fabrication.

Elastic Mind (Video)

Design and the Elastic Mind as presented by Cool Hunting

Anthony Dunne Innovationsforum (video)

Anthony Dunne // Dunne & Raby from Innovationsforum on Vimeo.

Post-Optimal Objects (POO) 3

The final project for Post-Optimal Objects (POO) at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design was to design a placebo object for a real or imagined, physical or psychological phobia that would challenge our expectations and preconceptions and provoke new ways of thinking about designed objects and how we use them. Class participants were asked to explore the complexity of how designed objects can modify our behavior by addressing needs that raise questions rather than just be practical, ergonomic or aesthetically pleasing (this project was shamelessly based on the 'Complicated Pleasures' project at the RCA). These objects were not to solve a problem but rather to enable the needs of the user (as the class participants defined them). The objects were presented with supporting materials to allow the audience to understand the relationship between the object and its user in different social contexts.

“By taking the meanings of others as a fundamental starting point for design, designers must proceed from their understanding of users' understanding, which is understanding of understanding or second-order understanding, and this is a way of knowing wholly different from ordinary (first-order) understanding of things”. (Krippendorff, 1995).

Most conventional products are designed with an idealized user in mind. A placebo is the term applied by medical science to the therapeutic and healing effects of inert medicines (i.e. preparations that are pharmacologically inert but that may have a therapeutic effects based solely on the power of suggestion). The purpose of the project was to explore a way of designing that acknowledges human complexity, contradiction and irrationality and transcends simplistic design characterizations of people as simply ‘users’ and ‘consumers’.

Some examples:

Separation Anxiety Disorder Placebo by Alex Sobolev. This was a Structuralist analysis of the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'Psycho'. The placebo object was a mental girlfriend for Norman Bates (that had killed her own Father who was himself dating Norman's dead Mother, or something like that). We are assured that had this condition existed it would have been a much shorter movie with no deaths.


“De vrees om te zijn niet Duch” (The fear of being non-Dutch) by Andy Sell. Those who experience a sense of dissatisfaction in knowing that they do not come from Dutch origin periodically suffer from Nonneederlandobia. The fear of being non-Dutch addresses a social dilemma of individuals whose work, interests and way of life lies parallel with Dutch culture, yet their lack of Dutch nationality disables them to fully identify as such. A a series of designed objects with the intent of making oneself “feel” more Dutch.


Keno-phobic Sound Generation Device by Rob Knecht. Keno-phobia is an abnormal fear of large, empty spaces. This is a synthesizer and sequencer that analyzes the current environment and generates a musical composition for the individual to enjoy and share.