I've spent half of the day dancing the sirtaki in my kitchen to the sweet sound of Demis'voice and although i'm always keen on promoting the glories of good old Europe it's time to turn my attention to some video more worthy of being shared with you.

Each month, Rhizome organizes the New Silent Series at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The panels and other events invite scholars, critics, and artists to share with the public their views on the interactions between technology, culture, and creative practice .

Back in early February, Adam Greenfield curated Nextcity: The Art of the Possible, a panel which discussed the ways digital technologies have altered our experiences of urban space. Adam brought around the table J. Meejin Yoon, and Christian Nold but also Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design. I raved about the talk on Information Visualization is a Medium he gave at etech a couple of months ago. If you're not familiar with Stamen work yet, i'm sure you'll be delighted to listen to the Frank Sinatra of data visualization.

Video maestro:

The other videos of the evening have also been uploaded online.

The next New Silent event will take place Friday May 9. You don't want to miss that one either, it's titled Blank Spots on a Map: State Secrecy and the Limits of the Visible.

I discovered the work of Bart Hess just a year ago, at the Salone del Mobile 2007. The video of his graduation project A Hunt for Hightech was shown as part of Family of Form, the exhibition that the Design Academy Eindhoven had organized in Milan that year. Just one video on a small screen and several people glued to it, fascinated and sometimes slightly horrified. The images showed mutant skins, breathing shoes, living furs and metallic gloves. My vocabulary is actually even more limited than ever when it comes to describe the futuristic fabrics and textures that the young designer had imagined. As his website won't give much details about him and his work, i decided to write Bart and pester him with my questions:

Hi Bart, i found little info about yourself online. Would you mind telling us who you are, what your background is and what you do right now?

I'm Bart Hess, I graduated a year ago from the Design Academy, Eindhoven in the Man and Identity department. This department looks at finding new materials, forecasting trends in fashion and culture. I have always had a fascination with photography, painting and fashion. Some people would say that I am shy and introvert, but when you see my work it reveals an opposite personality. I think I'm not so good at storytelling with words, but rather expressing myself with stories through images and visuals.

Right now I'm working for myself exploring several fields that straddle textile, fashion and animation, these fall within the commercial and art world.

In the description of A Hunt for Hightech you write that it is "more interesting to imitate an imaginary world"? Why is that?

With a Hunt for Hightech I made a collection of fake fur that touches on elements of fetishism, human instinct and new animal archetypes. With that collection I did not try to mimic real animal kingdoms but create a fantasy world of my own. The way this started was through the process of imagining fantasy animals; animals that could be genetically manipulated, part robot, part organic, how they would move in their environment and what they felt like to touch. I then took my (imagined) gun and 'hunted' them, looking for their extra ordinary, high tech furs. I thought about tactile qualities like reflection, the way the hair grows and three dimensionality and took these characteristics, magnified them, manipulated and exaggerated them.

Can you explain us which kind of materials you have designed for the project A Hunt for Hightech?

I used materials that were not organic or commonly seen in the fashion world, and blended plastics, metallic's, silicon's and technical foils. With these materials I tried to manipulate and re-create the same qualities and tactile feeling my fantasy animal kingdom has.

Which technological discoveries have inspired the whole project in general?

Prosthetic technology, where robot or machine meets with human nerve ending and flesh is definitely an inspiration but not an obvious link when you see the result of my project. Genetic manipulation has a clearer connection where it allows or dictates a new or changing evolution. This combination of nature, technology and evolution inspired me to create my own new animal archetypes. In my "Hunt for Hightech Animal Kingdom", animals can change their prints to distract predators, or grow their hair meters longer to appear bigger.

Your work has been exhibited in many venues and magazines. How does the public react to it?

There seemed to be two reactions from the public, there were people who were not freaked out at all and found it very attractive. These were the people who investigated and were intrigued by the furs and discovered the fabrics were quite soft, even though they were made from needles and sharp metallic's. The other type of people were scared and shocked with the idea of breathing shoes, these were the people who would get hurt touching the furs. One of my intentions was to communicate tactility and spire an emotion between the viewer and the furs, and this happened in both cases.

The models you present in A Hunt for Hightech are futuristic and fascinating. Do you see them more as sculptures or future pieces of clothing?

