More about present and near future sci-fi with this interview of Cory Doctorow in The Guardian. It practically addresses "why he's not interested in predicting the future using science fiction, but influencing it". Doctorow describes himself as a "presentist", that is to say someone who writes meta...
Dirt and the status of objects in design exhibits
An intriguing aspect noticed at the Design Biennial the other day concerns the status of objects presented in design exhibit. Most of the objects have warning signs forbidding people to touch/use/employ/walk on/sit on artifacts. However since most of the objects have clear affordances and are quit...
6th Design Bienniale in Saint Etienne
This week, I finally took some time to attend the Design Biennale in Saint Etienne, France. In this post, I tried to gather my thoughts about what I've learned there. Before starting off, I should perhaps point out that I am not that familiar with such events, having perhaps a different take on de...
(Touch) interaction vocabulary
A very simple list of touch interactions seen on the streets of Paris, France. As parking meters get more and more complex, the types of activities you can have with these devices is much more diverse. It therefore requires colors, shapes, cancel buttons and stuff. What I find intriguing here is t...
Obama in France
Obama is ubiquitous in France. Beyond press articles, he is present in street art (Saint Etienne) but more interestingly as a bait or as weird cue to buy things such clothes (Paris) or pizzas (Paris): Why do I blog this? not very related to the topics at hand here but this sort of pervasiveness ...
CCTV camera as bird's nest
CCTV camera turned into birds' nest. Seen at the Design Biennale in Saint Etienne, France. ...
Talk in Paris tomorrow about pervasive art
Will be in Paris tomorrow at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) to give a talk as part of conference called Mobilisable. I'll be in the "pervasive art" session around 7pm along with Samuel Bianchini, Lalya Gaye and Usman Haque. Mobilisable is a conference about research and arti...
blended ecologies pics
People interested in hybridized ecologies (how the digital and the physical can be interlinked) and how they can be designed in weird ways may be interested to have a look at Julian's pictures from a workshop carried out at the Institute For The Future in Palo Alto last week. There is also a repor...
Night light night life
What stays awake during the night, what should not stay awoken when not used. Approximately 15% of people's electricity bills can be saved if these lights were switched off. Inspired by recent discussions with students at ENSCI, who works on a project about how the internet of things can be an ...
Design research topography
The first issue of Design Research Quarterly features the above map that represents the "topography of design research" (made by Liz Sanders). She basically mapped the different approaches to design research based on two dimensions: Their impetus: tools and methods coming from design practice ver...