Hasta La Ideas

News: Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has developed an “electronic vacuum cleaner” that can remove smog from urban skies and is working with the mayor of Beijing to use the technology in a new park in the city (+ interview + movie).

The concept uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field that attracts smog particles, creating a void of clean air above it.

“You can purify the air so you can breathe again,” Roosegaarde told Dezeen in an exclusive interview during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. “It creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.”

Roosegaarde’s company Studio Roosegaarde has signed a memorandum of understanding with the mayor of Beijing to create a public park to showcase the technology.

The authorities in Beijing are finally admitting the huge problems caused by smog. This weekend the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center warned children, the elderly and those with heart and breathing problems to stay indoors due to extreme levels of pollutants in the air.

Working with scientists at the University of Delft, Roosegaarde created a working prototype of the project last week. “We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre,” he said. “And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.”

The buried copper coils produce a weak electrostatic field that extends into the sky above. Smog particles are drawn down towards the ground, punching a clean hole in the air and allowing the particles to be collected. The coils can be buried beneath the grass of a park and are completely safe.

“It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair,” Roosegaarde explained. “If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner.”

Roosegaarde had the idea for the project while staying at a hotel in Beijing and looking at OMA’s CCTV building from his window. “I saw the CCTV building,” he said. “I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem.”

Roosegaarde’s team will now spend up to 18 months developing the technology before starting work on the ground in Beijing.

Here’s the text of the interview between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Daan Roosegaarde:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the smog project.

Daan Roosegaarde: As you may know I hop from obsession to obsession, from fashion to highways to a problem we have right now which is smog. So it’s weird, because in a way we as human beings have always developed tools to enable ourselves. Wheels are an extension of our legs; glasses are an extension of our eyes; we developed cars to travel around.

But the weird thing in China, where growth is going so fast, is that these machines are striking back. They create side effects that we never thought about, which is pollution, which is smog. And Beijing is getting so incredibly worse that the American Embassy had to buy a new meter, because it was hitting the top all the time.

Marcus Fairs: How did the project come about?

Daan Roosegaarde: I was in a hotel in Beijing where I saw the CCTV building. I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem. We could use smog as a material to design with, to draw.

Marcus Fairs: How does it work?

Daan Roosegaarde: We learned a lot from the Crystal project we’ve done in Eindhoven, which uses static electro-magnetic fields of ions. It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair.

If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner. You can purify the air so you can breathe again. And it creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.

So we teamed up with the Technical University of Delft, with a smog expert, and he said the technology is possible, so we have a big indoor prototype working. And I spoke to the mayor of Beijing who, when the microphone is turned off, admits they have a big problem, and so they are investing in making it happen.

The idea is to make a park in Beijing where you will see the old world and the new world. We’ll drag nature in. It’s Dutch landscape design in a most radical way.

It’s similar to how static electricity works, where you create a field. By electrifying particles they gravitate and fall down. It’s similar to how they spray-paint metal onto surface [by a process known as vacuum metallisation, in which electrostatically charged metal particles are attracted to the surface of an object, creating a metallic surface on it].

Marcus Fairs: Could this be a solution to smog in future?

Daan Roosegaarde: It could be a first step in creating awareness of how bad it really is. Because you see the difference really clearly. Of course the real solution lies in dealing with reality in a different way; it’s a human problem not a technological problem. But for sure my goal would be to apply it to parks, to public spaces which are for everyone, where people can meet and enjoy life again.

Marcus Fairs: What does the device look like?

Daan Roosegaarde: It’s copper coils that we put in the ground and put grass over them so you don’t see it. It sounds a bit dangerous but it’s pacemaker-safe, you can walk through it, the electric field is quite low. It’s an induction thing similar to how your toothbrush gets charged.

Marcus Fairs: How high can it reach?

Daan Roosegaarde: That’s what we’re testing now. The smog is quite low, which is good, especially in Beijing. Basically the more energy you put in it, the higher you can get. It’s high voltage, low ampere, and the more power you put in the more smog you can attract.

