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Measuring Angst is a sculpture made possible via a system of armatures similar to those one might find within the prehistoric animal exhibits in a natural history museum. They will differ in that they will be mechanically driven and allow for varying positions of the broken marble pieces. A system of electronic drives, stepper motors, ballscrews, linear shafts and computer software similar to what one might find in a high-tech assembly plant provides the movement.  

The Conversation is an autonomous apparatus that incorporates an analogous and a digital part. The machine consists of 99 solenoids mounted in a circle. Together they carry three rubber bands (attractors) in the center of the circle. Each magnet works autonomously and tries to adapt to the forces in the network. The aim of the system is to keep a balance of forces. By turning the machine on, a process is activated that tries to conserve its initial state by contraction and relaxation.

Pulse visualizes live the recent emotional expressions, written on private weblog communities. Each time an emotion or a synonym of it is found in a recent blog entry, the shape-shifting object transforms itself in a way that the new volume represents a piece of the Internet’s current emotional condition.

Linyl began with an old dusty record player in an attic. A colour light sensor is retrofitted onto the arm of the record player. It reads the color from the disc, next to the stylus. The information is sent to the lamp, which creates the ambient mood by gently going through the colours of the photo. These changing colours evoke the memory of a past time.

SmartLED SolarTherm is a minimalist information display consisting of an RGB LED, a watch, and an microcontroller. The chip contains a temperature sensor whose reading is displayed as light pulses.

Adafruit Experimentation Kit for Arduino

Kinetic Memory Triggers is a series of five anthropomorphic kinetic sculptures. With technology, objects can be given ‘life’ by appearing receptive and responsive to their users. By mapping anthropomorphic behaviors onto inanimate objects, we can create ‘beings’ perceived as being alive and having human qualities. 

Design Fiction: A short essay on design, science, fact and fiction [PDF]

“Design fiction works in the space between the arrogance of science fact, and the seriously playful imaginary of science fiction, making things that are both real and fake, but aware of the irony of the muddle — even claiming it as an advantage. It’s a design practice, first of all — because it makes no au- thority claims on the world, has no special stake in canonical truth; because it can work comfortably with the vernacular and pragmatic; because it has as part of its vocabulary the word “people” (not “users”) and all that implies; because it can operate with wit and paradox and a critical stance. It assumes nothing about the future, except that there can be simultaneous futures, and multiple futures, and simultaneous-multiple futures — even an end to ev- erything.”

—Julian Bleeker

Olars is an electronic interactive toy inspired by Karl Sims evolved virtual creatures. Having thousands of varieties in movement and behaviour by attaching different geometrical limbs, modifying the angle of these, twisting the body itself, and by adjusting the deflection of the motorised joints, results in both familiar and strange motion patterns. 

Reddot reacts to human interaction in the lobby of an office building by displaying color flows in a three-dimensional plexiglass grid that tracks pedestrians as they walk by. The project uses a unique form of presence detection by projecting lasers onto people’s bodies and tracking how far they are from its face, also it writes incoming SMS messages sent by visitors on its 3D display.