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November 21, 2008
14:06
Endangered Wildlife Trust: Daily Extinction
» ‎ ::: I believe in advertising :::

To dramatise the daily rate of species extinction and generate donations for the Endangered Wildlife Trust, we ran a series of strip ads in The Times newspaper. As the readers paged through the day’s events, the species continued to add up, ending with a sobering statistic and a call to action on the last page.

Advertising Agency: Lowe Bull, Cape Town, South Africa
Creative Director: Kirk Gainsford
Art Directors: Cameron Watson, Gavin Wood, Jenna MacGillivray
Copywriter: Simon Lotze

12:15
Jordanian inventor creates world’s highest laptop stand
» ‎ 360east | design, media, technology

This is not a joke or a stunt. This is how our media guru at Ikbis, Mohammad Jaradat (aka Neo) REALLY works. He has some neck problems and he started stacking packs of promotional materials under his new laptop to make his posture more healthy and comfortable, The stack got higher and higher. This is how [...]

11:14
Does Your Vote REALLY Count?
» ‎ A Tale of Three Beans

So, I got my absentee ballot this week. That's right, I sent my request at the end of September and received the ballot last week. Well after the election. And it makes you wonder was it intentional? Well, clearly some one's asking some questions. MemeBean heard on the news that the State of AL and the Secretary of State (who is responsible for elections) is being sued by the Justice Department. There's an article on one of the Huntsville, AL TV station websites about it.

So, let me tell you about the Bean family experience with the absentee balloting experience. I went out to the Alabama website back in July to find out the dates, no way was I letting this election get past me. The information clearly stated that absentee ballot requests were due no later than 4 days before the election. While that isn't enough time to get the ballot, no worries from my end. I would apply as early as possible and then go from there.

Then in the last week of September, MemeBean heard the Secretary of State on the radio saying that absentee ballot requests had to be RECIEVED by the end of September. Now, I had checked the website and was certain of what it said. So, the last week of September I completed my application for the absentee ballot and mailed it using the fine postal system here in Jordan. I also advised El 3atal that he needed to go ahead and get his taken care of. We had had some issues with our registration due to mail forwarding and what-not in the US. So, in the first week of October he called the Voter Registration folks in Alabama. They confirmed that he was registered and updated the address. He asked about the registration process for the absentee ballot. The young man on the phone told him it was too late. Well, being stubborn and rule-conscious, I told him to ignore this guy and go ahead and submit the application anyway.

I had rather expected that Alabama would be recieving absentee ballot requests, processing them, and sending out the ballots as they came in. Clearly that isn't what happened. El 3atal had a trip to the US in the second week of October, so I quickly completed the Federal "Emergency" Write-In Ballot (thanks Overseas Voting Foundation for your easy process for this) and sent it with him to be mailed. I reminded him to do his while he was there as well. He did so and we went on with our lives knowing we had done everything we could. I also went on-line to check the dates one final time before telling him the exact details and they were gone... My oh my, well, we'd just go on what I had already read.

And then, last week, the ballots finally came. They were postmarked October 29, 2008. So, clearly they waited until the deadline before sending out any absentee ballots. Talk about trying to disenfranchise overseas voters... You might have noticed that Alabama went solidly for John McCain. You may not be aware that absentee voters typically vote fairly heavily Democrat. I have to admit, part of me thinks this approach was intentional.

I'm a little more savvy (and a lot less patient) than many. I refused to sit and wait on my absentee ballot, went on-line to find out how to vote without it and did so. So, on election day when MemeBean was working the polls at our polling station, she checked and saw that we were already listed as having voted absentee. But what about those who did wait on their ballots? How many waited too long and were unable to get their ballots in? Alabama is the ONLY state that does not allow express mail delivery of the ballot. The only options are in person or by US mail. I ask you, how many Alabama voters were stripped of their right to vote by this campaign of misinformation and late mailings? I'd sure like to know. I'm glad someone else is asking questions too... Maybe I should let MemeBean talk to the ACLU about filing that lawsuit after all...? Maybe Alabama needs to hear loudly and clearly that we overseas voters are here and WILL be counted. Stand up, fellow Alabamians overseas, stand up and be counted. Make your voice heard!

Happy Vote Rigging!

10:46
Hey! There, Hi! There, Ho! There
» ‎ Chronicles of a Female Thinking Out Loud

There’s not one class I’ve taken with Amethyst where I’ve been able to suppress my laughter or “wise-ass comments” (H, you know what I’m talking about). Reason being, we’re two very, very evil young ladies who take pleasure in making fun of everyone. Okay, okay, that isn’t the case [most of the time], but it’s just that some people say the “darndest” things, or leave room for ridicule. It’s true, it’s true! Take for example last week during one of our classes when a girl asked our professor the meaning of ‘miscegenation’. He started out by saying:

Professor: Miscegenation. Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t explain the meaning earlier. Did you know a lot of people think it’s spelt M-I-C…

Now, let’s freeze this picture for a minute. During the class’s Spelling Bee, I usually read on or doodle (the latter more plausible). For crying out loud, dictionaries were invented for a reason! Anyway, upon hearing him say “M-I-C”, I’m not sure what posessed me to say, and at at the top of my lungs:

…K-E-Y - M-O-U-S-E! HEYYY!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s how you spell miscegenation: M-I-C-K-E-Y - M-O-U-S-E. After showcasing my abilities to spell, a roar erupted in the class after a girl said, “Mickey Mouse!” Yes, it’s sad but true, the majority of the class didn’t actually pick up what I spelled the first time around, and they needed someone to say it out loud. Sad, sad, sad.

