Unusual Objects for Everyday Life (Part I)
|
Saturday evening, instead of swearing at the computer because I find nothing interesting to blog "as usual", I went to the Strangely Familiar, Unusual Objects for Everyday Life exhibit in Turin. The first year students of the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea were given a few weeks to come with devices that rethink everyday digital devices and produce solutions that provide more meaningful and poetic interactions.
Although the devices were only prototypes (I tried to buy one but "No way, Jos�"), all of them were fully functioning. Let's start with James Tichenor (with David Mellis) series of radios. Box of sound is a radio made of wood and hundreds of colourful rubber bands. Left on its own, it emits a weak sound. If you want to turn up the volume, you have to let the light enter the radio. To keep the volume at the desired level, just stick any object inside (here the always handy cellphone is used).
Feel the Music I is a radio with only a big tuning knob. As you spin the knob, the sound of the station vanishes and only tactile feedback indicates the existence of radio stations. You feel phantom "peaks and troughs" though resistances. when you're happy with the signal, you can let go of the knob and listen to the station. Feel the Music II radio can be tuned by moving it across the table or any other flat surface. The feedback is once again purely tactile as the stations are felt through illusory "bumps" on the tabletop. You can mark the table to create station "pre-sets."
These two definitely appealed to me. First, because I am more sensitive to haptic interfaces, then because they were made of wood which contrasted with the current i-podesque trend of making white glossy devices. More about I Can Feel the Music. |
11 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Unusual Objects for Everyday Life (Part I).
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/2862
Some interesting radios. Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?) I... Read More
Some interesting radios. Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?) I... Read More
The radio that James and I made in our physical computing class was in a show in Torino on Saturday. James refined and rebuilt the radio during the Applied Dreams, and built two more radios in the process. All three were on display, along with many of... Read More
The radio that James and I made in our physical computing class was in a show in Torino on Saturday. James refined and rebuilt the radio during the Applied Dreams, and built two more radios in the process. All three were on display, along with many of... Read More
Some interesting radios. Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?) I... Read More
Some interesting radios. Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?) I... Read More
New handset offers 3GB of storage space By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service March 10, 2005 Samsung Electronics has developed a cell phone that runs on Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) Windows Mobile operating system and includes a hard-disk drive. Read More
Some interesting radios. Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?) I... Read More
Tools for radio waves hunters Third part of part of Strangely Familiar. Unusual Objects for Everyday Life. Oren Horev, Myriel Milicevic (who had worked also on the Zone project) and Marcos Weskamp designed the Amazing All-Band Radio, three innocent-loo... Read More
Sounds great. Wish I was there. Can't wait for the next parts.
I love radio, and when I am tuning a radio, especially searching for elusive shortwave stations, I often consider it to be tactile, though I'm using my ears, I'm really "feeling" for a signal in the noise. My main radio (Tivoli Kloss Model One, a nice object!) has a nice amber LED that glows dimmer or stronger to indicate FM signal strength...
Neat devices, though the first one doesn't seem that practical, and the third will need some space to operate (and what if a station only comes in well when the radio is in a certain position?)