Musical Umbrella

PHYSICAL INTERACTION VS 1000 IN 1 DEVICE

We are surrounded by lot of objects in our pockets, bags, on table – or even on our clothes – that have a rich interaction potential. Furthermore, electronic devices are converging in a single object with a poor and much less diversified interaction. The idea of this project is a mobile or desktop device that could detect and analyze our interaction with our non-electronic objects. (using technologies as video analyze, vibration detection, rfid, etc… ) Example: I can use the coffee cup on my desktop, on which I attach my pen to make my musical selection. At the same time I use my bunch of keys to call one of my favorite contact. Such a system would have the advantage of being customizable according to the user’s taste. Maybe one just want to use classic screen and keyboard for everything, except one particular activity he loves to control with a corkscrew.

ZeroN - Levitated Interaction Element

What if materials could defy gravity, so that we could leave them suspended in mid-air? ZeroN is a physical and digital interaction element that floats and moves in space by computer-controlled magnetic levitation.

Jammer Horn

“Jammer Horn” is a mobile, sound piece without any sound. It is the inversion of the horn’s functionality in the digital domain. A temperature sensor triggers a high-range cell phone jammer which sits inside the horn giving the blower supremacy over the communication within the immediate vicinity. With the use of the horn’s bell, a directional signal is sent out blocking any cell phone activity within 30-50 meters of the horn. From the ancient period, the horn has symbolised the communication between gods and humans as messages of order, warning and prophecy which are turned into sound and transmitted over long distances much more powerful and directional than the human voice. Thus the horn has become an integral part of mythology and religion, while “Jammer Horn” becomes a forerunner of the next generations of our interactive art field.




From TheGreenEyl

Julia Tsao: The Strangers Project

The Strangers Project
1 family, 2 timezones, 3 people, 9 lights.

Super-ordinary, amplified everyday objects.
The Strangers Project is a design intervention dealing with issues of familial closeness, daily ritual, tolerable inconvenience, nuanced conversation, and opportunity, missed (and gained). The purpose of the project is twofold: one, as a design research probe addressing issues of closeness and relationships, and to, as an experiment in interaction design, with the new interaction being embedded into an existing behavior instead of a new, learned behavior.

The project addresses the simple behavior of turning on a lamp in the home, and the amplification of this activity. With the project installed, each participant is simultaneously turning on a light in each other other two participants' homes when turning on an existing "hacked" lamp in her home. In this way, the participant is not asked to learn a new behavior, rather, the project functions within the framework of existing behaviors. The project takes place in three separate locations. A kit consisting of a two-light setup is installed in each participant's home. Each of the two lights is controlled via the internet by an existing lamp in the other two participants' homes. By turning on an existing lamp in his or her home, each participant is simultaneously turning on a light in each other other two participants' homes.

The project participants consist of a family of three (myself included), the Tsao family. The three participants, Gus, Alice, and Julia, though a family by definition, have lived as separate households for many years, and in essence are strangers to each others daily behavior.

The project began on April 1, 2008, and will take place on an ongoing basis. The ultimate goal is to have the project gain a sense of invisibility in the daily lives of the participants, and to then gauge the impact of the project once it reaches that point.

Thanks to Hans and Jason of ioBridge.

“tensed up” - a piece of material demonstrates our field of activity

This textile describes a wearable sensor to 'feel', detect and indicate electricity. I want to combine material behaviour with human perception to enable communication and to raise specific questions regarding increasing fields of electronic technology and our electrified behaviour. A woven textile uses electrical energy from its surroundings via influence - by human activity as well as electric fields nearby - and passes it in a comprehensible way to the user. For testing it, the textile is attached at the shoulder of the participant and has exposed yarns, which is to represent hair. If he or she is acting fast, the textile hair stands higher and higher - it charges up until it wants to discharge in its surroundings.

If the material received a huge quantity of electric energy, it gets more inflexible. After that it wants to give up its electricity and consequently can interrupt technical devices or give the wearer small electric shocks, after he charged it. This project demonstrates a possibility to enhance and sensitise materials to explore changing in perception. Figuratively the textile caricatures the fear of electric fields. The material probe describes electric current as something natural, which has different manifestations. This fabric can ask questions about cultural trends that will emerge from our constantly growing need for energy.

the sounds in the video were produced by my electric detection device, which was mounted beside the video camera.

the digital wind

The transfer of data is becoming more and more unvisible. Wireless technologies like mobile phones, RFID, bluetooth and wifi, make sharing information both more ubiquitous and convenient.

The digital wind use the metaphor of the wind. Both real wind and wireless networks alike, change their direction and strength. The „Digital Wind“ instrument transforms the wifi signal of a building or room into sound. As feedback the visitor can hear a real wind sound. A stronger sound corresponds to a better quality of the signal. By walking around with the instrument in his hand, the visitor can interact with the invisible medium around him. He gets a feeling for the strength and shape of the field that is sourrounding him, and thereby gradually becomes a more conscious musician. Having several people interact with multiple instruments, creates an ensemble of wind sound.

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objects made for dreams

To contrast this very direct and measurable inprecision between the reality and our internal construct of it, the series "Objects made for Dreams" revereses this process of "Objects made from the Mind". Instead of asking people to reconstruct a mental imprint of a physical reality, the project attempts to create a method to design tools to the world of dreaming.


The core of the work is a definition of a process, which then is manifested in three case studies illustrating how the process works in practice.




The idea is to engage oneself in the making of a tool to be transported to the dream world, to help cope with a recurring situation in the dream. The sound of the process of making a physical tool one attempts to bring to the dream, is recorded, and with the help of a sensor-equipped eye mask, played back at the time of REM-sleep phase. This is to bring the memories of the engagement with the desired tool to the subconscious at the time of active dreaming, thereby making it accessible again.


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Random Acts of Kindess

Random Acts of Kindness from Vanessa Yeo on Vimeo.


Drawing inspiration from Dune and Raby's Huggable Atomic Mushrooms, this project explores our relationship with the bathroom scale. Some are obsessed, yet some fear standing on it.

As beauty is socially derived, the concept of what is seen as beautiful is always changing and cannot be measured. It is unfortunate that we live in a society that is quick to judge and difficult to please. Through the interaction, these bathroom scales hope to amuse, but at the same time, alter one's experience with the weighing of one's self.

Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

Dunne & Raby

Technological Dream Series: No. 1, Robots from dunne & raby on Vimeo.