I really believe these are the fashion furs of the future. Why kill an animal and re-form the fur into a shape? Why not have the animal already shaped to your body, have it living and breathing around you, like the shoes. Whilst the technology is not there yet, in the meantime the animation is used as an inspiration for the fashion industry. At the moment I'm consulting at the Stijlinstituut in Amsterdam making animation and photographic collages to express and create future atmospheres. This gives me the opportunity to re-create ideas that really do have an impact on trends in the future, be it fashion, product or architecture.


Walter Van Beirendonck, Men's collection Spring/Summer 2008 - SEXCLOWN

You also collaborated with my favourite fashion designer, Walter van Beirendonck. What was your role in the development of his collection? Can you tell us a few words about the collections you participated to?

I started working with Walter van Beirendonck for my internship. For six months I worked on the "Stop Terrorising our World" collection doing computer illustrations for prints. This was where it all started and I have been collaborating with Walter ever since. For the "Sex Clowns" collection, Walter had the idea to create avatars and he asked me to visualize his illustrations into 3d drawings. The Sex clowns collection combines new digital life-form, with an all time classic fascination of Walter, fetishism. Fantasising about new types of Fetishism, he created a group of self-conscious men, proudly presenting their masculinity and body diversity.

In some of your work it seems that the garment or shoe is almost part of the wearer's body. How do you think new technologies could impact the body aesthetically and fashion-wise?

I think a good example of where technology and the body meet, is a project that `I have worked on with Philips Design Probes team, a provocation for an Electronic Tattoo. In this scenario a tattoo traverses across the landscape of the body moving and morphing with touch and gesture. In this case the tattoo becomes a fashion accessory using the body as canvas for moving image, where the technology opens up new forms of communication between two people.

The photographies you make together with Lucy McRae present alternative bodies or body accessories, cosmetic surgery, etc. Where does your inspiration come from?

I work with Lucy McRae in a primitive and limitless way. We work with our instinct and start by using a material on our body, exploring volumes and ways of re-shaping the human silhouette. We work fast, for one day at the end of the week expelling all our creative energy and stress, making a series of photos that capture an atmosphere. We share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression, but it is not our intention to communicate this. I think unconsciously our work touches upon these themes, we create future human shapes and new body form's. LucyandBart is blindly discovering a low - tech prosthetic way for human enhancement.

Any upcoming project you could share with us?

I have an exhibition coming up in the Summer in Fort Asperen called 'Closer to the Skin'. For this show I'm making large scale furs, approximately two metres square, I have developed a method for making the furs automatically that enables me to create the pieces much faster and bigger. I'm also starting a project now with the Textile Museum in Tilburg where I am designing my own collection of textiles using a 3d knitting machine, laser cutting and a loom. There are several other projects I am working on, but unfortunately I can't mention them yet, they will be on my website when they are finished!

Thanks Bart!

Portrait of Bart Heiss

Related: Lucy McRae's talk at NEXT.

The result of the elections in Italy (where i half live) is saddening me beyond words.

I cheered up a bit this morning when i discovered that tagr.tv has put the video of Casey Reas' talk at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna online. Last week i had the pleasure of attending Casey's lecture at the Node08 festival in Frankfurt. While his talk in Vienna focused on his own work, the Frankfurt audience was blissed with a wonderful presentation that made coding finally understandable to someone like me, was packed with references to wonderful artworks based on code subtleties and provided a glimpse into what his next book will be like. The creator (together with Ben Fry) of processing told me that it took them several years to come up with their Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, so don't expect the new opus to land on your bookshelf this month.

Image bitforms gallery

I missed Paul Prudence's presentation which was apparently fabulous and if you're curious about Node08, Paul has started to write about the event on his blog. However i caught theverymany's very engaging presentation slash performance. I was so sick that day that i took almost no notes but i listened avidly and rescued this gem from their talk:

They worked with architect Alex Haw to develop LightHive, a delicate "luminous architectural surveillance" constellation made of some 1500 LEDs, positioned to recreate the location of every light source in the building of London's Architectural Association where it was installed last year. Each LED replicates the intensity, colour and direction of the real light sources. They switched on and off and changed in intensity according to light use throughout the school building.

Video. Images.

ps. if you're in Brussels over the coming weeks, come and check out Casey Reas' work at the Holy Fire exhibition curated by Domenico Quaranta and Yves Bernard, the director of iMAL.

Boris Müller from Interface Design of the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam (DE) just announced me that the videos from the Innovationsforum are finally available online. 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: mobile telephone and media interfaces, problem solutions and product visions, web pages and virtual worlds, art and commerce, business and science.

