I'm going to try Halal on 53rd and 6th street. It's chicken and rice. When I get Halal, I will take a photo of it. Street food is to be trusted and tastes good. Street art is more interesting...SEE!

How cool is that? I saw a homeless guy with a sign that says "Pay me $2.00 to tell me off." Who needs a television in New York City.

There was a cool store called "West Elm." It's reasonably priced. I have never seen one in Los Angeles. Later, I found out that William Sonoma owns it. Anyway, it's a cool store. I like this one lamp. They should open one in L.A.

Across the street from "West Elm" is "Angel Street Thrift Store." I walked in and found a cool book about Alfred Hitchcock for $3.00, but didn't have cash on me (and I would feel stupid charging $3.00 to my credit card). Anyway, I went back, and it was GONE. Anyway, it's a cool store. There are vintage designer pieces, ranging $25, $70 and $90. There were some lamps that I liked, but they were $400. At least the money goes to a good cause, substance abuse and mental health.

Both are on 17th Street.

I think I have some images of his/her art work somewhere in this blog. This one, I think, is a goldfish jumping into a cup. Green pasteurs...maybe not. I can't read the other one.

This is a pretty cool conference, and worth every penny. Unfortunately, I was barred from taking any photos, but check out their site, if you're interested in design. The conference encompassed Print, Fashion, Computational, Architectural, Illustration, Graffiti art/design and more. It was held at the Lincoln Center.

Here's there link:
http://www.semipermanent.com/newyork

I don't know who this is suppose to be. I just hope it's not some political dictator. Also, I posted the "Stop Bush" graffiti because it reminded me one of another tag that I saw in Florence, Italy that said "Bush is a terrorista." I don't know what to make of this form of medium.

This is the magazine that costs $170.00 an issue. It used to cost $80.00 an issue. If I had the money, I would probably subscribe. One of the issues is are die-cut mandalas and art work stuck loosely in foil colored pages.

Another issue was just a scent one. Each page shows and image, and then you refer to the bottle of scent to smell it. The first page is an image of a glacier, and the perfume is the scent of what a glacier would smell like. The second scent and image is "Fetish." Another magazine is a a set of dolls that famous fashion designers painted. The dolls have special accessories.

There are illustrations printed on latex, a page of slides, and embossed dots (emulating brailled) drawn in a figure. Other pages, which I don't have images include a photograph of Giselle Bunchen, and an envelope on the opposite page containing a swatch of the sheet she is lying on in that photograph. The same goes for an undergarment a model cuts with scissors while wearing them. Cool stuff. I hope all graphic designers, artists, and creative people get inspired.

Exhibited at the gallery were these hand cut images. Some of the pieces were 8.5 x 11 inches, and some were 4 x 5 feet.

Interesting messages...

I went to a cool restaurant, emulating a generic French cafe, called "Pastis." Busy, busy, busy, but worth the wait.

I just liked these photos.

Frank Gehry Cardboard Chair
Mondrian-like Shelves
Wired Mesh Chair (This chair is in my "Spoon 100" book)
Enzo Calendar
Noguchi Rocking Stool

Stuffed microbes. Bullet-proof t-shirts.

Architecture Exhibit

I love this store. We peeked in because of my toy design class.

I went to this Adidas exhibit, which was to give me the "ultimate" experience of making me feel like I'm one with the "in" crowd. When I first arrived to the address 267 Canal Street, I walked into 2 stores, and asked about the Adidas exhibit. This Chinese man, who couldn't speak English told me to follow him, so I did. He walked through the store to the back, and crossed the street and into another entrance to a basement. I started to feel that this wasn't legit, and was wondering if this was a place where they sold fake Adidas. But then, at the end of the hallway, I saw this colorful videotracking projection and a ultra-contemporary sculpture that had Adidas stamped all over it. The experience was pretty effective in making me feel pretty "cool" that I knew about this event, and "special" that I was part of this covert operation. The tennis shoe line emulate printmaking business model, where some shoes are limited edition, and the same went for the athletic jackets. There were some commercial to underground grafitti artists tagging shoes, and popular artists like "Fafi, a French grafitti lady artist. "Fever 1," a dancer, hired for this 2-week event, pitched a great story/sale.

"Transformed by Light: The New York Night' Exhibition at the Museum of the
City of New York. It ended on May 7, 2005, but here are some photos. Enjoy!

"Timescapes" a compelling multimedia presentation of the history of New York playing at the Museum of the
City of New York. Former ITP alum was commissioned to do this piece. It goes over the history of the 5 burroughs.

I recommend any graphic designer to see this exhibition.

On The Couch: Cartoons from The New Yorker

Pay specific attention to the couch and the backdrop drawing.

This is at the Museum of the City of New York.

So why have I taken so many photos at The Museum of the City of New York? I absolutely fell in love with the way they've presented information, specifically graphic and typography. All of the exhibits were compelling and interactive with their audience.

I had to take an image of a compliment to one of the exhibits. Kudos to the designers and curators of that museum.

I really like these patterns, and would like to somehow integrate these motifs into my own work.

This was a great exhibition, lots of "architectural" photography, the most famous is this photograph of the Brooklyn Bridge.

My favorite of this set is the prequel to Sony's Aibo (Interactive Dog--Not Robotic).

I like the simplicity of this film. It simultaneously feels binary and archival.

This is truly a beautiful information visualization illustrated by James N. Sears. It was published in the New York Times Magazine (December 3, 2006), as the cover.

Processing was developed by M.I.T. grads Casey Reas and Ben Fry, and it's free to try. It is part of ITP foundation courses because the language is similar to Java, except the interface is easier to understand than Eclipse. Also, it's a good introduction for Arduino, which is also another free software that similarly functions as Pic Basic Pro.

This cake was for my friend Cliff. I'm not sure where his wife, Ziggy, got it. Not only is it beautiful, but it was delicious (flavors: chocolate, and hints of coffee and peanut butter).