Leaving you with The Mickey Mouse Club theme song. It’s so adorable! I miss being a kid…

Till next time, world.

10:36
Social Arena - Social Media Networking of 2010
» ‎ The Arab Observer

Our biggest assignment for the young leadership program in Sweden was to come up with ideas for a social media networking solution for 2010. My group, The Frozen 5, contained a Palestinian human rights activist, a Swedish journalist, a Syrian architect, am Egyptian media teacher, and me - Jordanian web developer/blogger.

Inspite of the horrible lengthy debates that took place between us, and the hardship we faced trying to communicate between each other, we were able to deliver an excellent idea, nice prototype and wonderful presentation at the end of the program.

What would we do to help increasing freedom of expression as a social media networking solution that isn't already out there on the web?

It was a challenging question. We started thinking of what draws us to the internet, and what is the common trait of us - the young leaders participants of the program -. The answer was simple and clear: It is OUR PASSION to defend our VALUES. Isn't it the same thing that we all share? Isn't it what made blogging popular?

And so, the idea of creating a "facebook" based on values popped up. A social media network solution where people gather based on their values or issues they are interesting in.

Ofcourse, that was not enough for originality. We needed more, and so we asked ourselves. How do people communicate their values now on the web? What forms of debates are taking place? We looked out there and found message forums, email groups and blogs! All work in a linear form, where someone post a topic and people reply. There is no real HEAD to HEAD debate anywhere on the internet.

That is how the Debate Arena emerged! A place where two people (for now) can go head to head in debating a certain issue/value (see climate change scenario image below). I have always wished to go head to head against Qwaider (:P). Two people challenging each other while having all the resources that they can gather to support their views, and they can invite their friends to support them right below their debate. Supporters (like in blogs) can add comments, they can add videos/images/audio that would help the argument of each contender. And finally, they can vote! A voting that would decide the winner of the debate (if they want a win/lose debate). The winner gets a small icon indicating his win in a debate of a certain issue along with the number of votes he got. Eventually active people in different issues would be collecting many winning icons that would distinguish them as leaders in that area.

We also introduced the friendly arena module which would work as a group arena where people sharing the same values would group themselves, add group feed, and check out which group members are engaged in a debate so that to go and give support.

The project wasn't meant to stop at this stage. They asked us to think of a potential sources of funding and methods of developing it. We haven't yet started searching for funding. Today the Swedish Institute Project manager of the program - Wonderful Sweed Javeria - sent us an email telling us that she started looking into this issue to help us (Thank you Javeria).

I personally think that no one would develop this better than people of itoot/ikhbis/watwet...etc. I so admire your work people. I don't know how much money we would need, and if you would be interested working on this. Maybe I would have to contact Ahmed Humaid? I am just too excited about this project and can see a lot of potential to it.

I personally believe that social arena would grow to help future generation of leaders to emerge.

PS: Don't steal this idea! :P

9:51
Burj Dubai BASE Jump
» ‎ 2:48AM [The B-Sides]

Two guys jumped off Burj Dubai back in May and they filmed the whole experience. They didn’t get caught the first time but a few days after their first jump one of the guys went back and jumped again and ended up getting caught. [Link] via

8:13
Father Gets 13 Years for Raping Daughter
» ‎ my treasure

He made ‘a mistake’, he says.

He was acquitted of the hundreds of other times he raped and sodomized her for ‘lack of evidence’.

Thank God the family stepped in to stop the violence, but why, of why, WAIT until this girl had suffered so much?

Precious broken baby

[www.jordantimes.com]

7:57
Israel under Microscope: Racism, Terror, Violence, Inhumanity…
» ‎ jazarah!

And we say we live in a free and civilized world, here is a new corner where I’ll be featuring disturbing photos that show the truth of Israel, the country of terror, violence and inhumanity, I wonder what did those Palestinians do to deserve this humiliation, torture and detention.

Fully-Armed Israeli Soldiers/Criminals vs. Unarmed Palestinian Civilians:

(Reuters)
7:23
Classic Ads of Arabia… Sanyo, you can fix our TV sets by yourself!
» ‎ jazarah!

