The Greenwashing Index is a mashup of advertisements submitted by users and ranked on how much they lie about the sustainability of products. Watching ads through a critical lens has a very different impact than their broadcasting on television or in print; the only problem is that they tend to disappear from the web once […]
Category Archives: marketing
farm map 3
I recently met with Season to Taste Catering Chef Robert Harris, who told me about Chicago-based Green caterer Greg Christian. He has published a number of tools and started several initiatives to promote eating locally and sustainably through his website. Among them: a map (above) of the farms he uses to source food in the […]
Also posted in blogogracy, food, futurecraft, traceability
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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, supply chain
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scrap shoes 2
Tiffany has a great post on the state of the art in diy shoes from scrap tires, including a link to this pattern for cutting sandals from a slab of reused rubber (above) and this link to purchase up-cycled Cambodian tire sandals from the Old Ho Rubber Sandal Company: To replace your Old Ho’s straps […]
Also posted in fashion, futurecraft, materials, open objects
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glow pills
At the crossroads of Ambient and Persuasive interfaces, Glowcaps is a new product from ex-CEO of Ambient Devices David Roses’s new startup, Vitality. In this video he shows how the system is installed: it consists of pill bottle caps that glow red to remind you to take what’s inside, and blue when you’ve complied. These […]
Also posted in soft/glowing
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digital luck
In Taiwan last week I bought this tiny, tiny USB key fashioned as a cell phone charm with a diminutive fabric sleeve meant to make it look like a good luck charm. Aside from its ridiculously small size for a 1GB memory stick (less than 1 gram, 27 x 12 x 2mm), it has a […]
Also posted in product design
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construction costs
Gavin Lee‘s workshop group at Nightmarket ’08 produced a Flash game highlighting the social costs of destruction. Using a Wii remote, users can drive a bulldozer through a landscape, knocking down trees and houses amid satisfying sounds of demolition. After the frenzied destruction, you are awarded points based on the number of displaced people and […]
Also posted in art, conviviality, environment
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digital sweat
I recently watched Stephanie Rothenberg speak about her project doublehappinessjeans, a Second Life sweatshop that produces designer denim by the underpaid labor of virtual avatars; producing the goods in both physical and digital form. The idea makes an intriguing point about the ideal of Personal Fabrication: that one day manufacturing of complex products will be […]
Also posted in fabrication, fashion, futurecraft, possessed products, product design, soft/glowing
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