Recently read L'Age du Plip by Bruno Jacomy, a french book about stories concerning the evolution of techniques. The book haven't been translated in english but there are some interesting aspects I wanted to report here. Using different examples of techniques, the author describes different rules o...
Urban warfare and its categorization of space
In "Slumlords: Aerospace Power in Urban Fights", Troy S. Thomas (Aerospace Power Journal, 2002) describes the challenging environment of future conflicts: urban warfare. Although I am definitely not into military research, the article is interesting because of its representation of space. Some quot...
Playful spaces in Geneva
Why do I blog this? Two interesting examples of playful assemblage, definitely put together in some sort of informal urban setting. Of course they are hidden and a bit less accessible than city skate-parks and kids parks. They however prove to be intriguing in terms of their presence, showing the...
Software tool to help citizens visualize their cities’ eco-efforts
The last issue of Metropolis featured an article about See-it, a software tool developed by "Visible Strategies" that helps Albuquerque citizens visualize their cities’ eco-efforts: "See-it (short for Social, Environmental, Economic-Integration Toolkits) organizes citywide data into a live status r...
Workhop at LIFT about ubiquitous computing
The near future laboratory (Fabien Girardin and Julian Bleecker and myself) organize a workshop during LIFT08 about the failures of ubiquitous computing. The workshop is called "Ubiquitous computing: visions, failures and new interaction rituals": "We propose to look backward and discusses why we h...
Sensor-based interaction in TGV toilets
Toilet ergonomics is always intriguing as attested by this picture taken from the french TGV. Using the tap water and the hand dryer require to pass your hands close to a sensors, as indicated by the 2 stickers. However: - the depiction in red of radiowave detection is perhaps clear enough for som...
Tangible and gaming in Aix
Currently in Aix-en-Provence, at the School of Art where I've given a talk yesterday about tangible interfaces (a rerun from my GDC2007 presentation). The talk was part of a workshop called "Workshop Wiimote Hacking. The whole thing was about how to hack the Nintendo Wiimote and turn it into a tool...
Open space for the indefinite
I've recently encountered two times this quote from Lewis Caroll taken in Alice in Wonderland: 'There is no use in trying', said Alice; 'one can't believe impossible things.' 'I dare say you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Wh...
Space in Rio
Discovering new cities on continent where you've never been is always refreshing and intriguing. In Rio de Janeiro, I've tried to make few notes about spatiality. Nothing very professional (I'm not an urbanist) nor linked to my current research, it's rather my naive appraisal of space there. One of...
Beyond visualizing electromagnetic fields
One of the most interesting projects I've seen lately is "the bubbles of radio" by Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas. Perhaps it's because I've always been intrigued by visualizing electromagnetic fields as shown by the work of Dunne+Rabby in "Hertzian Tales. As Timo describes on the Touch weblog: "Using ...