Most sustainable design is focused on preserving the life-support systems of our planet, but true sustainability relies on a balance between survival of people and the persistence of culture. The Magno radio is at once a consumer product made from renewable materials, while at the same time it creates a means for a people to […]
Category Archives: supply chain
computer aided re-design
Freitag is well known for their messenger bags up-cycled from the tarps used to cover trucks in Europe. They have a very clever web-based design application that allows you to custom-design a bag from the tarps they have in stock, even accounting for the pieces that have already been claimed by other customers. It’s a […]
Also posted in environment, fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, materials, product design, visualization
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paper maker
With a recent announcement of the first in-office paper recycler, it seems like localized life cycles are finally here. According to Treehugger, their process (which only requires tap water) is comparable in efficiency to industrial paper recycling, without the need to ship heavy paper to the recycling plant, to China and back. Plus it’s billed […]
Also posted in environment, materials
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food life
Halfby’s latest animation takes their bird’s eye view to a national level: this public service announcement illustrates the impact of a shifting food culture. Japan’s diet has shifted away from rice, fish and locally farmed vegetables to include more meat, oils and fats largely imported from other countries. As a result, people are becoming unhealthy, […]
Also posted in energy, environment, food, futurecraft, visualization
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craft cam
At distancelab last week I saw Elena Corchero’s Handmade, a wearable camera for capturing the work you do with your hands. This is a simple, wearable solution to the problem of documenting manual tasks for a variety of new media, including DIY sites such as instructables for which the process of documenting a task can […]
Also posted in fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, soft/glowing, surveillance, traceability
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slice of the pod pie
Andy Lippman pointed me to the work of the Personal Computing Industry Center at UC Irvine and specifically to some papers that analyze the global economic impact of the computer industry. In “Who Captures Value in a Global Innovation System? The case of Apple’s iPod (pdf)” the authors analyze how the profit from a single […]
Also posted in fabrication, product design, retail, traceability
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slow death
Sam Taylor-Wood’s 2001 ‘still life’ (above) and 2002 ‘a little death’ (below) are stunning examples of time-lapse animation composed as seventeenth-century paintings of plenty. The rotting fruit and flesh represent the excesses of excess in an excessively beautiful grotesque. I am very happy that they finally exist on Youtube for us all to see.
Also posted in animation, food, livingbreathing
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farm map 2
With the growing interest in eating local and community-supported agriculture there is a real demand for enabling technology to let small producers and community markets advertise their ever-changing menu. Otoyk (Kyoto backwards) is the newest entry in this field; it allows users to submit links to community farms and markets, and visitors can find directions […]
Also posted in blogogracy, conviviality, energy, environment, food, futurecraft, marketing
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