the ovation ix is a new gas pump that allows users to be ‘more productive’ while pumping gas by watching advertisements, receiving coupons and even buying music for download. now given that gasoline in general (and pumping gas) are a waste of time, it is easy to be more productive – but does downloading music […]
Author Archives: leo
softronics
flexible batteries, flexible displays, flexible solar panels, electronic fabric, it seems like something is brewing… are electronics meant to creep out of their plastic boxes and become soft, supple, wearable, and flexible? something like this was foreshadowed years ago by claes oldenburg who made this soft typewriter (above) in 1963 along with a series of […]
Posted in fabrication
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beer bricks
in 1961 john habraken designed the WOrld BOttle: a new beer bottle for heineken that upcycles into a building material, turning an often-disposed and hard-to-recycle product into an empowering tool for do-it-yourself home building.
Posted in open objects, possessed products, product design, upcycling
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green gadgets
some of the problems i had trying to find out the environmental impact of consumer electronics are 1) different guides exist that rely on different standards 2) the companies make misleading declarations and seem to be actively removing information about their processes and 3) few alternatives exist – all electronics are made of the same […]
Posted in possessed products, product design, visualization
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creation story
natalie jeremijenko started a wiki called how stuff is made to tell the story of how various products are made, from wine bottles and american flags to colombian flowers (above). the anemic collection requires people to submit manufacturing processes to wikipedia, providing that the manufacturers are proud enough to reveal their standards.
Posted in open objects, possessed products, product design, visualization
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blight sight
object orange is a guerrilla art project that paints abandaned homes in the detroit area bright orange to highlight the blight – a kind of urban highlighter. so far four of the eleven painted homes have been demolished. some beautiful images are with one of the artists, paul kotula documentary on youtube via wooster
Posted in possessed products, product design, visualization
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compact disc = expansive life cycle
the epa published this poster to show the complex processes involved in the production of compact discs – a process that’s especially costly when compared with the environmental cost of downloading music digitally via treehugger
Posted in possessed products, product design, visualization
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traffic art
richard ankron makes guerilla public service art like this improvement to a sign on the freeway in LA which has been up for 5 years
Posted in guerilla
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