Don't miss the Bruce Sterling's talk, the one of Tim Edler (from realities:united) and Tony Dunne's.

I usually associate industrial design with a high dose of virile technology, some big yawn ideas and a pretty lame design. I've seen enough Industrial Design graduation shows to say that only part of my lack of enthusiasm is due to my very own and very deep ignorance. However there's one ID show i'm always happy to check out when June comes and graduation shows pop up all over London. It's the MA Industrial Design (MAID) at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. The graduates projects are smart, funny, the design is yes! the design is good and they manage to created a quirky scenography to make the visit even more enchanting.

That's why, dear readers, in my quest to always inform and entertain you, i've asked the Course Director of MAID, Ben Hughes, if he'd have time for an interview. Ben trained as an Industrial Designer in the UK, worked for consultancies in Taiwan and Australia and came back London where he's been heading the course since 2000, writes about and practices design, and consults on industrial design, brand and marketing.

In last year's department catalog, you wrote a collage "manifesto": What can a collage approach offer to the design discipline?

The course has long encouraged the incorporation of collage into the design process. It is such a simple and powerful means of both generating and communicating ideas. It is also available to anyone with a pair of scissors and some glue. I first experimented with collage when I was studying for my own MA, influenced by a classmate from Spain (from where many of the Collage Maestros originate). He introduced me to the work of Joan Brossa and Max Ernst, etc. and I have been fascinated ever since. We have adapted the use of the technique for designers on the course and have run workshops with current maestros such as Graham Rawle and Sean Mackaoui. The article in the magazine is, in fact, taken from a forthcoming book; "The Secret Lives of Objects" by one of my former tutors, Jane Graves. Jane taught at Central for over 30 years and had a huge influence on the subject, particularly for the postgraduate students. This book is a collection of her essays, illustrated by my students using collage.

On a related theme - at last year's Milan Furniture Fair, we mounted an exhibition workshop called Azzeccazilla, at the invitation of Stefano Mirti at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti/ New Academy of Fine Arts). This involved each of our first year students scouring the whole of Milan for the most interesting design ideas and images, taking the brochures and leaflets concerned, and then collating them into beautiful spiral-bound A5 notebooks. Which we then sold to people for €5. Collage can be profitable, too!

Our world is increasingly technology-mediated. How does it reflect on your course? Do you feel that students are more and more willing to engage with technologies like mobile phones or rfid system and develop projects that might sometimes look like they emerged from an interaction design department?

Certainly, we aim to adapt to the issues and technologies of the day, as well as the experiences of employers and graduates once they are in work. Industrial Designers need to be able to decode and evaluate these technologies so that they can incorporate them into products and services in a meaningful way. The term 'Industrial Design' relates, for me, to the mode of production, not to a dominance of particular archetypes or production methods. Enhancing a user's experience, or making a product relevant to a particular group of people is core to the discipline. We have a number of projects every year that might sit comfortably with the category of 'Interaction Design,' but I am happier describing these in terms of Industrial Design i.e. how people relate to things.

We have been experimenting for several years with different means of prototyping interactive experiences in order to test them. We continue to incorporate everything from role-play to swift cardboard test-rigs to hacking existing systems, to basic programming. In terms of the latter, we have this year started working with Arduino, which look very promising. This year we also worked with colleagues in Textile Design and the Epigenome Network to explore ideas of Epigenetics using design thinking. I would draw the line at projects dealing with the entirely hypothetical, or 'conceptual,' as we are primarily interested in material culture; the 3 dimensional component of this stuff.

Several projects by last year's graduates reflect on climate change, recycling and other eco-related topics. How present are the green issues in the course? Do you feel that sustainability and eco-consciousness will keep on taking a bigger place in the course? Do you see them as becoming an integral part of the course or will they appear only in separate lectures and workshops?

Projects that deal with these issues in one way or another have been part of the landscape, and rightly part of the responsibility of design education for over thirty years. Improving efficiency, reducing waste, and a focus on real, as opposed to created, needs are central to the skills and motivation of a good designer. That doesn't mean that we disregard market-orientated projects, though. We cannot afford to be shortsighted - it could be argued that industrial design is part of the problem in which we now find ourselves. With any luck, it could also form part of the solution. Every project in the second year is expected to incorporate an ethical dimension, but it is up to the individual concerned to determine the prominence of this. For over 5 years we have had a regular first-year project dealing with ecological issues. Last year we teamed up with Natalie Jeremijenko and her students at NYU to share the findings of these. I am hoping to repeat the experience next year.