"Now, finally, a lot of people are beginning to see how machines might in fact learn to fit into their lives as well as humans do. People are increasingly choosing their books and music by the algorithmic recommendations of Amazon instead of those of their friends, planning dates with mates they find in textfields instead of local bars or social clubs."

—Christian Croft

This machine will fill out scantron bubbles for you if you drop a coin in any of its slots. Christian Croft designed the gears and kinetic system from scratch (i.e. using the laser cutter to cut Plexiglas). I know he's going to be insulted, but I have to say that the design of this machine is beautiful.

His commentary of moving forward to a world of automation is humorous. I always appreciate Christian Croft's and Andrew Schneider's conceptual art projects. I'm not sure if it's because they have a background in theater, but their work is never too abstract for me to understand.

This machine is going to be attached to a desk.

This code means something, translated from binary to English.

For more information about this project, click here to visit his site.

PART o1:

Ambient Lighting Design

Are we in a time warp? Typewriter outputs digital? Typewriter crosses computer.

Twister Game networked? There are hundreds of solutions to win this game. A new approach to Twister, but you need to find the right combination. To do so, it requires you to touch other players.

These fingerless gloves warm your hands ups when you hold your partner's hand.

Powder and Ferrofluid Interesting texture when it pulses. Pretty mesmerizing.

Hat Mutterer

This project is called "Hair" by Carolina Pino

Kyungmi's "Kenny" digital paint brush

Networked Shoes as a performance tool. This was indeed a treat to watch.

Lara and Myra worked on a chair that functions as a musical interest for assistive tech.

PART o2

Chris and Juri's Mega Phone Game. This is fun and immersive. I can see it at a movie theater. You call a number and play these short games that are projected on a screen. The games are short and satisfying. One example is blowing into your cellphone to digitally blow a balloon fastest. Maybe the theater can give you a free tub of popcorn if you win. "Don't forget to turn off your cellphones for the movie!"

Andy, Kate and Che worked on this demo. You can turn off appliances and make your home smart using your cellphone. So if you forgot to turn off your light or forgot to turn on your air conditioner for your cat, this would be a great tool.

Christin Roman's Telebunny calls your child and comforts it when you're away.

Chris Parretti's car race allow you to control the speed of the car by yelling into your mobile phone. New game consoles a mobile device? Watch out Sony and Nintendo!

Preston Noon's Puzzle Poetry

Mike Bukhin and Michael DelGaudio's mobile phone is video tracking every second and minute of the wearer's day and meta tagging activities.

Ilteris Kaplan's Mood Box allows you to anonymously input your emotions in one space, which is processed and displayed in a different space. I see a lot of potential. It is beautiful as well.

Fun cell phone game with archaic cell/cordless phone controller>

Judson's video tracking flea simulation. What a hoot!

Jeff LeBlanc's art works.

Che's tree personality test translated to music using Max/MSP and Jitter.

Jenny Chowdhury's email art.

Animalia Chordata. Gabe's humorous exploration of personal space. He puts people in bottles. Okay, this project was in one of those blogs I listed above.

Tales of Grim. While you read this book, the rooms in the play house interact.

Low tech art by Heather, Charles and Tristan. It's pretty satisfying swaying these blocks

I didn't get to interact with this project, but it looks engaging.

Tikva's Sonic Body Pong. This was on the Make blog too.

Steve Jackson's project allows you to channel surf YouTube according to subject matter. If you type in "basketball," it mine all videos related to this sport for the day and play it for you. I'm not even a big YouTube fan, but I found this project pretty cool.

These caught my eye...

Another ad that I spotted on the train. I still like the "school bus" the most.

Eliot Fette Noyes

Sculpture by Carl Cheng, 1988

Made of concrete and steel.

Concept for Pimp'd-Out-Braille Ring:

Mark and Toru, our profs, arranged this field trip to visit 4-pli (a studio) that has a 3-axis CNC milling machine. Basically it can mill just about anything.

The smallest drill-bit used on this machine.

Serious vaccuums to suck excess dust and debris from this machine.

This is Mastercam, an application, that simulates the machine milling your 3-D design before it mills. I wish this was a screensaver.

The blue material on the bed is styrofoam. When the milling machine is turned on, the bed sucks the air out so that the styrofoam can not move during the process.

Drill bits that are primarily used for undercutting.

This is the interface for this machine. You can see the X, Y, and Z values on this screen.

It goes through two passes. The first pass is rough because it uses a larger drill bit. The second pass is smoother because if uses a smaller drill bit. This is the finished design. If you look at the Mastercam photo, you will see this design on the screen.

Our assignment is to create a surface that can be milled in Maya using dynamics and applying different force fields to manipulate the plane.

4-pli
72 North 15th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
info@4-pli.com

Here are some surfaces that were milled. It mills masonite, wood, Plexiglas, and lighter metals, like aluminum (it takes longer).

Last year, my friend Jay Moorthy told me about TED, and I've heard about it here and there. Lisa Strausfeld also mentioned TED when she lectured about Richard Saul Wurman (known for his book Understanding USA, where famous designers created information graphics about statistical data in the U.S.). For those of you who don't know about it, TED is the acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Some notable speakers and performers have been Al Gore, Malcolm Gladwell, Cameron Sinclair, Nicholas Negroponte, Jeff Han, Tracy Chapman, Sirena Huang, an 11-year-old concert violinist, and even our own ZeFrank (who taught Creative Acts at ITP). It costs about 5g's to go, and you have to be invited, but all of the money goes to charitable organizations. Anyway, they have free podcasts of past speakers, under TED TALKS, which I try to listen to.

