The Frascati Manual is the internationally recognised methodology for collecting and using R&D statistics. It defines research as follows: Research and experimental development (R&D) comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including k...
Urban Screens and Jacques Tati by a456
Eiffel Tower reflected onto Tativille glazing, from Playtime (1967) This collapsing of window onto facade becomes yet another way to erase any distinction between building and image. And this is even more so in Tati's film, where glazed curtain walls reflect other parts of Paris. H...
Overfutured by Joanne McNeil
"The future was once represented in fantastically romantic ways: white spacesuits, buildings infinite in height, interplanetary travel, alien interactions, an abundance of wealth, and robot servitude. Now the future is represented as something more compressed and accessible. The future is on the...
Tom Sachs' DIY Lunar Module
The book called "Space Program" by Tom Sachs stayed on my shelves for quite a while and I never went beyond flipping through it. A vague fever and the continuous fall of the snow gave me a good occasion to read the whole thing cover to cover... and it was a fascinating read. "Space Program" is fir...
Traverse Me: map for pedestrians
"Traverse Me is a map drawn by walking across campus with a GPS device to invite the viewer to see a different landscape to that which surrounds them. It questions the possibilities of where they are and inspires a personal reading of their movements and explorations of the campus. (...) I resp...
A simple value prop: food wifi musik liquors
A value proposition that is clearly stated by these tag/keywords: food wifi musik liquors. What matters at the beginning of the 21st Century in a cafe. Seen in Lyon yesterday afternoon. ...
Keith Richards about portable cassette recorders
" What is important, Richards declares, is “being able to replay something immediately without all that terrible stricture of written music, the prison of those bars, those five lines. Before 1900, you’ve got Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, the cancan. With recording, it was emancipation for the...
Demon's Souls: location-based communication in a role-playing video-game
When connected to the PlayStation Network, online play is integrated into the single-player experience. Throughout levels, players can briefly see the actions of other players as ghosts in the same area that may show hidden passages or switches. When a player dies, a bloodstain can be left in o...
Smule's Ocarina design
I guess all of you know Ocarina, a very simple music application on the iPhone. It was kind of hip 1-2 years ago. Interestingly, I ran across this academic paper which describes how Smule designed this app. Some excerpts I found interesting: "Given that there are now over a million Smule Ocarina p...
The Economist on the Uncanny Valley (#robot, animation)
"Dr Ho and Dr MacDorman accept the general idea, but they began by throwing out the idea of shinwakan. In their study, just published in Computers in Human Behavior, they say that Dr Mori’s ideas of familiarity and comfort level do not properly get at the quality of uncanniness (...) The volunt...