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Another prototype spotted at the RCA work in progress show a few weeks ago in London. This week: In Memory of the Sparrow
As new wireless technologies are introduced, using various frequencies and power levels, an invisible energy is increasingly altering our habitat. There are no conclusive results from research to indicate the influence of this energy on our health or our environment, but studies have shown that sparrow populations are decreasing in areas that are affected by electromagnetic communication.
The object harnesses the very force that drove birds away, and transforms it into subtle bird-like sounds, acting both as a comfort to those who want to remember the sparrows, but also as a poignant reminder that our surroundings contain a level of complexity that surpasses our senses. They are "memorial to the sparrows." I asked Cathrine how exactly the bird-like sound was created. "In the exhibition the bird sound was orchestrated, because to work the radio would have to be grounded and this was not possible within the exhibition space," she explained. "However, in the future scenario I envisioned, these memorials would be mounted to trees and tuned to pick up bird sounds transmitted on an AM frequency bandwidth. The antenna would be a long wire spiraling up the tree to pick up the radio waves." All images courtesy of Cathrine Kramer. |
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Animals have senses beyond human experience, they instinctively feel approaching tsunamis through low frequencies, communicate through pheromones or can navigate through magnetic fields.
Students of Design Interactions Chris Woebken and Kenichi Okada, in collaboration with MBA students from the Oxford Said Business-school, have been developing a series of sensory enhancements toys for children to experience "animal superpowers." Each prototype allows the kid to change perspective or feel empathy with animals.
At the work in progress show of the Royal College of Art in London a few weeks ago there were showing 3 of their prototypes:
The ground as seen through the "Ant" apparatus Ant - feeling like an ant magnifying your vision 50x through microscope antennas on your hands They are also developing Elephant shoes that pick up transmitting vibrations from fellows and a head mounted Theremin (!) to provide children with an enhanced spatial vision similar to the one of an electric Eel.
How does the Bird device work? K&C: Birds find direction through sensing geomagnetic fields to find their way migrating from their summer territory to where they are spending the winter months. Rather than translating the sense of geomagnetic fields literally, we designed a device that can be set to basic children's needs sensing the direction of home, icecream-shops or your friends. Tiny motors in the device create a haptic sensation on the skin when you tune into the direction and create a new relationship to your environment. It not just creates a haptic sensation for yourself but as part of the superheros it also displays the direction and visualizes it to your friends.
K&C: We are using a telephone voice changer to make a kids voice sound like an adult. Has working on this project taught you something you were not expecting about body perception and possible future body extensions? K&C: All the devices in this series are working experiential prototypes so we could test the devices with kids. We were quite surprised how extreme the ant device changes the children's behaviors. Even a hyperactive kid moves very slow because the new 50x scale makes you feel sick if you would move at normal speed. We are interested in perception and sensory enhancements for the body and we are also considering a series of toys that uses bio-sensors and can tune into biochemical animal communication. C: The animal project inspired me to explore new ways of interacting with our instinctual animal-self, taking it from the toy level to an adult training tool. Our senses evolved to operate in a networked information age and the sense of smell for example is currently degenerated because we have fire-alarms. Evolutionary our emotions are still controlled with the reptile part of our brain. I am exploring how networked technology and human augmentation training tools can create a new awareness, augment instincts and train new reflexes and for today's survival. Thanks Chris and Kenichi!
Images by Chris Woebken. UPDATE: Designed by Rokos in collaboration with in collaboration with Kathrin Bohm and Andreas Lang, the object lowered your vision to ground level, and outwards, by the use of periscopes. The device was set off centre on a wheel to create the sensation of hopping. The device comes with ears and a tail, so that onlookers can also understand the product's purpose. |
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A day of conspiracy theories...
Mi-5 Persecution is the subject line of a series of Usenet posts, originated by Mike Corley, an IT specialist living in London. His messages usually detail how British intelligence has bugged his home and is sending people to follow him around and harass him. He has also claimed in his posts and on the pages of his own website that television personalities are mocking him or talking about him in code and are part of the MI5 conspiracy. According to him, MI5 with the assistance of the US has started in August 2005 to use a mindcontrol technology which not only reads his mind but can also send voices and thoughts on his mind. This has led to claims that he has mental health issues. Corley has been banned from posting through Google for his abuse of Usenet bulletin boards and has been similarly bounced from most ISPs in England. His story has even been turned into an opera last year. In the past, his posts were relatively easy to filter out, due to his similar subject lines and email address. However, at the start of 2008, he began a series of posts that avoided filters through sporgery and slightly varying his subject line of "MI-5 Persecution". The regular expression Subject: {M[',-`. ]I[',-`. ]5[',-`. ]P} will filter this. Corley Radio, by Design Interactions students Tommaso Lanza and Ross Cairns, is a combination of printer and a radio. It prints out specific words picked up while continuously scanning public and commercial radio stations. Any keywords can be programmed, but in this case they relate to the ongoing Mike Corley story about the MI5 (the UK's counter-intelligence and security agency) trying to ridicule him through radio and television broadcasts. The designers imagined that Mike Corley would use the radio to keep track of who is talking to or about him, to help him find all possible conspiracies against him, that he by himself could never possibly detect.