What's with that Benjamin socket adapter on the pages of your course catalogue and personal website?

This was given to me by an ex-student. He (and it) is from Colombia, where, as I understand it, if you go into a hardware shop and ask for a 'Benjamin' you will be given one of these. There is no confirmed story as to why this is, but the most popular version has it named after Benjamin Franklin. I have always loved this kind of thing, which is both very clever and somewhat dangerous. I have some adapters from China, which will accept any plug from any country, although I am not sure it conforms to any British Standard. I also have a device that will recharge any mobile battery from any phone without any special adapters (the so-called 'Omnipotence Charger,' which has to be seen to be believed). The picture of me dressed up as a 'Benjamin' is part of an ongoing series that we have on the course, where students dress up as famous designers, or as in this case, designs.

Thomas Ballhatchet, Hamster Shredder

Could you pick up some projects from recent graduates and explain to us why and how they reflect the spirit of the MAID course?

During the second year of the course, students pick their own area of study. A couple examples from this year's show that come to mind are by Harry White and Tom Ballhatchet. Harry had a career prior to moving into Industrial Design as a scientist, working in the field of Genetics. He managed to combine this experience in a series of products that enable a user to better conceptualize certain scientific constructs. One of these is a set of measuring jugs that use unfamiliar units such as "ten billion grains of icing sugar" (not much) to "a tyrannosaurus rex brain" (even less), accompanied by a specially written recipe book, also employing these units. Harry also produced a set of "evo-cut" cutlery which demonstrate the basics of natural variation and gene mutation, and a "one-in-a-million" poster which depicts very clearly what this much-used expression really means.

Harry White, Measuring Jug

Tom Ballhatchet, on the other hand, was concerned with issues of waste and re-use. One of the things revealed through his research was the mystery, or opacity surrounding the majority of recycling initiatives. i.e. the reluctance of people to contribute to schemes where the benefits were only faintly evident. His response was to try to localize some of this activity, and therefore lend it some more meaning. Tom managed to demonstrate this through two very different products: the Hamster Shredder, in which the inhabitant participates in the manufacture of its bedding material; and the TV Packaging Stand, which combines both the packaging, and furniture for a flat panel TV.

Tom Ballhatchet, TV Packaging Stand

I would say these two projects are representative the MAID course in three ways: firstly because of their sound application of a number of research techniques; secondly their confident but playful approach to innovation; and thirdly because they each achieved well-resolved final outcomes.

What is the idea behind Claystation? How well does this method of encouraging the audience participation work?

The Claystation project was born just over 5 years ago, when Piers and Rory at Designersblock were kind enough to let an outfit called the Design Transformation Group (of which I am a director) hold an event as part of their London exhibition. The principle motivation was the removal of 'white cube' reverence towards design objects, particularly in exhibitions. The method was to get a quarter of a ton of plasticine delivered to the show and then sell blocks of it to visitors, who then spent time making things and then animating them on a makeshift stage. We filmed the whole lot in stop-motion. It is somewhat painful to watch, although it gets better later on (it lasts over 10 minutes), as we worked out the basics of animation. The soundtrack is provided by a DJ working with samples created from instruments made by my students.

Claystation 03 designersblock, Tea Building, London 25th-28th September, 2003

This first exhibition was a big, and unexpected success, and has been adapted to many different formats over the years. We have found the Claystation format to be useful with students in generating quick 3d responses to briefs. There is now an architectural version, a product version, a chair version, a bag version, and most recently an automotive version. This year I worked with companies such as Porter International and NICE car to put on interactive exhibitions in London, Milan and New York. In Scotland, I have worked Alex Milton on the furniture version at the National Museum, and we are planning one with a sustainability theme for the Scottish Parliament next year.

Pongovision at designersblock Milan 2005, 23rd - 26th April, 2005

Over the course of their design studies, students are often free to let their creativity run wild. How much is it still possible after they have left the school?

That depends largely on where they target their efforts. I have had ex-students express frustration with jobs. This is not because they think they are too good, but rather that their working lives are eaten up with so much tedium. At college you are encouraged to believe that design can make a difference, and to explore the ethical, and aesthetic alongside the actual business of design. This is right and proper. But it can seem a bit distant when you find yourself in a meeting, or even in a job, where the entire focus seems to be on cutting costs. Many of our students are lucky to get themselves into positions which focus on research, or design management. Many also set up their own businesses.