Published: February 1969

7:00
Links for 2008-11-20 [del.icio.us]
» ‎ we make money not art
- Adrian Searle: King Congo | Art and design | The Guardian
  Carsten Höller was the man behind the Tate's slides. How do you top that? By opening a Congolese nightclub in London. He explains all to Adrian Searle
- Latin America’s big biennial at risk - The Art Newspaper
  This year’s São Paulo Bienal shows almost no art: is this a conceptual choice or just lack of funding?

6:38
Gift Guide: Glassy Gifting
» ‎ NOTCOT

var federated_media_section = 'holiday'; There's something so beautiful about glass, and i've been particularly obsessive with double walled glass recently (like, what is out there beyond the usual Bodum cups and such) ~ and more organic and playful glass pieces... and as gifts, they always look so precious and beautiful... fun shadows, light dancing all around! So here's a gift guide of Glassiness! See the next page for the guide, click the images to find out more, and a few coupons at the bottom to help you out as well!
TO PAGE 2 of "Gift Guide: Glassy Gifting"! ----->

(Want more visual goodness? See NOTCOT.com + NOTCOT.org)

2:57
It’s all in their heads
» ‎ Rebellious Arab Girl

I blog hop sometimes, and I skim through 10 - 15 posts within 3 minutes of each blog that I have not read in a while. I usually read the titles and the first paragraph. However, I am the last person...

November 20, 2008
22:53
It's a stereo! It's a Credenza. I love it.
» ‎ swissmiss

As seen onnytimes.com: For those daunted by the complexity and clutter of high-end audio systems, the GenevaSound Home Theater offers a tidy alternative. The 66-inch credenza, which is large enough to accommodate a good-size TV, has an integrated iPod dock, CD player and FM radio. Stereo speakers and a 12-inch subwoofer (specifically designed not to rattle a TV above) are hidden behind the perforated metal grill in front.

22:30
TVC: Don’t let her dance alone, get on the DGL!
» ‎ Ad Blog Arabia

Client: The Dubai Guest List

21:30
East Wrestling Championship in Kuwait
» ‎ 2:48AM [The B-Sides]

This looks like an interesting yet strange and cheesy B-rated wrestling event. I don’t recognize any of the wrestlers and I doubt many people will but they do seem more entertaining than the pro wrestlers on tv. Here is some info about the event: For the first time ever in Kuwait, wrestlers from different parts [...]

20:50
GDC/BC Receives President’s Service Award
» ‎ We're Not Wired Right

The BC Chapter of GDC has been selected among a select few organizations to receive the 2008 Capilano University President’s Service Awards as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. GDC/BC was honoured for its continued support and contributions to the university, its students and the design industry into which their graduates enter upon completing their studies.

To celebrate its 40th year since opening in 1968, Capilano University will be holding a special President’s Service Awards event on Saturday, November 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Birch building atrium at the North Vancouver campus.

19:24
Pocket Projector For Sale On Apple Japan Site
» ‎ The Raw Feed

You hear a lot about pocket-size projectors, but don't see a lot of companies selling them or people buying them. Suddenly, however, a projector from Optoma called the Optoma pocket projector PK 101 has arrived and is actually for sale on, of all places, the Apple Store web site for Japan. The projector works with iPods, presumably iPhones and also a range of other devices. (props to DVICE)

19:00
Canon Paperjam
» ‎ advertising/design goodness - advertising and design blog

Agency: Daehong Communications, Seoul
Art Director: Kim, Junghwa
Copywriter: Lee, Kikwan

18:32
Stop urging people to run Firefox
» ‎ Memories Documented

Tech Warning:
If you're not interested in Browser Security, Internet exploits, you may skip this article
Firefox fanboy warning:
This is NOT to bash Firefox or accusing it of being insecure, so read well before you explode. I personally think Firefox is great, same goes for Opera, Chrome and Safari. If you have a beef with that, bring it up with Saltzer, link provided below

In a very recent security related article by Larry Saltzer, he deconstructs the aging myth of how Firefox is impervious to attacks. Or at least, he shows shows that it's no longer safe from being a target. It's worth mentioning that his article is based on security findings reported by, Microsoft. But exactly as he notes...

With Microsoft and Adobe both doing a better job of fighting vulnerabilities in their own products, it's not surprising, as the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report also finds, that vulnerabilities in software across the industry are declining. This is why social engineering and malware are becoming the real problems. But in the meantime, it makes sense that some of our longstanding biases about product security are not as correct as they might have been at one time.

So shouldn't you.

17:51
Interview with Tobie Kerridge (Material Beliefs)
» ‎ we make money not art

Material Beliefs is a group of designers based in London. They might create pieces of furniture and accessories but they are not your usual tables and cups. The result of a close collaboration with scientists and engineers, social scientists but also members of the public, their projects take emerging biomedical and cybernetic technology out of labs and into public space. The members of Material Beliefs use design as a tool for public engagement, a mean to stimulate discussion about the value and impact of new technologies which blur the boundaries between our bodies and materials.

Each of the prototypes they develop is the starting point of a fruitful and much needed debate in public space about the relationship between science and society.

