The students of RCA Design Interactions are having a Work in Progress Show on January 24-31. If you’re in London at the end of the month, don’t miss it. Sascha and i will be there but in the meantime i’ve just remembered that, although i mentioned the take away steam massage accessories, the Marshmallow Roaster and the ueber fantastic Sole on Ice (video), i forgot to write about the projects i saw at the work in progress show of the Design Product department a month ago.
I feel like the verbosity of my latest posts has bored everyone to death so this time, all you get are tons of images and a few words.
Moldy Body, by Yu Chiao Wang, is a tattoo pattern. Covers the skin with yumminess at the beginning as it’s made of fruit and jam. As time passes, it goes bad, then worse and worse and might even stink a bit. The mold forms and creeps all along the pattern.
A series of projects answered the brief “Beg, Borrow, Steal” that seeked to identify new types of relationships between one product and another. A sharing of structure, energy and location between “host” and “parasite” has the potential to reduce both the physical and energy consumption of a function’s delivery, while developing a new framework for the identification and positioning of future product types.
Five parasLites, by Kinya Hasegawa and Yota Kakuda, charge mobile phones, electric toothbrushes and control the ambience.
Many devices around the house are used for very short periods of time and consume very little energy. Charging those devices involves wires, sockets, etc. Which are wasteful not only because of the large amount of electricity used but also in terms of space and human effort required. Bikram Mittra‘s Solar Hooks are home devices that can be charged directly through a solar panel dock that sucks into the window panel. They charge during daytime. The designer had also imagined a different set for the bathroom.
“Why plug it when you can rock it?” Thomas Lahfert Wagner’s Rocking Lamp is harvesting the user’s movement into the reading light. A few minutes of rocking gives you 30 minutes of light.
Because all around RCA doors are locked with a magnetic key card system, Mikael Silvanto, Hyok Muhn Kwon and Bikram Mittra have designed Dynamo Door. The combined system of dynamos and springs would do the job of closing doors. Only it would do it smoothly and create sustainable electricity in the process.
Human Power Station, by Mikael Silvanto, questions the concept of energy generation around fitness centres. While people train they produce a vast amount of energy that should be harnessed.
Platform 2 was about design activism on the market place. Sugar that looked like precious crystal, apples with chocolate messages or bra on it, etc. One of the projects, Urban Agriculture aimed to reintroduce men to the bases of agricultured food using public and private spaces. The structure is adjustable and fits containers such as pots, plastic bags, cans, etc.
Henny van Nistelrooy was showing some woven fiber optic experiments. The objective of the project is to create a light source that can be adjusted in a very hands-on way. No hidden electronics nor remote controls. You control the density of the light by either compressing the fabric or tearing it apart. Mesmerizing. More images.
Finn Magee’s Race Cars. Fun. Even the box containing the toy could be remote-controlled for the race.
Timeless by Jordi Canudas, nice lamp that comes with a hammer. Breaking it customizes the object.
Images from the show.