Unusual topics for Dec 26
Posted: December 26th, 2009 | 3 Comments »Two unusual topic that attracted my attention on this Dec 26th day:
1. Football/soccer evolution as an interesting model of futures thinking as described by this quite curious article in The Guardian that Scott Smith dispatched on Twitter. Some elements to draw here in terms of culture, foresight and the diffusion of innovation: “maybe North Korea, which is about as close as football gets to the Maliau Basin, will take advantage of its isolation to generate something new (…) Isolation in itself, though, is not necessarily a good thing, because it often leaves the isolated vulnerable to predators to which the rest of the world has built up immunity “, “Evolution, though, is not linear. It hops about, goes forward and back, and isn’t necessarily for the better“, “Lurking behind progress, though, are old ideas waiting to be reapplied“. All these quotes actually exemplify existing theories in futures research/innovation.
2. Car body lines and creases which remains constant over time in automobile design (as shown above). The crease is a “pressed or folded line created by the meeting of two different planes or surfaces” (as explained here). I don’t really have any interests in cars but I tend to have a glance at car culture as an interesting locus for design issues (as addressed here for example).
Why do I blog this? material to keep up my sleeve for discussion about the importance of observing the mundane in design/futures research. Perhaps also some examples to use in class with students.
There are also engineering issues at play here and you can see how these have evolved slowly over time.
The body panels need to be pressed by machine (except in the case of very expensive hand made cars like Aston Martin). And to do this moulds need to be created by machining metal. Initially this was done with manually controlled machining, then more and more complex CNC machinery has given more freedom to realising designs as has 3D CAD programs to create the designs.
You can see this evolution in looking at cars of different ages and the curves and complexity of their body panels including looking at how the panels fit together.
So it’s more about engineering limitations than being mundane
Thanks Dave, I read a bit after that and found similar insights about the engineering constraints that had some influence. Very curious topic!
What a fascinating post!
I liked the aboriginal weapon diagram as well.
I wanted to tell you, though, that your wait for the Jet Pack Future is over:
A New Zealand company is launching one. Here’s the link.
http://www.physorg.com/news187374763.html