OoooooO.. coool. Can’t wait for them to come out!
materials
Magnets facinate me. Soft magnets charm me, but liquid metal and magnets… now that’s what I’m talking about!via mocoloco
wondermagnets
Magneto-Rheological (MR) Fluids
Tom has some super cool projects dealing with everyday items. Above is a sculpture he made with probably a million toothpicks. I’ve seen his work in the past, but recently went to the ecstasy exhibit in LA and saw a piece by him which just made me laugh in a good way. It was a piece titled something like, “piece of paper I stared at for 1000 hours”. It was simply a piece of paper framed nicely behind a piece of glass, but the idea behind the piece is “what is art”. Tom stared at this exact piece of paper for 1000 hours. Is this piece of paper “art” or is that up to the observer/artist.
Toms other work (if any of you know of a better site with his work, please link)
“Northern Nigeria is an impoverished region where people in rural communities eke out a living from subsistence farming. With no electricity, and therefore no refrigeration, perishable foods spoil within days. Such spoilage causes disease and loss of income for needy farmers, who are forced to sell their produce daily. Nigerian teacher Mohammed Bah Abba was motivated by his concern for the rural poor and by his interest in indigenous African technology to seek a practical, local solution to these problems. His extremely simple and inexpensive earthenware “pot-in-pot” cooling device, based on a principle of physics already known in ancient Egypt, is revolutionising lives in this semi-desert area.”
Projects like this amaze me. A simple product with a huge impact for millions of people. It also makes me realaize how much we rely on electricuty in our ever so tech-centric lives.
I’m hooked!! These muji sketchbooks are awesome!!muji at moma
I got my hands on these fabuliciously cool soft magnets by GELTEC. When someone talks to you about magnets, you think about hard pieces of metal, but thees little suckers are as soft as gummi bears. Once you get these in your hands, it’s hard to let go…
check them out.GELTEC
“A new material covered with nanoscopic hairs that mimic those found on geckos’ feet could allow people to walk up to sheer surfaces and across ceilings, say researchers.”I want some!!!
Daniel Rozins Wooden Mirror magically reflects your own pixelated image back to you by programming wooden chips to angel at different levels based on the amount of light you are reflecting. This is one of those “physical pixelation” projects that I like sooooo much. I had the chance to interact with it and it’s uber-tastic. In fact, it’s actually hard to tell what the image is since your so close to it, but the lovely part is the nostalgic flickering of wooden panels playing an orchestrated tune based on your movements. Sounds like those train old school train ticker panels.
Watch the videos at the below links or after the jump.
Sapphire is an uberliciously new liquid designed to fight fires, without killing the electronics. It’s high tension structure beads off of any surface pretty much making it a dry liquid . You can sink your laptop in a pool of this liquid and type away with no worries. I’d love to have a big pool of this stuff, go swimming in it with my cloths on, walk out, let it all bead off in a few seconds, and continue on with the same cloths….anyhow, I’m still trying to get my hands on this stuff, but apparently you have to be affiliated with the fire department to order it.
Popular Science Article
ABC Good Morning America, dunking a laptop in a tank of it.
If you like designer stores, check out MOSS in soho NYC. MOSS is a vendor for handselected designs throughout the world and they also have a gallery space for more experimental work. I go down there every time I visit nyc. It has an array of housewares, furnitures, pieces, some books, accessories, and random other inspiring objects.Moss Online
ElekTex is one of the pioneers in electronic fabrics. I have a real soft spot for their technology because I’m getting tired of plastic and metal tech products. There’s something about soft electronics that’s soooo freakin cool.
Personally, I think softer electronics will bring a nostalgic sense and emotional value that most electronics don’t have. I mean, seriously, you throw away cell phones, laptops, tv’s, mp3 players yearly, but there’s something about those old t-shirts, blankets, teddy bears, baseballs, and other such soft items that easily attach to you.elektex
When it comes to innovative materials, i’m a total sucker for them. Aerogel is a ridiculously amazzzing material that weighs next to nothing and feels like your holding a frozen piece of smoke in your hand. This is the same stuff NASA uses to catch comet trails in space! This material is 99.9% air, reflects all heat, is super cool looking and has some great future application ahead of it.aerogel
update: here’s a video of it!