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Yard Sculpture
Can you tell it’s my day off from the number of posts I’m putting up? Gotta play catch-up sometime. Anyway the photo below is over one of my neighbors’ front yard. I really like these (this?) sculpture, and think that there is something about this aesthetic that will be coming into vogue in the future (though these pieces probably date to the early 90’s). I would be interested to hear other people’s thought’s about them. I appreciate the beautiful geometry in the context of ragged grass and the old house behind. I also like how the two pieces appear symmetrical at a glance, but are not at all on closer inspection. I think that people are coming to appreciate metal as a natural material again - it gives a sense of strength, permanence, and strict intention that other materials, like plastic, do not. By ’strict intention’ I mean that it feels as if thought went into its design. Plastics are so cheap to produce that it is hard to make them feel this same way. The downside to all this is that metals are mined, and mining is a huge polluter, so I don’t think they can stay popular for long among the growing green trends. Still, I think metal will have a resurgence as a stylish material for things otherwise constructed in plastic.
September 28th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CoolHunting, Design Thinking, Photography | No Comments »
Poster Critique
My Self Portrait poster was critiqued in class this week. The crit went badly – the opinion of most of my classmates came down to “it’s confusing.” My poster was also talked about last - meaning no one picked it to talk about, but rather the last person to talk got stuck with it. The interesting thing is, however, that everyone I’ve talked to who was not in the class really liked it. I think that maybe the problem was that all of my classmates saw each others’ posters in development and knew the concept behind each one prior to the critique (mine being the exception, as I threw out my original idea and redesigned the poster in the last week before the critique - hence most of my classmates were seeing my concept for the first time at the critique).
This raises an interesting question about design and users. Was the poster a success because many people outside the class found it engaging and informative, or a failure because my classmates (who may not have put as much effort into understanding it as a result of circumstances), found it to be neither. Both groups are users in this context, so I’m not sure of the answer. I guess I would say that it was a moderate success - it would have been better if were more accessible to all users, but was not a failure as many users found it interesting.
On a side note, I found that it is just as easy to become a slave to Adobe Illustrator as a technology as it is to become a slave to Actionscript. I think I have done a lesser design job on some prior projects because I spent too much time making the code work – in this case I could not redraw my poster for greater clarity in the time I had due to the way it was constructed in Illustrator. I need to do more sketching next time.
September 28th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Design Thinking, Design Process, CMU | No Comments »
Slugs!
So, two mornings ago I woke up earlier than usual. I went outside for my morning smoke and was surprised (and a little disgusted), to find a whole family of giant slugs crawling around my backyard! My memory of slugs when I was a child is that they were small fleshy colored things no longer than the end of my pinky figure, but these guys were longer than my middle finger. One of the slugs was even curled up on the table next to my ashtray. So, I took photos of course.
The following night I found that the slug near my ashtray had returned (he left during the daylight), so I decided to give him a name - Sluggy! (the exclamation point is integral). Anyway, it turns out that slugs are really not very reactive - I blew smoke at Sluggy! and he did nothing. So then I poked him a little - he still did nothing. I could have gone further, but he’s my friend now, and I didn’t want to ruin his day, so I left him alone after that and instead goggled slugs and learned all about them. Apparently these are Leopard slugs, and are quite common (and considered a pest because they often eat garden veggies). They also copulate by twining around each other and intertwining their corkscrew-shaped slug penises (all slugs are hermaphroditic), and hanging from a thread of thick mucus during the act. This is why I think that Sluggy! got laid last night - this morning he/she was gone, but there was a ridiculously thick dollop of slime hanging off the edge of my table (it looked really nasty). I just hope s/he didn’t get his penis chewed off (slugs apparently have to do this failrly regularly in order to disentangle themselves - after which the unlucky one stays female for life - up to three years for this type of slug). Anyway, I hope Sluggy! comes back again tonight - maybe I’ll try petting him. Meanwhile, here are some pics:
September 28th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Photography, Humor | 1 Comment »
A Weekend Off
After having projects due in every class (except seminar, for which we had the normal difficult readings), we got the weekend off (hooray!). So, I promptly headed for DC to visit my good friend and occasional musical collaborator Matt Treskon. I snapped some photos in DC - I’ve decided I want to become a coolhunter - predicting the next trend before it happens. I’ve done this with some success in the past, but now I’m going to write my thoughts so I can prove it later on down the road. Right now, I’m thinking that the steam-punk aesthetic is going to make it’s way into the home appliance world. It’ll take a while, but how cool would it be to have dinged brass appliances instead of stainless steel? The only pervasive example I’ve seen of this is the awnings on Cheesecake Factory locations, which don’t actually look all that cool. But it’ll happen, just give it time. As far as it goes, I did not (unsurprisingly), see the next big thing in DC, but I got some funny shots.
