Near Future Laboratory Blog
Near Future Laboratory Blog
Thoughts, Reflections, Updates & Week Notes
Jun 7, 2010 – Jun 29, 2010
w24/w26/w27/
Jun 29, 2010
“Interdisciplinary work, so much discussed these days, is not about confronting already constituted disciplines (none of which, in fact, is willing to let itself go). To do something interdisciplinary it’s not enough to choose a “subject” (a theme) and gather around it two or three sciences. Interdisciplinarity cons…
DesignPost-Optimal DesignUndesignUndisciplinarityAnthropologyInterdisciplinaryJim CliffordRoland BarthesUndisciplinary
Thursday June 24 12:11
Jun 28, 2010
Well, well, well..no more phoning-it-in, as they say out here in Hollywood. If you’re doing it, do it til someone gets hurt. So, bulls taken by horns and all that with some promising conversations around the start of things for what will likely result in some defining design executions and implementations. It will b…
DesignNokiaWeeknotesFrogLaser CutterSeattleTalkVenice Skateboarding AssociationWeekending
eagletour1600x1200
Jun 24, 2010
A curious bit of making science fiction fact which is one of the themes and motivations and conventions of design fiction is the Sci-Fi Airshow, a tour of the various air/spacecraft from your favorite science fiction shows. It’s all done in the stylings of the airshow, as the name suggests, where pilots and fans gat…
DesignDesign FictionDesign Fiction ChroniclesScience FictionThe FutureAir ShowSpace 1999
mouseless01
Jun 22, 2010
This is a curious project from some students at MIT. They’ve used a laser beam and a camera sensitive to the light reflected from that beam to track the motion and articulations of one’s hand as it moves and makes mouse-like gestures. So, effectively they’ve gotten rid of the mouse. Which is why they call their proj…
DesignDesign for ImplicationsInterfaceNew Interaction RitualsPost-Optimal DesignMetaphorUser Experienceuser interface
JCB_11062010_201519_0398
Jun 20, 2010
Last weekend was a trip to Santa Cruz for the retirement jubilation of a professor and mentor from grad school, Jim Clifford. He reminded me that retirement isn’t quite the right word. I believe him when he says he’s looking forward to doing more of the fun intellectual work rather than the prickly hassles of univer…
WeeknotesAnthropologyEthnographyHistConHistory of ConsciousnessJim CliffordWeekending
Digital & Analog Day In The Studio
Jun 11, 2010
Well, without making a big thing out of it, I thought I’d just share a few of the installation photos from the Apparatus for Capturing Other Points of View, which is at the HABITAR exhibition at LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre. ((It’s always fun to see the preposterous things you get excited about install…
Apparatus for Capturing Other Points of ViewDesign Art TechnologyProjectsWeeknotesThe Apparatus for Capturing Other Points of ViewWeekending
27092008_103620
Jun 10, 2010
From William Gibson’s recent Book Expo American luncheon talk?
Approaches to DesignDesignDesign FictionHow ToThe FutureTimelinesWilliam Gibson
Luggage without wheels
Jun 08, 2010
A short-hand expression used in and around the studio to describe that one, usually small, unexpected and deceptively obvious designed feature that makes an artifact suddenly transformatively useful/helpful/up-graded. The kind of transformation that makes you look back and wonder how the heck you ever schlepped that…
DesignDesign for ImplicationsDisruptionObservationsWheels On LuggageInnovationInventionThings Have Been Otherwise
Saturday January 17 20:00
Jun 07, 2010
It now occurs to me that I should probably just end the week on Sunday, or Monday morning, seeing as that appears to be when I consistently write weeknotes. And the writing of them? That’s just more intrepid pushing-through more than anything else.
Design FictionWeeknotesWeekending