Really Enjoyed this design, not sure about the music. I would own one of these things.

Michael Rakowitz: PARASITE

Michael Rakowitz, a New york based artist created inflatable homes for the homesless that work with excess air of the city. His work is a commentary on how the homeless live off the waste of the city. These homes change the idea of space, speak of political and social systems.

“Bill S.’s paraSITE shelter. He requested as many windows as possible, because “homeless people don’t have privacy issues, but they do have security issues. We want to see potential attackers, we want to be visible to the public.” Six windows are placed at eye level for when Bill is seated and six smaller windows for when Bill is reclining.”

George L.’s paraSITE shelter. Made on a budget of $5.00 from trash bags, ZipLoc bags, and clear waterproof packing tape. George requested a system of “ribs” that would be made of semi-translucent trash bags. In between the ribs, he wanted windows to expose the “meat” between the bones.”

The windows are made of Ziploc sandwich bags and serve as pockets to display personal items and signage for the public. Privacy and publicity can be regulated by adding or removing objects.

Design process sketches for a shelter built for Artie, a 62-year-old homeless man living near Madison Square Garden. Artie often stands in line for concert tickets at the request of scalpers. For his paraSITE, Artie requested a domed sitting space for himself and his girlfriend, Myra, connected to a lower, intimate sleeping area for two, “the lovin’ room.”

+ RAKOWITZ

Lucy Orta’s “home”

Lucy Orta’s work considers the home as something that is dynamic and humans as nomadic. These objects become Architecture , fashion, and products all in one, merging the boundaries between them. You can simply pick up your home and while wearing it as a jacket, settle somewhere else.

Here is an interesting paper called “Dress for Stress Wearable technology and the social body” by Susan Elizabeth Ryan

This paper considers the work of artists, designers, and activists who, since the 1990s, have worked with body covering as survival mechanism and social tool. Individually or within collectives, they call their work art, design, or activism; or all three. The result is a “body of records” of technological, biological, and performable wearables that have not received the attention they deserve, both as art and design, and as vehicles for ideas about threats to species survival and collective experience.

For example, in the early 1990s artists created wearable artworks in the form of survival attire embedded in localized performative events concerned with social connection under adverse circumstances. Lucy Orta is prominent among such practitioners, who formulate clothing the body as critical, social, and ethical practice within an ambient “culture of fear.” (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1) Lucy Orta, Nexus Architecture x 50: Intervention Köln 2001.

I call such work “critical garment discourse” (abbreviated as CGD), a term I propose to mean work in the form of fashion or clothing that concerns not just the body, but notions of dress–and dress, not just as historically viewed or normatively considered, but as experienced, situated and located, and empowered as a medium capable of significant commentary.

Enrico Dini’s 3-D Printers Sculpture

Enrico Dini’s prototype machine can print in solid rock! His giant printer is the first of its kind that can print whole buildings. It uses sand but someday it’ll use moon dust? The machine is called D-shape, it sprays a thin layer of sand with a magnesium based glue from hundreds of nozzles, the glue binds the sand in to solid rock- building up layer after layer in to a sculpture or furniture or really anything you want. He claims that the d-shape process is four times faster than conventional building, costs 1/3 as using portland cememnt and createles little waste. On top of all that it makes creating curvy structures simple!

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Japan Media Arts Festival

David Bowen’s Growth Modeling Device scooped up the grand prize in the Art Divistion category. The system attempts to replicate the daily growth of an onion plant.While lasers scan the onion from one of three angles, a fuse deposition modeler creates a plastic model based on the information collected. The device repeats this process every twenty-four hours scanning from a different angle. After a new model is produced the system advances a conveyor approx. 17 inches so the cycle can repeat. The result is a series of white plastic models illustrating a simple organic phenomenon from different angles.

Lawrence Malstaf‘s Nemo Observatorium

Common Flowers, by Shiho Fukuhara and Georg Tremmel (of the Biopresencefame), reverts the blue “Moondust” carnation -the first commercially available and purely aesthetic GM product- back to its natural white state using open-source DIY bio-bending methods and procedures.

Photo on the homepage: Flood Helmet Gallery from the series

Objects for Our Sick Planet, by ONG Kian-Peng.

Text by Regine of WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART

All pictures from the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Synthetic Aesthetics: Art, Design and Synthetic Biology

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a designer, artist and researcher. Her work  exhibited at the final show, The Synthetic Kingdom, explored how design could contribute to a field that most of us find a bit intimidating and distant from our daily preoccupations: synthetic biology.

