Get Inspired! Keep on going

2014 is almost coming to an end again and the holidays are coming in sight. Which means to allot of us: Deadlines. Now there is no need to worry, as long as you keep on going, but sometimes we get stuck in the middle of the process, not knowing where to go. Again, do not worry, take a short break and continue, ask around for tips and get everything out of your head.

Getting stuck is one of the most common things happening in every design project. And in these times it can be useful to put our minds onto something else for a second. And I do not mean trying to reach the bottom of your facebook news feed, since that will take an infinite amount of time. Just stop for a few seconds, walk around, take a deep breath and continue.

If you are reading this during your breaks in stressful times, here is a fun video for you to keep you motivated and put you back on your track again:

The credits for the video go to the designstudio “FROM FORM” which made it for the “Willem de Kooning Academie”. And now, get back to work!

Project pitch: Tom Kölker

Today Tom Kölker will present his current project for the project pitch.
Tom is a M1.2 Student and is currently working on ‘The age of Techno-animism’

“Animism is perceiving a soul or life, in a lifeless object. In western society this traditional animism does no longer exist. But with the rise of technology we might see the return of animism. Because of the inter-connectivity of things we’re seeing behavior in technology.

My project is a research project en therefore is a bit different from the standard procedure. Right now I am working on agendas and plannings and how we perceive these.
I am creating a lamp that will behave a certain way to communicate this. For example the lamp might start to flicker when the time for a task you’re working on is running out.

Right now I have two objects, one is the lamp and another is direct display of time. I will test both these objects to see when people see behavior in an object. I will let different people perform tasks while one of these objects is placed close to them. In my analysis I will see how people talk about this experience. My hypothesis is that people will regard my lamp more of a living object. I aim to research how behavior affects techno animism

I am working on getting my research up to an academic level. How do i set up my tests in a scientific way? I am consulting different experts to help me with this.”

At the final Demo Day, I will present the lamp and a video showing different people during my tests. I will not have completed my analysis yet but i will be able to give a first impression of how people react.”

Get Inspired! The mood ring of the 21th century

Have you ever worn a mood ring? Rings that were thought to be able to indicate ones mood through color. Whether they were reliable or not, people have been wearing them since their introduction in the mid ’70s and are still wearing them today. Currently, a  Finnish design company called  Moodmetric is trying to give these trinkets a modern face lift by making them digital.

Originally mood rings used thermo-sensitive liquid crystals to indicate a mood based on temperature. However, this was hardly reliable and that is why the version made by  Moodmetric uses a bio-metric sensor to create this reliability. This sensor measures the autonomous nervous system signals that can be used to understand your emotional reactions. The ring gathers this data, interprets it and logs them in order to make it available on your smartphone though an app.

The device can register several moods or emotions and announces them to you. The intention for this is to make you aware of yourself and hereby get to know yourself better. The App that is linked to the ring also offers meditation  and other programs to help with this and to create calmness in your body and mind.

Personally, I love the idea of a “modern” mood ring. However, should it be connected to a smartphone? I actually liked the beauty in abstractness of the original version. What do you think?

Project Pitch: Jeroen van Kampen, Sascha Lammerts, Otis Overdijk

This weeks project pitch is the pitch of 1st year students: Jeroen van Kampen, Sascha Lammerts and Otis Overdijk.
They’re all B1.1 Students and are working on the project: ‘Worn Identities’

“The project is literally about wearing an identity, It is on us to design a wearable that has something to do with identity. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a piece of clothing, it can be anything you carry around with you. It has to be something you can use to express your identity, or hide it. Something you can use to react to other peoples identities.”

“Recently we took a new direction in the project and we are now working on something we call ‘A world without wallets’ . This is an exploration of a world where we no longer need our wallets, a world where you pay everything online or with your phone. In this world you no longer need a wallet but that has the consequence you lose part of your identity with that wallet. Receipts, Tickets, Pictures, Cards, Guitar picks, All these things in your wallet say something about you. Were trying to imagine this world and designing something wich helps you keep this part of your identity without desperately holding on to the idea of a wallet.”

“Our final goal for this project, is to have a multiple findings and designs. For example we have been working on a collage of different people and their wallets. We want to show the different identities here and their stories. We also want to create a physical model for a wallet or the replacement of a wallet. We have an experimental idea of a wallet that is the opposite of a normal wallet.”

The Mysterious Mister Next Nature

The gears of the Dutch Design Week were at full speed. Every square meter where the DDW is present an atmosphere full of curiosity and conviviality fills the air. But in the midst of things where is Next Nature? Or more precisely: where is the man carrying the Next Nature voice?