Fly-paper robotic clock © Auger-Loizeau 2008

Lampshade robot © Auger-Loizeau 2008

Their prototypes are questionable and puzzling. They include a series of extremely cruel and useful Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots (think moth-eating lamps and a robotic coffee table that doubles as a mouse trap) and pastel pink or baby blue Vital Signs monitors (a product of the child surveillance industry, they enable data about the body to be communicated across a mobile phone network.) You can encounter them in venues as different as the Dana Centre in London and LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijon, Spain.

At the heart of Material Beliefs are Andy Robinson, Elio Caccavale, Tobie Kerridge, Jimmy Loizeau (with James Auger) and Susana Soares, supported by collaborations with Aleksandar Zivanovic, Julian Vincent, Kevin Warwick, Slawomir Nasuto, Ben Whalley, Mark Hammond, Julia Downes, Dimitris Xyda, David Muth, Tony Cass, Olive Murphy, Nick Oliver, Dianne Ford, Luisa Wakeling, Julie Daniels and Anna Harris.

My victim for this interview is designer Tobie Kerridge whom i wanted to talk with ever since i read about about a project he conceived than actually prototyped together with scientist Ian Thompson and designer Nikki Stott: Biojewellery. The project catapults traditional engagement and wedding rings into the world of tissue engineering and biotechnology research by using bone tissue cultured from human cells in order to create bespoke jewellery.

Tobie at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College

I must admit that i almost regretted to have asked you this interview. While preparing it, i had a long look through the website of Material Beliefs and found it so complete and so well documented that i felt that there was nothing left for me to ask you. I then had the idea of doing a 'designboom style' interview where the designer is asked all sorts of apparently frivolous questions. So now the idea has become irresistible and here's a question i stole from designboom: I assume you notice how women dress. Do you have any preferences?

Vital Signs monitors © Tobie Kerridge 2008

Vital Signs scenario © Tobie Kerridge 2008

Then I'm going to be cheeky and and steal someone's answer, Inga Sempé's was nice - "no".

I like the name of the project, Material Beliefs, a lot. Where does it come from and which kind of ideas do you want it to convey?

Ah, this is a long story, and it also shows a lack of imagination under pressure. I was writing the funding proposal for Material Beliefs with Savita Custead, and we had to get the thing submitted. Being a bit stuck for names, the project title came about by co-joining the titles of two beloved projects.

One is Materials Library, run by Mark Miodownik, Zoe Laughlin and Martin Conreen. They operate an archive of materials, and take these artefacts into public spaces by staging performative events. They convened a series at the Tate, and then followed on with events at the Wellcome Collection themed around Flesh and one coming up soon will focus on Hair. Their obsessions create new communities that play across disciplines.

The other was a proposal for funding to the ECRC by Robert Doubleday, Mark Welland, James Wilsdon and Brian Wynne called "Material Imaginations". Their proposal followed on from a project I first read about in See Through Science, a report by DEMOS. Doubleday set up an ethnographic project in Welland's Nanotechnology lab, the aim being to work with scientists to imagine the social outcomes of their nanotechnology research. He said "My role is to help imagine what the social dimensions might be, even though the eventual applications of the science aren't yet clear". This made me think about the role of design as a set of speculative tools for working with science and engineering.

I was a student of Durrell Bishop, Tony Dunne, Bill Gaver, Fiona Raby, and other fine tutors at what's now the Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Art. In this context, my practice emerged through an interrogation of design methods and aims. Material Beliefs is an attempt to make design's association with science and technology more embedded. It takes influence from Doubleday's - and previously Bruno Latour's and Steve Woolgars - encampment in labs. The difference is that the role of that occupation is more than analytical, it attempts to synthesise outcomes - what happens when speculative attitudes to science and technology get located at the site of laboratory research? Well not much sometimes, but other times it works out and you get a fascinating and messy shared practice. Designers and Scientists/Engineers also have to work harder to understand each others roles and offer respect and support - it's difficult and rewarding.

Building fly-eating robots at the Royal Institution of Great Britain

The other aspect is that these collaborations take place in public as much as possible. Taking inspiration from Miodownik, Laughlin and Conreen, it's about doing the work in front of and with audiences. These are not only the audiences you might find at art or design exhibitions. Sometimes the model of public engagement is not top-down, but about getting people into labs and enabling them to do new stuff - making enquiries, building their own prototypes, asking researchers about the ethics of technology, finding out how funding is awarded.

Here design becomes a tool for translating academic knowledge into resources for independent enquiry, and a way of enabling others to access technology. This can be tricky as you have to sneak people into labs, under the radar of public relations departments who might not see the value of access for groups that wont promote the research in a straightforward way. This is not a criticism, it just that some institutions are not yet set up for challenging forms of public engagement. This situation I think is aggravated by an institutional anxiety about campaigning groups, but that is another story.

Finally, when I first Googled "Material Beliefs" it was all about religious practices, and it seemed appropriate, seeing as we were going to be doing so much preaching.