Among Daisy’s latest activities are a residency she recently completed at SymbioticA, a collaboration with James King and Cambridge University’s iGEM 2009 grand-prizewinning team and then there’s Synthetic Aesthetics. This project investigates shared territory between design and synthetic biology, invites exchange of existing skills and approaches, and makes possible the development of new forms of craft and collaboration.

Synthetic biology is a bit of a daunting area of research. It seems to be highly technical and almost too abstract. How much background in Synthetic Biology would the designers and artists who apply for the residency need?

Synthetic biology is the application of engineering principles to biology – living matter has become a new material for engineering, a new technology for design and construction. The promise is that we can simplify the way we engineer life, making it predictable and useful (though biology’s complexity still challenges us, for now). The discussions today are creating a framework that could influence biology and nature for generations to come.

The deeper I get, the more fascinating and complex it becomes and the faster the field is evolving. For the last two years I have been engaging with the construction of this potential future and the ethical implications it presents. My RCA projects, The Synthetic Kingdom – a proposal for a new branch of the Tree of Life – and Growth Assembly, with Sascha Pohflepp, investigate this (both currently on show in the Wellcome Trust’s windows).

Dunne and Raby, WHAT IF…, window display, 2010.

The principles behind synthetic biology are straightforward: standardization, abstraction and modularity. Synthetic Aesthetics is not looking for designers or artists necessarily expert in genetics, rather, how might design and art work in dialogue with the evolving science?We’re interested in the overlaps between synthetic biology and design, the ways that we can explore and interrogate science, opening up new thought areas and processes. We’re asking: how would you design nature?

Synthetic biology is multi-disciplinary, from computer scientists to mechanical engineers. As design advisor with James King to the 2009 Cambridge UniversityiGEM competition team (International Genetically Engineered Machines), we joined undergraduates in Maths, Physics, Engineering and other subjects in a two-week synbio crash course last July.

Beautiful Moss Table

The Moss tables designed by Ayodhya has been shown at the IFFS – international furniture fair in singapore 2010.

Interesting Concepts for Headphones + Speakers

DESIGN BOOM had a competition with Altec Lansing, calling designers for concepts in speakers or headsets. The results were very interesting from all around the world.

name of design : altec lansing mini
design by : kimming yap + yulia saksen from singapore

name of design : exflowde
design by : sunghyun kyung from korea

name of design : hangin/bowlin
design by : janne salovaara from finland

name of design : torus
design by : james barber from uk

name of design : fruity speaker
design by : yue li from france

name of design : moss speaker
design by : brandon shigeta from usa

name of design : cure
design by : chung-lin lin from taiwan

— name of design : tune wave design by : Yang ShunFa + Tusng-yu Liu from taiwan

name of design : peter podbelly
design by : kinga pelsöczi from germany

name of design : urban music tree
design by : tamara orjola from latvia

name of design : sport
design by : bao-nghi droste from germany

name of design : Transparent fragility
design by : ilshat garipov from russia

Zero Wrist Watch

+ Robert Dabi

Kotori Headphones

+ Kotori

Arntzen’s Paper Beauties

Paula Artz 

Similar to Felix’s Design

Polish designer Pawel Grunert has created the SIE43 Chair.

Interesting CD Holder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

designed by Pascal Bauer

fantastical hats: Philip Treasy

Kappu Lamps: Italy

Doha Chebib Log bowls.

 

 

+ TOXEL

Recycled Camera Bracelets

Electro Toast

 

 

Entered into an Electrolux design competition, the Scan Toaster connects to a PC by USB.
Then, it can download news, weather reports, the time and more. There are modules inside 
of the toaster that heat up, just like a regular toaster would. The only difference is that
these modules can move 30 degrees. So, once you select a news story you want printed, the 
modules will realign and then burn the image onto the bread.

This is just a design at the moment and there are no plans for the toaster to be manufactured for consumers. 
But this is really one of those items that makes you wonder what will they think of next?

Water resistant Mouse : Belkin

 

 

 

Belkin’s Washable Mouse is a water-resistant mouse that can survive spills and can
be hand-washed under the faucet to stay clean. Of course, this washability doesn’t 
come at the cost of features: The mouse employs an optical engine with 1200 dpi for 
high sensitivity that works on many household surfaces, including upholstery, glass, 
and wood. A scroll pad allows both vertical and horizontal scrolling with one easy touch.

Zaha Hadid Shoes

Zaha Hadid is in collaboration with Brazilian eco shoes design company: MELISSA

The Brazilian company’s commitment to the environment with their vegan, recyclable plastic materials, have socially responsible trade and labor practices, and cute and affordable designs.