This was taken at the Kennedy Center. Maybe they haven’t repaired this on purpose? It would seem to agree with the current climate in Washington. Especially if the final ‘S’ were to be removed as well…
I have no idea what this sign meant, but it seems like it wouldn’t be out of place in a Ludakris tune…
This one was just strange and humorous. I would totally hire these contractors.
And for anyone who hasn’t seen this bizarre structure before. This is a giant Mormon temple in DC. It looks like some sort of crazy sci-fi scenery, which is really cool, if only it weren’t what it is I might have gone closer to it. For what it’s worth, I think it’s interesting to examine what about this makes it look sci-fi. Sci-fi architectural aesthetics are in many ways determined by Japanese anime these days, and this building would fit right into one of those films - but why? I think it’s a combination of the metallic and round spires with the extremely square geometric shapes of the building proper. The spires are also huge (and pointless), adding an extremely whimsical quality generally not found in buildings that people actually pay to construct. I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on why this looks sci-fi (or why not).
September 24th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CoolHunting, Photography | No Comments »
Last Week’s Projects
Just because I love to share, and because I’m enjoying cataloging my own design development, Here are the three projects that made last week so work-heavy.
First, and most importantly, my self portrait poster. This poster was printed at 44″ wide by 33″ tall, so you won’t be able to see it all that well in this pdf, but please take a look anyway. It’s self-explanatory for the most part, you just have to examine it for a little while. I spent a couple weeks developing this, and I’m quite fond of the results.
And next up, my ambient device. The file here is a Flash slide show I showed while giving a spoken presentation (which I don’t have the energy to type up here). Suffice it to say that This is an ambient device to help folk remember when to take their medication. Just click to move through the slides - this requires Flash Player 9 or higher.
And finally, my new MIDI controller prototype. I would have liked to actually build this prototype physically, but it was made for the Design Computing class, so Flash it was. The idea here is that current MIDI controllers have lots of different controls (faders, wheels, knobs, etc.), but we can generally only adjust one with each hand at once. It seems to me that it might be helpful to have a controller that combines a number of different interactions, allowing for independent adjustment of separate MIDI parameters simultaneously with a single hand. This control thus combines a fader, a knob, and a velocity sensitive pad-control in a single device - I know I’d use it.
September 22nd, 2007
Posted by Paul in Flash, Typography, CMU, Music and Movies | No Comments »
Helvetica
Emily and I went to see the movie “Helvetica” last night. Helvetica is a documentary about the history of the type face by the same name. A great movie that provided an interesting look into a narrow sub-sect of design culture. I am not generally able to identify specific type faces, but I’m going to try to spot Helvetica now (it’s apparently ubiquitous). I never previously realized how dominant Helvetica is in corporate logos, but the movie provided more than enough examples (Target, Crate&Barrel, American Airlines, and on and on…).
In other news I have a big weekend - In the next couple of days I need o finish my self-portrait poster (which I restarted last Tuesday when I decided my old concept was trash), design an ambient device of some sort, prototype a new MIDI controller I’ve been ideating, and (of course) do some more incredibly difficult readings for Dick Buchanan’s awesome seminar. What this means, however, is that I should finally have some interesting work to put up here by next weekend! Oh, and there’s a big Mexican-themed birthday party for two of my classmates tonight, so I just spent the last hour making fresh salsa (and my hands now smell like an interesting mix of garlic and cilantro…).
