Cool Hunting
| 27 May 2005view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
DT Saved My Soul 2005 Thesis Exhibition
by Carol T Chung
This past Wednesday was the opening for the Design & Technology Thesis Exhibition at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. The exhibit featured amazing thesis projects from both the MFA and BFA students in the department. It provides a chance to check out work and artists that have been mentioned elsewhere, such as Lina Fenequito’s Swap-O-Matic and fi5e’s Graffiti Analysis.
However it also provides an opportunity to check out new brilliant projects of those less known to the blog sphere media circuit. Discreet Interfaces, by Kaho Abe, explores the idea of wearable technology. By imbedding switches in the sleeves and hiding them with simple buttons or tags, the user can navigate the controls of a portable electronic device discretely without drawing any attention to themselves (well… other than that of someone who fidgets incessantly).
Sensacell
by Josh Rubin
Leo Fernekes is a bit of a mad scientist operating in the commercial art-technology realm. He's a master electrical engineer exploring physically immersive human interfaces. If you have ever been to Remote Lounge, the hyper-surveillance themed bar on the Bowery in New York, you've had a taste of what Leo can conceive.
Last night I had a chance to experience Leo's latest, Sensacell, developed in collaboration with Joakim Hannerz. In its most basic form, the Sensacell is a small tile embedded with LEDs, capacitive sensors (like a laptop trackpad) and networking capabilities. Bundled together the tiles can be mounted underneath a translucent surface to make anything from a coffee table to a wall sculpture. The interaction is simple-- touch, or even just get close to, the surface and the lights illuminate. Various modes can be assigned-- trail, paint, reverse, and others each have different results but are all seriously satisfying in the way they breathe on and off. When you check out the Sensacell site, be sure to watch the videos to understand the full effect.
Sensacell will be on exhibit at Compact Impact until 1 June 2005. CI will also be a distribution partner.