Marcus Fairs: If you switch it on would you see the smog suddenly disappear into the ground?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. You would literally see it on the ground. What I would like to do is capture all that smog and then compress it. So for example you could make a smog ring of all the smog in a cubic kilometre. It would show the reality and question why we accept it.

Marcus Fairs: Have you tested it?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre. And that happened this week. And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.

Marcus Fairs: Is the Beijing project going to happen?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We signed a memorandum of understanding to do it. They just launched [another] project, a €2.3 million project to purify air, to reduce cars, more cycling. But it’s peanuts. It’s not going to work.

Marcus Fairs: How much does your concept cost?

Daan Roosegaarde: The research and development is the biggest hurdle as always. It will take another 12-15 months with a good team of people to make it work, to make it safe. But we know it’s possible and you know me by now: I have a scientist who says it’s possible, you have me, a designer who creates the imagination and you have a client who is desperate. And now all we have to do is find the “merge” button. It’s a new challenge.

The post Roosegaarde’s “electronic vacuum cleaner”
could solve smog problem appeared first on Dezeen.

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Dave Hakkens’ concept for a mobile phone made of detachable blocks has gone viral, attracting over 16 million views on YouTube and garnering almost a million supporters online (+ movie + interview).

“I put the video online and in the first 24 hours I had like one million views on YouTube,” Hakkens told Dezeen. “I got a lot of responses to it.”

Dutch designer Hakkens, who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven this summer, presented his Phonebloks concept at the academy’s graduation show in Eindhoven today at the start of Dutch Design Week.

Phonebloks is a concept for a phone made of swappable components that fit together like Lego, with each component containing a different function. This means that components can be replaced or upgraded without having to throw away the phone.

“Usually a phone is integrated into one solid block and if one part gets broken you have to throw away the entire phone,” said Hakkens. “But this has different components, so if  your battery is broken you can replace the the battery or if you need a better camera you only upgrade the camera component. So you don’t throw away the entire phone; you keep the good stuff.”

Last month Hakkens uploaded a video explaining the concept to YouTube, where it went viral and has now been watched over 16 million times.

He then put the idea on “crowdspeaking” site Thunderclap, where instead of donating money, supporters donate their social reach. He now has over 900,000 supporters on the site, and when the campaign closes on 29 October a message about Phonebloks will automatically be sent to each supporters’ social media contacts, giving Hakkens a total audience of over 360 million people.

Hakkens said: “That’s the whole point of this idea; to generate lots of buzz so companies see there’s a huge market and realise they really need to make a phone like this.”

The Phonebloks concept features electronic blocks that snap onto a base board, which links all the components. Two small screws lock everything together. Users can choose components from their favourite brands or make their own modules.

“You can customise your phone, replacing the storage block with a larger battery if you store everything in the cloud, or replace advanced components you don’t need with basic blocks like a bigger speaker,” says the video explaining the concept.

Hakkens hopes Phonebloks will lead to fewer phones being thrown away, thereby reducing waste. “Electronic devices are not designed to last,” the video says. “This makes electronic waste one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world and our phone is one of the biggest causes.”

Here’s the interview conducted at Design Academy Eindhoven today:

Marcus Fairs: What is Phonebloks?

Dave Hakkens: Phonebloks is a phone made to upgrade and repair; it’s a phone worth keeping. Usually we throw it away after a couple of years. But this one is made to last.

Marcus Fairs: How is it made to last?

Dave Hakkens: Usually a phone is integrated into one solid block, and if one part gets broken you have to throw away the entire phone. But this has different components, so if for instance only your battery is broken you can replace the the battery, or if it’s slow after a couple of years you can change just the speed component. If you need a better camera you only upgrade the camera component. So in this way you don’t throw away the entire phone; you keep the good stuff.

Marcus Fairs: Tell us how it went viral.

Dave Hakkens: The idea with this whole project is I’m just one guy at the Design Academy; I can’t make this phone by myself. I can go to a lot of companies and pitch, ask them if they’d like to make my phone, but I thought I’d do it the other way around; so I gathered a lot of people who told companies they really wanted this phone. So I put this video online and in the first 24 hours I had like one million views on YouTube. I also gathered supporters so currently I have 900,000 supporters, and they all just wanted this phone. So now I have all this attention and I get a lot of nice emails from companies who want to work on this.

