What the real big society means for the economy, charities and copyright

Two excellent mini docs just posted to the Guardian videostream from Heydon Prowse and William Pine:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/may/11/ethical-living-diy-big-society

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/may/12/ethical-living-real-big-society-two



These make essential viewing in my opinion, if only to come some some way to understanding where I'm coming from: ie. spending my time and earnings on the sometimes seemingly pointless area of open design. Its the empowerment stupid.

This is going out as what one might call a three line whip, being blogged on the Slog, here and Censta simultaneously. Annoying to have to do it thrice, I wish there was a way to post to several blogs at the same time, or that Censta would get more feed friendly.

Mechnics Alive!

I went to see the Mechanics Alive! exhibition, by the Cabaret mechanical Theatre, at the Scotland Street School in Glagsow yesterday. More info here.

It's a great show, plenty of automata to have a go at, although presumably for the safety of the exhibits they are all housed in perspex and operated by push button and motor, which for me takes away some of the enjoyment. So the operator cannot enjoy that direct connection between their movement and the movement of the automaton, however needless to say, one can still enjoy the dynamics of the mechanism and the beautiful finishes. I thoroughly recommend checking it out, and there's a long video featuring the likes of Tim Hunkin as well as the 6 or so featured artists in teh exhibition (inc. my fave Paul Spooner). There are also some great books out and some posters explaining different mechanisms for the novices.

Embodied in flash

My cohort just alerted me to Herman Miller's Thoughtpile site, and , indeed, the site for their Embody chair - both charming exercises in interaction. Sadly no longer fully interactive due to 'some users trying to circumvent the rules and regulations' apparently. Still a great wee play, and a really simple and honest (yet slick) linking of product to values, aimed at office buyers. Although I still want a pixelated back.

Mechanisms 101 & Arthur Ganson

A fantastic repository of mechanisms, Mechanisms 101, demonstrated with Flash.

Via Dug North

And, also via the above, an engrossing TED talk from kinetic sculptor, Arther Ganson.

Sew sound waves onto your clothes

A fascinating and exciting looking project from these folk.

via make

Sorry for the lack of posting - I'm still writing for the Ponoko blog of course, but its a bit of a pain reposting here. If anyone knows a way for me to automatically grab a feed of my posts from Ponoko and have them automatically reposted here by Blogger, I would be eternally grateful!

Round and Round and Round: Ring Calendar by Sebastian Bergne

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Icon magazine recently did a special feature on Ponoko with furniture and product designer of repute, Sebastian Bergne, and the results are available at his showroom on Ponoko. The feature has some great discussion as well as audio and video of Bergne and his experience with Ponoko.

I particularly like Sebastian Bergne's Ring Calendar as it reinforces my perception of time as an eternally revolving thing: day follows day, week follows week, month follows month, on and on. This idea might depress some more sensitive souls, but as the showroom Spunique placidly puts it, the calendar may otherwise "give you the everyday satisfaction of interacting with its calm composition".

Of course the other thing I like about the calendar is its elegant and technically simple design, completely laser cut from melamine faced MDF. The assembly appears to really exploit the accuracy achievable with laser cutting, as does Bergne's other Ponoko product, the Bandit. Bandit is a playfully conceived 30cm ruler/rubber band catapult, that uses a living hinge cut into acrylic as a trigger mechanism. Most cunning. The Icon feature has more to say about the development of this part of the design.

Bergne is no small name, with a vast portfolio of furniture and products designed for a wealth of clients, many of which form part of the London Design Museum's Collection. It's great to see the established names mixing with the new names in the Ponoko marketplace!

via Ponoko and google search

Drawdio Brings New Meaning to Sketching with Hardware

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

The latest kit from Adafruit appears to be another banger. Ladyada writes on her blog about Drawdio:

"Originally designed by J Silver, when I first saw the Drawdio at Maker Faire I knew it would be a great project for beginners: A lot of fun with instant gratification! Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a simple toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper."

I am unfathomably excited by this project, combining as it does two loves of mine: abstract expressionism and atonality. Sorry, I mean sketching and music!

Ladyada posts a great video presumably taken at Maker Faire showing Mr. Silver and a whole host of people playing with the invention - there is a great social aspect to the experience too as users can create more possibilities by holding hands whilst interacting with each other's doodles. It is worth noting that Jay Silver comes straight from that hotbed of maker talent, MIT's Media Lab, specifically the Life Long Kindergarten group.

I wonder if there is potential for a Drawdio/Photomake mashup? You could certainly have any sketches that you think are worth preserving converted into a lasercut outline without much effort..

via ladyada's ranting

Lee Krasnow: Small puzzles, big conundra from a big saw

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko Blog.

Since we’re talking about puzzles and games, I thought it was worth pointing out Lee Krasnow. Lee is a puzzle-maker from San Francisco, and creates some awesomely perplexing objects! There is a great interview with him over at makezine, in which he talks the viewer through some of his puzzles and introduces us to his method of working.

Lee Krasnow (above, makezine) and one of his puzzles, 2-in-1 (below, pwdbp.com)

Perhaps the most incredible thing is that Lee's tool of choice is a table-saw. Using a jig of his own design, he manages to cut highly precise and tiny parts – he has posted an instructable describing how to make some jigs and ten of his puzzles here. It’s daunting, but highly inspiring stuff and makes me think that there’s no reason why a laser-cut puzzle should be just a 2D affair.

In fact my favourite Ponoko project of late has been Carbon by ckharnett (a recent product of the week) – a game-like geometric construction of simply hexagons, pentagons and triangular connectors. The constructions possible with this system are endless!

pe lang zimoun : untitled sound objects

pe lang zimoun : untitled sound objects



via make

Sorapot - Modern Teapot - simple teapot design of glass, cast stainless steel. designed for green tea loose leaf tea by Joey Roth

Sorapot - Modern Teapot - simple teapot design of glass, cast stainless steel. designed for green tea loose leaf tea by Joey Roth

A lovely design for a teapot with sustainability as paramount - although I'm sure there must be more components than is listed, such as a seal of some sort. More information about the packaging, which is also very elegant, at Treehugger.

The photographer has used a rather odd depth of field or blur effect on these photos that make the teapot seem much smaller than it is (possibly due to the heavy grade of cardboard used too) - its actually normal sized!

Yellow Drum Machine [Robot]

Yellow Drum Machine | Let's Make Robots!

A great wee robot drum machine, just in via Make. Its not that 'open' in terms of build instructions but the photos and descriptions are good enough to get an idea.

I have tagged this post 'elegant' in the third Chamber's sense of the word:
'said of apparatus, work in science, a plan, etc: simple and ingenious.'