Cell Phone Disco

The first version of the Cell Phone Disco was completed in 2006 by the architect Ursula Lavrenčič and information designer Auke Touwslager. Since then a number of versions have existed - at Next Fest and in galleries and museums around the world, but this installation really belongs in the public realm for all to see. Each LED on the wall reacts to radio waves that are produced by a cell phone in use and paints a picture of the electromagnetic field around the viewer. The wall reveals the hidden elements in our environment and makes them perceptible to our senses.

Verner Panton

Verner Panton was a Danish designer that stood out among his contemporaries; he steerd away from Danish craft and spurred a new Pop Aesthetic in the 60s. His works went beyond traditional understandings of space and form. His most prolific design is the Panton chair from 1968 that is still in Vitra's collection today. This sinuous form reminiscent of the female curves was revolutionary in its day for being a single, cantilevered piece of plastic.

What inspires me about Panton is his imaginative, immersive environments. As he cultivated his style as a designer he became more fascinated with "total environments". He strove to counteract the stale formula designers brought to interiors and break the monotony of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. As he states, "I can't bear to enter a room and see the sofa and coffee table and two chairs, immediately knowing that we are going to be stuck here for an entire evening. I made furniture that could be raised and lowered in space so that one could have a different view of surroundings and a new angle on life."

Vernon's landscapes explored three dimension with form, color, and light and created dynamic energy and movement in space. While the Pop aesthetic could not sustain itself through the centuries, his work is still admired and respected for pushing boundaries and changing perceptions of environments and the bodies that interact with them.






Images from Vernon's Phantasy Landscape, 1970

Pole Dancing

SO-IL's (short for Solid Objectives) Pole Dance was named the winner for the 2010 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. Florian Idenburg and his wife Jing Liu are the two architects behind this immersive, kinetic playground. The installation is "a metaphor for uncertain times" with its space seeking to find balance while enduring the influences from its participants and surrounding environment.

The structure is an array of 25' poles that rotate at their base. 14' above the ground where the pavilions walls end, there is a flexible mesh that moves like a current. On this mesh, balls will bob up and down and will tempt people to play by rolling balls along its surface. From the street there is a magical scene of circling sticks displaying the energy of the crowd.

As Idenburg speaks about his responsive structure, "It's not just about form, it's about the experience of going there, of shaping and affecting the architecture." SO-IL has succeeded in creating an interactive environment that responds to the dynamic world - its audience and its immediate, physical context. The space invites its inhabitants to manipulate their own space. You can see the direct influence your body has on the environment and you are also encouraged to play in a space "where there are direct consequences to your actions".

PS1 Warm-Up dancers are going to have too much fun.

SO-IL PS1 Pole Dance from SO-IL on Vimeo.

Saarinen

Going to the Saarinen exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York reminded me of how detached designers are to forming spaces that engage our senses. One thing that made Saarinen stand out from his contemporaries was the attention he have to space. he worked with models the size of minivans and walked into them. Why don't we work with our bodies anymore? As Micheal Smyth writes in The State of the Real: Aesthetics in the Digital Age, "seeing is believing, but it is touch that determines reality". Designers rarely build with their hands anymore; it is mostly through 3D modeling on the computer. Touch and intimacy - physically and emotionally - is lost in contemporary environments. The TWA terminal displays and embodies the movement and energy of its users. The swooping curves and dramatic, theatrical effect sets the stage for travelers. Not only did Saarinen masterfully craft his forms with proportions, subtle balance, and impeccable curves, he gave meaning to the airport terminal and spoke to the American image of mobility and speed.


As an industrial designer, I can see how well Saarinen understood the human body through his womb chair. Before my fascination with design began about ten years ago, I sat in a womb chair for the first time and declared I must own one someday. That day has not arrived, but I will keep my word.


The MIT Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts is another example of Saarinen's ability to engage our senses. With natural light and an installation that allows the sky to trickle down into the space, this environment was made for spiritual ritual. An element that is not seen in this photograph is the reflected water that illuminates the circular wall. Including the elements and the senses into his work, Saarinen should be an example to designers and encourage them to work with touch.

The Beatles Revolution

These interactive lounge tables table by Tactable located in the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas are an interesting take on social interactions. This table is a digital, interactive jukebox; you can pick an artist and a song and turn it up for everyone at the table to hear. The catch is, you must take turns with the other players. The table is literally interactive by taking your hand gestures and allowing you to interface with its technology, but it also engenders a social dynamic and physical exchange between people. You can interrupt another guest, but that would be rude. It also creates an intimate moment between two strangers - you are exposing your music taste (and we all know people judge you on that). The Beatles Revolution is a subtle take on interacting with your environment and people in your immediate surroundings you usually ignore. Also, it's a great icebreaker.

MUJI rhythm

MUJI always makes me smile. Their line MUJI rhythm has been wonderfully marketed. By using music, its rhythm and beats both audibly and visually, they are touching on our universal emotive responses. Music is a phenomena that stretches over cultures and ages; it arouses our intuitive nature and affects us in ways we cannot always describe. As Donald A. Norman talks about the three levels of design, music and rhythm stimulate our emotions an a visceral level. While this musical and kinetic interface only slightly touches on the two remaining levels, behavioral and reflective, it is still joyful and fun for the audience. The motion and beats of the images bring life to your computer screen.