Marcus Fairs: How did you spread the message?

Dave Hakkens: You have this site called Thunderclap. On Thunderclap instead of crowdfunding you crowdspeak people; people don’t donate money but instead they donate their friends and family. You say you’re interested in a project and want to support it, so you donate your friends – their Facebook followers and Twitter followers – and on the 29 October automatically a message is sent out by those people saying “We want phone blocks”. That spreads to all their friends and families. So currently I have like 900,000 supporters but on 29 October we will reach 300 million people. So that’s the whole point of this idea; to generate lots of buzz so companies see there’s a huge market and realise they really need to make a phone like this.

Marcus Fairs: What is the next step?

Dave Hakkens: My idea succeeded from day one; I got a lot of responses to it. I’ve got a lot of people interested in developing it: engineers, technicians and companies. So right now I’m thinking what would be a logical next step. Crowdsource it on the internet? Work together with a company? That’s what I’m thinking about now; how to realise the phone the best way.

The post Phonebloks mobile phone concept
by Dave Hakkens appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the #milanuncut debate that exposed the poor royalties designers earn has inspired the launch of Crowdyhouse, a new crowdfunding platform that helps designers find funding for their products.

CrowdyHouse, which will launch next week at Dutch Design Week, has been developed by Mark Studholme and Suzan Claesen to provide an alternative to the traditional royalties system, which Studholme says provides “an awful deal for the designers”.

“Our platform means that designers don’t have to take their product to Milan, stand next to it for a week, convince someone to buy it and then only receive 5 percent in royalties of the wholesale price,” Studholme told Dezeen.

Studholme says the #milanuncut project, which engaged dozens journalists and designers during Milan 2011, focused his attention on the difficulties faced by young designers trying to sell their work.

Coordinated by Dezeen and facilitated by an identity and a mobile app developed by London graphic designers Zerofee, #milanuncut was an open-source discussion on Twitter about the way designers are paid for their work in the furniture and product design industry. It drew attention to the paltry royalties and unfavourable contractual terms that are typical when young designers develop products for well-known brands.

“I’m very surprised that, since #milanuncut two years ago, no solutions have really been proposed,” he points out. “The conversation just died down, so hopefully we can ignite it again.”

During the Milan Furniture Fair in 2011, journalists including Kieran Long, Max Fraser, Justin McGuirk, Julie Taraska and Dezeen’s Marcus Fairs contributed to the #milanuncut debate, which set the international agenda for the fair. McGuirk focused on the issue in his Milan review in UK newspaper The Guardian and publications including Abitare, Form magazine and Architects Journal reported on the topic.

“The #milanuncut story was really just a symptom of the unsustainable state of the furniture industry,” said McGuirk this week. “As design manufacturing is forced to reinvent itself, crowdfunding platforms are an obvious step in a new direction, potentially giving designers direct access to markets of their own making.”

Using a similar crowdfunding principle to the one popularised by companies such as Kickstarter, designers are able to raise money upfront by inviting funding for products which investors eventually receive once they have been produced. The designers retain 90 percent of the funding total, with CrowdyHouse taking the other 10 percent.

“Crowdyhouse is actually the first crowd-funded platform specifically for design,” says Studholme. “We realised the traditional Kickstarter model doesn’t favour designers so we thought there was a need for a design-specific platform that really allows the designers to focus on the designs.”

CrowdyHouse offers contemporary products and furniture ranging in price from €65-3000. Designs have to reach a minimum order number before the designer begins to manufacture the product and distribute it to investors.

Details about the designers and the story behind the products, how the funds will be used, and the progress of funding and product development are listed on the website.

Some of the products featured include pressed-clay vessels by Studio Floris Wubben and a concrete, wood and leather lamp by Tim Vinke. Design studio Vilt aan Zee plans to use the funds generated on CrowdyHouse to buy a sheep to supply wool for its felt-shaded table lamp.

The designers listed on the site are currently all based in CrowdyHouse’s home nation of The Netherlands but Studholme and Claesen plan to expand the roster to include designers from other countries.

