Lauren McCarthy’s Conversacube facilitates all social interactions, providing cues for each stage of an otherwise awkward or transparent moment. Her video treatment of the work amps up the humor in the piece, and it’s a good effect. But this has me both smiling and wincing at once—the choice of verbs here is simple and provocative, … Continue reading »
Second iteration of the accessible-access re-design coming very soon. I found this image last night at Boston Architectural College (otherwise a fine institution)—! Continue reading »
Nicholas Stedman makes Machines for Social Circumstances. This one is After Deep Blue, an affective robot designed to respond to—even seem to seek out—human touch. “ADB is a modular robot designed for tactile interactions with people. It is composed of a chain of prism-shaped robotic modules. Through the modules’ coordinated behavior, the robot writhes, wriggles … Continue reading »
From the NewScientist’s Culture Lab blog: “Exaptation is one of seven patterns or hallmarks of innovation that [Steven Johnson identifies in Where Good Ideas Come From], and you’ll find them, he argues, whether you are looking at self-organizing phenomena, the emergence of species or human ideas. They include serendipity, error and the ‘adjacent possible,’ a … Continue reading »
Jim Rossignol’s piece for Tim Maly’s recent project, 50 Posts about Cyborgs, includes this quote from Steven Shaviro’s 2003 work, Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society: “I extend the power of my hand or my mouth or my brain only at the price of excising the original organ—whether literally or … Continue reading »
I’ve been thinking about a set of alternative hospital linens, and I’ve started with these pillowcases: It seems like there’s a lot of news lately about medical education and practice vis-a-vis the patient experience. And I thought I’d have a bit of fun with those mouthful-size words that tend to dominate hospital culture. Next: A … Continue reading »
