joo youn paek showed the polite umbrella at the sigtronica seamless electronic fashion show last week: an umbrella that shrinks when you pull on its handle to make room for passersby. what makes an object polite is not just the fact that it can be considerate of other people, but that you can express empathy […]
Author Archives: leo
technology for eating alone
when traveling in a foreign country, ordering food can be an adventure. fortunately, japan has a plethora of solutions for avoiding human contact altogether when eating out: the conveyor belt restaurant (above) and the vending machine restaurant (below). in the conveyor belt, a chef prepares small dishes and places them on a conveyor belt that […]
Posted in conviviality, evil robots
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eco-corpse
jae rhim lee showed the infinity burial suit at the seamless fashion on wednesday: an outfit for an eco-conscious corpse, the suit contains mushroom spores that feed off nutrients created by the decomposing body.
Posted in environment, fabrication, fashion, livingbreathing, materials, possessed products, product design
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rest in pod
it is still inspiring to see kisho kurokawa‘s nagakin capsule building in ginza, even as the structure falls apart and faces demolition – the building is a monument to an idea, otherwise unlivable, and in all of its ugliness and simplicity reveals more about the way tokyo’s residents actually live than any other building. the […]
Posted in architecture, fabrication, livingbreathing
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earring aid
walking through ginza two days ago i saw this window display for hearing aids with an emphasis on fashion: each ear piece can be covered in a variety of different colors and textures to match your outfit or your mood. this has been an ongoing theme in design for the body ever since the human […]
Posted in fashion, livingbreathing, perception, product design
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sociable cookware
recently it’s been theorized that robots are easier to get along with if they have real faces, so what if cookware could do the same? maybe cooking would be more fun, and food might taste better… i spotted a number of sociable pots, pans, cups and bowls in tokyo this week: a sign of things […]
Posted in livingbreathing, possessed products, product design
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spinning streetlights
yesterday i stopped by the panasonic center in tokyo and i saw these graceful solar and wind-powered streetlights – so-called ‘seagulls.’ they generate power during the day, storing it in a battery at the base of the light pole, and illuminate at night while continuing to generate wind power. although it seems unlikely that they […]
Posted in energy, environment, futurecraft, product design
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robot co-pilot
strolling past nissan’s showroom in ginza today i saw an interesting concept reminiscent of the R2D2 + X-wing co-driving model: a ‘future car’ with a robot (similar to papero) embedded in the dashboard as a kind anthropomorphic GPS, a co-pilot, and in any case better than a totally self-driving car because it has a face […]
Posted in evil robots, possessed products
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