Here’s a full press release about the launch of CrowdyHouse:

CrowdyHouse stimulates unique design
Launch of innovative crowdfunding and sales platform on October 21st

A new Dutch concept to stimulate innovative design: CrowdyHouse. This platform is a unique combination of crowdfunding and retail. Giving designers the possibility to self-­produce their work and allowing consumers to buy unique design in a transparent manner. CrowdyHouse is launching during the Dutch Design Week, October 21st, in Eindhoven.

When you have a good design as a designer, it’s surprisingly difficult to get financing for the production of it. What CrowdyHouse does is loosely based on the popular crowdfunding principle, but adds a dimension. Investors are also aspiring buyers. Their funding enables the designer to start producing. In return for funding the product upfront they will get the design they helped put into production.

On CrowdyHouse.com, the renowned designer Marc de Groot offers his Helix Light, a strongly geometrical shaped ceiling lamp, which splits a line of light into the shape of a three-­dimensional Helix. Rebob offers a sympathetic porcelain birdhouse, shaped like a bird’s head. Renate Vos designed a table lamp of concrete, which sounds heavy but appears fragile and subtly spreads light.

‘The idea for CrowdyHouse began at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, says Mark Studholme who, together with Suzan Claesen, founded the platform. ‘We were surprised about how little a designer earns if his design is taken into production by a large manufacturer. It can be just 5 percent of the wholesale price that goes to the designer.’

Democratic design for an honest price, is one of the principles of CrowdyHouse. Democratic because the consumer decides which design gets produced by funding it. And honest because the money that is earned fully benefits the designer. CrowdyHouse’s role is limited to being a mediator. The initiative for the new design platform arrives at a time where the creative industry boils of good ideas, but all sources of financing have been depleted. The government is handing out increasingly less innovation grants. Banks don’t spend any money on young entrepreneurs. ‘CrowdyHouse can be a crowbar, a party that fills the void between a good idea and the lover of design’, according to Studholme.

The dozens of products being offered on CrowdyHouse.com are mostly meant for home interior use and vary in price from 65 to 3000 euro. Those who like the product and its story deposits their funding upfront. The site can then be used to track the popularity of a product, how long it will take before production starts and what the money will be used for.

The designers at Vilt aan Zee want to use the investment to purchase a sheep which they can use to produce wool for a lamp. Carpet designer Lizan Freijsen needs a small storage space before she can close a good deal with a textiles lab which produces carpets made from lichen. Each designer needs a small push. Design consumers can provide this small push on CrowdyHouse.

Stimulating unique design through crowdfunding, is the core of what this new platform does. ‘We offer products with a story from the designer’, says Studholme. ‘This gives funding and ordering at CrowdyHouse a very special dimension.’

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designers avoid “awful” royalties appeared first on Dezeen.

“That’s the whole meaning of life, isn’t it? Trying to find a place for your stuff.” — George Carlin

This week I thought I’d revisit the eternal question of, “what to do with all this stuff?” This time, I’ve paired the four major categories of stuff — actions, projects, reference and trash -– with suggestions of technology to use in taming each category.

The two-minute drill

If you can do something in less than two minutes, do it right then and there. Do not file it or add it to that great to-do app that you love. Don’t even bother to write it down. Just do it and it’s done. If you’ve got time or ambition, move the criteria up to five minutes. Otherwise, stay at two.

Tech to employ: A simple timer will do here. All you need is to set aside 10 minutes (or whatever you have) to do nothing but run two-minute drills. Focus Booster is a great option. It’s free and runs in a web browser. If you prefer to download an application, there’s one available for the Mac and Windows.

Actions

Actions are the verbs of your project. Call Janie. Put the kids’ lunches in their bags. That’s the key here, really. An action is observable, it is something you do. “Call Janie” is a great action. It’s short and describes exactly what must be done. “Figure out the dinner party” is not. That’s a project. “Brainstorm the dinner party” is an action, and a great first step, in fact. Get into the habit of breaking things down into small, achievable steps.