3 questions to Ross & Tommaso: Is it a working prototype or a concept? Mechanically it works, however we couldn't get access to suitable voice recognition software, so for the purpose of the exhibition we faked the print outs based on details from the MI5 Persecution Reports. These are written reports from Mike which he spams to the internet daily at a truly astonishing rate (we've set up a crude tracking system recording the number of his posts found on the internet - we know many companies who would love to have this sort of ranking on Google).
Why choose Mike Corley? Sometime ago we stumbled across these reports from Mike on Usenet and we started to get obsessively curious as to what they were about. The radio concept alone could be used by anyone. Here in London we could imagine Amy Winehouse or her family using it. A day never seems to go by without some form of unintended tabloid focus on them. However, during this project the story around Mike Corley became increasingly interesting. I had never heard of that man before so i looked for information about him online and felt very sad for him. Have you tried to get in touch with him? We know what you mean, it is a strange space we are operating in. This is about a person who is very real and an active part of the 'uk.misc' Usenet community. Many of the active community's members have met him. We have not contacted him (yet). He is constantly receiving nasty replies to his posting from webmasters or forums users. Should we be part of this or passive? Mike is manipulating technology to make his message public and we are feeding off this, highlighting it and using it; but as designers we are very clear about our role. We are not passing judgment on Mike but leaving the project open for interpretation. Thanks Ross & Tommaso!
Images 1, 2 and 4 courtesy of the designers. |
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The theme of Susanna Hertrich's thesis at the Design Interactions department, RCA, in London, is a reflection on humans and animals in the context of "Human Enhancement": How much do we want to borrow from animals and what are the risks this would involve? How much of the animal is still living inside us? How much of the original animal that we once were has been has been lost in the evolution process?
The risks we fear the most are often the ones most unlikely to be encountered. The human animal has lost its natural instinct for the real dangers. When worn directly on your skin, the Alertness Enhancing Device will act as a physical prosthesis for a lost natural instinct of the real fears and dangers that threaten us - as opposed to perceived risks that often cause a public outrage. The idea is it stimulates goosebumps and shivers that go down your spine and make your neck hair stand up, waking up the alert animal inside. You become more alert and ready for the real dangers in life.
Why would we need such device? Studies on risk perception show that many people are seriously afraid of terrorist attacks and their anxiety is heavily exploited in media and politics. A look at statistics shows that the probability of becoming a victim of terrorism is quite small. Meanwhile other real hazards are perceived as rather uninteresting and raise far less fear, for example environmental pollution or car traffic.
While we consciously know what are the things that really threatens us, we tend to dedicate much more of attention to spectacular disasters with many deaths. That's when the Alertness Enhancing Device comes in. If you feel dispassionate and bored when reading news stories about another environmental pollution scandal, it's probably time to turn the dial of the device on.
And since it's a wearable device, you can even alert yourself in any situation, even in public contexts. "The project is pretty much in a work-in-progress state," explains Susanna. "What I've shown in the exhibition was "just" a form prototype, but I have been experimenting with micro-current stimulations. This is quite unpleasant if placed between your shoulder blades and on your neck, but not as "in your face" as a plain electrical shocks. And...it allows you can alter the current, so you can decide how much you can take for now. Which is how I intend this first prototype to work." How is the project going to evolve? "For the next version I plan to work with much more sophisticated sensations on the skin than microcurrents. The project now has shifted more into "skin as interface" and I plan to play with "apparent movement" sensations and "somatosensory illusions" as beeing explored in haptic research. I'm currently in touch with scientists in London and Tokyo to get an insight into how these things work and how I can use those techniques. Thanks Susanna! All images courtesy of Susanna Hertrich. |
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Ticker Tape is an internet radio for people who suffer from Euphobia, "a persistent, abnormal and unwanted fear of hearing good news". Designed by Will Carey, it was exhibited at the work in progress show of the RCA in London a few weeks ago. Ticker Tape is a working prototype that simulates the interaction but as this was a project done in only two weeks some details are still to be fixed. Using RSS feeds, Ticker Tape scans for light-hearted news stories from around the world broadcasting them to the listener who can manage the content via the Ticker Tape website (still in construction).
