Gabrielle Aznar will fully customized your voodoo doll, working off of a photograph. Alternatively, you can simply state the physical characteristics, materials and colours you want used in your design.

The example given on the website, is ”Eg: brown-skinned doll removed, but angry mood wearing dresses princess. “

Each doll is handmade and around 15cm tall and comes with a small bio so you know everything about their characters and hobbies. Hand embroidery and choice of materials means each piece is unique and numbered as such.

So why not send that picture of your ex, get a doll made, and insert pins where you want the hurt to start….
found via trend hunter, oh and she also makes ipod covers and lingerie, sweet.

A common customisable interface. But we all know what it is and how to use it. Right?

The Guardian newspaper’s always-interesting Technology supplement carried an article this week on research into adaptable interfaces.

Washington University academic Krzysztof Gajos has developed:

“a set of software algorithms that automatically generates a user interface based on four basic user-defined parameters. First, it selects the optimal functional elements like buttons, pull-downs, lists etc. Second, it decides how to lay out those functional elements in a window.

Third, it decides how to divide the space into a single window or as separate tabs. And fourth, it selects the size of a button to be used. The genius of the Supple system is its ability to predict how often a user will use a certain element, how much time is saved by using certain elements and the overall impact to performance.”

It sounds like a progression of such dubious developments as Windows’ ‘personalized menus’ (those that learn which options you use the most and display those items first), and predictive text. I have previously noted the trend towards customisable interfaces and the prospect of an interface that optimises itself for you personally is certainly alluring. But it always comes at a cost to standardisation - if we all have interfaces specific to us, how can we transfer to using someone else’s computer, or even teach or communicate about a program without any common ground?

This is a problem that is as prevalant in open sourced hardware as well as software - there is a critical mass of deevelopers below which, you’re going to be on your own as the only user of that system, and as such don’t have any support or collaboration. If we all have slightly different versions of, say, a lamp cut by Ponoko, its great for us individually as we all have our perfect lamp, but it makes it very difficult, or labour intensive, to a) incorporate each other’s new developments, and b) use each other’s lamps (say if we have different modes of operation, assembly or light distribution). Not a world-ending issue I know, but it could become a problem.

The existing solution seems to be to always offer the option of reverting back to a standard design - you can turn of your predictive text, or expand a Windows menu to display all options again. And this is exactly what I do when I’m using someone else’s computer or telephone. I am intrigued to learn how Gajos’ solution will address standardisation of a software interface’s visual language.

My previous post about NYC Resistor led me to look into one intriguing item on their list:
Context Free is decribed as:

“a small language for design grammars called CFDG. These grammars are sets of non-deterministic rules to produce images. The images are surprisingly beautiful, often from very simple grammars.”

Above is the catchily named ‘circle-square-3-grid.cfdg’ by nymble, one of many images that can be viewed in the Context Free Gallery. Of course, because these images are generated using a certain amount of chaos, or at least unpredictability, these images are only examples of what you might get after you have downloaded Context Free and run the source file.

NYC Resistor suggest using Context Free to generate paths for laser cutting, a process I was keen to evaluate - it turns out it can be done remarkably easy, the success I guess depending on the type of image one is working with (ie. whether it translates into usable vectors for cutting or engraving). I successfully exported a .svg from Context Free to Illustrator, and with a little editing of colours had a set of paths that made for a usable Ponoko .eps file. In my case I used this Pringles-like character programmed by ‘whistle tips’:

And here is the resulting .eps. - let’s see some context free laser engraving everyone!
Incidentally there is some really amusing commenting on the CFDG website that goes with the above image!

In April of 2005, I attended a lecture by Roy Ascott titled Transdisciplinary Transformations: Art and Design in a Culture of Connectivity. Mr Ascott is Professor of Technoetic Arts at the University of Plymouth. He is the founder of the Planetary Collegium, an “international network for research in art, technology and consciousness.” Many of his ideas and philosophies on aesthetics, technology and the sense of self within the communities of cyberspace have been compiled into the book Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness.

Three years later, looking back at my notes, his lecture makes more sense to me. Below are the notes I took- just quotations, ideas, themes etc with my thoughts now. If you would like a more concrete summary, visit the recap over at Rhizome.

Notes: Being telematic

Every fibre, every node, every server on the Net is a part of me.

It’s a phase space I’m in, a sort of tele-potentiality.

As I interact with the Net, I reconfigure myself.

My net-extent defines me, just as my body defined me in the old biological culture.

I am weightless and dimensionless in any exact sense.

I am the reach of my connectivity.

Reflections: Proving and pushing one’s existence once relied in the physical, or as said above “the old biological culture.” Now, one can push their existence by pushing the “reach of their connectivity.” Just by writing articles for this blog, I’ve defined myself in a virtual but very real way = “As I interact with the Net, I reconfigure myself.”  I think it all comes down to being influential and being influenced. Influence does not require physical presence.

Notes: How can exotic and ancient cultures mix with techno?

Reflections: This is an extremely interesting question. It relates to what I said about Design by the Other 90%. What would happen if a culture went straight from Agrarian society to Information/Conceptual society, i.e. skipping an Industrial Age altogether? Would their endeavors be less driven by financial gain? Would their aesthetics reflect tradition as opposed to Western assimilation?