This year, I was really interested in Theo Jansen's works (I first heard about him in Living Art). He does these amazing kinetic sculptures, and he's one of the speakers at TED this year. Also, Hod Lipson, who is doing some work in robotics. His robot like of looks like a starfish, which can be seen in the BusinessWeek slide show about TED. I think he's also created a DIY Desktop fabricator for less than 2g's. And also, Nick Sears, from ITP, will be talking about his thesis, the newer 3D orb, and presenting the initial iteration (shown at the 2006 ITP Winter Show).

Bill Clinton, Lawrence Lessig, Paola Antonelli, Zaha Hadid, Richard Branson, and They Might Be Giants will also speak and perform this year.

Here are some recommended links, some are repeated from above:

Podcasts of TEDTalks

TEDBlogs

BusinessWeek's Slide Show on some speakers [which include Theo Jansen, Hod Lipson, and Nick Sears]

BusinessWeek's story about TED

How cool is this site? I was just complaining about how printed birthday cards and e-cards are so cheesy. Cliff Hahn, my cool friend (I swear he should start a magazine), recommended this site. This is for the geeks at heart.

GeoGreeting will allow you to send a personal message/e-card, but what is unique about this site is that the font are photos from satellite images of the top of buildings.

Here are some examples:

...at the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea, right across the street from the Chelsea market.

Rapid Prototyping Fabrication is a process that prints resin on x, y, and z axes. So from this video (screenshots below), each shot is a cross section of the artifact.

Here is the process:

Here are some colleagues pieces:

James N. Sears [derived from Mathematica]

Che Mangat

Stefan Hechenberger [derived using motion capture]

I always pass by this lighting store that sells a variety of chandeliers when I go to the Dumpling House on Elderidge and Grand. This photo is for Jane, who is designing a modular chandelier that would be affordable for all people.

Production process and first peek of his new Pixel Mirror.

Pretty cool links on interactive design. I'm adding them to my delicious account. Last year, I went to a great talk by Khoi Vinh, who helped redesign the New York Times web site. Since then, a host of magazine publications redesigned their site. One of my favorites is New York Magazine. I love their top nav bar. I thought Khoi Vinh presented the New York Times site with top nav bar as well, but now it has a typical left nav bar like the Los Angeles Times site (which is in serious need of a redesign). Anyway, I subscribe to the New York Times Urbanite email newsletter, which is pretty stylistic. Also, Andrew Famiano pointed out to me the redesign of The New Yorker site, which looks fabulous as well.

Some great recent presentations from the Web design community. These are all definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Slides from last week's An Event Apart Boston.
The presentations by Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, Dan Cederholm and

After the Brief: A Field Guide to Deign Inspiration.
Inspiring (and darn funny) talk by Jason Santa Maria and Rob Weychert
at the recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival.
Slides: http://jasonsantamaria.com/downloads/sxsw/2007/
After_the_Brief.pdf
Full audio: http://2007.sxsw.com/blogs/podcasts.php/2007/03/11/
after_the_brief_a_field_guide_to_design
Video clips: http://2007.sxsw.com/blogs/video.php/2007/03/13/
new_video_example

Khoi Vinh's "Grids are Good" presentation, also from SxSWi:
http://www.subtraction.com/pics/0703/grids_are_good.pdf

***Also, check out these podcasts of Bill Clinton , James Nachtwey, and E.O. Wilson, TED prize winners of 2007. All three are pretty awesome and inspiring. I must have watched them two or three times each. These presentations are truly food for the brain.

I just went to this exhibit yesterday at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. This was amazing. Works from these disciplines [product design, architecture, furniture, film, graphics, new technologies, animation, science, medicine, fashion and sustainability] were shown. Ellen Lupton was one of the curators (a fan of her many design books).

Don't miss (no photos because it's not permitted):

1] J. Meejin Yoon, MY Studio/Höweler + Yoon Architecture Low Rez HI FI, (2006) interactive installation.
2] Suzanne Tick, Crossform light, (2004), (double woven fiber optics)
3] Lia Cook, Binary Traces, (2005), (this looks like a print of a [photograph until you get very close, it's all woven)
4] Joseph Ayers, Biomimetic Underwater Ambulatory Robot (Robolobster), (2005)
5] James Carpenter, Landscape/ Light Threshold
6] Chandelier made from VOS water bottles, Readymade Magazine [I need to buy this book, lots of great ideas in it, including, a shoe rack made by recycling shoe boxes, a messenger bag made from recycled plastics (also part of the exhibit). Really simple ideas that look good using recycled materials
7] Google's data visualization map of languages spoken.

A lot of big names, like Greg Lynn FORM, OMA/Rem Koolhaas, someone from Droog Design, Santiago Calatrava, Acconci Studio, and Natalie Jeremijenko.

I ended up buying the catalog for $40.00, no tax.

This post is for anyone who wears retainers or ever had to wear retainers. I almost bought this, but I wish it were my own retainers. I remember so many times when I took my retainers out, wrapped them in a napkin, placed them on the tray, forgot to put them in my mouth, and threw them away. I had to replace them at least twice $300 or $400 apiece. It sucks because by the time you make an appointment to see a dentist, make the cast for your retainer, and pick them up, your teeth have moved.

I remembered one time I was at Rubio's and accidentally threw them away. The lady who was straightening the trays helped me dig throught the trash. She found them. I tipped her $20, and she didn't take the cash.

I found this super cool necklace at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum store for $300.00. It's 14k and designed by Kiel Mead. It brought back a lot of memories.

I've been fascinated by Swarovski crystals since moving to New York. First the "Top of the Rock Observation Deck" at the Rockefeller Center, and then a series of Ron Arad chandeliers. I love the cut on these birds. I posted another one earlier this year of a parrot. I really like the colors (strong primary).

PopTop Portfolio

Designey by Tim McNerney. "PopTop Portfolio (PTP) is a digital showcase of an artist's work." It's like a real photographer's book because there's no keyboard or mouse.

