Why do I blog this? Giving lectures here and there about user experience, it’s good to have such kind of examples to show the tendency people have to repurpose standard artifacts for other needs.
It took 20 years to (finally) see a patent for self-lacing shoes. The Nike prop from Back to the Future 2 has indeed been shown in 1989 (with a non-automatic lacing version released as a collector in 2008).
People interested in rather low-tech solution can also have a look at this arduino-based version with utterly swell strapped micro-controllers and motors to a pair of Jordans.
Why do I blog this? Of course this is old news for the interwebs, but I find it interesting to collect examples of product featured in speculative movies that find their way to real artifact or intermediary artifacts such as patent. It’s a good way to trace the evolution of product ideas from a Los Angeles studio to a huge server farm at the World Intellectual Property Organization near my apartment in Geneva. The fact that it took 20 years to see this move is intriguing too.
Why do I blog this? I’m not sure “Ubiquitous computing” was supposed to mean this kind of QR code pervasive presence, but hey…
Such frames never ceases to fascinates me.
Although it’s hard to see on this picture taken in Marseille last week, it represents the maximum distance between two persons using the same iPhone headset.
Collaborative usage of music if you want and headset proxemics.
Why do I blog this? Collecting behavior like this leads me to wonder about a new book project about categorizing such habits/practices… Besides, I am fascinated by the use of audio/sound interactions (as “non-optical augmented reality”, collaborative practices, etc.).
A chalk map found on a wall in Paris last Monday. An interesting example of a temporary object employed for specific purposes.
Why do I blog this? it’s impressive how interfaces (such as ear bud headphones) can become personalized and invasive through various solutions.
Why do I blog this? fascinating towards the diversity of clock-related devices to indicate time in public space. The first one is definitely my favorite as it’s sort of absurd.
It’s been a while that i collect such examples, I don’t know what to do with them. Perhaps something will emerge out of this, a typology or sth else and I’d have to think about a design research workshop with students.
The ubiquitous presence of cell phone towers in urban and rural landscapes have led to protestation against their visual presence (the ugly mast/transmitter aesthetics) and their electromagnetic waves (which are invisible). A side-effect of people’s “need” for uninterrupted connectivity, the design and building of phone towers is now influenced by various strategies. One of them consist in the use of camouflage techniques… and obviously the “natural” metaphor plays an important role here, as attested by these examples encountered in Lipari, Sicily last week.
Fake trees such as these palm transmitter species are great candidate but there are also other concealment possibilities such as fake chimneys, cross (“already a transmission tower of sorts“, clock tower, water towers, etc.
As pointed out by Rick Miller and Ted Kane in their chapter on mobile phones in The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles edited by Kazys Varnelis:
“the result is the camouflaged cell phone tower, the by-product of the only position available to communities who oppose cell phone towers, that is to demand their invisibility. Hiding its presence from public view, the ubiquitous cell phone tower camouflaged as a palm tree becomes an appropriate icon for the private infrastructural network of our day“
It would be intriguing to discover the whole design and construction process, especially how the the details have been taken care of. See for example the tower base and the antennas below… the design of the trunk, the branches and the leaves is of great quality, leading to some surreal piece of nature. Even more important here is the fact that the tree itself is (or must be) protected because it’s an infrastructural installation that have inherent dangers for the genpop (electricity, etc.). The tree itself is just part of this ecosystem of components (electricity adapater, barriers, light system for night inspections, etc).
Why do I blog this? I see this sort of design as a curious sign of how certain norms lead to fascinating (absurd and perhaps depressing) solutions like transmitters concealed in fake trees:
There’s this part of the airport in Geneva that has this fascinating setting. Several remarks:
Comprendre les échecs pour innover
Comprendre les nouveaux espaces numériques 