2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Bits and Pieces

Bits ‘n Pieces is a traveling exhibition of work by international designers, architects, computer scientists, and material and technology researchers. It will showcase projects still in their development stage, as well as furniture, architecture, jewelry, graphic design and products that anticipate the next phase of the digital revolution, focusing on how society is imbued with, shaped by and shapes technology. This new era will be marked by increased awareness about, and accessibility of, continuously advancing technologies and materials and the changes that we will be making in our lives through them will be not just formal but structural, not merely aesthetic but substantive, changing how we actually think about, design and build our objects and space. What will life look like based on changes that are sometimes visible to the public and sometimes invisible? 

There are some pretty cool projects showcased in the exhibit, I like the concept of the Brain Waive Sofa.

Brainwave Sofa is a collaboration between Lucas Maassen and Dries Verbruggen from Unfold

The shape of the Brainwave Sofa is entirely determined by recording 3 seconds of Maassen’s neural 'alpha' activity the very moment he closed his eyes. The resulting 3 second computerfile is sent to a CNC milling machine that mills out the Brainwave sofa in soft foam. It is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a futuristic production workflow in which the designer only has to close his eyes and a computer 'prints' the result out as a functional form. A warm grey felt with buttons in the valleys is applied by hand to the foam honoring the traditional codes of a sofa.

 

 

 

The exhibit is running till Dec 4th

Material ConneXion 60 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10010 

The Living Wall Project

The Living Wall project, led by Leah Buechley at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, uses magnetic and conductive paints to create circuitry in attractive designs.

The electronically enhanced wallpaper promises not only eye-pleasing designs, but also the ability to activate lamps and heaters – and even control music systems.

When combined with cheap temperature, brightness and touch sensors, LEDs and Bluetooth, the wall becomes a control surface able to "talk" to nearby devices. You can touch a flower to turn on a lamp, for example, or set heaters to fire up when the room gets cold.

To create the wallpaper, the team started with steel foil sandwiched between layers of paper that are coated with magnetic paint – acrylic paint infused with iron particles. Over this base they paint motifs such as flowers and vines using conductive paint, which uses copper particles rather than iron. The designs form circuits to which sensors, lights and other elements can be attached.

“It really is just a sheet of paper, and could be produced with existing printing and construction methods,” Buechley says.

Having exposed circuitry on your wall might sound dangerous, but Buechley says the system runs at 20 volts, drawing around 2.5 amps when fully loaded with devices. “You can go up and touch the wall and not even feel a tingle,” she says.

A Glimmer of Hope

Most likely...if you are reading, this you are a designer of one sort or another...if not, you are at least design-minded. I can not tell you how many conversations I have had with designers who are frustrated, burnt out, weary, tired, uninspired and otherwise on the verge of giving up in this economy. Resources are limited, clients are overly conscious of budgets, jobs are scarce and... 

"It's tough out there. So many huge problems in the world, so much noise, so hard to know what to do and where to begin. All of which means—it's a great time to be a designer."

In comes the Glimmer Manifesto. Think of it as your first sip from the fountain of designer-immortality. The fire under your feet. As designers (and, honestly, just as contributing members of society...) it is our job to create transformation within the world, to improve it...for everyone. This holds true in the toughest conditions even more so. I stumbled across Creativity's write up on the book earlier this morning and I am definitely adding this to my next Amazon shipment! Click here to read the write up.

 

Warren Berger is the author of Glimmer and the editor of the blog GlimmerSite.com

Its another awesome source of inspiration and I highly recommend checking it out!

Digital Art and the Mysteries of Science

Global Wave by George Steuer
 

Digital Technology has created powerful tools for imaging the invisible world beyond our senses:  from the very large things- such as a galaxy to the very small things- such as an electron.  But the nature of this digital imaging technology influences both the way scientists think, as it allows them to visualize levels of complexity that were unthinkable using analog tools.

The same digital technology is also employed by artists who also investigate the same invisible worlds of complexity, but from a purely aesthetic perspective.  

This is the premise for the new exhibition Digital '09:  Mysteries in Science  at the New York Hall of Science from October 3 2009 until January 31st of 2010. Artists present computer generated images (including the authors) that were inspired by science as large prints in the exhibit hall and digital images on-line.  The exhibition was organized by the group Art and Science Collaborations (ASCI) which works to foster projects where art and science intersect.  If the collision of art and science interests you then dig into the organizations web site for links to specific artists, projects, and institutions.  

   

Sonic Refraction by Frederik de Wilde