Philippe Starck is showing his concept for a transparent home-sized electricity-generating windmill at the Interni Green Energy Design exhibit at the Statale in Milano for the next two weeks. It is a small prototype windmill that is designed to function in urban settings, and it has even been designed to be transparent so as not […]
Category Archives: materials
material memory
in 2005 filmmaker bilge sehir presented a hoax thought experiment called ‘vases sonores‘ (sonorous vases) which hypothesized that the sounds occurring during the etching of ancient pottery were recorded by the ceramic itself as it spun on the wheel, and they could be played back to hear – albeit faintly – the voices of the […]
Also posted in art, fabrication, traceability
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edible utensils
we’ve seen edible cups, and now edible spoons made of bread by tim simpson. there’s something elegant about making everything that touches your mouth edible, and certainly it’s more sustainable than plastic spoons. but how long do they last?
Also posted in fabrication, food, futurecraft, soft/glowing
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all-natural electronics
noah vawter’s Synth From Nothin’ tries to answer the question ‘if i was stranded on a desert island, how could i make a synthesizer?’ at the same time the research project tries to discover whether it’s possible to make electronics without the semiconductor industry, and in turn whether electronics can be all-natural and sustainable. from […]
Also posted in art, energy, environment, product design
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renewable packaging
i just picked up this balinesian sea salt packaged in a coconut at whole foods because i couldn’t resist the packaging design (or lack thereof). never mind the idea of shipping salt, let alone from bali. the coconut packaging has three distinct advantages over the plastic, metal foil and paper that the other foods are […]
Also posted in energy, environment, fabrication, livingbreathing, marketing, open objects, product design, traceability, upcycling
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audio players of the future
looking at old consumer electronics can make you realize just how far we haven’t come – i just discovered transistor.org, sarah lowrey’s website dedicated to her transistor radio collection. flipping through these vintage audio players you can find a lot of the trends that seem so pervasive today, as well as design ideas we still […]
Also posted in customization, energy, environment, fabrication, product design
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material maps
wikipedia is a great resource for finding out about materials in detail, and one of the best reasons are these world maps showing world production based on the british geological survey’s 2005 world mineral production (available as a free pdf). at a glance you can see the major producers for almost any mineral. here are […]
Also posted in environment, fabrication
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vending bits
at logan on my way to tokyo i spotted this sony-branded vending machine selling cameras, memory cards and ebook readers. it is a strange experience to see these expensive electronics being commodified and it points out the worrisome disposable nature of these increasingly commonplace material- and resource-intensive products. maybe a more sustainable solution would be […]
Also posted in energy, fabrication, marketing
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