Camera for K

"‘Camera for K’ is a photographic interface that maximizes independency of a physically handicapped person who uses a wheelchair and cannot operate the interface of a camera." This is one of the most moving projects, as well as Pollie Barden's iN-BaGs. There's a better photo demonstrating this project in the link I provided. I really like how this project gives such creative freedom to this individual who is physically constrained. Younghyun Chung's presentation is really good because you get a sense how successful this project is by just looking at the results of his user testing.

Happy Feedback Machine

This device was designed by Anh Nguyen. It really, really works. My favorite of the switches is the set of bumper ones. It kind of feels like a cross between sending a morse-code message (speed) and pushing an elevator button several times. I came out of one of my classes feeling like a zombie, and this machine was a tactile paradise.

Catch a glimpse of the bumper switches in the right hand corner of this image:

Other super cool projects:

Social Bomb, a game that teaches you how to gain social capital.

Pollie Barden's iN-BaGs, "an exploration of personal expression through assistive technology."

Here's a preview of the ultraORB by James N. Sears and his father Ron Sears. It's a dual-axis rotating display creates color visualizations of models in 3D space, using persistence of vision.

A rotating 320 tri-color LEDs about two axes simultaneously under the control of sixteen microcontrollers, creates a fully volumetric display that can display arbitrary models within the three dimensional volume of an 11" sphere.

It will be at the ITP Spring Show, this Tuesday and Wednesday night at 721 Broadway.

at the MakerFaire sponsored by Makezine.

Andrew Schneider (creator of Solar Bikini) created the The BlinkCam as an experimental device for performance, which was the topic of his thesis at ITP. The idea is that you blink (consider it a switch), and this device takes the shot.

The eyelashes are conductive, which...

snap into this helmet, which...

is connected to Polaroid camera...

Also at MakerFaire are The Orb, The UltraOrb, and Botanicalls, which were at the ITP shows.

I just attended the third annual MatterX, hosted by Material Connexion, and saw some amazing works. More to follow later...

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is a fine artist and professor who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Motto: “Not utility bur futility.”

Translated X, Y coordinates of a glacier in Ottawa to recreate a mesh iteration of an iceberg (Buckminster Fuller inspired). Some of these sculptures scrape weather data and broadcast it online.

3D data of clouds to create cloud sculpture, Cloud Prototype #1
Digital fabrication prototyped in 11 separate pieces and then assembled.

--

Other Projects: DNA fingerprint in New Bronx Library, Cryogenics sperm bank, El Nino Effect, Bullfight ring with IR sensors that look for aliens, Nocturn/white poppy sculpture/surveillance, bullet-proof umbrella (made of kevlar), Robert Oppenheimer media installation in purgatory, Colin Powell/sand toilets/misinformation of biological and chemical weapons

Keywords: information, science, arts, sculpture, media, McArthur fellow, fabrication, abs rapid prototyping

Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich
Architecture, Boston
www.kvarch.net

I saw their presentation at the Material Connexion awards. I was really interested in their "Portable Light Project." Energy efficient light for Huichol Tribe in Mexico, and it helps sustain their weaving culture. Over 100 design iterations to comply with regulation of mailing lithium batteries (3.7V), and has social implications (these lights charge faster when a community of these modular pieces charge together.

Gives off 100 lumens of light (40 lumens is average), uses 3.7 V (1,800 mAmps), charges for 3 hours, and runs for 10 hours.

Other Projects: Electroluminescent Plywood Desk, Sever Hall (Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, skylight in the middle level of the building that simulates natural environmental conditions), Pillow/Cloud-like structure canopy on pier of 34th Street in New York (lighting and projection).

I saw these pieces awhile back at MoMA's collection from Out of Time: A Contemporary View. I'm due for another visit.

Mona Hatoum. (British of Palestinian origin, born in Beirut, Lebanon, 1952). + and -. 1994-2004. Sand , steel, aluminum, and electric motor.

There's something really zen about this piece, and I had to tear myself away from it.

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Rachel Whiteread. (British, born 1963). Untitled (Paperbacks). 1997. Plaster and steel, Overall 14' 9 1/8" x 15' 9" x 20' 8 3/4" (450 x 480 x 632 cm).

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Josiah McElheny (American, b. 1966). Projects 84. Crystalline glass, colored electric lights, metal, and painted wood.

Speakers/Awardees

Kennedy & Violich Architecture
Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich
Architecture, Boston
www.kvarch.net
Portable Light Project

Energy efficient light for Huichol Tribe in Mexico, and it helps sustain their weaving culture. Over 100 design iterations to comply with regulation of mailing lithium batteries (3.7V), and has social implications (these lights charge faster when a community of these modular pieces charge together.

Gives off 100 lumens of light (40 lumens is average), uses 3.7 V (1,800 mAmps), charges for 3 hours, and runs for 10 hours.

Other Projects: Electroluminescent Plywood Desk, Sever Hall (Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences, skylight in the middle level of the building that simulates natural environmental conditions), Pillow/Cloud-like structure canopy on pier of 34th Street in New York (lighting and projection)

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David Gibson
Two Twelve Associates
Environmental Graphic Design
www.twotwelve.com

Other Projects: Signage for Central Park Zoo, other commercial buildings, Chicago Streetscape signage, Radio City Music Hall, MoMA in Queens, Children’s Hospital in Boston, signage in scenic Hudson

Ecofab (fabric/solvents)
Windsor Fireform, LLC

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Clodagh
Interior Design
www.clodagh.com

Other Projects: uses materials like fiber optics, LEDs, bamboo, washi paper (for walls), recycled materials, biophilia (plants), solar panels, “Sumac” (weaving culture in Armenia), went to Africa to employ and sustain beading culture

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, www.usgbc.org)
LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability)

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Sam Hecht & Kim Colin
Industrial Facility
Industrial Design, London
www.industrialfacility.co.uk

Sam Hecht use to work for IDEO, but left to start this company, which design primarily for Muji. They pride themselves on building working prototypes rather than digital prototypes.