September 15th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Typography, CMU, Music and Movies | No Comments »
Digital Square
For Shelly Evanson’s Introduction to Interaction course we were told to create a digital square that invited dragging, turning, and rubbing. It took a whole lot of new actionscript and a helpful tutorial on kirupa.com, but here it is, try it out and see what you think:
In other news, I’m working on a self-portrait poster for my studio course, and am learning something about iteration. After a week and a half working on one concept, I through it all out the window last night and started with something brand new. Fortunately the deadline was just extended till next Wednesday. I’ll make sure to post it when it’s done. For now, suffice it to say that I’m logging every time I do any of about 30 tasks over the course of this entire day (such as eating, smoking, listening to music, working on my laptop, etc.).
Also, here are a few shots of my physical “squeeze it, rub it, turn it” cube from last week.
September 12th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Design Process, Flash, CMU | 1 Comment »
Seminar
Sitting in Dick Buchanan’s seminar this morning, I was again feeling a bit confused. Dick is an incredibly cerebral man, and a philosopher rather than a designer by trade. I believe that the seminar exists to teach us a new way of thinking, and I look forward to this. For homework we read a short article on communication theory published in 1949 that related to communication to thermodynamics (it was a big load to wrap my head around). I started jotting down special notes in the margin - I’m not sure if they’re about Dick or thought in general, but the felt like a bit of epiphany:
Language is fluid.
Meaning has no stasis.
Basically, any word can be used to mean anything, depending on context and the speaker’s intent, and meaning constantly changes (by meaning I think that I mean ideas - of any form). I’ve decided that to learn from Dick, I simply need to open my right-brain wide and absorb the gestalt of information and ideas that are presented in the class. I think they will begin to fit together over time. Until then, I may remain confused. But I am enjoying trying to understand everything.
September 5th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Design Thinking, CMU | No Comments »
Week 1 of Semester 1
Our first week of class has been tons of fun. The classes are a joy - especially Shelly Evanson’s which is focusing very much on the topics of most interest to me. One of the first readings was an article by Tog which I had actually read before (a sure sign we’re looking at the stuff I came here to study). Also spent one night(the second day of class actually) in the studio until midnight already. It feels good to be working again.
I’ve just completed my first assignment for Shelly - a cube which invites people to rub it, squeeze it, and turn it. Working on this project has made me realize that I’m already starting to get a sense of ‘Design thinking’ (I think). I went about designing my cube in what was for me a new way. I started by making exhaustive lists of everything I could think of that people are tempted to rub, squeeze, and turn. In doing that I also went around and solicited ideas from my classmates and wife, and came to some interesting conclusions. Basically, I think that the urge to squeeze something comes almost entirely from the material used to construct that thing. While there are some exceptions (the trigger on a squirt gun), these outliers seem to fall almost entirely into the realm of complex mechanical constructions, and thus are not really relevant to a cube. The urge to rub, I decided, comes very much from surface and texture. In particular, if we see something and recognize that it has some texture, but cannot decide what it will feel like, we tend to touch that thing in order to get more information. The trick for me was thus to find a texture that was unusual enough that people cannot help themselves but to touch it (and which rewards them with an interesting or pleasant sensation upon doing so). Finally, I concluded that the urge to turn something is largely a product of that things form. Since form in this project was constrained to that of a cube, I tried to think of ways I could reference artifacts which people would naturally turn. One thought was to make my cube look like a Rubik’s cube, which would not even need to be functional but would still entice users to try turning it. I also realized while building my final prototype that the cube would have to look sturdy, or else people would not feel comfortable manipulating it.
Unfortunately, I ended up rather constrained by choice of materials (basically stuff I could find at Micheal’s or Lowes), and so was not able to construct quite what I had imagined. We’ll see how my final cube stands up in critique tomorrow though!
September 3rd, 2007
Posted by Paul in Design Process, CMU | No Comments »