The Thursday of the Dutch Design Week I arranged an interview with him, though mainly focused on the DDW and Next Nature; he asked after the actual interview: “You have asked nothing about Industrial Design and Next Nature, why?” Deduced from his surprised question I threw him the bone anyway, leading to a whole unexplored area. So who is Mister Next Nature? What is his role now he is not leading the Next Nature Theme? How did Next Nature obtain a bad reputation at Industrial Design, while it has known golden age times?

Get Inspired! Listening to Wi-Fi

Modern technologies can give deaf people the ability to hear again. With hearing aid people who lost their hearing can instantly hear the lost sounds again they were missing. Frank Swain was one of these people who retrieved their hearing again, thanks to this. Not only can he hear all the regular sounds around us, but also the invisible Wi-Fi signals.

Frank Swain together with sound artist Daniel Jones developed “Phantom Terrains”. This is an experimental tool which makes Wi-Fi fields audible. If he now walks through a city, he will not only hear the people, the wind, the birds and the cars, but also the Wi-Fi around him. The Phantom Terrains interpreters router name, signal strength, encryption and distance of the Wi-Fi signals it perceives, and converts them to sounds. This is what a walk sounds like:

The clicks heard in the soundtrack originate from nearby routers. If their strength increases, so will the frequency of the clicks. Routers with a stronger signal “sing” their network name and the sounds with a lower frequency come from the network’s security mode.

For more information about Phantom Terrains go to: http://phantomterrains.com/

(the sounds from a walk visualized)

 

Get inspired! Starting with a thought

Have you always want to move objects or control machines just by thinking about doing it? Well, I know I have. In the last week we came across a project named Solaris, an installation that gives participants the power to control a pool of ferrofluids (magnetic fluids) with their brainwaves. This project was created in a colaboration between the design group  ::vtol:: , the chemist Edward Rakhmanov, the neurophysiologist Alexander Kaplan and the designer Julia Borovaya.

Solaris uses a brainwave-reading headpiece to register the brain activity of the participants. The strength and the orientation of the brains focus is translated into the position of a magnet which is located under the pool of ferrofluids. The movements in the pool are completely determined by the position of this magnet and hereby the focus of the participants as well.

Although it sounds quite intuitive, using Solaris still requires some practice in order to be able to use it. The reason for this is that actually you are extending your body. It is just like a kid learning to walk, it requires practice to get familiar with your body.

Solaris is just one of the many options that are possible with the use of brain waves. Think for example about mind controlled autonomous cars, music players or computers without the use of a mouse or keyboard. Another project that intrigued us was Eunoia, a musical performance that uses brainwaves to create music. As you can see, the options are diverse. What possibilities do you see? Share it with us!

Get inspired! Wearable Light

 

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of jewelry is to you? For me they are a means to capture a story, a link to a past memory, but also a dream or wish for the future.  They reflect my identity and therefore my preferences and my believes of what is beautiful. In my opinion jewelry doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive or serve as a fashion statement as long as they suit you.

We are taking over… the next nature lab blog

This gallery contains 6 photos.

After the news blog team has unraveled everything of the Dutch Design Week, we are taking over the blog. We will give you an update of the new and old projects of the Next Nature theme of the faculty of Industrial Design, inspire you with interesting projects and events all around the world and give …

Project Pitch: Charlotte Wassmer

This very first Project pitch is the pitch of Charlotte Wassmer.
Charlotte is a B3.2 Student and is currently working on the project: ‘The Age of Techno-Animism’.

“Animism is experiencing spirituality in something not human.
The question is how do I catch the complexity of spirituality in technology, how do I transfer this to ones and zeros. How do we as humans react to technology becoming a higher power, are we gonna accept this? This all sounds really vague but it can also be practical”

” I made a decision to look at very practical devices, devices with a simple interaction. In my case this is a water boiler. Normally you turn on this device and just walk away, sometimes even forgetting about it. I want to change this, I want people to acknowledge the water boiler, realize how much power its using. I’ve researched charms and voodoo and the spirituality that is connected to them and want to use this in creating a water boiler with morality.

Currently I’m looking at different shapes and how this affects interaction. I’m gathering a group of test users and looking at how they interact with a water boiler. I’ll film these tests and analyze the video’s. I’ll build my own water boiler according to my findings and test it again to see the outcome. Then I will adjust my design accordingly. So I’m going trough multiple iterations.

My final goal is to have built a water boiler with a certain morality. and along the way I will gather information to see if this is a product of techno animism that people will accept and are willing to use. Eventually, I might be able to combine my project with other kitchen devices to create a system of  techno animism.”