Current projects include networked objects, like: Mixi (camera cellphone enclosure that uploads photos easily to Japanese Social software using stickers/physical tags), more info on Mixi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixi, http://mashable.com/2006/07/08/mixi-japans-biggest-social-network/), Cellphone with LED light display that could also be used as an alarm clock.

Other Projects: http://www.industrialfacility.co.uk/if.html, Muji coffee maker, Muji fan, Magnetic knife rack, and knife for Taylor’s Eye Witness, Flex Lamp for Droog

LuckyBite (electronics design, more info here: http://open.bbc.co.uk/labs/2006/london/luckybite/)

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Cao Perrot Studio
Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot
Landscape Design
www.caoperrotstudio.com

They use recycled materials in their design. Glass Garden and Lullabye garden uses 9 to 9.5 ton of recycled crushed glass to create texture.

Other Projects: http://www.caoperrotstudio.com/projects.htm, Bill Massey for public art titled Cocoons, 100 Hearts (made with the scarcity of deaf coconuts due to genetically engineered foods), Medici Fountain, Nantucket Rose, Jardin des Hespérides (lantern/perfume garden)

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Chilewich
Sandy Chilewich
Textile Design, New York
www.chilewich.com

Created “plynyl,” innovative processes of woven vinyl to make placemats, tableware, floor mats, car mats, carpeting and bags.

Other Projects: She’s famous for “Ray bowls” and “Ray trays,” and “Harry-Carry” named after her two sons.

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Patrick Jouin
Product designer, France
www.patrickjouin.com

Designs experimental chairs using ABS rapid prototyping.

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Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Fine Artist and Professor at Art Institute of Chicago

Motto: “Not utility bur futility.”

Keywords: information, science, arts, sculpture, media, McArthur fellow, fabrication, abs rapid prototyping

Translated X, Y coordinates of a glacier in Ottawa to recreate a mesh iteration of an iceberg (Buckminster Fuller inspired). Some of these sculptures scrape weather data and broadcast it online. 3D data of clouds to create cloud sculpture (“Cloud Prototype #1”)

Other Projects: DNA fingerprint in New Bronx Library, Cryogenics sperm bank, El Nino Effect, Bullfight ring with IR sensors that look for aliens, Nocturn/white poppy sculpture/surveillance, bullet-proof umbrella (made of kevlar), Robert Oppenheimer media installation in purgatory, Colin Powell/sand toilets/misinformation of biological and chemical weapons

§

Franz von Holzhausen
Mazda, Orange County

Rebranding of Mazda using Japanese terminology like “nagare,” which means “flow.” They use single-side hydro fluid stamping to form hoods.

Other Projects: taking scraps of leather and stamping them to create a larger swatch of materials, single-side hydro fluid stamping used to create automobile hoods, working with Nike to redesign material

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DDCLAB (acronym for design, development and concepts)
Robert Crivello and Savania Davies-Keiller

Appareil Design, New York
www.ddclab.com

They try to use high-tech and eco-friendly textiles to create appareil. They use some materials made out of soy and corn, organic cottons, dye fabrics with fermented persimmons, pomegrante and other fruits. David Bowie, Lauren Hiill and Lenny Kravitz are some clients. Materials are natural fibers, man-made fibers, and fusion of natural and man-mad fabrics. They use Tyvek (lycra-fused recycled paper, material like FEDEX envelopes). Some polyester and polyethylene materials help keep body temperature, resists abrasion, and not crushable. Use metal-woven fabrics, called “enox,” to resist electromagnetic waves. They line all the pockets of their appareil with enox so that as you pass and RFID tracker, it can’t take your personal information, also resists cell phone waves. Other materials used are Abacca (Japanese Tyvek, extremely thin and light in weight), bamboo fabric (has texture of linen), silks dyed in mud, spider silk, solar panels, and leather fused with lycra to give leather elasticity.

Thery’re experimenting with making “liquid cocktails” that have aromatherapy and antibacterial properties (like aloe, mint and sage), and they are trying to fuse this into cotton (not sure what their process is about).

Other Projects: Dupont (sponsors their research), Nike, Gap, Reebok

Balloons!!!
How fun, and what a great idea.

My favorite is this one...

The dress that takes a group of balloon dogs out.

But there's one sick balloon dog...

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The vintage sofa supported by white balloons.

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This one is a little too abstract for me, but nevertheless engaging.

The yellow shapes on the floor are tacks.

Many of you asked for my research in wearables and soft materials...

Some Links:

Material Connexion, www.materialconnexion.com
Material Research Society, www.mrs.org
NY Times on Chalayan, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/style/tmagazine/04talk.waldemeyer.t.html?ex=1176523200&en=b47c75afe9152ac2&ei=5070
Swift Textile Metalizing LLC, tel. 860 243 1122
Sauquoit Industries, tel. 800 858 5552, http://www.sauquoit.com/
Shieldex, tel. 315 597 6687, http://www.shieldextrading.com/
Lumitex, fiber optic textiles that are woven, www.lumitex.com
Electric Plaid, ifmachines.com)
Emfit, Plastic film that converts motion into electricity, www.emfit.com
Flexinol, with shape memory material, www.dynaalloy.com
Integrated Circuit, metal yarns and woven circuits, www.ris.averydennison.com Sensitive Carpet, multilayer conductive fabric, www.lab-leas.fr
Softswitch, flexible fabrics, www.softswitck.co.uk
Blowprint, relief printing, www.imprimerie-laville.com

Other materials to explore: Tyvek (the stuff the FEDEX envelopes are made of), conductive velcro, metal snaps, magnets, reed switches, conductive fabric, conductive ink (looks like nail polish), different folds, conductive film

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PROJECTS

Blushing Dress – Phillips
http://www.design.philips.com/about/design/section-13599/article-14931.html
http://www.design.philips.com/about/design/section-13983/index.html

Ames laboratory research on metamaterial and magnesium-diboride wire segments

Electronic paper or E-paper, I saw this at Wired Nextfest. On the sleeve of a military uniform is a screen made out of this paper. To navigate between interfaces, you press soft switches, which are located in the sleeve of the uniform. Conductive ink is printed on paper.

