Post-Optimal Design

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Weekending 10232011

Okay. Maybe we will get back into the swing of the weekending note. This one won’t be comprehensive, but a note nonetheless to note a few things. First, something I found while flipping through the Internet that got me thinking … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Design Fiction + Advanced Designing + Trust in Volume Quarterly

The most recent — now a month or two old — issue of Volume Quarterly was on the topic of The Internet of Things. And within that was a small sub-volume of essays and articles on Trust compiled by Scott Burnham … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Pneu. Ma. Tique.

Thus uttered Antoine Doinel in Truffaut’s film “Stolen Kisses” as a farewell letter to Madame Tabard is shussh-ered off through the Parisian pneumatic tube postal system.. Just enjoyed a coffee and reading Molly Steenson‘s article called Interfacing with the Subterranean … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Design Advances

I’m going to paraphrase something I read in a recent issue of The New Yorker that immediately made me think of things we bunch of folk in the studio are thinking long and hard about — doing advanced design, but even … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Quiet But Not Quiescent

<img src="“/> Judge not the less yammer-y state of the studio blog to indicate that there is nothing worth yammering about. It’s just that the clang of steel caressing code has been going on and that in great measure, too. … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

You'd Be Right To Wonder

You’d be right to wonder why there has not been much here for a couple-few weeks. Contrary to a vicious rumor, we neither adopted a needy office pet nor did we father-seed a dead pop star’s child. It’s Annual Planning … Continue reading

© 2011 Julian. All rights reserved.

Primer: Inexplicable Ideas In Design Fiction

Something that the almost inscrutable science-fiction film Primer does quite well is to paint enough of the contours of its science and technology to give the viewer the sense that *something is going on that should make perfectly good sense..if … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

The Paradox of Intellectual Property

Mine, not yours, buster. This might be an old one, but I just recently heard about it while catching up on my favorite economy and finance Podcast — the brilliantly home-spun Planet Money. In it they are talking about their project … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

Partial Truths: To Do Something Interdisciplinary

“Interdisciplinary work, so much discussed these days, is not about confronting already constituted disciplines (none of which, in fact, is willing to let itself go). To do something interdisciplinary it’s not enough to choose a “subject” (a theme) and gather … Continue reading

© 2010 Julian. All rights reserved.

Is There Such A Thing As An Invisible Metaphors

This is a curious project from some students at MIT. They’ve used a laser beam and a camera sensitive to the light reflected from that beam to track the motion and articulations of one’s hand as it moves and makes … Continue reading