Neuroscope Prototype © Elio Caccavale 2008

Material Beliefs looks like a unique structure. I suspect that many artists and designers would dream of engaging with emerging biomedical and cybernetic technology in close cooperation with engineers and social scientists. Which kind of advice would you give to artists or designers who might want to set up a design lab like yours? How did you manage to get the ear (and funding) of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in England?

It's a good time to extend design practices that ask questions about our relationship with technology and science. In the UK at least, there is an ongoing discussion about how public engagement of science should be done. This is a discussion at a policy level, about democratising access to the research that will have its outcomes in the products and services we use. So while public engagement of science used to be about persuading the public that science produced a benefit, or where it was a strategy for encouraging a new generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians to keep the nation competitive, it is now also about looking for new ways to involve different groups of people in science. These discussions then filter down into decisions about how funding is awarded. I think Material Beliefs probably benefited from new attitudes about what public engagement of science is allowed to be.

We set out to say that design lets non-specialists respond to science in creative ways, to make their own things out of their curiosities with bioengineering, and to have an active role within the production of research, or at least to play a role in the discussion of what unfinished research might come to mean. Rather than be told that this or that technology is not really risky, or at best being invited into a conversation that decides if a technology is risky, publics can actually have some kind of active role in how technology encountered. That's what design can do, it encourages an active orientation towards materials and processes, it provides a reason to try to do something, rather than sit back passively, then point your finger out of anxiety, for example over the potential effects of biotechnological products and services that suddenly appear on the market - "Where did that come from? Frankenfoods messing up my body, I am even angrier now!". The fact is that science is complex, it is enacted through a relationship between peers and rivals, institutions, markets, funders, politicians, ethics committees. Rather than ignore that, or treat science as monolithic entity, why not try to situate a practice productively somewhere amongst this fascinating network? Material Beliefs is only starting to think about this extended role for design, others have been doing it for some time, and I'm thinking of Natalie Jeremijenko's practice, Symbiotica's lab in Perth, and the thinking that has informed the Design Interactions course.

Group from the Roundhouse interviewing researchers about cyborgs

More generally, how do scientists react to your interests and works? Are they immediately ready to cooperate? Do you have to painfully win them over? How easy is the dialogue with people who seem to have a radically different background?

One thing learnt from this project is to take the invitations very wide initially, and to rapidly make sense of who might want to collaborate. Material Beliefs is lead by the designers, James Auger, Elio Caccavale, Jimmy Loizeau, Susana Soares and myself, and I must say that all of us broke our backs pursuing eminent, exciting but ultimately uninterested scientists and engineers. If people want to do stuff, then run with them. The hardest aspect was articulating our approach, and making it clear what was expected and what we would be doing. Academics are busy, whatever their discipline, and there are not many academics you could expect to spend time doing activities that are outside of there specialism. That is asking a lot.

Luckily, there is some pressure on science and engineering to do public engagement. Being able to show you have done this helps with funding. This was something we could appeal to. I don't think this is being tricksy, it's just a matter of finding a recognisable space in which to hold the stuff you want to do, that makes sense for everyone, even if it is for slightly different reasons. You all need to take risks, the designer needs to be elastic with their focus as a practitioner, and the engineer scientists need to take into account alternative descriptions of their research objects. It's not easy to make sense of a question about the ethics of a technology that you have been developing intensively for two years.

We are, or I hope were, quite naive in the way we approached science, which of course has a different culture to design. I have a particularly painful memory of filming an interview with a researcher, and not making it clear that the interview was to be put online. He was very angry when | sent him a link for approval, particularly as the first clip was me setting up and dropping the camera, and kind of laughing awkwardly. I thought the clip was charming. He thought I was taking the piss, and sent some quite angry emails. Have a look at some of the interviews that did get approved. This was a way for us to read around the research, to get it from the researchers mouths. Their descriptions are imbued with their excitement, and taken down a notch so we can understand. Perfect. Imaging having to orientate your practice to biotechnology through academic papers, or newspapers - the extremes of possible discourses - that leave you respectively bewildered or sour.

Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots at LABoral

"Material Beliefs blur the boundaries between material culture and bioengineering research, designing speculative products that embody emerging technologies." How does one design a speculative product? And how can a product be "speculative"? How do you avoid the label "Art"?

You design something that you don't mean to manufacture. We all used design methods and processes, and built prototypes, but the emphasis was with the interaction between the prototypes and statements about social life, rather than the prototypes and business. If you want to make a product, you will spend more time specifying materials because unit cost is important, or you will be looking for intellectual property opportunities, and talking to distributors. That's fine, but you can't also then ask public questions about the role of technology. You can try, but I'm sure you will be very tired, and loose some friends and alienate your family.
The question about art is important. I think it would have initially made our lives easier to say we were doing a sci-art, both in terms of forming collaborations and finding a descriptive label for the outcomes. The problem with using established relationships is that you also have to deal with a set of associated problems, and limitations. I'm not talking about participating in art exhibitions, or discussing the work within an art theory discourse, this is more about assumptions various people might have about doing a sci-art project. While initially frustrating to say "this is neither art, nor design for innovation" it was liberating to develop our own processes and methods for working with scientists, engineers and publics.
One place that seems to do sci-art well is the residency programme at Peals, Elio did something there. What often seems to happen, is that there is an assumption that art will benefit from science, and science will benefit from art. That's crap, it's like a small dinner party for two couples, both delighted at the company of one another. What Peals does is address the way the collaboration can be enacted through a much wider network of people.

