Category Archives: Interaction Design

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Lighter Than Air in Boston

Lighter Than Air_SHIFTboston_RachelyRotem_PhuHoangLighter Than Air, by Rachely Rotem Studio and Phu Hoang Office, is the winning entry for SHIFTboston’s Barge 2011 Competition and scheduled to be unveiled on Boston’s waterfront as a “pop-up” public space in September 2012.

Comprised of bright pink camouflage netting, helium balloons, and stationery bikes, the “camovapor” climate system (as the designers like to call it) will float over the barge with the interactive help of visitors who can generate power by pedaling the bikes that will inflate additional weather balloons, transforming water to vapor. As the vapor condenses on the pink nets, the 3D perforations will hold the water which then, combined with the natural harbor breeze, will create a cool area and an “interactive atmospheric phenomenon.”

Looks like a trip to Boston that fall will be in order.

via Architects Newspaper

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Ryoji Ikeda: The Transfinite (follow-up)

Ryoji Ikeda The Transfinite Park Ave ArmoryThe Transfinite Ryoji Ikeda Park Ave Armory(Click on the images to enlarge and check out our toes close up)

We had been eagerly awaiting this exhibit (see previous post) and headed uptown yesterday to check it out. The Transfinite, an interactive installation by Ryoji Ikeda (Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist),  is not only very cool, but surprisingly, an incredibly soothing experience. One would think that the test pattern visuals along with the loud electronic sounds and strobes might have the opposite effect but, at least for us, and seemingly, those around us, it was almost hypnotically relaxing. People were lying on the floor for long stretches completely entranced by the spectacle and immersed in the moment.

It is important to note that the show is made up of three parts: test pattern; data.tron; and data.scan. We almost missed the two data sections which were on the other side of the test pattern wall. Below are some short videos to get a sense of the show, but it definitely is more one of those you-had-to-be-there situations.




Just to clarify, Em and Dan’s chatter in that last clip is not part of Ikeda’s soundtrack… If you have sound issues with the video clips, try watching full-screen.


The Transfinite is at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC through June 11, 2011. The admission is a bit pricey at $12, but if you stay a while and take it all in, we think (though it would be more palatable at half the price) it’s still worth it.

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en.light.en Interactive Lamps

en.light.en interactive lampen.light.en interactive lamps are designed by Barrangan Studio in Colombia. Apart from the basic lamp function of lighting their environs, en.light.en lamps contain different narratives that can be triggered by the user, creating a more “poetic and metaphysical relationship” between man and technology. One lamp seems to answer your questions à la Magic Eight Ball. Another will keep your ego in check displaying messages determined by the user’s psychological needs and desires. It can uplift those who are down, and bring down those with overinflated egos, creating a healthy equilibrium. Oh, and finally, one of the en.light.en lamps displays the time in scrolling LED type as well, (for the more practically-minded), while reminding the user that time is limited and they will not live forever.

For those who understand Spanish, here’s a video of all the different en.light.en lamps and what they offer…down to serving as an egg timer.

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Festival of Ideas for the New City

The Festival of Ideas for the New CityWe previously posted about the upcoming Festival of Ideas for the New City, here in NYC, from May 4-8, 2011, but now there seems to be much more information. The Festival is a “major new collaborative intitiative in New York involving scores of Downtown organizations, from universities to arts institutions and community groups, working together to effect change… It will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place in multiple venues Downtown and is organized around three central programs: a conference of symposia; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery; and over one hundred independent projects and public events.” A small sampling of events and projects are pictured above (click image to see larger.)

Visit the Festival site for complete information on the conference, projects and street festival as well as for tickets.

via TheScout

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Ryoji Ikeda: The Transfinite

Ryoji Ikeda_The Transfinite_Park Ave ArmoryRyoji Ikeda, a Japanese sound and visual artist who lives and works in Paris, will soon unveil The Transfinite; “an immersive sonic and visual environment that subsumes visitors within abstract expressions of digital information and binary code. Breathtakingly provocative black and white projections keyed to a tightly synchronized musical composition explore how data defines the world we live in. Known for large-scale installations and public artworks around the world that push the limits of digital technology, Ikeda creates his most ambitious installation to date with The Transfinite.”

“In choreographing vast amounts of digital information, Ikeda conjures up a transformative environment in which visitors confront data on a scale that defies comprehension, experiencing the infinite. This installation includes strobe effects and high volume.”

