To draw attention to a stand at the publishing house of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, a publisher hired some flies. The paper mini-banners — attached with self-dissolving wax — were designed so that a fly could fly with it, but low and for short distances, constantly landing on the visitors.
Via: Scaryideas.com Related: Branded Butterfly Wings, Robo-fly, Cyborg Insects.
Reliable data on economic growth is hard to come by in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. Yet according to scientists, outer space offers a new perspective for measuring economic growth.
Using satellite images of nighttime lights, J. Vernon Henderson, Adam Storeygard, and David N. Weil from Brown University have created a new framework for estimating a country or region’s gross domestic product, or GDP by observing the changes in a country’s “night lights” as seen from outer space.
“Consumption of nearly all goods in the evening requires lights,” they write in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. “As income rises, so does light usage per person, in both consumption activities and many investment activities.”
If a tattooed pig is a bit too much for you, why not go for a tattooed goldfish? They bring you lost of luck and are available Chinese characters such as “Wealth, Dragon, Longevity, Happiness…” or flowery patterns that are inscribed onto the fishes’ skin with lasers.
Apparently the little fellows are so popular in China that the prices are shooting up. It is reported that the tattooed fish has been priced at about 20 yuan initially; but it is priced at 100 yuan now – price also depends on whether you buy a fish with a standard inscription or a bio-customized one with your personal markings. It still attracts many citizens to purchase. Pets have become more popular in China in recent years with the country’s increasing prosperity.
Via NRCNext. Related: Branded Butterfly Wings, Self catching fish, Hyperfish, Biopresence: human DNA translated to trees, Hybrid carp with a human face, Feelings translated to plants, Branded pigs. Thanks: Martijn de Waal.
Japanese design agency To-Genkyo proposes a dynamic freshness label for meat products. The hourglass-shaped label contains special ink that changes color based on the amount of ammonia emitted by the meat (the older the meat, the more ammonia it releases).
Hence you can easily read from the handy label if the meat is still fresh!! But wait.. could you not simple derive from the meat ITSELF if it is fresh? Well, some can perhaps, but nowadays most people can not ‘read meat’, so we need an authoritative label to tell us what we can and can’t consume.
Elegant detail: When the meat is no longer suitable for sale, the ink blocks the barcode at the bottom so that it cannot be scanned at the cash register.
Via Pinktentacle. Related: Forefather Ox cloned to revive delicious steak, Image consumption, Where it came from, Orthorexia Nervosa, The meat of tomorrow.
What you see is what you get – at least that is what you hope – with this biomimicked kiwinut juice packaging designed by Naoto Fukasawa.
See also: Image consumption, Image consumption II, Banana juice box, Biomimicmarketed Strawberry Juice.
Designer Carlijn Compen upgraded her watertap with some LED’s that shift color along with the heat of the water. A simple yet effective example of information decoration that will seamlessly fit in the ambient bathroom. I don’t know whether the electricity for the LED’s is generated by water power.
Related: Ambient bathtub, Wallpaper blooms when the heat is on, Energy consumption shown on power plant, Datafountain, Power aware cord, Excitement clothing, Information decoration for dummies.
With this project, Nadeem Haidary is trying to make life’s facts more tangible by creating products that tell you facts and statistics about the context that the item is designed for. In this example of information decoration, digital information is placed back into the physical world. More examples at Nadeem Haidary.
Many people tend to eat too fast. As a result they do not receive signals from the stomach that they are in fact full. The result can be overeating and obesity.
To encounter these modern diseases, designer Lissa Kooijman created a plate that helps you pace your meal. It comes with built-in LEDs that indicate how long you should take to swallow one mouthful. Lissa’s idea is that due to the LEDs you will pay more attention to eating. The LEDs keep on burning to indicate how long you should wait to take the next bite. You should enjoy your meal more and avoid eating too fast.
The project is a collaboration between TU/e Industrial Design, the Catharina Hospital, and Nedap Healthcare. We are awaiting a more cosy candlelight version of the product.
Via IDzine, Related posts: Get vegetarian teeth and eat less meat, Michelangelo’s David after his stay in the US, If giraffes lived in the US.
Fleshmap touch investigates the collective perception of erogenous zones. Hundreds of people ranked how good it would feel to touch or be touched by a lover in different points of the body. The resulting images reveal a map of sensual desire with multiple focal points and islands of excitement.
This human-body-interface project was created by data visualization artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. The data was gathered via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – a marketplace where paid workers perform simple tasks.
Freshness Label
GPS influence on street signage?
Energy consumption shown on power plant
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