O Fortune,
like the moon
The state constantly changing,
always growing
or decreasing;
Detestable life
now difficult
and then easy
Deceptive sharp mind;
poverty
power
it melts them like ice.
Fate—monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
stand malevolent,
vain is the help
and always likely to fade to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game,
my bare back
I bring to your villainy.
Fate, in health
and in virtue,
is now against me,
driven on
and weighted down,
always in the vale of tears (Angaria).
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating string;
since Fate
strikes down the strong,
everyone weep with me!
cool is what stands up – what makes you take a notice and appreciate something beyond the norm. When you see a product or a design or creation and your mind just screams at the want of it – or the appreciation to understand it more fully – that is cool.
Why do I blog this? The roadmap to ubicomp is a truly bizarre and fascinating one. Will this really be the future? Will this really be the way we interact with our content and the things we need to interact with? Or will this be one of the ideas that tried to make its way in and died for a variety of reasons. What would those reasons be? We’ll just wait and see I guess.
Man: “…This dream was easily the best dream in the history of all dreams”.
A library assistant plods through an ordinary life in LA until a chance meeting opens his eyes to a the power of creativity and ultimately, love. When this new life and love begin to fall apart, he discovers he has a lot to give. This short film proves that ordinary is no place to be. (via IMDB)
View the trailer here…
I was reading some essays on Design Fiction by Julian Bleecker recently and was especially struck by this film after reading it. ‘I’m Here’ is such a perfectly imagined and made work of design-fiction in the sense that it makes you completely believe in the World which is created here. Not only are the ‘props’ and costumes entirely authentic, the fact that its set in the Almost Present makes the impact breathtakingly moving and simple. It focuses on human/robotic emotion while keeping the work of design very secondary.
This scene in the movie was such a brilliant piece of architectural fiction. It almost made me believe that such hospitals exist.
My moral from this story – A truly moving piece of design fiction is infinitesimally more valuable than a billion half-resolved design truths.
This will be the first time I watch my mentor and friend Mike Kruzeniski of Microsoft EXG Group present.
Usually my chats with him were on gchat and he would tell me to be less poetic! This is so cool to watch and learn from.
Building a new product is hard. In the transition from design to engineering, the subjective qualities of a product often lose out to practical challenges. This session is about an approach and framework that allowed us to sustain the aesthetic principles of an experience, by making emotional quality matter to our engineering team.
MIKE KRUZENISKI-MICROSOFT
Mike Kruzeniski is a UX Creative Director for the Entertainment Experience Group at Microsoft, in Seattle. Before joining Microsoft, Mike was a Designer on Nokia Design’s Insight & Innovation team in Los Angeles, where he worked on projects such as the Nokia 2010 View of the Future, and the concept design for the Nokia 8800 Arte. He has a Master’s of Interaction Design from the Umea Institute of Design in Sweden, and a Bachelor of Industrial Design form the Emily Carr Institute of Design in Vancouver, BC>
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Through a hands-on sketching process, Cottam explores ways of combining traditional design principles, craft techniques, natural materials, and physical computing tools to give modern products greater longevity and meaning.
MATT COTTAM-TELLART
Matt Cottam has been responsible for setting strategic direction for Tellart since co-founding the company in 1999. He provides both inspiration and direction through active involvement in client projects, academic research and teaching., as well as international design and technology conferences worldwide. With Tellart Matt has directed design and strategy projects for clients including Nokis Design, Humanna Inc. and Otis Elevator (United Technologies REsearch Center). Matt is a member of the part-time faculty at the Rhode Island school f Design and an Adjunct Professor at Umes Institute of Design (UID Sweden)>
Digital interactions are moving beyond keypad and screens and into sensing, networked products that inhabit our everyday lives. This session will explore how designers can create engaging experiences between physical products and digital services.
TIMO ARNALL
Timo Arnall is a designer working with interactive products and media. Timo leads an international research project on mobile technology. Timo’s work spans design, media and technology; interested in the ways in which products are used in everyday life, the emergent uses of new technologies and the design of products are used in everyday life, the emergent uses of new technologies and the design of products and services in local contexts and situations.
Even though I missed the 20th anniversary celebrations at Umeå I cannot but marvel at the amount of fun this event must have been for those who attended.
This video of a time-lapse, shot by Camille Moussette captures the spirit of the event brilliantly.
