The Anxious Lounge – Toby Carr

The Anxious Lounge': An investigation into the way that active furniture might share space with people. Each piece of furniture has it's own goal set. Toby's work is an extension of his paper '…Emergent Voyeurisms in the Performative space of Architecture and Cinematography' presented at GameSetMatch II in Delft earlier this year in which he explores interactive environments by comparing these with typical hyper real structures in Bertold Brecht's plays.

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Toby Carr as part of his investigation generated a series of notational drawings describing the spatial and behavioral relationships between the entire set of table and chairs and additionally their relationship to human inhabitants. 

1 comment July 18th, 2006

Airbus & BMW Projected Interiors

Airbus A350 will unveil its new A350 twinjet at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2006 exhibition in Hamburg that will feature opulent interiors by BMW. Airbus has linked with BMW Group Designworks to design a new interior on the A350. Chief engineer Dougie Hunter said, “We can project onto the ceiling whatever is appropriate for the mood required – for example the night sky or clouds etc.” Hunter says that, “a concept around the door two area has a bar area and seating for economy while the entrance area will feature a dome to give the feeling of spaciousness or openness in the cabin.

via gizmodo

3 comments April 26th, 2006

BioWall – Loop.pH

“ As it becomes increasingly difficult to read the signs of our natural environment in urban, built landscapes we use plants in our work as we consider them to be the most sophisticated of sensors and displays. ”

An interesting thought. Last year I posted info about Loop.pH ’s practice and their project digital dawn . Here’s their most recent project BioWall which following their work using electronic membranes and textiles inspired by plants is now exploring working with actual plant matter in the hope of growing spaces with a geometric scaffold.

BioWall is a hand woven three-dimensional structure that can be crafted into lace-like walls of any dimension. Springy fiberglass rods are bowed into rings and woven into several dodecahedra that in turn are joined together. The woven fibres create a balance between the rigidity of sheet material and the flexibility of a textile. The structure is based on the principle of self-similarity enabling it to work from the nano to the macro scale. It can be seen in our natural environment in the formation of bubbles, living cells and water molecules.

thanks to Rachel of Loop.pH for letting me know about their new project. It is currently on show till April 9th as part of an exhibition presenting New British Designers at Droog Design ’s gallery in Amsterdam.

Add comment March 15th, 2006

Feel – Animi Causa

Okay so this isn't interactive but it is reconfigurable and thats enough for me. Here's the beautifully simple piece of furniture from Animi Causa called Feel. It's a grid of 120 soft balls that can be folded and arranged to create multiple seating or reclined positions.

Add comment March 8th, 2006

Can you help?

As you may have seen there’s a tutorials page attached to the blog which I’ve had online as long as the blog has been running. I’ve been meaning to build up a tutorials section of links to other websites and books about physical computing, hacking appropriated technology etc but just haven’t got around to doing so. Its mainly aimed at students interested in interactive installations and devices of any kind for the time being. I get quite a few emails from architecture, design and art students asking about learning how to use basic electronics and programming etc so I’ve added a few essential links in the last couple of days but would really like to make it a more comprehensive resource. Have you got any suggestions? I will of course credit those who pass on their suggestions so please leave your name and website if you’ve got one.

Thanks so much and hopefully I may see some of you at transmediale in Berlin which is where I’m off on a holiday for a week starting tomorrow. Hurrah!

image from the excellent ‘low-tech sensors and actuators project’ by Usman Haque and Adam Somlai-Fischer

1 comment February 2nd, 2006

Update on Interactive Tables

Regine from wmmna, and Nicolas Nova from pasta and vinegar have put together an excellent list of interactive tables.

also see Regine’s new post of a ‘Conversation table’, a project looking at the social dynamics that take place at tables during conversations.

also see Chris O’Shea aka Pixelsumo’s Sonicforms project and his links to related material.

Add comment January 15th, 2006