Conductive Film, produced by General Electric

Suzanne Tick, Inc.

Kennedy & Violich Architecture
Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich

DDCLAB (acronym for design, development and concepts)
Robert Crivello and Savania Davies-Keiller

http://www.stylefuture.com/index.php

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NYU PROJECTS on Wearables [All of these prototypes work]:

1) Andrew Schneider – Solar Cell Bikini

2) Terence Arjo -
YoTaxi! Video - http://itp.nyu.edu/~tra225/wearables/yoVideo_1.5.mov
[By waving your arm vigorously via persistence of vision, you can hail a taxi visually]

Personal Space Suit - http://taswearables.blogspot.com/ [coat that has porcupine-like quills embedded]

3) Carolina Pino – http://www.carolinapino.net/jacketjacketson.htm This is a wearable for kids, a kind of musical instrument jacket. When a child presses buttons on the jacket, it plays the sound of an animal or music]

4) Doria Fan - http://itp.nyu.edu/~df785/wearables/bracelet3.html
http://itp.nyu.edu/~df785/wearables/ [I really liked the RFID medical alert bracelets and the inflatables breasts dress [low-tech]

5) Jenny Chowdhury – intimate controllers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennylc/sets/72157594549073284
[http://www.jennylc.com/intimate_controllers/blog/] –The user plays pong with intimate wearables.

6) Grace Kim's The Soft Electric --http://www.iamgracie.com/thesis/

7) Joshua Dickens – http://flickr.com/photos/schwa23/sets/72057594108725619/ - Glowscarf – a scarf that lets you know when your cellphone rings

8) Britta Riley - Rapid prototyping fabric sculpture usin MAYA

9) Fiona Carswell, Nanna Halinen, Kate Hartman, Kati London, Megan MacMurray, and Alice Tseng-Planas
http://www.fionacarswell.com/QQuilt.html

10) Joo Youn Paek, Zoonori, origami musical instruments using Tyvek

11) My own experimentations with soft circuits using conductive thread and conductive fabric (bluetooth bracelet with phototransmitter), [1], [2]

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Other Links:

http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/archives/category/technologies/display/

Signal Propagation and Multiplexing Challenges in Electronic Textiles
http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec_subscribe.aspCID=2553&DID=117683&action=detail

http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/100939.html

http://www.xslabs.net/

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Books
Transmaterial
Material World 2
Folding Architecture: Spatial, Structural And Organization Diagrams
Supersurfaces
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 (catalog), Suzanne Tick
Spoon, Issey Miyake, A-POC, process of fabrication
Skin
Paper Fashions (from More Paperwork) – paper as textiles
Rei Kawakubo, Kyote Costume Institute (exhibition), Japanese stencil paper
Rachel Sleight, The Sun, News Group Newspapers, beautiful dress made out of recycled paper, and skirt for Fabriano Spa, Hussein Chalayan – dress made of Tyvek, look like air mail stationary, Kei Ito – vest made of handmade linen paper, and dress made of Tyvek, performance costume

Others:
Hella Jongerius
Droog

Quite high tech in those days. There's even a bat-shaped rotary telephone in the car.

More Anthropologie balloon-themed windows (playful, colorful like a carnival in the summer).

Grand Central Terminal

Seven decades of films use New York City backdrops. You can watch the movies on the Turner channel. This exhibit is based on the book Celluloid Skyline.

Angelos told me that a lot of graffiti artists use Priority Mail labels as free stickers to promote their craft. Maybe that's why I have to wait in line at the post office twice.

Photo taken close to Plan B bar in East Village.

Michael thought it would be more proper if a girl dressed another girl.

Material ConneXion
127 West 25th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, New York 10001
Phone: 212-842-2050
Fax: 212-842-1090
E-mail: info@materialconnexion.com
Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday

Of course I couldn't resist a nerdy observation. These kids seem pretty engaged in this interactive, video-sensing game. There are a couple of lines of instruction, but they seem to get how to earn points. I think this game in particular was sponsored by Outback restaurants, but I could be wrong. I think there is some marketing going on.

The solar bikini, which was featured at the Winter 2007 ITP Show, was on KTLA [Channel 5] in Los Angeles. My sister who recognized Preston, did a double-take. She called me right away, and sent me this link. Preston, you're such a ladykiller.

Personally, I think Donald Trump should pay Andrew Schneider to make one for all the contestants of the Miss America and Miss Universe pageants. That would prevent the models from wearing their suits in the water. The theme of both pageants could be "sustainable energy."

Found this building walking towards the South Ferry. They're probably going to convert this building into condos or rentals. Hagedorn and Company is an insurance company. I just looked them up, and they still exist, call me nosey. Judging by the art on the door, they probably insured ships, trains, carriages, airplanes, and balloons. I'm not sure about the symbolic meaning for the pelican, swan and squirrel (which look like like Egyptian art).

ITP Press

Jenny Chowdhury's Intimate Controllers, allows game players to get intimate with their opponent/loved ones. LOVE/HATE, hmmmmmm. Anyway, this was Jenny's thesis project. I think you could play Pong with these controllers.

Joo Youn Paek's concept piece of shoes has air pumps that connect to a wearable chair. In this case, you can sit on your efforts. Very cute.

and of course, Andrew Schneider's Solar Bikini, which has received so much press. A bikini that converts solar energy to power for your ipod.

All of these were on exhibition at SIGGRAPH just a week ago in San Diego. BBC link here. CONGRATS guys!

Botanicalls aired on Good Morning America (Channel 7) Thursday, August 9.

