Hasta La Ideas

Yahoo Japan has utilised the buzz around 3D printing in its latest campaign, created by Hakuhodo, which features a giant voice-activated search engine machine that can create real objects…

The machine has been installed in a school for the visually impaired – the film above shows children there making use of it. Each child says a word into the machine – ‘giraffe’ or ‘Tyrannosaurus’ are two examples – and it then prints a model of the named animal. The implication is that this then allows the children their first interaction with how the word ‘feels’, in a way that would never be possible with an on-screen search.

As the making-of film below shows, the machine really does exist. Presumably though, it is a one-off for the ad campaign, and in that case is it really much more than a voice-activated printer? It’s also difficult to know whether it will really be of much use to the school once the initial thrill of printing an object just by speaking a word has worn off (which might actually take a while).

Before we all get lost in cynicism though, the film does make a wider point about the way we think about the internet too. As 3D printing becomes more widespread, and our interaction with computers more instinctive, by the use of voice and touch rather than keyboard and mouse, the internet will no longer be something that’s accessible only on screen but potentially all around us. This is of course not a new idea in the tech world, but machines such as Yahoo’s Hands On Search introduce it to a mainstream audience in a way that feels intriguing and, crucially, non-threatening. The website for this project describes it as a ‘first step towards a new search’ – if that’s genuinely true it will be really interesting to see what comes next.

If you’re checking out grad schools for next September, be sure to take a look at the MFA in Products of Design program at SVA in New York City. Chaired by Core77’s Allan Chochinov, the department will welcome guests to its Information Session/Open House on Saturday, November 9th, from 11am to 1pm. Meet faculty and students, tour the department and Visible Futures Lab, and preview projects and the curriculum. Here’s a bit more:

“Please join us for our Open House and Information Session. The MFA in Products of Design is an immersive, two-year graduate program that creates exceptional practitioners for leadership in the shifting terrain of design. We educate heads, hearts and hands to reinvent systems and catalyze positive change.

Students gain fluency in the three fields crucial to the future of design: Making, from the handmade to digital fabrication; Structures: business, research, systems, strategy, user experience and interaction; and Narratives: video storytelling, history and point of view. Through work that engages emerging science and materials, social cooperation and public life, students develop the skills to address contemporary problems in contemporary ways.

Graduates emerge with confidence, methods, experience and strong professional networks. They gain the skills necessary to excel in senior positions at top design firms and progressive organizations, create ingenious enterprises of their own, and become lifelong advocates for the power of design.”

Check out all the goings on at the department goings on at the site and on their blog.
RSVP for the Open House/Information Session event here.

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London Design Festival 2013: fluorescent lights are controlled by analogue toggle switches in this interactive installation by Faye Toogood for design brand Established & Sons (+ slideshow).

London designer Faye Toogood responded to Established & Sons‘ invitation to produce an installation for the London Design Festival by replicating the appearance of a giant equaliser inside the brand’s 550 square-metre showroom.

A hundred and sixty fluorescent tube lights flicker in alternating sequence and can be controlled by toggling switches mounted on a central switchboard.

The switches are embedded in blocks of coloured resin, through which the cables can be seen.

Beneath the switches the cables drop down through a metal mesh table and spill onto the floor, creating a tangled pile that carries current to the lights.

Iridescent panels fixed to the wall behind the lights are made from zinc passivated steel, a material commonly used to provide insulation from electronic interference.

Toogood developed the installation in response to a new series of colourful resin furniture by Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka, which Established & Sons is also launching during LDF.

Faye Toogood recently designed the interior for a London boutique with a bright white basement and a moody blue ground floor, and used raw concrete and colourful fabrics for the interior of a fashion store in Dubai. See more Faye Toogood »

Established & Sons launched a table supported by four chairs in Milan earlier this year and commissioned designers including Jasper Morrison and Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby to design benches for an exhibition at the V&A museum during last year’s London Design Festival. See more Established & Sons »

Here’s some more info from Established & Sons:

Established & Sons at The London Design Festival

14th–22nd September 2013
Established & Sons – A Vivid Interval
The Conductor

Established & Sons is delighted to announce an artistic collaboration with London designer Faye Toogood during the London Design Festival.

Faye has been invited to create an interactive installation at Established & Sons’ 6,000 square foot studio showroom. Titled, ‘The Conductor’ the creation will allow guests to watch and control a rhythmic symphony of light played out on a giant circuit board of iridescent zinc passivated steel – an industrial material used to provide insulation from electrical interference.

Echoing the graphic of an equaliser, 160 fluorescent bulbs fed by intertwined wires and cables, light up in alternating sequences. The circuit is completed by the audience themselves, who can ‘conduct’ this electrical spectacle from the centrepiece switchboard; itself an array of intricately pigmented resin blocks and archaic-looking analogue toggles, which operate the light orchestra. The result is a macro-electronic display that redefines the notion of son et lumière.

Maurizio Mussati, CEO of Established & Sons says, “We are delighted to welcome Faye Toogood to transform our showroom this year. Established & Sons provides a creative platform for innovative concept ideas inviting the use of visual imagination in design. Faye’s interactive creation will be an immersive and inspiring visual experience, with light and colour dancing across the eyes. It provides the perfect platform for the launch of our stunning new resin series, designed by Jo Nagasaka and should make a memorable impression. I recommend bringing a pair of sunglasses!”

Japanese architect, Jo Nagasaka’s new resin series, was the inspiration behind ‘The Conductor’; the idea of a symphony of colour and industrial materials. These stunning pieces; a coffee table, side table, credenza with sliding doors and a new chair, remain true to Japanese minimalist style whilst being elevated to avant-garde status through the use of brightly coloured resin.  The elegant and smooth finishing highlights the beautiful properties of the natural grain of the wood.

Opening Times/ 16-21 September:
10am – 6pm, 22 September: 12pm – 4pm
Established & Sons Showroom, 5-7 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SL

The post The Conductor by Faye Toogood
for Established & Sons appeared first on Dezeen.

Le photographe américain Marc A. Hermann issu de la New York Press Photographers Association a recréé des scènes de crimes en faisant un mashup de photos d’archives tirées du New York Daily News et de photographies actuelles prises selon le même angle. Un travail historique bluffant à découvrir.

It’s always exciting to hear that Michel Gondry has done a new ad. And when I read that the spot, for Gillette, featured NFL players making music while working out, the potential for quirky fun seemed huge. Would the workout machines be made of cardboard boxes and string and attached to a giant oompha band? Sadly not…

Actually the spot is pretty ordinary. Yes, for a Gillette spot it’s a radical change but if you’re paying for talent such as Gondry, as well as LCD Soundsystem’s Phil Mossman, who composed the music, shouldn’t we get something more exciting?

It’s certainly well made, and getting the NFL team on board adds a frission of excitement, but even the idea of making music in unusual places feels fairly well-furrowed ground in advertising: Ford did it for cars, for example, and Nike for basketball. And then there’s the Coca-Cola and Mark Ronson tie-up for the Olympics last year.

So all in all we can’t help but be slightly disappointed, no matter how good the production values are. But having said that, we’re still a long way from ‘the best a man can get‘, which can only be a good thing.

Credits:
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer: Dave Lubars
ECD: Toygar Bazarkaya
Creative: Brian Wiesenthal
Director: Michel Gondry
Production company: Partizan