Essay: The Garage of Small Things; nanotechnology, biomimicry and design practice (Annex)
What follows is a slightly different edit of my article for Artek’s new magazine, 'Annex', as part of their science and technology-themed issue. It explores some of the possibilities in and around advanced material research, based on a conversation between researcher Olli Ikkala, Artek design director Ville Kokkonen, and me, at Aalto University’s “Nanotalo” (nano-house). […]
Journal: Annex, by Artek
‘Annex’ is a new magazine from Artek, the legendary Finnish design firm set up nearly 70 years ago by Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. A while ago, I mentioned the “prototype”, the 'Manifest' publication commissioned by Artek for World Design Capital Helsinki, to which I contributed a short article on street […]
Sketchbook: Dark Matter
What follows is a note to refer to later, and is also adapted from a section of my recent essay/e-book for Strelka Press: "Dark Matter & Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary", of which more here. It’s been quite a month for dark matter of course. While the latest twist in the Hunt for Higgs […]
Journal: Of brains and cities; neuroscience and cultures of decision-making
From Emergence, by Steven Johnson A couple of weeks ago I was invited to take part in an event called the “North House Salon” (see previous entry: Passport Control to Pimlico). These salons are organised by Dr Sarah Caddick, neuroscience advisor to Lord David Sainsbury (ex-Minister for Science and Innovation in the UK government) and the […]
The windy city
Reading a recent Building Design article on the introduction of wind turbines on Elephant & Castle in London, I sense a tenuous link between that and last month’s note on modeling the behaviour of sound in urban spaces, not just within buildings. Repeating my hasty sketch, intended to indicate sounds bouncing through a space (‘wavetracing’) […]
Postopolis!: Stanley Greenberg
Note: This is a summary of a talk given at Postopolis!, taken in real-time, with minimal editing. Reader beware! Postopolis! was organised by BLDDBLOG, City of Sound, Inhabitat, Subtopia, and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, and ran from May 29th-June 2nd 2007. Flickr group for photos here. YouTube videos uploaded here. […]
From A-to-Bee
Interesting story filed in the ‘Navigation/Wayfinding‘ section of the BBC News site today. (Sorry, that should read "the ‘Science/Nature‘ section of the BBC News site". I forgot to remove my filter.) On bumblebees. And their extraordinary facility for wayfinding. "What we are showing is that it is eminently possible for bumblebees to forage more than […]
Journal: The Shock of the New World, with respect to the flora and fauna of Australia
[First of several notes from a trip to Australia in April 2006] Australia was familiar – same language; a shared culture to a large degree, more so than America – but utterly foreign at the same time, and I hadn't expected that difference to be articulated so immediately through its natural environment. In response, here's […]
London hasn’t changed
Interesting piece in The Economist on Friday (by Tim Cross I think). It reports on an updated version of the highly influential ‘Descriptive Map of London Poverty’ by Charles Booth plus team. (I mentioned the map previously here, and a version is available online.) What this new research suggests is fascinating, perhaps particularly to those […]
Change is on the cards
To Arup last night, on the way home, to the ‘book’ launch of their Drivers of Change 2006. The word ‘book’ is in inverted commas there as this is actually a box of cards – somewhere between IDEO’s interaction design Method Cards and the classic Oblique Strategies, but here containing rich, research-based information across numerous […]