Link to video, here. Diane Sawyer rocks! Her laugh is so contagious.

Congrats to Kati London, Rob Faludi, Kate Harman and Rebecca Bray for Botanicalls. Plants that call you when they need water or need to be moved to a sunnier location. Now that's news that really matters.

Knitted crime scene tape on the cover of Craft Magazine. Very funny. Text is so straight.

So lately, I've been playing a lot of games set in the social networking stratosphere. I just added the app, Scrabulous, which is the Scrabble game designed digitally. Prior to this, I've never played Scrabble before, so I'm learning the strategy of placing the most valued letters that pays off double or triple.

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Then, Ilteris and Nick just got me into this game called Meta-Markets. The point of this game is to gain the market by trading shares and IPOs. Nick is so nerdy that he even created a script so you can aggregate the delicious links that follow the IPO rules (will publish this link soon, so stay tuned).

How to play:
1) You select a market (Flickr, Delicious, Facebook, etc.)
2) You buy low, sell high.
3) You can offer IPOs but there are certain restrictions (e.g. bookmarks that you post first on delicious that have to be posted at least by 10 other people)
4) You could set the price you want to sell them at, and set the amount you want to sell as well

It's kind of a strange market (social capital as a commodity), but interesting approach to learning economics. It really forces you to be proactive with posting news of photos first, and then sharing them, which promotes it virally. If you collaborate with enough investors, you could raise the prices (insider trading). The publishing markets will get a hoot.

As you can see Ilteris and Nick (relevante) are doing very well. They rank in the top 10 in 3 or the positive categories. This is a true time-sucker, and they're servers are really slow, but I think worth the wait. Designed by MIT students.

Beautiful sidewalk art on 5th Avenue and 8th Street in Manhattan, close to Washington Square Park.

Contact information:
Hani
917-673-4843

And this is why I ♥ NY.

I used to rave about LinkedIn because of that feature, and now I don't see it. It used to give you information like how many people are checking out your profile, what industry they're in, and how many times your name or your site has been pinged in the world wide of web. And now nothing! That was one of the features that made me visit LinkedIn often and become more proactive about my account. They recently did some updates on Friday night. Hope they're going to bring that feature back.

Benjamin Rosenthal of Material Connexion had coordinated this warm reception and exhibition. They have a great materials library!

The Municipal Art Soviet of New York
457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street
September 25, 2007 - January 5, 2008

Even though the Idea 2007 conference was sponsored by The Information Architecture Institute, the speakers were really diverse, ranging from artists/designers to developers/engineers, and public agencies, such as hospitals and New York City's non-emergency number, 311. A lot of the speakers were ITP alums or teaching at ITP. I'm working on a wiki with my extensive notes, and will publish the link here (TK TK TK). Missed some really good presentations, but for the entire list, please visit http://ideaconference.org/program.html.

Here were some of the speakers:

Rachel Abrams (who currently teaches a mapping class at ITP) - I just caught the end of her presentation on taxis.

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Frank Lantz, area/code (also teaches at ITP)

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Brad Paley, Information Esthetics

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Hasan Elahi, artist (he was a guest speaker at one of ITP's Friday seminars)
He's working on a pretty cool project titled Tracking Transcience (will have more of the backstory in my notes.

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Chenda Frutcher, The City of New York's 311 line, (alum of ITP)
Couldn't take photos of her presentation, sorry (will have a section of her presentation in my notes). I enjoyed her presentation because she works and designs around real-world problems.

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Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg, Many Eyes, open source data visualization site

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David Rose, Ambient Devices, founder of the Ambient Orb

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Mike Kuniavsky, Founder of ThingM and Co-founder of Adaptive Path
RFID Wine Rack

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Jake Barton, Local Projects (teaches thesis at ITP)

Before it gets cold (October 28th was the date they listed on their site), check out the scene on the rooftop at The Met. They have a bar, and some art that make you wonder how they were transported to the rooftop.

They are also having an amazing exhibition on tapestries, Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor In some of the pieces, you can see the process of sketch paintings to these enormous tapestries. This exhibition ends on January 6, 2008.

Attention, all ITPers, you must see this exhibit if you like electronics, lighting, and/or physical computing. Ingo Maurer uses some new materials that have been exhibited at the Material Connexion. Two of my favorite pieces are his uses of conductive film to create an LED light table/bench and flexible circuit board to create light patterns on wall paper.

If you like designing or using solderless breadboards, go to this exhibit, it'll give you many ideas on how to layout your electronic components. If you like industrial design, go to this exhibit to be inspired by his use of materials and play with physics (specifically the tornado piece that has a magnet) and optical illusions (love the hologram light bulbs).

The printed and digital materials about this exhibit doesn't even convey the fraction of this experience. If you like magic, go to this exhibit.

I went to the screening of Close to Midnight, a movie that Rob Ryan from ITP produced. There were a lot of good shots, the story was based on actual events, and the music was pretty cool. The theater was pretty packed. Congrats Rob!

For more info, click here.

Only in New York...

My friends, Cliff and Ziggy called me up early this afternoon to tell me to go to this installation. They wouldn't tell me anymore details but that it's on the corner of Delancey and Essex, in Lower East Side... 117 Delancey

So Cliff and Ziggy met me, and decided to go through this installation a second time. First of all, it looked like part of the regular market scene, but there's a line that you have to wait to sign a release before getting a ticket to go in.

Found out from what of the staff members that it took 10 people in three weeks to set it up, and that everything after the Chinese restaurant is fake.

Tomorrow is the last day. Cliff and Ziggy advise to see it early before there are crowds of people.

Mike Nelson
A Psychic Vacuum

For $12 million. There are five: blue, green, red, pink, and yellow (this one is currently being processed). The green, red and pink belong to private collectors. The blue diamond is currently on exhibit in front of the Christie's building.