The Transfinite opens May 20th and runs through June 11th 2011,  here in NYC at the Park Avenue Armory.  Tickets here.

Looking forward to checking it out!

UPDATE: See our follow-up post here.

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One Day for Design: April 13th

One Day for DesignOn April 13, 2011,
 add your voice to an open, digital dialogue on design. One Day For Design brings together a global community of designers and design enthusiasts to exchange ideas, challenge viewpoints and push boundaries—collaborating in real time on the future of our profession and the organizations behind it. Spread the word. Join the conversation at onedayfordesign.org or via Twitter.

Moderators include: Alex Bogusky, Doug Bowman, Liz Danzico, Debbie Millman, Erik Spiekermann, Armin Vit, Alissa Walker and Katherine Walker.

Begins tonight at 12 midnight EST

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One Hundred and Eight

One Hundred and Eight_Nils Voelker“One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted installation mainly made out of ordinary garbage bags. Controlled by a microcontroller each of them is selectively inflated and deflated in turn by two cooling fans.

Although each plastic bag is mounted stationary the sequences of inflation and deflation create the impression of lively and moving creatures which waft slowly around like a shoal. But as soon a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion.”

Created by Nils Völker. Surprisingly soothing to watch. You can view the piece in action here.    via trendbeheer

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Jer Thorp: Data Artist in Residence

Jer Thorp_Data VisualizationAnother one of the amazing speakers at the Geeky by Nature conference last week was Jer Thorp, a software artist, writer, and educator. He is a contributing editor for Wired UK and is currently Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times. His digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science and art.

The top image is a print Thorp made based on his word frequency visualizations that he created using Processing and the NYTimes Article Search API. It is titled ‘RGB – NYT Word Frequency’ and shows usage of the words ‘red’, ‘green’, ‘blue’ in the Times between 1981 and 2011. The second image is a detail of the print. The bottom image is a screenshot of a visualization he produced based on the Guardian’s data on the Haiti Earthquake Aid by Nation. He asked how much money was being spent per citizen of these countries and converted the figures to Avatar minutes, showing how many minutes of Avatar would the aid pay for.

All of Thorp’s visualizations are beautiful as art forms as well as being incredibly useful in facilitating data interpretation. You should take a look at some of his animated visualizations here.

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Sifteo

Sifteo Interactive CubesTwo years ago I watched a TED Talk given by MIT Media Lab grad student David Merrill about  a project he was working on called Siftables. These were tiny computer blocks that interacted with each other to make networks, play games, and music. It blew me away. Today I came across a lovely package design, by New Deal Design, for the product Sifteo which sounded remarkably similar and turns out is the company that Merrill has since founded with his partner, and co-creator, Jeevan Kalanithi. This demo explains it better than I can:


via Lovely Package

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Geeky by Nature

Hellicar & Lewis_Geeky by NatureWe attended the first part of Geeky by Nature yesterday here in NYC, a conference “exploring the best in art, code & design.” The day was filled with great presentations, the highlights for us being Joshua Hirsch from Big Spaceship, Hillman Curtis and his upcoming Stefan Sagmeister film, and Joshua Davis including his interactive graphics for IBM’s Watson. But, our absolute favorite talk was given by Hellicar & Lewis. Apart from being incredibly smart and talented, this team of UK interaction designers (Pete Hellicar and Joel Gethin Lewis) is witty, appealing, and immensely inspiring. The images above are stills from work on their site. I highly recommend that you look at some of their videos to get a taste of what they do. Brilliant!

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Interaction Design: Studio Roosegaarde

Daan Roosegaarde/Studio Roosegaarde Interaction ProjectsDaan Roosegaarde and his team of designers and engineers comprise Studio Roosegaarde. Together they create interactive artworks that instinctively respond to sound and movement, exploring the dynamic relation between space, people, and technology. Incredibly fascinating and at the same time very beautiful. From top to bottom:

FLOW is a smart wall composed of hundreds of ventilators that interact with passing visitors.

Sustainable Dance Floor (SDF) is an interactive floor which generates elecricity through the act of dancing.

LOTUS is a living wall composed of smart foils that fold open in response to human behavior.

DUNE is an interactive landscape that brightens according to the sounds and motion of passing visitors.

More information, photos, and videos on all of these projects are available here.