So it's not about a problem with the label of art, just whose label that is, and what they are trying to do with it. It's worth mentioning SymbioticA again here, who have managed to set up a lab that invites and educates arts practitioners. This is proper, it has been developed slowly and carefully, to the point where it is respected and supported for what it does, by people from many different disciplines. Of note in the UK also is Arts Catalyst.

Design Interaction students isolating their DNA at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Do you have pictures of MB working studio? Does it look and function more like a lab or your usual design studio?

Material Beliefs is scattered about the place. There is the Interaction Research Studio and design workshop at Goldsmiths, RapidForm and Design Interactions at the RCA, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College, Cybernetics and Pharmacy at Reading University, and the Institute of Ophthalmology at University Collage London. Project activities are based at the most appropriate site, and in some cases need to be run across multiple sites at the same time. The Neuroscope project is noteworthy here, with Julia Downes and Mark Hammond working with cell cultures and server side software, Elio Caccavale desiging CAD prototypes and David Muth writing a client application.

Equally important are the venues where members of the collaborations curate public events. These have included The Dana Centre, the V&A, MoMA, the Design Museum in London, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, the National Theatre, The Stephen Lawrence Centre, LABoral and Selfridges. There's a full list here. These forays into public spaces have acted as a cross between work in progress shows, design crits and think-tanks.

There have also been some smaller scale activities that are really messy, and which have transgressed divisions between labs and publics. There was an event at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE) called Mind the Loop, that had no clear design outcome, it was just too interesting to neglect. The silicon beta cell is designed to behave like an artificial pancreas, sensing blood sugar levels in the body and applying this biometric data to an algorithm which controls an insulin pump to regulate the blood sugar levels. That's the loop, It's a biological system rendered in silicon. Then around this technology you have different people, including the engineer who is making it work, the person who might use the silicon beta cell, and the doctor who negotiates and implements use. Mind the loop was a conversation between these three people, filmed by Steve Jackman.

Stills from Cotton Wool Kids, Cutting Edge for Channel 4 UK TV

Material Beliefs kicked off with a statement about biological and silicon hybrids, looking perhaps for the collaborations to establish a contemporary description of cyborg. The conversation about the silicon beta cell was striking because it showed the model of this hybrid was more extensive, it was more than one person, the technology is not stable, both in terms of its function and meaning and it took on the values of different communities. At the same time, as the collaboration at IBE was being discussed at public events I became aware of lots of discussion about the relationship between biomedical engineering and monitoring, trust and risk. I built Vital Signs to locate this discussion in a product that monitors a child's biometrics. In the UK there's a debate about childhood and risk, Cutting Edges Cotton Wool Kids and the RSA's recent report are examples. The Vital Signs prototypes are not critical of biomedical research, but designed to ask some questions about how technologies reproduce and materialise social relations.

Sorry, that's drifted away from the question a bit! I hope it gives an example of how the collaborations operate across different sites.

I am very intrigued by the role of Andy Robinson. He is the project manager of MB. How does one manage the speculative? What does his function involve?

I'll ask Andy.

Andy Robinson: My approach to managing the specualtive is to combine the essentials of any project management role, aims and objectives, timescales and milestone etc etc. with a very clear understanding of the particularities of the participants and their ways of working. It is a conversation between participant and the aims set up for the project, where review and redirection are always possible within an agreed, often revised, playing field. The funder is crucial in this in setting up the opportunity for such a project in the first place. This is where the important tone is set, and i try to manage the conversion between participants and this tone. My function therefore is to have an overview, be neutral amongst agendas, but support the initial voice of the projects aims to engage with the participants skills and motivations. Ultimately it is to support creativity to flourish, risks to be taken, the unexpected to be embraced, and speculation to thrive.

I had a huge row with my boyfriend a few years ago. And you're the one to blame. He was totally into doing one of your biojewellery rings and thought i didn't love him enough to sacrifice a bit of wisdom tooth to make one. Where are the rings now? Are you still working on the project? What separates them from mass commercialization? The technology is too expensive? People find the idea hard to stomach?

Ha, sorry to hear about your row! At least you didn't end up with a nasty mouth infection like one of the participants. She was very nice about it, despite the discomfort and having to go on a course of antibiotics. I think the project managed to pay for parking fines she incurred while having the operation, which is some small compensation for a rather frustrating series of events for her.