Tech to employ: Where do actions go? That’s a great question, and the answer is varied and wide. As I said in my very first post for Unclutterer, I don’t store actions in my email software. Instead, I use OmniFocus for the Mac. It’s a stellar project manager that’s served me well for years.

Another great option is Wunderlist, as it’s not restricted to the Mac. Wunderlist is a full-featured project and task-manager that works in a browser as well as on the Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and even the Amazon Kindle. There are free and paid versions available. The important thing here isn’t the solution you use, but the act of getting your actions into a reliable, accessible system you trust.

Projects

I use David Allen’s definition of a project: anything that takes more than two action steps to complete. This means that some things we don’t think of as projects do, in fact, qualify. “Get 2014 budget approved” and “buy new windshield wipers” are both projects, and equally important as far as your brain is concerned. All your brain knows is, “I’ve said I’m going to do this thing, so I better do it.” Unfortunately, your brain does not excel at storing projects and their associated tasks and reference information. It’s best to get that out of your head and into a trusted system.

Tech to employ: You can’t go wrong with OmniFocus or Wunderlist, as mentioned above. But don’t think that computer software is the only option here. A reliable notebook — appropriately marked up — is a great solution if that works for you.

I’m also a fan of David Seah’s Task Progress Tracker. It’s a great-looking piece of paper that lets you list all of the actions that are related to a given project, and even track just how long you spend on each.

Reference

A lot of my stuff doesn’t require any action, but might be useful in the future. These types of items are reference material. Again, I don’t let this information sit in email.

Tech to employ: For me, the answer to reference (or “cold storage,” as I call it) is Evernote. This virtual filing cabinet holds everything I’ll want to review some day. It’s available on almost every device I own, so stored data is with me all the time. I love it.

Garbage

Finally, a lot of our stuff is garbage. If you deem something to be truly unnecessary, ditch it. You don’t need it. Stuff that sits around with no purpose or function is the very definition of clutter.

Tech to employ: A trash can and steely resolve.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

An exhibition exploring the latest digital design and manufacturing processes opens today at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design.

The exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) features more than 120 examples of sculpture, jewellery, fashion and furniture that demonstrate different uses for computer-assisted production methods.

All of the pieces on show have been created in the past decade by artists, architects and designers including Zaha Hadid, Anish Kapoor, Joris Laarman, Daniel Libeskind and Marc Newson.

Some new works produced specially for the exhibition will also be presented, including a 4.5-metre-tall digitally-scanned mask of artist Richard Dupont.

“From sculptural fantasy to functional beauty to conceptual idiosyncrasies, the works of art in Out of Hand, all created in the past decade, demonstrate an explosive, unprecedented scope of artistic expression,” said curator Ronald T. Labaco.

In keeping with the Museum of Arts and Design’s curatorial policy there is a focus on experimental uses of materials and technologies in art and industry, rather than products designed for the mass market.

“The cross-disciplinary nature of the work and the exploration of seemingly disparate themes and concepts allows for boundless creativity,” Labaco added. “The exhibition puts these pioneering works in dialogue, highlighting at once their vast diversity and the trends and ideas that connect them.”

Several of the exhibits have previously featured on Dezeen, including a 3D-printed dress for Dita Von Teese, a boot for American football players with 3D-printed studs, and a shoe by Dutch designer Marloes ten Bhömer that can be printed for a perfect fit.

We’ve also published stories about a polygonal plywood pavilion at a German university, a proposal for a web-like printed house, and a marble armchair by Joris Laarman based on the way bones grow, all of which feature in the show.

Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to try out technologies including computer-aided modelling software and 3D printers, while designers-in-residence will be on hand to demonstrate some of the processes.

The Museum of Arts and Design announced last month that it has appointed Glenn Adamson as its new director. Adamson had been head of research at the V&A, where he co-curated the 2011 exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 to 1990.