NOTE: Buyer of (blue) diamond, please contact me if you would like to purchase the hi-res versions of these photos. I can give you a deal ;) (cheaper than $13 million).

with interesting forms. These images are for Ron Sears, who is an artist in Jerseyville Illinois, and works with metal. The first sculpture reminds me of David Smith's works.

Urban Center Books, The Municipal Art Society of New York

I found this design bookstore that covers just about every design book or magazine, even if you're searching for something so obscure. This reminds me of Hennessy and Ingalls (design/architecture/art/photography bookstore in Los Angeles, located at one of the cross streets of Third Street Promenade). I stumbled upon this bookstore, while I visited the Jane Jacobs exhibition (457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street). Clay Shirky's Network Effects class introduced Jane Jacob's book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The exhibit is amazing, which I'll probably post later, but to give you a hint, Jane Jacobs is the New York version of Eleanor Roosevelt.

This store has books on different materials (glass, metal, concrete, building structure, lightweight/mobile), typologies (medical, offices, healthcare, restaurants, retail, pools/spas, sports/leisure, high rise), construction (concrete, wood, facades), sustainability, architecture, photography, typography, urban planning, foreign (books from Japan, Germany, etc). I asked if this store is permanent, and it is. They just have longer hours during the Jane Jacobs exhibition.

Here are some sample books:

Common Cents

Common Cents Penny Harvest grew from one child’s desire to feed the homeless...

Reminds me of the movie, Pay It Forward. This is probably the most successful installation I've seen, where people collectively donate to the pool. Every person that walked by must have thrown change into this pool of pennies. Since 1991, this organization has raised at least $5.9 million since 1991. 71 million pennies weigh at least 2 tons and is worth at least $711,000.00. There are some prized if you can guess how many pennies are in the pool.

So far Penny Harvests have hit 5 states, including NY, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Washington.

You can even vote on which cause you want the Penny Harvest to donate to:

This electronic necklace is composed of one surface mount white LED light and a Swarovski crystal. The clasps are switches and have a coin cell battery. I find it funny that the display needs to DD batteries.

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This bracelet is funny, get it? Slightly on the pricey-side.

They are so good and designing there windows. I believe part of the reason is because of they integrate a narrative in their display (e.g. santa letters in the pocket of the sweater), and the other reason is their unique (e.g. balls of yarn) and resourceful use of materials (e.g. straws and empty, plastic, water jugs).

I saw a lecture by Ms Sparacino at the Center for Architecture. Her presentation, ‘Interactive Media Environments & Architectural Machines’ uses sensors and camera-tracking to make physical spaces interactive.

She worked with a lot of famous architects, and was responsible for creating the technology infamous in the scene from Minority Report. More about her work on my design conferences wiki/notes and my Flick'r account.

Pretty cool fabricated form...

Nice information graphics:

I just flew on Virgin America, and was pretty impressed with their cool technology. They have a new media system catered to the youth and the hipsters.

1. There safety video is an amusing animation, which is slightly sarcastic in humor, fun to watch, even twice (JFK<>LAX).

2. While some airlines have customizable screens, what is really refreshing is that you're not limited to the conventional channels like CNN, which is also offered. You can watch some indie shows, like Current TV, clips from Boing Boing or cable shows Dexter and The Tudors.

3. Another option is to buy a movie. You have a choice from the new releases, indie and foreign films. I didn't see a lot of people use this feature because they were either watching a movie on their laptops or iPods. The people sitting next to me brought their own portable DVD player and headphone jack splitter.

4. Not that I'm a parent or anything, but if you are, and you're worried about your kids watching violent or explicitly sexual content (e.g. while watching Top Model, VH1 broadcasted some lengthy ads that may be sexually explicit, Rock of Love), you can control that here.

5. You can order food with your credit card. While some airlines encourage their passengers to bring exact change or have their passengers wait while the flight attendants find change, Virgin America has a system where you can order food and pay with your credit card. This is such a convenience. The other nice thing about this display is that you can watch continue to watch your show, while you select your food. I would say to order early because when I tried to order potato chips during the latter half of the flight, they were all out (dynamic/real-time tracking). I watched a lot of people use this feature.

6. This system records what shows and songs you listen to, so let's say if you dozed, and wanted to continue watching the shows, you can easily find them here.

7. Interesting controller. One side has the controllers, similar to a remote, just in case people are timid with the touch screen interface. The side of the controller has a magnetic scanner for your credit card, and the back is a full key pad to facilitate chatting between seats, and browsing the internet (not yet working). The keypad feels slightly awkward to type on because of it's elongated shape, and you have to hold down the blue button while simultaneously typing the symbol (I wasn't used to this because my BlackBerry shift button stays put).

8. Another cool feature is the chat between seats. At first, I really didn't understand why anyone would use this because one of the journalist on Current TV boast about meeting that cute dude in aisle 8. And actually the journalist tried several times getting people to chat with her. When I tried the chat room, and I was the only one there. On the flight back, I happen to bump into a friend of mine who was sitting in a different row, and we chatted for awhile. I don't think there is a way of chatting while simultaneously watching a show, but anyway it's a novel feature.

9. I'm not sure if this is a feature yet (multi-player), but it would've been cool to be able to play a game with my friend. I tried playing the clown game three times, but then had to reboot it 3x as well (at least they use Linux). The only thing that I thought was awkward about the game controller is the way you have to press the red button to "start" and the green button to "escape." Other than that, it looks pretty slick.

10. Last but not least, Virgin America promoting cool brands like Google, and Method soap (found in the bathroom). Also, their design of icons have that "web 2.0" aesthetic.

For more larger resolution pix, checkout my Flickr site later. Btw, you can only check in one bag, any additional bags cost $10, which is still relatively cheap, even for an oversized weirdly-shape package.

Aluminum cans, bottle caps, and cardboard are materials that Barney's Department Store used in their display to encourage people to recycle.

An elegant play with balance...