Though it was not the tooth that provided the sample for the rings. Painful wisdom teeth merely provided a medical reason to have a bit of jaw bone removed, "while we're in there, lets just take a little chip of bone". I'm trivialising something that Ian Thompson did a great deal of work on - an application to a medical ethics committee for permission to run and experiment on the in vitro interaction of osteoblasts with ceramic scaffolds. So growing the rings for the couples also contributed to research about how to culture bone tissue into fairly large volumes.

The real rings are with the couples, and there are various models that tour around. Nikki Stott is setting up an exhibition in Spain shortly, and there have been quite a few shows this year. So it's archived and still active.

Any upcoming projects you could share with us? Either personal or from Material Beliefs?

Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots and Vital Signs are part of the Touch Me festival in Zagreb, so Jimmy Loizeau and I will take some prototypes for exhibition, and I think present Material Beliefs as part of the symposium. The festival theme "arises from the need for artistic and cultural analysis of contemporary forms of violence and systems of control". This is something of a departure from the other weekend, when I was sitting with four year olds in the Royal Institution of Great Britain drawing fly eating robots with felt tips.

I'm then really looking forward to 2009 and getting into my phd, and your questions have given me some things to think about, so thanks for that!

Thanks Tobie!

All images courtesy Material Beliefs.

17:47
The Designers Review of Books
» ‎ swissmiss

The Designers Review of Books is a brand new site reviewing design books. It's run by Andy Polaine, an interaction designer, journalist and lecturer.

(via subtraction)

17:27
Found Video: Nokia Goes Viral for Bruce Lee Phone!
» ‎ The Raw Feed

Nokia has unveiled a limited edition BRUCE LEE NOKIA N96 CAMERA PHONE! The phone is cool, but check out this viral video they produced to market it!

16:34
Let Me Google That For You
» ‎ swissmiss

Next time someone asks if you know something (for example, “what was the URL for that swissmiss blog you told me about?”) simply go to Letmegooglethatforyou.com, put in whatever it is they should’ve googled in the first place, then send them the link it spits out to show them how it’s done. Made me laugh. See the swissmiss demo here. I love you Internet!

(via zoomdoggle)

16:29
I am moving to Hawaii
» ‎ Rebellious Arab Girl

I decided that staying in Canada for the rest of the winter will give me a seizure. It is snowing rain deers and polar bears outside. Yeah you guessed it, there is a snow storm outside. I am in my...

16:22
swiss weltwoche gets a new website...
» ‎ swissmiss

I rarely put on my 'swissmiss criticism hat' but but the redesign of the DIE WELTWOCHE website has me stunned. (Die Weltwoche is a weekly swiss newspaper) How in the world did the Weltwoche management give a sign-off on this design? I don't even know where to start in pointing out the flaws... It feels to me as if the developers happened to have worked off an unfinished mockup.

A company called Kircher Burkhardt created it. Looking at their portfolio, I can clearly say they are pros when it comes to editorial print design, but obviously don't have much experience with the web. What a missed opportunity. (enter sigh here)

Dear Weltwoche, In case you are considering another redesign, I would love to help.

16:18
Man to Swap Glass Eye with Wireless Camera!
» ‎ The Raw Feed

A Canadian film-maker named Rob Spence is having his PROSTHETIC EYE REPLACED BY A CAMERA, according to his blog, EYEBORG. Spence is having the wireless, battery-operated eyeball camera specially made, and he claims he'll be wearing it by Christmas. I want one!

16:05
Malcolm Gladwell | Outliers: The Story of Success
» ‎ swissmiss

A video of Malcolm Gladwell's talk at the recent AIGA Gain Conference. (Dear AIGA, please add the 'embedd video' functionality to your videos. Yes?)

Only Malcolm Gladwell could bring Fleetwood Mac into the design discussion and make wonderful sense. In his enlightening talk about innovation and misconceptions about what it takes to become a success, Gladwell uses this unlikely metaphor for creative synthesis in an entertaining entrée into the concepts of his forthcoming book, Outliers. Genius and creativity don’t necessarily spring forth unbidden, he says; they require time and support to experiment, to try and even fail. During this time of economic crisis and eventual renewal, he hopes that the design community will be able to “rediscover the true roots of creativity and innovation.”

(via whatmademelook)
16:01
Muji Cardboard House
» ‎ swissmiss

Muji Cardboard Dollhouse.

(via minordetails)

15:53
Fake Engineer Provides Fake References In Court
» ‎ The Raw Feed

A man who got caught faking his engineering credentials in order to get a job maintaining Quantas airplanes provided four references in court in order to persuade the judge to give him a lighter sentence. The references? ALSO FAKED.

15:51
Google goes historic
» ‎ swissmiss

Google has a new feature that allows you to search through millions of images from the archives of LIFE magazine. And the best of it all, they’re high-res! Nope, I will not get any work done today!

(via iamrobyin)

15:45
Beware the Netbook Hype Machine
» ‎ The Raw Feed

Netbook PCs are a triumph partly of technology, but mostly of SMART PACKAGING.

15:40
Lunch Bag Art
» ‎ swissmiss

How incredibly cool is this dad that paints/draws on lunch bags during his lunch break for his kids every single day?