Notes:
Content > Context
Object > Process
Perspective > Immersion
Paranoia > Telenoia
Reception > Negotiation
Representation > Construction
Autonamous Brain > Distributed Mind
Nature > Artifical Life
Certainty > Contingency
Resolution> Emergence

(more…)

Like a sophisticated Lite Brite, this buffet table from Polish furniture company Emocja lets you customize a pattern by pushing felt circles into any of its 3500 holes.

via design*sponge 

Hacker collective NYC Resistor have posted some great images of their Tinysaurs - scaled down versions of the classic tyrannosaurus skeleton model that their friend Martin sent them:

I do love a good miniature. Apparently the very active group have just recently taken delivery of their laser cutter but have already put it to good use, duplicating Tinysaurs, making geometric art and doing the obligatory etching of iPhones.

On their list of Things to ‘LAZZ’ are some intriguing ideas:

• Cut and etch a picture of James Bond, and then slice it in half
• Small floral silhouettes that can be used as pendants or earrings
• Cut some geometric art created with Context Free
• Some cardboard prototypes for a loom
• Some general geometric interlocking stuff
• An acrylic coat of arms
• A “finger” mechanism for crawling robot
• Some thin penrose tiles for penrose scarf
• NYCR laser coasters (for Friends of Resistor)
• And of course the obligatory etching of logos, warnings, and expressions into various Apple products

Martin perfectly sums up the excitement of digital fabrication and the web on his blog with:

“Now we can e-mail THINGS from Berlin to New York and vice versa!”

Awhile back, I wrote about digital fabric printing. The great thing about it being that you don’t have to engrave or burn screens for each color, and that means unlimited color, unlimited design, no minimum order. And no minimum order is essential to customization.

Bon Bon Kakku lets anyone design their own fabric. Most people associate fabric with repeated patterns, but you can get anything printed on fabric. Once you’ve submitted a design, it goes onto the website for public voting. Top rated fabrics are offered for sale through the web shop.

Sounds pretty great - until you realize that you don’t receive a percentage of the sales from your fabrics. This makes the entire company an automatic write off for me. Not only am I not given any incentive to submit my designs, but I wouldn’t want to purchase anyone elses knowing that they weren’t getting anything out of it.
That said, I thought I would still share some of my favorite designs from the shop. And if any of you wish you could have your own fabrics printed without giving up your work for free, check in next week for my article on a great little company from the Carolinas.

Robert Q. Riley Enterprises, a product design and development consultancy from Arizona, offer a range of their (mostly) vehicle designs as downloads, some free of charge.

image © Robert Q. Riley Enterprises

The latest is the XR3, a three-wheel sports car that can be “outfitted with different power trains to create a 125-mpg, diesel-only vehicle; a 100-mile-range, battery-only vehicle; or a hybrid for increased performance and fuel versatility.” For just $170 you get “eighteen D-size (24 x 36 inch) drawing sheets, one 32 x 64 inch full-size template sheet, and a 149-page construction/technical manual with over 200 photos and illustrations.” Not bad.

I’ve been having trouble getting the free designs to download, but what does work is a whole host of how-to information and technical papers that are also available for free. Evrything from One-Off Construction Using Fiberglass Over Urethane Foam to Three Wheel Cars: The Factors That Determine Handling and Rollover Characteristics.
An impressive site, a little hard to navigate but only for the abundance of material held within..

via JEC group via Core77

A new biker gang is roaming the streets of Richmond Hill, Queens. This crew of mostly teenagers can be seen riding along 103rd Avenue just west of the Van Wyck Expressway.

The teens, all originally from Trinidad have taken to the hobby of tricking out their BMX bikes with huge sound systems. The bikes range from the modest “Tinnitus Rex” to the ridiculously speaker heavy “Basszilla”.

There is a documentary out called Made In Queens that focuses on their wild customized bikes. You can also check out the trailer on you tube.
And I thought I was cool customizing my BMX with an ace of spades pegged to the spokes.

But that was in the 80’s

Anti-design, or Pro-design? Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond- Stephen Erat at TalkingTree [via Treehugger]

Martyn Perks writes at sp!ked about the phenomenon of ‘anti-design’, that is,

“Designers who focus on producing only meek and sustainable things … denying their own creativity and impact on the world.”

But then sp!ked describe their position as one of:

“waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms.”

so perhaps their controversial stance is not surprising. It is one however that I must disagree with as it makes the sweeping assumption from the outset that to constrain ourselves when designing is somehow at odds with exercising our creativity: a gross error. Perks does not waver from this from this assumption, citing Philippe Starck’s new green direction as a prime example:

“Starck’s wind turbine … creates the illusion that the energy problem is one of consumption, not of production. We need bigger, better and dependable power stations (including nuclear ones), not small home generators.”

Perks seems to be conveniently ignoring the fact that the world’s problems are also our personal problems, and we all have a responsibility to take action to rectify them - I seriously doubt that Starck expects his home generators to solve the energy crisis, especially as his aim seems to be to raise awareness more than anything else. What’s more, Perks sees green design as somehow less able to “make an impact”, this being taken as the main aim of any design. I think most designers are more interested in solving problems, and if this means making an impact on society in a big way, so be it: sustainable design is no barrier to this. Surely the idea is to make an impact on the problem, anyway?

Perks’ ultimate sentence really does take the biscuit however:

“Let the government, politicians and policymakers take the flak for the consequences of design, while leaving the designer with the job of recreating the world around us. The designer, while living in the real world, cannot be constrained by it, because it’s his or her job to make it better.”

An astonishingly short sighted statement in my opinion but then I’ll happily admit to being something of a misanthrope! Do read the whole article and make up your own mind.