MUJI rhythm

she could be breaking glass

This interactive sculpture by Mitchell F. Chan "Visions of Amen" is a whole new way of imagining music. There are sixteen strings atached to motors above and weighted down by brass bars. Each string responds to a different note and the speed of rotation varies with the volume of the note, making each song and even each delivery of it a unique experience. It is amazing how the strings move in sine-waves mimicking the gesture of vibrating violin strings. The performance is compared to the ballet with dancers bobbing up and down in space and their elegant waves and gestures trailing behind.

Lab[au]'s framework

Lab[au] - Laboratory for Architecture and Urbanism - created the f5x5x5 sculpture also known as the "kinetic luminous framework". This installation is part of a larger project of Lab[au]'s that deals with architectural issues of flow, movement, and congestion through spatial sensing technology. As Lab[au] discusses its work:

"The f5x5x5 installation is a programmed luminous and kinetic framework controlled by the infra-red sensing of its surroundings. The development of the 'meta-system' is the conception of a system referring to system art, whereas the use of binary states is referring to the aesthetics and logics of digital technologies. In this merging of spatial constructs with the 'language and techniques of its time' the project finds its base in system art such as cybernetic art and specifically in the work of Nicolas Schöffer."

I am still unclear how f5x5x5 responds to its surroundings or if it is at all interactive. The initial premise of responding to influxes in the environment and dealing with congestion and movement was compelling, but I do not see how these issues were addressed. Abstractly it can be seem as a framework that assists and hinders currents is space. At times it even feels like stop-and-go traffic, but I do not think that is what La[au] intended. And why is it in a church?

Wave Fields

Maya Lin's Wave Field at Storm King

Maya Lin first known for her work as a 21 year-old for the Vietnam Memorial has always had a passion for creating new perceptions of our environment and ordering the landscape. Wave Field is a series of earthworks where Lin has mimicked the movement of water and has transposed it onto the ground. Although this work seems static in the fact that it is fixed in place, these banks of grass convey a sweeping motion throughout the sight. As one moves through the space, their position in relation to each wave changes and their visceral reaction is altered. One can sit curled in the well of the wave or stand on its crest. It is the viewer moving through the space that makes the field such a dynamic piece.


Wave Field at Ann Harbor

Another piece in Lin's series of Wave Fields, this site explores the different effects of types of waves. Here you can see there is an array of shallow waves, while at Storm King, the waves were much larger some almost ten feet tall. These investigations into the manipulation of waves and earth are fascinating ways to perceive motion and fluid dynamics.

how our minds move

Installing a Neural Microelectrode Array: An array of microelectrodes connects with the brain, potentially allowing paralyzed patients to control computer interfaces with their minds. Courtesy Kelly Johnson/University of Utah Department of Neurosurgery

Did you ever think your thoughts, those firing neurons, were strong enough to move something or even interface with a computer? Yes, technology makes this all possible, but doesn't it make you wonder what else is attainable without wires. The paranormal phenomena of moving things with your mind was coined Telekinesis more than a century ago by a Russian psychical researcher named Alexander N. Aksakof. Some still believe that our thoughts generate magnetic waves that can be used to move objects and that once developed and trained, all minds can bend forks. (How to Begin Developing Telekinesis)

I can't help but think our brains interface with their surroundings during every moment of our existence - not just in our nervous system, but in the environment outside our body.

Perceptioin of change

Past/Present/Future from KentLyons on Vimeo.

Things move around us constantly that we do not even notice. Gradual changes occur and we cannot perceive them. If you were to watch this star melt, staring through each nano-second of imperceptible distortion, you could not distinguish a one second difference. Once the star was completely gone, you would know something transformed. Thanks to photography, we can trace stages of minute change, and when we shorten the lapse of time by 1/10, it looks like the Wicked Witch of the West liquefying. Can these metamorphoses be reversed? It is spectacular to imagine the frozen star build itself up from a soaking wet cloth, but that's not possible. Or is it? Please, tell me I am wrong. Dynamic processes often times are not AC/DC. There is usually an easier, more efficient path that matter moves, and unless it is forced with extreme measures and energy, it will do what it wants to do.

PAST/PRESENT/FUTURE - can we perceive the difference?

Lake of Shimmer

The Lake of Shimmer Swarovski's installation at the Baselworld 2009 designed by Tokujin Yoshioka is a beautiful piece that reacts to its environment. Each octagon pivots along an axis above its center of gravity. While the octagon hangs, any change in air pressure either caused by someone walking or just a breeze in the atrium will force the octagon to swing. The mirrored surface and tight array of moving elements creates an image of a pool of water with light reflecting off the surface. Unfortunately, Swarovski was inclined to electronically control the movement along the wall's surface. By computer programming ripples and water drops, the beauty and grace of organic air and fluid movement is lost. Swarovski aimed to exhibit "Poetry in Precision", but the beauty of lakes is their ambiguous nature and organic undulations.