(via chrisglass)

14:34
Evolution of “Take a Bow.”
» ‎ Rebellious Arab Girl

Why do female singers like singing to men to take a bow? Madonna - Take a Bow Leona Lewis - Take a Bow Rihanna - Take a Bow Which one do you like? My favorite is Leona Lewis! Related Posts I...

14:20
The Coolest Calendar Concept Ever
» ‎ And Far Away

Bad day? Just burn it away.

14:13
Google Kills 'Second Life Killer,' Google Lively
» ‎ The Raw Feed

Google announced yesterday evening that it would KILL OFF GOOGLE LIVELY, the 3D virtual environment that was supposed to provide a mass-market alternative to environments like Second Life. The company acknowledged that a lot of people put a lot of work into building their Lively rooms, and offered this helpful tip: "We'd encourage all Lively users to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms." Uh, OK. Thanks, I guess...
13:41
Homework Not Done? Students Blame PC Crashes!
» ‎ The Raw Feed

A recent survey conducted by a company called Pixmania found that British students increasingly claim that COMPUTER PROBLEMS PREVENTED THEM FROM TURNING IN HOMEWORK. Teachers hear an average of 15 such excuses per week, according to the survey, which makes PCs the top scapegoat. These excuses take the form of 1) my PC crashed after I finished the homework; 2) I accidentally deleted homework after completing it; 3) the Internet was unavailable, so I couldn't do research; 4) I finished it but I couldn't print; and the piece de resistance 5) the dog peed on my laptop.

12:32
It’s Getting Dangerous for Me to Blog
» ‎ my treasure

Hypo-hell has become hypo-hilarious. Um, like being a little buzzed, it has removed some of my natural and God-given tendencies towards self-protection and self-censorship.

Yea, I almost posted about two REALLY controversial things. I copied the link before even thinking. Then brain kicked in, God breathed said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Oh.My.Gosh.Whew. Almost blew up a peaceful blogosphere. Almost an Embassy-involved International Incident. My hand is so wobbly, I can’t even draw a straight line with a mouse. :O

Here’s my news, switcheroo, from Sis’ email into blog post, rather than making her read blog for my news (Yea, yea, it is tacky, I’m sorry, lazy butt I am, no “cancer card” play with sisters. Oh no, I said ‘butt’ on my blog. New depths of depravity, twice in two days)

Here it is Teh Uncensored Kinzi (or whatever my name is):

Ah shucks, sweet Sis,
I am sorry. Jane says the same thing: “email me, THEN blog”. (Jane makes it RED, like teh words of Jesus, so I don’t miss it)
The Big Dif between email and blog: I don’t bother with grammar or spell check with Sis. Very freeing.
I love you. Love your advice: #1 Don’t fall down. That makes me fall down laughing. Remember that TV commerncial “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down?”. I am now a weeble. It’s a weeble-ey day today.
Heh-heh, you are getting the DITZY, LOOPY, email. Maybe I’ll even turn it into a blog post, but you get it first.
I am eating cheesecake for breakfast. Yymmmm. Who cares how much laxative I will have to drink to get it through my system.
I am spending a lot of time in my warm bed with a hot water bottle reading about Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. I can’t read the footnotes; you said it JUST WAIT, hypo-hell exacerbates the need for bifocals.
I am amazed at God. Yesterday, Hubby kept Lil Kinz home from school. She really wasn’t that sick, but she bamboozled him. I was NOT HAPPY. Sadly, our DVD player is on the fritz and the Xbox, which we can use for movies, wouldn’t open! I was going “How am I going to survive with Chatty Cathy/Constant Project girl home all day with NO screen distractions?” I could let her play computer games (Polly Pocket and WebKinz) but then I have to stay with her in the office (instead of warm bed), and reply to non-stop banter and commands to “Come see!”
Amazingly, I wasn’t the least bit dizzy or weak in the legs, the best I have felt in four days! Then, hubby called with great news, a friend was going to come over and play with Lil Kinz all day! He got all his gold stars back to be creative enough to pull that one off.
I am reading a great book about the sovereignty of God and suffering (HA! Already said that!) I totally recommend another one, less theological, (that some good religious folk are calling heresy, but hey ITS FICTION) called “The Shack” by William Young. I cried all the way through both times I read it (altho one was just after cancer diagnosis, the last last week when my eyes leak all the tiem anyway)
How is Fuzz’s leg? Did the break heal?
How is your back?
With back better, I hope life is easier.
How are sheepies, doggies, mule-ies?
Remember that fire in Yorba Linda? It was only blocks from that place we stayed with the homeschoolers. The big homes just up the hill were toast.

My poor sister, it was all about me.

Even in this new mode of hypo-hilarity, a couple of God-sightings:

* I always shop for baby gifts when in the US, I look for the good brands at 75% off, it’s like a sport, female hunter-gatherer thing. This year, EVERYTHING was pink. Bad news, a

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