Been working lots lately on multi-touch technology (both on MS Surface, iPhones and other projects).
Just thought it would be interesting to jot down my list of favorite multi-touch technology visions as seen on film.
Minority Report (duh!)
James Bond Quantum of Solace –
District 9
Iron Man 2
Avatar
The Island (thx Mattias!)
More?
Some golden nuggets from ‘I’m Here’, a short story about love in an Absolut World by Spike Jonze.
Man: “What do you mean? We (robots) cant dream!”
Woman: “Of course you can, you just make it up!”
—–
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 is Alan Chochinov’s presentation at IxD10 (Savannah).
Allan Chochinov-Girls and Women: Objects Lessons in the Primacy of Interaction from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.
I posted the video to the blog for 2 reasons
a) It is hugely inspiring. To quote 4 key learnings by Chochinov (during his course at the SVA, New York) in the closing parts of his presentation -
- Raise the Stakes: Make it Personal, Make it Urgent
- Intervene: Design your products as if they were props in an intervention.
- Dont Play Fair: Act like a design thinker, but think like a design activist.
- Facilitate: Its not what you design, its not what you make – its what you facilitate.
b) The work shown in the presentation is yet another indicator toward ‘Design Fiction’ explorations which we currently need more of perhaps at Umea. (sorry, US keyboard!)
—
Less problem solving by design alone, and more of design-intentions explicit through fiction. For want of a better word – storytelling. (…puke!)
via Trendwatching
I love that they use an ethnographic approach to identify trends. Reminds me of the movie ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ and the way the Coca Cola bottle was perceived by a bunch of tribesfolk in remote Africa. Our urbanfolk arent so different! 
View the trailer below.