Sustainable fashion, online service, eating behaviour, etc. The work of your students embrace so many aspects of design. Is there any aspect of life left untouched by industrial design? How broad is the discipline?

If it's an aspect of life that involves people, things and production, then no, not really. Many people appear nervous about defining what they do as 'industrial design' because it seems too broad, or maybe 'old-fashioned.' I don't have a problem with any of this, and consider myself lucky to work in an inclusive discipline that incorporates the widest variety of practice, particularly at postgraduate level. My background is in retail design and consumer electronics, but the course can support much more diversity than this as our team of contributing tutors and mentors are drawn from all specialisms.

Who are the designers, artists or architects who inspire you most?

I am inspired by anyone who is clearly in love with the possibilities of invention; anyone who manages to do something well by doing it differently. Although I didn't really understand what he was doing with his last show in Milan, Marcel Wanders is clearly one of these people. As is Gaetano Pesce. I have always admired Denis Santachiara's work, which is full of invention, irreverence and wit.

Recently, I have really enjoyed Maarten Baas' stuff. He seems to be in the same mould as the others I've mentioned, whilst lacking the pretension of many emerging 'stars.'

Closer to home, I think designers have a huge amount to learn from Tim Hunkin. As far as art is concerned - the things that make most sense to me are the those that reveal something about the nature of objects, mass production and consumption. So Oldenburg, Duchamp, Cornell, Joan Brossa, Chema Madoz are favourites. Also Richard Hamilton- not only did he make his name through collage, has also worked with readymades (famously including a Braun electric toothbrush), but he also worked for part of his career as an industrial designer.

Thanks Ben!

The MAID course will do a couple of shows from April 16 to 21, during Milan Furniture Fair. One in Satellite and one at NABA, Via Darwin 20 (map).

Course catalog

I arrived in San Diego for etech08 after a 25 hour trip. The morning after i was sitting in the main conference room wondering why on earth i was doing that to myself. I could have stayed quietly in Europe, avoided the jetlag and the artificial food enriched with extra-anti-oxidants and extra-vitamins.

... Until Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design, took the floor and gave his waaaay too short talk on Information Visualization is a Medium. He highlighted a couple of the works they developed, threw in some interesting thoughts and saved my severely jetlagged morning.

Many of you are probably already familiar with the work of Stamen, especially with the visualizations they created for Digg.com (Swarm and Stack) or the brilliant cabspotting.

The focus of the talk was on process of analysis and how the concept works both for Stamen and culturally. For Stamen Information visualization is a medium, not a technique per se.

Housing built on an artificial lake: Discovery Bay

The first project that illustrated this statement is Trulia Insight, a real estate aggregator, search and information tool they developed for Trulia, a real estate company based in San Francisco which aggregates information about properties around the United States.

The mashup combines historical real estate data with a "heat map" that displays which properties are hot. People looking for a house can search for real estate by zip code, or other parameters like size, cost, and building type. Houses glow different colors as they are built and re-built over the years, enabling buyers to watch growth trends and movement in residential areas.

Trulia, Miami, 1988

It is almost like a pollution map as it shows the impact of men on the landscape. The most fascinating aspect of the work is to compare the real estate growth from city to city. A city like Plano in Texas for example experienced a somewhat chaotic growth pattern from 1970 to 2008. Meanwhile the real estate flow in Los Angeles looked easier and more organic.

Oakland Crime Spotting, a project initiated by Mike Migurski.

This interactive map of crimes in Oakland was developed with the idea of offering a tool for understanding crime in cities.

You can get a precise overview of what is happening in your neighbourhood (or the one where you plan to rent a house) over time, you can select the crimes you want to see and if you like that sort of thrill, crime alerts can be delivered to you in almost real time via RSS or email.

Crimespotting helps people explore public information, draw connections, see pattern emerge and find new possibilities for questioning.

The website says: We believe that civic data should be exposed to the public in a more open way. With these maps, we hope to inspire local governments to use this data visualization model for the public release of many different kinds of data: tree plantings, new schools, applications for liquor licenses, and any other information that matters to people who live in neighborhoods.

The idea is not to offer a search programme that would give you a way in but rather to give a map display as a way out for users to explore. It is not enough to simply analyzes and it is not enough either to simply entertain.

In Stamen's project there is always an editorial choice, their projects are not totally value free, they are more than just a pretty accumulation of data. They attempt to give people a way to access information they care about, to engage them in data and keep them interested.

Related: Sascha's report on Stamen's participation at OFFF in Barcelona.