Pulling the cord allows the user to choose the duration of the broadcast.
The origin of the news stories can be selected by the dial on the top of the radio. This project explores playful interfaces for the future of digital radio, and is part of wider ongoing research. As Will was in Tokyo when i visited the show, i wrote him to get more information on the radio: The first time i read the description of the project, I thought the radio was meant for people who are afraid of bad news. But it is the exact opposite. You created it for people suffering from "euphobia". Do such people really exist? Yes they do, although very few people experience this condition. The intention was to use a phobia as a starting point for the design process, and the radio was inspired by euphobia, a persistent, abnormal and unwanted fear of hearing good news. So why not make the radio that everyone would expect, the one that people who hate hearing bad news would want to buy? I think this would leave less to the imagination. I wanted to suggest how someone who really suffers from such a fear could overcome it, either via team therapy or by getting used to hearing good news once they had had the initial support from a therapist. By pulling the tape the person can acclimatise themselves to hearing good news in small measured doses. While the original intent is to cure a phobia, it can also be used to create more insightful solutions for interaction with technology. (This is not to say that one is trying to make light of what are indeed serious and real fears. But changing ones mindset as a designer and moving away from marketing-driven design and thinking about solutions from a completely different perspective, can encourage new interactions and designs to emerge.)
Ticker Tape has a very sleek, pure and shiny design, does this reflect its own "mission"? The design has considered a neutral and inviting form, which means you almost have to encounter the object and discover out how it works, yet there are some cues and signs that it is a domestic product. I wanted the radio to be made from ceramic the prototype is plastic, perhaps that is why its so shiny. The void running through the object is for the speaker and the overall form is inspired by an old Braun SK25 radio designed by Dr Fritz Eichler in 1955. Thanks Will! All images courtesy of Will Carey.
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My favourite project at the Royal College of Art work in progress show this year was by an architecture student from unit ADS.3 (tutors: Fernando Rihl, Kirsteen MacKay).
In Dog Eat Dog, Jordan Hodgson asks some though-provoking questions: 2127 dogs and 74 cats are destroyed annually at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (BDCH).
The biomass (70 478 kg) produced needs to be disposed of in a responsible, ecological fashion because of the many harmful agents given off when biological material decomposes. BDCH currently cremates these pets. Would it be possible to regard this biomass waste as an untapped and positive resource waiting to be exploited, could it become both beneficial and complimentary to the centre? Hodgson proposes a solution to the issue which involves working simultaneously with the BDCH existing facilities and introducing new subversive and hidden elements such as turning the body of cats and dogs into pet food, setting up a dog fight betting business and developing the taxidermy potential of dogs. His scenario would turn a non-profit organization (BDCH) into a profitable one.
Along his research, the young architect gathered a series of facts and figures: A dog is worth up to 35x more dead than alive from Battersea. Dogs are worth £85 at Battersea alive. Mounted in a taxidermy shop they are worth up to £3000. 105 068 stray dogs alone were destroyed in the UK last year. That is a 3% increase from the year before. (more details in 2007 Stray Dogs Survey Result Breakdown.) 10% of these animals were destroyed in London. 25% of the breeds that pass through BDCH home are Staffordshire and Bull Terriers. 10 000 dogs and cats (either strays or pets handed over by their owners) pass through BDCH annually. 158 500 cans of dog and cat food are consumed at Battersea each year.
232 447 cans could potentially be produced by using the destroyed dogs and cats. They would feed all the animals living at the center. 5 483 extra cans would be produced that could be distributed for profit from the Battersea shop. Alongside the existing shop in Battersea, Hodgson imagine that new facilities could open such as a "Taxidermy showcase & shop" to produce taxidermy on site, a taxidermy school and workshop to promote the profession of taxidermy and raise the UK profile. Caning factory producing dog (or cat) meat canned and labeled. A rendering plant to process dead animals into pet food.
An online market would also be developed. For example, You Tube would be used for the betting purposes of the dog fights. The recycling of pets is considered a repugnant market with many bioethical factors to be taken into consideration. With 22% of UK households being pet owners can we accept the justification of such a proposal? The project is sustainable but would it be acceptable?
Images 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 courtesy of Jordan Hodgson.
Related: A German inventor says he's found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats. |
