Some examples of game interfaces encountered at a fun fair in Nantes last week: Why do I blog this? Fun fair and amusement park offer peculiar kinds of constraints for interaction design: noisy environment, presence of a crowd, cash-oriented money, balancing success and failure with regards t...
Yuichi Yokoyama about the future
A strikingly interesting author, japanese manga author Yuichi Yokoyama has an interesting perspective on the near future: "Matiere: Are you interested in Science Fiction? Yuichi Yokoyama: I was impressed by Tarkovski’s films, Solaris and Stalker and also by Kubrick’s 2001, a Space Odyssey. I also ...
From Back to the Future 2 to a WIPO patent
It took 20 years to (finally) see a patent for self-lacing shoes. The Nike prop from Back to the Future 2 has indeed been shown in 1989 (with a non-automatic lacing version released as a collector in 2008). People interested in rather low-tech solution can also have a look at this arduino-based v...
The Simpsons on the performativity ambivalence of signage
The ambivalence of warning signs in terms of performativity. Once again, The Simpsons are spot on. (Picture found here) ...
More game controllers evolution charts
Working on the game controller project book, we're building various charts of joypad evolution. What's interesting is that we're definitely not the sole persons doing this. Over the recent months, there's been several other relevant visualizations, that I compiled in this blogpost. Obviously, the f...
Pixels Per Person: making WiFi networks tangible
Pixels Per Person by Carina Ow is an inspiring design project that looked at how to give a tangible existence to the public WiFi network in the city of Geneva: "In images, WiFi connections are usually represented as a series of fluctuating waves derived from signal strength indicators that fall an...
Back to school days, course are being prepared
It's back to school days here, pencils are being sharpened, wireless notebooks being bought... and new courses are being prepared. This year will have a decent share of teaching in various institutions. I am currently preparing some fresh material for the following courses HEAD-Geneva for masters ...
Cyberpunk and creolization
Read in No Future! Cyberpunk, Industrial Music, and the Aesthetics of Postmodern Disintegration by Patrick Novotny: Why do I blog this? Collecting material about cyberpunk for an upcoming interview about the connections between science-fiction and interaction design. The creolization meme seems imp...
Feeling interactivity in a video-game
An excerpt from Pilgrim in a microworld found in Rules of play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman: "I'd catch myself turning my chair into a more en face position vis-à-vis the TV. An obvious delusion. Maybe I could rest one elbow on the set to help feel the angle of my look and deepen a sense of th...
Ubiquitous QR codes
Why do I blog this? I'm not sure "Ubiquitous computing" was supposed to mean this kind of QR code pervasive presence, but hey... ...