Here are some more details about the exhibition from the Museum of Arts and Design:

Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital

Exploring the latest trends in digital fabrication, Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital at the Museum of Arts and Design is the first in-depth survey dedicated to exploring the impact of computer-assisted methods of production on contemporary art, architecture, and design. Opening in October, this landmark exhibition brings together more than 120 works of sculpture, jewelry, fashion, and furniture by 85 artists, architects, and designers from 20 countries to examine how new technologies are pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and creation. The cutting-edge works highlighted in the exhibition demonstrate the reciprocal relationship between art and technological innovation as well as materials and new techniques—an area of exploration that has long been at the core of MAD’s mission and curatorial program.

To mark the launch of MAD’s new holiday hours, visitors are invited for a sneak peek of the exhibition on Columbus Day, October 14. The completed exhibition will be on view October 16, 2013, through July 6, 2014.

Organized by Ronald T. Labaco, MAD’s Marcia Docter Curator, the exhibition features new and recent work from 2005 to the present, including commissions created especially for Out of Hand and objects never presented before in the U.S. by such artists, architects, and designers as Barry X Ball, Bespoke Innovations, Wim Delvoye, Richard Dupont, Zaha Hadid, Anish Kapoor, Joris Laarman, Daniel Libeskind, Maya Lin, Greg Lynn, Lucas Maassen, Jürgen Mayer- Hermann, Achim Menges, Marc Newson, Nike, Alan McCollum, Roxy Paine, Frank Stella, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Unfold, among many others. Two large-scale sculptures—a fifteen-foot- high digitally scanned mask of artist Richard Dupont’s face, and a towering abstraction of wrestling figures created through digital milling techniques by Michael Rees—will activate the space outside the Museum on Columbus Circle and serve as an introduction to the exhibition.

“The compelling works in Out of Hand expand audience understanding of the ways artists and designers from around the world are utilizing these new technologies to extend their artistic practice, revealing how these innovations are also transforming practices in manufacturing, healthcare, and other fields not readily associated with the contemporary art world,” said David McFadden, MAD’s William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator. “By examining these trends through the lens of artistic expression, MAD is opening up a dialogue on the significance of digital technologies to our larger culture and global society.”

Building on MAD’s practice of making the artistic process accessible in the gallery spaces, audience participation plays a central role in the exhibition. The Museum’s second floor will be equipped with 3D printers, modeling software, and computer monitors, allowing visitors to experiment with the technologies explored in the show. Designers-in-residence working in the gallery will demonstrate various digital techniques and fabrication tools used to create objects like those in the exhibition, and a range of special workshops, public and educational programs that provide visitors with hands-on opportunities to deepen their engagement with 3D software and hardware throughout the exhibition’s run. Also integrated into the installation are video clips that explain individual artistic practices and the divergent approaches toward incorporating digital fabrication in the creative process. Additionally, a number of the featured works include interactive components.

The exhibition is conceptually organized around six themes, which provide a framework for navigating the diverse range of artwork on view and reflect aesthetic trends and artistic approaches:

• In Modeling Nature biological and ecological phenomena serve as a point of departure for artistic creativity;
• New Geometries explores how mathematical formulae are applied to create intricate three-dimensional patterns and geometric forms large and small;
• Rebooting Revivals reveals how creators use computer-assisted production to reference or appropriate notable historical art works and decorative styles;
• Digital manipulation is also used to reconceptualize human figuration and the body in Remixing the Figure;
• Works in Pattern as Structure incorporate movement, sound, light, and other sensory elements to create immersive art forms that activate the gallery space;
• Processuality documents how the act of making plays a vital role in the creation and presentation of works that reveal the limitless possibilities of these emerging technologies.

“From sculptural fantasy to functional beauty to conceptual idiosyncrasies, the works of art in Out of Hand, all created in the past decade, demonstrate an explosive, unprecedented scope of artistic expression,” said Curator Ronald T. Labaco. “The cross-disciplinary nature of the work and the exploration of seemingly disparate themes and concepts allows for boundless creativity. The exhibition puts these pioneering works in dialogue, highlighting at once their vast diversity and the trends and ideas that connect them.”

To provide audiences with the full sweep of innovation in this rapidly growing field, the exhibition includes objects created through purely digital fabrication techniques alongside works that combine traditional handcrafted processes with these new methods.

The post Out of Hand: Materializing
the Postdigital at MAD appeared first on Dezeen.