A fictitious company called ENT International has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Some of the items listed in the catalogue of the bankruptcy clearance auction are perfectly mundane, others are fictitious. Put together they offer a detailed insight into the inner workings of a large corporation closely inspired by the Enron scandal
Directly influenced by the 50s and ’60s experiments, ExtraRoom puts the sensory deprivation practice in a near futuristic scenario, when mind reading technologies are in common use and thoughts are not private anymore
All logic and circuitry is pre-engineered, so you can play with electronics without knowing electronics. Tiny magnets act as connectors and enforce polarity, so you can’t put things in the wrong way. And all the schematics will be shared under an opensource license so you can download, upload, suggest new bits and hopefully see them come to life
While i was in Los Angeles ealier this month, i had the great opportunity to visit the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts and chat with some of the students. The department educates designers and artists for the information age by teaching the fundamentals of Design, Media, and the Arts, and encouraging experimentation and innovation
The Salone del Mobile in Milan was boring but Jurgen Bey saved my day with his Slow Car
This exhibition at the Triennale in Milan shows knitting, embroidery and all those (mostly) feminine crafts that are now so much in favour. I’ve seen quite a few exhibitions on that very theme over the past few years and this one is definitely not the best but it has merits
‘Digital By Design’ is a wide-ranging survey that considers the work of those visionaries who are reimagining the relationship between technology, design products, immersive environments and human interaction for the twenty-first century. The result is a captivating assessment of pioneering approaches in art and design that encompasses a broad spectrum of humanist values, humor, magic and sensory experiences
Thomas Thwaites is making a toaster, all by himself, from scratch – beginning by mining the raw materials and ending with a product that is currently sold for a few pounds throughout the UK. A toaster. How hard can it be?
The first monography is the one of a painter who portrays contemporary life through cables, joysticks, feet and routers. The second book is a delightfully designed bible of a font which was highly popular in the Middle Ages and then got to bear the stigma of being associated with nazi propaganda
The book highlights a current trend in international graphic design: more and more visual designers are staging their compositions as three-dimensional scenarios, in order to turn them into posters, magazine covers, web sites, and animated films
The exhibition assumes that innovation of the architecture of dwelling can only be based on the interaction between ‘container’ and ‘contained’, that is, between architectural invention and changes in living ideals
Born as a mere advertising tool to sell napkins and toilet rolls, the paper fashion craze took off in the late ’60s. The exhibition is also looking at the way paper is used in fashion of today, showing design, art and publicity objects, filmed fashion shows and recent creations by some of the most innovating fashion designers
Mudam is Luxembourg’s very own and very classy museum of modern and contemporary art. I’ve been following their always exciting and bold programme for a couple of years and was very eager to see it but then you need a rock solid motive to spend a day in Luxembourg. The other day i woke up and decided that MUDAM would be mine
Material Beliefs takes emerging biomedical and cybernetic technology out of labs and into public spaces. Its members use design as a tool for public engagement, a mean to stimulate discussion about the value and impact of these new technologies which blur the boundaries between our bodies and materials
Cultural Resistance, Psychological Exploration and Material Intervention are the key themes of an exhibition that the famous designer duo El Último Grito has curated at the LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial
Vicente Guallart’s contribution to the biennale is a research project that explores the potential of information technology to reorganize the habitability of the world. From a single small object to the planet itself
Not only the title of a song by the The Beach Boys, but also the title of an exhibition about wishful thinking in art and design. Ten artists and designers offer their take on other possibilities
Booklets on media art, politically-engaged graphic design and comics zine, essays about cities built from zero, slums and the worst way to deal with them, etc. What a lovely Summer i just had
The conference and exhibition present a selection of visionary projects anticipating future developments in design process and technologies. What happens when design, creative coding and digital fabrication meet mass-customization?
Peter Thaler & Lars Denicke started to get interested in characters ten years ago. They were fascinated by the very anti-Pixar essence of these characters: they have no background, no purpose nor story to tell. Yet, they have a soul and a clear personality, they manage to communicate no matter the country where they are shown. Demonstration
The exhibition demonstrates how the development of construction and manufacturing processes have enabled the rise of a new culture of ornament. One which is not only innovative and aesthetically stunning but also economically viable
The artist has just received a Design for our Future Selves award for Commuter Thrival, a brilliant communication campaign that aims to raise awareness of the issues surrounding public transport through posters visualising people’s emotions with quirky costumes
Bright catalogs the state of the art of illumination and its use in architecture, design and interactive installations. Some projects are so astonishing that you forget the building underneath the light show, others act more as subtle enhancement of a building or environment
Beer and lemonade, shampoo, medicine, munitions, cardiac valves, car paint and brake discs, matches, desserts and bubblegum, pills, bread, etc. Over three years, Christien Meindertsma tracked the products made from parts or even tiny particles of pigs. Her quest provided her with 187 products and led her to a tattoo artist, dentist, farmer and weapon specialist
Could we envision that one day surveillance technology will have a role in healthcare? Could it provide some help in the fight against obesity? What would then be the potential uses (misuses?) of this data by others?
This year Turin is the World Capital of Design, a title that the city is not holding with much panache. No critical design, no interaction design, nothing really progressive nor challenging either. Still, there’s a couple of interesting exhibitions going on throughout the city. The one i visited on Thursday might actually be the best show about design i’ve seen in a long time
When no one needs him, the overworked Emergency Exit pictogram takes a well earned break
A toy train chasing sound, a hammer that reveals dormant sounds, a 5 arms turntable, and some wearable sound devices
Barking coats, hidden messages in the tablecloth, fermented dresses, sensitive shoes and sensual switches
Jose Luis de Vicente invited Manuel Lima from Visual Complexity as well as the ueber-talented Santiago Ortiz and Aaron Koblin to discuss the beauty of data
The designer and artist talked about his sources of inspiration, latest works, favourite Malaysian tourist spots, crazy hotel carpets and his new fondness for random assistants
Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design talks data visualization and urban space
A Dutch fashion designer inspired by prosthetic technology, fetishism, genetic manipulation and animals
A video of Casey Reas’ talk last week and some goodies from theverymany
Innovationsforum, which took place last year, invited a stellar cast of interaction design thinkers and practitioners to discuss the many aspects of interface and interaction design
The Course Director of MAID on collage, ecological issues, gene mutation cutlery, clay animation and that famous hamster paper shredder
Eric Rodenbeck on why information visualization is becoming more than a set of tools and technologies and techniques to understand large data sets. It is emerging as a medium in its own right, with a wide range of expressive potential
When magic tricks and physical computing classes collide at the University of Architecture in Venice …
The Corley Radio prints out specific words picked up while scanning radio stations. The keywords relate to the Mike Corley story about the UK secret service trying to ridicule him through media channels
The human animal has lost its natural instinct for the real dangers. This device will give cause a shiver to run down your spine. It makes your neck hair stand up and wakes the alert animal inside,
when you should fear what is around you.
