the shape memory alloy nitinol has the ability to spring back to its original forged shape when heated, allowing soft actuation without motors. italian fashion designers grado zero made a shirt that rolled up its own sleeves when the wire (and the wearer) overheat (above). later joanna berzowska and marcelo coelho made kukkia and vilkas, […]
Category Archives: livingbreathing
mini-people
tony oursler‘s video installations have haunted me since i first saw them in 1995 – by simply projecting animated video of faces onto dolls whole and disembodied the appearance of life is uncanny, especially when the dummy is under a rock, or miniature – it is by far the best augmented reality work i have […]
Also posted in soft/glowing, visualization
Comments closed
better living wall
while the aesthetics of plant walls are important, these chunks of living architecture can also act as active air filters, reducing VOC’s and carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. this bio-wall at queen’s university has a live web presence to report on the air quality in real-time. via paul schuette
Posted in livingbreathing
Comments closed
living wall
patrick blanc creates tropical plant walls in urban environments by growing carefully selected plants in complex hanging structures made of synthetic felt and steel and plastic under strong lights. i was first awed by one of his creations at the manhattan girbaud store: a lush living wall of plants hanging in the middle of an […]
Posted in livingbreathing
Comments closed
green pool
swimming is a wonderful sensory therapy, but most pools require chlorine or some other corrosive chemical to stay clean – except in europe, where total habitat has been making natural pools for twenty years, pools containing water gardens that keep the water clean through beneficial plants and microorganisms. now if only i had a big […]
Posted in livingbreathing
Comments closed
grown-your-own clothes
it’s everywhere: a chance we can replace the noisy, dangerous, dirty processes of production with biological growth. first germinating buildings, now clothing grown – actually fermented – from beer and wine, what next, electronics?
Also posted in fabrication
Comments closed
living plastic
when i was in west palm this past weekend i saw these blue plastic bubbles washed up on the shore – they looked like shriveled balloons, only they were portuguese man-of-war: although these are highly poisonous, they look just like the plastic bags that wash ashore and fill the oceans. two things: have they evolved […]
Posted in livingbreathing
Comments closed
wearable garden
while recent projects and products encourage agriculture in the home, cranbrook design student jon paananen proposes plants on the body: oxy sak is a proposed breathing apparatus for urban pedestrians (left) while digital boy growth tools (right) encourage children to grow up not only appreciating nature but wearing it. makes me wonder if clothing itself […]
Posted in livingbreathing
Comments closed