So you thought that animated Pixar Lamp from the movies was just a fantasy? Not anymore. Luxalive is a prototype of an reading lamp that moves according to the character of its user. For example, when you like to be dominant, the lamp will follow you like a slave. And when you like to help others, the lamp will not work well and ask you to help him to stay upright.
Created by by Ralf Zoontjes, as part of a larger research project aiming to design for specific human values, in order to make interactions with products aesthetically more valuable.
Last year Google invested four million in 23andme, a commercial research center that maps out your DNA for 1000 bucks. Now Google also invested in Navigenics, a company that does the same. What would Google want with that? I’m feeling paranoid…
Through Businessweek.
At first I thought this first pregnant man was a hoax, but after I saw it on Oprah I realized it must be ‘real’. Well, the pregnant man is actually a former woman who had a sex change but kept her his reproductive organs. Welcome in the 21th century! I am telling you: the surrealists were telling the truth all along.
See also the peculiar neighbor responses on CNN Youtube. Thanks Selby.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
“Nature adapts, even to human actions that seem to destroy everything. The amazing power of evolution has given birth to a new species of insect. Their ideal habitats are old industrial locations. Some call them electrical insects, others simply speak of a miraculous phenomenon, or even better, a self supporting order; the Order Electrus.”
In the countdown to the Biggest Visual Power Show 2008 in Los Angeles we post some presentations of earlier editions. ‘The Order Electrus’ by Floris Kaayk, was first shown at Paradise by the Laptop Light in 2005 and later at the Powershow 2006 in the German Ruhrgebiet, where this mockumentary was also shot. Floris will present new work at the upcoming show in LA.
And in case you were wondering: No, the good people of NextNature.net don’t find that footage of microchips having intercourse, a very realistic scenario. Metaphorically though, this movie is 100% true.
See also: Killer Robots, Meet the worms, viruses and trojans, It is Nature.. but not as we know it.
The photo of this ‘man made sun’ was taken on July, 8, 1956 during a Apache H-bomb test on Eniwetok atoll. In 1963, health concerns about radioactive fallout led to a ban on atmospheric testing of atomic bombs. Since then, we haven’t had a chance to enjoy the vibrant radiation of atomic sunsets anymore.
PETA –People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals– has posed a challenge to the world’s scientific community: The first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of fake meat at competitive prices will receive a check for $1 million. The figure was determined by calculating the number of chickens killed every hour in the U.S. (about 1 million).
My questions are: can vegetarians eat this fake meat? Could one prove that lab-grown burgers don’t have feelings? And which meat will be faked first?
See also: The meat of tomorrow, Where it came from, They are made out of meat.
Some weeks ago we pondered over the oddity of a space race in cyberspace. Rockets and jet-packs –so cool in the previous century– don’t make sense in a virtual environment. The advent of VR-technology introduces new perceptual spaces where the laws of physics aren’t given, but have to be programmed. Although the space race is over, researchers in well funded institutions all over the world are still trying to invent techniques to transport people at the speed of light: It’s called telepresence.
According to John Thackara we are currently caught up in a fake-space race. “Telecommunications companies have invested heavily for years in telepresence systems with the aim of reproducing as closely as possible the sensation of “being there.” Thackara claims that “it’s an insult that telecoms should expect us to meet in hideous sterile rooms in front of huge screens.” Yet “sustainability demands that we compromise”.
Thackara argues for a more artful telepresence: “There are more interesting tasks for design than the use of brute bandwidth to achieve ‘being there’ verisimilitude. The communication quality of cyberspace can be enhanced by artful and indirect means.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Beauty and the Geek jeans by Erik de Nijs. The trousers offer a full Querty keyboard layout as well as a mouse, speakers and a little joystick. As he calls it: “Beauty is skin deep, Geekness is to the core…”
Read the rest of this entry »
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
In the countdown to the Biggest Visual Power Show 2008 in Los Angeles we post some video’s of earlier presentations. The Powershow 2003 in Paradiso, Amsterdam had the world premiere of ‘the most expensive coat in the world’.
Questioning the meaning of brand value, the coat was created from 7,531 different, lovable brand labels, torn from existing clothing items. The price of € 759,987.20 is the sum of all the cloth prices from which the labels originate. A very different view on recycling indeed.
Created by Silke Wawro – who also created the Cloth Carpet.
