From my paranoia-fueled American mind, this is a curious context for small public storage lockers, immediately outside of the bustling entrance to the Shibuya train station in Tokyo. Whenever my cultural relativity hits a speed bump like this, I know I’m elsewhere.

The project here is to find ways to create a simple interface display element, as an experiment in subtractive features — removing things to create less bloat, less confusion. A return to fundamentals rather than feature creep. Not that a 4×5 matrix LED display would necessarily be an end-goal. Rather, what are the…

Summing up all the projects that seem to be perpetually in process, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m learning more about process, that is more enthralled with the doing rather than what specifically gets done, especially with the new techniques of design, tools, machines languages.

A variety of metal foil etched displays. These are super thin displays designed to be used in things like smart cards and credit cards, or laminated onto some other small, light weight device. Curious how the 8-segment displays feel a bit ancient, like old calculators.

A night out at a fancy Brazilian restaurant in Beverly Hills. The main interface instruments here are the card that can be turned to the green side for “bring me meat” or the red side for “pause..” Judicious control keeps a patron from a serious bout of indigestion. It’s very game-like, this experience. As soon as t…

One block from the Pacific the salt air takes its toll on a janky table and set of chairs. Venice Beach is very much in transformation, gentrifying even with the housing crisis in full-swing. One finds way over priced homes right next to mid-century cottages with piles of junk in the front yard and newspaper for win…

A hardwired, buttoned residue indicating the essentials. Some archaic (I still wince when someone, often a lawyer, asks me to send a Fax), and some now have become so vague as to be nearly meaningless in context — “Internet”?? “Extras”?? And a “Tel” short-key? Still working through interfaces for people. Close, but…

I did a Pecha Kucha style presentation on some developing thoughts on the relationships between theory and practice, and the role of a hybrid, multiple art-design-technology approach to creating and circulating culture and knowledge. “Making things” can happen in lots of ways. I’ve tried two — engineering and art. A…

Nicolas’ post the other day got me thinking. After my first job as an engineer, I wanted to find ways to do work that had more direct implications for people. I found things like Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Human Interaction. They had the word “human” in them, so I figured this was the engine…