Tag Archives: technology

“Puss” Means “Kiss” in Swedish

ImageDo you like weird facts and knowing what time it is? Great! You should go to Factoclock – you learn something new every minute.

Kinetica GIF!

Kinetica AnimationThese are some photographs I took at Kinetica Art Fair back in March. I wanted an excuse to play around with the GIF Maker on 15 Folds using my own photographs; these images were perfect because I could easily align the spheres to be the same size on Photoshop.

iPhotos iEverywhere

iPhone CityiPhone TaxiiPhone ChildI know that this new iPhone advert is supposed to be poignant and heartwarming, but I actually find it a little but creepy and unnerving. I’ve probably watched too many episodes of ‘Black Mirror’, because this advert just reminds me that we’re under constant surveillance.

Everyone wants to take pictures of everything! I don’t like to think about it too much, but it really freaks me out to think that there is a very real possibility that a complete stranger has taken a picture of me either passed out or wearing a badly-chosen outfit, just so they can upload it to Facebook and get a few derisive ‘Likes’ at my expense. It’s even worse when you think about how this kind of attitude can escalate – like in the recent Steubenville rape case. It’s definitely got to the point now where taking photos all the time hasn’t just become mundane and disposable – like the scenes in the iPhone ad. Gawking and voyeurism is so deeply embedded in contemporary society that it’s become quite disconcerting. Especially because, to some extent, we’re all guilty of it.

With the recent introduction of Google Glass, a campaign group called Stop The Cyborgs have called for the gadget to be banned in certain areas – something which I am definitely in favour of. The BBC article covering the story raises a lot of interesting questions. While it’s definitely true that technology and innovative design makes our lives faster and easier, these new inventions are also shaping our attitudes in ways that very few could have predicted.

Lego Technic

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Lego Technic DVD Player
Really nice adverts for Lego Technic by J and L. I automatically assumed that they were done by Todd McLellan when I first saw them, but no, they just look quite similar. Well, really similar, actually…01_86-87_chainsawStill don’t see it? How about now?Disassembly Todd McLellanI guess that imitation is the highest form of flattery…

Women Of The Future…

Image“Women of the future will make the Moon a cleaner place to live.”

Damn straight we will! Radical sixties feminism, yeah! Future women – fellow pioneers of space travel, improving another planet through green energy and innovation. Exciting!

Hang on a second. I just re-read it. You mean that women are just expected to clean stuff on the Moon, like we’re expected to on Earth? Oh, shit…

The Circular Economy

ImageWhile this idea is likely to be far more complex in practise, this animated video by Mr. Binns explains the concept in a brilliantly simple and engaging way. Sometimes, I feel pretty bad that I’m part of a huge problem and implicit in killing the earth, but the idea of going to live in a yurt, composting my own shit, and becoming one of those earthy white girls with dreadlocks totally repulses me. I like the thought of a ‘circular economy’, because it shifts the responsibility back to the manufacturer, while trying to cut a better deal for the consumer. It seems like this is an effective approach, because most of us are incapable of actually processing waste into something that’s truly useful. I mean, be honest – you’re never actually going to get round to making that Fairy liquid bottle into the crafty thing you saw on Pinterest. Well, you might…I definitely won’t.
In the UK, it seems that the idea of a more collaborative way of consuming is quite appealing – especially when trends and technology change so rapidly. It also seems that, for a lot of us, it’s unlikely that we will ever own a house. We’re already renting our homes – why not rent the things that are in them, too? 


Of course, this new system must have its flaws too, but its core values seem to be hitting the right notes for a more sustainable future.

Dita Von Teese Models First 3D Printed Dress

ImageThis elaborate, lattice design dress is a collaboration between stage costumier Michael Schmidt and the innovative Francis Bitonti Studio, based in Brooklyn, New York. Michael Schmidt has created stage outfits for some of the most outlandish and exciting performers – from Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Courtney Love and Grace Jones to Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and – obviously – Dita Von Teese. Schmidt’s design for the gown is based on the Fibonacci sequence and was 3D modelled by Francis Bitonti, before finally being 3D printed in Nylon by Shapeways. Once the 17 separate pieces of the garment were completed, they were dyed black, lacquered and embellished with over 13,000 Swarovski crystals.3D Printed Gown DetailDita also wore the dress at the unveiling at New York’s Ace Hotel last night.Dita Von Teese Ace HotelAlthough the cartoon-like burlesque star said that the dress was quite comfortable and ‘super light’, I’m not entirely convinced. Undoubtedly, the dress looks pretty cool, but it seems like it didn’t take her long to change out of the gown into a more practical Roland Mouret shift dress.

Studio XO

Studio XO Digital DrapingFollowing Charlie Brooker’s second installation of the futuristic ‘Black Mirror’, and with London Fashion Week just around the corner, it feels apt that Crane TV have featured Studio XO – a fashion collective who I had never heard of until today. These fashion and technology pioneers make science and robotics integral to their pieces, pushing the boundaries of fashion and making garments interesting through interactivity, projection mapping and lighting. Despite the possibilities that new technology has brought us, fashion seems to have remained mostly unchanged by it. While we have developed new fabrics, these are not as comfortable or aesthetically pleasing as their natural counterparts – traditional materials like leather, silk and cashmere are still preferable to polyurethane, polyester and acrylic. The image below shows the amazing dress that Studio XO created with Philips for their Design Probes initiative. It was this brand collaboration which got them noticed and led to them working with the likes of JLS, Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and Azealia Banks.
Philips Bubble DressWatch the video with Crane TV to get more of an insight into their intriguing work.

Tweetping: Realtime Bullshit

TweetpingTweetping is an impressive website developed by front end developer, Franck Ernewein, that allows you to see Twitter data flickering across your screen in realtime. It’s kind of cool, until you realise the sheer volume of SHITE people are talking on Twitter at any given moment…

Format: A Brief History of Data Storage

A Brief History of Data Storage‘Format: A Brief History of Data Storage’ is a slickly animated infographic by Alan Warburton, which shows just how sophisticated our modern data storage options are. It’s bizarre to think that, when I was a kid, I used to put my school projects onto a floppy disk – something that you’d struggle to fit a high resolution image onto these days, let alone an MP3 or a AVI file. I like that Warburton has compared digital media with print media. It’s amazing to think that you could fit the contents of ‘a small library’ on one 16GB USB stick, although one has to assume that the library is a very traditional one, and doesn’t loan out books or DVDs.