Core77 Design Award 2011: Simple Memory and Bloom, Student Runner-Up and Notable for Interactive/Web/Mobile
Posted in: Core77 Design Awards
Over the next months we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com
Visualization from Simple Memory
Designer: Amy Martin – California College of the Arts
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Category: Interactive/Web/Mobile
Award: Student Runner-Up and Notable
Simple Memory visualizes personal relationships within email. Using a 4.5 gb Gmail archive, this prototype shows the top ten recipients each year from 2004 to 2010. In addition to representing the natural ebb & flow of relationships, it also shows how data can create understanding and evoke emotion.
Bloom moves an emergent function of email–task management–out of the inbox and into an external, physical object. Drawing on the ideas of ubiquitous computing, this project combines an existing behavior, starring items in an inbox, with the familiar metaphor of a plant.
Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I learned from the twitter feed first. As I was at work, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I was a little too scared to watch the broadcast (in case I didn’t win… I watched it afterwards though).
What’s the latest news or development with your projects?
Both of my projects were prototypes for thesis work and so are indefinitely on hold. If I come into riches, someday, I’d love to continue the work myself but I’d also be delighted to see someone else take a similar concept (for Bloom) and run with it. I could easily see that being some kind of ipad app.
What is the impetus behind your design?
I went into graduate school with the idea of representing how interchangable humanity is/has become (something of a personal obsession). Throughout most of my work during school, however, I never touched that concept. It was, then, incredibly satisfying to me, to touch again on that theme with Simple Memory. It felt a little like coming full circle.
Read on for full details and Jury Comments on Simple Memory and Bloom.
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